Show AL romance of alm ilm AMERICA NARMY 4 COPYRIGHT R e 1 A CAPT WALLACE SEES ELEANOR NOW A YOUNG LADY FOR FIRST TIME IN MANY YEARS I 1 synopsis mark wallace TJ S A is wounded at tho the battle of santiago while wandering alono alone in the jungle he comes across a dead man in a hut outside of which a little girl Is playing when he be Is rescued he takes the girl to td the hospital and announces his intention of adopting her ills his commanding officer major howard tai tells Is him that the dead man was II hampton ampton a traitor who sold department secrets to an international gang in washington find and was detected by himself and kellerman an officer in the same office howard pleads to be allowed to send the child homo home to his wife and they agree that she shall never know her fathers shame CHAPTER III several years later captain mark wallace descended from a street car and walked up the grounds of a very select young ladles ladies boarding chool in westchester county new york kept by two malden maiden ladles entering the colonial portico the captain rang the bell and asked to see miss bliss howard five minutes afterward having satisfied the lady principal that he stood in the avuncular relation to her charge and was a man of blameless life he met eleanor in the reception room it was some years since he be had seen her the grimy little walf wait of the santiago battlefield had shot up into a slim long logged legged schoolgirl with brown hair tied back with a ribbon and a face that already showed the promise of beauty the girl hurried forward as if expecting an embrace realized marks intention and chocked checked herself quickly and held out both hands dear uncle mark I 1 she exclaimed ive been looking forward to louever you ever since I 1 got your letter telling me that you were coming east well its nice to be appreciated like that said mark laughing 1 I quite persuade myself that it was true and that I 1 should shoula really see you at last and youre not in the least like your photograph homelier eleanor no but different older very iauch ewh older you must be awfully old quite thirty I 1 should say nearly admitted mark wondering whether the long years in the west with the sweltering heat and arduous service had really aged him prematurely mark had had no influence to secure him anything better than a border post ile he often wondered why he had not gone into civil life like so many of his class and amassed a competency la in the first booming years of the twentieth century something in the blood perhaps had held him to the army life which he loved so much in principle and hated so much in practice ile he was not far short of thirty he had nothing but his meager pay no ties but a married sister la in chicago and the girl in the boarding school who filled so great a part of his thoughts so disproportionate a share for until that day he had only seen her once since lie picked her up in the jungle and she had been too young to retain the memory of the meeting la in major howards home 1 I expected a young man but rm im lust just as pleased to see you said eleanor 1 I dont like very young men 11 mrk marli received her amends with amusement and they sat down side by side upon the sofa and were soon deep in conversation mark learned all about her school and her friends she was very happy there and would regret not going back at the end of the holidays however major and mrs howard had only placed her there for 0 a few months while they went on a visit to the west 1 I always felt that you are really my guardian even it you did give me ma up to major howard said eleanor but I 1 have only lent you said sat mark 1 I very well take care of you when I 1 was sent to texas and it has always been understood that you belong to me I 1 moan mean that I 1 am your guardian eleanor 1 I know she said and you write me die such splendid letters with such good advice in them which you dont follow indeed I 1 do said the girl eagerly only sometimes it is just a little out of daw date uncle mark in abat particular inquired mark beginning to feel a little like a prig in the presence of this self pos hessed young person it is ia so 60 easy to assume the tusk task of adviser from a distance but dilli difficult cult to letain the role face to face well when you wrote me last year to remember hot to be pert and forward like modern children uncle shirk murk pertness comes at seven or lit one pert at twelve at east not in the way you meant they 1 nil I it brod then 1 I 1 suppose I 1 realize how big you were getting said mark penitently cut but you cant think how glad I 1 am to see you anyway its a shame sticking you for years out in that horrible desert said the girl 1 I wish uncle mart marls you stayed in the army after the war why my dear because then you could have gone into business in new york like captain murray and captain crawford ive been thinking about as much myself eleanor but I 1 guess the array army got hold of me but they treated you rightly uncle mark they promoted you for years and they have jumped all sorts of officers over your head bead major howard was saying so only before he left for alaska buts but ot of course hes out of favor and he have any influence anyway its years since he was la in the