Army and Navy Weekly — page 20: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

1074 Bull led his company down through ‘‘Rlirtation Walk”’ and out to the far end of it. Here they scrambled down the hill- side until they were ina lonely, deserted glen almost at the river’s edge. It was al- ready growing dark with the shadows of the evening. And here Bull stopped and took a seat. ‘‘T hope this is quiet enough for you,’ said Murray. ‘‘T had an especial reason for bringing you here!’ responded Bull. ‘‘AIl I’ve - got to tell you about happened here. Do you know, old man, I jumped into the river off that high bank last night.’’ ‘““What!’? gasped the other. Heaven’s sake, why 2”? ‘That’sin the story,’’ answered Harris. “Tl begin at the beginning. Listen. You remember how I told you a month ago when that plebe Mallory first came here, how Meg Adams and I hada quar- rel and that fool came along and knocked me down.”’ “You never told me what you were doing,’’ said Murray. ‘‘Never mind. I was a fool to to try it, that way. Anyhow, she’s hated me ever since. And oh, how she has struggled to eet that plebe. Murray, I’m smarter than you think. I’ve been watching this busi- ness night and day, waiting for my chance. And now it’s come. I found that plebe and Meg on this very spot just be- fore taps last night.’ ‘(What doing?’’ gasped Murray. *E never lose a chance to hear one of Mallory’s conversations,’ growled Bull in alow tone. ‘‘I crept down here and lis- tened; and this was what I heard. ‘It seemed that Mallory didn’t care two straws for her—she’s probably not his kind. She was simply wild after him, and she had gotten so desperate that she had confessed the whole business to that cow- boy chum of Mark’s, ‘Texas.’ What must he do but go and tell Mark right off. And then Mark had come down here to see her. Well, she saw that Mark didn’t pro- pose to have’any love-making business in his, and, Gus, she was simply wild. She’s a perfect tiger, that girl. I never saw a woman so furious in my life. She tore around this place, and wept and shrieked—she was so jealous and so an- ery! And, by George, Pll be hanged if ‘Ror ARMY AND NAVY she didn’t end it by flinging herself head first over that bank!” ‘What!’ gasped Murray. ‘Yes, sir, And then I saw my chance. Oh, it was a bonanza for me, Gus. Mal- lory was lame, you know, and he hesi- tated. Irushed past him and saved her life. Throwing in some heroic flourishes, so’s to have the right effect upon her. [I carried her out, and upbraided him as a coward. He was lame, I knew, and couldn’t do anything if he wanted to. And it made her hate him all the more.’” ‘“How did it turn out?”’ ‘‘Splendidly. He wént back to camp, and I took her all the way home. And you can bet I fixed it all right with her on the way. I made up for what she was mad about before; and I talked about Mallory and that other girl until she was wild. And, Gus, we’ve got her!” ‘*Got ler for what ??’’ ‘Mallory! She’s our tool, man; we can do just what we please. She’ll do anything on earth for revenge. I almost think she’d kill him.’’ ‘*You don’t mean,’’ gasped Gus, ‘‘that she’s going to swear he pushed her into the river???’ ‘‘She wanted to,’’ said Bull. ‘‘Oh, Murray, you can’t imgine how simply desperate that girl was. She’d simply thrown herself at Mallory’s feet, and he’d kicked her away. At least that was the way it seemed to her, and vou can bet I didn’t try to change her view. And she was crying with rage all the way home. Her face was simply scarlet, and she was trembling like a leaf. I was honestly afraid of her. She vowed she’d swear to anything I saidif she could only ruin him, and to get that Grace Fuller away from him. to it that he tried to murder her. She was even mad because I wouldn’t let her.’ ‘“Why didn’t you ?”’ cried the other. ‘‘In the first place, I doubt if the. super- intendent would believe her. ‘There have been several plots like that tried, but he has too much faith in that fool of a plebe. Then, too, I doubt if the girl’s rage’ll last that long. We must use it while it does. All we want to do is to get that plebe dismissed.”? ‘“That’sall!’? exclaimed Murray. ‘But in Heaven’s name, how ?”’ ‘‘Didn’t I tell you I had a plot?” oO CORMNICLOOlKKS.CG© She said she’d swear to it and stick -