Philippines -- History -- Philippine American War, 1899-1902 -- Fiction
The following evening the general and his staff dined at the beautiful
home of one of the old and wealthy residents, and towards nine o'clock
Mr. Stuyvesant asked his general's permission to withdraw, as he had two
calls to make before returning aboard ship. They were to sail at dawn.
Bidding good-night and good-by to his charming hostess, and declining
the hospitable offer of a post-prandial "peg" from her genial lord, the
young officer stepped blithely away down the moonlit avenue.
It was a beautiful summer night. The skies were cloudless, the air soft
and still. Somewhere, either at the park or in the grounds of the Royal
Hawaiian, the famous band of Honolulu was giving a concert, and strains
of glorious music, rich and full, came floating on the gentle breeze.
Here and there the electric lights were gleaming in the dense tropical
foliage, and sounds of merry chat and musical laughter fell softly on
the ear.
The broad thoroughfare of Beretania Street was well nigh deserted,
though once in a while the lights of a cab on noiseless wheel flashed
by, and at rare intervals Stuyvesant met or overtook some blissful pair
whispering in the deep shadows of the overhanging trees.
It was quite a walk to the consul-general's, his first objective point,
but he enjoyed it and the brief visit that followed. Naturally the
affair of the previous evening came up for discussion, and there was
some conjecture and speculation as to the identity of the leader of the
attack on the Denver boys. Stuyvesant repeated what his friend the
brakeman said, that somewhere he had seen the fellow's face before, but
he had only a second's glimpse of it, for the moment he launched in to
the aid of the volunteers the man in the check suit caught sight of
him--and a simultaneous crack on the nose that sent him reeling towards
the open window, through which he darted the instant he could recover
balance, leaving the field equally divided, four to four in point of
numbers, but otherwise with overwhelming advantage on the side of the
clear heads and trained muscles of the soldiers.
A grewsome sight those sailors had presented when called up for sentence
in the morning, and a remorseful quartette they proved. Moreover, to the
consul-general, who had been called in in the interest of fair play for
Jack, they declared that they were innocent of all evil intent. They
only went in for a little fun with the soldiers. It was that San
Francisco fellow who called himself Spence when he was sober and Sackett
when he got drunk who brought on the row, and then abandoned them to
their fate. He had owned that he "had it in" for soldiers in
general,--hated the whole gang of them and wanted to see them well
licked. He had plenty of money and would pay their fines if the police
"ran them in," and now he had left them in the lurch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account