People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1893 — WARING'S PERIL. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WARING'S PERIL.

By CAPI CHARLES KING. U.S. ARMY.

XCopyright, 1893. by J. B. Llpplncott & Co., and published by special arrangement] □.—Continued. “Well, for consummate impudence this beats the Jews!” exclaimed Brax. “Orderly, my compliments to Capt. Cram, and say I wish to see him at once, if he’s back from stables.” Now, as has been said, Cram had had no time to change to undress uniform, but Mrs. Cram had received the orderly’s message, had informed that martial Mercury that the captain was not yet back from stables, and that she would tell him at once on his return. Well, she knew that mischief was brewing, and her woman’s wit was al-* ready enlisted in behalf of her friend. Hurriedly penciling a note, she sent a messenger to her liege, still busy with his horses, to bid him come to her, if only for a moment, on his way to the office. And when he came, heated, tired, but bubbling over with eagerness to tell her of the fun they had been having with Brax, she met him with a cool tankard of “shandygaff” which he had learned to like in England among the horse artillery fellows, and declared the very prince of drinks after active exercise in hot weather. He quaffed it eagerly, flung off his shako and kissed her gratefully, and burst all at once into laughing narration of the morning’s work, but she checked him:

“Ned, dear, don’t stop for that yet. I know you’re too full of tact to let Col. Braxton see it wa%. any fun for you, and he’s waiting at the office. Something tells me it’s about Mr. Waring. Now put yourself in Mr. Waring’s place. Of course he ought never to have made that engagement until he had consulted you, but he never dreamed-that there would be a review to-day, and so he invited the Allertons to breakfast with him at Moreau’s and go to the matinee.” “Why, that rascal Ananias said it was to breakfast at the general’s,” interrupted the battery commander. “Well, perhaps he was invited there too. I believe I did hear something of that. But he had made this arrangement with the Allertons. Now, of course, if review were over at ten he could just about have time to dress and catch the eleven-o’clock car, but that would make it very late, and when Bay Billy broke away from Ananias nobody could catch him for over half an hour. Mr. Ferry had taken the section, Mr. Waring wasn’t needed, and — Why, Ned, when I drove in, fearing to find him injured, and saw him standing there the picture of consternation and despair, and he told- me about his engagement, I said myself: ‘Why don’t yon go now?’ 1 told him it was what you surely would say if you were here. Neither of us thought the colonel would object, so long as you approved, and he wrote such a nice note. Why, Ned, he only just had time to change his dress and drive up with Jeffers—” “With Jeffers? With my—er—our team and wagon? Well, I like—” “Of course you like it, you old darling. She’s such a dear girl, though just a little bit gushing, you know. Why, 1 said, certainly the team should go. But, Ned, here’s what I’m afraid of. Mrs. Braxton saw it drive in at nine-thirty, just after Billy ran away, and she asked Jeffers who was going, and he told her Mr. Waring, and she has told the colonel, I’ll wager. Now, what you have got to do is to explain that to him, so that he won’t blame Mr. Waring.”

“The dickens I have! The most barefaced piece of impudence even Sam Waring was ever guilty of —to me, at least, though I’ve no doubt he’s done worse a dozen times. Why, bless your heart, Nell, how can I explain? You might, but—” “But would you have me suppose my big soldier couldn’t handle that matter as well as I? No, sir! Go and do it, sir. And, mind you, I’m going to invite them all up here to the gallery to hear the band play and have a cup of tea and a nibble when they come down this evening. He’s going to drive the Allertons here.” “Worse and more of it! Why, you conspiracy in petticoats, you’ll be the ruin of me! Old Brax is boiling over now. If he dreams that Waring has been taking liberties with him he’ll fetch him up so short ” “Exactly! You mustn’t let him. Ycu must tell him I sent him up with your team—yours, mind you—to keep his engagement, since it was impossible for him to come back to review ground. Of course he wouldn’t expect him to appear afoot.”

