The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1897-08-27

y
Point at 20. When L say l am going to
do it, you know it is going to be done.
Don't you? None of it depends on You
except the study. l can't make you
drink, but I'll take you to water and
keep you there until you find it will be
easier to drink. You can go back to the
ranch if you like, but I'm not afraid
you'll like. 1 don't want to treat you
as a small boy unless you act the part
of one. You can learn, and you must
learn, or the theaters will stop, and
the hops will stop, and the guitar will
stop-also the tennis. You hare been
cutting time, but henceforth jou will
study four hours a day and | will sit
with you to help you and see that it is
| DONE"
So four hours out of every "a Os-
| borne put to the use of teaching one
! who did not wish to learn. Density can
| be bored through with patience. 1t
| is the india rubber of Indifferent clev
erness that reslsts. After some of the
| struggles, Osborne would lie awake
for the rest of the night from sheer
nervousness. The boy slept with I'M
ruffled brain. The lieutenant almost
| came to forget the girl. But never
| quite. A letter would come when Alex
| ander was most inert, and Osborne
would stare straight in front Of him
and grit his teeth, and wonder that a
man could live with both sides of his
nature thwarted and cut back.
But he had his reward. Alexander
went into the academy at 20. 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
determination. Alexander was reap
pointed, and he himself was made in
structOr at the Point.
| He stood over the cadet with the
singing lash of his ambition; and AL
exander was graduated IS. Osborne
unwisely took some credit to himself
| Nonsense" said Alexander, 'Td 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 hanged! 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"
I'm not likely to fall, but shouldn't
mind it, if it put you on a mountain
height
| mo heights for me. 1 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 lieu
tenant continued his ambitious goad-
ing. Alexander 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; it was action it ap-
| proved. Wait until his time for action
came-then he would satisfy his
brother.
And the time for action did come.
But the actiomwas disappointing. They
marched 200 miles, and then marched
back again. Alexander complained
loudly that he had had no occasion to
display 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
penned in the gully below them twas
merely, for the latter, question of
holding out and having a few men
killed. The danger was not great I'M
less the Apaches should be reinforced
or the couriers 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, firing, too, and giving orders.
First Lieut.. Osborne was with his
sergeant and another lieutenant when
he came upon Second Lieut. Osborne
crouched down between two rocks. his
arms elapsed over his bent head and
his carbine dropped on the ground be-
side him.
There was no mistake TO be made.
The other lieutenant hesitatedL the
sergeant drew back. But Osborne went
up and touched his brother with his
foot.
Lieut.. OSBORNE" he said, to the
junior, 'go and report to the officer in
J command, Capt. Clarke. 1 shall have
preceded you and have reported you for
cowardice.''
He went in search of the captain, and
made his report, and Second Lieut.. Os-
borne was sent under arrest back to
the dismounted horses in Tie rear.
| Then the first lieutenant threw open his
blouse and covered his breast with a
wide, white silk handkerchief that
J 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
/ l. l. l. l.