Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1903-10-01
The Chirp of
the Cricket ~
Copyright, 1905. by Daily Story Pub. co.,
BY M. QUAD.

OhlVAIE JOnn WnlIe udu dus"e1eu
roll-call on this Wednesday night
at Fort Concho, and between that time
and taps had worked his way past the
sentry lines and become deserter. He
had been plaEuing the move for a
month. If his captain and his orderly
sergeant had taken the trouble to study
him a little and to handle him on differ
ent lines he would not have had black
mark against his name. Neither COM
missioned nor non-commissioned Off
GERS study private soldier. II he has
arms and legs and head, that is enough.
He is told to do this or that, as material
is fed through a machine, and he does
It or takes the consequences It Is not
asked of horse or man, when the one
is bought and the other enlisted, If their
tempers are good or bad. Discipline is
depended on to settle that.
Private John White was over-sensi-
tive and naturally impatient of re-
straint. No matter how he came to en-
list, nor why he hadn't philosophy
enough to submit to the inevitable. He
was fast-bound for three years, and his
feelings were not to be consulted. In a
month after he had joined his regiment
at Fort Concho his officers were down
on him and his comrades were calling
him fool. The marks piled up against
him, and he spent more days in the
guard-house than out of it. He was SO
continually on police duty that it was
not once in fortnight he was seen in the
ranks.
Damn the mani" exclaimed COL
Blank, one morning, after seeing the re-
turns for the previous day and noting
q further report against Private White
The delinquent was sent for. The
colonel meant to look him over, at least
There must be something queer in the
makeup of man who would tilt at
stone walls. Private White appeared,
but scarcely had question been asked
when the colonel was called away and
the delinquent was returned to the
guard-house. He took it that other pun
ishment was to be heaped upon him,
and that evening he deserted. He took
neither arms nor rations in his flight
The remainder of the night was passed
in the bushes to the west of the fort, and
when daylight came the deserter set off
across the plains stretching away for
hundreds of miles. If they looked for
him it would be in any other direction
No man in his senses, no matter how
desperately driven, would head to the
south over that treeless, trackless, wa
terless waste, whose far edge, if ever at
tanned, rested aginst grim mountains
Without food-without water-without
firearms, the man set forth, looking fur
lively over his shoulder now and then
to see if he was followed, and after an
hour he felt safe from pursuit. Squads
were ordered out in search of him, but
they went east, north and west.
"No use to try the plains," said the
colonel. IF that were the only way he'd
come back to us in less than "a hours"
Private White had looked of over the
sterile plains thousand times, but he
had not listened to the stories told by
the men in whispers as they smoked
their evening pipes. They had said that
for 800 miles there was no water. 1t
was ridge after ridge of sand and alkali
plain, on which only wire-grass and
cactus could grow, and on which only
crickets, Lizards and serpents could
live. There we're bones of horses and
mules bleaching under the sun-bones
of hunters and soldiers bleaching be-
side them. OF all human beings, only
the Apache Indians skulked to and fro
over that monotonous waste, and of
birds only the vultures winged their way
over, and now and then descended to
pick again at the whitened bones. The
soldiers told of men gone mad of thirst
of other men being driven mad by the
awful loneliness, but Private White had
sat by himself and heard nothing.
Before noon the deserter's tongue was
parched with thirst and the sun beat
down numerically, but he simply rested
for awhile and then pushed on. On the