"Well," said she who was blowing out the candle, "I"ll draw for it--an"
take it if I win it, an" consider it a sort of inheritance. I never inherited anything but indigestion."
The last speaker was a maiden lady, and so was she who answered, chuckling:
"That"s what I say! Anything for a change. There"d be some excitement in a picture where a man was liable to show up. It"s more than I"ve got now. I do declare it"s just scandalous the way we"re gigglin", an" the poor soul hardly out o" hearin". She had a kind heart, Mis" Morris had, an" she made herself happy with a mighty slim chance----"
"Yes, she did--and I only wish there"d been a better man waitin" for her in that hotel."
THE GHOST THAT GOT THE b.u.t.tON
BY WILL ADAMS
From _Collier"s Weekly_, May 24, 1913. By permission of _Collier"s Weekly_ and Will Adams.
The Ghost that Got the b.u.t.ton
BY WILL ADAMS
One autumn evening, when the days were shortening and the darkness fell early on Hotchkiss and the frost was beginning to adorn with its fine glistening lace the carbine barrels of the night sentries as they walked post, Sergeants Hansen and Whitney and Corporal Whitehall had come to Stone"s room after supper, feeling the need common to all men in the first cold nights of the year for a cozy room, a good smoke, and congenial companionship.
The steam heat, newly turned on, wheezed and whined through the radiator: the air was blue and dense with tobacco smoke; the three sergeants reposed in restful, if inelegant att.i.tudes, and Whitehall, his feet on the window sill and his wooden chair tilted back, was holding forth between puffs at a very battered pipe about an old colored woman who kept a little saloon in town.
"So she got mad at those K troop men," he said. "An" nex" day when Turner stopped there for a drink she says: "You git outer yere! You men fum de a.r.s.enic wid de crossbones on you caps, I ain"t lettin" you in; but de Medical Corpses an" de Non-efficient Officers, dey may come.""
The laugh that followed was interrupted by the approach of a raucous, shrieking noise that rose and fell in lugubrious cadence. "What the deuce!" exclaimed Whitehall, starting up.
"That"s Bill," explained Stone. "Bill Sullivan. He thinks he"s singin".
Funny you never heard him before, Kid, but then he"s not often taken that way, thank the Lord."
"Come in, Bill," he called, "an" tell us what"s the matter. Feel sick?
Where"s the pain?" he asked as big Bill appeared in the doorway.
"Come in, hombre, an" rest yo"self," invited Whitney, and hospitably handed over his tobacco-pouch. "What was that tune yo"all were singin"
out yonder?"
"Thanks," responded Bill, settling down. "That there tune was "I Wonder Where You Are To-night, My Love.""
"Sounded like "Sister"s Teeth Are Plugged with Zinc,"" commented Whitney.
"Or "Lookin" Through the Knot Hole in Papa"s Wooden Leg,"" said Whitehall.
"Or "He Won"t Buy the Ashman a Manicure Set,"" added Stone.
"No," reiterated Bill solemnly. "It was like I told yer; "I Wonder Where You Are To-night, My Love," and it"s a corker, too! I seen a feller an"
a goil sing it in Kelly"s Voddyville Palace out ter Cheyenne onct. Foist he"d sing one voise an" then she"d sing the nex". He was dressed like a soldier, an" while he sang they was showin" tabloids o" what the goil was a-doin" behind him; an" then when she sang her voise he"d be in the tabloid, an" when it got ter the last voise, an" he was dyin" on a stretcher in a ambulance, everybody in the house was a-cryin" so yer could hardly hear her. It was great! My!" continued Bill, spreading out his great paws over the radiator, "ain"t this the snappy evenin"? Real cold. Somehow it "minds me of the cold we had in China that time of the Boxers, after we"d got ter the Legations; the nights was cold just like this is."
"Why, Bill," said Whitney, "I never knew yo"all were there then. Why did yo" never tell us befo"? What were yo" with?"
