Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1901-11-13

money bought him friends" who tool
him by water to Sacramento, founc
him secret lodgings, procured suit
able clothing and later spirited him
/ off to anNFrancisco .1tS:s s> @.% ,..a
But these money bought friends
showed the cloyen hoof, threatened
to give him over to the military au.
thorities to be tried for his life un:
less he would pay heavy sum. They
had him virtually a prisoner. He
could only stir abroad at night, and
then in company with his jailers.
There was a man, he wrote, who had
a grudge against him, a man dis
charged from the ranch, who followed
him to Denver and enlisted in the
same party, a man who he was most
anxious to get rid of, and the first
thing he knew that fellow, whom he
supposed had gone on to Manila,
turned up in disguise and joined forces
with his tormentors. That drove him
to desperation, nerved him to one
sublime effort, and one night he broke
away and ran. He was feet of foot,
they were heavy with drink, and he
lodged them among the wharves and
piers, took refuge on a coast steamer,
and found himself two days later at
Portland.
Here he bethought him of an old
friend and succeeded in finding a man
he we'll knew he could trust, despite
his mothers old dislike for him, man
who knew his whole past, of his de-
sertion, of his danger-a man who
was himself about enlisting for serv-
ice in the Philippines, and who per-
suaded him that his surest way to
win exemption from punishment was
to hasten after the detachment, beat
it, if possible, to Manila, and join it
there at his own expense.
He still had some hundreds left.
They went to San Francisco, where
Walter took steamer dt once for
Honolulu to await there the coming
Of the recruit detachment. The in
fantry finally came, his friend with
them, but no sign of more cavalry.
70 Walters dismay he had seen
among the passengers landed from
the Doric the disguised rough whom,
as Sackett, he had so unfavorably
known before, who US Murray had fol.
lowed him into the army. It would
never do to fall into his clutches
again; the man would betray him in
>stantly. Walter kept in hiding until
he heard that Sackett was accused of
stabbing a staff officer of Gen. Vinton
and had fed the island.
Later, when the next troop ship
came, bringing his friend with it, he
again took counsel. As the lad had
fully admitted, his friend was the
same old chum of Freiburg days-the
friend to whom his parents had so
much objected. The fortunes of war
had thrown them together, Willard as
impecuniOus as ever, and the Damon
and Pythias, the Orestes and Pylades,
the two Ajaxes of the old days were in
close and intimate touch once more,
Damon. as of old, the banker for the
twain. The troop ships were to pro-
coed as soon as coaled. There were
reasons now why Walter wished to
stay in Honolulu, but Willard urged
his moving at once on to Hong-Kong
and there awaiting the result of his
negotiations at Manila. At Hong
Kong it was his hope to receive the
word "Come over. All is well,' and,
finally, as his funds would soon run
out, he closed his letter with the re-
quest that his mother cable him $500
through the Hong-Kong and Shang-
hal bank.
The money she cabled at once, then
in dread she had wired Col. Martini
dale, who was gadding about with old
army chums when most she needed
him at home, and that gentleman,
with sigh, again went sisterward,
saying he knew the boy was sure to
turn up to torment him.; and Won
dering what on earth young Hope
full had done now. He looked grave
enough when he read the letter,
asked for time to communicate con-
fidentially with a chum at Washing
ton, and was awaiting reply when all
on a sudden the papers came out
with the startling dispatch telling of
the murder of Private Walter Foster
while on his post as sentry at Manila,
and then came weeks of woe.
ITO Be Continued