The Storyteller

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 16, 16 April 1903, Page 23

The Storyteller

THE OFFICER WHO RAN

'Tis strange how the influence of heredity shapes our lives. The story of Dickie Talbot furnishes an interesting problem to those who lovo to delve in such things. As n boy Dickie was very timid, and all the vague fears that assail childhood plagued him. Away back among his ancestors must have been some disreputable person with a craven soul, or perhaps his great-g,rt?at-grandmother, when a child, had been frightened at some old nurse's gobhn tales, thereby unconsciously transmitting a shrinking disposition to one of her descendants far down the family line.

In Dickies blood there lurked a few black drops— a yellow streak among the red — for he was a constitutional coward. Many are born thus and think themselves bravo until in the presence of danger, when an unsuspected and hideous spectie of fear ,rises up to grip them by tho throat.

Tho Fates who, with inscrutable smile, ever sit in the darkness spinning the thread of men's lives, spun for Dickie, and down in the West Indies, where the tropical sun is so fierce that after the heavy rains the miasmatic mist rises in clouds of steam from tho dark, smoking earth, the Three Sisters at the end of thenweaving remorselessly used their iron shears on his lifecord.

When he entered college he lost some of his excessive timidity and in time developed into a loud-talking, selfassertive Freshman. But the fatal defect in his character remained, ineradicable. With this, as is often the case, he had an inordinate vanity, which led him eagerly to seek after college honors in the classroom and on the athletic field. He led his class in oratory, held a quar-ter-mile record, and was first tenor in the glee club. Graduating with honors, for the lad did not, lack brains or muscle, he entered his father's bank in the village as assistant cashier. Talbot senior was the leading citr/en of the town.

There was a military cfjmpany in the town, which Dickie joined, not from love of a martial life, but because it was quite the thing in a social way to belong to the Governor's Guards. Aided by his. father's wealth and influence, in time he was elected commander of tho company, and had held that commission for several years when the war with Spain broke out, like sheet lightning from a summer sky. The Governor's' Guards were part of the Fifth Regiment, and this regiment was ordered out at the first call for volunteers by the State.

Very proud and handsome Captain Richaid Talbot looked the day he marched away at the head of his company, resplendent in new uniform with gold double-bars, surrounded by cheering men and weeping women. Two weeks Liter the Governor's Guards, now known as Comrany A, were in camp at the State Capital, somewhat against Captain Talbot's will, as ho loved ease, and the fatigue and monotony of ramp life wearied him greatly. An old "West Pointer happened to be in command of the Fifth, and he did his best to drill the regimental legs off daily. Captain Talbot would have gladly resigned, but pride foibade. It would never do for a member of one of the best families of the State to show the white feather in a crisis liko that.

After a time the War Department moved the Fifth, with other regiments, down to the sea. where after many vexatious delays, they embarked on a dirty, leaky transport, and, under the command of a fussy' little brigadier, set sail to invade Spain's finest possessions in the Caribbean Sea.

Captain Talbot was supremely disgusted with the whole proceeding. The miserable quarters, foul sea smells, badly cool-ed food, and other discomfoits incident to the voyage made him ill Besides, he began to be a bit afraid of the outcome of what at the start had promised to be only an cmoyablo military junket. The two lieutenants of Company A were detached on staff duty, leaving him as the only commissioned officer with the command

Rumors vague nnd terrifying flew thick and fast among officers and men Some descendants of Ananias boldly a? sorted that Spam had a vast number of ferocious and seafonod veterans waiting to annihilate them on landing

Other cheeiful prevai irators stated to knots of paping nnd appreciative listeners that they would certainly be attacked at sea by the enemy's cruisers and every defenceless transport fiendishly sunk with all on board Not that many of the harum-scarum scamps cared for the prospective danger ; they would have joyously welcomed an enemy, and would have fatuously attacked oven a torpedo boat with nothing but Springfields and their invincible courage

