'll have to tell her what you said. It
will please her. He used to be in school with me years ago. I haven't
seen much of him since."

"Well, all I have to say is, improve your acquaintance if you get the
chance. He's worth ten to one of your society youths that loll around
here almost every time I come."

"Now, Cousin Captain!" chided Ruth. But she went off smiling and she kept
all his words in her heart.

XII

Corporal Cameron did not soon return to his native town. An epidemic of
measles broke out in camp just before Thanksgiving and pursued its
tantalizing course through his special barracks with strenuous vigor.
Quarantine was put on for three weeks, and was but lifted for a few hours
when a new batch of cases came down. Seven weeks more of isolation
followed, when the men were not allowed away from the barracks except for
long lonely walks, or gallops across camp. Even the mild excitements of
the Y.M.C.A. huts were not for them in these days. They were much shut up
to themselves, and latent tendencies broke loose and ran riot. Shooting
crap became a passion. They gambled as long as they had a dollar left or
could get credit on the next month's pay day. Then they gambled for their
shirts and their bayonets. All day long whenever they were in the
barracks, you could hear the rattle of the dice, and the familiar call of
"Phoebe," "Big Dick," "Big Nick," and "Little Joe." When they were not on
drill the men would infest the barracks for hours at a time, gathered in
crouching groups about the dice, the air thick and blue with cigarette
smoke; while others had nothing better to do than to sprawl on their cots
and talk; and from their talk Cameron often turned away nauseated. The
low ideals, the open boasting of shame, the matter-of-course conviction
that all men and most women were as bad as themselves, filled him with a
deep boiling rage, and he would close his book or throw down the paper
with which he was trying to while the hour, and fling forth into the cold
air for a solitary ride or walk.

He was sitting thus a cold cheerless December day with a French book he
had recently sent for, trying to study a little and prepare himself for
the new country to which he was soon going.

The door of the barracks opened letting in a rush of cold air, and closed
again quickly. A tall man in uniform with the red triangle on his arm
stood pulling off his woolen gloves and looking about him. Nobody paid
any attentio