Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 182, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1914 — A TEST OF NERVE [ARTICLE]

A TEST OF NERVE

By JOHN D. SWAIN.

(popyrl*ht.) It was at the officers’ mess one hot i summer night in Camp Sutro. The He was given so unexpectedly that a rattle not unlike that of musketry ran round the table as we-set our untasted glasses on the board. I was at General Delmar’s right, and I remember how the saber scar crept out on his sac old scar which I had not noticed for years. Across the table, through the haze of tobacco smoke, Colonel Gray's fierce eyes glanced, and his flushed face contrasted oddly with that of the general. It was the junior officer who spoke first. He was a curious chap—this Colonej Gray—from the West He always appeared to be laboring under suppressed excitement, while in action he was cold and calculating. “I am, of course, ready to give you satisfaction. General Delmar,” he said. It was a full moment before the general replied, his cold, blue eyes meanwhile sweeping the table. “Fortunately, we are all gentlemen," he said. “This insures discretion and sets our minds entirely at rest as to any unpleasant notoriety. You may go," nodding to the stewards, who stood about the room, > mouth agape: - After they had retired he continued: “Since Colonel Gray has been so good as to leave the arrangements to me, I will, with his permission, waive the formality of seconds. I have an idea which I am sure will appeal to his love of adventure, and will, I think, not only satisfy honor, furnish an interesting study, and yet avoid the courtmartialing of the survivors for violating the regulations against dueling. "In fact, I am so thoroughly convinced of Colonel Gray’s personal courage,” concluded the general with a graceful gesture, “that I believe there will be no survivor. Gentlemen, may I hope that you will accompany me for a short walk?”

With a great deal of curiosity and some trepidation, we filed out into the night, preceded by the tall, thin form of the old general. The path taken by General Delmar led ns to an old ehanty in a corner of the drill-field; arrived there, he lighted a tin lantern which hung by the door, and led the way within, where was nothing save a few kegs of blastingpowder, belonging to the engineer corps, and some tools. j One of the kegs the general rolled to the center of the room, placing a couple of boxes beside it. He then carefully loosened the plug in the keg and inserted a fuse, winding the other end about the middle of the candle w hich he removed from the lantern. Sticking the candle into an empty bottle, he set it on the keg, and turned toward Colonel Gray, who had been watching the proceedings with great Interest, and who seated himself in reply to a courteous gesture-of his opponent The general sat down also, and continued in a pleasant, conversational tone: “I think you understand my idea, Colonel Gray? Unless this candle is extinguished before it burns idowirta fuse, the keg of powder Is going to ignite. One of us two must blow the candle out within, say, the next twenty minutes. It will not be me, Colonel Gray!” Gray threw his head back and laughed.

“Splendid, my dear general, splendid!" he exclaimed. “We will have a grand final blowout together!" “Harris,” said the general to the genial cavalry major, “just keep these papers, will you? And my watch. Ahd toast us good and plenty tomorrow night,” he added, handing Harris a roll of bills. “Can I be of service to you. Colonel Gray?” asked Harris. “Not a sou on me," he smiled. “Not even a scrap of paper—except a bill from my tailor!” “Now, gentlemen,” said the general. “I thank you for your attentions, and shall ask but one further favor; that you return to the mess-room and await the explosion. Then come and search so us say, the survivor. Good night—and good-by!" Solemnly enough we bade them both adieu and departed, secretly relieved to get away from the vicinity of that cursed candle and fuse arrangement. i ————

Ik was exactly nine when we sat down again at table, and for at least five minutes no one spoke. This was a long panse for the officers' mess at Camp Butro. At last flesh and blood could stand It no longer. Burly Captain Jones who had been pulling away at a huge, onlighted cigar, blurted out: ‘'Three to two on the general!” “Bhame!” ciled one or two: but there were several takers, and we grasped eagerly at the relief to our nerves. The captain’s wager was covered quickly enough by the western 'men, and after that even money prevailed. Then some one noted that it was only seven minutes past nine. One or two were certain the dock had stopped; and nothing would convince them but a personal Inspection of the pendulum. v./.' ‘ -V •', At .a quarter past the tension increased. The explosion was due at any time now. Wragge and the West Pointer drank whisky in alarming

! quantities, and most of ns smoked like chimneys. Then the explosion occurred. We were just as startled as if we had not been expecting it. For a full minute no one had the courage to make a first move, and even at 1 we lingered, eyeing one another shamefacedly, the door opened, and, framed in the blaoAmess, appeared the haggard faces of Delmar and Gray, and with them was Captain Sage of the engineers. It was the general who spoke first. “We have come back!” he an- | nounced definitely.

