The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1926-12-31

that Private Albert Kane be
dishonorably dismissed from
the service of the govern
ment."
Colonel Scott snapped out the
words. Private Albert Kane raised his
head and looked at the officers for the
first time. Wastrel, outcast, he had
expected a minimum of two years i'm
prisonment. And that was all his SEN
tence-to be dismissed from the reg.
| iment.
You're lucky, Kane. Wish ! was
In your Shoes" said one of his COM
panions, as he gathered his things to-
gether. "Going East, / suppose"
"Yes," answered Kane nonchalant-
ly, and walked toward the entrance
of the camp.
Kane was free. He had enlisted
sipation, in the vain hope Of forget
ting the past. Once, so long ago that
the memory of that time was like a
dream to him, he had been a decent
man. He had bad a good position
in a western city, and he had loved
Dorothy Davis, whom he knew to be
the one woman in the world whom he
must love forever. At last he had
been in a position to ask her to be-
come his wife, And she had broken
the news to him that she was engaged
to be married. 1t was to Colonel Scott,
man considerably her senior; and
Kane had gathered that II he had
asked her sooner however,
there was no use specializing about
1 that.
Kane gave up his position, and he
hardly remembered anything of the
year that followed Suffice it that, at
the end Of it, he found himself pen
niless outside an army camp in Texas.
He had the sudden thought Of redeem
ing himself. Here, at least, there
would be life Of action. Kane en-
listed.
He found the monotony Of army life
In the little border post intolerable.
He found that Colonel Scott was his
commanding officer. He found that
every week he saw Dorothy. He fed
from the sight of her, and fortunately
Tor him, she did not recognize him in
his soldiers uniform. Once he was
sent on an errand to her home, and he
left the message with the servant and
fed. He ate his heart out. He be-
| came known as the worst soldier in
l thn r.nrriy> a noYff r,rJo oil Ixy
punished. At last he committed a
graver offense against discipline and
was tried by court-martial and dis
honOrably discharged.
In his relief from his fate he re-
solved to go East and try to make a
man of himself. But as he stepped,
with his bundle upon his arm, across
the enclosure, he saw Dorothy coming
toward him.
In vain he turned his eyes away.
She saw him; she knew him. He saw
the look Of recognition in her eyes.
She stopped. Kane hurried past her,
not daring to look back. He gained
the entrance to the barracks. But
he did not go toward the railroad sta
ton, as he had planned. Instead, he
turned southwark toward the border
He walked jauntily past the custom
house, over the bridge and flung him
self upon the ground. He was in Mex
leo, and he meant never to return.
II
Albert Kane looked up into the sky
| and searched the distant hills.
The summer sun was declining and
as the mescal went out of him he real.
lied his abasement.
For fifteen months he had lived in
the squalid Mexican village twelve
miles beyond the border. At first
looked on with suspicion, he had be-
come completely identified with the
villagers. He sprawled In the adobe
hut, an unclean thing, like the creep
ing lizards about him.
Few men have sunk to such depths
as Kane had reached. Now, deep In
his heart, an elusive memory stirred
It was a memory Of America, which
had once been dear to him, Of a civil
lized land where human faces looked
into his instead Of the british peas
ants eyes.
What was 1t he was remembering
He knew now. Somebody haG
kicked him. 1t was the rebel leader
Santos, riding by with a hundred
troopers. And what was it had beer
said?
"That Gringo Is always in a stupor
He Is harmless. Do not kill him.
Santos had kicked him contemptu
ously and ridden on his way. But
Kane remembered now. He remem
bered the whispered colloquy. No
body knew that he understood much
Spanish, for he seldom spoke to any
one But Kane had gathered that the
troop was to raid the American camp
nj