The National tribune., 1901-10-17

and making such changes in their costume
as suited their ideas of comfort or elegance
for day spent in lounging about quarters
or in the streets and cafes of Manila.
II was partly because he was busy and
partly because every man enjoys the dis
tinction of being called to at least twice
in crowd, that Lance Corporal Bowen
made no reply to the loud call Of Hay,
Fatty" that came several times from
some distance down the room. Having
asserted his independence and drawn the
attention of the entire company he finally
condescended to reply by asking.
What's eatin' yuh, skinny
'Nuthin' bitin' me. What you Scratchln
fur? Say. you know whole lot that amt
so and Il few thirES that is; what's Cutoff
so down on Bulgcr fur?
Ignoring the tribute to the quantity and
quality of.hs knowledge, and still busyins
himself in dressing for a visit to his
adopted Filipino family in the TondO dis
triCt. Fatty answer ed laconically:
Girl at home
I'D hate to have the skunk down on
me. What's the girl racket anyhow
Fatty, now that he had finished his
toilet and had been asked a direct question
without any brickbats bei;:S thrown al
the character of his information, pro
ceeded to air his knowledge.
You felleTs don't seem to remember
making a gesture of contempt with his
hand Don't you know about the row
Bulger and Lieut.. Foster had ov"r
Florence Hamilton just about the time he
quit the company 4 year ago: He wouldn't
re-enlst because Foster was an officer.
Foster told the girl some mean lie about
him and got her down on him. Buiger
thumped him one night, but that was kept
quiet. Well, it was squared with the girl
some way, and they are supposed to be
engaged When the war broke out Bulger
came back to the company. and now the
Lieutenant is trying to get even on him
Kinder got the bulge on Bulger, amt
he asked Skinny, with n loud laugh at
his own wit, in which he was slightly en-
couraged by some of the others.
Yes. but he'd better look out. The
Corporals got bad eye. If he don't get
a bullet in the back out here it will be
a broken head when he gets home
The incident provoking these remarks
had not been an important or unusual one
as things go i'll the service. The Lieuten-
ant had simply walked along the front of
the line of statues with a scOwl' on his
face, seeking some little defect in dress
and equipments. He had found the
khaki uniforms clean, the shoes polished,
equipments all properly adjusted and clean
and the guns in perfect condition. When
he had finished he posted himself in front
of the center of the company and growled,
''ThiS is little better than we've been
having. Corporal Bulger's passes are cut
off for three days for not having clean
shoes. Sergeant, dismiss the company"
Now, this was rather rough on Bulger,
considering that his shoes had been pol
ished for inspection, and the little patch of
mud on the side of one of them had been
the result of going on an errand for the
Lieutenant himself just before assembly,
fro ho haR cd in
to fall in and answer to his name; and it
was especially hard because the Lieuten-
ant knew this and purposely took ad
vantage of it. Fatty had just expressed
his opinion when there was a shout of
Attention" and every man stood up and
removed his hat as the Lieutenant entered
and passed down the line of hunks to the
First Sergeants room.
A minute later Corporal Bulger also Ell
tered and busted himself putting away his
equipments. Absorbed in this occupation
and unaware that the company COM
mander was in quarters, he failed to OBJ
serve that individual as he issued from
the Sergeant's room on his way out, and
did not stand at attention when the others
Strengthened up their backs. As Lieut.. |
Foster came opposite the unsuspecting Of
fender he paused and asked angrily.
Corporal, why don't you stand az at
tention:"
Bulger Strengthened up instantly, |
saluted and said, Il didn't see you, sir"
THE others saw me easily enough. Ser |
geant. cut off Buyers passes for another |
week" and the irate officer stalked out of |
the ROOM
Lieut.. Foster was enjoying himself. The |
Captain had been on the sick report for
two weeks, and the Lieutenant was in |
temporary command. In that short time |
he had earned the hatred of every man |
in the company, as well as the nick name |
of Cutoff" from his habit of cutting off |
the pass privileges of the men for every |
real or fancied deviation from the straight
and narrow way Of duty.
He was especially enjoying his op-
portunity for making Corporal Buyers
life burdensome. He invented excuses for |
cutting off his passes, and would have put
him on the kitchen police if the regula- |
tons had permitted it. He even chafed |
because he could not reduce his victim to |
the ranks, but he dared not interfere with |
the company organization. He was con- |
stantly on the alert to find some excuse for |
preferring court-martial charges against |
the man he had determined to ruin if pos |
sible, but Bulger was too good a soldier to |
make that an easy matter.
As for the Corporal, he despised the |
Lieutenant too much even to feel hurt by |
his persecution, so when the scowling Wis |
age of the officer had vanished and the |
men had all limbered up their backs again, |
he remarked cheerfully,
Got it in the neck again, didn't /? Any
you fellows got any dirty clOthesi I'm
staying in quarters so much now | think
I'll take in washing to keep myself busy"
Funny, amt it," said Fatty; but if |
the Cap'n should die you'd be in a bad |
box"
Guess you're right: but it's al in a life |
time" and the prosecuted Corporal filed |
his briar with Seal and stretched himself |
out on his bunk TO get what comfort he |
could ont Of his day in quarters.
That night there was an alarm, and the |
regiment was turned out to suppress an |
outbreak, for which the authorities had |
been prepared for weeks. The Insurgents |
had set fire TO the city in several places. |
Thousands Of nipa huts We're burning and |
the popping of the bamboo, as the air con- |
fined between the joints heated to the ex-
plosive point, was like the sounds of
great battle.
With no equipment save n few short
sections of hose and some tin pals found
IN deserted huts. they struggled all night, |
while a motley crowd OF Chinese and |
Eilipinos, seeking to save all the portable |
property they could from the flames, |
impeded their efforts.
Added TO this were the bullets of skulk- !
Ing Filipinos, who amused themselves by |
shooting the struggling iremen from the |
windows and roofs Of houses until driven |
away by the street patrol.
The fire having been checked just at
daylight, Bulger, n grimy-looking object of !
SCOT and perspiration, crowded his way
through the great throng of refugees, to
get away for a time from the heat, and
TO observe the strange s. rht of that notIay