The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1900-08-11

.
The boy had spoken those words which
most men dare only to think, and that
not too often.
! But the battle was over and the troops
were to camp on the field. The others
spread their shelter tents and the boy did
likewise. When night came all slept ex-
cept the boy, the pickets and the men
who were burying the dead. What cared
this boy, fresh from his baptism of fire?
There was no pain in his body to put his
mind to sleep, and he wandered from point
to point, now helping to pick up and bear
to his grave some man whose face he
knew, now bordering over that unsolva-
bic problem, standing alone ever lingering
the empty pouches on his belt Dawn
found him doing volunteer sentry duty
between a rock and a plantation tree be-
side the trail.
Then came the breakfast. 1t was his
campaigns through in his minds wild life
that he Derforce muttered:
Again? That everlasting bacon!' and
turned away to work at his problem anew
HIS fellows looked at him with fear, or
pity, as he strobe off, for he was becom-
ing mad, and they knew it,
Again came march through more jun
gle, now with the rain pouring upon him,
now with the sun making his clinging
khaki steam like the hide of a sweating
horse, until the old pains came into his
legs and back again, and his mind, still
obedient to the demands Of his body,
shut itself in and the pains out once more
| 1t might have been thousand nights
that followed for all the boy knew. An
| other
more rain and more heat, but all that the
! boy knew was that some one was delay
| ing. While the others rested he paced
ceaselessly to and fro on the outskirts of
| the camp until he had worn smooth
| path through the rank, quivering under
growtS. His activity caught the eye of
| his colonel, who, not understanding, COM
| plimented him in this generous way and
| passed on Then night came again. The
| army was moving, and relief from the
| fretting at his inactivity brought back
| to the lads mind his old problem. Then
| the ammunition was brought along and
| his cartridge belt was filled once more.
| After that the problem was not how many
| he had killed, but how many would fall
before his fire when the army should get
| into the real battle in the open day. But
| there was less tangible to think of in this
question than the other one, anG his
| thoughts would stray. Then he would
| utter the several orders of the charge. -.
At length the army halted and the boy
| fell to the ground from the pains in his
legs and the dreadful heat. While he lay
thinking some one pulled roughly at his
| sleeve and a hand was clapped over his
mouth.
1--WE are to move for the attack"
voice said in his ear. "Silence Is the Or
der'
| Then followed another weary march in
| the darkness, through mud and water
| knee deep, and when the gray light of
| dawn came it found the boy standing in
| the ranks beside wood, with bend in
the trail before him and mile or so
of his fellows stretching away behind
| him. Ahead of him, where the trail led,
! the jungle ended The heat came down
like blight with the rising of the sun,
and maddening thirst possessed him,
! for\the fetld odorS arising from the reek-
ing mould had filled him with fever
Unconsciously he struggled for the mas
terry OF himself and was oblivious to all
about him when stray trooper showed
himself in the open and instantly the
Spanish army, lying in their trenches be-
yond, opened a murderous fire. It had
needed but the winking of an eyelid or
the twitching of finger to do it, and
when the crash of the volley and the pat
tering Of the bullets in the trees cane,
the boys reason fed. Maybe it was this
| or the too sudden realization of those
wild dreams Of his that did it, No one
will know just how it was, for at that in
slant every man in the line gathered his
strength against the shock, daring not
to think. The boy who had been,~in the
twinkling of an eye had ceased to be, and
iii his stead there came demon.
"Charge! he screamed, and thea his
hand seized the grip of the pistol at his
belt. No one heard him then nor did any
one see him, so unhindered he placed the
muzzle of the weapon against the head
| Of a man in the next file before him and
fired. Then he flung the smoking pistol
in his captains face and dashed out Of
the line into the face Of the Spanish fire
shrieking and laughing as he went.
THAT man is a murderer, fire!' shouted
| the captain, but not a rifle in the ranks
| spoke.
"Fire?" said grizzled sergeant upon
| whose cheek the blood Of the dead man
ran red and warm. And the captain
turned away to hide his shame
| There was a moments hesitancy. and
| then the file fell out and stacked their
rifles. They raised the quivering body
! of their comrade in their arms and bore
/ it into the bushes beside the trail. Re
verently they laid it upon the dank moss
and drew the battered hat over the dead
face. ~ rss ~.*. -
Z-z-zing!' sang little bullet, as it
sped past the faces of the file and found
a resting place in the heart of the grizzled
sergeant Him, too, the file laid on the
moss, and, placing the rifles of the two
beside them left them there. Then the
file grasped their rifles again and stood
in the ranks. sE ~ Al
An officer in the front had seen the mad
youth dash out of the cover and brave
! the fire alone and scarcely had the ranks
been filled again before he fell victim
to the impulse and shouted the charge
i The column bounded forward, bending
and swaying like a flying cobweb, and
made the open.
Up the hill after a mailman they plunged
i up until the smoke of the Spanish powder
encompassed their length and breadth, up
4 until the enemy had fed and Old Glory
waved upon the hilltop. Then the shat
/ tered column rested, on their arms and
i blew the smell of battle from their
nostrils When the day was over, the line
and the officers on the hill, gazing at the
unblinking tropical stars, thought of the
q madnan and wondered where he was.
Il And he? God only knows how, but
he made the charge unframed, and even
then was wandering through the jungle,
alone and unseen. Later, when the army
he hil1ton hadR %; ,-e,e.f :,
i water on the distant shore was stirred