“Don’t know about that, NelL I reckon that’s the way he’ll order out the whole gang of us next time. He’s had his fill of mounted work to-day.” “Well, if he should, you be sure to acquiesce gracefully now. Whatsoever you do, don’t let him put Mr. AVaring in arrest while Gwen Allerton is here. It would spoil—everything.” “Oh. match-making, is it? Then I’ll try.” And so, vexed, but laughing, halfjndignant, yet wholly subordinate

to the whim of Us beloved better half, the captain hastened over, and found CoL Braxton sitting with gloomy brow at his littered desk, his snnQjance of the scorning evidently forgotten in matters more serious. ' “Oh—er—Cram, come in! come in, man," said he, distractedly. “Here’s a matter I want to see you about. It’s—well, just take that letter and read. Sit down, sit down. Read, and tell me what we ought to do about it.” And as Cram’s blue eyes wandered over the written page they began to dilate. He read from start to finish, and then dropped his head into his hand, his elbow on his knee, his face full of perplexity and concern. “What do you think of it? Is there any truth—” and the colonel hesitated. “As to their being seen together, perhaps. As to the other —the challenge—l don’t believe it.” “Well, Cram, this is the second or third letter that has come to me in the same hand. Now, yon must see to it that he returns and doesn’t quit the post until this matter is arranged.” “I’U attend to it, sir,” was the answer.

And so that evening, while Waring was slowly driving his friends about the shaded roads under the glistening white pillars of the rows of officers’ quarters, chatting joyously with them and describing the objects-so strange to their eyes, Mrs. Cram’s “little foot page” came to beg that they should alight a few minutes and take a cup of tea. They could not. The Allertons were engaged, and it was necessary to drive back at once to town, but they stopped for a moment to chat with their pretty hostess under the gallery, and then a moment later, as they rolled out of the resounding sallyport, an orderly ran up, saluted, and slipped a note in Waring’s hand. “It is immediate, sir,” was his explanation. “Ah! Miss Allerton, will you pardon me one moment?” said Waring, as he shifted whip and reins in the left hand and turned coolly up the levee road.

Then with the right he forced open and held up the missive. It only said: “Whatsoever you do, be here before taps to night. Come direct to me, and I will explain. Your friend, Cram.” “All right,” said Waring, aloud. My compliments to the captain, and say I’ll be with him.” But even with this injunction he failed to appear. Midnight came without a word from Waring, and the morning dawned and found him absent still. 111. It was one of Sam Waring’s oddities that, like the hero of “Happy Thoughts,” other people’s belongings seemed to suit him so much better than his own. The most immaculately dressed man in the regiment, he was never satisfied with the result of the efforts of the New York artists whom he favored with his custom and his criticism. He would wear three or four times a new coat just received from that metropolis, and spend not a little time, when not on duty or in uniform, in studying critically its cut and fit in the various mirrors that hung about his bachelor den, gayly humming some operatic air as he conducted the survey, and generally winding up with a wholesale denunciation of the cutter and an order to Ananias to go over and get some other fellow’s coat, that he might try the effect of that. These were liberties he took only with his chums and intimates, to be sure, but they were liberties all the same, and delicious to hear the laugh with which he would tell how Pierce had to dress in uniform when he went up to the opera Thursday night, or how, after he had worn Ferry’s stylish morning suit to make a round of calls in town and that young gentleman later on went up to see a pretty girl in whom he felt a growing interest, her hateful little sister had come in and commented on his “borrowing Mr. Waring’s clothes.” No man in the battery would ever think of refusing Sam the use of anything he possessed, and there were half a dozen young fellows in the infantry who were just as ready to pay tribute to his whims. Nor was it among the men alone that he found such indulgence. Mrs. Cram had not known him a fortnight when, with twinkling eyes and a betraying twitch about the corners of his mouth, he appeared one morning to say he had invited some friends down to luncheon at the officers’ mess and the mess had no suitable china, therefore he would thank her to send over hers, also some table cloths and napkins, and forks and spoons. When the Fortysixth infantry were on their way to Texas and the officers’ families were entertained over night at the barracks and his rooms were to be openpied by the wife, sister and daughters of Capt. Craney, AVaring sent the battery team and spring wagon to town with a not*

to Mr*. Converse, of the staff, telling her the ladies had said so much about the lovely way her sparerooms were furnished that he had decided to draw on her for wash bowls, pitchers, mosquito frames, nets and coverlets, blankets, pillows, slips, shams, and anything else she might think of. And Mrs. Converse loaded up the wagon accordingly. This was the more remarkable in her case because she was one of the women with whom he had never yet danced, which was tantamount to saying thai, in the opinion of this social bashaw Mrs. Converse was not considered a good partner, and, as the lady entertained very different views on that subject and was passionately fond of dancing, she had resented not a little the line thus drawn to her detriment. She not only loaned, however, aU he asked for, but begged to be informed if there were not something more she could do to help entertain his visitors. Waring sent her some lovely flowers the next week, but failed to take her out even once at the staff german. Mrs. Cram was alternately aghast and delighted at what she perhaps justly called his incomparable impudence. They were coming out of church together one lovely morning during the winter. There was a crowd in the vestibule. Street dresses were then worn looped, yet there was a sudden sound of rip, rent and tear, and a portly woman gathered up the trailing skirt of a costly silken gown and whirled with annihilation in her eyes upon the owner of the offending foot. “That is far too elegant a skirt to be worn unlooped, madam,” said Mrs. Cram’s imperturbable escort, in his most suave and dulcet tones, lifting a glossy silk hat and bowing profoundly. And Mrs. Cram laughed all the way back to the barracks at the recollection of the utter discomfiture in the woman’s face. These are mere specimen bricks from the fabric which Waring had builded in his few months of artillery service. The limits of the story are all too con-

