The Russellville Democrat., 1893-08-10

out, ana l II aSk IT ne eau sec any thing now and calling to one of the men, Drummond bids him in ] quire. All eagerly await the reply. At last it comes
 s'No dust on the back track, sir, but something that looks like it far to the south. We think it may be some of our fellows coming back, but it is too faint and far to make it out yet"
 The corporal is tue speaker his resonant voice contrasting strongly with the feeble accents of his imme- diate superior, the wounded ser geant.
 "Then l have something that must be told you, lieutenant, some thing Miss Harvey always has an inkling eff, for she has met and known my dear mother. If this pain continue to increase and fever set in may be unable to tell it later. Some of the men thought l had enlisted under an alias, lieuten- ant, but they were wrong. Wing is my rightful name. My father was chief officer of the old Flying Cloud in the days when Americen clipper { ships beat the world. The gold fever seized him, though, and he quit sailing and went to mining in the early days of San 1 Francisco, and there when l was a 1 little boy of ten he died, leaving mother with not many thousand dollars to take care of herself and me. You will have your brother to help you, were words he spoke the last day of his life, and even then 1 noted how little comfort mother seemed to find in that fact. It was , only a few months after fathers death that Uncle Fred, from being an occasional visitor, come to living with us all the time, though seldom within doors night or day. He was several years younger than mother. He was the youngest, 1t seems, of the family, the baby, and had been petted and spoiled from earliest in- fancy. I soon found why he came. Mother was often in tears, Uncle Fred. always begging or demanding money. The boys at school twitted me about my gambler uncle, though I've 10 doubt their fathers gambled as much as he. These were just before the early days of the great war of '6l, and that we boys out on the Pacific coast only vaguely understood. Sometimes Uncle Fred. came home drunk, and 1 could hear him threat ening poor mother, and things went from bad to worse. and one night when I was just 13 1 was awakened from sound sleep by her scream. in an instant 1 flew to her room, catch | ing up as l ran fathers old bowie knife that always hung by my door. In the dim light 1 saw her lying by the bedside, man bending over and choking her. With all my strength slashed at him just as he turned. I meant to kill, but the turn saved him. He sprang to his feet with an oath and cry and rushed to the washstand. I had laid Uncle Fred. s cheek open from ear to chin.
 "It was long before mother could check the flow of the blood. It so- bered him, of course, and made him piteously weak. For days after that she nursed and cared for him, but forbade my entering the room. Men came to see him-insisted on seeing him-and she would send me to the bank for gold and pay their claims and bid them go. At last he was able to walk out with that aw ful slash on his thin, white face. Once then he met and cursed me, but I did not mind had acted on. ly to save mother. How could ] suppose that her assailant was her own brotheri Then, finally, with sobs and tears, she told me the story, how he had been their moth er's darling, how wild and reckless was his youth, how her mothers s last thought seemed to be for him, and how on her knees, sha, my own mother, promised to take care of poor Freddie and shield him from every i'll, and this prom ise she repeated to me, bidding me help her keep it and to conceal as far as I could her broth er's misdeeds. For few months things went a little better. Uncle Fred. got commission in a Califor mia regiment toward the close of the war, and was sent down to Ari zona. Then came more tears and trouble. 1 couldn't understand it | all then, but I do now. Uncle Fred. was gambling again, drawing on her for means to meet his losses. The old home went under the ham, mer and we moved down 10 San Di- ego, where father had once invested and had left little property. And then came the news that Uncle Fred. had been dismissed, and all on account of drink and gambling and misappropriation of funds. Miss Harvey knows all about this, lieu tenant, for mother told her and had reason to. And next came for gery and we were stranded. We heard that he had gone after that with 8 wagon train to Texas. l got employment on a ranch o.d .ka,, ,notha~ ,x,arw;ad aca.,,