Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-12-30
TEN YEARS. TRIAL
The Story of a Soldiers Struggle
BY Brigadier General Charles King
Copyright, 1901. by Charles King
CHAPTER XVIII-Continued

tnere tne ECtil!a Hau 10 stop Tour days
for coal, ana while there the o. and o.
liner came after them with letters.
"All we'll" wrote Mrs. Nathan's kins-
folk. I'VE have the governors posi-
tive promise that you shall be made
lieutenant colonel at least, but we've
had to buy off Bent, to whom it was
promised, and to touch dozen other
fellows. We cannot buy off the colo
mel. Arrange to wait ten days at Hon.
olulu, and the commission and order
will reach you" Nathan knew that the
corps commander would be along with
in that time and that he would never
approve his detachment to the COM
ma1d of volunteers. Moreover, every
officer and man might be needed for
the fight at Manila. To appeal to the
battalion commander or to Melville,
the general at the head Of the expedi-
top, would Ee equally useless. The
game was to appear to be full bent
on going with the command, but to
balk 1t somehow at Honolulu. Per
mission could net well be refused him
TO go ashore, since so many officers and
te.en were accorded that privilege. He
secured charming quarters at the Roy
81 Hawaiian AID gave a toothsome din
ner TO jovial party CT his cronies. but
os,e general. who Was hidden, pleaded q
previous engagement. The chief sur
geon. anct':er officer included in the
list, marveled for a moment at the I'M
expected courtesy. for he had very
giutsy scented Nathau's tentatives at
Frisco when consulted rs to the posi-
b,lity of his getting q few weeks sick
leave o. ut least permission to delay,
but the general showed his grim Scotch
medicine man para graph from let
ter just received from the commander
OF the forces. By this time himself on
tie way from the Golden Gate: at is
understood that Captain Nathan is
moving heaven ald earth to get COM
mission IN the volunteers who are to
remain IN camp here. lie may endeav-
or to be left kehi:.d CT account of sup
posititioss Illness ct Honolulu, in which
c,se let yorr chief surgeon examine
him. Sawney viii stand no nonsense.
Captain Nathan should not be permit
ted to shirk tbs expedition"
'Ie won't be- said the brigade COM
mander placldly as he refolded the let
ter And when it was found that Ma
than was ordering an undue quantity
Of his luggage ashore the battalion COM
E.ander as piacidly interposed. A tail,
spare, almost saturnine veteran was
the major, a soldier who had shoulder
ed 1nISllct with the very first and
best Of the state regiments that in 1861
were rushed to the defense of Washing,
ton, q ran With the genius of a general
bottled down for q generation under
the strap OF q lieutenant. soldier in
whose hands Nathan had about as
mich chance to sliirls as be Lad to fly.
The captains shore leave expired at
dawn and the Eotilla YVES to sail at
noon the following Gay. The captains
dinner went off in style, with much ma
tive music and 20 little champagne, end
then in the wee sma' hours, after the
guests had been whisked away in Hon
olulu flies" the night clerk wes sum-
moned to the captains room and bid
den to fetch u doctor in haste, and
local practitioner came and found the
officer in well simulated agony and pre-
scribed according to his lights and the
captains liver. He was amazed to re-
ceive visit at breakfast time from q
Scotch surgeon in chief and a stcc!zy
little adjutant. who demanded sight Of
and speech with his patient to the end
that Nathan was hidden to arise, quit
his bed and go to the deck and thence
to the ship. There was nothing the
matter with him, said Major Sawney.
A dose Of salts would set him to rights,
and NathGn's pains and preparations
went for naught He aud his luggage
We're on the ship and off for Manila be-
fore the setting Of the sun, but there,
there did triumph await him in the
shape of dispatches from tie States to
the effect that he WIS commissioned
lieutenant colonel Second Columbias,
and on acceptance. which he cabled at
once, directed to report for duty with
his regiment ut San Francisco. The
battalion went into the muddy trenches;
and the assault OF Manila minus one
ablebodied captain, who minded net;
the dollars it cost hin to fit ct once
to Hongkcng and thence by an o. and
Q. liner back to the States.
Not until among the last regiments
Ito reach the islands did the Second Co.
slumbias appear along in December and
were pushed forward to the eastward
suburb in support of the First brigade,
for fnsufgent cannon frowned from
new made redoubts and bore full upon
the unprotected lines along the Con-
Icordia, and 10000 swarthy, scowling
isoldiery surrounded and hemmed in
the slender force of invaders. All too
late the government found its little ar
my OF occupation far outnumbered and
jsternly menaced at Manila and so rush
led the regiments Of regulars to the sea-
board au secours. But long before the
foremost could reach the shores of Luz
szon the blow had fallen. Aguinaldo
HAD dashed his devoted folldRers upon
Il ,he sturdy ranks in blue, and, regular
ana volunteer, the two little divisions
about THE beleaguered city were Crap
ipling wish the overwhelming force Of
Tagal& md
/ And.a b &c dark hour lust before the