The Last Shot

sing mountain road. In the strong, youthful figures set in the universal type of military mould it might have been a regiment of any one of many nations' bu

tal of the province from which its ranks had been recruited. After a steep incline, there was a welcome bugle note and with shouts of delight the centipede's legs broke apart! Bankers', laborers', doctors', valets', butchers', man

d, after a few steps, in shortness of breath. He was quite withered, his bright eyes twinklin

" he quavered to

e one answered. "Come

Tom Frag

ldier, who sprang to his feet

g the veteran on both cheeks. "I saw sister in town,

ff there, Tom, so I can see you. My word! You're bigger'n your father, but not bigger'n I was! No, sir, not bigger'n I

e holes in the uppers of his shoes were carefully patched. He

longer you got to ser

hs," answ

ll be in time for the spring ploughing. My, how you have filled out! But, somehow, I can't get

rs there are nowadays. Not as gay as in your day

ling, our pennons a-flying, and all the color of our uniform-I tell you, the girls used to open their eyes

very that accomplishes nothing, but no one would suggest such scepticism of an immortal event in popular imaginati

randfather after he had finished the charge, referring to the people of th

de a lot of friends," admitted

Grays. "That's because you didn't see deep under them. They're all on the outside-a flighty lot! Why, if they'd done their pa

ways said," i

ing I am partial to it's a good dish of tripe! And their light beer-like drinking fr

ot used to their

such heterodoxy in a northern man. "Say, you ain't been falling in love?" h

id Tom l

well." He wandered on with his questions and comments. "Is it a fact, Tom, or

they

omenon. Then his half-childish mind, prompted by a random recollection, flitted to another subject

wlers?" repeate

close together. Had to comb 'em out and pick 'em

t of fashion. And no more epidemics of

y changed!" grumbled

sprawled around a newspaper containing the latest despatches from both capitals. It was a group as

oldiers to our

people to our

nk we are bound to yield, no m

her's son. "If we have to go,

time," said the judge's s

back. War will be the ruin of b

. Let well enough alone!" s

the laborer's son, "but I am thinking

r's son "There can't be without credit.

, "always when one people determines to strike

mishes. Every able-bodied man in line-automatics a hundred shots a minute-guns a

e deat

53d who live on the frontier w

never get them back. Be

squinting inward, and a heavy jaw, an enormous man who was the best shot in the company when he cared to be. He had listened in silence to the others, his rather th

much to me. Home? Hell! The hed

xcept when his eyes would light with a feverish sort of

es," he

the socialist!"

chist!" shout

down the proletariat. There won't be any war! Why? Because there are too many enlightened men on both sides who do the world's work. We of the 53d are a provincial lot, but throughout our army there are t

is sacred!" cried

that w

ut

rmed a chorus o

a savage foe in Africa and therefore was particularly bitter about the Bodlapoo affair. The welt of a sca

s boyish captain, slender of figure, aristocratic of feature. His indignation was

what he s

ter part

ion to mutiny

him unde

s himself from a puppy, but this was resistance to arrest and he had not yet made up his mind to go that far. His muscles w

put him under arrest?" said some one at

der hung the gold cords of the staff. His left hand thrust in the pocket of his blouse heightened the ease of his carriage, which was free of conventional mil

was something more than mere titular respect in the way the young captain saluted--admiration and the diffident, boyish g

e met at Miss Galland's, isn't it?" Lans

red south," said Dellarme, obv

ron continued, nodding toward St

ing around Stransky, and in the f

, did he?" piped the old man. "Beat him to a

ike to know your origin," said Lanstron, prepared to be as co

own the bony bridge of his n

y father, so far as I could identify hi

he purple!" observed

!" answered Str

view of life as a beautiful thing in a well-ordered world wher

he re-creation of society!" Stransky uttered the sentiment with t

sharp words. He, too, recognized Lanstron. After they had shaken hands, the colonel scowled as he heard the situation explained, with the old sergeant, still h

ty, "but it seems possible that Stransky has clothed his wrongs in a garb that could never set well on his nature if he tried to wear it in practice. He is

ight lips and chin as firm as if cut out of stone. "You never know who will fight in t

d Lanstron. "If you give him the limit of the law, why, he becomes a martyr to

the shortest way out of the difficul

wo anarchists in my company in Africa," he observed in loyal agreement with orders. "They fou

aring down the bridge of his nose. For a full minute he did not vouchsafe so much as a gl

osition-everything that you and your kind want to keep for your kind. You are smarter than the othe

s defiance so intense that it had a certain kind

nd to you," said Lanstron. "In Napoleonic times, Stransky, I thin

nd his jaw shot out challengingly. "No, never against my comrades on t

legs began to assemble on the road. But Stransky remained a statue, his rifle u

ll in!" calle

comrade picked up the rifle and

est of us!" he whispered. "Come on! Cheer

nging the rifle down on th

though slim hand that looked as if it had been trained to do the work of two hands in the process of its owner's own transformation. Thus the old sergeant had seen a general remonstrate with a brave veteran who had been guilty of bad conduct in Africa. The

we don't want to be judged by one of those minutes. I got a hand mashed up for a mistake that took only a second. Think t

nt about it!" grumbled Stransky

on its way, with Grandfather Fragi

Times have certainly changed-officers' hands in their pockets, saying 'if you don't mind' to a man that's i

the marching co

try that counts in the end," he mused. "I

kept growing in size until it took the form of the wings with which man flies. The plane volplaned down with steady swiftness

ion. "You belong in the corps. We shall not let you return to your regiment for a