Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1901-10-23
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stsopyriehtse. .sos. BY the J. B. Lippincott Col
CHAPTER XV.-CoNr1NuED.

Despite his temporary escape, cir
cumstances and the civil authorities
now become decidedly military had
tnrown him into still further asso-
caatlon with the woman whom he
would have SO gladly shunned-the
lmportunate Miss Perkins. He had
taken d turn around the block-and
refuge in the English club-until he
thought her disposed of at home and
his carriage returned. He had come
across the little equipage, trundling
slowly up and down the street in
search of him, had dined without ap-
petite and smoked without relish,
striving to forget that odious wom-
ans hints and aspersions, aimed ev-
identity at the Rays, and had gone
10 MS own room to write when a
corporal appeared with a request
from the captain in charge of the
police guard of Ermita to step down
to the office.
1t was much after nine then and
the excitement caused by the alarm
was about over, the troops going
back to barracks and presumably to
bed. The captain apologized for call
ing on him that late in the evening,
but told him a man recognized as
Murray, deserter from the cavalry,
was secreted somewhere in the neigh
borhocd, and it was reported that he
(Stuyvesant) could give valuable in
formation concerning him. Stuyve-
SAINT could and did, and in the midst
OF it in came Miss Perkins, flushed,
eager and demanding to know if that
villain was yet caught-'*and if not,
why nOt?"
Then she caught sight of stuyve-
SAINT and precipitated herself upon
him. That man Murray had hate
fully deceived her and imposed upon
her goodness, she declared. She had
done everything to help him at the
Preside, and he had promised her a
paper signed by all the boys asking
that the P. D. AS be recognized as
the organization the soldiers favored,
and showed her a petition he had
drawn up and was getting signatures
to by the hundreds. That paper
would have insured their being rec
ognized by the government instead
of those purse-proud Red Cross peo-
pie, and then he had wickedly de-
serted, after-after-and Stuyvesant
could scarcely keep a straight face
getting $50 from her and ring that
he was going to wear always until he
came back from Manila-an officer.
Oh, he was smart one, a smooth
one! All that inside of three DAYS
after he got to the Preside, and then
was arrested, and then, next thing
she knew, he had fied-petition,
money, ring and all.
Another soldier told her the sig
natures were bogus. And that very
night she had recognized him, spite
of his beard, and at sight of her he
had cut and run ("Well he might"
thought stuyvesanD. And then Miss
Perkins yielded to the strain of over
taxed nerves and had to be conducted
home.
She ived. but a block or two away,
and it was Stuyvesant who had to
play escort. The air, unluckily, re-
vived her, and at the gateway she
turned and had this to add to her
previous statements:
"You think the Ray people your
friends, lieutenant, and I'm not the
kind of woman to see worthy young
man trifled with. You've been 60
ing there every day and everybody
knows it, and knows that you were
sent away to Iloilo in hopes of break
ing you of it. That girls promised
in marriage to that young man who's
got himself into such a scrape all on
her account. He's here-followed
her here to marry her, and if he's
found he's liable to- be shot. Oh, you
can believe or not, just as you please,
but never say I didn't try to give you
fair warning. Know? Why, I know
much more about what's going on
here than your generals do. I have
friends everywhere among the boys;
they haven't. Oh, very well, if you
won't listen" (For Stuyvesant had
turned away in wrath and exaspera-
tion) "But you'd be wiser if you
heard me out. I've seen Mr.. Foster
and had the whole story from his
lips. He's been there every day, too,
till he was taken sick
But Stuyvesant was out of the gate
and at last out of hearing, and with
a vicious bang to the door the lady
of the P. D. AS, SO recently victim
lied by the astute Sackett, retired to
the sanctity of her own apartment,
marveling at the infatuation of men.
And yet, though stuyvesant had
and had left her in disgust, her words
had not failed of certain weight.
Again he recalled with jealous pain
the obvious Indifference with which
J his approaches had been received.
True, no well-bred girl would be more
than conventionally civil to a stran-
ger, even under the exceptional cir
cumstances of their meeting on the
train. True, she was cordial, bright,
winsome. and all that, when at last
he was formally presented, but so
she was to everybody. True, they
had had many-at least he had had
many delightful long interviews on
/ the shaded deck of the Sacramento;
but, though he would have eagerly
welcomed a chance to indulge in SEN
timent, never once did Marion en-
courage such move. On the con-
trary, he recalled with something
akin to bitterness that when his
voice or words betrayed a tendency
towards such a lapse she became in
stantly and palpably most conven-
tional. &ss-%t
Now, in the light of all he had
hard from ariOnS SOnrcpS what