Trooper Tales — page 257: what you’re looking at

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

A Soldier and a Man. As BAX was no more playing, Trooper Arden gathered up the deniro Americano. which had come his way, handed it uncounted to the first sergeant to keep, and walked out of the quarters. As he neared the plaza somebody crept out of the shadow and followed him unsteadily—but silently. i * xx * x * x x “He's a wizard,” observed one trooper, when Arden was no longer present. “He has soaked up a couple or three hundred this night,” said anotlier. | “And there is suicide stamped all over his face,’ re- marked a third. ““He’s the best soldier in the bunch of you,” growled the sergeant of the squad. “And he can make any two av ye sleep the sleep av an innacint baby-girl wid the fists av him.” This last came from Corporal Carey, and it came with decision. At this moment the stable guard dashed into the room. “Some greaser has cut Arden in the back! He says it’s only a scratch, but he can’t stand. Come on, you fel- lows—grab those lanterns!” The squad-room was deserted in a second, and a half- dozen troopers were double-timing it for the stables. Arden was lying upon the ground with his head against a bale of hay. “It’s only a little puncture,” he said, quite evenly. . . “Say, corporal, reach those cigarette papers from GoOmichdookszcom