El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-31
,as a quiet auc :ac-e.=- -

bigger buffers than you" he used to re-
mark encouragingly as he flicked White
Feathers horse into canter, land III
make n rider O. you, or I'll break your
neckr' White Feathers neck remain
ed unbroken, so it is to be presumed
that the sergeant instructor fulfilled
his word.
Presently he began to lose the hang
dog look of suppressed terror with
which he had been accustomed to enter
the riding school aid to acquire the
easy swagger of a cavalryman. HIS
chest contracted by long hours at the
counter. developed under healthy train
ing. Fresh air and much exercise help
ed White Feathers development, which
had been sadly retarded by the heavy,
gas laden atmosphere in which he had
lived. His nerves acquired tone, and
he learned to take a tumble now and
then as q matter of course and to fire
his carbine without shutting his eyes
and blanching at the explosion of the
cartridge.
BLOW me, if he isn't going to shape
into a man at last" quoth the sergeant
instructor.
Then a great blow fell upon him. He
received one morning letter from the
girl to tell him that she had given him
up in favor of a shopwalker who had
expecta lions of being set up in bust
ness by his father. She admitted that
she had adored soldiers and that she
had caused him to enter the army for
her sake. But she had omitted to state
that the soldiers she adored were sol
diers who possessed the queens COM
Stn m cfo nf
a worsted stripe
II poor White Feather was physical
coward, he was a moral hero. There is
no chance of a display of feeling in
barrack room: so. like the Spartan boy
of old. he Rugged his trouble to him,
slipping the cheap little engagement
ring with which he had sealed his
troth into his pocket without a sign be
yond the twitching of his white lips.
Then he lit his pipe with the letter. not
out of contempt, but because there Is
little privacy accorded in the CORE
spondence that comes to the barrack
room. and a private soldier is not pro
vided with desk wherein to keep his
faded flowers and other sentimental to-
kens of the past
The blow was a very heavy one, for
White Feather was. without the world
" knowledge that should have told
him long since that lie had fixed his af-
fections upon vulgar, selfish and
brainless fiirt, and he still believed in
her.
For her sake he had learned to over
come his physical cowardice. He had
dreamed of n possible commission in
the dim future and had rejoiced in the
" n
toward her.
For her sake, too. he received the
news cheerfully when the word passed
through the barracks that the regiment
was ordered to South Africa to meet
the Beers. He knew that he was by
nature n coward, but for the memory
of her he swore an oath to himself to
do his duty without sparing himself In
the coming fight
look ere, old chap, we amt going
to call you White Feather no morer'
said Trumpeter Pipes as they lay to-
gether behind the shelter of a large
bowlder, against the face of which the
Boer bullets were pattering like a
| heavy rain.
! In full sight of the whole army their
amid a hail of bullets which had
brought 20 men to earth
White Feathers horse had been shot
under him. and. at the risk of his life,
| he had carried the wounded trumpeter
| into the shelter of the powders. He
| was unhurt, but trembled In every
, limb from fear and great exertion.
From between two powders he peep
ed out and saw. amid the bodies of men
and horses that Uttered the plain,
| wounded man crawling on his hands
and knees amid a spatter of bullets
/ that were kicking puffs of dust from
/ the dry earth all around him.
| 1t was his captain
White Feather watched him for a
| moment: then he saw him stop and lie
! down on his side desparingly. He
| could crawl no more
al will, for her sakei' he murmured
| between his clincbed teeth. and, rising
| from the shelter of the rock, he faced
the hail of. death. that battered to the
| earth around him.
As he walked into the open Il faint
cheer reached his ears from the Brit
| ish troops half n mile behind him. The
Royal artillery backed him with a
shrieking flight of shrapnel. which
whistled for n moment overhead. then
burst over the Boer lines n quarter of
! a mile away in n shower of bullets that
for n moment quelled the storm around
him.
He reached the wounded man, lifted
him on his back and returned step by
step to where Trumpeter Pipes lay hid
den.