Captured; the story of Sandy Ray

Front matter

SKING

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

Chapter II

It was the late autumn of the year of our Lord the nineteen hundred and third and of the new uniform the first. The 42nd Infantry being stationed in the States long months after the issue of G. O. No. 132 on the fateful 31st of December, had found itself compelled, so far as its ofiicers were concerned, to purchase much of the new outfit — that much of it, too, which could hardly be worn in the tropics. The 4:2nd had been at a big eastern garrison, a fine and showy regiment much in requisition for parades, expositions and monument unveilings and monumental sham battles. It had to get the new full uniform, even though it could get nothing for the old. An optimistic inspector had said, in reply to the rueful question of certain subalterns who had not yet succeeded in paying for the overcoat and the double-breasted frock, the handsome, costly belt, sword, shoulder-knots and helmet purchased but six months earlier, "Sell 'em to some of these ]S^ational Guardsmen. They are always glad to get 'em at a sacrifice." But the inspector knew not the ^National Guard, who had no use whatever for uniforms or equipments no longer to be those of the regular service. Lieuten-

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ants Walker, Trott and Hikeman, now of the 4:2nd, had not worn their eighty dollar overcoats six times apiece, nor their fine full dress six times six, when they were ordered to provide themselves with an entirely new, much more extensive and far more expensive wardrobe. "I'll have six suits of uniform and as many at law," said one luckless youngster. "Oh, why did I ever go for a soldier ?" The officers of the 42nd got the new full dress in the spring, "the route" for Manila in the summer and the bills by almost every post between times and after. The battalion ordered to take station at Camp Boutelle arrived in khaki — and September. From that time until the date of Mr. Ray's appearance in !N"ovember, not once had either full dress or dress uniform been worn. On the principle of "in for a penny, in for a pound," some few young swells had gone so far as to order the evening dress coat or the mess jacket provided for in the general order, and Crabtree, who was forever drawing odious and invidious comparisons between the mess system of the English army and that of our own, was known to possess both. Even though the summer white uniform was cool, good to look at and most becoming, Crabtree preferred to make his appearance after retreat in the social "spiketail" with military embellishments. And having ascertained that no fewer than three of the mess were possessors of the jackets, what had Crabtree done but

Hieutenant ^anli? Bap 21

issue mandate that the jacket should be worn at dinner !

Boutelle was far from the beaten track. A little, two-company post at the start, it snuggled close to the beach, between the mountains and the China sea. Then came a season of pernicious activity among the natives in the interior. Cavalry were sent to the field, and, finding it impossible to penetrate the dense bamboo, were remanded to the post. More infantry came and saw and conquered, temporarily at least, but the ofiicials who studied the situation decided to enlarge the garrison even if they could not expand the limits. The site was fine and healthful, for Luzon. The spring water was good, the sea water was sparkling, and when the quarters became crowded, why, what more simple than to send forth the garrison, half at a time, and let them scout for a living. It was good exercise, and fun for the natives. The bamboo trails had been worn broad enough for bridle paths by this time and the cavalry could travel in column of files if it couldn't do anything else. So a busy time had the boys at Boutelle and no one much the worse for it until Blake, the colonel, was called to Manila; Forrest, the major, was sent to the mountains, and Crabtree, the captain commanding the Forty-Second's Second Battalion, became at one fell swoop and for the first time in his life head both of a mess and a post. It was a head turned from the start.

Now Sandy Eay, as has been said, was serving his

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second tour in the Islands and had completed almost a year of the allotted two. He and his fellows of the cavalry had availed themselves of that portion of the order which permitted officers on duty in Alaska or the Philippines to wait until their return to the States before fitting themselves out with the new bill of dress, but Sandy had had a chance to run over to Hong Kong during the spring, and the mess jacket being an item of attire borrowed obviously from the British service, he let an English army tailor try his hand at the job, and very natty and equally un-American was the resultant garment. Colonel Ray, his father, with the conservatism of the "Old Army," had looked upon it, when reluctantly produced for family inspection in Manila, with whimsical disfavor and referred to it not as a mess, but as a monkey jacket. Navy officers, however, who knew the world and saw with broadened visions, pronounced it eminently correct — ^just what the officers wore at Malta, "Gib" and the score of other army stations that girdles the globe with the colors of Great Britain. But in his own regiment Sandy had not yet ventured to wear it. As a matter of fact, however, it may be asserted here and now that Lieutenant Eay felt none of the rancor expressed by Messrs. Blunt, Trott and Hikeman over Captain Crabtree's order. The Pittsburg had dropped anchor in the bay, and two of her officers, calling upon the post commander, had been bidden to dinner. Sandy could see their boat even now cleaving the blue ilieutenant ^attDp Bai? 23

billows long distance out from shore, and the young officer was more than half disposed to say that Crabby's head was entirely level, as he glanced down over his immaculate attire. Snowy trousers and waistcoat, with patent leather ankle boots and box spurs of silver, made very "swagger" accompaniment to the gold laced jacket. Crab knew what was what, said the lone cavalryman, as he watched the tall commander stalking swift to his bungalow, the juniors sulkily scattering after him to effect the demanded change. They looked very fit and soldierly in the trim, well- "laundered" khaki. "But, bless my soul," said Crab, "you wouldn't have a gentleman sit down to eat in fighting kit, would you?" and so the fiat had gone forth.

