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Show !8I 444444-.a4-t 44344 S2444 ? s J Pack Train 13 t Tr" J j Alphonso. w of bacon and hardtack was in the air It was a glorious smell, but it maddened mad-dened me. I was quite a stranger to the infantry battalions, having hyked for the first time with them that day. And I had no rational You who have never been in a similar condition, are wholly strangers to the keen, ragged edge of the word suffering. Suddenly a brilliant thought came to me. I went over to the cook ol the pack train, who had a big fire started. "'Please, sir," I said eagerly, "can't I get you another pail of water?" He sized me up for a moment, feeling the edge of a butcher knife. Then he kicked an, empty bucket in my direction direc-tion and said: "Bust yourself!" I turned with the water and became Slowly starving infantry, parts of two volunteer battalions, were sprawl-ad sprawl-ad about in the dusty moonlit plaza of Alphonso that night ' A small group of tagged and famished war scribes were among them, and these men commented com-mented seriously upon the ugly and thankless proposition which life Is. Now and then a commissioned officer wore londly at his men, alternately calling them blood-thirsty devils and nerve-shattered young ladies. The enlisted en-listed men cursed back In half audible the dead of Custer's command in the circling shadows of vulture wings, and how the dead men locked way out In Montana that hot June day. Broken Foot Bill, my best of friends In pack train 13, will tell you how he hit an Iceberg, while rounding Cape Horn In a whaler and lost his personal profits of three years toil $10,000 worth of sperm oil. He tells of dealing faro In the black reek of crime of Port Said on the Suez. Ah. the Broken-Foot has been a wanderer. growls. In the air was that queer mur- inuring undertone, which can always be heard In the midst of American troops, just after a brush with the "niggers." And straight' above the foul and ancient town a hot white midnight mid-night moon stared down tauntingly. Never-to-be-forgotten is that last Jan-nary Jan-nary night at Alphonso, way down In one of the lower provinces of Luzon, dark for 10 rainless days; feed it at rare and irregular Intervals upon bacon and hardtack; charge It upon live, smoking rebel trenches once or twice every 48 hours, and on the tenth day keep up the program, except for the bacon and hardtack then look at the battalion If you are interested at all In devilish moods or the causes of crime. Tou will understand then the necessity of a perdition hereafter, and the likelihood of its being crowded. The service in Luson teaches tnat It is a place of fathomless mud during the rains, and of terrorising heat when the rain are not It also teaches a les. in a pac train you will see men whose natures have led them in all the oark places on the surface of the earth. They have found gold pickings pick-ings in some of these places, they will tell you, and villainous whisky in all; In the desirable things of civilization In the soft wiles of fair women, they are as little children; but if you are a white man and need a friend, a dollar a square meal, or all three, these packers pack-ers will growl at you, give it to you, and tell you to call again. And you who would write books, procure a Jug of good whisky if possible, but whisky at all events, strike a packer's camp at night, when the mules are quiet over their forage, and you will hear tales with the color of all lands, and the heart beats of rugged manhpod And do not forget to take the jug out to the lonely fellow whose trick It is to guard the herd that night, for he will not forget you if you fail to remember him. But I was writing ahniit thnt nlirht ousj punijig me nre, wasamg ma coffee-pot. and keeping out of the cook's way. Suddenly he seemed to warm to me. "Who in h are you? he asked kindly. I exclaimed briefly and added, deeming it wise to be honest, that I had lost a pony the day before, that I didn't know the infantry outfit in town, that I was hungrier than tha she-wolf of the Scriptures. In conclusion con-clusion I asked hastily: "Will I get some more water?" The little camp-fires of the soldiers were embers now, and beside them the men from the States were lying in tha moonlight rapturously rolling about in that big and general sympathy which is an adjunct of tobacco and strong coffee. At last the packers came in from the mules. The animals had been watered and fed, and only the herd guard was left