Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1896-07-01
BLACK MARKS.

] THE most miserable time | ever had
in my life" said DR.. Macpherson one
day rs we sat chatting in his cosy
draw ng-room, was spent in a gun
boat off the coast of Guinea. l began
my professional life as a surgeon in
the navy, you know
/ did not know, but as the Doctor
seemed intent on telling the story |
did not interrupt him by saying SO.
I'VE had been cruising about in the
Mediterranean" he went on, "when we
were unexpectedly ordered to the Bay
of Lagos to overawe some miserable
| little tribe near the coast which had
not been behaving itself as n properly
regulated little tribe under the protec-
tion of the British empire ought to do.
Kalioga'S tribe, it was called, and Ka-
koga came VI for good share of honest
abuse from the officers and men of the
| Dragon Fly, when our orders came.
| The worst of it was, as far as the Off
GERS and men were concerned, that we
were not at unity among ourselves.
The engineer, called Lashton, had been
disappointed in love, and was naturally
morose in consequence. What made
him more so was the fact that his sue
cessful rival was the sub-lieutenant, an
awfully nice fellow, and the only man
on board that | cared for. Lieut.. Gilby
had met Miss Callan at Malta, and had
! become engaged to her without the
! Ion CT i1n1 tbat tho pnUippa1. ha1 inta.1-
tions that way, not that it would have
made any difference to him if he had |
suppose. Lashton's unconcealed en-
| nifty against him made life on board
| pretty unpleasant and divided us into
two cliques. The Lieutenant's clique,
, consisting of himself and me, certain
ly had the liyeliest time of it, for the
successful suitor of Miss Callan was the
merriest fellow on earth, and while we
were in the Mediterranean we suffered
very little from the engineers hostility.
But directly we steamed off for Lagos
most remarkable change came over
my friend, and he turned as taciturn as
Lashton himself
at puzzled me to discover the reason,
for though all were sorry to leave the
Mediterranean, still it was not like
Gilby to sulk over it. He could not see
less of his fiancee than he had been
doing for two or three months, and we
had the prospect before us of a small
fight, for which he had been wishing.
Lashton suggested to me in his sinister
way that it was the prospect of fight
ing which caused the change in my
friend, ana though | answered the sug
gestion in the tone it deserved, still it
seemed the only explanation.
"Gilby said, when | asked him that
It was the weather, and the irritation
with which he answered prevented me
continuing my inquiries and made me
more than ever convinced that it was
funk and very severe form of the
disease, too. In fact, he took very little
pains to conceal it.
al hope to goodness that l shall not
| have to go ON shore he said, when we
had nearly reached our destination. 4
wish the commander would lead the
party and leave me here to look after
the ship
at is not likely l answered, gruf
fly, and | was glad that Lushton was
not about to overhear him. | answered
his next suggestion more grufliy still.
"I suppose you would not like To
certify that | ought to be on the sick
J list, would you, Macpherson he asked
me, hesitatingly.
Il refused fatty.
''If he had told me the true reason OF
! his fear | might have acted differently,
for he looked i'll enough, poor fellow.
His face had grown quite white and
wan since we started.
Il looked whiter still next day when
/ he had to go in command of the landing
party, which | accompanied, of course.
"When we were fairly embarked ON
the enterprise his one idea seemed to be
to get it over with all possible speed,
and the haste with which he advanced
to Kakoga's country would have been
impossible If the men under him had
not themselves been so anxious to get
into action and introduce little change
into The monotony of life on n gunboar.
/ However, the change was less than
! the majority of the blue jackets hoped
for, the miserable little tribe did not
show fight and our business was soon
accomplished. In five days from the
i time we left the Dragon Fly we were
back again, none the worse for our trip,
except that we were all worn out by
Gilby's forced marches.
! 1.-THE Lieutenant seemed more ex.
hausted than any of us, and as sooa
as he had received the congratulations
of the Commander he retired at once