The Forrest City times., 1895-09-20
REST CITY, ARK, FRIDAY AFTERNOON, SEPTEMBER 2O 1895

or the war, we will speak further of the matter. Your mother, as the phy- sician has informed you, is in a most critical condition; at the best she can-
 not be with us much longer than a few
 weeks, but that time is precious. It would be better not to disturb her." So Carter Druse, lowing reverently
 to his father, who returned the salute
 with stately courtesy which masked l a breaking heart, left the home of his
 childhood to go soldering. By con-
 science and courage, by deeds of devo-
 tion and daring, he soon commended | himself to his fellows and his officers; | and it was to these qualities and to some knowledge of the country that | lie owed his selection for his present perilous duty at the extreme outpost. | Nevertheless, fatigue had been stronger than resolution, and he had fallen l asleep. What good or bad angel came 1 in dream to rouse him from his state l of crime who shall say? Without
 movement. without a sound, in the profound silence and the languor of the late afternoon, some invisible mes senger of fate touched with unsealing ! finger the eyes of his consciousness
 whispered into the ear of his spirit the
 mysterious awakening word which no human lips have ever spoken. no hu-
 man memory has ever recalled. He quietly raised his forehead from his
 arm and looked between the masking stems of the laurels, instinctively clos ing his right hand about the stock of his rife.
 His first feeling was keen artistic delight. On colossal pedestal, the cliff, motionless at the extreme edge
 of the capping rock and sharply out lined against the sky, was an eques- trian statue of impressive dignity The figure of the man sat the figure of
 the horse, straight and soldierly, but
 with the repose of the Grecian god | carved in the marble which limits the
 suggestion of activity. The gray cos
 tune harmonized with it's aerial back
 ground; the metal of accoutrement and caparison was softened and sub- daed by the shadow; the animals skin
 had no points of high light. A arbine,
 strikingly foreshortened lay across the
 pommel of the saddle, kept in place by
 the right hand grasping it at the
 grip" the left hand, holding the bridle rein, was invisible. In sil-
 houette against the sky, the profile of
 the horse was cut with the sharpness
 of cameo; it looked across the heights of air to the confronting cliffs beyond
 The face of the rider, turned slightly to the left, showed only an outline of tnp afaIn hna ar1. Ia 11~.~
 downward to the bottom of the valley.
 Magnitied by it's lift against the sky
 and by the soldiers testifying sense of
 the formidableness of a near enemy,
 the group appeared of heroic, almost
 colossal, size.
 For an instant Druse had strange, half-defned feeling that he had slept to the end otthe war and was looking
 upon noble work of art, reared upon
 that commanding eminence to com
 memorate the deeds of an heroic past,
 of which he had been an inglorious
 part The feeling was dispelled by slight movement of the group; the
 horse, without moving it's feet, had
 drawn its body slightly backward from the verge; the man remained inn
 mobile as before. Broad awake and
 keenly alive to the significance of the situation, Druse now brought the butt of his rife against his cheek by eau tiously pushing the barrel forward through the bushes, cooked the piece, and, glancing through the sights, cov- cred vital spot of the horseman's breast. touch upon the trigger, and all would have been well with Carter Druse. At that instant the horseman turned his head and looked in the di- rection of his concealed foeman- seemed to look into his very face, into his eyes, into his brave, compassionate heart.
 Is it, then, so terrible to kill an enemy in war-an enemy who has sur prised a secret vital to the safety of ones self and comrades-an enemy more formidable for his knowledge than all his army for it's numberso Carter Druse grew deathly pale; he shook in every limb, he turned faint, and saw the statuesque group before him as black figures, rising, falling, moving unsteadily in arcs of circles in a fiery sky. His hand fell away from his weapon, his head slowly dropped until his face rested on the leaves in which he lay This courageous gen. tc11an and hardy soldier was nearly swooning from intensity of emotion.
 It was not for long; in another mo- ment his face was raised from the earth, his hands resumed their places on the rifle, his foreinger sought the trigger; mind, heart and eyes were clear, conscience and reason sound. He could not hope to capture that enemy; to alarm him would be to send