Army and Navy Weekly — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

ARMY AND NAVY And a moment later he heard a low voice mutter: . ‘‘Come away, you fool! Come on.’’ They dragged her reluctantly with them. Mark heard the steps recede into the distance, heard the silence settling down about the place. They had left him alone, deserted and helpless, lost in the midst of the woods, left him to die for all he knew, certainly to be missed, to be expelled, to be ruined. And the poor fellow groaned within him as he realized the triumph of his eneimes. Texas made his way back to camp in silence. Texas felt it was none of his business, and yet he could not help trv- ing to guess the errand upon which those two had gone. It was certainly a mystery. Texas reached the camp without succeed- ing in forming the least guess. He raced past the same sentry in the saine style as usual. He entered his tent and found the other two ‘‘devils’’ sleep- ing soundly, having not the,least suspic- ion of the night’s occurrences. “T reckon,’’ he mused, reflectively, “there ain’t much use o’ my_ sittin’ round. 1’ll go to bed.”’ With which resolution he undressed and lay down to sleep. After such an exciting and lively half- hour as the one Texas had just spent, one does not usually drop off to sleep very easily. It was fortunate that Texas did not;, wide awake as he was, he had a cooler and steadier head to think when the hour of trial came. For the ‘‘hour of trial’’ was coming very soon now. Bull Harris and his cowardly allies first took the precaution to calm the angry girl, and then set out on a run for camp. Their hearts were beating high with hope and triumph. ‘Their time had come at last; their enemy was theirs, and theirs without any blame falling onthem. It was a great day for the vengeful Bull. They passed their sentry ally in safety and vanished in their tents. In a minute more they were all safely in bed, as Texas was, and then the time had come. ‘Texas, lying in his silent tent, was just beginning to doze, when suddenly came a wild yell that shook the air, that made the hills to echo. It rang through 1079 the sleeping camp, and it was followed by a series of shouts. “Help! help! help!’ The place was in an uproar in an in- stant; and Texas was almost paralyzed with horror. An alarm! The camp awake! Inspection! And Mark, his Mark, his friend and hero, absent! He sprang to his feet with a hoarse cry; at the same moment the other two plebes sat up and stared about them wildly. ‘What's that ?’’ cried one. “Mark’s gone!’’ fairly shrieked Texas. “Mark gone! How?”’ ‘“He’s out of bounds! Great Heavens, he went to see Meg Adams! And he’ll be found out!”’ The two crowded about him, their faces pale with fright, their eyes staring. Mark gone! Mark, their leader! What on earth would they do? The ‘Texan’s wild exclamation had been heard in the Company B tent to the rear, and its occupants had rushed in re- gardless of rules, of discovery, of every- . thing. An alarm! An inspection! And Mark beyond limits! Things were happening with incredible swiftness outside. ‘The shouts had been echoed by excited inquiries from awak- ened cadets, by the cries of sentries for the corporal of the guard, and by the quick, sharp commands of officers. Lieutenant Allen, the ‘‘tac”’? in com- mand, had sprung up from his bed at the very first cry. And in half a minute more, dressed and with lighted lantern in his hand, he was rushing down the com- pany street. ‘What’s the matter?’’ he cried. No one knew. He saw cadets gathered in, almost every tent door, staring out anxiously. Thus he did not notice the state of affairs in Mark’s tent, where six horrified, frightened plebes were huddled, gasping. Night alarms had been getting too fre- quent at Camp McPherson that year, and had excited the ire of the authorities. The lieutenant meant to find out the authors of this one, if such a thing were within the realms of possibility. First he thought of sounding the ‘‘long roll,’’ the fire or mutiny signal, summon- ing the cadets out on the street for roll call. Then it occurred to him that an in- COMG HOO S$ oCO)