The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-09-24
cHAPTER YIr.

N ing in to his comrades bed
 side the following morning,
 1I'm instructed to pay you a kiss.'' Lanier's bandaged head spun on the pillow. He had but one girl in his mind
 rWh-who % he demanded.
 Ennis threw his head back and laughed. Mine times out of ten when fellow is asked. will you take it now or wait till you get it? he's wise to take It now. If Pm any judge I should say you'd better wait till you can get it. which may be in less than week"
 Ennis, if you can quit being an ass long enough to tell me what you mean and where you've been Pll thank you. If you cant wish you'd get out. Ugashe!'' concluded Bob, with a 4Lgse into Apache and the pillow.
 well, if probably isn't just the kiss you were thinking of-no more was when got 1t-but, Robert, my son and fellow soldier, it's my recorded conviction ssthat the most enviable member of the regiment this day of our lord is your twin trooper friend RATx1on- 1T saw him of on his we'd ding tour, and he didn't have on your clothes"
 Lanier's head popped up in an in- stant, the one visible eye all eager in terest Where were they married? :? When did they get of? Was Lowndes there?' were the questions that flew from his lips.
 -tArena. On No. c. Don't know" was the categorical answer. Raw don brought the parson out from Omaha, and the Osborns gave her away Of Lowndes I've seen nothing since the night you staked him at Laramie. and what I've henrd of him you refused to listen to. Of that cal low specimen of the effete and ultra refined Back Bay district you've long since had my opinion He's too good and gentle for this western world of ours, Bob. and he and his shuddertng kinsfolk suffer too much by contami- nation"-
 ''Oh, shut up. dad. His people did wire him that his mother was desper- ately i'll. They merely wanted to get him away from the campaign. He'd been gambling. the pesky little fool, with some of the Rawhide crowd, was all out of cash and dared not tell his guardian That's all there was to it. EoOOu 5 nG SGlS HIS I1dO1SS AC H Sq01lAO up-thought perhaps he had. since Rawdon had enough to marry on. Lowndes owed him ten times what he owed me. I reckon"
 To them. thus engrossed fn confden- tial chat. there suddenly entered the two doctors "Black BiIl,'' the inspector, had given notice that he must nee6ls have speech with the culprit. if that bandaged. bIistered and unprincipled young man were in condition to see him. .sBlack BilF'' and his host had been having night of 1t. Button was fn high feftle over the amazingly truth fuI and unlocked for articles in the Mail and as eager to know and re- ward their author as he had been to apprehend and punish the earlier de tractor Button had begun to ''wab- bIe,' as Bill expressed it. in his spleen against I4anier until so suddenly 'braced'' by the truculent stand of Captain Snaff1e, whose half drunken words the previous night were by this time known all over the post
 The matter was now in the hands Of Colonel Riggs, however, and it was his to determine what further action to take Snafle had named as his witness Sergeant Fitzroy, Private Kelly (who, though drunk on duty. had not been so drunk, said Snade and Fitzroy, that he could not recognize an officer when he saw hiIn), and the third witness, to the amaze of Barker and the derision of Ennis when told of it, was no less a person than poor Tom Rafferty. Lanter's own striker and hitherto devoted heachman. And to the con sternafion of Stannard, Sumter and others cpptafn epafe had been able to back his words. Riggs sent for the two aYa1labIese Eitzroy and Kelly. and the two hsd declared they could not be mistaken; fhat they had heard Miss Arnc1dss scream, followed instantly by the crash Of glass. Fitzroy admit. ted that he sfagat the moment at Cap-