Omaha daily bee., 1899-10-22

| a-begging for accommodations on his ship.
| II the general would condescend to move into
! his room, by thunder he'd sleep up in his
| foul-weather den next the chart room, and
| Mrs. Garrison-God bless her,-could take
| the generals room and be queen OF the ship
! queen of the Queen--queen of quens-by
Jupiter and here's her health with all
honor! A soldier, of course. could be no less
gallant than sailor especially as the cap
tains room was a bit better than the
"Boudoir" and had an ice chest and con-
tents that the veteran campaigner was bid
den to consider his own. The agreement
was clinched that very night before the
party broke up, and little Mrs Frank shed
tears of gratitude upon the generals coat
sleeve and threw kiss after kiss TO the hand
some sailor as she hung over the balusters
of the broad veranda and waved them away
in their swift running cabs, and then danced
off to her room and threw herself on the bed
after a mad pirouettte about the spacious
apartment, and laughed and laughed until
real tears trickled from her eyes, and then
gave orders to be called at o'clock. She
meant to be up and aboard that ship with
all her luggage before sense and repentance
could come with the morning sun-berore
either soldier or sailor could change his
mind.
To the amaze os the women already aboard,
to the grave annoyance of Colonel Arm
strong, to the JOY OF poor Billy Gray and
the mischevous merriment of several young
sters on the commissioned list Mrs. Frank
Garrison, the latest arrival, became sole oc-
| cupant of the finest room on the ship, and it
| was bower of lilies and tropical fruit and
flowers the breezy day she sailed away from
! the bay of Honolulu.
! No time need be wasted in telling the
effect of this assignment to quarters
! Prolific q source of squabble as is the custom
ashore it becomes intensified all at and when,
/ coupled with it, came shaking up and re-
arrangement of seats at table all hope of
harmony vanished on the instant. The two
brave young army girls still retained their
/ seats at the captains table, but two most
estimable young women, Red Cross nurses,
were dropped therefrom and transferred to
that of the second officer on the port side,
much to the comfort of a rather large per-
centage of their ssterhood who had regarded
I their previous elevation with feelings of not
unmiXed qualification. Then officers who
had been seated with the generals staff had
to Vacate in favor of Mrs. Frank and Dr..
| PrOber and Lieutenant Billy Gray, whose
father and the chief were longtime chums,
/ and the Red Cross nurses who had been at
the first officers table fell back to that of
the third. 1t was every bit as good as the
| other, but it didn't sound so, and they
| couldn't see 1t, and there were faces sour
| as the product of the ships baker when
| that evening all hands went down to dinner,
and the silence maintained or the ominously
! subdued tone of the talk, at the other tables
was in marked contrast with the hilarity that
prevailed where sat the gray haired ruddy-
checked old chief and the laughing coterie
|
| lips Of Witchie Garrison. Armstrong, silent
| and somber, at the captains right, looking
J forward from time to time, saw only one
face at the generals table that was not
! lighted up with merriment; it was the face
! of the boy he envied, If envy of this kind
ever entered into his heart. and he Won
! dered as he looked at Billy's curly head
what could have come over that glad young
! life to leave so deep a shadow on his hand
some face.
One night, just one week later, Arm
strongs eyes were opered. More than once
| in the meanwhile he had invited the young
| officers confidence, and Billy, who three
| months earlier had been all gratitude and
! frankness, protested there was nothing on
his mind. He had been very ill., that was
| all. AS to Canker's charges they We're
simply rot. He hadn't the faintest nkling
1
! any more than he had of the whereabouts
OF his Delta Sig friend, young Morton now
| officially proclaimed "A deserter. But Arm
! strong heard more tales of Witches devo-
| tions to him in his Illness, and the slow
| convaescence that ensued noted how the
| boys eyes followed her about the deck and
| how many a time he would seek her side
/ even when other men were reading, walk
| ing or chatting with her Armstrong looked
| with wOnderment that was close allied to
| incredulity and pain Was it possible that
| this blithe lad, who had won such a warm
! interest in the heart of such girl as Amy
| Lawrence, could be forgetful of her faith
! less to her, and fascinated now by this
selfish and shallow butterfly? 1t was in
! credible,
But was 1t? The days had grown hotter,
| the nights closer, and the air between decks
was sitting when the sea rolled high and
closed the ports Officers had taken to sno0z-
| ing up on deck in steamer chairs By an
| unwrtten law the port side Of the pr me-
| made deck was given up to them after eleven
at night but the women folk had the run