The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1897-10-12

come when Alexander was most inert,
and Osborne would stare straight in
front of him and grit his teeth and
wonder that man could live with both
sides of bis nature thwarted and put
back But he had his reward. Alexan-
der went into the academy at 90 He
was the handsomest and most popular
cadet in his class--and he failed in the
first year
just how such things are done no one
is ever quite sure, but in Osborne's case
it must have been sheer force of deter
mination. Alexander was reappointed,
and he himself was made instructor at
the Point
He stood over the cadet with the
singing lash of his ambition, and Alex
ander was graduated. Osborne I'M
wisely took some credit to himself.
"Nonsenser' said Alexander "I'd
have done it alone. The first miss was
only bad luck Don't think it's your
circus "
1t doesn t make any great difference
to me whose circus it is so that you
come out all right. I'm only glad you re
getting some ambition.
Ambition be hangedI It's the one
word in your lexicon I'm sick of the
sound of it 1t is the sin by which the
angels fell Look out you don't fall,
angel brother. y
Pm not likely to fall, but l should
not mind it if it put you on mountain
height .
No heights for me- / can't breathe
rare air, answered the younger.
Now in the course of army events it
came to pass that strange fate made
Alexander Osborne second lieutenant in
the troop Of which his brother was first
lieutenant, and the first lieutenant
continued his ambitious goading Alex
ander was independent at present and
resisted to some purpose. He would not
spend his nights in study and his days
in wire pulling The war department
did not reward that sort of thing, he
said. 1t was action it approved. Wait
until his time for action came Then he
would satisfy his brother
And the time for action did come,
but the action was disappointing. They
marched 400 miles and then marched
back again. Alexander complained loud
ly that he had had no occasion to dis
play his prowess in battle.
He should have been quite safe in
this, for that evening they would be
once more in Grant But the Indian
host is not to be reckoned with. At sun
set, within ten miles of the post, the
Apaches caught the battalion in a ra-
vine and kept it there until we'll into
the night.
The moon came up and showed to the
bucks hiding behind the cedars and
scrub oaks on the rise the soldiers pen
ned in the gully below them. 1t was
merely for the latter question of hold
ing out and having a few men killed.
The danger was not great unless the
Apaches should be REINFORCED or the
oouriers should not reach the fort. So
the men took shelter behind bushes and
rocks and fired at the flashes of light in
the darkness above them. The officers
walked about in the deep shadows, fir
ing, too, and giving orders.
First Lieutenant Osborne was with
his sergeant and another lieutenant
when he came upon Second Lieutenant
Osborne crouched down between two
rocks, his arms clasped over his bent
head and his carbine dropped on the
ground beside him.
There was no mistake to be made.
The other lieutenant hesitated, the SER
geant drew back, but Osborne went up
and touched his brother with his foot.
Lieutenant Osborne" be said to
tho junior, go and report to the officer
In command, Captain Clarke l shall
have preceded you and have reported
you for cowardice. :"
He went in search Of the captain and
made his report, and Second Lieutenant
Osborne was sent under arrest back to
the dismounted horses in the rear Then
the first lieutenant threw open his
blouse and covered his breast with a
wide white silk handkerchief that
CLEANED even in the shadow and walked
out into the full moonlight.
1t was matter of only moment be-
fore the hidden Apaches saw him with
the white target ON his bosom, and two
of them at least took aim at the target
and hit it full in the center, and First
Lieutenant Osborne pitched forward on
the stones -Gwendolen Overton in San
Francisco Argonaut.