Captain Macklin

nd with the horror of what I had witnessed. I was reckless, mad, for the first time in my life, filled with hate against

on my rein, and we

d each time he fired, he laughed. The laugh brought me back to the desperate need of our mission. I tricked myself into believing that Laguerre was not seriously wounded. I persuaded myself that by br

ven the voices of women mocked at us. Men sprang at my bridle, and my horse rode them down. They shot at us from the doors of t

Bogran, and we raced down it, each with hi

rant of what had transpired; they did not know who was, or who was not their official enemy, and they were unwilling to fire upon the people, who a moment before, before the flag of Alvarez had risen on Pecachua, had been their

w us they raise

push your gun to the palace. Laguerre is there. Kill ever

ide. He was covered with sweat and blood. He

mean, Macklin?" he shout

ou see," I ordered. "Let loose u

w and I raced on toward the next post, we hear

turned black, and with the sudden fierceness of the tropics, heavy dro

darkened to ink, or were ripped asunder by vivid flashes, and the thunder rolled unceasingly. We were half drowned, as though we were dragged thro

ntly travellers starting forth on the three days' ride to San Lorenzo, to cross to Amapala, where the Pacific Mail takes on her passengers. They had been halted by our sentries. As I came nearer I recognized, through the mist of rain, Joseph Fiske, you

ashing the canvas-cover to their gun, and ordered t

called: "Am I to let these pe

ed toward him with a confident smile. I could not bear to have him depart, thinking he went in triumph. I looked the group over car

iage, called out: "You'd better come, too;

McGraw instantly answered, "Yes, it

s in the palace." McGraw did not understand Spanish, and looked at me appealingly, and I reto

he won't take it with thir

McGraw, but, as we moved, Mr.

or the roaring of the storm drowned all ordinary sounds. "In cas

e city were a few scouts, but I could not let Fiske

s: Pass bearer, Joseph Fiske, his f

L MAC

sident of

gave it him, and he read

iends?" he asked, noddin

your servants," I answer

e, but as I turned to meet it I was again halted, this time by youn

bent forward, raising his other arm to shield his face from the sto

ow of the carriage was pushed down and his sister leaned out and beckoned to me. Her

ank you," she repeated, "for my broth

antly, and as she withdrew her face from the window of the car

wed is all

and white eyeballs; lit by gleams of lightning and flashes of powder. I remember going down under my pony and thinking how cool and pleasant it was in the wet mud, and of being thrown back on him again as though I were a pack-saddle, and I remember wiping the rain out of my eyes with a wet sleeve, and finding the sleeve warm with blood. And then there was a pitchy blackness through which I kept striking at faces that s

, through which they shoved their rifles and then there was a great cheer outside, and a man came running in crying, "Alvarez and Heinze are at the corner with the twelve-pounders!" Then our men cursed like fiends, and swept out of the room, and as no one remained to hold me down, I stumbled after them into

ling dizzy and very weak. But my head was clear and I could understand what he said to me. Of the whole of the Foreign Legion only thirty were left. Miller was killed, Russell was killed and old man Webster was killed. They told me how they had caught him when he made a dash to the barracks for ammuniti

. They told me a blow from behind had knocked me over, and though, of that, I could remember nothi

four gatlings at each corner. The wound was in his throat, so he could not speak, but when they led me down into the Patio he raised h

We were being driven out of it by the very men for whom we had risked our lives. Some among us, the reckless, the mercenary, the adventurers, had played like gamblers for a stake, and had lost. Others, as they

y were waiting only until the sun rose to fall upon our little garrison and set us up against the barrack wall, as a peace offering to their former masters. Only one chance remained

ed to the gatlings to clear a road

Cabinet, and all that was left of the Government and Army of General

rkness, but the instant we reached th

ery. But our men had seen the dead faces of their leaders and comrades, and they were frantic, desperate. They charged like madmen. Nothing could hold them

to the bridge, and then swept the bridge itself. We could hear the splashes when t

the sleeping suburbs, with only one of our guns barking

our fellows dropped where they stood, and slept like dead men. But they could not sleep for long. We all knew that our only chance lay in reaching San Lorenzo, on the Pacific Ocean. Once there, we were confident that the war-ship would protect us, and her surgeon

he woods, or stole from the clearing, on plants, and roots, and fruit. We were no longer a military body. We had ceased to be either officers or privates. We were now only so many wretched fellow-beings, dependent upon each other, like sailors cast adrift upon some desert island, and each worked for the good of all, and the ties which bound us together were stronger than those of authority and discipline. Men scarcel

ward, staggering, stumbling, some raving with fever, others w

m ambush, and when we beat them off, they rode ahead and warned the villages that we were coming; so, that, when we reached them, we were dr

eague of unbroken jungle, a great, shining sheet of water, like a cloud on the horizon, and someone cried: "The Pacific!"

