The suburban citizen., 1902-03-01


pillow with something like much Of
a jealous pang at his heart. He tossed
for an hour on his little cot. Then,
moved by an overmastering impulse,
he rose, and taking his light army
shoes in his hand, he passed softly into
the room where his Chief slept. A
fiickering flame from the fire showed
him an oblong copper box on the rude
table. He took 1t with half-shudder
and went outside, avoiding the sentinel
by way known to himself. The river
front was patroled else he would have
stolen down there and dropped his
burden into the waters Of the Hudson.
He turned westward and made his
way along the short military road
leading to Fort Putnam. He reached
little gully running athwart the forts
bomb proofs. The gully was filled
with a heavy growth Of underbrush.
He let himself down carefully from the
face of the rough roadway and slipped
the metal box under the cover of a
ledge and the protection Of the thick
safe from discovery" he muttered, and
then he went back as he had come,
reaching his room unseen. The loss
of the box was discovered next morn
ing There was a thorough investiga-
ton, but Of 1t nothing came. Captain
John Barton conferred with the Com
mander-in-C Chief and said that in a
months time he could reformulate
from memory his receipts and could
'emake his experimental devices. That
very night, by the fortunes of war, he
was ordered South, and two days after
his arrival in the Carolinas he was
dead at the Cowpens. The perfected
use of percussion was put Off for half
q century.
Mary Travers did not wear the will
low long. She married Captain Phillip
Masters, who stayed in the regular
establishment long after the RevOlu-
tion, and in 1915 was gray haired
Colonel. Deep in Colonel Masters
heart was Il regret. 1t was gnawing
regret that was past all roofing out.
His wife was still living, They had
but one child, a son-Captain Phillip
Masters, Jr., an army officer
Captain Masters was stationed at
West Point, then a struggling school
but little more than a decade old. He
was in command one day Of a fatigue
party, breaking new road to frown-
ing Fort Putnam. The men were at
work with axes, picks and spades.
They had reached a place where a
boulder larger than most was held in
its place by the twining roots ofta
great tree. The men had struggled
with the obstruction for some time.
Captain Masters was a powerful man,
He laughed at the efforts Of the en-
listed men, and, seizing a pick from
one of them, he drove its point with
full force into the ground at the base
Of the rock. There was a terrific ex-
plosion and Captain Masters lay dead
just below the bomb proofs of the
Revolutionary fort.
When the men had recovered them
selves they carried their officer to the
post below, and with him took frag-
ments of a copper box which they had
picked up at the scene. One torn and
burnt piece Of paper was found also.
Upon it were the words, easily deciph-
erable, Illuminate Of mercury, with
an admixture Of m" SO it ended,
burnt piece in the paper obliterating
all but one letter Of the last word. Be.
low, however, appeared the name,
Barton"
Colonel Phillip Masters was told Of
his sons death. He bore it like a sol.
der, but when the manner of the death
was told him and he was shown the
slip of paper his lips turned ashen gray
and his frame shook. 'The sin of the
father" he muttered.
And with Colonel Phillip Masters
life It was the beginning Of the end
Edward B, Clark, in the Chicago Rec.
ord-Herald.