The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-07-24
TTHADoome over Chemsy again I

In a fash, what had happened. Th
old, terrible menace, so long believe
exercised, had sprung out of oblivion
had again gripped Chesney--now Cap
tain Daniel Chesney Of the engine,
corps.
It was Somewhere in France" tn
sun flowed sweetly down on a broo
which should have flashed back in exqui
E site silver. But the once clear strear
was churned to yellow opaqueness, an
the ochre wos colored, here and there
by weaving currents of ugly red.
The brook had formerly flowed Joy
ously over white pebbles. Now bodie
OF dead men chohed It. Sometimes 4
clambered over these. Sometimes 1
wriggled under them.
Across 1t the shells whined and
screeched. Far above it, In the blu,
air. the falcons of war pursued theil
complex flights, or fought cloud duels
In which the vanquished fell wrapped
In a blazing death.
Everywhere the earth and sky echoed
In tortured eddies, to the hellish sounds
; Of war.
But Corporal Madison heard nothing
OF them consciously His strained ears
We're tensed on Captain Chesney's
n1ghtfnl words, Chesney's screaming
BOAST Of the order he was about to give.
That order! It meant success for
the enemy. 1t meant horror and ruin
for Chesneys own men.
staring with piercing, understanding
blue eyes at his captain, Madison knew
tnat Chesney was not Chesney any
longer; he was the mad man he had
been years before in the private sana-
torium where his father had secretly
PUG MN Tor cure. Out of 1t Chesney had
come apparently mentally sound. and
nad rushed eagerly into an army career.
He and Madison came from the same
smah Alabama town. There Madison
was not In Chesney's set. The Cbes-
neye were of an old, cynically arrogant
Spock. Madison had more than ono.
wnen encountering Chesney socially
nen ms blood boil over the young aris-
tocrats supercilious tolerance. At last
the despised civilian had been tr,od
poo far There had ensued n fist t,oh.
m which Chesney had been soundIv
licked by the social outsider.
Naturally then, when Madison ,orns
himself Corporal Madison in the uor,d
war with Chesney as his superior Of
ncer' the victor In the bygone encoun-
Ter was not surprised to find himsel,
keeniy dfsliked BY the captain.
Ohesney never dreamed bo,r.u-
that the corporal knew every deta,,
Oh ohesney's accredited cure at N.
sanatorium. But one of the attond
ants there had been a man who mo-
ried Madfson's sister, and throroh 49,.
rother-fn-law. Madison knew everv
detail OF Chesney's past madness kna,,
what the symptoms would be ~ u aro.
rushed on Chesney again-and co roa1
lied now-now in the swift. wild or;.;.
OF terrible day, that Chesnev over.
tasked' overintensifed, shaken nv shall,
shock, was, for the hour at least rov-
Ing midland about to send bis va,
INTO an humiliation as horribly si,,v 90
1t was cataclysmically shocking.
AS Chesney, his handsome 9rav eve.
slitterins. his whole aristocratic, dor,1
nant no3ce quivering with exalt.t;on
shouted Ids wild purpose at Madison
the small stocky, heavily featured cor.
poral Instantly, wildly knew the one
way out-eVen though he glimpsed that
coward them three of Chssney's men
were running
The one way QUIT
Not for himself. Cbesr.v h.s
ordered him on message, an instant
life-saving command that would carry
Madison himself into safety. Rut
meanwhile the men
For them-the one way OUT
What 1t meant for Madison himself.
court-martial, the stigma of shame. the
climax Of a traitors death flashed
clearly. terribly before the corporal.
There was no time for explanations.
no time for anything except that one
way-an the harder for Madison to
take because the corporal was trained
through ingrained discipline to respect
wildly, in any officer, the power OF
martial authority.
Not a damnatory circumstance would
be lacking against Madison himself
those very understanding toward
them-Chesney's hate of Madison
II
Three astounded privates arrived lust
In time to see their brilliant, distin-
guished captain go down under a smash
ing blow from the mutinous, murder
GUS fist of Corporal MadiGon. As Pri-
vate 0Cey said later:
''The devil himself couldn't have
acted any quicker! Down goes the
captain like stock yards steer under
the axl And while we were gapin',
Corporal Madison wheels like lightnin',
jumps past us like a panther, puts the
neck of wood between him an us-an'
is clean gone"
But Madison's run was brief one;
it carried him to Lieutenant Henley,
where he saluted and reported briefly:
Captain Chesney's down, sir. What
are your ordersP'
Five minutes later the company was
making its terrible way, bent on the