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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[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 they seemed to have no fear of him. The black colt with its thick legs and ruffled mane ran behind its gray dam to hide from every one else, but it let Sam pat it without flinching. The first new-hatched chicken which had been given to him for his