The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1900-06-13
FROM THE
ENEMY'S LINE.

Sergt. Teddy wilkins was lying on
his breast behind heap of earth list
ening to the zip Of Mauser bullets over
his head. The Spanish picket line was
sheltered by a group of trees not FAR
away, and occasionally a guerrilla
sharpshooter sent a message of defiance
from the high branches.
The sergeant belonged to a New
York regiment which had hurried to
the front almost before Congress had
officially declared that the United
States was at war with the proud old
land which has taken the trouble to
discover her.
Three or four OF the guerrillas had
dropped from the trees and the Span
ish stragglers had been driven back
toward Santiago by rattliug fire from
the Springfield rifles of the volunteers.
The weather was entirely too hot to
follow up an advantage gained over a
few rice-fed conscripts, and Company
K was resting bit and wondering if
the commissary department would call
upon them that day.
Teddy" Wilkins was smoking The
artistically colored meerschaum which
he had brought from home. There
had been no tobacco in the rich brown
bowl for days, and the sergeant was
contentedly putting at some of the
dried grass of the country.
"Hellori exclaimed De Jones. "Here
they come TO our pink tea! l wonder
how they found out we were receiving
this afternoon. Get out the Boston
waters, Sarg., and I'll hunt up the
souvenir spoons"
"They" proved to be a slender young
woman, who walked with springy
step, and an elderly woman who was
anything but sylphlike, who seemed to
roll along the brown earth. There was
look of terror in the eyes OF both of
them. They advanced toward the
American soldiers and held their hands
above their heads.
mercy, mercy, senorF' cried the
girl in broken English.
'sTell them to sit down on the sofa
and make themselves at home" sug-
gested De Jones. The young one is
rather good looking, at that"
Sergt. Theodore Wilkins, of Com
pany X, bent his stiffened limbs, ad-
justed bis cartridge belt, and went to
meet the new eomers.
1--WE beg protection" said the young
er woman. "We have come from the
the city, and we beg to be spared by
the chivalry of los Americanos."
Wilkins, who remembered somewhat
of his Ollendorf, attempted to say some
thing in Spanish which he meant to be
reassuring. The girl shook her head
and puzzled expression came into her
eyes.
''Do not speak Spanish more, senor,"
she said. al know the English very
well 1 went to school in Connecti-
cut.n
Whereupon the men who had been
engaged in the gentle occupation OF ex-
changing compliments with Spanish
foemen burst into an uproarious guffaw,
to the great annoyance of Sergt- Theo-
dore wilkins.
"That Spanish of yours is great, !"
suggested the corporal.
A lieutenant came up just then. The
two women said that they had just
come from beleaguered Santiago in
order that they might escape death in
the bomtardment which was sure to
come. The lieutenant told them that
they need fear no danger, ''los Ameri-
canos" did not make war upon women
and children. He ordered Sergt. Wilk-
ins and guard of two men to escort
the visitors out of harms way.
Teddy Wilkins was young. He was
SO youthful that he had had hard work
in getting into the regiment when he
enlisted about year before. He had
been educated in military school,
and the mechanism of drill seemed a
second nature to him.
He remembered as he escorted the
refugees through the chaparral that
there was situation in a grand opera
which was not so very different from
the one in which he found himself.
| He wondered if Carmen were as beau
tiful as the Cuban girl who picked her
way among the fallen branches and
the stones which lay in their pathway.
Then he tried to convince himself that
he knew a girl in Harlem who was far
more so. The more he advanced this
proposition, TO himself, the more he
was convinced that Il was utterly un-
/ tenable.
"Senor," said the girl 'you are kind.
You are-our valiant knight
Teddy Wilkins's youth often caused
him to speak hastily. He glanced at
the young womsn's mother aud, being
convinced by her look of entire stolidi-
ty that the duenna did not understand
English, he replied, in a low and sup
posedly tender voice, "I wish that
you would say my instead of our,
senorita- l should be happy if yer
did"
The young woman laughed and then
checked herself
"Ah, senor," she said, ''I have lefl
those behind who are dear to me, ]