“What is this—a hoax?” demanded Captain Jones savagely. “No,” responded the general, placing his hand affectionately on his late opponent’s shoulder, “but I have found a man! A hero!” -“Nonsense!” growled Gray. “You were a fool'to come back to the shanty! ” “Sir!” exclaimed the old general. “Your language demands an apology! I hold you personally responsible!” “Cut it, out!” demanded Harris In disgust. “Since you refused to be exploded like gentlemen, at least explain to us how you camq to patch It up between you!” “It was this way,” said Gray, helping himself to Scotch. “We had sat there perhaps five minutes after you left, and I was trying to blow double rings, when I happened to glance at the candle.”

Here young Wragge uttered an offensive word—-but subsided as Gray turned his eyes upon him. “From the candle my eyes traveled naturally to the general; and what do you suppose? He was apparently sound asleep! Asleep, gentlemen!” He paused, that the full effect of his words might be felt. 4 “Now, he was, of course, within his rights in sleeping, but I did not pro-pose-to keep any lonesome vigil, and besides, I was unjust enough to fancy that he might be shamming. So I leaned over the keg and shook his arm. He had fainted away.” “My old heart trouble,” sighed the general. “Always comes on when I am especially anxious to keep awake. What a chance I missed! But what do you suppose this glorious fellow did?” he demanded.

“What any decent man would do, of course!" responded Gray. “What could I do? I was sheer murder to sit there and let him be blown to atoms, absolutely helpless, when a breath of his might have extinguished—” “Do you mean to Insinuate .that T would have blown out that candle?” stormed Delmar. “Why, man, you insult *me in a way I cannot overlook. T must hold you personally-—” “I Insinuate nothing,” interrupted Gray. “But your condition violated the ethics of the code. It left all the responsibility on my shoulders; I had a right to let myself be blown up, but not to see an unconscious third party foully murdered!” "Third party!” “Yes —third party! Directly you went fltty, you cease to be a participant. You could not have blown out the candle, and I would not. So” — turning to us —“I haußffi him outside.”

“Yes, he did, confound him,” grumbled the general, casting an affectionate but irritable glance upon Gray. “But that was nothing, gentlemen—he went back!” “Of course I went back, you helpless old idiot!” “And he ran back,” wheezed Delmar, looking at him with a sort of wonder in hjs eyes. “Ran back?” some one interrogated. “Had to,” said Gray. “Candle most burned down to fuse; afraid I might be too late.” "It was I who almost too late,” said the general, shaking his white head. “What —did you go back, too?” demanded Harris. “He laid me on my back in the grass,” explained Delmar, “and the dew revived me. When I opened my eyerl thought l had been blown there by the powder. Then I saw that I was all together, so I started up and made for the light in the shanty. There was just an eighth of an inch of candle left when I arrived, and there sat this fool, smoking a cigarette and humming that detestable ditty every one forgot ages ago.”

"He means ‘There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight,’ ” explained Gray In an injured tone. “I demanded an explanation,” continued the general, “and he told me, and said how glad he was I had come back, as it was lonesome, and besides, he knew how bad I would feel to miss It all. The fuse was beginning to sputter, and I seated myself just In .time to enjoy the climax." “They both cut and run!’’ quoth Jones, disgustedly. “All bets are off!’’ "Captain Jones, I never have been so grossly insulted in my life,” said General Delmar indignantly. "I shall hold you personally and immediately responsible—” "Well, how came you here, then?” “I can explain that to your satisfaction, I think,” spoke up Captain Sage. "You are the most bloodthirsty crew I ever met. If there were not cooler heads among the sappers than in this polyglot crowd, the service woul<l have lost two of the most courageous—asses I ever heard of. "I chanced to be crossing the drill Held, and noticed the light burning In our powder-shanty, which Is, of course, strictly against the regulations. When I , looked In, there sat these idiots, as cheerful as if they were at tea, while tjke fuse wss Just sizzling. “I grasped the .situation—and the fuse —simultaneously—end that’s all — except that I must have left a spark, in my hurry, and the engineering corps is sky ope keg of pewderl” -