ETHE-i 
 SPIRIT 
 OF-THE 
 SERVICE 
 
 EDITH 
 ELMER 
 WOOD 

 
 4
 
 MACMILLAN'S STANDARD LIBRARY 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE
 
 " ' Do THEY WORRY YOU THESE THINGS ? '
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE 
 SERVICE 
 
 BY 
 EDITH ELMER WOOD 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY 
 RUFUS F. ZOGBAUM 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 GROSSET & DUNLAP 
 PUBLISHERS
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1903, 
 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1903. 
 Reprinted May, 1906. 
 Special edition, in paper covers, May, 1905. 
 
 J. S. Cashing & Co. Berwick <fc Smith Co. 
 Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 " ' Do they worry you these things ? * " . Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 *' ' I hope you'll all get the thanks of Congress,' s#id 
 
 Sue " . . . . . . . 34 
 
 " The judge advocate took up a long list of ques- 
 tions " . . . . . . . 88 
 
 " ' You see we haven't draped our seats with 
 
 national flags to-day ' " . . . .132 
 
 " The starboard boats were lowered " . . . 170 
 The Men at the Guns . 286 
 
 2229047
 
 The Spirit of the Service 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 " X^APTAIN, Mr. O'Meara would like 
 I i to see you, sir," whispered the mes- 
 senger, with an air of mystery and 
 importance. ^ 
 
 "O'Meara?" 
 
 Captain Cartwright's voice was at its normal 
 pitch and showed no recognition of the name's 
 significance. 
 
 "John C. O'Meara, you know." 
 
 A prince of the blood could not have been 
 announced with more unction. 
 
 "Who's he?" 
 
 For a moment the messenger stared at his 
 chief, aghast at such a revelation of ignorance. 
 There was nothing to indicate that the Captain 
 was joking, and, indeed, facetiousness with his 
 subordinates was not among his characteristics.
 
 2 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " Why, he's the strongest ward boss on this 
 side of the river, sir," was the anxiously whis- 
 pered response. "He has the naming of every 
 officeholder from the congressman down, and 
 Senator Flint does everything he says." 
 
 " What does he want here ? " 
 
 The Captain's voice had acquired a ring of 
 severity before which the messenger quailed. 
 
 " I don't know, sir," he murmured apolo- 
 getically. 
 
 " Bring him in," said the Captain, shortly. 
 
 Mr. John C. O'Meara had heavy features 
 and small eyes set too close together, but his 
 face was surprisingly illuminated when he 
 smiled, and the slight brogue in his voice was 
 rather pleasant. He appeared, either from 
 obtuseness or from policy, perfectly unconscious 
 of Captain Cartwright's forbidding manner, 
 and greeted him with cordiality a shade 
 excessive. 
 
 The Captain instinctively withdrew still far- 
 ther into his shell. 
 
 " May I be shuttin' this ? " asked the visitor, 
 proceeding, as he spoke, to close the door into
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 3 
 
 the adjoining office. "I've a most annoyin' 
 cold." 
 
 " The draught comes from the window," said 
 the Captain. " Robinson, close the window 
 and open that door again." 
 
 Mr. O'Meara looked grieved for a moment, 
 then he smiled. 
 
 "I've somethin' to say that's a trrifle confi- 
 dential," he suggested. " Hadn't we better " 
 
 " No," said the Captain, and his tone was 
 final. 
 
 " Just as you say." 
 
 The politician, with a gently deprecatory 
 wave of the hand, took a chair near the corner 
 of the Captain's desk. 
 
 " You're runnin' a very important branch of 
 the navy-yard work, Captain Cartwright," he 
 said. "You employ a large number of men. 
 You're a stranger here, and it's not to be 
 expected you'd have much personal knowledge 
 of the men on your pay-roll. The best of us 
 makes mistakes now and then annyhow. That's 
 right, ain't it ? " 
 
 "It seems to be. Well?"
 
 4 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " I'm takin' the liberty of an old risidint, 
 Captain, to drop in and offer you a bit of a 
 suggestion." 
 
 " I don't understand." 
 
 The Captain's antagonism was unmistakable, 
 but Mr. O'Meara still ignored it, and hitching 
 his chair a trifle closer, continued in a tone at 
 once soothing and confidential : 
 
 " It's about that man Klein you bounced the 
 other day. 'Tain't surprisin' you was fooled 
 by his name. But his political convictions 
 have lifted him above the prejudices of his 
 race, and I'm able to testify most positive to 
 his bein' as good a Dimocrat as walks." 
 
 " Is that all ? " 
 
 " He's a man of influence, sir ; one of the 
 best workers in the warrd." 
 
 "He was one of the worst workers in the 
 machine shop. That's why he was dis- 
 charged." 
 
 " Did you obserrve his shortcomin's your- 
 self, Captain, or did you hear of 'em from 
 annother ? " 
 
 " Both."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 5 
 
 " Now, did the one that you got your inforr- 
 mation from happen to be the foreman ? " 
 
 " Naturally. It's his business to report 
 inefficiency." 
 
 "Ah, there you've uncovered the nigger 
 in the wood-pile, my dear sir ! That fore- 
 man is a Republican, and a most objectionable 
 one." 
 
 " It's no concern of mine what he is, so long 
 as he does his work. You don't appear to 
 understand that this yard is under civil-service 
 rules." 
 
 " Yes, yes, I know," the visitor hastened to 
 say, " and it's the very point I'm comin' at. 
 I'm not sayin' Weinhart ain't a smart worrk- 
 man all right, but he's a smart politician, too, 
 and it's politics, not worrk, that's set him 
 against Klein, and set him the harder for them 
 both bein' Dutch, and don't you ferget it ! 
 Klein played a nate little trrick on him at the 
 primaries last month, and he's been layin' for 
 him iver sinse. It's revenge that's actuatin' 
 the man, sir, a clear case of political persecu- 
 tion. And that ain't all either. Weinhart's
 
 got his own brother-in-law on the waitin' list. 
 Fleischmann's his name, and he's figurin' to 
 work him into Klein's job. Oh, he's the early 
 bird, all right ! It's a cold day when Weinhart 
 gits left, but I'm thinkin' you're the man to 
 see through his desatefulness." 
 
 This delicate compliment produced a 
 twinkle of amusement in the Captain's eyes, 
 but no relaxation of his firm -set lips. He 
 jotted down a memorandum on a pad. 
 
 " I will look into your charges," he said. 
 " I tell you frankly that I don't believe there 
 is anything in them ; but if there is, I shall 
 know what action to take. There are to be no 
 politics in my department, one way or the 
 other." 
 
 " That's right, that's right," agreed Mr. 
 O'Meara, heartily. "And thank you, very 
 much." 
 
 " There is no occasion for it," said the Cap- 
 tain, with grave but distant civility. 
 
 " Just one thing more, Captain. There's a 
 man registered on the applicants' list that I 
 want to speak a good word for."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 7 
 
 " They all take their turn." 
 
 " Yes, of course ; but you and me knows 
 there's ways of hurryin' the turn." 
 
 " Not in my department." 
 
 " If number two on the list is a better 
 worrkman than number one, which gits the 
 job?" 
 
 " The man that's first on the list. The 
 head of department has no power of selection. 
 All he can do is to reject the manifestly unfit. 
 The classification is done by the labor board 
 when the applicant registers." 
 
 Mr. O'Meara beamed approval. 
 
 " I ain't quarrelin' with your fancy names for 
 things, Captain. ( Rejectin' of the unfit * will 
 do the trrick all right, I guess. Of course, 
 there's got to be somethin'. It's business and 
 it's common sinse. You don't fill up your 
 shops with all the bums and jays that happen 
 to write their names down first. What you 
 want is the best men. The best's none too 
 good for you, I take it. Now, I can ricom- 
 mend this man as a first-class electrician, and I 
 happen to know he's in nade of a job. We
 
 8 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 should think of that, too, when we can the 
 wife and the little ones, you know." 
 
 He paused, but Captain Cartwright made no 
 response. 
 
 " I told him to mention my name to you, 
 but " 
 
 Captain Cartwright leaned forward, resting 
 his elbow on the desk, and looked his visitor 
 squarely in the eyes. 
 
 " Is his name Callahan ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir, that's the man." 
 
 "Well, you can inform your friend Mr. 
 Callahan that political wire-pulling won't help 
 him to employment in this yard. If he takes 
 my advice, he'll withdraw his name from the 
 applicants' list altogether. I don't think he'll 
 get a job even when his turn comes. He's 
 not the sort of man we want. I think he 
 knows my sentiments, though. I've expressed 
 them to him. If I had known you were the 
 man he was talking about, I should have de- 
 clined to see you this morning." 
 
 The politician's face hardened. He con- 
 trolled himself with an effort.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 9 
 
 " I don't think you understand," he said 
 with elaborate patience. 
 
 " I don't think I care to." 
 
 "One moment," deprecated the Irishman. 
 " Callahan ain't just an old friend of mine, 
 though he's that too, but Congressman 
 Jerry Smith's under very considerrable obliga- 
 tions to him and is very much interrested in 
 gettin' him good employment." 
 
 Captain Cartwright pushed back his chair 
 impatiently. 
 
 "That's a matter that doesn't concern 
 me in the least or interest me," he said 
 shortly. 
 
 There was a momentary revelation of the 
 savage in the glint of Mr. O'Meara's small 
 eyes, then the curtain fell again. But it left 
 his face very red. 
 
 " It may interrest ye more than ye think 
 before ye're through," he sneered, his brogue 
 thickening as he lost control of his temper. 
 
 Captain Cartwright rose. 
 
 " We will call this interview closed," he said 
 quietly.
 
 io THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 The visitor rose too, choking and splutter- 
 ing with rage. 
 
 " I believe ye're a Republican yersilf ! " he 
 exclaimed, with the air of one making a most 
 damaging accusation. 
 
 The crudeness of the man's point of view 
 was so enormous that the Captain smiled. 
 
 " Show the gentleman to the door, Robin- 
 son," he said suavely, and sitting down at his 
 desk again, took up the specifications for 
 dynamos he had been examining before he 
 was interrupted. 
 
 The messenger, awestruck between the 
 warring potentates, tiptoed to the door and 
 opened it in a gingerly fashion. 
 
 The Captain's smile and tone had stung the 
 politician to fury. 
 
 " Ye damned hypocritical snob ! " he 
 shouted, stopping in the doorway to shake 
 his fist. " Ye think ye can insult me because 
 I'm a plain man of the people and don't 
 parley voo fransay and trrain with the Four 
 Hundred ! I'll show ye what I can do ! Ye'll 
 be laughin' out o' the other side o' yer
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE u 
 
 mouth before Congressman Smith and Sinator 
 Flint and Johnnie O'Meara gits through with 
 ye!" 
 
 The Captain looked up suddenly from his 
 papers. 
 
 " That will do," he said, with a quarter- 
 deck ring of authority. And something in 
 the Irishman responded to it, carrying him 
 out of the door without another word. 
 
 The Captain went on with the specifications, 
 but Mr. O'Meara's visit had annoyed him so 
 thoroughly that he found it hard to settle 
 down to his work. 
 
 Presently the messenger opened the door. 
 
 " Here's a gentleman to see you, sir," he 
 said, grinning. 
 
 The Captain turned belligerently to face 
 another politician, then his frown relaxed. 
 
 " Why, hello, Wriggles, what are you doing 
 here ? " 
 
 " He would come, sir ; I couldn't do any- 
 thing with him," said his nurse, apologetically, 
 from the rear. 
 
 Stephen Van Alen Whittemore, otherwise
 
 12 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 known as Wriggles, was between two and 
 three years old and highly picturesque. Just 
 now he was a symphony in soft browns. He 
 wore a long tan-colored cloth coat trimmed 
 with beaver and a velvet hat of a slightly 
 darker shade, under which a circle of tawny 
 curls framed his chubby face. His eyes were 
 dancing roguishly with the triumph of having 
 carried his point over the nurse's veto. 
 
 "Wiggles turn see Dwanfadder," he said 
 pleasantly. 
 
 There was, in the Captain's manner, as he 
 set the child on his knee, a peculiar tenderness 
 which no one but Wriggles had the power to 
 evoke a tenderness which seemed to hold, 
 along with the love, a pity too deep for words. 
 For the sight of the boy always brought be- 
 fore him the image of his daughter, and 
 the pity was not only for the little one's 
 motherlessness, but because his coming into 
 the world had cost his mother her life. The 
 fact that Wriggles was quite unconscious of 
 any responsibility in the matter and would 
 probably always remain so, did not in the
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 13 
 
 least detract from the infinite compassion his 
 grandfather felt for him. 
 
 " Wiggles want wed penthil," said the little 
 one, stroking his grandfather's cheek. 
 
 "All right, my boy. Here's a red pencil.. 
 Now you'd better run along with Mollie. 
 Grandfather's busy." 
 
 But Wriggles resisted, by an ingenious stiff- 
 ening of his body, the attempt to set him 
 down on the floor. 
 
 "Wiggles want boo penthil too," he said 
 with great earnestness. 
 
 " Humph," observed the grandfather, affect- 
 ing sternness, " you want a great deal, Wriggles." 
 
 Wriggles said nothing, but looked expec- 
 tant. He had the face of a Perugino cherub. 
 
 " If I give you a blue pencil, will you run 
 away with Mollie like a good boy ? " 
 
 "Yas," he agreed solemnly. 
 
 The blue pencil was handed to him and 
 Wriggles was set down on the floor. 
 
 But he still stood there. 
 
 "Wiggles want g'een penthil," he said 
 with angelic cadences in his voice.
 
 14 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " Wriggles, I haven't got any green pencils, 
 and I wouldn't give you one if I had." 
 
 Wriggles's lip quivered. 
 
 " You said you would run away like a good 
 boy if I gave you the blue pencil. That's a 
 promise. I expect you to behave like an offi- 
 cer and a gentleman." 
 
 Wriggles gazed at him doubtfully. 
 
 " Here's some paper to make pictures on 
 with the red pencil and the blue pencil. 
 Good-by, my boy. Now go." 
 
 Wriggles gathered up his booty and de- 
 parted, whether because he wished to be an 
 officer and a gentleman or because his grand- 
 father had said that he didn't have any green 
 pencils, will probably never be known. Wrig- 
 gles was quite capable of being moved by 
 either consideration. 
 
 The Captain turned back to his desk in a 
 thoroughly good humor. The earlier unpleas- 
 ant incident was forgotten. The child had put 
 the world in tune again.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE Cartwrights were in no sense 
 society people. This was partly from 
 lack of inclination and partly from 
 lack of funds. The art of making a big show 
 on a small expenditure and of keeping in step 
 with people whose income was several times 
 larger than theirs, was quite unknown to them. 
 Yet they had a rather wide circle of friends, 
 whom they delighted to gather around them. 
 Their entertaining usually took the shape 
 of dinners, small and informal enough not to 
 overtax the resources of their modest estab- 
 lishment. The employment of one-night chefs 
 and butlers that favorite device of limited 
 pocketbooks they held in peculiar abhor- 
 rence. What their cook" and waitress could 
 not carry out they never attempted. But 
 they had the dinner-giving talent, which is a 
 thing by itself. 
 
 '5
 
 16 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 The present little dinner was in honor of 
 the two girls staying with them, who had been 
 their daughter's most cherished friends. The 
 Cartwrights had started out to love them for 
 Elizabeth's sake and had ended by loving 
 them for their own. 
 
 Although they knew each other well by 
 name through their common friend, the two 
 had never met until the beginning of this 
 visit, but had already become the best of 
 good comrades in spite of, or on account of, 
 their wide divergence in type. They were 
 alike only in their loyalty to Elizabeth and 
 in belonging to the minority who leave the 
 world better if ever so little than they 
 found it. Sue Ballinger was a Californian of 
 commanding figure and warm blond coloring, 
 whose virtues and faults were on a generous 
 scale. She was fairly bursting with vitality, 
 with energy both mental and physical, with 
 enthusiasms of all sorts. Yet her admirable 
 common sense acted as a balance wheel and 
 kept her from the gushing, the sentimental, 
 or the merely eccentric. Barbara Thornhill
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 17 
 
 was a frail little thing, all eyes, who looked 
 like a disembodied spirit. She was a bundle 
 of reserves and shynesses, concealed incon- 
 gruously enough under an assumption of 
 cynicism, which imposed on few, but seemed 
 to be the only condition under which she 
 could bring herself into communication with 
 her fellow-mortals at all. 
 
 The two girls appeared downstairs a few 
 minutes before the arrival of the outside 
 guests. Mrs. Cartwright was still hovering in 
 and out of the dining room, putting a touch to 
 the table or giving some final directions to the 
 waitress. She was always nervous till the last 
 moment. Some generals are said to be like that. 
 
 " Will the men be in uniform, Mrs. Cart- 
 wright?" Sue asked. Neither of the girls 
 was used to navy-yard life and both took an 
 interest in its externalities. 
 
 "I'm afraid not." 
 
 " Too bad ! If they wear Tuxedos, they'll 
 be mere ordinary mortals." 
 
 " My heart is safe, then, for this occasion," 
 murmured Barbara, flippantly.
 
 i8 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " I wish it weren't," laughed Sue, laying her 
 hands on Barbara's shoulders. " I should like 
 tremendously to see you lose your grip and 
 fall in love idiotically, inanely, in love, you 
 know." 
 
 Barbara made a wry face. 
 
 " I dare say I'd do it that way, if I did 
 it at all," she said. 
 
 Captain Cartwright came into the room. 
 
 " Here's the Captain. He doesn't look 
 commonplace in a dinner-coat. Perhaps the 
 others won't either," Sue exclaimed hopefully. 
 
 " Oh, he couldn't look commonplace in any- 
 thing," returned Barbara, " but there are no 
 more like the Captain." 
 
 His dark eyes flashed at the girl, full of 
 pleasure. He bent over her hand and lifted 
 it to his lips with fine courtliness. 
 
 " This is compensation for my gray hairs," 
 he said gallantly. 
 
 The guests began to arrive, Lieutenant Mc- 
 M asters and Ensign Ferris, then Lieutenant 
 and Mrs. Janvier. There were no more. 
 This was a household which clung to the
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 19 
 
 classical limitation concerning the number of 
 the muses. 
 
 The table was round. It had been one of 
 Mrs. Cartwright's few extravagances. There 
 was no dazzle of cut glass and silverware. 
 The slender-stemmed glass vase in the centre, 
 with its gracefully curving red carnations, gave 
 the keynote of artistic simplicity. There were 
 only two kinds of wine, a claret and a sherry, 
 but they were good. 
 
 Sue and Barbara had met all the guests 
 before except Mr. McMasters. He was on 
 the Duluth, a ship that had just come in. 
 
 " Do you still find navy-yard life so pic- 
 turesque, Miss Ballinger ? " asked Mrs. 
 Janvier. 
 
 " Yes, indeed," cried Sue, " I am simply 
 revelling in it! I want to paint pictures of 
 it and write poems about it all the time. It 
 doesn't seem like America at all. It's a 
 glimpse into another world. It doesn't seem 
 like the end of the nineteenth century either. 
 I feel as if I had been swept back into the 
 Middle Ages."
 
 20 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " And we flattered ourselves we were strictly 
 up to date ! " laughed Captain Cartwright. 
 
 Mr. McMasters turned to the girl beside 
 him with awakened attention. 
 
 " That's very interesting," he said. " It's 
 all such a matter of course and of daily 
 routine to us that it's hard to realize we look 
 at all extraordinary to outsiders." 
 
 " You don't," interrupted Barbara, incisively. 
 " It's only the gold lace and buttons." 
 
 He smiled indulgently, as one might at a 
 child. But before he could explain, Sue had 
 swept in. 
 
 " It's not so external as all that, Barbara. 
 It's not just their uniforms that are so strange to 
 us. It's their whole point of view, their whole 
 standard of life, what the Captain calls the 
 spirit of the service. You see," she went on, 
 looking around the table, " I've been brought 
 up in a world whose ideals are commercial. 
 Almost all the people I know reckon life by 
 dollars and cents. The others judge it by 
 intellectual standards. Barbara is one of that 
 sort. Up in New England, where she comes
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 21 
 
 from, they still believe in plain living and 
 high thinking." 
 
 " That's her amiable little theory," whis- 
 pered Barbara in an audible aside. " It's 
 easy to see she's never been there." 
 
 " Never mind about localities, then. But 
 we both know those two standards and we 
 don't know any other. Now here we drop 
 into a world whose ideals are purely mili- 
 tary. I thought that spirit was dead and 
 buried centuries ago, and here it is flourish- 
 ing before my eyes." 
 
 "Just what do you mean by the military 
 spirit, Miss Ballinger ? " asked Mr. McMas- 
 ters, with the air of deferential interest which 
 is the sincerest flattery. 
 
 Sue considered. 
 
 "Well, there's the loyalty first not simply 
 to the country. We're all patriotic." 
 
 "According to our lights," Barbara inter- 
 polated. 
 
 " Yes, according to our lights. But the 
 naval officer's loyalty has to include the 
 whole hierarchy of government at least his 
 branch of the government."
 
 22 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 "They are his superior officers," ex- 
 plained Captain Cartwright. 
 
 "Exactly, but the rest of us don't revere 
 our superior officers." 
 
 " Neither do we, necessarily." 
 
 " But if you don't, you keep your opin- 
 ion to yourselves." 
 
 We ought to, but we sometimes don't.' : 
 I am speaking of ideals." 
 Go on. It's very nice about the loy- 
 alty, but I doubt if we have a monopoly of 
 the quality." 
 
 "There's the army," suggested Mr. Ferris, 
 with an effort after fairness so elaborate that 
 it produced a ripple of laughter among the 
 navy people. 
 
 " Why, the army and navy are all the 
 same, aren't they ! " asked Sue, in some be- 
 wilderment. 
 
 " Heavens, no ! " exclaimed Mr. Janvier. 
 " Those poor devils never go to sea." 
 
 " Billy, do behave yourself," admonished 
 his wife. 
 
 "They're the same for the purposes of
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 23 
 
 your analysis, I think," said the Captain. 
 " But I hope there's some loyalty left in 
 civil life." 
 
 " Personal loyalty here and there, yes ; but 
 hardly ex-officio loyalty to superiors as such." 
 
 "It sounds rather atavistic, put that way, 
 doesn't it ? " commented Mr. McMasters. 
 
 " Un-American, anyhow," said Mrs. Jan- 
 vier. " I see what she means. But go on." 
 
 " Then there are the two complementary 
 habits of command and obedience, the 
 kind that doesn't argue, you know. 
 
 ' Theirs not to make reply, 
 Theirs not to reason why, 
 Theirs but to do and die,' " 
 
 quoted Mr. Janvier with mock-heroic em- 
 phasis. 
 
 " The obedience part is un-American enough, 
 we'll all admit," said Mrs. Cartwright. " But 
 the command aren't we a nation of sover- 
 eigns ? " 
 
 " That only applies to the feminine half of 
 the community," observed the Captain, and 
 they all laughed.
 
 24 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " Now don't let's get away from the point. 
 This is interesting," persisted Mrs. Janvier. 
 " You have the floor, Miss Ballinger." 
 
 " There's the combativeness of course," 
 Sue began, but was interrupted by a chorus 
 of protests. 
 
 " Our lives are not half so combative as 
 those of your friends in the world of com- 
 merce," urged the Captain. 
 
 "You said that because you thought it 
 ought to be so, Sue, not because you had 
 observed it," remarked Barbara, dryly. " They 
 are really a flock of doves cooing good will 
 to all men." 
 
 " Perhaps the wars of commerce are bit- 
 terer than your sort." 
 
 " It's always so when men risk their for- 
 tunes instead of their lives," murmured Bar- 
 bara. 
 
 " But I insist that, as your whole aim and 
 excuse for being is to fight successful wars, 
 you must have a combative spirit. Of course 
 I don't mean that you are quarrelsome as 
 individuals."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 25 
 
 " Our highest mission, Miss Ballinger, is 
 to preserve peace," said Mr. McMasters, 
 " not to provoke wars." 
 
 " Not to provoke wars, but to fight them 
 when they come," corrected the Captain. 
 " She's right about that. We mustn't forget 
 our fundamental raison d'etre" 
 
 " The Captain can talk," said Mr. Jan- 
 vier. "He was in the Civil War. He's 
 the only one of us who ever smelt powder 
 except in target practice." 
 
 "Not quite so bad as that. You were in 
 the Korean expedition yourself, weren't you, 
 Janvier ? " suggested Mr. McMasters. 
 
 "That opera bouffe? Yes, but you don't 
 call that war, do you ? You were with the 
 guard landed at Panama to keep the Isth- 
 mus open, weren't you, if it comes to that?" 
 
 " Mere police work," said the other re- 
 gretfully. 
 
 " I haven't ever been under fire at all," la- 
 mented Mr. Ferris in a tone of utter mourn- 
 fulness. 
 
 " Never mind, sonny, it's not your fault,"
 
 26 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 Mr. Janvier encouraged him. " It will be 
 your turn some day." 
 
 " Do you know what you've all been do- 
 ing ? " cried Sue, delightedly. " You've been 
 proving my point for me. You every one 
 of you envy the Captain because he was in 
 the Civil War. Confess that you will all 
 be delighted if this Venezuelan boundary 
 muddle should land us in a war with Eng- 
 land ! " 
 
 " Of course," said Mr. Janvier. 
 
 " Billy ! " cried his wife, in a shocked 
 tone. 
 
 "No!" roared Captain Cartwright, bring- 
 ing his fist down on the table in a way that 
 shook the wine-glasses. " No sane man who 
 loves his country wishes for that. We are 
 utterly unprepared for it. We should be 
 crushingly defeated." 
 
 The three younger officers all leaned for- 
 ward to protest, but Captain Cartwright gave 
 them no chance to speak. 
 
 "We can handle an enemy of our own 
 size. We aren't afraid to have the odds a
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 27 
 
 little against us. We might manage two for 
 one at a pinch. But this is too overwhelm- 
 ing. We should be wiped off the face of 
 the earth. If it has to come," his voice 
 dropped to the low pitch of solemnity, 
 "we shall do our best. We shall not be 
 disgraced. We shall simply be annihilated." 
 
 Then, all at once, his voice fell back into 
 its usual suavity, and the amused twinkle 
 returned to his eyes. 
 
 " Are you all so tired of life ? " he said, 
 looking around at the younger men. 
 
 Mr. McMasters and Mr. Janvier laughed 
 and said nothing. Mr. Ferris was still quiv- 
 ering to get in his word. 
 
 " But, Captain, with all our harbors 
 protected by torpedoes, and Canada so 
 open to an attack by land " he began 
 earnestly. 
 
 "The navy would be wiped off the face 
 of the earth, and every man in it who did 
 his duty would be down among the fishes," 
 exclaimed the Captain, his voice rising again. 
 
 "But, Captain"
 
 28 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " We should have done what we could, have 
 sold our lives as dearly as possible, but there 
 could be only one end." 
 
 " My dear, we're all waiting for you to 
 carve those ducks," said his wife. 
 
 "Why, to be sure," he laughed, beginning 
 to ply the carving knife and fork that he had 
 unconsciously picked up and laid down half a 
 dozen times. 
 
 " For Heaven's sake, don't say anything 
 more, Mr. Ferris," Mrs. Janvier whispered to 
 him. " We want our ducks, you know." 
 
 Mr. Ferris subsided reluctantly. He was 
 young and took himself with unnecessary 
 seriousness. 
 
 " Do you regard war as a relic of barbarism, 
 Miss Ballinger ? " Mr. McMasters asked. 
 
 " Of course I do. Don't you ? " 
 
 " On the contrary. I think it's been one of 
 the greatest civilizing forces in the history of 
 the world." 
 
 There was a little murmur of interest. 
 
 " I'm not prepared to admit that," said the 
 Captain ; " but it's a necessary evil, and while
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 29 
 
 human nature remains human nature, we shall 
 never learn to do without it." 
 
 " Taken in the large, and with proper per- 
 spective, I don't believe it's an evil, Captain," 
 said the younger man. " It's like medicine. 
 It's unpleasant to take, but it's beneficial in 
 the end. We should all become sunk in a 
 slough of commercialism if we didn't have a 
 war once in a generation to stir our nobler 
 impulses." 
 
 " Beautiful ! " exclaimed Sue, with clasped 
 hands. "You people are an epic poem in the 
 midst of an age of prose." 
 
 For a moment Mr. McMasters looked 
 annoyed. 
 
 " You would find us prosaic enough, if you 
 knew us better," said the Captain. 
 
 "She would find the book-keepers in her 
 father's bank equally heroic," Barbara asserted, 
 " if her insight was only keen enough to get 
 beyond the stage settings." 
 
 "No, no, no! n protested Sue. "Their 
 chief hope and ambition is to get rich. They 
 wouldn't say so, perhaps, if you asked them.
 
 30 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 They would hedge against failure by saying 
 that all they wanted was to make a living. And 
 if you asked a naval officer, he might say all 
 he wanted was to get along without discrediting 
 his uniform. He wouldn't acknowledge that 
 he hoped to become famous some day. But 
 he does just as the man in civil life hopes to 
 become rich." 
 
 " Do you all hope to become famous ? " 
 laughed Mrs. Janvier, looking from one to 
 another of the navy men. 
 
 " You needn't deny it," said Sue, with the 
 rapt air of a prophetess, " I know" 
 
 They all laughed, but no one denied it. 
 
 " There are a certain number of authors, 
 artists, and scientists who prefer fame to 
 wealth," suggested Mrs. Cartwright. 
 
 " Oh, of course." 
 
 " And the hope of glory is hardly the high- 
 est possible animating motive, anyhow," ven- 
 tured Mr. Me Masters. 
 
 " Certainly not. I wasn't trying to credit 
 you with the highest possible motives. Glory, 
 as an incentive, is just as selfish as money, but
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 31 
 
 it's much more picturesque, and lends itself 
 much better to the purposes of epic poetry, 
 which is what we were talking about." 
 
 " There are scientists," said Mr. Ferris, 
 earnestly, "who work only for the love of 
 truth. There are artists who believe in art for 
 art's own sake." 
 
 " They say so," Barbara murmured, " and 
 they surely ought to know." 
 
 " Don't you believe so, Miss Thornhill ? " 
 he asked in a grieved tone. 
 
 " Dear me, no," she bantered. " Some ego- 
 tism is more refined, some less, but it's the 
 ruling force everywhere." 
 
 " How about those who give up everything, 
 who devote their lives to the service of 
 others Sisters of Charity, for instance ?" 
 
 "The vanity of renunciation," said the girl, 
 " or else they are long-headed enough to keep 
 their bank accounts in the next world." 
 
 Mr. Ferris looked unspeakably shocked. 
 
 " I should be very sorry to think so meanly 
 of my fellow men and women," he said so- 
 berly.
 
 32 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " Mr. Ferris," broke in Sue across the 
 table, " don't let her deceive you. She is just 
 the girl to become a Sister of Charity and ex- 
 ile herself to a leper colony." 
 
 " Don't be so graphic, Sue," said Barbara 
 with a little shiver. " That would be so hor- 
 ribly unpleasant." 
 
 Mr. Ferris looked in some bewilderment 
 from one to the other. He had been inclined 
 to admire Barbara very much, but her psycho- 
 logical subtleties were too much for him. He 
 was a literal and earnest youth himself, wholly 
 free from complexities. 
 
 "Well," observed Mr. McMasters, revert- 
 ing to the original theme, " Miss Ballinger 
 might as well be generous and fit us out 
 with a sense of duty or some other every- 
 day motive force, for I don't see how we 
 are to pursue our favorite loadstar of mar- 
 tial renown. The Captain won't let us fight 
 England, and there isn't any other possible 
 enemy in sight." 
 
 " Yes, there is," said the Captain, with sud- 
 den earnestness. " There is another enemy in
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 33 
 
 sight, and there will be war before the close of 
 the century." 
 
 " With whom ? " cried Mr. Ferris. 
 
 " Germany ? " suggested Mr. Janvier. 
 
 <f That will come later," said the Captain, 
 with quiet conviction. 
 
 " Spain, then," said Mr. McMasters. 
 
 "Of course." 
 
 " Oh, no ! " 
 
 Never ! " 
 
 " Why should we go to war with Spain ? " 
 
 " It's inevitable. The never-ending insur- 
 rection in Cuba is an abscess in our neigh- 
 bor's flesh, it's true, but so close to ours that 
 we've got to cut it out as a measure of self- 
 protection." 
 
 " The mass of our people don't care enough 
 about it to fight." 
 
 " Wait, and see." 
 
 " It isn't any of our business. Why should 
 we interfere r yj 
 
 <c Am I my brother's keeper?' That's 
 what Cain said." 
 , <; VV T e don't want Cuba. 3 
 
 D
 
 34 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " I didn't say we did." 
 
 " Would you have us fight to help those 
 half-breeds gain their independence? What 
 good would it do them ? " 
 
 " I didn't say I wished it. I said it was 
 inevitable." 
 
 " There'll not be much glory in fighting 
 Spain," said Mr. Me Masters. " The enemy's 
 too weak." 
 
 " Ship for ship, we are very evenly 
 matched," asserted the Captain. "There is 
 no other navy so nearly equal to ours." 
 
 " On paper, yes." 
 
 " Don't make the mistake of despising your 
 adversaries." 
 
 " I don't despise them, Captain. I know 
 them too well for that. I know their individ- 
 ual gallantry and their collective ineffective- 
 
 n 
 
 ness. 
 
 " We shall see ! " cried the host, pushing 
 back his chair and rising to let the ladies pass 
 out. " I prophesy that the war will not be 
 lacking in glory I'* 
 
 " I hope you'll all get the thanks of Con-
 
 O 
 2 
 O 
 
 O
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 35 
 
 gress ! " said Sue, laughing back over her 
 shoulder. 
 
 "I'd rather have some prize-money, per- 
 sonally," observed Mrs. Janvier. 
 
 " Oh, no, you wouldn't," Sue protested. 
 " That's just your American aversion to ex- 
 pressing your deepest feelings. You'd rather 
 have your husband presented with a nice 
 useless gold sword than any amount of prize- 
 money." 
 
 " I wonder if I would ? " she mused be- 
 tween jest and earnest. 
 
 " If you wouldn't, don't tell," advised 
 Barbara. " Sue can't stand having her theories 
 upset."
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 it lovely?" cried Sue, 
 with whole-souled enthusiasm, 
 when the last of the guests had 
 gone and Captain Cartwright had retired to his 
 den to smoke a farewell pipe. " Weren't they 
 all dears ? How do you manage it, Mrs. 
 Cartwright? The people you get together 
 actually converse." 
 
 " Don't people always ' converse ' when you 
 are around, Sue ? " 
 
 " Oh, no ; sometimes they are frozen solid.'* 
 
 "It must be an icy reserve that doesn't melt 
 
 in the fire of Sue's enthusiasms," said Barbara. 
 
 "Wretch!" laughed Sue. " It would take 
 
 a volcano to meltjoa. Don't I wish I could 
 
 see you once in love ! " 
 
 "You've said that before. How in the 
 world do you think I would act ? " 
 
 36
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 37- 
 
 " Oh, like other people foolishly nor- 
 mally." 
 
 Barbara laughed. 
 
 Sue busied herself for a few minutes in pass- 
 ing around a bonbon dish, nowise discouraged 
 by the fact that she was the only one who 
 retained any zest for its contents. 
 
 " How Barbara does distress Sir Gala- 
 had ! " she observed, as she finished the 
 last chocolate. 
 
 " Poor Mr. Ferris ! " said Mrs. Cartwright. 
 "He admires her so much, but he can't quite 
 make her out." 
 
 " He started with the assumption that she 
 was a saint," commented Sue, "judged by 
 her eyes, you know. But he finds her conver- 
 sation shockingly unsaintly." 
 
