The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-03-06
QUE MEN OPENED FIRE HUI LowERED pREYE

SON AND LOWERED DREYF US.
it. The other soldier was just turning
his corner. 1 walked towards him
turned and marched back. He had seen
nothing wrong.
When I marched back to the place
where the sentry had been collared all
trace of that incident had vanished.
The sentry, Hudson, the negro-all Were
gone. looked sharply about, but could
see none of them. l kept on marching.
At the east end and in the west end /
met the French soldier. He did not no.
tice any change. Every moment seemed
an hour. and l held the rife all this
time ready to club and fell him if
need be-.
In vain looked for my comrades.
had marched about 30 times around my
half of the stockade and had just got 70
the east end again, when the other
French soldier saluted and said, Hist"
Here comes the trouble" thought /,
but, taking a firmer grip on my rife, l
walked towards him. 1 was looking for
a good place to land the butt of my
weapon, when, to my surprise, 1 heard
HudsOn'S voice, saying: It's all right
so far; we've got both of them" Hud-
son himself was the other sentinel.
He had given orders to the negro to
go and bring up the rest of our men,
and they came rapidly, but with eau
ton. We selected the darkest spot
in the stockade, and set the men TO
work to cut it loose, and so wellr-but
withal silently, did they work that in
less than half an hour they had a hole
cut large enough to admit a man.
Hudson sent in Antoine Gaspard and
told him to explain to the prisoner what
we Were there for. but first of alb to
find out from the prisoner how often
the sentries We're changed and when
they had been changed last Antoine
came ont to tell US that the se--tinels
did duty two hours each, and that the
guard had been changed about an hour
and three quarters ago.
Great Scott, We must hurryi" 1
said
Hudson craw!ed through the stock
ade, and in less than a minute brought
out Captain Dreyfus. He was weak and
bewildered and could scarce believe in
his good fortune: but we hauled him
out unceremoniously and started him
off 20 the north end of the island in
care of Emile Fereau and James Low
Their While we had been doing this
Jones had been visiting the fallen SEN
tries, and he now came to US to say
that he had hauled them about a nun
bred yards back of the stockade and
had gagged them both. He assured US
they were not seriously hurt.
We carried the rifles and the uniforms
with Us anG hurried away after our
men, but even as we reached the sum-
nit of the rocks we heard a shot fired,
and knew that we had under estimated
the time OF relieving guard, and that
the soldiers had discovered some
thing wrong.
Even if they had known what had
happened they had no means of dis
covering in which direction we had
gone and we hurried as fast as we
could through the darkness. stumbling
over sharp rocks, which cut our hands
and knees. Fereau was already in the
boat, having slid down the rope, but
Captain Dreyfus was too weak to try
this plan, so we had to yell to Fereau
to bring us a rope and to haul the
launch nearer the rocks.
The French must have heard our
shout, for even as l was tying the rope
around the waist of Captain Dreyfus,
the while he murmured, 81 oh, lis me
prendrez, oh, lis me prendez" (Oh,
they will catch me, oh, they will catch
metz the foremost soldier came clam
bering up the rocks toward us. Our
men were not behind in knowing what
to do. AS the Frenchmen came near
they opened fire on them with revolv-
ers, which caused them to drop down
behind the rocks, fearful that we had
a large force behind us.
Hudson and | lowered Dreyfus to the
launch, and as he got on board we
heard the peal of the big gun, the
warning signali So, very soon we
heard the signal answered from the
island, and we had no
doubt that the French war sloop would
soon be steaming toward us. Our men
made no effort to retreat until we
called them, and then they came, bear
ing the body of Washington Jones,
who had been shot. ] stopped to exam
inc him. He had bullet through his
forehead. Drop him. men!" L cried;
he's dead; the living first"
One by one, in splendid order, we got
to the launch, and when we were on
board, the rope was cut and, under the
cover of the darkness, we steamed
northward.
BY this time the whole company, 100
above u.s. and fired volley after volley
in our direction. Most of their bullets
went wide of the mark, for our small
launch could not be seen in the dark
ness, but Hudson was struck in the
hand, and a bullet grazed Alfred Drey-
fus. 1 felt him vince, and asked him
IL he were hit. He replied bravery:
"Une petite blessure settlement. &c
nest rien." (Only little wound. 1t is
nothing)
We ran half a mile straight away
from the island, and then sent up a
rocket; this was answered almost inn
from our steamer which
bore down on us. and, in spite of the
5till heavy sea, we managed to hook
on to the davits, and were hoisted rap
dly aboard.
AS the crew of the steamer saw us
aand the sick prisoner over the side,