Part 20 (1/2)
”Would his people object to--to such a thing?” questioned the girl
They were alone in the store, and so they could talk freely ”I', you know”
”Oh, Lord! Would they object?” Corporal Thohly artificial nantly
”Why should they, I'd like to know? I'ood I know just as s”
”You sure are all of that and more, too,” the Corporal declared, heartily, ”but if you knowed s outside you'd understand why it ain't possible I can't tell you without hurtin' your feelin's, and I like you too much for that, Miss Necia Seems as if I'm almost a daddy to you, and I've only knowed you for a feeeks--”
”Go ahead and tell irl ”You s, for I've lived all my life with men like father and Poleon, and the priests at the Mission, who treat me just like one of themselves But soht to knohat is wrong with me” She flushed up darkly under her brown cheeks
The feeling came over Corporal Thoentle kind; that he was bungling his work, and that he was not of the calibre to go into the social agedly:
”I'oin' to tell you a story, not because it applies to Lieutenant Burrell, or because he's in love with you, which of course he ain't any irl
”--but just to show you what I o, when I was at Fort Supply, which was the frontier in thee City with bull teae of the frontier; no women--no society--nothin' much except a fort, a lot of Injuns, and a few officials with their wives and faht for le ones, and after a while a feller gets awful careless about hihty quick when he gets away fros; he gets pluetful of what's what Well, there was a captain with us, a young feller that looked like the Lieutenant here, and a good deal the sah-te; a West Pointer, too, good family and all that, and, what's hter was married to a squaw, or leastways he had been, but in theht much of it any more than they do up here now, and particularly because he'd had a govern of men and critters, and had irl, who lived at the fort, and was hty nice to look at, and restful to the eye after a year or so of cactus-trees and rass
She ice as nice and twice as pretty as the women at the post, and as for ht and sold all the officers in a lump; but they and their wives looked down on her, and she didn't mix with them none whatever To ot disregardful of everything, and the hunger to have a wole man for four hundred miles around She was pretty and full of fire, and they was both of an age to love hard, so Jefferson swore he'd make the other women take her; but soldierin' is a heap different froot its own traditions The plan wouldn't work By-and-by the captain got tired of trying, and gave up the attempt--just devoted himself to her--and then as transferred, all but him We shi+fted to a better post, but Captain Jefferson was changed to another company and had to stay at Supply Gee! it was a rotten hole! Influence had been used, and there he stuck, while the new officers cut him out completely, just like the others had done, so I was told, and it drifted on that way for a long tiet his wife reco'nized and always quittin'
loser His folks back East was scandalized and froze him cold, callin'
hih the army, till his brother officers had to treat hih war to another till he finally resented it openly After that he didn't last long They made it so unpleasant that he quit the service--crowded him out, that's all He was a born soldier, too, and didn't know nothing else nor care for nothing else; as fine a man as I ever served under, but it soured him so that a rattlesnake couldn't have lived with hio into some kind of business after he quit the ar as I knew of him The last tirown cultus He had quit the squaas livin' with a greaser in Tucson--”
”And do you think I'm like that woman?” said Necia, in a queer, strained voice She had listened intently to the Corporal's story, but he had purposely avoided her eyes and could not tell how she was taking it
”No! You're different, but the army is just the same I told you this to show you how it is out in the States It don't apply to you, of course--”
”Of course!” agreed Necia again ”But ould happen to Lieutenant Burrell if--if--well, if he should do soirls, I dare say, like this other girl, or--like me”
She did not flush now as before; instead, her cheeks were pale
”It would go a heap worse with him than it did with Captain Jefferson,”
said the Corporal, ”for he's got more ahead of him and he comes from better stock Why, his fa at headquarters; they'resuch a thing, even if he wanted to But he wouldn't try; he's got too much sense, and loves the ar ways, that boy will, if he's let alone”
”I never thought of myself as an Indian,” said Necia, dully ”In this country it's a person's heart that counts”
”That's how it ought to be,” said the Corporal, heartily; ”and I'h old rooster, and I never thought but what you understood all this Up here folks look at it right, but outside it's hty different; even yet you don't half understand”
”I' in my blood to be ashamed of, and I'm white in here!” She struck her bosom fiercely ”If a man loves ht for you,” assented the other; ”and if I was younger s to say to you If I'd 'a' had somebody like you I'd 'a' let liquor alone, ood for now is to give advice and draw my pay” He slid down frooin' to hunt up the Lieutenant and get him to let me off Mebbe I can stake a claiirl's cos
”It's a lie! It's a lie!” she cried, aloud, and with her fists she beat the boards in front of her ”He loves an, to treirls”