 "He is probably a worthy youth," yawned 
 Barbara, " but he is sadly deficient in a sense 
 of humor." 
 
 " What did you think of Mr. McMasters ? " 
 Mrs. Cartwright asked. 
 
 " Oh, he's a jewel," cried Sue, " a diamond 
 of the first water ! "
 
 38 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " He's rather good-looking," Barbara re- 
 marked. 
 
 " Rather good-looking," Sue mocked. " He's 
 the handsomest man you've seen in a twelve- 
 month, and you know it, Barbara Thornhill ! " 
 
 " No, Captain Cartwright is," said the girl. 
 
 " Well, I grant you the Captain. But Mr. 
 McMasters comes next." 
 
 " No. Wriggles comes next." 
 
 " Bless his angel heart ! He ought to come 
 first in any catalogue. I can't have him second 
 even to his grandfather. But he's not quite a 
 man yet." 
 
 " More of a man than some of them are," 
 snapped Barbara. 
 
 "You aren't accusing Mr. McMasters of 
 effeminacy, I hope?" 
 
 " No," Barbara admitted grudgingly, " I 
 wasn't referring to him. My remarks were 
 general." 
 
 " He is not only good-looking," Sue re- 
 sumed serenely, " he is intelligent." 
 
 " Intelligent enough to appreciate you? 
 Barbara retorted.
 
 39 
 
 " That takes rather a high degree," laughed 
 Sue. " But here's a problem for Mrs. Cart- 
 wright to explain. He's good-looking and 
 intelligent, and distinctly simpatico. And he 
 doesn't seem to be a woman-hater. Yet he 
 looks thirty-five. How has he managed to 
 escape matrimony all this time ? " 
 
 " He hasn't," said Mrs. Cartwright gravely. 
 
 " You don't mean to say he has a wife ? " 
 Sue exclaimed. 
 
 " No." 
 
 "She is dead, then?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Not divorced ? " 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright nodded. 
 
 The expression on both girls' faces under- 
 went a sudden change. 
 
 " Ugh ! " protested Barbara, with evident 
 distaste. 
 
 " I wouldn't have believed it," sighed Sue. 
 
 " It was a very unfortunate affair," Mrs. 
 Cartwright explained, " but it was altogether 
 Mrs. McMasters's fault. She was a very beau- 
 tiful woman, but absolutely heartless, and, as
 
 40 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 it turned out, conscienceless too. She behaved 
 outrageously. He was not to blame in any 
 way." 
 
 "He was to blame for marrying such a 
 woman," said Barbara, severely. 
 
 " He was very young," Mrs. Cartwright 
 pleaded. 
 
 " Oh, c very young,' ' the girl scoffed. 
 " He was probably twenty-five, wasn't he ? 
 A man under thirty can be excused for being 
 any sort of a fool because of his extreme youth. 
 A girl is held strictly to account if she isn't 
 rational by the time she's twenty. It's so 
 hideously unfair ! " 
 
 " There are several unfair things in the 
 world, but I am not sure that is one of them. 
 I believe a girl of twenty is really as mature as 
 a man of thirty. And John McMasters was 
 several years under twenty-five when he mar- 
 ried that woman. It has been ten years since 
 the divorce. He has learned a good many 
 things since then, I suspect. And if he ever 
 chooses a wife again, he will do it more 
 wisely."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 41 
 
 "Again? He isn't thinking of marrying 
 again, is he ? " 
 
 Sue's voice had a note of disgust in it. 
 
 " Not that I know of. But I don't see any 
 reason why he shouldn't." 
 
 " I should think he would have had enough 
 of women." 
 
 " Doubtless he thought so, too. Perhaps 
 he thinks so yet. But ten years is a longish 
 time." 
 
 " Do you believe in divorced people's mar- 
 rying ? " exclaimed Sue, turning to Barbara. 
 
 " I am a Catholic," said the girl, quietly. 
 
 " Of course I know your church doesn't 
 allow it, but " 
 
 "That settles it for me." 
 
 " Oh, what^ nonsense ! " groaned Sue. 
 "You've got a brain of your own, haven't 
 you?" 
 
 But Barbara wisely refused to be lured 
 into controversy. 
 
 "What do you think about it?" she 
 parried. 
 
 " Your brain ? "
 
 42 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " No, the divorce question." 
 
 " I haven't any religious principles involved, 
 you know. It's just a matter of feeling with 
 me. But the feeling is very, very strong. Of 
 course, looking at it one way, I can see that it 
 seems pretty hard to condemn a man to soli- 
 tude for his whole life because he made a mis- 
 take in character-reading in his boyhood. But 
 I can't imagine a self-respecting girl marrying 
 him. He would be so hopelessly second- 
 hand." 
 
 The phrase came out explosively. 
 
 "Aren't they rather apt to be second-hand 
 anyhow," suggested Barbara, " even when they 
 haven't figured in the divorce courts ? " 
 
 Sue turned on her fiercely. 
 
 " Don't be so disgustingly cynical. There 
 are men whose lives are as clean as any girl's." 
 
 " And you are going to wait for one of that 
 kind ? " 
 
 "Of course I am ! " 
 
 "You'd better come along to that cloister 
 you predicted for me to-night and take the 
 veil."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 43 
 
 " You'd better both of you go upstairs to 
 bed and get your beauty sleep," suggested 
 Mrs. Cartwright, whose traditions were a trifle 
 shocked by the turn the discussion had taken. 
 
 " Somebody's left his overcoat," Sue called 
 out as they passed through the hall. 
 
 " It must have been Mr. McMasters. The 
 others wore boat cloaks." 
 
 " Good thing he didn't come back for it and 
 catch us discussing him ! Good night, Mrs. 
 Cartwright." 
 
 " Good night/'
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 IT was a brilliant November morning, with 
 a sky so blue that it was almost purple. 
 There was plenty of snap in the air, but 
 plenty of glow in the sunshine. 
 
 The Cartwrights were assembling on their 
 front steps, buttoning their gloves. Even the 
 Captain had given himself that most unwonted 
 thing, a holiday. For this was no mere black 
 figure on the calendar, but the day, elect to 
 redness, of the annual football game between 
 West Point and the Naval Academy. 
 
 A little tremor of pure exultation passed 
 over the shapely form of Sue Bal linger. 
 
 " Isn't it glorious, just to be alive ! " she said. 
 
 " I really believe you find it so, you lucky 
 Greek," returned Barbara. " Now when / en- 
 joy myself, it's in spite of being alive, not on 
 account of it." 
 
 Sue stared incredulous. 
 
 44
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 45 
 
 " What do you mean ? " she demanded. 
 
 Barbara laughed. 
 
 " Oh, you can't understand what it's like to 
 be shut up in a puny, inadequate little body 
 like mine. Feel of my hand." 
 
 " Why, it's like ice." 
 
 " It's always eleven or twelve o'clock before 
 my blood begins to circulate. I'm never really 
 thawed out except in the dog-days." 
 
 She fastened the furs closer around her 
 throat. 
 
 " Why don't you exercise ? " suggested the 
 practical Sue. 
 
 " Ugh ! " Barbara shuddered. " The mere 
 necessary business of living is exercise enough 
 for me" 
 
 " Poor Barbara ! " cried Sue, laying a hand 
 on her shoulder. " But on such a day as this, 
 how can you help " 
 
 " Oh, I see it's beautiful," said the girl, im- 
 patiently ; " but I'm too cold to thrill with 
 joy. I suppose you think your own mood is 
 a highly spiritual one, that your soul is 
 soaring up and flapping its wings together
 
 46 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 with rapture. But it isn't at all. Your joie- 
 de-vivre is merely the bien-etre of the healthy 
 young animal. And as a healthy young ani- 
 mal, I am a distinct failure." 
 
 " Poor Barbara ! " murmured Sue again. 
 " But as a soaring soul, you're a distinct suc- 
 cess," she added. 
 
 Barbara's retort to this compliment was cut 
 short at a grimace by the arrival of Mr. Ferris, 
 Mr. McMasters, and an ornate lieutenant of 
 marines named Fairchild, who was an ardent 
 admirer of Sue's. 
 
 The young men were provided with yards 
 upon yards of blue and gold ribbon, which the 
 girls tied into rosettes and streamers, and dis- 
 tributed among the party, the largest rosette 
 of all being pinned to the tan-colored coat of 
 Wriggles. 
 
 " He shall be our mascot," said Mr. 
 McMasters, swinging the boy on to his 
 shoulder, as the watchman opened the tall 
 iron gate in front of the house and signaled to 
 a passing car to stop. 
 
 There were several navy people already on
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 47 
 
 the car, and they found many more at the 
 ferry, and still others at the West Shore sta- 
 tion, where a sort of impromptu reception was 
 held till the "navy special" appeared with blue 
 and gold streamers flying from the engine and 
 enthusiasm escaping like steam from every 
 door and window. The train had left Wash- 
 ington early in the morning, carrying the Sec- 
 retary of the Navy, a number of Congressmen 
 and Senators, and most of the naval officers on 
 duty in the city. A couple of extra cars con- 
 taining the football team and a large deputa- 
 tion of officers and their families from the 
 Naval Academy had been switched on at 
 Odenton, and another car had filled up at 
 Philadelphia with the League Island people. 
 
 The Cartwrights and the rest of the Brook- 
 lyn contingent passed through the holiday 
 train, greeting old friends right and left, till 
 they reached the empty car which had just 
 been added for their benefit. 
 
 The spirits of the whole party bubbled like 
 champagne. It would have taken a very inert 
 lump of clay not to respond to the glory of
 
 48 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 the sunshine and the magnetism of the crowd. 
 Years and rank and dignity were laid aside, 
 and youth vociferous and confident of vic- 
 tory held undisputed sway. 
 
 A procession of rooters was formed, which 
 passed back and forth through the train. 
 Each man's left hand was on the shoulder of 
 the man in front, while his right hand waved 
 a flag or a ribbon-wrapped cane. The leader 
 wore a preposterously tall silk hat swathed in 
 blue and gold. The occupants of the car 
 through which they were passing joined in 
 the yells and applauded the songs. 
 
 With never-failing interest they inquired in 
 
 unison : 
 
 "Hully Gee! 
 Who are we ? " 
 
 And with undimmed enthusiasm replied : 
 
 "We are the U. S. N. A. V." 
 They sang a plaintive little song about 
 
 " Army blue ! Oh, army blue ! 
 We'll make the army blue ! 
 We'll chase their team right off the field 
 And score a point or two."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 49 
 
 This was followed by verses of affectionate 
 doggerel about the various members of the 
 eleven, punctuated by ear-splitting yells. 
 
 "Rah! Rah! Rah! 
 Hi! Ho! Ha! 
 U. S. N. A. 
 Boom! Sis! Bah! 
 Navy!" 
 
 Finally, as the climax of the demonstration, 
 the Chicago's goat, which had been brought 
 along as a mascot and domiciled till now in 
 the baggage car, was led through the train 
 amid deafening applause, while the following 
 elegant stanzas were sung in his honor: 
 
 " The army mule will soon be dead, 
 We'll fill his carcass full of lead, 
 We'll hurt that swelling on his head 
 And turn his whiskers gray. 
 
 Hooray ! 
 
 ' The navy goat is jolly O 
 On account of army folly O, 
 He has butted mules, by golly O, 
 And he'll butt again to-day. 
 
 Hooray!" 
 
 Wriggles craned his neck to watch the goat 
 out of sight, but he found the racket excessive.
 
 50 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " Tell zoze mans keep 'till," he said, with 
 extreme dignity. " Wiggles can't talk." 
 
 The shout that greeted this announcement 
 seemed to him quite unnecessarily offensive. 
 
 "Wiggles not like," he asserted severely, 
 clambering down from the seat. " Wiggles 
 get off zis car." 
 
 His dignified deliberateness had not pre- 
 pared them for the sudden dart he made 
 toward the door, but a dozen hands were 
 stretched out to seize him, and he was 
 promptly returned to his grandmother. He 
 showed symptoms of wrath at this stage, 
 though not of tears Wriggles seldom cried. 
 But the storm was averted and the small boy 
 made happy by an invitation to join the pro- 
 cession on the shoulders of a stalwart friend. 
 From this point of vantage he found the 
 noise exhilarating, and waved his arms and 
 shouted with the rest. 
 
 After making sure that it was a vestibule 
 train and that all the outside doors were closed, 
 the anxious grandmother decided that Wrig- 
 gles was not in a position of extreme peril, and
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 51 
 
 relaxed her vigilance sufficiently to carry on 
 a fragmentary conversation with her friends. 
 But she was not really at ease till the train 
 slowed down at the West Point station and 
 Wriggles was returned to her intact. 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright had never been excessively 
 nervous over her own child, but the shock 
 of her daughter's death, and the feeling that 
 Wriggles was held in trust for a father cruis- 
 ing among the inaccessibilities of the South 
 Atlantic station, combined to give her im- 
 agination of possible dangers an abnormal 
 stimulus. 
 
 Sue had never been at West Point before. 
 She stood still and looked around her, drawing 
 in her breath with a quick little catch of rap- 
 ture. The Hudson curved and swept majes- 
 tically at her feet. The foot-hills of the 
 Catskills rose directly from its banks. Over 
 the mountains lay the golden mantle of late 
 autumn foliage. The scarlet of the maples 
 had passed away, but the yellow leaves of the 
 chestnuts still remained and blended with the 
 brown of the oaks.
 
 52 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " It's beautiful enough to be California ! " 
 exclaimed Sue, and the rest of the party 
 laughed with keen enjoyment. 
 
 " I don't know the first blessed thing about 
 football," Mrs. Cartwright confessed, as they 
 drew near the scene of the contest. 
 
 "Neither do I," cried Barbara. "I don't 
 know a scrimmage from a quarterback." 
 
 "They are often rather intimately con- 
 nected," said Mr. McMasters, who was walk- 
 ing beside her. 
 
 Sue, from the heights of knowledge, gave 
 them a compassionate glance over her shoulder, 
 and resumed her eager discussion of technicali- 
 ties with the group of young men who sur- 
 rounded her. The coming and going of the 
 color in her cheeks was very pretty to watch. 
 
 The naval visitors had been provided with 
 some camp-stools and improvised benches on 
 one side of the field. The army supporters, 
 more numerous of course and equally enthusi- 
 astic, were massed on the other side. 
 
 The Chicago's goat was being paraded up 
 and down in front of the navy benches.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 53 
 
 " Who ever heard of a goat from Chicago ? " 
 shouted a West-Pointer between two hollowed 
 hands. " Did you mean it for a hog ? " 
 
 " We don't mean you to hog the victory ! " 
 responded an embryo admiral in similar sten- 
 torian tones. 
 
 At this point Wriggles created a diversion 
 by insisting on riding the goat, a feat which 
 was finally accomplished with the assistance of 
 four naval cadets, two to lead the goat and two 
 to hold on to Wriggles. It was all like a big 
 family party, and Wriggles, the youngest per- 
 son present, gave the finishing touch to that 
 effect. It is very different nowadays, when 
 thirty thousand people assemble in properly 
 constructed grandstands to watch the game. 
 
 The two teams trotted on to the field in 
 quick succession, and were greeted with shouts 
 of encouragement from their supporters. 
 
 " Now they will all proceed to pile them- 
 selves on top of each other," remarked Bar- 
 bara, " and presently some one will be carried 
 unconscious from the field, and every once in 
 a while a man will blow a whistle, and very
 
 54 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 occasionally everybody will stand politely by 
 and let some one kick the ball, and I shan't 
 have the faintest idea what is happening ! " 
 
 "Shall I explain it to you?" asked Mr. 
 McMasters. 
 
 " Oh, dear, no. It would be labor thrown 
 away. Watch the game and enjoy its beauties, 
 and tell me who beats." 
 
 "You'll know that by the location of the 
 noise," said Mrs. Cartwright. " That's the 
 way / tell, and I always shout when we're 
 ahead." 
 
 "It will be fun to hear Barbara shout," 
 laughed Sue. 
 
 "Your ears will get weary waiting for that 
 sound," retorted Barbara. " My enthusiasms 
 don't express themselves that way." 
 
 "Has she got any?" inquired Mr. Mc- 
 Masters. 
 
 "They're of the deep, silent kind," Sue 
 replied. 
 
 " Still waters run deep," said Mr. Ferris, 
 with such solemn admiration in his voice that 
 they all felt foolish.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 55 
 
 The navy won the toss and chose their goal, 
 so the army had the kick-off. All eyes were 
 turned to the centre of the field. 
 
 "That's their great kicker. Watch the 
 ball." 
 
 It rose in a noble curve, and sank toward 
 the hands waiting to receive it. 
 
 " Oh-h-h, he's fumbled it ! " and a sigh of 
 disappointment ran along the navy line. 
 
 "Toots has it!" 
 
 "Toots can't run!" 
 
 " If it was only Sandy ! " 
 
 " There, he's down ! " 
 
 "He held it, though!" 
 
 " What on earth are those fellows kicking 
 about ? It's plain enough, isn't it ? " 
 
 " Oh, line up ! Line up ! Play ball ! " 
 
 " Why do they have to get into such ex- 
 traordinary attitudes?" This from Mrs. Cart- 
 wright. " Mercy ! there they all are on top of 
 each other. What are they trying to do ? " 
 
 The whistle blew, and there was a mo- 
 mentary lull. 
 
 " What unmitigated savages they are ! "
 
 56 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 observed Barbara. " Wriggles, my cherub, 
 I want you to promise me that you will never 
 play football ! " 
 
 Wriggles made no reply. He was gazing 
 at the field, open eyed and mouthed, speech- 
 less with amazement. He had been taught 
 that all violence of deportment was ungentle- 
 manly, and the problem of reconciling this 
 hitherto-unquestioned doctrine of the nursery 
 with the anomalies of the scene before him was 
 giving him trouble. 
 
 Barbara looked about her with an amused 
 smile. 
 
 "You and I are the only sane people left," 
 she said to Mrs. Cartwright, " and I am not 
 entirely sure about you" 
 
 Captain Cartwright was oblivious of every- 
 thing in the world outside of football. He 
 had cast off thirty years, and was watching each 
 point of the game with the eagerness of a boy. 
 Sue was equally absorbed, and so, of course, 
 were all the young men. Only Mrs. Cart- 
 wright and Barbara retained a certain con- 
 sciousness of themselves as apart from their
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 57 
 
 surroundings. Yet even they felt their spirits 
 droop when the West-Pointers scored a touch- 
 down, and experienced a thrill of exultation 
 when they failed to kick the goal. The mus- 
 cles swelled in their throats, and they watched 
 the game with growing absorption, although 
 they made no sound when the rest joined in 
 the shouting. 
 
 Suddenly, with a snap, it all stopped. The 
 first half was over. West Point had scored 
 four, Annapolis nothing. The navy was no 
 longer jubilant. It set its teeth and made 
 resolves. Also, I am afraid it talked a little 
 about the heavier weight of the West-Pointers. 
 They enter two years later than at the Naval 
 Academy, and when things go wrong, that two 
 years is said to make a difference in the aver- 
 age weight of the players. 
 
 "Oh, we're not beaten yet," said the Cap- 
 tain, in answer to his wife's question, "but it 
 will be an uphill game." 
 
 " What for good navy boys 'top killin' bad 
 army boys ? " Wriggles asked earnestly. His 
 little brain had been busily at work with the
 
 58 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 scanty data furnished him, and had evolved a 
 result of satisfying logic. 
 
 " Wriggles ! " cried his horrified grand- 
 mother. " Where did you get such an idea ? 
 Nobody's bad. Nobody's being killed. It's 
 all play." 
 
 But Wriggles's laboriously acquired theory 
 was not to be so easily shaken. 
 
 "Army boys bewy bad," he asserted. 
 " Haffa be killed. Give Wiggles 'tick. Wig- 
 gles go kill zoze bad boys." 
 
 It took the concentrated diplomacy of the 
 family to dissuade him from carrying out his 
 heroic resolve. 
 
 The army side of the field was noticeably 
 more animated at this time than the navy 
 side. All the navy people were talking, to 
 be sure, but in tones distinctly subdued. 
 
 At the blowing of the whistle every sound 
 ceased, and all eyes were once more turned 
 to the field. For the time being this game 
 was the most important thing in the world. 
 It was well played and hard fought. The 
 contestants seemed to be very evenly matched.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 59 
 
 The fear expressed here and there among the 
 navy's backers, that the Annapolis team lacked 
 staying power and would go to pieces if they 
 fell behind in the first half, proved quite 
 unfounded. There was no want of grit on 
 either side. The hands of the clock were 
 moving on relentlessly. West Point had 
 been prevented from increasing her lead, but 
 Annapolis had not been able to score. Only 
 a few minutes remained. 
 
 All at once a shout went up, " Sandy ! 
 Sandy ! " 
 
 The navy's favorite had the ball, and with 
 marvellous dexterity was dodging through the 
 enemy's line. He passed several linemen by 
 sheer cleverness of feint, threw off a back, 
 and saw the field clear ahead of him. It 
 now became a question of speed, for the 
 West-Pointers were close at his heels. The 
 distance was tremendous, more than ninety 
 yards, but Sandy was famous as a runner. 
 The whole navy side shrieked encouragement. 
 A white-haired admiral, fairly dancing with 
 excitement, cried, " Go it, Sandy, go it ! "
 
 60 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 Captain Cartwright, climbing nimbly on to a 
 three-legged stool, shouted, " Good boy, 
 Sandy, keep it up ! " 
 
 It was a magnificent run, but the foremost 
 of his pursuers was plainly gaining on him. 
 
 AH the spectators were on their feet, the 
 excitement of a lifetime crowded into a few 
 seconds. 
 
 " Safe ! " was the cry of relief, when the 
 panting runner hurled himself over the goal 
 line just as the hand of the enemy was 
 stretched out to touch him. 
 
 Then pandemonium broke forth on the 
 navy side. The spectacular character of 
 Sandy's achievement appealed to the imagi- 
 nation of the on-lookers. But the enthusiasm 
 was infinitely greater than it would have been 
 had the same play occurred earlier in the 
 day. They had been saved from the very 
 jaws of defeat, and the revulsion of feeling 
 drove them wild. Women waved handker- 
 chiefs and parasols, men brandished canes and 
 tossed up their hats. The air was rent with 
 full-lunged yells of victory.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 61 
 
 Sue, glancing toward Barbara, caught her 
 with flashing eyes and heaving breast, shout- 
 ing lustily. With a laugh of triumph Sue 
 threw her arms around the slight figure and 
 rapturously hugged it. 
 
 " Oh, you delightful, unbent New-Eng- 
 lander ! " she cried. " You melted seraph ! " 
 
 " Hypnotism of the crowd," said Barbara, 
 a little shamefacedly. 
 
 The score was now tied, and if they made 
 a goal, the navy would be ahead. On all 
 sides people announced that they would be 
 thoroughly satisfied with a drawn game, but 
 they held their breath while the ball was be- 
 ing kicked as if their life depended on it. 
 
 It flew fairly between the posts, and again 
 they shouted joyfully. Five more anxious 
 minutes passed, and the game was over. 
 There had been no further scoring. 
 
 Victory snatched from defeat is the sweet- 
 est thing on earth. The cadets from Anna- 
 polis capered about, insanely jubilant. Officers 
 of presumably mature years were hardly less 
 demonstrative. A triumphal procession formed,
 
 62 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 and marched trainward. The rooters led with 
 cheerful demoniac yells. The members of 
 the team were escorted with a frenzy of 
 veneration almost religious. Sandy, the hero 
 of the hour, was borne aloft on men's shoulders, 
 who were proud of the honor of carrying him. 
 The crowd surged and buzzed around. Here 
 and there an enthusiastic youth, unable to 
 restrain his emotions, gave voice to a wild 
 whoop. 
 
 On the train the excitement gradually 
 quieted down. There was an occasional ef- 
 fort to revive the demonstrations of the 
 morning, but everybody was tired as much 
 from excess of emotion as from any physical 
 cause. 
 
 More than one weary pleasure-seeker ex- 
 pressed envy of Wriggles, whose convenient 
 size and age permitted him to indulge frankly 
 in the repose from which his elders were cut 
 off. He did, in fact, reenter his own front 
 door fast asleep in his grandfather's arms and 
 was undressed and put to bed without open- 
 ing his eyes.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 63 
 
 " Was Mr. McMasters ever five feet from 
 you during the entire day ? " Sue asked 
 through the half-open door into Barbara's 
 room as the two girls were getting ready for 
 bed that night. 
 
 " Hardly. But do you know where his 
 eyes were all that time ? He never took 
 them off of you." 
 
 " What ? " exclaimed Sue, appearing in the 
 doorway, braiding her hair. 
 
 " Fact." 
 
 Sue looked pleased, puzzled, and a trifle 
 incredulous. 
 
 "He hardly said two words to me all day," 
 she objected. 
 
 "And he hardly looked two minutes at 
 me." 
 
 " He evidently found you more enter- 
 taining." 
 
 "He evidently found you better looking." 
 
 " I'd rather he'd think me intelligent than 
 handsome." 
 
 "/ wouldn't," Barbara asserted. "How- 
 ever, I don't see what difference it makes to
 
 64 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 either of us. He's still * second-hand,' isn't 
 he?" 
 
 " I hope I can like a man without wishing 
 to marry him," said Sue, with quiet dignity. 
 
 " I beg your pardon," Barbara cried peni- 
 tently. " I didn't mean to be impertinent." 
 
 " In any one without your celestial eyes," 
 Sue remarked severely, "it would have been 
 vulgar' 9
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE day after the visit of John C. 
 O'Meara, Captain Cartwright scrupu- 
 lously set about fulfilling his promise 
 to look into the circumstances attending 
 the discharge of the machinist Klein. He 
 found, as he expected, ample corroborating 
 evidence of the man's inefficiency. The state- 
 ment that the foreman had a brother-in-law 
 registered on the applicants' list proved to be 
 correct ; but as no effort had been made to 
 get him taken on out of turn or to put him 
 into the place left vacant by Klein, the cir- 
 cumstance did not seem especially incriminat- 
 ing. A man can't be expected to strangle 
 all his brothers-in-law. 
 
 This investigation completed, the Captain 
 
 proceeded to dismiss John C. O'Meara from 
 
 his mind as effectually as he had dismissed 
 
 him from his office. That the politician's 
 
 r 65
 
 66 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 visit might bear fruit in unpleasant conse- 
 quences to himself (barring the possibility of 
 its repetition) never even remotely occurred 
 to him. 
 
 He was, therefore, taken completely by 
 surprise when he received from the Navy 
 Department a rather sharply worded commu- 
 nication asking why he did not carry out the 
 civil service rules for the employment of 
 labor in navy yards. 
 
 His emotions were those of anger, not of 
 alarm. He informed the Department briefly 
 that he had used his best endeavors to carry 
 out both the letter and the spirit of the regu- 
 lations, and asked for specific allegations and 
 the name of the person making them. 
 
 There was no immediate reply, but a few 
 days later a young officer on duty at the 
 Department was sent to investigate Captain 
 Cartwright's methods of administration. After 
 collecting testimony from a number of work- 
 men, he called on the Captain at his office 
 and explained his mission. 
 
 Now Captain Cartwright did not relish be-
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 67 
 
 ing investigated, and the fact that the inves- 
 tigator was, from his point of view, a mere 
 boy (fifteen years of service look short beside 
 five and thirty) made the circumstance doubly 
 galling. Furthermore, the questioning of his 
 workmen before he himself was notified that 
 the investigation was in progress, struck him 
 as an entirely unnecessary piece of discourtesy. 
 He kept his temper, but the effort to do so 
 produced a rigid formality quite foreign to 
 his usual manner. And the young man, who 
 had more zeal than discretion, concluded that 
 the Captain had something to conceal. 
 
 The first result of the investigation was a 
 letter from the Department asking Captain 
 Cartwright to explain why he had discharged 
 the machinist Klein, who was affirmed by the 
 affidavits of seven fellow-workmen to be 
 thoroughly efficient, and why he had discrimi- 
 nated against the applicant Callahan by re- 
 fusing to give him employment in spite of 
 the fact that he had recommendations satis- 
 factory to the labor board. 
 
 This letter removed the last vestige of
 
 68 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 doubt from the Captain's mind that O'Meara 
 was making good his threats of revenge. In 
 some sinuous fashion, quite beyond an honest 
 man's imagination to follow, the wires he was 
 able to manipulate evidently did reach upward 
 to the respectabilities of the general govern- 
 ment. 
 
 It was his wife's earnest conviction that he 
 ought, at this time, to give an account to the 
 Department of O'Meara's visit and threats; 
 but the Captain's habits of economy with 
 the written word were inveterate. His re- 
 plies concerning Klein and Callahan were 
 nakedly concise and contained no reference to 
 related matters. 
 
 He was not used to being found fault with. 
 His career had been marked by a series of 
 commendations for service faithfully and well 
 performed. The situation wore on him. But 
 he tried, with an attitude finely judicial, to 
 make allowances for the Department. 
 
 Not so his wife. There were no half tones 
 in her world. It was divided sharply into 
 black and white, and any one daring to cast
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 69 
 
 the smallest reflection on her husband could 
 have little doubt of the color assigned him. 
 That the Department had been imposed upon 
 by the unscrupulous tools of O'Meara was no 
 excuse in her eyes. Her indignation raged 
 hotly, and in its forcible utterance her husband 
 may have found a sort of vicarious compen- 
 sation for his own severe self-repression. 
 
 Annoying as the episode had been, Captain 
 Cartwright still did not dream of any really 
 serious consequences, and an earthquake could 
 not have startled him more than the order 
 convening a court of inquiry to investigate 
 his administration. 
 
 It was the first touch of the tar-brush of 
 disgrace that had ever come near his immacu- 
 late reputation. The consciousness of recti- 
 tude is a great thing, no doubt, but it can 
 hardly furnish comfort in every contingency. 
 Those who are used to the rough give-and- 
 take of the business world, or the world of 
 politics, can hardly understand the sensitive- 
 ness to the slightest aspersion on his honor 
 of a man who has lived a life protected in
 
 70 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 that direction. It is like a doubt cast on a 
 woman's chastity. That it should be publicly 
 investigated is heart-breaking, even where vin- 
 dication is sure. 
 
 Captain Cartwright aged ten years overnight. 
 In the morning he told his wife, breaking 
 it to her gently as he would some frightful 
 calamity. 
 
 " It is monstrous, it is outrageous ! " she 
 protested. " No matter how zealously a man 
 does his duty and obeys orders all his life, he 
 is liable to be dragged before a court on a 
 trumped-up charge " 
 
 " Gently, gently, my dear. It's bad enough, 
 but don't exaggerate. I shall probably be 
 allowed to walk on my own feet. And the 
 people at the Department are not omniscient, 
 you know. It's not a trumped-up charge so 
 far as they are concerned. They believe 
 they've got data to go on. They don't know 
 me very well up there " 
 
 " No, you've always kept away from Wash- 
 ington, and you've always snubbed Congress- 
 men and Senators."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 71 
 
 " Not snubbed, dear, surely not snubbed, 
 simply not boot-licked them." 
 
 " It's been pretty close on to snubbing, 
 Julius. Do you remember when you sat 
 next to Senator Van Tromp at the Queen's 
 Birthday banquet last spring and he took 
 such a fancy to you and asked you to go on 
 a yachting trip with him, and you told him 
 there was no fun for you in yachting, that 
 you got enough of the sea in a professional 
 way?" 
 
 "Well, don't I?" 
 
 "And then he asked you to his country 
 place for over Sunday, and you told him it 
 was quite impossible for you to go." 
 
 " I was perfectly polite about it." 
 
 " You could have gone, had you wished." 
 
 " But I didn't wish." 
 
 " Exactly." 
 
 " He was agreeable enough, but I shouldn't 
 have found him sufficiently interesting to spend 
 two or three days with if he had been John 
 Smith, and there was no reason why I should 
 do so simply because he was Senator Van
 
 72 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 Tromp. Besides, he was a millionnaire, and 
 there was no way in which I could have 
 returned his hospitality." 
 
 " And there was that Congressman we met at 
 the Arnolds'. You didn't know who he was, 
 and got so friendly with him that you arranged 
 to take him trout-fishing, and then, when you 
 found out he was a Congressman, you invented 
 some flimsy excuse and broke the engagement." 
 
 " It wasn't only his being a Congressman, 
 you know. He was on the naval committee, 
 and there was a bill before it then in which I 
 might have been supposed to be interested. 
 It would never have done at all." 
 
 "Well, just now it would be convenient if 
 they knew you a little bit better at Washington." 
 
 " I'm sorry," he said, half humorous and 
 wholly dejected, " that I don't meet with your 
 approval. I thought " 
 
 " Julius ! " she exclaimed with fine incon- 
 sistency, " I wouldn't have you a particle dif- 
 ferent for anything in the world ! " And she 
 leaned over the back of his chair to kiss him. 
 
 "That's good," he answered, with a brave
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 73 
 
 attempt at a smile. " I regret some things in 
 my life, but really and truly I can't regret that 
 I have always kept away from that hotbed of 
 political self-seekers in Washington." 
 
 Nothing had been said thus far to Sue and 
 Barbara about the matters that were disturbing 
 their hosts, although both the girls had noticed 
 that something was amiss. But, as the news 
 concerning the court of inquiry would soon be 
 public property, Mrs. Cartwright forced herself 
 to tell the girls about it. 
 
 Of course they were sympathetic and indig- 
 nant. They tried to belittle it and they tried 
 to cheer Mrs. Cartwright, but without much 
 success. They knew too little of navy life 
 or navy standards to be able to speak with 
 authority. 
 
 " Can we be of any use to you while this is 
 going on, Mrs. Cartwright, or should we be 
 just in the way ? " asked Barbara, suddenly. 
 
 " You certainly wouldn't be in the way, but 
 I'm afraid we shall hardly be able to throw off 
 our troubles enough to make it very pleasant 
 for you."
 
 74 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " Oh, don't you worry about that ! Dances 
 and dinners are not the breath of our nostrils. 
 And if you're sure we shan't be in the way, 
 we'll stay right here and see you through. 
 Won't we, Sue ? " 
 
 Sue had been thinking hard. 
 
 " No," she said slowly, " I don't see that 
 we'd be of the faintest use to Mrs. Cartwright. 
 I think she would really rather be alone with 
 her husband just now. I believe this is the 
 preordained time for me to make my promised 
 visit to you, Barbara, and afterward we can 
 both come back to see Mrs. Cartwright if she 
 wants us. Now be honest," she cried, taking 
 Mrs. Cartwright's hands and looking into her 
 eyes. " Wouldn't that suit you better ? " 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright hesitated. The traditions 
 of hospitality were strong with her. 
 
 " Be honest ! " Sue repeated. 
 
 The girl's sincerity was so obvious that Mrs. 
 Cartwright responded to it. 
 
 " If you'll both promise to come back after- 
 ward. We shall need distraction when it's 
 over."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 75 
 
 " Yes, yes," they cried together. " Of course 
 
 MI 
 
 we 11 come. 
 
 " How clever you are ! " said Barbara to 
 Sue next time they were alone. " I didn't 
 know she would rather have us go. I thought 
 it would seem like deserting her. What won- 
 derful intuitions you have ! " 
 
 " I have a further intuition that a certain 
 young man named Ferris will be very sad when 
 some of us depart." 
 
 " Don't your intuitions go far enough to tell 
 you that the young man named Ferris is an 
 unspeakable bore ? " 
 
 " Captain Cartwright says he's a good officer." 
 
 " I don't doubt it." 
 
 " And he admires you hugely, Barbara, 
 although your speeches do shock him now 
 and then." 
 