army 1 I suppose im a back number my dear some of us have to be perhaps ill get my chance im not thirty yet you know and thirty considered awfully old in the army at least it the retiring age dont be so absurd uncle markl you dont look an old man at all it was just that your photograph was taken so long ago and I 1 reflect that you must have changed and if ever another war comes ism im sure my experience will arill count for a lot and ill probably have command over captain murray and captain crawford Craw tord it if ever the national guard is called on tor for serious work and then have your function as our mascot you know 11 ile he was vas surprised nt at the girls sudden responsiveness to his bis words she grew very serious ive often thought about that uncle mark she answered dut but of course it may never happen 1 I suppose not but it cv ever er it does I 1 mean to try to be what you meant we me to be when you made that condition to the major how I 1 wish how I 1 wish yes my dear that we knew who my father was sometimes I 1 think he was only an american planter perhaps who lived in cuba and was forced to flee when the war began and then again I 1 dream that he may have been a brave soldier who was trying to serve its ills country by going into the spanish lines in disguise and I 1 hope that I 1 may be worthy of him you dont remember reme aber anything eleanor yes uncle mark im sure I 1 do and yet ive thought so much about it that im not sure how much of it Is memory and how much Is just childs inventions perhaps I 1 invented all of it and made myself believe I 1 remembered it and yet I 1 am sure part oi of it Is memory what do you remember asked mark rather fearfully well uncle mark my first connected memories are arc of major howards home of course and 1 I have a very vivid impression of being brought into the dining room and toasted at that dinner which the major gave to the officers after the war but before all that I 1 seem to have memories as if they were pictures what is the first thing you remember 1 I see a woman lying in a bed in a strange room her face Is whiter than any face I 1 have known a man sits beside her with his head tn in his hand and though death has no meaning tor for me I 1 am afraid for I 1 know that she ache was my mother was this in cuba eleanor 1 I dont know but I 1 think so uncle mark because I 1 remember running to the window and seeing a great palm tree outside with spreading branches and there are other cities and we seem to go from place to place always watching for som somebody and yet as it were hiding from people I 1 know we avoid people but it is an instinct only that tells me so and again I 1 am with my father la in the jungle I 1 dont know how we got there but I 1 see sec the trees all around me inc and I 1 am afraid we walk on and on and rome sometimes times lie he carrios me and we sleep under the trees and are drenched with rala rain I 1 am so tired and thirsty but we go on and on and when we stop we find a little hut and I 1 am afraid no longer and then asked mark in agitation 1 I remember nothing I 1 suppose the bullet that killed my father must have struck him while he was in the hut but I 1 have no picture in my mind at all mark mumbled something to conceal his agitation and do you remember me coming and picking you up he asked she shook her head regretfully 1 I doat remember anything else she answered nothing until that dinner in the majors house she linked her arm through his and looked at him earnestly uncle mark hark it makes me unhappy sometimes to think that I 1 have no memory no clear memory of my parents I 1 am sure that some day all this mystery will be chewed up dont you hope sol so yes res answered marks mark miserably lie he had always wondered what the child would be like howards half yearly letters had always assumed too much for granted mark had practically relinquished eleanor to the ifa major and he had never learned anything about her that he had really wanted to know ile he had not imagined the precocious co cious clous high strung idealistic girl whom he now saw he knew that the disclosure of her fathers dishonor if ever it came about would shock her into a revulsion 0 of feeling that would be fatal to the true development of her character ile he had often wished that he bad not pressed that idea of the regimental mascot upon the major it had been born in a mind attuned to the victory of vat tat bloody day in normal moments he would never have entertained it yet major howard had been more impressed than he be had admitted to mark the idea had spread through the minds of the other officers there was never a guard dinner dinder but eleanor was solemnly toasted though she was not permitted to be present and somehow the child had become pi symbol in the minds of these plain arlell it in business and professional life wl wo 0 o spent two weeks in camp each year after the war mark had gone to the regulars but he was still in touch with the officers of the seventieth and he knew that it if ever war came lie he could obtain an appointment to it 1 I am sure that my father will prove to have been a brave soldier said eleanor clasping her hands eagerly and sometimes she continued 1 I think that there must have been a great mystery