Show ozone IOU r 10 MW i 0 A romance of the american army TO A TT by VICTOR 1 UK ROUSSEAU lighting 1 on the battlefields of france assy X copyright py right by W G chapman FOREWORD intrigue mystery chivalry love feats of bravery on the field of honor all these elements are interwoven in this story which has been well described as the first up to the minute novel of america in the great war for humanity and world freedom lt it is a gripping story of a man who came back and fought on the battlefields of france for the honor of the army that had discarded him victor rousseau has written many e excellent stories but none that excels bride of battle battie CHAPTER 1 I I 1 lieutenant mark wallace of the seventieth new ack regiment came to an abrupt standstill lie he was alone in the jungle upon the blazing hillside before santiago in the month of june 1808 through the branches of the trees the mauser bullets still whipped and whistled and the prolonged screech of shells and distant shouting indicated that the battle which had raged all day had not yet reached its end but N within the short radius of wallaces wallac es vision nothing stirred not even the palmetto boughs that rustled with I 1 the he least breeze like the sound of the sea wallace had only the most coa confused fused and incoherent knowledge of what was happening on that historic day there had been an advance in the cool of the morning if a brief respite from the oppressive heat beat could be called coolness in contrast then came the deployment along the base of the hills as the first shells began to fall the advance in open order in which the nicely inculcated teachings of the parade ground fell to pieces the jumble of men of companies and nd later of regiments pressing forward past the deai dead and stricken the shouts the rattle of machine guns and rifles batteries came galloping where they had no theoretical business to be upsetting the junior officers desperate attempts to preserve alignment red cross men invaded the battle line to succor the wounded commissariat mules s shaking off the lethargy which no amount of belaboring had ever overcome ran away with supplies and st strewed tr ewed embalmed embalm ed beet beef over the hillside in the midst of it all wallace had rallied some men of ills his own troop and led them forward he plunged lato into the patch of scrub covered jungle and found that he was alone in front of him was a t small clearing made by some cuban squatter sn in th the preceding year and abandoned after the reaping it contained the ruin of a palm shack and the furrows scraped by a primitive plow were only just discernible nible amid the rank growth that had trung sprung up the lieutenant stop ded and shouted expecting to see h his Is men come running through the trees tint put none appeared and it was at tills this moment that the bullet that had I 1 awen iron stamped with his name according to the soldiers superstition found I 1 im lie ile felt a slait blow on the which knocked him backward ile he stumbled fell down sat up again and discovered that his elbow was shattered the arm hung bung helplessly at his side he managed to bind up the wound with his hand and teeth there was not much pals pain but a sort of physical languor which made him reel giddily when he be arose there was burning thirst too it was extraordinary that a little thing like that should take the grit out of a man A little blood was running down his sleeve but the wound seemed trl trivial lal wallace leaned against the wall of the shack and waited for his men he shouted once or twice more but nobody answered him and the battle seemed to be drifting in another direction wallace imagined that his troop bad advanced around the patch of scrub in which case he was not likely to ro establish touch with them again till nightfall ile he cursed his luck and started forward but the file trees began to reel around him he clutched at the wall of the shack missed it and tell fell then he realized that he was out of the fight yet in spite of his intense disappointment he knew that worse might have befallen him no ile had fought through hours of the day that was much he was pyo probably bably spared to lead his men again and that was more ue ile had bad found and proved himself and at twenty one a young wan men for all his self confidence is composed of fears and doubts as well in spite spice of his soldier ancestors mark wallace had bad not been sure that his ienir aty for leadership extended be yond the parade ground and he had suffered from the young soldiers inevitable fear of fear so he resigned himself to his situation lie he emptied his water bottle and gripping the end of his gauze roll with his teeth managed to bandage his wound sufficiently to stop the bleeding the languor however was increasing sometimes be would doze for a few moments awaiting with a start to wonder where he was and what had bad happened the air was very still the shouts had long since died away the rifle firing bring was a distant crackling the tremulous staccato tapping of the machine guns was like the roll ot of drums tar far