The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1898-12-01

The cantonment turned out to be
something of an Eden as an army post.
Four companies had once been sta
toned there, so there was lots of room,
but after the last lot of Apache ma
RAIDERS had been translated to the
shores of the Atlantic, matters aborig-
inal quieted down in Arizona and west
ern New Mexico. The cavalry were
needed elsewhere, and could not easily
be supplied at so isolated post; so the
two troops were marched back to the
valley of the Bravo, and then, soon after
Tremaine moved thither, ii was decided
to recall one of the two infantry COM
lnands maintained there; that sent
Capt. Thompson back to headquarters,
and left only the Tremaines, the Lees
| and DR.. Wells, for Jimmy Crofton's
| fiancce's father had got him away on
detached service; and this was the
commissioned society left at Catamount
when Randy Merriam, borne in litter,
delirious and wearing the willow for
Fanny McLane. was brought in to be
nursed and coddled back to health
! again, and Tremaine made ready for
him big, airy room under his own
roof.
Not for six weeks was Randy able to
ride again, and states have been lost
and won in less. There is little need of
dwelling On the progressive stages of
the unprecedented siege. Billy Whit
taker got there comparatively early in
| loo h,1 CT
begun to be assured-when Florence,
shy and soft of voice, was just begin
ming >he daily readings aloud to her pa
tent-readings which, as such, began
soon to shorten, though reader and au-
diencc remained long and longer in
each others presence. By and by the
book was but a superiority. 1t lay I'M
opened in her lap, as she sat, with
downcast eyes and flushing cheeks, be-
side the hammock wherein her hero pa
tient lay, and the anxious mother noted
how, little by little, the girls soft, sill
very tones would become hushed-how
his voice, deep and strong again, yet
tender and subducd, would take up the
thread of some old, old story; and one
| OdJ III dlal III Sllt ltb W llOi huoDuhb .
study, for Florence was weeping in her
room.
do not interfere by look or word,
said that wise man. "IIe will be well
enough to rejoin his fellows in the field
next week, and they'll soon get over it.
If they don't-they can get married
That will put an end to it."
| un,,t tb;plx ,oarc;cta1 hi, lat lol
cts Florence I'm troubled about. its
she who may not soon get over it. Hers
is a deep"
But here the captain arose and
amazed his wife by taking her in his
arms and speaking with a choking sob
in his voice:
Don't talk of it, Dot!" he said. I'm
Brownie as anything but child until
three days ago. I've been praying you
wouldn't see it-that there'd be nothing
more to see, but" and here the gray
stubble about the captains mouth be.
gan to twitch and work convulsively
and he had to stop.
you know he was engaged-to some
| DOu1-tdSl. anu ~ was DIOhtH OIL,
said Mrs. Tremaine, "and 1 hadn'r
thought of danger until just day oil
two ago. Now-if he's going next
week, as he says--and she has learned
to care for him, what can we do?"
HE is going next week." said Ire
maine. "He told me yesterday he ought
to go now, and wished to go now. II
| vvac Walls who Frrboda d.
always liked Merriam and Hayne be,
lieves in him. Our Florence might dc
worse, Dot"
"Dut do you understand" she said
do you realize that, just from proximi
ty perhaps, Florence may have Learned
to care for him. while he is still thinking
Of his lost love?"
you mean that-you think it al
Florence and not Merriam?" he asked
starting back, and holding her from
him, aud looking with amaze and in
creduhty into her eyes-straight int,
her anxious, fearful face. "Why, Dot
it isn't possible! She-he-he mus
have learned to care for her. Itcouldn'-
be othcrwise. Only hadn't thought O.
Floy except as child, and l WASH
prepared"
Like many another father, to whom
a daughter is as the apple Of the eye
Tremaine could see no fault, no falling
In his child. To him she was the fair
est, as she was the best, fondest, mo-.
dutiful girl in the whole army. One o
his favorite plans had been to take he
to West Point the previous summer
and let her, as he said to himself
"paralyze the corps" One of the swee
dreams he had often dreamed was O
the evening when, with Florence on hi.
arm, he should reenter the old mes,
hall, which he had notvisited since il VIII,
bravely decked for the 2Sth Of Augus
hop, the year of his marriage. He has
promised to take her thither for tn,
graduating ball, and had pictured he
az the belle of the occasion. soupb
eagerly by the cadets as their partne
for waltz or "two-step;" and, as in hi
eyes she was the most perfect creatur
that ever lived or moved, his one anx
iety was lest the. boys in gray, Away
susceptible. should forget that Floy wa
only a child and fall in love with he
forthwith. 1t never occurred to him a
possibility that Floy in her turn nigh
fall in love. But there was no deliciou
visit Tor Florence to the Point that wear