should sentence its author to conduct the mess
himself until relieved in a like manner. As might be imagined, such a
system naturally discouraged an improvement of affairs. Exasperated,
finally, beyond his limit, Lieutenant Breck came out with--"If this
isn't the rottenest apology of an old mess"--saving himself by quickly
adding, "But I like it; O, I like it; nobody can tell how much I like
this mess!"

There was an officer's club in a frame building near the
headquarters. Here, in the afternoon, the clan would gather for a
round of "whisky poker" for the drinks. There was a strapping young
Kentuckian whose ancestors had all been army men. "The profession of
arms," said he, "is the noblest profession in the world. And that is
the profession that we follow." It was a rather sad sight, though,
a few weeks later, after his wife, a little Southern girl, had gone
back to the "States," to see this giant soldier playing cards and
drinking whisky with the teamsters, bar-keeps, and camp-followers,
threatening to shoot the man who tried to interfere, and finally
being taken down in irons for a court-martial.

The only one of all his friends who did not fall away from him was one,
a little, catlike cavalry lieutenant, booted and spurred, and always
dressed in khaki riding-breeches, never saying much, but generally
considered the most popular young officer in all the service. And
there was one other faithful one, but not an officer. The "striker,"
who had followed him in many a hard hike, and had learned to admire
his courage and to consider him infallible, tried for the sake of
the young Southern girl, to keep his master from the wretched drink.

The post of Cagayan that winter was a busy one. On Sunday mornings
the stern-visaged officers would go the round of all the barracks on
inspection duty. There was still a remnant of the _Insurrecto_ army
operating in the hills, and an attack upon the town was threatened
nightly. Once a month, when pay-day came around, a reign of terror,
which began with early afternoon, lasted until almost a company
of miscellaneous marauders could have been recruited from the
guard-house. A dozen saloons and poker games were running the night
long, and in those days little money was deposited in the paymaster's
bank.

A number of detachments had been left in different towns around
the bay in charge of second lieutenants or first sergeants. Here,
while the discipline was more relaxed, the pandemoniu