And presently, with the benedicks and their better halves and olive branches poking fun at them from the verandas, the bachelors sheepishly and sulkily appeared, three of them at least, attired almost as was Mr. Ray, the others, cursing their luck if not their commander, in the double-breasted blue frock, with iStiff standing collar and glistening shoulder-knots, buttoned snugly to the throat, and this with the mercury standing at eighty-eight in spite of the blessed sea breeze. When asked should they also wear belt and side arms. Captain Crabtree austerely said, no. Only one regiment in His Majesty's army so appeared, but that was tradition. Its officers had once been massacred, while sitting at mess, through the treachery of the Sepoy servants, and their successors went side-armed to dinner from that time forth. When they, these Boutelle bachelors, were assembled on the veranda of the mess house and saw the navy men being escorted from Crab's bungalow, they said further opprobrious things because they wished the function over and done with, and felt certain there would be exasperating delays. In no hospitable mood were they, Blunt especially bordering on the mutinous in his condemnation of the entire proceeding, Eay alone maintaining an appearance of equanimity, and such were the climatic conditions under which began a very unpretentious dinner that was destined to become memorable in the annals of Camp Boutelle.

For something had happened to ruffle the commanding officer, and when Crabtree was cross, crabbed and commanding, all the world about him was sure to know it. Blunt was first to see it as the little party finally drew near. Crab and the cavalry adjutant, levied on for the occasion, escorting the two gentlemen from the Pittsburg's wardroom, and a stifi orderly following at discreet distance in their wake. "Watch out, fellows," muttered the discoverer, "something's gone crooked with Crab and Crab is in a pet. Don't anybody open his head until he has to."

"It's only that Mrs. Shane has been guying him again," said Walker. "I heard her say she had a

Lieutenant ^anD? Ha? 25

rod in pickle for him, and — didn't she stop at his quarters a moment ago ?"

Mrs. Shane was Crabby's social Nemesis and no more afraid of him, even when commanding officer, than she was of her husband at any time. Mrs. Shane had more friends than Crabby, for she was a woman to win and hold them. But she couldn't bear Crabtree, as she frankly admitted, and curiously enough, was constantly seeking his society. She loved to prod and provoke him, and she could do both. He had early incurred the ill will of many a woman in his former regiment, and it followed him to the new, by the announcement that he was not a "marrying man." He would be no woman's slave. It wasn't that any woman at Boutelle wanted Crab for a husband. It was because many a woman at Boutelle wished to wed him to some impecunious niece or sister, and Mrs. Shane knew of several. Moreover, Mrs. Shane was a stranger to the ways of the old army, she having entered the service, so to speak, as a consequence of the Spanish War. Previous to that episode in our history Mrs. Shane had spent her days in the comparative seclusion of a western manufacturing town, had married a smart young university graduate with martial tendencies that had made him one of the best officers in the university battalion, and later captain of the local company of the State militia, with which rank and command he went to the Philippines on one of the first expeditions in '98, had made a record that

26 Uteutenant ^anD? Eap

won him a captaincy in the national volunteera, and later a commission in the Forty-Second regulars. Mrs. Shane, having long led the church choir and the Woman's Guild at home ; having dominated both pastor and flock, and displayed quite as many qualities of command as had her gallant husband, knevr nothing of "the divinity" previously referred to, that doth hedge a king or a commanding oflBcer. She treated every man from corporal up to colonel with the same frank, off-hand, independent friendliness so long as she liked him. Crabtree she had disliked from the start and never had to tell him so. He could have forgiven it in her the more readily had she shown it in some other way, but Mrs. Shane laughed at him, and that was unbearable.

There were but half a dozen families among the officers' quarters at Camp Boutelle the autumn of 1904, and Crabtree could have wished the number stiU further reduced, and at the expense of the 42nd. A story was often told concerning his initiation in American military life that was a source of rare vexation to him, and that he had long since said no gentleman would repeat or refer to in his presence — and no friend at any time. He had scientifically pummeled more than one fellow soldier in his day for even hinting at it, and was quite ready to do as much for a brother officer., A combination of Irish recruiting sergeant and English family pride had led to the

JLieutenant ^anOg Kap 27

trouble. "When asked his Christian name the would-be recruit had truthfully answered "Almeric."

