The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-12-18
LOST ON THE PLAINS.
The Hero OF Three Indian Wars Lose.
Hts Way and Goes Mad.

The wagon train has made about
three miles from its camp of the night
before when Sergeant Jack, of Troop
+, misses his knife and remem bers that
he left IL on the ground after using it to
cut strap. The captain gives him
permission TO ride back after it Why
not? 1t is but "a dash, and we are at
peace with the Indians He will over
take us within the hour
Sergeant Jack is brawny man and
veteran. The arrow and bullet
wounds received prove him fighter.
Men of his company will tell you of
seeing him peril his life a dozen times
over, and they can count up at least
seven redskins he has wiped out. A
grand-loolzing soldier is Sergeant Jack
every inch man. Your eyes would
pick him out of regiment for his bear
ing, and when you had looked into his
bronzed face you would put him down
as game to the death.
Sergeant Jack rides back at an easy
lope. In half an hour he is at the camp.
There are a dozen gaunt wolves prowl
ing about and munching at the bones,
and they grudgingly give way for him
as he rides up. Yes, the knife is there,
and he quickly secures it. A newspaper
has been thrown out of one of tho
wagons. He picks it up and sits down
to scan it's columns. Some one has
thrown away letter, he picks that up
and becomes interested. Some careless
trooper has left lariat here in the
He IL Wallis "a hn,tf f.Nv.
few minutes, and then mounts to re-
join the column. 1t is travelling north
west 1t will now be about eight miles
ahead of him. 1t must bear to the left
after crossing Comanche creek. He
will therefore take short cut and save
time and trouble.
Now follow him, and you will witness
curious thing. He rides away hum
ming the air of merry tune. and he
has not enc anxious thought, He
passes ridge after ridge. covers mile
after mile, and SO sure is he of his way
that he scarcely looks up. All of sud-
den the horse Stacks down. He has
been taking the ridges at too fast pace
and is out of breath. A minute later
he is pulled up sharp, and Sergeant
Jack looks about him with anxious eyes
What is it? Nothing He has only to
keep on and he will intercept the col
umn. He has only to ride back over his
trail to strike the plain road left by the
wagons 1t is only o'clock in the
morning, and the sky is without cloud.
Curious, isn't it? The soldier stands
up in his stirrups to look ahead; there
is more than anxiety in his eye as he
turns and looks back. He glances to
the right-to the left--up at the sun
All of sudden, as he rode gaily on, the
| terrible loneliness of the great plains
struck him like chill. What if he
should lose his way! What if he has
lost it! That is enough. He has let a
| doubt creep in, and five minutes later
that curious palsy OF the plains begins
to creep over him. 1t has claimed it's
hundreds and all have been brave mon.
| He will ride ON y" S'rH-- - -
| fears--he seeks to shake off that feeling
of terror which made his checks grow
pale There is no cause for haste, but
he shuts his teeth together and gives
his horse the spur aud pushes on as if
riding race.
| See! He bears to the left. Let n man
become ratified in the forest or on the
plains and he invariably bears to the
left, and thus completes his disaster.
When the horse falls with exhaustion
Sergeant Jack is twenty-five miles from
the command 1t does not occur to him
that he will be searched for and that
his trail can be followed. He now feels
sure that he is lost, but he can not rea-
soy. A veteran of three Indian cam
paiens--a soldier known to be without
fear-a man in the prime of life. And
yet his face is as white as a dead mans.
and ne trembles like u woman-aye,
weeps like a child
One. two, three days go by Sergeant
Jack is favorite with all. Every man
\ is anxious that he be found. We go
into camp and send out squads to
four points of the compass. One of
them strikes the trail and finds the dead
horse. Another, returning to the gloom
of evening, starts up strange animal,
which runs away, uttering sounds like
human laughter. The morning of the
fourth day Sergeant Jack is discovered
|
ing and torn; there is something SO
wild and beast-like in his looks that we
shrink away from him. He is not glad
to see us. We call him by name, but he
does not remember it. We pity him,
but he laughs and jibbers.
Terror has made him an IDIOT" says
the surgeon, as the poor man is brought
in. land he is never to come back
among us again"
There was no danger: no cause for
fear. 1t was simply that black mist
which rises up from the soil of the plains
to envelop and blind and unnerve the
bravest 1t was the palsy of solitude;
the terror of loneliness N. Y. World.
\ Mothers DUTY.
The mother of a family must neces-
sarily make many sacrifices for her
childrens sake Every body who tries tn
live rightly must also be in u certain
sense unselfsh, but the right to life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness is
as much an inalicnahlc privilege OF