The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1899-03-16

! forms the bottom of the sta bles, and the
| steel-shod hoofs of the horses make a
din for the ears of those belowlike that
of many boiler factories. Another tier
of horses, and then one sees the day
| light and feels the ocean breeze.
Ten hours in the black hole would kill
horses and some people of olden times,
but it only gives headaches to Ameri-
can cavalrymen. It was sad, though, to
watch the men trying to put nerve and
strength in the horses they loved-the
dropping, dying troop horses. It was
very sad to see the animals hang their
heads out into the draughtless passage
way, and distend wider their crimson
nostrils. Their eyes were flmy and
opaque-very unnatural and pitiful,
and their lower lips hung low and quiz
cred on the fourth day out.
Then the hosting gear became very
busy, and men grew sick when they
heard the rattle of loosening chains and
so many loud splashes from the sea
below. Five days out, and there was
more room in the stables for the suf-
locating troop horses still on their feet.
Their limbs were swollen now and stiff.
The air in the stables was deathly and
heavy.
"Another horse down." cries the sta
BILE guard, and the hosting gear creaks
again.
A strange, ugly mood possessed Cher
ub, the bloodhound, these days. He
refused food and was often heard
growing ominously, from dark places
He occasionally walked the upper deck.
but was friend to no one except
Shadow. Long after taps, when all save
ship lights were out, and the cavalry
men swung and sweltered in their ham,
mocks, Cherub was heard growing and
skulking about in the darkness. And
his eyes shone with a baleful glitter.
Then Shadow would go to him, and for
a time Cherub would rest.
The dusl1y boy was sad. The senti-
ment had been torn from him and an
ugly wound was left behind. For the
men from the north Shadow would have
been martyr. The others he feared
and tried bravely to serve.
'Shadow's no good on dis Ship" he
said on the morning of the fifth day.
1--WE hated-can't do right-pussy' s
TOMS cross an Cherub's crazy sick
ought to be back-wiv' the niggers.''
Many sob with the preceding made
it almost incoherent. It was no morbid
melancholy, but a helpless, hopeless
expression of grief. No man would
have smiled had he been present-poor
little heart-broken Shadow!
Even as I was thinking of men, black
and white, and souls unsullied, my ears
were filled with the roar of brute. It
came from the deck below. There was
something hideous and fear-inspiring
about it. 1 never heard such a sound.
Cherub never made such a sound be-
fore. Yet knew it came from his
| throat.
| The cavalrymen lounging and laugh
ing upon deck stood erect now and felt
for the six-shooters in their BELTS But
the weapons were all stacked below in
the hammock compartment by special
order. Again was heard the cry of a
tortured beast. Shadow moved toward
the sound very slowly. Soldiers and
sailors were running and shouting on
the deck below.
| 'Cherub is mad! Shoot the brute!
Look out up there!" All these words
we heard. Then Cherub dashed up the
companionway. His chain dragged be-
hind. His fangs were horrible to see.
A sailor in his way was thrown over,
and to-day there is an ugly scar on his
throat. Others were bitten. Shadow
was speaking in low voice. We could
not understand. The bloodhound and
the boy were close together. We, who
were watching, shuddered. Slowly,
cautiously, dark hand moved out and
grasped the chain. The red, flashing
orbs of the brute lowered from Shad-
ow's gaze. We hoped no more when the
bloodhound growled.
Without haste, seemingly, the dark
hand holding the chain moved toward
the halyards. The fingers worked
swiftly for moment, but how long it
seemed to us!
Then like flash Shadow was beyond
| eAAO ACAS Ill VI cuC Cnd11, duu Id
like one whose nerve is gone. Cherub
beat his body upon the deck and upon
the halyards.
We were in the tropics where there is
no cure for canine MADNESS; Cherub
did not roar or suffer long, and for him
Shadow, who loved all things small and
great, wept long.
But out of that grief there came to
the heart of the little dusky boy JOY
sweet and lasting, for somehow the
men from the south who stood upon the
hurricane deck that day forgot pride
and prejudice. ,,
And now the troop is securing the
mist-hung hills of Porto Rico-peering
into caves and searching lonely high
land shacks-for Spaniards who were
once soldiers and now guerrillas. =
Shadow is with them, and there is
not a horseman in the troop who
would not charge through "leaden hail
to save him from harm And only when
the men talk of Cherub, the vicious and
massive. jawed, does the darby boy look
away and seem unhappy Free
| Press. --'--~,--- 49,
No Treating in This Academy.
81 The Syracuse Academy Of Medicine