Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-06-16
WARNINGS PERIL.
By Capt. Chas. King, of the U. S. Army.
 Copyright by Lippincott.

And all day long the storm beat upon the substantial buildings of the old barracks and flooded the low ground about the sheds and stables. Drills for the infantry were necessarily suspended, several sentries even being taken off their posts. The men clus- tered in the squad-rooms and listened with more or less credulity to the the orics and cOnfrmatory statements of fact as related by the imaginative or loquacious of their number. The ma jority of the officers gathered under the ilaring lamp-lights at the suffers store and occupied themselves pretty much as did their interiors in grade, though poker and punch-specialties of Mir. Finkbein, the sutler-lent addi- tional color to the stories in circula- ton.
 From this congress the better ele- ment of the commissioned force was absent, the names, nationalities and idiomatic peculiarities of speech of the individual members being identical in most instances with those of their comrades in arms in the ranks. "BraX" had summoned Minor, Lawrence, Kin sey and Dryden to hear what the post surgeon had to say on his return, but cautioned them to keep quiet. As a result of this precaution, the mystery of the situation became redoubled by one o'clock, and was intensified by two, when it was announced that Private Dawson had attempted to break away out of the hospital after a visit from the same doctor in his professional ca pacity. People were tempted out on their galleries in the driving storm, and cOlOred servants fitted from kitchen to kitchen to gather or dis pensc new rumors, but nobody knew what to make of it when, soon after two, an orderly rode in from town dripping with mud and wet, delivered note to the colonel and took one from him to Mir. Ferry, now sole repre- sentative of the officers of Battery TX" present for duty. Ferry in return sent the bedraggled horseman on to the battery quarters with an order to the first sergeant, and in about fifteen minutes a sergeant and two men, mounted and each leading a spare horse, appeared under Ferry's gallery, | and that officer proceeded to occupy | one of the vacant saddles and, fol | lowed by his party, went clattering out of the sally-port and splashing
 
 as usual at four o'clock, and, for the | first time in the record of that disci- plined organization since the devas- tating hand of yellow jack was laid upon 1t the previous year, no officer ap- | peared to supervise the grooming and feeding. Two of them were at the post, however. Mir. Doyle, in arrest on charge of absence without leave, | fn 1i a6 l four-ffteen, and was promptly visited l by sympathizing and inquisitive com rades from the Hotel Finkbein, while | Mir Ferry, who had effected the ar rest, was detained making his report to the post commander. Night came on apace, the wind began to die away with the going down of the sun, the rain ceased to fall, a pallid moon be- gan peering at odd intervals through l rifts in the cloudy veil, when Cram rode plashing back into barracks, worn | with anxiety and care, at eleven o'clock, and stopping only for mo- ment to take his wife in his arms and | kiss her anxious face and shake his head in response to her eager query for news of Waring, he hurried down stairs again and over to Doy1e's quar- ters. All was darkness there, but he never hesitated. Tramping loudly over the gallery, he banged at the door, then, turning the knob, intending to burst right in, as was the way in the rough old days, was surprised to And the bolt set.
 Doyle, open. I want to see you at once."
 All silence within.
 "Doyle, open, or, if you are too drunk to get up, I'll kick in the door. "
 A groan, a whispered colloquy, then the rattle of bolts and chain. The door opened about an inch, and an oily Irish voice inquired:
 "Hwat's wanted, capt'in?'
 "You here?" exclaimed Cram, in dis , gust. "What business have you in this garrisonP If the colonel knew it you'd be driven out at the point of the bay. onet."
 "Sure, where should wife be but al her husbands side whin he's sick and sufferin'? Didn't they root him out O; bed and comfort this day and ride him down like a felon in all the storm Sure it was the doughboys' orders sir. told Doyle the capt'in nevel would have"
 a ''Oh, be quiet; must see Doyle, ant A Ut once.
 | "Sure, he's not able, capt'in. Yor
 know how it is wid him; he's that sinsi
 tive he couldn't bear to talk of the dis
 grace he's bringing on the capt'in an'
 the batthery, and I knowed he'd beeI
 dhrinkin', sir, and came back to lool
 for him, but he'd got started, capt'r r and it's"
 "Stop this talk! He wasn't drinl1in at all until you came back here t
 hound him. Open that door, or a file c !, guard will"
 "Ochl thin wait till I'm dressed, fo - dacency's sake, capt'in. Sure I'll thr
 and wake him."
 And then more whispering, the ellie of glass, maudlin protestation
 Doyle's thick tones Cram banged {
 the door and demanded instant ob - dience. Admitted at last, he strode
 the side of an ordinary hospital co
 over which the mosquito bar was no