The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1882-08-11
On Picket.

The relief is going out from the reserve
picket. Between the reserve and the camp,
where 10000 men are slumbering, is half
n mile of woods, fields and broken ground.
Between the reserve and the enemy is a
thin line of pickets-a man stationed here
md there to give advance warning of any
movement.
Follow the relief and you will notice how
cautiously the men tread. The dark line
winds around through the trees, fits across
| open spaces, and halts here and there for
4 moment to relieve the old picket. Mus
ket-shot away are the pickets of the enemy,
md oud word may bring a yolley of bull
let's. The line might pass you twenty feet
away, and you would hardly catch n sound.
Sit you here on this bank where you can
look down upon the picket-aye, almost
touch him. A little creek runs between you.
There is an open space of thirty feet, and
all around it are trees, stumps, logs and
brush. 1t would he n lonely place in
which to pass two long hours even in times
of peace. There is a warning in the mid
night breeze as il rustles the branches, and
the waters of the creek nav more than
once been colored with blood.
The lone picket takes his station under
n tree. In the dark shadow you can hard
ly make him out. AS he finds himself
alone his eyes are constantly searching the
Il AlAll Z III VII AIT HIS GAllo NsANdAAt NNA1
| sound. They tell of men found asleep on
| picket. 1t must be n strange man who
could close his ewes in sleep with the night
air whispering in his ears: Beware be-
ware! In the bushes TO the left is the foe n
and the waters of the creek plainly spying
Keep watch to the right right! right
right"
That man has been in a dozen battles.
and has been wounded three times.
| Don't call him a coward, and yet he trem-
bles and turns male before he has been ff-
teen minutes alone. The skirmish line
with its deliberate murder is not as bad as
this. If that man Is dead when the relief
| comes agnin IL will be worse than murder.
| Call that babbling creek company? Hark!
| hear what il is saving TO him, every word
| as plainly spoken as IL their language was
| the same:
Look ont Look outl There Is n fierce
| faced guerrilla crawling through the BUSH
es toward you He has a knife in his teeth,
| and he is coming to assassinate you %
If the creek did not say so, and If the
picket did not so understand. why did he
| 1--WE that Sudden start and change his DO
sition? WHY does he kneel to get q clearer
look around him? Why does he keep his
ewes fastened upon that stump until the
intensity of his gaze brings out every knos
and s%plinter? If ffty men were asleep in
that space and one other were awake he
would feel the loneliness and danger! By
daylight a schoolgirl might weave n ro-
nance from the babble of the waters.
Hank Is there any romance in this:
Beware beware! That man with tang
led hair, fierce ewes and savage face is still
adyancinQl Be on your puard-watch-
listen ~
Coward2 Count the scars on his body
look up his recordl No, not u coward, and
yet his pale face comes to you from the
darkness almost like n candies light. If it
was cowardice, he would hide or desert his
post. No, il is not fear, and yet he thinks
tia feeling unworthy of him, and he bre
es against IL. lie turns a deaf ear to & "a :
whispers of the creek. He refuses to ~.
the warnings of the breeze. You can \
most see him as he shuts his teeth hard TO
gether and tries to force his thoughts int
other channels.
Look outl look out r. Whispers the
creek, but he refuses TO hear.
Something is moving over the ground
behind him. You can see il from whore
you sit. II is something darker than the
lark ground beneath. Now it moves-now
il halts-now it's fierce eyes almost light III
the darkness, as it makes out the muffied
form OF the picket leaning against the
tree.
Murder Murder! Murderr gurgles Tho
creek.
You hear 1t, but the picket is thinking
of home. A thousand miles away in q
quiet farm house. If the same night wind