The Forrest City times., 1895-09-20

L. But, no-there is hope; he may have discovered nothing-perhaps he is but admiring the sublimity of the land- scape. If permitted, he may turn and ride carelessly away in the direction whence he came. Surely it will be possible to judge at the instant of his withdrawing whether he knows. It may well be that his fixity of atten- tion-Druse turned his head and looked below, through the deeps of air downward, as from the surface to the bottom of translucent sea. He saw creeping across the green meadow a sinuous line of figures of men and horses-some foolish commander was permitting the soldiers to water their beasts in plain view from a hundred summitsl
 Druse withdrew his eyes from the valley and fixed them again upon the group of man and horse in the sky, and again it was through the sight of his rifle. But this time the aim was at the horse. In his memory, as if they were divine mandate, rang the words of his father at parting: Whatever may occur, do what you conceive to be your duty" He was calm now. His teeth were firmly but not rigidly closed; his nerves were as tranquil as sleeping babe's-not a tremor af- fected any muscle of his body; his breathing, until suspended in the act of taking aim, was regular and slow. Duty had conquered; spirit had said to body: Peace. be still" He fired.
 At that moment an officer of the federal force, who, in a spirit of ad- venture or in quest of knowledge, had left the hidden hivouac in the valley, and, with aimless feet, had made his way to the lower edge of a small oren space near the foot of the cliff. was considering what he had to gain by pushing his exploration further. At a distance of quarter-mi,e before him, but apparently at stones throw, rose from its fringe of pines the gigantic face of rock, towering to so great a height above him that it made him giddy to look up to where its edge cut a sharp, rugged line against the sky. At some distance away to his right it presented clean, vertical profile against background of blue sky to a point half of tEe way down, and of dis tant hills, hardly less blue, thence to the tops of the trees at its base. Lift ing his eyes to the dizzy attitude of it's summit, the officer saw an astonishing sight-a man on horseback riding down into the valley through the airl
 Straight upright sat the rider, in military fashion, with firm seat in the saddle, strong clutch upon the rein to hold his charger from too inn petuous plunge. From his bare head his long hair streamed upward, way ing like plume. His right hand was concealed in the cloud of the horses lifted mane. The animals body was as level as if every hoof-stroke en- countered the resistant earth. Its mo- tions were those of wild gallop, but even as the officer looked they ceased, with all the legs thrown sharply for ward as in the act of alighting from a leap. But this was flight!
 Filled with amazement and terror by this apparition of a horseman in the sky-half believing himself the chosen scribe of some new apocalypse, the officer was overcome by the in- tensity of his emotions; his legs failed him and he fell. Almost at the same instant he heard a crashing sound in the trees-a sound that dies without an echo, and all was still.
 The officer rose to his feet, tremb- ling. The familiar sen sation of an abraded shin recalled his dazed facul- ties. Pulling himself together, he ran rapidly obliquely away from the cliff to point half mile from its foot; thereabout he expected to find his man; and thereabout he naturally failed. In the heeting instant of his vision hi inn agination had been so wrought upon by the apparent grace and ease and in- tention of the marvellous performance, that it did not occur to him that the line of march of aerial cavalry is di- rectly downward, and that he could find the objects of his search at the very foot of the cliff. A half hour later he returned to the camp.
 After firing his shot, Private Carter Druse reloaded his rife and resumed his watch. Ten minutes had hardly passed when a federal sergeant crept cautiously to him
 "Did you fire?' the sergeant whis- pere6.
 "Yes."
 ''At what?"
 "A horse. It was standing on yon- der rock-pretty far out. It is no long, CT there. It went over the cliff"
 ''See here, Druse," the sergeant said, after a silence, tits no use making a mystery. l order you to report. Was