The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1895-05-09

oearn. A score OF shots were fred at
her along half mile Of road while she
was running the gantlet.
And now the last sentry ia passed.
and the woman shoots out from between
the rows Of white tents into free road
ahead. The noises are left behind. But
amid the confusion Of distant sounds is
one which, coming with a low, contin-
ued rattle, strikes terror into her heart.
A familiarity with war has taught her
its calls. She hears the beating of the
''long roll" The whole camp is arous-
ed. A legion Of Yankees may soon be in
pursuit.
Corporal Ratigan was stopped by ev-
cry sentinel who had tried to check Miss
Baggs. After an explanation to each he
was suffered to go on. The men who
stopped him transmitted the informa-
ton at once to the guard tent that some
one-doubtless an enemy-was being
chased. The force was division of in
fantry, with no cavalry except mount
ed escort to the general commanding.
Some Of these were ordered in pursuit.
There was hurried saddling of horses,
sprinkled with oaths at the delays en-
countered, and three cavalrymen mount
ed and dashed after Miss Baggs and her
pursuer. But before they started cou-
pie of miles had been placed between
her and the camps.
The gray of the morning was by this
time beginning to reveal objects with
greater distinctness. Ratigan, coming
to rise in the ground just beyond the
camps, saw the buggy about two miles
ahead swaying like the dark hull of a
ship rolling through the pillows of an
ocean. For a moment he hesitated be-
tween his duty as a soldier and that
quick, sharp something, be it love, be-
witchment or a natural sympathy Of
man for weaker woman, while beads Of
cold perspiration stood on his forehead.
1t seemed to him that if he should do
his duty he would be acting the part of
an executioner, not only that but the
executioner Of woman-a woman
whose image had got into his heart and
his head and never left him moments
peace since she first threw the spell of
her enhancing personality about him.
It was hard struggle, and from the
nature Of the case could not be long
one. Duty won. He shouted to his horse,
gave him dig with both spurs and
dashed forward,
There was depression in the ground
down which the corporal plunged. Then
the road ran along level for awhile,
with another slight rise beyond. AS he
rode down the declivity the fugitive
was on the crest of the second rise. She
stood up and turned to catch glance
behind her. She saw a horseman-she
was too far to recognize the corporal
dashing after her. Below her was a
wooded space, and she noticed that
which gave her a glimmer of hope.
The road forked. Urging her horse on
ward, she aimed to get on one of the
two roads beyond the fork while her
pursuer was in the hollow back of her,
trusting that she might escape, as she
had escaped before, by forcing him to
choose between two roads, and trusting
that he might take the wrong one.
Down the declivity her racer plunged
while Ratigan was galloping down the
one behind her. So steep was the road
and SO swift her horses pace that the
danger Of death by mangling seemed
greater than death by hanging. She
reached the bottom, where the road ran
level to the fork and the wood. Hope
urged her. It was not 100 yards to the
point she was so anxious to reach
Passing over rut at the very fork Of
the road that seemed her only chance
for escape, the old buggy gave dismal
groan, as much in sympathy with the
mistress it had served so we'll as a death
rattle, and flew into hundred pieces.