The Forrest City times. [volume] (Forrest City, Ark.) 1871-1919, 1899-03-10

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dun sade ! could. We alls 'guine to
Porto Eic', and de horses"
Shadows head was very close to
Cherub's jaws while he was murmuring
these words. Then he began to Groom
quaint melody which the old NANNY
days had left behind in his kinky head.
Cherub yawned in lazy contentment.
Wild Billpurred hoarsely, and watched
wondering.
with laughter and great happiness.
Then the great troopship cast her log
and veered seaward. Good cavalry
men-the ones who win chevrons in
their first enlistment-have no senti-
ment A recruit possessed of senti-
ment will lose it in the first three
months, or else apply for his discharge.
There was much of this element in
Shadows nature. The horsemen with
their spurs, six-shooters and sabers
made deep impression. A queer,
dreamy look was in his eyes as he
gazed out to sea and hummed softly.
while tiny gale from the tropics tipped
merrily by. The little dusky boy was
glad that he met Old Chick, the far
rier, glad that he was with such Strong
big men'--vaguely glad that he lived
Cherub, the bloodhound. growled at the
wind and glared at the sea and kept
close to Shadows side. Wild Bill cud-
| died closely.
You have all read of transport hor-
rors. Perhaps you have heard, too, of
| the sufferings of the splendid troop
horses and about the troopers them
| selves on voyage.
Where the air is scented with sage
brush and the eyes smart with alkali;
from the billiards. of Dakota and the
sun-baked plains of Texas-the cavalry
mencome. They are landsmen. They
march through dust-clouds and race
through transforms, but they droop
when on board rolling ship. Their
bowed legs fit equally well to the back
of mustang or Wales. but they will
not adjust themselves to swaying hur-
| ricane deck.
Twenty feet below the surface of the
sea are the air-tight and cold storage
compartments. Other compartments
where hundreds of hammocks are
swung in tiers are above this. When
the matches are closed this second deck
is also air-tight. Here 600 cavalrymen
sleep. A sheet-iron flooring above them
/ forms the bottom of the stables, and the
steel-shod hoofs of the horses make a
| din for the ears of those below like that
of many boiler factories. Another tier
| of nd n lax.
| 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. II was sad, though. to
watch the men trying to put nerve and
strength in the horses they loved-the
dropping. dying troop horses. 1t 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 filmy and
opaque-very unnatural and pitiful,
and their lower lips hung low and quiv-
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 hoisting 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 a 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 baleful glitter
Then Shadow would go to him, and for
a time Cherub would rest.
The dusky 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 a martyr. The others he feared
and tried bravely to serve.
shadows 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 Cherrb's crazy sick
ought to be back-wiy' the niggers."
Many a sob with the preceding made
it almost incoherent. 1t was no morbid
melancholy, but helpless, hopeless
depression of grief. No man would
have smiled had he been present-poor
little heart-brolen Shadow:
Even as l was thinking OF men. black
and white, and souls unsullied. my ears
were filled with the roar of brute II
came from the deck below. There was
something hideous and fear-inspiring
about it. / never heard such sound
ICherub never made such a sound be-
fore. Yet / knew it came from his
throat.
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