sings flow," and we stood up, the last of the Legion, shaken with fever, starving, wounded

at the back of my head. I remember someone exclaiming "He's bled to death!" and a torch held to my

e playing in the dirt beside me, the sun was shining, great palms were bending in

ion for it, so I gave up guessing, and gazed contentedly at the bending palms until one of the child

, smiling, and murmuring prayers in Spanis

was, and she sai

ed to do so I found I could hardly raise my body. But I had ga

ds?" I asked. "Wher

r hands, and thre

raising her eyes and shaking her head, "and they carried you here, and told me to hide you. You have been very ill, and you are sti

Royal Macklin. Let the priest bury him and send word to the Military Academy, West Point, U.

s the following letter

asn't possible. We had to desert one of you, so we stuck by the old man. We hid your revolver and money-belt under the seventh palm, on the beach to the right of this shack. If I'd known you had twenty double eagles on you all this time, I'd have cracked your skull myself. The crack you've got is healing, and if you pull through the fever you'll be all right. If you do, give this woman twenty pesos I borrowed from her. Get her to hire a boat, a

rs t

ERT A

rn it over to the officers of the Raleigh, to tak

-the first question was at once answered by the woman. She told me it was known in San Lorenzo that the late "Presidente Generale," with three Gringoes, had reached the American war-ship and had been received on board. The Commandante of Amapala had d

day before the steamer left Amapala, and I determined to start for the island the following evening. When I told the woman this, she protested I was much too weak t

her, for Aiken and for myself, as well as one can pay a person for saving one's life. The next night, as soon as the sun set, I seated myse

ics, and as I had no fear of harm from them, I curled

ng from her stacks, and the American flag hanging at the stern. I was still weak and shaky, and I must confess that I choked a bit at the sight of the flag, and at the thought that, in spite of all, I was going safely back to life, and Beatrice and Aunt Mary. The name I made out on the stern of the steamer was Barracouta, and I considered it

th great glee, and then with new strength and unassisted I p

ped. But he happened to be the ship's purser, and, instead of embracing me, he told me coldly that steerage passengers are not allowed aft. But I did n

first-class cabin, the immediate use of the b

he mud of the swamps and the sweat of the fever had caked it with dirt. I had an eight days' beard, and my bare feet were in n

costs forty dollars gol

and I laughed from sheer, fool

er, and as the purser moved rather reluctantly toward

f Alvarez. When they saw me they gave little squeals of excitement, and

h disgust. I had thought I was done with brawling and fighting, of being hated and hunted. I had had my fill of it. I wanted to be let alone, I wanted to feel that everybody about me

, the Commandante of the port. He spoke to the fat man in English, but in th

rection, and then hesitated and

surrounded us. I noticed that they and their officers belonged to the Eleventh

n. As he listened he scowled at me, chewing savagely on an unlit cigar, and rocking himself to and fro on his heels and toes. Hi

d, as carelessly as I could: "

ly shook

fat man turned suddenly from th

with the tone of a m

lice-permit to leave

I an

aven't you?"

I said. "Why do you ask?" I added.

uestioned his word. "Anyway, I've got enough say on h

en I saw the shore with its swamps and ragged palms, I felt how perilously near it was, and Panama became suddenly a distant mirage.

ad at me, as though I we

that our agent sold you a ticket wi

t," I said. "I was jus

e thrust himse

descriptions. He was dressed just so; green coat, red trousers, very torn and dirty-head in banda

abbed Jose Mendez in the Libertad Billiard Hall. He has wanted to murder him. If

anish, and the soldier

ce I had entered Honduras. For the men who had met me then had fought with fair weapons. Th

hen he knew nothing more of me than that I wore it, the Commandante had trumped up this charge of crime, and had fitted to my appearance the imaginary description of an imagi

line; of Bonilla taken from the Ariadne and murdered on this very wharf at this very port of Amapala; of General Pulido strangled in t

after the real battle was lost; to die of fever in a cell; to be stabb

fought for my life as desperately a

ask the men who brought me. I'm no murderer. That man knows I'm no murderer. He wants me because I belonged to the opposition government.

