The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1916-08-11
Was 1t the
Guardian Angel?
By F. A. Mitchell

war broke out In a regiment Of In
fantry and crossed the channel into
Belgium. That was when the Ger
mans were driving the allies south
ward, and 1t was expected that they
would drive right through Paris.
One evening, when the Germans
were pushing the allies toward Lille,
the regiment with which the Stewart
brothers served made a stand. The
Stewards were in the same company
and fought shoulder to shoulder. Per
cival was two years older than Arnold
and kept an eye on his brother, dread
ing every instant to see him fall to the
ground. Presently, true enough, what
he feared came to pass. Arnold fell,
literally torn to pieces by a bursting
shell.
Maddened at the sight, Percival
pushed forward, but the stand Of the
British was only a temporary one, and
the order was given to fall back. The
young soldier, exasperated at not be-
ing permitted to wreak his vengeance
on those who had killed his brother,
refused to retreat and, remaining be-
hind, continued to fire at the enemy.
But presently, seeing blood on one Of
his hands, he knew that he had been
hit and followed his comrades.
By this time darkness had fallen,
and Stewart saw the retreating Brit
ish line through the cleaning. They
were to make a lengthy retreat this
time, for the French were being push
ed back rapidly, and the British, who
were on their flank, had a greater dis
lance than they to go to keep the
alignment. Percival was marching
some 800 yards behind them. The
enemy on that part Of the field had
thrown forward skirmishers to harass
their retreat.
Percival trudged along, following the
men ahead of him, at times trying to
catch up with them. He had been
shot in the arm, but fortunately the
artery had not been cut, for In this
case he would have bled to death.
His mind was on the brother he had
lost, and neither his condition nor his
surroundings engaged his attention.
Stragglers were hurrying past him,
and he was passing stragglers. The
former were in better condition than
he, and the latter were mostly more
severely wounded. But there was one
who neither seemed to gain nor lose on
Percival. He was in Percivafs rear
and couple Of yards behind him. How
Percival became conscious of the mans
presence he did not know, for he heard
no sound coming from his follower. He
was simply conscious that some one
was behind him. Turning, he saw
through the darkness what appeared
to be a person. Whether he was old or
young, soldier or citizen, Stewart could
not tell. He only knew that some one
was there.
The soldier trudged on, or, rather,
staggered on, for by this time he was
very weak from loss of blood. Now
and again a bullet whistled past him,
sent by some skirmisher, but none
came dangerously near him. Twice
during the retreat he looked back and
both times saw his shadower in the
same relative position as before. Once
when he turned flash from a distant
cannon slightly increased his vision,
and he saw the person behind him a
trise more clearly.
For an instant there was a flash of
joy In his heart, for from the glimpse
he got of the persons face 1t seemed
to be that of his brother Arnold. But
he had seen his brother blown to
atoms, and he knew this could not be.
Nevertheless, from the time of this in
Simultaneous view he became impressed
that there was some connection be-
tween this figure and Arnold.
Presently, when the skirmish line
was passing so near the British line as
to harass them with scattered shots,
the Englishmen sent back a small
force to drive back their followers.
This line passed Perciyal, dashed In
among the German skirmishers and
drove them back upon their own main
force.
Percival, who was now safe with his
own comrades, looked for the man who
had been trudging behind him. He had
vanished.
On reaching the British lines Stewart
found himself among those who had
been near him on the retreat.
"Who was the fellow behind you"
asked a man who had Travelled near
him.
Directly in my rearT"
"Yes."
"Did you see any one?"
81 did, and he got between you and
a German just in time to save you from
a bullet. The German was about to fire,
but lowered his piece. There wasn't
much light. and l judged that he was
afraid of killing one of his own men,"
Stewart asked no more questions.
What he thought was the result Of
feeling rather than reason. 1t was far
stronger than reason. Indeed, no one
could persuade him that the spirit of
his brother had not followed him and
protected him from death.
During the past half century the be-
lief in the guardian angel has greatly
deteriorated. This is simply because
there has been so much of the marvel