The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1867-09-26


site side Of it SO that she might rea
about the properties of the drugs and
IN short, behaved SO like a lunatic tha
: l thought the trouble about Geral,
must have affected her mind. I 90
her away at last, and intended to in
slst on he1 remaining in the house ant
putting some ice to her head. It wa
quite unnecessary !; the minute we lef
the surgery she was calm an silent as
man.
Well, the days passed in some sort o
dreary way till the evening of the 11th
l had been asked during the day to e,
down with the officers and see som,
rlne practice, at some temporary marks
and l went down.
1t was rather late when I rode up t,
the firing point, and they were jus,
leaving off; and one Of them came u,
and said
~ say, Captain, tell US the cause O.
these new bullets turning inside out p
and he handed me bullet reversed
Just such another as William has il
his hand.
| took it, just to explain the matte,
to him, when a..thought struck through
my mind like fash of lightning.
'Saved, by God ~ 1 exclaimed
"Who's got that bullet out Of the sad.
die 2"
"What bullet ?".
"Gerald's s,-my cousins"
"Oh! "Gentieman Jacks affair.
The doctors got it."
"Where is he ?"
"Don,t know,-quarters I think"
"No, he's come into town; I saw
him on the road as we came by."
sped on into the town, leaving
them to think what they pleased !; and
spent more than two hours finding the
doctor. At last caught him.
In another minute we were ridino
full gallop to his quarters.
He had ithe bullet,-a little bruised
and singularly flattened, and blunted
at the oint,-it must have been lust
]fSNS WYNN ~ 0tA OCA.
then went to the sergeant who bad
charge of the nineteen rounds of am
munition that were found in Gerald's
pouch: About midnight I coutrived
to lind him, and after some little delay
l got possession of them.
then returned to the doctor, and
ne compared the nineteen bullets with
the one found in the saddle. 1 then
ran to the telegraph clerk, reused him
out OF bed, and told him to telegraph
to the headquarters in Calcutta, to my
lieutenant In charge of the magazines.
After an hours waiting, ringing at
the bell, an aswer came that the night
watchman would fetch the lieutenant,
l then sent message No. l.
"Examine the books, and sec the
date on which the last ammunition was
sent for the use of the 10th Dragons:
find the samo parcel, aud carefully re-
move one cartridge from each of twenty
packets selected at random ; take out
bullets, and remove plugs; and send
No. in base of cup OF bullets.'
The answer came back that he un-
derstood, and would rouse up the people
to do it.
After an hour and half; the ans
wer came back
"All the bullets are numbered 5,
with dot on the right"
/ then sent message No. 2.
"Examine what cartridges bear the
No. 2 with dot on the left and report
to whom issued, and when-report
quickly mans life depends on speed. !"
Again I waited another hour. No
answer came.
It was getting late-half past 2; at
4 the parade would take place. I
urged more speed.
The reply came:-
"Wo have ten men at work breaking
open barrels, and searching. No No.
2 yet found"
At last it came,
"One barrel No. 2 in store the rest
Of the same shipment was damaged and
useless, and sold in bulk to native deal
ers for value as old metal at one Of the
clearance sales some time ago."
I had learnt all I could. spurred
back to camp with the bullets from
which 1 had never parted, in my pouch.
shall never forget the scene.
In the middle of the camp the men
were drawn up in three sides Of a
square in the center of the square
were the triangle, with Gerald lashed
to them. 1 saw them as I. came down
the hill take off his jacket and lash his
wrists. I sped on. could see the old
Colonel, with the paper in his hand,
standing alone, and then I saw nothing
more dip in the road concealed them ;
as I rose again to tho crest at less than
quarter. of mile, saw a woman
rush in from between the ranks toward
the triangles, holding something in her
hand. 1 darted on, and rushed into
the square, but just in time to seize the
farrier's arm as the lash Has descending
and to see that the woman sss my Sis
ter, and that she was being led away
between two sergeants.
"Stop Colonel, for the love of God {"
cried with my hand still grasping the
farrier's arm II have evidence to
prove the man not guilty"
then showed the Colonel the bull.
let that had come from the saddle and
the others from the pouch, and pointed
out to him that while one was marked
No. 2, the others were all marked No.
5, with dot. T assured him, on my
honor as an officer and a gentleman,
that it was almost impossible that No.
2 bullet could by any chance get into
packet of No. s bullets. He was only
too glad to hear me, aud ageerd to post
pone the execution of the sentence till
further orders from tho General of his
division.
I've heard some shouts, and I've
soen some displays Of enthusiasm in my
time, but I never shall forget the shout
that rose the minute that tho Colonel
had pronounced that the execution Of
the sentence on Corporal Ashton would
be postponed until further orders.
The men had been standing at "at.
tention," many of them with tears roll
ing down their cheeks, but when they
heard "postponed," they broke ranks,
rushed up to the triangles, cut the LASH
ings, broke the cat, screamed, shouted,
danced like madmen.