"Fourteenth Infantry," responded Bill proudly. "It"s a great ol"
regiment--don"t care if they _are_ doughboys."
"What company was you in?" inquired Hansen, ponderously taking his pipe from his mouth and breaking silence for the first time.
"J Company, same as this."
At this reply Stone opened his mouth abruptly to say something, but thought better of it and shut up again.
"It was blame cold them nights a week or so after we was camped in the Temple of Agriculture (that"s what they called it--I dunno why), but say! the heat comin" up from Tientsin was fryin"! It was jus" boilin", bakin", an" bubblin"--worse a heap than anythin" we"d had in the islands. We chucked away mos" every last thing on that hike but canteens an" rifles. It was a darn fool thing ter do--the chuckin" was, o"
course--but it come out all right, "cause extree supplies follered us up on the Pie-ho in junks. Ain"t that a funny name fer a river? Pie-ho?
Every time I got homesick I"d say that river, an" then I"d see Hogan"s Dairy Lunch fer Ladies an" Gents on the ol" Bowery an" hear the kid Mick Hogan yellin": "Draw one in the dark! White wings--let her flop!
Pie-ho!" an" it helped me a heap." Bill settled himself and stretched.
"But what I really wanted to tell youse about," said he, "was somepin"
that happened one o" these here cold nights. It gits almighty cold there in September, an" it was sure the spookiest show I ever seen. Even Marm Haggerty"s table rappin"s in Hester Street never come up to it.
"There was three of us fellers who ran in a bunch them days: me an" Buck Dugan, my bunkie, from the Bowery like me (he was a corporal), an" Ranch Fields--we called him that "cause he always woiked on a ranch before he come into the Fourteenth. They was great fellers, Buck an" Ranch was.
Buck, now--yer couldn"t phase him, yer couldn"t never phase him, no matter what sort o" job yer put him up against he"d slide through slick as a greased rat. The Cap"n, he knew it, too. Onct when we was fightin"
an" hadn"t no men to spare, he lef" Buck on guard over about twenty-five Boxer prisoners in a courtyard an" tells him he da.s.sent let one escape. But Buck wants ter git into the fight with the rest of the boys, an" when he finds that if he leaves them Chinos loose in the yard alone they"ll git out plenty quick, what does he do but tie "em tight up by their pigtails to some posts. He knows they can"t undo them tight knots backwards, an" no c.h.i.n.k would cut his pigtail if he _did_ have a knife--he"d die foist--an" so Buck skidoos off to the fight, an", sure enough, when the Cap"n wants them Boxers, they"re ready, tied up an"
waitin". That was his sort, an", gee, but he was smart!
"We was all right int"rested in them Allies, o" course, an" watched "em clost; but, "Bill," says Buck ter me one night, "its been woikin in me nut that these here fellers ain"t so different from what we know a"ready. Excep" fer their uniform an" outfits, we"ve met "em all before but the j.a.ps. Why, look a-here," says he, "foist, there"s the white men--the English--ain"t they jus" like us excep" that they"re thicker an" we"re longer? An" their Injun n.i.g.g.e.rs--ain"t we seen their clothes in the comic op"ras an" them without their clothes in the monkey cage at Central Park? An" their Hong-kong China Regiment an" all the other Chinos is jus" the same as yer meet in the pipe joints in Mott Street.
Then," says he, "come all the Dagos. These leather necks of Macaroni Dagos we"ve seen a swarmin" all over Mulberry Bend an" Five Points; the Sauerkraut Dagos looks fer all the woild like they was goin" ter a Schutzenfest up by High Bridge; the Froggie Dagos you"ll find packed in them Frenchy restaraws in the Thirties--where yer git blue wine--and them Vodki Dagos only needs a pushcart ter make yer think yer in Baxter Street."
"Buck, he could sure talk, but Ranch, he wasn"t much on chin-chin.