"Al what ?" bellowed the sergeant.

"Meric," coolly answered the Briton.

"Al Merrick, is it? Well, young man, we've no use for names split that way in the army. What's the Al stand for, Albert, Alfred ?—N'aythur ? Well, it does then from this time, d'ye hear?" And the Briton, who had really been named for a member of a very distinguished military family, found himself enrolled in the Army of the United States as Albert M. Crabtree until after his promotion to the grade of second lieutenant, when by special edict it was changed and he was rechristened and commissioned "Almeric P.," and mightily did his comrades wonder what the P stood for, and Crab refused to tell. Now, Mrs. Shane had stumbled on this story shortly after her joining the Forty-Second and from that day forth life had new zest for Crabby. It was remembered that shortly before the navy men were seen sauntering in past the sentry post at the beach entrance, Mrs. Shane, coming suddenly out of the doctor's doorway adjoining Crab's quarters, had caught sight of the temporary post commander just within the bamboo lattice of his own portal. As ill luck would have it, he had just come for a peep toward the beach in search of his guests, and the expanse of white shirt front and glittering shoulder-knots, lace and buttons had instantly caught her eye. The doc-

28 JLicutenant ^anDp map

tor's laughing wife had partially, at least, heard, and Lieutenant Walker had observed the action of the ensuing colloquy, for it was one-sided at best and abruptly ended. At a mere chance verbal shot on part of his fair tormentor, Crab had started violently, turned his back and quit the doorway, leaving Mrs. Shane, with rather a scared look on her bonny face, to scurry away home and husbandward, where, as was subsequently heard, she told her own particular soldier what had happened. By this time the navy men had reached the captain's bungalow and they and the sight of mess jackets along the hard-pounded shell walk put all other thoughts out of most peopWs heads.

Never before had Captain Crabtree been known to drink so much as to tangle his tongue or ideas, but this night, as was remembered long at Camp Boutelle, he came flushed and flustered to the mess, made a perceptible "break" in presenting his junior officers to these polished and traveled guests from the sister service, and, not content with the sound and palatable claret the caterer had directed served until dessert, ordered the Filipino steward to bring in champagne before soup was fairly out of the way, then began drinking and toasting right and left. There were men present who would drink only in moderation at any time. There was one who would not drink at all. Lieutenant Ray had turned down his glass the moment the bottle began the round, and

Hieutenant ^anDp Eap 29

before dinner was half over Crabtree was reproaching his fellows for not filling up and doing honor to the occasion. He had seated Lieutenant Commander Ballaine at his right and Lieutenant Garrett at his left, placing Captain Fethers next beyond the senior of the navy men and Blunt next the junior, and every little while, with much effort at jocularity, he would rally the young trooper just beyond them on his unprofessional abstinence. "Never heard of such a thing in the cavalry, Kay, me boy," said he ; "never," then haplessly added, "and your father's son, too?" whereat Ray's pale and embarrassed face went suddenly red, and the adjutant shot warning glances at his misguided commander. That Crab should monopolize the talk was nothing new, but this night, only in mutterings to one another, were the juniors heard at all, Crab's high-pitched voice dominated all other sounds and every subject.

Dinner had been somewhat delayed to begin with, for Crabtree kept his guests at his quarters from ten to fifteen minutes before escorting them over. With mistaken hospitality he had prescribed cocktails, which his guests politely sipped but privately shunned, and had himself partaken of two. Then, despite the fact that eight brother ofiicers were dawdling on the mess veranda and some of them damning the delay, nothing would do but a detour round by Colonel Blake's quarters that he might present the distinguished visitors to the charming wife of the absent commander. Mrs. Blake, seated with her friend, Mrs. Stanhope, on her own piazza fronting the now moonlit sea, had greeted them with smiling grace, and Mrs. Stanhope, who scented bitters, spirits and irreverence about the temporary head of affairs, with a reserve indicative of clerical disapprobation. Mess call had sounded at the proper time, concluding with the signal "full dress," and every member had responded but the senior. Then, twenty minutes later the visitors stood about the colonel's doorway. Crab, as usual, doing all the talking, and just at this moment the adjutant was startled to hear, loud and spirited, the same call repeated, and then, aghast and dismayed, to hear it followed up with imperative emphasis by "double time." Crab was so engrossed in his own eloquence he neither marked nor heard, but all the rest of Camp Boutelle was aware of it within the next half hour and knew just how and why that call was sounded, and knew, though it couldn't swear, just who sounded it. As no man could take his seat or leave it before the commanding officer, that bedeviled banquet was bidding fair to last until midnight, when startling interruption came,

Hieutenant ^ano? )aai» 31