Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1895-12-04
FROM THE RANKS.
BY CAPTAIN CHARLES KING.

DaCk 10 Cnc TOOul III WlllCu liley ut'u iou
their long conference His wife and SIS
ter both hailed him as he passed the sit
ting room door and urged him to come
and join them-they wanted to ask about
Captain Armitage, with whom it was
evident they were much impressed-but
he answered that he had some letters to
put away, and he must attend first to
that.
Among those that had been shown to
the captain, mainly letters from Chester
telling of the daily events at the fort
and of his surveillance in the case of
Jerrold, was one which Alice had
brought him two days before. This had
seemed to him of unusual Importance,
as the others contained nothing that
tended to throw new light on the case.
1t said:
"I am glad you have telegraphed for
Armitage and heartily approve your de-
cision to lay the whole case before him.
presume he can reach you by Sunday,
and that by Tuesday he will be here at
the fort and ready to act. This will be
a great relief to me, for, do what l
could to allay it, there is no concealing
the fact that much speculation and gos-
sip is afoat concerning the events of
that unhappy night. Leary declared he
has been close mouthed. The other men
OH guard know absolutely nothing, and
Captain Wilton is the only officer to
| ,rLo,,, l., ,,,,- 1;ctrncc of wind batrova6
that there was mystery, and he has
pledged himself to me to say nothing,
Sloat, too, has an inkling, and big
one, that Jerrold is the suspected party,
but I never dreamed that anything had
been seen or heard which in the faint
est way connected your household with
the matter until yesterday. Then Leary
admitted to me that two women, Mrs.
Clifford's cook and the doctors nursery
maid, had asked him whether it wasn't t
Lieutenant Jerrold he fired at, and if it
was true that he was trying to get in the
colonel's back door. Twice Mrs. Clifford
has asked me very significant questions,
and three times today have officers made
remarks to me that indicated their
knowledge of the existence of some
grave trouble What makes matters
worse is that Jerrold, when twitted
about his absence from reveille, loses
his temper and gets confused. There
came near being q quarrel between him
and Rollins at the mess day or two
since. He was saying that the reason he
slept through roll call was the fact that
he had been kept up very late at the
DOCTORS party, and Rollins happened to
come in at the moment and blurted out
that if he was up at all it must have
been after he left the party and remind
ed him that he had left before midnight
with Miss Renwick. This completely
staggered Jerrold, who grew confused
and tried to cover it with q display Of
anger. Now, two weeks ago Rollins
was most friendly to Jerrold and stood
up for him when I assailed him, but
ever since that night he has no word to
say for him. When Jerrold played
wrathful and accused Rollins of mixing
in other men S business, Rollins bounced
up to him like young bull terrier,
and believe there would have been q
row had not Sloat and Hoyt promptly
interfered. Jerrold apologized, and Rol-
lins accepted the apology, but has avoid
ed him ever since-won't speak Of him
to me now that I have reason to want to
draw him out. AS soon as Armitage gets
here he can do what cannot-fnd out
just what and who is suspected and
talked about.
"Mr. Jerrold, Of course, avoids me. He
has been attending strictly to his duty
and is evidently confounded that I did
not press the matter of his going to
town as he did the day I forbade it
MIR. Hoyt's being too late TO see him
personally gave me sufficient grorSlds on
which to excuse it, but he seems to un-
derstand that something is impending
and is looking nervous and harassed.
He has not renewed his request for leave
of absence TO run down to Sablon. I told
him CURLY it was out of the question. !"
The colonel took few strides up and
down the room. 1t had come then. The
good name of those he loved was already
besmirched by garrison gossip, and he
knew that nothing but heroic measures
could ever silence scandal. Impulse and
the innate sense of fight" urged him
to 60 at once to the scene, leaving his
wife and her fair daughter here under
his sisters roof, but Armitage and COM
mon sense said no. He had placed his
burden on those broad gray shoulders,
and though i'll content to wait he felt
that he was bound. Slowing away the
letters, too nervous to sleep, too worried
to talk, he stole from the cottage, and,
with hands clasped bchi..d lis back,
with low bowed head, he strolled forth
into the broad vista of moonlit road.
There were bright lights still burning
at the hotel, and gay voices came float
ing through the summer air. The piano,
too, was drumming waltz in the par
lor, and two or three couples were
throwing embracing, slowly twirling
shadows on the windows. Over in the
bar and billiard rooms the click of the
balls and the refreshing rattle Of crack
ed ice told suggestively Of the occupa-
tion of the inmates. Keeping on beyond
these distracting sounds, he slowly
climbed long, gradual ascent to the
''bench," or plateau above the wooded
point on which were grouped the glis-
teningwhite buildings of the pretty sum-