News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1901-12-18

tered at dead of night, startled me.
There were the CHASTITY skin, the sunken
cheek, the open mouth, while the eyes
were staring up at the heavens as if
they saw wonders hidden from the liv-
ing. l drew back. A consciousness of
the horrors that awaited us struck me
like a gust of cold wind. Perhaps be-
fore morning Helen Stanforth OrJaque-
line,or little Buck or all of us would
be lying stiff and stark like that dead
guerrilla.
Then a greater strength, daring,
cunning never before felt welled with
in me. | crawled on till came so near
the guerrilla camp that l could have
thrown stone into it. They had no
fire, and this in itself was suspicious.
l thought l heard a voice, but it was
doubtless some animal or a bird giving
a note of warning to its mate l lis
tened, but could hear nothing which [
knew to be human. At last l sat down
On a rock and began what to me SEEM
ed an endless vigil.
1t was perhaps an hour after that
heard unmistakable sounds of the guer-
rillas. l could see nothing, though |
could hear voices, and voices at that
time of night meant mischief. Darling
back to my wood, l set the paper of
gunpowder on the rock under the dry
grass, keeping a little in reserve, and
got stone ready to use for a, hammer,
then listened for a sign of advance. |
had not long to wait. A man must
have stumbled. At any rate | heard
something which convinced me the enc
my was coming, and, laying on my
percussion powder, | raised the stone
and brought it down.
Horror of horrors! The grass was
blown away without being kindled.
The last chance was gone! 1t was
dark as pitch; not even a ray Of moon
light to protect us against the coming
cutthroats.
Wait a bit. There are several spears
of grass smoldering, a spark on the
end of each. l gather them and put
the ember ends into the hollow of my
, hand where | hold the reserve gun
powder. A flash-a mere bit of flame
no bigger than a pea! l nurse it and
put more grass with it, shove it all
under the wood, and q beautiful bright
! flame shoots up that gladdens my
heart A joyful shout from the fort
/ sends a pleasant thrill through every
fiber in my body.
+ Ping! A bullet within an inch of my
nose. | dart away into the darkness
and in another minute am in the for
! tress
had scarcely got behind the breast
works when the glare of the burning
wood showed me half a dozen men
dashing up to the fire, and knew they
would try to scatter it.
"When l count three, fire into the
crowd. One, two, threev'
Four bullets fled at the little knot of
men below We could not see who was
hit. but all turned and started down
the declivity, though one man dropped
before he had gone dozen yards. We
lost no time in reloading and had q
new charge ready in every piece before
seeing any signs Of their return. But
y Buck, who took more time and made
more fuss about his work than all the
rest together, had scarcely rammed his
charge home and fixed the percussion
cap on the nipple when three men
made a dash at the fire. Two of them
4 reached it and began to kick vigorous
w.. ] took deliberate aim at one of
them ard shot him through the head.
My gun had scarcely cracked when
Helen let drive at the remaining man,
He staggered, but kept on kicking at
the fire. suatched Bucks gun and
finished him, cropping him on the burn
ing brands. The third man, who had
started forward several times and
each time turned back. got out Of sig,n
as quickly as possible.
Look a dar" cried Gihger, pointing
to the east.
l turned my head and there above
the horizon was the faintegt trace OF
dawn.