Philippines -- History -- Philippine American War, 1899-1902 -- Fiction
"Shut up, you drunken fool!" he cried. "Don't mind him, lieutenant.
He's only a day at the depot, sir. Sit still, you blackguard, or I'll
smash you!"--this to Murray, who, half suffocated, was writhing in his
effort to escape. "A--ch!" he cried, with sudden wrenching away of the
brawny hand, "the beast has bitten me," and the broad palm, dripping
with blood, was held up to the light.
Deeply indented, there were the jagged marks of Murray's teeth.
"Here, Foster, Hunt, grab this man and don't let him stir, hand or foot.
See what you get for giving a drunkard money. Grab him, I say!" shouted
Connelly, grinning with mingled pain and wrath as the lieutenant led him
to the wash-stand.
Another recruit, a stalwart fellow, who had apparently seen previous
service, sprang to the aid of the first two named, and between them,
though he stormed and struggled a moment, the wretch was jammed and held
in his corner.
Stanching the blood as best he could and bandaging the hand with his own
kerchief, Stuyvesant bade the corporal sit at an open window a moment,
for he looked a trifle faint and sick,--it was a brutal bite. But
Connelly was game.
"That blackguard's got to be taught there's a God in Israel," he
exclaimed, as he turned back to the rear of the car. "I beg the
lieutenant's pardon, but--he is not in the regular army, I see," with a
glance at the collar of the young officer's blouse. "We sometimes get
hard cases to deal with, and this is one of them. This kind of a cur
wouldn't hesitate to shoot an officer in the back or stab him in the
dark if he didn't like him. I hope the lieutenant may never be bothered
with him again. No, damn you!" he added between his set teeth, as he
looked down at the sullen, scowling prisoner, "what you ought to have is
a good hiding, and what you'll get, if you give any more trouble, is a
roping, hand and foot. We ought to have irons on a trip like this,
lieutenant," he continued, glancing up into the calm, refined face of
the young soldier. "But I can get a rope, if you say so, and tie him in
his berth."
"I have no authority in the matter," said Stuyvesant reflectively. "No
one has but you, that I know of. Perhaps he'll be quiet when he cools
down," and the lieutenant looked doubtfully at the semi-savage in the
section nearest the door.
"He'll give no more trouble this night, anyhow," said Connelly, as the
officer turned to go. "And thank you, sir, for this," and he held up the
bandaged hand. "But I'll keep my eyes peeled whenever he's about
hereafter, and you'll be wise to do the same, sir."
For one instant, as the lieutenant paused at the door-way and looked
back, the eyes of the two men met, his so brave and blue and clear; the
other's--Murray's--furtive, blood-shot, and full of hate. Then the door
slammed and Stuyvesant was gone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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