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diff --git a/25884.txt b/25884.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f8da948 --- /dev/null +++ b/25884.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6318 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Found in the Philippines, by Charles King + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Found in the Philippines + The Story of a Woman's Letters + +Author: Charles King + +Release Date: June 23, 2008 [EBook #25884] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOUND IN THE PHILIPPINES *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +FOUND IN THE PHILIPPINES + +The Story of a Woman's Letters + +BY +CAPTAIN CHARLES KING + +GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS +Eleven East Sixteenth Street New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Copyrighted 1899, by F. Tennyson Neely. + +Copyrighted 1901, by The Hobart Company. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +FOUND IN THE PHILIPPINES. + +CHAPTER I. + + +Something unusual was going on at division headquarters. The men in the +nearest regimental camps, regular and volunteer, were "lined up" along +the sentry posts and silently, eagerly watching and waiting. For a week +rumor had been rife that orders for a move were coming and the brigades +hailed it with delight. For a month, shivering at night in the dripping, +drenching fogs drifting in from the Pacific, or drilling for hours each +day on the bleak slopes of the Presidio Heights, they had been praying +for something to break the monotony of the routine. They were envious of +the comrades who had been shipped to Manila, emulous of those who had +stormed Santiago, and would have welcomed with unreasoning enthusiasm any +mandate that bore promise of change of scene--or duty. The afternoon was +raw and chilly; the wet wind blew salt and strong from the westward sea, +and the mist rolled in, thick and fleecy, hiding from view the familiar +landmarks of the neighborhood and forcing a display of lamplights in the +row of gaudy saloons across the street that bounded the camp ground +toward the setting sun, though that invisible luminary was still an hour +high and afternoon drill only just over. + +Company after company in their campaign hats and flannel shirts, in worn +blue trousers and brown canvas leggings, the men had come swinging in +from the broad driveways of the beautiful park to the south and, as they +passed the tents of the commanding general, even though they kept their +heads erect and noses to the front, their wary eyes glanced quickly at +the unusual array of saddled horses, of carriages and Concord wagons +halted along the curbstone, and noted the number of officers grouped +about the gate. Ponchos and overcoat capes were much in evidence on every +side as the men broke ranks, scattered to their tents to stow away their +dripping arms and belts, and then came streaming out to stare, unrebuked, +at headquarters. It was still early in the war days, and, among the +volunteers and, indeed, among regiments of the regulars whose ranks were +sprinkled with college men who had rubbed shoulders but a few months +earlier with certain subalterns, the military line of demarcation was a +dead letter when "the boys" were out of sight and hearing of their +seniors, and so it happened that when a young officer came hurrying down +the pathway that led from the tents of the general to those of the field +officers of the Tenth California, he was hailed by more than one group of +regulars along whose lines he passed, and, as a rule, the query took the +terse, soldierly form of "What's up, Billy?" + +The lieutenant nodded affably to several of his fellows of the football +field, but his hand crept out from underneath the shrouding cape, palm +down, signalling caution. "Orders--some kind," he answered in tones just +loud enough to be heard by those nearest him. "Seen the old man anywhere? +The general wants him," and, never halting for reply the youngster +hurried on. + +He was a bright, cheery, brave-eyed lad of twenty who six months earlier +was stumbling through the sciences at the great university on the heights +beyond the glorious bay, never dreaming of deadlier battle than that in +which his pet eleven grappled with the striped team of a rival college. +All on a sudden, to the amaze of the elders of the great republic, the +tenets and traditions of the past were thrown to the winds and the "Hermit +Nation" leaped the seas and flew at the strongholds of the Spanish +colonies. Volunteers sprang up by the hundred thousand and a reluctant +Congress accorded a meagre addition to the regular army. Many a college +athlete joined the ranks, while a limited few, gifted with relatives who +had both push and "pull," were permitted to pass a not very exacting +examination and join the permanent establishment as second lieutenants +forthwith. Counting those commissioned in the regular artillery and +infantry, there must have been a dozen in the thronging camps back of the +great city, and of these dozen, Billy Gray--"Belligerent Billy," as a +tutor dubbed him when the war and Billy broke out together--the latter to +the extent of a four-day's absence from all collegiate duty--was easily +the gem of the lot. One of the "brightest minds" in his class, he was one +of the laziest; one of the quickest and most agile when aroused, he was +one of the torpids as a rule: One of the kind who should have "gone in for +honors," as the faculty said, he came nearer going out for devilment. The +only son of a retired colonel of the army who had made California his +home, Billy had spent years in camp and field and saddle and knew the West +as he could never hope to know Haswell. The only natural soldier of his +class when, sorely against the will of most, they entered the student +battalion, he promptly won the highest chevrons that could be given in the +sophomore year, and, almost as promptly, lost them for "lates" and +absences. When the 'Varsity was challenged by a neighboring institute to a +competitive drill the "scouts" of the former reported that the crack +company of the San Pedros had the snappiest captain they ever saw, and +that, with far better material to choose from, and more of it, the +'Varsity wouldn't stand a ghost of a show in the eyes of the professional +judges unless Billy would "brace up" and "take hold." Billy was willing as +Barkis, but the faculty said it would put a premium on laxity to make +Billy a 'Varsity captain even though the present incumbents were ready, +any of them, to resign in his favor. "Prex" said No in no uncertain terms; +the challenge was declined, whereat the institute crowed lustily and the +thing got into the rival papers. As a result a select company of student +volunteers was formed: its members agreed to drill an hour daily in +addition to the prescribed work, provided Billy would "take hold" in +earnest, and this was the company that, under his command, swept the +boards six weeks later and left San Pedro's contingent an amazed and +disgusted crowd. Then Billy went to metaphorical pieces again until the +war clouds overspread the land; then like his father's son he girded up +his loins, went in for a commission and won. And here he was a "sub" in +Uncle Sam's stalwart infantry with three classmates serving under him in +the ranks and half a dozen more, either as junior officers or enlisted +men, in the camps of the volunteers. He was a handsome boy, a healthy, +hearty boy, and, as boys go, rather a good boy--a boy in whom his mother +would have found, had she not long since been lifted above the cares of +this world, much of comfort and more to condone, but a boy, nevertheless, +who had given his old dragoon of a dad many an anxious hour. Now, just as +he neared the legal dividing line between youth and years of discretion, +Billy Gray had joined the third battalion of his regiment, full of pluck, +hope and health, full of ambition to make a name for himself in a +profession he loved as, except his father, he certainly loved nothing +else, and utterly scoffing the idea that there might come into his life a +being for the sake of whose smile he could almost lay down his sword, for +he had yet to meet Amy Lawrence. + +"Who are the women folks up at headquarters, Billy?" asked a youth of his +own years and rank, peering eagerly through the drifting mist at the dim, +ghostly outlines of the general's camp. + +"Didn't get to see 'em. Where's the old man--the colonel?" was the reply. +"Chief wants him toot de sweet!" + +"What's wanted?" called a voice from the biggest of the neighboring +tents, and a close-cropped head was thrust out between the front tent +flaps. "That you, Billy? Who wants the colonel? He and the 'brig' rode +over to the Presidio an hour ago--ain't got back. Come in; I've started a +fire in our oil stove." A puff of warm air blew from the interior and +confirmed the statement. It was well along in summer and, not a dozen +miles away to the east, men were strolling about with palm-leaf fans and +wilted collars. Here, close to the gray shores of the mighty sea, +blankets and overcoats were in demand. Hospitably the older officer +tugged at the lacings of the military front door, swore between his set +teeth when the knots, swollen by the wet, withstood his efforts and then +shouted: + +"Sergeant-major; send somebody here to open this." + +A light footstep sounded on the springy board floor, nimble fingers +worked a moment at the cords, then the flap was thrown open and the +adjutant's office stood partially revealed. It was a big wall tent backed +up against another of the same size and pattern. Half a dozen plain +chairs, two rough board tables littered with books, papers and smoking +tobacco, an oil stove and a cheap clothes rack on which were hanging +raincoats, ponchos and a cape or two, comprised all the furniture. In a +stout frame of unplaned wood, cased in their oilskins and tightly rolled, +stood the colors of the famous regiment; and back of them, well within +the second tent where one clerk was just lighting a camp lantern, were +perched on rough tables a brace of field desks with the regimental books. +The sergeant-major, a veteran of years of service in the regulars, sat at +one of them. A young soldier, he who had unfastened the tent flap to +admit Lieutenant Gray, was just returning to his seat at the other. Two +orderlies lounged on a bench well beyond and back of the sergeant-major's +seat, and a bugler, with his hands in his pockets, was smoking a short +brier-root pipe at the opposite or back doorway. Woe to the enlisted men +who sought the presence of the colonel or adjutant through any other +channel. The sergeant-major would drop on him with the force of a +baseball bat. + +"Who all are over yahnduh at the chief's?" asked the adjutant, as soon as +he had his visitor well inside, and the soft accent as well as the quaint +phraseology told that in the colonel's confidential staff officer a +Southerner spoke. + +"All the brigade and most regimental commanders 'cept ours, I should say, +and they seem to be waiting for them. Can't we send?" was the answer, as +the junior whipped off his campaign hat and sprinkled the floor with the +vigorous shakes he gave the battered felt. + +"Have sent," said his entertainer briefly, as he filled a pipe from the +open tobacco box and struck a safety match. "Orderly galloped after him +ten minutes ago. Blow the brigade and battalion commanders! What I asked +you was who are the women up there?" + +"No, you didn't! You said, 'who all are up yonder?' I'm a sub, and +s'posed you meant _men_--soldiers--officers. What have I to do with +anybody in petticoats?" + +"And I'm a grizzled vet of a dozen years' duty, crows' feet and gray +hairs a-comin'," grinned the adjutant, pulling at a long curly mustache +and drawing himself up to his full height of six feet, "and when you're +as old as I am and half as wise, Billy, you'll know that a pretty girl is +worth ten times the thought our old frumps of generals demand. My name +ain't Gordon if I haven't a mind to waltz over there through the mist and +the wind just to tell them I've sent for Squeers. Then I'll get a look at +the girls." + +"I've got to go back," said Billy, "and you've no business to--with Mrs. +Gordon and an interesting family to consider. What tent'd the ladies go +to? _I_ didn't see 'em." + +"Mrs. Gordon, suh," said the adjutant, with placid superiority, +"considers it a reflection on her sex when I fail to pay it due homage. +Of course you didn't see the ladies. The party was shown into the +general's own domicile. Couldn't you see how many young fellows were +posing in picturesque attitudes in front of it? Awe Hank!" he suddenly +shouted to an officer striding past the tent in dripping mackintosh. +"Goin' up to division headquarters? Just tell the staff or the chief I've +sent an orderly galloping after Squeers. He's halfway to the Presidio +now, but it'll be an hour before they can get back." The silent officer +nodded and went on, whereat Gordon made a spring for the entrance and +hailed again. + +"Say, Hank! Who are the damsels?" + +The answer came back through the fog: + +"People from the East--looking for a runaway. Old gent, pretty daughter, +and pretty daughter's prettier cousin. Heard the orders?" + +"Damn the orders! They don't touch _us_. Where do they come from?" + +"D'rect from Washington, they say. Three regiments to sail at once, +and----" + +"Oh, I know all that!" shouted Gordon impatiently. "It was all over camp +an hour ago! Where do they--the girls--come from? What's their name?" + +"Wasn't presented," was the sulky reply. "Let a lot of stuffy old women +show up in search of long-lost sons and those fellows at headquarters +unload them on us in less than no time, but a brace of pretty girls--! +Why, they double the gate guards so that no outsider can so much as see +them. Billy, here, knows 'em. Ask him." + +By this time the youngster had ranged up alongside the adjutant and was +laughingly enjoying the latest arrival's tirade at the expense of the +headquarters' staff, but at his closing words Lieutenant Billy's grin of +amusement suddenly left his face, giving way to a look of blank amaze. + +"_I_ know 'em! I haven't been east of the Big Muddy since I was a kid." + +"They asked for you all the same, just after you started. 'Least one of +'em did--for What's-his-name?--the chief's military legal adviser, came +out bareheaded and called after you, but you were out of hearing. He said +the cousin, the prettiest one, recognized you as you skipped away from +the general's tent and pointed you out to her friend. Somebody explained +you were running an errand for one of those aides too lazy to go himself, +and that you'd be back presently." + +"Then go at once, young man," said the adjutant, laying a mighty hand on +the junior's square shoulder. "Stand not upon the order of your going, +but git! Never you mind about the colonel. He won't be _here_ until after +he's been _there_, and he's in for a rasping over this morning's +inspection. Just look at the report. Sergeant-major, send me Colonel +Colt's report!" he called aloud, tossing his head back as he spoke, "Come +in, Parson; come out of the wet." And, eager enough to read a famous +inspector's criticisms of the appearance of the regiment, the officer +addressed as Parson shoved briskly into the tent. + +The young soldier who had opened the tent flap a few minutes before came +forward with a folded paper which, in silence, he handed the adjutant and +turned back to his desk. Mr. Gordon took the paper, but his eyes followed +the soldier. Then he called, somewhat sharply: + +"Morton!" + +The young fellow stopped at the dividing crack between the two tent +floors, and slowly faced the three officers. He was slender, well built, +erect. His uniform fitted him trimly, and was worn with easy grace, his +hands and feet were small and slender, his eyes and hair dark and fine, +his features delicate and clear cut, his complexion a trifle blistered +and beaten by the harsh winds that whistled in every day from the sea, +and, as he turned, all three officers were struck by its extreme pallor. + +"You're sick again, Morton," said the adjutant somewhat sternly. "I +thought I told you to see Dr. Heffernan. Have you done so?" + +"I--wasn't sick enough," faltered the young soldier. "I was all right a +minute or two--or rather this morning, sir. It'll be over presently. +Perhaps it was the smell of the oil that did it--the stove is close to my +desk." + +But Gordon continued to look at him doubtfully. + +"Move your desk across the tent for the present, anyhow," said he, "and +I'll speak to the doctor myself. With all this newspaper hullabaloo about +our neglect of the sick," continued he, turning to his friends, "if a man +changes color at sight of a smash-up he must be turned over to the Red +Cross at once. What is it, orderly?" he finished suddenly, as the tent +flaps parted and a soldier in complete uniform, girt with his belt of +glistening cartridges, stood at salute, some visiting cards in his gloved +hand. + +"Lieutenant Gray here, sir?" was the comprehensive answer. Then, catching +sight of the young officer who stepped quickly forward, he held forth the +cards. + +"The adjutant-general's compliments, sir, and he'd be glad if the +lieutenant would come over at once." + +Gray took the cards, curiously studied them and then read aloud, one +after the other, and placing the topmost underneath the other two as soon +as read. + + "MR. LISPENARD PRIME." + "MISS PRIME." + "MISS AMY LAWRENCE." + +It was the last name that lay uppermost at the end, receiving particular +attention, and the Parson noted it. + +"That's the pretty cousin, Billy," quoth he. "Case of the last shall be +first, don't you see? Scoot now, you lucky boy, and tell us all about it +later." + +But Gray was still gazing dreamily at the cards. + +"I'm sure I never met any of them before in my life," said he. "There +must be some mistake. Yet--that name--sounds familiar--somehow," and +"that" was the only name now in sight. "I'm off," he suddenly announced, +and vanished. + +There was a sound of light, quick footsteps on the flooring of the +rearward tent at the same time. The sergeant-major glanced up from his +writing; looked at a vacant desk, then at the clock, then, inquiringly, +at his regimental deity--the adjutant. It was just the hour of the day at +which all manner of papers were coming down from division and brigade +headquarters to be duly stamped, noted and stacked up for the colonel's +action. This was the young clerk Morton's especial function, but Morton +had left the office and was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +The little party of visitors in the general's personal tent made a +striking contrast to that assembled under the official canvas. In the +latter, seated on camp stools and candle boxes or braced against the tent +poles were nearly a dozen officers, all in the sombre dark blue +regulation uniform, several in riding boots and spurs, some even wearing +the heavy, frogged overcoat; all but two, juniors of the staff, men who +stood on the shady side of forty, four of the number wearing on their +shoulders the silver stars of generals of division or brigade, and among +their thinning crops of hair the silver strands that told of years of +service. One man alone, the commanding general, was speaking; all the +others listened in respectful silence. In the gloom of that late, +fog-shrouded afternoon a lantern or two would have been welcome, but the +conference had begun while it was still light enough for the chief to +read the memoranda on his desk, and now he was talking without notes. In +the array of grave, thoughtful faces, some actually somber and severe in +expression, a smile would have seemed out of place, yet, all of a sudden, +grim features relaxed, deep-set eyes twinkled and glanced quickly about +in search of kindred sympathetic spirits, and more than half the bearded +faces broadened into a grin of merriment and as many heads were suddenly +uplifted, for just as the gray-haired chief ended an impressive period +with the words: "It will be no laughing matter if I can lay hold of +them," there burst upon the surprised ears of the group a peal of the +merriest laughter imaginable--the rippling, joyous, musical laughter of +happy girlhood mingling with the hearty, wholesome, if somewhat boyish, +outburst of jollity, of healthful youth. + +"Merciful powers!" exclaimed the chief. "I had forgotten all about those +people. They must have been here twenty minutes." + +"Sixty-five, sir, by the watch," said a saturnine-looking soldier, tall +and stalwart, and wearing the shield of the adjutant-general's department +on the collar of his sack coat. + +"They ought to go, then," was the placid suggestion of a third officer, a +man with keen eyes, thin, almost ascetic, face, but there twitched a +quaint humor about the lines of his lips. "That visit's past the retiring +age." + +And then another peal of merriment from the adjoining tent put stop to +conversation. + +"They don't lack for entertainers," hazarded a staff officer as soon as +he could make himself heard. "The solemn-looking Gothamite who came with +them must have slipped out." + +"It seems he knows Colonel Armstrong," said the chief thoughtfully. "I +sent for him an hour ago, and he may be piloting Mr. Prime around camp, +looking up the runaway." + +"Another case?" asked a brigade commander with a shrug of his shoulders. + +"Another case," answered the general, with a sigh. "It isn't always home +troubles that drive them to it. This boy had everything a doting father +could give him. What on earth could make _him_ bolt and enlist for the +war?" + +No one answered for a moment. Then the officer with the humorous twinkle +about the eyes and the twitch at the lip corners, bent forward, placed +his elbows on his knees, his fingers tip to tip, gazed dreamily at the +floor, and sententiously said: + +"Girl." + +Whereupon his next neighbor, a stocky, thickset man in the uniform of a +brigadier, never moving eye, head or hand, managed to bring a sizable +foot in heavy riding boot almost savagely upon the slim gaiter of the +humorist, who suddenly started and flushed to the temples, glanced +quickly at the chief, and then as quickly back to the floor, his blue +eyes clouded in genuine distress. + +The general's gray face had seemed to grow grayer in the gloom. Again +there came, like a rippling echo, the chorus of merry laughter from the +adjoining tent, only it seemed a trifle subdued, possibly as though one +or two of the merry-makers had joined less heartily. With sudden movement +the general rose: "Well, I've kept you long enough," he said. "Let the +three regiments be got in readiness at once, but relax no effort in--that +other matter. Find the guilty parties if a possible thing." + +And then the group dissolved. One or two of the number looked back, +half-hesitating, at the entrance of the tent, but the chief had turned +again to the littered table before him, and seating himself, rested his +gray head in the hand nearest his visitors. It was as though he wished to +conceal his face. One of the last to go--the thin-faced soldier with the +twinkling blue eyes, hung irresolutely behind the chief a moment as +though he had it in his mind to speak, then turned and fairly tiptoed +out, leaving the camp commander to the society of a single staff officer, +and to the gathering darkness. + +"Kindly say to Mr. Prime, or his friends, that I will join them in a +moment," said the former, presently, without so much as uplifting head or +eye, and the aide-de-camp left as noiselessly as his predecessor, the +humorist. But when he was gone and "The Chief" sat alone, the sound of +merry chat and laughter still drifted in with the mist at the half-opened +entrance. Shadowy forms flitted to and fro between the official tent and +the lights beginning to twinkle at brigade headquarters across the wide +roadway. An orderly scratched at the tent flap, but got no answer. The +lone occupant sat well back in the gloomy interior and could barely be +distinguished. The waiting soldier hesitated a moment, then entered and +stamped once upon the wooden floor, then turned and noiselessly stepped +out, for, anticipating his question, the general spoke: + +"No light just yet, orderly. I'll call you--in a moment. Just close the +tent." + +At his hand, he needed no light to find it, lay a little packet that had +been passed in to him with the mail while the council was still in +session. It was stoutly wrapped, tightly corded, and profusely sealed, +but with the sharp point of an eraser the general slit the fastenings, +tore off the wrapper, and felt rather than saw, that a bundle of letters, +rolled in tissue paper and tied with ribbon, ribbon long since faded and +wrinkled, lay within. This he carefully placed in a large-sized military +letter envelope, moistened and pressed tight the gummed flap, stowed it +in the inner pocket of the overcoat that hung at the rear tent pole, +reduced the wrapper and its superscription to minute fragments, and +dropped them into the waste-basket, all as carefully and methodically as +though life knew neither hurry nor worry; then bowed his lined face in +both hands a moment in utter silence and in unmistakable sadness. +Presently his lips moved: "Can you look down and see that I have kept my +word, Agnes?" he murmured. "God help me to find him and save him--yet." + +Once again the laughter, the gay young voices, rang from the other tent. +All over camp, far and near, from the limits of the park to the very +slope of the height at the north, the evening bugles were calling by +thousands the thronging soldiery to mess or roll call. Slowly the General +rose, drew on his overcoat, and in another moment, under the sloping +visor of his forage-cap, with eyes that twinkled behind their glasses, +with a genial smile softening every feature, his fine soldierly face +peered in on the scene of light, of merriment and laughter under the +canvas roof of the only home he knew in the world--the soldier home of +one whose life had been spent following the flag through bivouac, camp or +garrison, through many a march, battle and campaign all over the broad +lands of the United States until now, at the hour when most men turned +for the placid joys of the fireside, the love of devoted and faithful +wife, the homage and affection of children, the prattle and playful +sports of children's children--homeless, wifeless, childless he stood at +the border of the boundless sea, soldier duty pointing the way to far +distant, unknown and undesired regions, content to follow that flag to +the end of the world, if need be, and owning no higher hope or ambition +than to uphold it to the end of his life. + +There was nothing in such a face as his to put a check to fun and +merriment, yet, all on a sudden, the laughter died away. Three young +gallants in soldier garb sprang to their feet and faced him with appeal +and explanation in their speaking eyes, although only one of their number +found his tongue in time to put the matter into words. There were only +two girls when the general left that tent to meet his officers at four +o'clock, and now there were four, and the four were having five-o'clock +tea. + +At least any one would have said they were four blithe girls, innocent of +graver responsibilities than social calls and dinner or dance +engagements, for never looked four young women so free from the cares of +this world as did those who were picturesquely grouped about the +General's camp table and under the brilliant reflector of the General's +lamp, but the plain gold circlet on the slender finger of the merriest +and noisiest and smallest of the four, and the fact that she had nothing +to say to the elder of the three attendant officers except in the brief, +indifferent tones of assured proprietorship, and very much to say to the +others, told a different story. The General's manner lost none of its +kindness, even though a close observer would have seen that his face lost +a little of its light as he recognized in the evident leader of the +revels and mistress of the situation the wife of his senior aide-de-camp. +An hour before he thought her a thousand miles away--and so did her +husband. + +"Bless your dear old heart!" exclaimed the little lady, springing to her +feet, facing him with indomitable smiles and thrusting forward two +slender, white, bejeweled hands. "No--don't say you disapprove! Don't +scold! Don't do anything but sit right down here and have a cup of your +own delicious tea--(Frank, some boiling water)--that no one makes for you +as I do--you've owned it many a time. And then we're all going in to the +Palace for dinner and then to the theatre, and I'll tell you all about it +between the courses or between the acts. Oh, you poor dear! I ought to +have come before--you've been working yourself to death!" + +And by this time, resolutely pulling, she had towed the General to a +chair, and into this, his favorite leather-armed, canvas-backed, +hickory-framed companion of many a year, she deftly dropped him and then, +giving him no chance for a word, gayly pirouetting, she seized one after +another upon each member of the party present--an accomplished little +mistress of ceremonies encased in a tailor-made traveling suit that +rendered her proof against a dozen minor ills, so beautifully was it cut +and fitted to her pretty figure--and, with inexhaustible flow of merry +words, presented her or him to the veteran in the chair: + +"This, my honored General, first and foremost, is Miss Mildred Prime, +daughter of a thousand earls is she, yet one _vastly_ to be desired, +though I say it who should not, for she hails from New York, which is +enough to make me hate her, whereas we've just sworn an eternal +friendship. You've only casually met her and her folks before, but _I_ +can tell you all about them. You should have put Frank at the head of +your Intelligence Bureau, General. _He'd_ never find out anything, but +_I_ would. We came on the same train together all the way from Ogden." + +A tall, dark-eyed, dark-haired, oval-faced girl, coloring slightly in +evident embarassment over these odd army ways, courtesied smilingly to +the General and seemed to be pleading dumbly for clemency if there had +been transgression. + +"This," hurried on the voluble little woman, seizing another feminine +wrist, "is Miss Cherry Langton--Cherry Ripe we call her at home this +summer, the dearest girl that ever lived except myself, and one you'll +simply delight in--as you do in me--when you get to know her. She is, as +you have often been told and have probably forgotten, the only +good-looking member of Frank's family--his first cousin. She was moping +her heart out after all the nice young men in Denver went to the wars, +and withering on the stem until I told her she should go too, when she +blossomed and blushed with joy as you see her now, sir. Cherry, make your +manners." Cherry, whose name well described her, was only waiting for a +chance, laughing the while at the merry flow of her chaperon's words, +and, at the first break, stepped quickly forward and placed her hand +frankly in the outstretched palm of her host, then glanced eagerly over +her shoulder as though she would say: "But you must see _her_," and her +bright eyes sought and found the fourth feminine member of the group. + +"And this," said Mrs. Frank Garrison, bravely, yet with a trifle less +confidence of manner, with indeed a faint symptom of hesitancy, "is Miss +Amy Lawrence," and in extending her little hand to take that of the most +retiring of the three girls, only the finger tips and thumb seemed to +touch. Miss Lawrence came quickly forward, and waiting for no +description, bowed with quiet grace and dignity to the chief and, smiling +a bit gravely, said: + +"Uncle left word that he would soon return, General, but he has been gone +with Colonel Armstrong nearly an hour. I hope we have not taken too great +a liberty," and her glance turned to the substantial tea service on the +rude camp table. + +"Oh, _I'm_ responsible for that--and for any and every iniquity here +committed, solely because I know our General too well to believe he would +allow famishing damsels to faint for lack of sustenance." It was Mrs. +Garrison, of course, who spoke. "I simply set Frank and his fellows to +work, with the result that tea and biscuit, light and warmth, mirth and +merriment, faith, hope and charity sprang up like magic in this gloomy old +tent, and here we are still. Now, say you're glad I came, General, for +these stupid boys--Oh! I quite forgot! Let me present the slaves of the +lamp--the spirit lamp, General. Frank you know--too well, I dare say. +Stand forth, vassal Number Two. This, General, is Captain Schuyler, a mite +of a man physically--a Gothamite, in fact--but a tower of wit and wisdom +when permitted to speak." (A diminutive youngster, with a head twice too +big for his body, and a world of fun in his sparkling eyes, bowed +elaborately to his commanding general, but prudently held his peace.) +"Captain Schuyler, my dear General, meekly bears the crescent of the +subsistence department on his beautifully high and unquestionably New +York-made collars. He hasn't an idea on the subject of supplies except +that commissary cigars are bad, but his senator said he had to have +something and that's what he got. He'd rather be second lieutenant of +regular infantry any day, but that was too high for him. _Here's_ a youth +it fits to a 't'--Mr. William Gray of the --teenth Foot, whom I knew years +ago when we were kids in the same camp, and whose best claim to your +notice is that you knew his father. He says so, and hopes you'll forgive +all his budding iniquities on the strength of it." The General nodded with +a grin at the youngster who stood at Miss Lawrence's left, and then held +up his hand for silence, shutting off further presentations. + +"I'll forgive anything but more chatter," said he, with a placid smile, +"provided you give me some tea at once. Then I should be glad to know how +you all happened to meet here." + +"My doing entirely, General. (Frank, another cup--quick!) Cherry came +with me to surprise my husband--an easy thing to do--I'm always doing it. +We found him here, by your orders, striving to entertain these two +charming damsels--the last thing on earth he is capable of doing, however +valuable he may be with orders and correspondence. _I_ heard Mr. Prime's +story and at once suggested Colonel Armstrong. _I_ heard Miss Lawrence +exclaim at sight of Billy here, and saw a case of old acquaintance and +sent for him forthwith. So easy to say: 'The adjutant-general's +compliments'--_I_ found that, after all, they had never met, but Miss +Lawrence had seen him at the head of some famous student company. _I_ it +was who presented him to her, and summoned Captain Schuyler to meet once +more his fellow-citizens, the Primes. _I_ it was who ordered lamps, fire +and the tea things. _I_ am the good fairy who wrought the transformation. +Behold me with my wand!" + +She seized Miss Langton's slender umbrella and, waving it over her curly +little head, pirouetted again in triumphant gayety. + +The General was thoughtfully sipping his tea and studying her as she +chattered and danced. When she paused a moment for breath he again held +up his hand. + +"Colonel Armstrong went with Mr. Prime, did he?" + +"With every assurance that the prodigal should be produced forthwith and +restored to the paternal bosom," declaimed Mrs. Garrison melodramatically, +and would have ranted on, never noting the flush of pain and embarrassment +that almost instantly appeared in the faces of Miss Lawrence and her +dark-eyed Eastern cousin, nor seeing the warning in her husband's eyes, +but at the moment the tent flap was thrown back and held open to admit a +tall, gray-haired civilian whose silk hat was uplifted as he entered, in +courteous recognition of the group, despite the distress that was betrayed +in the pallor of his face and the instant glance of his dark eyes toward +the slender girl, who stepped eagerly forward. Mrs. Garrison, turning +quickly, saw, and with swift, agile movement, sprang to one side. The +General slowly struggled up from his easy-chair. Reaching her father's +side, Miss Prime laid her hand upon his arm, looking fondly and anxiously +into his face. + +A soldierly, middle-aged officer, in dripping forage cap and rain coat, +stepped quickly in and lowered the flap. "Did you find him, father?" was +Miss Prime's low-toned, faltering question. + +"We found--the soldier referred to; Colonel Armstrong has been most kind; +but--it wasn't your brother at all, my child." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +A day had dawned on the Presidio Heights as brilliant as its predecessor +had been dismal. A soft south wind had swept the fogs of the Pacific far +out to sea and cleared the summer sky of every wisp of vapor. The sun of +early August shone hot and strong upon the sandy wastes between the +westward limits of the division camps and the foamy strand beneath the +low bluffs, and beat upon the canvas homes of the rejoicing soldiery, +slacking cloth and cordage so that the trim tent lines had become broken +and jagged, thereby setting the teeth of "Old Squeers" on edge, as he +gazed grimly from under the brim of his unsightly felt hat and called for +his one faithful henchman, the orderly. Even his adjutant could not +condone the regimental commander's objectionable traits, for a crustier +old villain of a veteran lived not in the line of the army. "Ould Canker" +the troopers had dubbed him during the few years he had served in the +cavalry, transplanted from a foot regiment at the time of the +reorganization, so-called, of the army in '71; but a few years of mounted +duty in Arizona and later in the Sioux country had sickened him of +cavalry life and he gladly accepted a chance to transfer back to the +infantry. Now, twenty years after, risen by degrees to the grade of +lieutenant-colonel, he found himself in command of a famous old regiment +of regulars, whose colonel had donned the stars of a general officer of +volunteers, and the pet name--save the mark--of cavalry days had given +place to the unflattering _sobriquet_ derived from that horror of boyish +readers--the ill-favored schoolmaster of Dotheboys Hall. He had come to +the --teenth with a halo of condemnation from the regiment in which he +had served as major and won his baleful name, and "the boys" of his new +command soon learned to like him even less than those who had dubbed him +"Squeers," because, as they explained, there wasn't any privilege or +pleasure he would not "do the boys" out of if he possibly could. Gordon +had promptly tendered his resignation as regimental adjutant when his +beloved colonel left the post to report for duty in the army destined for +Cuba, but Lieutenant-Colonel Canker declined to accept it, and fairly +told Gordon that, as he hadn't a friend among the subalterns, there was +no one else to take it. Then, too, the colonel himself wrote a word or +two and settled the matter. + +A big review had been ordered for the morning. An entire brigade of +sturdy volunteers was already forming and marching out by battalions to +their regimental parades, the men showing in their easy stride and +elastic carriage the effects of two months' hard drill and gradually +increasing discipline. The regulars were still out in the park, hidden by +the dense foliage and busy with their company drills. The adjutant and +clerk were at their papers in the big office tent, and only the sentries, +the sick and the special duty men remained about the body of camp. There +was no one, said Private Noonan to himself, as he paced the pathway in +front of the colonel's tent, after having scrupulously saluted him on his +appearance, "No wan fur the ould man to whack at, barrin' it's me," but +even Canker could find nothing to "whack at" in this veteran soldier who +had served in the ranks since the days of the great war and had borne the +messages of such men as Sheridan, Thomas and McPherson when Canker +himself was sweating under his knapsack and musket. Like most men, even +most objectionable men, Canker had some redeeming features, and that was +one of them--he had been a private soldier, and a brave one, too, and was +proud of it. + +But life had little sunshine in it for one of his warped, ill-conditioned +nature. There was a profound conviction in the minds of the company +officers that the mere sight of happiness or content in the face of a +subordinate was more than enough to set Canker's wits to work to wipe it +out. There was no doubt whatever in the minds of the subalterns that the +main reason why Squeers was so manifestly "down on" Billy Gray was the +almost indestructible expression of good nature, jollity and enthusiasm +that had shown in the little fellow's face ever since he joined the +regiment. "If we call the old man Squeers we should dub Billy Mark +Tapley," said Gordon one day, when the lad had laughed off the effect of +an unusually acrimonious rasping over a trivial error in the Guard Report +book. "He's no end kind when a fellow's in a fix," said Gray, in +explanation, "and all the time he was soaking me I was thinking how he +stood by Jimmy Carson in _his_ scrape"--a serious scrape it was, too, for +young Carson, detailed to escort certain prisoners to Alcatraz and +intrusted with certain funds to be turned over to the chief quartermaster +of the department, had unaccountably fallen into a deep sleep aboard the +train and awoke to find both funds and prisoners gone. Explanations were +useless. The commanding general would listen to no excuse; a +court-martial was ordered, and a very worthy young officer's military +career seemed about to close under a cloud, when "Old Canker" threw +himself into the breach. He had long suspected the sergeant who had +accompanied the party in immediate command of the little guard. He hated +the commanding general with all his soul, and, how it came about no one +could thoroughly explain, but one day Canker turned up with indubitable +proof that the sergeant was the thief--that he was bribed to bring about +the escape of the prisoners, and that he had drugged the fresh spring +water he brought in to the young officer after the burning heat of the +desert was left behind in the dead of the summer night. Canker even +recovered most of the stolen money, for there was a woman in the case, +and she had safely stowed it away. Carson was cleared and Canker +triumphant. "See what the man can do when his sense of justice is +aroused," said the optimists of the army. "Justice be blowed," answered +the cynics. "He never would have raised his finger to help Carson but for +the joy of proving the General unjust, and a regimental pet--the +sergeant--a thief." + +Yet Gray reverted to this episode as explanation of his tolerance of +Canker's harshness and thereby gave rise to a rejoinder from the lips of +a veteran company commander that many a fellow was destined to recall +before the regiment was two months older: + +"In order to settle it, somebody's got to find his life or his commission +in jeopardy. Maybe it'll be you, Billy, and I'm betting _you_ won't find +Squeers a guardian angel." + +Yet on this sunshiny summer morning, with hope and sunshine and +confidence in his handsome, boyish face, Lieutenant Gray came bounding up +to the presence of the regimental commander