The Oregon daily journal., May 21, 1916, Page 57, Image 57

THE SUNDAY " FICTION MAGAZINE, MAY 21, TK
HE
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nun
HROUGH the cobbled
streets of the little
Russian town marched
a regiment of soldiers,
croonmg amournful
folk-song; - aa 1s the
custom when march
ing: at ease. Peasants
they were, (or the greater part, snatched
from their bread-earning '-r and made
to .change their red
blouses and blue- "
peaked caps for the
dirty fawn overcoat
with the baschllk
head-covering and the
b 1 u e - r i mmed "pan
cake" cap. Their faces
seemed all cast in the
same mold the mold
of despair and they
marched along, with
loose-swinging arms
and their monotonous
ly chanted song, like
cattle obedient to the
stick of the herdsman.
At the window of
one of the little houses
skirting the street a
girl stood, watching
the soldiers march by.
"See, Igor." she
cried, turning to a man
who stood at her side.
"isn't that fine! Aren't
they men? Sons of the
car-father! And
think, you will be one
of them one day! How
proud of you I shall
be!"
The man at her side
withdrew from the
Window.
She did not notice
his shudder of disgust.
Ekaterina Ivanov-
na, talk hot like that,
I beseech you."
There was some
thing in his voice that
caused Ekaterina to
turn suddenly upon
him. His face was
white, even to the lips,
and his fingers were
intertwined nervously.
"Why why, Igor
what is the matter
with you?"
He shook himself,
aa thoutrh he were trying to shake
some horrible idea. Fear, perhaps.
"You're not afraid, Igor, of soldiering,
are you?"
Ekaterina, milusha, no. How should I
be afraid, or weak, with the strength of
your love to help me? Only only, when
you talk like that about the soldiers, I
mean, it makes me think of parting from
you. That is all."
He placed his arm around her waist
and drew her toward him. and kissed her,
as the last sound of the soldiers' mournful
song died away in the evening echoes.
n.
I '-p ll AT night Igor lay awake in bed
I A thinking of the fear in his heart.
Ekaterina had been right. How he
hated to think that sooner or later he
would have to Join those shabby-looking
ranks; would hare to march with four
others on a line with his breast, hemmed
y Alphonse Courlander
Illustrated by. Ruth Stemm.
these devils of the czar could not touch
him. His life would be uninterrupted.
Now, In another year, he would be in the
ballot and then, good-toy to free
dom! How he envied Peter Dimkow his
friend because he was lamed in one leg.
He rammed his fingers in his ears and
cursed Russia, the land which had given
him birth.
.
III.
ND the time came slowly nigh when
Igor knew that he was bound to
Berve in the czar's army. "He was sitting
in the yard, near the great stack of wood
which was kept for fuel. Some laborers
had been chopping- it, and an ax had been
left behind.
Was it yesterday, or years ago, that
A
m
The sunlight flashed
on the ax at his feet.
"Crooked Peter" was safe; he was no good
for soldiering!
A bugle shrilled out in the night from
the barracks, and the sound struck with
startling significance upon his ears.
Ekaterina with the proud Slavonic blood
In her veins and the glory ' of the great
Russia ever before her had said to him:
"Soon, Igor, I shall have reason to be
proud of thee. Thou wilt indeed be a sol-
A Second Jonah
dier in the brave uniform and a rifle in thy
hand!"
Was it his fault, he argued, that he had
been given a sensitive nature, unused to
hardship, a nature which revolted at the
idea of war? If he told anyene of his fear
they would laugh at him; and yet, how
could he escape?
He beard tne steady tramp of the sol
diers marching on the road outside. Hor
rible sound! The rhythmical beat of the
footsteps dinned into his ears: ,
"Come! Come, Igor, come! Comet
Como! Igor, come!"
He passed his hand over his forehead,
and it was wet wet with fear!
"No! No!" he almost shrieked. "I
can't I can't!"
The sunlight flashed on the blade of
the ax at his feet, and a sudden idea
surged to his mind. Cost what it may, he
would be freed from this everlasting fear
of conscription. lie seized the ax in his
right hand how light it seemed
in the frenzy of the moment
and stretched out his left on
the cobblestones of the yard.
He forgot everything Ekat
erina, love, honor, duty and
self-reapect in one mad burst
of fear that made him, some
how, recklessly brave. The ax
gleamed in the air and clanged
on the stones through the
bone of his thumb. He looked
stupidly at the bleeding stump,
only as yet half realizing the
burning pain and the red stream
that spurted from the wound.
Then he cried out and fainted.
He came to bis senses hours
afterward, in the darkened room.
In his delirium he had
cried out:
"They cannot take me
now I am maimed!"
Ekaterina had heard
and understood, and later
she came into the room
and went to his bedside.
Sternly pale, she stood
over him, her eyes red
with the tears she had
wept over her shattered
idol. She went
to his bedside
and said the
word that
branded him for
life as an outcast
a wanderer
among men.
"Thou cow
ard 1" she said
deliberately.
"When, thou art
well thou shalt
go forth from here, and every one shall
know thee for a faint-hearted!"
"It was an accident!" moaned Igor.
IV.
HAVE set down the story as I know It
It was told me at a frontier town In
Russia by a man to whom I had given to
bacco and a few kopecks to buy some food
and drink. He was bearded and gray, and
his voice was like the whine of a whipped
cur.
His shoulders curved forward in a per
petual cringe, and his blood-streaked eyes
shifted their gaze Jerkily every tew sec
onds. He seemed to be under a shadow, a
curse. He was a pariah. Every one point
ed to him and laughed at him; some spat
in bis direction.
But I was moved to compassion, and
gave him tobacco and money, and he drew
me aside, gripping my wrist like a rein-
I
THE proverbial cat with nine lives can- Charles Dunn, consequently, is shunned
not claim more honors than one like the plague by the superstitious sail
Charles Dunn, a seaman; though while ors, who hare on occasions flatly refused
the former is regarded as a charm against to sail with him, and his luck in this con-
in with heavily breathing men In the front evil, the latter is not looked upon as a nection has proved his greatest misfor
and in the rear! A uniformed creature mascot to the ships he favors. tune!
without a will downtrodden with A recent case brought by the admiralty There are many similar cases-V
the petty discipline of the barracks against Dunn at Liverpool for failing to A remarkable coincidence that bears
and the flltbv black brftad And loin bis tranmnrt dtslAad h fn ft that tmt n anflm rnineratitinn rurir&rt wm - . . ..,..
, , . - - r - carnation oi me Ancient mariner.
schtsehl cabbage soup! the sailor had been in four notable ship- while ago at Belfast. A firm built a ship And crrintuui mv t w,.tA
And then oh, horrors of horrors!- wrecks, and though others had suffered a that left Belfast Lough and was subse- that the band which held me waa lacking
there might be war red, dreadful war, watery grave, he had come up smiling on quently wrecked. A second ship bearing a thumb
each occasion. Both the ill-fated Titanic the same name suffered the same fate,
and the Empress of Ireland carried Dunn The builders then gave the name to a
on their last voyages, and Re also served third vessel they had created,
on the Liusitania and Floiizan when they The ship ultimately left the lough and
were torpedoed. has never been heard of since.-
Iwith the howl of bullets and the thrust of
! swords! He closed his eyes to shut out an
imaginary battlefield.
Why had he not been born an only son.
jthe sole wage-earner In the house? Then
ICopy right bjr The Frank A Muasej Co.J
She When you married me you did not
marry a cook, I want you to understand.
He (sadly) I know It. ,