Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1894-05-03

or hear, has assigned them the stations
which they are to take the instant Of
alarm and has given them their instruc-
tions. Walsh it is who is now on look
out, and he is peering away down south
ward SO intently that some comrade is
prompted to call up to him in a low
tone:
"See anything?"
To which, without removing the glass
from under his hat brim, the Irish
trooper merely shakes his head.
ANY more smokes?'
"Sorra n smoke have seen at all"
staring at ~
How can / tell We till find out ?" is
the Hibernian reply, and this is enough
to send the corporal on climb. Drum
mond at the moment is again kneeling
by Wing. who has but just awakened
from titful sleep, Miss Harvey being
the first to hear him stir and sigh.
Ruth and her sister, too, seem about
to withdraw, but Wing, whose voice is
weak now, begs them TO remain.
Has anything been seen yet-back
on the trail--of the Stoneman partyf"
he asks.
mo, sergeant, - replies Drummond,
"but remember that we can only see
some six miles of the trail, after that
it is lost in that tortuous ravine down
which we rode on the chase. Walsh is
up there on lookout, and I'll ask if he
can see anything now," and calling to
one of the men Drummond bids him
inquire. All eagerly await the reply.
AT last it comes:
mo 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 the speaker, his reso-
nant voice contrasting strongly with the
feeble accents of his immediate supc-
rior, the wounded sergeant.
Then have something that must
be told you. lieutenant, something Miss
Harvey already has an inkling of, for
she has met and known my dear moth
err. If this pain continues to increase,
and fever sets in, | may be unable to
tell it later. Some of the men thought
] had enlisted under an alias, lieuten-
ant but they We're wrong. Wing is
my rightful name. My father was
chief officer of the old Flying Cloud
in the days when American clipper
ships beat the world The gold fever
seized him, though, and he quit sail
ing and went to mining in the early
days of San Francisco, and there when
| was little boy of / 10 he died, leaving
mother with not many thousand dol
lars to take care of herself and me.
You will have your brother TO help
you' We're words he spoke the last day
of his life. and even then ] noted how
little comfort mother seemed to find in
that fact. 1t was only few months
after fathers death that Uncle Fred,
from being an occasional visitor, came
to living with us all the time--made
his home there, though seldom within
doors night or day. He was several
years younger than mother. He was
the youngest, it seems, of the family,
the baby and had been petted and
spoiled from earliest infancy. l 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 no doubt their fathers gam
bled as much as he. These were just
| before the early days of the great war
that sprang up in 1861 and that we boys
out on the Pacific coast only vaguely
understood. Sometimes Uncle Fred
came home drunk, and I could hear
him threatening poor mother, and things
went from bad to worse, and one night
when I was Just - | was awakened
from sound sleep by her scream. In an
instant flew to her room, catching up
as ! ran fathers old bowie knife that
always hung by my door. In the dim
light I saw her lying by the bedside, a
man bending over and choking her.
! With all my strength | slashed at him
just as he turned. / meant to kill, but
the turn saved him. He sprang to his
feet with an oath and cry and rushed
TO the washstand. | had laid Uncle
Fred's cheek open from ear to chin.
1t was long before mother could
| check the flow of the blood. 1t sobered
him, of course. and made him piteously
weak. For days after that she nursed
! and cared for him, but forbade my en-
tcring 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 awful slash on his thin white
face. Once then he met and cursed
me, but | did not mind had acted
only to save mother. How could | sup
/ pose that her assailant was her own
brother? Then finally with sobs and
tears she told me the story, how he had
been their mothers darling, how wild
and reckless was his youth, how her
mothers last thought seemed to be for
him, and how on her knees she, my
own mother, promised to take care of
poor Freddie and shield him from every
i'll, and this promise she repeated to me,
bidding me help her kecpit and to con
/ raa1 nc far ~ I cOul1 her broth hers mis-