as though that sour-visaged +soldier were an indulgent uncle who could not say him nay. A stylish open +carriage in which were seated two remarkably pretty girls and a +gray-haired, slender gentleman, had reined up in the street opposite the +entrance to the row of officers' tents and Canker had ripped out his +watch, with an ugly frown on his forehead, for three of his companies had +just marched in from drill, and three of their young lieutenants, on the +instant of dismissal, had made straight for the vehicle and he half-hoped +to find they had lopped off a minute or so of the allotted hour. The +sound of merry laughter seemed to grate on his ears. The sight of Gray's +beaming face seemed to deepen the gloom in his own. Instinctively he knew +the youngster had come to ask a favor and he stood ready to refuse. + +"Colonel, I'd like mightily to go over and see that review this morning, +sir; and Mr. Prime is good enough to offer me a seat in his carriage. May +I go, sir?" + +"You can't go anywhere, sir, with the tents of your company in that +disgraceful condition. Just look at them, sir,--as ragged as a wash line +on a windy day!" And Canker scowled angrily at the young fellow standing +squarely at attention before him. + +"I know that, colonel, but the sun did that while we were out at drill, +and the men will straighten everything in ten minutes. I'll give the +order now, sir." And Billy looked as though refusal were out of the +question. + +"You'll stay and see it done, sir, and _when_ it's done--to my +satisfaction--will be time enough to ask for favors. Mr. Gordon, send +word to the company commanders I wish to see them here at once," +continued the senior officer, whirling on his heel and terminating the +interview by so doing. It was in Gray's mind for a brief minute to follow +and plead. He had made it tell many a time with an obstinate university +Don, but he knew the carriage was waiting--the carriage load watching, +and deep down in his heart there was keen disappointment. He would have +given a big slice of his monthly pay to go with that particular party, +occupy the seat opposite Amy Lawrence and gaze his fill at her fair face. +He well-nigh hated Squeers as he hurried away to hail his first sergeant +and give the necessary orders before daring to return to the carriage and +report his failure. His bright blue eyes were clouded and his face +flushed with vexation, for he saw that the rearmost regiment was even now +filing into the Presidio Reservation afar off to the north, and that no +time was to be lost if his friends were to see the review. The distant +measured boom of guns told that the General in whose honor the ceremony +was ordered was already approaching the appointed spot, and away over the +rolling uplands toward the Golden Gate a cavalry escort rode into view. +Billy ground his teeth. "Run and tell them I cannot get leave," he called +to a fellow sub. "Squeers has set me to work straightening up camp. Turn +out the company, sergeant! Brace the tent cords and align tents," and a +mournful wave of his forage cap was the only greeting he dare trust +himself to give, as after a few minutes of fruitless waiting the vacant +seat was given to another officer and the carriage rolled rapidly away. A +second or two it was hidden from his sight behind the large wall tents +along the line of fence, then shot into full view again as he stood at +the end of the company street looking eagerly for its reappearance. And +then occurred a little thing that was destined to live in his memory for +many a day, and that thrilled him with a new and strange delight. He had +never been of the so-called "spooney" set at the 'Varsity. Pretty girls +galore there were about that famous institute, and he had danced at many +a student party and romped through many a reel, but the nearest he had +ever come to something more than a mere jolly friendship for a girl was +the regard in which he held his partner in the "Mixed Doubles," but that +was all on account of her exuberant health, spirits, general comeliness +of face and form, and exquisite skill in tennis. But this day a new and +eager longing was eating at his heart; a strange, dull pang seemed to +seize upon it as he noted in a flash that the seat that was to have been +his was occupied by an officer many years his senior, a man he knew only +by sight and an enviable reputation, a man whose soldierly, clear-cut +face never turned an instant, for his eyes were fixed upon a lovely +picture on the opposite seat--Amy Lawrence bending eagerly forward and +gazing with her beautiful eyes alight with sympathy, interest and frank +liking in search of the sorely disappointed young officer. "There he is!" +she cried, though too far away for him to hear, and then, with no more +thought of coquetry than a kitten, with no more motive in the world than +that of conveying to him an idea of her sorrow, her sympathy, her perhaps +pardonable and exaggerated indignation at what she deemed an act of +tyranny on part of his commander, with only an instant in which to +express it all--her sweet face flushed, her eyes flamed with the light of +her girlish enthusiasm and in that instant she had kissed her hand to +him. Colonel Armstrong, turning suddenly and sharply to see who could be +the object of interest so absorbing, caught one flitting glimpse of Billy +Gray lifting his cap in quick acknowledgment, and the words that were on +the tip of Armstrong's tongue the moment before were withheld for a more +auspicious occasion--and it did not come too soon. + +It was only four days after that initial meeting in the General's tent +the foggy evening of the girl's first visit to camp, but both in town and +on the tented field there had been several young ladies. Junior officers +had monopolized the time and attention of the latter, but Armstrong was a +close observer and a man who loved all that was strong, high-minded and +true in his own sex, and that was pure and sweet and winsome in woman. A +keen soldier, he had spent many years in active service, most of them in +the hardy, eventful and vigorous life of the Indian frontier. He had been +conspicuous in more than one stirring campaign against the red warriors +of the plains, had won his medal of honor before his first promotion, and +his captaincy by brevet for daring conduct in action long antedated the +right to wear the double bars of that grade. He had seen much of the +world, at home and abroad; had traveled much, read much, thought much, +but these were things of less concern to many a woman in our much married +army than the question as to whether he had ever loved much. Certain it +was he had never married, but _that_ didn't settle it. Many a man loves, +said they, without getting married, forgetful of the other side of the +preposition advanced by horrid regimental cynics, that many men marry +without getting loved. Armstrong would not have proved an easy man to +question on that, or indeed on any other subject which he considered +personal to himself. Even in his own regiment in the regular service he +had long been looked upon as an exclusive sort of fellow--a man who had +no intimates and not many companions, yet, officers and soldiers, he held +the respect and esteem of the entire command, even of those whom he kept +at a distance, and few are the regiments in which there are not one or +two characters who are best seen and studied through a binocular. Without +being sympathetic, said his critics, Armstrong was "square," but his +critics had scant means of knowing whether he was sympathetic or not. He +was a steadfast fellow, an unswerving, uncompromising sort of man, a man +who would never have done for a diplomat, and could never have been +elected to office. But he was truthful, just, and as the English officer +reluctantly said of Lucan, whom he hated, "Yes--damn him--he's brave." +The men whom he did not seem to like in the army and who disliked him +accordingly, were compelled to admit, to themselves at least, that their +reasons were comprised in the above-recorded, regretable, but +unmistakable fact--he didn't like them. Another trait, unpopular, was +that he knew when and how to say no. He smoked too much, perhaps, and +talked too little for those who would use his words as witnesses against +him. He never gambled, he rarely drank, he never lent nor borrowed. He +was a bachelor, yet would never join a "mess" but kept house himself and +usually had some favored comrade living with him. He was forty and did +not look thirty-five. He was tall, erect, athletic, hardy and graceful in +build, and his face was one of the best to be seen in many a line of +officers at parade. His eyes were steel-gray and clear and penetrating, +his features clear-cut, almost _too_ delicately cut, thought some of the +best friends he had among the men. His hair was brown, sprinkled +liberally with silver; his mouth, an admirable mouth in every way, was +shaded and half-hidden by a long, drooping mustache to which, some men +thought and some women said, his tapering white fingers paid too much +attention, but I doubt if a knowledge of this criticism would have led to +the faintest alteration in the habit. Generally the expression of +Armstrong's face was grave, and, on duty, a trifle stern; and not ten +people in the world were aware what humor could twinkle in the clear, +keen eyes, or twitch about the corners of that mobile mouth. There were +not five who knew the tenderness that lay in hiding there, for Armstrong +had few living kindred and they were men. There lived not, as he drove +this glorious August morning to the breezy uplands beyond the camps, one +woman who could say she had seen those eyes of Armstrong's melt and glow +with love. As for Amy Lawrence, she was not dreaming of such a thing. She +was not even looking at him. Her thoughts at the moment were drifting +back to that usually light-hearted boy who stood gazing so disconsolately +after them as they drove away, her eyes were intent upon an approaching +group that presently reclaimed her wandering thoughts. + +Coming up Point Lobos Avenue strode a party of four--all soldiers. One of +these, wild-eyed, bareheaded, dishevelled, his clothing torn, his wrists +lashed behind him, walked between two armed guards. The fourth, a +sergeant, followed at their heels. Miss Lawrence had just time to note +that the downcast face was dark and oval and refined, when it was +suddenly uplifted at sound of the whirring carriage wheels. A light of +recognition, almost of terror, flashed across it, and with one bound the +prisoner sprang from between his guards, dove almost under the noses of +the startled team, and darted through the wide-open doorway of a corner +saloon. He was out of sight in a second. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +The review that morning had drawn a crowd to the drill grounds that +baffled the efforts of the guards. Carriages from camps and carriages +from town, carts from the suburbs, equestrians from the parks and +pedestrians from everywhere had gradually encroached within kicking +distance of the heels of the cavalry escorting the general commanding the +department, and that official noted with unerring eye that the populace +was coming up on his flanks, so to speak, at the moment when the +etiquette of the service required that he should be gazing only to his +immediate front and responding to the salutes of the marching column. +Back of him, ranged in long, single rank, was drawn up what the +newspapers unanimously described as a "brilliant" staff, despite the fact +that all were in sombre campaign uniform and several had never been so +rated before. In their rear, in turn, was the line of mounted orderlies +and farther still the silent rank of the escorting troop. Sentries had +been posted to keep the throng at proper distance, but double their force +could have accomplished nothing--the omniscient corporal could not help +them, and after asking one or two stray officers what they would do about +it, the sentries gave way and the crowd swarmed in. It was just as the +head of the long tramping column came opposite the reviewing point, and +the brigade commander and his staff, turning out after saluting, found +their allotted station on the right of the reviewing party completely +taken up by the mass of eager spectators. A minute or so was required +before the trouble could be remedied, for, just as the officers and +orderlies were endeavoring to induce the populace to give way--a thing +the American always resists with a gay good humor that is peculiarly his +own--a nervous hack driver on the outskirts backed his bulky trap with +unexpected force, and penned between it and the wheels of a newly-arrived +and much more presentable equipage a fair equestrian who shrieked with +fright and clung to her pommel as her excited "mount" lashed out with his +heels and made splinters of the hack's rearmost spokes and felloes. Down +went the hack on its axle point. Out sprang a tall officer from the open +carriage, and in a second, it seemed, transferred the panic-stricken +horsewoman from the seismatic saddle to the safety of his own seat and +the ministrations of the two young women and the gray haired civilian who +were the latest arrivals. This done, and after one quick glance at the +lady's helpless escort, a young officer from the Presidio, he shouldered +his way through the crowd and stood, presently, on its inner edge, an +unperturbed and most interested spectator. Battalion after battalion, in +heavy marching order, in the dark-blue service dress, with campaign hats +and leggings, with ranks well closed and long, well-aligned fronts, with +accurate trace of the guides and well-judged distance, the great +regiments came striding down the gentle slope, conscious, every officer +and man, of the admiration they commanded. Armstrong, himself commander +of a fine regiment of volunteers in another brigade, looked upon them +with a soldier's eye, and looked approvingly. Then, as the rearmost +company passed the reviewing point and gentlemen with two stars on each +shoulder extended their congratulations to the reviewed commander with +one, Armstrong also made his way among the mounted officers in his calm, +deliberate fashion, heedless of threatening heels and crowding forehands, +until he, too, could say his word of cordial greeting. He had to wait a +few minutes, for the general officers were grouped and talking earnestly. +He heard a few words and knew well enough what was meant--that quantities +of stores intended for the soldiers--even dainties contributed by the Red +Cross Society--had been stolen from time to time and spirited off in the +dead of night, and doubtless sold in town for the benefit of a pack of +unknown scoundrels enlisted for no better purpose. In his own regiment +his system had been so strict that no loss was discoverable, but in +certain others the deficit was great. Complaints were loud, and the camp +commander, stung possibly by comments from the city, had urged his +officers to unusual effort, and had promised punishment to the extent of +the law on the guilty parties whenever or wherever found. + +Even as he was exchanging a word with the brigadier, Armstrong heard the +exclamation: "By Jove--they've caught another!" for with a grim smile of +gratification the camp commander had read and turned over to his +adjutant-general a brief dispatch just handed him by a mounted orderly +who had galloped part. + +"One of _your_ irreproachables, Armstrong," said one of the staff, with +something half-sneer, half-taunt as he too read and then passed the paper +to the judge-advocate of the division. + +Armstrong turned with his usual deliberation. There was ever about him a +quiet dignity of manner that was the delight of his friends and despair +of his foes. + +"What is his name?" he calmly asked. + +"One of those society swells of whom you have so many," was the reply. + +"That does not give his name--nor identify him as one of my men," said +Armstrong coolly. + +"Oh, well, I didn't say he belonged to your command," was the staff +officer's response, "but one of the kid-glove crowd that's got into the +ranks." + +"If you mean the recruits in the --teenth Infantry, I should be slow to +suspect them of any crime," said Armstrong, with something almost like a +drawl, so slow and deliberate was his manner, and now the steel-gray eyes +and the fair, clear-cut face were turned straight upon the snapping eyes +and dark features of the other. There was no love lost _there_. One could +tell without so much as seeing. + +"You're off, then! That commissary-sergeant caught one of 'em in the +act--he got wind of it and skipped, and to-day came back in handcuffs." + +"All of which may be as you say," answered Armstrong, "and still not +warrant your reference to him as one of my irreproachables." + +By this time much of the crowd and most of the vehicles had driven away. +The generals still sat in saddle chatting earnestly together, while their +staff officers listened in some impatience to the conversation just +recorded. Everybody knew the fault was not Armstrong's, but it was +jarring to have to sit and hearken to the controversy. "Don't ever twit +or try funny business with Armstrong," once said a regimental sage. "He +has no sense of humor--of that kind." Those who best knew him knew that +Armstrong never tolerated unjust accusations, great or small. In his +desire to say an irritating thing to a man he both envied and respected, +the staff officer had not confined himself to facts, and it proved a +boomerang. + +And now, Armstrong's eyes had lighted for an instant on the alleged +culprit. Seated opposite Miss Lawrence as the carriage whirled across +Point Lobos Avenue, and watching her unobtrusively, he saw the sudden +light of alarm and excitement in her expressive face, heard the faint +exclamation as her gloved hand grasped the rail of the seat, felt the +quick sway of the vehicle as the horses shied in fright at some object +beyond his vision. Then as they dashed on he had seen the running guard +and, just vanishing within the portals of the corner building, the slim +figure of the escaping prisoner. He saw the quivering hands tearing at +their fastenings. He turned to the driver and bade him stop a minute, but +it took fifty yards of effort before the spirited horses could be calmed +and brought to a halt at the curb. To the startled inquiries of Mr. Prime +and his daughter as to the cause of the excitement and the running and +shouting he answered simply: "A prisoner escaped, I think," and sent a +passing corporal to inquire the result. The man came back in a minute. + +"They got him easy, sir. He had no show. His hands were tied behind his +back and he couldn't climb," was the brief report. + +"They have not hurt him, I hope," said Armstrong. + +"No, sir. He hurt them--one of 'em, at least, before he'd surrender when +they nabbed him in town. This time he submitted all right--said he only +ran in for a glass of beer, and was laughing-like when I got there." + +"Very well. That'll do. Go on, driver. We haven't a minute to lose if we +are to see the review," he continued, as he stepped lightly to his seat. + +"I saw nothing of this affair," said Miss Prime. "What was it all about?" + +"Nor could I see," added her father. "I heard shouts and after we passed +saw the guard, but no fugitive." + +"It is just as well--indeed I'm glad you didn't, uncle," answered Miss +Lawrence, turning even as she spoke and gazing wistfully back. "He looked +so young, and seemed so desperate, and had such a--I don't know--_hunted_ +look on his face--poor fellow." + +And then the carriage reached the entrance to the reservation and the +subject, and the second object of Miss Lawrence's sympathies, evoked that +day, were for the time forgotten. Possibly Mrs. Garrison was partly +responsible for this for, hardly had they rounded the bend in the road +that brought them in full view, from the left, or southern flank, of the +long line of masses in which the brigade was formed, than there came +cantering up to them, all gay good humor, all smiles and saucy coquetry, +their hostess of the evening at the General's tent. She was mounted on a +sorry-looking horse, but the "habit" was a triumph of art, and it well +became her slender, rounded figure. + +No one who really analyzed Mrs. Frank Garrison's features could say that +she was a pretty woman. No one who looked merely at the general effect +when she was out for conquest could deny it. Colonel Armstrong, placidly +observant as usual, was quick to note the glances that shot between the +cousins on the rear seat as the little lady came blithely alongside. He +knew her, and saw that they were beginning to be as wise as he, for the +smiles with which they greeted her were but wintry reflections of those +that beamed upon her radiant face. Prime, paterfamilias, bent cordially +forward in welcome, but her quick eyes had recognized the fourth occupant +by this time, and there was a little less of assurance in her manner from +that instant. "How _per_fectly delicious!" she cried. "I feared from what +you said yesterday you weren't coming, and so I never ordered the +carriage, but came out in saddle--I can't say on _horse_back with such a +wreck as this, but every decent horse in the Presidio had to go out with +the generals and staffs, you know, and I had to take what I could +get--both horse and escort," she added, in confidential tone. "Oh!--May I +present Mr. Ellis? He knows you all by name already." The youth in +attendance and a McClellan tree two sizes too big for him, lifted his cap +and strove to smile; he had ridden nothing harder than a park hack before +that day. "Frank says I talk of nothing else. But--where's Mr. Gray? +Surely I thought _he_ would be with you." This for Armstrong's benefit in +case he were in the least interested in either damsel. + +"Mr. Gray was detained by some duties in camp," explained Miss Prime, +with just a trace of reserve that was lost upon neither their new +companion nor the colonel. It settled a matter the placid officer was +revolving in his mind. + +"Pardon us, Mrs. Garrison," he said briefly. "We must hurry. Go on, +driver." + +"Oh, _I_ can keep up," was the indomitable answer, "even on this +creature." And Mrs. Garrison proved her words by whipping her steed into +a lunging canter and, sitting him admirably, rode gallantly alongside, +and just where Mr. Prime could not but see and admire since Colonel +Armstrong would not look at all. He had entered into an explanation of +the ceremony by that time well under way, and Miss Lawrence's great soft +brown eyes were fixed upon him attentively when, perhaps, she should have +been gazing at the maneuvers. Like those latter, possibly, her thoughts +were "changing direction." + +Not ten minutes later occurred the collision between the hack and the +heels that resulted in the demolition of one and "demoralization" of the +rider of the victor. While the latter was led away by the obedient Mr. +Ellis lest the sight of him should bring on another nervous attack, Mrs. +Garrison was suffering herself to be comforted. Her nerves were gone, but +she had not lost her head. Lots of Presidio dames and damsels were up on +the heights that day in such vehicles as the post afforded. None appeared +in anything so stylish and elegant as the carriage of the Prime party. +She was a new and comparative stranger there, and it would vastly enhance +her social _prestige_, she argued, to be seen in such "swell" +surroundings. With a little tact and management she might even arrange +matters so that, willy nilly, her friends would drive her home instead of +taking Colonel Armstrong back to camp. That would be a stroke worth +playing. She owed Stanley Armstrong a bitter grudge, and had nursed it +long. She had known him ten years and hated him nine of them. Where they +met and when it really matters not. In the army people meet and part in a +hundred places when they never expected to meet again. She had married +Frank Garrison in a hand gallop, said the garrison chronicles, "before +she had known him two months," said the men, "before he knew her at all," +said the women. She was four years his senior, if the chaplain could be +believed and five months his junior if _she_ could. Whatever might have +been the discrepancy in their ages at the time of the ceremony no one +would suspect the truth who saw them now. It was he who looked aged and +careworn and harassed, and she who preserved her youthful bloom and +vivacity. + +And now, as she reclined as though still too weak and shaken to leave the +carriage and return to saddle, her quick wits were planning the scheme +that should result in _her_ retaining, and his losing the coveted seat. +There was little time to lose. Most of the crowd had scattered, and she +well knew that he was only waiting for her to leave before he would +return. Almost at the instant her opportunity came. A covered wagon +reined suddenly alongside and kind and sympathetic voices hailed her: "Do +let us drive you home, Mrs. Garrison; you must have been terribly +shaken." She recognized at once the wife and daughter of a prominent +officer of the post. + +"Oh, how kind you are!" she cried. "I was hoping some one would come. +Indeed, I _did_ get a little wrench." And then, as she moved, with a +sudden gasp of pain, she clasped Miss Lawrence's extended hand. + +"Indeed, you must not stir, Mrs. Garrison," said that young lady. "We +will drive you home at once." Miss Prime and her father were adding their +pleas. She looked up, smiling faintly. + +"I fear I must trouble you," she faltered. "Oh, how stupid of me! But +about Stanley Armstrong--I haven't even thanked him. Ah, well--_he_ +knows. We've been--such good friends for years--dear old fellow!" + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +There had been a morning of jubilee in the camp of the Fifth Separate +Brigade, and a row in the tents of the regulars. Up to within a fortnight +such a state of affairs would have been considered abnormal, for the +papers would have it that the former were on the verge of dissolution +through plague, pestilence and famine due to the neglect of officials +vaguely referred to as "the military authorities," or "the staff," while, +up to the coming of Canker to command, sweet accord had reigned in the +regular brigade, and the volunteers looked on with envy. But now a great +martial magnate had praised the stalwart citizen soldiery whom he had +passed in review early in the day, and set them to shouting by the +announcement that, as reward for their hard work and assiduous drill, +they should have their heart's desire and be shipped across the seas to +far Manila. It had all been settled beforehand at headquarters. The +"chief" had known for four days that that particular command would be +selected for the next expedition, but it tickled "the boys" to have it +put that way, and the home papers would make so much of it. So there was +singing and triumph and rejoicing all along the eastern verge of a rocky, +roughly paved cross street, and rank blasphemy across the way. To the +scandal and sorrow of the --teenth Infantry some of the recent robberies +had been traced to their very doors. A commissary-sergeant had +"weakened," a cartman had "squealed," and one of the most popular and +attractive young soldiers in the whole command was now a prisoner in the +guardhouse charged with criminal knowledge of the whole affair, and of +being a large recipient of the ill-gotten money--Morton of the adjutant's +office, a private in Company "K." + +What made it worse was the allegation that several others, noncommissioned +officers and "special duty men," were mixed up in the matter, and Canker +had rasped the whole commissioned force present for duty, in his lecture +upon the subject, and had almost intimated that officers were conniving at +the concealment of the guilt of their sergeants rather than have it leak +out that the felony was committed in a company of their commanding. + +He and Gordon had had what was described as a "red-hot" row, all because +Gordon flatly declared that while _something_ was queer about the case of +the young clerk who "had money to burn," as the men said, he'd bet his +bottom dollar he wasn't a thief. Canker said such language was a +reflection on himself, as he had personally investigated the case, was +convinced Morton's guilt could be established, and had so reported to the +brigade commander in recommending trial by general court-martial. Indeed +he had made out a case against the lad even before he was arrested and +returned to camp. Gordon asked if he had seen the boy and heard his +story. Canker reddened and said he hadn't, and he didn't mean to and +didn't have to. Gordon said _he_ had--he had talked with the lad fully +and freely on his being brought to camp toward nine o'clock, and was +greatly impressed with his story--as would any one else be who heard it. +Canker reddened still more and said he wouldn't allow officers to +interview prisoners without his authority. "I'll prefer charges against +the next that does it," said he. + +And not three hours later, Mr. Billy Gray, sprawling on his camp cot, +striving to forget the sorrow of the earlier morning, and to memorize a +page of paragraphs of army regulations, was suddenly accosted by an +orderly who stood at the front of the tent, scratching at the tent +flap--the camp substitute for a ring at the bell. + +"A note for the lieutenant," said he, darting in and then darting out, +possibly fearful of question. It was a queer note: + + "I am a total stranger to you, but I wore in brighter days the + badge of the same society that was yours at the university. Three + of the fraternity are in my company--one is on guard and he urged + me to write at once to you. They know me to be a Brother Delt, even + though I dare not tell my real name. What I have to say is that the + charge against me is utterly false, as I can convince you, but + could not convince a court. I am confined at the moment of all + others in my life when it is most vitally important that I should + be free. Grant me ten minutes' interview this afternoon and if I do + not prove myself guiltless I will ask no favor--but when I _do_ + convince you, do as you would be done by. + + Yours in [Greek:D S CH], + "George Morton." + +"Well, I'll be blessed!" said Mr. Gray, as he rolled out of his gray +blanket. "Here's a state of things! Listen to this, captain," he called +to his company commander in the adjoining tent. "Here's Morton, back from +forty-eight hours' absence without leave, brought back by armed guard +after sharp resistance, charged with Lord knows what all, wants to tell +me his story and prove his innocence." + +"You let him alone," growled his senior. "Remember what Canker said, or +you'll go in arrest. What call has Morton on you, I'd like to know?" + +The lad flushed. Fraternity was a very sacred thing in the _[Greek: D S +CH]_. It was "the most exclusive crowd at the 'Varsity." Its membership +was pledged to one another by unusual ties. It was the hardest society +for a fellow to get into in any one of the seven colleges whereat it +flourished, and its mystic bonds were not shaken off with the silken gown +and "mortar board" of undergraduate days, but followed its membership +through many a maturer year. It was a society most college men might ask +to join in vain. Money, social station, influence were powerless. Not +until a student had been under observation two whole years and was +_thoroughly_ known could he hope for a "bid" to become a "Delta Sig." Not +until another six months of probation could he sport its colors, and not +until he formally withdrew from its fold, in post graduation years, could +he consider himself absolved from its mild obligations. But the boast of +the "Delta Sig" had ever been that no one of its membership had ever +turned a deaf ear to a fellow in need of aid. Who of its originators ever +dreamed of such a thing as its drifting into and becoming a factor in the +affairs of the regular army? + +No wonder Gray stood for a moment, the paper still in his hands, +irresolute, even disturbed. Not to answer the appeal meant to run counter +to all the tenets of his fraternity. To answer might mean arrest and +court-martial for deliberate disobedience of orders. Canker had no more +mercy than an Indian. It was barely forty-eight hours since he had been +publicly warned by an experienced old captain that he would find no +"guardian angel" in Squeers. It would seriously mar his prospects to +start now with Squeers "down on him," and as that lynx-eyed commander was +ever on watch for infractions of orders, Billy well knew that he could +not hope to see and talk with the prisoner and Canker not hear of it. To +ask permission of Canker would only make matters worse--he was sure to +refuse and then re-emphasize his orders and redouble his vigilance. To +ask the consent of the officer-of the-day or the connivance of the +officer-of-the-guard was to invite them to court arrest and trial on +their own account. He couldn't do that even to oblige a brother Delt. If +only Ned Craven were officer-of-the-guard something might be done--he was +a college man, too, and though not a "Delt," but rather of a rival set, +he "would understand" and possibly help. Guard mount was held toward dusk +and that was four hours away, at least. The prisoner's note and tone were +urgent. An idea occurred to Billy: What if he could get Gordon to let +_him_ "go on" this very evening? It wasn't his tour. He had "marched off" +only two days before as he well remembered, for Canker had "roughed" him +up and down about that little error in copying the list of prisoners from +the report of the previous day. Moreover, he had counted on going to town +right after "retreat," dining at the Palace, an extravagance not to be +thought of at other times, so as to be on hand when the Primes and Amy +Lawrence came down to dinner. He had planned it all--even to the amount +of surprise he was to exhibit when he should discover about when he had +finished his own dinner that they were just beginning theirs, and the +extent and degree of pleasurable emotion he might venture on showing as +he hastened over to greet them, and accept their offer to be seated with +them, even if he had been so unkind as to dine beforehand _solus_ instead +of with them. He had set his heart on having a chat with Miss Lawrence as +part recompense for all he had lost that morning, and all this he was +thinking of while still fumbling over that disturbing note. Time was +getting short, too; there was no telling how much longer they might stay. +Mr. Prime had brought his only daughter all that long journey across the +continent on the assurance that the boy he loved, with whom he had +quarreled, and whom, in his anger, he had sorely rebuked, had enlisted +there in San Francisco and was serving in a regiment at the great camp +west of the city. He had come full of hope and confidence; he had found +the young soldier described, and, in his bitter disappointment, he +declared there was no resemblance to justify the report sent him by the +boy's own uncle, who vowed he had met him with comrades on the main +street of the city, that the recognition was mutual, for the boy had +darted around the first corner and escaped. His companions were scattered +by the time Mr. Lawrence returned to the spot after a brief, fruitless +search, but private detectives had taken it up and "located," as they +thought, young Prime and telegraphed the father in the distant East. + +Now, Mr. Lawrence was away on business of his own. Written assurances +that he couldn't be mistaken lost weight, and Mr. Prime, disheartened, +was merely waiting the report of an agent who thought he had traced the +boy to Tampa. In twenty-four hours he might spirit his daughter away on +another chase, and then there would be no further warrant for Miss +Lawrence's remaining in the city. She would return to her lovely home in +one of the loveliest of Californian valleys, miles away from the raw fogs +and chills of the Golden Gate, and would be no more seen among the camps. +That, said Billy Gray to himself, would take every bit of sunshine from +his life. + +All this detail, or much of it, he had learned from the fair lips of Miss +Lawrence herself, for Mr. Prime and his daughter seemed to shrink from +speaking of the matter. From the first Miss Amy had had to take the young +gentleman under her personal wing, as it were. In her desire to aid her +uncle and cousin in every way, and knowing them to be strangers to the +entire camp, she had eagerly sent for him as the first familiar or +friendly object she saw. Then when he came and was presented, and proved +to possess little interest to the careworn man and his anxious and +devoted child, it devolved upon Miss Lawrence to make much of Billy in +proportion as they made little of him, and for three days or so the +blithe young fellow seemed fairly to walk on air. Moreover, she had taken +him into the family confidences in telling him of the missing son and +brother, for both her uncle and cousin, she said, were so sensitive about +it they could not talk to any one except when actually necessary. They +had leaned, as it were, on the General and on Colonel Armstrong for a +day, and then seemed to draw away from both. They even seemed to take it +much amiss that her father _had_ to be absent when they came, though they +had sent no word, until too late, of their coming. He was on his return, +might arrive any hour, but so might they go. Now if Billy could only +discover that missing son---- + +Then came an inspiration! Penciling a brief note he gave it to a soldier +of his company and bade him take it to the guard tents. It told Morton of +the colonel's orders, issued that very day, and bade him be patient--he +hoped and believed opportunity would be afforded for an interview that +evening. Then he hunted up a subaltern of his own grade whom he knew +would probably be the detail for officer-of-the-guard that evening. +"Brooke," said he, "will you swap tours with me if Gordon's willing. I +have--I'd like mightily to exchange if it's all the same to you." + +Brooke hesitated. He had social hopes and aspirations of his own. By +"swapping" with Gray he might find himself doomed to a night in camp when +he had accepted for some pleasant function in town. + +"Thought you were keen to go in to-night--right after retreat," he +hazarded. + +"Well, I was," said Gray, pulling his drab campaign hat down over his +eyes to shut out the glare of the westering sun. "But I've got--a new +wrinkle." + +"Some bid for Friday? That's your tour, isn't it?" And Brooke began +counting on his fingers. "Wait till I look at my notebook. Friday? Why, +that's the night of the Burton's card party--thought you didn't know +them." + +"I don't," said Gray, glad enough to escape the other question. "And you +hate card parties, you know you do. It's a go, is it? I'll see Gordon at +once." And off he went, leaving Brooke to wonder why he should be so bent +on the arrangement. + +But Gordon proved an unexpected foe to the plan. "Can't be done, Billy," +said he, sententiously. "Canker watches those details like a hawk. He +hasn't forgotten you only came off two days ago, and if I were to mount +you to-night he'd mount _me_--with both feet." + +"Think there's any use in asking him?" queried the boy, tossing a +backward glance toward Canker's tent. "Not unless you're suffering for +another snub. That man loves to say 'no' as much as any girl I ever +asked, and he doesn't do it to be coaxed, either. Best leave it alone, +Billy." + +And then the unexpected happened. Into the tent with quick, impetuous +step, came the commanding officer himself, and something had occurred to +stir that gentleman to the core. His eyes were snapping, and his head was +high. + +"Mr. Gordon," said he, "here's more of this pilfering business, and now +they're beginning to find out it isn't _all_ in my camp by a damned +sight. I want that letter copied at once." Then with a glance at Gray, +who had whipped off his cap and was standing in respectful attitude, he +changed his tone from the querulous, half-treble of complaint. "What's +this you'd best leave alone?" he suddenly demanded. "There are a dozen +things you'd best leave alone and a dozen you would do well to cultivate +and study. When I was--however, I never was a lieutenant except in +war-time, when they amounted to something. I got my professional +knowledge in front of the enemy--not at any damned charity school. You're +here to ask some new indulgence, I suppose. Want to stay in town over +night and fritter away your money and the time the government pays for. +No, sir; you can't have my consent. You will be back in camp at twelve +o'clock, and stop and report your return to the officer-of-the-guard, so +that I may know the hour you come in. Who's officer-of-the-guard +to-night, Mr. Gordon?" + +"Mr. Brooke, sir." + +"Mr. Brooke! Why, I thought I told you he was to take those prisoners in +town to-morrow. He has to testify before that court in the case of +Sergeant Kelly and it saves my sending another officer and having two of +our lieutenants away from drill and hanging around the Bohemian Club. +Detail somebody else!" + +"All right, sir," answered Gordon imperturbably. "Make any odds, sir, who +is detailed?" + +Canker had turned to his desk and was tossing over the papers with +nervous hand. Gray impulsively stepped forward, his eyes kindling with +hope. It was on the tip of his tongue to launch into a proffer of his own +services for the detail, but Gordon hastily warned him back with a sweep +of the hand and a portentous scowl. + +"No. One's as bad as the other. Next thing _I_ know some of 'em will be +letting prisoners escape right under my nose, making us the laughing +stock of these damned militia volunteers." (Canker entered service in '61 +as a private in a city company that was militia to the tip of its +spike-tailed coats, but he had forgotten it.) "I want these young idlers +to understand distinctly, by George, that the first prisoner that gets +away from this post takes somebody's commission with him. D'you hear +_that_, Mr. Gray?" And Canker turned and glared at the bright blue eyes +as though he would like to blast their clear fires with the breath of his +disapprobation. "Has that young fellow, Morton, been put in irons yet?" +he suddenly asked, whirling on Gordon again. + +"Think not, sir. Supplies limited. Officer-of-the-day reported half an +hour ago every set was in use. Sent over to division quartermaster and he +answered we had a dozen more'n we were entitled to _now_. Wanted to know +'f we meant to iron the whole regiment----" + +"The hell he did!" raged Canker. "I'll settle _that_ in short order. My +horse there, orderly! I'll be back by four, Mr. Gordon. Fix that detail +to suit yourself." And so saying the irascible colonel flung himself out +of the tent and into his saddle. + +"You young idiot," said Gordon, whirling on Billy the moment the coast +was clear. "You came within an ace of ruining the whole thing. _Never_ +ask Canker for anything, unless it's what you wish to be rid of. Tell +Brooke you're for guard, and he's to go to town instead." + +"Hopping mad," as he himself afterward expressed it, Colonel Canker had +ridden over to "have it out" with the quartermaster who had ventured to +comment on his methods, but the sight of the commanding general, standing +alone at the entrance to his private tent, his pale face grayer than ever +and a world of trouble in his eyes, compelled Canker to stop short. Two +or three orderlies were on the run. Two aides-de-camp, Mr. Garrison and a +comrade were searching through desks and boxes, their faces grave and +concerned. The regimental commander was off his horse in a second. +"Anything amiss, General?" he asked, with soldierly salute. + +The General turned slowly toward him. "Can our men sell letters," he +said, "as well as food and forage? Do people _buy_ such things? A most +important package has been--stolen from my tent." