The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-05-14
A Life Hung on
a Thread.

good many years ago, when Indian
fighting was the chief occupation of
our then dlmlnutive army, was serv-
post. We had II man In the ranks who
had been brought up by refined and
wealthy parents. but who was a per-
feet devil. Egbert Carol was the
name he enlisted under, and I believe
II was his real name. The only trou-
BILE with him was that he was too full
OF fight. One would suppose that
soldier can't have too much fight In
him, and so he can't when there Is an
enemy to contend with, but when there
Isn't he Is liable TO turn upon his
friends. Carol was In Captain Cava-
nagh's company, man full Of Irish
blood, and that means full of Irish
fight We called him the "black god
Of war;" The result was that when
Carol committed some slight lndlscre-
tion his captain, to speak figuratively,
put the screws on" This made Car
rol rebellions, with the reault of more
discipline. ell at last he mutinied and
struck his captain. He was put In the
guardhouse to await trial. but one dark
night he escaped and disappeared
1t was not long after this that we
had brush with the Indians. We
were getting the better OF them when
one Of their number led them on a
savage charge which for time broke
through our lines. never saw such
savage Indian fighting under SO saw
age leader II was only a question
of time with them, however. for we
outnumbered them and were better
armed and equipped. We took lot
of prisoners, among them their leader.
Who should he be but Egbert Carroll
or course there was but one fate for
him. A court martial was convened;
he was tried and sentenced to be shot.
The proceedings were forwarded to
Washington. where they were approved
by the president. The day having been
fixed. there was nothing to do but walt
for It to come round and carry out the
sentence. But there was some sympa.
thy for the condemned man. First, the
commandant OF the post believed there
was not only stuff In him for a soldier,
but leader. which had been turned
away by his captain. who had never
learned to control himself. TO say moth
Ing of controlling others. Then the
women Of the post all took to him be-
cause he was a gentleman born. The
men OF his company partially excused
him because many OF them had suf-
fered as he had from their captains
ungovernable temper. Lastly and most
important. his family Interested them
selves to secure pardon.
One day the colonel commanding a
post some POO miles eastward of the
one where Carol was held prisoner
received an order rpprleving the rene
gade. Selecting good rider, the colo
mel gave him the presidents order and
told him TO ride with II posthaste. But
In the army there are many officers
who would scorn to communicate the
contents of an order TO u private. The
colonel was one CT these. He sent his
messenger away without any knowl-
edge that a life hung on its prompt de-
livery. Two days after the messenger
sent him. copfesslng that he had stop
ped by the way to drink with some
soldiers and had lost the order. He
had returned for duplicate.
The colonel blanched. "You scoun.
drel!" he roared. "You carried Car
rolls reprieve. No power can repair
the damage you have done. Before an
other message can be sent he will have
been executed"
Now. 1t happened that had been
sent with party to relieve the garri-
son OF the station where the messenger
had stopped. and II was with some OF
our men that the messenger drank and
lost his order He did not miss 1t till
he had left the station and ridden some
distance. Then he returned, hunted
high and low for II and, not finding IL.
returned for Its duplicate.
The day after the loss Of the order
went TO Inspect gang OF men who
We're doing some work | was In charge
OF. While walking along the road
saw dog chasing a bit OF white pa
per which the breeze whlred before
him. AS the paper was blown past
me ] picked It up. held II over the dog
and let 1t go again In the wind. The
dog caught II and brought II to me for
more play. II was then that saw the
word washington" printed on IT,
read II and knew that II was Carols
reprieve.
Within ten minutes was mounted
on the best horse at the station and
riding TO save a life. So much time
had been lost In Its transmission that
knew II was an even chance whether
! arrived In time or not rode my
horse to finish In few hours, secur-
ed another, exhausted him In about the
same time and repeated the process AS
often as could find horses.
knew the day that Carol was to
be executed, but not the hour 1t IL
singular that soldier VIII drive the
men under him IN to be shot down un-
mercifully but when under other cir