Morris tribune., 1904-01-30
A FALSE MASCOT
BY GwendoIen Overton

King was giving a dinner in hon
or of his promotion. He was first
lieutenant now and had a fair chance
of paying off some of his debts. Not
that he was young man of partic-
ularly extravagant habits, but Sec
ond lieutenant, be he married or
single, is always more or less in
debt. He is expected and forced by
an unwritten law to make quite as
good a showing as his colonel and
to keep up quite as much of an ap-
pearance.
The dinner was a little unique.
All the officers were to leave at l
o'clock that morning on scout.
They were in their field clothes, at
Kings request, and had already the
rough, unshaven look of men able
and willing to do or dare anything.
In the hall of Kings bachelor quar-
tiers their felt scouting hats hung
on the rack. On the porches of
their own houses their mess kits,
ready packed, stood waiting to be
strapped upon the mules. Their
clothing and bedding, wrapped in
shelter tents and ponchos, were be-
side the chests.
Here in the dining promulgated
by lamp which King had admired
while on leave and had gone month
into debt to buy and another which
in fit of economy he had obtained
from the quartermaster and which
hung in uncompromising ugliness
over the table-sat company of
twelve, women in evening gowns,
strangely beautiful and modish in
contrast to their surroundings, and
men in uniforms very shiny at the
seams, blue flannel shirts and top
boots. They we're cavalrymen and
belonged to Kings regiment. Their
gayety was not that of prisoners just
before execution, although there
was the chance that any one or pos
sibly all Of them might never come
back alive. But when one has be-
come used to going off every spring
and sometimes every autumn to
chase-how often in vain the willy
red man one ceases to consider the
possibilities of the outcome, and,
besides, it is not often that officers
are killed in Indian fights. There
is frequently pretty animated ex-
change of bullets, but the death list
is not heavy.
Howbeit, there are exceptions to
the rule. So these men, each one
under a possible sentence of death,
and these women, each one per-
chance to say goodby forever to the
man at her side, talked and laugh
ed in utter carelessness, finding only
an added zest in the rough clothing
of the men and little deeper in
terest in the plans they were laying
for their camps and their discus
sions of the contents Of the mess
chests.
The dinner did not 60 off with
out hitch. That was hardly to be
expected in this faroff part Of the
world, hundred or more miles
from the nearest railroad, depend
ent on a commissary department
and a suffers for its supplies, but
nothing mattered, and nothing was
noticed.
After time they all rose and
went out on the porch, where the
men smoked their cigars. They had
not stayed at the table and sent the
women into the parlor this time.
They were army officers and pre-
ferred their feminine friends to
their tobacco, and each one was glad
to ignore custom which made it
the proper thing to deprive himself
of the women for even SO short
time. They were glad of the excuse
which the coming party gave them
of making the most Of the few re-
naming hours.
The night was duly dark. The
outlines of the foothills and the
mountains beyond them could not
be seen, but a flicker of light in the
distance from some Indian signal
fires told where they were. Coyotes
were bowling up by the graveyard.
There was sound of preparation
in the barracks and occasionally the
neigh of horse at the stables.
The sergeant of the guard called |
out, "Ten O'clock" and the officers
made a movement to get their hats.
There was still much to be done be-
fore the night march commenced.
King sat on the railing of the porch J
talking to a woman who leaned .
against post. He could not see