The Man on the Box | Page 4

He could
see the Apache as he stood out from behind the bush. Warburton
yanked out his Colt and let fly. He heard a yell. It was very comforting.
That was all he remembered of the skirmish.
For five weeks he languished in the hospital. During that time he came
to the conclusion that he had had enough of military life in the West.
He applied for his discharge, as the compulsory term of service was at
an end. When his papers came he was able to get about with the aid of a
crutch. One morning his colonel entered his subaltern's bachelor
quarters.
"Wouldn't you rather have a year's leave of absence, than quit

altogether, Warburton?"
"A year's leave of absence?" cried the invalid, "I am likely to get that, I
am."
"If you held a responsible position I dare say it would be difficult. As it
is, I may say that I can obtain it for you. It will be months before you
can ride a horse with that leg."
"I thank you, Colonel Raleigh, but I think I'll resign. In fact, I have
resigned."
"We can withdraw that, if you but say the word. I don't want to lose
you, lad. You're the only man around here who likes a joke as well as I
do. And you will have a company if you'll only stick to it a little
longer."
"I have decided, Colonel. I'm sorry you feel like this about it. You see,
I have something like twenty-five thousand laid away. I want to see at
least five thousand dollars' worth of new scenery before I shuffle off
this mortal coil. The scenery around here palls on me. My throat and
eyes are always full of sand. I am off to Europe. Some day, perhaps, the
bee will buzz again; and when it does, I'll have you go personally to the
president."
"As you please, Warburton."
"Besides, Colonel, I have been reading Treasure Island again, and I've
got the fever in my veins to hunt for adventure, even a treasure. It's in
my blood to wander and do strange things, and here I've been hampered
all these years with routine. I shouldn't care if we had a good fight once
in a while. My poor old dad traveled around the world three times, and
I haven't seen anything of it but the maps."
"Go ahead, then. Only, talking about Treasure Island, don't you and
your twenty-five thousand run into some old Long John Silver."
"I'll take care."

And Mr. Robert packed up his kit and sailed away. Not many months
passed ere he met his colonel again, and under rather embarrassing
circumstances.

II
INTRODUCES MY HEROINE
Let me begin at the beginning. The boat had been two days out of
Southampton before the fog cleared away. On the afternoon of the third
day, Warburton curled up in his steamer-chair and lazily viewed the
blue October seas as they met and merged with the blue October skies.
I do not recollect the popular novel of that summer, but at any rate it
lay flapping at the side of his chair, forgotten. It never entered my
hero's mind that some poor devil of an author had sweated and labored
with infinite pains over every line, and paragraph, and page-labored
with all the care and love his heart and mind were capable of, to
produce this finished child of fancy; or that this same author, even at
this very moment, might be seated on the veranda of his beautiful
summer villa, figuring out royalties on the backs of stray envelopes. No,
he never thought of these things.
What with the wind and the soft, ceaseless jar of the throbbing engines,
half a dream hovered above his head, and touched him with a gentle,
insistent caress. If you had passed by him this afternoon, and had been
anything of a mathematician who could straighten out geometrical
angles, you would have come close to his height had you stopped at
five feet nine. Indeed, had you clipped off the heels of his low shoes,
you would have been exact. But all your nice calculations would not
have solved his weight. He was slender, but he was hard and compact.
These hard, slender fellows sometimes weigh more than your men of
greater bulk. He tipped the scales at one hundred sixty-two, and he
looked twenty pounds less. He was twenty- eight; a casual glance at
him, and you would have been willing to wager that the joy of casting
his first vote was yet to be his.

The princess commands that I describe in detail the charms of this
Army Adonis. Far be it that I should disobey so august a command,
being, as I am, the prime minister in this her principality