Argosy, Vol. 85, No. 3 — page 85: what you’re looking at

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

A SOLDIER’S HONOR. ‘¢ B-r-r-r!” he shivered as he hung over the radiator, tenderly massaging his red and frostbitten nose. ‘“‘ Talk about the hardships of Scott and Peary getting to the pole. They didn’t have anything on me. I'll bet I’ve got icicles on my lungs.” He stood there, scowling out of the window across the snow-heaped plain. “By George, I’m done!” he went on. ‘“ Anybody that wants to flatten his feet and freeze his spine in that confounded quadrangle can do it.e As for me—quoth the raven, ‘ Nevermore!’ ” Mosely roused from his abstraction, and stood up. There was a trace of bit- terness in his faint, quizzical smile. “You think you’re playing in pretty tough luck, don’t you? Why, ‘ Monk,’ ” —it goes without saying that this was the nickname in which Darwin rejoiced— “Td give anything on earth just to be in your shoes. This,” and he picked up a sealed envelope from the table, “is my walking papers.” The other stared at him incredulously. Not until he had stepped quickly over to the table, and seen for himself the super- intendent’s name on the envelope, did he begin to believe. “Your resignation?” he gasped. “Well, practically that. It’s a state- ment to the ‘supe’ which is bound to break me.” ‘“Why make it then?” expostulated ° Darwin. ‘““He asked me the direct question. I - told him I would give my answer in writ- ing. This is it.” “Oh!” Darwin gloomily nodded his comprehension. He, too, was familiar with the obligation imposed by “ The Honor of the Corps.” Then a suggestion came to him. ‘But, look here, Kerr; they’ll never put the skids under you. Why, man alive, it wouldn’t be common gratitude after your showing in the Navy game. Every officer in the service, from the chief of staff down, would let out a roar. You might as well talk about firing the Vic-. tory monument.” 427 But Mosely disconsolately shook his head. “ Football isn’t going to save me here, Monk. No; nor anything else. I’m married.”’ A bombshell could hardly have created greater surprise and consternation. Dar- win slumped weakly into a chair, round- eyed, his mouth opening and shutting like a fish’s without uttering a sound. ‘“So that’s what’s been the matter with you?” he managed finally to articulate. ‘“Oh, Kerr, Kerr, why couldn’t vou have waited just a few months until commence- ment, and then it wouldn’t have made any difference.” < “Wait? You don’t imagine I did this thing deliberately, do vou? I was framed, don’t you understand? They caught me with my guard down, and rushed me to the ropes before I realized what was hap- pening. ‘“Oh, I know it’s hard to believe,” as Darwin cocked a skeptical eye at him. ' “ But it’s true, nevertheless; and what’s more, you or any other file would have fallen for their game just as hard as I did.” | Then he went ahead to tell how, in the flush of his day of triumph he had been entrapped by the sophisticated wiles of Miss Sinclair and Mr. Wilburt. ‘All they wanted was money,” he ex- plained; ‘‘ and the ink was hardly dry on the marriage certificate before they had a crook lawyer writing to my father to de- mand a settlement. He came right up here to see about it. As you may imag- Ine, it wasn’t a very jovful occasion. But the old boy agreed to see me through on it. ‘“And then,” he groaned and sunk his head between his hands, “ just when everything was arranged, when the terms had been settled, and the marriage was to be annulled, and I began to see myself clear of the whole rotten mess—just then this sneaking quill of a Crosby had to come along gloating over me on your ac- count, and I stubbed my toe. , “There’s nothing to be done now,” he ‘finished. ‘“ The supe has put it up to me MICLOOOK C©