Project Gutenberg's Harper's Round Table, September 10, 1895, by Various

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Title: Harper's Round Table, September 10, 1895

Author: Various

Release Date: July 11, 2010 [EBook #33135]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPER'S ROUND TABLE, SEPTEMBER 10, 1895 ***

Produced by Annie McGuire

[Illustration: HARPER'S ROUND TABLE]

Copyright, 1895, by HARPER & BROTHERS. All Rights Reserved.

* * * * *

PUBLISHED WEEKLY. NEW YORK, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1895. FIVE CENTS A
COPY.

VOL. XVI.--NO. 828. TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.

* * * * *

[Illustration]

HOW REDDY GAINED HIS COMMISSION.

BY CAPTAIN CHARLES A. CURTIS, U.S.A.

Part I.

Guard-mounting was over. The commanding officer in the Adjutant's office
was occupied with the daily routine business of a frontier post. At
tables near him sat the Post-Adjutant, the acting Sergeant-Major, and a
soldier clerk, writing and making up the semi-weekly mail for the
post-office beyond the neighboring river.

Upon a bench outside the door, serving his tour as office orderly,
lounged a boy musician. He leaned listlessly against the wall of the
building, apparently oblivious to the grandeur of the views around him.
To the south, across an undulating plain, seventy miles away, were the
twin Spanish Peaks. To the west, the Cuerno Verde range let itself down
to the plain by a succession of lesser elevations, terminating in
rounded foot-hills, forty miles distant. Eighty miles to the northwest
the forest and granite clad form of Pikes Peak towered in majesty.

The fort was occupied by a troop of cavalry and a company of infantry,
the Captain of the infantry being in command. This officer was now
attaching his signature to various military documents. When the last
paper was signed the young orderly entered, and, standing at "attention"
before the Captain, said,

"Sir, my mother would like to speak to the commander."

"Very well, Maloney; take these papers to the quartermaster and the
surgeon, and tell your mother to come in."

The orderly departed, and soon after a ruddy-faced a