Little an" dark an" quiet he was, an" jus" crazy fer dogs. Any old mutt"d do fer him--jus" so"s it was in the shape of a pup. He was fair wild fer "em. He picked up a yeller cur out there the day after the Yangtsin fight, an" that there no-account, mangy, flea-bitten mutt had ter stay with us the whole time. If the pup didn"t stand in me an" Buck an" Ranch, he swore he"d quit too, so we had to let him come, an" he messed an" bunked with our outfit right along. Ranch named him Daggett, after the Colonel, which was right hard on the C. O., but I bet Ranch thought he was complimentin" him. Why, Ranch considered himself honored if any of the pup"s fleas hopped off on him. The pup he kep" along with us right through everything; Ranch watchin" him like the apple of his eye, an" he hardly ever was out of our sight, till one night about a week after we quartered in the temple he didn"t turn up fer supper. He was always so reg"lar at his chow that Ranch he begin ter git the squirms an" when come taps an" Daggett hadn"t reported, Ranch had the razzle-dazzles.
"Nex" mornin" the foist thing he must go hunt that pup, an" went a scoutin" all day, me an" Buck helpin" him--but nary pup; an" come another supper without that miser"ble mutt, an" Ranch was up an alley all right, all right. He was all wore out, an" I made him hit the bunk early an" try ter sleep; but, Lord! No sooner he"d drop off "n he git ter twitchin" an" hitchin" an" wake up a-yelpin" fer Daggett. Long about taps, Buck, who"s been out on a private reconnoissance, comes back an"
whispers ter me: "Ssst, Bill! The cur"s found! Don"t tell Ranch; the bloke"d die of heart failure. I struck his trail an" follered it--an"
say, Bill, what"n thunder do yer think? Them heathen Chinos has _et him_!" Lord, now, wouldn"t that jolt youse? Them Chinos a-eatin"
Daggett! It give me an awful jar, an" Buck he felt it, too. That there mutt had acted right decent, an" we knew Ranch would have bats in the belfry fer fair if he hoid tell o" the pup"s finish; so says Buck; "Let"s not tell him, "cause he"s takin" on now like he"d lost mother an"
father an" best goil an" all, an" if he knew Daggett was providin" chow fer Chinos he"d go clean bug house an" we"d have ter ship him home ter St. Elizabeth."
"I says O. K. ter that, an" we made it up not ter let on ter Ranch; an"
now here comes the spook part yer been a-waitin" fer.
"Four or five nights later I was on guard, an" my post was the farthest out we had on the north. There was an ol" road out over that way, an"
I"d hoid tell it led ter a ol" graveyard, but I hadn"t never been there myself an" hadn"t thought much about it till "long between two an"
three o"clock, as I was a-hikin" up an down, when somepin" comes a-zizzin" down the road h.e.l.l-fer-leather on to me, a-yellin" somepin"
fierce. Gee, but I was skeered! I made sure it was a spook, an" there wasn"t a bit o" breath left in me. I was all to the bad that time fer sure. Before I had time ter think even, that screamin", streakin" thing was on me an a-grabbin" roun" my knees; an" then I see it was one o"
them near-Christian Chinos, an" he"s skeered more"n me even. His eyes had popped clean out"n their slits, an" his tongue was hangin" out by the roots, he was that locoed. I raised the long yell fer corporal of the guard, which happened, by good luck, ter be Buck, an" when he come a-runnin", thinkin" from the whoops I give we was bein" rushed by the hole push of Boxers, the two of us began proddin" at the c.h.i.n.k ter find out what was doin". Took us some time, too, with him bein" in such a flutter an" hardly able ter even hand out his darn ol" pigeon English, that sounds like language comin" out of a sausage machine. When we did savvy his line of chop-suey talk, we found out he"d seen a ghost in the graveyard, an" not only seen it but he knew who the spook was an" all about him. We was gittin" some serious ourselves an" made him tell us.
"Seems it was a mandarin--that"s a sort o" c.h.i.n.k police-court judge (till I got ter Tientsin I always thought they was little oranges), an"