The herald., 1896-05-10


! ammunition at his command dulled with
desperate valor the edge of the victory
hunger of the Bird Prussian Army Corps?
For though their guns were but few the
aim of the Tyroers was deadly. So now,
with belts tightened and gray set faces. st.
Polten's men kept the lonely hill-road to
Verona with but twenty-five bayonets-
and Under Officer Alt Karl.
Already the remnant OF the Imperial
White Coats had been forty-eight hours
without food or sleep, and even the hard
est old chamois- poacher OF the Inn valley
owned himself done up.
| From the dense covert of the brushwood
! the Count. with Alt Karl at his elbow,
watched the road beneath. Certainly a
large party of some kind was marching
| southwark. jabber of voices rose
through the still air. The Prussians must
have risen betimes, thought the Count, to
be here ere the dew was off the grass this
morning in mid-Juy. Then gun crack
ed The sound came with a little jar upon
the party in the brushwood. They were
discovered, so each man of them thought,
and automatically he counted the scanty
rounds of ammunition which remained to
him. Then for moment his heart went
pitifully out to the lass away in the Tyrol
village whose cheek like SO many others
during the terrible seven weeks, would pale
at the sight of the list posted at the viii
lage Rath-haus.
But Under-Off Alt Karl rose erect
, DUNN Kopf. Convicts, Assassins"' he
exclaimed with the contempt Of soldier
for the bands Of criminals from the penal
settlements whom the policy of weakening
and Withdrawing the military guards had
encouraged to escape. and who now con-
stituted at once difficulty to the authori-
ties and a danger TO the inhabitants.
A loose marching rabblement OF men,
carrying guns and slung wallets of various
patterns, hurried southwark along the
/ road beneath the Tyrolers. Leaders there
We're manifestly none. for the quarrelling
and noise We're past telling. The nostrl of
Under Officer Richter cured.
shall we stop these swine -cattle?" he
said: they are here for no good. Murder
ers, likely: thieves certainly
The Count nodded.
'March." said Alt Karl hardly above
his breath. And the command strung
stealthily down the hill. taking advantag ge
of every scrap of cover, in order to reach
the narrows of the pass before the head of
| the convict column should come up. Roll
licking songs rose joyously from the ras-
| Gals beneath, lifting along the hillside with
an abandon which spoke not OF war but of
) wine. The nose of Alt Karl mounted ever
higher and higher.
I "Calf-heads, Stupid kerls! Worse than
I scoundrels" he muttered. Would that ]
| had them in the barrack- yard for three
| months
| At last the twenty-five were in position
| OF this Alt Karl Informed the Count with
! an upward movement of his head. some
what like a duck giving thanks to a kind
Providence. Then up rose st. Polten.
stop he cried loudly to the men be-
meath. "To what penal establishment dc
you belong: and where is the officer in
charge"
The convicts in Austrian prison uni
form, stood with open mouths on the road
beneath; but so astonished were they that
no one answered Only from far back in
their struggling ranks a rifle cracked, and
a twig spat close by the Counts ear.
pigs of the city slums" said the Under
Officer under his breath. And he kept his
eyes alert to catch the Counts every
movement.
'Shoot me that man who tiredr' cried
the Count; land those two at the head OF
the column-no more. We cannot afford
to waste ammunition on rascals."
Crack. crack. crack, rang out the three
shots. The man with the smoking CUR
fell prone upon it. The leader OF the ad
vance leaped into the air and collapsed ir
a heap on the ground. and a third mar
suddenly reeled and grasped his leg a!
though wasp had stung him.
The twenty-five White Goats rose from
the brushwood.
Ready cried Under-Oficer Alt Karl
The convicts from the settlements start