te seized the

if you do not surrender the murderer to me, your ship

ng this coast, a lot of damned beach-combers and stowaways stealing on board, and the Commandante chasing 'em all over my ship and holding up my papers. You go ashore!" he ordered. He swept his arm toward the gangway. "You go

the man aright. He seemed to be t

t was difficult for me to find the words, "that you refuse to protect me from these half-breeds, that you are go

eyes with their fans, and little children crowding in between them and clinging to their skirts. To my famished eyes they looked like angels out of Paradise. Th

to let him murder me in sight of that flag? You know he'll do it. You know what they did to R

owded in front of

ied by law. He shall see his consul every day. And so, if you try t

ed up to the second officer, who was lea

g to have this ship held up any longer, and I'm not going to risk the lives of these ladies and gentlemen by any bombar

'll be dead before you'v

n roared w

s before! I'm not here to protect every damned scalawag that tries to stowaway on my ship. I'm here

he creak of the anchor-chains as they were drawn on

My last appeal had failed.

u're no American. You're no white man. No American would le

miny of our defeat and flight, rose in me and drove me on. "And I don't want the protection of

, that it had been brought upon me by one of my own countrymen, while others of my countrymen stood i

tect mysel

te's heart, and at the same instant without turning my eyes from his face I

against the Commandante's chest. "Now, then, take me ashore," I called to his men. "You know me, I'm Captain Macklin. Captain Mack

ng cautiously and forming a ring of points about me, and the

We drove you out of Santa Barbara and Tabla Ve and Comyagua, and I'm your Vice-President!

I sprang back a

e men shrank from it as though I had lashed them with a whip. "Come on," I

s suddenly uplifted at my side. I recogni

that gun!"

eaman's dread of international law, but he certainly was not afraid of a gun. He regarded it no more than a pointed

tain Macklin

I could only gape at him while I s

I ans

threw himself upon the Commandante. He seized him by his epaulettes and pushed h

"Every one of you; you're a

d gathered at the gangway to assist in throw

tonished soldiers, and drove them to the side. Their curses and shrieks filled the air, the women retreated

headforemost down the companion-ladder, the Captain rushed back to me and clutched me by both shoulders. Had i

abin, and that's where you stay as long as you are on my ship. You're no p

d," I protested faintl

the last three trips. Vice-President of Honduras!" he exclaimed, shaking me as though I were a carpet. "A kid like you! Y

, in a wondering circle. The stewards and deck-hands, panting with t

"And, Mr. Owen," he continued, addressing the Purser, with great impressiv

t of you holding your gun on that gang for a cargo of bullion. I suspicioned it was you, the moment you did it. That will be something for me to tell them in

, who fell back in two long lines. As we moved between

id you

hen protested, in a rising accent, "Now, for Heaven's

udes of the North. It is just an exotic of the tropics. I am sure it will never weather Cape Hatteras. But although I won't amount to much in Dobbs Ferry, down here in Central America I am pretty well

RY, Septe

leaves on the hills of Staten Island and the thousands of columns of circling, white smoke rising over the three cities. I had not let Beatrice and Aunt Mary know that I was in a hospital, but had

oats, and they, shivering, no doubt, at the sight of our canvas awnings and

Ferry, please." I remember the fascination with which I watched the man (he was talking over his shoulder to another man at the time) punch the precious ticket,

e, and hugged and scolded me, and cried on my shoulder, and Beatrice smiled at me, just as though she were very proud of me, and I kissed her once. After ten minutes, it did not seem as though I had

own fault. It was their wish that I should constantly pose in the dual roles of the returned prodigal

General Grant into a braggart. So, every day wonderful dishes of Aunt Mary's contriving were set b

e more flattering, as she had alrea

irst evening as I was relating the st

er?" she asked. "You f

ied, "but how cou

l told us,

outed. "Has Lo

we placed it?" and she rose rather quickly, and stood with her face toward

. He has come out often to ask for news of you. He is at

cried, "to think of his being so near me, and that he's a friend of yo

sword, and was standi

ery fond of you, too, Royal. I don't

stories for the second time must have been something of a bore. And when Aunt Mary gave me roast beef for dinner two nig

n tentatively, and I was exceedingly disgusted when they caught up my plan with such enthusiasm and alacrity, that I was forced to go on with it. I could not see why it was necessary for me to work. I had two thousand dollars a year my grandf

owledge of languages. He said I ought to try for a clerkship in some firm where I could handle the foreign correspondence. His even suggesting such work annoyed me extremely. I told him that, on the contrary, my strongest card was my experience in active c

