The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-10-27
SAUNDERS'S


He had read dime novels. had Saunders.
He had read them as a boy In New York.
In the afternoons, as ne came home from
school. he had bought them from some
street corner vender of penny dreadfuls,"
and had gloated over them as only a small
boy, born and bred in a great city, can
gioat over tales Of the West. He had not
been discriminating. OF course. and had had
a natural leaning toward the most blood
curdling r~ecitals; but he had chosen always
something in some way connected with
army life.
The army to him was a beautiful dream.
a highly vanished picture. and to be part
of tia major part, of course. something
like a general or at the very least a colonel
had been from the first his ambition. But
destiny, in the shape of parents Of stern
and old-fashioned mold, the kind that
thought and accepted it as a convenient
creed that, having inflicted life upon their
offspring, they were entirely at liberty to
ruin that life-this destiny ordained that he
should have a profession other than that of
arms; in short, that he should be a lawyer.
Now Saunders was of an age TO judge for
himself. and he knew that he was not the
stuff OF which lawyers are made. Not the
slightest vestige Of e~loquence had he; he
was blunt and truthful to a degree. He
disliked a lie for its own sake. All this
and more he told his parents, but he was
answered by the.logic which has retarded
the worlds progress through so many gen.
e%rations. that they were older and, there
fore. wiser; that he was their son, and
they knew better what was good for him
than he could possibly. Saunders. more
from a sense of duty than a fear Of being
disinherited Of his fathers goodly estates,
accepted their decision and began the read
ing OF law.
About this time he chose for a chum a
youth whose only possible
ton must have been that he could boast Of
army relatives. He had visited in his SAL
low gosling days at a garrison, and was
full of highly-spiced tales regarding the
wild daring and destinations of a soldiers
life, Saunders would drink in all these
stories. and despite his valiant efforts to
forget them and put bis temptation away,
they would come back to him as he sat
over the inexpressibly stupid folios relating
to the law.
One summer this chum of his invited
Saunders to visit him at his country house
on the Hudson. Saunders went and spent
the happiest two weeks of his life. For it
was there that he met Madge Kean, the
bewitching little daughter of Colonel Kean,
OF the Tenth. Saunders caught his first
glimpse OF her as he walked with young
Milton up the driveway. Madge was armed
with a Flobert rifle, and was teaching the
little son OF the house how to aim and pull
the trigger. There was something N her
very pose, in the fact of her knowing how
TO shoot, that appealed to Saunders at once.
less, he said to Milton that she was a
mighty. pretty girl" Milton replied with
no Il r.t1A r.a+ ~ 49,, lAA.v .-.a
his cousin, had just come from the far
west, was OF the army, and a "darned
pretty little firt." Therefore. before Saun-
ders had even been introduced to the fair
Madge, ne was perilously near TO being. in
love:
When he stood beside her and Milton was
Madge; Miss Kean, Saunders when her
bright eyes glanced at him from under her
tang's, as Saunders mentally commented
when she smiled and put out a hand all
the most bewitching woman he had ever
seen. And Madge, in her turn, made note
of the fact that Saunders was tall, blonde
and extremely handsome, with that unmis-
taxable air of self-possession and refine
ment. of a New. York gentleman. She de-
material to expend her fascinations on than
glad he had come, and said so, Saunders
answered, in a tone which carried convic-
ton, that he also was glad he had come,
and Madge blushed through one Of those
clear, tanned skis which cndnSe color with
every emotion. Not that she was shy and
a result of timidity.
Cupid did not hit Saunders's heart with
the traditional golden arrow this time. 1t
was the tiny bullets of lead which went
from the muzzle of the Flobert straight to
the bulls eye OF the target that made the
wounds which are indicted sooner or later
on every man. BY the time the wee cart
ridge box was empty Saunders was hope
In the course of the next fortnight he
came to that point where he would have
even studied law with pleasure had she ex-
pressed an admiration for law students.
But she did not. He had confided to her
all his baff1ed ambitions; had told her how
his soul yearned for shoulder straps. and
she, in turn, told him that the life of a
soldier was the only. one worth living.
had never occurred to him. He would
think it over. He asked her some questions
life to her: She laughed at them, and told
him that he was a dear old tenderfoot."
If it had not been for the tone of voice
in which she said it. for the roguish. half
fond glance from her mustang eyes, Saun-
ders would have been terribly cut up over
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS." ne! after all he
had read on the subject. Could 1t be that
his source of was bad? He did
not ask Madge this, however; he never put
forth any of his ideas on the subject again,
to her; asked for no further Information;
he knew ne was missing the golden oppor-
tunities for enlightenment, but he did not
care to be laughed at. He was aware that
nothing would so much injure him In her
eyes as to make himself ridiculous. And
Madge in that fortnight exerted. first, ev-
cry charm she possessed, every power she
could command. TO bring him to her feet.
Having succeeded in this she used quite
as much skill in keeping him from asking
her TO marry him. She didn't want to be
gagged, and he was only the pastlme Of a
summers jaunt. Nobody took firtations
seriously; that is, nobody with any sense.
II he couldn't see that she was in fun it
wasn't her fault, was it? She wasn't ac-
countable for his being deficient in powers
of perception, was she? A New York man
ought to know how to take care OF himself.
Well. the little summer play was over.
Saunders went back to town with the Sc
cret determination to cut loose from the
grind OF the law reading and to 90 into the
army. He had not told Madge of this:
somehow, looking back on ii, he hadn't told
her anything that he had meant to; he
had been half afraid that she would laugh.
1t would never do to have her laugh.
OF course, there was a big row at his
home when he announced his determination
But the breath of free air that he had
drawn in contact with Madge made him
see that he should have something to say
in the matter of his own career. Moreover,
he had the strength of love to uphold him.
He surprised his parents by asserting his
freedom of action, and when they made
IL too disagreeable for his self-respect to
allow him to stay under their roof he left
81 with patarpa1 and maternal pnala3ic-