The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-08-25


 neatest and cleanest man he could find in the detachment to act as orderly to the officer in command at the fort. This was regarded as a snap by every man Tn the command, for il meant a night in bed, better food and an easy time for tWenty-four hours, and, in con- sequence, every man strove to present fine appearance at guard mount in the hope of being chosen orderly.
 Now, there were two men at the fort Will Kelly of Troop K, Second caval- ry, and Sam Devine of Company c, Fourteenth infantry-who were the swells of the command, and who took special pride in keeping themselves in trim, so that whenever 1t came the turn of this company and troop to turn out for guard mount, everybody knew in advance that either one or the other of the two, Kelly or Devine, would be chosen to act as orderly to the comman- der of the garrison. As you can readily imagine, there was a great deal of ri valry between Kelly and Devine and also between Troop K and Company c, and we never went to guard mount to- gether without the members of each command betting on the result.
 "One day there was an unusually heavy stake up, Company betting ev- cry blanket and dollar that its mem bers could rake and scrape that Devine would be orderly, all of which was cov- cred by Troop K, the members of which were equally certain that Kelly would be the successful competitor for the honor When we marched out to the parade-ground you can just bet that Solomon in all his glory was not a cir cumstance to Kelly and Devine. who were as neat and clean as two pins, with their belt buckles and guns glitter ing in the sun like diamonds. It was the custom of the adjutant to inspect the guns first, walking along the front of the line, and after this to inspect the equipment of the men, and, as usual, Nancy was on hand. and following him on his rounds between the files of men.
 Every one was guessing who would be orderly, and some of the boys of our company, Devine included, were feeling just the least little bit shaky for the reason that, on that particular occasion, Kelly was surely out of sight. He sim ply glittered and shone all over like a piece of brand new silverware, and al- though Devine was gotten up to kill, every man on the ground somehow felt in his bones that Kelly would be the man selected for orderly. I am con- vinced that such would have been the case had it not been for an action that turned fortune in our favor.
 Tn following the adjutant about on his rounds Nancy had her attention ar rested and drawn to the bright and glittering buckle on Kelly's carbine sling, and stopping on her round with the adjutant, she proceeded, to Kelly's dislnay and consternation, to delibe- rately lick the buckle over from end to end, leaving it as dull and dingy as it would have been after a weeks neglect. The result was that the adjutant, on his second round, inspecting the equipment of each man, noticed the dingy and un- polished state of Kelly's buckle, and ap- pointed Devine to act as orderly.
 "We had a great time chaffing the Troop c boys after guard mount, and won big pile of money, blankets and tobacco, but the funniest part of the story I have not told, and that was that the men of Troop K got mad, and swore up and down that some one in our com- pany had trained Nancy to go around and lick the buckles on Kelly's equip ment.
 T remember deer, which we called Rob- that I caught and trained myself up at Fort Meeker, just after the fa- nous Thornburg massacre and Captain Dodge's celebrated forced march with the colored regulars. At that time the country around Fort Meeker was fair ly alive with game of all kinds, and one day, when a party of soldiers, myself included, were out hunting, one of them shot a doe that had two little lawns that had been weaned scarcely over 9 week. One of them got away, but with the assistance of a very intelligent shepherd dog named Ring that be- longed to my company, l succeeded in capturing the other one alive, and bringing him into the fort.
 He became quite tame, and grew up at the fort to full maturity. He and Ring became great friends, and used to take turns chasing each other about over the parade-ground, romping in this way for hours at a time. One day a herd of wild deer came within sight of the fort, and then it was that Bob be- gan to act very strangely, snifing the air. uttering that peculiar whistle, which is about the only noise that a deer ever makes, and paving the ground. He would not play with Ring any more, and finally, after many strange antics, he bounded off across the prairie, never to return.
 But the strangest part of the matter was that, although he never came back, but resumed his wild life, he was en- countered by several of our men on hunts which they took long after he left the fort. He was not afraid of them, and would come pretty close when his name was called, but the n1in- ute they would essay to lay hands on him he would bound away in the direc- ton the other deer had taken. Several times Ring happened to be along, and the two at once recognized each other as old friends, rubbing noses and chas- ing each other around in a circle just as they used to do at the fort. Bob was finally shot by some hunter who did not know him, for none of our men would ever have thought of doing such a thing. g."-Washington Post.