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Read Ebook: La kialo de la vivo by Anonymous
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Ebook has 88 lines and 5707 words, and 2 pages
Transcriber's note:
THE SEARCH
GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL
Made in the United States of America
Printed in the United States of America
THE SEARCH
THE SEARCH
Two young men in officers' uniforms entered the smoker of a suburban train, and after the usual formalities of matches and cigarettes settled back to enjoy their ride out to Bryne Haven.
"What d'ye think of that girl I introduced you to the other night, Harry? Isn't she a pippin?" asked the second lieutenant taking a luxurious puff at his cigarette.
"I should say, Bobbie, she's some girl! Where d'ye pick her up? I certainly owe you one for a good time."
"Don't speak of it, Harry. Come on with me and try it again. I'm going to see her friend to-night and can get her over the 'phone any time. She's just nuts about you. What do you say? Shall I call her up?"
The second lieutenant sat up and whistled:
"You've decided to marry Ruth Macdonald!" he ejaculated, staring. "But has Ruth Macdonald decided to marry you?"
"I hardly think there'll be any trouble on that score when I get ready to propose," smiled the first lieutenant complacently, as he lolled back in his seat. "You seem surprised," he added.
"Well, rather!" said the other officer dryly, still staring.
"What's there so surprising about that?" The first lieutenant was enjoying the sensation he was creating. He knew that the second lieutenant had always been "sweet" on Ruth Macdonald.
"Exactly. Didn't you suppose I would want a fine girl when I marry?"
"You couldn't stop me, Bob!" with an amiable sneer. "One word from you, young man, and I'd put your captain wise about where you were the last time you overstayed your leave and got away with it. You know I've got a pull with your captain. It never pays for the pot to call the kettle black."
The second lieutenant sat back sullenly with a deep red streaking his cheeks.
"You're no angel yourself, Bob, see?" went on the first lieutenant lying back in his seat in satisfied triumph, "and I'm going to marry Ruth Macdonald next week and get a ten days' leave! Put that in your pipe and smoke it!"
There ensued a long and pregnant silence. One glance at the second lieutenant showed that he was most effectually silenced.
The front door of the car slammed open and shut, and a tall slim officer with touches of silver about the edges of his dark hair, and a look of command in his keen eyes came crisply down the aisle. The two young lieutenants sat up with a jerk, and an undertone of oaths, and prepared to salute as he passed them. The captain gave them a quick searching glance as he saluted and went on to the next car.
The two jerked out salutes and settled back uneasily.
"That man gives me a pain!" said Harry Wainwright preparing to soothe his ruffled spirits by a fresh cigarette.
"He thinks he's so doggone good himself that he has to pry into other people's business and get them in wrong. It beats me how he ever got to be a captain--a prim old fossil like him!"
"It might puzzle some people to know how you got your commission, Harry. You're no fossil, of course, but you're no angel, either, and there are some things in your career that aren't exactly laid down in military manuals."
"Oh, my uncle Henry looked after my commission. It was a cinch! He thinks the sun rises and sets in me, and he had no idea how he perjured himself when he put me through. Why, I've got some of the biggest men in the country for my backers, and wouldn't they lie awake at night if they knew! Oh Boy! I thought I'd croak when I read some of those recommendations, they fairly gushed with praise. You'd have died laughing, Bob, if you had read them. They had such adjectives as 'estimable, moral, active, efficient,' and one went so far as to say that I was equally distinguished in college in scholarship and athletics! Some stretch of imagination, eh, what?"
The two laughed loudly over this.
"And the best of it is," continued the first lieutenant, "the poor boob believed it was all true!"
"But your college records, Harry, how could they get around those? Or didn't they look you up?"
"Oh, mother fixed that all up. She sent the college a good fat check to establish a new scholarship or something."
"Lucky dog!" sighed his friend. "Now I'm just the other way. I never try to put anything over but I get caught, and nobody ever tried to cover up my tracks for me when I got gay!"
The front door of the car opened and shut with a slam, and a tall young fellow with a finely cut face and wearing workman's clothes entered. He gave one quick glance down the car as though he was searching for someone, and came on down the aisle. The sight of him stopped the boast on young Wainwright's tongue, and an angry flush grew, and rolled up from the top of his immaculate olive-drab collar to his close, military hair-cut.
Lieutenant Wainwright uttered a low oath of imprecation and flung his half spent cigarette on the floor angrily:
"Did you see that, Bob?" he complained furiously, "If I don't get that fellow!"
"Oh, I see! Licked you, too, once, did he?" laughed Wetherill, "what had you been up to?"
"I see! You'd just applied for Officer's Training Camp?"
"Exactly, and you know you never can tell what rumor a person like that can start. He's keen enough to see the advantage, of course, and follow it up. Oh, he's got one coming to him all right!"
"Yes, he's keen all right. That's the trouble. It's hard to get him."
"Well, just wait. I've got him now. If I don't make him bite the dust! Ye gods! When I think of the way he looks at me every time he sees me I could skin him alive!"
"I fancy he'd be rather slippery to skin. I wouldn't like to try it, Harry!"
"He won't likely be in your company."
"That doesn't make any difference. I can get him into trouble if he isn't, but I'll try to work it that he is if I can. I've got 'pull,' you know, and I know how to 'work' my superiors!" he swaggered.
"That isn't very good policy," advised the other, "I've heard of men picking off officers they didn't like when it came to battle."
"I'll take good care that he's in front of me on all such occasions!"
A sudden nudge from his companion made him look up, and there looking sharply down at him, was the returning captain, and behind him walked John Cameron still with that amused smile on his face. It was plain that they had both heard his boast. His face crimsoned and he jerked out a tardy salute, as the two passed on leaving him muttering imprecations under his breath.
When the front door slammed behind the two Wainwright spoke in a low shaken growl:
"Now what in thunder is that Captain La Rue going on to Bryne Haven for? I thought, of course, he got off at Spring Heights. That's where his mother lives. I'll bet he is going up to see Ruth Macdonald! You know they're related. If he is, that knocks my plans all into a cocked hat. I'd have to sit at attention all the evening, and I couldn't propose with that cad around!"
"Better put it off then and come with me," soothed his friend. "Athalie Britt will help you forget your troubles all right, and there's plenty of time. You'll get another leave soon."
"How the dickens did John Cameron come to be on speaking terms with Captain La Rue, I'd like to know?" mused Wainwright, paying no heed to his friend.
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