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +The great thoroughfare of that wonderful city, seated on more than her +seven hills, and ruling the Western world, was thronged from curb to +curb. Gay with bunting and streamers, the tall buildings of the rival +newspapers and the long _facades_ of hotels and business blocks were +gayer still with the life and color and enthusiasm that crowded every +window. Street traffic was blocked. Cable cars clanged vainly and the +police strove valiantly. It was a day given up to but one duty and one +purpose, that of giving Godspeed to the soldiery ordered for service in +the distant Philippines, and, though they hailed from almost every +section of the Union except the Pacific slope, as though they were her +own children, with all the hope and faith and pride and patriotism, with +all the blessings and comforts with which she had loaded the foremost +ships that sailed, yet happily without the tears that flowed when her own +gallant regiment was among the first to lead the way San Francisco turned +out _en masse_ to cheer the men from far beyond the Sierras and the +Rockies, and to see them proudly through the Golden Gate. Early in the +day the guns of a famous light battery had been trundled, decked like +some rose-covered chariot at the summer festival of flowers, through the +winding lanes of eager forms and faces, the cannoneers almost dragged +from the ranks by the clasping hands of men and women who seemed +powerless to let go. With their little brown carbines tossed jauntily +over the broad blue shoulders, half a regiment of regular cavalry, +dismounted, had gone trudging down to the docks, cheered to the gateway +of the pier by thousands of citizens who seemed to envy the very recruits +who, only half-uniformed and drilled, brought up the rear of the column. +Once within the massive wooden portals, the guards and sentries holding +back the importunate crowd, the soldiers flung aside their heavy packs, +and were marshalled before an array of tempting tables and there feasted, +comforted and rejoiced under the ministrations of that marvelous +successor of the Sanitary Commission of the great Civil War of the +sixties--the noble order of the Red Cross. There at those tables in the +dust and din of the bustling piers, in the soot and heat of the railway +station, in the jam and turmoil at the ferry houses, in the fog and chill +of the seaward camps, in the fever-haunted wards of crowded field +hospitals, from dawn till dark, from dark till dawn, toiled week after +week devoted women in every grade of life, the wife of the millionaire, +the daughter of the day laborer, the gently born, the delicately reared, +the social pets and darlings, the humble seamstress, no one too high to +stoop to aid the departing soldier, none too poor or low to deny him +cheer and sympathy. The war was still young then. Spain had not lowered +her riddled standard and sued for peace. Two great fleets had been swept +from the seas, the guns of Santiago were silenced, and the stronghold of +the Orient was sulking in the shadow of the flag, but there was still +soldier work to be done, and so long as the nation sent its fighting men +through her broad and beautiful gates San Francisco and the Red Cross +stood by with eager, lavish hands to heap upon the warrior sons of a +score of other States, even as upon their own, every cheer and comfort +that wealth could purchase, or human sympathy devise. It was the one +feature of the war days of '98 that will never be forgotten. + +At one of the flower-decked tables near the great "stage" that led to the +main deck of the transport, a group of blithe young matrons and pretty +girls had been busily serving fruit, coffee, _bouillon_ and substantials +to the troopers, man after man, for over two hours. There was lively chat +and merry war of words going on at the moment between half a dozen young +officers who had had their eyes on that particular table ever since the +coming of the command, and were now making the most of their +opportunities before the trumpets should sound the assembly and the word +be passed to move aboard. All the heavy baggage and ammunition had, at +last, been swung into the hold; the guns of the battery had been lowered +and securely chocked; the forecastle head was thronged with the +red-trimmed uniforms of the artillerymen, who had already been embarked +and were now jealously clamoring that the troopers should be "shut off" +from the further ministrations of the Red Cross, and broadly intimating +that it wasn't a fair deal that their rivals should be allowed a whole +additional hour of lingering farewells. + +Lingering farewells there certainly were. Many a young soldier and many a +lass "paired off" in little nooks and corners among the stacks of bales +and boxes, but at the table nearest the staging all seemed gay good +humor. A merry little woman with straw-colored hair and pert, tip-tilted +nose and much vivacity and complexion, had apparently taken the lead in +the warfare of chaff and fun. Evidently she was no stranger to most of +the officers. Almost as evidently, to a very close observer who stood a +few paces away, she was no intimate of the group of women who with good +right regarded that table as their especial and personal charge. Her Red +Cross badge was very new; her garb and gloves were just as fresh and +spotless. _She_ had not been ladling out milk and cream, or buttering +sandwiches, or pinning souvenirs on dusty blue blouses ever since early +morning. Other faces there showed through all their smiles and sweetness +the traces of long days of unaccustomed work and short nights of troubled +sleep. Marvelous were Mrs. Frank Garrison's recuperative powers, thought +they who saw her brought home in the Primes' stylish carriage, weak and +helpless and shaken after her adventure of the previous day. She had not +been at the Presidio a week, and yet she pervaded it. She had never +thought of such a thing as the Red Cross until she found it the center of +the social firmament after her arrival at San Francisco, and here she +was, the last comer, the foremost ("most forward" I _think_ some one +described it) in their circle at one of the most prominent tables, +absorbing much of the attention, most of the glory, and none of the +fatigue that should have been equally shared by all. + +"_Adios_!" she gayly cried as the "assembly" rang out, loud and clear, +and waving their hands and raising their caps, the officers hastened to +join their commands. "_Adios_, till we meet in Manila." + +"Do you _really_ think of going to the Philippines, Mrs. Garrison?" +queried a much older-looking, yet younger woman. "Why, _we_ were told the +General said that none of his staff would be allowed to take their +wives." + +"Yet there are others!" laughed Mrs. Garrison, waving a dainty +handkerchief toward the troops now breaking into column of twos and +slowly climbing the stage. "Who would _want_ to go with that blessed old +undertaker? Good-by--_bon voyage_, Geordie," she cried, blowing a kiss to +the lieutenant at the head of the second troop, a youth who blushed and +looked confused at the attention thereby centered upon him, and who would +fain have shaken his fist, rather than waved the one unoccupied hand in +perfunctory reply. "When _I_ go I'll choose a ship with a band and broad +decks, not any such cramped old canal boat as the Portland." + +"Oh! I thought perhaps your husband--" began the lady dubiously, but with +a significant glance at the silent faces about her. + +"Who? Frank Garrison? Heavens! I haven't known what it was to have a +husband--since that poor dear boy went on staff duty," promptly answered +the diminutive center of attraction, a merry peal of laughter ringing +under the dingy archway of the long, long roof. "Why, the Portland has +only one stateroom in it big enough for a bandbox, and of course the +General has to have that, and there isn't a deck where one couple could +turn a slow waltz. No, indeed! wait for the next flotilla, when _our_ +fellows go, bands and all. _Then_ we'll see." + +"But surely, Mrs. Garrison, we are told the War Department has positively +forbidden officers' wives from going on the transports"--again began her +interrogator, a wistful look in her tired eyes. "I know I'd give +_anything_ to join Mr. Dutton." + +"The War Department has to take orders quite as often as it gives them, +Mrs. Dutton. The thing is to know how to be of the order-giving side. Oh, +joy!" she suddenly cried. "Here are the Primes and Amy Lawrence--then the +regiments must be coming! And there's Stanley Armstrong!" + +Far up the westward street the distant roar of voices mingled with the +swing and rhythm and crash of martial music. Dock policemen and soldiers +on guard began boring a wide lane through the throng of people on the +pier. A huge black transport ship lay moored along the opposite side to +that on which the guns and troopers were embarked, and for hours bales, +boxes and barrels had been swallowed up and stored in her capacious +depths until now, over against the tables of the Red Cross, there lay +behind a rope barrier, taut stretched and guarded by a line of sentries, +an open space close under the side of the greater steamer and between the +two landing stages, placed fore and aft. By this time the north side of +the broad pier was littered with the inevitable relics of open air +lunching, and though busy hands had been at work and the tables had been +cleared, and fresh white cloths were spread and everything _on_ the +tables began again to look fair and inviting, the good fairies themselves +looked askance at their bestrewn surroundings. "Oh, if we could only move +everything bodily over to the other side," wailed Madam President, as +from her perch on a stack of Red Cross boxes she surveyed that coveted +stretch of clean, unhampered flooring. + +"And why not?" chirruped Mrs. Garrison, from a similar perch, a tier or +two higher. "Here are men enough to move mountains. All we have to do is +to say the word." + +"Ah, but it isn't," replied the other, gazing wistfully about over the +throng of faces, as though in search of some one sufficient in rank and +authority to serve her purpose. "We plead in vain with the +officer-of-the-guard. He says his orders are imperative--to allow no one +to intrude on that space," and madam looked as though she would rather +look anywhere than at the animated sprite above her. + +"What nonsense!" shrilled Mrs. Garrison. "Here, Cherry," she called to a +pretty girl, standing near the base of the pile, "give me my bag. I'm +army woman enough to know that order referred only to the street crowd +that sometimes works in on the pier and steals." The bag was duly passed +up to her. She cast one swift glance over the heads of the crowd to where +a handsome carriage was slowly working its way among the groups of +prettily dressed women and children--friends and relatives of members of +the departing commands, in whose behalf, as though by special +dispensation, the order excluding all but soldiers and the Red Cross had +been modified. Already the lovely dark-eyed girl on the near side had +waved her hand in greeting, responding to Mrs. Garrison's enthusiastic +signals, but her companion, equally lovely, though of far different type, +seemed preoccupied, perhaps unwilling to see, for her large, dark, +thoughtful eyes were engaged with some object on the opposite side--not +even with the distinguished looking soldier who sat facing her and +talking quietly at the moment with Mr. Prime. There was a gleam of +triumph in Mrs. Garrison's dancing eyes as she took out a flat notebook +and pencil and dashed off a few lines in bold and vigorous strokes. +Tearing out the page, she rapidly read it over, folded it and glanced +imperiously about her. A cavalry sergeant, one of the home troop destined +to remain at the Presidio, was leaning over the edge of the pier, hanging +on to an iron ring and shouting some parting words to comrades on the +upper deck, but her shrill soprano cut through the dull roar of deep, +masculine voices and the tramp of feet on resounding woodwork. + +"Sergeant!" she cried, with quick decision. "Take this over to the +officer in command of that guard. Then bring a dozen men and move these +two tables across the pier." The cavalryman glanced at the saucy little +woman in the stunning costume, "took in" the gold crossed sabres, topped +by a regimental number in brilliants that pinned her martial collar at +the round, white throat, noted the ribbon and pin and badge of the Red +Cross, and the symbol of the Eighth Corps in red enamel and gold upon the +breast of her jacket, and above all the ring of accustomed authority in +her tone, and never hesitated a second. Springing to the pile of boxes he +grasped the paper; respectfully raised his cap, and bored his stalwart +way across the pier. In three minutes he was back--half a dozen soldiers +at his heels. + +"Where'll you have 'em, ma'am--miss?" he asked, as the men grasped the +supports and raised the nearmost table. + +"Straight across and well over to the edge," she answered, in the same +crisp tones of command. Then, with total and instant change of manner, "I +suppose _your_ tables should go first, Madam President," she smilingly +said. "It shall be as you wish about the others." + +And the Red Cross was vanquished. + +"I declare," said an energetic official, a moment later, leaning back on +her throne of lemon boxes, and fanning herself vigorously, "for a whole +hour I've been trying to move that officer's heart and convince him the +order didn't apply to us. Now how did--she--do it?" + +"The officer must be some old--some personal friend," hazarded the +secretary, with a quick feminine comprehensive glance at the little lady +now being lifted up to shake hands with the carriage folk, after being +loaded with compliments and congratulations by the ladies of the two +favored tables. + +"Not at all," was the prompt reply. "He is a volunteer officer she never +set eyes on before to-day. I _would_ like to know what was on that +paper." + +But now the roar of cheering and the blare of martial music had reached +the very gateway. The broad portals were thrown open and in blue and +brown, crushed and squeezed by the attendant throng, the head of the +column of infantry came striding on to the pier. The band, wheeling to +one side, stood at the entrance, playing them in, the rafters ringing to +the stirring strains of "The Liberty Bell." They were still far down the +long pier, the sloping rifles just visible, dancing over the heads of the +crowd. No time was to be lost. More tables were to be carried, but--who +but that--"that little army woman" could give the order so that it would +be obeyed. Not one bit did the president like to do it, but something had +to be done to obtain the necessary order, for the soldiers who so +willingly and promptly obeyed her beck and call were now edging away for +a look at the newcomers, and Mrs. Frank Garrison, perched on the carriage +step and chatting most vivaciously with its occupants and no longer +concerning herself, apparently, about the Red Cross or its tables, had +the gratification of finding herself approached, quite as she had +planned, by two most prominent and distinguished women of San Francisco +society, and requested to issue instructions as to the moving of the +other tables. "Certainly, ladies," she responded, with charming smiles. +"Just _one_ minute, Mildred. Don't drive farther yet," and within that +minute half a dozen boys in blue were lugging at the first of the tables +still left on the crowded side of the dock, and others still were bearing +oil stoves, urns and trays. In less time than it takes to tell it the +entire Red Cross equipage was on its way across the pier, and when the +commanding officer of the arriving regiment reached the spot which he had +planned to occupy with his band, his staff and all his officers, there in +state and ceremony to receive the citizens who came in swarms to bid them +farewell, he found it occupied by as many as eight snowy, goody-laden +tables, presided over by as many as eighty charming maids and matrons, +all ready and eager to comfort and revive the inner man of his mighty +regiment with coffee and good cheer illimitable, and the colonel swore a +mighty oath and pounced on his luckless officer-of-the-guard. He had +served as a subaltern many a year in the old army, and knew how it was +done. + +"Didn't I give you personal and positive orders not to let anything or +anybody occupy this space after the baggage was got aboard, sir?" he +demanded. + +"You did, sir," said the unabashed lieutenant, pulling a folded paper +from his belt, "and the Red Cross got word to the general and what the +Red Cross says--_goes_. Look at that!" + +The colonel looked, read, looked dazed, scratched his head and said: +"Well, I'm damned!" Then he turned to his adjutant. "You were with me +when I saw the general last night and he told me to put this guard on and +keep this space clear. Now, what d'you say to that?" + +The adjutant glanced over the penciled lines. "Well," said he, "if you +s'pose any order that discriminates against the Red Cross is going to +hold good, once they find it out, you're bound to get left. They're +feasting the first company now, sir; shall I have it stopped?" and there +was a grin under the young soldier's mustache. The colonel paused one +moment, shook his head and concluded he, too, would better grin and bear +it. Taking the paper in his hand again he heard his name called and saw +smiling faces and beckoning hands in an open carriage near him, but the +sight of Stanley Armstrong, signalling to him from another, farther away, +had something dominant about it. "With you in a minute," he called to +those who first had summoned him. "What is it, Armstrong?" + +"I wish to present you to some friends of mine--Miss Lawrence--Miss +Prime--Mr. Prime--my old associate, Colonel Stewart. Pardon me, Mrs. +Garrison. I did not see you had returned." She had, and was once more +perched upon the step. "Mrs. Garrison--Colonel Stewart. What we need to +know, Stewart, is this: Will all your men board the ship by this stage, +or will some go aft?" + +"All by _this_ stage--why?" + +But the colonel felt a somewhat massive hand crushing down on his own and +forebore to press the question. Armstrong let no pause ensue. He spoke, +rapidly for him, bending forward, too, and speaking low; but even as she +chatted and laughed, the little woman on the carriage step saw, even +though she did not seem to look, heard, even though she did not seem to +listen: + +"An awkward thing has happened. The General's tent was robbed of +important papers perhaps two days ago, and the guardhouse rid of a most +important prisoner last night. Canker has put the officer-of-the-guard in +arrest. Remember good old Billy Gray who commanded us at Apache? This is +Billy Junior, and I'm awful sorry." Here the soft gray eyes glanced +quickly at the anxious face of Miss Lawrence, who sat silently feigning +interest in the chat between the others. The anxious look in her eyes +increased at Armstrong's next words: "The prisoner must have had friends. +He is now said to be among your men, disguised, and those two fellows at +the stage are detectives. I thought all that space was to be kept clear." + +"It was," answered Stewart, "yet the chief must have been overpersuaded. +Look here!" and the colonel held forth a scrap of paper. Amy Lawrence, +hearing something like the gasp of a sufferer in sudden pain, turned +quickly and saw that every vestige of color had left Mrs. Garrison's +face--that she was almost reeling on the step. Before she could call +attention to it, Armstrong, who had taken and glanced curiously at the +scrap, whirled suddenly, and his eyes, in stern menace, swept the spot +where the little lady clung but an instant before. As suddenly Mrs. +Garrison had sprung from the step and vanished. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +Billy Gray was indeed in close arrest and the grim prophecy was +fulfilled--Colonel Canker was proving "anything but a guardian angel to +him." The whole regiment, officers and men, barring only the commander, +was practically in mourning with sorrow for him and chagrin over its own +discomfiture. Not only one important prisoner was gone, but two; not only +two, but four. No man in authority was able to say just when or how it +happened, for it was Canker's own order that the prisoners should not be +paraded when the guard fell in at night. They were there at tattoo and at +taps "all secure." The officer of the guard, said several soldiers, had +quite a long talk with one of the prisoners--young Morton--just after +tattoo, at which time the entire guard had been inspected by the +commanding officer himself. But at reveille four most important prisoners +were gone and, such was Canker's wrath, not only was Gray in arrest, but +the sergeant of the guard also, while the three luckless men who were +successively posted as sentries during the night at the back of the +wooden shell that served as a guardhouse--were now in close confinement +in the place of the escaped quartette. + +Yet those three were men who had hitherto been above suspicion, and there +were few soldiers in the regiment who would accept the theory that any +one of the three had connived at the escape. As for the sergeant--he had +served four enlistments in the --teenth, and without a flaw in his record +beyond an occasional aberration in the now distant past, due to the +potency of the poteen distilled by certain Hibernian experts not far from +an old-time "plains fort," where the regiment had rested on its march +'cross continent. As for the officers--but who would suppose an officer +guilty of anything of the kind--a flagrant military crime? And yet--men +got to asking each other if it were so that Bugler Curran had carried a +note from the prisoner, Morton, to Mr. Gray about 2:30 that afternoon? +And what was this about Gray's having urged Brooke to swap tours with him +an hour later, and what was that story the headquarters clerks were +telling about Mr. Gray's coming to the adjutant and begging to be allowed +to "march on" that evening instead of Brooke? It wasn't long before these +rumors, somehow, got to Canker's ears, and Canker seemed to grow as big +again; he fairly swelled with indignation at thought of such turpitude on +part of an officer. Then he sent for Gray--it was the afternoon following +the sailing of the ships with the big brigade--and with pain and +bewilderment and indignation in his brave blue eyes the youngster came +and stood before his stern superior. Gordon, who sent the message, and +who had heard Canker's denunciatory remarks, had found time to scribble a +word or two--"Admit nothing; say nothing; _do_ nothing but hold your +tongue and temper. If C. insists on answers say you decline except in +presence of your legal adviser." So there was a scene in the commander's +tent that afternoon. The morning had not been without its joys. Along +about ten o'clock as Gray sat writing to his father in his little canvas +home, he heard a voice that sent the blood leaping through his veins and +filled his eyes with light. Springing from his campstool and capsizing it +as he did so, he poked his curly head from the entrance of the tent--and +there she was--only a dozen feet away--Major Lane in courteous +attendance, Mr. Prime sadly following, and Miss Prime quite content with +the devotions of Captain Schuyler. Only a dozen feet away and coming +straight to him, with frank smiles and sympathy in her kind and winsome +face--with hand outstretched the moment she caught sight of him. "We +wanted to come when we heard of it yesterday, Mr. Gray," said Amy +Lawrence, "but it was dark when we got back from seeing the fleet off, +and uncle was too tired in the evening. Indeed we are all very, very +sorry!" And poor Billy never heard or cared what the others said, so +absorbed was he in drinking in her gentle words and gazing into her soft, +dark eyes. No wonder he found it difficult to release her hand. That +brief visit, filled with sweetness and sunshine, ought to have been a +blessing to him all day long, but Canker caught sight of the damsels as +they walked away on the arms of the attendant cavaliers--Miss Lawrence +more than once smiling back at the incarcerated Billy--and Canker +demanded to be informed who they were and where they had been, and Gordon +answered they were Miss Lawrence of Santa Anita, and Miss Prime of New +York--and he "reckoned" they must have been in to condole with Mr. +Gray--whereat Canker snarled that people ought to know better than to +visit officers in arrest--it was tantamount to disrespect to the +commander. It was marvelous how many things in Canker's eyes were +disrespectful. + +So he heard these stories with eager ears and sent for Gray, and thought +to bully him into an admission or confession, but Gordon's words had +"stiffened" the little fellow to the extent of braving Canker's anger and +telling him he had said all he proposed to say when the colonel called +him up the previous day. The result of that previous interview was his +being placed in close arrest and informed that he should be tried by +general court-martial once. So he had taken counsel, as was his right, +and "counsel" forbade his committing himself in any way. + +"Then you refuse to divulge the contents of that note and to say why you +were so eager to go on guard out of your turn?" said Canker, oracularly. +"That in itself is sufficient to convince any fair-minded court of your +guilt, sir." Whereat Gordon winked at Billy and put his tongue in his +cheek--and Billy stood mute until ordered, with much asperity, to go back +to his tent. + +But there were other things that might well go toward convincing a court +of the guilt of Lieutenant Gray, and poor Billy contemplated them with +sinking heart. Taking prompt advantage of his position as officer of the +guard, he had caused the young prisoner to be brought outside the +guardhouse, and as a heavy, dripping fog had come on the wings of the +night wind, sailing in from the sea, he had led the way to the sheltered +side, which happened to be the darkest one, of the rude little building, +and had there bidden him tell his story. But Morton glanced uneasily at a +sentry who followed close and was hovering suspiciously about. "I cannot +talk about--the affair--with that fellow spying," he said, with an eager +plea in his tone and a sign of the hand that Gray well knew and quickly +recognized. "Keep around in front. I'll be responsible for this +prisoner," were his orders, and, almost reluctantly, the man left. He was +a veteran soldier, and his manner impressed the lieutenant with a vague +sense of trouble. Twice the sentry glanced back and hesitated, as though +something were on his mind that he must tell, but finally he disappeared +and kept out of the way during the brief interview that immediately +followed. The prisoner eagerly, excitedly began his explanation--swiftly +banishing any lingering doubts Gray might have entertained as to his +innocence. But he had come from a stove-heated guardroom into the cold +sea wind off the Pacific--into the floating wisps of vapor that sent +chill to the marrow. He was far too lightly clad for that climate, and +presently he began to shiver. + +"You are cold," said Gray, pityingly. "Have you no overcoat?" + +"It's at my tent--I never expected to spend this night here. I've been +before the summary court, fined for absence, and thought that would end +it, but instead of that I'm a prisoner and the man who should be here is +stalking about camp, planning more robberies. Yet I'd rather associate +with the very worst of the deserters or dead beats inside there," and the +dark eyes glanced almost in horror--the slender figure shook with mingled +repulsion and chill--"than with that smooth-tongued sneak and liar. +There's no crime too mean for him to commit, Mr. Gray, and the men are +beginning to know it, though the colonel won't. For God's sake get me out +of this before morning--" And again the violent tremor shook the lad from +head to foot. + +"Here--get inside!" said Gray impulsively. "I'll see the adjutant at once +and return to you in a few minutes. If you have to remain until the +matter can be investigated by the General it might be----" + +"It would be--" vehemently interrupted Morton, then breaking off short as +though at loss for descriptive of sufficient strength. He seemed to swell +with passion as he clinched his fists and fairly stood upon his toes an +instant, his strong white teeth grinding together. "It would be--simply +hell!" he burst in again, hoarse and quivering. "It would ruin--everything! +Can't the General give the order to-night?" he asked with intense +eagerness, while the young officer, taking him by the arm, had led him +again to the light of the guardhouse lamps at the front. The sergeant and a +group of soldiers straightened up and faced them, listening curiously. + +"It may be even impossible to see the General," answered Gray doubtfully. +"Take Morton into the guardroom till I get back, sergeant, and let him +warm himself thoroughly." Don't put him with the prisoners till I return, +and so saying he had hastened away. Gordon, his friend and adviser, had +left camp and gone visiting over in the other division. The lights at +general headquarters were turned low. Even now, after having heard proofs +of the innocence of the accused soldier, Gray knew that it was useless to +appeal to the colonel. He could not understand, however, the feverish, +almost insane, impatience of the lad for immediate release. Another day +ought not to make so great a difference. What could be the reason--if it +were not that, though innocent of the robbery of the storehouse, or of +complicity in the sale of stolen goods, some other crime lay at his door +which the morrow might disclose? All the loyalty of a Delta Sig was +stretched to the snapping point as Gray paused irresolute in front of the +adjutant's tent, his quest there unsuccessful. The sergeant-major and a +sorely badgered clerk were working late over some regimental +papers--things that Morton wrote out easily and accurately. + +"I suppose, sir, it's no use asking to have the prisoner sent up here +under guard," said that jewel of a noncommissioned officer. "Yet the +colonel will be savage if these papers ain't ready. It will take us all +night as things are going." + +Gray shook his curly head. "Go ask, if you like, but--Morton's in no +shape to help you----" + +"Has he been drinking, sir?" said the sergeant-major, in surprise. "I +never knew him----" + +"Oh, it isn't that," said Gray hastily, "only he's--he's got--other +matters on his mind! Bring me his overcoat. He said it was in his tent," +and the young officer jerked his head at the patch of little "A" tents +lined up in the rear of those of the officers. + +"Get Morton's overcoat and take it to him at the guardhouse," snapped the +staff sergeant to the clerk. "Be spry now, and no stopping on the way +back," he added--well aware how much in need his assistant stood of +creature comfort of some surreptitious and forbidden kind. The man was +back in a moment, the coat rolled on his arm. + +"I'll take it," said Gray simply. "You needn't come." + +"Go on with it!" ordered the sergeant as the soldier hesitated. "D'ye +think the service has gone to the devil and officers are runnin' errands +for enlisted men? An' get back inside two minutes, too," he added with +portent in his tone. The subaltern of hardly two months' service felt the +implied rebuke of the soldier of over twenty years' and meekly accepted +the amendment, but--a thought occurred to him: He had promised Morton +paper, envelopes and stamps and the day's newspapers--the lad seemed +strangely eager to get all the latter, and vaguely Billy remembered +having heard that Canker considered giving papers to prisoners as +equivalent to aid and comfort to the enemy. + +"Take it by way of my tent," said he as they started, and, once there it +took time to find things. "Go back to the sergeant-major and tell him I +sent you," said Gray, after another search. "He needs you on those +papers." + +And when the officer of the guard returned to the guardhouse and went in +to the prisoner, the sergeant saw--and others saw--that, rolled in the +soldier's overcoat he carried on his arm, was a bundle done up in +newspaper. Moreover, a scrap of conversation was overheard. + +"There's no one at the General's," said the officer. "I see no way +of--fixing it before morning." + +"My God, lieutenant! There--must be some way out of it! The morning will +be too late." + +"Then I'll do what I can for you to-night," said Mr. Gray as he turned +and hurriedly left the guardroom--a dozen men standing stiffly about the +walls and doorway and staring with impassive faces straight to the front. +Again, the young officer had left the post of the guard and gone up into +camp, while far and near through the dim, fog-swept aisles of a score of +camps the bugles and trumpets were wailing the signal for "lights out," +and shadowy forms with coat collars turned up about the ears or capes +muffled around the neck, scurried about the company streets ordering +laughter and talk to cease. A covered carriage was standing at the curb +outside the officers' gate--as a certain hole in the fence was +designated--and the sentry there posted remembered that the officer of +the guard came hurrying out and asked the driver if he was engaged. "I'm +waiting for the major," was the answer. + +"Well, where can one order a carriage to-night without going clear to +town?" inquired Gray. "I want one--that is--I wish to order one at once." + +And the driver who knew very well there were several places where +carriages could be had, preferred loyalty to his own particular stable +away in town, and so declared there was none. + +"You can telephone there, if you wish, sir," he added. + +"And wait till morning for it to get here? No! I'll get it--somehow." + +And that he did get it somehow was current rumor on the following day, +for the sentries on the guardhouse side of camp swore that a closed +carriage drove down from McAllister Street for all the world as though it +had just come out of the park, and rolled on past the back of the +guardhouse, the driver loudly whistling "Killarney," so that it could be +heard above the crunching of the wheels through the rough, loose rock +that covered the road, and that carriage drew up not a hundred yards +away, while the lieutenant was out visiting sentries, and presently they +saw him coming back along the walk, stopping to question each sentry as +to his orders. Then he returned and inquired if all was quiet among the +prisoners, and then went and put out his light in the tent reserved for +the officer of the guard, and once more left his post, briefly informing +the sergeant of the guard he was going to the officer of the day. Then it +was ascertained that he had visited half a dozen places in search of that +veteran captain, and appeared much disturbed because he could not find +him. In half an hour he was back, asking excitedly of the sentry in rear +of the guardhouse if a carriage had come that way. It had, said the +sentry, and was waiting down the street. Gray hurried in the direction +indicated, was gone perhaps three minutes, and returned, saying that the +sentry must be mistaken, that no carriage was there. But the sentry +reiterated his statement that it had been there and had been waiting for +some time, and must have disappeared while he was temporarily around at +the opposite side of the building. This was about 11 P.M. + +Then when Gray appeared at reveille Morton had disappeared. + +"It's not the sergeant let them fellers out," said the regimental +oracles. "This is no ten-dollar subscription business." And so until late +in the afternoon the question that agitated the entire range of +regimental camps was: "How did those fellows break away from the prison +of the --teenth?" Then came a clue, and then--discovery. + +By order of Lieutenant-Colonel Canker a board of officers had been +convened to investigate the matter, and after questioning everybody whom +"Squeers" had already badgered with his assertions, threats and queries, +they went to the guardhouse and began a thorough inspection of the +premises. The wooden building stood in the midst of a waste of sand blown +in from the shore line by the strong sea wind. It was perched on +something like a dozen stout posts driven into the soft soil and then the +space between the floor level and the sand was heavily and stoutly +boarded in--thick planks being used. Between the floor and the sand was a +space of about eighteen inches vertical, and a dozen men could have +sprawled therein--lying at full length--but to escape would have required +the connivance of one or more of the sentries surrounding the building +and the ripping off of one or more of the planks. In his keen anxiety +Canker accompanied the Board on its tour of investigation--a thing the +Board did not at all like--and presently, as was his wont, began running +things his own way. It had been found useless to question the soldiers of +the guard. Not a man could be found to admit he knew the faintest thing +about the escape. As for the prisoners, most of them reckless, +devil-may-care rascals, they grinned or leered suggestively, but had +nothing to tell. + +"We'll have this boarding ripped off," said Canker decisively, "and see +what they've got secreted under there. I shouldn't be surprised to find a +whisky still in full blast, or a complete gambling outfit--dash, dash 'em +to dash and dashnation! Send for a carpenter, sergeant." + +The carpenter came, and he and two or three of the guard laid hold of one +end of the plank after its nails were drawn, and with little exertion +ripped it off the other posts. Then everybody held his breath a minute, +stared, and a small majority swore. So far from its being open to cats, +cans and rubbish, the space on that side was filled solid with damp, +heavy sea sand--a vertical wall extending from floor to ground. Canker +almost ran around to the opposite side and had a big plank torn off +there. Within was a wall as damp, solid and straight as that first +discovered, and so, when examined, were the other two sides provided. +Canker's face was a study, and the Board gazed and was profoundly happy. + +At last the colonel exploded: + +"By Jupiter! They haven't got away at all, then! There isn't a flaw in +the sand wall anywhere. They must be hiding about the middle now. Come +on, gentlemen," and around he trotted to the front door. "Sergeant," he +cried, "get out all the prisoners--all their bedding--every blessed thing +they've got. I want to examine that floor." + +Most of the guardhouse "birds" were out chopping wood, and Canker danced +in among the few remaining, loading them with bedding belonging to their +fellows until every item of clothing and furniture was shoved out of the +room. One member of the Board and one only failed to enter with his +associates--a veteran captain who read much war literature and abhorred +Canker. To the surprise of the sentry he walked deliberately over to the +fence, climbed it and presently began poking about the wooden curb that +ran along the road, making a low revetment or retaining wall for the +earth, cinders and gravel that, distributed over the sand, had been +hopefully designated a sidewalk by the owners of the tract. Presently he +came sauntering back, and both sentries within easy range would have +sworn he was chuckling. Canker greeted him with customary asperity. + +"What do you mean, sir, by absenting yourself from this investigation, +when you must have known I was with the Board and giving it the benefit +of the information I had gathered?" + +"I was merely expediting matters, colonel. While you were looking for +where they went in I was finding where they got out." + +"Went in _what_? Got out of what?" snapped Canker. + +"Their tunnel, sir. It's Libby on a small scale over again. They must +have been at work at it at least ten days." And as he spoke, calmly +ignoring Canker and letting his eyes wander over the floor, the veteran +battalion commander sauntered across the room, stirred up a slightly +projecting bit of flooring with the toe of his boot and placidly +continued. "If you'll be good enough to let the men pry this up you _may_ +understand." + +And when pried up and lifted away--a snugly fitting trapdoor about two +feet square--there yawned beneath it, leading slantwise downward in the +direction of the street, a tunnel through the soft yielding sand, braced +and strengthened here and there with lids and sides of cracker-boxes. +"Now, if you don't mind straddling a fence, sir, I'll show you the other +end," said the captain, imperturbably leading the way, and Canker, +half-dazed yet wholly in command of his stock of blasphemy, followed. At +the curb, right in the midst of a lot of loose hay from the bales dumped +there three days before, the leader dislodged with his sword the top of a +clothing box that had been thickly covered with sand and hay--and there +was the outlet. "Easy as rolling off a log, colonel," said old Cobb, with +a sarcastic grin. "This could all be done without a man you've blamed and +arrested being a whit the wiser. They sawed a panel out of the floor, +scooped the sand out of this tunnel, banked it solid against the weather +boarding inside, filled up the whole space, pretty near, but ran their +tunnel under fence and sidewalk, crawled down the gutter to the next +block out of sight of the sentries, then walked away free men. Those +three thieves who got away were old hands. The other men in the +guardhouse were only mild offenders, except Morton. 'Course he was glad +of the chance to go with 'em. I s'pose you'll release my sergeant and +those sentries now." + +"I'll do nothing of the kind," answered Canker, red with wrath, "and your +suggestion is disrespectful to your commanding officer. When I want your +advice I'll ask for it." + +"Well, Mr. Gray will be relieved to learn of this anyhow. I suppose I may +tell _him_," hazarded the junior member, mischievously. + +"Mr. Gray be ----. Mr. Gray has everything to answer for!" shouted the +angered colonel. "It was he who telephoned for a carriage to meet and run +those rascals off. Mr. Gray's fate is sealed. He can thank God I don't +slap him into the guardhouse with his chosen associates, but _he_ shan't +escape. Sergeant of the guard, post a sentry over Lieutenant Gray's tent, +with orders to allow no one to enter or leave it without my written +authority. Mr. Gray shall pay for this behind the prison bars of +Alcatraz." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +Social circles at West Point at long, rare intervals are shocked by a +scandal, and at short ones, say every other summer--are stirred by some +kind of a sensation, and the "Fairy Sisters" were the sensation of the +year '97. They came in July; they went in September, and meanwhile they +were "on the go," as they expressed it, from morn till late at night. +Physically they were the lightest weights known to the hop room. +Mentally, as their admirers in the corps expressed it, "either of them +can take a fall out of any woman at the Point," and this was especially +true of the elder--Mrs. Frank Garrison--whose husband was on staff duty +in the far West. Both were slight, fragile, tiny blondes with light blue +eyes, with lighter, fluffy hair, with exquisite little hands and feet, +with oval, prettily shaped faces, and the younger--the maiden sister, had +a bewitching mouth and regular, snowy dots of teeth of which she was +justly proud. Yet, as has been previously said of Mrs. Frank, while the +general effect was in the case of each that of an extremely pretty young +girl, the elder had no really good features, the younger only that one. +They generally dressed very much alike in light, flimsy gowns, and hats, +gloves and summer shoes all of dazzling white--sometimes verging for a +change to a creamy hue--but colors, except for sashes or summer shawls, +seemed banished from their wardrobes. They danced divinely, said the +corps, and preferred cadet partners, to the joy of the battalion. They +rode fearlessly and well, and had stunning hats and habits, but few +opportunities for display thereof. They came tripping down the path from +the hotel every morning, fresh and fair as daisies, in time for guard +mounting, and at any hour after that could be found chatting with cadet +friends at the visitors' tent, strolling arm in arm about the shaded +walks with some of their many admirers until time to dress for the +evening hop, where they never missed a dance, and on rainy days, or on +those evenings when there was neither hop nor band practice, they could +be found, each in some dimly lighted, secluded nook about the north or +west piazza or on the steps leading down to the "Chain Battery Walk," +sometimes surrounded by a squad of cadet friends, but more frequently in +murmured _tete-a-tete_ with only one cavalier. In the case of Mrs. +Frank no member of the corps seemed especially favored. She was just the +same to every one. In the case of her younger sister--Miss Terriss--there +presently developed a dashing young cadet captain who so scientifically +conducted his campaign that he headed off almost all competitors and was +presently accorded the lead under the universally accepted theory that he +had won the little lady's heart. Observant women--and what women are not +observant--of each other?--declared both sisters to be desperate flirts. +Society at the Point frowned upon them and, after the first formal call +or two, dropped them entirely--a thing they never seemed to resent in the +least, or even to notice. They were never invited out to tea or dinner on +the post--solemn functions nowhere near so palatable as the whispered +homage of stalwart young manhood. "Nita is yet such a child she +infinitely prefers cadet society, and I always did like boys," explained +Mrs. Garrison. Some rather gay old boys used to run up Saturday +afternoons on the Mary Powell and spend Sunday at the Point--Wall Street +men of fifty years and much lucre. "Dear old friends of father's," Mrs. +Frank used to say, "and I've simply got to entertain them." Entertained +they certainly were, for her wit and vivacity were acknowledged on every +side, and entertained not only collectively, but severally, for she +always managed to give each his hour's confidential chat, and on the +Sundays of their coming had no time to spare for cadet friends. Moreover, +she always drove down in the big 'bus with them Monday morning when the +Powell was sighted coming along that glorious reach from Polopel's +Island, and stood at the edge of the wharf waving her tiny kerchief--even +blowing fairy kisses to them as they steamed away. No wonder Nita Terriss +was frivolous and flirtatious with such an example, said society, and its +frowns grew blacker when the White Sisters, the Fairy Sisters--the +"Sylphites," came in view. But frowns and fulminations both fell harmless +from the armor of Mrs. Frank's gay _insouciance_. Nita winced at first, +but soon rallied and bore the slights of the permanent and semi-permanent +residents as laughingly as did her more experienced sister. Nita, it was +explained, was only just out of school, and Mrs. Frank was giving her +this summer at the Point as a great treat before taking her to the far +West, where the elder sister must soon go to join her husband. Everybody +knew Frank Garrison. He had long been stationed at the Academy, and was a +man universally liked and respected--even very highly regarded. All of a +sudden the news came back to the Point a few months after his return to +his regiment that he was actually engaged to "Witchie" Terriss. Hot on +the heels of the rumor came the wedding cards--Lieutenant-Colonel and +Mrs. Terriss requested the honour of your presence at the marriage of +their daughter Margaret to Lieutenant Francis Key Garrison, --th U. S. +Cavalry, at the Post Chapel, Fort Riley, Kansas, November --, 1894--all +in Tiffany's best style, as were the cards which accompanied the +invitation. "What a good thing for old Bill Terriss!" said everybody who +knew that his impecuniosity was due to the exactions and extravagancies +of his wife and "Witchie."--"And what a bad thing for Frank Garrison!" +was the echo. His intimates knew that he had "put by" through economy and +self-denial about two thousand dollars, the extent of his fortune outside +of his pay. "She'll make ducks and drakes of it in the six weeks' +honeymoon," was the confident prophecy, and she probably did, for, +despite the fact that he had so recently rejoined the regiment, "Witchie" +insisted on a midwinter run to New Orleans, Savannah and Washington, and +bore her lord, but not her master, over the course in triumph. To a +student of human nature--and frailty--that union of a faded and somewhat +shopworn maid of twenty-seven to an ardent and vigorous young soldier +many moons her junior was easy to account for. One after another Witchie +Terriss had had desperate affairs with half a dozen fellows, older or +younger, in the army and was known to have been engaged to five different +men at different times, and believed to have been engaged to two +different men at one time. Asked as to this by one of her chums she was +reported to have replied: "Do you know, I believe it true; I had totally +forgotten about Ned Colston before Mr. Forman had been at the post a +week. Of course the only thing to do was to break with both and let them +start fresh." But this Mr. Colston, whose head had been somewhat cleared +by a month of breezy, healthful scouting, accepted only in part--that +part which included the break. Forman had the fresh start and a walk over +and held the trophy just two months, when it dawned upon him that +Margaret loved dancing far more than she did him--a clumsy performer, and +that she would dance night after night, the lightest, daintiest creature +in the hop room, and never have a word or a look for him who leaned in +gloomy admiration against the wall and never took his eyes off her. He +became jealous, moody, ugly-tempered and finally had the good luck to get +his _conge_ as the result of an attempt to assert himself and limit her +dances. She was blithe and radiant and fancy free when Frank Garrison +reached the post, a wee bit hipped, it was whispered, because of the +failure of a somewhat half-hearted suit of his in the far East, and the +Fairy bounded into the darkness of his life and fairly dazzled him. +Somebody had said Frank Garrison had money. + +There is no need to tell of the disillusion that gradually came. Frank +found his debts mounting up and his cares increasing. She was all sympathy +and regret when he mentioned it, but--there were certain comforts, +luxuries and things she had always been accustomed to, and couldn't live +without. Surely he would not have her apply to papa. No, but--could she +not manage with a little less? He was willing to give up his cigars +(indeed, he had long since done so) and to make his uniforms last a year +longer--he who was in his day the most carefully dressed man at the Point. +Well--she thought perhaps he ought to do that--besides--men's fashions +changed but slowly, whereas women's--"Well, I'd rather be dead than out of +style, Frank!" + +And so it went. + +But if she did not love her husband there was one being in whom her +frivolous heart was really bound up--Nita--her "baby sister," as she +called her, and when Terriss, the colonel, went the way of all flesh, +preceded only a few months by the wife of his bosom, the few thousands in +life insurance he had managed to maintain went to the two daughters. Not +one penny was ever laid out in payment of the debts of either the father +or husband. Nita was sent to an extravagant finishing school in Gotham, +and along in May of the young girl's graduating year, blithe little Mrs. +Garrison arrived, fresh from the far West, and after a few weeks of +sightseeing and shopping the sisters appeared at the Point, even +half-mourning by this time discarded. Thirteen years' difference was +there in the ages of the Fairy Sisters, and not a soul save those who +knew them in former days on the frontier would have suspected it. Mrs. +Frank in evening dress didn't look over twenty. + +One lovely evening early in August, just about the time that Cadet +Captain Latrobe began to show well to the front in the run for the prize, +the two sisters had gone to their room at the hotel to dress for the hop. +It was their custom to disappear from public gaze about six o'clock and +when they came floating down the stairs in filmy, diaphanous clouds of +white, the halls were well filled with impatient cavaliers in the natty +cadet uniform, and with women "waiting to see." Then the sisters would go +into the dining room and have some light refreshment, with a glass of +iced tea--and no matter how torrid the heat or how flushed and dragged +other women might look, they were inviting pictures of all that was ever +fresh, cool and fragrant. The two fluffy blonde heads would be huddled +close together a minute as they studied the bill of fare, and virtuous +matrons at other tables, fanning vigorously, would sniff and say: "All +for effect. They know that supper bill by heart. It never changes." All +the same, at the bottom of this public display of sisterly devotion and +harmony and in spite of occasional tiffs and differences, there was +genuine affection on both sides, for as a child Nita had adored Margaret, +and there could be no doubting the elder's love for the child. Some +regimental observers said that every bit of heart that eldest Terriss +girl had was wrapped up in the little one. Neither girl, even after +Margaret's marriage, would listen to a word in disparagement of the +other, but in the sanctity of the sisterly retreat on the third floor of +the old hotel there occurred sometimes spirited verbal tilts that were +quite distinctly audible to passers-by in the corridor, provided they +cared to listen, which some of them did. On this especial August evening +Mrs. Frank was in an admonitory frame of mind. They had known Mr. Latrobe +barely three weeks, and yet as Mrs. Frank was sauntering around a turn in +Flirtation Walk, leaning on the arm of the cadet adjutant, there in the +pathway right ahead stood Nita, a lovely little picture with downcast +eyes, and "Pat" Latrobe bending over her with love and passion glowing in +his handsome face, pleading eagerly, clinging fervently to both her tiny, +white-gloved hands. Mrs. Garrison saw it all in the flash of a second, +the adjutant not at all, for with merry laughter she repeated some words +he had just spoken as though they were about the wittiest, funniest +things in the world, and looked frankly up into his eyes as though he +were the best and brightest man she had met in years--so his eyes were +riveted, and the tableau had time to dissolve. All the same that sight +gave Mrs. Garrison rather more than a bad quarter of an hour. She was +infinitely worried. Not because Pat Latrobe had fallen desperately in +love with her charming little sister--that was his lookout--but what--oh, +what might not happen if the charming little sister were to fall in love +with that handsome soldier boy. At all hazards, even if she had to whisk +her away to-morrow, that had to be stopped, and this very evening when +they went to their room Margaret spoke. + +"Nita, if it were only for Mr. Latrobe I should not care a snap of my +finger, but it's you--_you_! I thought you had more sense. I thought you +_fully_ understood that you couldn't afford to lose yourself a moment, +and yet if ever a girl _looked_ like yielding you did this very +afternoon. For my sake, for your own sake, Nita, don't let it go any +further--_don't_ fall in love--here--whatever you do." + +The younger sister stood at the dressing table at the moment, her face +averted. The Mary Powell was just rounding the Point, and the mellow, +melodious notes of her bell were still echoing through the Highlands. +Nita was gazing out on the gorgeous effect of sunset light and shadow on +the eastern cliffs and crags across the Hudson, a flush as vivid mantling +her cheeks, her lip quivering. She was making valiant efforts to control +herself before replying. + +"I'm _not_ in love with him," she finally said. + +"Perhaps not--yet. Surely I hope not, but it looked awfully like it was +coming--and Nita, you simply mustn't. You've got to marry money if I have +to stand guard over you and see you do it--and you know you can this +minute--if you'll only listen." + +The younger girl wheeled sharply, her eyes flashing. "Peggy, you promised +me I shouldn't hear that hateful thing again--at least not until we left +here--and you've broken your word--twice. You----" + +"It's because I must. I can't see you drifting--the way I did when, with +your youth and--advantages you can pick and choose. Colonel Frost has +mines and money all over the West, and he was your shadow at the +seashore, and all broken up--he told me--so when we came here. Paddy +Latrobe is a beautiful boy without a penny--" + +"His uncle--" began Nita feebly. + +"His uncle had a sister to support besides Paddy's mother. His pay as +brigadier in the regular service is only fifty-five hundred. He _can't_ +have saved much of anything in the past, and he may last a dozen years +yet--or more. Even if he does leave everything then to Latrobe, what'll +you do meantime? Don't be a fool, Nita, because I was. I _had_ to be. It +was that or nothing, and father was getting tired. _You_ heard how he +talked." + +The younger sister was still at the dressing-table diligently brushing +her shining, curly tresses. She had regained her composure and was taking +occasional furtive peeps at Mrs. Frank, now seated at the foot of the +bed, busy with a buttonhook and the adjustment of a pair of very dainty +boots of white kid, whose buttons gleamed like pearls. The mates to them, +half a size smaller, peeped from the tray of Nita's new trunk. + +There came a footstep and a rap at the door. "See what it is, Nita, +there's a love--I don't want to hop." + +It was a card--a new arrival at the hotel. + +"Gentleman said he'd wait in the parlor 'm," said the bellboy, and +vanished. Nita glanced at the card and instant trouble stood in her +paling face. Silently Mrs. Garrison held out her hand, took the card, and +one quick look. The buttonhook dropped from her relaxed fingers. The card +read: + +"Mr. Gouverneur Prime." + +For a second or two the sisters gazed at each other in silence. + +At last the elder spoke: "In heaven's name, what brings that absurd boy +back here? I thought him safe in Europe." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +One of the most charming writers of our day and generation has declared +that "the truest blessing a girl can have" is "the ingenuous devotion of +a young boy's heart." Nine mothers in ten will probably take issue with +the gifted author on that point, and though no longer a young girl in +years whatever she might be in looks, Margaret Garrison would gladly have +sent the waiting gentlemen to the right about, for, though he was only +twenty, "Gov" Prime, as a junior at Columbia, had been ingenuously +devoted to the little lady from the very first evening he saw her. A boy +of frank, impulsive nature was "Gov"--a boy still in spite of the budding +mustache, the twenty summers and the barely passed "exam" that wound up +the junior year and entitled him to sit with the seniors when the great +university opened its doors in October. Studies he hated, but tennis, +polo, cricket, riding and dancing were things he loved and excelled in. +Much of his boyhood had been spent at one of those healthy, hearty +English schools where all that would cultivate physical and mental +manhood was assiduously practiced, and all that would militate against +them was as rigorously "tabooed." + +At the coming of his twentieth birthday that summer his father had handed +him his check for five thousand dollars--the paternal expression of +satisfaction that his boy had never smoked pipe, cigar or cigarette--and +the same week "Gov" had carried off the blue ribbon with the racquet, and +the second prize with the single sculls. It was during the "exams," the +first week in June, when dropping in for five o'clock tea on some girls +whom he had known for years, he was presented to this witching little +creature whose name he didn't even catch. "We met her away out at an army +post in Wyoming when papa took us to California last year," was whispered +to him, "and they entertained us so cordially, and of course we said if +ever you come to New York you must be sure to let us know--and she +did--but--" and there his informant paused, dubious. Other callers came +in and it began to rain--a sudden, drenching shower, and the little +stranger from the far West saw plainly enough that her hostesses, though +presenting their friends after our cheery American fashion, were unable +to show her further attention, and the newly presented--almost all women, +said "so very pleased" but failed to look it, or otherwise to manifest +their pleasure. She _couldn't_ go in the rain. The butler had 'phoned for +a cab. She wouldn't sit there alone and neglected. She deliberately +signaled Mr. Prime. "The ladies are all busy," she said, with a +charmingly appealing smile, "but I know you can tell me. I have to dress +for dinner after I get home, and must be at One Hundred and Tenth Street +at 7:30. How long will it take a carriage to drive me there? Oh, is that +your society pin? Why, are _you_ still in college? Why, I thought----" + +That cab was twenty-five minutes coming, and when it came Mr. Prime went +with it and her, whom he had not left an instant from the moment of her +question. Moreover, he discovered she was nervous about taking that +carriage drive all alone away up to One Hundred and Tenth Street, yet +what other way could a girl go in dinner dress. He left her at her door +with a reluctantly given permission to return in an hour and escort her +to the distant home of her friends and entertainers. He drove to the +Waldorf and had a light dinner with a half pint of Hock, devoured her +with his eyes as they drove rapidly northward, went to a Harlem theater +while she dined and forgot him, and was at the carriage door when she +came forth to be driven home. Seven hours or less "had done the +business," so far as Gouverneur Prime was concerned. + +It was the boy's first wild infatuation--as mad, unreasoning, absurd, yet +intense as was ever that of Arthur Pendennis for the lovely Fotheringay. +Margaret Garrison had never seen or known the like of it. She had +fascinated others for a time, had kindled love, passion and temporary +devotion, but this--this was worship, and it was something so sweet to +her jaded senses, something so rich and spontaneous that she gave herself +up for a day or two to the delight of studying it. Here was a glorious +young athlete whose eyes followed her every move and gesture, who hung +about her in utter captivation, whose voice trembled and whose eyes +implored, yet whose strong, brown, shapely hand never dared so much as +touch hers, except when she extended it in greeting. He was to accompany +his father and sister to Europe in a week, so what harm was there: He +would forget all about it. He knew now she was married. He was presented +to Nita, but had hardly a word and never a look for her when Margaret was +near. He was dumb and miserable all the day they drove in the park and +later dined at Delmonico's with Colonel Frost. He was sick, even when +mounted on his favorite English thoroughbred and scampering about the +bridle path for peeps at the drives, when she was at the park again with +that gray-haired reprobate, that money shark, Cashton--a Wall Street +broker black-balled at every decent club in New York. Why should she go +with him? He had been most kind, she said, in the advice and aid he had +given her in the investment of her little fortune. She told the lie with +downcast eyes and cheeks that burned, for most of that little fortune was +already frittered away, and Cashton's reports seemed to require many +personal visits that had set tongues wagging at the hotel, so much +frequented of the Army, where she had taken a room until Nita should have +been graduated and they could go to the seashore. She had promised to be +at home to her boy adorer that very evening and to go with him to Daly's, +and he had secured the seats four days ahead. Poor "Gov" had trotted +swiftly home from the park, striving to comfort himself over his bath and +irreproachable evening clothes, that _there_, with her by his side, the +wild jealousy of the day would vanish. Sharply on time he had sent up his +card and listened, incredulous, to the reply: "Mrs. Garrison has not yet +returned." He would wait, he said, and did wait, biting his nails, +treading the floor, fuming in doubt and despair until nearly ten, when a +carriage dashed up to the ladies' entrance and that vile Cashton handed +her out, escorted her in and vanished. She came hurrying to her boy lover +with both little hands outstretched, with a face deeply flushed and words +of pleading and distress rushing from her lips. "Indeed I could not help +it, Gov," she cried. "I told him of my engagement and said we must not go +so far, but away at the north end something happened, I don't know what, +a wheel was bent and the harness wrenched by too short a turn on a stone +post at a corner. Something had to be repaired. They said it wouldn't +take ten minutes, and he led me out and up to the piazza of that big +hotel--you know, we saw it the day I drove with you--" ("He was a +blackguard to take you there!" burst in Prime, the blood boiling in his +veins.) "Then we waited and waited and he went to hurry them, and then he +came back and said they had found more serious damages--that it would +take an hour, and meantime dinner had been ordered and was served. He had +telephoned to you and the butler had answered all right." "He's a +double-dyed liar!" raved "Gov," furiously. "And so what could I do, Gov? +The dinner was delicious, but I couldn't eat a mouthful." (This time it +wasn't Cashton who lied). "I was worrying about you, and--and--about +myself, too, Gov. I had set my heart on going with you. It was to be +almost our last evening. Oh, if you only didn't have to sail Saturday, +and could be here next week, you dear boy, you should have no cause for +complaint! Won't you try to forgive me?" + +And, actually, tears stood in her eyes, as again she held out both hands. +They were the only people in the parlor, and in an instant, with quick, +sudden, irresistible action he had clasped and drawn her to his breast, +and though she hid her face and struggled, passionate kisses were printed +on her disheveled hair. It was the first time he had dared. + +And then he did not sail Saturday. Prime Senior was held by most +important business. They gave up the Saturday Cunarder and took the +midweek White Star, and those four additional days riveted poor "Gov's" +chains and left her well-nigh breathless with excitement. The strain had +been intense. It was all she could do to make the boy try to behave in a +rational way in the presence of others. When alone with her he raved. A +fearful load was lifted from her spare little shoulders when the Teutonic +sailed. Even Nita had worried and had seen her sister's worry. Then no +sooner did "Gov" reach Europe than he began writing impassioned letters +by every steamer, but that wasn't so bad. She had several masculine +correspondents, some of whom wrote as often as Frank, but none of whom, +to do her justice, got letters as often as he did, which, however, was +saying little, for she hated writing. "Gov" was to have stayed abroad +three months, piloting the pater and sister about the scenes so familiar +to him, but they saw how nervous and unhappy he was. They knew he was +writing constantly to some one. Mildred had long since divined that there +was a girl at the bottom of it all, and longed and strove to find out who +she was. Through the last of June and all through July he resolutely +stood to his promise and did his best to be loving and brotherly to a +loving and devoted sister and dutiful to a most indulgent father. But he +grew white and worn and haggard, he who had been such a picture of rugged +health, and, in her utter innocence and ignorance as to the being on whom +her brother had lavished the wealth of his love, Mildred began to ask +herself should she not urge her father to let "Gov" return to America. At +last, one sweet July evening, late in the month, the brother and sister +were wandering along the lovely shore of Lucerne. He had been unusually +fitful, restless and moody all day. No letter had reached him in over a +fortnight, and he was miserably unhappy. They stopped at a grassy bank +that ran down to the rippling water's edge, and she seated herself on a +stone ledge, while in reckless abandonment he threw himself full length +on the dewy grass. Instantly the last doubt vanished. Bending over him, +her soft hand caressing his hair, she whispered: "Gov, dear boy, is it so +very hard? Would you like to go to her at once?" + +And the boy buried his face in her lap, twined his arms about her slender +waist, and almost groaned aloud as he answered. "For pity's sake help me +if you can, Mildred, I'm almost mad." + +Early in August the swiftest steamer of the line was splitting the +Atlantic surges and driving hard for home, with "Gov" cursing her for a +canal boat. The day after he reached New York he had traced and followed +the White Sisters to West Point, and Margaret Garrison stared in mingled +delight, triumph and dismay at the card in her hand. Delight that she +could show these exclusive Pointers that the heir to one of the oldest +and best names in Gotham's Four Hundred was a slave to her beck and call. +Dismay to think of the scene that might occur through his jealousy when +he saw the devoted attentions she received from so many men--officers, +civilians and cadets. Old Cashton came up now as regularly as Saturday +night came around--and there were others. Margaret Garrison was more +talked about than any woman in Orange County, yet, who could report +anything of her beyond that she was a universal favorite, and danced, +walked, possibly flirted with a dozen different cavaliers every day of +her life? There were some few among her accusers, demure and most +proper--even prudish--women, of whom, were the truth to be told, so +little could not be said. + +"Gov" Prime took the only kind of room to be had in the house, so full +was it--a little seven by ten box on the office floor. He would have +slept in the coal bin rather than leave her. He saw her go off to the hop +looking radiant, glancing back over her shoulder and smiling sweetly at +him. He rushed to his trunk, dragged out his evening clothes, and stood +at the wall looking on until the last note of the last dance--he a noted +German leader in the younger set and the best dancer of his years in +Gotham. Not so much as a single spin had he, and he longed to show those +tight-waisted, button-bestrewed fellows in gray and white how little they +really knew about dancing well as many of them appeared on the floor. His +reward was tendered as the hop broke up. She came gliding to him with +such witchery in her upraised face. "Now, sir, it is your turn. I +couldn't give you a dance, for my card was made out days ago, but Mr. +Latrobe was glad enough to get rid of taking me home. He is daft about +Nita, and of course she _can't_ let him take her to more than one hop a +week. Mr. Stanton is her escort to-night." + +Then she placed her little hand on his arm, and drew herself to his side, +and when he would have followed the others, going straight across the +broad plain to the lights at the hotel, turned him to the left. "I'm +going to take you all the way round, sir," she said joyously. "Then we +can be by ourselves at least ten minutes longer." + +And so began the second period of Gouverneur Prime's thralldom. A young +civilian at the Point has few opportunities at any time, but when the +lady of his love is a belle in the corps, he would much better take a +long ocean voyage than be where he could hear and see, and live in daily +torment. One comfort came to him when he could not be with Mrs. Garrison +(who naively explained that "Gov" was such a dear boy and they were such +stanch friends, real comrades, you know). He had early made the +acquaintance of Pat Latrobe, and there was a bond of sympathy between +them which was none the less strong because, on Prime's side, it could +neither be admitted nor alluded to--that they were desperately in love +with the sisters, and it was not long before it began to dawn on Prime +that pretty little Nita was playing a double game--that even while +assuring her guardian sister that she had only a mild interest in +Latrobe, she was really losing or had lost her heart to him, and in every +way in her power was striving to conceal the fact from Margaret, and yet +meet her lover at hours when she thought it possible to do so without +discovery. As the friendship strengthened between himself and Latrobe +they began using him as Cupid's postman, and many little notes and some +big ones found their way to and from the Fourth Division of cadet +barracks. Mrs. Frank was only moderately kind to her civilian adorer +then, granting him only one dance at each hop, and going much with other +men, but that dance was worth seeing. Prime's was the only black +"claw-hammer" in the room, and therefore conspicuous, and cadets--who +know a good thing when they see it--and many a pretty girl partner, would +draw aside to watch the perfection of their step and the exquisite ease +with which they seemed to float through space, circling and reversing and +winding among the other dancers, he ever alert, watchful, quick as a cat +and lithe and strong as a panther--she all yielding lissome airy grace. +That dance was "Gov" Prime's reward, and almost only reward for hours of +impatient waiting. Other women, charming and pretty and better women, +would gladly have been his partners. Some two or three whom he met at the +hotel even intimated as much. But not until Lady Garrison told him he +must--to protect her from scandal--did he ask another to dance. At last +came the end of the summer's encampment, the return of the corps to +barracks and studies, one blissful week in which he was enabled to spend +several uninterrupted hours each day at her side, and then a cataclysm. A +letter intended only for Nita's hands fell into those of her sister. It +was bulky. It was from Latrobe. She hesitated only a moment, then, with +determination in her eyes, opened and read--all. Two days after Nita was +whisked away to New York, and within another week, leaving two most +disconsolate swains on the Hudson, the sisters, one of them bathed in +tears, went spinning away to the West, where Frank Garrison was on duty +at department headquarters. Prime was permitted to write once a fortnight +(he sent a volume), and Latrobe forbidden, but already the poor boy owned +a thick packet of precious missives, all breathing fond love and +promising utter constancy though she had to wait for him for years. For a +month Nita would hardly speak to her sister, but in October there were +lovely drives, picnics and gayeties of all kinds. There were attractive +young officers and assiduous old ones, and among these latter was Frost, +with his handsome gray mustache and distinguished bearing, and that air +of conscious success and possession which some men know so well how to +assume even when their chances are slimmer than my lady's hand. The +sisterly breach was healed before that beautiful month was over. Frost +dined at the Garrison's four times a week and drove Miss Nita behind his +handsome bays every day or two. In November he asked a question. In +December there was an announcement that called forth a score of +congratulations around headquarters, and in January the wedding cards +went all over the Union--some to West Point--but to Latrobe, who had been +looking ill and anxious for six weeks, said his classmates, and falling +off fearfully in his studies, said his professors, only a brief note +inclosing his letters and begging for hers. At reveille next morning +there was no captain to receive the report of roll call from the first +sergeant of Company "B." "Where's Latrobe?" sleepily asked the officer of +the day of the cadet first lieutenant. "I don' know," was the answer, and +to the amaze of Latrobe's roommate, who had gone to bed and to sleep +right after taps the night before, they found evidence that "Pat" had +left the post. He had not even made down his bedding. His cadet uniforms +were all there, but a suit of civilian clothes, usually in a snug package +up the chimney, that had been used several times "running it" to the +hotel after taps in August, was now, like its owner, missing. After three +days' waiting and fruitless search, the superintendent wired Latrobe's +uncle and best friend, old General Drayton, and that was the last seen or +heard of "Pat." In the spring and ahead of time his class was graduated +without him, for the war with Spain was on. In the spring an irate and +long-tried father was upbraiding another only son for persistent failures +at college. "Gov Prime will get the sack, not the sheepskin," prophesied +his fellows. And then somehow, somewhere the father heard it was a +married woman with whom his boy was so deeply in love, and there were +bitter, bitter words on both sides--so bitter that when at last he flung +himself out of his father's study Gov Prime went straight to Mildred's +room, silently kissed her and walked out of the house. This was in April. +The next heard of him he had enlisted for the war and was gone to San +Francisco with his regiment with the prospect of service in the +Philippines ahead of him, but that was full four months after his +disappearance. Thither, late in July the father followed, bringing +Mildred with him and--the reader knows the rest. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +One of Colonel Frost's consuming ambitions was to be the head of his +department, with the rank of brigadier-general, but he had strong rivals, +and knew it. Wealth he had in abundance. It was rank and power that he +craved. Four men--all with better war records and more experience--stood +between him and that coveted star, and two of the four were popular and +beloved men. Frost was cold, selfish, intensely self-willed, indomitably +persevering, and though "close-fisted," to the scale of a Scotch landlord +as a rule, he would loose his purse strings and pay well for services he +considered essential. When Frost had a consuming desire he let no money +consideration stand in the way, and for Nita Terriss he stood ready to +spend a small fortune. Everybody knew Mrs. Frank Garrison could never +dress and adorn herself as she did on poor Frank Garrison's pay, and when +she appeared with a dazzling necklace and a superb new gown at the +garrison ball not long after Frost and his shrinking bride left for their +honeymoon, people looked at her and then at each other. Nita Terris was +sold to "Jack" Frost was the verdict, and her shrewd elder sister was the +dealer. Mrs. Frank knew what people were thinking and saying just as well +as though they had said it to her, yet smiled sweetness and bliss on +every side. Frankly she looked up into the faces of her sisters in arms: +"I know you like my necklace. Isn't it _lovely_? Colonel Frost's wedding +present, you know. He said I shouldn't give Nita away without some +recompense, and this is it." + +But that could have been only a part of it, said the garrison. An +honorarium in solid cash, it was believed, was far the greater portion of +the consideration which the elder sister accepted for having successfully +borne Nita away from the dangers and fascinations of the Point--having +guarded her, drooping and languid, against the advances of good-looking +soldier lads at headquarters, and finally having, by dint of hours of +argument, persuasion and skill, delivered her into the arms of the +elderly but well-preserved groom. All he demanded to know was that she +was fancy free--that there was no previous attachment, and on this point +Mrs. Frank had solemnly averred there was none. The child had had a +foolish fancy for a cadet beau, but it amounted to absolutely nothing. +There had been no vows, no pledge, no promise of any kind, and she was +actually free as air. So Frost was satisfied. + +They made an odd-looking pair. Frost was "pony built" but sturdy, and +Nita seemed like a fairy--indeed as unsubstantial as a wisp of vapor, as +she came down the aisle on his arm. They were so far to the south on this +honeymoon trip as almost to feel the shock and concussion when the Maine +was blown to a mass of wreckage. They were in Washington when Congress +determined on full satisfaction from Spain, and Colonel Frost was told +his leave was cut short--that he must return to his station at once. +Going first to the Arlington and hurriedly entering the room, he almost +stumbled over the body of his wife, lying close to the door in a swoon +from which it took some time and the efforts of the house physician and +the maids to restore her. Questioned later as to the cause she wept +hysterically and wrung her hands. She didn't know. She had gone to the +door to answer a knock, and got dizzy and remembered nothing more. What +became of the knocker? She didn't know. Frost inquired at the office. A +bellboy was found who said he had taken up a card in an envelope given +him by a young feller who "seemed kind o' sick. Mrs. Frost took it and +flopped," and a chambermaid ran in to her, and then hurried for the +doctor. "What became of the letter or note or card?" asked Frost, with +suspicion and jealousy in his heart. Two women, mistress and maid, and +the bellboy swore they didn't know, but the maid did know. With the quick +intuition of her sex and class she had seen that there was or had been a +young lover, and sympathy for Nita and a dislike for Frost, who gave no +tips, prompted her to hide it until she could slip it safely into Nita's +hand; Nita who read, shuddered, tore it into minute scraps, and wept +more, face downward on the bed. They had reached their winter station +before the cable flashed the stirring tidings of Dewey's great victory in +Manila Bay, and within half a week came telegraphic orders for Colonel +Frost to proceed at once to San Francisco, there to await instructions. +The first expedition was organizing when he arrived, his pallid little +wife by his side, and there were his instructions to proceed to Manila as +chief of his department--an independent position, and yet it was a horrid +blow. But there was no recourse. Nita begged that she might stay with her +sister. She could not bear the idea of going. Frost knew that no women +could accompany the expedition, and, shipping his chest and desks by the +transport, he had secured passage for himself and wife to Hongkong on one +of the splendid steamers of the English line from Vancouver, and so +informed her. It dashed Nita's last hope. They were occupying fine rooms +at the Palace Hotel. The city was thronged with officers and rapidly +arriving troops. Other army women, eager to accompany their husbands, +were railing at the fate that separated them, and Nita had been forced to +conceal the joy with which she heard their lamentations. But she had yet +to learn how exacting Frost could be. It had never occurred to her that +he could obtain permission to go except by transport. It had not seemed +possible that he would take her with him. "You should have known," said +he, "that even if I had had to go by transport, you would have gone by +the Empress of India. It is only sixty hours from Manila to Hongkong, and +I could have joined you soon after your arrival. As it is I shall see you +safely established there--I have letters to certain prominent English +people--then shall go over to join the fleet when it arrives in Manila +Bay." + +That night she wrote long and desperately to Margaret. "He swore he would +follow me wherever we went until I granted him the interview. You know +how he dogged me in Washington, followed me to Denver, and any moment he +may address me here. F. will not let me return to you. He insists on my +going to Hongkong, where he can occasionally join me. But Rollin holds +those letters over me like a whip, and declares that he will give them +into Frost's hands unless I see him whenever he presents himself. You +made me swear to Frost I never cared a straw for my darling that was. O +God, how I loved him! and if these letters ever reach the man to whom you +have sold me, he would treat me as he would a dog, even if he doesn't +kill me. Meg--Meg--you must help me for I live in terror." + +And that she lived in terror was true, some women were quick to see. +Never would she go anywhere, even along the corridor, alone. If the +colonel could not come to luncheon she was served in their rooms. If she +had to go calling or shopping it was in a carriage and always with some +army woman whom she could persuade to go with her. + +One day, just before their intended departure, she drove out paying +parting calls. It was quite late when the carriage drew up at the Market +Street entrance, the nearest to their elevator. The door boy sprang +across the sidewalk to open the carriage, and as she stepped wearily out, +a tall young man, erect and slender, dressed in a dark traveling suit, +fairly confronted her, raised his derby, and said: "You can give me ten +minutes now, Mrs. Frost. Be good enough to take my arm." + +Bowing her head she strove to dodge by, but it was useless. Again he +confronted her. Piteously she looked up into his pale, stern face and +clasped her hands. "Oh, Rollin," she cried, "give me my letters. I dare +not--see you. Have mercy--" and down again she went in a senseless heap +upon the stone. Colonel and Mrs. Frost did not sail with the Empress of +India. Brain fever set in and for three weeks the patient never left the +hotel. Frost made his wife's dangerous illness the basis of an application +to be relieved from the Manila detail, but, knowing well it would be late +summer before the troops could be assembled