The Lakeland evening telegram., 1917-02-27
ABrave Man Afraid
of His Shadow
BY F. A. mitchell

operating on our right. We are within
half a dozen miles of them, and it is
necessary that we come together. There
Is no road leading In that direction, and
you'll have to go on foot. But the moon
is nearly full. and your way will be
lighted. Here is the written message"
Lieutenant Obermeir took the mes
sage, saluted and left his superior,
starting at once. The general had
spoken correctly In saying that the
moon was nearly full, but when Ober-
meir got beyond the tip of the army's
wing he looked up to see that a film
Of mist was spread over 1t and the sky
about It,
well" he said to himself, Il shall
cast no shadow. Tonight l am not my
self. | feel as I did after that last
wound when the pluck had gone out of
me. In other words, II | should see
my shadow it would frightcn me-
The country through which he walk
ed was no mans land. 1t was sparse
ly settled with peasants, but war had
driven most of them away. What else
was there was probable but not GER
taln-that is. sniper lying in wait
for any enemy. One passing would
not likely receive challenge; he would
be more apt to receive bullet The
way, too. was rugged. Nature had not
smoothed the country. which was up
and down grade, rocky, covered with
decayed trees. and. to make it worse.
war had filled it with shell holes.
The lieutenant had come to a com
paratively level sweep when, looking
down on the ground before him. he saw
what seemed to be his shadow cast by
the moon-such a shadow as the moon
would throw covered with the thin
gauze that partly obscured 1t. Turn
ing, he looked up to where the moon
should be- 1t was not there. Turning
again, he saw 1t overhead and slightly
before him.
Surely" he said. that cannot be a
shadow cast by the moon. Shadows
are on direct line with the light that
makes them" He looked down In front
Of him again. There was that dark
something, shadow or whatever 1t was.
. But 1t was not well defined. Indeed, 1t
was like film of darkness. He turned
his eyes upward to see what was caus-
ing it. There WAS nothing In the heav-
ems except that pale mist which dim
med the moon. and line from the
moon formed an angle with the shadow.
The warrior trembled.
Why was IL that i'm battle he could
. stand up against shot and shell with
out quiver and here in perfect silence,
with not a creature, so far as he knew,
to harm him, he was shaking like a
= leaf In the wind?
e In the distance was light. lie
, blessed it and FASTENED his pace max
: ing straight toward it. The nearer he
! came to 1t his fear grew less. And
when suddenly he heard "Who comesg
in the German tongue and heard the
click of rifle. instead of fearing a
/ picket might shoot him before he could
y make himself known he felt brave as
; lion.
; The lieutenant was taken to head
quarters, delivered his message to the
y general commanding and was about t,
Stl out pl HIS "hSh shN N'''NN-
II said to him:
"Why not return with us, lieuten
ant? We shall move to make juno
e tion with your force at daylight"
: Obermeir would gladly have done a.
= the general suggested. But there is
y professional pride among soldiers tina
must be maintained. The lieutenan
1. =. .l,aI ltat hn
more afraid of an imputation Of COW
ar,lice. not so much from his comrade
MS from himself. He thanked the gen
eral and set off on his walk back to hi
own command.
IS The atmosphere had not changed
o there was the same mist over the fac
% of the moon. Obermeir would not lool
D for his shadow. Why? He said Z
n himself II would be cowardly to do sc
h Then II occurred to him that it woul
d he cowardly not to look for 1t. Tn
,r moon was now at his back. With
N dread he could not control he looke
IT down before him. There was the blac
st thing. denser IL anything. than before.
T. He shuddered.
IL But he trudged on. trying 10 max
himself think that some peculiar al
mospberic condition caused his shado'
to be out of place Many things caus
refraction of light One thing he ha
often noticed himself. An oar dippe
in water will appear TO be broken
TX the point where 1t touches the surface
His efforts to explain away the my
We terry were futile. And had he sstisfa'
torily explained them to himself
would not have helped the burden tbs
weighed him down. The journey hom
ward seemed longer than his goinl
This was doubtless that the farther
went the stronger the spell und,
er which he staggered. Yes: he staggere
now. his eyes held by an invisible poy
nr ba hlopi mass before hir