Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1891-02-05
copyright, 1890, by J. B. Lippincott Company,
Philadelphia, and published by special arrange
ment with them1
CHAPTER

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ZI- y
The crash Of q rite, q hedUg fall, q moan.
TheIt-Silence.
1t must have been nearly midnight.
The lights in the barracks and at the
old hospital beyond had long since been
extinguished and only here and there
along the row of officers quarters and at
the guard house, suggestiyely planted
half way down the slope toward the post
traders store, was there sign of wakeful
life. One or two upper windows gave
forth a feeble CLEAN, and there was quite
a jovial glow pouring from the open
doorway of the colonel's big house across
the dark rectangle. 1t fell upon the tall
white flagstaff and displayed it from
base to crosstrees, a solitary, ghost like
shaft, and then, with gradually dimin-
ishing power, illumined the graveled
pathway that bisected the parade and
led from the broad flight Of steps in front
of the commanding officers to the ma
jor's on the southern side Overhead
the stars were glittering in an absolutely
cloudless sky. Not breath Of air was
stirring the forest down in the black
depths of the valley to the south. Soft
ened by distance, the rush Of the river
over its rocky bed fell upon the ear like
soothing lullaby.
Ten minutes earlier the sound of sill
very laughter and CHEEKY voices had
come floating across the garrison, and
half dozen little groups had strolled
away from the colonel's gate, some turn
ing to right and left, others crossing in
the broad stream of light from his open
portals. One by one the doors Of the
various quarters had opened to admit
their occupants, few lingering good
nights had been exchanged between gall
liant young bachelors and some dainty
form enwrapped in fieecy burnous, and
then even those night owls ''the young
sters' had betaken themselves to their
domiciles. One after another doors were
closed, lights popped up in the second
floor windows, curtains were drawn, the
lights enshrouded, and finally silence
as of solitude spread its mantle over the
parade, and the corporal of the guard,
leaning against the gate post at the
southwestern entrance, bethought him
how expressive was the sign the Indians
made for night
He was Of medium height, but an ath-
letic, well built young fellow, as any one
might have seen as the corporal stood
under the big lamp at the guardhouse
but few moments before He had
handsome, clear cut face, with a good
deal of soldier bronze about the cheeks
and jaws; he wore his natty undress
uniform with an easy grace, and carried
the long Springfield as though it were
toy. The crossed rifles on his forage
cap, the buckle of his cartridge belt,
even the copper cartridges themselves,
cleaned in the lamplight. The chev-
rons ON his sleeve. the narrow stripe
along the seam Of his trousers, the Ber-
lin gloves he wore, were all spotlessly
white, and Corp. Brent was what the
men were wont to call ''a dandy jack
though there was not man in the troop
barracks at the western end of the pa
rade who cared more than once to put
on the gloves with the dandy" Brent
had speedily demonstrated the fact that
he could outspar any man in the cavalry
portion of the garrison, and that only
Sergt. Connors, of @ company, was able
to beat him in bout.
In the little battalion of infantry
Brent was a popular man; so, too, had
he been in the cavalry command that re-
Gently occupied the post; but these fell
L. L, J, I,r, 1o+
ly marched in, seemed rather slow to
discover his many good traits. Very
possibly they did not like the apparent
ease with which he had defeated the
champions they had so confidently sent
against him. Still it was a good natured,
not vindictive, sort of jealousy-tha
soldierly rivalry between the two corps
that seems irrepressible and that really
does no great harm-and Brent had be-
gun to win friends among the troopers,
who liked the frank, laughing way he
had, when an order was suddenly issued
by the new post commander, the en-
forcement of which stirred up row.
AS the last visitor left the colonel's
gate and he closed his door, thereby
most like that Of the headlight of loco
motive, had shot athwart the parade,
Corp. Brent was pondering over this very
matter.
Col. Morris was a man who hated ir-
regularity of any kind, and as the grass
began to sprout in the spring he noted
that it failed to grow along what was
cf,f hot,
west gate, the way to town and the in
fantry barracks at the eastern end. The
former post commander, cavalryman
like himself, had not paid much atten-
ton to this sort of thing, and the in
fantry had grown to look upon the short
cut as n sort Of thoroughfare sacred to
their uses; no officer ever had occasion
to go that way. When, therefore, the
beaten pathway was plowed up and re-
sodded, and an order was issued that the
men must confne themselves to the
gravel path or road-1aS there were Just
few old foot soldiers who saw fit to
grumble, and some of them, returning
late at night from visit on pass to the
neighboring town, made sarcastic allu-
sions to the new order as they trudged
homeward under the windows of the
officers quarters on the south side.
Others still, trusting to darkness and
theory that all officers should be abed
at that hour, proceeded to wear parallel
path, and these two transgressions be-
ing occasionally repeated and the officer
of The day having twice come upon the