The Argosy, Vol. 76, No. 3 — page 203: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

PAY-DAY. IN PALAOR, chair for the one young American who did not weary her mistress by sudden and. persistent protestations of love. “I’ve just got sis to promise that I’m to be an officer, too, as soon as I get bigger and stronger.” Edith smiled sadly over the little invalid’s shoulder. “That’s straight, Miss Edwards?” Marker asked as he stretched himself at his ease alongside Dick’s chair. “Oh, yes Mr. Marker! It’s a bar- gain. But Dick has promised to be very careful from now on, so as to get well soon, and not go tramping off by himself in the woods and get- ting chilled by the rain-storms, as he did last week.” ‘““ And mighty good exercise in dis- cipline, Dick boy. If you’re going to command soldiers, you must first know how to obey, which reminds me’’—taking from one of his pockets a small field edition of the United States army manual—“here’s that book I promised you, Dick. Just came down to-day from Manila, so I thought I’d bring it around.” The boy’s eyes again sparkled with delight, but his first words of thanks were drowned by a fit of coughing, which left him pitifully pale and weak, Edith urged him to go to his room, as the night air was damp and foggy; but he pleaded to remain a little longer on the veranda, reading his book by the light of the oil~lamp suspended from one of the supporting beams of the sloping eaves. Edith and Marker left him ab- sorbed in the technicalities of the sol- dier’s duties and drills, walking out of the little garden together, down the western bend of the trail which ended at the lake shore. They talked about indifferent things until the girl touched upon the peace, now to all appearances permanently established on the island. “ Yes, worse luck,” Marker agreed, ‘Of course, it’s a good thing for the government and the natives, and allt 673 that. But for a constabulary mart there’s little glory or chance to do any- thing in a place like Palaor. Now, if I were only up in Luzon, in Samar or in Mindanao, there'd be a better show for promotion. “Where you’re cooped up in a hole like this they never hear of you, and you get lost in the shuffle. After that last little racket our fellows pounded all the fight out of the insurgents in this neck of the woods. Nothing worse than a cattle-lifting case has come up for months.” “But,” insisted Miss Edwards, “isn’t that the object of the constab- ulary? JIsn’t all the horrid scouting and fighting and killing and imprison- ment just to make peace and keep it?” “TI suppose so. But it’s only the fellows who keep in the scrapping who work their way up to the top. The others don’t count.’’. They had reached the edge of the Take. The girl seated herself on a flat boulder within a few feet of the purling, starlit tide. After a brief silence the man said softly: “ Edith!” The girl blushed to her temples. I€ was the first time he had called her by her given name. She said to her- self she ought to be vexed, but her heart told her she was pleased. She had been calling him “Tom” in a big-brotherly fashion for weeks past, and he had seemed to accept the situa- tions—so unlike the others who had plagued her with. sudden efforts at close intimacy. A. tiny voice within her whispered advice to preserve the friend by frowning upon the lover. But she did not. Instead, she said very shyly; “Yes, Tom.” “Edith dear, if I were to go away from here would you miss me very much? ” Her eyes were upon the silver path tracked by the young moon on the un- dulating water. She was purposely avoiding Jooking up at him; but she knew he was bending over her, and COMicdoo S CO@