San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-04-12

world yet You have formed fine ideas,
no doubt, and notions of delicacy and
such things, and you are very dogmatic
about them, as clever men of your age
always are. had notions of right and
wrong once, but it has been all knocked
out of me. It's just sort Of yarnish
which the rough friction of the world
soon rubs off. | started with a whole
soul, but there are more gashes and
seams and scars in it now than there are
in my body, and that's pretty fair, as
you'll allow"-with which he pulled open
his tunic and showed me his chest.
Good heavensr l said. "How on
earth did you get those?'
"This was bullet" he said, pointing
to deep blush quicker underneath his
collar bone. 81 got it behind the barri-
cades in Berlin in eighteen hundred
and forty-eight. Langenback said it
just missed the subclavian artery. And
this" he went on, indicating a pair of
curious elliptical scars upon his throat,
"was bite from Sioux chief, when I
was under Custer on the plains-rve got
an arrow wound on my leg from the
same party. This is from mutinous
Lascar aboard ship, and the others are
mere scratches-Calif vaccination
marks. You can excuse my being little
ready with my own irons, though, when
I've been dropped so often"
| Whats this?" | asked, pointing to
little channels leather bag which was
hung by a strong cord around his neck.
at looks like charm"
He buttoned up his tunic again hasti-
ly, looking extremely disconnected. cit
is nothing" he said brusquely. 81 am a
Roman Catholic, and it is what we call
a scapular." | could hardly get another
word out of him that night, and even
next day he was reserved and appeared
to avoid me. This little incident made
me very thoughtful, the more so as no.
ticed shortly afterward, when standing
over him, that the string was no longer
around his neck. Apparently he had
taken it off after my remark about it,
What could there be in that leather bag
which needed such secrecy and precau-
ton! Had / but known it, would
sooner have put my left hand in the fire
|
One of the peculiarities of our visitor
was that in all his plans for the future,
with which he often RECALLED US, he
seemed entirely untrammeled by any
monetary considerations. He would talk
in the lightest and most offhand way of
schemes which would involve the outlay
of much wealth. My fathers eyes would
glisten as he heard him talk carelessly
of sums which to our frugal minds APP
peared enormous 1t seemed strange to
both of us that a man who by his own
confession had been q vagabond and ad-
venturer all his life should be in posses
sion of such fortune. My father was
inclined to put it down to some stroke of
luck on the American gold fields.
had my own ideas even then-chaotic
and half formed as yet, but tending in
the right direction.
1t was not long before these suspicious
began to assume more definite shape,
which came about in this way. Minnie
| and made the summit of the Combera
cliff favorite trysting place, as ! think
| ! mentioned before, and it was rare for a
| day to pass without our spending two or
three hours there. One morning, not
long after my chat with our guest, we
| were seated together in little nook
| there, which we had chosen as shelter
ing us from the wind as well as from
my fathers observation, when Minnie
caught sight of Digby walking along the
| Carracuil beach. He sauntered up to the
| L., &c h. al,G 81,
studded and Shiny from the receding
tide, but instead of turning back he kept
on climbing over the great green slip
perry stones, and threading his way
| among the pools until he was standing
1 Immediately beneath us, so that we
looked straight down at him. To him
the spot must have seemed the very acme
| of seclusion, with the great sea in front,
the rocks on each side and the precipice
behind. Even had he looked up he could
hardly have made out the two human
faces which peered down at him from the
distant ledge. He gave hurried glance
around, and then slipping his hand into
his pocket he pulled out the leather bag
| which had noticed and took out of it
small object which he held in the palm
| of his hand and looked at long and, as it
were, lovingly. We both had an excellent
view of it from where we lay. He then
| replaced it in the bag, and showing IL
down to the very bottom of his pocket
picked his way back more cheerily than
he had come.
Minnie and l looked at each other.
She was smiling; was serious.
"Did you see it," / asked
"You? Aye, l saw it," ego