tracted to admit of extended detail' So, without further expansion, it may be said that when he drove up to town on this eventful April day in Cram’s wagon and Larkin’s hat and Ferry’s Hatfield clothes, with Pierce’s precious London umbrella by his side and Merton’s watch in his pocket, he was as stylish and presentable a fellow as ever issued from a battery barrack, and Jeffers, Cram’s English groom, mutely approved the general appearance of his prime favorite among the officers at the post, at most of whom he opened his eyes in cockney amaze, and critically noted the skill with which Mr. AVaring tooled the spirited bays along the level road. Nearly a mile above the barracks, midway between the long embankment to their left and the tall white picket fence surmounted by the olive-green foliage of magnolias and orange trees on the other hand, they had come upon a series of deep mud-holes in the way, where the seepage water from the rapidly rising flood was turning the roadway into a pond. Stuck helplessly in the mud, an old-fashioned cabriolet was halted. Its driver was out and up to his knees thrashing vainly at his straining, staggering horse. The tortuous roadway was blocked, but AVaring had been up and down the river bank too many times both day and night to be daunted by a matter so trivial. He simply cautioned Jeffers to lean well over the inner wheel, guided his team obliquely up the slope of the levee, and drove quietly along its level top until abreast the scene of the wreck. One glance into the interior of the cab caused him suddenly to stop, to pass the reins back to Jeffers, to spring down the slope until he stood at the edge of the sea of mud. Here he raised his hat and cried:

* “Mme. Lascelles! madame! this is indeed lucky—for me. Let me get you out.” At his call a slender, graceful woman who was gazing in anxiety and dismay from the opposite side of the cab, and pleading with the driver not to beat his horse, turned suddenly, and a pair of lovely dark eyes lighted up at sight of his face. Her pallor, too, gave instant’place to a warm flush. A pretty child at her side clapped her little hands and screamed with delight: “Maman! maman! C’est M’sieu’ A7ayreeng; c’est Sa-am.” “Oh, M. AVareeng! I’m so glad you’ve come! Do speak to that man! It is horrible the way he beat that poor horse—Mais non, Nin Nin!” she cried, reproving the child, now stretching forth her little arms to her friend and striving to rise and leap to him. “I’d like to know how in h —l I’m to get this cab out of suoh a hole as this if I don’t beat him,” exclaimed the driver, roughly. Then once more: “Dash blank dash your infernal hide! I’ll learn you to balk with me again!” Then down came more furious lashes on the quivering hide, and the poor

tortured brute began to beek, thereby piecing l the freil four-wheeler in imminent danger of being upset. “Steady there! Hold your hand, sir! Don't strike that horse again. Just stand at his head a moment and keep quiet till I get these ladies out," called Waring, in tone quiet yet commanding. “I’ll get ’em out myself in wy own way, if they’ll only stop their infernal yellin’," was the coarse reply. “Oh, M. lVareeng,” exclaimed the lady in undertone, “the man has been drinking, lam sure. He has been so rude in his language.” Waring waited for no more word*. Looking quickly about him, he saw a plank lying on the levee slope. This he seized, thrust one end across the muddy hole until it rested in the cab, stepped lightly across, took the child in his arms, bore her to the embankment and sat her down, then sprang back for her young mother, who, trembling slightly, rose and took his outstretched hand just as another lash fell on the horse’s back and another lurch followed. Waring caught at the cab-rail with one hand, threw the other arm about her slender waist, and, fairly lifting the little madame over the wheel, sprang with her to the shore, and in an instant more had carried her, speechless and somewhat agitated, to the top of the levee. “Now,” said he, “let me drive you and Nin Nin wherever you were going. Is it to market or to church?” “Mais non—to bonne maman's, of whom it is the fete,” cried the eager little one, despite her mother’s stern orders of silence. “Look!” she exclaimed, showing her dainty little legs and feet in creamy silken hose and kid. fro BE CONTINUED.]

“WELL, FOR CONSUMMATE IMPUDENCE HE BEATS THE JEWS!”