The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-09-06
THE ROUGH RIDERS ROMANCE


~ TAND back. mem I don't want to
 fight. but the first man that puts A/ a hand on me will regret It."
 James Lusk stood at bay in the rear of a Tampa bar room. About him, their faces gleaming savagely in the dim, vel low light that fared from the half dozen coal oil lamps depending from the ceiling, were grouped fifteen or twenty of Uncle sam's soldiers-some of them members of the regular army. some of them belong ing to the various volunteer regiments which had mobilzed there awaiting transportation to Cuba.
 Formost among them stood stoclky, broad-shouldered man in the uniform of a cavalry regular. He was pointing trembling finger at Lusk, and his voice and face shook with passion as he hissed;
 Hes a spy. I tell you-a Spanish spy. I know the fellow. I've seen him before.
 An angry hum arose from the crowd which surged little closer around the two men, Will Barlow wore a sergeants stripes and his words carried weight. But one man, a lanky private named Wynkoop spoke drawlingly.
 ..Kin you prove he's a spy, serseant?'
 Prove it! The proof is on him this minute. He carries a bundle of cipher dispatches in yellow wrapper tied about his neck under his shirt. 1 tell you he's a spyi"
 Lusk's face turned from angry red to white He made an involuntary motion toward the packet in his breast AS ne did so Barlow sprang forward and plant ed blow in his face. Fortunately It glanced, and did no great injury. The next moment the whole crowd was mixed in a general wrange from which grunt- ing, oaths, the sound of scuffiing feet ana rattling cuspdors mingled with the i'm pact of blows and the crashing or cara tables. It was a free-for-all fight How any man could escape without serious Injury from that seething vortex or pas sion and violence was a mystery. But two minutes later the cool outer air was blowing upon James Lusks face, and the little pathway that led from the rear or the saloon along the river bank to the quiet cross street below shone before him in the moonlight. He had been shoveo through the thin board side of the oulld- ing while the melee inside, believing m some way that he was on the opposite side of the crowd was working It's VI cious noisy way back toward the front door, smashing chairs and tables as It went.
 1uSk lost no tune III BelllnS tO HIS room in an improvised "hotel' few bloclxs farther down. There he hastily changed his clothing, removing as he did so the yellow wrapped packet which had led to the fight in the saloon. This ne carried to the hotel clerk, and asked that it be placed in the safe and delivered 10 no one but himself, in person. This done, he made his way back to the saloon where he had been attacked and accused of being a spy The place was dark. lie learned next morning that 1t hao been closed by the patrol on account or the disturbance, and that half the men in the melee including Sergeant Will BarloW' had been taken to the guard house.
 It was Barlow that he sought. He grtted his teeth as he thought of the ac- cusation and the blow that followed It both unprovoked Why had this man sought him out to insult him? He pro- posed to learn why.
 James Lusk was a soldier Of fortune He had left his home In Kentucky ten wears before, when he was 20 years old' and drifted to Central America, that hot bed of revolution, where he participated in the Nicaragua uprising. Here he won distinction for his cool bravery. He had then landed in Cuba, and found his way to- Gomez army, fighting In the ranks, one of the men behind the guns. He was A rebel by nature His forefathers were soldiers under Washington, and his ia ther and uncles served under the match less Lee of Virginia His sympathies were always on the side of the weak and the oppressed.
 News had reached Gomez army that Uncle Sam was going to assist the rebels in Cuba; so Lusk decided that he would return to the states and join regiment of his own countrymen. Gomez had as- sisted him to reach the coast of Florida in an open sailboat, the whole crew or Zni fn 1 in storm that swept the ocean the sec ond day out. Gomez had intrusted him with important documents and papers to be delivered to Gen. Shafter at Tampa, and on his leaving had conferred upon him a captaincy in the Cuban army. He had just reached Tampa that afternoon As he strolled into a saloon filled with