Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-06-19

been wedged in a lot of logs and swept | out anyhow. Splendid ship, that! Who is she, do you suppose?"
 The great black hull with its lofty | tracery of masts and spars was now | just about opposite the barracks, slow ly and majestically ascending the | stream.
 "One of those big British freight | steamers that moor there below the | French market, I reclzou. They sell | dom come up at night unless it's in the | full of the moon, and even then they | move with the utmost caution. See, | she's slowing up now"
 Hello! Listen! Whats that?" ex- claimed Ferry, starting to his feet.
 A distant. muffled cry. A distant shot. The sentry at the sally-port dashed through the echoing vault, then bang! came the loud roar of his piece, followed by the'yell of:
 Fire! fire! The guard!'
 With one spring Ferry was down the 1evee and darted like deer across the road, Kinsey numbering heavily after. Even as he sped through the stone Jagged way, the hoarse roar of the drum at the guard-house, followed in- stantly by the blare of the bugle from the battery quarters, sounded the stir ring alarm. A shrill, agonized female voice was madly screaming for help. Guards and sentries were rushing to the scene, and flames were bursting from the front window of Doyle's quarters. Swift though Ferry ran, others were closer to the spot. Half dozen active young soldiers, members of the in fantry guard, had sprung to the rescue. When Ferry dashed up to the gallery he was just in time to stumble over a writhing and prostrate form, to he1H extinguish the blazing clothing q another, to seize his water bucket an douse it's contents over a third-or | yelling, the others stupehed by smol -or something. In less time than takes to tell it, daring fellows ha | ripped down the blazing shades al | shutters, tossed them to the parade b
 heath, dumped a heap of soaked al
 smoking bedding out of the rear wi | dows, splashed few bucketfuls
 water about the reelzing room, and tl | fire was out. But the doctors we working their best to bring back tI spark of life to two senseless form | and to still the shrieks of agony th} | burst from the scared and blisterd lips of Bridget Doyle.
 While willing hands bore the
 scorched semblances of humanity | neighboring rooms and tender-heartd
 women hurried to add their ministe 1 ing touch, and old Braxton ordered tf
 excited garrison back to quarters ar
 bed, he, with Cram and Rinse
 and Ferry, made prompt examin | tion of the premises. On the tab | T, s,1.
 nearly full, that Dr. Potts declare | were not there when he left at on On the mantel phial of chloroforr
 which was also not there before. Bl
 towel soaked with the stifing co1
 tents lay on the floor by Jim's rud pallet and handkerchief half soaked
 half consumed, was on the chair whic
 had stood by the bedside among tn | fragments of an overturned kerosene | lamp.
 A quick examination of the patients showed that Jim, the negro, had been
 chloroformed and was not burned at
 all, that Doyle was severely burned
 and had probably inhaled flames, and
 that the woman was crazed with drink,
 terror and burns combined. It took
 the efforts of two or three men and
 the influence of powerful opiates to
 quiet her. Taxed with negligence or
 complicity on the part of the sentry,
 the sergeant of the guard repudiated
 the idea, and assured Col. Braxton that
 it was an easy matter for anyone to
 get either in or out of the garrison
 without encountering the sentry, and
 taking his lantern led the way to the
 hospital grounds by a winding foot l path among the trees to a point in the
 high white picket fence where two
 slats had been showed aside. Anyone
 coming along the street without could pass far beyond the ken of the sentry
 at the west gate, and slip In with the
 utmost ease, and once inside all that
 was necessary was to dodge possible re- liefs and patrols. No sentry was post
 ed at the gate through the wall that
 separated the garrison proper from the
 hospital grounds. Asked why he had
 not reported this, the sergeant smiled
 and said there were a dozen others just
 as convenient, so what was the use?
 He did not say, however, that he and
 his fellows had recourse to them night
 after night.
 It was three o'clock when the off
 cers' families got fairly settled down
 again and back to their beds, and the
 silence of night once more reigned over Jackson barracks. One would
 suppose that such a scene of terror and excitement was enough, and that now
 the trembling, frightened women
 might be allowed to sleep in peace; but it was not to be. Hardly had one l of their number closed her eyes, hardly had all the fickering lights, save those at the hospital and guardhouse, been , downed again, when the strained 5 nerves of the occupants of the officers : quadrangle were jumped into mad l angling once more and all the bar racks aroused second time, and this, r too, by a woman's shriel of horror. Mrs. Conroy, delicate, fragile little
 body, wife of a junior lieutenant of in | fantry occupying a set of quarters in the same building with, but at the op - posite end rrom, Pierce and Waring l was found lying senseless atlthe head S of the gallery stairs.