The Dolores star., 1901-11-01

with those things which do not con-
.ern her SEX
Obviously, carbines were none of
Miss Mivart's concern. II she felt
that she had to play with firearms
she should have kept to F1obert ri
aes. Nothing would do. however, but
that she must learn to shoot car
bine, and the result was that the
whole post rose up and cut Burton to
man; so that there was no peace for
him any longer in that regiment and
he had to seek transfer to another.
There were other results, also, but
they come further on.
Some thought that what Miss Mi
vart did was done on purpose, and
some thought that it was q piece of
ldiotic Stiffness. The latter based
their argument upon the general friv-
olousness 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. They said, with
certain show of reason, that Geor-
gia MivaTt was q 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
trimmed 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 admired the
most and obeyed the best for the first
dozen years of her life had been
KreutEer, Captain Mivart's tow-head-
cd striker. A few years OF boarding
school back East could not have OBJ
liberated all that
Besides, the yeriest civilian, who
has never come nearer to a carbine
than to watch a Fourth of July mi
litia parade, might reasonably be ex-
pscted to know by intuition that in a
target practice competition every trig-
ger has got to pull Just so hard, what
ever the regulation number or fraction
Of pounds may be. Otherwise it Is
plain that the nearer you come to a
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 it
was Greville-and he, like Zuleika,
never told. But Burton had bad
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 beginning was when Miss Mivart
undertook to learn to shoot a carbine
There was target practice COM
petition going on at the post; no one
which was of any interest to the ser
vice, or even to the department at
large; just little local affair devised
to keep up the spirits 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
1t interesting in more ways than one,
because the rivalry was not confined
TO the target range, but extended to
the winning of Miss Mivarts hand
and heart. and every one believed that
this would settle matter she did not
appear to be able to settle for herself.
Not that she was to blame for that.
Anyone. even a person much more
certain OF her own mind than Miss
Mivart was, would have been put to
1t to choose.
They were both first -lieutenants.
and both cavalrymen, and Doth good
to look upon. Burton was fair and
Greville 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,
during which time the air hummed
with the ping and sing of bullets over
on the range, and with the calls of
the markers in the rife pits. Only
scores and records and bets were
thought and talked about.
Miss Mivart herself had bet, with
all the daring wickedness of a kitten
teasing beetle. She even went SO
far as to bet on both Burton and Gre
Vile at once. The adjutant undertook
to explain to her that that was called
hedging" and was not looked upon
as altogether sporty. Miss Mivart
was hurt. Was it really dishonest,
she wanted to know. The adiutant
felt that he had been unkind. He
fastened to assure her that 1t was not
not dishonest in the least; only that
it took away from the excitement of
the thing to certain extent. Miss
Mivart smiled and shook her head.
No, she didn't think that 1t did, be-
cause Of course, she knew herself
which one she wanted to have win.
The adjutant admitted that that might
possibly be just as interesting for her.