with them now. "Come and get it while it's hot, you savage," ordered the cook. Then ha made me swell ud until I was giddy by at Alphonso. As .each heavy pack was removed from the back of a mule, the swearing animal moved out of line, shook himself with many satisfied grunts, and then sank down noisily upon up-on the turf of the plaza to scratch his numb and itching back in the only way he knew. This process was performed with many grunts of intense pleasure, and even, after the killing day under the packs, there was a gentle coltish kicking in the herd when the rolling was over. After rolling the mules gathered together about the bell-mare and raised their voices in mighty magnitude mag-nitude to the moon, demanding the water and forage for which they had worked hard all day. Oh, the din of man to truly sweat and to look at tragedy without squinting. But luore and most of all in Luzon a man learns, too, what a gaunt, helpless animal he Is learns it from the hitting lesson which a craving stomach teaches. And this is a lesson which kills pride, pure thoughts and dreams of home. The men in the plaza of dirty Alphonso Alphon-so learned this lesson that day, and that night it was impressed upon them. Suddenly the sentry on duty at the north end of the town shouted. The men in the plaza jumped to their feet and listened. Then faint and far off could be heard the tinkle of a pack train's bell-mare. The rations were coming! Never in profane history of the world did such a yell ascend as from the plaza of Alphonso. The nearest near-est thing to me was a vicious sun-cured pony which had jolted me shabbily for ten hours that day. I hugged the pony and the ugly beast, bereft of all line sentiments, kicked in the front of a bamboo shack, to which I had tethered teth-ered him. The soldiers slapped each other facetiously and were men with human hearts once more. Feed a dog If you would have him follow you, for there is something of the man ln him. Not 'long after that there pounded into in-to the plaza a train of the hardest toilers, toil-ers, man and beast, ln Uncle Sam's pay. They were marvelous to look at gaunt, shaggy, unkillable mules, each standing up under 200 odd pounds of government straights a dozen tan- observing. "Here's an extra mess-tin, if you haven't got one" And by way of introduction, he concluded, "Fellers, "Fel-lers, this is one of them short-handed guys, as writes for the papers. Ha lost his month, and is out of grub.The only good thing about him I know is that he isn't one of them d soldiers. Then I met Old Dad and Scar Face and Broken Foot. They made a man out of me with coffee and bacon, and treated me as if I had been one always, and they told me wonderful tales which I have yet to repeat. Ah, that was a marvelous night in the moonlight moon-light at dirty Alphonso! When most of the fellows were drowsy. Broken Foot Bill went out to the herd to take his trick at the guard. I went with him. Listen to the words Broken Foot said to me that night and you will see his big heart: "See that big roan brute, with a hole in his side?" he smciT. "Well, thaf s Mankiller, the dead ringer for old Moon Eye, who killed herself today. Don't go near that brute; he's wicked. Old Moon Eye was the shape of that brute, only he was a gentleman. He had a hole ln his side. We haven't packed him for three days. This morning he was stiff and couldn't follow. fol-low. He lost hisself from the herd about noon, and I saw him way up on I top of a cliff. He was a pet of mine and I called to him. His front feet were right on the edge. He looked at me kind of sorrowful, and then pushed that midnight chorus! One would think that a big chain of mountains were dying with sins unforgiven. And nea, naggara ana just as unkillable packers, handling the big train with an Intense but whispered profanity, for the day and the trail and the miles had killed the voices ln their throats. The mules pushed the soldiers out of the plaza, swung into line and smeUed the necks of their neighbors, at the same time wiping clear the foam from their mouths. They seemed to be passing pass-ing through the herd now, a general Inquiry a to how each other had fared through the prolonged hellishness of the hyke. Meanwhile the packers assisted as-sisted by spirit-willing, but nevertheless neverthe-less gutteral profanity, unloaded and nnclnched; and the pile of provisions grew high ln the plaza. The soldiers crowded near, and one otherwise one spoiled the whole system by getting Into the boss