Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-02-02
Cardigan
By ROBERT w. CHAMBERS
eopyrisas. 1904. sy ROBERT ". CHAMBER.
HAPPIER xIx.-(continued.A

.a.aaaH aa-LH .HsH M. .E.L
CHAPTER XIX.-(Continued.A
Silver Heels on the floor worked
steadily, ripping the snowy cotton.
There is smoke yonder on the Con
cord road" said the minuteman.
"Look-look at the redcoatsg'
AS / rose I heard plainly the long,
~resounding crash of musket firing, and
the rattle of rifles followed like a hun
dred echoes.
"Look yonder!" he cried.
And now we could see feathery puffs
Of smoke from the roadside bushes,
from distant hills, from thickets, from
plowed fields, from the long, undulat-
ing stone walls which crossed the
plain. Faster and faster came the
musket volleys, but faster yet rang
out the shots from our yeomanry.
The old tavern was ringing with
voices now-commands Of officers,
calls from those who We're posted
above, gathering steps Oh the porch as
the Acton men ran out to their posts
behind the tufted willows in the
swamp.
Pellmell into the village green rush.
ed the British light infantry, dusty, ex
hausted, enraged. In brutal disorder
they surged on. Here a squad huddled
together; there a company, bullied,
threatened and harangued by its Of
icers, with pistols and drawn swords;
now a group staggering past, bearing
dead or wounded comrades, now a
heavy cart loaded with knapsacks and
muskets, driven by hatless soldiers.
Close on their heels tramped the
grenadiers. Soldier after soldier stag
gered and fell from the ranks utterly
exhausted, unable to rise from the
grass.
The lull in the firing was broken by
a loud discharge of musketry from
Fiske's hill, and presently more red
coats came rushing into the village.
while at their very heels the Bedford
alarm men shot at them and chased
them. Everywhere our militia came
sWarming-from Sudbury. Westford
Lincoln, Acton; minutemen from Med
ford, from Stowe, from Beverly ant
from Lynn-and their ancient frelock.
blazed from every stone wall, an6
their long rifles banged from the dis
tant ridges.
Below me In the street 1 saw til,
British officers striving desperately t.
reform their men, while thicker ant
thicker pelted the bullets from the min
utemen and militia.
80 II W v,lt = ~o+,oo%f ~@% - Ht~h%, Z
was a riot, a horrible saturnalia o
smoke and fire and awful sound. A.
a maddened panther, wounded, ruste,
forth to deal death right and left, ever
tearing its own flesh with tooth ant
claw, the British column burst soutl
across the land, crazed with wounds
famished, athirst, blood mad, dealin,
death and ruin to all that lay before it.
Terrible was the vengeance that fol
lowed it, lowered on it's gasping tanks
scourged its dwindling ranks, which
withered under the searching fire iron
every tuft of bushes, every rock, ever.
tree trunk.
1, with Mount and the Weasel, hun;
to their left flank till 2 o'clock, when
about half a mile from Lexington
meeting house, we heard cannon an
understood that the relief troops fror
Boston had come UP.
Then, knowing that there were gun
enough and to spare without ours, w
shouldered our hot rifles and trudge
back to Buckman's tavern throug
the dust behind a straw covered wal
which was driving slowly under tn
heat of an almost vertical sun.
Mount, parched with thirst, halle
the driver of the vain, asking him
he carried cider.
"Only a wounded man." he sait
''most dead O. the red dragons"
I stepped to the slowly movin
wagon and looked over the tailboar
down into the straw.
"Shemuel!" I cried.
"Shemuel!' roared Mount.
The little Jew opened his sick eye
under his bandage. The Weas'