They loungid the hr/v days on deck, watching the heaving, shining waves as they rushed past, lashed into foam by the List-spinning screw, which threw up a white, boiling phosphorescent wake behind the "-hip Three tinges a day they brought out hard-tack, cold canned tomat ops. po.rk and beans, nnd had a poor picnic, littering the decks and thi owing tho surplus rations to the mvrind finny life which ever followed the ship Crap games, chuck-a-luck and k,eno, played on outspread blankets, whiled away the time, enlivened occasionally by a fist fight, the ofTcndeis being summai ily dragged off by the

fhSr «S£ Tn £ to th J da L rk fore Peak to meditate on f™ ?kL tt i the c ? bm the o ffi cers played draw-poker In h™ n y m ° rnin « far into the night; and t i mes a . n ni Sht. The novelty of the voyage soon ££ at thP sprOUntr OUntm * l he , mileS reeled off b y &* P atent h?^ V^f Stern> or calcul ating the time of day by the f'P s .5 e t T!i G occl 'P a tions earnestly engaged in At w^if «f tl* Sl ? Nt down where th ® white-capped nn« th. ,rhfA° r * met the P Ur P lish azure sky, and one by one the white stars came out and hung glittering in the ffful 8 O U eaXOn Vi ? en the Southern ifross, like a beau- =! LJL J ? V arkl f, d , against the blue dome of infinite space, and the pallid rays of the tropic moon cast an thrh,,y y o r^ lan 7l° n i h M, toßsin ? sen Tn the misty dawn the bugles blew the shrill reveille, the regiment swarmed out of its swaying hammocks, and, drawn up in two lone }!£« °P t he . fresh Jy~ Scru kb ed decks, were inspected by thi fussy little brigadier and the cold-eyed colonel. 11l were nf^ C °^ 6qUence l lf , any ' rookie neglected to appear spick and span in clean blue shirt and khaki trousers, gray hat creased at the proper angle, bcown canvas legRings, and shining rifle and accoutrements. Time passed. The regiment landed with other regiments, a handful of cavalry and a battery or two. After dispersing the feeble resistance of some Guardio Civile the march was taken up through the smiling country. The inhabitants joyously welcomed the invaders with much viyon los Americanos,' incidentally appropriating stray canteens and blankets when their new-found friends were not looking The little army marched on, tho enemy, with desultory skirmishing, persistently retreating. At a strong place in the mountains he finally halted, entrenched and waited to offer battle. The Americans followed fast, and at the close of a hot August day forded a boulder-strewn little river, and within striking distance of the Spaniard bivouacked for the night In the gray mist of the morning tho fussy little brigandier sat on the top of a huge rock ; around him stood his eager staff. Behind and on each side lay the restless waiting regiments.

Company A was lying down on its blanket-rolls, shivering with the penetrating cold. Up and down in front of the recumbent soldiers Captain Talbot walked with nervous step. Sergeant Burke, an old regular, observed his officer's manner, and as a flash from his pipe lit up the veteran's battle-scarred faco a smile disclosed his strong white teeth gripping the pipe-stem. ' 'Tis unasy he is,' confided Burke to his ' bunkie, 1 who lay at his feet munching a cold bacon sandwich. A subdued murmur arose from the company as the men moved uneasily on the hard ground, and speculated on what would happen next. Private Red Finn, who had presided over a keno game the whole of the previous night, had fallen asleep, his head pillowed on a canteen, and was snoring vigorously, as if protesting against the proceedings. A Ph. P., sitting on tho wet earth with his rifle across his knees, was discoursing learnedly to an interested squad of listeners on the doctrine of chance, with an appalling application to their present situation. A mile away, as tho fog lifted in smoky rifts and tho light of the cloud-smothered sun shone on their sombre tops, the towering mountains loomed above the valley. Through the murk along their sides twinkled little points of light, star-like in their shine. They were the campfires of the Spaniards.

The fussy httle brigadier gazed long and earnestly at tho position, conversing in low tones with his adjutant, and, from time to time, consulting a rude native map Suddenly an order issued from his lips, galvanising his staff into action. Many more orders followed, and the battle was about to begin. The fus.sy little brigadier planned it all clearly in his head, nnd part of the plan resulted in the Fifth making a wide detour and marching at route-step in columns of fouis along a precipitous, narrow mountain road. They were going to take the enemy from the rear, and, swinging round, try to roll up his right flank. Chance had it that Company A was the advance guard, and 600 yards in front of the regiment it stumbled along in the semidarkness, muttering curses on the lack of light, the roughness of the road, the quartermaster sergeant for not ser\ing coffee while they were waiting, the command-ing-general—at everything. They knew they were going to have a fight.

It was the crucial moment in the life of Captain Talbot, and meant a fierce struggle between pride of position and family mid inherited cowardice. With tightlyclenched teeth he marched at the head of the first set of fours, nearly paralysed with cold and fatigue, and the old boyish apprehension of the unknown. He was so unnerved that he overlooked the important precaution of send ing forward a party of skirmishers, and this error cost the company dearly.

