The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-06-06

man before he was gazetted. SO. when
the Empress announced that Gentleman
Cadet Robert Hanna Wick" was posted as Second
Lieutenant to the Tyneside Tail Twisters Krab
Bokhar. he became officer and a gentleman
which is enviable thing: and there was joy in
the house of Wick where Mamma Wick and all
the little Wicks fell upon thir knees and offered
incense to Bobby by virtue of his achievements
Wick been Commissioner in his day,
holding authority of three millions OF men in the
Chota- Buldana Division. building works for the
good of the land and doing his best to make two
blades of grass grow where there was but one
before OF course nobody knew anything about
this in the little English village where he was
Just "old Mr.. Wick" and had forgotten that he
was Companion of the Order OF the Star OF
India
He patted Bobby the shoulder and said:
swell done. my boy!"
india" said Papa Wick. lis the place I've mad
thirty years of 1t. and begad I'd like to back
again. When you join the Tail Twisters you'll De
among friends If every one hasn't forgotten Wick
chota- Buldana. and lot OF people will be kind
to you for sakes. The mother will tell you
more about outfit than can; but remember this;
Stick to your regiment, Bobby-stick to your
regiment You'll see men all round you going
into the staff Corps and doing every possible sort
of duty but regimental. and you may be tempted
to follow suit. Now, long you keep within
your allowance. and haven't stnted you there
stick to the Line-the whole Line and nothing out
the Line. Be careful how you back another young
fools bill. and If you fall in love with woman
twenty years older than yourself don't tell me
about It, that's all
with these counsels. and many others equally
valuable did Papa Wick fortify Bobby that
last awful night at Portsmouth when the officers
quarters held more inmates than were provided
for by the regulations. and the liberty men of the
ships fell foul of the drafts for India, and the
battle ragged long and loud from the dockyard
gates to the slums of Longport. while the
drabs OF Fratton came down and scratched the
faces of the Queens officers.
Bobby Wick with ugly bruse on his freckled
nose, a sick and shaky detachment to manoeuvre
in ship and the comfort of fifty scornful females
attend to- had time to feel home-sick till
the Malabar reached mid-channel. when he COM
bined his emotions with little guard visiting
and great deal of nausea
The Tail Twisters were a most particular regi-
ment Those who knew them least said that they
were eaten up with side" But their and
their internal arrangements generally were
~ protective diplomacy. Some five years before
the colonel commanding had looked into the four
teen fearless of seven plump and juicy subal-
and had asked them why the three stars should
he. colonel of the Line. command dashed nur-
sery double-dashed bottle-suckers who put
condemned tin spurs and rode qualified mokes at
the hiatused heads of forsaken black regiments.
He was rude man and terrible. Wherefore
the remnant took measures with the half-butt
engine of public opinion) till the rumor
went abroad that young men who used the Tail
Twisters crutch to the Staff Corps had many
and varied trials to endure However, a regiment
had just much right to its own secrets a
woman.
When Bobby came up from Deolan his
place among the Tail Twisters it was gently but
his father and his mother and his indissolubly
welded wife, and that there crime under
the canopy Of heaven blacker than that of bring
ing shame the regiment. which was the best
shooting, bestdrilled, best set-up, bravest, most
illustrfous, and in all respects most desirable reg
ment within the compass of the Seven Seas He
was taught the legends of the Mess Plate, from
the great grinning Golden Gods that
out of the Summer Palace in Pekin to the silver
mounted markhor-hor snuff null presented by
the late c. o. Che who spake to the suba-
terns). And every of these legends told him
of battles fought at long odds. without fear
without support; of hospitality catholic
Arabs; of friendships deep the and steady
the fighting line; of honor by hard roads
for honors sake and of instant and unquestion-
Ing devotion TO the regiment--the regiment that
claims the lives of all and lives forever.
But best of all was the occasion when he moved
with the Tail Twisters in at the
breaking OF November day. Allowing for duty
men and sick. the Regiment thousand
and eighty strong and Bobby belonged to them;
for was he not Subaltern of the Line-the whole
Line and nothing but the Line-as the tramp OF
two thousand one hundred and sixty sturdy
munition boots attested? He would have
changed places with leighton of the Horse
Battery. whirling by in pillar of cloud to
chorus of Strong right! Strong left"'
Hogan-Yale of the White Hussars. leading
squadron for all it worth. with the price of
horseshoes thrown in; Tick" Boleau trying
to live up to his fierce blue and gold turban,
while the wasps of the Bengal Cavalry stretched
to gallop in the wake of the long. lollopping
Waiers of the White Hussars.
They fought through the clear cool day. and
Bobby felt a little thrill run down his spine when