packer's way. "Get back, you d infants. You've grubbed twice since we have." The roice of the pack train's chief would have been a roar naturally, but Its strength had gone from him that Bight With towering Irony he finished. finish-ed. "Mamma'U have dinney for babies In a little while." Honestly the love bonds which exist between packers and infantrymen tne Den-mare in the midst of her noisy Idorers, kept up a coquettish and incessant in-cessant kicking and biting. This is why she is loved so and sought after, the packers will tell you. This lady of the herd is very important, impor-tant, and her knowledge of the fact is apparent She must have the temper of a Jezebel and the icy soul of a Phil-ippino Phil-ippino female to hold her ascendency. Should she warm a little toward some great shaggy head, which bends near her adoringly, there would be scandal ln the herd, and the bell-mare and her favored one would be kicked out of business promptly. But so long as she kicks and squeals Impartially toward all, the great stupid burden bearers follow whither she leads. "Beat a woman," observed the packers, pack-ers, with the large wisdom of single men and exiles from things feminine, "if you would have her love you!" Those men achieve such heights of wisdom because they know mules and bell-mares; The lady of the herd carries no loads. The packer In the advance leads her and by virtue of her heartlessnesslhe keeps the whole herd in her train. If It were not for her the packers could himself over. He's a-layen out there now ln one of them canons, 'bout 10 miles from here. I liked Old Moon Eye decent feller." An hour afterward we were still standing together watching the herd Broken Foot and I. He seemed to want to say something more, and so I waited. At last it came. "Say, I've got an old mother back Id St Louis. I send her something every pay day, but I hain't heard from her for six months. Will you find out about her, an' write me when you gel back. Kid? Broken Foot Bill Burd-sell Burd-sell Pack Train Thirteen." 1 promised. And after that there was no sound in the plaza save the crunching of the mules at their forage and an occasional coquettish squeal from the bell-mare. And the moon swung over to the northeast, and hung low and waited for the dawn. And the next morning I started to hyke with the pack train, and during the next eight days I learned to be proud of my strong new friends in Train Thirteen. And I saw wonderful things watching General Schwan's big campaign in the lower provinces oi Luzon from the back of the bell-mare. wouiq oe easily severed. And this is strange, too, for few are the packers who have not "soldiered" at one time In Uncle Sam's service. As a matter of fact what have these strong, strange rough men not done at one time In their lives? Old Dad will tell you of the days In Uncle Sam's cavalry when it was the brawn of arm and the iranite of one's fists which beat It way toto the superiority of a non-com's Vtripes the days when troopers rode ln the homewest, hunted Geronimo and the Apache Kid rode long, lived hard and shot true. Scar Face, the reaser, will tell you how he smuggled gallons of Mexican mescal across the Rio Grande, when nobody was watching watch-ing but the man in the moon, and bout the wads of money he made out J the white soldiers on pay days. Dirty Ike, the cook of the train, went with Reno, when the squadrons of the Bnlncky Seventh horse separated to corral Bitting Bull ln the 70s. Dirty Ut will tell you how he helped to hyry not keep the mules together, for their heads are free from halter or bridle when on the trail. A bell is strapped around her neck, and In the dark the mules of a train follow the sound and are satisfied. Where the bell is there is also peace ln the herd; when the bell is silent, the mules undertake to learn the reason, and in a frenzied search they cover vasts tracts of territory ter-ritory in all directions, which is naturally na-turally bothersome for the packers. My head was full of the marvel of all these things that night in Alphonso. Alphon-so. I saw one of the big beasts in a careless fit of affection, place his head too near the heels of the belle. She used her heels as usual and landed heavily. For a second the mule was blinded, staggered, then (oh, the shame, the crime of It!) he .forgot himself and kicked back at the lady! I I believe he was bruised for life by the rest, before he got out of the herd. Tiny ares dotted the outskirts of the plaaa now, and the glorious smell |