The Press., 1898-12-29

cursed plain until every particle of dust raised by tho horses had settled, until all the world appeared just as before, and then each went into her own house That night they gathered at the majors house and sat gazing out over the dark ened plain and spoke of the absent ones. The long weary waiting had begun.
 The loneliness was more intense than ever at the fort. Five troopers and lieutenant had been left to guard the property and the women, and they were the only signs of life down around the quarters and the stables. The lieutenant was morose and gloomy that he should have been selected as the one to remain behind and was not accounted much company to the women the first few days, but gradually he became recon oiled to his fate and sat with them ev- cry evening and talked of the probable length of absence of the men and dis cussed the improbability of action.
 They sent once 8 week for the mail. The first letters and papers brought word that the four troops had joined their regiment, and the letters wert filled with gossip about the~officers ant their families. for a regiment is naught but one large family. Then came days of watching and waiting, and the next was the movement of troops to Santiago
 Then the women knew that the war had begun in earnest. The full realiza- tion of it came home to them. The older women remembered when it was noth- ing for their husbands to be ordered out to suppress the Indians, while one o1 two remembered the civil war, but there was nothing of that kind for the wife of the second lieutenant to remem- Der. She carried herself bravely, how ever, and proudly said that she was the wife of a soldier and all soldiers wives should be brave, 8 remark that greatly pleased the others.
 The women learned more about hel now that her husband was not present to monopolize ali her time. They learned that she was quite alone in the world. except for him; that she was an orphan and that the aunt who had reared her had died. This increased their sympathy for her, if that were possible, for she had their sympathy already. They could see that her thoughts were all of her hus- band, but if they endeavored to speak words of comfort to her she replied, "I am a soldiers wife"
 The news travelled slowly to them. That perha~s was the hardest Their husbands might have been in battle and have been wounded or killed the four troops might be wiped out and it would be fully a week before they would know it. When the papers did arrive, there was hurried glance at the headlines and then for the regimental head.
 The battle of Santiago had been fought and won. The news had been telegraphed undersea and overland and the papers had come out with the particulars under display headlines IL was just a eek after that the papers reached the fort. The trooper brought them in the evening and delivered them to the women, sitting under the cotton wood trees that skirted the pIratle ground. The wife of the second lieuten- ant had gone for walk and Was not with them. \ cry burst from the white lips of the women. The headlines told them that their men had been in the thick of the fight. They glanced down
 
 the deed ds If bravery of their men. They read the list of the dead and wounded.
 The wife of the second lieutenant came up to them. She saw the papers lying in the laps of the women; she glanced at their faces. She read the truth.
 "There has been battleg' she said interrogatively.
 "Yes," said one of the women.
 "Aud RobertY' she asked. 5. "He was in the thick of the fight, | leading his men on and cheering them, '' answered one of her companions "The papers speak of his courage and bravery how he struggled on in the face of the deadly fire, encouraging his men. Some of the men fell, but with a cheer on their lips for him, and then came an | awful cross fire.
 She looked out over the plain, the moonlight changing the grease wood | and sagebrush into shadows and trans. | forming the beds of alkali into shining waves of silver.
 ''I knew he was brave," she said, "and he was wounded?"
 "Yes; very severely, and'- the woman's voice broke
 There was the sound of sobbing, and one of the women arose and gently | placed her arm about the waist of the | younger woman.
 | My dear"- began one of them.
 She drew away and unwound the arm l about her. Her face was terribly drawn.
 "Am I not 8 soldiers widow?' she asked.
 Then she turned and walked slowly into her bouse.-R. A. Eaton in St. Louis Republic.