The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1905-05-19
By Franci. Lynde.

held on grimly till the horse pursuing
Tapped the one l rode by head. by
neck and presently by withers. Then
l turned and would be making frantic
feeble passes with the sword at the
nan upon his back.
1t was my plotting captain Who rode
me thus to earth: and when l thrust he
laughed n swore, and turned the
blade aside With his bare hand. Then.
pressing closer, he struck me With his
fist. and thereupon the night and all its
happenings went blank as if the blow
had been a cannon shot to crush my
skull.
IN WHICH 1 TASTE THE QUALITY
OF MERCY.
Two ways there be to fetch a
stunned man to his senses, as they will
tell you who have seen the rack APP
Piled: n is TO slack the tension on
the cracking joints and minister cor
dials to the victim; the other to give
the straining winch a ~crueller twist. 1t
was not the gentler way my captors
took, as you would guess; and when l
came to. know and see and feel again
a pair of them We're kicking me alive.
and l was sore and aching from their
buffetings.
How long a time came in between
my futile dash for liberty and this
harsh preface to their dragging of me
back to the manor house, l could not
tell. 1t must hav been an hour or
more, for now a Sibbous moon hung
pale above the tree-tops. and all around
were bivouac fires and horses tethered
to show that in the interval d troop had
come and camped.
The scene within the great fore
room of the house had been shift
ed. too. A sentry was pacing back
and forth before the door-a Hes
sian %grenadier by the size and
shake of him; and when the two
trooper bailiffs hrust me in. and 1 had
winked and blinked my ayes accustom-
ed to the candle light, l saw the table
had been swept of it's bottles and
glasses, and around it. sitting as in
council. were some half score officers
of the British light horse with their
colonel at the head.
AS 1T CHANGED. this was my first sight
near at hand of that British command
er whose name in after years the pa
triot mothers spoke to fright their chill
den. He did not look a monster. AS l
recall him now, he was a short. square,
bodied man. younger by some years
than myself, and yet with an old cam
paigner's head we'll set upon agrees
sive shoulders. His eyes We're black
and ferrety; and his face, we'll seasoned
by the Carolina sun, was swart as any
Arabs. A man, l thought. who could
be gentle-harsh or harSh-revengeful. as
the mood should prompt; who could
make well-turned courtier compliments
to a lady and damn a trooper in the
self-same breath
This was hat Colonel Banastre Tar
Teton who gave no quarter to surrend-
cred men,; and when l looked into the
sloe-black eyes l saw in them for me
a waiting gibbet.
Sol" he raped out. when I was
hailed before him. YOU'RE the spying
rebel captain, eh? Are you alive enough
to hang?"
His lack of courtesy rasped so sorely
hat l must needs give place to wrath
and answer sharply hat there was
small doubt of it. since L could stand
and curse him.
He scowled at that and cursed me
back again as heartily as any fish
Wife. Then suddenly he changed his
tune.
They tell me you We're in the SER
vice once and left it honorably. 1 am
loath to hang a man who has Worn the
colors. Would it please you best 10 die
a soldiers death, CAPTAIN Ireton?"
/ said it would. most surely.
He said I should have the boon if I
would tell him what an officer on the
Baron de Kalb's staff should know; the
strength of the C~ontinentals, the gem
erals designs and dispositions. and 1
know not besides. l think it was
my laugh that made him stop and
damn me roundly in the midst.
by God. I'll make o laugh an
other tune!' he swore. You rebels
are all of e piece, and clemency is
wasted on you'll"
Your mercy ONE too dear: o set
too high a price upon it. Colonel Tar
Teton. If, for the mere swapping of a
rope for a bullet, l could be the poor
caitiff your offer implies, hanging would
be too good for me-"
"If that is our last word But stay:
I'll give YOU ar hour to think it over"
ut needs not an hour nor a minute"
l replied. IF l knew aught about the
Continental army-which 1 do not-I'd
see you hanged in our own stirrup-
leather before I'd tell you. Colonel
Tarleton. Moreover, marvel great
ly-"
AT wnat?" he cut in rudely.
"At your ~informant's lack of inven-
ton. He might have brought me
straight from General Washington's
headquarters while he was about it.
'Twould be no greater lie thar hat he
told you"
He heard me through, Their fell to
cursing me afresh, and would be send
ing an aide-de-camp hotfoot for Fall
comet.
While the messenger was going and
coming there was a chance for me to
look around like a poor raped ami
NAL in a pitfall, loath to die with out
a struggle. yet seeing not how any
less inglorious enc should offer. The
eye-search went for little of encourage
ment; there was no nance either to
fight or fly. But apart from this. the
probing of the shadows revealed a
thing that set me suddenly in a fever,
first of rage. and then of apprehension.
AS 1 have said, this gathering-room
OF our old house vas in size like an an
cient banquet hall. 1t had a gable to
itself in breadth and height, and at the
farther end there was a flight of some
few steps to reach the older portion
of the house beyond. The upper end
of this low stair pierced the thick wall
of the older house. and in the shadows
of the niche thus formed l saw my
lady Margery.
She was standing as one who looks
and listens; and my rage-fit blazed out
upon the deserving of a %shadowy figure
of a man behind her; a man l guessed
in Jealous wrath to be the baronet-a
reasonless suspicion, since the volunteer
-