Waterbury Democrat., 1901-07-01

dreds of miles from Washington for
 them to importune in person, and let ters and telegrams are far easier to an-
 swer than personal pleas, and 'influ- ! ence," said Melville, 'is inversely as the square of the distance" The brevet of the silver star was wired without
 much objection at the war office, and | the Washoes roared with joy over the
 news that for conspicuous bravery in half dozen actions, including Baliga-
 bangbang, where he was severely,
 wounded, their colonel was brevetted a | general. e 1t was relief at night to get away | from the thronging camp and the im- I portunities of statecraft and to find refuge at Melville's quiet, cozy suit of
 rooms at the homelike old hostelry.
 Lips that smiled and eyes that shone were ever there to welcome him, and with the general he could talk unre- servedly. Neither by education nor
 temperament was he fitted for political | life. Its intrigues and devices were | detestable to him, its associations i galling. As a lawyer he had seen-he | had had to see-much Of the chicanery,
 with which the whole edifice is sur
 rounded. He had no ambition in that l direction. His law practice had begun | to be lucrative before the outbreak of the war and bade fair to become more so as soon as he could resume work.
 All the old debts, with interest, had long since been paid. He had bought | land and was drawing plans for pret- | ty home when the trumpets sounded
 to arms. He had even begun to dream | of a chatelaine for that chateau, Ger
 tain batteries of the old regiment were | stationed in the harbor, and officers
 who were his contemporaries in the | old days at Pawnee, seniors and I juniors both, now came to his disci- | plined, we'll ordered camp and looked
 with appreciative eyes upon those stall
 wart, seasoned battaIions and envied
 him his experience and opportunities:
 Torrance had got his double bars at
 last and gone on to Manila as the vol-
 unteers were coming home, but he had long since broken with Nathan, and
 the soldier in him sought reconciliation | with the man who had won such hon. ors in the campaign. The full realiza-
 ton of the wrong he had done Lang
 don long since dawned upon him, and 1 yet how horribly awkward was his position! Other men in the regiment
 who had quarreled with their kind and. wanted to end the strain of long mis- understanding could go to Melville; sure of sound advice and sympathetic l aid. Melville could harmonize swhere
 others only meddled. But Torrance INo ToIx | to whom he could not go, for in his
 rancor he had so far forgotten himself
 ard what was due a woman as to name one of Melvilie's household in his denunciation of his brother Ieuten- ant.
 Langdon had cordially greeted and
 received certain of the old regiment
 who had held aloof in his days Of trou- ble, but who came to him frankly and told him of their contrition and regret.
 They had wronged only Langdon. Tor rance had spoken disdainfully of a brave girl whose offense in the eyes of
 the small snob element at Pawnee was that she stood by the sorrowing man
 and thought him despitefully used, and
 now would Langdon be apt to forgive 1 an affront to Ethel. .Grahame? Mrs.
 Torrance, after the new captain sailed
 for Manila, wished to. take rooms with
 these pleasant army people at their fa-
 yorite caravansary. She loved society, but everybody knew her husband had
 been knocked fiat by Langdon for i'm pertinent mention of Miss Grahame,
 and, though it happened ten years be- fore, the breach had never been healed. Torrance had never sought pardon.
 How could she go there? The Ma thans were taking the mountain air up
 at Tahoe, waiting for the volunteers to
 disperse, but the majors leave was for only two weeks. The Washoes were still in camp and the day of muster out
 not yet determined. The governor and
 his satellites were now less clamorous
 for speedy settlement of their papers
 and somewhat given to suggestion that,
 after all, 'it wouldn't pay for the regi
 ment to come to. the capital They
 wouldn't have. their arms and their
 equipments, etc, all having to be turn
 cd in at the Presidio, so it would hard | ly be like military parade. All things considered, it would be just as well for | the boys to scatter at Frisco and each
 choose his own homeward way" So
 the military authorities bent their en-
 ergies toward getting rid of those regi- l nients whose statesmen were clamor-
 ous, and thus it happened that the Ma
 thans returned while the Washoes were 1 still in camp, and it might have been better had that leave been extended. | One glorious autumn morning the 1 regiment formed line for final review,
 and in great numbers civilians, soldiers
 and women fair were assembled to wit
 ness the ceremony. The Columbias had l been paid off to the last man and given l their discharge, but several of their of | ficers still fingered about the city. The l Eyergreens had been welcomed home l and feted and feasted to their hearts content. Not a company had gone on
 it's way without stopping for parting l call and cheer at Langdon's camp. The
 commanding general and his staff, es-
 corted by a troop of cavalry from the
 barracks and greeted by the thunder of 1 the garrison guns, took place in front | of the center of the long, statuesque | line. For the last time the Washoes l came out in khaki, and very fit and
 soldierly they looked despite the relax
 ation of the long homeward voyage and the days of waiting about the city. To I