Waterbury Democrat., 1901-05-02
Ecopyrishtsd. 1soo. by J. B. Lippincott Col
 CHAPTER XIX.


 bayan, and little bY little began pick ing up oncs mere the threads that were sd nearly severed for all time, turaed, hearing the tidings of the busy, blstling world about her. Others, toe, had known anxiety as sore as that which had so ined the face of Col. Ray and trebled the sil. yer in the soft hair of Marion, his wife. Well-nigh distracted, a, mother sped across the continent to the Pacific, there to await the coming of her sons remains.
 From the night of Walter Fosters disappearance at Carquinez no word of his existence came to give her hope, no trace of his movements until, late in August, there was brought to her the cabled message:
 '.Alive, we'll, but in trouble. Have written"
 And this was headed Yokohama. Not until October did that longed- for, prayed-for letter come-a selfish letter, since it gave no really adequate excuse for the long weeks of silence, and only told that the boy had been in hiding, almost in terror of his life. While still dazed by the shock of the fire and sDnarting from his burns wrote Walter, he had wandered from the cars at Port Costa. He had en- countered '.most uncongenial per sons,'' he said, among the recruits, and never realizing that it was deser- ton, wartime desertion at that, had determined to get back to Sacramento and join some other command. Yes. There was another reason, but one another couldn't appreciate" Un- known to all but one of his comrades on the train, he had abundant money, realized from the sale of horses and cattle at the ranch. It was in buck skin belt about his waist, and this money bought him friends" who took him by water to Sacramento, found him secret lodgings, procured suit able clothing and later spirited him of to San Francisco.
 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 virtual y 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 She same party, 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, neryed him to one sublime effort, and one night he broke away and ran. He was fleet of foot, they were heavy with drink, and he lodged them among the wharves and piers, took refuge on coast steamer, and found himself two days later at Portland.
 Here he bethought him of an old friend and succeeded in finding a man be we'll knew he could trust, despite his mothers old dislike for him, a 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 at once for Honolulu to await there the coming Haf i'm. fantry finally came, his friend with them, but no sign of more cavalry. To Walters dismay he had seen among the passengers landed from the Doric the disguised rough whom, as Sackett, he had so unfayorably 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 fled 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 cd11G OA0 ShO1h O1 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- ceed 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 we'll" and, l finally, as his funds would soon run out, he closed his letter with the re- l quest that his mother cable him $500 through the Hong-Kong and Shang- l hai bank.
 The money she cabled at once, then in dread she had wired Col. Martin 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