The Press., 1891-04-16

on the leaves in which he lay. This cour- ageous gentleman and hardy soldier was near swooning from intensity of emotion and excitement.
 It was not for long; in another moment his face was from earth; his hands resumed their places on the rife; his forefnger sought the trlgger. Mind, heart and eyes were clear, conscience and reason sound He cozld not hope to capture that enemy: to alarm him would but send him flashing to his camp with his fatal news. The duty of the soldier was plain: the man must be shot dead from ambush-without warn ing, without moments spiritual prep aration, with never so much as an un- spoken prayer, he must be sent to his ac- count But no-there is a hope; he may have discovered nothing-perhapsh he is but admiring the sublimity of the landscape. If permitted he may turn and ride care lessly away in the direction whence he came. Surely it will be possible to judge at the instant of his withdrawing whether he knows. It may be well that his fixity of attention Druse turned his head and looked below. Through the depth of air downward, as from the surface to the bottom 0e a translucent sea, he saw creep ing across the green meadow sinuous line of the figures of men and horses Some foolish commander was permitting the men of his escort to water their horses in the open in plain view from a hundred nummitS.
 Druse withdrew his eyes from the vslley and fixed them again upon the group of man and horse in the sky, and agnin it was through the sights of his rife. He was calm now. His teeth were firmly but not rigidly closed; his nerves were as tranquil as a sleeping babe's-pot a tremor affected any muscle of his body; his breathing, un- til suspended in the act of taking aim, was regular and slow. Duty had silenced con- science; the spirit had said to the body, "Poace. be still" He fired
 At this moment an officer of the Federal force who in a spirit of adventure or in quest of knowledge had left the hidden bivouac in the valley, and climbing the slope had made his way to the lower edge of small open space near the foot of the cliff, was considering what he had to gain by pushing his exploration further. At a distance of a quarter mile before him, but apparently at stone's throw, rose from its fringe of pines the gigantic face of rock, towering to so great height above him that it made him giddy to look up to where it's edge cut sharp, rugged line against the sky. At some distance away to his right it presented 8 clean, vertical profile against background of blIe sky to a point half the way down and of distant hills hardly less blue thence to the tops of the trees at its base. Lifting his eyes to the dizzy altitude of it's summit the officer saw an astonishing sight-a man on horse back riding down into the valley through the air!
 Straight upright sat the rider, in military fashion, with firm seat in the saddle, a strong clutch upon the rein to hold his charger from too impetuous a plunge From his bare head his long hair streamed upward, waving like plume. His right hand was concealed in the cloud of the horses lifted mane. The animals body was as level as if every hoof stroke encoun tered the resistant earth. Its motions were those of a wild gallop, but even as the officer looked they ceased, with all the legs thrown sharply forward as in the act of aighting from leap. But this was a flight.
 Filled with amaZement and terror by this apparition of horseman in the sky-half believing himself the chosen scribe of some new Apocalypse, the officer was overcome by the intensity of his emotions; his legs failed him, and he fell Almost at the same instant he heard crashing sound in the trees-a sound that died without an echo, and all was still.
 The officer rose to his feet trembling The familiar sensation of an abraded shin recalled his dazed faculties. Pulling him self together he ran rapidly obliquely back ward from the cliff to a point a half mile from it's foot. Thereabout he expected to find his man, and thereabout he naturally failed. In the fleeting instant of his vision his imagination had been SO wrought upon by the apparent grace and ease and inten- tion of the marvellous performance that it did not occur to him that the line of march of aerial cavalry is directly downward and that he could find the objects of his search at the very foot of the cliff. An hour later he returned to camp.
 This officer was wise man; he knew better than to tell an incredible truth. He said nothing of what he had seen. But when the commander asked him if in his scout he had learned anything of advan- tage to the expedition, he answered:
 "Yes, sir; there is no road leading down into this valley from the southward" After firing his shot, Private Carter Druse reloaded his rife and resumed his watch. Ten minutes had hardly passed when 8 Federal sergeant crept cautiously to him on hands and knees. Druse nei- ther turned his head nor looked at him,
 but lay without motion or sign of recogni- tion.
 "Did you fre3" the sergeant whispered. "Yes"
 "At what?"
 "A horse. It was standing on wonder rock-pretty far out. You see it is no longer there I am 8 great marksman; you know I once shot 8 match with the Devil in hell and beat him." The sergeant was shocked and startled. He looked searchingly at Druse. The mans face was white; his eyes were rest less and glittered with 8 strange, uncanny light. The sergeant, still on hands and knees, involuntarily backed a little away from him.
 "See here, Druse," he said, after 8 mo- ment's silence, tits no use making mys- tery. order you to report. Was there anybody - anybody at all - except the horseH '...
 Do you mean the horse which had wingsf"
 Well, yes, if that's the kind of horse you shot. Was there any one else?" "Yes"
 "Who?"
 My father."
 The sergeant rose to his feet and walked rapidly down the road toward the valley. rn1r~<