The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-02

"Man and boy" cried poor Jack, give
been in the Seventh ever since I was old
enough to enlist, and never until this night
have l known what it was to wish / were
free to stay away, but, dear old fellow, |
thought 1T was costing me more than /
could bear before seeing you, and now
Leale," he broke off, impulsively, "I'm
turning my back on everything hold dear
in this world tonight my sister, my
hearts love, my trustiest friend when most
he needs me, everything but one, and that
is the old regiment in New York. Your
a soldier, Leale if there ever lived one
You know our record and our traditions.
So long as hold my warrant in the Sew
enth is it not my bounden duty to go to
them, and go at once?'
A clasp OF the hand and movement of
the lips were the only answer for the mo-
ment, then YOU'RE right, Jack-go! I'm
coming-soon."
Then I'll come halfway to meet you,
Leale. I'll join you in Chicago. If there
be time FL come way back here, and, un-
less your doctors say you must go into
hospital my house is to be your home, and
the specialist can see you there. I have
said good-by to Mrs. Farrar-to Willis
mother and to-Helen. They think /
went with the command. VIII you prom
Use? Will you come to my roof, Leale, and
let US nurse you there to sight and strength
again"
But Leale slowly shook his head. II
must go home, Jack, a little while, and
then--to:: Europe"
And so the friends had parted-each
| aware of the others plight, yet neither
able to help. Net until long after the train
had gone whistling away did the Farrars
know. that it was back to Gotham that
Ormsby had been called, and then it was
through Kitty. She came hurrying in to
say that with their glasses they could
plainly see some of the command riding
| homeward from the direction of Trooper
Creek. And meantime the line repairers
who had gone along the track from Canon
| Springs had found the breaks-a dozen OF
them-and restrung their light copper wire,
/ and now that they were no longer of con-
sequence orders, injunctions and sugges-
| tons by the dozen were coming in. Wayne,
/ left at the post in temporary command
opened, read, reread and pooh poohed the
first that came-these being from the agen.
| cy-but began to wake up in earnest as he
| opened the sixth or seventh of the brown
| envelopes. Then suddenly he FASTENED over
| to the colonel's house, leaving the clerks
| at the office to their device and, with his
tieldglass and an attendant officer
and orderly, began studying the northward
| stretch OF snowy prairie, while Lucretia
wistfully watched him from the gallery.
When messenger came running up with
| and Wayne had opened, the next dispatch
she could no longer restrain her curiosity
and SO came boldly forth to demand ex
PLANTATION.
Over across the Platte among the shan
ties that surrounded Bunko Jims estab
| llshment, there were signs of excitement
and lively emotion. The sentries reported
that ever since daylight, in squads of twos
or threes, cowboys and ranchmen had been
riding to and fro, and now there was much
carousing about the bars, and no little
scurrying hither and thither of slatternly
women. Two teams had been hitched and
driven away northward, and the few sol
diers who swarmed out along the sentry
| post-forbidden to go beyond or to hold
communication with the gang across the
! river-surmised that they were needed to
bring in wounded, and that therefore there
must have been a scrimmage. Old Jimmy
Brewer, frontier character to whom nc
few liberties were allowed because of his
long-tried loyalty to garrison after garrison
at Frayne, had been relied upon to come
in as usual with his load of dairy goods
and gossip. had failed, however, to ma
| terialize this morning, of all others, and
Frayne was short of cream and news of the
neighborhood just at the time when both
| would have been comforting.
But Wayne, as has been said, was man