away wallace must have slept for a prolonged period for when next he bg became conscious he be started up to see to his intense astonishment a pretty little girl of three or four years standing in front of him and looking at him lie rubbed his eyes expecting her to dis disappear appear but she was still there and just as he was beginning to piece U agether a spanish phrase she spoke to him in english 1 I anvan want t my daddy wallace reached out and brew the child toward him where Is your daddy lie he asked and who are you im eleanor she answered and wont vont you please find my iny daddy tor for me she pointed with a grimy little hand toward the interior of the shack and wallace struggling to his feet with a great effort made his way inside it was almost dark in the hut but and wallace could only make out with difficulty the form of a man who lay face downward upon the ground near the wall nall presently however as his eyes became more accustomed to the obscurity ity he saw the bullet wound in the back of the head ile he looked up ui at the child who stood by un concert M d go away eleanor lie he said gently the child too young to know anything of death went out of the hut and began to play in the shaft of sunlight that filtered through the branches of the palms wallace searched the a I 1 M 11 1 I want my daddy dead mans pockets lie ile found nothing however except a military pass signed by general linares of the spanish forces authorizing the bearer to pass through the lines and after a moments reflection he decided to leave alton it on the body so this man had been the childs father and apart from her speech his coloring showed that he had been an american wallace concluded that he be had been a planter trapped in santiago he raised the body in his arms and tried to turn it over but let it fall when he saw the work that the bullet had made of the face ile he must not let the little girl carry away anything of such memory as that thail I 1 ile be groped his way outside and beckoned to her what Is your other name eleanor he asked the little girl only looked at him it was evident that she did not understand the meaning of his question did your daddy live in santiago ily daddy has gone ene away I 1 want him said the child beginning to whimper wallace tried her once more where Is your mamma mammal he asked but she said nothing and he sat down propping lne himself against the file shack he drew the little girl down beside lim him now listen to tae me eleanor 1 he said eald your daddy has gone away vay ile will be gone tor for a long time you must be good and patient and soon somebody will come to take care of you do you understand the childs lip quivered but she did not cry she fixed her large gray eyes upon mm him who are you she asked with the directness of childhood my name Is mark 1 I like you mark I 1 will go with you till my daddy comes back all right then sit down here beside me and play muttered wallace wondering rather grimly what there was v a s for her to play with but the grubby little fingers were soon busy in the sandy soil wallace watched the child wondering who she was and how it had happened that the father had been forced to take her into the jungle into the midst of the contending armies her clothing was almost in rags and she must have been drenched by the rains of the preceding night it had certainly been a desperate and a difficult adventure for the dead man the light began to fade wallace half delirious now from pain and thirst struggled to preserve his consciousness ness for the sake of the little girl sometimes he would emerge from a semi stupor and look round for her anxiously but he always found her no great distance away building sand castles out of the soft soil and chattering to herself as happily as it if she had already forgotten lier her sorrow when he aroused himself finally it was to see the flash of a torch in his eyes F faces aces which he recognized were looking look ing into his own there was crawford the senior lieutenant who had graduated from west point the ear before and captain kellerman eliere there was his own fic ro servant johnson with a look of alarm on his ebony face face and near by were two men from the ambulance carrying an empty stretcher wallace moaned for water and the sense of the liquid in his bis throat warm though it was brought back consciousness with a rush well weve got you said araw crawford cheerfully how are you feeling old man fine have we got santiago well not exactly but nearly weve carried alt all the trenches and were waiting wailing to get our big guns up arm hurting you no said wallace stifling a groan say crawford I 1 suppose I 1 was delirious li but I 1 thought there was a kid here As he spoke he caught sight of major howard emerging from the shack with the little girl in his arms fast asleep the major came up to him how are you feeling wallace Wallac eTl he asked good I 1 know you were a family man though till I 1 saw this kid sleeping in your arms armsy youve been inside inquired the lieutenant looking toward the shack the majors face grew gren very serious lie ile