about him why demanded mark startled because of the man who watches for me watches for you it lg is imagination leanor eleanor E she shook her head ive seeli seen him three or tour four ti times meser answered the girl he waits at places that we pass I 1 1 I know that she was my mother when we go out together and he watches me thou then though he never attempts to speak to me and youve told miss harper Harp crl no uncle mark she would think I 1 was hysterical answered the girl shrewdly mark could see that but he was certain that it was hysteria that the idea had come to the child as the r result 0 of brooding over the mystery 0 of f her parentage the entrance ot of the lady principal put tin nn end to their conversation acarl rose reluctantly his visit had been all too brief and it might be years before he saw the girl again well eleanor this Is au an revoir 1 I lie he said perhaps tor for yi airs rs she looked at him in sudden alarm you are not coming back before you leave for tho the west uncle mark she asked they wont allow me the time I 1 have to go to washington tomorrow and then back to texas she returned no answer but went with him to the house door and turned arid and faced him there pulling at the lapels of his coat send me a new photograph captain mark marh she said im not going to call you uncle mark any more an older one askeli dirix badall if ans though he hall a strange sinking at his heart tills child epitomized home to him and he be had bad bei hoat less bine boy boyhood bood you must forgive roe me she ho said a little wistfully captain marks mark theres something I 1 want awfully to say to you but it takes a lot of courage she added tell roe me just the same answered mark hark you know roy my dear I 1 want you to have everything you wish tor for and if major howard wont give it to you you just let me know lie he has assumed the responsibility tor for your upbringing and im going to have the tun fun of giving you pl pleasure are its something that major howard caret cant give me captain mark can I 1 yes she said in a low voice pulling nt at his coat anil and suddenly raising her eyes to his mark wallace saw the soul of a mature woman look out of the eyes ot of the child when rm im older and have put my hair up and wear long dresses dresse 3 when im eighteen sa say Y 1 I 1 I want you to marry rae me captain mark 11 she was gone in a flash running along the corridor while mark wallace stood at the door hearing her footsteps grow fainter as she hurried into the recesses of the misses harpers school for select young ladles ladies mark went down the walk like a man dreaming it was absurd it was perhaps characteristic of the girls age and temperament and yet in spite of the absurdity captain mark wallace felt as it he had suddenly regained the grimy little child whom he had found upon the hillside in front of santiago and lost again As he be reached the gate he saw a man watching him from the bend bead ot of the road something of furtiveness ln in the mans posture made him wheel sharply round then he remembered eleanors words and started in haste toward him but the man shambled off at a quick galt gait and when mark reached the bend he could see nobody CHAPTER IV and the years passed and mark wallace grow grew grayer and older and more set and dispirited with long alternating terna ting intervals of resignation when he took life as he found it and was satisfied but he always came out of these into brief periods of unrest with the sense that he had awa awakened k from some lethargy that was damning his soul as the alkali and the winds of the plains had seamed his face and taken the last particle of his youth away now in texas now in arizona now in some lonely border post in the freelin freezing northwest lie he remained a captain he ke had no friends in washington in time in long time lie he would reach his bis majority no doubt to be relieved lieveld soon after and waddle with stout old majors of his own age into ornate clubs in army centers not quite so far removed from civilization n lie looked upon this prospect with ironical pat patience lence and now and then asked himself the unanswerable question why he had bad rem remained to tn the amy arra eleanor was grown up and domiciled permanently in colonel howards town house and her letters had grown more infrequent and perfunctory un until their arrival became a quarterly affair instead of a monthly elent rud and not always that either and by and by the feeling came over mark that if ever he were to see her again there would remain no common link between them from doubting JUs his future ho he had come to doubt himself ne ile doubted whether the desert life had not blunted him blunted his finer instincts and made him unlit unfit for social life certa certainly laly rendered him unfit for the guardianship of a young girl but that he had relinquished to colonel noward howard grudgingly but uncompromisingly never in any of his letters did he put forward the shadow of ills his former claim then swiftly and unexpectedly chance turned and beckoned him capt wallace meets eleanor whom he finds to be a center of attraction he also renews his acquaintance with kellerman in whom he immediately discerns an antagonist TO BE CONTINUED |