Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1889-03-17
MAI. CROSS PRETTY WIFE.
Story Of an Old Soldier About a Mutiny In
the Bengal Infantry
Tondon World.


London World.
Ia wss a melancholy man. l met Dill
% NV foov club. I did not know his
name In my own mind looked on him
.. the man who always sat in the same
conner smoking TrichinOpOi cherOO's
He was very neat as to his dress, and &c
tecied at once that at some time or Othel
Ia bsd been in the service. His hair wal
narfectJv white, and the man appaareo
,rorn ont with some secret grief, some mys
,e-;ons trouble. I made Major FOwlet'
.oorsintanee on one Christmas eve
after having dined little bet1sl
than usual, and was corresponding
Il elated. and feltI must take to some
hody. so fault de mieux, ] talked to hlm
Generally at the Rice and Carry, when
r,en,bsr whom we have not been lntro
Jrcsd 10 addresses US, weput on a Wrong
"a and indignant air-as rule, we doA
ansTer. if we do we make the man who ha'
thus dar'pgly addressed us un 1erstanu DE
mistake. its thus We assert our SUPER
ority. Perhaps this is why we have tn'
reputation Of being cliquey.
Why it was do not know. There Is no
other word for tive ''chummed," lts['
allv chummed, at once. We had DotI
served in the same presidency, we had met
the same people, but Major Fowler was
senior to me. He had been through the
oniinv had not 1t was a rather CHASTITY
fair. and I cannot see why he should
have confide1 it to me. At any rate, thl'
is what he told me.
7 was only lieutenant then-a lieuten-
ant in the TIL Bengal native Infantry
The mating had already broken out IN our
presidercy. bat our regiment was supposed
10 be particularly we'll affected. Kerlma
bad was a wretched place; 1t was one OF
the dullest and hottest stations IN Inc
presidency. We were very hard up FOL
European officers; some were on leave-ol
course, they were hurTying back as fast as
the P. & o. boats could carry them; some
were on detachment duty, others away on
SPECIAL employment, but the DulR
of them were on the sick list, iol
KeIimabad was an unhealthy hole
although its strategic importance
was too great to allow Of its being unoc'
eupied. and to our regiment had fallen
the duty of occupying it. From the
circumstances l have mentioned MsJoi
Cross. who was in command, and myself
we're the only two men on the effective
list. Cross was q martinez; he had risen
from the ranks, and was extremely re,
ligious. We naturally saw great deal
of each other.
Msior Cross was married, and his wife
ives the only white woman on the station.
Not six months before, Maj + Cross re-
turned from furlOugh with his bride. Oh
course we all fell in love with her. What
she could have seen in Cross l cannot
make out; why she married him, Heaven
knows. Cross, though a most deseIv-
ing officer, was perhaps hardly what would
be called a gentleman; but his wife was
lady snd very beau iful She must have
been in her DIST year then. She was
blonde and petite, with dreamy blue eyes
and masses of curling hair, which gave her
girlish b auty an air of recklessness
which was but sn additional charm. Her
greatest delight was horse exercise. Al
esrly morning Mrs. Gross was certain to be
IN the saddle; in the afternoons, as soon as
ever the sun was low enough, the meJors
wife might have bean seen on her dapple
gray Gulf Arab flying across tae country,
attended by one or more of her husband s
subordinates.
l had bsen in love with her from the
first; but am not On excitab'e man, and
perhaps it wasn't genuine love, after all.
| know that there was not the faintest
shadow of improperly in the love, il we
must call i. so, that felt for the majors
wife. True, was her willing slave, her
constant cavalier. Perhaps l pitied the
girl married to man twice her age, man
with but two ideas in his head-drill and
discipline. They cay that pity is akin tc
loye-perhaps it is; but had not the least
idea of running away with Rosa Cross, not
the remotest; my affection for her was pure,
IL platonic-at least it was till the fatal
afternoon when we rode out together fol-
the last time at Kerimabad.
Our horses were walking, their brides
on their necks, our native grOoms sons
fifty yards behind us on The sandy plain.
Jack" she said 10 me, unfortunately
we were Jack and Rosa now, Il slant be
able to bear it much longer. The mail
wss in again this morning; all my friends
are urging me to 90 down to Calcutta at
once. don't think it's fair Of the major
to make poor little woman live with her
heart always in her mouth. o Jackn'
she sobbed, and the tears ran down her
face, 81 am go afsaid of the nasty blacks!'
Now, this particular remark was pecuii-
ary irritating to Msior Cross. Command
ing, as he did, a native regiment, he
naturally disliked the expression. So
angry had he become that Rosa never
dared 20 use her favlrite expression in her
husbands presence.
"Oi course it's very rough on you, but
don't see any way out Of it. You are the
only European in the station, Cross and l
are the only two men here; we can't leave
the place. But you shouldn't let it worry
gou; the regiment is we'll affected enough. "
IT'S not true, Jack. Olly this morning
my husband told me that the regiment is
on TIE point of mutiny."
The brute! No doubt he had told her.
"Then he was a fool for his pains!' L
replied.
ITS very bardw sObbed the girl; for che
was but girl, though she was my COM
msnding officers wife.
Perhaps l remembered the first fact and
forgo. the second when I took her hand,
and looking into her eyes, swore that l
would look after her, aad that there was
no danger.
She returned the pressure; she was but
acting; as l found out afterward. All wO-
men are actresses, 1 suppose; but did not
dream that the pressure of her finger tips,
the trusting, loving glance which she flung
upon me through her tears, was but the
cursed bait which was to lure me to my
destruction.
"Ah, if he would only let me CO." she
said; by morning l should be out Of
danger am too young to die here, Jack,
and to die as I should have to dier' she
added with a shudder.
There was great deal in what she said.
Tee major trusted her just as far as you
could swing tiger by the tail, and never
Lot ba- ont Of his SIGHT save yVhen 7 took