 " They'll shock him more before he's through 
 if he doesn't let me alone. When he sits down 
 and gazes at me like a sentimental setter and 
 emits those wonderful sighs of his, I feel as 
 if I were in the middle of the Atlantic 
 Ocean."
 
 76 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 "Lost in a trackless waste of emotion?" 
 suggested Sue, sympathetically. 
 
 " No, seasick," replied Barbara, concisely. 
 
 During the brief remainder of their visit Sue 
 and Barbara would have been glad to consult 
 their other navy friends as to the prospects of 
 this court of inquiry, which the Cartwrights 
 regarded so tragically ; but of course they could 
 not speak of it until the news was made public. 
 The last afternoon, on the tennis courts, the 
 girls, who had been absorbed since breakfast in 
 the packing of their trunks, found it had been 
 in the morning paper and was the chief subject 
 of conversation. They were not a little reas- 
 sured for the Cartwrights' gloom had been 
 contagious by the universal indignation ex- 
 pressed and the uniformly perfect confidence 
 shown in the outcome. 
 
 Mr. Fairchild, Mr. McMasters, and Mr. 
 Ferris walked home with them, making plans 
 to see them off that evening on the train. As 
 they paused for a few last words at the steps, 
 Captain Cartwright appeared in the doorway 
 and insisted on their all coming in to dinner.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 77 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright was appalled, but made no 
 sign. If her husband had shown such incon- 
 siderateness at an ordinary time, he would not 
 have been left in ignorance of her sentiments 
 when next they were alone together. But now 
 any wish of his was sacred, and she would have 
 been too tender of him to complain, if he had 
 brought in thirty unexpected and unnecessary 
 guests instead of merely three. She held a 
 hurried consultation with cook and waitress 
 to adapt the dinner to the circumstances, then 
 returned to the drawing-room, hardly cheerful, 
 but entirely serene. 
 
 She was astonished to find that her husband 
 appeared to have put his troubles completely 
 out of his mind. He was in his most genial 
 and delightful mood, telling his best stories 
 and turning his prettiest compliments. 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright, almost silent at first, was 
 so much impressed by his heroism that she 
 began to rise to the occasion herself, and the 
 dinner went off with positive merriment. 
 
 When the gay leave-taking at the station 
 was over and the train moved out, the two
 
 78 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 girls, sitting among the flowers, bonbons, and 
 illustrated papers that had been showered 
 upon them, grew suddenly grave as their 
 eyes met. 
 
 " Wasn't it heart-breaking, the way they 
 kept up for our sake ! " exclaimed Sue. " I 
 wanted to go off in the corner and cry." 
 
 " The spirit of Sparta still lives," said Bar- 
 bara.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 " T AM glad Elizabeth is spared this," said 
 the Captain. " She would feel it very 
 keenly." 
 
 " No more than we do," flashed his wife. 
 " She could stand it as well as we." 
 
 " Perhaps. But it might be better for us 
 if " He hesitated. 
 
 "If we were dead? " cried Mrs. Cartwright, 
 finishing the sentence for him. "Julius, 
 you're losing your nerve. You see things 
 out of focus. A man can be disgraced only 
 by his own actions. When he has done noth- 
 ing wrong, no amount of persecution can really 
 injure him." 
 
 " It's not persecution," he corrected. It's 
 misunderstanding. But that only makes it 
 more hopeless." 
 
 Sometimes they changed places, and it was 
 79
 
 80 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 she who was despondent, and he who was 
 sanguine. 
 
 " They must vindicate me. They can't do 
 anything else," he said on one such occasion. 
 
 "Of course," replied his wife, moodily, "but 
 meanwhile you have received an injury that 
 nothing can efface. In the service, perhaps, 
 they will pay some attention to the findings. 
 But every paper in the country will have ref- 
 erences to the court, with big silly headlines, 
 and how many people will understand the 
 circumstances or remember how it all turned 
 out ? They will simply recall you vaguely as 
 the man who was tried for something who 
 was in some sort of trouble. It leaves a 
 smirch that nothing will wash off." 
 
 " Well, dear, we must make the best of it. 
 After all, what I care for is my reputation in 
 the service. I am not much interested in 
 either the makers or the readers of news- 
 papers." 
 
 " I am," said his wife. " They represent 
 the mass of our fellow-countrymen." 
 
 " The mass of our fellow-countrymen are
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 81 
 
 not especially discriminating. I shouldn't 
 care for their praise, Clara, and I don't believe 
 I shall mind their blame." 
 
 " You are too good for this world, Julius," 
 she cried, with sudden warmth, " but I love 
 you for it ! " 
 
 At last the day came for the convening of 
 the court. Mrs. Cartwright watched her hus- 
 band dress. His frock-coat, which used to 
 fit him so perfectly, showed numerous wrin- 
 kles. He had lost twenty pounds in the last 
 fortnight. The hair around his temples, 
 sprinkled with gray before, was now a silvery 
 white. She hooked his shoulder-straps into 
 the catches for him and got out his white 
 gloves. His hands trembled as he buckled 
 on his sword. 
 
 " Do they will they take it away 
 from you ? " she faltered. She had been 
 wondering all along, but had not dared to 
 ask. 
 
 "Hell/ No!" he burst out. "I'm not 
 under arrest. It's not so bad as that" 
 
 All his wife's pleading had not persuaded
 
 82 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 him to employ a lawyer. He proposed to 
 conduct his own case. 
 
 "If this were a civil court, where all sorts 
 of tricks and chicanery would be used against 
 me," he said, " of course I should have to 
 have a lawyer to fight them with their own 
 weapons. But before a court composed of 
 my brother officers, there is no such need. 
 They are in search of the truth. The truth 
 is what I want known. They will throw no 
 obstacles in my way, and I have no wish to 
 profit by technicalities." 
 
 Captain Cartwright had three pet aversions, 
 politicians, newspaper reporters, and law- 
 yers. He was utterly unreasonable in his 
 attitude, but of adamantine firmness. 
 
 The court-martial room on the second floor 
 of the Ordnance building wore an incongru- 
 ous air of festivity from the decorations left 
 hanging on the walls after the last Friday 
 afternoon dance. But the commodore and 
 the two elderly captains who composed the 
 court were solemn enough to restore the bal- 
 ance. In the back of the room sat half a
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 83 
 
 dozen reporters, " like buzzards waiting for 
 carrion," the Captain said afterward to his 
 wife. 
 
 The slow formalities began. 
 
 First, the court had to be cleared while the 
 orders constituting it and the accompanying 
 instructions were read. The members of the 
 court found the wording of the precept and in- 
 structions rather vague ; but the young marine 
 officer sent on from Washington to act as 
 judge advocate was able to enlighten them on 
 all doubtful points, as the papers had been 
 drawn up in the office of the Judge Advocate 
 General, to which he was attached. He had 
 also had the advantage of talking over the 
 case with the young man who had made the 
 previous investigation, and he was willing to 
 share all the information so acquired with the 
 members of the court. 
 
 When these preliminaries had been well 
 threshed over, the doors of the court were 
 opened again, and the defendant, the stenog- 
 rapher, and the reporters returned from ban- 
 ishment. Captain Cartwright waived his right
 
 84 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 to counsel ; the judge advocate read aloud the 
 precept. Captain Cartwright was asked if he 
 objected to any member of the court and re- 
 plied that he did not. The members of the 
 court were sworn by the judge advocate, and 
 the judge advocate by the presiding officer. 
 And then at last began the taking of testi- 
 mony. 
 
 The first witnesses called were the seven 
 workmen who had told the Department's in- 
 vestigator that the machinist Klein was a good 
 man discharged without cause and that the 
 applicant Callahan was arbitrarily and illegally 
 refused work when there was a vacancy. 
 They were less emphatic now than they had 
 been when conversing privately with the 
 young officer. In fact, giving them credit for 
 entire sincerity, their opinions as to the effi- 
 ciency of fellow-workmen, their descriptions 
 of the manner and inferences as to the motives 
 of their chief, were too vague to produce any 
 conviction except that they, personally, did 
 not like Captain Cartwright. Cross-examina- 
 tion developed the fact that most of them had
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 85 
 
 a reason for this hostility in having been rep- 
 rimanded by the Captain, and the others ad- 
 mitted somewhat reluctantly an acquaintance 
 more or less intimate with John C. O'Meara. 
 
 In reply to questions by the court, these 
 witnesses testified that they had never been 
 asked anything about their politics by Captain 
 Cartwright, nor had they ever heard of his 
 mentioning politics to any one, nor could they 
 of their own knowledge swear what his political 
 affiliations were. They had heard he was a 
 Republican. 
 
 Klein and Callahan were next put on the 
 stand, but proved nothing beyond their per- 
 sonal grudge against Captain Cartwright. The 
 impression they made for frankness and man- 
 liness was not especially favorable. 
 
 Then came testimony to show that, of 
 sixty-five men discharged during Captain Cart- 
 wright's incumbency, forty-one had been 
 Democrats and only twenty-four Republicans, 
 and that of a hundred and seven new men 
 taken on, fifty-nine had been Republicans and 
 only forty-eight Democrats.
 
 86 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 The Captain listened to this part of the 
 testimony with surprise and disgust. He 
 was learning these political statistics for the 
 first time. He had cared no more for the 
 views of his workmen on politics than for 
 their views on the theory of atomic weights. 
 What was the object of the judge advocate in 
 bringing out these facts ? Was it conceivable 
 that a Democratic administration, committed 
 to the policy of civil service reform, could 
 sink so low as to find fault with him because 
 the balance of numbers happened to have 
 fallen in favor of Republican workmen ? Even 
 if they wished in their hearts that he had 
 manipulated otherwise (and, really, he had 
 thought better of the men in high places), 
 surely they could not openly censure him for 
 having so obviously done his duty ! 
 
 On the completion of this testimony, which 
 had dragged along through two days and part 
 of the third, the judge advocate announced 
 that the government had no more witnesses 
 to call. 
 
 Captain Cartwright then began his defence.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 87 
 
 He had endeavored to secure the presence of 
 Mr. O'Meara, but Mr. O'Meara had declined 
 to obey the summons, and naval courts have 
 no power to compel the attendance of civilian 
 witnesses. The Captain's having insisted on 
 leaving the door open into the adjoining room 
 during O'Meara's call which had been a 
 matter of instinct with him rather than of 
 precaution proved most fortunate, for the 
 clerks in the next room were able to give a 
 very clear account of the whole conversation. 
 
 This testimony was not admitted without 
 an objection by the judge advocate. 
 
 " It's not pertinent to the case," he said. 
 
 " It is extremely pertinent," said the Cap- 
 tain, " for it shows the source of the charges 
 made against me and the malice underlying 
 them." 
 
 "Do you mean to accuse the Navy Depart- 
 ment of malice ? " 
 
 " Certainly not. The Department, like 
 myself, has been victimized by the machina- 
 tions of this man, O'Meara." 
 
 " Are you prepared to prove that assertion ? "
 
 88 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " I haven't all the connecting links of evi- 
 dence. 'I am not a detective and have em- 
 ployed none. But the inference is clear from 
 the facts I am presenting." 
 
 "Inference is not evidence," observed the 
 judge advocate pompously, and no one felt 
 called upon to dispute his oracular statement. 
 
 The court was cleared to deliberate on the 
 question raised and decided to admit the 
 evidence. 
 
 Captain Cartwright then took the stand in 
 his own behalf and gave an account of his 
 efforts to administer his department justly 
 and impartially, describing the precautions 
 taken to ascertain the individual fitness of the 
 men for their work, his method of advanc- 
 ing the most competent, and the considera- 
 tions which guided him in discharging the 
 unworthy. Coming down to particulars, he 
 detailed the circumstances attending the dis- 
 missal of Klein and the non-employment of 
 Callahan. 
 
 At the conclusion of his narrative the judge 
 advocate took up a long list of questions for
 
 "THE JUDGE-ADVOCATE TOOK up A LONG LIST OF QUESTIONS."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 89 
 
 the cross-examination, asking first in a per- 
 functory way : 
 
 " You are a Republican, I believe, Captain ? " 
 
 " No, I am not a Republican," he replied 
 quietly. 
 
 The effect of this statement was electrical. 
 The members of the court straightened up, 
 the judge advocate became animated, the re- 
 porters on the back seats craned their necks 
 forward eagerly. 
 
 " Are you a Democrat ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " How long have you been one ? " 
 
 "All my life. My father was one before 
 me a war Democrat, of course, not a Cop- 
 perhead." 
 
 " You have always voted the Democratic 
 ticket ? " 
 
 "Always, when I was where I could vote 
 at all." 
 
 " This is very important, Captain. Why 
 didn't you mention it before ? " 
 
 " I didn't think it had anything to do 
 with the case."
 
 90 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " In my judgment it has everything." 
 For a moment the Captain looked at the 
 judge advocate dazedly. Then all at once, 
 a light broke on him.* With suddenly illu- 
 mined vision, he saw in the vague wording 
 of the precept the meaning its phrases had 
 held from the beginning for the judge advo- 
 cate and the court. He saw farther, for he 
 remembered O'Meara's charge that he was a 
 Republican, repeated by several of the gov- 
 ernment's witnesses, which he had not thought 
 it worth while to contradict. He saw this 
 charge, in the light of which his alleged per- 
 secution of Democrats wore quite a different 
 aspect, passed along in garbled ex parte 
 form, through Congressman Smith and Sena- 
 tor Flint, and whatever other intermediaries 
 there may have been, till it reached the 
 Navy Department. He had supposed that 
 the charge against him was one of poor 
 judgment or of arbitrariness, a dickering 
 sort of charge, equally difficult to prove or 
 disprove, and requiring cumulative outside 
 evidence that would be merely opinion after
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 91 
 
 all. Now it had crystallized into a concrete 
 accusation demolished by a single word from 
 himself. The utterly unnecessary character 
 of the whole proceeding sickened him. 
 
 " I have never until this moment under- 
 stood the full meaning of the precept," he 
 said. "It had not occurred to me that any 
 one could suspect me of anything so absurd 
 as a political bias in dealing with my men. 
 Since I have the honor, quite accidentally, 
 of belonging to the same party as the pres- 
 ent administration, and since the two men I 
 am accused of discriminating against and the 
 majority of the men I have discharged be- 
 long to the same party, the whole fabric of 
 the accusation falls to pieces on the spot. 
 When the judge advocate has finished his 
 questions " 
 
 " I have finished them. The rest are no 
 longer relevant. I will turn the witness over 
 to the court." 
 
 The president glanced at the other mem- 
 bers, who shook their heads. 
 
 "We have no questions to ask," he said.
 
 92 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 "Then, with the permission of the court, 
 I will rest my case here." 
 
 "You have hardly begun on your list of 
 witnesses," suggested the judge advocate. 
 
 " The rest are workmen from my depart- 
 ment. I never liked the idea of bringing 
 them here to testify in my favor. It didn't 
 seem to me either dignified or proper. But 
 I supposed it was necessary. Now that I 
 see it is not, I am extremely glad to omit 
 that part of the testimony." 
 
 " That is a question for you to decide, 
 Captain," said the judge advocate, and turning 
 impressively to the court, he announced : 
 
 "The government has no evidence to 
 offer in rebuttal, and I have no remarks to 
 make. The case is in the hands of the 
 court."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 MRS. CARTWRIGHT was aghast 
 when her husband told her of the 
 summary way in which he had cut 
 short the proceedings of the court by omit- 
 ting the greater part of his defence. But he 
 waived her objections aside. 
 
 " I am sick to the core of it all," he said. 
 "What a position for a man of my age and 
 rank to be put in, to have to call the men 
 from his own machine shops to speak a good 
 word for him ! I couldn't have stood it, 
 Clara." 
 
 The findings of a court of inquiry are not 
 made public till they have been acted upon 
 by the reviewing authority, but the president 
 of the court took occasion to say, " I 
 wouldn't lie awake nights any, if I were you, 
 Cartwright," and the Captain hurried home, 
 to share the good news with his wife. She 
 
 93
 
 94 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 heaved a long sigh of relief, then insisted, 
 with lightning readjustment of her outlook, 
 that she had always known it would be so, 
 that it could not possibly have been other- 
 wise, that she had never given the result of 
 the investigation a moment's thought, but 
 that the outrage of his having been subjected 
 to it remained the same. 
 
 After the relief of the commodore's hint, 
 the action of the Department was disappoint- 
 ing ; for while the findings were not disap- 
 proved, the assent of the reviewing authority 
 was by no means so hearty as the " full 
 and honorable acquittal " of the court had 
 seeme,d to call for. 
 
 Nor was this the end. In less than a week 
 Captain Cartwright was in receipt of an official 
 document detaching him from duty as equip- 
 ment officer at the Brooklyn navy yard and 
 placing him on waiting orders. 
 
 " This is more of the work of that wretch 
 O'Meara!" cried Mrs. Cartwright. 
 
 " Very likely. But what can we do about it ? " 
 
 " Go tell him what you think of him, at
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 95 
 
 least," she suggested. She would have greatly 
 enjoyed being able to do so herself. 
 
 " With all due deference to you, madam, I 
 think I will do just nothing at all. It's much 
 more dignified and at least equally effective." 
 
 " See Senator Flint and Congressman Smith 
 and find out if they really are acting as 
 O'Meara's cat's-paws." 
 
 " Do you think they would tell me ? " 
 
 " Perhaps if you started at the other end, 
 you could find out from the Navy Department 
 who had been working against you." 
 
 He shook his head wearily. 
 
 " No, no. We'll go into retirement and 
 wait till the clouds roll by. If the powers that 
 be should blunder into a war with England " 
 
 " There won't be any war with England," 
 asserted his wife, "and if there should be, 
 they'd refuse to give you a ship." 
 
 The Captain bit his lip. 
 
 " God forbid ! " he exclaimed fervently. 
 
 Throughout the whole trying experience the 
 outspoken sympathy of naval friends had been 
 a great comfort to Mrs. Cartwright, proving
 
 96 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 once more, if it needed proof, the high esteem 
 in which her husband was held by those who 
 knew him best. From the sympathy of out- 
 siders she derived less satisfaction ; for when 
 it was not undiscriminating partisanship, she 
 fancied she could detect in it a note of uncer- 
 tainty, as though they did not understand the 
 circumstances well enough to be perfectly sure 
 the Captain was all right. They hoped he 
 was. They very nearly believed he was. But 
 how could there be so much smoke without 
 some fire ? 
 
 Perhaps what pleased Mrs. Cartwright most 
 of all were the warm words from clerks, watch- 
 men, mechanics, laborers, and all manner of 
 employees in her husband's department. Since 
 they no longer had anything to gain from his 
 favor it seemed obvious that the affection they 
 professed for him and the indignation they ex- 
 pressed at the way he had been treated came 
 straight from the heart. 
 
 The good will of the men did not limit 
 itself to words, but ran over in hearty offers 
 of assistance about the packing. All were
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 97 
 
 promptly declined by Captain Cartwright, who 
 had views of his own concerning the employ- 
 ment of government workmen for personal 
 ends. The long establishment of the custom 
 of borrowing a carpenter and a sail-maker to 
 help in the moving did not lend it any sanc- 
 tion in his eyes. 
 
 " But I'm not busy this morning, Cap- 
 tain," one of the men urged. " I really 
 haven't anything to do at all." 
 
 " If that's the state of the case, I'd better be 
 laying you off," said the Captain. " There's 
 no use keeping men on the pay-roll who have 
 nothing to do." 
 
 That sort of thing hurts a man's feelings for 
 the moment when he is trying to be helpful, 
 but on the whole they adored him for it. 
 
 " Mrs. Cartwright," said an old carpenter, 
 confidentially, " me and some of the men will 
 be around after hours. I guess the Captain 
 can't say nothing against that. We'll take the 
 measures for some of them crates and boxes 
 you need, and we'll fix them up for you in no 
 time."
 
 98 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " But they mustn't be made during hours," 
 Mrs. Cartwright stipulated dutifully. 
 
 " Oh, no, ma'am." 
 
 " And they mustn't be made out of govern- 
 ment lumber." 
 
 " No, ma'am, of course not." 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright thought it better not to 
 mention these plans till they passed into ac- 
 complished fact. As she feared, her husband 
 was more annoyed than touched by the atten- 
 tion and was only half convinced by the ex- 
 planations given as to when and out of what 
 the boxes and crates had been made. 
 
 Meantime Mrs. Cartwright ran hither and 
 thither, planned and packed, mounted step- 
 ladders to take down her well-loved pictures 
 that she had gathered together in all parts of 
 the world, wrapped tissue paper around the 
 Captain's cherished books and fitted them with 
 her own hands into the boxes the men had 
 made for her. When and where would she 
 open them again ? Eternal maddening ques- 
 tion of navy life ! It seemed such a short time 
 since she had unpacked them all and put them
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 99 
 
 in place. They had supposed they were set- 
 tled for three years. But it seemed other- 
 wise to the gods, which is to say, the Navy 
 Department. 
 
 Everybody's allowance of belongings was cut 
 down to the scale of trunks, except Wriggles's, 
 who was to carry with him crib, bath-tub, high- 
 chair, and a whole cart-load of toys. Wriggles 
 was a privileged character. It was a relief 
 when the hideous upheaval time was over, 
 boxes, crates, and barrels all stored away, and 
 Captain and Mrs. Cartwright, Wriggles, and 
 his nurse, established in the three rooms at a 
 quiet hotel on Gramercy Park, which were all 
 their reduced income could compass. 
 
 Gramercy Park has been invaded by board- 
 ing-houses, but still carries an air of extreme 
 respectability. It is a curious little overlooked 
 spot of perfect quietness just around the corner 
 from the swirl of the busiest thoroughfares. 
 The high railing and locked gates of the little 
 park help to keep up the illusion of exclusive- 
 ness. Accessibility had been its chief virtue in 
 Mrs. Cartwright's eyes when she selected it for
 
 ioo THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 an abiding-place. She had no notion of sitting 
 down to brood over her troubles or of letting 
 her husband do so. She knew that action was 
 good for her, and she felt that it must be 
 equally beneficial for him. So she dragged 
 him around, amiably unwilling, to art exhibits, 
 Brooklyn Institute lectures, and even to after- 
 noon teas. 
 
 For the most part he resigned himself with 
 the utmost philosophy to his wife's enthusi- 
 asms. But occasionally he rebelled and insisted 
 on spending whole afternoons in the less stren- 
 uous society of Wriggles. If the weather was 
 pleasant, they made excursions to Central Park. 
 If it was stormy, they sat in front of the fire 
 and sang. They always began with rollicking 
 old salt-sea shanties, dating back to the many- 
 storied line-of-battle ships, and invariably 
 ended with the mournful Calvinistic hymns of 
 the Captain's Sunday-school days. The Cap- 
 tain's fidelity to tune was sporadic, and Wrig- 
 gles had betrayed no symptom of a musical 
 ear. But these were mere details. Both 
 grandfather and grandson derived the highest
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 101 
 
 satisfaction from their duets, and if the people 
 in the next room objected, they were not un- 
 feeling enough to say so. 
 
 Sometimes the Captain got out of going to 
 things, especially teas, by the simple device 
 of taking a nap. It was beyond Mrs. Cart- 
 wright's comprehension how any one in good 
 health could deliberately lie down in broad 
 daylight to take a nap. Six hours' sleep out 
 of the twenty-four were enough for her, and 
 she could not see how her husband managed 
 to enjoy eight. It struck her as suggestive of 
 earthiness the only thing about her husband 
 that did so strike her, he being, for the most 
 part, in her eyes, altogether sublimated. 
 
 By tacit agreement the Cartwrights did not 
 discuss the injustice of which they both felt the 
 Captain was the victim. His wife's compas- 
 sion for him was so intense that she could feel 
 the bodily pain of it. Her indignation was as 
 fiery as ever. But both indignation and pity 
 she kept to herself, and they lived out the fic- 
 tion together that they were having an enjoy- 
 able holiday. Few men used to leading an
 
 102 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 active life enjoy a prolonged holiday under the 
 most auspicious circumstances ; but when it is 
 an enforced one with a sting, not of disgrace, 
 to be sure, but of official displeasure attached, 
 it becomes a very serious trial. 
 
 The change from shore duty to waiting 
 orders produced, of course, a notable shrinkage 
 of the Captain's income. In comparison with 
 the slur of being laid on the shelf, both he and 
 his wife regarded the purely material annoyance 
 of doing without things as a minor matter. 
 They had not been rich before, and they were 
 not suffering for essentials now ; but the sud- 
 den lopping off of pleasant superfluities and 
 the necessity of counting pennies where before 
 they had only counted dimes was, with all 
 allowance for high-minded philosophy, harass- 
 ing. 
 
 One day the mail brought a letter from a 
 man in New Hampshire who owned a farm 
 next to a small patch of woodland that belonged 
 to Captain Cartwright. He said he wished to 
 increase his farm in that direction and offered the 
 Captain twenty-five dollars an acre for his land.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 103 
 
 " How fortunate that is ! " cried Mrs. Cart- 
 wright, who was patiently wearing her last 
 year's bonnet without a word of complaint. 
 " There couldn't be a time when a little extra 
 money would come in handier." 
 
 The Captain did not know about the bon- 
 net. His wife always looked beautiful to his 
 eyes, whatever she had on. He knew the 
 lining of his overcoat was worn, and that he 
 had resigned from his club because he could 
 not afford to pay the dues, but those were 
 his own affairs. 
 
 " It would be convenient, but I can't sell 
 that bit of land, Clara. It came to me from 
 my mother, you know. It's been in the fam- 
 ily for more than two hundred years." 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright's face fell. 
 
 " I think I should waive the sentiment if 
 the land were mine. You have never seen it, 
 have you ? " 
 
 " Not that I remember. I may have seen 
 it as a boy." 
 
 " You never expect to visit it or build on it 
 or anything of that sort, do you ? "
 
 104 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " No, but I shouldn't like to sell it, Clara." 
 
 " Oh, if you feel that way about it, of course, 
 dear," she said, with the faintest of sighs, " we 
 are no worse off than before you got the letter." 
 
 So the Captain sat down and wrote to the 
 man that for reasons of sentiment he stated 
 what they were he did not wish to sell his 
 land. The man replied, giving various per- 
 sonal details and explaining how important it 
 was for him to enlarge his farm and how 
 the Captain's was the only land available, ask- 
 ing him to take the matter into further consid- 
 eration, and ending by offering him thirty 
 dollars an acre. 
 
 After reading this letter, Captain Cartwright 
 handed it without comment to his wife. 
 
 She read it and prudently said nothing, but 
 looked at him with interrogation in her eyes. 
 
 He was obviously pondering. Finally the 
 result came out. 
 
 " I suppose it's that man's whole life, and 
 it's only a bit of sentiment by the wayside with 
 me. It seems rather hoggish to stand in his 
 way like that. I believe I'll let him have it."
 
 105 
 
 " I think you're right," agreed his wife, try- 
 ing not to look too much pleased. 
 
 " But, of course, I can't take the thirty dol- 
 lars an acre. He would think I had professed 
 all that sentiment about the ancestral land and 
 the inheritance from my mother just to get a 
 bigger price." 
 
 "He won't appreciate the delicacy of your 
 feelings in declining it, dear. He'll simply 
 regard you as an escaped lunatic." 
 
 " Perhaps. But I should prefer that to the 
 other horn of the dilemma. I shall tell him he 
 can have it at twenty-five dollars an acre." 
 
 " Why not say for nothing, as it's all pure 
 benevolence ? " 
 
 " I don't wish to pauperize the man." 
 
 " Thank Heaven for that ! " muttered his 
 wife. Then she softened and went over and 
 kissed him, taking his face between her hands. 
 There must have been moisture in her eyes to 
 make them shine so. " You are the dearest 
 old goose in the world," she said. 
 
 When the money came, Captain Cartwright 
 could not bear to use it for current expenses.
 
 106 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 He felt that he wished to see this small ances- 
 tral inheritance embodied in some concrete im- 
 perishable form, and he wished also to lay it at 
 the feet of his wife. It was not often that he 
 was able to make her a present which he felt to 
 be worthy of her. So he took his converted 
 acres around to Tiffany's and turned them into 
 a ring, an opal set with diamonds, which he 
 brought home in high spirits and presented, 
 with the prettiest of speeches, to his wife. 
 
 Heroically she stifled the thought of the 
 last year's bonnet's growing archaism and 
 thanked her husband so enthusiastically that 
 he never suspected her disappointment. 
 
 " Imagine that ring inside of a glove mended 
 at the finger-tips ! " she laughed to herself 
 when she was alone. 
 
 Then she lifted the ring to her lips and 
 kissed it passionately. 
 
 " There are things in this world that are 
 better than common-sense," she said, and 
 meant it.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A BOX for each of us strictly im- 
 partial marked c flowers' and per- 
 ishable ' and sent from New York." 
 
 All this from Barbara to Sue. 
 
 Sue gave a happy laugh, as she pushed 
 aside the portieres and looked in from the 
 next room. Her eyes danced, the warm 
 color deepened in her face. She was like a 
 little child fairly aquiver with excitement. 
 Barbara smiled at her indulgently. 
 
 Sue seized upon her box and plunged 
 eagerly through string and wrapping-paper. 
 
 " Violets ! " she cried. " Oceans of them ! 
 Oh, the beautiful things ! " 
 
 She buried her face in the fragrant mass. 
 
 "At five dollars a bunch," commented 
 Barbara. 
 
 " Don't be sordid. They are exquisite. 
 
 But I can't find a sign of a card ! Hurry 
 
 107
 
 io8 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 up and look in yours, you old slow-poke. 
 Perhaps the card got lost out of mine." 
 
 Barbara, whose chief interest hitherto had 
 been in watching Sue, now obediently opened 
 the other box. 
 
 " Lilies-of-the-valley," she announced. "Very 
 sweet and innocent But no card. He wishes 
 to remain anonymous." 
 
 " Oh, how absurd ! " 
 
 Sue lifted up each flower separately, looked 
 over the boxes and lids, inside and out, and 
 at every portion of the wrappings. But there 
 was no clew. 
 
 " It's some one who knows us both," said 
 Sue, with thought-creased brow ; " probably 
 somebody at the navy yard." 
 
 " Yes, I think so, too." 
 
 " I believe you know, Barbara ! " 
 
 "Indeed, I don't. I can't even guess. 
 But this much is clear. Violets are for love. 
 It's somebody who loves you and doesn't 
 want to hurt my feelings." 
 
 " Who's having intuitions, now ? " laughed 
 Sue, not wholly displeased, for she was wholly
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 109 
 
 human. " Perhaps it's somebody who loves 
 you and is afraid to say so," she suggested. 
 " He wants me to speak in his behalf, while 
 he expresses his awe of your ethereal char- 
 acter by means of immaculate lilies." 
 
 " There never was a naval officer capable 
 of such complexities. At least, we didn't 
 meet him." 
 
 " Well, he's a dear, anyhow." And Sue 
 took another long whiff of her violets. 
 
 " Perhaps you wouldn't be so expansive if 
 you knew his name." 
 
 " Probably not. That's the beauty of 
 anonymity." 
 
 " Perhaps that's what he counted on." 
 
 " He's welcome to his triumph, then, see- 
 ing that he is necessarily unconscious of it." 
 
 " Rather a subtle sort of triumph for a 
 blunt seafaring man." 
 
 " Perhaps his astral body is with us now," 
 and Sue blew a kiss into the air from her 
 finger-tips. 
 
 " Naval officers don't have astral bodies," 
 said Barbara with conviction.
 
 no THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 It was not long after this that the girls 
 started down to New York to make their 
 promised visit to the Cartwrights. They 
 intended to stay only a week and would have 
 omitted it altogether, as their prospective hosts 
 were living at a hotel, but Mrs. Cartwright 
 laid such stress on their keeping to the origi- 
 nal engagement that they feared to hurt her 
 feelings. She had notified all the girls' friends 
 at the navy yard of their coming, and the 
 week was crowded so full of festivities that 
 it had to be stretched into two before Sue 
 finally started on her way to California and 
 Barbara returned to her New England home. 
 
 " Did you ever notice how friendships 
 ripen during absence ? " mused Sue, coming 
 home from the Monday afternoon dance 
 aboard the Vermont a couple of days after 
 their arrival. " Now you'd think that we'd 
 have drifted away from all those people dur- 
 ing the months we've been gone and that 
 we'd have to begin all over again, but, instead 
 of that, we parted mere acquaintances and we 
 meet as old friends."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE in 
 
 " Who ? You and Mr. Fairchild ? " 
 
 Sue blushed adorably, but more from ani- 
 mation than embarrassment. 
 
 " No, you stupid. Everybody." 
 
 "You're so expansive, Sue. No wonder 
 you make friends. You go through life with 
 all your pores open." 
 
 "And you go through it with your shell 
 shut up tight, like a barnacle at low water." 
 
 "I know it." 
 
 "How was Mr. Ferris?" 
 
 "As inept as ever. But I think I've set- 
 tled him'' 
 
 " Why, what do you mean ? " 
 
 " I told him my ideas on marriage." 
 
 " And what might they be ? " 
 
 "That it ought to be a mere business 
 contract, that sentiment spoiled it, that I 
 wouldn't marry a man unless he was very 
 wealthy, that I would prefer to marry an old 
 man who would soon die and leave me his 
 money, and that all sensible girls felt as I 
 did, though they were not all honest enough 
 to say so."
 
 ii2 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 Sue laughed. 
 
 "How you must have shocked him!" 
 
 " I certainly tried hard enough." 
 
 " You've shattered his idol." 
 
 " I hope so." 
 
 "You little wretch!" 
 
 " Heigh-ho ! One must do something. I'm 
 not making a collection of scalps." 
 
 Mr. Ferris was, in fact, seriously distressed. 
 Barbara's cynicisms had often wounded him, 
 but none so deeply as this ; and by dint of 
 gazing into the limpid depths of her eyes and 
 dwelling on the cameo clearness of her prpfile, 
 he had been able till now to forget them more 
 or less. But this this was unforgetable, 
 unforgivable. He nursed his disillusionment 
 in silence overnight ; but next day, when the 
 Duluth came in from a cruise, he could not 
 forbear telling Mr. McMasters about it. His 
 confidant gave him no sympathy. 
 
 " Your literalness will be the death of you 
 yet, Ferris," he said gravely. " She didn't 
 mean that. She was joking." 
 
 " No, I assure you, she was entirely serious."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 113 
 
 " Nonsense ! She's not that sort of a girl, 
 not the least in the world." 
 
 " I didn't use to think so, either." 
 
 " You don't want to think so now. No girl 
 who held such views would express them." 
 
 " She oughtn't to express them anyhow. 
 That isn't the way for a girl to talk. I can't 
 bear to hear a girl say such things." 
 
 " Oh, if you're discussing the good taste of 
 saying what she did, you must form your own 
 opinion. But you'll be doing Miss Thornhill 
 a great injustice if you suppose those are her 
 real sentiments." 
 
 Mr. Ferris shook his head and refused to 
 be comforted. He called at the Cartwrights* 
 no more ; he kept away from the dances and 
 other places where he was likely to meet them ; 
 he moped by himself, and thought up bitter 
 phrases about the whole feminine sex. 
 
 Meanwhile Barbara was congratulating her- 
 self on the success with which she had gotten 
 rid of her admirer. 
 
 "What have you done to Ferris?" Mr. 
 Me Masters asked her.
 
 " What do I appear to have done to him ? " 
 
 " The poor fellow is in the depths. You 
 must have said something that hurt him very 
 much." 
 
 "You're assuming a good deal, it seems 
 to me." 
 
 " I didn't mean to be presumptuous." 
 
 He spoke with the easy assurance of a man 
 ten years her senior. 
 
 She smiled at him. 
 
 " Not that. But, for Heaven's sake, let 
 things stay as they are ! " 
 
 " You know he cares a great deal for you ? " 
 Mr. McMasters persisted. R. 
 
