Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1892-08-09
NOT UNDER THE eneMYs FIRE.
When the Rides of His Own Soldiers
Covered Him He Was Frightened.

Covered Him He Was Frightened.
Was | ever afraid in battIe7' said
an English army officer Many times.
But there are different kinds Of fright.
| have served in India, in Egypt and in
Western Africa. bur the worst funk
was ever in was when there was no en-
envy within thousands of miles of me
Il was a captain at the time and was
stationed at Port Royal, Jamaica We
had just got a lot of recruits on our
hands. the rawest, grecnest recruits you
ever saw. | was drilling them in rife
practice at long range, and had great
trouble TO make them obey orders with
precision In fact, one could never be
sure whether they would fire when you
wanted them 70 present, or present
when you wanted them to fire
Il had been sending them through a
practice one afternoon, and they were
so terribly stupid that got into a vile
humor. The day was fearfully warm,
and the sun beat down 80 fiercely that
my horse, wicked brute. got into al
most an ungovernable temper sat on
my horse at the right Of the squad. and
was giving them volley practice at long
range. When my patience was entirely
gone, the men seemed 10 gain little
sense, and began to fire with rapidity
and accuracy. Things were running as
smoothly as clockwork, and was soon
soothed into cheerfulness despite the
heat Not so my horse. He was never
more vicious.
I'VE were getting along so well by
this time that it was Ready Present
Fire. and the volley would ring out
like single report.
Once | cried cut Ready and the
work was as pretty as that Of veterans.
" Present, and every rife went up
to shoulders in perfect form At the
very instant was about to say Fire.
my fretting horse bolted, cutting direct
ly across the range. | was not twenty
feet from the squad My eye caugh,
the glittering rifles leveled right at me.
and instinctively / closed my eyes and
ducked my head II you know wha,
British soldiers are you can imagine
! my feelings, my terrible fear, for, as
! said before, | was never before in such
a funk | knew that If | opened ms
/ mouth those recruits would riddle my
| body with rife balls, for they were ex
pecting the word Fire and probably
would have taken any sound for that
Ny desire to cry out, AS you werer te
/ get the rifles off my body, was so great
that had to clinch my teeth TO keeE
from crying out. OF course, the whole
thing took only a few seconds, but il
was many minutes longer than that tt
| me.
When my plunging horse had car
/ ried me from before the motionlesl
! rifles, | managed to wheel him As liz
/ came around | cried Fire and every
one of those stolid men obeyed the
| command with absolute precision That
assured me all the more that had
! opened my mouth while crossing theil
! range | should have been dead man
for they were not. drilled sufficiently tc
/ distinguish different order at the las
instant, and yet followed ones word.
/ with blind fidelity.
Il have often thought, " added the
officer, with a strange smile on his lips
that those recruits fancied had cui
/ across them TO test their drill. for they
showed no surprise, not the faintes1
sign Of emotion when suddenly wheel
ed and cried Fire. But you may vel
believe that this was not the case. AnG
pledge you that never afterward il
rife practice did | get caught in 81
dangerous and helpless situation"