holding a family council on my case at the time); "I have no desi

Mary said. "You have not enough m

ent without some kind o

ell added. "You mean to make something of yourself

ted to the ward-room, he ta

click your heels if you came within thirty feet of my distinguished person. Of course, I'm ambitious, and t

troubled, and sho

ery little of your own to count, and some day

rived he told us he had fixed it with another man to stand his watch. The reason I was disturbed was because, when Aunt Mary spoke, it made me wonder if she were not thinking of Beatrice. One day just after I arrived from Panama, when we were alone, she said th

ldn't think of anything to say, and so just looked solemn, then she changed the subject by asking: "Royal, have you noticed that Lieutenant Lowell admires Beatrice very much?" And I said

le down." A most odious phrase. They were two to one against me, and when one finished another took

the downtown business circles I ma

at if he were there now he must know whether there is anything in this talk of a French expedition against the Chinese in Tonkin. Also whether the Mahdi really means to make trouble for the Khedive

three restless weeks for an answer, and then, as no answer came, I put it all behind me, and hung my old, to

r eyes from her bo

" she

ts me,"

nd for a long time looke

ot seem a great sacrifice; to have work to do, to live at home, and in such a dear, old home as this, near a big city, and with

it was for my good." I had seated myself in front of the wood fire opposite her, and was turning the chain she gave m

certainly my words, or the sight of the chain, had a most curious effect. It is absurd, but I could almost swear that she looked frightened. She flushed, and her eyes were suddenly filled with tears

ittle laugh, and said: "And so you

gallantly. "I'd like to see

't you?" she asked gently. "It

se, sort of effeminate, a man's wearin

s time quite differently.

it me, Royal. You'll never need any w

ld links in the

d. She raised her eyes eagerly.

She heard me, and leaned forward. I could just see her sweet, troubled face in the firelight. "But I

ight remind me that somewhere in this world there is romance, and adventure, and fighting. And it wouldn't do. You can't have romance around a business office. Some day, when I was trying to add up my sums, I might see it on my wrist, and forget where I was. I might remember the days when it shone in the li

there, and Aunt Mary said he had been a great friend of Professor Endicott's. One day in the laboratory the man discovered something, and h

out me, in the hope that he might put me

time the situation appealed to my sense of humor. When the great man finally said he would see me, I found him tilting back in a swivel-chair in front of a ma

ne the honor to write him a letter, there is no other business in New York City more important than attending promptly to that lett

the other watch-officers in the ward-room of my first attempt

anyway," they cried, "going around,

cutlasses in their racks, and the clean-limbed, bare-throated Jackies, and the watch-officer stamping the deck just as though he were at sea, with his glass and si

d with thousands of electric lights, like great Christmas-trees. At one wharf a steamer of the Red D line, just in from La Guayra, was making fast, and I guiltily crept on board. Without, she was coated in a shearing of ice, but within she reeked of Spanish-America-of coffee, rubber, and raw sugar. Pineapples were still swinging in a net from the awning-rail, a two-necked water-bottle hung at the hot mouth of the engine-room.

pears to take home with me, and I promised to come the n

threw the alligator-pears over the rail of the ferry-boat and watched them fall into the dirty, grinding ice. I saw that I had been in rank m

hat looked as though it could afford a foreign correspondent. But I had reached Twenty-eighth Street, without seeing any place that appealed to me, when a little groom, in a warm fur collar and chilly white br

k to a brougham that was drawn up beside the curb behind me, and op

back, Captain Macklin," she

now," she went on, in a most frank and friendly manner, "instead of a tropical thunder-storm, it's a snow-storm, and instead of my running away from your shells

I protested. "I may insult a woman for protecting h

t of a romantic play, and we had seen the play together. Who could believe that the young man, tramping the streets on the lookout for a job, had ever signed his name, a

h we had both been thinking alou

happened

e went on, eagerly, "or perhaps you kn

adding that I believed her father

xclaimed. She nodded at me energetically. "Well,

not news

a little,

ome, he looked it up, and found you were right about that money, and so he's paid it back, not to that

