Trooper Tales — page 150: what you’re looking at

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

138 Back to San Anton’ “Ts it a woman’s?” Mulgowan asked in a stifled voice. His face was turned away. “Must belong to a woman or a kid,” was the answer. “Cheer up, Mul.” That evening after retreat we saw Mulgowan sitting alone in the shadowy twilight. His eyes seemed to look backward toward San Anton’. He did not even smoke. We hated to say anything. After a while Mulgowan walked along the picket line until he came to his own horse. Then he stopped and whispered for a long time close to the fancy, little gelding’s ear, an action on his part which made the youngster Yellow Hair very happy, indeed. And long after taps had sounded I rolled over on my bunk and peered out from under the raised walls of the tent. The moon was high and there were no shadows. Mulgowan still stood on the picket line. His fingers of one hand were tangled in the mane of Yellow Hair, and his eyes were turned backward toward San Anton’. The stable guard walked his post and whistled low. | ' Three days afterward another package was handed to Mulgowan, and when it was opened we saw another third finger belonging to a woman or a boy. It was the third finger of a right hand this time, and it was dry and cold. Mulgowan’s face did not change, because it had been haggard and white for three days. What the youngster Yellow Hair was told that night no one else ever knew. He looked very wise and thought- ful while his master stood by his head just before taps CONMICENKO KS4(E0)