As they stole along with a faint rattle of accoutrements under the overhanging palms, a single shot rang out, and the right guide next to the captain sank to his knees a little round black hole in his forehead from which the blood slowly oozed Instantly from behind the frowning rocks skirting the road, a fierce, cracking volley hurst out, stabbing the black night with red flashes, and the Mauser bullets whistled and sang among the astouishod soldiers. A bullet knocked off tho captain's hat, another sniped his shoulder-strap ; men were scrambling for cover, and the hoarse voice of Sergeant Burke was heard imploring the ' rookies ' to stand firm.

Captain Tal'bot looked with startled eyes one fearful instant into the Valley of the Shadow, and beheld then the Pale Spectre, vague, monstrous, terrifying ; earth and sky seemed to whirl in a round dance about him, punctuated by the constant red jets of flame and deadly whirl of tho steel-clad missiles. Panic seized him, and he re-

membered no more, but, dropping his sword, and stooping with low-bent head, he ignommiously bolted back through his struggling company to the rear and safety. The men followed like sheep, with the exception of Sergeant Burke, who dropped behind a convenient rock, and with the caution learned by many an Indian skirmish, 'lay low ' under the fusillade. In the twinkling of an eye the once famous Governor's Guards were wildly fleeing back the way they had come, pursued by the neverceasing flood of bullets and the victoriously derisive cheers of the unseen enemy. A dozen fallen figures dotted the path whence they fled. They rushed back into the arms of the advancing regiment, now coming up at the double-quick to learn what had happened fur\wud. The panting fugitives were stopped by the cold-eyed colonel, whose white moustache and imperial bristled with rage. With virtuperative and comprehensive language and the flat of his sabre he soon quelled the tumult, and restored in a measure the morale of the frightened men.

Captain Talbot stood with bared head, panting, and terror-stricken, before his superior officer. The old veteran glared at him with a freezing sneer, in which dis. gust, pity, and a fierce desire to kill the miserable culprit struggled forth for the mastery. Finally ho said, with choking voice :

' Talbot, report to the General under arrest.' The disgraced officer slunk to the side of the road, and, with his head in his hands, heard the regiment rush past to wounds and death. Private soldiers as they ran, shouted ribald jeers at him, and an excited lieutenant, waving his sword swore at him violently and spat on his breast as he passed. Presently they were gone, but the Officer Who Ran still sat by the road. Oh, the bitter misery of that moment to that proud soul ! Something seemed to snap in his brain, and out of the blackness ran flickering tongues of flame, on whose tips little red devils sat and shouted, ' Shame ! Shame ! Shame ! ' Overhead the whirring bullets cut the leaves. In the distance the rattle of the Krags was interspersed with the 'puff, puff of exploding shrapnel and the droning whistle ot impact shell. At intervals the hearty American cheer floated on the wind down the road, .'"'he enemy were being gradually, but surely, pushed up the mountain. The unfortunate officer thought of his home, his father, his mother. He then seemed to be in a dark and noisome dungeon, behind the bars of which he saw his parents looking at him, one with a stern and strong countenance, the other with pitiful tears and outstretched arms. He groaned aloud, like a lost soul in torment. At that last piercing thought desperation seized him ; he hated himself and the whole world; the kind of madness that fills the desert-born fanatic possessed the Officer Who Ran. A maniacal fury shook him. Jumping up. he frantically snatched an abandoned rifle and rushed after his comrades.