 " Oh, I hope not ! " she cried, and the 
 shudder that passed over her was of unmistak- 
 able aversion. 
 
 " I see," he said quietly. " I won't meddle. 
 I wasn't sure how it was, you know. . . . 
 Poor devil," he added, " I suppose this is no 
 worse than any other way. But I'm sorry for 
 him." 
 
 " Oh, so am I. My religion teaches me to 
 be sorry for everybody."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 115 
 
 " You are a Catholic, I believe ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " And is Miss Ballinger a Catholic, too ? " 
 
 " Dear me, no. She's nothing." 
 
 " She doesn't strike one as a negative sort 
 of person." 
 
 " Well, a heathen, then." 
 
 "Is that all?" 
 
 " Oh, a heathen with a thirst for righteous- 
 ness." 
 
 "That's something" he murmured. 
 
 " I believe they used to call her at college 
 an S. A. T." 
 
 "Which me ins?" 
 
 "Seeker after Truth." 
 
 " Wasn't it Lessing who said that the pur- 
 suit of truth is better than the finding of 
 it?" 
 
 " Great nonsense, whoever said it." 
 
 " From the standpoint of Catholicism ? " 
 
 " From the standpoint of truth." 
 
 Mr. McMasters felt it was time to shift 
 his ground. 
 
 " It was at college that Miss Ballinger and
 
 u6 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 Miss Cartwright Mrs. Whittemore be- 
 came friends, wasn't it ? " 
 
 " Yes, they were in the same class." 
 
 " Were you in it, too ? " 
 
 "No, I didn't go to college." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 Barbara shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 " I suppose my parents thought me more 
 deficient in piety than in learning. Anyhow, 
 they sent me to a convent." 
 
 "Did you like it?" 
 
 "It was a good deal of a bore, but college 
 would probably have been just as bad or 
 anything else." 
 
 " You have found nothing worth while ? " 
 
 " Nothing," she said, smiling, and without 
 emphasis. 
 
 " How did you come to know Miss Cart- 
 wright ? She never went to a convent, did she ? " 
 
 " Oh, no. Ours was a vacation friendship. 
 I caught Elizabeth in her lighter moments." 
 
 Wriggles emerged from a corner of the 
 room, where he had been piling up blocks so 
 quietly that they had forgotten his presence.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 117 
 
 " Did oo know my lubbly mud- 
 der ? " he asked, pausing after each word, and 
 gazing wistfully at Mr. McMasters. 
 
 "Yes, Wriggles, I knew her," he said 
 gently. 
 
 " Did oo know my lubbly mud- 
 der ? " he went on, turning to Barbara. 
 
 "Yes, dear," she said very low. 
 
 " Why do ebbrybody know her becept 
 me ? " he asked next, and his great wonder- 
 ing eyes were like a mourning angel's. 
 
 "Poor little man!" cried Barbara, supremely 
 touched, catching him up and kissing him. 
 " I wish we could bring her back to you." 
 
 Wriggles twisted himself out of her arms. 
 
 " Oh, I don' know," he said, with entire 
 cheerfulness. " Mollie says I gets ebbrysing 
 I wants, 'cause I'se c a poor li'le mudderless 
 boy.' ' (The quoted phrase was rendered with 
 great pathos.) " Mollie says mudders spanks 
 zay boys and makes zem mind. . . . P'waps 
 I wouldn* like zat bewy much," he concluded 
 contemplatively. 
 
 " Wriggles," cried Barbara, with grave voice
 
 n8 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 and dancing eyes, "you have destroyed my 
 last illusion." 
 
 " No more than you have done to poor 
 Ferris," murmured Mr. Me Masters. But 
 Barbara deigned no reply.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE Duluth was to give an afternoon 
 dance. The Cartwrights and their 
 guests were invited by Mr. McMas- 
 ters and were also asked to stay aboard for 
 dinner. 
 
 Captain Cartwright begged off under the 
 rather flimsy pretext that somebody had to 
 stay at home to look after Wriggles. They 
 did not urge him, for they understood that 
 an afternoon on a ship might have more of 
 pain than pleasure for him. Mrs. Cartwright 
 went on account of the girls, from a strict 
 sense of duty. Barbara went on account of 
 her hostess, from an equally strict sense of 
 duty. So Sue was really the only one who 
 bade fair to get any enjoyment out of the 
 occasion. Her spirits were high enough, 
 
 however, to make up for all deficiencies, and 
 
 119
 
 120 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 she ended by communicating to the others 
 a certain reflection of her own enthusiasm. 
 
 The Duluth was lying out in North River 
 and was to send her boats to the wharf at 
 the foot of West Twenty-third Street, where 
 the guests had been asked to assemble at 
 three o'clock. 
 
 The steam-launch had just filled up with 
 people as Mrs. Cartwright and the girls 
 arrived. 
 
 "I'm afraid we'll have to take one of the 
 other boats," said Mrs. Cartwright, a little 
 disconsolately. She had visions of flying 
 spray ruining her only good gown, and had 
 a feeling, moreover, that the launch, being 
 bigger, was less likely to be run down by a 
 ferry-boat. 
 
 " Oh, I'm so glad ! " cried Sue, entranced. 
 " The row-boats are so much prettier. Just 
 think, Mrs. Cartwright, I was never in a 
 man-o'-war's boat before ! " 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright smiled without enthusiasm. 
 
 "You don't care to wait for the launch 
 to come back, then ? "
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 121 
 
 " Why, that would be half an hour ! " 
 
 Sue's tone was so full of dismay at the 
 possibility of such a waste of golden mo- 
 ments that Mrs. Cartwright and Barbara 
 laughed outright. 
 
 The naval cadet in charge of the cutter 
 came up and introduced himself. He as- 
 sured them that nothing in the world was 
 safer than rowing in New York harbor, and 
 said he had several mackintoshes in the 
 boat, which they could put on to protect 
 themselves from the spray. So they climbed 
 into the stern, enveloping themselves in the 
 big clumsy rubber coats, above which the 
 girls' laughing faces and bright spring hats 
 looked comically incongruous. 
 
 " Up oars ! " cried the cadet, and at the 
 word ten white ash blades rose together and 
 were held rigidly erect. 
 
 "Shove off!" 
 
 The apprentice boy standing in the bow 
 pushed away from the wharf with his boat- 
 hook. 
 
 " Let fall ! "
 
 122 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 Five oars to the right and five to the left 
 described quadrants in the air, and touched 
 the water at the same instant. 
 
 " Give way, starboard. Easy, port." 
 
 Then, as the boat was headed around, 
 
 " Give way together ! " 
 
 The oars rose and dipped in perfect uni- 
 son, and the boat, gathering headway, began 
 to cut through the water with a fine effect 
 of strength, the primitive strength of mus- 
 cle, beside which steam appears a vulgar 
 parvenu. 
 
 " How beautiful it is ! " cried Sue. 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright assented, thinking she was 
 speaking of the river. She had been used 
 to men-o'-war's boats for so long that they 
 had become to her a mere means of convey- 
 ance. She had forgotten the picturesqueness 
 of the sailors' uniforms, the rolling collars 
 open at the throat and the floating black 
 silk kerchiefs knotted below. She noticed 
 the men, how well set-up they were, what 
 clean-cut faces they had, and felt a pleasant 
 thrill of pride in the trim ness of the boat
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 123 
 
 and its occupants, the pride of a good 
 housekeeper looking at a spotless floor. She 
 was thoroughly loyal to the service, but she 
 had lost sight of its aesthetic properties. 
 
 Mr. McMasters met them at the foot of 
 the side ladder and took them to his state- 
 room to lay off superfluous wraps and re- 
 adjust their hats and hairpins. 
 
 The girls glanced around the room with 
 interest. It seemed wonderful to them that 
 a man could live for three years in such 
 narrow quarters. Every inch of space was 
 utilized. There were drawers under the 
 bunk, lockers and bookshelves over it. The 
 bureau was also a desk. There were racks 
 overhead where odd-shaped tin boxes were 
 stowed. 
 
 " That one's for a cocked hat, that one 
 for epaulets," Mrs. Cartwright explained. 
 " That long flat one doubtless holds his 
 c special full dress ' and ' social intercourse ' 
 uniforms. They're safe from mildew and 
 moths that way, you know." 
 
 The bunk was given a couchlike effect
 
 124 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 by being covered with a Bagdad portiere and 
 heaped up with a variety of fancy pillows. 
 On the top of the bureau was a daintily 
 embroidered cover. The pincushion, shav- 
 ing-paper case, laundry list, and a dozen 
 trifles showed feminine handiwork. 
 
 "He must have lots of girl friends," said Sue. 
 
 " * Unto him that hath shall be given,' ' 
 quoted Barbara. " I think we'd better make 
 him another pillow." 
 
 "We'll do it!" cried Sue, with her infec- 
 tious little laugh of delighted expectancy. 
 
 Just then Mr. McMasters came back for 
 them and led them up on deck again. 
 They had been aboard the Duluth when she 
 was lying at the navy yard, but she was 
 quite transformed for this occasion. An 
 awning had been spread over the deck and 
 the under side of it made gay with looped 
 flags. Bunting was everywhere. Masts were 
 swathed in it, gun-carriages were draped in 
 it, hatches were covered with it. The flag- 
 ship's band, borrowed for the afternoon, was 
 playing an alluring waltz. The enlisted men,
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 125 
 
 not allowed to come abaft the mainmast, 
 gathered there, watching the spectacle before 
 them with mild interest. At least there were 
 no drills for the afternoon. In the space 
 cleared for dancing, a few couples were cir- 
 cling around ; while groups of guests, just 
 arrived, stood chatting with the officers who 
 had invited them. 
 
 Mr. McMasters busied himself for a few 
 minutes bringing up one officer after another 
 to introduce to Mrs. Cartwright and the girls. 
 Then he asked Barbara to dance. 
 
 There was just the faintest look of surprise 
 in Sue's eyes. From her kindergarten days, 
 she was used to being chosen first. But 
 she did not grudge Barbara her triumph, and 
 turned with perfect sweetness to dance with 
 a beardless young doctor, "just caught," as 
 Mr. McMasters had expressed it in intro- 
 ducing him, from the medical school. Naval 
 life was entirely new to him ; and although 
 he tried manfully to conceal it, he was tre- 
 mendously proud of his uniform and bristling 
 with the importance of his position.
 
 126 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 Presently a tug came alongside, bringing the 
 guests from the navy yard. Mr. Fairchild 
 was among them, and quickly made his way 
 to Sue, carrying her off with a high hand 
 from the protesting young doctor. And then, 
 somehow, it happened that nearly everybody 
 stopped dancing and stood watching them. 
 It was the poetry of motion incarnate. There 
 may have been other people there who danced 
 as well as they, there may have been other 
 girls more beautiful than Sue, other men hand- 
 somer than Harry Fairchild ; but there was 
 no other couple who so happily combined all 
 these qualities. 
 
 " Those two were made for each other ! " 
 sighed a fat, elderly lady from the navy yard, 
 standing by Mrs. Cartwright. 
 
 " They certainly dance well together," re- 
 plied Mrs. Cartwright, a shade impatiently. 
 " But life is not made up entirely of dances." 
 
 " Don't you wish you were in his shoes ? " 
 asked Barbara, glancing up a trifle maliciously 
 at Mr. McMasters. He was gazing intently, 
 like almost every one else, at Fairchild and Sue.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 127 
 
 "If they would make me dance as well as 
 he does," he laughed good-naturedly. 
 
 " Baffled again ! " thought Barbara to her- 
 self. She was not sure whether a door had 
 been shut in her face or whether she was 
 merely gazing at a blank wall. 
 
 All at once Sue became conscious that they 
 were the only dancers left, and that a hundred 
 or so eyes were fixed on them. 
 
 " Everybody's stopped," she said. " What 
 a pity ! " And she gave a slight preliminary 
 drag with foot and hand to bring him to a 
 standstill. 
 
 But young Fairchild was intoxicated with 
 the joy of dancing. He was a Southerner 
 and loved it for itself, and it was not often 
 that he had such a partner as Sue. 
 
 " Don't stop ! Don't stop ! " he pleaded 
 pantingly, holding her a trifle closer and 
 whirling her across the deck. " What does 
 it matter about the others ? This is heaven. 
 Don't break the spell. You're not tired ? " 
 
 "No, but " 
 
 * Never mind, then. This is our day, you
 
 128 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 understand. There's nobody here but us, 
 just you and me." 
 
 She caught the spirit of his enthusiasm, 
 smiled acquiescence at him, and they danced 
 on, till the music suddenly stopped. The 
 spell snapped with the music. Sue's momen- 
 tary exaltation vanished, giving place to a 
 wave of embarrassment. But there are vari- 
 ous sorts of embarrassment, and Sue's con- 
 tained no mixture of gaucherie. It was 
 merely a pretty confusion emphasized by a 
 lovely flush of color. 
 
 " Oh, but that was fine ! " sighed Fairchild, in 
 retrospective rapture, as he sat down beside Sue 
 on a flag-draped hatch and fanned himself with 
 his cap. " Will you dance every dance with me ? " 
 
 Sue laughed at him. 
 
 " I mean it," he said. " Why not ? " 
 
 " Manners," objected Sue. 
 
 " What are manners compared to the joy of 
 floating through ether like that?" 
 
 " Appearances too," said Sue. " They'd 
 have us engaged, if we danced together all the 
 afternoon."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 129 
 
 " Let's be engaged then," he suggested, on 
 a sudden impulse. 
 
 Sue laughed merrily. 
 
 " Too big a price to pay.'* 
 
 " Don't laugh it off. I'm really serious." 
 
 " So am I. Never more so." But she was 
 still laughing. 
 
 Just then one of the officers Mr. McMas- 
 ters had introduced came up and asked her 
 for a dance. She rose, Fairchild fancied, with 
 alacrity. 
 
 " I thought this was mine," he ventured. 
 
 " Not this one," she said, casting back "a 
 charming smile at him as she moved away. 
 
 The young man looked ruefully into his 
 cap. 
 
 " Now did I propose to her, and did she 
 refuse me ? " he asked himself. " Or was it 
 all a joke?"
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 SUE," Barbara called to her, as she was 
 passing by with her partner, " do you 
 mind if I tell about the arbutus ? " 
 Sue stopped and joined the little group. 
 " Mind ? No, indeed," she laughed good- 
 naturedly. " It's the most foolish little story," 
 she explained to the others, " but, for some 
 reason, Barbara thinks it's funny." 
 
 Barbara's eyes were twinkling with mischief. 
 
 " It was while I had Sue up home with 
 
 me," she began demurely, " that I found out 
 
 the chief ambition of her life was to see trailing 
 
 arbutus." 
 
 "Well, I'd read and heard so much about 
 it," Sue interpolated apologetically. 
 
 " It was early in the season," Barbara went 
 on, paying no attention to the interruption, 
 " but I was determined to gratify her if I 
 
 130
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 131 
 
 could. We hunted over the hillsides where 
 the snow had melted off. I knew all the good 
 places. And at last I found a patch. * Here 
 it is, Sue ! ' I shouted. f Where ? Where ? ' 
 cried Sue, gazing around in the treetops. 
 1 Here,' said I. I was down on my knees, 
 scratching away the brown leaf-mould with both 
 hands to show her the plant in all its glory." 
 
 " Glory ! " sniffed Sue, contemptuously. 
 
 " There were the thick green leaves. I 
 turned them back and showed her the blessed 
 little pink-and-white stars cuddled away under- 
 neath. You don't mean,' she gasped, ' that 
 that's trailing arbutus that poets write about 
 and all Easterners rave over ? that poor, mis- 
 erable, stunted, insignificant little weed ? ' 
 Tell them what you had expected, Sue," she 
 broke off suddenly. 
 
 " Why, of course I had expected something 
 magnificent," Sue explained, " something at 
 least as big as a peony and very stunning. . . . 
 What is there so funny about it ? " 
 
 Every one was laughing heartily. 
 
 " Now, isn't that deliciously in character ? "
 
 132 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 Barbara commented, with the proprietary pride 
 of an exhibitor of trained canaries. " Could 
 anything be more utterly Californian ? " 
 
 " The quantitative standard ! " Mr. Janvier 
 explained teasingly. " They're young, though. 
 Give 'em time. They haven't got through 
 marvelling yet at their own astonishing statis- 
 tics." 
 
 " During early infancy, it's always the bulk 
 of her offspring that the proud mother boasts 
 about," observed Barbara. " Distinction of 
 character is necessarily a later development." 
 
 " It's the superlative form that counts out 
 there," Mr. Janvier continued. " I remember 
 seeing a railroad extensively advertised as the 
 crookedest railroad in the world." 
 
 " But it's true," cried Sue, missing the point 
 in her eagerness to controvert a supposed 
 charge of exaggeration. " It is the crookedest 
 railroad in the world." 
 
 For a moment she looked nettled by the 
 renewed merriment that greeted her statement. 
 Then her face cleared charmingly. 
 
 " Jeer away ! " she cried, as her partner drew
 
 ** ' YOU SEE WE HAVE NOT DRAPED OUR SEATS WITH NATIONAL 
 FLAGS TO-DAY.' *'
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 133 
 
 her into the dance again. " You know you're 
 all jealous of California ! " 
 
 " You see we haven't draped our seats with 
 national flags to-day," said Mr. McMasters to 
 Mrs. Cartwright, after he had found a comfort- 
 able armchair for her, and she had settled her- 
 self among the red and white bunting that was 
 spread over it. 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright laughed. 
 
 " I don't suppose you'll ever forget that, 
 will you ? It was a joke on Elizabeth and 
 me," she explained, turning to Barbara, " which 
 these men found wonderfully amusing." 
 
 Mr. McMasters laughed reminiscently. 
 
 " I never shall forget Miss Elizabeth's face 
 when it dawned on her that she had to pull 
 all her elaborate decorations to pieces." 
 
 " Elizabeth was to have a little lawn-party," 
 Mrs. Cartwright continued to Barbara, " and 
 she asked somebody for the navy-yard flags. 
 It was when we were at Portsmouth. Her 
 father would never have loaned them to her, 
 but the other man thought it was all right." 
 
 " So it was," interpolated McMasters.
 
 134 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " Of course. And we worked all the after- 
 noon decorating with those flags, Elizabeth 
 and I and some of the girls." 
 
 "You may remember how scornfully you 
 declined our help." 
 
 " Why, yes, we wanted to do it all our- 
 selves." 
 
 "And you did." 
 
 "Well, it was pretty, wasn't it?" 
 
 " Indeed it was ! " 
 
 " Oh, we worked so hard ! We didn't just 
 hang a flag over everything in sight and call 
 it done, as these men do," and she waved her 
 hand around at the decorations. " We had 
 a color scheme and a drapery scheme." 
 
 " I should say you did ! " 
 
 " Well, what was the matter ? " prompted 
 Barbara. 
 
 " A mere trifle of naval etiquette we un- 
 wittingly offended against." 
 
 " Mere trifle! " cried Mr. McMasters. " If 
 you had plunged us into war with all the 
 world at once, would you have called it a 
 mere trifle ? Why, Miss Thornhill, they had
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 135 
 
 used the flags of all the nations to drape over 
 the benches that people were to sit on, and 
 had spread out one of them I won't say 
 which for a rug in the refreshment tent!" 
 
 " Was that so very dreadful ? " queried Bar- 
 bara, innocently. 
 
 " Dreadful ? It was unheard-of, atrocious, 
 unthinkable. The flags of other nations must 
 be treated with the same reverence as our own. 
 They must never touch the ground. They 
 must not be used for mere wrapping or deco- 
 ration. To lean against them, to sit on them, 
 and worst of all to step on them, is a 
 deadly insult." 
 
 " But we are sitting on flags at this mo- 
 ment," Barbara protested. 
 
 " Signal flags," said the young man. 
 
 " Well, my dear, we had toiled all that after- 
 noon, and we had just finished and had barely 
 time to go in and get dressed and eat a 
 hurried dinner before the arrival of the guests, 
 when along came some of these young men, 
 asking if they might see our handiwork. And 
 we were so proud of it that we let them."
 
 136 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " And a good thing you did ! " 
 
 " One chorus of excited shouts went up 
 from them. f Why, you can't do this ! 
 You've got to take it all down ! ' They 
 made such a ridiculous fuss that we didn't 
 believe them at all. We thought they were 
 just envious because they hadn't had a hand 
 in it. Elizabeth ran into the house to get 
 her father. ... I wish you could have seen 
 him." 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright paused impressively. Mr. 
 McMasters chuckled. 
 
 " He wasn't excited, was he ? " asked Bar- 
 bara, incredulously. 
 
 " He didn't jump up and down and tear 
 his hair, if that's what you mean. He came 
 out smoking that brierwood pipe of his. He 
 puffed at it for several minutes in absolute 
 silence, while he looked around. We thought 
 he was admiring it all. Then he took out his 
 watch and glanced at it. ' I'll give you fif- 
 teen minutes to take everything down,' he said. 
 . . . That was all." 
 
 The way in which Mrs. Cartwright talked
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 137 
 
 of Elizabeth was a source of constant surprise 
 to Barbara. There was no suggestion of death. 
 Elizabeth might have been in the next room. 
 Barbara herself found it almost impossible to 
 speak of her friend. Something caught in 
 her throat when she tried to pronounce Eliza- 
 beth's name. But Mrs. Cartwright talked of 
 her quite naturally, without hush of voice or 
 solemnity of manner. It was evident that she 
 did not propose to let her daughter drop out 
 of her life merely because she had passed out 
 of sight and hearing. Festal occasions seemed 
 more apt to bring up her name than serious 
 ones. It was as if the mother wished the 
 absent child, in some mysterious spiritual 
 fashion, to share the family pleasures, as if, 
 perhaps, without this inclusion, to take part 
 in them herself would be a disloyalty. 
 
 " It is beautiful," thought Barbara, " but I 
 don't see how she does it." 
 
 J sic sfe *** Jfe it 
 
 The dinner in the wardroom was as much 
 of a novelty to the girls as the dance on deck 
 had been. The long table was banked with
 
 138 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 flowers. Table linen, glass, and crockery were 
 decorated with the anchor of the navy, and 
 a few pieces borrowed from the cabin bore 
 the eagle of the nation as well. There were 
 several other feminine guests and one man in 
 civilian's clothes, who looked positively odd 
 among the uniformed officers. The strangest 
 sight to Barbara, the noiseless white-gowned, 
 black-capped, long-queued Chinese servants 
 who waited on them, looked familiar enough 
 to Sue, except that in California they twist 
 their queues around their heads and wait on 
 their employers bareheaded, while these men, 
 shipped in China, would never have dreamed 
 of such a breach of etiquette. 
 
 The talk at the table was of many things 
 and many places. It jumped lightly from 
 Haiti to Samoa, and from an audience with 
 Li Hung Chang to an interview with a rebel 
 general in a seething South American repub- 
 lic. The anecdotes had a combined flavor of 
 salt and saltpeter that tickled the palates of 
 the guests with a sense of the unaccustomed 
 and the picturesque.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 139 
 
 "What a life!" sighed Sue. "Is there 
 anything you haven't seen and done?" 
 
 " A great many things," said Mr. Mc- 
 Masters. " Your life would be as novel and 
 full of interest to us as ours could be to 
 you, your life at a woman's college, or on 
 your brother's ranch in Southern California, 
 or studying nursing at a hospital, or keeping 
 house for your other brother in a Nevada 
 mining camp." 
 
 " How in the world did you know all those 
 things about me?" she asked curiously. "It's 
 almost a biography." 
 
 " From Mrs. Cartwright and Miss Thorn- 
 hill." 
 
 " I didn't know they were such gossips." 
 
 " You're not annoyed, are you ? " He was 
 very grave, almost apologetic. 
 
 " Oh, no, indeed ! " she laughed. " But you 
 must have been very hard up for something to 
 talk about."
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE Cartwrights spent the summer at 
 a mountain resort, selected for the 
 two considerations of healthfulness for 
 Wriggles and inexpensiveness for themselves. 
 The Captain made a certain pretence of 
 trout-fishing, but after one or two unproduc- 
 tive rambles with rod and reel and flies, he 
 announced that the sport was not what it 
 used to be and that he was getting too old 
 for it. Mrs. Cartwright understood quite 
 well that her husband's trouble was not old 
 age, nor even the depression due to idleness 
 and official neglect, but the want of Eliza- 
 beth, who had been for years his companion 
 on his fishing trips. She kept her diagnosis 
 to herself, however, and merely proposed 
 accompanying the Captain on his next excur- 
 sion. He had not intended making another, 
 
 but acquiesced from politeness. 
 
 140
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 141 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright donned a short skirt and 
 a pair of heavy boots and supplied herself 
 with a rod and reel and a can of grasshoppers. 
 She scorned flies. Her success in catching 
 trout put her husband on his mettle, and 
 although he would not abandon his flies, he 
 also made a very fair showing. When it was 
 lunch time, they built a fire, cleaned their fish, 
 and cooked them on hot stones. Then, draw- 
 ing forth sandwiches and a small bottle of 
 claret from the Captain's capacious pockets, 
 they sat down to the most delightful repast 
 they had enjoyed for years. 
 
 The stream in which they had been fish- 
 ing gurgled and rippled along among the 
 boulders at their feet. A slight breeze stirred 
 the leaves over their heads, which shut out 
 the hot noonday sun and veiled the glowing 
 sky. The temperature was delicious, warm 
 enough to relax, not hot enough to enervate. 
 Bright-eyed chipmunks whisked around their 
 feet, fearlessly eating the crumbs that were 
 thrown them. Now and then they heard the 
 flutter of a bird's wings. Myriads of worthy,
 
 142 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 hard-working little ants swarmed through the 
 grass and up the tree trunks. 
 
 When luncheon was over, the Captain 
 pressed the tobacco into the bowl of his pipe 
 and looked around serenely. 
 
 " After all, it's still good to be alive, madam, 
 if we are growing old," he said. 
 
 " It is admirably good to be alive," she 
 agreed, " and we are not growing old unless 
 we insist on having it so." 
 
 He patted his temples and shook his head. 
 His hair was almost white, although his 
 moustache still retained a portion of its dark 
 coloring. The effect of the combination was 
 striking, and was heightened by the light gray 
 suits and' gray crush hats that he habitually wore. 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright was extremely proud of 
 her husband's good looks and thoroughly 
 enjoyed the admiration he excited among the 
 matrons and spinsters of the hotel piazza. 
 
 " You ought to be consumed with jealousy, 
 Mrs. Cartwright," one of them said to her 
 coyly, " for we are all madly in love with 
 your husband."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 143 
 
 " Oh, I'm quite used to that ! " laughed 
 Mrs. Cartwright. " You're not the first, and 
 you won't be the last. But nothing could 
 please me more." 
 
 "He has the most wonderful eyes," ex- 
 claimed an unmarried lady of angular outline, 
 looking up from a bit of embroidery in a 
 frame. " They seem to give out sparks, and 
 they look into one's very soul. It's like a 
 flash of lightning when one meets them." 
 
 " It's his voice that chiefly appeals to me," 
 said a buxom widow, crocheting in the larg- 
 est and most comfortable rocker. " It's so 
 sympathetic. It gives a deeply personal sig- 
 nificance to the most trivial remark." 
 
 "And then he's so dignified," chirped a 
 tiny mite of a hunchback. " The habit of 
 command clothes him like a mantle." 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright, in high glee, could not 
 refrain from repeating these things to her 
 husband, who was so much bored that he 
 went in and out of the hotel by the back door 
 for a week and confined his social attentions 
 thereafter to the men in the smoking room.
 
 144 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 The ladies on the porch, talking over his 
 defection, decided that Mrs. Cartwright was 
 really jealous and that the poor man was 
 avoiding them to preserve the peace. 
 
 When the summer was over, the Cart- 
 wrights returned to Gramercy Park and re- 
 sumed the wearisome occupation of waiting. 
 The Captain kept himself factitiously busy 
 by writing a paper for the Naval Institute 
 on eighteenth-century sea-fights between the 
 French and English. It required a good 
 deal of reading and gave him an object in 
 spending his mornings at the library. 
 
 He had long since stopped making appli- 
 cations for duty. An officer in the Bureau 
 of Detail wrote him a confidential letter, advis- 
 ing him to wait for a change in the adminis- 
 tration, since, although he did not understand 
 its exact source or nature, there was evidently 
 some powerful influence at work against the 
 Captain, preventing for the present his assign- 
 ment to duty. 
 
 Before the presidential election in the fall 
 Mrs. Cartwright wasted much good energy in
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 145 
 
 trying to persuade her husband that he ought 
 to vote the Republican ticket. However 
 unimpressionable to her arguments he had 
 seemed before, she returned each time to the 
 attack with renewed confidence, unable, appar- 
 ently, to understand how entirely it was a 
 matter of sentiment with him and how little 
 logic had power to sway him. 
 
 " Are you so quixotic as not to hope there 
 will be a change in the administration ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " For personal reasons I hope there will be 
 a change, yes, certainly." 
 
 "Why not vote, then, for the side you 
 hope will win ? " 
 
 " One has no right to vote for a President 
 of the United States for personal reasons. I 
 am a Democrat by birth, bringing up, and 
 present conviction, and I shall, as usual, vote 
 the Democratic ticket." 
 
 " Do you really think the country would 
 suffer from the election of a Republican ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " You are too absurd, dear. You know
 
 146 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 your allegiance to the party isn't the result 
 of deep thought. It's just an inherited loy- 
 alty, like your feeling for the Congrega- 
 tional Church. The party principles have 
 changed fifty times since your father became 
 a Democrat. You know you don't believe 
 in free silver, and you regard the present can- 
 didate of your party as a demagogue." 
 
 " My dear madam, he is a demagogue, and 
 free silver is rank insanity, and if I had no 
 personal interest at stake I might be a bolter 
 this time. But under the circumstances " 
 
 " At least you can stay away from the 
 polls." 
 
 " No, I shall vote the Democratic ticket 
 as usual," he replied. And he did. 
 
 The evening of election day, as Captain 
 and Mrs. Cartwright stood among the throng 
 in Herald Square watching for the returns, 
 he did not rebuke her enthusiasm over every 
 Republican plurality that was posted, but he 
 himself said nothing till the election was 
 decided. Then he murmured a fervent, if 
 inconsistent, " Thank God ! "
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 147 
 
 His wife laughed happily and pressed his 
 arm. 
 
 " You see my vote didn't decide it, after 
 all," he bantered. 
 
 " So you think you've saved your cake and 
 credit too ? " she jeered. But she was too 
 happy to insist. 
 
 On the 5th of March Captain Cartwright 
 sent in an application for the command of 
 the Idaho, and received his orders to her by 
 return mail.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE Idaho was a new battle ship shortly 
 to be put into commission at the 
 Norfolk navy yard. Captain Cart- 
 wright was delighted with her. He personally 
 superintended the finishing touches of her 
 equipment, suggesting improvements here and 
 there, watching over each detail lovingly. He 
 had not paraded his depression during those 
 weary months of waiting, and the joy of a 
 man in the fifties does not bubble over ex- 
 pansively, but it pervaded every fiber of his 
 being. His wife, who was a close observer, 
 heard it in every tone of his voice and saw 
 it in every act and gesture. 
 
 "It was all very fine, rising superior to un- 
 deserved misfortune and resting serene in the 
 consciousness of virtue, but it's rather nice to 
 
 be appreciated again, isn't it ? " she said. 
 
 148
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 149 
 
 " I might get along without the appre- 
 ciation," he commented smilingly, " but 
 not without the ship. After all, it's my 
 life." 
 
 Wriggles had his own sources of pride at 
 this happy period, for he was fitted out with 
 a strictly regulation sailor suit. The world 
 was almost too small to hold him when he 
 first saw himself in long trousers, laced at 
 the back and nautically flaring at the ankles, 
 a blue shirt with white-braided collar and 
 wristbands, and such fascinating accessories 
 as a lanyard and boatswain's whistle. The 
 ship-ribbon on his cap bore the name of the 
 U. S. S. Idaho. He had been carefully kept 
 from the knowledge that his clustering curls 
 might in some quarters be regarded as effemi- 
 nate. He seriously regarded himself as one 
 of the sailors of his grandfather's ship and 
 fraternized with the rest of them whenever 
 opportunity offered. 
 
 "He would be ruined if this lasted long," 
 observed his grandmother, " but it's only 
 for a few weeks. We shan't be following
 
 150 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 after you from port to port, as I used to do 
 when Elizabeth was little." 
 
 " I wish you would," her husband said, 
 smiling with affectionate reminiscence. " It 
 was very delightful to find my wife and child 
 in every port. But I think you've earned 
 the right to take life a little more easily now." 
 
 "Yes, my ship-following days are over. It 
 was a hard life. But we had a good time, 
 didn't we ? " 
 
 " Indeed we did," he agreed heartily, then 
 added, with a twinkle in his eye, "And you 
 don't know the bow of a ship from the stern 
 yet, do you ? " 
 
 " Not I," she replied. 
 
 " Wonderful ! " he mused, with real pride. 
 "How could you keep it up?" 
 
 Years ago, thirty and more, when the cap- 
 tains of men-of-war and the admirals in com- 
 mand of squadrons were allowed to have their 
 families live on board ship with them, there 
 flourished a masterful set of navy women of 
 the Old Campaigner breed. They knew the 
 name of every part of the ship, knew the de-
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 151 
 
 tails of the work going on aboard, called every 
 officer in the service by his nickname, gave 
 advice, interfered in matters of detail and dis- 
 cipline, and even occasionally, it is said, issued 
 orders to the officer of the deck and called 
 for " my gig " or " my barge." Rank was 
 the one thing they reverenced, and they ob- 
 served it among themselves and exacted its 
 observance from others with rigid formality. 
 As a protest against this unlovely type, a 
 coterie of younger women arose who went to 
 the other extreme and affected an ignorance 
 about ships and everything pertaining to them 
 that seemed at times too complete to be pos- 
 sible. If they were obliged to refer to the 
 parts of a ship at all, they made a point of 
 speaking of the front and back, the right side 
 and the left. They spoke of going upstairs 
 and downstairs, of floors and ceilings, called 
 the masts the front one, the back one, and 
 the one in the middle, and described the yards 
 as " those sticks going across." As to rank, 
 they were so utterly unconscious of its exist- 
 ence that they spoke of their husbands as
 
 152 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 "mister" even when they were commodores 
 and admirals. Yet, human nature not being 
 altogether consistent, a look of real annoyance 
 was sometimes discernible on the faces of these 
 good ladies when some poor ignorant outsider 
 of a civilian would innocently copy their man- 
 ner of speech and call the admiral or the com- 
 modore " mister." 
 
 With the present generation the pendulum 
 is swinging back to the center, and the attitude 
 of the younger women toward their husbands' 
 profession is much more simple and natural. 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright, however, had started out 
 with the ultra-conservative feminists, and she 
 and her husband were loyal to the traditions 
 of their youth. 
 
 When everything was at last complete on 
 the Idaho, and officers and men were installed 
 aboard, they made a few preliminary trips to 
 test their engines, and then, somewhat to their 
 disgust, received orders to take part in the 
 patrol of the Florida coast, to prevent filibus- 
 tering expeditions from getting over to Cuba. 
 It was understood that the assignment was only
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 153 
 
 temporary, for the Department was loath to 
 employ anything so expensive as a battle ship 
 on duty that could be better done by a light- 
 draft gunboat. But the Springfield had broken 
 her craft-shank and must go into dry-dock, 
 and there was no other gunboat available to 
 take her place. Yet her place must be filled, 
 convenient or not, for any reduction of the 
 patrolling fleet would be sure to be misunder- 
 stood by Spain, who was at best inclined to be 
 sceptical of the good faith of our government 
 in repressing the ebullient sympathies of its 
 citizens. 
 
