From the Ranks | Page 6

to
Nina Beaubien, who dances like a coryphée, and drops her when Alice
Renwick comes with her glowing Spanish beauty. Oh, damn it, I'm an
old fool to get worked up over it as I do, but you young fellows don't
see what I see. You haven't seen what I've seen; and pray God you
never may! That's where the shoe pinches, Rollins. It is what he
reminds me of--not so much what he is, I suppose--that I get rabid
about. He is for all the world like a man we had in the old regiment
when you were in swaddling-clothes; and I never look at Mamie Gray's

sad, white face that it doesn't bring back a girl I knew just then whose
heart was broken by just such a shallow, selfish, adorable scoun--No, I
won't use that word in speaking of Jerrold; but it's what I fear. Rollins,
you call him generous. Well, so he is,--lavish, if you like, with his
money and his hospitality here in the post. Money comes easily to him,
and goes; but you boys misuse the term. I call him selfish to the core,
because he can deny himself no luxury, no pleasure, though it may
wring a woman's life--or, more than that, her honor--to give it him."
The captain was tramping up and down the room now, as was his wont
when excited; his face was flushed, and his hand clinched. He turned
suddenly and faced the younger officer, who sat gazing uncomfortably
at the rug in front of the fireplace.
"Rollins, some day I may tell you a story that I've kept to myself all
these years. You won't wonder at my feeling as I do about these
goings-on of your friend Jerrold when you hear it all, but it was just
such a man as he who ruined one woman, broke the heart of another,
and took the sunshine out of the life of two men from that day to this.
One of them was your colonel, the other your captain. Now go to bed.
I'm going out." And, throwing down his pipe, regardless of the
scattering sparks and ashes, Captain Chester strode into the hall-way,
picked up the first forage-cap he laid hands on, and banged himself out
of the front door.
Mr. Rollins remained for some moments in the same attitude, still
gazing abstractedly at the rug, and listening to the nervous tramp of his
senior officer on the piazza without. Then he slowly and thoughtfully
went to his room, where his perturbed spirit was soon soothed in sleep.
His conscience being clear and his health perfect, there were no deep
cares to keep him tossing on a restless pillow.
To Chester, however, sleep was impossible: he tramped the piazza a
full hour before he felt placid enough to go and inspect his guard. The
sentries were calling three o'clock, and the wind had died away, as he
started on his round. Dark as was the night, he carried no lantern. The
main garrison was well lighted by lamps, and the road circling the old
fort was broad, smooth, and bordered by a stone coping wall where it

skirted the precipitous descent into the river-bottom. As he passed
down the plank walk west of the quadrangle wherein lay the old
barracks and the stone quarters of the commanding officer and the low
one-storied row of bachelor dens, he could not help noting the silence
and peace of the night. Not a light was visible at any window as he
strode down the line. The challenge of the sentry at the old stone tower
sounded unnecessarily sharp and loud, and his response of "Officer of
the day" was lower than usual, as though rebuking the unseemly outcry.
The guard came scrambling out and formed hurriedly to receive him,
but the captain's inspection was of the briefest kind. Barely glancing
along the prison corridor to see that the bars were in place, he turned
back into the night, and made for the line of posts along the river-bank.
The sentry at the high bridge across the gorge, and the next one, well
around to the southeast flank, were successively visited and briefly
questioned as to their instructions, and then the captain plodded sturdily
on until he came to the sharp bend around the outermost angle of the
fort and found himself passing behind the quarters of the commanding
officer, a substantial two-storied stone house with mansard roof and
dormer-windows. The road in the rear was some ten feet below the
level of the parade inside the quadrangle, and consequently, as the
house faced the parade, what was the ground-floor from that front
became the second story at the rear. The kitchen, store-room, and
servants' rooms were on this lower stage, and opened upon