nodded her father said wallace come get in with youl answered M major ajor howard curtly indicating the ambulance mark supported by the orderlies who had placed the stretcher upon the ground crawled in and lay down ile he stretched out his arm toward the child it was an unconscious action but major howard noted it and detaching the small arms from about his neck he placed the little girl in the stretcher the little head drooped upon the lieutenants arm As the ambulance men picked up their burden two soldiers came out of the hut carryl carrying fig something in a blanket they carried it to the center of the clearing and sot set it down beside a hole which had already been dug ile he carried a pass signed by linares said wallace to the major major howards eyes contracted into narrow silts slits he Ile nodded 1 Ib I have avelt it he answered 1 I wonder who he nasr ans said wallace well decide what to do with the kid after wo we get her back to camp said the major curtly it seemed to wallace that he be was unwilling to speculate upon the identity of the dead man lie still and dont muddle your brains with thinking my boy he added well have you at the base hospital in next to no time how many men have wo we lost cant tell you quite a few im afraid soamma is gone crawford Craw tord ani and murray and I 1 found ourselves bunched together at the top of the hill bill leading a mixed company of texas rangers and pennsylvania dutch well got get ahem sorted out and sent home with labels as soon as we can move via boys tl TI q jolting stretcher preceded out of fb scrub and down the hill here her 1 in I airo open was almot almost as ellen aks s in the bush after the days batt barllw lit under the light of the rising moon crould be seen parties of 0 men moving over the hillside stragglers seeking their regiments or fatigue parties deEni derailed led upon the necessary night work that follows a day of death the moon shone down on huddled forms scattered for the most part in little clusters where shells or machine gun fire had caught them it seemed an infinitely long journey and every movement of the stretcher was almost unbearable wallace shut his lips tight light lie he awl pl at the child beside him she noved in her sleep feeling tor for his neck with th the little grimy hands bands her cheek snuggled into the hollow of his arm tho the lieutenant was curiously touched by this unconscious confidence ile iio issued from his ordeal of pain at last when the bearers halted in front of the line of tents that served tor for it a field hospital stretchers by the dozen were piled about the ground anil and more were arriving constantly wounded men guided by the sound came limping la in on the last lap of their painful journeys others who had arrived but had not yet been attended to sat or lay in front of the tents orderlies were scurrying to and fro major howard caught one of the regimental surgeons who looked mark over quickly find and then picked the child 0 out ut of the stretcher hello I 1 chos this he be asked friend of his said the major indicating di dl mark she look like a cuban young lady said the doctor as aa he cut away the sleeve of the tunic her fathers dead hit by a shell on his way from santiago I 1 think he was an american said mark give her to me I 1 never had one said the doctor suddenly injecting a hypodermic into marks arm not after that said mark wincing besides im thinking of adopting her myself and he wondered what had made him say that when the thou thought glit had hardly reached ills his own cl consciousness see here young man let me look at that arm of yours before you talk that way hum be running round in a couple ot of weeks as well as ever thank heaven for that I 1 ejaculated mark fervently then ill be in at the death 1 I doubt it I 1 wont pass you for duty for six months to come said the doctor grinning then seeing marks I 1 dejected look he added more seriously you may thank the modern high power bullet that you are going to keep your arm my boy its drilled a nice little pencil hole bole clean through the joint instead of shattering it and got to be filled in with new growth even I 1 cant grow bones in a week I 1 wish I 1 could ten years ngo ago your arm would have had to come oft off theres nothing more I 1 can do tor for you my son he be added as he smeared some sticky stuff over the wound and began adjusting a bandage except tie you up and put you in the hospital tonight and send you down to the base in the morning the devil you will I 1 I 1 guess im well enough to stay on the job as I 1 am here I 1 any more time to waste on you I 1 said the doctor pounce will make you a sling and go into that tent and stay there or IM cashier you you wont be feeling so spry tomorrow morning get out I 1 he strode away leaving murk mark looking in into the grinning black face of johnson after the sling had been adjusted lie discovered that the sense of due to the hypodermic was already beginning to leave him ills his servant helped him into the tent and major howard brought in the little girl who nt at once coiled herself up to sleep at wallaces side |