The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1900-02-07
A Ride in the Nisht.
How the First Officer Received
His Wound.

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1t was the evening of the first
day out. Behind us the sun had
dropped down below the sea, and the
steamship was plowing on steadily
into the east, where the darkness was
gathering fast. The first officer stood
with his back against the rail, lazily
watching the throng of passengers on
the promenade deck. The whole
affair started with commonplace
"Good evening" 1t ended with the
following story:
"Yes, that was rather nasty cut at
the time" he began. 81 came by it
during the last hour OF the ride, soon
after we had sighted the town lights,
and, strange enough, it wasn't from n
bullet at all-not one of them had
touched me all night-but it came
from the broken lantern OF the last
man that fell. As the fellow pitched
from the saddle he swung his lantern
across him, and the glass of it struck
me in the face and bust to pieces.
"That was back in-no, it wasn't
either. Let's see, now, it was some
years after we stole that gunboat L
told you of, but I've forgotten
when that was, too. We'll, it isn't of
much consequence, anyway. was
one of the intelligence officers in the
service of the Indian government, and
just before sundown that evening the
colonel came up to me sort OF languid-
like, n way he had when he didn't
want to let on he was excited. / never
knew man that tried so hard to be
diguitied.
"'We've got important dispatches
to carry down to headquarters
tonight, said he. See that the horses
iron shoes are replaced by the feathers,
and be on hand yourself at O'Clock.
The orders are that we've got to get
the papers through by daylight.
''We had other orders beside these,
sort of special orders that weren't
written down anywhere, but none of
us were likely to forget them, or we
didn't speak about them much among
ourselves. You see, the government
wanted those dispatches to go
through, and if man dropped out of
the running-well, it was exceedingly
bad luck for him, that's all-the rest
of us couldn't stop.
"There wasn't any moon that night,
but the sky was clear, which was u
good thing you see, for we only had
the stars to go by, and if we once get
off the track we'd go wandering round
the desert till we died. Prompt ut 8
al al
of us. The colonel took the lead
he was an old hand at the game--and
/ took up the rear guard behind. Be-
tween us rode the sergeant and nine
troopers. We passed the sentry Just
as taps was sounded in the stiffness.
Then we lit the lanterns, which we
carried on the end of lances, swing
ing out slowly into the desert
Nobody spoke word, There was
q little draught of wind blowing in
from somewhere, and all around the
desert sort OF sneaked off into the
blackness aud disappeared. 1t was
terrible quiet. The steady creaking
OF leather and the janging of the bits
made it worse The lanterns, too,
they made us all look funny, swing
ing gently at the end OF the long poles
and throwing yellow discs of light
before the horses. The colonel had a
notion about those lanterns. He said
the niggers could see us anyway, il
we showed fare or not, and the
light kept the horses going steady. ]
could never quite make out whether
he was genius or jackass, as the
Saying goes, but he heing the colonel
didn't leave any room for argument
for me.
''We had logged along about an
hour or SO, when of a sudden heard
a low rumbling from somewhere be.
hind MS in the night. / was just going
to speak OF it when the colonel NJ
aud hollers; snow. boys, they're
after us. Put it to 'em.' And away
we went a-tsarin' down the desert,
''For the first two miles we hit {
terrible clip. The wind was sweepin
past MS like the rush of sudden
squall, and the lanterns were
a-bobbin' fit to die.
"By and by we come to slow up {
bit for breathing spell, and the
rumbling grew palmer. had turned
half around 10 take look at then
when flash of fire spat at me from
ont the blackness behind. and ping!
by jove she whistlel close. THAI
started us off again a-whoopin.