there in sufficient force to +occupy the city, and that his clerks and books had gone by transport with +the second expedition in June, the War Department compromised on a +permission to delay. By the time the fourth expedition was ready to start +there was no further excuse; moreover, the doctors declared the sea voyage +was just what Mrs. Frost needed, and again their stateroom was engaged by +the Empress line, and, though weak and languid, Mrs. Frost was able to +appear in the dining-room. Meanwhile a vast amount of work was saddled on +the department to which Frost was attached, and daily he was called upon +to aid the local officials or be in consultation with the commanding +general. This would have left Mrs. Frost to the ministrations of her nurse +alone, but for the loving kindness of army women in the hotel. They +hovered about her room, taking turns in spending the afternoon with her, +or the evening, for it was speedily apparent that she had a nervous dread +of being left by herself, "or even with her husband," said the most +observing. Already it had been whispered that despite his assiduous care +and devotion during her illness, something serious was amiss. Everybody +had heard of the adventure which had preceded her alarming illness. +Everybody knew that she had been accosted and confronted by a strange +young man, at sight of whom she had pleaded piteously a minute and then +fainted dead away. By this time, too, there were or had been nearly a +dozen of the graduating class in town--classmates of Rollin Latrobe--their +much-loved "Pat"--and speedily the story was told of his devotion to her +when she was Nita Terriss, of their correspondence, of their engagement to +be married on his graduation, which in strict confidence he had imparted +to his roommate, who kept it inviolate until after her sudden union with +Colonel Frost and poor "Pat's" equally sudden disappearance. Everybody, +Frost included, knew that the young man who had accosted her must be +Latrobe, and Frost by this time knew that it must have been he who caused +her shock at the Arlington. He raged in his jealous heart. He employed +detectives to find the fellow, swearing he would have him arrested. He +became morose and gloomy, for all the arts by which Mrs. Garrison +persuaded him that Nita looked up to him with admiration and reverence +that would speedily develop into wifely love were now proved to be +machinations. He knew that Nita feared him, shrank from him and was very +far from loving him, and he believed that despite her denials and fears +and protestations she loved young Latrobe. He wrote angrily, reproachfully +to Margaret, who, now that her fish was hooked, did not greatly exert +herself to soothe or reassure him. That he could ever use violence to one +so sweet and fragile as Nita she would not believe for an instant. Then +the nurse, still retained, heard bitter words from the colonel as one +morning she came to the door with Mrs. Frost's breakfast, and while she +paused, uncertain about entering at such a time, he rushed angrily forth +and nearly collided with her. Mrs. Frost was in tears when the nurse +finally entered, and the breakfast was left untouched. + +Late that afternoon, just after the various trunks and boxes of the +Frosts that were to go by the transport were packed and ready, and Mrs. +Frost, looking stronger at last, though still fragile, almost ethereal, +was returning from a drive with one of her friends, the attention of the +two ladies was drawn to a crowd gathering rapidly on the sidewalk not far +from the Baldwin Hotel. There was no shouting, no commotion, nothing but +the idle curiosity of men and boys, for a young soldier, a handsome, +slender, dark-eyed, dark-complexioned fellow of twenty-one or two, had +been arrested by a patrol and there they stood, the sergeant and his two +soldiers fully armed and equipped, the hapless captive with his arms half +filled with bundles, and over the heads of the little throng the ladies +could see that he was pleading earnestly with his captors, and that the +sergeant, though looking sympathetic and far from unkind, was shaking his +head. Mrs. Frost, listless and a little fatigued, had witnessed too many +such scenes in former days of garrison life to take any interest in the +proceeding. "How stupid these people are!" she irritably exclaimed. +"Running like mad and blocking the streets to see a soldier arrested for +absence from camp without a pass. Shan't we drive on?" + +"Oh--just one moment, please, Mrs. Frost. He has such a nice face--a +gentleman's face, and he seems so troubled. Do look at it!" + +Languidly and with something very like a pout, Mrs. Frost turned her face +again toward the sidewalk, but by this time the sergeant had linked an +arm in that of the young soldier and had led him a pace or two away, so +that his back was now toward the carriage. He was still pleading, and the +crowd had begun to back him up, and was expostulating, too. + +"Awe, take him where he says, sergeant, and let him prove it." + +"Don't be hard on him, man. If he's taking care of a sick friend give 'm +a chance." + +Then the sergeant tried to explain matters. "I can't help myself, +gentlemen," said he; "orders are orders, and mine are to find this +recruit and fetch him back to camp. He's two days over time now." + +"Oh, I wish I knew what it meant!" anxiously exclaimed Mrs. Frost's +companion. "I'm sure he needs help." Then with sudden joy in her +eyes--"Oh, good! There goes Colonel Crosby. He'll see what's amiss," and +as she spoke a tall man in the fatigue uniform of an officer of infantry +shouldered his way through the crowd, and reached the blue-coated +quartette in the center. Up went the hands to the shouldered rifles in +salute, and the young soldier, the cause of all the gathering which the +police were now trying to disperse, whirled quickly, and with something +suspiciously like tears in his fine dark eyes, was seen to be eagerly +speaking to the veteran officer. There was a brief colloquy, and then the +colonel said something to the sergeant at which the crowd set up a cheer. +The sergeant looked pleased, the young soldier most grateful, and away +went the four along the sidewalk, many of the throng following. + +And then the colonel caught sight of the ladies in the carriage, saw that +one was signaling eagerly, and heard his name called. Hastening to their +side, he raised his cap and smiled a cordial greeting. + +"Oh, I'm so glad you came, colonel, we are so interested in that young +soldier. Do tell us what it all means. Oh! I beg your pardon, Mrs. Frost, +I surely thought you had met Colonel Crosby--let me pre-- Why, Nita! +What's-- Are you ill? Here, take my salts, quick!" + +"No--no--go on--I--I want to hear! Where are they taking him?" faintly +murmured Mrs. Frost. + +"Try to control yourself," said her companion. "I'll tell you in one +moment." Meantime from without the carriage the colonel continued, +addressing Nita's companion: + +"He tells a perfectly straight story. He says he has an old friend who is +here so desperately ill and out of money that he got a doctor for him and +had been nursing him himself. Those things he carried are medicines and +wine that the doctor bade him buy. All he asks is to take them to his +friend's room and get a nurse, then he is ready to go to camp and stand +his trial, so I told the sergeant I'd be responsible." + +"Oh, thank you so much! Do see that the poor fellow isn't punished. We'll +drive right round. Perhaps we can do something. It is Red Cross business, +you know. _Good_-afternoon, colonel. Please tell our driver to follow +them." + +But, to her consternation, no sooner had they started than she felt +Nita's trembling hand grasping her wrist, and turning quickly saw that +she was in almost hysterical condition. + +"My poor child, I had forgotten you were so worn out. I'll take you home +at once--but then we'll miss them entirely. Oh, could you bear----" + +"Oh! No! No!" moaned Nita, wringing her little hands. "Take me--anywhere. +No! Take me home--take me home! and promise me not to--not to tell my +husband what we saw." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +For a man ordinarily absorbed in his own command, Colonel Stanley +Armstrong had become, all on a sudden, deeply engrossed in that of +Colonel Canker. The Frosts had been gone a week, via Vancouver--the +expedition only about sixteen hours--when he appeared at Gordon's tent +and frankly asked to be told all that tall Southerner knew of the young +soldier Morton, now gone from camp for the third, and, as Armstrong +believed, the last time. + +"Why, that young fella's a bawn gentleman," drawled Gordon, as he offered +the colonel a chair and cigar. "He was behavin' tip top, steady as you +please until about a month ago. He's only been with us since the first of +May--came with a big batch of recruits--a regular athlete, you know. Then +after he'd drilled awhile I nailed him for headquarters clerk. I never +knew him to be off an hour until about four weeks ago. The men say +another young fella came out here one night, had a talk with Morton, and +they went out together. He got regular permission. Nobody has set eyes on +his friend out here since that time, but Morton got three passes to town +in ten days, and Squeers happened to want him, and gave orders _he_ +should have to be consulted hereafter. 'Bout a fortnight since, by Jove, +Morton lit out suddenly and was gone forty-eight hours, and was brought +back by a patrol, perfectly straight, and he said he had to go on account +of a friend who had been taken very ill and was a stranger here. Squeers +let him off with a warning, and inside of three days he begged for a +twenty-four-hour pass, and Squeers wouldn't give it. He went without it, +by George! It was just about the time the Prime family arrived, looking +up the boy they heard was in your regiment. This time there was big +trouble. The patrol sent for him went directly to the lodgings of his +sick friend, and there they found him and he laid out two of our best men +for forcing a way into the room. They told me your carriage nearly ran +over him the day of the review. Then came that dam fool charge about his +being mixed up in this robbery. Then his escape from under Billy Gray's +nose, by George, and that's the last of him. Canker sent a party in to +look him up at the usual place, and both birds had flown, both, by +George! The sick man was well enough to be driven off in a carriage, and +there's nothing further to tell as yet." + +"I wish I had known about him earlier--before the Primes came," said +Armstrong thoughtfully, knocking the ashes off his cigar. "Of course you +divine my theory?" + +"That Morton's the missing son and heir? Of course. Now that I've seen +Miss Prime the family resemblance is strong. But if he wanted to soldier, +what's to prevent. Those tents yawnduh are full of youngsters better +educated than I am," and Gordon arose, tangling a long, lean leg in the +nearest campstool, which he promptly kicked through the doorway into the +sailing fog outside. It was barely eleven o'clock, but already the raw, +wet wind was whistling in over the barren, sandy slopes and dunes, and +the moisture dripped in big drops from the sloped rifles of the men +marching sturdily in from drill. + +"Yawnduh comes the Prime carriage now, by George," continued the +adjutant, as he limped to the entrance. "Ole man seems all broke up, +don't he?" Armstrong had promptly risen and came striding to his +comrade's side. + +"Naturally," was the answer. "He had hoped much from this visit. The boy +was just under twenty-one when he enlisted, and, as his father's consent +was lacking, a discharge could have been ordered. It may have been fear +of that that drove the youngster off. Where is the carriage--and your +glass?" continued the colonel, looking about until he found a binocular. + +"Comin' right down the road back of the officers' tents. Reckon it's +another visit of condolence to Gray. You know I shouldn't wonduh if this +arrest of his proved a blessin' in disguise for that lucky boy." + +No reply coming to this observation, Gordon glanced over his shoulder. +Armstrong was replacing the glasses. Again the adjutant hazarded. + +"I--I was sayin' this arrest may be, after all, the biggest kind of +blessing in disguise for that lucky Billy. _Yes_, by Jove! They're comin' +to his tent. _That's_ a splendid girl, ole man!" + +"Miss--Prime, you mean?" calmly queried Armstrong, striking match after +match in the effort to light a fresh cigar, his face averted. + +"Miss Prime I _don't_ mean," answered Gordon, glancing curiously at the +senior officer. "Not but that she's a most charming young lady and all +that," he hurriedly interpolated, Southern chivalry asserting itself. +Then with a twitch about the lip: "By the way, ole man, those cigars +light better from the other end. Take a fresh one." + +Armstrong quickly withdrew the ill-used weed from between his strong, +white teeth, gave it one glance, and a toss into the waste-basket. + +"No, I've smoked enough. But how can they see him? How about that sentry +over Gray's tent?" + +"Huh! Chief made him take it off directly he heard of it," grinned +Gordon. "Moses! But didn't Squeers blaspheme!" And the adjutant threw his +head back and laughed joyously over the retrospect. "Yes, there's that +curly pate of Billy's at the tent door now. Reckon he was expectin' 'em. +There they are, ole Prime, too. Don't be in a hurry, colonel." + +They had known each other years, these two, and it had been "Armstrong" +and "Gordon" when they addressed each other, or "ole man" when Gordon +lapsed into the semi-affectionate. To the adjutant's Southern sense of +military propriety "ole man" was still possible. "Armstrong" would be a +soldierly solecism. + +"I am to see the General before noon," said Armstrong gravely, "and it's +time I started. If you should hear of your runaway let me know. If you +shouldn't, keep our views to yourself. There's no use in rousing false +hopes." With that Armstrong turned up the collar of his overcoat and +lunged out into the mist. + +Gordon watched him as he strode away, the orderly following at the +conventional distance. The shortest way to general headquarters was up +the row of company officers' tents in front of the still incarcerated +Billy; the longest was around back of the mess tent and kitchen. +Armstrong took the latter. + +That escape of prisoners was still the talk of camp. Men had come by +battalions to see the tunnel, observing which Canker promptly ordered it +closed up. Opinion was universal that Canker should have released the +officers and men he had placed under arrest at once, but he didn't. In +his bottled wrath he hung on to them until the brigade commander took a +hand and ordered it. Canker grumblingly obeyed so far as the sergeant and +sentries were concerned, but entered stout protest as to Gray. + +"I still hold that officer as having knowledge of the scheme and aiding +and abetting. I can prove that he telephoned for that carriage," he said. + +"At least there's nothing to warrant the posting of that sentry at Mr. +Gray's tent, Colonel Canker," said the brigadier, with some asperity. +"Order him off at once. That's all for to-day, sir," and the man with the +starred shoulders "held over" him with the silver leaves. The latter +could only obey--and objurgate. + +But Canker's knuckles came in for another rasping within the hour. The +brigadier being done with him, the division commander's compliments came +over per orderly, and would the colonel please step to the General's +tent. Canker was fuming to get to town. He was possessed with insane +desire to follow up that boarding house clue. He believed the landlady +could be bullied into telling where her boarder was taken, and what +manner of man (or woman) he was. But down he had to go, three blocks of +camp, to where the tents of division headquarters were pitched, and there +sat the veteran commander, suave and placid as ever. + +"Ah, colonel, touching that matter of the robbery of your commissary +stores. Suspicion points very strongly to your Sergeant Foley. Do you +think it wise to have no sentry over him?" + +"Why--General," said Canker, "I've known that man fifteen years--in fact, +I got him ordered to duty here," and the colonel bristled. + +"Well--pardon me, colonel, but you heard the evidence against him last +night, or at least heard of it. Don't you consider that conclusive?" + +Canker cleared his throat and considered as suggested. + +"I heard the allegation sir, but--he made so clear an explanation to +_me_, at least--and besides, General"--a bright idea occurring to +him--"you know that as commissary sergeant he is not under my +command----" + +"Tut, tut, colonel," interrupted the General, waxing impatient. "The +storehouse adjoins your camp. Your sentries guard it. Captain Hanford, +the commissary, says he called on you last night to notify you that he +had placed the sergeant under arrest, but considered the case so grave +that he asked that a sentry be placed over him, and it wasn't done." + +"I dislike very much to inflict such indignity on deserving soldiers, +General," said Canker, stumbling into a self-made trap. "Until their +guilt is established they are innocent under the law." + +"Apparently you apply a different rule in case of officers," calmly +responded the General, "_vide_ Mr. Gray. No further words are necessary. +Oblige me by having that sentry posted at once. Good-morning, sir." + +But to Canker's dismay the officer of the guard made prompt report. The +sentry was sent, but the sergeant's tent was empty. The colonel's pet had +flown. This meant more trouble for the colonel. + +Meantime Stanley Armstrong had hied him to General Drayton's +headquarters. The office tents were well filled with clerks, orderlies, +aides and other officers who had come in on business, but this meeting +was by appointment, and after brief delay the camp commander excused +himself to those present and ushered Armstrong into his own private tent, +the scene of the merry festivities the evening of Mrs. Garrison's +unexpected arrival. There the General turned quickly on his visitor with +the low-toned question: + +"Well--what have you found?" + +"Enough to give me strong reason for believing that Morton, so-called, is +young Prime, and that your nephew is with him, sir." + +The old soldier's sad eyes lighted with sudden hope. Yet, as he passed +his hand wearily over his forehead, the look of doubt and uncertainty +slowly returned. "It accounts for the letters reaching me here," he said, +"but--I've known that boy from babyhood, Armstrong, and a more intense +nature I have never heard of. What he starts in to do he will carry out +if it kills him." And Drayton looked drearily about the tent as though in +search of something, he didn't quite know what. Then he settled back +slowly into his favorite old chair. "Do sit down, Armstrong. I want to +speak with you a moment." Yet it was the colonel who was the first to +break the silence. + +"May I ask if you have had time to look at any of the letters, sir?" + +"Do I look as though I had time to do _any_-thing?" said the chief, +dropping his hands and uplifting a lined and haggard face, yet so +refined. "Anything but work, work, morn, noon and night. The mass of +detail one has to meet here is something appalling. It weighs on me like +a nightmare, Armstrong. No, I was worn out the night after the package +reached me. When next I sought it the letters were gone." + +"How long was that, General?" + +Again the weary hands, with their long, tapering fingers, came up to the +old soldier's brow. He pondered a moment. "It must have been the next +afternoon, I think, but I can't be sure." + +"And you had left them----?" + +"In the inside pocket of that old overcoat of mine, hanging there on the +rear tent pole," was the answer, as the General turned half-round in his +chair and glanced wistfully, self-reproachfully thither. + +Armstrong arose, and going to the back of the tent, made close +examination. The canvas home of the chief was what is known as the +hospital tent, but instead of being pitched with the ordinary ridgepole +and uprights, a substantial wooden frame and floor had first been built +and over this the stout canvas was stretched, stanch and taut as the head +of a drum. It was all intact and sound. Whoever filched that packet made +way with it through the front, and that, as Armstrong well knew, was kept +tightly laced, as a rule, from the time the General left it in the +morning until his return. It was never unlaced except in his presence or +by his order. Then the deft hands of the orderlies on duty would do the +trick in a twinkling. Knowing all this, the colonel queried further: + +"You went in town, as I remember, late that evening and called on the +Primes and other people at the Palace. I think I saw you in the supper +room. There was much merriment at your table. Mrs. Garrison seemed to be +the life of the party. Now, you left your overcoat with the boy at the +cloak stand?" + +"No, Armstrong, that's the odd part of it. I only used the cape that +evening. The coat was hanging at its usual place when I returned late, +with a mass of new orders and papers. No! no! But here, I must get back +to the office, and what I wished you to see was that poor boy's letter. +What can you hope with a nature like that to deal with?" + +Armstrong took the missive held out to him, and slowly read it, the +General studying his face the while. The letter bore no clue as to the +whereabouts of the writer. It read: + + "March 1st, '98. + + "It is six weeks since I repaid all your loving kindness, brought + shame and sorrow to you and ruin to myself, by deserting from West + Point when my commission was but a few short months away. In an + hour of intense misery, caused by a girl who had won my very soul, + and whose words and letters made me believe she would become my + wife the month of my graduation, and who, as I now believe, was + then engaged to the man she married in January, I threw myself + away. My one thought was to find her, and God knows what beyond. + + "It can never be undone. My career is ended, and I can never look + you in the face again. At first I thought I should show the letters, + one by one, to the man she married, and ask him what he thought of + his wife, but that is too low. I hold them because I have a mad + longing to see her again and heap reproaches upon her, but, if I + fail and should I feel at any time that my end is near, I'm going to + send them to you to read--to see how I was lured, and then, if you + can, to pity and forgive. + + "ROLLIN." + +Armstrong's firm lips twitched under his mustache. The General, with +moist eyes, had risen from his chair and mechanically held forth his +hand. "Poor lad!" sighed Armstrong. "Of course--you know who the girl +was?" + +"Oh, of course," and Drayton shrugged his shoulders. + +"Well, we'll have to go," and led on to the misty light without. + +Over across the way were the headquarters tents of a big brigade, +hopefully awaiting orders for Manila. To their left, separated by a +narrow space, so crowded were the camps, were the quarters of the +officers of the --teenth Infantry, and even through the veil of mist both +soldiers could plainly see along the line. Coming toward the gate was Mr. +Prime, escorted by the major. Just behind them followed Mildred and the +attentive Schuyler. But where was Miss Lawrence? Armstrong had already +seen. Lingering, she stood at Billy's tent front, her ear inclined to his +protruding pate. He was saying something that took time, and she showed +no inclination to hurry him. Miss Prime looked back, then she and +Schuyler exchanged significant smiles and glances. There was rather a +lingering handclasp before Amy started. Even then she looked back at the +boy and smiled. + +"H'm!" said the General, as he gazed, "that youngster wouldn't swap +places with any subaltern in camp, even if he _is_ under charges." + +There was no answer from the strong soldier standing observant at his +elbow. But when the chief would have moved Armstrong detained him. "One +more question, General. In case you were away and wanted something you +had left in this tent, you would send an aide--or orderly, or--would an +order signed by one of your staff be sufficient?" + +"H'm, well--yes, I suppose it would," said the General. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +Opinion was divided at Camp Merritt as to whether Billy Gray should or +should not stand trial. Confident as were his friends of his innocence of +all complicity in Morton's escape, there remained the fact that he had +telephoned for a carriage, that a carriage had come and that a carriage +with four men, apparently soldiers, had driven rapidly townward along +Point Lobos Avenue. It was seen by half a dozen policemen as it shot +under electric light or gas lamp. Then there was the bundle inside his +rolled overcoat that Gray had personally handed Morton when a prisoner. +Everybody agreed he should have sent it by orderly--everybody, that is, +except some scores of young soldiers in the ranks who could see no harm +in it having been done that way, especially two "Delta Sigs" in the +--teenth. Then there were the long conferences in the dark. What did they +mean? All things considered the older and wiser heads saw that, as the +lieutenant could or would make no satisfactory explanation of these to +his colonel, he must to a court--or take the consequences. + +"You've made a mess of the thing and an ass of yourself, Billy," was +Gordon's comprehensive if not consolatory summary of the matter, "and as +Canker has been rapped for one thing or another by camp, division and +brigade commanders, one _after_ another, he feels that he's got to prove +that he isn't the only fool in the business. You'd better employ good +counsel and prepare for a fight." + +"Can't afford it," said Billy briefly, "and I'm blowed if I'll ask my +dear old dad to come to the rescue. He's had to cough up (shame on your +slang, Billy) far too much already. I tell you, Gordon, I'm so fixed that +I can't explain these things unless I'm actually brought to trial. +It's--it's--well--you have no secret societies at the Point as we do at +college, so you can't fathom it. I'm no more afraid of standing trial +than I am of Squeers--and be d----d to him!" + +"Good Lawd, youngster--you--you aren't quite such an ass as to suppose a +court is going to regard any schoolboy obligation as paramount to that +which your oath of office demands. Look hyuh, Billy, your head's just +addled! _I_ can't work on you, but somebody must!" + +And Gordon went away very low in his mind. He liked that boy. He loved a +keen, alert, snappy soldier on drill, and Billy had no superior in the +battalion when it came to handling squad or company. The adjutant plainly +saw the peril of his position, and further consultation with his +brother-officers confirmed him in his fears. Schuyler, the brigade +commissary, being much with the --teenth--messing with them, in fact, +when he was not dancing attendance on Miss Prime--heard all this camp +talk and told her. Thus it happened that the very next day when he drove +with the cousins (Mr. Prime being the while in conference with the +detectives still scouring the city for the young deserter, who the father +now felt confident was his missing boy), Miss Lawrence looked the captain +full in the face with her clear, searching eyes and plumped at him the +point-blank question: + +"Captain Schuyler, do Mr. Gray's brother-officers really consider him in +danger of dismissal?" + +"Miss Lawrence, I grieve to say that not one has any other opinion now." + +There could be no doubt of it. Amy Lawrence turned very pale and her +beautiful eyes filled. + +"It is a shame!" she said, after a moment's struggle to conquer the +trembling of her lips. "Has--is there no one--influential enough--or with +brains enough" (this with returning color) "to take up his case and clear +him?" + +They were whirling through the beautiful drive of the Golden Gate Park, +passing company after company at drill. Even as Amy spoke Schuyler lifted +his cap and Miss Prime bowed and smiled. A group of regimental officers, +four in number, stood, apparently supervising the work, and as Miss +Lawrence quickly turned to see who they might be, her eyes met those of +Colonel Armstrong. Five minutes later, the carriage returning drew up as +though by some order from its occupants, at that very spot. Armstrong and +his adjutant were still there and promptly joined them. + +Long weeks afterward that morning lived in Stanley Armstrong's memory. It +was one of those rare August days when the wind blew from the southeast, +beat back the drenching Pacific fogs, and let the warm sun pour upon the +brilliant verdure of that wonderful park. Earth and air, distant sea and +dazzling sky, all seemed glorifying their Creator. Bright-hued birds +flashed through the foliage and thrilled the ear with their caroling. The +plash of fountain fell softly on the breeze, mingled with the rustling of +the luxuriant growth of leaf and flower close at hand. It was not chance +that brought the stalwart soldier instantly to Amy's side. Her gaze was +upon him before the carriage stopped, and irresistibly drew him. The man +of mature years, the hero of sharp combats and stirring campaigns with a +fierce and savage foe, the commander of hundreds of eager and gallant +men, obeyed without thought of demur the unspoken summons of a girl yet +in her teens. There was a new light in her clear and beautiful eyes, a +flush upon her soft and rounded cheek, a little flutter, possibly, in her +kind and loyal heart. Heaven knows his beat high with an emotion he could +not subdue, though his bearing was grave and courteous as ever, but about +that sweet and flushing face there shone the halo of a woman's brave +determination, and no sooner had be reached the carriage side than, +bending toward him, she spoke. Mildred Prime could not repress a little +gasp of amaze. + +"Colonel Armstrong, will you kindly open the carriage door? I want to +talk with you a moment." + +Without a word he wrenched the handle and threw wide the door. Light as a +bird she sprang to the ground, her fingers just touching the extended +hand. Side by side they strolled away across the sunlit lawn, he so +strong, virile, erect, she so lissome and graceful. Full of her purpose, +yet fearful that with delay might come timidity, she looked up in his +face: + +"Colonel Armstrong, I have heard only to-day that Mr. Gray is in really +serious danger. Will you tell me--the truth?" + +Just what Armstrong expected it might be hard to say. The light that had +leaped to his eyes faded slowly and his face lost something of the flush +of robust health. There was a brief pause before he spoke as though he +wished time to weigh his words. + +"I fear it is true," he gravely said. Then in a moment: "Miss Lawrence, +will you not take my arm?" And he felt her hand tremble as she placed it +there. It was a moment before she began again. + +"They tell me he should have counsel, but will not heed. I have not seen +him to-day. There is no one in his battalion, it seems, whom he really +looks up to. He is headstrong and self-confident. Do you think he +should--that he needs one?" And anxiously the brave eyes sought the +strong, soldierly face. + +"It would seem so, Miss Lawrence." + +She drew a long breath. She seemed to cling a little closer to his arm. +Then--straight came the next question: + +"Colonel Armstrong, will you do me a great favor? Will you be his +counsel?" + +He was looking directly to the front as she spoke. Something told him +what was coming, yet he could not answer all at once. What did it mean, +after all, but just what he had been thinking for a week, that the girl's +fresh young heart had gone out to this merry, handsome, soldierly lad, +whom he, too, had often marked with keen appreciation when in command of +his big company at drill. What possible thought of hers could he, "more +than twice her years," have ever hoped to win. She had come to him in her +sore trouble--and her lover's--as she would have gone to her father had +he been a soldier schooled in such affairs. Armstrong pulled himself +together with quick, stern self-command. + +Looking down, he saw that her eyes were filling, her lips paling, and a +rush of tenderness overcame him as he simply and gently answered: + +"Yes, and there is no time to be lost." + + * * * * * + +All these last days, it will be remembered, Mrs. Frank Garrison with +pretty "Cherry Ripe" had found shelter at the Presidio. The Palace was no +place for a poor soldier's wife, and there was no longer a grateful nabob +as a possible source of income. It is doubtful indeed whether that mine +could be further tapped, for the effusive brother-in-law of the winter +gone by had found disillusion in more ways than one. Garrison, busy day +and night with his staff duties, had plainly to tell his capricious wife +that she had come without his knowledge or consent, and that he could not +think of meeting the expense of even a two weeks' stay in town. He could +not account for her coming at all. He had left her with his own people +where at least she would be in comfort while he took the field. He +desired that she should return thither at once. She determined to remain +and gayly tapped his cheek and bade him have no concern. She could +readily find quarters, and so she did. The regular garrison of the +Presidio was long since afield, but the families of many of its officers +still remained there, while the houses of two or three, completely +furnished so far as army furnishings go, were there in charge of the post +quartermaster. From being the temporary guests of some old friends, Mrs. +Frank and her pretty companion suddenly opened housekeeping in one of +these vacated homes, and all her witchery was called into play to make it +the most popular resort of the younger element at the post. Money she +might lack, but no woman could eclipse her in the dazzle of her dainty +toilets. The Presidio was practically at her feet before she had been +established forty-eight hours. Other peoples' vehicles trundled her over +to camp whenever she would drive. Other peoples' horses stood saddled at +her door when she would ride. Other peoples' servants flew to do her +bidding. Women might whisper and frown, but for the present, at least, +she had the men at her beck and call. Morn, noon and night she was on the +go, the mornings being given over, as a rule, to a gallop over the breezy +heights where the brigade or regimental drills were going on, the +afternoons to calls, wherein it is ever more blessed to give than to +receive--and the evenings to hops at the assembly room, or to +entertaining--charmingly entertaining the little swarm of officers with +occasional angels of her own sex, sure to drop in and spend an hour. +Cherry played and sang and "made eyes" at the boys. Mrs. Frank was +winsome and genial and joyous to everybody, and when Garrison himself +arrived from camp, generally late in the evening, looking worn and jaded +from long hours at the desk, she had ever a comforting supper and +smiling, playful welcome for her lord, making much of him before the +assembled company, to the end that more than one callow sub was heard to +say that there would be some sense in marrying, by George, if a fellow +could pick up a wife like Mrs. Frank. All the same the post soon learned +that the supposedly blest aide-de-camp breakfasted _solus_ on what he +could forage for himself before he mounted and rode over to his long +day's labor at Camp Merritt. Another thing was speedily apparent, the +_entente cordial_ between her radiant self and the Primes was at an end, +if indeed it ever existed. _She_, to be sure, was sunshine itself when +they chanced to meet at camp. The clouds were on the faces of the father +and daughter, while Miss Lawrence maintained a serene neutrality. + +They were lingering in 'Frisco, still hopefully, were the Primes. The +detectives on duty at the landing stage the evening Stewart's regiment +embarked swore that no one answering the description of either of the two +young men had slipped aboard. Those in the employ of the sad old man were +persistent in the statement that they had clues--were on the scent, etc. +He was a sheep worth the shearing, and so, while Mr. Prime spent many +hours in consultation with certain of these so-called sleuth-hounds, the +young ladies took their daily drive through the park, generally picking +up the smiling Schuyler somewhere along the way, and rarely omitting a +call, with creature comforts in the way of baskets of fruit, upon the +happy Billy, whose limits were no longer restricted to his tent, as +during the first week of his arrest, but whose court was ordered to sit +in judgment on him the first of the coming week. Already it began to be +whispered that Armstrong had a mine to spring in behalf of the defense, +but he was so reserved that no one, even Gordon, sought to question. + +"Armstrong is a trump!" said Billy to Miss Lawrence, one fair morning. +"He'll knock those charges silly--though I dare say I could have wormed +through all right; only, you see, I couldn't get out to find people to +give evidence for me." + +"Do you--see him often?" she asked, somewhat vaguely. + +"Armstrong!" exclaimed Billy, in open-eyed amaze. "Why, he's here with me +every day." + +"But never," thought Miss Lawrence, "in the morning--when we are." + +The eventful Monday was duly ushered in, but not the court. That case +never came to trial. Like the crack of a whip an order snapped in by wire +on the Thursday previous--three regiments, the --teenth regulars and the +"Primeval Dudes," Armstrong's splendid regiment among them--to prepare +for sea voyage forthwith. More than that, General Drayton and staff were +directed to proceed to Manila at once. Two-thirds of the members of the +court were from these regiments. A new detail would be necessary. The +General sent for Armstrong. + +"Can't we try that case here and now?" he asked. + +"Certainly," said Armstrong, "if you'll send for Canker that _he_ may be +satisfied." + +And Canker came and listened. It was admitted that Gray had had a long +talk with the prisoner, took him his overcoat, newspapers, etc., but, in +extenuation, they were members of the same college society and their +social standing was, outside the army, on the same plane. Gray deserved +reprimand and caution--nothing more. As to the carriage, he had nothing to +do with the one that drove to camp that night. A man in the uniform of a +commissary sergeant giving the name of Foley (how Canker winced) had +ordered it at the stable and taught the driver "Killarney." Gray had +'phoned for a carriage for himself, hoping to get the officer-of-the-day's +permission to be absent two hours to tell his story in person to the +General, who was dining with the department commander. He never got the +permission, and the carriage went to the wrong camp. Lieutenant W. F. Gray +was released from arrest and returned to duty. + +"I shall never be able to thank you enough," said he, sentimentally, to +Miss Lawrence, at the Palace that evening. They were strolling up and +down the corridor, waiting, as was Schuyler, for Mildred to come down for +the theater. Gray's curly head was inclined toward the dark locks of his +fair partner. His eyes were fastened on her faintly flushing face. They +made a very pretty picture, said people who looked on knowingly, and so +thought the officer in the uniform of a colonel of infantry, who, while +talking calmly to Mr. Prime full thirty yards away, watched them with +eyes that were full of sadness. How could _he_ see at that distance that +her eyes, clear and radiant, were seldom uplifted to the ardent gaze of +her escort, and were at the moment looking straight at him? How could he +hear at that distance the prompt response, given with an inclination of +the bonny head to indicate her meaning? + +"There's where your thanks are due, Mr. Gray." + +Quite a gathering of army folk was at the Palace that night. So many +wives or sweethearts were going home, so many soldiers abroad, and Mrs. +Frank Garrison, gay and gracious, passed them time and again, leaning on +the arm of Captain McDonald, a new devotee, while poor Cherry, with an +enamored swain from the Presidio, languished in a dim, secluded corner. +She had been recalled by parental authority and was to start for Denver +under a matronly wing on the morrow. Mrs. Frank had been bidden, and +expected, to go at the same time, but that authority was merely marital. +Up to this time not one army wife had been permitted to accompany her +husband on any of the transports to Manila, though one heroine managed to +get carried away and to share her liege lord's stateroom as far as +Honolulu. The General and his staff, with a big regiment of volunteers, +were to sail on the morrow, the other regiments as fast as transports +could be coaled and made ready. + +Something in Mrs. Garrison's gay, triumphant manner prompted a +sore-hearted woman, suffering herself at the coming parting, to turn and +say: "Well, Mrs. Garrison, I suppose that after your husband sails you'll +have to follow the rest of us into grass-widowhood." + +One thing that made women hate Margaret Garrison was that she "could +never be taken down," and the answer came cuttingly, as it was meant to +go, even though a merry laugh went with it. + +"Not I! When the ship I want is ready, I go with it!" + +But as she turned triumphantly away, the color suddenly left her cheek +and there was an instant's falter. As though he had heard her words, +Stanley Armstrong too had suddenly turned and stood looking sternly into +her eyes. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +Still another expedition was destined to start for Manila, and keen was +the rivalry among the regiments held to daily drill at San Francisco. The +rumor was current in the camps that the next review was to decide the +matter, and that the commands pronounced to be foremost in discipline and +efficiency would be designated to embark. The transports that had +conveyed the earlier expeditions to the Philippines began to reappear in +the bay, and coaling and refitting were hurried to the utmost. The man +most eager to get away was Stanley Armstrong; and if merit were to decide +the matter it was conceded among the volunteers that in point of style +and equipment the "Primeval Dudes" "held over" all competitors, even +though every competitor believed itself more than a match for the Dudes +if actual campaigning and fighting were in contemplation. Senators and +members from the States represented by the volunteers at San Francisco +led burdensome lives, for officers and men were pulling every wire to +secure the longed-for orders for an immediate voyage to Manila, when, all +on a sudden, the hopes of all were crushed. Spain had begged for peace. +"No more men can be sent to Manila," said the officials consulted, and +Camp Merritt put on mourning forthwith. + +But Armstrong had been studying the situation and was not easily daunted. +He was a man whose opinion carried weight, and from the very first he had +maintained that while fifteen or twenty thousand might be men enough to +hold Manila, fifty thousand might not be enough to subdue at once the +forces of Aguinaldo in case they should turn upon the Americans, which +said he, placidly, they will most certainly do before we are a year +older. + +The Dudes, therefore, much to their disgust, were kept steadily at work. +Other regiments, profiting by example, followed suit; but in others +still, a small proportion of their membership, believing as they said, +that the "jig was up," took to lawless and unhallowed expression of their +disgust and became thereby a nuisance to the neighborhood. San +Franciscans, who had wept copiously when others sailed away, would have +seen these patriots sent into exile without shedding a tear. + +"Every man of this command will yet be needed and yet be sent," said +Armstrong. So, too, did the veteran division commander, and the brigade +took heart accordingly. The last of the regulars, with the recruit +detachments for regiments already in the Philippines, had been shipped to +Honolulu, there to await orders, and September seemed destined to go by +without a change for the better in the prospects of the men still left in +camp about the reservation. The Primes, convinced at last that the boy +they sought was not to be found in California, had gone to Santa Anita +visiting their kindred, the Lawrences; and Armstrong, buckling down to +hard and constant work, was striving to persuade himself that he did not +care that the mornings no longer brought with them the carriage and the +fair face of that gentle girl; the department commander himself had gone +to take a look at his new responsibilities in Hawaii; little Mrs. +Garrison still held court, though with diminished retinue, at the +Presidio, when one day, just as October was ushered in, there came a +message from the adjutant-general in town. Would Armstrong drop in at the +office at the first opportunity? A matter of some importance had come up +in the general's first letter from Honolulu, one on which Armstrong's +opinion was desired; and the colonel, hoping for tidings of a chance to +move even that far to the front, made immediate opportunity and took the +first car for the Phelan Building. The adjutant-general looked up from a +littered desk as Armstrong entered. + +"It is good of you to come so promptly," said he. "I'm in a stew, to tell +the truth, and I want your advice." Then he tapped his bell. "Excuse me +to any one who comes for the next ten minutes," said he, to the attendant +who entered. "I have business with Colonel Armstrong." + +No sooner did the orderly vanish than the man of the desk whirled full on +the man of the saddle. "Armstrong," said he, "you defended Gray and +proved him innocent. What else has Canker against him?" + +"Nothing that I know of--why?" + +"Because he's got him in arrest again at Honolulu, and the chief is +worked up over something. Look here--do you suppose--did you ever hear +about certain letters that were stolen from General Drayton's tent?" + +"I heard--yes. Why?" And the look of disappointment which had appeared in +the grave face of the colonel gave way to one of alert interest. + +"Just read that," said the staff official, holding forth a letter. "Begin +there at 'Later!'" + +And Armstrong read, his forehead slowly grooving into something very like +a frown. + +"Later. I may have to remain here several days. Canker, with the +--teenth, went ahead before news of the protocol could stop him; but he +leaves here a number of sick--Lieutenant Gray, charged with using +threatening and insubordinate language to his commanding officer, among +them; and Gray is down with brain fever. The doctors say he is too ill to +be disturbed, and his side of the story is hard to get at, as the boy is +too flighty to talk sense. From Canker's own admission I learned that he +accused Gray of having knowledge of the whereabouts of that packet of +letters stolen from General Drayton's tent, and the youngster's reply was +furious. Canker _had_ to place him in arrest and prefer charges. When +asked if he were sure of his ground in making so serious an accusation, +he declared he had proof positive, at least he would have the instant +they reached Manila, and his intention was to take the boy along with him +to be tried there by court-martial, where "no meddling outsiders," as he +said, could buy off witnesses. It was plain that he considered himself +out of my jurisdiction, and that he resented my staff officer's +questions. But Dr. Morrow had appealed to me in behalf of Gray. Said that +if compelled to continue a prisoner aboard that transport under Canker's +tyrannical rule Gray might be goaded into insanity. He was in a condition +bordering on brain fever when Morrow came to see me, and in another day +was raving. That settled it. I ordered him taken off and placed in +hospital here, and Canker had to go without him. But I wish you would see +Armstrong and tell him about Gray, so that I may know the whole situation +as soon as I return. Canker evidently intended not to let us know his +proofs. He probably believes that he will find a more credulous and +complaisant listener in Drayton; but his insinuations pointed to Gray as +at least an abettor in the theft, and he went so far as to say that if +Armstrong could be brought before the court some very interesting +testimony could be dragged from him, and, finally, that both Armstrong +and Mrs.--well, the wife of a staff officer who is already well on the +way to Manila--might be compelled to testify. I cannot bring myself to +repeat more that he said; but he was in an ugly and almost defiant mood, +and I had to give him a dressing down. You may say to Armstrong for me +that I do not believe one word of Canker's calumny at his expense or that +of the lady in the case. But he declared his intention of laying the +whole matter before General Drayton immediately on his arrival, and it is +best that Armstrong should be prepared. As for the lady, Canker said she +and Armstrong were very close friends when they were at Fort Stanhope ten +years ago, though they no longer meet as such. + +"And that brings me to another matter. I declined positively to allow two +or three ladies, wives of officers, to go on to Manila with Canker's +command; and they said that as I had promised Mrs. Garrison a passage I +had no right to refuse them. Pressed for their authority, two very +estimable women told me that, at the Presidio two days before we sailed, +Mrs. Garrison openly boasted of having my promise to send her on the very +next steamer. Now, who is really the fabricator? I told her positively +that, with my consent, she should not go; and she laughed delightedly, +and said she only asked as a matter of form--the whole thing had already +been settled. Just see to it that if any more transports start before my +return no woman is permitted aboard except, of course, authorized nurses. +Gray is a very sick boy to-night, but you might wire his father, saying +nothing of the arrest, that the doctors are confident of his recovery in +course of time." + +Armstrong read these pages twice over before he looked up. + +"How did this letter come?" he asked. + +"By the Salvador yesterday." + +"And the next mail for Honolulu?" queried Armstrong, rising from his +chair and handing back the folded letter. + +"The next mail closed an hour ago, man. The China sails at two. No other +boat for a week. Where are you going now?" + +"To camp for ten minutes, then to the Presidio." + +"Oh, come over to the club and have a bite first?" said the +adjutant-general, rising and wriggling out of his uniform coat as he did +so. "I won't keep you half an hour." + +"That half-hour may prove precious," answered Armstrong, already at the +door. "Many thanks all the same." + +"Well. Hold on. What am I to say to the General as to Gray and those +letters?" asked the staff officer, intent upon the subject uppermost in +his mind at the moment. + +"You can't say anything that will reach him before he returns. You have +just told me no other boat would start for a week. By that time he'll be +coming home." And with that Armstrong let himself out and strode to the +elevator, leaving his friend to cogitate on the question over his +luncheon. It was decidedly that officer's opinion that Armstrong knew +much more than he would tell. + +But Armstrong knew much less than he himself believed. Hastening back to +camp and ordering his horse, he was soon speeding up the slope to the +wind-swept heights overlooking the Golden Gate. The morning had opened +fine as silk, but by noon the sky was hidden in clouds and the breath of +the sea blew in salt and strong. The whitecaps were leaping on the crest +of the surges driving in through the straits and the surf bursting high +on the jagged rocks at the base of the cliffs. A little coast steamer +from Santa Barbara way came pitching and plunging in from sea, and one or +two venturesome craft, heeling far to leeward, tore through the billows +and tossed far astern a frothing wake. With manes and tails streaming in +the stiff gale, the troop horses of the Fourth Cavalry were cropping at +the scanty herbage down the northward slope, and the herd guard nearest +the road lost his grip on his drab campaign hat as he essayed a salute, +and galloped off on a stern chase down the long ravine to the east, as +the colonel trotted briskly by. One keen glance over the bay beyond rocky +Alcatraz had told him the China was not yet away from her pier. He might +have to send a dispatch by that swift steamer, and even then it would be +six days getting to Hawaii. If the department commander should by that +time be on his homeward journey the information would still be of +interest to the general commanding the new military district at "the +Cross Roads of the Pacific," and of vast benefit, possibly, to his late +client, Mr. Gray. He wondered what Canker's grounds could be for saddling +so foul a suspicion on the boy's good name. He wondered how long that +poor lad would have to struggle with this attack of fever and remain, +perhaps happily, unconscious of this latest indignity. He wondered if Amy +Lawrence yet knew of that serious seizure, and, if she did, what would be +her sensations. Down the winding, sloping road he urged his way, Glencoe, +his pet charger, marveling at the unusual gait. The cape of the sentry's +overcoat whirled over the sentry's head and swished his cap off as he +presented arms to the tall soldier spurring past the guardhouse. "I envy +no one who has to put to sea this day," said Armstrong to himself, as he +turned to the right and reined up in front of a little brown cottage +peeping out from a mass of vines and roses, shivering in the wet wind. +Half a dozen strides took him across the narrow walk and up the wooden +steps. With sharp emphasis he clanged the little gong bell screwed to the +back of the door and waited impatient for the servant's coming. There was +no answer. He rang again and still again, and no one came. A glance at +the windows told that the white lace curtains hung there draped as +prettily as ever. Fresh flowers stood on the window sill. A shawl and a +pillow, the latter indented as by a human head, lay in the lounging chair +on the little porch. Another chair stood but a few feet away. There was +even a fan, though fans in a 'Frisco summer are less needed than furs; +but nowhere saw he other sign of the temporary mistress of the house. He +went round to a side window and rapped. No answer. Then he turned to the +walk again, and, taking the reins, bade the orderly inquire next door if +Mrs. Garrison could be found. Yes, was the answer; she went driving to +Golden Gate Park with Mrs. Stockman an hour ago, and Mrs. Stockman was to +leave for Los Angeles that night. Odd! If Mrs. Garrison drove to Golden +Gate Park the easiest and best way was that along which he came, and he +had met no carriage. In fact, not since that night at the Palace had he +set eyes on Mrs. Garrison, or until the coming of this sorrowful news +about Gray had he cared to. From all that he heard Mrs. Frank was +enjoying herself at the Presidio. Cherry having gone one way and her +devotee another, Mrs. Frank speedily summoned a chum of old garrison days +to come and keep house with her for a while, and Mrs. Stockman, whose +lord had left her at the call to duty, and gone to Manila with his men, +right gladly accepted and much enjoyed the fun and frolic that went on +night after night in Mrs. Frank's cozy parlor, or the mild flirtation, +possibly, in the recesses of Mrs. Frank's embowered porch. The last +expedition had borne off almost all the "regular" element at the post, +but had not left it poor, for, fast as camp grounds could be made ready +for them, vastly to the disgust of the saloon keepers and street-car +magnates who had reaped rich harvest from Camp Merritt, regiment after +regiment, the volunteers came marching over from the malodorous sand lots +and settled down in sheltered nooks about the Presidio. So cavaliers in +plenty were still to be had, cavaliers whose wives and sweethearts, as a +rule, were far away; and Mrs. Frank loved to console such as were so +bereft. The chafing dish and Scotch and soda were in nightly request; and +even women who didn't at all fancy Mrs. Frank, and spoke despitefully of +her among themselves, were not slow to come in "for just a minute," as +they said, as the evenings wore on, and to stay and chat with various +visitors--it was so lonesome and poky over home with the children asleep +and nothing to do. Women there were who never darkened Mrs. Garrison's +door after the first formal calls; but they were of those who deeply felt +the separation from all they held most dear, and who, forbidden +themselves, heard with envy and even distress her gay assertion that she +would sail for Manila the moment the Queen of the Fleet was ready. From +what source--or circumstance--did she derive her influence? + +But with the edict that no more troops should be sent came comfort to the +souls of these bereaved ones. Transports would not go without troops, and +Mrs. Frank could not go without transports, the journey was far too +expensive. They wished her no evil, of course; but, if they were +themselves forbidden how could they rejoice that she should be permitted? +They were actually beginning to feel a bit charitable toward her when the +Queen of the Fleet herself came in from Honolulu with the latest news. +The fifth expedition had been halted there and put in camp. The hospital +held several officers. Billy Gray was down with brain fever, and there +had been a furious scene between him and his peppery colonel before the +breakdown; and by that same steamer Mrs. Garrison had got a letter that +made her turn white and tremble, as Mrs. Stockman saw and told, and then +shut herself up in her room an entire day. Now, for nearly a fortnight, +the lovely guest had been daily hinting that she really must go home, +"dear Witchie" was surely tired of her; and Witchie disclaimed and +protested and vowed she could not live without her devoted friend. But +then had come that letter and with it a change of tone and tactics. +Witchie ceased to remonstrate or reprove Mrs. Stockman, and the latter +felt that she must go, and Witchie consented without demur. + +In no pleasant mood Armstrong mounted and trotted for the east gate. The +road was lined with camps and volunteers at drill. Vehicles were +frequently moving to and fro; but the sentry at the entrance had kept +track of them, and in response to question answered promptly and +positively Mrs. Garrison's carriage had not come that way. "But," said +he, "the wagon with the lady's baggage did. I saw the name on the +trunks." + +The colonel turned in saddle and coolly surveyed him. "Do you mean Mrs. +Stockman's name?" he asked in quiet tone. "How many trunks were there?" + +"Oh, some of them might have had Mrs. Stockman's name, sir; but the two +or three that I saw were marked M. G." + +This was unlooked-for news. To her next-door neighbor Mrs. Garrison had +said nothing about going away with Mrs. Stockman, and Armstrong had grave +need to see her and to see her at once. The train for Los Angeles did not +leave until evening. Possibly they were lunching somewhere--spending the +afternoon with friends in town. He rode direct to headquarters. Some of +the staff might be able to tell, was his theory; and one of them +justified it. + +"Did I happen to meet Mrs. Garrison? Yes, I just saw her aboard the +China." + +"Aboard the China!" exclaimed Armstrong, with sudden thrill of +excitement. "D'you mean she is going?" + +"Didn't ask her. They were hustling everybody ashore, and I had only time +to give dispatches to Purser; but she was on the deck with friends when I +came away." + +People wondered that day at the speed with which the tall officer, followed +by his orderly, clattered away down Market Street. In less than ten minutes +Armstrong was at the crowded pier and pushing through the throng to the +China's stage. Too late! Already it was swung aloft, the lines were cast +loose, and the huge black mass was just beginning to back slowly from its +moorings. The rail of the promenade deck swarmed with faces, some radiant, +some tearful. Words of adieu, fluttering kerchiefs, waving hands, tossing +flowers were there on every side. Two officers, Honolulu bound, shouted +Armstrong's name, and a cheery good-by; but he did not seem to hear. A +gentle voice, the voice of all others he most longed to hear, repeated the +name and strove to call attention to his gesticulating comrades on the +upper deck; but he was deaf to both. Eagerly, anxiously, incredulously he +was searching along that crowded rail, and all on a sudden he saw her. Yes, +there she stood, all gayety, grace and animation, stylishly gowned and +fairly burdened with roses; and it was right at him she was gazing, +nodding, smiling, all sweetness, all confiding, trusting joy; with just a +little of triumph, too, and a tinge of sentimental sorrow in the parting. +Apparently, it was all for him; for her blue eyes never faltered till they +fixed his gaze, and then, kiss after kiss she threw to him with the +daintily gloved little hand, and, leaning far down over the rail, lowering +it toward him as much as possible, she finally tossed to him, standing +there stern and spellbound, a bunch of beautiful roses she had torn from +her corsage. It fell almost at his feet, for in his astonishment and rising +wrath he made no effort to catch it. A man, stooping quickly, rescued and +handed it to him. Mechanically he said "Thank you," and took it, a thorn +pricking deep into the flesh as he did so; and still his eyes were fixed on +that fairy form now surely, swiftly gliding away, and over him swept the +consciousness of utter defeat, of exasperation, of dismay, even as he +strove to fathom her motives in thus singling him out for such +conspicuous--even affectionate--demonstration. Triumph and delight he could +have understood, but not, not this semblance of confidential relations, not +at least until he felt his arm grasped by a cordial hand, heard his name +spoken by a friendly voice, and Mr. Prime's pleasant inquiry: "Have you no +greeting for other friends?" Then the hot blood rushed to his face and +showed even through the bronze as, turning, his troubled eyes met full the +clear, placid gaze of Amy Lawrence. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +Mid October. The Queen of the Fleet, the finest transport of the Pacific +service, thronged with boys in blue at last ordered on to Manila, lay at +the wharf at Honolulu, awaiting her commander's orders to cast loose. In +strong force, and with stentorian voices, the Primeval Dudes joined in +rollicking chorus to the crashing accompaniment of their band and, when +they could take time to rest, the crowd ashore set up a cheer. The +Hawaiian National Band, in spotless white, forming a huge and melodious +circle on the wharf, vied with the musicians from the States in the +spirit and swing of their stirring airs. "_Aloha Oe! Aloha Oe!_" chorused +the surging throng, afloat and ashore, as wreaths and garlands--the +_leis_ of the islanders--were twined or hung about some favorite officer +or favored man. The troops still held to service in Hawaii shouted good +will and good-by to those ordered on to the Philippines. The Dudes of the +Queen, and the lads from the prairies and the mountains on other +transports anchored in the deep but narrow harbor, yelled soldierly +condolence to those condemned to stay. The steam of the 'scape pipe +roared loudly and belched dense white clouds on high, swelling the +uproar. Dusky little Kanaka boys, diving for nickels and paddling +tireless about the ship, added their shrill cries to the clamor. The +captain, in his natty uniform of blue and gold, stepped forth upon the +bridge to take command, and raised his banded cap in recognition of the +constant cheer from the host ashore and the throng of blue shirts on the +forecastle head. Then arose another shout, as a veteran officer, in the +undress uniform of a general, appeared upon that sacred bound, and, +bowing to the crowd, was escorted by the captain to the end overlooking +the animated scene below; and then the signal was given, the heavy lines +were cast off and hauled swiftly in, the massive screw began slowly to +churn the waters at the stern, and gently, almost imperceptibly at first, +the Queen slid noiselessly along the edge of the dock, to the +accompaniment of a little volley of flowers and garlands tossed from +eager hands, and a cheer of godspeed from the swarm of upturned faces. +And then there uprose another shout, a shout of mingled merriment, +surprise and applause; for all on a sudden there darted up the stairway +from the crowded promenade deck to the sacred perch above, defiant of the +lettered warning, "Passengers are not allowed upon the Bridge," a dainty +vision in filmy white, and all in the next moment there appeared at the +General's side, smiling, bowing, blowing kisses, waving adieux, all +sparkle, animation, radiance and rejoicing, a bewitching little figure in +the airiest, loveliest of summer toilets. The Red Cross nurses on the +deck below looked at one another and gasped. Two brave army girls, wives +of wounded officers in the Philippines, who, by special dispensation, +were making the voyage on the Queen, glanced quickly at each other and +said--nothing audible. The General, lifting his cap, but looking both +deprecation and embarrassment, fell back and gave his place at the white +rail to the new arrival, and colored high when she suddenly turned and +took his arm. The captain, trying not to see her or to appear conscious +of this infraction of a stringent rule and invasion of his dignity, grew +redder as he shouted rapid orders and swung his big, beautiful ship well +out into the stream. The guns of the Bennington boomed a deafening salute +as the Queen turned her sharp nose toward the open sea; and almost the +last thing Honolulu saw of her human freight was the tiny, dainty, +winsome little figure in white, waving a spotless kerchief as in fond +farewell. Once clear of the narrow entrance the big troop ship headed +westward toward the setting sun, shook free the reins, as it were, and, +followed by less favored craft, sped swiftly on her way, Witchie +Garrison, the latest addition to the passenger list, entirely at home, if +not actually in command. + +Leaning on the General's arm an hour later and deftly piloting that +bewildered veteran up and down the breezy deck, she came, just as she had +planned to come, face to face once more with Stanley Armstrong. Well she +knew that under the escort of that exalted rank she was safe from any +possibility of cross question or interference. Well she knew that had he +heard of her sudden determination to go to Honolulu she could not have +escaped stern interrogation, possibly something worse; and her heart +failed her when she realized that the man who had gauged her shallow +nature years before, now held a lash over her head in the shape of the +paper that mad vanity had prompted her to write and send to the officer +of the guard the day that Stewart sailed. What madness it was, indeed, +yet how could she have dreamed it would fall into the hands of the man of +all others she feared and respected--the one man who, had he but cared, +could years ago have had her love, the man who, because he cared not, had +won her hate! And, now that he held or had held this paper--nothing less +than a forged order in her husband's name as aide-de-camp to General +Drayton, she could have cowered at his feet in her terror of him, yet +braved him with smiles, sweetness and gayety, with arch merriment and +joyous words, quitting for the moment the General's arm that she might +extend to him both her little white-gloved hands. Gravely he took the +left in his left while with the right he raised his forage cap in +combined salute to the woman and to his superior officer. Gravely and +almost instantly he released it, and listened in helpless patience to her +torrent of playful words; but his eyes were on the General's face as +though he would ask could he, the General, know the true character of the +woman he had honored above all her sisterhood on board, in thus taking +her to the bridge whereon neither officer nor man nor nurse nor army wife +had presumed to set foot on all the six days' run from San Francisco, as +though he would ask if the General knew just what she was, this blithe, +dainty, winsome little thing that nestled so confidingly--indeed, so +snugly--close to his battered side, and who had virtually taken +possession of him in the face of an envious and not too silent circle of +her own sex. Truth to tell, the Chief would rather have escaped. He was +but an indifferent sailor, and the Queen's long, lazy roll over the ocean +surges was exciting in his inner consciousness a longing for cracked ice +and champagne. He had known her but the few days the Queen remained in +port, coaling and preparing for the onward voyage across the broad +Pacific; but a great functionary of the general government had told him a +pathetic tale the very day of his first peep at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, +had given him a capital dinner at that famous hostelry, whereat she +appeared in charming attire, and in a flow of spirits simply +irresistible. Her sallies of wit had made him roar with delight; her +mimicry of one or two conscientious but acidulated dames who had come +over on the Queen, bound as nurses for Manila, had tickled him to the +verge of apoplexy; but when later she backed him into the coolest corner +of the "lanai" with the plash of fountain close at hand, and the sweet +music of Berger's famous band floating softly on the evening air, and +told him how her father had loved to talk of his, the General's, dash and +daring in the great days of the great war, and led him on to tell of his +campaigns in the Shenandoah and the West, listening with dilated eyes and +parted lips, the campaigner himself was captivated, and she had her will. +A great senator had told him how she had come thither to nurse a gallant +young officer in her husband's regiment, how she had pulled the boy +through the perils of brain fever until he was now convalescent and going +on to rejoin his comrades in Manila, and she, she was pining to reach her +husband now serving on General Drayton's staff. Other women were aboard +the Queen; could not General Crabb find room for her? It is hard for a +soldier to refuse a pretty woman--or a prominent member of the committee +on military affairs. There was not a vacant stateroom on the ship. +Officers were sleeping three or four in a room, so were the Red Cross +nurses; and the two army wives already aboard had been assigned a little +cubby-hole of a cabin in which only one could dress at a time. There were +only two apartments on the big craft that were not filled to their +capacity--the room occupied by that sea monarch, the captain, and that +which, from having been the "Ladies' Boudoir," had been fitted up for the +accommodation of the General. The piano had been wheeled out on deck, the +writing table stowed away, and a fine new wide brass bedstead, with +dainty white curtains and mosquito bar, a large bureau and a washstand +had been moved in, and these, with easy-chairs, electric fans, electric +lights and abundant air, made it the most desirable room on the ship. +Even Armstrong, colonel commanding the troops aboard, was compelled to +share his little cabin with his adjutant, and the General's aides were +bundled into a "skimpy" box between decks. There really seemed no place +for Mrs. Garrison aboard, especially when it was found that the passenger +list was to be increased by three, a surgeon and two officers going +forward from Honolulu; and one of these was our old friend and once +light-hearted Billy Gray, now nearly convalescent, but weak and, as all +could see, feverishly eager to get on to Manila. + +All this was explained to the senator. It was even suggested that there +was room for Mrs. Garrison on the Louisiana, a safe old tub, if she was +slow; but Mrs. Frank looked so pathetic and resigned when this +arrangement was suggested that no one had the hardihood to actually dwell +upon it, and the senator said it was a shame to think of it. With whom of +her own sex could she associate on that long, hot voyage ahead of them? +Why not transfer some of the Red Cross nurses to the Louisiana? Mrs. +Garrison had no objections, but they had; and the surgeon in charge made +prompt and vigorous protest. He knew Mrs. Frank, and she knew him and did +not in the least despair. She still had a plan. There was a cozy dinner +one evening--just the evening before the departure of the Queen, and the +gallant captain of the ship, the veteran General, the quartermaster in +charge of transportation, the member of the senate military committee, +some charming girls,--but none so charming as Mrs. Garrison,--were of the +party. There was some sentiment and much champagne, as a result of which, +at one A.M., the big-hearted sea monarch aforementioned swore by the +bones of his ancestors in the slimy grasp of Davy Jones that that sweet +little woman shouldn't have to go a-begging for accommodations on his +ship. If the General would condescend to move into his room, by thunder, +he'd sleep up in his foul-weather den next the chart room, and Mrs. +Garrison--God bless her!--could take the General's room, and be queen of +the ship--queen of the Queen--queen of queens--by Jupiter! and here's her +health with all honor! A soldier, of course, could be no less gallant +than a sailor, especially as the captain's room was a bit better than the +"Boudoir," and had an ice chest and contents that the veteran campaigner +was bidden to consider his own. The agreement was clinched that very +night before the party broke up; and little Mrs. Frank shed tears of +gratitude upon the General's coat sleeve and threw kiss after kiss to the +handsome sailor as she hung over the balusters of the broad veranda and +waved them away in their swift-running cabs, and then danced off to her +room and threw herself on the bed after a mad pirouette about the +spacious apartment, and laughed and laughed until real tears trickled +from her eyes, and then gave orders to be called at seven o'clock. She +meant to be up and aboard that ship with all her luggage before sense and +repentance could come with the morning sun--before either soldier or +sailor could change his mind. + +To the amaze of the women already aboard, to the grave annoyance of +Colonel Armstrong, to the joy of poor Billy Gray, and the mischievous +merriment of several youngsters on the commissioned list, Mrs. Frank +Garrison, the latest arrival, became sole occupant of the finest room on +the ship; and it was a bower of lilies and tropical fruit and flowers the +breezy day she sailed away from the bay of Honolulu. + +No time need be wasted in telling the effect of this "assignment to +quarters." Prolific a source of squabble as is the custom ashore it +becomes intensified afloat, and, when coupled with it, came a shaking up +and rearrangement of seats at table, all hope of harmony vanished on the +instant. The two brave young army girls still retained their seats at the +captain's table; but two most estimable young women, Red Cross nurses, +were dropped therefrom and transferred to that of the second officer on +the port side, much to the comfort of a rather large percentage of their +sisterhood who had regarded their previous elevation with feelings of not +unmixed gratification. Then officers who had been seated with the +General's staff had to vacate in favor of Mrs. Frank and Dr. Prober and +Lieutenant Billy Gray, whose father and the chief were long-time chums, +and the Red Cross nurses who had been at the first officer's table fell +back to that of the third. It was every bit as good as the other, but it +didn't sound so, and they couldn't see it; and there were faces sour as +the product of the ship's baker when that evening all hands went down to +dinner, and the silence maintained, or the ominously subdued tone of the +talk, at the other tables, was in marked contrast with the hilarity that +prevailed where sat the gray-haired, ruddy-cheeked old chief and the +laughing coterie that listened to the fun that fell from the lips of +Witchie Garrison. Armstrong, silent and somber, at the captain's right, +looking forward from time to time, saw only one face at the General's +table that was not lighted up with merriment; it was the face of the boy +he envied, if envy of this kind ever entered into his heart, and he +wondered as he looked at Billy's curly head what could have come over +that glad young life to leave so deep a shadow on his handsome face. + +One night, just one week later, Armstrong's eyes were opened. More than +once in the meanwhile he had invited the young officer's confidence, and +Billy, who three months earlier had been all gratitude and frankness, +protested there was nothing on his mind. He had been very ill, that was +all. As to Canker's charges they were simply rot. He hadn't the faintest +inkling what had become of the purloined letters any more than he had of +the whereabouts of his Delta Sig friend, young Morton, now officially +proclaimed a deserter. But Armstrong heard more tales of Witchie's +devotions to him in his illness, and the slow convalescence that ensued, +noted how the boy's eyes followed her about the deck, and how many a time +he would seek her side, even when other men were reading, walking or +chatting with her. Armstrong looked with wonderment that was close allied +to incredulity and pain. Was it possible that this blithe lad, who had +won such a warm interest in the heart of such a girl as Amy Lawrence, +could be forgetful of her, faithless to her, and fascinated now by this +selfish and shallow butterfly? It was incredible! + +But was it? The days had grown hotter, the nights closer, and the air +between decks was stifling when the sea rolled high and closed the ports. +Officers had taken to snoozing up on deck in steamer chairs. By an +unwritten law the port side of the promenade deck was given up to them +after eleven at night; but the women folk had the run of the starboard +side at any hour when the crew were not washing down decks. Armstrong had +been far forward about two o'clock one breathless night to see for +himself the condition of things in the hospital under the forecastle. The +main deck was crowded with sleeping forms of soldiers who found it +impossible to stand the heat below; so on his return, instead of +continuing along the gangway, he decided to climb the iron ladder from +the main to the promenade deck. It would land him at the forward end on +the starboard side. There he could smoke a cigar in peace and quiet. It +was high time everybody was asleep. + +But as his head and eyes reached the level of the deck he became suddenly +aware of a couple huddled close together in the shelter of a canvas +screen, and under the steps leading aloft to the bridge. He knew Gray's +voice at once, and Gray was pleading. He knew _her_ tones of old, and she +was imperative, and listening with obvious impatience, for, almost at the +instant of his arrival, she spoke, low, yet distinctly. "Do as I say; do +as I _beg_ you when we reach Manila, and then come--and see how I can +reward." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +Manila at last! Queen city of the Archipelago, and Manila again besieged! +The loveliest of the winter months was come. The Luneta and the Paseo de +Santa Lucia, close to the sparkling waters, were gay every evening with +the music of the regimental bands and thronged with the carriages of +old-time residents and their new and not too welcome visitors. Spanish +dames and damsels, invisible at other hours, drove or strolled along the +roadway to enjoy the cool breezes that swept in from the beautiful bay +and wistful peeps at the dainty toilets of the American belles now +arriving by every boat from Hongkong. All the Castilian disdain they +might look and possibly feel toward the soldiery of Uncle Sam gave place +to liveliest interest and curiosity when the wives and daughters of his +soldiers appeared upon the scene; and there was one carriage about which, +whenever it stopped, a little swarm of officers gathered and toward which +at any time all eyes were directed--that of the White Sisters. Within the +old walled city and in the crowded districts of Binondo, Quiapo and San +Miguel north of the Pasig, and again in Paco and Ermita to the south, +strong regiments were stationed in readiness to suppress the first sign +of the outbreak so confidently predicted by the Bureau of Military +Intelligence. In a great semicircle of over twenty miles, girdling the +city north, east and south, the outposts and sentries of the two +divisions kept watchful eyes upon the Insurgent forces surrounding them. +Aguinaldo and his cabinet at Malolos to the north had all but declared +war upon the obstinate possessors of the city and had utterly forbidden +their leaving the lines of Manila and seeking to penetrate those broader +fields and roads and villages without. Still hugging to its breast the +delusion that a semi-Malaysian race could be appeased by show of +philanthropy, the government at Washington decreed that, despite their +throwing up earthworks against and training guns on the American +positions, the enemy should be treated as though they never could or +would be hostile, and the privileges denied by them to American troops +were by the American troops accorded to them. Coming and going at will +through our lines, they studied our force, our arms, equipment, numbers, +supplies, methods; and long before the Christmas bells had clanged their +greeting to that universal feast day, and the boom of cannon ushered in +the new year, all doubt of the hostile sentiments of the Insurgent +leaders had vanished. Already there had been ominous clashes at the +front; and with every day the demeanor of the Philippine officers and men +became more and more insolent and defiant. Ceaseless vigilance and +self-control were enjoined upon the soldiers of the United States, nearly +all stalwart volunteers from the far West, and while officers of the +staff and of the half-dozen regiments quartered within the city were +privileged each day to stroll or drive upon the Luneta, there were others +that never knew an hour away from the line of the outposts and their +supports. Such was the case with Stewart's regiment far out toward the +waterworks at the east. Such was the case with the Primeval Dudes on the +other side of the Pasig, lining the banks of the crooked estuary that +formed the Rubicon we were forbidden to cross. Such was the case with +Canker and the --teenth in the dense bamboo thicket to the south, and so +it happened that at first Armstrong and Billy Gray saw nothing of each +other, and but little of the White Sisters, probably a fortunate thing +for all. + +Ever since that memorable night on the Queen of the Fleet, Gray had +studiously avoided his whilom friend and counselor, while the latter's +equally studious avoidance of Mrs. Garrison had become observed +throughout the ship. The dominion and power of that little lady had been +of brief duration, as was to be expected in the case of a woman who had +secured for her undivided use the best, the airiest and by far the +largest room on the steamer--a _cabine de luxe_ indeed, that for a week's +voyage on an Atlantic liner would have cost a small fortune, while here +for a sea sojourn of more than double the time, under tropic skies, and +while other and worthier women were sweltering three in a stuffy box +below, it had cost but a smile. The captain had repented him of his +magnanimity before the lights of Honolulu faded out astern. The General +began to realize that he had been made a cat's-paw of and, his _amour +propre_ being wounded, he had essayed for a day or two majestic dignity +of mien that became comical when complicated with the qualms of +seasickness. There was even noticeable aversion on part of some of the +officers of the Dudes who, having made the journey from "the Bay" to +Honolulu with the women passengers, army wives and Red Cross nurses, +naturally became the recipients of the views entertained by these ladies. +Quick to see if slow to seem to see, Mrs. Frank had lost no time in +begging one of the young soldier wives to share her big stateroom and +broad and comfortable bed, and the lady preferred the heat and discomfort +between-decks to separation from her friend. Then Mrs. Garrison tendered +both the run of her cabin during the day and evening; suggested, indeed, +that on hot nights they come and sleep there, one on the bed and one on +the couch; and they thanked her, but--never came. She coddled the General +with cool champagne cup when he was in the throes of _mal de mer_, and +held him prisoner with her vivacious chatter when he was well enough to +care to talk. But, after all, her most serious trouble seemed to consist +in keeping Billy Gray at respectful distance. He sought her side day +after day, to Armstrong's mild amaze, as has been said; and when he could +not be with her was moody, even fierce and ugly tempered--he whose +disposition had been the sunniest in all that gray, shivery, dripping +sojourn at the San Francisco camp. + +But once fairly settled in Manila, the White Sisters seemed to regain all +the old ascendency. Colonel Frost had taken a big, cool, roomy house, +surrounded by spacious grounds down in Malate and close to the plashing +waters of the bay. Duties kept him early and late at his office in the +walled city; but every evening, after the drive and dinner, callers came +thronging in, and all Witchie's witcheries were called into play to charm +them into blindness and to cover Nita's fitful and nervous moods, now +almost painfully apparent. Frost's face was at times a thundercloud, and +army circles within the outer circle of Manila saw plainly that all was +not harmony betwixt that veteran Benedict and that fragile, fluttering, +baby wife. The bloom of Nita's beauty was gone. She looked wan, white, +even haggard. She had refused to leave Hongkong or come to Manila until +Margaret's arrival, then flew to the shelter of that sisterly wing. Frank +Garrison had been occupying a room under the same roof with his General, +but both General and aide-de-camp were now much afield, and Frank spent +far more days and nights along the line of blockhouses than he did at +home. The coming of his wife was unannounced and utterly unlooked for. +"Did I consult my husband!" she exclaimed in surprise, when asked the +question one day by the wife of a veteran field officer. "Merciful +heaven, Mrs. Lenox, there was no time for that except