The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1900-08-10

btlb llnNos ANONh-
Qng would do, however, but that she
must learn to shoot 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 Mivart
did was done on purpose and some
Thought that it was 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 favortes of Fortune
who look greater fools than they are.
They said, with a certain show of rea
son, that Georgia Mivart was 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, 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 adj
mired the most and obeyed the best
for the first dozen years of her life
had been Kreutzer, Captain Mivarts
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 a Fourth of July parade might
reasonably be expected to know by in
tuition that in target-practice cOmpe-
gfition every trigger has got to pull just
so hard, whatever the regulation mum
Der or fraction of pounds may be. 9th
'erwise, it is plain that the nearer you
come to n hair-trlgger the better your
aim will be.
However, whether Miss Mivart was
fully aware of what she was doing
nobody ever knew, unless perhaps it
was Greville-and he, like zuleika,
never told. But Burton had a Md 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 target-practice cOmpeti-
ton going on at the post; not one which
was of any interest to the service, or
even TO the department at large; just
a 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 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 a matter she did not APP
pear To he able to settle for herself.
Not that she was to blame for that.
ANY one, even a person much more GER
tain of her own mind than Miss AIivart
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
preiudices 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-thau
which nothing is more pleasant and
soothing to a right-minded woman.
The rifle contest lasted ten days dur
sng which time the air hummed witt
the ping and sing Of bullets over on tn,
range, and with the calls of the mark
.ers in the rifie-pits. Only scores anC
records and bets were thought anC
talked about.
Miss Mivart herself had bet with al
the daring wickedness of a kitten teas
ing a beetle. She even went so far a
to bet on both Burton and Greville a
once. The adjutant undertook to ex
sDlain to her that that was called 'hedg
ing" and was not looked upon as alto
sgether sporty. Miss Mivart was hurt
Was 1t really dishonest, she wanted Z
Know. The adJutant felt that he ha'
Been unkind. He fastened to assur