 " Rather unpleasant duty for such a pro- 
 Cuban as you, Captain," said a civilian acquaint- 
 ance at the club. 
 
 " He's not so much pro-Cuban as anti- 
 Spanish," broke in another man, who knew 
 him better. 
 
 " My personal sympathies have nothing to 
 do with the case," said the Captain, rather 
 sternly. " My duty is perfectly clear. I have 
 simply to obey orders." 
 
 " I suppose you'll look the other way when
 
 154 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 you think it needful, though," said the first 
 speaker, with an attempt at slyness. 
 
 "Sir," thundered the Captain, "you are 
 insulting ! " 
 
 " Oh, come," protested the young man, 
 deprecatingly doubtful whether the Captain 
 was joking or in earnest. 
 
 " Do you accuse the government of bad faith 
 in its dealings with a friendly power? Do you 
 accuse the Navy Department of trickery ? Do 
 you accuse me of going down there to play a 
 part in a farce comedy ? My orders are to use 
 the utmost diligence to prevent the escape of any 
 filibustering expeditions from the district under 
 my surveillance, and, by God, I'll use it! " 
 
 " I meant no offence," the other explained, 
 somewhat bewildered. " I thought it was an 
 understood thing that the patrol was for polite- 
 ness, not for business." 
 
 " It's not so understood by me y " returned 
 the Captain, gruffly. 
 
 " Would you really sink a vessel full of 
 good Americans just to please the Dons ? " 
 asked the man who had been listening.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 155 
 
 "Not to please anybody, but to obey my 
 orders and to keep the faith of the nation, 
 yes, if it were necessary." 
 
 He tossed aside his magazine as he spoke 
 and left the room. 
 
 " By George, I believe he'd do it ! " said the 
 second man. 
 
 " He'll get himself into trouble if he tries 
 it," muttered the first.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE coast of Florida was divided for 
 the purposes of the patrol into three 
 districts, of which the southernmost, 
 extending around the bend and a little way up 
 both sides, fell to the lot of the Idaho. 
 
 It was weary work, the Captain wrote his 
 wife, with all the discomforts of war and none 
 of the glory. They had to encounter the same 
 difficulties in getting coal, provisions, and mails 
 as a ship on blockade. They had to face the 
 same monotony, the same necessity for cease- 
 less vigilance, for watching night and day, 
 night after night, day after day, week in and 
 week out, with never the reward of a blockade- 
 runner to chase. 
 
 To be sure there were occasional conferences 
 with secret service men and information given 
 
 of intended expeditions. But though the 
 
 156
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 157 
 
 Idaho was always on hand at the appointed 
 time and place, the filibusters never material- 
 ized. Either the suspicions of the secret ser- 
 vice men were unfounded, or the filibusters 
 had a sufficiently well organized information 
 bureau of their own to be always warned of 
 the Idaho's approach. Time and time again 
 the little comedy was played with no tangible 
 results except the expenditure of large quanti- 
 ties of government coal. At least, however, 
 no filibustering expeditions escaped them. If 
 they caught none, it was because there were 
 none to catch. 
 
 As the long hot summer wore to an end, the 
 ordeal began to tell on the health and spirits 
 of all on board. They suffered from lack of 
 fresh provisions, lack of exercise, and lack of 
 variety, and from an excess of watching, waiting, 
 and sweltering. Livers and kidneys grew tor- 
 pid. Nerves became irritable. Letters were 
 tinged with homesickness. But through it all 
 no one saw any variation in the Captain's pa- 
 tient, vigilant, cheerful self-control. Early and 
 late, morning, noon and night, yesterday, to-
 
 158 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 day, and to-morrow, he was always the same, 
 kindly, considerate, courteous toward the well- 
 intentioned, uncompromisingly severe toward 
 shirks and pretenders. They loved him in 
 wardroom and steerage and forecastle, all but 
 those few to whom he had shown the hard side 
 of his nature. 
 
 At last, after so many cries of wolf, the 
 animal really came. 
 
 The secret service men gave notice that a 
 schooner named Bell Buoy would run into 
 a bay on the east coast a swampy, desolate 
 place, twenty miles from a post office and fifty 
 from a telegraph line on or about a certain 
 date, to take aboard a party of filibusters and a 
 cargo of arms and ammunition. 
 
 Now this was a situation requiring delicate 
 handling. Captain Cartwright revolved the cir- 
 cumstances very carefully in his mind. If he 
 intercepted the Bell Buoy before she reached 
 her destination, she would have nothing in- 
 criminating aboard, and he could not hold her. 
 He could not lie off the coast and watch till 
 she came out, for obviously if he could see the
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 159 
 
 Bell Buoy the Bell Buoy could see the Idaho 
 and would not put to sea. On the other hand 
 he had no means of knowing in what direction 
 or at what time the schooner would sail, and if 
 he kept out of sight he might miss her alto- 
 gether. He could afford, however, to give her 
 a considerable start and still be sure of catching 
 her, for although she was known to be a fast 
 sailer, she could hardly be a match for a sev- 
 enteen-knot battle ship. 
 
 These being the conditions of the problem, 
 the Captain soon worked out a solution. He 
 so timed his arrival off the entrance of the bay 
 that if the Bell Buoy carried out the plans 
 stated by the Treasury men, she would be in- 
 side taking on her cargo. He kept far enough 
 offshore to be out of sight, for he felt sure that 
 if the filibusters were there, they would maintain 
 a lookout. 
 
 Just at sunset the navigator, with an ensign 
 and a dozen men, climbed down the ladder into 
 the steam-launch and set out for shore. They 
 carried no lights and calculated to make the 
 coast several miles south of the harbor. Their
 
 i6o THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 finding the ship again was to be a matter of 
 accurate steering, as it was impossible for the 
 Idaho to make any signals serviceable to the 
 launch which would not also betray her pres- 
 ence to the filibusters. 
 
 An eighteen-mile trip on the open sea in a 
 little steam-launch is not the most delightful 
 thing in the world, but that was merely an 
 incident. They made the coast and steamed 
 north along it, carefully inspecting its configu- 
 ration by the starlight and the waning moon. 
 They crossed the entrance to the bay while the 
 moon was under a cloud. A little to the north 
 they landed the ensign and a quartermaster, 
 with instructions to find out whether the Bell 
 Buoy was inside or not, and to report at the 
 same spot as soon as it was dark the following 
 evening. The two scouts were given twenty- 
 four hours' rations of a sort that required no 
 cooking, and the launch proceeded up the 
 coast. A spit of land, densely wooded, run- 
 ning well out into the sea a couple of miles 
 north, proved to be just what they were in 
 search of, as it commanded a good view of the
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 161 
 
 harbor entrance and at the same time gave 
 them a chance to hide the steam-launch and 
 themselves before daybreak. 
 
 It must be remembered that it was not the 
 first time, but the fifth or sixth, that they had 
 done this sort of thing in the past three months, 
 and that they had no reason to suppose the 
 last report any more authentic than the others. 
 
 The next night, on calling for the scouts, 
 they learned, to their great surprise, that they 
 had at last treed their game. A schooner in 
 every way answering the description of the 
 Bell Buoy was lying concealed up a creek, and 
 there were evidences of great and abnormal 
 activity around her. 
 
 Once more they returned to the point where 
 they had spent the previous day, landed a 
 petty officer, a couple of men, and some sup- 
 plies, and then started with all speed for the 
 ship. They spent several hours searching for 
 her, but at last made her out and got aboard 
 soon after sunrise, to the great relief of the Cap- 
 tain, who was anxiously awaiting their report. 
 
 During the day the launch was stocked with 
 
 M
 
 162 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 a week's provisions, and at dusk- set out once 
 more for shore, heading toward the spit where 
 the others had been left behind to keep watch. 
 Here they hid the launch behind the mangrove 
 bushes, made a camp, and settled down to 
 keeping a day-and-night watch for the coming 
 out of the Bell Buoy. 
 
 The officer put in charge of the expedi- 
 tion was Mr. Ferris, who had recently been 
 detached from the Brooklyn navy yard and 
 ordered to the Idaho. The Captain's reasons 
 for selecting him were set forth very lucidly 
 in his daily letter to his wife, a letter fast 
 assuming the proportions of a journal, it had 
 been so long since there had been a chance 
 to send mail. It is not always wise for a 
 man to explain his reasons to his wife, but 
 Captain Cartwright knew by long experience 
 that the discretion of his could be trusted. 
 
 " Ferris is not brilliant," he wrote, " but 
 he has the faithfulness and the pugnacity of 
 a bulldog. He will never relax his watch 
 on that harbor entrance, and when the Bell 
 Buoy comes out, nothing in heaven or hell
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 163 
 
 certainly no condition of wind or water 
 will keep him from coming to tell me of 
 it." 
 
 It turned out even so. Four days later, 
 on a bleak, windy morning, with a choppy 
 sea running, a puff of smoke was detected 
 rising out of the hollow of the waves. 
 
 " The officer of the deck reports the 
 steam-launch returning to the ship, sir," 
 said the orderly, with a properly wooden 
 salute. 
 
 Captain Cartwright picked up his cap and 
 sauntered out on deck, concealing the anxiety 
 he felt for the frail craft laboring in the 
 trough of the sea. 
 
 " Run down as close as you can to her," 
 he said to the officer of the deck, "and tell 
 the chief engineer to spread his fires. We 
 are probably in for a chase." 
 
 The disproportionate cloud of fierce black 
 smoke from the steam-launch betrayed the 
 violent efforts made to force her speed, yet 
 her progress was very slow. Through the 
 glasses levelled on her it was presently seen
 
 1 64 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 that all hands were busy bailing. She was 
 tossing about like a cork. It seemed a 
 miracle that she was not swamped. 
 
 As soon as they could make out the tones 
 of his powerful voice shouting through a 
 megaphone, Mr. Ferris delivered himself of 
 his information. 
 
 "She got out of the harbor at 6.15 this 
 morning and headed to the southward. Bet- 
 ter not stop to pick us up. You might 
 miss her. We're all right." 
 
 But the Captain did stop to pick them 
 up, no easy feat with the sea that was 
 running, as there was great danger of the 
 launch being crushed against the side of the 
 rolling battle ship. It was safely accomplished, 
 however, and the drenched, exhausted, shiv- 
 ering men who were hoisted on board were 
 served four fingers of rum apiece by the 
 doctor's orders. 
 
 " Ferris," said a young officer, who had 
 been securing the launch in her cradle, 
 " what in the name of common sense pos- 
 sessed you to tell the skipper to leave you
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 165 
 
 behind ? You hadn't half enough coal to 
 get you back to shore." 
 
 " I know," said Ferris, apologetically, " but 
 we could have rigged a sea-anchor to keep 
 her head to the wind, and sooner or later 
 something would have come along and 
 picked us up." 
 
 In the course of time this story reached 
 the Captain's ears. 
 
 "Heroism and idiocy are singularly alike 
 at times," he said ; but his manner to young 
 Ferris was notably kindly thereafter.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 AS soon as the launch and its occu- 
 pants were taken on board, the 
 Idaho was headed to intercept the 
 Bell Buoy. Lookouts were stationed at 
 the mastheads. Down below fires were 
 being cleaned of ashes, fed with coal, and 
 roused to fury by the fierce wind storm of 
 forced draught. 
 
 The Idaho had been running at ever 
 increasing speed for a couple of hours when 
 a sailing vessel was reported hull down half 
 a point on the port bow. All hands gath- 
 ered on deck to watch the chase. After the 
 monotony of three months' waiting, it of- 
 fered them a welcome bit of excitement. 
 And so deep is the spirit of the hunt im- 
 planted in the breast of man that even the 
 most ardent Cuban sympathizers grew exult- 
 
 166
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 167 
 
 ant as the hull of the flying vessel came in 
 sight and gradually increased in size. 
 
 The Bell Buoy (for it soon proved to be 
 she) was making an excellent showing, run- 
 ning wing and wing before the wind with 
 every stitch of canvas crowded on. But the 
 odds were too uneven. Slowly, but surely, 
 creeping up as relentlessly as fate, the big 
 battle ship was gaining on her. 
 
 Although there were a score of glasses 
 levelled at the schooner, it was the Captain 
 who first exclaimed, 
 
 " They're throwing it all overboard ! " 
 
 The deck of the Bell Buoy was swarming 
 with men staggering under the weight of 
 apparently very heavy boxes, several men 
 to a box, which were being whipped up 
 from below and thrown into the sea. 
 
 "Arms and ammunition all going by the 
 board," observed the Captain. " They are 
 getting rid of incriminating evidence. But 
 there are several of us here to swear to the 
 fact. They ought to have begun earlier." 
 
 He watched the schooner in silence a few
 
 i68 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 minutes, then gave the order, " Signal them 
 to heave to." 
 
 The flags were strung up at the masthead, 
 but no attention was paid to them. 
 
 " There's a fog coming up, I think, Cap- 
 tain," suggested the navigator. 
 
 The Captain nodded. 
 
 " If we don't get them pretty soon, we'll 
 lose them altogether, and that fellow knows 
 it as well as we do. Fire a blank car- 
 tridge." 
 
 There was a puff of smoke, a flash of fire, a 
 noisy peal, and then nothing. The Bell 
 Buoy still sped on her way. The fog was roll- 
 ing down on them, thick and white. A few 
 minutes more and the schooner would be out 
 of sight. 
 
 " Drop a shell ahead of her," said the Cap- 
 tain, suddenly. 
 
 Again the puflf and flash and roar, and this 
 time a projectile ripped the air and splashed 
 into the water a hundred yards beyond the 
 schooner. 
 
 " That will bring our friend to reason, I
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 169 
 
 think," remarked the Captain. But the Bell 
 Buoy showed no sign of heaving to. 
 
 " That fellow has nerve," muttered the 
 Captain. 
 
 He glanced again at the thickening fog. 
 
 "You can fire to hit this time," he said 
 presently. 
 
 The shot struck home. So much was cer- 
 tain. But the Bell Buoy was enveloped in such 
 a cloud of smoke that it was impossible to tell 
 at first how much damage had been done. 
 
 As the smoke cleared away the schooner's 
 taffrail was seen to be under water and her 
 bow well up in the air. Her crew were cut- 
 ting away the sails and crowding forward and 
 up into the rigging. She was evidently sink- 
 ing rapidly. 
 
 " Stand by to lower your starboard boats," 
 said the Captain to the first lieutenant. " Star- 
 board ! " he directed the man at the wheel. 
 
 " Starboard, sir," the quartermaster echoed. 
 Then in a moment, " Hard a starboard, sir." 
 
 The Captain rang one bell for the engine to 
 slow down, and presently two to stop. The
 
 170 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 Idaho swung around till she headed to the 
 east, and the starboard boats were lowered in 
 the lee of the ship and put off for the sinking 
 schooner. As soon as they had gotten away, 
 the Idaho was started ahead again, her helm 
 ported, and she came up to leeward of the Bell 
 Buoy, so that the returning boats, heavily laden 
 with men, should not have to struggle back 
 against the wind. 
 
 It was a very motley collection of Cuban 
 patriots and American adventurers, nearly a 
 hundred strong, who were finally rounded up 
 on the deck of the Idaho. For the moment 
 they had been frightened into something re- 
 sembling meekness and were actually grateful 
 for being rescued, in some instances almost 
 abjectly so. But as soon as dry clothes had 
 been served out to them from the ship's stores 
 and a good hot meal from the galley, they 
 began to bluster and talk about recovering 
 damages from the government. One man 
 became so abusive that he had to be put in 
 irons, but most of them merely muttered. 
 
 Captain Cartwright was very anxious to
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 171 
 
 patch up the hull of his prize and tow her 
 into port, but her injuries proved to be be- 
 yond repair, and she had to be abandoned. 
 No incriminating evidence was found aboard 
 her, although the hold was too full of water 
 to admit of thorough exploration. She went 
 down a few minutes after the prize-crew left 
 her, and the Idaho proceeded to Key West. 
 
 As soon as he arrived there, Captain Cart- 
 wright turned over his prisoners to the civil 
 authorities and telegraphed to Washington an 
 account of what he had done. 
 
 Then the reporters came down on him. 
 
 Now it has already been intimated that Cap- 
 tain Cartwright did not like reporters. He 
 had no objection to editors or staff writers. 
 He numbered several among his personal 
 friends. But for reporters he cherished an 
 extreme aversion. His wife had been trying 
 for years to convince him that there were 
 various sorts of reporters and that he ought 
 to discriminate between them. But his con- 
 ception of the type was rigid. It included 
 glibness, brazenness, vulgarity, prying curi-
 
 172 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 osity, a ghoulish lust for the unpleasant, a 
 willingness to invade the most sacred priva- 
 cies, a disregard of truth, a disregard of de- 
 cency, and a complete lack of reverence for 
 things that ought to be revered. In a word, 
 it represented to him the incarnation of enter- 
 prising flippancy. 
 
 To the first newspaper man who came on 
 board at Key West, the Captain accorded a brief 
 audience, in which he communicated the bare 
 facts of the chase and sinking of the Bell Buoy. 
 
 " That is all I have to say," he added, 
 pushing back his chair and rising in a man- 
 ner which left no alternative, even to a re- 
 porter, but to rise too. 
 
 " But, Captain, what is going to be done 
 with these men now ? " 
 
 " I know nothing about that. It rests with 
 the courts." 
 
 "Will they all be tried or only the leaders?" 
 
 " I have just told you that I know noth- 
 ing about it." 
 
 " How did you learn about this alleged em- 
 barkation of arms and men in the first place ? "
 
 cc 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 173 
 That is something I prefer not to dis- 
 
 cuss." 
 
 (C 
 
 Have you any positive proof that they 
 were breaking the laws ? " 
 
 " I shall say what I know on that subject 
 when I am called as a witness to testify in 
 court." 
 
 " If you can't prove that they were fili- 
 bustering, will the government have to pay 
 damages for the sinking of the ship ? " 
 
 " I haven't considered that question." 
 
 " I should like to have a few details 
 about " 
 
 " No, sir. I think I've already told you 
 that I have nothing more to say." 
 
 "In that case I suppose I may as well bid 
 you good morning, Captain." 
 
 " Why, yes, I think so," he agreed. " Good 
 morning." 
 
 "The old man's a regular Turk," the re- 
 porter confided to another representative of 
 the press, whom he met coming aboard. 
 
 " That so ? " said the other, jauntily. " Oh, 
 I'll manage him all right."
 
 174 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " Wish you joy of him," muttered the 
 first. 
 
 The second young man, being warned, 
 adopted a conciliatory and somewhat oleagi- 
 nous manner that was peculiarly annoying to 
 the Captain, who dismissed him even more 
 brusquely than his predecessor. 
 
 After that he gave orders that no reporters 
 were to be allowed on board the ship under 
 any pretext. He had his clerk prepare a 
 brief type-written account of the event, which 
 he directed to be shown at the gangway to 
 every reporter who came for news. 
 
 Balked in their attempt to get the story of 
 the Idaho's adventure from her commander, 
 or even from the officers and crew unless 
 they lay in wait for them ashore, the reporters 
 naturally turned for picturesque details to the 
 members of the late filibustering expedition, 
 who supplied them plentifully. Time hung 
 heavy on their hands in the Key West jail, 
 and they were glad to talk, glad also of the 
 opportunity to pose as martyrs and air their 
 grievances.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 175 
 
 Thus it came about that Captain Cartwright 
 awoke one morning to find himself pilloried 
 for public obloquy in every newspaper of the 
 country. He was called a " gold-laced marti- 
 net," a " cold-blooded brute," a " quarter-deck 
 tyrant," a " would-be murderer," and it was 
 even intimated by one particularly yellow sheet 
 that he was in the pay of Spain ! 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright's indignation knew no 
 bounds. She could not understand her hus- 
 band's perfect equanimity. She would have 
 liked to sue the whole American press for 
 libel. 
 
 "There are some sources," he wrote her, 
 " from which abuse is more flattering than 
 praise. As long as my conscience is easy and 
 the Department approves my action, nothing 
 else concerns me." 
 
 " I know you've been snubbing reporters 
 again," she wrote, " and they are retaliating." 
 
 "Very likely," he replied, but showed no 
 further interest in the matter. 
 
 What laid the last straw on Mrs. Cart- 
 wright's exasperation was the fact that an-
 
 176 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 other naval officer, Commander Morrow of 
 the Springfield, had been lauded to the skies 
 a few months before for catching a filibuster 
 and had been written up in all the news- 
 papers as the hero of a brilliant exploit. 
 But Commander Morrow had an undiffer- 
 entiating social nature. He regarded his 
 fellow-men primarily as an audience for his 
 humorous stories, and classed them according 
 to the degree of appreciation they exhibited. 
 After spending several months watching for 
 filibusters, and having told his whole series 
 of anecdotes to his officers so often that their 
 laughter had become perfunctory, he keenly 
 enjoyed the calls of the reporters. He gave 
 them cigars and something to drink and asked 
 them to come again. At parting, he laid his 
 hands on their shoulders and confided to 
 them in an undertone, trusting to them as 
 men of honor not to repeat it, some trivial 
 matter that might with perfect impunity have 
 been shouted from the house-tops. By this 
 simple device, he won their undying grati- 
 tude and harmed no one.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 177 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright was ready enough to laugh 
 at the celebrity Commander Morrow had ac- 
 quired and the incense burned at his feet by 
 admiring reporters. But she could not help 
 resenting the radical difference in the way her 
 husband was being treated. 
 
 " The poor dear Captain ! " wrote Sue 
 from California. " I shall never believe any- 
 thing I read in a newspaper again. It is too 
 outrageous." 
 
 "The truly elect have been reviled by the 
 populace from the beginning of the world," 
 wrote Barbara. " Don't let it worry you, 
 dear Mrs. Cartwright. Our Captain 's in 
 excellent company."
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE blood of the Forty-niners is a 
 legacy of unrest which keeps all 
 good Californians on the move. 
 After she got back from the East, Sue spent 
 a month or so in San Francisco, a month or 
 so camping in the Yosemite, a month or so 
 on her brother's ranch near Los Angeles, 
 went to Japan for a few months with her 
 father, who was worn out from too close ap- 
 plication to the business of the bank, and 
 then, on her return, suddenly decided to try 
 Settlement work. 
 
 She kept at it in San Francisco for a few 
 months, but did not feel satisfied with what 
 she was accomplishing, and imagined it would 
 be a great advantage to her work there if she 
 went to New York and learned eastern methods. 
 They have at heart a very great respect for all 
 
 things eastern in the West, just as they have 
 
 178
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 179 
 
 for all things European in the East. In its 
 last analysis, it is merely the reverence ren- 
 dered by Youth to Age. Youth's self-confidence 
 is largely a matter of bluff. It really credits 
 Age with a superhuman amount of wisdom, 
 although it does not often say so, for fear 
 Age will be unduly puffed up. 
 
 Sue took up her residence in a little com- 
 munity of earnest young women on Riving- 
 ton Street. She did not find it so different 
 from the San Francisco settlement as she had 
 expected, but there were things to learn, and 
 she plunged heart and soul into the task of 
 learning them. 
 
 " Play while you play and work while you 
 work," was Sue's motto. She did not inform 
 any one of her presence in New York for sev- 
 eral weeks, and then made herself known only 
 to Mrs. Cartwright, and begged that lady to 
 tell no one of her being there. 
 
 "It will rest me to come up here and talk 
 to you sometimes, dear Mrs. Cartwright," she 
 said. They were sitting side by side on the 
 divan, and Sue was holding Mrs. Cartwright's
 
 i8o THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 hand in both of hers and patting it affection- 
 ately. " But you can readily understand that 
 I haven't either the time or the heart just 
 now for frivolities. I couldrit go from Riv- 
 ington Street to a dinner, or a dance, or the 
 opera. The sudden contrast would be too 
 great a shock. It would hurt. But most 
 people can't understand that. They would 
 think I needed distraction and would try to get 
 me to go to things, and they would come down 
 there to call and be dreadfully in the way. So 
 please promise you won't breathe it to a soul." 
 
 " Of course, if you wish it " 
 
 "I do!" 
 
 " But I don't approve of it a bit. I don't 
 see what your mother was thinking about, to 
 let you go down there." 
 
 "Why, I'm afraid I didn't consult her, Mrs. 
 Cartwright. I just told her I was going." 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright exclaimed in horror. 
 
 "You westerners have most extraordinary 
 ideas," she commented. " At what period of 
 your nursery career do your parents abdicate 
 their authority ? "
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 181 
 
 " It's done gradually. My brothers joined 
 a self-government club at eight or ten. The 
 boys pledged themselves to maintain a high 
 standard of manliness, truthfulness, and honor. 
 They appointed a committee to chastise any 
 of their number who fell below the require- 
 ments. The parents pledged themselves not 
 to interfere." 
 
 "Remarkable! And it worked?" 
 
 " Splendidly." 
 
 "And did they teach each other manners, 
 too ? " 
 
 "Well, no. They were supposed to get 
 those by imitation at home, just as they 
 had learned to talk. I won't say that there 
 were not parental suggestions along that line 
 sometimes. But the idea was to interfere as 
 little as possible. What you do for yourself 
 in the way of character-building is so much 
 more useful than what some one else does for 
 you." 
 
 " Wonderful ! " said Mrs. Cartwright, but 
 it was evident that she disapproved. " Now 
 Elizabeth wanted to take up her abode down
 
 1 82 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 there among the microbes at one time, but 
 we wouldn't let her." 
 
 " Poor Elizabeth," murmured Sue, " how 
 she must have suffered under that patriarchal 
 system ! She was not lacking in character, 
 Elizabeth." 
 
 "Why, of course not." Mrs. Cartwright 
 looked surprised. 
 
 " And I suppose she took it all amiably 
 because she was so fond of you ? " 
 
 " I don't think Elizabeth found the be- 
 hests of her parents burdensome. She had 
 been used all her life to discipline. She was 
 brought up in an atmosphere of it. The obe- 
 dience that was exacted of her was far less 
 arbitrary than what the service exacts of her 
 father." 
 
 "True. The navy spirit again. It may 
 have helped her. But why wouldn't you let 
 her go to the Settlement, Mrs. Cartwright? " 
 
 " Because, with all due deference to you, 
 Sue, it's such perfect nonsense. What do you 
 girls accomplish, besides making yourselves 
 profoundly uncomfortable ? "
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 183 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Cartwright ! " 
 
 Sue flushed and paused. The life she was 
 leading meant so much to her. The thing 
 she wished to do, the thing she believed she 
 was helping to do, was enormous, but if one 
 had to gauge it by concrete accomplishment, 
 it did look rather small. 
 
 " We are trying," she began gropingly, " to 
 bridge over the terrible chasm between the 
 so-called upper and lower halves." 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright smiled. 
 
 " Oh, we don't flatter ourselves we are doing 
 it, not altogether, but we are helping. We 
 don't expect miracles." 
 
 " I dare say I seem very unsympathetic. 
 But it appeared to me the girls spent their 
 time playing jack-straws and old maid with a 
 lot of small children, who might just as well 
 have been playing those interesting games by 
 themselves. I don't believe any amount of old 
 maid and jack-straws will bridge the chasm." 
 
 " I don't know," said Sue. " It might." 
 
 " Now if you were distributing coal and 
 potatoes, I could understand that."
 
 1 84 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " Oh, we don't approve of almsgiving. It 
 breeds a race of paupers. It makes the chasm 
 broader than ever. We try to help people to 
 help themselves." 
 
 " If you taught them really useful things, 
 dressmaking or carpentry or something of that 
 sort" 
 
 " We do, when they want to learn those 
 things, but mostly they don't care to." 
 
 " Exactly ! And so you give them music 
 lessons and dancing lessons ! " 
 
 " Don't you think they need some recrea- 
 tion in their lives ? And isn't it a gain if we 
 offer them a sort that is innocent ? " 
 
 " Sue, I'm afraid I'm hopeless. I appreciate 
 your good intentions fully. But here are a lot 
 of girls leaving comfortable homes and going 
 down into the slums to fill their lungs with 
 vile air, keeping up an elaborate fiction that 
 they are not philanthropists, so that they can 
 meet their neighbors on a plane of social equal- 
 ity, giving lessons in music and dancing to 
 people who haven't proper food to eat or de- 
 cent clothes to wear, trying to prevent labor
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 185 
 
 troubles by playing jack-straws with the strik- 
 ers' children Well, Sue, I can't help it. 
 It looks to me like the Bab Ballads ! " 
 
 Sue laughed, with her large tolerance. 
 
 " I'm afraid you're beyond my powers of 
 conversion, Mrs. Cartwright. But if I had 
 you down there for a week, I think you'd con- 
 vert yourself. And at the end of the second 
 week, you'd be turning socialist." 
 
 " Not I ! But, for heaven's sake, Sue, you 
 don't mean that you are bitten by that form of 
 insanity? I suppose you'll be throwing bombs 
 next." 
 
 " Dear Mrs. Cartwright, don't tell me that 
 you, with all your discernment, don't under- 
 stand the difference between socialism and 
 anarchy ? " 
 
 " How natural that sounds ! I suppose if 
 Elizabeth said that to me once, she said it a 
 thousand times." 
 
 " And you still class them together ? Poor 
 Elizabeth ! " 
 
 " Look here, Sue Ballinger, I won't have you 
 pitying Elizabeth. Do I look like an ogre ? "
 
 186 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " Oh, the benevolent despots are the worst 
 kind ! You can fight the wicked ones, but 
 true nobility bends its back and accepts the 
 yoke of the benevolent tyrant for love's sake." 
 
 " You impertinent child ! " laughed Mrs. 
 Cartwright. 
 
 Just then Wriggles came in, and Sue 
 jumped for him with a cry of welcome. But 
 Mrs. Cartwright seized her arm detainingly. 
 
 " Don't touch him, Sue ! " she exclaimed 
 " You can't kiss him unless you go out and 
 disinfect yourself first. You must be covered 
 an inch deep with all sorts of microbes." 
 
 With a comical expression of despair, Sue 
 let her hands fall at her side. 
 
 " I can't kiss you, Wriggles dearest, but I 
 love you just as much as ever, and I'll throw 
 you a whole armful of kisses across the room. 
 Catch ! " And she went through the panto- 
 mime. 
 
 Wriggles looked highly puzzled. 
 
 " Mrs. Cartwright, will you please give your 
 immaculate grandson the contents of that pack- 
 age on the table ? I bought it at an uptown
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 187 
 
 shop, and I feel sure I didn't touch it. So if 
 you will take off the wrapping-paper, which I 
 did touch, I don't believe he'll be contami- 
 nated. To be sure, it was made in the 
 first place by a colony of Bohemians just 
 around the corner from Rivington Street, 
 but " 
 
 " You can jeer as much as you like, Sue. 
 I dare say we all run frightful risks every day, 
 certainly every time we get into a street-car. 
 But that isn't any reason for running more 
 risks." 
 
 Meantime she unwrapped the perambulat- 
 ing ostrich, wound it up, and started it across 
 the floor to Wriggles, who straightway became 
 unconscious of all other mundane affairs. 
 
 Sue glanced out of the window, noted the 
 gathering dusk, and reluctantly reached for her 
 wraps. At that moment a couple of cards 
 were brought in to Mrs. Cartwright, and as 
 their owners followed at the servant's heels, 
 Sue could not get away without meeting them. 
 
 They proved to be Mr. Fairchild and Mr. 
 McMasters. Both were so unmistakably glad
 
 1 88 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 to see her that she would have been hardly 
 human if she had not felt a thrill of pleasure 
 too. Being Sue, the swift color that leaped to 
 her cheeks, the light that flashed in her eyes, 
 the smile that dimpled around her lips, made 
 her utterly adorable. 
 
 It was Mrs. Cartwright who told of Sue's 
 wish to remain hidden from her friends. The 
 young men treated it as a joke, and Sue did 
 not insist on it. She even let young Fairchild 
 see her home, and made no protest to Mr. 
 McMasters's assertion that he was coming 
 down some evening very soon to call. 
 
 Just now he stood at the window watching 
 Sue and her escort walk briskly along outside 
 the railing of the park. A dry snow was drift- 
 ing lazily down on them. Their footsteps 
 made the first dark blots on the new white 
 covering of the sidewalk. 
 
 " They do look well together," he said, with 
 a cheerfulness that suggested effort. 
 
 " He's not half good enough for her," Mrs. 
 Cartwright returned sharply. 
 
 Mr. McMasters sighed.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 189 
 
 " No, that's true, but no one else is either." 
 
 " I could think of some one who comes a 
 good deal nearer to it than Harry Fairchild." 
 
 He looked at her for a moment in doubt. 
 Then a deep flush spread slowly over his face. 
 
 " Thank you, Mrs. Cartwright, a thousand 
 times. But it's no use. Her manner to me 
 is absolutely sisterly." 
 
 " Well, what do you expect ? Isn't your 
 manner to her absolutely brotherly ? " 
 
 " I shouldn't dare let it be anything else." 
 
 " I don't often meddle in things that don't 
 concern me " 
 
 He murmured a vague protest at the im- 
 plication. 
 
 "My excuse must be that I think so much 
 of you both. Perhaps I am mistaken about 
 the way you feel. You haven't ever confided 
 in me. Perhaps I am mistaken about the way 
 Sue feels. She hasn't confided in me either." 
 
 "You're most awfully good, Mrs. Cart- 
 wright. Do you mind if I say good-by and go 
 out to walk it off? I've got to get my head 
 cool before I can think. You've rather bowled
 
 i 9 o THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 me over, you know, and I don't know exactly 
 where I stand." 
 
 When she was left alone, Mrs. Cartwright 
 beat her brow in simulated despair. 
 
 " I've been in this world for half a century," 
 she remarked, " and I think this is my first 
 attempt at match-making. Also it shall be 
 my last. I don't believe he's in love with her 
 at all. His emotion was pure embarrassment. 
 He must think I was flinging her at his head ; 
 and probably Sue is engaged all the time to 
 some man in California ! " 
 
 " I'm glad it hasn't made him stay away 
 from her," she reflected to herself, about a 
 week later, when Sue dropped in for tea and 
 began telling her of Mr. McMasters's call. 
 
 "He was such a dear," Sue confided to her. 
 " I was busy with a meeting of the Mothers' 
 Club when he came, and I didn't know what 
 on earth to do with him. But he took it all 
 in his own hands and said he'd come to the 
 meeting too. I led him in with fear and 
 trembling I'll tell you why presently and 
 introduced him all around, and he was -perfect I
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 191 
 
 He met them with absolute courtesy and abso- 
 lute naturalness. I suppose you think 'Why 
 shouldn't he ? ' but it doesn't always follow. 
 When the business part of the meeting was 
 over, he picked up a banjo that was lying on 
 the window-seat and began strumming on it 
 and singing sailor songs. I'd never heard 
 them before and found them fascinating, and so 
 did the mothers. In betweentimes he spun 
 them all sorts of navy yarns. They think he's 
 the most delightful person they ever met ; and 
 I've received requests from a young men's 
 club, a young women's club, three boys' clubs, 
 and a girls' club to get him down there to sing 
 for them." 
 
 " I'm glad he made such a hit. I didn't 
 know he was so resourceful ; but I should have 
 expected him to behave with entire propriety. 
 What did you mean by your ' fear and 
 trembling ' ? " 
 
 " Mrs. Cartwright, it makes my blood boil 
 whenever I think of it ! It was that Fairchild 
 cub, the afternoon I was here before. He went 
 home with me, you know, and of course I had
 
 i 9 2 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 to ask him in, and some of our neighbors 
 were there, and he Mrs. Cartwright, I was 
 mortified enough to sink through the floor ! 
 he tried to talk over their heads to me. He 
 made fun of them to me before their faces. 
 Did he think they were fools, not to under- 
 stand ? He acted as if the whole thing were a 
 show. I wish I could have told him what I 
 thought of him ! Oh, he has nice enough 
 manners at a dinner, and he dances like an 
 angel " 
 
 " Do angels dance well ? " Mrs. Cartwright 
 murmured. 
 
