The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-07-16
THE CHIRP OF THE CRICKET
BY NJ. QUAD.

Copyright. 1908. by Daily Story Pub. Co.
Private John White had answered
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 a deserter. He
had been planning the. move for
month. If his captain and his orderly
sergeant had taken the trouble to study
him little and to handle him on diff
ferent lines he would not have had
black mark against his name. Neither
commissioned nor non commi ssioned
officers study private soldier. If he
has arms and legs and a head, that is
enough. He is told to do this or that,
as material Is fed through machine,
and he does 1t or takes the conse-
quences. 1t Is not asked Of horse or
man, when the one is bought and the
other enlisted, IL 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
enlist, 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 a fort
mir h In 5,or at,1rc
Damn the mani" exclaimed Col.
Blank. one morning. after seeing the
returns for the previous day and not
ing 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 ap-
peared, but scarcely had a question
been asked when the colonel was called
away and the delinquent was returned
| to the guard house. He took it that
| other punishment was to be heaped
upon him, and that evening he de-
serted. He took neither arms nor ra-
| lions in his flight. The remainder of
| the night was passed in the bushes to
| the west of the fort, and when day
| light came the deserter set off across
| the plains stretching away for hun
| dreds of miles. If they looked for him
| it would be In any other direction. No
man in his senses, no matter how des-
perately driven. would head to the
south over that treeless, trackless. wa
terless waste, whose far edge, If ever
attained, rested against gritl noun
tains. without food-without wa
| ter-without firearms, the man set
forth, looking furtively>over his Shout
der now and then to see if he was fol-
| lowed, and after an hour he felt safe
from pursuit. Squads were ordered out
| in search of him, but they went east,
north and west.
mo use to try the plains" said the
colonel. ''If that were the only way
he'd come back to us in less than
twenty-four hours"
Private White had looked off over
the sterile plains a 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 300 miles there was no water.
1t was ridge after ridge of sand and
alkali plain, on which only wire grass
only criekets. LIZARDS and serpents
could live. There were bones of horses
and mules bleaching under the sun
bones of hunters and soldiers bleaching
| beside 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 while and then pushed on.
On the other side were mountains and
yaileys-cool streams and grass thick
with flowers. From mid-afternoon till
the sun went down he staggered rather
than walked. Sometimes the serpents
Stunning themselves moved lazily out
of his way. rafting their tails as they
moved. and sometimes they menaced
him and he turned aside. Soaring far
above him. and keeping pace wig IN.
with dozen vultures. but he never
looked upwards. The cactus wounded