The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1910-11-18
IcoNTINuED.l
CHAPTER VII.

NOB," said Mr.. Ennis, saunter-
ing In to his comrades bed
side the following morning,
I'm instructed to pay you
kiss" Lanier's bandaged head spun
on the pillow. He had but one girl in
his mind.
"Wh-whow he demanded.
Ennis threw his head back and
laughed. Mine times out Of ten when
fellow is asked, VIII you take 1t now
or wait till you get ity he's wise to
take it now. II I'm any Judge
should say you'd better wait till you
can get It. which may be in less than
week."
Ennis, II You can quit being an
ass long enough to tell me what you
mean and where you've been I'll thank,
you. If you can't I wish you'd gct
out. Ugashew concluded Bob. with :
Ipse into Apache and the pillow
well. 1t probably isn't just the ~
you were thinking ONO Nor"
i when l got it-but, Robert, my son
and fellow soldier, It's my recorded
conviction that the most enviable
member of the regiment this day of
our Lord is your twin trooper friend
Rawdon. / saw him Off on his wed
ding tour, and he didn't have on your
clothes"
Lanier's head popped up in an in
slant, the one visible eye all eager in
terest where were they married?
When did they get off? Was Lowndes
there?" were the questions that few
from his lips.
Arena. On No. G. 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 heard 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 shuddering
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.
Soon's he gets his money he'll square
up-thought perhaps he had, since
Rawdon had enough to marry on.
Lowndes owed him ten times what he
owed me, / reckon"
To them, thus engrossed In confiden-
~tial chat, there suddenly entered the
two doctors. "Black Bill" the inspector,
had given notice that he must needs
have speech with the culprit, If that
bandaged, blistered and unprincipled
young man were in condition to see
him. BLACK Bilp' and bis host had
been having a night Of 1t. Button was
In high fettle over the amazingly truth
full 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-
ble," as Bill expressed it, in his spleen
against Lanier until SO suddenly
''braced" by the truculent stand of
Captain Snaffle, 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 1t was his
to determine what further action to
take. Snaffie had named as his witness
Sergeant Fitzroy, Private Kelly (whO.
though drunk on duty, had not been
so drunk, said Snaffle and Fitzroy, that
he could not recognize an officer when
he saw him), and the third witness, to
the amaze of Barker and the derision
of Ennis when told Of 1t, was no less
a person than poor Tom Rafferty,.
Lanier's own striker and hitherto
devoted henchman. And to the con-
sternation Of Stannard, Sumter and
others Captain Snaffie had been able
to back his words. Riggs sent for the
two availables, Fitzroy and Kelly, and
the two had declared they could not
be mistaken; that they had heard Miss
Arnold's scream, followed instantly
by the crash Of glass. Fitzroy admit
ted that he was at the moment at Cap
tain Snaffie's back door; said he ran
round to the Sumters' gate, that he
distinctly saw the figure of man in
a soldiers overcoat and fur cap leap
ing and sliding down the roof and that
a moment later he grappled with it In
the dark woodshed, dropping his hold
only when angrily ordered to do so,
the voice adding instantly, I'm Lieu
tenant Lanier." Fitzroy declared that
n moment later Rafferty, rushed to the