 " But when you get down to basic facts, he's 
 not a gentleman ! " 
 
 " Perhaps I didn't make such a mess of 
 playing Providence after all," thought Mrs. 
 Cartwright to herself.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE Idaho, after being relieved on 
 the Florida patrol, and passing some 
 months, not too agreeably, between 
 Colon, Gonaives, and La Guayra, had come 
 north to the Brooklyn navy yard to go into 
 dock. 
 
 On the morning of the i6th of February 
 Captain and Mrs. Cartwright and Wriggles 
 sat down to breakfast at their little round 
 table in the hotel dining room. After giving 
 his order to the waiter, the Captain casually 
 unfolded the morning paper that lay beside 
 his plate. Great black headlines in letters 
 two inches long ran across the first page. As 
 he looked his eyes dilated. His lips moved, 
 but no sound came from them. His face was 
 ashy. 
 
 o 193
 
 i 9 4 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " What is it ? What is it ? " cried his 
 wife. 
 
 " The Maine is blown up," he said, in a 
 curiously even voice, turning the paper for 
 her to see. 
 
 " What ! " she exclaimed, horror-struck. 
 " The Maine ? In Havana ? By the Span- 
 iards ? " 
 
 His face grew very stern. 
 
 " No, no. That's impossible. You 
 mustn't say such a thing, not whisper it, not 
 think it. It must have been an accident." 
 
 His vehemence implied so much rebuke 
 that she felt ashamed of her suspicion. 
 
 " Were there many lives lost ? " she faltered, 
 eager to know, yet afraid of the answer. 
 
 " Up into the hundreds. There are no full 
 reports yet." 
 
 By this time acquaintances from other tables 
 were crowding around to discuss the matter 
 with the Captain. They felt that he, being 
 a naval officer, must somehow be able to give 
 them inside information. 
 
 His wife shielded him the best she could.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 195 
 
 She saw that he was too much shocked to 
 talk. Presently he pushed away his untasted 
 breakfast and left the room to go to his 
 ship. 
 
 Early in the afternoon he came back. 
 
 " You have seen the extras ? " he asked his 
 wife. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " I wouldn't believe it this morning. It 
 seemed too monstrous. But I'm afraid you 
 were right. I'm afraid it was the Spaniards." 
 
 " What makes you think so ? " 
 
 " The details given in the despatches. 
 Everything points to an external explosion." 
 
 He went over the telegrams with her, 
 explaining the parts that seemed to him 
 significant. 
 
 " If they did blow up the Maine," she cried, 
 " the whole Spanish nation ought to be swept 
 off the face of the earth ! " 
 
 " If they did it, there will be vengeance," 
 he replied grimly. 
 
 " Those poor fellows ! " murmured Mrs. 
 Cartwright, with pictures of death and muti-
 
 196 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 lation crowding on her inner vision. " Who 
 were the officers, Julius ? " 
 
 He got out the navy register, and they 
 looked over the complement of the Maine, 
 with a word here and there, as they came upon 
 the name of some special friend. It was not 
 yet certainly known who was lost and who 
 saved. 
 
 " Poor fellows ! " whispered Mrs. Cart- 
 wright again. 
 
 The Captain was pacing up and down the 
 room as though it were a quarter-deck. 
 
 " They shall have all Havana for a funeral 
 pyre," he said at last. 
 
 " Yes," she cried tensely. " Oh, I wish I 
 could fight too ! You are lucky, Julius." 
 
 " I am lucky in having the Idaho. Suppose 
 this had happened last year, when I couldn't 
 get a ship ! " 
 
 " It would have been heart-breaking," she 
 said. 
 
 " Heart-breaking," he repeated fervently. 
 
 " You always said there would be war," she 
 reminded him.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 197 
 
 " It was bound to come. But I didn't fore- 
 see anything like this." 
 
 " It's so much worse than if they had been 
 killed in battle." 
 
 " Oh, in battle ! That's our business. And 
 one has a chance to fight back. But to be 
 assassinated " 
 
 " Stabbed in the back. It's the treacherous 
 Latin blood." 
 
 " And yet they are compatriots of the Cid ! " 
 
 " Degenerate ones." 
 
 " Spawn of hell," he muttered, then came 
 out roundly with " f Vengeance is mine, saith 
 the Lord.' " 
 
 " We aren't going to leave it to Him, 
 though," protested Mrs. Cartwright. 
 
 " We are His instruments," said the Cap- 
 tain, solemnly. 
 
 After the first cry of horror that went up 
 from Cape Cod to Cape Mendocino, came 
 long passion-filled days when the nation held 
 its breath and waited. 
 
 The naval court of inquiry was appointed 
 and sent to Havana to investigate the cause
 
 198 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 of the Maine's explosion. Selected for calm 
 and judicial temperament, as well as for supe- 
 rior mental acumen, the little group of officers 
 who formed the court had every trace of par- 
 tisanship crushed out by the fearful weight 
 of responsibility resting on them. They 
 knew the government hoped for evidence 
 that would acquit Spain and make the loss 
 of the ship a dispensation of Providence. 
 They knew the hot-heads of their own ser- 
 vice hoped for evidence that would damn 
 the whole Spanish nation to the lowest depths 
 of hell. But their judgment was not swayed 
 a hair's breadth by either hope. Alone, al- 
 most of all their countrymen, they sat, pas- 
 sionless, unmoved, and sought for Truth. 
 
 The yellow journals, clamoring for imme- 
 diate war, howled and raged and foamed at 
 the mouth, accusing the government of cow- 
 ardice and venality. Cooler heads insisted 
 that judgment be suspended till the verdict 
 of the court was received. The crime alleged 
 was so stupendous, so hideous, so unheard-of 
 that they hesitated to believe it possible. It
 
 199 
 
 was too bad to be true. Yet the too-bad-to- 
 be-true has been true thousands of times since 
 our ancestors lost their tails and developed 
 consciences. The deeds of the Boxers just 
 the other day in China were too bad to be 
 true. But alas they were true. The 
 acts of our own lynching mobs are too bad 
 to be true. But God help us! they are 
 true. The question was one to be decided 
 on the evidence, not on a priori theories of 
 likelihood. 
 
 If the Maine was blown up by Spaniards, 
 then, unless the Spanish government dis- 
 owned the act and meted out swift justice 
 to its guilty subjects, war was inevitable. 
 
 One commanding figure rose above the 
 seething and the tumult of those days, a 
 steadfast figure, against which the waves of 
 public opinion beat pitilessly. The Presi- 
 dent was striving, with all his strength of 
 heart and soul and mind, to avert the calam- 
 ity of even a successful war. For he had 
 seen war face to face in his youth, and knew 
 the cost of it in blood and tears. And
 
 200 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 it might not be successful. It was for him 
 to weigh the chances of disaster. Indi- 
 vidual enthusiasts might scorn to consider 
 consequences. It was his duty to consider 
 them. In the light of subsequent events it 
 is hard to realize that victory was far from 
 being a foregone conclusion. The President 
 hoped for it, of course, expected it, perhaps, 
 but certainly he did not feel sure of it. The 
 army and the navy were untried. We were 
 a nation preeminently of peace. We had 
 met no foreign foe since the Mexican war, 
 no foreign foe our match in strength since 
 1812. Our critics abroad were freely telling 
 us of the naval and military superiority of 
 Spain. Over-confidence was proverbially an 
 American failing. The critics might be right. 
 The navy, meanwhile, outside the solemn 
 circle of the court of inquiry, was straining 
 like a bloodhound at its leash. Free from 
 the awful responsibilities that weighed on the 
 Chief Magistrate and on the court, it natu- 
 rally took a more immediate and personal 
 view of the crisis. Passionately convinced
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 201 
 
 that the Maine's destruction was compassed 
 by Spaniards, it regarded itself as the heaven- 
 ordained instrument of vengeance. This was 
 the navy's quarrel. It should be the navy's 
 war. What had been to the rest of the 
 country an appalling, but rather impersonal, 
 calamity, was to the navy a domestic tragedy. 
 Absolute coolness and impartiality could 
 hardly be expected from it. " Remember 
 the Maine" was not a Christian, but a 
 wholly human phrase. 
 
 The days pending the investigation were 
 by no means idle days. Hoping always to 
 avert war, the government must yet in com- 
 mon prudence prepare for it. There was 
 plenty of work to be done. Navy yards 
 and arsenals were running day and night. 
 Plans were being made for coast defence and 
 for the conversion of merchant vessels and 
 yachts into auxiliary cruisers and gunboats. 
 All this was merely precautionary. Nothing 
 was done that would commit the country to 
 war in advance of the findings of the court. 
 
 On board ships already in commission,
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 like the Idaho, every nerve was strained to 
 bring both equipment and personnel to the 
 highest point of efficiency. The men worked 
 at the old familiar drills with a new zest. 
 Sighting a great gun or screwing on a tor- 
 pedo head had suddenly become a vital func- 
 tion. 
 
 In the wardroom the officers held fiery 
 discussions over every extra bulletin giving 
 the latest guess about the evidence before 
 the court and the latest rumor about the 
 probable action of Congress. The young- 
 sters put up their money freely on the 
 absorbing question of war or no-war, the 
 enthusiastic pros venturing their dollars on 
 what they hoped for with all their hearts, 
 the long-headed cons hedging against fate 
 and providing themselves with at least a 
 crumb of consolation in case the war should 
 not materialize. 
 
 It was much the same in the forecastle, 
 except that the spirit there was more bitter. 
 There was hardly a man beyond his first 
 enlistment but had friends and former ship-
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 203 
 
 mates among those lost on the Maine. It 
 was a clan feud with them. Their blood 
 was at fever heat, and their one longing was 
 to fight. 
 
 The Captain in his lonely cabin did plenty 
 of thinking, but kept his thoughts to him- 
 self. In his more conspicuous position, he 
 had to guard his tongue, lest his utterances 
 should compromise the government. It was 
 fortunate for Captain Cartwright that he was 
 in a home port and could go every after- 
 noon to dine and spend the night at the 
 hotel. His talks with his wife acted as a 
 safety valve to his feelings. 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright was a patriot, and a 
 fighting patriot to the core. No old Roman 
 matron sending her sons to battle was actu- 
 ated by a spirit more heroic or more self- 
 forgetful. There were many like her, but 
 of course there were other types too, the 
 timid, weeping, clinging kind whose love of 
 their husbands could not rise above solicitude 
 for their personal safety, who hoped and 
 prayed that they might be kept at the navy
 
 204 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 yards or attached to ships not likely to meet 
 the enemy. 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright was so cheerful, so opti- 
 mistic, so positively eager for the fray, that 
 in some quarters she was freely accused of 
 heartlessness. Yet no one who understood 
 her devotion to her husband could doubt 
 that if she was willing to expose him to 
 Spanish bullets, it was the supremest proof 
 she could give of her patriotism, and that 
 she would have exposed herself to them 
 with far greater cheerfulness. 
 
 Among those most firmly convinced of 
 Mrs. Cartwright's coldness of heart was an 
 old maiden aunt of the Captain's, who, ever 
 since the destruction of the Maine, had been 
 writing him frantic letters urging him to 
 resign his commission. These letters pierced 
 like rays of sunshine through the tragic 
 gloom of the atmosphere and afforded the 
 Cartwrights infinite amusement. 
 
 To have characterized the old lady's atti- 
 tude as either cowardly or dishonorable 
 would have been to wrong her utter guile-
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 205 
 
 lessness. Reasons slipped from her ungrasp- 
 ing mentality as easily as from an insistent 
 child's. Finding her appeal to her nephew 
 without result, she had written to his wife, 
 who, she took it for granted, would share 
 her feelings. She never got over the shock 
 of Mrs. Cartwright's reply. She had always 
 before supposed that Clara loved her hus- 
 band. But now it was all too evident that 
 she did not. Poor Julius ! It was doubt- 
 less his wife's indifference that made him 
 so willing to be killed. But she, his aunt, 
 who had loved him so tenderly from his 
 babyhood, would not desert him now. She 
 had a last resource, in the efficacy of which 
 she placed great confidence, though she 
 had hesitated, for personal reasons, about 
 using it. But she could not be over-fastidi- 
 ous when Julius's welfare was at stake. She 
 mastered some sad and sacred memories of 
 her girlhood and set in motion the machin- 
 ery that was to save her beloved nephew's 
 life.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 NOTHING could have exceeded the 
 dismay of Captain Cartwright when, 
 on opening a long official envelope 
 from the Navy Department one morning about 
 the middle of March, he found that it con- 
 tained orders detaching him from the command 
 of the Idaho on the reporting of his relief. 
 
 What did it mean ? What could it mean ? 
 Who was his unknown enemy ? Was it possible 
 that John C. O'Meara had climbed into a posi- 
 tion of sufficient eminence to reach him even 
 under a different administration ? That his 
 vindictiveness would be equal to it, the Captain 
 did not doubt, but that he could have the 
 power hardly seemed credible. Was it possible 
 that the reporters who had campaigned so zeal- 
 ously against him the previous summer were 
 still in arms and had at last won over the 
 Department to their side ? 
 
 These orders meant the blasting of legiti- 
 206
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 207 
 
 mate hopes of distinction, which he had nour- 
 ished during thirty-three years of peace, biding 
 his time for just the chance now being snatched 
 from him. But they meant far more. They 
 meant the absolute ruin of his career; they 
 meant branding him for life as a man in whose 
 courage or capacity the Department lacked con- 
 fidence. Death would have been welcome a 
 thousand times rather than such a blow at that 
 intangible, but infinitely precious possession, 
 his reputation. The old half-forgotten night- 
 mare of the court of inquiry sank into insig- 
 nificance in comparison with this affront. The 
 accusation of appointing and discharging work- 
 men for political purposes was an absurdity on 
 the face of it and easily disproved. But to be 
 deprived of his command almost in sight of the 
 enemy, with no other ship given him in place 
 of it and no chance offered for vindication, 
 men have died for less. 
 
 " Go to Washington," urged his wife. 
 " Find out what it means. Try to get these 
 orders revoked. You have the right to de- 
 mand an explanation,"
 
 208 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 He hesitated. In all his naval career 
 thirty-seven years of it he had never asked 
 to have orders revoked that had been sent him. 
 He had taken what came, no matter how dis- 
 agreeable, and made the best of it. 
 
 " Somebody has to do it," he would say. 
 " If I got out of it, some other man would 
 have to go in my place." 
 
 He had never asked for a pleasant billet. 
 He had never used the faintest shadow of 
 political or social influence for any purpose. 
 He had not set foot in the corridors of the 
 Navy Department for upward of twenty years. 
 He did not care to now. But 
 
 "It's that or blow my brains out, I sup- 
 pose," he said quietly. 
 
 A horrible fear clutched at Mrs. Cartwright's 
 heart. She was not perfectly sure that he did 
 not mean it. Instinctively, though, she hid 
 her doubt from him. If he supposed she took 
 what he said seriously, it might influence him. 
 
 " Leave that to the Spaniards ! " she jeered. 
 " Besides, it would invalidate the insurance 
 policies."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 209 
 
 A bit of downright brutality is not amiss 
 now and then for jolting a man into sanity. 
 
 " I will go," he said. 
 
 The bureau chief on whom he called when 
 he reached the Department greeted him by his 
 Naval Academy nickname, Borgia, a sobri- 
 quet of delightful unaptness derived by way of 
 Caesar from his baptismal name. There were 
 only a few men left in the service who called 
 him Borgia, and the Captain's heart gave a 
 reminiscent thump at the sound of it. 
 
 " I've come up to see who's responsible for 
 my detachment from the Idaho," he blurted 
 out, "and whether anything can be done 
 about it." 
 
 "Why, Borgia," exclaimed the other man, 
 " there's been a big mistake somewhere. I 
 was told that you were detached at your own 
 request." 
 
 " At my request ? " cried the Captain. 
 
 " At your request, on the score of ill health. 
 I thought you must be on your death-bed. I 
 knew you wouldn't give up that ship if you 
 could stand on your feet,"
 
 2io THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " I wouldn't have given her up, if I had 
 been on my death-bed, not till after the 
 funeral. Do I look sick ? " 
 
 " No, you don't." 
 
 " Then somebody's an infernal liar." 
 
 " Looks like it, doesn't it ? But there 
 must be some sort of a mistake, Borgia. 
 It was your senator who put in the re- 
 quest." 
 
 " My senator ? Which one ? Never laid 
 eyes on him. It's a piece of confounded ras- 
 cality. He wanted me out of the way to get 
 the ship for somebody else. It's bad enough 
 to be ousted from my berth by a political pull, 
 but to have the damned hypocrite pretend he 
 did it at my request is a little bit more than 
 a man can be expected to stand." 
 
 The Chief of Bureau had been vainly trying 
 to interrupt him. Now at last he got in his 
 word. 
 
 " You're all wrong, Borgia. Whatever the 
 explanation of the tangle is, it's not that. He's 
 not that sort of man at all. He's the soul of 
 honor and high-mindedness. Why don't you
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 211 
 
 call him up on the telephone and ask him 
 about it ? He ought to be in his committee 
 room at this hour." 
 
 Captain Cartwright adopted the suggestion. 
 
 " Go easy," advised the bureau chief, as the 
 Captain took down the receiver. " Remem- 
 ber, he's one of the Nestors of the Senate, and 
 a man absolutely above suspicion." 
 
 Having done his duty by offering these sug- 
 gestions, the Admiral was able to enjoy with a 
 clear conscience the picturesque vigor of the 
 language he overheard. 
 
 Captain Cartwright was not by any means a 
 profane man, but his feelings on this occasion 
 several times got beyond the bounds of ordi- 
 nary English, and the fact that the man he was 
 accusing of " unwarrantable meddling " was the 
 distinguished senior senator from his own state 
 weighed not a grain in the balance against his 
 righteous indignation. 
 
 At last the Captain hung up the receiver and 
 turned around with the ejaculation, 
 
 " The Lord save us from our friends ! " 
 
 " What is it ? " asked the Chief of Bureau.
 
 212 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " I have a venerable maiden aunt, who knew 
 him when they both were young," the Captain 
 explained. " She is a nervous soul and objects 
 to war. She asked him to secure my detach- 
 ment, and he took it for granted I had author- 
 ized her to do so, went off half-cocked and 
 thought he was doing me a kindness ! " 
 
 " By George ! " cried the Chief of Bureau, 
 slapping his knee, " I wouldn't like to be in the 
 shoes of that aunt of yours when she hears from 
 you." 
 
 " The interesting point just now is, what am 
 I to do ? " 
 
 " Suppose we go in and see the Secretary," 
 he suggested, and taking the Captain's arm, con- 
 ducted him to the official head of the Navy 
 Department. 
 
 " Mr. Secretary," he said, his lips twitching 
 into a smile under his grizzled beard, " I have 
 to present to you the most unhappy man in 
 the service, Captain Cartwright." 
 
 The Secretary's manner was icy. He bowed 
 without extending his hand. But as the Chief 
 of Bureau told the story, his face cleared, and
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 213 
 
 at the end he held out his hand with a cordial 
 expression of sympathy and regret. 
 
 " Take a seat, Captain, and we'll see what 
 we can do about it. The Admiral here will 
 help us." 
 
 " Can't I keep the Idaho ? " asked Captain 
 Cartwright. " That seems the simplest way 
 out of it, and certainly is the one that suits me 
 best." 
 
 " Unfortunately, I'm afraid not. The or- 
 ders have already been sent to Captain Kings- 
 bury to relieve you. He has been promised 
 the Idaho, and relies on it. He mustn't be left 
 in the lurch. He hasn't done anything, you 
 know. He hasn't even got an aunt." 
 
 The Captain achieved a sickly smile. 
 
 " But he would be no worse off than he was 
 before." 
 
 " Yes, because there were other ships to 
 choose from day before yesterday that have 
 since been assigned. Everybody is applying 
 for a ship, you know." 
 
 " One of the big ocean liners that are 
 to be turned into commerce destroyers is
 
 214 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 still unassigned," suggested the Chief of 
 Bureau. 
 
 " Well, you can have her, Captain Cart- 
 wright. Twelve thousand tons, nearly twice 
 as large as the Idaho. How will that suit you ? " 
 
 " Not at all," said the Captain, dejectedly. 
 " She can't fight. She'll have the battery of a 
 gunboat. I don't want a great hulk of a ship 
 that will have to turn tail and run from a 
 cruiser a third her size. She's only good to 
 chase merchantmen and get prize money." 
 
 " Some people don't regard prize money as 
 a matter altogether beneath their notice," 
 observed the Secretary. 
 
 " Give them the commerce destroyers, then. 
 What I want is a fighting ship." 
 
 The Secretary glanced over some memoranda 
 which he drew from a pigeonhole of his desk. 
 
 " How would a coast defence vessel suit you, 
 carrying the biggest guns afloat ? " 
 
 " Where is she ? " 
 
 " At San Francisco." 
 
 " Good God, no ! What can she do at San 
 Francisco ? "
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 215 
 
 " If the Spanish fleet in the Philippines 
 should defeat our Asiatic squadron and attack 
 the Pacific coast " 
 
 " Not one chance in a thousand." 
 
 " Well, there is just one other thing," said the 
 Secretary, with an accent of finality. " There 
 is the Portland, now at Hong Kong. I got a 
 telegram this morning stating that her captain has 
 been invalided home and that she, is temporarily 
 in the command of the executive officer." 
 
 " But I don't want to go out there," pleaded 
 Captain Cartwright. " All the heavy fighting 
 will be oflf the coast of Cuba." 
 
 " There will be plenty of fighting in the 
 Pacific." 
 
 " A mere side issue." 
 
 " Here are some memoranda concerning the 
 Spanish fleet in the Philippines and the defences 
 of Manila. You might look them over and let 
 me know in half an hour what you have de- 
 cided on. You will see that the contending 
 fleets are not unevenly matched, and on the 
 outcome of the battle to be fought there de- 
 pends the safety of the Pacific coast."
 
 2i6 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 Captain Cartwright and the Chief of Bureau 
 had risen to their feet. 
 
 " I don't need to spend half an hour de- 
 ciding, Mr. Secretary. If I can't keep the 
 Idaho, or have another fighting ship in the 
 North Atlantic Squadron, I will take the Port- 
 land. She is too small for my rank and not 
 very new, and I don't think there's any glory 
 to be gotten -in the Philippines. But there's 
 
 honest work to be done as far as it goes, 
 
 \ 
 and somebody has to play second fiddle. 
 
 The only thing I am afraid of is, that war 
 will be declared and the fleet sail from Hong 
 Kong before I get there." 
 
 " I think not. Not if we can help it. It 
 is very important that the Baltimore should 
 reach the squadron with ammunition, and she 
 won't be arriving for at least a month yet. 
 You can take the first mail steamer from San 
 Francisco, I suppose ? " 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "Your orders will be made out." 
 
 " I congratulate you, Borgia," said the Chief 
 of Bureau, as they passed out together. " The
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 217 
 
 Commodore's a fighter. You'll have plenty 
 of fun out there." 
 
 The Captain shook his head sadly. 
 
 " It was the best I could do, but there's 
 not much in it," he observed regretfully. 
 " Small ships, small fleets, small issues, a 
 mere incident in the drama. But it's better 
 than nothing."
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 SOMEWHAT to Captain Cartwright's 
 surprise and very much to his delight, 
 his wife announced her intention of 
 going with him as far as Hong Kong. They 
 had forty-eight hours to spare before start- 
 ing overland, which Mrs. Cartwright declared 
 would give her ample time for packing, as 
 they were already living in trunks at a hotel. 
 She not only made good her boast and had 
 everything ready inside the time limit, but 
 was able to get off a train ahead of her hus- 
 band and stop over a few hours in Albany 
 to let Wriggles's paternal grandparents have 
 a parting glimpse of him. 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright rather resented the exist- 
 ence of this superfluous set of grandparents, 
 but she tried to do her duty by them. It 
 
 was especially magnanimous of her to visit 
 
 218
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 219 
 
 them now, because she clearly foresaw that the 
 other grandmother would give her trouble. 
 Old Mrs. Whittemore did, in fact, strenuously 
 object to Wriggles's setting out for the Orient, 
 and was unreasonable enough to propose, with 
 some insistence, that he should be left with 
 her. 
 
 Wriggles's father was on a ship in Euro- 
 pean waters, exact locality unknown, and could 
 not be consulted. But his handing over his 
 baby boy, at Elizabeth's request, to the up- 
 bringing of Elizabeth's mother had been abso- 
 lute. His own mother was, therefore, at a 
 disadvantage, and could only plead the child's 
 best good, as she saw it, and the risk of tak- 
 ing him to such remote, outlandish countries. 
 
 Now Elizabeth had been around the world 
 before she cut her milk teeth, and from Mrs. 
 Cartwright's point of view steamers and trains 
 and hotels were as good places as any other 
 to bring up a child in, if only one used suffi- 
 cient zeal and discretion. So she brushed 
 aside the views of the stay-at-home grand- 
 mother and laughed at her foolish alarms.
 
 220 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 Mrs. Whittemore, on the other hand, con- 
 sidered Mrs. Cartwright so erratic in her 
 manner of life and thought as to be barely 
 respectable. For a woman past fifty to start 
 off on forty-eight hours' notice to the antip- 
 odes seemed to her almost indelicate, and 
 when she must needs take her poor little 
 four-year-old grandson along with her, the 
 vagary became positively criminal. 
 
 Added to the ordinary dangers of travel 
 were the war risks which seemed to be immi- 
 nent. Supposing war was declared while they 
 were at sea, and their ship was captured by 
 a Spanish man-of-war, or, worse still, by a 
 Spanish privateer? In vain Mrs. Cartwright 
 explained that the steamer on which their 
 passage was engaged flew the British flag and 
 was owned in Liverpool. A trifling techni- 
 cality of that sort could not blot out the 
 lurid pictures conjured up by grandmotherly 
 fear. 
 
 Train-time found them, however, duly en- 
 sconced in the overland limited, with the 
 Captain at their side, and the poor overruled
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 221 
 
 paternal grandparents forlornly waving their 
 handkerchiefs from the platform. 
 
 Up to this time Wriggles had done very 
 little travelling, but the instincts of the rover 
 were in his blood, and he took to it like a 
 duck to water, adapting himself with cheerful 
 philosophy to the most unpropitious circum- 
 stances. His good nature was proof against 
 every inversion of his habits, whether in sleep- 
 ing or dressing arrangements, in bills-of-fare, 
 or times' and seasons. His interest in chang- 
 ing scenes and faces was unfailing, but quiet 
 and dignified. Nothing surprised him, though 
 everything interested him. There was not a 
 single drop of provincialism in his blood. 
 He was born a child of the world. He fra- 
 ternized in ready friendliness with conductors, 
 brakemen, porters, and fellow-passengers, then 
 with officers and sailors and Chinese cabin- 
 boys, and later still with the many-hued 
 denizens of the Orient. He had no preju- 
 dices of caste or race or color. 
 
 "Nil humanum a se alienum putat" Captain 
 Cartwright adapted laboriously.
 
 222 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 His wife always laughed at him for the 
 affection with which he clung to his rusty 
 Latin, left over from the days before he en- 
 tered the Naval Academy. 
 
 Wriggles regarded all men as potential 
 friends, and seldom found his confidence mis- 
 placed. But there was an Englishman aboard 
 the steamer who thought to tease him by tell- 
 ing him how the Spaniards were going to " lick 
 the Yankees " in the prospective war. Wrig- 
 gles tried to convince him of error by earnest 
 argument, till, finding his protestations ignored, 
 and stung by the jeering tone of his tormentor, 
 he suddenly flew at him, tooth and nail, like a 
 little fury, and had to be dragged away by main 
 force. He was punished for conduct unbecom- 
 ing an officer and a gentleman ; but, in view 
 of the circumstances, he was not required to 
 apologize, merely to promise his grandmother 
 that there would be no more violence. There 
 was none, but he never passed the obnoxious 
 Englishman on deck or stairway without pro- 
 truding his lower lip at him, as a sign and a 
 very expressive one of disapproval. No
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 223 
 
 amount of punishment could persuade him., to 
 give up this habit, and his grandparents finally 
 adopted the practice of looking the other way. 
 
 It was more than twenty years since Mrs. 
 Cartwright had crossed the Pacific. The Cap- 
 tain had made a three years' cruise at that time 
 on the Asiatic station, and she and Elizabeth 
 had followed him. It had been a very delight- 
 ful epoch in many ways, and Mrs. Cartwright 
 had always cherished its memories, without any 
 expectation of renewing them. But now she 
 " 'card the East a-callin' ' and experienced 
 strange thrills at the mere substitution of 
 tiffin for luncheon and the sound of the dear 
 ridiculous Pidjin English that she had to 
 babble at the servants. Every day that 
 brought them nearer to the Japanese coast 
 increased her excitement and enthusiasm. 
 
 " She's like an old race-horse brought back 
 on the track again," thought the Captain, ad- 
 miringly ; but he took good care not to put his 
 thought into words, well knowing how his wife 
 would receive such a comparison. 
 
 " It will seem like being young again, to be
 
 224 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 fallowing a ship with a little child, Julius," she 
 said. 
 
 "After all, I believe you like the life," he 
 returned, smiling at her. 
 
 "In spite of the way I abuse it? Yes, I 
 suppose I must." 
 
 They both felt the sadness of its being 
 Elizabeth's child, not Elizabeth, who was the 
 companion of their travels ; but it was charac- 
 teristic of them that they made no reference to 
 what occupied the foremost place in their 
 minds. The loss of a child is like the loss of 
 a leg. One must go through life thereafter 
 maimed. But the brave-hearted cripple makes 
 the best of his crutches and alludes to them as 
 seldom as may be. 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright's was the universal mother- 
 grief, primitive, instinctive, primarily im- 
 personal, because it was her child that was dead, 
 only secondarily because it was Elizabeth. 
 With her husband, the order was reversed. 
 It was first and foremost his good comrade, 
 the always understood, always understanding 
 Elizabeth that he mourned, and after that
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 225 
 
 his daughter. With both of them, their 
 loss was an ever-present load carried on hearts 
 strong enough to bend under it without break- 
 ing, sweet enough not to be embittered by the 
 gall of sorrow, large and just enough to look at 
 the world sanely as before and to sympathize 
 with the happiness of others. 
 
 The weather, though cold at times, was rea- 
 sonably good all the way from San Francisco 
 to Yokohama. Seasickness was a thing as un- 
 known to Mrs. Cartwright as to her husband ; 
 and Wriggles, after the first day out, proved 
 equally exempt. To be travelling together, in- 
 stead of one on a man-of-war and the other on 
 the next mail steamer, was a luxury entirely new 
 in their experience. Had it not been for the 
 expected war, they would have asked nothing 
 better than to prolong the trip indefinitely. 
 As it was, they could hardly control their im- 
 patience to reach Yokohama and be in cable 
 communication with the world once more. 
 Their constant fear was that war might be 
 declared, and the fleet sail for the Philippines 
 before the Captain could get to his ship. Mrs.
 
 226 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 Cartwright, who always did everything in a 
 hurry herself, credited governments with some- 
 thing of her own temperament, and did not 
 see how war could be avoided so long. The 
 Captain, on the other hand, knowing the 
 necessity for delay on account of the unpre- 
 pared state of the country, had more faith in 
 being on time. And even if war should be 
 declared, he felt reasonably sure that, although 
 the fleet would have to leave Hong Kong, it 
 would wait in some near-by Chinese port till 
 the Baltimore arrived with its much-needed 
 ammunition. 
 
 The Captain's nervousness showed only in 
 his perpetual tramping up and down the deck, 
 his wife's in every word and tone and move- 
 ment. 
 
 They hailed the peak of Fuji, shining above 
 the clouds, as an old friend, sacred with mem- 
 ories of the time when they and the world were 
 young. But Mrs. Cartwright, at least, was in- 
 clined to rail at the impassive cone for not 
 flashing them a message from Washington. 
 
 Their approach to the coast and progress up
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 227 
 
 the Bay of Tokio seemed interminable, al- 
 though broken here and there by the recogni- 
 tion of some familiar landmark. That little 
 village to the left should be LJraga, where they 
 make the sweet mizu-ame that Elizabeth used 
 to be so fond of. That other mountain peak, 
 lesser than Fuji, but nearer, was O-Yama, of 
 course. About yonder, Tomioka must lie, 
 where the beach was so nice for bathing, and 
 the crooked pine tree in front of the tea house 
 was too good to be true. There was Missis- 
 sippi Bay opening up, and just inside the 
 western horn they could make out the thatched 
 roofs of Sugita, famous for its plum blossoms. 
 They rounded Treaty Point, the new Yoko- 
 hama breakwater caught their attention, and 
 then, at last, they slowed down to let the 
 neatly uniformed Japanese health officers come 
 aboard. 
 
 Every one pressed around them for news. 
 Had the war begun ? 
 
 " No, it is not suppose there shall be war," 
 said the one who spoke English. " There 
 shall be mediation of the Pope."
 
 228 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " So far so good," exclaimed the Captain, 
 drawing in a long breath of relief. His wife's 
 face was wreathed in smiles. They did not 
 expect the Pope to avert the war, but that he 
 should be able to postpone it suited them 
 admirably. 
 
 With minds relieved on this point, they 
 gave themselves up to the pleasures of reminis- 
 cence. Had he been alone, the Captain would 
 probably have sat on the deck of the steamer, 
 smoked a cigar, and sunk himself fathoms deep 
 in old memories. But under his wife's more 
 energetic guidance, every moment of the pre- 
 cious day the steamer lay in Yokohama became 
 a pilgrimage. Mrs. Cartwright meant, not 
 only to catch a glimpse of the old life herself 
 and share it with her husband, but to introduce 
 it to Wriggles. Old friends were notified, old 
 servants summoned, old haunts revisited. 
 
 " Wriggles, this was your mother's amah" 
 his grandmother told him, as a wrinkled, 
 parchment-skinned old crone, with the shiny, 
 black-stained teeth of other days, was brought 
 in, bowing and smiling and sucking in her
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 229 
 
 breath. She was doubtless younger than Mrs. 
 Cartwright, but she had the look of incalculable 
 antiquity. 
 
 Wriggles shivered a little at the black teeth 
 and general strangeness of manner and cos- 
 tume, but he pulled himself together manfully, 
 and let the old woman on her knees before 
 him pat and handle him lovingly, while she 
 lamented over the death of the young mother, 
 whom she had tended so faithfully, and re- 
 joiced over the sight of the old "masta" and 
 " missus." 
 
 " Wriggles, this was our bungalow, where 
 we lived. Here was the old nursery. Your 
 mother's little crib stood right there. All 
 that two-story part has been built since, and 
 everything is quite different, quite differ- 
 ent. Your mother used to play in the gar- 
 den, with the amah to watch her, and I believe 
 this is the very palm that she planted on her 
 five-year-old birthday. Isn't it, Julius? It's 
 grown so, it's hard to say, but it was that kind 
 of a palm, and in that identical spot." 
 
 " Wriggles, this is the mother of the little
 
 230 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 English girl who was your mother's best 
 friend when we lived here. They never 
 quarrelled but once, the time they fell to 
 discussing whether the English or the Ameri- 
 cans came out ahead in the War of 1812, and 
 then they pulled each other's hair frightfully. 
 Do you remember ? " 
 
 The mothers laughed together reminiscently. 
 
