The Tucumcari news. [volume] (Tucumcari, N.M.) 1905-1907, 1906-10-06

Tie young lieutenant crouched in the
mud of the gully. Every man of the
squad was wearied to the limit of en-
,durance. and the leader was burdened
with 4 terrible responsibility. The en-
envy was close at hand and absolute
silence imperative. The colonel, a few
hours before, had detailed this little
force 10 cut ~ a detachment OF the
enemy.
Remember, my boy" he had said,
with a fatherly hand on the lieuten-
ants shoulder, lit will not be enough
to scare them. They must be routed!"
and the colonel emphasized with a
savage sweep of his hand. Clean them
out! You would better not attack un-
less you mean to do that"
For hours they had plowed through
the mud, eager for the encounter. Be-
fore darkness fell the discovery was
made that the enemy numbered four
times as many men as supposed. 1t
would be madness to hope for more
than a drawn battle, the lieutenant re-
lected: and yet-the colonel had given
his orders. At daylight the command.
er would march on the assumption that
the work was done.
Il can't go back and say l was
afraid" the boy told himself; but it
would be murder to charge with this
little band. II l had to think only of
myself"
The men lay in a dark line against
the bank of the gully, waiting for the
decision of their leader. If he said
"Charge!'-well, they knew it would
be II against four.
There was another hour before he
need act, and the youthful officer gave
way 20 moodiress. 1t was far from be-
ing poetry-this killing of human be-
ings in muddy rags like their own.
Hungry, tired, weary of the sickening
duty; surrounded, trapped; a cowardly
retreat on the one hand, a foolish sac
rifice the other way-there was little
pomp in it all.
And l wonder he thought, in a
listless way, Il wonder where she is
tonight? A h%alf-dozen uniforms about
her, maybe, all spick and span, gen.
erals, colonies, captains-the devil take
the pack that started this hungry
war;"
A few hundred yards behind the gul,
ly doomed up an old mansion. AS the
men o lay in silence, save for the
dreary, pattering preudle of the rain
and the slushing of mud as one
changed his position slightly, a light
shone out across the wet field from 8
window of the house. A moment later
the distant, sweet tones OF a piano
were audible. The lieutenant heard the
opening chords with a sense of theil
familiarity.
Some n began a song. The word.
were not distinct; not even the must,
was sharply defined at that distance
But as the song proceeded, coming GU
into the night with a mystic sweetness.
n power, the lieutenant remembered
its nesmeric harmony. Strong in it
glad Volume, and then infinitely, gra
ciously soft; gliding to passionat,
heights and sinking again, gently, t
far-away notes, 1t was a song with
peculiar swaylng power.
Granton called TO mind a certain da,
before his uniform grew ragged. TIL,
settings of the song then had been
fine Old room, a glorious woman,
fascinating voice. 1t was not a SON
that lulls; it thrilled and lifted-higI
and higher 1t exalted, until the impos
/ sible seemed easy to grasp.
AS the song proceeded the lieutenan
I felt the full strength of its quickenin
impulse; and gradually he put ava
from himself the weak and unnervin
dependency. 1t was not alone III
memory Of the music that inspire
t him. but the power of the song itsel
lnstinctively, too, he knew that tn
men had been sharers in the benefit {
he passionate harmony. Almost be