Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1890-03-14

afterward--tlat was all they were fit
for--but what ON earth was the use of
getting them-the infantry-out of their
warm beds before sunrise on wintry
morning and having no end of roll calls
and such things through the day. lust
to keep them busyr' The real objection
the MAN ob1ection-to the colonel's
system was that it kept q large number
of officers, most of whom were educated
gentlemen. hammering all day long at
an endless routine of trivial duties, al
lowing actually no time in which they
could read, study, or improve their
minds; but. as ill luck would have it,
the three young gentlemen who decided
to present to the colonel this view of the
case had been dev0ting what spare time
they could find to a lively game of poker
down at 1.-THE store" and their petition
for more time to themselves" brought
down reply from the oracular lips of
the commander that became immortal
on the frontier and made the petitioners
nearly frantic.
For a week the trio was the butt of all
the wits at Fort Warrener. And vet the
entire commissioned force felt that they
were being kept at the grindstone be-
cause of the frivolity of these youngsters
and they did not like it. All the same
the cavalrymen stuck up for their colonel
and the infantrymen respected him, and
the matinees were business like and
profitable They were rarely unpleasant
in any feature, but this particular morn
ing-two days after the arrival of Mrs
Rayner and her sister-there had been a
scene of somewhat dramatic interest,
and the groups of officers in breaking up
and going away could discuss nothing
else The colonel had requested one of
their number to remain, as he wished to
speak to him further, and that man was
Lieut.. Hayne.
Seven years had that young gentleman
been second lieutenant of the regiment
of infantry, a detachment of which was
now stationed at Warrener. Only this
very winter had promotion come to him,
anG. of all companies in the regiment, he
was gazetted to the first lieutenancy of
Can't. Ravner's. For a while the regi-
ment when by itself could talk of little
else Mr. Hayne had spent three or four
wears in the exile of a little two COM
pany post far up in the mountains. Ex-
cept the officers there stationed, none OF
his comrades had seen him during that
time
No one of them would like to admit
that he would care to see him And yet,
when once in while they got to talking
among themselves about him, and the
or al w
asked of comrades who came down on
leave from that isolated station, "How
is liayne doing;" or What is Hayne
doing?' the language in which he was
referred to grew by degrees far less
truculent and confident than it had been
when he first went thither. Officers of
ether regiments rarely spoke to the
"Ritirrs' Of Mr.. Hayne. Unlike one or
TWO others of their arm of the service,
this particular regiment OF foot held the
affairs of its officers as regimental prop
erty in which outsiders had no concern.
If they had disagreeme!ts they were
kept to themselves; ana even in a case
which in its day had attracted wide
spread attention the Ritlers had long
since learned to shun all talk outside
1t was eEident to other commands that
the llayne affair was Il sore point ana
one on which they preferred silence.
And vet it was getting to be whispered
around that the Rifiers were by no means
SO unanimous as they had been in their
opinion of this very officer. They were
becoming divided among themselves,
and what complicated matters was the
fact that those who felt their views I'M
dergoing a reconstruction were COM
PEELED to admit that just in proportion
as the case of Mr.. Hayne rose in their
estimation the reputation of another Off
Ger was bound to suffer, and that officer
was Capt. Rayner.
Between these two men not word
had been exchanged for five years-not
single word since the day when, with
asian face and broken accents, but with
stern purpose in every syllable, Lieut..
Hayne, standing in the presence of
nearly all the officers of his regiment,
had hurled this prophecy in his adver-
sary's teeth: Though it take me years,
will live it down despite you; and you
will wish to God you had bitten out your
I pei JtlCO tOIPuc DtlOlt CNti YOU tolu tllt
lie that wrecked me"
No wonder there was talk, and lots of
it, in the "Ritlers" and all through the
garrison when Rayners first lieutenant
suddenly threw up his commission and
retired to the mines he had located in
Montana, and Hayne, the senior second,
was promoted to the vacancy. Specula-
ton as to what would be the result was
given temporary rest by the news that
war department orders had granted the
subaltern six months leave-the first he
had sought in as many years, 1t was
known that he had gone cast; but hardly
had he been away fortnight when there
came the trouble with the Cheyennes at
the rescrvation-a leap for liberty by
some fifty of the band, and an immedi-
ate rush of the cavalry in pursuit. There
were some bloody atrocities, as there
always are All the troops in the depart
ment were ordered to be in readiness for
instant service, while the officials eagerly