!" I

d all that Isthmian

er,"

ew company," she continued, and then ra

d, "since he's yo

's very nice of you. Here comes

s I had decided against, when I had passed it a few minutes before. It seemed

you know, mother-who fought the duel with

ocial leader it must be trying to have a man presented t

was holding up her train, but she slipped

d me a great deal about you. Have you asked Captain Macklin to

and we'll have tortillas and frijoles, and build

Ferry,"

d. "But you're such a well-k

at once to a drug-store and borrowed the directory, to find out where they lived, and I walked all the way up the avenue to have a look at their house. Somehow I felt that for

ll by sight. I at once made up my mind that I never would have the courage to ring that door-bell, and I moun

ad left them, and when I said I had been in Central America and could write Spanish easily, Schwartz, or, it may have been Carboy-I didn't ask him which was his silly name-dictated a letter and I wrote it in Spanish. One of the other clerks admitted it was faultless. So, I regret to say, I got the job. I'm to begin with fifteen dollars, and Sc

ar passed Koster & Bial's every hour. I half hoped he would take offence at that, and in consequence my connection, with Schwartz & Carboy might end instantly and forever; but whichev

RY, Sunda

have written this one they are to be sealed, and to-morrow they are to be packed away in

g Beatrice. Her back was turned toward me, so I could stare at her as long as I pleased. The light of the candles on each side of the music-rack fell upon her hair, and made it flash and burn. She had twisted it high, in a coi

nds ran over the keyboard, playing an old sailor's "chantey" which Lowell ha

promise was there before me of reward or honor? I was no longer "an officer and a gentleman," I was a copying clerk, "a model letter-writer." I could foresee the end. I would become a nervous, knowing, smug-faced civilian. Instead of clean liquors, I would poison myself with cocktails and "quick-order" luncheons. I would carry a commuter's ticket. In time I might rise to the impor

till playing. I guessed the telegram was from Lowell to say he could not get away, and I was sorry. But as I tore open the envelope, I noticed that it was not the usual one of yellow paper, but of a pinkish white. I had never received a cablegram. I did not know that this was one. I read the messag

"Commanding Battalion French Zouaves, Tonkin Expedition, holding position of

d copper, I saw the swarming harbor of Marseilles. I saw the swaggering turcos in their scarlet breeches, the crowded troop-ships, and from every ship's mast the glorious tri-color of France; the flag that in ten short years had again risen, that was flying over advancing columns in China, in Africa, in Madagascar; over armies that for Alsace Lorraine were giving

advanced bowing toward Beatrice, and she turned an

. "What is it? W

handed her the cablegram and stood up stiffly. My joints were rigid and the blood was still cold in my veins. She read the message, and gave a

s face it was filled with surprise and disapproval. But beneath, I saw a dawning look which he could not keep down, of a great

determined to conceal her own wishes, to obliterate herself entirely, to let me know that, so far as she could affect my choice, I was a free agent. I looked appealingly f

ke drink

o speak, and then lowered them and stepped

he moment has come. You must see that this is the crisis. It means choosing not for a year, but for always." She held out her hands, entwining the fingers closely. "Oh, don't think I'm trying to stop you, Royal," she cr

which gave the call to arms. I did indeed understand that the crisis had come. In that same room, five minutes before the message arrived, I had sworn for her sake alone to submit to the life I hated. And yet in an instant, without a moment's pause, at the first sound of "Boots an

wanted to see the shells splash up the earth again, I wanted to throw my leg across a saddle, I wanted to sleep on a blanket by a camp-fire, I wanted the kiss and caress of danger

ead, and spok

m sorry. But I have

aced me with the same strange look, par

ng, and you've got to listen to me. Think, man, think what you're losing. Think of all the things you are gi

a soldier. It acted on me like a potion. The instant my fingers touched its hilt, the blood, which had grown chilled, leaped through my body. In answer I held the sword toward Lowell. It was very hard to s

My grandfather was Hamilton, of Cerro Gordo, of the City of Mexico, of Gettysburg. My father was 'Fighting' Macklin. He was killed at the head of his soldiers. All my people have been soldiers. One fought at the batt

tched him swinging down the silent, moon-lit road, knocking the icicles from the hedges with his stick. I stood there some time looking after him, for I love him very dearly, and then a strange thing happened. After he had walked quite a distan

, to think that in ten days I shall see Paris! And then, the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, the Indian Ocean, Singapore, and, at last, the yellow flags and black dragons of the enemy. It cannot last long, this row. I shall be comi

ld. All women are good, but they are the best. All women are so good, that when one of them thinks one of us is worthy to marry her, she pays a compliment to our entire sex. But as they are all good and all beautiful, Beatrice bein

me turned out will have to present arms to me, and the older men will say to the plebs, "That distinguished-looking officer with the French mustache,

ore on the old parade ground, with all the future Grants and Lees around me, and when the flag comes down, I shall rais

E