Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-03-13

charge tapped upon the cheek the man
holding the hammer, who straightway fell,
thinking himself killed 4 fend seven
times damned sprang out of the smoke TO
take his place, but paused and gazed up
at the mounted officer with an unearthly
regard, his teeth flashed between his black
lips, his eyes fierce and expanded burning
like Goals beneath his bloody brow The
colonel made an authoritative gesture and
pointed to the rear The fend bowed in
token of obedience. 1t was Capt Coul-
ter.
simultaneously with the colonel's arrest
ing sign, silence fell upon the field of
action. The procession of missiles no longer
streamed into that defle of death; the
enemy had also ceased firing. His army
had been gone for hours, and the command
er of his rear-guard, who had held his
position perilously long in hope to
silence the federal fire, at that strange
moment had silenced his own. Il was
not aware of the breadth of my authority,
thought the colonel, facetiously,
riding forward to the crest to see what
had really happened
An hour later his brigade was In bivouae
on the enemy's ground and its idlers were
examining with something of awe, as the
faithful inspect amt S relics, a score of
straddling dead horses and three disabled
guns, all spiked. The fallen men had been
carried away, their crushed and broken
bodies would have given too great salts
faction.
Naturally the colonel established him
self and his military family in the plan
tation house. 1t was somewhat shattered,
but it was better than open air. The fur
niture was greatly deranged and broken
The walls and the ceilings were knocked
away here and there, and there was a
lingering odor of powder smoke every
where. The beds, the closets of women S
clothing, and the cupboards were not
greatly damaged. The new tentants for a
night made themselves comfortable, and
the practical placement of Coulter's bat
terry supplied them with an interesting
topic.
During supper that evening an orderly
Of the escort showed himself into the dim
ingroom and asked permission to speak to
the colonel
''What is it, BARBOUR" said that officer
pleasantly. having overheard the remark.
Colonel, there is something wrong In
the cellar; | don't know somebody
OIIo1C. was IONn UueI0 IuHlLldSIuS
about
II will go down and see, said the staff
officer, rising.
80 will l." the colonel said; ''let the
others remain. Lead on, orderly"
They took a candle from the table and
descended the cellar stairs, the orderly in
feeble light, but, presently, as they adj
WON la Of ,oHi
revealed human figure seated the ground
were skirting, its knees elevated its head
bowed sharply forward The face, which
would have been seen in profile, was invis-
that his long hair concealed it; and,
strange to relate, the beard, of much
darker hue, fell in great tangled mass
and lay along the ground at his feet.
They involuntarily paused; then the colo
nel taking the candle from the orderly's
shaking hand, approached the man and at
tentiveIy considered him. The long dark
beard was the hair of a woman-dead.
The dead woman clasped in her arms
dead babe. Both were clasped in the arms
Of the man. pressed against his breast,
against his lips. There was blood In the
hair of the woman; there was blood in
the hair of the man. A yard away lay an
infants foot 1t was near an irregular
depression in the beaten earth which form
ed the cellars fioor-a fresh excavation
with CONVEX bit of iron, having Jagged
edges, visible in one of the sides. The
colonel held the light as high as he could.
The floor of the room above was broken
through, the splinters pointing at all
angles downward. This easement is not
bomb-proof, " said the colonel, gravely. 1t
did not occur to him that his summing up
of the case had any levity in it.
They stood about the group awhile In
silence; the staff officer was thinking of
his unfinished supper, the orderly of what
might possibly be In one of the casks on
the other side of the cellar Suddenly the
man whom they had thought dead raised
his head and gazed TRANQUILITY into their
faces. His complexion was coal black;
the cheeks were apparently tattooed in
irregular lines from the eyes downward.
The lips, too, were white. like those of a
stage-negro. There was blood upon his
forehead
The staff officer drew back pace, the
orderly two PAGES.
''What are you doing here, my man?'
said the colonel unmoved
''This house belongs to ME, sir, was
the reply, civilly delivered.
''To you? Who then are-were these?''
my wife and child. Colonel, I am Capt.
Coulter. Ambrose Bierce in San Fran
cisco Examiner.