 "Wriggles, that's the little temple your 
 mother ran away from the amah to visit. 
 She had us hunting frantically all over the 
 neighborhood for a couple of hours, till we 
 found her there sitting on the floor back of 
 the altar between a couple of Buddhist priests, 
 sharing their midday meal of boiled rice and 
 pickled daikon" 
 
 They went inside, and the stolid-faced aco- 
 lyte, who eyed them suspiciously, wondered 
 why the foreign lady threw a silver piece 
 among the copper offerings on the mat in 
 front of the altar. 
 
 It grieved Mrs. Cartwright that they could 
 not run up to Tokio, which she had been 
 exceedingly fond of in the old days ; but noth-
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 231 
 
 ing in the world would have induced her to 
 wait over for another steamer, as her husband 
 suggested. 
 
 " No, I go with you as far as I can, Julius," 
 she said. " I'd go all the way to Manila if I 
 could, you know. I don't want to go back to 
 Tokio without you, anyhow." 
 
 " Oh, I'd be afraid to go there with you if 
 I could," he laughed ; " afraid you'd make me 
 visit the graves of the Forty-seven Ronins." 
 
 " I certainly would ! " she assured him. 
 " I shall never get over wondering at your 
 prosaic nature. Our last day in Tokio, 
 and you preferred smoking a cigar and taking 
 a nap to making a pilgrimage to the most 
 sacred spot in all Japan ! " 
 
 " But I was sleepy, my dear madam," he 
 urged, "and I knew you had seen it already. 
 I wasn't depriving you of anything." 
 
 " Sleepy," she repeated scornfully, " when 
 you might never again have the chance to 
 light a taper and leave a visiting card at a 
 shrine so celebrated in song and story ! " 
 
 But her scorn was merely humorous. She
 
 232 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 had long since accepted her husband's limita- 
 tions as part of himself, and had even become 
 attached to them. Had he suddenly devel- 
 oped a fondness for sight-seeing equal to her 
 own, it would probably have struck her as 
 incongruous, if not unseemly. 
 
 At Kobe, at Nagasaki, and at Shanghai, the 
 experience at Yokohama was repeated. First, 
 the anxiety lest war had been declared and the 
 intense relief that it had not, then the joyful 
 abandonment of themselves to hunting up old 
 friends and old places. 
 
 Not that the result of the search was always 
 joyful. They had often to grieve over the 
 modern improvements that were spoiling the 
 old-time picturesqueness. They were deeply 
 distressed when they found the house they 
 had lived in at Nagasaki had been pulled 
 down to make room for a more pretentious 
 structure. But saddest of all, of course, were 
 the human changes. When they saw faces 
 and heard voices that they had not thought 
 of, perhaps, for twenty years, and opened the 
 later chapters of life-stories whose early ones
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 233 
 
 were familiar to them, they must expect to 
 learn not only of births and marriages, pros- 
 perity and happiness, but of failure and misery, 
 of death, and here and there of a catastrophe 
 worse than death. Yet, after all, the demands 
 made on their sympathy were superficial, and 
 the delicate seasoning of melancholy served 
 but to heighten the flavor of this wonderful 
 pot-pourri of old associations. 
 
 " I wouldn't have missed all these experi- 
 ences for anything in the world, Julius ! " 
 Mrs. Cartwright exclaimed, as the low Yang- 
 tse banks dropped out of sight, leaving no 
 sign of the China they had just revisited ex- 
 cept the muddy color of the water, defiled by 
 the outpouring of the great foul river. 
 
 This was the last stage of their journey. 
 Two days later they had passed Waglan 
 Island and were drawing near to the familiar 
 blue hills of Hong Kong. They threaded 
 their way through Lyemoon Pass, and all at 
 once the harbor opened before them. 
 
 Captain Cartwright stood on the bridge, 
 whither the captain of the steamer had in-
 
 234 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 vited him, glasses in hand, eagerly scanning 
 the forest of masts toward which they were 
 shaping their course. Mrs. Cartwright and 
 Wriggles were on the deck just below. 
 
 " There they are ! " Captain Cartwright 
 cried suddenly, "and, by heaven, they're 
 gray ! They've got their war-paint on." 
 
 His wife smiled up at him, her eyes full of 
 tears. If he had been beside her, she would 
 have squeezed his hand, but she could not 
 trust herself to speak. 
 
 And here was Wriggles tugging at her skirt 
 and looking into her face with kindling eyes. 
 
 " Oh, aren't we glad, Gran'mudder, aren't 
 we glad!"
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 I 
 
 SUE, down on Rivington Street, did not 
 at first believe there was going to be 
 any war. Rivington Street did not 
 greatly concern itself with the outside world. 
 Its own daily battle for enough to eat and 
 drink was altogether too absorbing. 
 
 Some of the boys who came to the clubs 
 expressed bloodthirsty sentiments toward 
 dagoes in general and those who blew up 
 the Maine in particular, and grew excited in 
 describing what they would like to do. Sue 
 tried to convince them that revenge as a 
 motive smacked of barbarism, and that if 
 there should be a war, it would be undertaken 
 in defence of the downtrodden Cubans and 
 not to avenge the Maine. It may be doubted 
 whether the boys were convinced, and Sue's 
 own convictions began to waver after one or 
 
 235
 
 236 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 two afternoons spent with Mrs. Cartwright, 
 listening to her impassioned denunciations 
 and to the quieter but equally intense views 
 of the Captain. 
 
 Then the Duluth, which had been away on 
 a couple of months' cruise, returned to the 
 yard, and Mr. McMasters came down to call. 
 Before she fully realized his intentions, he was 
 conducting a patriotic rally and had the boys 
 singing everything from "Hail Columbia" to 
 the latest adaptation known as " Marching 
 through Cuba." As a result of that evening's 
 work, he carried off to the recruiting office 
 three apprentice boys, two landsmen, and a 
 marine. 
 
 Before she knew it Sue found herself swept 
 into the full tide of popular enthusiasm and 
 leading patriotic rallies herself. Mr. Mc- 
 Masters's technical explanations of the evidence 
 before the court of inquiry convinced her that 
 the Maine had been destroyed by an outside 
 agency. And, little by little, she found the 
 virile blood of her pioneer forebears asserting 
 itself against the acquired doctrines of the
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 237 
 
 barbarism of war and the unworthiness of 
 revenge, until she was passionately convinced 
 that peace could be bought only at the price 
 of national dishonor, and that war, hideous as 
 it was, was the lesser evil of the two. 
 
 About this time Barbara came down to New 
 York for spring shopping. Her interest in 
 spring shopping was weak, but the idea was 
 her mother's. She was too late to see the 
 Cartwrights, who had left a fortnight before, 
 but she lost no time in hunting up Sue. Even 
 in the enthusiastic delight of their first meet- 
 ing Sue could not rid herself of a faint, inde- 
 finable impression of aloofness about Barbara. 
 She laid it to the two years that had elapsed 
 since they were together, an interval only 
 imperfectly bridged by letters, and assured 
 herself that it would quickly disappear in the 
 renewed intimacy of face-to-face talks. But 
 she was never quite sure that it had done so. 
 
 Barbara was one of those who felt that the 
 coming war was a thing of unmixed evil. She 
 had been brought up to a warm admiration 
 for Spain, not only as the most faithful of
 
 238 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 nations in a degenerate age, from the stand- 
 point of Catholicism, but on account of its 
 great historical achievements. She was rankly 
 incredulous, not only of the outside destruc- 
 tion of the Maine, but of the cruelties and 
 atrocities reported in the newspapers as prac- 
 tised on the Cubans. Even the senatorial and 
 consular reports on the reconcentration camps 
 could not shake her faith in Spanish humanity. 
 
 " If you had only got here before the Cap- 
 tain left, he would have convinced you," Sue 
 told her. 
 
 " He would have convinced me that his con- 
 victions are honest, but I know that already." 
 
 " Wait till you've talked to Mr. McMasters 
 a bit." 
 
 Barbara shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 " Sue, you are navy mad," she asserted. 
 " It's natural enough they should feel as they 
 do. It's their business to fight. They're 
 fine fellows and brave and honest, and I like 
 them almost as well as you do ; but they're 
 too much mixed up in it to be good judges 
 of the ethics of the situation."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 239 
 
 Sure enough, Mr. McMasters had no more 
 effect on her convictions than Sue had had. 
 
 "It's your circulation that's at fault," com- 
 mented Sue. " If you had a good one, you'd 
 be as belligerent as the rest of us." 
 
 "Then I thank God for my poor cir- 
 culation," Barbara returned with unexpected 
 seriousness. 
 
 If Barbara was not in sympathy with the 
 war enthusiasm of her naval friends and of 
 the general public, she was equally unrespon- 
 sive, even frankly disapproving, toward the 
 work Sue was so much absorbed in at the 
 Settlement. 
 
 " You're wrong in your first principles," she 
 said to Sue. " The curse of our age is its so- 
 called humanitarianism. You are all trying 
 to substitute the service of man for the wor- 
 ship of God. You're so busy giving out 
 socks and potatoes that you pay no attention 
 to anybody's soul, not even your own." 
 
 " We don't give out socks and potatoes," 
 protested Sue, but Barbara ignored the inter- 
 ruption.
 
 240 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " Charity is a virtue in its proper place," 
 she continued, " but it can't be substituted 
 for faith, and it ought to be undertaken for 
 the love of God and not for the love of 
 man." 
 
 Sue looked at her wistfully. 
 
 " There isn't any use in our discussing it, 
 Barbara. We're too far apart. We haven't 
 any common ground to meet on. I don't 
 believe there's a word left in the English 
 language to which we attach the same 
 meaning." 
 
 "You're right. Discussions never do any 
 good. I hope you won't mind if I pray for 
 you, though." 
 
 This sounded so unlike Barbara that Sue 
 glanced at her quickly to see if she was joking. 
 But her face wore a look of utter seriousness. 
 
 " It will be very kind of you, I'm sure," 
 Sue said, with a flicker of amusement in eyes 
 and voice, "but I doubt if it does much 
 good." 
 
 " It certainly won't, if you take it in th 
 spirit," Barbara agreed with a sigh.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 241 
 
 "What in the world has come over her?" 
 Sue wondered. " I never saw anybody so 
 changed." 
 
 She was not surprised to get a note from 
 Barbara a few days later, saying that she was 
 about to go into retreat for a week at a con- 
 vent just outside the city. 
 
 " Imagine that disembodied spirit fasting 
 and praying when she ought to be making 
 red corpuscles for her blood on a diet of beef 
 juice and egg-nog ! " she exclaimed impatiently 
 to Mr. McMasters. 
 
 "A week of retreat from the world, of 
 fasting and prayer in a convent ! What a 
 queer relic of mediaevalism," he mused. 
 
 " That's what she and I called the navy 
 once, do you remember ? " 
 
 " The first time I met you, that evening 
 at the Cartwrights'. Yes, I remember. But 
 you were badly mistaken. The war spirit be- 
 longs to all times." 
 
 " So does the mortification-of-the-flesh spirit, 
 I expect, though it never has such a numer- 
 ous following."
 
 242 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 "A sort of succes d'elite?" he suggested, 
 smiling. 
 
 " I won't admit that," she cried. " I have 
 no sympathy with it. It's morbid. It's a 
 sign of sickliness either in mind or body. 
 What could be more beautiful or more won- 
 derful than the human body ? How can re- 
 ligious people despise and abuse it? Don't 
 they believe it to be the handiwork of the 
 Almighty ? Don't some of them go so far 
 as to say He made it in His own image ? 
 Doesn't it seem ungracious, not to say sacri- 
 legious to scorn such a gift ? I can't see 
 any holiness in starving one's own highly 
 organized tissues so as to make a breeding 
 place for low and pestilent microbes. Starving 
 one's self is as immoral as overfeeding one's 
 self, and I've no patience with that either." 
 
 " Do you suppose she scourges herself with 
 knotted cords and sleeps in a coffin ? " he 
 speculated. 
 
 " Barbara ? Not the coffin part. It's only 
 the Trappists who do that, I believe. But for 
 the scourging, of course I don't know,
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 243 
 
 but I really shouldn't be surprised. Oh, isn't 
 it dreadful ! " she ended with sudden passion. 
 
 "It seems so, and yet why should we 
 object ? We all have our favorite ways of 
 getting what somebody called the sense of 
 spiritual uplift ' ; and if that's hers, why I 
 suppose it's a good thing. If she were married 
 and had a family of children, one might question 
 her right to imperil her health, but " 
 
 " I wish she were married and had a family 
 of children ! It's just what she needs. She 
 wouldn't have time then to be morbid." 
 
 Sue was one of the people who speak first 
 and think afterwards. The following thought 
 in this case brought a wave of crimson to her 
 face, as she realized the somewhat unconven- 
 tional character of what she was saying. 
 
 " I don't know," he replied, apparently 
 unconscious of anything unusual in their dis- 
 cussion. " I can't imagine her married. Now 
 you " 
 
 He paused, with a certain sense of dawn- 
 ing embarrassment. 
 
 " Oh, I can always be relied on to do the
 
 244 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 normal and commonplace thing, she returned 
 easily. 
 
 " Never commonplace, but divinely normal." 
 
 His voice was very low and earnest. 
 
 Sue looked at him in blank surprise. She 
 had expected a very different sort of response 
 to her impulsively expressed wish of a moment 
 before. She had long been convinced of his 
 tenderness for Barbara, but evidently he did 
 not wish to confide in her. She sighed and 
 asked him about a concert that he was helping 
 the boys to get up in aid of the Maine vic- 
 tims. The result to the fund might not be 
 large, but the spirit of lending a helping hand 
 was worth encouraging. 
 
 A week later Mr. McMasters came around 
 hurriedly to say good-by. The Duluth had 
 been ordered by telegram from Washington 
 to join the newly organized Flying Squadron 
 at Fortress Monroe. They had been taking 
 stores aboard all day and would pull out in 
 the morning. 
 
 " Have you seen Barbara ? " Sue asked. 
 " She's come back to life, you know."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 245 
 
 " Yes, I have just come from her aunt's, 
 where she is staying now. I expected to see 
 the clouds of the other world still trailing 
 about her, but she seemed just the same as 
 ever ; said the same bright, double-edged 
 things, and didn't soar a particle." 
 
 "Oh, of course. Barbara doesn't pose.'* 
 
 " Isn't the cynicism itself a pose ? " 
 
 " No, no. It's the reverse of the medal. 
 It's perfectly genuine. It's part of the 
 morbidness, though. Healthy-minded people 
 aren't cynical." 
 
 " What a priestess of nature you are ! " he 
 exclaimed. " If Miss Thornhill is a survival 
 of mediaeval Latinity, you are all classic and 
 Hellenic." 
 
 " Barbara called me a Greek once. But 
 never mind us. Let's talk about you. It's 
 much more interesting. Think what you 
 may have gone through before we meet 
 again." 
 
 " I may have gone through the portals of 
 the next world," he said, half smiling to neu- 
 tralize the over-seriousness of the thought.
 
 246 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " Oh, don't ! " she cried, with a catch in her 
 voice. 
 
 " I won't if I can help it," he assured her, 
 smiling broadly this time. 
 
 " I mean, don't talk about it. Of course we 
 all know the chance is there, but one doesn't 
 want to talk about it.'* 
 
 " It's good of you to care as much as that," 
 he said gently. " I didn't suppose there was 
 anybody who did really." 
 
 " Oh ! " she protested, as if something had 
 hurt her. 
 
 " Would you think me presumptuous if I 
 asked you to let me write to you sometimes ? " 
 
 Sue had recovered herself. 
 
 "How can I tell till you ask?" she ban- 
 tered. 
 
 " I am asking now. Tell me." 
 
 " Why didn't you ask Barbara ? " 
 
 " I did," he admitted frankly, " but she 
 turned me down. Said she hated to write 
 letters, and didn't find any special satisfaction 
 in receiving them. She said people always 
 begin to act a part when they take a pen in
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 247 
 
 their hands including herself and myself. 
 I couldn't convince her to the contrary." 
 
 Sue laughed. 
 
 " Then you admit that I am only a second 
 choice ? " 
 
 "Why, no. I intended to ask you both. 
 There's nothing wrong in that, is there ? Is it 
 the custom in California to correspond with 
 only one person at a time ? " 
 
 " Now you are laughing at me," said Sue, 
 with her ready and always becoming wave of 
 color. 
 
 She felt rebuked, for her attitude had seemed 
 to imply sentiment of the monopolizing sort 
 in a request for correspondence, and his words 
 made it very plain that he had meant nothing 
 of the kind. 
 
 " I don't agree with Barbara," she said, 
 " though of course letter-writing isn't as satis- 
 factory as talking. I shall be very glad to 
 have you write to me, and you must know how 
 intensely interested I shall be in all you can 
 tell me." 
 
 "You'll get the news quicker in the papers."
 
 248 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " The statistics, yes. But it's the little per- 
 sonal things that make it seem real." 
 
 " And you will answer my letters ? " 
 
 "Why, of course." 
 
 " Thank you. You have made me very 
 happy." 
 
 She glanced at him in surprise. The words 
 seemed out of proportion to the occasion. 
 
 " How I envy you ! " she exclaimed, chang- 
 ing the subject. 
 
 " Yes, I can understand that," he replied. 
 " I believe you'd make a good fighter," he 
 added, smiling. 
 
 "Why, I hope so," she returned. "It's 
 disgusting sometimes to be a woman." 
 
 " Not when the woman's you," he protested. 
 " Don't talk blasphemy." 
 
 "You are going to make history," she went 
 on, ignoring his lapse into compliment. 
 
 " Not much, personally. But the navy will." 
 
 " You will do your share." 
 
 " I shall do my best." 
 
 He stood up. 
 
 " Must you go ? "
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 249 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 " I go on watch at midnight." 
 
 " For how long ? " 
 
 " Till four." 
 
 " And you won't have time to take a nap 
 first. You ought not to have come. Or you 
 ought to have gone away earlier." 
 
 u Don't you suppose I would rather talk to 
 you than take a nap ? " he inquired in an 
 amused tone. 
 
 He had gone into the hall, and was putting 
 on his overcoat. Then he picked up his hat, 
 gloves, and cane. 
 
 "You know how truly I wish you all the 
 good fortune there is," said Sue, earnestly, 
 " personal safety first, then the chance to 
 serve the country and the reward of it, 
 glory by the wagonload, all there is of 
 it!" 
 
 " I should be quite content without the last, 
 and " he lowered his voice "if I know 
 myself, without the first." 
 
 He spoke hesitatingly, as one more used to 
 hide than to express his emotions.
 
 250 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " I know it," she answered warmly, " but 
 you must have all." 
 
 He was holding out his hand silently, smil- 
 ing unsteadily. 
 
 She laid hers in it, returning his grasp firmly. 
 Her eyes suddenly grew misty with unshed 
 tears. 
 
 " God bless you ! " she whispered. 
 
 " Thank you," he answered, in a voice barely 
 audible. 
 
 Just then one of the other " residents " 
 appeared on the stairway, coming down. The 
 emotion in the air all fled at the instant. 
 
 " Don't get sand-bagged on your way to the 
 elevated," Sue called to him cheerfully, as he 
 opened the front door. 
 
 " Try not to," he called back. "It would 
 be rather an inglorious wind-up, wouldn't it ? "
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 BEAUTIFUL Hong Kong! The Cart- 
 wrights had known it and loved it of old, 
 but it seemed to them lovelier than ever 
 on that April day, as they steamed into the har- 
 bor, and gazed their fill at the mellow blue 
 haze that veiled the Hong Kong heights to the 
 left and the Kowloon hills to the right. Be- 
 tween, lay the blue water, giving back a daz- 
 zling reflection of the tropical sun, and over all 
 brooded the hot blue sky. 
 
 The fleets of many nations lay in the harbor, 
 among which the American squadron looked 
 more distinguished than formidable. A dozen 
 battle ships and cruisers larger than the Olympia, 
 two or three of them more than double her size, 
 completely dwarfed the vessels of the American 
 fleet so far as mere bulk was concerned. With 
 
 their slim, graceful outlines, they looked like a 
 
 251
 
 252 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 group of grayhounds, swift and high-bred, but 
 by no means fierce. 
 
 " You've gone in too much for beauty and 
 speed with your ships," said a fellow-passenger, 
 a retired English naval officer, to Captain Cart- 
 wright. " They look like yachts. Of course 
 they're natty and all that, but I'm afraid they 
 won't stand the strain of real fighting." 
 
 "We shall know more on that subject this 
 time next month," said the Captain, with a 
 quiet smile. 
 
 It was the nearest he had ever come in his 
 life to a boast. 
 
 Captain Cartwright lost no time in reporting 
 his arrival to the Commodore and taking com- 
 mand of the Portland. Every one congratu- 
 lated him on his good luck in beating the 
 declaration of war, and every one was glad to 
 see him, except possibly the Portland's first 
 lieutenant, who thereby lost his chance of com- 
 manding the ship in action. 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright, having established herself 
 ashore at the hotel, spent a considerable part of 
 each day in a canopy-topped chair carried on
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 253 
 
 the shoulders of a couple of coolies. Some- 
 times she went to drink tea with such of her 
 friends of twenty years ago as were still above 
 the sod and not returned to the mother country. 
 Oftener she wandered, for the love of it, along 
 Kennedy Road or Bowen Road, enjoying the 
 vistas hundreds of feet down to the town and 
 the harbor, hundreds of feet up to the Peak, 
 framed by a charming tangle of tropical greenery 
 in the foreground. 
 
 Wriggles occasionally went with her, looking 
 at this new world serenely, if a trifle condescend- 
 ingly, from the height of his chair, or giving 
 lordly directions the freshly acquired " man- 
 man " and " chop-chop " to his coolies. At 
 other times he went to the public gardens 
 with his small-footed Chinese amah, and tor- 
 mented her by running ahead faster than her 
 poor little pegs of feet could carry her. It 
 seemed to fill him with unholy glee to hear her 
 shrill voice screaming after him. 
 
 " Masta Liggle, Masta Liggle, no do so 
 fashion ! Amah no can catchee. Belong too 
 muchee bad boy."
 
 254 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 Or he would scandalize her by fraternizing 
 with one of the black-whiskered, red-turbaned, 
 six-foot Sikh policemen, who were the object of 
 her special antipathy, as they were of his most 
 fervent admiration. 
 
 " What for genteeman son wantchee walkee- 
 walkee talkee-talkee dat piecee Moolo man ? " 
 she would cry with infinite scorn. " No plopa 
 fashion. He belong too muchee bad man. 
 He makee cuttee head udder man. He alia 
 same chow-chow udder man." 
 
 Wriggles scoffed at these lurid tales and 
 thrust his hand confidingly into the hand of his 
 friend the Sikh, whose fierce eyes softened as 
 they looked down into the upturned face of the 
 little sailor boy with its halo of yellow curls. 
 Yet the amah's imputations of murder and 
 cannibalism, disbelieved as they were, sent 
 delicious creeps down his spine and added a 
 touch of pleasantly horrible mystery to the zest 
 of the acquaintance. 
 
 Sometimes the pheasants and the deer and 
 the gorgeous peacock behind their wire net- 
 tings would hold him entranced by the hour.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 255 
 
 Those were the amaJis happy moments, 
 when she could sit on a bench and gossip 
 with the other amahs and vociferously abuse 
 any person of low degree who presumed to 
 brush against her distinguished charge. 
 
 There were mornings when Wriggles was 
 too much absorbed playing Spanish war in his 
 room at the hotel to go out at all. He used 
 all sorts of fleets, nut-shells in the wash- 
 basin, folded paper boats on the table, or 
 his grandmother's shoes on the floor. But 
 though the construction of the ships and the 
 manner of the fight varied greatly, there was 
 never but one end to these battles, the 
 complete annihilation of the Spanish squad- 
 ron. 
 
 "For quarter, for quarter, the Spaniard then cried he," 
 
 Wriggles would chant, adapting to his pur- 
 pose an old navy song his grandfather had 
 taught him, 
 
 "Blow high, blow low, for so sailed we. 
 
 * Oh, your ship shall be your coffin and your grave 
 
 shall be the sea, 
 Sailing down along the coast of the High Barbaree ! ' "
 
 256 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 One afternoon Mrs. Cartwright took a 
 globe-trotting steamer acquaintance to the 
 French convent on the road to Quarry Bay, 
 to buy some of the lace made by the pupils. 
 
 While the sister was showing them laces, 
 Mrs. Cartwright grew reminiscent over her 
 visits to the convent twenty years before, 
 and inquired after several nuns she had 
 known then. One of them, she found to 
 her pleasure, had become Mother Superior. 
 The rest were all dead or moved to other 
 stations. Mrs. Cartwright expressed a desire 
 to see the Mother Superior, who received 
 her with the utmost warmth, kissing her on 
 both cheeks. Nothing would do but she 
 must go all over the convent to note the 
 improvements. There had been only twelve 
 girls in the orphan asylum then, there were 
 a hundred and fifty now. And here, did 
 Madame remember ? was an old blind 
 woman, the very same whose skill with her 
 needle Madame had marvelled over many 
 years ago. They paused to exchange a few 
 remarks with the old woman. Did Madame
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 257 
 
 recall what a poor little chapel they used to 
 have ? She must see the new one and ad- 
 mire the altar-cloth embroidered by their 
 girls, and the statue of the Blessed Virgin 
 donated by a pupil who had made a wealthy 
 marriage. And here were the dormitories 
 and the washrooms and the kitchen, all so 
 wonderfully enlarged and improved. And 
 after their trip over the convent, Madame 
 and her friend must not refuse to come into 
 the Mother Superior's little office and have 
 a sip of wine. 
 
 All this, pleasant as it was, delayed them, 
 and it was growing dusk when they got into 
 their chairs and started for home. Had the 
 coolies been willing to keep along the water 
 front, Mrs. Cartwright could not have lost 
 her bearings, but they insisted on turning 
 into a maze of back streets, to her unknown. 
 They spoke no English and she no Chinese. 
 She was familiar enough with the method 
 of guiding one's bearers, hand dropped 
 sharply on right arm of chair for a turn to the 
 right, on left arm for a turn to the left, on both
 
 258 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 arms for a stop. But when she tried thus to 
 guide them back to the bund, they shook their 
 heads and pointed in the direction they were 
 going, reiterating many things, no doubt inter- 
 esting, had they only been intelligible. 
 
 " I suppose they are taking a short cut," she 
 said resignedly to her companion. " We may 
 as well let them alone." 
 
 " They surely know we want to go back to 
 the hotel ? " 
 
 " Oh, surely." 
 
 But, as they swung along around one corner 
 after another, and the darkness closed in over 
 them, and the look of the red-placarded 
 " licensed lodging-houses " with their swarms 
 of Mongolian inhabitants grew more sordid 
 and forbidding, and still there was no glimpse 
 of Queen's Road or even of the harbor, both 
 women grew distinctly nervous and uncom- 
 fortable. 
 
 " Oh," cried Mrs. Cartwright, suddenly, with 
 a note of relief in her voice, " there are two of 
 our sailors just ahead. Now we're all right." 
 
 " Surely," remonstrated the other woman,
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 259 
 
 " you aren't going to speak to them ? They may 
 have been drinking. They might insult us." 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright was as indignant as though 
 a reflection had been cast on a member of her 
 own family. In a few swift, reproachful words, 
 she informed her companion that the men 
 who wore that uniform were absolutely to be 
 depended on. The other woman looked slightly 
 incredulous, but Mrs. Cartwright did not stop 
 for argument. 
 
 "Won't you come here a minute, please," 
 she cried, raising her voice sufficiently to reach 
 the sailors, and at the same time thumping vig- 
 orously for the coolies to set down her chair. 
 
 They lowered it to the ground, and the two 
 sailors came up, surprised, but attentive. 
 
 "You're from one of our ships," Mrs. Cart- 
 wright began. " I'm so glad we've met you. 
 We don't know where we are, and we're afraid 
 the coolies aren't taking us right. I'm Mrs. 
 Cartwright. My husband is Captain Cart- 
 wright of the Portland." 
 
 " Yes'm. We don't know the town much 
 ourselves. We've never been ashore here
 
 260 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 before. But we'll stay by you and see that those 
 pig-tailed heathen don't try any tricks. Where 
 is it you want to go ? That big hotel on the 
 broad street near the landing? You aren't 
 heading right for it, sure. It must be down 
 that way." 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright motioned her bearers to lift 
 up the chair again, and the sailors stationed 
 themselves, one by each lady. They turned 
 the coolies in the direction in which they de- 
 cided Queen's Road must lie and urged them 
 forward with scant ceremony. The coolies, so 
 wilful with the ladies, obeyed the sailors with 
 alacrity. They had met that sort before. 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright entered into an animated 
 conversation with her special escort, who 
 walked along beside her with his hand on the 
 arm of her chair, lest the bearers should try to 
 run away from him. He delighted her soul by 
 telling her that a chum of his on the Idaho had 
 told him Captain Cartwright was the " whitest " 
 man he ever sailed with. Then they discussed 
 the prospective war and the loss of the Maine. 
 
 " Those dirty dagoes will wish they'd let the
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 261 
 
 Maine alone before we're done with 'em," he 
 prophesied. " You can't never trust 'em. I've 
 sailed with 'em. I know 'em, mean, treach- 
 erous, cowardly curs, that's what they are ! 
 They don't fight with their fists like Christians. 
 They whip out a knife on you. And if they 
 can't get hold of a knife, they bite. You 
 mayn't believe me, Mrs. Cartwright, but I had 
 one of 'em bite my hand clear to the bone 
 once. I've the scar of it yet. But I wiped 
 up the deck with him a bit. And we're goin' 
 to wipe up hell with the whole nation. Oh, I 
 beg your pardon," he broke off with sudden 
 confusion. " It slipped out before I thought." 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright absolved him. 
 
 " You don't think it's possible, Mrs. Cart- 
 wright," he pleaded, looking into her eyes like 
 an earnest child, " that there won't be no war 
 after all ? You don't think they'll patch it up 
 somehow there in Washington ? Take the in- 
 dependence of Cuba, or a bit of an indemnity, 
 or some nice-soundin' apology or other, and 
 call it square ? " 
 
 "I don't believe it's possible," she said.
 
 262 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 a We couldn't take money or land or words 
 in exchange for the murder of our men." 
 
 " That's right," he returned tensely. " It's 
 got to be blood, ain't it ? But some of the 
 boys are afraid they don't feel that way in 
 Washington. If I thought they'd juggle us 
 out of this fight, I'd be almost tempted " 
 he lowered his voice " to shake the service." 
 
 " Oh, no," she cried, horror-struck, " not 
 that! I understand how you feel, though. I 
 feel that way, too. But I do believe the war 
 is coming as surely as the sun will rise 
 to-morrow ! " 
 
 " It can't come too soon for us," he said 
 grimly. 
 
 At this moment they turned suddenly into 
 Queen's Road, brightly lighted, full of chairs, 
 'rikshas, and foot passengers. 
 
 " Now we are all right," exclaimed Mrs. 
 Cartwright, " and we mustn't keep you any 
 longer. We are very, very much obliged for 
 your escort." 
 
 " We'll see you all the way to the hotel, if 
 you don't mind, Mrs. Cartwright," said the
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 263 
 
 man beside her. "You can't trust these 
 Chinks. Can't tell what they're up to. They're 
 a good deal like dagoes, I guess." 
 
 " But we are taking you very much out of 
 your way." 
 
 "That's all right. We were just prospectin'. 
 One way's as good as another to us. It must 
 be pretty hard for a lady like you, though, 
 having to live around in such heathen places 
 as this." 
 
 " Weren't they charming ? " cried the globe- 
 trotting lady, when they had parted from their 
 body-guard at the door of the hotel. " But 
 surely they aren't all like that ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes they are," said Mrs. Cartwright, 
 confidently. 
 
 The next day the Baltimore came in, and 
 those who knew how short of ammunition the 
 fleet had been, breathed a long sigh of relief. 
 
 How they missed the newspapers ! The 
 silence was like that of the grave, broken only 
 by a ten-word Reuter telegram now and then, 
 giving the barest skeletons of facts, no details, 
 no explanations.
 
 264 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 Momentous events were crowding on each 
 other's heels. All American residents had 
 been withdrawn from Cuba for fear of a 
 massacre. That might mean much or little. 
 The President had sent a message to Con- 
 gress, asking for authority to use the army 
 and navy to end the war in Cuba. Was it 
 granted or not ? The telegrams gave no hint. 
 The Spanish minister at Washington had asked 
 for his passports. The President was prepar- 
 ing an ultimatum. What became of it ? 
 Nothing more was said. But there followed 
 the departure of the American minister from 
 Madrid, the sailing of the North Atlantic 
 fleet for Havana (surely that must mean war !), 
 the President's proclamation of the Cuban 
 blockade, the President's call for a hundred 
 and twenty-five thousand volunteers, and then, 
 at last, after all those incredibly long-drawn- 
 out days, tense with expectation, war was de- 
 clared, the fleet received its orders, and the 
 Governor, under instructions from London, 
 issued his proclamation of neutrality. 
 
 It was all hurried at the last, mercifully
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 265 
 
 so. Farewells were brief, unspeakably solemn, 
 but with no tears shed, not by the Cart- 
 wrights, at all events. 
 
 From the balcony of a friend's house on 
 the hillside, whither they had been carried off 
 to spend a few days, Wriggles and his grand- 
 mother watched the sailing of the ships with 
 swelling hearts. 
 
 " Listen, Gran'mudder ! It's the band on 
 the Olympia. They're playing ( Star-spangled 
 Banner.' Can't you hear it? Sing, Gran'- 
 mudder ! Oh, let's us sing, too ! " 
 
 Her voice faltered at first, but it caught 
 courage from the childish treble beside her, 
 and rang out strong and brave. 
 
 " Oh, Gran'mudder," cried the boy, as 
 they finished the last words, throwing his arms 
 around her neck and hugging her convulsively, 
 " don't you wish we could go along and fight 
 the Spaniards, too ! "
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE fleet did not sail immediately for 
 the Philippines, but awaited, close at 
 hand in Mirs Bay, the arrival of the 
 consul from Manila. He was expected at 
 any moment, and it was thought he might 
 bring important information concerning the 
 defences of the city, the mining of the har- 
 bor, and the whereabouts of th. Spanish 
 squadron. 
 
 Mirs Bay was at that time Chinese territory 
 and not affected by British proclamations of 
 neutrality. They spent two uncomfortable 
 days and nights there, with tightly strained 
 nerves, keeping a vigilant lookout for possible 
 attack by the Spanish fleet or by improvised 
 torpedo boats. 
 
 At last a tug was sighted, which proved to 
 have the consul on board. A consultation 
 
 of commanding officers was held on the flag- 
 
 266
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 267 
 
 ship, the consul was put aboard the Baltimore 
 as a passenger, the mail was sent over to the 
 tug, with what a mass of farewells to wives 
 and mothers and sweethearts, who shall say ? 
 and at two o'clock on the afternoon of the 
 ayth of April, the squadron steamed out to 
 sea, with the fighters in single file and the 
 baggage vans on the flank. 
 
 All through the fleet ran a tremor of ex- 
 ultation. For more than two months, officers 
 and men had been waiting in cumulative sus- 
 pense, eager to be doing, but condemned to 
 inaction, haunted ever by the American dread 
 that after having been surprised into heroic 
 sentiment, nothing would come of it. 
 
 We don't mind showing emotion on great 
 occasions, but if we show it on an occasion 
 which turns out not to be great after all, we 
 feel eternally disgraced. If a war scare ma- 
 terializes into a war, our effervescence is praise- 
 worthy patriotism, but if the war scare blows 
 over, we laugh sheepishly and try to pretend 
 that we never waved our hats and shouted. 
 Latin races find a great emotion admirable
 
 268 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 in and for itself. Our attitude seems to be 
 that it is pardonable only when it accompanies 
 heroic action. 
 
 The flag-ship's band was playing stirring 
 martial music. Every one was on deck, but 
 there was not much talking. Each man was 
 busy with his own thoughts. 
 
