Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-04-20
A LAST CARTRIDGE.

II say, Aunt Carrie" said Corporal
Harry Ainsworth of the Third United
States infantry, who was home on a fur
Tough after the campaign in Cuba, "where
did this blackened old cartridge come
from? l found it in your cabinet. Can
have it? 1t is just the caliber of my army
rifle"
"Ah, Harry, DEAR" replied the lady ad-
dressed, you little know what sad mem
cries that bit of lead and metal brings
back to me or how closely allied it is to
your being.
"See this lOcket9" she continued, tax
ing from about her neck a quantity de-
signed ornament of gold. "There were
two made at the time it was wrought.
This one contained my picture, the other
that of your mother, my twin sister Anita.
Where it is now God only knows. We
were az alike in features and form as two
rosebuds. Neither of us ever lacked for
beaus, though l do say it, and those were
happy times when your Uncle Ben and
your father, Jim Ainsworth, came cour.
ing us.
"Our wedding was a double one, thu
whole country joining in the festivities,
and shortly afterward Jim Ainsworth took
his bride and journeyed into what was
then the unpeopled wilds of Minnesota.
In a small clearing a log hut was soon
reared, and there in the course of months
a baby was born to them.
Zone afternoon as thus she sat grooming
to the tot In her arms the alert watchdog
outside gave a yelp Of alarm and scurried
within the cottage, and the next instant
the form of a young Indian appeared in
the doorway.
"The redskin in all probability had sim
ply been out on a hunting expedition, and
seeing the cabin had approached to recon
hotter or perhaps to beg.
"As he steps upon the threshold, how
ever, the beauty of the being he sees pos
sesses him with the thought to make her
his own.
"He takes a step forward, when the
faithful dog is upon him in an instant,
and as the savage draws a knife to strike
the beast down the mother, seeing her only
protector thus in danger, throws aside the
child and springs to the beasts assistance.
"Picture the fierce struggle that ensued,
the frail woman receiving the knife thrust
meant for the dog. They have come out
into the open by this time, and as the wo-
man falls the canine is also quieted by a
deathblow.
"The young savage, seeing the deyasta-
tion he has wrought, is led by the instinct
of his race to mutilate the head with it's
halo of golden hair with his ~scalping
knife, but as he raises the trophy, at the
same time snatching the golden locket,
such as you now see, from her breast, a
shot re-echoes and his face is cut by a bull
let from the rifle of the outraged husband.
The wounded Indian bounds for his pony
and is away for dear life, while Jim, re-
alizing his wife is dead, gallops after,
crazed with rage, cursing and firing until
the Indian on his fresher horse distances
him, when Jim discovers he has wasted
his entire supply Of ammunition save one
cartridge.
"Grief stricken, he turns about and
with mad energy urges his pony back,
hoping against hope that perhaps his
loved one still breathes. But his passion
ate appeal awakens no response in the in
animate form, and he filings himself to the
earth in an agony of despair, only to be
recalled to conscious being by a feeble cry
from the interior of the hut-his baby has
been spared to him.
"Then he came to us a wreck. Priva-
ton and a broken heart had done their
work, and in a few weeks we buried him.
Harry, the babe l spoke of was your
self, and this cartridge is the one which
still remained unshot."
A fortnight has passed, the Beak Lake
Indians have risen In arms against the
whites because of an attempt by a United
States marshal to arrest one of their chiefs
and part Of the valiant Third infantry
regiment Of regulars has been ordered out
to quell the insurrection.
The savages, Notwithstanding their
long term of s%ubjugation to the govern
ment, have donned their warpaint and,
500 in number, brazenly defy the handful
Of soldiers sent to aid the marshal in his
undertaking.
Harry, with the other members of his
company, is lying behind a temporary
earthwork thrown up near Leach lake, in
the vicinity of Walker, MINI.
For several hours they have been en-
gagged in a sharp skirmish, and the ping
of bullets can be heard striking on every
side. A steady fire is being kept up by the
soldiers with telling effect, although the
red warriors are not the only sufferers, for
two of Harry comrades lie dead close to
him.
Suddenly he discovers his ammunition
belt to be empty, and as he gropes about
his blouse his fingers come in contact with
the cartridge he had thought to ever cher
ish for remembrance's sake.
"a life for a life," he finds himself re,
peating, and daily wonders to himself
where and by whom the quotation was
first used. "Never mind" he says aloud.
"It hits my case" and as he catches sight
Of a dark face peering from behind alog
some hundred yards distant he slips the
load into his gun chamber, takes steady aim
and fires. Intuition tells him he has struck
his mark, and an instant later the cry
runs along the trench that the redskins
are in full flight as the blue coated boys
leap to their feet and give chase. Harry
hurries to the Indian he has laid low in
battle and, STOPPING down, sees a warrior
past middle age, his face furrowed by an
unsightly scar, while from the dead
braves belt the young mans eye catches
the CLEAN Of something like gold. Quick
ly he seizes it. "Why, it's q locket sus-
pended by a strand of halrl'' he exclaims,
and as he grips the trinket in his hand a
spring flies back and reveals a face SO sim
liar, yet to him far more fair than II he
had been asked to look upon two weeks
before, while the soft eyes seem to tell
him in unspoken language that it Is the
likeness of the being most sacred to his
heart upon whom now he gazes.
"Mother, I've found your he cries, and
throws himself with violent sobs to the
ground, the miniature crushed to his
breast.
Destiny had been fulfilled. Anita Aims
worth was at last avenged. Chicago
News.