The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1902-12-16
A BRAVE DESERTER.
ny EDWARD II. CLARK.

as he Kicked the snow OH ms DOOts ana sat
down by the fire in the little wooden shack
shat did duty for barracks. you say there
never was any good in deserter? Well,
you've missed it by just one, and have made
a four instead of bulls eye. Didn't you
ever hear tell of Jim Benson, of Il troop, Of
the Twelfth? Jim was a deserter, so Wash
ington people said, but Jim loved the flag
and mis- duty to it better than nine-tenths
of the fellows who serve their full 80 years
and then get let out with Uncle Sans
thanks and a small bit of money every
month for life.
"What made him desert? Well, what
should make an old soldier desert but
woman? Some poet or other once told
about a fellow who had been tempted all
kinds of ways. Money couldn't get him;
glory couldn't get him; nothin' could get
him, so all the wise ones thought and she
got him, or, as the verse singer put it, WON
an tempted and he FELL
Jim was in the service IS years before he
struck his flag to a petticoat. Like all those
fellows, when he got hit he was hit so bad
that none of your surgeons who are up In
matters of sentiment could probe and get
out the bullet, or perhaps I'd better say ar
row, for that's the kind of ammunition the
little chap who shot Jim uses. You see,
Jim was nigh onto 50 when he got his sights
fixed and held on to this pretty young crea-
ture with blonde hair, blue eyes and pink
cheeks. It's always the way with the old
fellows, when they get stuck on something
young. 1t goes hard with them. You see,
the girl had heard how-it was that Jim had
always been steady, had never seen the in.
side of the mill except as a member of the
guard, and, moreover, how he had $4,000
| drawing four per cent. with the paymaster
Jim always went into fight to win, ant
he got on to the track of that girl and hum
to it just as he did to the Kid S trail dowI
! in the Apache country when Il troop wa
chasing that red devil through the Arizoni
hell. The girl led. Jim for while coquet
fish like, just to make sure of him, guess
/ don't suppose she ever cared rap for him,
but she was of kind to whom Jim's little
pot of money and his retired pay meant
heap.
Jim wasn't any beauty He looked like
one of this artist fellow Remington's pic
lures Of us fellows. All muscle and bone,
but as thin as the company cooks soup
when the beef doesn't show up. Moreover,
Jim had a scar on his face that was deep
enough to drop a Springfield cartridge in.
He got it along with medal of honor when
he was trying to save kid trumpeter from
being gobbled up by the Sioux out on the
Rosebud. The medal of honor didn't mean
anything to that girl. 1t might to some
who wear skirts, but not to one of her kind.
"WeH, finally we all thought that Jim had
coraled her all right. 1t was given out that
the Twelfth's chaplain was going to have a
job tying the two up. None of the boys con-
graduated Jim too hearty, because most of
them had sized the affair up right, and
l.. = - 4 -
enough for Jim Benson. She might be all
right for rookie, but not for an old fell
low who had seen more campaigns than the
girl had years. l ought to have told you be-
fore that this particular petticoat was visit
ing at the post. She came from down Iowa
way somewhere
One night she gave it out that she was 60
ing home, and that Jim must go down there
for the splicing She cleared out and in a
few days after the old fellow gets a furlough
and clears out too, following the trail, as we
heard after, way down to Iowa. Now, you
must Just get hold of this fact. Jim was kind
Of pious chap, but he loved the flag better
than any Bible that was ever printed, but
for short time that girl was above the
flag. Jim was just crazy for her. The story
is that she wouldn't come back, and
wouldn't marry him unless he quit the army
then and there. Jim tried to quit through
the regular red tape channels, but they
wouldn't have it down in Washington.
Jim Benson, veteran. medal Of honor
man, fighter in hundred fights, lover of his
flag and country, and as good soldier as
ever wore quartermaster's shoes, deserted
and deserted for petticoat. forgot to say
that Jim got his wad of money from the
paymaster before his leave was up.
"There was another desertion inside of a
month after Jim quit the colors This time
woman did the deserving, though a fell
low helped her to do it, and along with the
woman and the fellow went Jim's money
don't suppose during the honeymoon the
full force of what he had done went home
to the bulls eye with Jim. 1t went home
however, when the girl quit. Jim wanted
to be reinstated in the service. He was
willing to take the heaviest penalty for alb
sence without leave, but he knew now how
it felt to be deserter, and more than that
he remembered how all good soldiers de
spise fellow who quits.
"Jim's heart was clean broke He got in
communication with his old captain some.
how, and he tried to work the thing through
the department for Jim, but there'd been a
heap of assertions about that time, and de-
blind nor day in the milf against him,
the honorable, the secretary of war said il
Jim was caught he must take his medicine.
ut was rumored around old Fort John.
son that Jim had been seen on the edge Of
the woods looking at the old place and seem.
ing kind of wildlike. One night one of the
old quartermaster shacks got on fire. II
was just before target practice season, and
the building had dozen big boxes of ammu.
milton in it. There was pretty stiff wind
| blowing, and it looked as if the barracks
and lot of other things would go. If that
stuff had exploded the other buildings would
have gone sure. The fire was fairly eating
around those boxes and the fellows fought
shy of the flames little, good soldier stuff
though they were.
"All at once while the crowd was bear.
ing back somebody jumped clean through
the line and plump into the fire He grabbed
box and threw it out clear of the blaze
and then another and another, though the
flames were burning his clothes and going
up wreathlike about his head
when he had done the business clean
and good the man jumped out of the flames
and ran to the woods. Well, guess YOU
know who it was 1t was Jim Benson. VIZ