The Arizona copper camp., 1918-07-13


other eleven containing ball cartridges.
Every man is expected to do his duty
and. fire to kill. Take your orders from
me. Squad-'Shun"
We came to attention: Then he left.
Ny heart was of lead and my knees
shook. /,
After standing at attention" for
what seemed week, though in. reality
1t could not have been over five min
utes, we heard a low whispering In our
rear and footsteps on the stone flag
, ging of the courtyard.
Our officer reappearedl and in a, low,
but firm voice, ordered:
"About-Turn
We turned about. In the gray light
of dawn, a few yards In front of me, i
could make out brick wall. Against
this wall was a-dark form with white
square pinned On its breast. We were
supposed to aim at this square. To the
right of the form l noticed a white spot
on the wall. This would be my target.
"Ready! Aim! Firer"
The dark form sank into a huddled
heap. My bullet sped on.its way and
hit the whitish spot on the wall; i
could see the splinters fly. Some one
the blank cartridge, but my mind was
at ease, there was no blood Of a
Tommy on my hands.
"Order-Arms About-Turn Pile
Arms! ,Stand-Clear."
The stacks were reformed.
"Quick - March! Right Wheel !"
And we left the scene Of execution be-
hind us.
1t was now daylight. After march.
Ing about five minutes, we were dis
missed with the following instructions
from the officer in command:
Return, alone, ito your respective
companies, and remember, no talking
about this affair, or else it will go hard
with the guilty ones."
We needed no urging to get away. j
did not recognize any of the men on
the firing squad /; even the officer was a
stranger to me.
The victims relations and friends in
Blighty will never know that he was
executed; they will be under the Inn
preston that he died doing his bit for
king and country.
In, the, public casualty, lists his name
will appear under the caption ""Acci'
dentally Killed." or "Died."
The day after the execution I re-
ceived orders to report back to the
line, and to keep still tongue in my
head.
Executions are a part Of the days
work, but the-part-we hated most of
all, i Enthusiastically the saddest. The
British war department is thought by
many people to be composed of rigid
regulations all wound around with red
tape. But 1t has a heart, and one oI
the evidences of this is the considerate
way in which an. executions is concealed
and reported to the relative of the un.
fortunate man. They never know the
truth. He is listed in the bulletins as
among the accidentally killed"
In the last, ten years i have several
times read stories in magazines OF
towards changing, in a charge, to he.
rOes. i used to laugh at 1t. It seemed
easy for story-writers, but said.
"Men aren't made that waysY But over
in France I learned once that the
streak Of yellow can turn all white. ]
picked up the. story, bit by bit, from
the captain Of the company, the SEN
tries who guarded the poor fellow, as
well as from my own observations. AT
flrstrIf did not realize the whohe Of his
story, but after a.week of inyestiga-
ton 1t stood out as clear In my mind
as the mountains Of my native West in
the spring sunshine. It impressed me
SO much that wrote it all down in
rest billets on scraps of ,odd paper.
The incidents are, asI say, every bit
true; the feelings Of the man are true
II know from all underwent in the
fighting over in France.
We will call him Albert Lloyd. That
wasn't his name, but it will do:
Albert Lloyd was what the world
terms coward.
In London they called him a Stacker.
His country had been at war nearly
eighteen months, and still he was not
in khaki.
He had no good reason for not en-
listing, being alone in. the world, -hav-
ing been educated in an orphan asy-
lum, and there being no one dependent
upon him for support. He had no good
position to lose, and there was no
sweetheart to tell him with her lips
to go, while her eyes pleaded for him
to stay.
Every time he saw a recruiting SER
ageant he'd sink around the corner out
of sight, with terrible Gear, gnawing
lat his heart. When passing the big re-
cruiting posters, and on his way to
business and back he passed many, he
would pull down. his cap and look the
other way from that awful finger
pointing at him, under the caption,
'Your King and Country Need You ;"
or the boring eyes of Kitchener which
burned into his very soul,s causing him
tn ShuddQr