Trooper Tales — page 194: what you’re looking at

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

180 The Aberration of Private Brown. Brown. A couple of hours afterward the top sergeant called me into the orderly room and said many surpris- ing things. “Well, what do you know?” asked Brown in a low voice. He was sitting up in his bunk, smoking cheer- fully. The ordeal of the doctor was over. His pros- pects were only cheerful ones now. As the whole troop was out on target practice, Brown was having a lucid in- terval. The enjoyment of it shone upon his face. I hated to spoil it, but I might not have so good a chance again. “The doctor says you’ve got ’em, all right.” “Did he say there were any special or interesting feat- ures to my—my derangement?” he questioned facetiously. “And they’re going to send you back to the States,” I resumed. “T guess I’m pretty bad actoring. I guess I won’t do.” Brown was tickled. Oh, what a shame it was to have to tell him! The troubled look on my face made him say: “Devilish sorry, bunkie, you can’t go along. Honest, you'll never know how much I think of you for the way you helped me out. We were always solid, though, be- fore—before I was taken. Why, confound it all, the only thing I regret is leaving you in this—dam’ country!” It was positively pitiful. “Don’t worry about that, old man,” I said, “I’m going with you.” Brown jumped at my hand and declared with a " GOMIGHOOKS. GO