by cable, and at +four dollars a word. No! If any doubt of what Frank Garrison will say or +do exists in my mind I go and do the thing at once, then the doubt is +settled. If he approve, well and good; if he doesn't--well, then I've had +my fun anyway." + +But it made little difference what Frank Garrison might think, say or do +when Nita's need came in question. It was for Nita that Margaret Garrison +so suddenly quitted the Presidio and hastened to Hawaii. It was for her +sake, to be her counsel and protection, the elder sister had braved +refusal, difficulties, criticism, even Armstrong's open suspicion and +dislike, to take that long voyage to a hostile clime. That she braved, +too, her husband's displeasure was not a matter of sufficient weight to +merit consideration. She was there to help Nita; and until that hapless +child were freed from a peril that, ever threatening, seemed sapping her +very life, Margaret Garrison meant to stay. + +For the letter that came by way of Honolulu had told the elder sister of +increasing jealousy and suspicion on the colonel's part, of his dreadful +rage at Yokohama on learning that even there--the very hour of their +arrival--when the consul came aboard with a batch of letters in his hand, +he had one for Mrs. Frost. She had barely glanced at its contents before +she was stricken with a fit of trembling, tore it in half, and tossed the +fragments on the swift ebbing tide, then rushed to her stateroom. There +she added a postscript to the long letter penned to Margaret on the +voyage; and the purser, not her husband, saw it safely started on the +Gaelic, leaving for San Francisco via Honolulu that very day. That letter +beat the ordinary mail, for the Queen was heading seaward, even as the +Gaelic came steaming in the coral-guarded harbor, and a little packet was +tossed aboard the new troop ship as she sped away, one missive in it +telling Witchie Garrison that the man whose life had been wrecked by her +sister's enforced desertion was already in Manila awaiting her coming, +and telling her, moreover, that the packet placed in General Drayton's +hands contained only her earlier letters. In his reckless wrath Latrobe +had told her that those which bound her to him by the most solemn +pledges, those that vowed undying love and devotion, were still in his +hands, and that she should see him and them when at last she reached +Manila. + +Three mortal weeks had the sisters been there together, and never once in +that time did Nita venture forth except when under escort of her +black-browed husband or the protection of her smiling, witching, yet +vigilant Margaret. Never once had their house been approached by any one +who bore resemblance to the dreaded lover. All along the Calle Real, where +were the quarters of many officers, little guards of regulars were +stationed; for black rumors of Filipino uprising came with every few days, +and some men's hearts were failing them for fear when they thought of the +paucity of their numbers as compared with the thousands of fanatical +natives to whom the taking of human life was of less account than the loss +of a game chicken, and in whose sight assassination was a virtue when it +rid one of a foe. Already many an officer who had weakly yielded to the +importunity of a devoted wife was cursing the folly that led him to let +her join him. The outbreak was imminent. Any one could see the war was +sure to come--even those who strove to banish alarm and reassure an +anxious nation. And when the call to arms should sound, duty, honor and +law would demand each soldier's instant answer on the battle line, then +who was to care for the women? The very servants in each household, it was +known, were in most cases regularly enrolled in the Insurgent army. The +crowded districts in the city, the nipa huts surrounding the wealthy homes +in the suburbs swarmed with Filipino soldiery in the garb of peace. Arms +and ammunition, both, were stored in the great stone churches. Knives, +bolos and pistols were hidden in every house. Through the clergy, in some +instances, and foreign residents in others, the statement was set afloat +that every American officer's residence was mapped and marked, that the +Tagals were told off by name--so many for each house in proportion to the +number of American inmates--and day after day, awaiting the signal for +their bloody work, these native devotees greeted with servile bows and +studied the habits of the officers they were designated to fall upon in +their sleep and slay without mercy. Even women and children were not to be +spared; and many a woman, hearing this grewsome story, trembled in her +terror. For a time, in dread of this new peril, Nita Frost almost forgot +the other; but not so Margaret. She scoffed and scouted the rumor of +Filipino outbreak. She laughed at Frost, who all too evidently believed in +it, and was in hourly trepidation. He begged that the guard at his +quarters might be doubled, and was totally unnerved when told it might +even have to be reduced. Not so Mrs. Frank. She made friends with the +stalwart sergeant commanding; always had hot coffee and sandwiches ready +for the midnight relief; made it a point to learn the name of each +successive noncommissioned officer in charge, and had a winsome smile and +word for the sentries as she passed. It wasn't Filipino aggression that +she feared. The men wondered why she should so urgently bid them see that +no strangers--Americans--were allowed within the massive gates. There were +tramps, even in Manila, she said. When the sisters drove, their natty +little Filipino team flashed through the lanes and streets at top speed, +the springy Victoria bounding at their heels to the imminent peril of the +cockaded hats of the dusky coach and footman, if not even to the seats of +those trim, white-coated, big-buttoned, top-booted, impassive little +Spanish-bred servitors. The carriage stopped only at certain designated +points, and only then when a group of officers stood ready to greet them. +Not once had they been menaced by any one nor approached by any man even +faintly resembling poor Latrobe; and Witchie Garrison was beginning to +take heart and look upon that threatening letter as a mad piece of "bluff" +when one day the unexpected happened. + +The men of the house, Frost and Garrison, were accustomed, when the latter +was at home, to breakfast together quite early. Then the colonel would +drive off to the Ayuntamiento in the walled city, and Frank would mount his +pony and ride away to his long day's duties. Later the sisters would have +their leisurely breakfast, secure in the protection of the guard, would +give their Chinaman _chef_ his orders for the day, and send him off to make +such purchases as were possible in the now scanty market. Then reading, +writing, receiving callers of their own sex would fill up the morning. +There would be a brief siesta after luncheon, an hour or so on the broad +veranda overlooking the sparkling bay, then dress and the inevitable drive. +Of Armstrong they had seen nothing, heard next to nothing. He was busy with +his men over toward East Paco. Of Billy Gray of late they had seen rather +too much. On one pretext after another he was now forever coming to the +house, and Witchie was beginning to wish that Canker had had his way; but +Canker had failed dismally. The witnesses he counted on proved dumb or +departed, and it had pleased the General-in-Chief to send him with a +regiment of infantry and a brace of guns to garrison an important point on +an adjacent island, and to tell him that in view of the impossibility of +his substantiating his charges against Gray the youngster had some shadow +of excuse for his violent outbreak. Rather than bring up a scandal it was +best to drop the matter entirely. Gray had been sent to duty with the +----teenth before he was thoroughly well, and a good-hearted battalion +commander, taking pity on his obvious change for the worse, had found +occasion after the first ten days at the front to send him back to quarters +in Malate, instead of incessantly on duty along the threatened line toward +Singalon Church; and while he seldom came in the evening when numbers of +visitors were present, the boy had a way of dropping in between three and +four, when he could generally count on a few moments, at least, alone with +Mrs. Frank. She had nursed him well in his slow convalescence, had made +deep impression on his boyish heart, lacerated as he conceived it by a +disappointment at home. She had won him to her service, as she thought, +until she felt sure he was ready to do almost anything for her sake, then +she had put him to the test, and he had failed her. Believing, as she did, +that the boy well knew the whereabouts of the alleged deserter, Morton, and +his friend, Nita's reckless lover, she had counted on him to wring from +them the letters poor Latrobe declared he still possessed; but the three +weeks had passed without a sign, and it was becoming evident to her that +Gray had lost track of them entirely. + +One brilliant afternoon, as she lay on the broad, cane-bottomed bedstead +with its overhanging canopy of filmy netting, she drowsily heard the +corporal posting the new sentry in the marbled corridor below, and then +marching the relief to the rear gate opening to the beach. Nita was +already up and moving about in her room. Margaret heard the rustle of her +skirts and the light patter of her tiny feet as she sped over the +hardwood floor of the main _salon_. She heard her throwing back the +sliding shutters that kept out the glare of the sun in the morning hours, +and knew that she was gazing out over the tree-dotted lawn toward the +gate where the guard lounged through the warm afternoon. All of a sudden, +quick and stirring, a bugle sounded over on the Calle Nueva, where the +North Dakotas had a strong detachment. The call was repeated, and, army +woman though she was, she did not recognize it. She could not remember +ever having heard it before. Then up the street, from the Engineer +barrack, there came thrilling echo, and there was a sound of movement and +excitement along the dusty thoroughfare. She heard Nita calling her name, +and then the child's quick, nervous step along the hallway toward the +stairs. Then came a sudden stop, a gasping, wailing cry, and, springing +from her bed and to the door, Margaret found her sister cowering before a +tall, slender man in the rough dress and field equipment of a private +soldier. With a little packet--letters, apparently--held forth in one +hand, while the other grasped her wrist, Rollin Latrobe stood sternly +gazing at the girl shrinking at his feet. + +The tableau was over in another second. Springing up the broad marble +stairs came Billy Gray, the corporal of the guard at his heels, and +Latrobe saw his danger in a flash. Throwing little Gray aside as he would +a terrier, the young athlete whirled on the stalwart regular. There was +the sound of a crashing blow, followed by a heavy fall. The corporal went +rolling down the steps with Latrobe bounding over the tumbling form, and +the next instant he had vaulted over the ledge of the open window on the +lower floor, and vanished through the gateway to the beach. And now all +along the Calle Real the bugles were sounding "To Arms!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +That was a wild day in Manila. Far over near the Escolta somebody shot at a +vagrant dog lapping water from a little pool under one of the many +hydrants. The soldier police essayed an arrest; the culprit broke and ran; +the guard fired; a lot of coolies, taking alarm, fled jabbering to the +river side. The natives, looking for trouble any moment, rushed to their +homes. Some soldiers on pass and unarmed tumbled over the tables and chairs +in the Alhambra in their dash for the open street. A stampeded sergeant +told a bugler to sound to arms, and in the twinkling of an eye the call was +taken up from barrack to barrack, and the news went flashing out by wire to +the extreme front. The shopkeepers hastily put up their shutters and bolted +their doors. Cabs, carts, _quilez_ and _carromattas_--even the street +cars--were instantly seized by the soldiery scattered all over town, and +utilized to take them tearing back to join their regiments. In five minutes +the business streets down town were deserted. Chinese cowered within their +crowded huts. The natives, men and women, either hid within the shelter of +their homes or fled to the sanctuary of the many churches. All over the +great city the alarm spread like wildfire. The battalions formed under +arms, those nearest the outer lines being marched at once to their +positions in support, those nearer the walled city waiting for orders. +Foreign residents took matters more coolly than did the Asiatic; German +phlegm, English impassibility and Yankee devil-may-carishness preventing a +panic. But those who had families and owned or could hire carriages and +launches were not slow in seeking for their households the refuge of the +fleet of transports lying placidly at anchor in the bay, where Dewey's +bluejackets shifted their quids, went coolly to their stations and, grouped +about their guns, quietly awaiting further developments. In an agony of +fear Colonel Frost had bidden his driver to lash the ponies to a gallop and +go like the wind to Malate; but the appearance of the long ranks of sturdy +infantry resting on their arms and beginning to look bored, measurably +reassured him before he reached his home. Once there, however, the sight of +Nita, clinging hysterically to her sister and moaning on her bed was +sufficient to determine his first move, which was to wire for his launch to +come around to the bay shore and take them off to the fleet. The next was +to send and ask for an officer and twenty men from the Cuartel, on +receiving which message the major commanding, standing on the dusty roadway +in front of his men, grinned under his grizzled mustache and said, "Frost's +got 'em again. Here, Gray, you go over and tell him to keep his hair on, +that it's nothing but a fake alarm." And Gray, glad enough of the chance to +go again into the presence of the woman who so fascinated him, sped on his +mission. He was in a fury over his recent humiliation in her very +sight--he, a commissioned officer, tossed aside like a child and outwitted +by this daring intruder in the shape of a private soldier--he and his guard +brushed away and derided by a young fellow in some strange regiment--who +had easily escaped along the beach to an adjoining inclosure into which he +darted and was no more seen. The streets were full of scurrying soldiers, +and it was the simplest thing in the world for him to mingle with them and +make his way to his own command. Of course, Gray well knew who the man must +be--Nita's troublesome lover of whom Witchie had told him so much. There +was his chance to recover the letters and claim the reward; but man and +letters both had escaped his grasp; and when he pulled up, blown and +exhausted after fruitless chase, he was brought to his senses by the sight +of his own men falling in "for business," and he had to scamper for his +sword and join them. + +That was a miserable evening. Margaret Garrison was the only member of +the household who seemed to have her wits about her and her nerves under +control, for Frank, her liege lord, had his duty elsewhere, and not until +hours later trotted slowly home. Margaret plainly let Gray understand how +he had fallen in her estimation at being so easily tossed aside. A +warning finger was laid upon her lips. "Not one word of what has happened +while he is here," she muttered; and a nod of her fluffy head toward the +perturbed colonel told plainly that the chief of the household really had +no place in the family councils. To the sisters that alarm was a blessing +in disguise. It was all sufficient to account for Nita's prostration. To +the rash and reckless lad, who, claiming to be an orderly with a letter +from the colonel, had been passed by the gate guard to the open stairway, +it afforded ample cover for escape, when, alarmed by Nita's cry, Gray and +the corporal came springing to her aid. To Gray himself it gave only a +few minutes' forgetfulness of his trouble, for, smarting under the sting +of a woman's only half-hidden disdain, he would have welcomed with almost +savage joy some fierce battle with a skillful foe, some scene in which he +could compel her respect and admiration. He was still smarting and stung +when at last that opportunity came. + +Long will Manila remember the night! It followed close upon the heels of +warnings that for weeks held every officer and man to his post of duty. +Day after day the strain increased. The Insurgents, crowding upon our +outposts in front of Santa Mesa on the north and of Santa Ana on the +south side of the Pasig, had heaped insult and threats upon our silent +sentries, compelled by orders to the very last to submit to anything but +actual attack rather than bring on a battle. "The Americans are afraid," +was the gleeful cry of Aguinaldo's officers, the jeer and taunt of his +men. The regulars were soon to come and replace those volunteers, said +the wiseacre of his cabinet, therefore strike now before the trained and +disciplined troops arrive and sweep these big boors into the sea. And on +the still, starlit night, sooner perhaps than his confederates within the +walls intended, the rebel leader struck, and, long before the dawn of the +lovely Sunday morn that followed, the fire flashed from forty thousand +rifles in big semicircle around Manila, and the long-expected battle was +on. + +Hours after dawn, hours after the attack began, the --teenth were in +extended battle order to the south of Malate confronted by thickets of +bamboo that fairly swarmed with Insurgents, yet, only by the incessant +zip and "whiew" of their deadly missiles and the ceaseless crackle of +rifle fire, could this be determined; for with their smokeless powder and +their Indian-like skill in concealment nothing could be seen of their +array. Over to the westward on the placid waters of the bay the huge +Monadnock was driving shell after shell into the dense underbrush across +the abandoned rice fields and the marshy flats that lined the shore. Over +to the east resounding cheers and crashing volleys, punctuated by the +sharp report of field guns, told that the comrade brigade was heavily +engaged and, apparently, driving the enemy before them. To right and left +their volunteer supports were banging into the brush with their heavy +Springfields; and still there seemed no symptom of weakness along the +immediate front, no sign of yielding. If anything the fury of the +Insurgent volleying increased as the sun climbed higher, and all along +the blue-shirted line men grit their teeth and swore as they crouched or +lay full length along the roadside, peering through the filmy veil that +drifted slowly across their front--the smoke from the Springfields of the +volunteers. To lie there longer with the bullets buzzing close overhead +or biting deep into the low embankment, sometimes tearing a stinging path +through human flesh and bone, was adding to the nerve strain of the hours +gone by. To rush headlong across that intervening open space, through +deep and muddy pools and stagnant ditch, and hurl themselves upon the +lurking enemy in the bamboo copse beyond, had been the ardent longing of +the line since daylight came to illumine the field before them. Yet stern +orders withheld: Defend, but do not advance, said the General's message; +and the whisper went along from man to man. "There is trouble in town +behind us, and the chief may need us there." + +But, as eight o'clock passed with no word of uprising in the rear, and +the cheering over toward Santa Ana grew loud and louder, the nerve strain +upon the --teenth became well-nigh intolerable. "For God's sake, can't we +be doing something instead of lying here firing into a hornet's nest?" +was the murmur that arose in more than one company along the impatient +line; and the gruff voices of veteran sergeants could be heard ordering +silence, while, moving up and down behind their men, the line officers +cautioned against waste of ammunition and needless exposure. "Lie flat, +men. Keep down!" were the words. "We won't have to stand this forever. +You'll soon get your chance." + +And presently it came. The cheering that had died away, far over to the +left beyond the wooded knolls that surrounded Singalon and Block House +12, was suddenly taken up nearer at hand. Then crashing volleys sounded +along the narrow roadway to the east, and a bugle rang out shrill and +clear above the noise of battle; and then closer still, though unseen in +the gloom of the dense thicket in which they lay, the men of the second +battalion, strung along a Filipino trail that led away to the rice +fields, swung their big straw hats and yelled for joy. A young officer, +his eyes flashing, his face flushing with excitement, came bounding out +from the grove at the left of the crouching line and made straight to +where the veteran battalion commander knelt in rear of his center. It was +Billy Gray, adjutant of the third battalion, acting that day as adjutant +to the regimental commander. The bullets whistled by his head as he +darted springingly along; and in their joy at sight of him even old hands +forgot the reserve of the regular service and some man shouted: "Now +we're off!" and the popular query: "What's the matter with Lieutenant +Gray?" + +At any other time, under any other circumstances both questioner and +respondents who gleefully shouted "He's all right," would have been +promptly and sternly suppressed. But the senior captain at their head +well knew the excitement tingling in the nerves of that long-suffering +line, and only smiled and nodded sympathy. He saw, too, that Gray was +quivering with pent-up feeling, as the boy halted short, saluted, and, +striving to steady his eager voice, said: + +"Captain, the colonel directs that you open sharp fire on the woods in +your front and occupy the enemy there. He is about to charge with the +third battalion and drive them out of the trenches we've located over +yonder;" and Billy pointed eagerly to the left front--the southeast. + +The captain's grizzled face took on a look of keen disappointment. "You +mean we've got to stay here, and see you fellows go in?" + +"Only for a few minutes, sir. The colonel says that for you to charge +before he's got onto their flank would cost too many men. You'll get the +word as soon as he's got the works." + +"Well said, Billy boy! That sounds almost epigrammatic. Hullo! You hit? +Stoop down here, man. Don't try to get perforated." + +"My hat only," was the answer, as the boy stooped quickly to hide the +irrepressible twitching about the muscles of his lips. A Remington had +ripped from side to side, tearing a way through the curly hair at the top +of his head and almost scoring the scalp. To save his soul he could not +quite suppress the trembling of his knees; but, steadying himself by a +great effort, he continued: "The colonel says to commence firing by +volley the moment our bugles sound the charge. Now I must get back." + +"All right, youngster. Tell the colonel I savey, and we'll do our level +best--only, let us into it as quick as you can." + +But Gray heard only the first part of the sentence. He was panting when +he reached his placid, gray-mustached chief, and could only gasp out: +"The captain understands, sir." And then the regimental commander simply +turned to the battalion leader, standing silent at his left in a little +clump of timber--another veteran captain grown gray as himself in long, +long years of service: + +"Now's our time, old man! Pitch in! Gray, we'll go with him." + +All along the line from right to left there ran the cross-country road +connecting the broader highway, from Malate to San Rafael and Paranaque +on the west, and from West Paco by way of Singalon to Pasay. In front of +the right wing all was swamp, morass or rice fields. In front of the left +wing all was close, dense bamboo and jungle, save where the broad, +straight roadway led on past Block House 13, or the narrower cart track +stretched southward, overarched in places by spreading branches, and +commanded at its narrowest path by the swarm of dusky fighters in Block +House 14. A year before the blue-shirts stormed these forest strongholds +from the south, and took them from the troops of Spain. Now they were +compelled to turn and storm them from the north; for, just as Stanley +Armstrong said at San Francisco, the Filipinos had turned upon their ally +and would-be friend. Aguinaldo had bearded Uncle Sam. + +And while the volunteers and regulars to the right could only remain in +support, it fell to the lot of the left wing of this brave brigade to +assault in almost impenetrable position an enemy armed with magazine +rifles or breech-loaders, and entirely at home. The bugles rang the +signal; the officers in silence took their stations, and, stepping into +the narrow pathways through the jungle, crouching along the road-ways or +crashing through the stiff bamboo, the blue-shirts drove ahead. Two, +three minutes, and their purpose seemed undiscovered. Then suddenly Block +House 14 blazed with fire and a storm of bullets swept the road. The +earthworks in the thickets to the right and left seemed to be crowded +with a running flame; and down on their faces fell the foremost soldiers, +their gallant leader shot through and through, plunging headlong, yet in +his dying agony waving his surviving men to get to cover. Vengefully now +the "Krags" opened in reply to Remington and Mauser. The blue-shirts +struggled on inch by inch through the network of bamboo. Still the storm +swept up the roadway, and no man could hope to face it and live. But, +little by little, the low-aimed, steady volleys, driven in by squad and +section through the canebreak, or by company and platoon across the +westward swamps, told on the nerve and discipline of the little brown men +in the bamboo. Their shots flew swift, but wild and higher. Then a daring +lad, in the rough field uniform of a subaltern of infantry, sprang like a +cat into the fire-flashing lane, and, revolver in hand and a squad of +devoted fellows at his heels, dashed straight at the wooden walls ahead. +In frantic haste the occupants blazed shot after shot upon him and his +heroic followers. One after another three went down; but, in another +instant, the lieutenant leading, they reached the block house and darted +through the open doorway, the last of its garrison fleeing in panic +before such unheard-of daring and determination. And then came the rush +of comrades cheering down the lane, tumbling over the earthworks and the +luckless gang that, still crouching there, held to their position, and +all the southward leading road was ours. + +But, over along the next lane, a parallel track through the timber, there +had been as stern a check; and the fury of the fire from the trenches in +the thickets forced brave men to cover and dropped others in their +tracks. "By God, we must have it!" almost screamed a tall captain, +pointing with his sword to the flashing block house half hidden in the +trees. "Hear those fellows on the other road? Don't let them beat us. +Come on, lads!" and out he darted into the open, an instant target for a +score of Mausers. Out, too, leaped half a dozen men, one a tall, lithe, +superbly built young athlete, with a face aflame with resolution and rage +of battle. Out leaped Billy Gray from the corner of the cross-road, and, +cheering madly, called on others to follow. Down went the captain, shot +through the knee. Down went the nearmost man, the tall youth who was +first to follow. Down went a brawny sergeant, who had stopped to raise +his fallen captain; but on swept a score of others while the bamboos +blazed with the fierce volleying of the Krags. Forward in scores now, +yelling like Apaches, rushed the regulars; and somehow, he never just +knew how it happened, Gray found himself a moment later straddling an old +field gun in a whirl of dust and dirt and smoke and cheers, was conscious +of something wet and warm streaming down his side, and of being tenderly +lifted from his perch by brawny, blue-sleeved arms, given a sip from a +canteen, and then, half-led, half-supported back to where the surgeon was +already kneeling by the tall young soldier on whose brow the last dew was +settling, on whose fine, clear-cut face the shadow of the death angel's +wings was already traced. The poor fellow's eyes opened wearily as he +sipped the stimulant pressed upon him by eager, sympathetic hands, and +glanced slowly about as though in search of some familiar face; and so +they fell on those of Billy Gray, who, forgetful for the moment of his +own hurt, threw himself by the stranger's side and seized his clammy +hand. A half smile flitted over the pale face, the other hand groped at +the breast of his blue shirt and slowly drew forth a packet, stained and +dripping with the blood that welled slowly from a shothole in the broad +white breast. "Give to--General Drayton--Promise," he gasped, and pushed +it painfully toward Billy Gray. Then the brave eyes closed, the weary +head fell back; and Gray, staring as though in stupefaction into the +placid face, found himself drooping, too, growing dizzy and faint and +reeling, but still holding on to his trust. + +"Don't some of you know him?" asked the surgeon. "He's past helping now, +poor lad. Here, you drink this, Billy;" and he placed a little silver cup +at Gray's pallid lips. + +"He came a-runnin' from over at Block House 12 with a note from division +headquarters just as we went in," said a veteran sergeant, drawing the +back of a powder-stained hand across his dripping forehead, then +respectfully stepping back as a young officer bent down and glanced at +Gray. + +"Much hurt, Billy, old man? No? Thank God for that! Look at who? Where? +Why, God of heaven, it's Pat Latrobe! Oh, Pat! Pat! dear old boy--has it +come to this!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +In the fortnight of incessant action that followed the mad attack of that +starlit Sunday morning there was no place for Billy Gray. Sorely wounded, +yet envied by many a fellow soldier for the glowing words in which the +brigade commander praised his conduct and urged his brevet, the boy had +been carried back to the great reserve hospital at Malate. The breezy +wards were filled with sick or wounded, and certain of the rooms of the +old convent once used for study and recitation had been set apart for +officers. There were three cots in the one to which they bore him, and +two were already occupied. Even in his pain and weakness he could hardly +suppress a cry of dismay; for there, with his arm bandaged and in +splints, his face white from loss of blood, his eyes closed in the sleep +of utter exhaustion, lay Stanley Armstrong. Time and again the boy's +heart and conscience had rebuked him for the estrangement that had arisen +between him and this man who had proved his best friend. Time and again +he had promised himself that he would strive to win back that friendship; +but well he knew that first he must reinstate himself in Armstrong's +respect; and how could he hope for that so long as he surrendered to the +fascinations that kept him dangling about the dainty skirts of Witchie +Garrison? Oddly enough the boy had hardly bothered his head with any +thought of what Frank Garrison might think of his attentions or +devotions, whatever they could be called, to this very captivating and +capricious helpmate. When a husband is so overwhelmed with other cares or +considerations that he never sees his wife from morn till night, society +seems to correspondingly lose sight of him. Down in the depths of his +heart the boy was ashamed of himself. He never heard Armstrong mentioned +that he did not wince. He knew and she knew that, coming suddenly upon +them as Armstrong had that tropic night on the Queen, he must have heard +her words, must have realized that some compact or understanding existed +between them, which neither Gray nor Mrs. Frank could palliate or +explain. It had not needed that episode to tell her that Armstrong held +her in contempt; and yet, when they chanced to meet, she could smile up +into his eyes as beamingly, as guilelessly, as though no shadow of sin +had ever darkened her winsome face. But not so Gray. He moaned in secret +over the loss of a strong man's confidence and esteem. He longed to find +a way to win it back. He had even thought to go to the colonel with his +trouble, make a clean breast of it, tell him the truth--that he had +fallen deeply, as it was possible for him to fall, in love with Amy +Lawrence; had hoped his love was returned; had found it was not--that she +had only a frank, friendly, kindly interest in him; and that, wounded and +stung, he had fretted himself into a fever at Honolulu, aided by Canker's +aspersions, and then--well--any man is liable, said Billy to himself, to +get smitten with a woman who tenderly and skillfully nurses him day after +day; and that's just what Witchie Garrison did. But somehow the +opportunity to tell him never seemed to come; and now, now that Armstrong +and himself were thus thrown together with the prospect of being in the +same room day and night for the best of the month, a third officer, a +stranger, lay there, too, and in his presence or hearing any confidences +would be impossible, even if Armstrong encouraged them, which he probably +would not. In this embarrassment Billy's wish was that the colonel were +fifty miles away. It was fate and a hard one, thought he, that brought +him there--an ever-present reproach. It was luck of the worst kind that +they should be confronted under such circumstances, since neither could +retreat. He submitted in anxious silence to the keen, quick examination +of the skillful surgeon in charge and to the re-dressing of his wound. He +could have been proud and happy but for that shadow on his life, of which +Armstrong's presence would so constantly remind him. He could not even +think how his dear old dragoon daddy would rejoice in the congratulations +that would surely greet him when the story of the brave dash of the +--teenth, Billy among the foremost, should reach the States. He could not +even dream how it might affect her--Amy Lawrence. He was beginning to be +ashamed now in this presence to think how that other--how Margaret +Garrison might be impressed, forgetting that, to the army girl who has +lived long years on the frontier, tales of heroism are the rule, not the +exception. He wondered how long it could be before she would come to him +to bring him comfort. Surely by this time she knew that he had been +seriously, painfully wounded. He did not know, however, that at the very +first sound of battle Frost had bundled the sisters aboard his launch and +steamed away to the transports. Yet, what comfort could her visit bring +to him with that stern censor lying there, seeing and hearing all? Billy +Gray that Monday night could almost have wished that Armstrong's slumber +might be eternal, never dreaming that before a second Monday should come +he would thank Heaven with grateful heart for Armstrong's presence, +vigilance and intervention. + +In three days the colonel was able to sit up. Within the week he was +permitted to take air and exercise in the spacious court of the old +college, his sword arm in its sling. But Gray and the young officer of +volunteers were too seriously wounded to leave their pillows. The +--teenth had occupied a new line far south of the old one; but, one at a +time, several of Billy's brother officers had dropped in to see him and +tell him regimental news; and one of them, the young West Pointer who had +broken down at sight of the dying face that stirring Sunday morning, told +him of Latrobe's soldier funeral and of General Drayton's presence and +speechless grief; and Billy's hand groped beneath the pillow for that +little blood-stained packet still undelivered. He had promptly caused the +information to be conveyed to the veteran commander that it was his own +lost nephew who had died his soldier death in front of the firing line; +but the packet still remained in his hands; and even before the tiny +thermometer confirmed his views, the keen eye of the surgeon saw that +something had heightened Billy's fever that day; and so, when just at +sunset there came driving into the court the most stylish equipage in all +Manila, and Mrs. Garrison fluttered up the broad stairway and confidently +asked to be announced to Mr. Gray, the steward in charge of the floor was +very, very sorry, but--the doctor had given instructions that no more +visitors should see the young gentleman that day. Mrs. Frank smiled +indulgently, and asked for the doctor himself, and beamed on him with all +her witchery and begged for just a few words; but the suave, placid, yet +implacable doctor said he, too, was sorry--sorry that Mr. Gray was not +able to see any one else, but such was the case. Mrs. Garrison said she +thought if Mr. Gray knew that it was--but perhaps Dr. Frank didn't know +it was she who had nursed Mr. Gray so assiduously at Honolulu. Dr. Frank +did know that and more; but he did not say so; neither did he yield. +There were tears in her eyes as she sprang into her carriage again; but +they were tears of anger and defeat. She dashed them away the very next +instant and smiled joy and congratulation, even adulation, at sight of +the tall, stalwart officer, his arm in a sling, who stood the center of a +staring group as her carriage flashed by. She would have ordered stop; +but while the rest of the party had gazed as they lifted their caps, +Armstrong's uninjured hand performed its duty, his cap had been lifted +with the others, but not so much as a glance went her way; and Margaret +Garrison, bitter in spirit, drove on down past the old cuartel to her +luxurious quarters where Nita, a piteous shadow of the "sweet girl +graduate" of the year before, was awaiting her coming. With the +Insurgents' retreat and the advance of the American lines there had been +a gradual return of the refugees among the transports; and Frost had +finally brought his birdling back to shore; but Nita dare not drive, she +said, for fear of again seeing those stern, reproachful eyes. The guard +at the gate had received orders to admit no more of the rank and file, +even when they came as messengers; and so the child was safe, said +Margaret. As for herself, she _must_ drive, she _must_ see Will Gray. + +But the instant she re-entered the house Mrs. Garrison knew that during +her brief absence some new trouble had come. Good heavens, could she +never leave Nita's side that harm did not befall her! At the head of the +broad flight of stairs stood her brother-in-law, a black frown on his +brow. + +"Go in and do what you can for her," he briefly said. "I thought--she'd +be glad to know that--that--fellow would trouble her no more." + +"That fellow?" she gasped. "You mean----" + +"I mean--Yes--Latrobe--killed and buried a whole week ago." + +"And you told _her_!" she cried, clinching her little hands in impotent +wrath. "You--brute!" + + * * * * * + +Another week rolled by. The tide of battle had swept inland and +northward; and all eyes were on the plucky advance of MacArthur's strong +division, while far out to the south and east the thinned and depleted +lines of Anderson held an insurgent force that forever menaced but dare +not attack. The Primeval Dudes, sorely missing their calmly energetic +colonel, had drifted into a war of words with their nearest neighbors on +the firing line, a far Western regiment gifted with great command of +language and small regard for style. The latter had crowed mightily over +their more rigorously disciplined comrades because of the compliments +bestowed on them in an official report, wherein the Dudes received only +honorable mention. It was Captain Stricker of the volunteers who had led +the dash on the rebel works across the Tripa to the left of Blockhouse +12. It was their Sergeant Finney who whacked a Filipino major with the +butt of his Springfield, and tumbled out of him the batch of reports and +records that gave the numbers and positions of every unit of Pilar's +division on the southward zone. It was their Corporal Norton who got the +Mauser through the shoulder just as, foremost in the rush, he bayoneted +the last Tagal at the Krupp guns in the river redoubt. It was his devoted +bunky, Private Latrobe, who volunteered to carry the division commander's +dispatch across the open rice field and the yawning ditches that +separated the staff from the rest of the charging --teenth, and who died +gloriously in the rush on the rebel works. Man after man of the woolly +Westerners had been referred to by name while, but the Dudes had nothing +to show but their wounded colonel's modest report that "where every +officer and man appeared to do his whole duty it would be unjust to make +especial mention of even a limited few." The Dudes were getting hot over +the taunts of the "Toughs," as some one had misnamed their neighbors; and +one night when there was more or less interchange of pointed chaff in +lieu of fight with a common foe, there was heard a shrill voice from the +flank of the rifle pit nearest the Westerners, and what it said was +repeated in wonderment over the brigade before the Dudes were another day +older. + +"Well, dash your thievin' gang! We made our record for ourselves anyhow. +We didn't have to rely on any dashed deserters from the regulars--as you +did." + +And that was why Sergeant Sterne, of the Dudes, was sent for by the field +officers of both regiments the following morning and bidden to explain, +which he did in few words. He was ready to swear that the wounded +Corporal Norton was the very same young man he saw in the adjutant's +office of the --teenth Regulars at Camp Merritt, and was then called +Morton. And that evening the veteran sergeant major of the --teenth was +bidden to report at the reserve hospital in Ermita, close to the Malate +line, was conducted to the bedside of a pallid young soldier whose ticket +bore the name of Norton, and was asked to tell whether he had ever seen +him before. + +"I have, sir," said the veteran, sadly and gravely. "He is a deserter +from the --teenth. His name on our rolls was Morton." And that night +Colonel Armstrong cabled to "Primate," New York, the single word "Found." +Nor was it likely the lad would soon be lost again, for a sentry with +fixed bayonet stood within ten feet of his bed with orders not to let him +out of his sight a second. + +Mrs. Garrison appeared at the hospital that very evening and heard of the +episode, and reached Billy Gray's bedside looking harassed, even haggard. +During the past three days she had been accorded admission, for Gray was +so much improved there was no reason to longer forbid; but on each +occasion the wounded volunteer officer and the brace of attendants +present had precluded all possibility of confidential talk. She must bide +her time. Gray would be up in a few days, said the doctor; and then +nothing would do, said Mrs. Garrison, but he must be moved to their big, +roomy, lovely house on the bay side, and be made strong and well +again--made to give up those letters, too, thought she; for she had +wormed it out of a bystander that a packet of some kind had been given by +the dying soldier to the lieutenant, and she well knew what it must be. +She had even penned him a little note, since not a whisper could be +safely exchanged, and headed it "Give this back to me the moment you have +read it." In it she reminded him of his promise, and--did he need to be +reminded of hers? She knew that packet of Nita's letters had been +intrusted to his care. She assured him she had it straight from the +surgeon who attended both Latrobe and himself, and they must reach the +hands of no man on earth, but must come to her. Would he not give them at +once or tell her where she could find them? + +He gave back the note, but closed his eyes and turned away. In the +presence of Armstrong day after day, and in the recollection of Latrobe's +dying face and the last parting touch of his stricken hand, Gray's eyes +were opening to his own deplorable weakness. She plainly saw her power +was going, if not gone. He had wrapped a silk handkerchief about the +packet and still kept it, with his watch and purse beneath his pillow. He +would not tell her where it lay. She smiled archly for the benefit of the +attendant; but her eyes again eagerly claimed a look from his, her lips +framed the word "to-morrow." + +But neither on that morrow nor yet the next day came her opportunity. The +gallant fellow who had lain there for days, dumb and patient, but a +barrier to her plans, had taken a turn for the worse, and she was again +denied admission. Then came the tidings that the barrier was removed, the +long fight was over; and the heartless woman actually rejoiced. Now at +last she could talk to Will Gray; and when midnight came she knew that +now at last she must, for Frank Garrison, worn and weary, returning late +from the front, briefly announced that General Drayton purposed visiting +the hospital the following afternoon, and long before noon--long before +visiting hours, in fact, she was there with flowers as winsome as her +smile, and some jelly as dainty as her own fair hands. She was there, and +the instant the hour sounded was ushered in, and Billy Gray, propped on +his pillows, was writing to his father, and alone. No time was to be +lost. Any moment the attendant might return. She threw herself on her +knees beside the homely, narrow cot, seized his hand in hers, and looked +him in the face. "Where are they, Will?" she pleaded. "Quick! I must have +them now!" But well she realized that the spell was broken--that the old +fascination had died its death. Then it was useless to hint at love; and +in a torrent of impassioned words she bade him think of all he owed her, +appealed to his sense of gratitude and honor, and there, too, failed, +for, admitting all she claimed, he clumsily, haltingly, yet honestly told +her he saw now that it was all for an object, all done in the hope that +he might become her instrument for the recovery of those compromising +letters; and now that fate had delivered them into his hands he was bound +by honor and his promise--unheard, unspoken perhaps, but all the same his +promise--to the dead to give them to General Drayton. + +Then rising in fury and denunciation, she played her last trump. +Trembling from head to foot, pale with baffled purpose and with growing +dread, she bent over him, both hands clinched. + +"You mad fool!" she cried. "Do you know what I can do--will do--unless +you give them to me here and now? As God hears me, Will Gray, I will give +that other packet to General Drayton myself and swear that Colonel Canker +was right--that you _were_ the thief he thought you, and that I got those +letters from you." + +For a moment she stood there, menacing, at his bedside, looking down in +almost malignant triumph on his amazed and incredulous face; and then, +with an awful fear checking the beat of her heart and turning her veins +to ice, she grasped at the flimsy framework that supported the netting +over the cot, and stood swaying and staggering, her eyes fixed in terror +on the man in the uniform of a colonel, who, quietly entering, stood +between her and the door, two papers in his half-extended hand--a man +whose voice, long and too well known, cut her to the very quick as she +heard, in calm and measured tone the words: + +"Mrs. Garrison, here are two reasons why you will do nothing of the kind. +Shall I hand these to General Drayton--or to your husband?" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +The long wait for the coming of the big transports with the regulars was +over. For the first time in history America was sending her soldiery past +the pyramids and through the Indian sea, landing them, after forty days +and nights of voyaging, upon the low, flat shores that hem Manila Bay, +and shoving them out to the hostile front before their sea-legs could +reach the swing and stride of the marching step; yet, to all appearance, +as unconcernedly at home as though they had been campaigning in the +Philippines since the date of their enlistment. This, to be sure, in the +case of more than half their number, would have given them scant time in +which to look about them, since raw recruits were more numerous than +seasoned men. But no matter what may be his lack of drill or preparation +the average Anglo-Saxon never seems to know the time when he doesn't know +how to fight. So, with all the easy assurance of a veteran, our Yankee +"Tommies" wriggled into their blanket rolls and trudged away to the posts +assigned them; and once more the army assumed the aggressive. + +There were changes in the composition of the forces even before the move +began. The Dudes and the "Toughs" parted company; and the former, with +Stanley Armstrong once more riding silent at their head, joined forces +with Stewart's riddled regiment up the railway toward Malolos. Colonel +Frost had succeeded in convincing the surgeons that he would be as out of +place as his name itself in such a clime and climate, and was in daily +expectation of an order home. Billy Gray, mending only slowly, had been +sent to Corregidor, where the bracing breezes of the China Sea drove +their tonic forces through his lungs and veins, and the faintly rising +hue of coming health back into his hollow cheeks. The boy had been harder +hit than seemed the case at first, said the fellows of the --teenth; but +the wise young surgeon of the "Second Reserve" and a grave-faced colonel +of infantry could have told of causes little dreamed of in the +regiment--were either given to telling the half of what he knew. + +That something most unusual had occurred in the room of Mr. Gray the day +that the sad-faced, kind old general visited the hospital at least half a +dozen patients could have told; for an attendant went running for one of +the women nurses, and the doctor himself hurried to the scene. It was on +his arm that, half an hour later, Mrs. Garrison slowly descended the +stairs, her flimsy white veil down, and silently bowed her thanks and +adieux as the doctor closed the door of her carriage and nodded to the +little coachman. It was the doctor who suggested to Colonel Frost that +Manila air was not conducive to his wife's recovery, and recommended +Nagasaki as the place for her recuperation until he could join her and +take her home. The Esmeralda bore the White Sisters over Hongkong way +within a week; and they left without flourish of trumpet, with hardly the +flutter of a handkerchief; for, since the battle of the 5th of February, +neither had been seen upon the Luneta. Their women friends were very few; +the men they knew were mainly at the front. The story got out somehow +that Garrison had asked to be relieved from further duty as aide-de-camp, +and returned to duty with his regiment, and that Drayton would not have +it. The General's manner toward that hard-working staff officer, though +often preoccupied as of old, grew even kinder. He did not see the sisters +off for China, he was "far too busy" was the explanation; but he offered +Garrison a fortnight's leave, and urged his taking it, and was obviously +troubled when Garrison declined. "You need rest and the change of air +more than any man I know," said he; but Garrison replied that change of +scene and air would not help him. + +There were two young fellows in khaki uniforms landed from the hospital +launch on the back trip from Corregidor one warm March day. One wore the +badge of a subaltern of the --teenth Regulars, the other the chevrons of +a corporal and the hatband of a famous fighting regiment of volunteers; +yet the same carriage bore them swiftly through the sentineled streets of +the walled city, and the guards at the Ayuntamiento sprang to their arms +and formed ranks at sight of it, then dispersed at the low-toned order of +its commander when it was seen that, instead of stopping at the curb and +discharging an elderly general officer, it whirled straight by and held +two youths in field uniform. + +"One of 'em's young Gray, of the --teenth; he that was hit in the charge +on the Pasay road," said the officer of the guard to a comrade. "But who +the devil's the other? He had corporal's chevrons on. Some fellow just +got a commission, perhaps." And that was the only way the soldier could +account for a corporal riding with a commissioned officer in a general's +carriage. They had a long whirl ahead of them, these two; and the +corporal told Gray, as he already had the General and Colonel Armstrong, +much of the story of his friendship for "Pat" Latrobe, of that poor +fellow's illness at San Francisco, and all the trouble it cost his friend +and chum. There was a strong bond between them, he explained; and the +blush of shame that stole up in the face of the narrator found instant +answer in that of Billy Gray. Determined to see service at the front and +not return to punishment in his regiment, never dreaming that, in +quitting a corps doomed apparently to inaction at home, and joining one +going straight to the enemy's country, he was committing the grave crime +of desertion, "Gov." Prime had spoken to some men in Stewart's regiment +and was bidden to come along and fetch his friend; for they were just as +ignorant as he. Having still considerable money "Gov." had bought +civilian clothes, and all the supplies they needed while about town, and +hired a boat that rowed them, with certain items contraband of war, to +the dark side of the transport as nightfall came; and they were easily +smuggled aboard and into uniform, and then, during the few days' stay at +Honolulu, were formally enlisted and no embarrassing questions asked. + +And now poor Pat was gone and Prime's father had been cabling for him to +return home; but there was that awkward matter about the desertion. +General Drayton was trying to have it straightened out at Washington; for +he had been kindness itself the day of his visit to the hospital, where +almost his first act had been to seek out the wounded young soldier who +had been his beloved nephew's boon companion, and at one time sole +support. The sentry was relieved of his surveillance, and Corporal Norton +transferred to Corregidor to recuperate; and now that both lads were well +on the road to recovery, Drayton had sent for them. Strictly speaking, +some one should have seen to it that Corporal Norton of the Volunteers +was shifted back to Private Norton of the --teenth, and the chevrons +stripped from his sleeves; but no one had cared to interfere where the +worsted was concerned, especially as the boy had won such praise for +bravery at Concordia Bridge. So there the chevrons stood when the two +were ushered into the presence of the gray-haired chief; and he arose, +and stepping forward, held out a hand to each. + +"I want you, boys," said he, "to be ready to take the next transport +home. The doctors say you need a sea voyage, Gray; so there is the order. +The doctors say your father needs you, Prime; and the record will be duly +straightened out in Washington--the charge of desertion, no doubt, will +be removed. It's a matter of influence. To-night you dine with me here; +and I have asked your good friend, Colonel Armstrong, to come." + +Again the blood rose guiltily to Billy's cheek. Not yet had he made his +peace with his conscience, and that valued counselor and invaluable +friend from whose good graces he seemed to have fallen entirely. Not once +had opportunity been afforded in which to speak and open his heart to +him. As for writing, that seemed impossible. Billy could handle almost +any implement better than a pen. But even in the few minutes left him in +which to think he knew that now at least he must "face the music," like +the man his father would have him be, even though it took more nerve than +did that perilous dash on the Tagal works that Sunday morning. Billy +would rather do that twice over than have to face Armstrong's stern, +searching eyes, and hear again the cold, almost contemptuous tone in +which the colonel said to him the day the doctor led his vanquished and +hysterical charmer from the room: "Don't try to thank, man, try to +_think_ what you risk--what you deserve to lose--for putting yourself in +the power of such a woman." + +From that day until this, here on the banks of the swift-running Pasig, +they had not met at all; and it seemed to Gray as though Armstrong had +aged a year. There was a lump in his throat as he went straight up to the +colonel, his blue eyes never flinching, though they seemed to fill, and +bravely spoke. "Colonel Armstrong, I have an explanation that I owe to +you. Will you give me a few minutes on the gallery?" + +"Certainly, Gray," was the calm reply; and the youngster led the way. + +It was a broken story. It told of his desperation and misery through +Canker's persecution, of his severe illness, then of the utter weakness +and prostration; then _her_ coming, and with her comfort, peace, +reassurance, gradual return to health, and with that, gradual surrender +to his nurse's fascinations. Then her demand upon him, her plea, her +final insistence that he should prove his gratitude and devotion by +getting for her those dangerous letters, and his weakness in letting her +believe he could and would do so. That was the situation when they went +on to Manila; and Armstrong knew the rest--knew that but for his timely +aid she might have triumphed over his repentance; but Armstrong had come, +had vanquished her and poor Latrobe's last wishes were observed. The +fateful packet containing the three letters that were most important was +placed in his uncle's trembling hand. + +"But how was it--what was it that so utterly crushed her?" asked Billy, +when the colonel had once more extended his hand. + +"The evidences of her own forgery, her own guilt," said Armstrong +gravely. "One was the order she wrote in excellent imitation of her +husband's hand and signature, authorizing the changing of guard +arrangements on the wharf the evening Stewart sailed. The other was a +note in pencil, also purporting to come from him, directing old +Keeny--you remember the General's Irish orderly--to search for a packet +of letters that had come by mail, and must be in the general's tent, +either about his desk or overcoat, and to bring them at once to room +number so and so at the Palace. Of course neither the General nor +Garrison was there when he arrived with them; but she was, and with all +her fascinations. She got the Irishman half drunk and told him a piteous +story and made him swear he'd never tell the General or anybody. If +questioned he could plead he had gone out, and--"got a little full with +the boys." She gave him money--a big bit, too; and he got more than full. +"The very vehemence of his denials made me suspect him," said Armstrong; +"but he was firm when examined." The General never required him to remain +at the tent at night. He could go to town any evening he wished; and to +cover his appearing at the Palace where the General long had a room, and +where he was well known, he could say he was only in to have a word with +one of the housemaids, and to give Mrs. Garrison a handkerchief one of +the ladies must have dropped. But one thing she failed in--getting the +letter back. Keeny had left it at camp in the pocket of his old blouse, +and when he sobered up and all the questions were asked he hung onto it +in case the truth came out, in order that he might save himself from +punishment. But it broke him--he got to drinking oftener, and the General +had to send him to his regiment; and then when we heard of Canker's +charge against you I saw the way to wring the truth out of him. He +worshiped your father, as did every Irish dragoon that ever rode under +him, and I told him you were to be brought to trial for the crime. Then +he broke down and gave the truth--and her penciled order--to me." + +In the silence that followed the soldier of forty and the lad of only +twenty-one sat looking gravely into each other's face. It was Armstrong +who spoke again: + +"Gray, it was manly in you to tell me your story and your trouble. I +could help you here; but--who can help you when you have to tell it--next +time?" + +"Next time?--father, do you mean?" queried Gray, a puzzled look in his +blue eyes. "I hadn't thought, do you know, to worry dear old dad--unless +he asked." + +Armstrong's grave face grew dark: "You ought to know what I mean, Gray. +This story may come up when least you think for, and--would you have it +told Miss Lawrence before she hears it from you?" + +"Miss Lawrence," answered Billy, flushing, "isn't in the least +interested." + +"Do you mean that you are not--that you were not engaged to her?" The +colonel had been gazing out over the swirling river; but now, with +curious contraction of brows, with a strong light in his eyes, he had +turned full on the young officer. + +"Engaged to her! Do you suppose I could have been--been such an ass if +_she_ would have had me? No! She--she had too much sense." + +It was full a minute before Armstrong spoke again. For a few seconds he +sat motionless, gazing steadily into Gray's handsome, blushing face; then +he turned once more and looked out over the Pasig and the scarred level +of the rice fields beyond. And the long slant of the sunshine on distant +towers and neighboring roofs and copse and wall, and the unlovely +landscape seemed all tinged with purple haze and tipped with gold. The +blare of a bugle summoning the men to supper seemed softened by distance, +or some new, strange intonation, and gave to the ugliest of all our +service calls the effect of soft, sweet melody; and there was sympathy +and genuine feeling in the deep voice as he once again held out his hand +to Billy. + +"Forgive me, lad, for I judged you more harshly than you deserved." + +One lovely, summer-like evening, some five weeks later, in long, heaving +surges the deep blue waves of the Pacific came lazily rolling toward the +palm-bordered beach at Waikiki, bursting into snowy foam on the pebbly +strand, and, softly hissing, swept like fleecy mantle up the slope of +wet, hard-beaten sand, then broke, lapping and whirling, about the stone +supports of the broad _lanai_ of one of the many luxurious homes that dot +the curving line of the bay to the east of Honolulu. Dimly outlined in +the fairy moonlight, the shadowy mountains of the Waianai Range lay low +upon the western horizon. Eastward the bare, bold volcanic upheaval of +Diamond Head gleamed in bold relief, reflecting the silver rays. Here and +there through the foliage shone the soft-colored fires of Chinese +lanterns, and farther away, along the concave shore, distant electric +lights twinkled like answering signals to the stars in the vault of blue, +and the "riding lights" of the few transports or warships, swinging at +anchor on the tide. + +From a little grove of palms close to the low sea wall came the soft +tinkle of guitar, and now and then a burst of joyous song, while under +the spreading roof of the broad portico or _lanai_, the murmur of voices, +the occasional ripple of musical laughter, the floating haze of cigarette +smoke, told where a party of worshipers were gathered, rejoicing in the +loveliness of nature and the night. + +It was a reunited party, too, and in the welcome of their winsome +hostess, in the soft, soothing influence of that summer clime, and +through the healing tonic of the long sea voyage, faces that had been +saddened by deep anxiety but a few weeks gone, smiled gladness into one +another now. A tall, gray-haired man reclined in an easy lounging chair, +his eyes intent on the clear-cut face of a young soldier in trim white +uniform who, with much animation, was telling of an event in the recent +campaign. By his side, her humid eyes following his every gesture, sat a +tall, dark, stylish girl, whose hand from time to time crept forth to +caress his--an evident case of sister worship. Close at hand another +young fellow, in spotless white, his curly head bent far forward, his +elbows on his knees, his fingertips joining, was studying silently the +effect of his comrade's story on another--a fair girl whose sweet face, +serene and composed, was fully illumined by the silvery light of the +unclouded moon. "Coming by transport, via Honolulu"--"Gov.'s" cabled +message had brought father and sister to meet him at these famed +"Cross-roads of the Pacific," and whither they journeyed Amy Lawrence, +too, must go, said they; and, glad of opportunity to see the land of +perennial bloom and sunshine, and wearied with long, long months of labor +in the service of the Red Cross, the girl had willingly accepted their +invitation. Coaled and provisioned the transport had pushed on for the +seven-day run for San Francisco; but the recovering of his long-lost son +and the soft, reposeful atmosphere of the lovely, yet isolated island +group, had so benefited Mr. Prime that in family council it had been +decided wise for them to spend a week or ten days longer at the Royal +Hawaiian; and the boys had found no difficulty in "holding over" for the +Sedgwick that followed swift upon the heels of their own ship. Five +joyous days had they together, and this, the fifth, had been spent in +sightseeing beyond the lofty Pali of the northward side. The "O. & O." +liner was coming in from Yokohama even as they drove away; and as they +sat at dinner on the open _lanai_, long hours later, it had been +mentioned by their host that the Sedgwick, too, had reached the harbor +during the afternoon, and that army people were passengers on both liner +and transport. Billy Gray, for one, began to wish that dinner were over. +He was eager to get the latest news from the Philippines, and the +Sedgwick left Manila full a week behind their slower craft. + +"Did you hear who came with her?" he somewhat eagerly asked, "or on the +Doric?" he continued, with less enthusiasm. + +"I did not," was the answer--"that is, on the Sedgwick;" and the +gentleman baited lamely and glanced furtively and appealingly at his +wife. There was that embarrassing, interrogative silence that makes one +feel the futility of concealment. It was Miss Lawrence who quickly came +to his relief and dispelled the strain on the situation. + +"I should fancy very few army people would choose that roundabout way +from Manila when they can come direct by transport, and have the ship to +themselves." + +"Well--er--yes; certainly, certainly," answered the helpless master of +the house, dodging now the warning and reproach in the eyes of his wiser +mate at the other end of the table. The crack of a coachman's whip and +the swift beat of trotting hoofs on the graveled road in front could be +heard as he faltered on. The gleam of cab lights came floating through +the northward shrubbery. "Except, of course, when they happen to +be--er--already, well, you know, at Hongkong or Nagasaki," he lamely +concluded. + +There was an instant hurried glance exchanged between Gray and Prime. +Then up spoke in silvery tone their hostess: + +"Other officers, you know, are ordered home. We have just heard to-day +that Colonel Frost comes very soon. His health seems quite shattered. I +believe--you knew--of them--slightly that is to say, Miss Prime, did you +not?" But even with her words she cast an anxious, furtive glance along +the dim reach of the _lanai_, for the pit-a-pat of footfalls, the swish +of feminine draperies was distinctly heard. Two dainty, white-robed forms +came floating into view, and, with changing color, their hostess suddenly +arose and stepped forward to meet them. Just one second of silence +intervened, then, all grace and gladness, smiles and cordiality, both her +little hands outstretched, Mrs. Frank Garrison came dancing into their +midst, her sister more timidly following. + +"_Dear_ Mrs. Marsden, how perfectly (kiss, kiss) delicious! Yes, this is +the baby sister I've raved to you about. We go right on with the Doric; +but I _had_ to bring her out with me that you might have just one glance +at her. Why! Mr. Prime! Why, what could be more charming than to find you +here? And 'Gov.' _too_--you wicked boy! What won't I do to you for never +telling me you were in Manila? And Mildred!" (kiss--kiss, despite a +palpable dodge and heightened color on part of the half-dazed recipient). +"And you, too, Miss Lawrence?" (Both hands, but no kiss--one hand calmly +accepted). "Ah, then I know how happy _you_ are, Mr. Willie Gray!" +(beaming arch smiles upon that flushed and flustered young officer. Then, +turning again to twine a jeweled arm about the slim waist of their +hostess, to whom she clung as though defying any effort to dislodge, yet +pleading for protection): "Who on earth could have foretold that we of +all people should have met out here--of all places? How long did you say +you had been here? A week? And of course, dear Mrs. Marsden has done +everything to make it lovely for you. _I_ should have _died_ without +her." And so the swift play of words went on, the rapid fire of her +fluent tongue covering the movement of her allies and drowning all +possibility of reply. It was an odd and trying moment. Mrs. Marsden, well +knowing, as who in Honolulu did not, of Mrs. Frank's devotion to the +young lieutenant, barely six months agone, was striving to welcome the +shrinking little scare-faced thing that blindly and helplessly had +drifted in in the elder sister's wake. The introductions that followed, +after the American fashion, were as perfunctory as well-bred women can +permit. The greetings were almost solemn, smileless, and, on part of +Nita, fluttering to the verge of a faint; and nothing but Witchie's +plucky and persistent support, and the light flow of airy chat and +laughter, carried her through the ordeal. The two young soldiers stood +stiffly back, red-faced and black-browed; the father, pallid and cold, +could hardly force himself to unbend, yet his lips mumbled the name "Mrs. +Frost," as he bowed at presentation; Miss Prime stood erect and +trembling; Miss Lawrence, with brave eyes but heightened color. To leave +at once was impossible; to remain was more than embarrassment. Most +gallantly did they battle, Mrs. Marsden and Mrs. Frank, to lift the wet +blanket from the group and relieve the strain. Reward came to crown their +efforts in strange, unlooked-for fashion. Hoofs, wheels and flashing +lights were again at the entrance gate, even as Mrs. Frank, sparkling +with animation, distributing her gay good humor over the silent +semicircle, suddenly exclaimed: "Oh, if I'd _only_ known you were here, I +could have provided the one thing to make our reunion complete! If we +were not going on at daybreak I should do it yet." Then hoofs and wheels +and lights had come to a stop at the front of the house, and in measured, +martial tread a man's footsteps were heard upon the _lanai_. Then, all of +a sudden, with a cry of joy, Witchie burst in again: "_Should_ do it?--I +shall do it! Said I not I was the fairy queen? Behold me summon my +subjects from the ends of the obedient earth!" And, waving her parasol as +she would a wand, gayly pirouetting as she had that night in the tent at +old Camp Merritt, she danced forward: "Sound ye the trumpets, slaves! +Hail to the chief! See the conquering hero comes! Enter Brevet +Brigadier-General Stanley Armstrong!--though his arm is anything but +strong." + +Bowing gravely to the sprite in front of him, vaguely to the group in the +shaded light at the edge of the _lanai_, and joyously to the little +hostess, as almost hysterically she sprang forward and clasped his hands, +the colonel of the Primeval Dudes stood revealed before them. + +"_Colonel_ Armstrong! How--when did you get here? What does this mean? Is +your arm quite well again? Why _didn't_ you let us know you were coming?" +were the questions rained upon him by Mrs. Marsden, immediately followed +by the somewhat illogical statement that she was actually breathless with +surprise. + +"Shall I answer in their order?" said he, smiling down at her flushed and +joyous face. "By the Sedgwick. This afternoon. That I wished to see you. +Doing quite well. Because I didn't know myself until two days before we +sailed." Then, as he stood peering beyond her, she would have turned him +to her other guests had not Mrs. Garrison made instant and impulsive rush +upon him. + +"As fairy queen or fairy godmother I claim first speech," she gayly +cried. "What tidings of my liege lord, and where is hers, my fairy +sister's?" she demanded, waving in front of him her filmy parasol and +pirouetting with almost girlish grace. + +"Captain Garrison was looking fairly well the day I sailed," he answered +briefly; "and Colonel Frost left for Hongkong only a few hours before in +hopes, as we understood, of finding Mrs. Frost at Yokohama. Permit me," +he added, with grave courtesy. "I have but little time as I transfer to +the Doric to-night." + +A shade spread over the radiant face one instant, but was as quickly +swept away. "And I have not met your guests," he finished, turning to +Mrs. Marsden, as he spoke, and quietly passing Mrs. Garrison in so doing. +The next moment he was shaking hands with the entire party, coming last +of all to Amy Lawrence. + +"They told me of your being here," he said, looking straight into her +clear, beautiful eyes; "and I thought I might find you at Mrs. Marsden's. +She was our best friend when we were in Honolulu. They told me, too, that +you desired to go by the Doric, but feared she would be crowded," he +continued, turning to Mr. Prime. "There is one vacant stateroom now; its +occupants have decided to stay over and visit the islands. There will be, +I think, another." And drawing a letter from an inner pocket he calmly +turned to Nita, now shrinking almost fearfully behind her sister. "The +colonel gave this to me to hand to you, Mrs. Frost, on the chance of your +being here. He will arrive by next week's steamer, and, pardon me, it is +something I think you should see at once as a change in your plans may be +necessary." + +It was vain for Margaret to interpose. The letter was safely lodged in +her sister's hands, and with so significant a message that it had to be +opened and read without delay. Gayly excusing herself, and with a low +reverence and comprehensive smile to the assembled party, she ushered her +sister into the long parlor, and the curtain fell behind them. There +followed a few minutes of brisk conference upon the _lanai_, the Marsdens +pleading against, the father and daughter for, immediate return to the +hotel, there to claim the vacated rooms aboard the steamer. In the eager +discussion, pro and con, both young soldiers joined, both saying "go," +and promising to follow by the Sedgwick. In this family council, despite +the vivid interest Armstrong felt in the result, neither Amy Lawrence nor +himself took any part. Side by side at the snowy railing over the +breaking sea they stood almost silent listeners. Suddenly there came from +the front again the sound of hoofs and wheels, loud and distinct at the +start, then rapidly dying away with the increasing distance. Miss +Lawrence turned and looked inquiringly into the eyes she well knew were +fixed upon her. Mrs. Marsden hesitated one moment, then stepped across +the _lanai_, peered into the parlor and entered. It was a minute before +she returned, and in that minute the decisive vote was cast, the carriage +ordered. + +"Oh, I ought to have known how it would be if I left you a moment!" she +cried despairingly, on her reappearance, a little folded paper in her +hand. "But at least you must stay half an hour. We can telephone direct +to the dock and secure the staterooms, if go you must on the Doric. Yes," +she continued, lowering her voice, "they are not going farther until +Colonel Frost comes. Mrs. Garrison explains that her sister was really +too ill and too weak to come out here, but she thought the drive might do +her good. She thought best to slip quietly away with her, and bids me say +good-night to you all." + +So, when next day the Doric sailed, four new names appeared upon the +passenger list, and the last men down the stage already "trembling on the +rise," were two young fellows in white uniform, who turned as they sprang +to the dock and waved their jaunty caps. "Join you in ten days at +'Frisco!" shouted the shorter of the two, gazing upward and backward at +the quartette on the promenade deck. "Oh! beg a thousand pardons," he +added hastily, as he bumped against some slender object, and, wheeling +about to pick up a flimsy white fan, he found himself face to face with +Witchie Garrison, kerchief waving, beaming, smiling, throwing kisses +innumerable to the party he had so lately left. The hot blood rushed to +his forehead, an angry light to his eyes, as she nodded blithely, +forbearingly, forgivingly at him. "Dear boy," she cried, in her clear, +penetrating treble, "how could you be expected to see any one after +leaving--her?" But Gov.'s arm was linked in his at the very instant and +led him glowering away, leaving her close to the edge of the crowded +dock, smiling sweetness, blessing and bliss upon a silent and +unresponsive group, and waving kerchief and kisses to them until, far +from shore, the Doric headed out to sea. + + * * * * * + +They were nearing home again. Day and night for nearly a week the good +ship had borne them steadily onward over a sea of deepest blue, calm and +unruffled as the light that shone in Amy's eyes. Hours of each +twenty-four Armstrong had been the constant companion, at first of the +trio, then of the two--for Mr. Prime had found a kindred spirit in a +veteran merchant homeward bound from China--then of one alone; for Miss +Prime had found another interest, and favor in the eyes of a young +tourist paying his first visit to our shores, and so it happened that +before the voyage, all too brief, was half over, Amy Lawrence and +Armstrong walked the spacious deck for hours alone or sat in sheltered +nooks, gazing out upon the sea. The soft, summer breezes of the first few +days had given place to keener, chillier air. The fog ahead told of the +close proximity of the Farallones. Heavier wraps had replaced the soft +fabrics of the Hawaiian saunterings. But warmth and gladness, coupled +with a strange new shyness in his presence, were glowing in her fresh +young heart. One day she had said to him: "You have not told me how you +came to leave there--just now," and it was a moment before he answered. + +"That was the surgeons' doing. They sent me back from the front because +the wound did not properly heal, and then ordered a sea voyage until it +did; but I turn back at once from San Francisco." + +She was silent a few seconds. This was unlooked for and unwelcome news. +"I thought," she said, "at least Gov. heard Dr. Frank say it would be +four months before you could use that arm." She plucked at the fringe of +the heavy shawl he had wrapped about her as she reclined in the low +steamer chair; but the white lids veiled her eyes. + +"Possibly," answered Armstrong; "but you see I do not have to use it much +at any time. I'm all right otherwise, and there will soon be need of me." + +"More campaigning?" she anxiously inquired, her eyes one moment +uplifting. + +"Probably. Those fellows have no idea of quitting." + +Another interval of silence. The long, lazy, rolling swell of the Pacific +had changed during the day to an abrupt and tumultuous upheaval that +tossed the Doric like a cork and made locomotion a problem. The rising +wind and sea sent the spray whirling from her bows, and Mildred's young +man, casting about for a dry corner, had deposited his fair charge on a +bench along the forward deck house and was scouting up and down for +steamer chairs. Armstrong had drawn his close to that in which Miss +Lawrence reclined, her knitted steamer cap pulled well forward over her +brow. His feet were braced against a stanchion. His eyes were intent upon +her sweet face. He had no thought for other men, even those in similar +plight. His gaze, though unhampered by the high peak of his forage cap, +comprehended nothing beyond the rounded outline of that soft cheek. Her +eyes, well-nigh hidden by her shrouding "Tam," saw the searching son of +Albion and told her his need. The best of women will find excuse for +interruption at such moments when sure of the devotion of the man who +sits with a fateful question quivering on his lips; and, even when she +longs to hear those very words, will find means to defer them as a kitten +dallies with a captured mouse or a child saves to the very last the +sweetest morsel of her birthday cake. Not ten minutes before, when the +Honorable Bertie Shafto had started impulsively toward the vacant chair +by Armstrong's side, a firm hand detained him, and Miss Prime had hastily +interposed. "Not on any account!" said she, imperiously. "Can't you see?" +And Mr. Shafto, adjusting his monocle, had gazed long and fixedly, and +then, transferring his gaze to her, had said: + +"Eh--eh--yes. It's not ours, I suppose you mean." + +But now Amy Lawrence was beckoning, and he made a rush for the rail, then +worked his way aft, hand over hand. Every movable on deck was taking a +sudden slant to starboard, and the sea went hissing by almost on level +with the deck as next she spoke. "Surely a soldier needs both arms in +battle, and you--Oh, certainly, Mr. Shafto, take that chair," she added. +Armstrong glanced up suddenly. + +"Oh! that you, Shafto? Yes; take it by all means." + +Anything, thought he, rather than that they should come here. The young +Briton stepped easily past between them and the rail--behind there was no +room--and, swinging the long, awkwardly modeled fabric to his broad +shoulder, started back just as a huge wave heaved suddenly under the +counter, heeled the steamer far over to port, threw him off his balance, +and, his foot catching at the bottom of her chair, hurled him, load and +all, straight at Amy's reclining form. One instant, and even her uplifted +hands could not have saved her face; but in that instant Armstrong had +darted in, caught the stumbling Briton on one arm, and the full force of +the shooting chair crashing upon the other, already pierced by Filipino +lead. + +When, a moment later she emerged, safe and unscratched from the confused +heap of men and furniture, it was to cut off instantly the stutter and +stammer of poor Shafto's apologies, to bid him go instantly for the +ship's doctor, and, with face the color of death, to turn quickly to +Armstrong. The blow had burst open the half-healed wound, and the blood +was streaming to the deck. + + * * * * * + +Both liner and transport turned back without Stanley Armstrong, Doric and +Sedgwick sailed unheeded, for the highest surgical authority of the +Department of California had remanded him to quarters at the Palace and +forbidden his return to duty with an unhealed wound. He was sitting up +again, somewhat pallid and not too strong, but with every promise, said +the "medico," of complete recovery within two months. But not a month +would Armstrong wait. The Puebla was to start within the week, and he had +made up his mind. "Go," said he, "I must." + +They had been sitting about him, the night this opinion was announced, in +the parlor of the suite of rooms the Primes had taken. Billy Gray had +gone with his father to the club, Shafto had been hanging about in the +agonies of an Englishman's first love, Gov. disappeared a moment and came +back with tickets for the Columbia, bidding Mildred get her hat and +gloves at once, and whispering Shafto that he had a seat for him. As the +little mantel clock struck eight Amy Lawrence, lifting up her eyes from +the book she was trying hard to believe she meant to read, saw that +Armstrong was rising from his easy-chair, and, springing to his side, +laying her white hand on his arm, she faltered, "Oh, please! You know the +stipulation was that you were not to stir." + +But then her heart began to flutter uncontrollably. The blood went +surging to her brows, for all of a sudden, as through impulse +irresistible, her hand was seized in his--in both of his, in fact--and +the deep voice that had pleaded at her behest for the cause of Billy Gray +was now, in impetuous flow of words that fell upon her ears like some +strain of thrilling music, pleading at last his own. Ever since that day +in the radiant sunshine of the Park she had learned to look up to him as +a tower of strength, a man of mark among his fellows, a man to be honored +and obeyed. Ever since that night at the Palace, when she saw his glowing +eyes fixed intently upon her, and knew that he was following her every +move, she had begun to realize the depth of his interest in her. Ever +since that day when the China slipped from her moorings, with Witchie +Garrison singling him out for lavish farewell favors, she had wondered +why it so annoyed and stung her. Ever since the day she read the list of +killed and wounded in the first fierce battling with the "Insurrectos" +she knew it was the sight of his name, not Billy Gray's, that made her +for the moment faint and dizzy, and taught her the need of greater +self-control. Ever since that moonlit night upon the Marsden's _lanai_, +when her heart leaped at the sudden sound of his voice, she had realized +what his coming meant to her, and ever since that breezy day upon the +broad Pacific, with the sailor's song of "Land ho!" ringing from the +bows, and he, her wounded soldier, had sprung to shield her from the +crash of Shafto's hapless stumble, and the deck was stained with the +precious blood from that soldier's reopened wound, shed for her--for her +who so revered him--she had longed to hear him say the words that alone +could unlock the gates of maidenly reserve and let her tell him--tell him +with glad and grateful heart that the love he bore her was answered by +her own. Hovering over him only one minute, her lips half parted, her +eyes still veiled, her heart throbbing loud and fast, with sudden +movement she threw herself upon her knees at the side of the low chair, +and her burning face, ever so lightly, was buried in the dark-blue sleeve +above that blessed wound. + +THE END. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +GROSSET & DUNLAP'S +Desirable Editions of Popular Books + +The following books are printed from new, large type plates, on fine laid +paper of excellent quality, and durably and handsomely bound in the best +silk finished book cloth, each with a handsome and distinctive cover +design. + +They are in every way superior to any other editions at the same price. + +They are for sale by all booksellers, or will be mailed by the +publishers on receipt of FIFTY CENTS PER VOLUME + +BLACK ROCK, by Ralph Connor +THE MARBLE FAUN, by Nathaniel Hawthorne +BEULAH, by Augusta J. 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