Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1896-12-09

CoDfoundedly absentmlnded'-
ooh, very" said she, "for you men
toned that there was something you
wanted to ask me, and I've been wonder
ing what it could be for 90 years"
"Do you know" said he delightedly,
$50 have I, so have l." And here he
leaned beamingly over her, and his eye
glasses fell off and dangled at the end
of their cord. "It was only tonight" " he
went on, "it came to me that it was
something connected with this ring
my class ring, you know. It's odd
can't think what it was. Why, your
hand is tremblingp' Coyly she appraised
it to meet the coming ring, and then
again he faltered.
81 remember, was holding the ring
Just like this when somebody called to
me that I'd better hurry
"Yes," she said breathlessly. "In-
deed you'd better hurry" But he was
still wandering in the past.
''It seems to me-oh, they'd sounded
officers call, and that meant the devil
to pay somewhere, don't you know. "
But Lucretia was whiting now, despond-
ent again, for still he went on: :You
know, I fancied until the very next day
that I'd left the ring here" And, suit
ing the action to the word, he slipped it
on her finger. "And yet the very next
day, when I was on scout, I found-I
found it here" And with that he again
replaced it Oh his own finger. Lucretia's
face was sight to see. There was an
instant Of silence, and then, failing to
note the expression Of her face, looking
into the dim recesses Of the past, he
again wandered off.
"Of course I might have known l
couldn't have left it on your finger
without even seeing-without even see
ing If it would ft-without''- And
here he lost the thread of his language
entirely, and, CROPPING for his glasses,
finding them, distractedly he tried to fit
their spring on Lucretia's finger. Fen
ton, who had Joined the group Of on
lockers, could stand it no longer. Burst
ing into a roar of laughter, he came to-
ward them, and, thus interrupted, poor
Wayne dropped both hand and eyeglass,
madly trying to fit his own ring into his
own eye and look through that under
the impression that it was a monocle.
"What on earth are You people laugh
ing at?'' he inquired.
Laughing at? At your trying to
make a spectacle hook Of Lucretia's
hand, you inspired old lunatic, was
Fenton g unfeeling answer, and poor Lu-
cretia, unable to stand the raillery at
the moment, turned and fed to the dress
ing room, leaving Wayne to confront
his tormentors as best he might.
But while music and laughter reigned
within the wooden walls of the assem-
bly, room and many young hearts were
able to cast aside for the time being the
oppression that had settled upon the
garrison earlier in the evening, and
while in some of the barracks there
were sounds of merrymaking and Christ
mas cheer, there was raging in many a
breast a storm as wild as that that
whirled the snowdrifts in binding
clouds all around and about the guard
house, where score Of seasoned troop
ers, silent, grim and by no means in
love with their task, were keeping
watch and ward over their little batch
of prisoners, especially of the covering
wretch who had been slowed away in
the upper room, an utterly friendless
man.
Over across the wind swept parade,
among the rows of wooden barracks,
was one building where no laughter
rang and about which, wary and vigi-
liant, three or four noncommissioned
officers hovered incessantly. Here were
uuartered Crow Knife's few remaining
comrades of the Indian troop. Here were
gathered already dozen of his kindred
from Big Roads transplanted village,
forbidden by the fury of the storm to re-
turn to their tepees up the valley, ban
ished by the surgeon from the confines
of the hospital, where they would fain
have set up their mournful death song
to the distraction of the patients and re-
fused by the colonel the creature COM
forts they had promptly and thriftily
demanded, except on condition that they
consume them in quiet and decorum at
the Indian barracks and deny them
selves the luxury of their woe. Tomtom
and howl were stilled, therefore, while
the funeral baked meats went from hand
to mouth and disappeared with marvel
Gus rapidity, and indeed but for its ex-
citing effect upon the warriors the colo
mel might as we'll have accorded them
the right to lament after their own
fashion, since the bowling Of the tenn
pests would have drowned all human
wall from within the wooden walls.
But while they had promised to hold nc
aboriginal ceremony over Crow Knife 6
death and meant to keep their word
they had refused to pledge themselves
to attempt no vengeance on his slayer.
Well they knew that throughout the
garrison nine out Of ten of the troopers
would have cared not sou had some
one taken Graice from the guardhouse
and strung him up to the old flagstaff
without benefit of clergy, but this would
not have satisfied Indian ideas, hang
ing according to their creed being TAI
too good for him.
Two of the best and most trustworthy
Indians were placed by Leale, with the
surgeons consent, as watch rs by the
bier of the soldier scout, but the others,
to O man, were herded within the bar
racks and forbidden to attempt to sci
foot outside. Close at hand i'll the adj
.:..;..<- s.4a... +l,a MON Of t1un trnnns