Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-05-01
A Story of American Frontier
Life.
By Capt. CHARLES KING, US A,
Author of'The CoLoners Daughter" From
the Ranks, /" 1.-THE Dcscrter," Etc.

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Z1AX$ ED PERRY hated re-
/NM TxS veille and morning
~. X stables about as We
, - hemently as was pos
SR 81 sible to young fell
~ low who was in other
respects thoroughly in love with his pro-
fession. A fairer type of the American
cavalry officer, when once he got IN sad
die and settled down to business, one
would hardly ask to find. Tall, athletic,
slender of build, with frank, laughing
blue eyes, curly, close cropped, light
brown hair, and a twirling mustache
that was source of inexpressible delight
to its owner and of some envy to his
brother subalterns, Mr.. Perry was prob
ably the best looking of the young Off
GERS who marched with the battalion to
this far away station on the borders of
the Llano Estacado. He had been ten
years in service, counting the four he
spent as cadet, had just won his silver
bar as the junior first lieutenant of the
regiment, was full to the brim of health,
energy, animal spirits and fun, and, bar
ring few duns and debts in his earlier
experiences, had never known a heavier
care in the world than the transient
and ephemeral anxiety as to whether he
would be called up for recitation on a
subject he had not so much as looked at,
or ''hived" absent from a roll call he had
lazily slept through.
Any other man, his comrades said,
would have been spoiled dozen times
over by the petting he had received from
both men and women; but there was
something essentially sweet and genial
about his naturr-SomethinS lacking in
guile about his perceptions, said cyni-
cal old captain of the regiment-and 4
jovial, sunshiny way of looking upon the
worll as an Eden, all men and all women
as friends, and the army as the profess
sion above all others. and these various
attributes combined to make him popular
with his kind and unusually attractive
to the opposite sex. As cadet he had
been perpetually on the verge of dismiss
sal because of the appalling array of de-
merits he could roll up against his name,
and yet the very officers who jotted down
the memoranda Of his sins-0mission
and commission-against the regulations
were men who openly said he''had the
making of one of the finest soldiers in
the class" As Junior second lieutenant
-"plebe"-of the regiment. he had been
welcomed by every man from the colonel
down, and it was considered particularly
rough that he should have to go to such
company as Capt. Canker's, because
Canker was a man who never got along
with any of his juniors; but there was
something so irrepressibly frank and
contrite in Perry's boyish face when he
would appear at his captains door
in the early morning and burst out
with: by Jove, captain! slept
through reveille again this morning,
and never got down till stables
were nearly over" that even that cross
grained but honest troop commander
was disarmed. and. though he threat
ened and reprimanded, he would never
punish--would never deny his subaltern
the faintest privilege; and when promo
ticn took the captain to another regf
ment he babe good-by to Perry with eyes
that were suspiciously wet. "Why,
blow it all, what do you fellows hate
Canker SO for?" the youngster often
said. HE ought to put me in arrest
time and again, but he won't. Blamed
if don't put myself in arrest, or confne
myself to the limits of the post, and do
something, to cut all this going to town
and hops and such things Then l can
stick to the troop like wax and get up at
reveille; but if I'm out danIng till or
8 in the morning it's no use, tell you; ]
Just can't wake up"
1t was always predicted of Ned Perry
that he would be married and done
for" within q year of his graduation.
Every new face in the five years that
followed revived the garrison proph-
ecy, ''Now he's gone, sure!" but, how
ever devoted he might seem to the damsel
in question, however restless and impa-
tient he might be when compelled by his
duties to absent himself from her side,
however promising to casual Observers
perchance to the damsel herself-might
be all the surface indications, the abso-
lutte frankneSs with which he proclaimed
his admiration to every listener, and the
fact that he 'had been just so with half
a dozen other girls" enabled the cooler
heads of the regiment to decide that the
time had not yet come-or at least the
woman.
81 do WISH" said Mrs. Turner, "that
Mr.. Perry would settle on somebody, be-
cause, just so long as he doesn't, it is
rather hard to tell who he belongs to. :"
And, as Mrs. Turner had long been 8
reigning belle among the married women
of the til, and one 20 whom the young
officers were always expected to show
much attention, her whimsical way OF
describing the situation was readily IN
derstood.
But here at the new station-at far
away Rossiter-matters were taking on
new look. To begin with, the wives
of the officers of the cavalry battalion
had not joined, none of the ladies Of the
til were here, and none would be
apt to come until the summers scout
ing work was over and done with. The
ladies of the little battalion of infantry
| were here, and. though there were no