The Newport miner. [volume] (Newport, Wash.) 1899-current, 1908-05-14
A Life Hung on
a Thread.
[OriginaI.]

A good many years ago. when indian
fighting was the chief occuput;op o.
our then dlniinutive army. was sery-
ing in the til cavalry at Il western
post. We had Il main in the ranks who
had been brought up by refined and
wealthy parents. but who was Il pep
feet devil. Egbert Carrot was the
name he enlisted under AID | believe
it was his real name The only ;rou
Bile with him was that he was too full
of fight One would suppose that a
soldier can't have too much fight in
him. and so be 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 indiscre-
ton his captain, to speak fgurutively,
put the screws on" This made Car
rol rebellions. with the result of more
discipline. till 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. l never saw such
savage Indian fighting under so say
age leader. 1t was only a question
of time with them. however. for we
outnumbered them and were better
armed and equipped. We took a lot
of prisoners, among them their leader.
Who should he be but Egbert Carol!
Of course there was but one fate for
him A court martial was convened;
be 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 wait
for it to come round and carry out the
sentence. But there was some sympa-
thy for the condemned man. First, the
commandment of the post believed there
was not only stuff in him for a soldier,
but Il 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 Il gentleman born. The
men Of his company partially excused
him because many of them had suf
fered as be had from their captains
ungovernable temper. Lastly and most
important. his family interested them
selves to secure Il pardon.
One day the colonel commanding
post some POO miles eastward of the
one where Carol was held a prisoner
received an order reprieving the rene
gade. Selecting a good rider. the colo
mel gave him the presidents order and
told him to ride with it posthaste But
in the army there are many officers
who would scorn to communicate the
contents of an order to Il private. The
colonel was one of these. He sent his
messenger away without any knowl
edge that 4 life hung on it's prompt de-
lively. ! ~ dltel tuc utSSCuScI
departed he returned to the man who
sent him. confessing that he had stop
ped by the way to drink with some
soldiers and had lost the order. He
had returned for Il duplicate
The colonel blanched You scoun-
drel.." he reared. You carried Car
rolls reprieye. No power can repair
the damage you have DONE Before an
| other message can be sent he will have
| been executed"
Now, it happened that l had been
sent with party to relieve the garri-
son of the station where the messenger
| had stopped. and it was with some Of
lost his order He did not miss it till
he mad left the station and ridden some
distance. Then he returned, hunted
high and low for it and. not finding it.
| returned for its duplicate.
The day after the loss Of the order l
went to inspect a gang of men who
| were doing some work was in charge
Of. While walking along the road I
saw u dog chasing a bit of white pa
per which the breeze whirled before
| him. AS the paper was blown past
me picked it up, held it over the dog
| and let it go again in the wind. The
dog caught it and brought it to me for
| more play 1t was then that saw the
| word "Washington" printed on it. I
| read it and knew that it was Carols
reprieve.
Within ten minutes l was mounted
| on the best horse at the station and
riding to save life So much time
had been lost in it's transmission that
knew it was an even chance whether
arrived in time or not l rode my
horse to finish in a 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 is
singular that :, soldier will drive the
men under him up to be shot down un-
mercifully, but when under other cir
| c11mSt., noes one life is daDen6ant on