The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-11-28

10 want Ine Cap en- 10 KISS ner. Acted
just as IL she was dyin' for it. Well
"a I said before. the cap'en was a young
man-quite 4 young man-which, ac-
counts for a good bit o. the rouble.
An that little thing set her heart on
fire. She wanted more kisses. an the
merchant couldn't supply EN-. She
sends a servant out, an old whitehaired
CHAP, an he hobbies about quiet like.
an learns the regiment is stayin' at the
village. Then in town she troops sew
eral times, smilin' from her carriage an
Watchin for the cap'en. Now, il hap
pened bout this time, as bad luck would
nave 1t. that things up country quieted
| down for a spell, an the colonel decid-
ed to make San Fernando his quarters
for a short space. There was a great
green plot o meadow near the town,
an there the colonel had US out for drill.
with all the natives lookin' on He was
a hard man for drillin'. We used to
hate him for it, cause even after the
sun went down., the groun' scorched like
a flannel cake.
We'll, when the little woman heard
the the cap'en could be seen every onct
in awhile, m%archin' up an down on the
the green in great shape, in she m
in a little jumpin' cart. An after one
drill 1T was a serious thing-worse than
before.
THE cap'en gets on to it in a sorter
'N SA IN q L1e lOI
would get wind o the matter. So as
I've said Onct or twict, he ups an tells
/ me. She kept comm into town oftener
an oftener. One day she stops right at
the door o his hut, but 1 was there. an
she heard he was not at home, for I
never, in me life had great conscien-
! tiOus scruples.
But the cap'en comes to me smilin'
n day, an seyS; Boone seyS he
Boone helm nv first name I'm nr1ar>1
to the front agen takin' up some pris-
Oners the general wants for to exam
inc. an, seys he, : maybe When / get
outer the way a trifie, this little affair
o the 'woman's fancy'u blow over a bit,
an I'll find time to sleep
We'll, boys. [ car tell ye. l was
heartily glad to hear that, for I liked
the cap'en, an didn't want to hate the
little woman. He tells me his orders
called for leavin' that evenin', an I
seys. the sooner The BETTER seys I,
without meanin' no offence. He had
four prisoners to convoy, an they
were a tough lot. cursin' and ragin'
TREMENDOUS, for they thought the time
to be washed had arrived. But the
! colonel said he could on'y spare three
men, an give him his pick o the lot,
for the niggers had started a hue an
cry again an we hard at work to keep
! communication all through.
Dul d. ye Will, perhaps II was dCCl-
dent, an perhaps it was a special dis
pensation o the devils spite; anyway,
the cap'en had hardly put two shirts
into his bag, when there was a terrible
commotion near the upper end o town.
Out / troops to find the matter, an gets
there a tri1e in advance O. the guard.
1t was the Niger mantle manikin
husband. An he was jumpin' an our-
sim till 1 thought the very heavens
would fall an smother his cries. He
ragged about for sometime without the
boys gettin' on to his palaver, for he
talked so fast and so tangled up that
no n but me, which was on to his
game, could come anywhere near to I'M
derstandin'.
Someone had whispered o the wom-
ans visits to town, an had clapped into
the story a bit o color maxim him flu
rious. He had gone stone blind with
rage. I did a tall two minutes think
in an settled on a plan. Seys /: Come
with me an see the colonel.' He quiets
down at that, mutterS sOm'thin' about
vengeance down in his throat, an fol-
lers. Down the sunny street we went,
me an the potbellied niger. Instead
O takin' him to the colonel's, I steers
him into the cap'en's hut an goes out,
after askin' him polite like to wait a
second to whisper in the cap'en'S ear.
Now seys L: 1t don't mak a dern
bit o difference whether you've on'y
seen her onct, or whether you've been
counting her a hundred times, Benito
is onto the fact of her comm to town,
an if he takes that tale to the colonel.
it'll fix your batch o cake seys /. The
cap'en agreed with me, as he mostly
always did, and acted very sad. Now
seys 1: 1t looks to me much like this:
the niger has money an influence, but
his wife hates him, anil be so glad to
see the last of aim, that she'll make no
disturbance. SOose We include him with
the batch O T"isoners, take him away
up country, ar lose him.
I'm not g ~redhanded murderer
snorts the cap'en at me.
mot that seys I, just lose him, an
he'll wander home like Mary's little
lamb, quiet an p~eaceable.'
But seys the cap'en, the men
won't stand for it, he sey.
Take men along who'll be blind as
young mice till We lose him, an that'.1
have no remembrance afterward-just
blank like suggested 1, take the rear
rank seys I.
An he did it. The Rear Rank" re-
garded the affair as a big joke n that
night the forest shadows hid a march
in batch o prisoners with Benito Flores
markin time in the first line.
Things Quieted down, an for two
weeks we didn't even have TO chase the
dogs ava from the mess tent. Always
is that same way just before a calamity
at sea, We know. One day the old SER
want hobbies into town. but he didn't
make many inquiries an went back 20
the villa. No doubt the little chimney
woman was delighted at the sad be-
reavement. Our men were too busy
restin' to go huntin' for a little squat
niger. rich or poor, an, as I say. moth
in happened for two weeks.
Then one day an order came to
watch out for a ravin' lunatic who vas
: eatin' up the earth aroun' Dagupan, an
was headin' our way He had killed
nigh onto half a dozen men an was
lookin' for more. The description said
he was black, an squat, an potbellied,
an used vicious language. That seys
I to myself, the water starting from me
forehead. that is the man, By Gawd!' :
Every day fresh tales would wander
down through the forest about that in
furiated s~coundrel. At one place he hal
set a Whole village on fire, an the peo-
pl said he crashed through the jungle
like a bull elephant. BY the time he
had gone fifteen miles. he had grown in