A Soldier's Trial: An Episode of the Canteen Crusade — John Shaqi
A Soldier's Trial: An Episode of the Canteen CrusadeKing, Charles
General
A Soldier's Trial: An Episode of the Canteen Crusade
King, Charles
United States. Army -- Military life -- Fiction
And so never again had they been separated, Dwight and his boy, until
the squadron sailed for Manila and little Jim, refusing to be comforted,
had been left with his mother's kindred until matters should shape
themselves in the Philippines. But the shaping process that might have
been a matter only of months, had the army found no other enemy than the
insurgents and their climate, proved long and costly in life, limb, and
treasure, thanks to the aid and comfort given that enemy by our
fellow-men at home. Dwight had led his squadron through a campaign
fierce in its occasional fighting, but well-nigh fatal through hardship
and heat prostration to many besides himself. Dwight had had to turn
over his command to Captain Gridley, his next in rank, and go to the sea
and Corregidor for rest and recuperation. What good effects might have
been obtained were offset by the court-martial of an officer whose mind,
it was believed, had been affected by sunstroke, yet Captain Dwight was
compelled to appear and remain some time in Manila to testify against
him. He returned to the field little benefited by the enforced
separation from his fellows, and speedily showed symptoms of returning
prostration that led the general commanding to order him again to the
seashore and recommend his being sent on a sea voyage. It was during
this voyage that, after four wonderful days at Nagasaki, he found
himself daily, almost hourly, in the presence of Inez Farrell, as
beautiful and graceful a girl as ever his eyes had seen. He was strong
neither physically nor mentally. He was still an invalid when they met
on the veranda of the old hotel overlooking that wonderful land-locked
harbor. He had by no means forgotten the impression created by her
beauty and her lissome grace when dancing at the club at Manila. He was
invited by Major Farrell to be one of their little party on a rickshaw
ride over the green hills to Mogi. It was an ideal day. It was an ideal
night, with the moon nearing full as they sat later on the upper
veranda, gazing out upon the riding lights of the shipping
thick-clustered on the placid bosom of the bay. It was followed by other
nights as beautiful both ashore and at sea. He was twenty years her
senior, yet she seemed to look for him, wait for him, prefer him in
every way to younger officers, also homeward bound, and these youngsters
left him to his fate.
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