Trooper Tales — page 198: what you’re looking at

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

184 The Aberration of Private Brown. “It is with much sorrow, madam,’ Kennedy began. His words were studied. I could hear no more. Some- how the face of that mother and the eyes of that tall maid- en—made me feel giddy. “Excuse me, miss,” I began, “but I am Brown’s bunkie, and he was my best friend down there in Porto Ric ‘3 I had planned to explain many things before the secret, but the maiden’s eyes told me that her heart was breaking. She knew and felt the truth an instant later and her dark eyes were sad no more. “The corporal knows nothing,” I concluded. “I will get him away, then you tell the mother. Say to Brown that I will see him to-night at 9. It was you, miss, that sickened the boy of the service. The corporal will not be with me to-night.” ; And the time came when I had to hasten away from Brown’s mother and Brown’s sweetheart and Brown, be- cause if I had not they would have seen something in my eyes—something that would not have looked well in the eyes of a big trooper. And on the transport Corp. Kennedy pleased himself with the thought of a difficult duty well done, and I— well, I smoked and dreamed and missed my old bunkie as we neared the tropical shores and the mist-hung hills, Eomicbooks.co