Captain Jinks, Hero

Captain Jinks, Hero, by Ernest
Crosby

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Title: Captain Jinks, Hero
Author: Ernest Crosby
Illustrator: Dan Beard
Release Date: September 22, 2006 [EBook #19353]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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JINKS, HERO ***

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[Illustration: CAPTAIN JINKS, HERO "SAM WAS TAKEN
STRADDLING A CHAIR" [Page 124]]

Captain Jinks Hero
BY
ERNEST CROSBY
Author of "Plain Talk in Psalm and Parable"
Illustrations by DAN BEARD
[Illustration]
NEW YORK AND LONDON FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
1902

COPYRIGHT, 1902, By FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
Registered at Stationers' Hall, London
Printed in the United States
Published February, 1902

TO F. C.

CONTENTS AND CARTOONS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. A BOMBSHELL, 1 II. EAST POINT, 14 III. LOVE AND
COMBAT, 34 IV. WAR AND BUSINESS, 60 V. SLOWBURGH, 89
VI. OFF FOR THE CUBAPINES, 117 VII. THE BATTLE OF SAN

DIEGO, 151 VIII. AMONG THE MORITOS, 185 IX. ON DUTY AT
HAVILLA, 216 X. A GREAT MILITARY EXPLOIT, 240 XI. A
DINNER PARTY AT GIN-SIN, 250 XII. THE GREAT WHITE
TEMPLE, 277 XIII. THE WAR-LORD, 310 XIV. HOME AGAIN,
338 XV. POLITICS, 365 XVI. THE END, 374

FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
CAPTAIN JINKS, HERO, Frontispiece "Sam was taken straddling a
chair."
WAR'S DEMAND, 6 "But what did he want of soldiers?"
THE MANLY SPORT AT EAST POINT, 56 "Starkey stood off and
gave him his 'coup de grace.'"
A BLOOD BROTHERHOOD, 120 "A big company to grab
everything.... The Benevolent Assimilation Company, Limited."
TWO OF A KIND, 206 "There are four marks."
CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED, 238 "What business have these
people to talk about equal rights?"
WINNERS OF THE CROSS, 266 "He got the Victorious Cross in
South Africa."
THE PERFECT SOLDIER, 324 "The Emperor gave an exclamation of
surprise and delight."
HARMLESS, 392 "He sits like that for hours."
CHAPTER I
A Bombshell

[Illustration]
"Bless my soul! I nearly forgot," exclaimed Colonel Jinks, as he came
back into the store. "To-morrow is Sam's birthday and I promised Ma
to bring him home something for a present. Have you got anything for
a boy six years old?"
"Let me see," answered the young woman behind the counter, turning
round and looking at an upper shelf. "Why, yes; there's just the thing.
It's a box of lead soldiers. I've never seen anything like them
before"--and she reached up and pulled down a large cardboard box.
"Just see," she added as she opened it. "The officers have swords that
come off, and the guns come off the men's shoulders; and look at
the----"
"Never mind," interrupted the colonel. "I'm in a hurry. That'll do very
well. How much is it?"
And two minutes later he went out of the store with the box in his hand
and got into his buggy, and was soon driving through the streets of
Homeville on his way to his farm.
No one had ever asked Colonel Jinks where he had obtained his title. In
fact, he had never put the question to himself. It was an integral part of
his person, and as little open to challenge as his hand or his foot. There
are favored regions of the world's surface where colonels, like poets,
are born, not made, and good fortune had placed the colonel's
birthplace in one of them. For the benefit of those of my readers who
may be prejudiced against war, and in justice to the colonel, it should
be stated that the only military thing about him was his title. He was a
mild-mannered man with a long thin black beard and a slight stoop, and
his experience with fire-arms was confined to the occasional shooting
of depredatory crows, squirrels, and rats with an ancient fowling-piece.
Still there is magic in a name. And who knows but that the subtle
influence of the title of colonel may have unconsciously guided the
searching eyes of the young saleswoman among the Noah's arks and
farmyards to the box of lead soldiers?

The lad for whom the present was intended was a happy farmer's boy,
an only child, for whom the farm was the whole world and who looked
upon the horses and cows as his fellows. His little red head was
constantly to be seen bobbing about in the barnyard among the sheep
and calves, or almost under the horses' feet. The chickens and sparrows
and swallows were his playmates, and