Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1897-03-11
with kind of puzzled twinkle in his

Wilson was put to duty the next
day, and caught commanding officers
orderly the first time he went on
guard. All of uswho occupied hunks in
the old-timers' squad room lad to con-
TESS that Wilson was as fne n soldier
as We had ever seen.
None of us ever asked him what
outfit he had been in before he came to
our layout as a recruit. Wilson was a
very quiet man, we'll educated-we
used to see him reading queer-looking
books in foreign languages, as he lay
on his bunk on rainy afternoons-and
we didn't care to bother him with
questions. 1t was none of our bust
ness, anyhow. A young whelp of a
rookie was watching Wilson daddyack
his cartridge belt one day, and, like
the pup that he was, he said so that
the other fellows in the room could
hear him:
| "Oho, but hasn't Wilson done that
a lot O. times before, I'd just like to
| know"
One of us reached over, caught the
cub by the scruf of the neck and
dropped him over the bannisters of
the donble-decker quarters. Wilson
said nothing, although there was an
odd sort of gleum in his black eyes.
There were no illusions to his past
after that, you can bet.
Fort Candy is n beautiful, gloomy
post. 1t is at the mouth of the Colum-
bia River, under the shadow of the
mountain that forms the extremity of
Cape Disappointment. Oh, but the
Pacific batters wildly, wildly at those
black rocks. In the quarters we could
always hear the roar of the sea. The
sound used to break some of us up
little, kind of, at night, after the
lights went out. l don't know why.
The sea is mournful, anyhow, [ think.
A hundred salmon fishermen from AS
toria and II Waco got upset and
drowned on that wicked Columbia bar
while we were there.
Well, anyhow, Wilson used to spend
nearly all of the time that he wasn't
on duty down by the sea. BE had a
big dragon tattooed on his knottY left
arm, and barkentine in three colors
on his breast. Besides, he knew
great deal about Japan and South
America, as some of us found out
without being inquisitive, and we
knew that he had been to sea. When,
how, or in what capacity, we had no
idea. But he was fond of the sight
of the sea. Only once in while did
he join in the football game with the
gang on the parade ground. When
he did, he always kicked q goal. On
pay days some of us used to go across
the trail from the post to IL Waco,
three miles away-and there were
lot of ugly looking black bears on that
trail, too, l can tell you-and dwell,
we'd load up on Jawbones's barbarous
Siwash whisky. Jawbones was the
half breed Siwash who sold it. Will
son never went along with US. He
didn't drink. We kind o liked him
for that, too, for, with big heads and
sore stomachs, we were oil swearing
off every pay day-after our money
was spent at Jawbones's.
No, Wilson put in his off duty time
tramping through the pine and spruce
forests along the beach, with stick in
his hand, always alone. One day the
tide rushed in suddenly and caught
him at the foot OF the cape. He had
to climb the 600-foot rock, which was
almost perpendicular. l wouldn't
have tried it for Il million, even to save
myself from drowning. He smiled
little when told him SO. He's been
aloft on ships, you know.
Well, this is the finish. 1t has been
a long time in coming, but you had to
understand what manner OF man Will
son was.
One bright day the sentry up Mt the
lighthouse yelled down to the sergeant
of the guard that an American man
of-war Was coming over tho bar. Can
by is saluting station, 50 that men
of-war are always reported by the
guard. Wilson was walking number
one post, in front of the guard house,
and he repeated the lighthouse sen.
try's call to the sergeant inside. When
the old guard was marched off, re-
lieved by the new one, Wilson went
up to the lighthouse with one of us to
have look through the GLASS; at the
man 'ot-war. lie grew little pale MS
he made her out through the coast
guards binocular, but said nothing.
She was one of the old black ships of
the old navy, and had dropped her
mud hook of Astoria, ten miles across
the bay. Her steam launch, dancing
on the rollers way off in the distance,
was heading our way rs Wilson looked
through the glass. AS the launch be-
gan to come near Wilson went down
to the little dock alone. The officer
of the day and three men OF the guard
were on the dock, waiting to receive
the naval officer in the launch, who
carried the compliments OF the com.
manding officer of the ship to the COM
manding officer of our post
The launch pulled up alongside the
dock, and, as tho guard came to q
present, fne.looking young naval
officer stepped ashore. Ho was the
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