Overtaking the charging line, he saw, in a scat let haze, the maelstrom of the battle. On his right a corporal's knees suddenly seemed to be paralysed ; he rolled in the mud with a pained and astonished expression on his face. A sweating soldier on his left clapped his hand to his stomach and gently sank to a sitting posture in the long grass ; his smoking rifle fell from his grasp and clattered among the rocks. A httle in advance, three cuising men were frantically hacking and tearing at a barbed-wire fence ; one of them threw down the nippeis with a shriek of pain — blood spurted from his hand ; another suddenly crumpled up and fell forward on the slack wires, where he hung, an inanimate object, gently waving to and fro. A hutless oiderly rushed passed on a foam-flecked, plunging horse ; one hand gripping a trumpet with the mouthpiece shot away, gesticulating impotently to hea%en. A grizzled sergeant's angry face suddenly chans-ed to an expression of great peace as he fell and rolled down a little docliwty, a smile on his lifeless lips, his hands convulsively clutching the brown, sunburnt earth. Faintly fi om somewhere in the distance, came the blare of the regimental band. Shrill bugles ever blew the forward, and the boating of the drums smote the hot, palpitating air A soldier near him staggered drunkenly, gasping stentorouslv. his hands holding his shattered jaw. A horse with its spine cut by a jagged fragment of shell neighed piteously, hammering the ground with its forefeet. Behind the charging line in the distance a battery silhouetted against the sky-line emitted tiny flashes at ten-second intervals, followed by the demoniacal scream of the shells overhead ; manikins ran back and forth in furious haste serving the toy guns. A beardless youth thtew down his rifle and clutched his thtoat, gasping for breath, a spouting red flood pouring from his lips , ho fell sprawling and lay still A galloping Gatling, dung to by powder-blackened figures, rushed like a whirlwind through the lines, crushing alike the wounded and dead O\ c-r all a pitiless, coppery sun beat down with brazen fuiy Off to the west a black thunder-cloud hung liK^ a monstrous funeral pall over the land, and through its titanic hulk the forked lightning played to and fro Hell itsrlf seemed to be let loose at the foot of that mountain It hailed bullets A rent appeared in the blue tunic of the Officer Who Ran, and through the tear a crimson splash widened and spread on his naked shoulders.

A quarter of a mile ahead flapped a great red nnd yellow flag of Spain, and all along in front lav Iho little brown, linen-clad soldiers in their trenches, the light scintillating on the bayonet tips as they a olleyed a sparkling line of gl eaming red at the thin lino of advancing Americans. A faint orange-colored smoke hung over the muzzles or their rifles nnd rose and floated in eddying, whirling drifts. On top of the hill a square stono blockhouse vomited jets of yellow flame at many

apertures. Near it a machine-gun snarled and spat bullets with devil-hke repetition ; in the infernal din it made a loud buzzing noise like a gigantic swarm of angry bees. The Officer Who Ran saw, as if in a dream, a. fepanish general in glittering uniform, on a white horse, riding back and forth behind the trenches, waving his sword and shouting orders to his men. He seemed in the distance as a boy on a hobby-horse, shrilly yelling commands to tin soldiers, enforced with a mimic sword. At that sight battle-madness descended on the Officer Who Ran, fear fell from him like a cast-off garment, and an ecstacy of heroism lifted him aa on a loseate, silver-lined cloud. Throwing aside his empty rifle, with blazing eyes and widespread nostrils, his long fair hair glinting m the sun, with a hoarse shout he ran, bare-headed, at the trenches. He was leading the charge. A few moments and he had reached the breastworks. Some of the Spaniards were throwing down their arms and frantically scrambling out of the trenches, others were firing their last cartridges, with the raving, shouting Americans only a few yards away. Captain Talbot put his foot on the vamp and reached up to grasp the red and yellow flag. The Spanish general on the white horse fired a pistol in his face, and he fell headlong with the captured standard in his arms. With a sobbing intake of the breath, like a strong swimmer about to plunge into an icy flood, a ferocious, roaring, irresistible human wave, the men in khaki poured over the parapets into the red corpse-strewn pits, and with the bayonet slaughtered the fleeing foe. The battle was won.

The Caribbean moon rose above the shadowy hills and cast her pale rays down into the valley. A gentle rain fell from heaven as if Nature wished to pityingly wash away the crimson stains of combat. Peace and silence reigned along the lines, broken only by the hoarso challenge of the sentries and the flickering torches of the hospital corps and the burial squads slowly moving over the field in search of the wounded and the dead. The cold-eyed colonel and the fussy little brigadier were riding along the captured position. They came to a burial squad with bared heads, standing around a dead officer, whose face in the ghastly light was a hideous crimson splotch, but the bullet-torn, bloodstained colors of the beaten enemy were tightly clenched in his stiffened fingers. ' 'Tis Captain Talbot, sir,' said Sergeant Burke reverently.

' God rest his gallant soul,' said the cold-eyed colonel, taking off his hat

' Amen to that,' said the brigadier. Was it moisture caused by the stinging smoke of the torches, or a tear wrung from a lion-heart, that sparkled under the thick gray brows of the cold-eyed colonel, and splashed down his weather-beaten face ?

On Decoration Day, in the little town back in the States, a stern old man and a sad-faced woman in black strew with fragrant flowers the green grave of the Officer Who Ran.

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