The Tupelo journal., 1909-03-12
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| came for; see you at the Touraine,
Ralph, tomorrow for luncheon, then"
He did not see the mar again; neither
did he see Ralph, although he made
good, SO far as in him lay, his fiction
of an engagement at the Touraine.
But Ralph could not come; and Winter
had lunched, instead, with an old
friend at his club, and had watched,
through a stately Georgian window
the shifting greenery of the common
in an east wind.
All through the luncheon the sol
dier's mind kept swerving from the
talk in hand to Cary MERGERS face.
Yet he never expected to see it again.
Three years later he did see it; and
this second encounter, of which, by the
way, Mercer was unconscious, vas the
beginning of an absorbing chapter in
his life. A short space of time that
chapter occupied; yet into it crowded
mystery, peril, a wonderful and awful
spectacle, the keenest happiness and
the ~cruelest anxiety. Let his days be
ever so many, the series of events
which followed MERGERS temperance
will not be blurred by succeeding ex-
periences; their vivid and haunting
pictures will burn through commoner
and later happenings as an electric
torch flares through layers of mist.
Nothing, however, could promise
adventure less than the dull and chilly
late March evening when the chapter
began. Nor could anyone be less on
the lookout for adventure, or even in
terest, than was Rupert Winter. In
truth, he was ~listless and depressed.
When he alighted from his cab in
the great court of the Rock Island sta
ton he found Haley, his old orderly,
with a hand on the door-hasp. Haley's
military stoicism OF demeanor could
not quite conceal a certain agitation
at least not from the ~colonel's shrewd
eye, used to catch the moods of his
soldiers. He strangled a kind of
sigh. Doesn't like it much more than
l." thought Rupert Winter. This is
mighty kind of you, Haley" he said.
Yes, sor," answered Haley, salut-
ing. The colonel grinned feebly.
Haley, busy repelling a youthful por-
ter, did not notice the grin; he strobe
ahead with the ~colonel's world-scarred
hand-luggage, found an empty settee
beside one of the square-tiled columns
of the waiting room and disposed his
burden on the iron-railed seat mex the
corner one, which he reserved for the
colonel.
1.-The train amt in yet, colonel" said
he. "Ill be telling you"
mo, Haley" interrupted the col
onel, whose lip twitched a little; and
he looked aside; best say goodbye
now; don't wait. The fact is, I'm
thinking of too many things you and l
have gone through together" He
held out his hand; Haley, with a stony
expression, gazed past it and saluted,
while he repeated: YES, sor; I'll be
back to take the bags whin the trains
made up" Whereupon he wheeled and
made off with speed.
"Just the same damned obstinate
way he's always had" chuckled the
colonel to himself. Nevertheless,
something ached in his throat as he
frowned and winked.
ooh, get a brace on you, you played
out old SPORT" he muttered. THE
games on the last four cards and you
haven't established your suit; you'll
have to sit back and watch the other
fellows play" But his dreary thoughts
persisted. Rupert was a colonel in
the regular army of the United States.
He had been brevetted a brigadier
general after the Spanish war, and
had commanded, not only a brigade,
but a division at one critical time in
the Philippines; but for reasons prob
ably known to the little knot of poll
ticians who hung it up" although in
comprehensive to most Americans,
congress had failed to pass the bill
right to keep their hard-worn and
empty honors; wherefore Gen. Winter
had declined to Col. Winter.
He had more substantial troubles,
including a wound which would prob
ably make him limp through life and
1t had given him a six months sick
leave (Which he had not wanted),
and after spending a month on the
Atlantic coast, he was going for the
spring to the Pacific. Haley, whose
own term of office had expired, had not
re-enlisted, but had followed him, Mrs.
Haley and the baby uncomplainingly
bringing UP the ear. 1t was not fair
to Haley nor to Mrs. Haley, the colonel
felt. He had told Haley so; he had
found a good situation for the man,
and he had added the deed for a little
house in the suburbs of Chicago.
If Haley wouldn't re-enlist-there
never was a better soldier since he
had downed a foolish young hankering
for wild times and whisky-if he
wouldn't go back to the army, where
he belonged, let him settle down, take
up the honest carpenters trade that
he had abandoned, be a good citizen
and marry little Nora to some class
mate in the high school, who might
make a fortune and build her a
colonial mansion, should the colonial
still obtain in the twentieth century.
The colonel had spread a grand
prospect before Haley, who listened
unresponsively, a dumb pain in his
wide blue Irish ayes. The colonel
hated it; but, somehow, he hated
worse the limp look Of Haley's back
as he watched it dwindle down Mich