Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1900-08-10

s."A1MN~e arms she should
KX = have kept to Flo
bert rifles. Moth
Ing would do, however, but that she
must learn to shoot a carbine, and the
result was that the whole post rose up
and cut Burton, to a man; so that there
was no peace for him any longer in
that regiment and he had to seek trans
fer to another. There were other re-
suits, also, but they come further on.
Some thought that what Miss AIivart
did was done on purpose, and some
thought that 1t was a piece of idiotic
Stiffness. The latter based their argu-
ment upon the general frivolousness OF
her ways, and upon the innocency of
her round, blue eyes. The former held
to the belief that Miss Mivart was one
of those women favorites of Fortune
who look greater fools than they are.
Ihey said, with certain show of rea-
son, that Georgia Mivart was a child
of the service and not an importation
from civil life. She had been born in
a garrison and had played with rows
Of empty y.green-rimmed cartridge shells
at an age when most little girls play
with paper dolls. She had hummed
Snatches of the bugle-calls before she
could talk, and the person she had ad-
mired the most and obeyed the best
for the first dozen years Of her life
had been Kreutzer, Captain Mivart's
two-headed striker. A few years of
boarding-schOol back East could not
have obliterated all that.
Besides, the veriest civilian. who has
never come nearer to a carbine than to
watch Fourth Of July parade, might
reasonably be expected to know by in
tuition that in target-practice compe.
tition every trigger has got to pull Just
so hard, whatever the regulation mum.
ber or fraction of pounds may be. 9th.
crwise, it is plain that the nearer you
come to hair-trigger the better your
aim will be-
However whether Miss Mivart was
fully aware of what she was doing,
nobody ever knew, unless perhaps ii
was Greville-and he, like Zuleika.
never told. But Burton had a Nld time
of it, and all his beautiful score went
for worse than nothing at ALL
That, though was the end. And the
beginning ought to come first. The be-
ginning was when Miss Mivart under
took to learn to shoot carbine
There was a target-practice competi-
tion going on at the post; not one which
was of any interest to the service. or
even to the department at large; just
little social affair." devised to keep up
the esprit de corps of the troops and to
tighten the mOnotony of life. There
were three contests, one for troops and
companies, as such; one for individual
privates, and one for the officers. This
last was to finish off, and then there
was to be a big hop.
Every one knew from the first, when
Burton and Greville shot with their
troops, that the officers competition
would lie between them. This made it
interesting in more ways than one, be-
cause the rivalry was not confined to
the target range, but extended to the
winning of Miss Mivart's hand and
heart, and every one believed that this
would settle matter she did not ap-
pear to be able to settle for herself.
Not that she was to blame for that.
Any one, even person much more GER
tain of her own mind than Miss Mivart
was, would have been put to it to
choose.
They were both first lieutenants. and
both cavalrymen, and both good to
look upon. Burton was fair and Gre
Vile was dark, but she had no fixed
prejudices regarding that. She had
often said so. Also, both were as much
In love with her as even she could have
wished, and were more than willing
that all the world should see it-than
which nothing is more pleasant and
soothing to a right-minded woman.
The rifle contest lasted ten days, dur
ing which time the air hummed with
the ping and sing of bullets over on the
range, and with the calls Of the mark
ers in the rifle-pits. Only scores and
records and bets were thought and
talked about.
Miss Mivart herself had bet, with all
the daring wickedness of kitten teas
ing a beetle. She even went so far as
to bet on both Burton and Greville at
once. The adjutant undertook to ex-
plain to her that that was called "hedg-
ing" and was not looked upon as alto
gether sporty. Miss Mivart was hurt.
Was it really dishonest, she wanted to
know. The adjutant felt that he had
been unkind He hastened to assure