Part 13 (1/2)
”Oh, those!” said Clay ”The reason I put the theot in the habit abroad--”
”I didn't ask you that,” said Hope, severely ”I asked you what you did to get theht on until you co
Leave in all the bloodthirsty parts, and please don't be ested Clay
”Yes,” said Hope; ”I will be Desdemona”
”Well, Desdeot that n, under Wolseley
After I left Egypt, I went up the coast to Algiers, where I took service under the French in a ion--”
”Don't tell ht, ”that you have been a Chasseur d'Afrique! Not like the s'?”
”No, not at all like that man,” said Clay, earden, sappeur, and I showed the other good-for-nothings how to dig trenches Well, I contaht months, and then I went to Peru, where I--”
”You're skipping,” said Hope ”How did you get the Legion of Honor?”
”Oh, that?” said Clay ”That was a gallery play Iso away froain and waved it frantically around my head until I was quite certain the Colonel had seenit, and then I stopped as soon as I knew that I was sure of promotion”
”Oh, how can you?” cried Hope ”You didn't do anything of the sort
You probably saved the entire regih I don't remember it, and nobody mentioned it at the time”
”Go on about the others,” said Hope ”And do try to be truthful”
”Well, I got this one froress of Engineers at Madrid That was the ostensible reason, but the real reason was because I taught the Spanish Commissioners to play poker instead of baccarat The Ger a fort, and the Sultan of Zanzibar gave me this, and no one but the Sultan knohy, and he won't tell I suppose he's ashaars the day I called”
”What a lot of places you have seen,” sighed Hope ”I have been in Cairo and Algiers, too, but I always had to walk about with a governess, and she wouldn't go to the o to Ho hotels in London I love to travel, but I don't love to travel that ould you?”
”I travel because I have no home,” said Clay ”I'm different from the chap that cao to other places because there is no ho her head ”Why have you no home?”
”There was a ranch in Colorado that I used to call home,” said Clay, ”but they've cut it up into town lots I own a plot in the cemetery outside of the tohere my mother is buried, and I visit that whenever I am in the States, and that is the only piece of earth anywhere in the world that I have to go back to”
Hope leaned forith her hands clasped in front of her and her eyes wide open
”And your father?” she said, softly; ”is he--is he there, too--”
Clay looked at the lighted end of his cigar as he turned it between his fingers
”My father, Miss Hope,” he said, ”was a filibuster, and went out on the 'Virginius' to help free Cuba, and was shot, against a stone wall We never knehere he was buried”