Americans -- Cuba -- Fiction; Spanish-American War, 1898 -- Fiction
A rather short thick-set man, dressed as an army Chaplain and wearing a
crucifix attached to a strong chain around his neck, was bending over
one who lay there in the shade; he seemed to be examining the man to see
if life remained in his body, and, yet, he always held the crucifix
before the face of him who lay there as if he wished him to behold it,
in case his earthly eyes should evermore see anything; he tried in every
way he could to gain some recognition of his holy office from the man
over whose earthly tenement he was then bending, but, as he did not
succeed in this, he gently laid the crucifix upon the apparently
pulseless breast, and went his way to find, perhaps, another one to whom
he might administer the final consolation of the church whose dogmas he
believed in.
The man he'd left behind him stirred uneasily, and, as he writhed and
twisted there, the crucifix slid off his breast and fell upon the
ground; it lay where it had fallen until Father Felix came again and
brought with him another sufferer; he looked upon the breast of his
first charge and did not see his crucifix ... it lay beneath the body of
the one he'd left it with; he gently said:
"I left my crucifix with you, my Friend ... I thought it might be a
consolation to you if you came to life again at all. I do not see the
crucifix ... could anyone have taken it during my absence, I wonder?"
"I'm sure I don't know anything about your crucifix, good Sir," the man
replied in a weak voice. "I have other things to fix my mind on than
anything like that. For one thing, I am wounded and I need a surgeon
more than I do Priests or crosses."
"I'll supply that need as far as I am able," Father Felix said. "I know
I am an amateur and yet I have set broken limbs and tied up arteries and
sewed up wounds full many times because there was no one better near
enough to do it. Where are you hurt, my Friend?"
"I am not hurt at all, you blundering old fool, you ..." the man began.
"I'm dead and buried ... killed completely ... that is all ... and I
don't want any old woman's work. Go get a surgeon for me ... quick! I'm
losing lots of blood ... I need a surgeon, I tell you ... go get me
one!"
Father Felix did not say a word in answer to this tirade for he had
heard full many such remarks since he had been at work among the
soldiers, and, so, he bound the wounds of the second sufferer he'd
brought before he stopped the flow of blood from his first charge, for,
well he knew the loss of some good red blood might make it easier for
him to help the man ... he was too full of life and anger ... too full
of unrepented viciousness ... for the good Priest to help him very much,
and, so, he let him lay there in the shade and curse and fume and rage
until he worked his evil temper off a little; then he gently said to
him:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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