Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-03-07

H ss z SCHREIBER, FIRST SERGEANT OF
 OLD TX" TROOP.
 clasping her children to her heart, his devoted wife knelt watching them, her fond lips moving in ceaseless prayer. Dimly she could see the tired leader, her soldier husband, sitting in saddle at the bank. Bravely she answered the fiutter of his handker- chief in farewell. Then all was swal- lowed up ill the shadows of the dis tant prairie, and from the nursery adjoining her room there rose querulous vail that told that her ba- hy daughter was waking, indifferent to the need that sent the soldier father to the aid of distant com rades, threatened by merciless foe, and conscious only of her infantile demands and expectations. Not yet ten years wed, that brave, devoted wife and mother had known but two summers that had not torn her hus- hand from her side on just such quest and duty, for these were the days of the building up of the west, resisted to the bitter end by the red wards of the nation.
 The sun was just peering over the rough, jagged outline of the east ward buttes, when quick yet muf- ! fled step was heard on the majors veranda and picturesque figure stood waiting at the door. Scout, of course, stranger would have said at glance, for from head to foot the man was clad in beaded buckskin, without sign of soldier garb of any kind, but in that strange garb there stood revealed one of the famous ser geants of famous regiment, the vet eran of a quarter of century of service with the standard, wounded time and again, bearing the scars of , Stuart's sabre and of Southern lead, of Indian arrow and bullet both; proud possessor of the medal of honor that many senior sought in vain; proud as the Lucifer from whom he took his Christian name, brave, cool, resolute and ever re- liable-Schreiber, first sergeant of old "K'' troop for many a year, faced his post commander with brief and characteristic report:
 Sir, Chief Stabber, with over 30 warriors, left camp about three o'clock, heading for Eagle Butte."
 "Well done, sergeant! knew I could count on you," answered Webb, in hearty commendation. "Now, .one thing more. Go to "F" troops quar- ters and see how Kennedy is faring. He came in with dispatches from Fort Beecher, and later drank more, I fancy, than was good for him, for which I assume all responsibility. Keep him out of mischief this morn ing"
 .'I will, sir" said the sergeant, and, saluting, turned away while Webb went back to set dismantled pantry in partial order, against the appear ance of his long-suffering housekeep- CT, whose comments he dreaded as he did those of no inspector general in the army.
 Ten minutes more and the sergeant was back again.
 "Sir, have to report that Trooper Kennedy has not been seen about the quarters" said he. Then try the stables, sergeant" answered the veteran campaigner, and thither would Schreiber next have gone, even had he not been sent. And, sure enough, there was Kennedy, with rueful face and a maudlin romaunt about a moonlit meeting with a swarm of painted Sioux, over which the stable guard were making merry and stirring the troopers soul 1 to wrath ungovernable.
 "I can prove ut," he howled, to the ! accompaniment of clinching fists and , bellicose lunges at the laughing tor mentor nearest him. q can whip the hide off'n the scut that says didn't. Ask Lootn't Field, bejabersi He saw it. Ask-Oh, Mother of God, what's this I'm sayin'?"-And there, with stern, rebuking gaze, stood the man they knew and feared, every soul of them. as they did no commissioned soldier in the -th. Sergeant Schrei- Der. the redoubtable. and sehreiber had heard the insane and damaging boast.
 
 Come with me. Kennedy was all he said, and Kennedy snatehed his battered felt headgear down over his l eyes and tackled woefully after his swift-striding master, without ever another word.
 But if was to his own room Schrei- Der took the unhappy Irishman. not to the quarters of company @F.- He had heard words that. coupled with others that fell through the darkness on his keenly listening ears some two hours earlier. had given him cause for painful thought. Lie down here. Kennedy. Pun of your boots.- said he. -and if yoa op~n your fool head 10 any living souI untiI ! give you leave. Py Gott-I7l gill you.- nwas schreibsrTs way. like Nsrryztsls fs- nous boatsvzin. to begin his sdrno- nitions in exact English and then. ss wrath oTercsme him. to lapse into dialect
 It vas but q few minutes after seven wh-a Mai Webh. havinr pre-