The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1913-07-19
continued

DR.. Carey continued smoking,
| watching the brilliant considerations
set In the sparkling heights of the
| tropical heavens. He said nothing.
When Major Tracy sent the letter 70
his wife in Manila next day, DR.. Carey,
at the last minute, asked permission
to send a letter himself. The guard
who set out with the message could
not fail to note that the majors and
the doctors went to the same woman
Things went well for the first fort
night after the little woman" as the
major called her affectionately, ar
rived in Majon. There was something
very enjoyable in riding through the
quaint growths of the Orient every
morning with one of the officers as q
companion and with an armed escort
close at hand in case there happened
to be danger lurking in the deeps OF
| the bamboo thickets. There was the
convent, too, where the native women
did drawn work in pino cloth and
woven the shifting colors of the SUI
shine into silks of exquisite beauty on
handmade looms The MONDAY
siesta was usually followed by a visit
to the market place, where the native
children played, and where the most
ferocious devils, in the guise of most
humble and obsequinous natives, came
to buy and sell And not least was
the soldiers hospital to which she
sent the chino coolies with fruit and
| cocoanuts.
But there came a day when all these
! things ceased to interest. A desper-
ate Irritation with DIR. Carey, begun in
Manila under stress of the same bore
| dom Of things in general, was, IN
known to the major. renewed; the let
ter he'd referred to the possibility. For
a time the major remained in blissful
! ignorance, but the hour for enlighten-
/ ing came at last Awaking from his
! siesta earlier than usual he walked
/ into his little house and looked out
/ through the small. square shells that
/ did duty as window panes on the
! farther end; he was just in time to
see DR.. Carey take leave of his wife
! in the manner peculiar to relatives,
! lovers and husbands.
/ The next day the little brown men
! came down from the hills of the north.
/ The major left his wife to return to
/ Manila with Captain Manson and a
/ heavy escort. He did not bid her good
] by. AS soon as she had gone, he Or
! dered an advance of two companies.
/ DR. Carey accompanied the one under
! his command.
The two rode out TO make a recon
Nuisance beyond the rice paddles to a
! point where a rise of land had them
from the view of the company. They
were no sooner out of sight, than the
major addressed his companion
/ grimly.
There's no use arguing, doctor,
/ and I presume you won't care to when
| you know I've learned at last what
/ has for some time past been common
| talk with the battalion. You're man
enough to understand me, I take it?"
Major Tracy drew his revolver as
! ne concluded.
''Yes?" Intercepted the doctor. GO
ahead"
Shall it be ten or twenty paces?''
ITO oblige you. I'll say fifteen, -
responded the doctor, smiling as if IN
a box at the theater.
The two men stood back to back
| and began to walk forward. The
major counted the PAGES aloud.
I'VE will turn and fire at the IF
teenth," he said.
! At the thirteenth, DR.. Carey wheeled
about quickly. raising his Remington
to fire at the back of the unsuspecting
| man At the same instant there was
a puff Of smoke from the bamboo
thicket, followed by another and an
other. The doctor fell.
For a moment, regardless of the
soft patter of bullets all about him
the major stood above the fallen form
of DR.. Carey. at has saved me the
trouble" he unused Then he leaped
quickly to the shelter of a rice dixie
until a detail of skirmisheTs came al
double quick around the hillock, caus
ing the little brown men, leaving theil
dead and wounded behind thine, tt