Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1900-08-01

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tested the widow.
''No, but on the telegraphic code
they're much. tho same
''How stupid of these horrid news
papers!" the widow CALCULATED dis
gustedly.
''Wel!, it really was not 80 stupid"
the colonel argued. ''For it might,
in sense, have been I, instead of
Whippett, that did it. -
GLOW do you mean:" asked the
widow sharply.
"Woll, you see." replied the col
onel, trihe nervously, "Ali Pindah,
where was Ben Williamson, who had
to be relieved, was at the apex of an
isosceles triangle of which a line
drawn between Fort Dufferin, where
Whippett was, and Fort Nicholson,
where 1 was, would have been the
base"
''That conveys no idea to me-" re-
turned the widow pettishly. "Can't
you use plain English?"
81 mean to convey" said the colonel
desperately, ''that Whippett and I
were luidistant from Ben William
son, and it was toss up which of US
made dash for him. "
"And why were you not the one to
do it?" queried the widow.
''You know I never was dashing
fellow" answered the colonel humbly.
''You don't mean to say you were
afraid?" she said after little while.
The colonel nodded his head. "l
was afraid.
She waited yet awhile before deliv-
ering what she meant to be taunt;
'I cannot understand why you did
not follow your fathers profession.
'I had not enough brains for it,"
he said simply. Besides. I am ut
tached to my own trade-so attached
that do not know what will become
of me after another year. -
"What haprens then?" she asked,
without interest.
"I shall be retired" he told her.
''The age clause falls heavily on man
like me who has never had chance to
distinguish himself"
'I thought you had Whippett's
chance" she cut at him.
For moment he stared at her stu
-pidly, theu said without bitterness, but
reproyingiy as father to a child: ST
see you have not understood me. Yous
have perhaps forgotten that your hus-;
bands nickname TO-. me was The
Duty Soldier.
eyes" she retorted, without weigh
ing her words, Sand he defined it as
one who is afraid of God and man, and
for his own skin"
Her teeth closed on her tongue as
she said the last word, for Colonel
Jemmett arose and shook himself. "l
see that my call has been IN intrusion
on you; I shall not repeat the indis-
cretion. Goodby."
"Goodby" she repeated mechan-
ically, and touched the bell. She felt
powerless to detain him, but looked
wistfully at the door when it had
closed behind him.
Ten days later she had letter
from him bearing the Southampton
postmrak. 'I am leaving for the
Tirah," he said, "to command bri-
gade. If had done what you wished
in the Black mountains I should
have risked the lives of 5000 men,
women and children. I was afraid to
do this. Perhaps in this new busi-
ness I may be able to present the
Duty Soldier in q better light-at
least, in one which you can see.
After all, lie can be ironical," the
widow said, and wondered if he could
escape retirement. She thought she
might write to him.
Colonel local Ma, Or G eneral) Jem-
NETT received the widows letter the
morning of the day his brigade was
to attack the enemy's position. It was
the FIRST battle inwhich he found him
self his own commander, and such
time is not the best for reading a
woman's = particularly beloved
woman's-letter. He was duty SOL
dier, and though the touch of it
burned his fingers, he put it in his
left breast pocket unopened
1t was good, he thought, to have
her writing next his heart; but he al-
most reproacbed himself for thinking
about it at all. Things were not going
so we'll in this campaign that any man
could afford consideration of his pri-
vate affairs. One, by name Winter,
he who commanded The brigade at
the other side of the big hill yonder,
by thinking of his chances of winning
C. B. had sacrificed the better part
of battery Of i'll spared artillery. If
Jemlnett were to follow his example
the welfare of thriving district would
be ieopardized. AS it was, he would
have TO make head against very su:'
perior force if Winters disaster were
to be retrieved. His second in COM
maud had observed to him that Win
ter's imprudence was good, inasmuch
as he, Jemmett, would be sure Of u
c. B. now if he could counteract the
effects of it.
In reply, Jemmett did what he sci.
dom did; he snubbed the second in
command, who went away and laughed
at him, and then damned an aide-de.
camp up hill aud down dale for doing
the same.
The enemy had brought two of the
four captured guns into action against
Jemmett, and the second in command
was for opening the fight in the or
thodox way by knocking these off
their carriages with around or two;
but Jemmett would not hear of it.
"No, no." said he; 1--WE must have
these back intact. Tell Captain Max
we'll to burst his shells behind and
around them. so rs to clear away the
supporting infantry; but we must
take our chance OF bit of blasting
from them untilw get near enough
to pot the gunners. They're fighting