 The land sank out of sight, and the sea 
 and sky divided the universe between them. 
 The throbbing engines were driving them into 
 the warm blue South to seek their fate. What 
 would it be ? defeat or victory ? life or 
 death ? There was no middle ground. It 
 must be all or nothing. They had no port 
 of refuge within seven thousand miles. De- 
 feat meant destruction. Repulse meant it 
 almost equally. There could be no waiting 
 to choose the best time, no calm blockading. 
 Their supply of coal, their supply of provis- 
 ions, and their supply of ammunition were 
 strictly limited ; and if they could not capture 
 more before these were exhausted, they were 
 lost. 
 
 These facts were well known to everybody
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 269 
 
 in the fleet, but the knowledge only clinched 
 their teeth tighter at the thought of the coming 
 struggle. 
 
 Toward evening, as the twilight fell, bring- 
 ing its inevitable tinge of melancholy, thoughts 
 turned toward home and eyes grew tender 
 over images of women and children. Captain 
 Cartwright noted the changing mood with a 
 certain disapproval. 
 
 " It's the way to feel for writing sonnets, 
 but not for going into battle. See if you 
 can't shake them out of it," he said to the 
 officer of the deck. " Send for that musical pair 
 of marines. Tell them to go up forward and 
 play nothing sentimental, something with a 
 swing to it. Try to start the men singing." 
 
 The spirited twanging of the banjo and 
 guitar supplied just what was needed. At the 
 first chords of "There'll be a hot time in 
 the old town to-night," the men caught up 
 the air and sang themselves into active en- 
 thusiasm again. Every evening thereafter on 
 the way over, the musicians were called for, 
 and the southern seas were introduced to a
 
 270 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 singular medley of hand-organ airs and 
 national anthems. 
 
 The first morning out, after quarters, in 
 obedience to a signal from the flag-ship, the 
 proclamation of the Governor-general of the 
 Philippines, brought over by the consul, was 
 read aloud to the ship's company. 
 
 The officers had read and discussed this 
 incredible document the night before over 
 the wardroom table, but the crew were hear- 
 ing its extraordinary statements and epithets 
 for the first time, and their faces were a study. 
 It was a curious bit of spiritual discipline to 
 stand there at attention, alert, intelligent, self- 
 respecting, patriotic and American to the fin- 
 ger-tips, and hear that " The North American 
 people, constituted of all the social excres- 
 cences, have exhausted our patience and pro- 
 voked war with their perfidious machinations, 
 with their acts of treachery, with their outrages 
 against the law of nations and international 
 conventions." Sentence rolled upon sentence, 
 each crammed with vituperation, till the abuse 
 became personal and they heard themselves
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 271 
 
 described as " A squadron manned by foreign- 
 ers, possessing neither instruction nor disci- 
 pline," whose " ruffianly intention " was to 
 wipe out the Catholic religion in the Philip- 
 pines, kidnap the male inhabitants " to be 
 exploited in agricultural or industrial labor," 
 and " gratify their lustful passions at the cost 
 of" the wives and daughters of the com- 
 munity. All of which, this worthy and well- 
 informed hidalgo summed up exclamatorily 
 as " Vain designs ! Ridiculous boastings ! " 
 
 After the last viva Espana and the date and 
 signature, there was a moment of perfect 
 silence. The officer who read the proclama- 
 tion made no comments. The men who lis- 
 tened to it were positively embarrassed, like 
 a family of well-brought-up children who 
 are assailed for the first time by a volley 
 of billingsgate. Captain Cartwright watched 
 their faces flush and pale as the enormity 
 of the insult slowly pierced their conscious- 
 ness. He saw bewilderment giving place to 
 indignation. Then he stepped forward and 
 spoke to them.
 
 272 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " You see the opinion they have of us over 
 there." His words cut sharply. " I think 
 we shall be able to change it. And when 
 they find how greatly they have wronged us, 
 I hope they will understand that they have 
 wronged the country which sent us." 
 
 The men broke into a perfect tumult of 
 cheering, and the Captain noted with satisfac- 
 tion that the flood of awakening resentment 
 had been successfully turned into the channel 
 of high resolve. 
 
 The Captain spent his spare time, after 
 writing his daily letter to his wife, in reading 
 up on the history and topography of the 
 Philippines. He had never visited the islands 
 before, and, indeed, hardly a man in the fleet 
 knew anything of the archipelago at first 
 hand. 
 
 Very early on the morning of the joth, the 
 enemy's country was sighted at Cape Bolinao, 
 and three of the ships were detached and sent 
 ahead to reconnoiter Subig Bay, where it was 
 thought the Spanish fleet might be waiting 
 for them.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 273 
 
 Meantime the order was signalled " Clear 
 ship for action." They had been doing it 
 all their lives in play, but this was the first 
 time any of them, except the half-dozen vet- 
 erans of the Civil War, had seen it done in 
 earnest. Boxes, chests and barrels, paint, 
 oil, all inflammable things, always marked 
 " overboard " and always before carefully re- 
 stored to place when the drill was over, were 
 now given the sea toss, till the water was 
 covered with wreckage as far as the eye could 
 reach, and a passing ship might readily imag- 
 ine the battle had already been fought and 
 lost. 
 
 The scouts came back, reporting that the 
 enemy's fleet was not in Subig Bay. Then 
 followed a conference of commanding officers 
 aboard the flag-ship. Captain Cartwright re- 
 turned, serenely jubilant. 
 
 "Thank God, there's to be no dawdling," 
 he confided to the executive officer. " We 
 are going in to-night." 
 
 " Over the submarine mines we have heard 
 so much about ? "
 
 274 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 "Very likely they haven't been put in 
 place yet. You know these manana people. 
 Anyhow, we must take our chances." 
 
 " Who goes first ? " 
 
 " The flag-ship." 
 
 " If anything should happen to the flag- 
 ship, the Commodore and fleet captain, 
 that is, you would be " 
 
 "Senior officer present." 
 
 " You had thought of it ? " 
 
 " I had thought of it. But I am not ex- 
 pecting it." 
 
 " What would you do ? " 
 
 " Go on in and finish the fight. What 
 else? But, Selby, suppose we don't spec- 
 ulate any further. We'll meet emergen- 
 cies when we get to them. Too much 
 imagination the night before a battle is a 
 bad thing. The power to sleep well is better 
 than the power to think well just now." 
 
 He was sitting on the poop with a cigar. 
 His legs were crossed, his cap was perched 
 on his knee, and he was blowing smoke rings 
 into the air with quiet enjoyment, Of course
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 275 
 
 the thought passed through his mind that it 
 might be the last cigar he would ever smoke, 
 indeed, he had treated himself to an extra 
 good one out of deference to it, but noth- 
 ing would have induced him to give utter- 
 ance to such an idea. Many things are 
 foolish to say, which are by no means foolish 
 to think. 
 
 This time to-morrow it would all be settled. 
 If he was destined to pass over the divide, 
 he would find the answer of the question that 
 had tormented him for years, the mystery of 
 life and death, the riddle of the great Beyond. 
 It would be either nothing or something. If 
 nothing, then at least no suffering. If some- 
 thing, then Elizabeth would be there too. 
 Dear Elizabeth, he could imagine her coming 
 to meet him ! And there was his mother, 
 who had died when he was a child, whose 
 image he had enshrined and cherished in his 
 lonely boyhood till it had acquired a sacred- 
 ness altogether unearthly. There could be 
 no regret in dying if he was to meet those 
 two, Then he thought of Wriggles and of
 
 276 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 his wife. He had no feeling of being essen- 
 tial to the world. He was a modest man 
 and a philosopher. He knew there were 
 others who would take up his work and do 
 it worthily, as worthily as he, no doubt. 
 Even Wriggles, though his heart yearned 
 over the budding life, would not greatly miss 
 him. His grandmother would bring him up 
 to be an officer and a gentleman. But the 
 grandmother Ah, there was the one who 
 needed him ! They had been together too 
 long to learn to live apart. And Elizabeth 
 was gone. He was the only one. He must 
 stay with her if he could. 
 
 " But she will not grudge the gift of my 
 life, if it is needful," he reflected, and the 
 consciousness of her courage uplifted him 
 again. " What a drag on a man's resolve it 
 must be to have a woman clinging to him 
 who will not understand," he thought com- 
 passionately. 
 
 Suddenly he stood up and tossed the cigar 
 stump overboard. 
 
 " Have that general-court-martial prisoner
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 277 
 
 brought to the mast," he said to the officer 
 of the deck. 
 
 " Ay, ay, sir," replied the young man, salut- 
 ing, but silently wondering. 
 
 The Captain climbed down the ladder from 
 the poop and approached the mainmast, where 
 a marine was leading a handcuffed man, with 
 the haggard eyes and unkempt beard of long 
 days of confinement. 
 
 " Take the handcuffs off," said the Captain. 
 
 The man brought his forefinger to his fore- 
 head perfunctorily. 
 
 " Murphy," said the Captain, with the curi- 
 ous blending of sternness and kindliness in 
 his voice that gave it its distinctive character, 
 " we are going into Manila Bay to-night. We 
 expect to meet the Spanish fleet early in the 
 morning. You are an American like the rest 
 of us. I have no power to remit your sen- 
 tence, as you know, but I am going to make 
 you a prisoner at large and let you have your 
 share in the fight." 
 
 The man, who had stood rather slouchily 
 at first, seemed to gain two inches in height
 
 278 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 as he drew himself up to erectness, and his 
 eyes for the first time met the Captain's with 
 their newly recovered self-respect. 
 
 " Thank you, sir," he said simply, saluting 
 again. 
 
 " That was a fine thing to do, sir," ex- 
 claimed the officer of the deck, as they walked 
 aft together. 
 
 " Why, no," returned the Captain, smiling, 
 " it was merely a rough attempt at justice. 
 He deserved his three months' imprisonment 
 of course. But to be kept out of the fight 
 to-morrow in addition, would make a punish- 
 ment altogether disproportionate to his offence. 
 The court had no such thing as that in mind. 
 I did the best I could to restore the balance." 
 
 He went into the cabin and wrote a few 
 lines to his wife. He was at no time a volu- 
 minous writer. Then he stood in front of 
 the bookcase and took down one volume 
 of the poets after another, turning the famil- 
 iar leaves and pausing to read a few stanzas 
 here and there, favorites of his younger days 
 for the most part, Burns and Keats and
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 279 
 
 Shelley. Last of all, he opened Longfellow's 
 " Christus " at the Finale, the wonderful mon- 
 ologue of Saint John. 
 
 "The clashing of creeds, and the strife 
 Of the many beliefs, that in vain 
 Perplex man's heart and brain, 
 Are naught but the rustle of leaves, 
 When the breath of God upheaves 
 The boughs of the Tree of Life, 
 And they subside again." 
 
 The lines gave him, as they had always 
 done, a vision of the Infinite. It was as 
 though a door opened in his soul's prison- 
 house and let him gaze, free for a moment 
 from the bondage of Self, into the immensi- 
 ties of Time and Space. 
 
 The swift moment of exaltation passed, 
 but left him with a fine serenity. 
 
 " Call me at four bells," he said to the 
 orderly, and lying down on his bunk without 
 undressing, was soon sleeping as soundly as 
 a child.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 AT ten o'clock, when the Captain ap- 
 peared on deck again, refreshed from 
 his nap, he found a beautiful moon- 
 light night, almost too clear for the purpose, 
 though cloud masses, floating here and there, 
 gave promise of the needed obscurity. 
 
 It was so clear that he could see the dark 
 hulls of the other ships. No lights showed 
 but the guiding light of the vessel immedi- 
 ately ahead, carefully shaded from every 
 direction except astern. Such lights as were 
 absolutely necessary in the interior of the 
 ships were veiled from the outside. The 
 silence throughout the squadron was broken 
 only by the throbbing of the engines and the 
 lapping of the water. It might have been a 
 procession of nautical phantoms. 
 
 The high coast of Luzon showed in a 
 280
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 281 
 
 shadowy fashion to the left. The entrance 
 of the bay was only a few miles distant. 
 
 The powder magazines were opened, extra 
 charges for the guns brought up on deck, 
 and the crew called to quarters. Then the 
 clouds swept over the face of the moon, and 
 they headed for the bay. 
 
 They chose the wider entrance, as less 
 likely to be thoroughly protected by mines. 
 This was a time far more trying to men's 
 nerves than the battle of the next morning. 
 The darkness, the silence, the inactivity, while 
 they waited for a submarine explosion that 
 should hurl them into eternity, were far 
 harder to bear than the roar and tumult and 
 strenuous exertion of the fight. 
 
 Beside the danger of mines, there were the 
 
 dangers of navigation. They had no pilot, 
 
 \ 
 of course, and none of the navigating officers 
 
 had ever been in the bay before. Light- 
 houses had been extinguished at the decla- 
 ration of war, leaving them dependent on 
 soundings and Spanish charts notoriously 
 inaccurate. If any of the vessels struck a
 
 282 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 rock or grounded on a shoal, the dawning 
 day would leave them completely at the mercy 
 of the forts. 
 
 But the God of battles was with them. 
 
 To the left, rose the frowning heights of 
 Corregidor ; to the right was the gun-capped 
 rock, El Fraile. One by one the ships passed 
 the danger zone undiscovered, till all the 
 fighters were inside the bay. Then, just as 
 the tension was relaxing and every one begin- 
 ning to breathe freely again, a great shower 
 of sparks shot up from the smoke-stack of the 
 McCulloch. 
 
 There was a moment of breathless waiting. 
 Would a rain of shot pour down on them ? 
 Would mines and torpedoes be exploded under 
 them? 
 
 A rocket went up from Corregidor, and a 
 shot rang out from El Fraile. It was an- 
 swered by one or two of the last vessels of 
 the fleet, and then silence again enveloped them. 
 The transports passed through unmolested, 
 why, no one knows, and the squadron was 
 safe for the moment in the open bay.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 283 
 
 The men who were not on watch were 
 allowed to lie down on the deck and sleep 
 beside their guns. A sharp lookout was 
 kept for torpedo boats, but none appeared. 
 
 At daybreak they swept up to Manila, with 
 battle flags flying from every masthead, look- 
 ing for the Spanish fleet. But the masts and 
 spars that had lured them on were found to 
 belong to merchantmen, and they turned, fol- 
 lowing the shore, till the hostile squadron 
 came into view off the navy yard at Cavite. 
 
 In the histories of us all, even the most 
 humdrum, there are certain supreme moments 
 when life is concentrated to its very essence, 
 mountain peaks of experience where markers 
 are set up for the reckoning of dates back- 
 ward and forward. A mere five minutes at 
 one of these crucial times may color all the 
 rest of one's life for weal or woe. The first 
 of May, 1898, was probably the loftiest of 
 these peaks in the lives of all the Americans 
 at Manila that day. It was also a peak of no 
 mean height in the history of the nation. 
 
 In an advanced stage of civilization, it is
 
 284 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 only occasionally that the great primitive fight- 
 ing instinct of our ancestors gets possession 
 of us. When it does, it sweeps us off our 
 feet. 
 
 The men of the American squadron that 
 Sunday morning in Manila Bay were not 
 philosophizing about the making of history. 
 The mighty present wiped out past and fu- 
 ture. They were uplifted by the gray, word- 
 less Northern ecstasy of battle. The bulldog 
 in them closed his relentless jaws upon the 
 enemy. It was " Pound, pound, pound ! 
 Don't wait to be pounded ! At them again ! 
 Don't give them time to hit back." The 
 recollection of the Maine's destruction aroused 
 the fury of fighting in them ; and years of dis- 
 cipline converted this abounding force of 
 blind rage into a deliberate, carefully directed, 
 far deadlier energy of attack. 
 
 The Spanish shot screamed overhead or 
 splashed in the water, falling short of the 
 mark. 
 
 Through the minds of officers and men, 
 pulsed hot, half-articulate thoughts.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 285 
 
 " Why can't those fellows hit ? Bad marks- 
 manship or bad powder ? Both, probably. 
 They'll strike pretty soon, though; knock us 
 out, maybe ; but in the meantime we'll give 
 'em hell!" 
 
 Clouds of smoke settled down and shut out 
 the contending squadrons from each other's 
 sight, but there was always the flash of the 
 guns to aim at. The Spaniards' fire grew 
 wilder and more irregular. But they showed 
 no other sign of having been injured. A shell 
 passed through the rigging of the Portland, 
 cutting it in several places. Another embedded 
 itself in the sternpost, but failed to explode. 
 A third passed clear through the steam-launch, 
 shattering it completely, but doing no other 
 damage. 
 
 The unformulated thoughts throbbed on. 
 
 " What, no one hurt yet ? That's good. 
 But we mustn't expect it to last. There'll 
 be blood enough flowing presently, no doubt, 
 but we shan't stop for it, not even if it's 
 our own.*' 
 
 Barefoot, naked to the waist, blackened
 
 with powder through which the coursing sweat 
 made erratic streaks, the men at the guns 
 looked like incarnate demons of battle. Here 
 and there a pair of shoes and a gauze under- 
 shirt among these grimy figures marked an 
 officer. Captain Cartwright, who .was always 
 punctilious about dress, added a once-white 
 blouse to the outfit, and tied a silk handker- 
 chief around his neck in place of a collar. 
 
 The heat was awful. At Hong Kong it had 
 not been uncomfortably warm, and on the trip 
 over, though the temperature had increased, 
 they had had steady breezes and little to do. 
 But here they were, suddenly hurled into a 
 land-locked furnace, working like madmen, 
 with the tropical sun blazing down on their 
 unprotected heads. At an ordinary time there 
 would have been scores of heat prostrations, 
 but the excitement of the battle carried them 
 through unscathed. In the dynamo room the 
 thermometer stood at 175 Fahrenheit; yet, 
 though the men had to come up from time to 
 time for air, the dynamo was kept running and 
 no one was incapacitated for duty.
 
 THE MEN AT THE GUNS.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 287 
 
 Throughout the action, the protected con- 
 ning tower was empty. The Captain preferred 
 to stand out on the bridge. His eyes, the only 
 centers of emotion in his impassive figure, 
 were blazing with the light of battle. All his 
 activities of mind seemed quickened. He 
 watched the signals from the flag-ship, the 
 movements of the squadron, every act of the 
 enemy, and especially the fall of his own pro- 
 jectiles. Nothing escaped him. Now and 
 again his voice rang out, praising a well-aimed 
 shot or giving a bit of advice as to the sighting 
 of a gun. 
 
 When they had thundered away for a couple 
 of hours, passing in front of the enemy's fleet 
 and forts five times, the flag-ship signalled to 
 withdraw from action. 
 
 A chill fell on all their hearts. What did it 
 mean ? Were the other ships too seriously 
 crippled to go on ? Had they used up all 
 their ammunition ? Was the Commodore giv- 
 ing up the fight ? Fists clinched and the 
 muscles of the throat tightened. Eyes grew 
 suddenly gloomy. The Captain felt it like the
 
 288 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 rest. He knew no more than they what the 
 move portended ; but for the sake of the others, 
 he assumed a cheerfulness he did not feel. 
 
 "We'll go back and finish them up after 
 breakfast," he sang out to the men on deck, 
 and they responded with a rousing cheer. 
 
 They had hardly turned away from Cavite 
 when tongues of flame appeared amid the 
 smoke that enveloped the Spanish squadron, 
 and as the smoke drifted skyward, the flag-ship 
 Reina Cristina was seen to be on fire. Loud 
 cheering rang through the American fleet at 
 this sight, and was renewed when another 
 Spanish vessel, the Castilla, was presently seen 
 to be burning furiously. 
 
 " Let the people go to breakfast," was the 
 first signal from the flag-ship. 
 
 Was this really what they had withdrawn 
 for ? Twenty minutes for refreshments in the 
 middle of a battle appealed to the grim Ameri- 
 can sense of humor, and a splutter of amuse- 
 ment ran through the ship's company. Here 
 and there an impatient soul grumbled : " Oh, 
 to hell with breakfast ! Let's finish up the
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 289 
 
 dagoes first." But they had had nothing ex- 
 cept a cup of coffee since five o'clock the after- 
 noon before, and they had been working 
 furiously. As soon as the strain was relaxed, 
 they became aware of an exceeding hunger, 
 amounting fairly to faintness. 
 
 " Commanding officers repair aboard flag- 
 ship," was the next signal. 
 
 They wondered what was the cause of the 
 wild cheering aboard the Olympia, and watched 
 eagerly for the return of the Captain's gig. As 
 it came alongside, the officers gathered at the 
 gangway and the men crowded to the bulwarks. 
 Bursting with impatience, they scanned the 
 " old man's " face. There was a buoyant look 
 about it that augured well. With what seemed 
 to them maddening deliberation, he climbed 
 the ladder, uttered the routine " Returned 
 aboard, sir," and responded to the salute of his 
 officers. Then his face broke suddenly into 
 smiles and his voice trembled as he said, 
 
 " There's not a man hurt in the whole 
 fleet!" 
 
 A messenger boy, who had edged up near
 
 290 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 the group of officers in the hope of hearing 
 something, turned and ran forward, waving his 
 arms like a windmill and shouting at the top 
 of his lungs : 
 
 " Not a man hurt in the whole fleet ! Not 
 a man hurt in the whole fleet ! " 
 
 A great cheer went up from the deck. Tears 
 sprang to men's eyes and thanksgivings trem- 
 bled in their hearts. The day of miracles had 
 returned, and they were chosen of the Lord, 
 held safe in the hollow of His hand. 
 
 The Captain told the men the news himself 
 with a little more detail and assured them, on 
 the word of the Commodore, that they were 
 going back in a few minutes to finish the 
 fight. When he dismissed them they danced 
 about like schoolboys, slapped one another 
 on the back, wrung one another's hands, 
 tossed up their caps, and shouted till their 
 throats were raw. 
 
 The celebration stopped abruptly, as a signal 
 fluttered from the flag-ship's halyards. The 
 mellow notes of the bugle called to quarters, 
 and they stood away again for the enemy.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 291 
 
 It was closer in this time and harder ham- 
 mering than ever, short, sharp, and decisive. 
 The Reina Cristina and the Castilla sank in 
 flames. The powder magazine of the Don 
 Juan de Austria exploded, and ship and men 
 disappeared in a volcano of fire. The Don 
 Antonio de Ulloa went down heroically, with 
 flag nailed to the mast and impotent guns fir- 
 ing to the end. One after another, the re- 
 maining gunboats were sunk or burned and 
 the batteries silenced. At last the red and 
 yellow flag of Spain, hanging limp above the 
 arsenal, was hauled down, and the battle was 
 over. 
 
 The Spanish fleet was destroyed, the Pa- 
 cific coast was made secure, the Maine was 
 avenged, and an empire had been lost and 
 won.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THE hardest battles are those fought 
 by the non-combatants. They have 
 none of the joy of action and all the 
 terror of suspense. 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright, who was both a philoso- 
 pher and a patriot, far from going out to meet 
 trouble, resolutely turned her back on it and, 
 so far as might be, refused to contemplate it 
 as possible. " Time enough to cross our 
 bridges when we get to them," she said often 
 and thought oftener. And so, again, there 
 were some who misread her determined cheer- 
 fulness and called it indifference. But they 
 only saw her with her armor on. There were 
 times, above all in the evening after Wriggles 
 was asleep, when phantoms of disaster haunted 
 her, and hideous possibilities with personal 
 applications made her teeth fairly chatter with 
 
 fear. 
 
 292
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 293 
 
 When the rumors began circulating in Hong 
 Kong, she absolutely refused to take anything 
 seriously in advance of the American official 
 reports. Yet in spite of her brave words, she 
 could not but be disquieted over the confident 
 announcement that two American vessels had 
 been blown up and the American fleet repulsed. 
 Finally, bit by bit, the unwilling Spanish tele- 
 grams conceded that their fleet had been anni- 
 hilated and no American ships lost. 
 
 This was glorious news, but did not assuage 
 personal anxieties. There were references to 
 the large number of Spanish killed and 
 wounded, but no hint as to the extent of 
 American casualties, except the unpleasantly 
 suggestive phrase that the fleet withdrew in 
 the middle of the action to bury its dead. 
 Then cable communication was broken off, 
 and as the days dragged past without a word, 
 the strain of suspense grew harder and harder 
 to bear. The tentative rejoicing of a woman 
 over a great victory which may have plunged 
 her into deepest mourning, is as painful a 
 complexus of emotions as one often meets.
 
 294 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 There was quite a colony of officers' wives 
 in Hong Kong, fifteen or more, of varying 
 types, excitable young things still wearing 
 their trousseaus, pessimistic matrons who con- 
 sistently expected the worst, and nervous 
 creatures who paced the floor all night 
 wringing their hands. Among these weaker 
 sisters, Mrs. Cartwright passed to and fro 
 dispensing confidence, joking and scolding 
 a great deal, sympathizing a very little, sug- 
 gesting pleasant possibilities, and laughing 
 down all auguries of evil. 
 
 At last the blessed day came that brought 
 the McCulloch into the harbor with news of 
 every one's safety, and letters for all the wives. 
 
 The colony met in one another's rooms and 
 rejoiced hysterically. But Mrs. Cartwright 
 stole off with Wriggles to a secluded spot she 
 knew of under a big banyan tree in the Public 
 Gardens, where she could read her letters over 
 and over and wipe away the tears of thank- 
 fulness that brimmed her eyes, without any 
 one's seeing her. For Wriggles was build- 
 ing a fort and did not notice.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 295 
 
 When she went back after a couple of 
 hours, she had herself well in hand and was 
 ready to compare notes and rejoice in unison. 
 
 " Think what we're missing by not being 
 at home to-day ! " she exclaimed. " Just 
 imagine the enthusiasm ! How the crowds 
 are thronging in front of the newspaper offices 
 and cheering over every fresh bulletin ! The 
 boys are shouting extras, and the flags are 
 waving, and the people are going wild. And 
 here, what does anybody care but us ? Our 
 friends will congratulate us politely. The 
 others are mildly interested in the day's news, 
 but it's just news. They don't really 
 care." 
 
 " I don't notice you going home though," 
 somebody suggested, with a smile. 
 
 " Going home ? With my husband at 
 Manila? Not quite. We must get along 
 as best we can without any enthusiasm except 
 our own. But it's an awful loss. I shan't 
 ever quite get over it." 
 
 A few days later, Mrs. Cartwright moved 
 up to the Peak to get Wriggles out of the
 
 296 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 steaming heat of the lower levels. He had 
 lost his beautiful rosy color and was white 
 like the rest of the children, but otherwise he 
 was perfectly well. To be sure, his grand- 
 mother hovered over him night and day, and 
 never relaxed her vigilance. 
 
 The months that followed were trying 
 months. If was impossible to count on any- 
 thing. There was the constant expectation 
 that the fleet would leave Manila and sail 
 for home. No one dreamed at first that the 
 city would be occupied by our forces. When 
 it was announced that troops would be sent 
 out for that purpose, it was supposed that 
 as soon as they arrived, there would be no 
 further need for most of the ships. But 
 about that time the Camara scare was started, 
 and it became necessary to keep the fleet to- 
 gether to fight another Spanish squadron. 
 And there was the German complication, and 
 the delay in taking Manila. 
 
 The lack of full and comprehensible war 
 news from America was a source of much 
 distress to Mrs. Cartwright, who roundly
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 297 
 
 abused the want of enterprise shown by 
 the colonial press and the meagerness and 
 unreliability of the telegrams. They had a 
 way of announcing that such and such an 
 American ship had been captured by the 
 Spaniards, or that the American attack on 
 such and such a Cuban town had been re- 
 pulsed with heavy loss ; and as contradictions 
 were not considered interesting enough to 
 cable, there would be no means of knowing 
 it was a mere canard till the newspapers 
 came by mail a month later. Their sense 
 of proportion was, moreover, according to 
 Mrs. Cartwright, singularly deficient. 
 
 " They devote more space to the Duke 
 of York's having a cold in his head," she 
 exclaimed, indignantly, " than to the battle 
 of Santiago ! " 
 
 When one is at the antipodes, letters from 
 home assume a value altogether artificial, and 
 Mrs. Cartwright watched the arrival of the 
 mail steamers from San Francisco with only 
 less eagerness than that of the despatch boats 
 from Manila. Two letters which she received
 
 298 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 about this time interested her very greatly, 
 though they filled her with widely different 
 feelings. They were from Barbara and Sue, 
 both warmly congratulating her on her hus- 
 band's safety, on the thanks of Congress he 
 had received in common with the rest of the 
 fleet, and on the indefinite honors that were 
 doubtless in store for him. But here their 
 similarity ended. Barbara, while she refrained 
 from saying all she felt about the iniquity of 
 the war, out of deference to Mrs. Cartwright's 
 well-known sentiments, could not altogether 
 conceal her distress over the course being 
 pursued by " our unhappy country." 
 
 " More and more," she wrote, " do I find 
 myself out of tune with a society so given over 
 to the pride of conquest and the lust of re- 
 venge. It always seemed frivolous and foolish 
 and tiresome enough, but now it is positively 
 hateful. Should you be very much surprised 
 if I withdrew from it altogether, and if you 
 found me, on your return, in the white robe 
 of a novice ? Stranger things have hap- 
 pened."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 299 
 
 " Stranger fiddlesticks ! " exclaimed Mrs. 
 Cartwright, irreverently. " Stuff and nonsense ! 
 White robe of a novice, indeed ! If she wants 
 to sacrifice herself, why doesn't she brace up 
 and do something useful that will help other 
 people ? Why can't she nurse sick soldiers, 
 like Sue ? I've no patience with such a notion. 
 I hope it's all talk, but Barbara's such an odd 
 girl in spots that I can't feel sure." 
 
 Sue was, indeed, nursing sick soldiers with 
 all the enthusiasm of her enthusiastic nature; 
 but she was not doing it on enthusiasm alone. 
 Among the various forms of activity to 
 which she had turned her hand, she had once, 
 soon after leaving college, taken a course in 
 nursing, and her training-school diploma en- 
 abled her to be enrolled in the newly organized 
 corps of army nurses. The doctor and head 
 nurses had looked a little askance at her, fear- 
 ing the dilettante, but Sue soon established 
 her right to be regarded as a serious worker. 
 The old knack and knowledge of the hospital, 
 rusty from disuse, speedily came back to her, 
 and she had many qualifications which admi-
 
 3 oo THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 rably fitted her for her new vocation. Not 
 least among these was the discipline that comes 
 from mental training. In spite of the popular 
 impression to the contrary, a college education, 
 properly received, does help a man to dig 
 ditches and a woman to make beds better than 
 they would have done without it. She had, to 
 a remarkable degree, the adaptability to new 
 conditions which is supposed to be character- 
 istic of all Americans. She had a magnificent 
 physique, thanks to which she was able to en- 
 dure continuous and very wearing labor with- 
 out feeling any ill effects. Her charm of person 
 and manner gave her unlimited power over 
 refractory patients, while her perfect dignity 
 effectually checked the sentimentalities of con- 
 valescents. - 
 
 Amid her manifold duties at a typhoid fever 
 camp, she did not have much time for writing 
 letters, she said, but she had to express her 
 congratulations to Mrs. Cartwright about the 
 dear Captain and tell her in just a few words 
 what she was doing. And then, at the last, 
 came a single, significant, apparently unrelated
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 301 
 
 little phrase, "I wish you would tell me 
 your honest opinion of second marriages." 
 
 " Bless her heart," reflected Mrs. Cartwrightj 
 " what shall I say to the child ? Of course my 
 words of wisdom won't really make any differ- 
 ence. But I've got to say something. What's 
 the good of a general opinion about a question 
 like that ? It doesn't amount to anything. 
 Now to be personal, if I were to die and 
 Julius made an old fool of himself and married 
 some young girl, I'd haunt him. Wouldn't I 
 though ! And if Jim Whittemore, after having 
 had the privilege of being Elizabeth's husband, 
 were to take it into his head to marry some- 
 body else, I'd hate him most cordially to my 
 dying day. But I don't want to say that to 
 Sue. . . . On the other hand, it would be a 
 little bald to tell her that there are few things 
 in this world which would so delight me as for 
 her to marry John Me Masters, and yet it 
 has the double advantage of being the truth 
 and exactly what she wants to hear ! "
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 AFTER the peace protocol was signed, 
 the Duluth came north. And as the 
 Chickamauga typhoid epidemic was a 
 thing of the past and Sue had been trans- 
 ferred to Camp Wyckoff at Montauk Point, 
 Mr. McMasters was able to see her almost 
 immediately. 
 
 " You must give this up," he said sternly. 
 "It's killing you." 
 
 In fact, she was beginning to look pale 
 and fagged. 
 
 " No, it isn't," she replied cheerfully. 
 " And what if it were ? It's my work. I 
 didn't try to keep you away from Spanish 
 bullets when your duty called you to face 
 them, did I ? " 
 
 It was significant that they should assume 
 so much responsibility for each other. Their 
 
 302
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 303 
 
 correspondence had evidently been of a pro- 
 gressive nature. 
 
 " But the war is over now," he pleaded. 
 
 " Its consequences are not over," she re- 
 plied, with a comprehensive gesture toward 
 the tents where the sick and wounded lay. 
 
 "You have done more than your share 
 already. It is time to think of yourself." 
 
 " Look here, John McMasters," she said, 
 with intense earnestness, " I don't believe in 
 a double standard of morality for men and 
 women, and neither do I believe in a double 
 standard of honor for them. I undertook to 
 serve the commonweal just as seriously as 
 you did, and I propose to keep on doing it 
 till I am mustered out." 
 
 " By George ! " he said, " you ought to be 
 a naval officer ! You've the spirit of the 
 service to perfection." 
 
 They both smiled at the frank conceit 
 caste conceit, if not personal of the remark. 
 
 " Unfortunately, I can't be," she replied, 
 with an odd little smile. (( I would if I 
 could."
 
 3 o 4 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 "You might be a naval officer's wife," he 
 suggested in a very low voice, his eyes fixed 
 on the hole he was poking in the ground 
 with his cane. 
 
 She rose from the empty vinegar keg on 
 which she had been sitting. 
 
 " I might be," she said gently, " if " 
 
 "If what?" he demanded, looking up at 
 her quickly. 
 
 "If the ideal man I have been waiting for 
 should ask me." 
 
 " Oh ! " he breathed, with a little choke. 
 His eyes were like a hurt child's. 
 
 He had misunderstood her, but in the na- 
 ture of things, she could hardly explain his 
 mistake to him. 
 
 " I go on duty now," she said. " I've 
 got to leave you. When can you come 
 again ? " 
 
 " This is a mighty sudden way to shake a 
 fellow," he remarked, summoning a smile with 
 an effort. " I'll be back to-morrow, with 
 your permission, if you'll be good enough to 
 tell me of a more propitious hour."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 305 
 
 " Can't you take off those emblems of 
 your high calling and come for a walk with 
 me out of sight of all this?" he asked 
 her next day on arriving. 
 
 She raised both hands to the little muslin 
 cap on her head, then held out her white 
 apron daintily between thumb and finger. 
 
 " Do they worry you, these things ? " she 
 laughed at him. " I thought them rather 
 becoming," she added demurely. 
 
 " They are," he agreed, " like everything 
 you wear. But they're not appropriate. You 
 ought to be robed always in a stiff brocade 
 with a court train." 
 
 She made him a curtsy, then became sud- 
 denly businesslike. 
 
 " I've only got two hours off duty, and 
 fifteen minutes are gone already. Don't you 
 think it would be rather a waste to spend any 
 of the remaining hour and three quarters in 
 shifting costumes back and forth ? I'll do it if 
 you say so," she added with absurd meekness, 
 looking at him from the corners of her eyes. 
 
 " No indeed," he cried with vehemence. " I
 
 306 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 didn't think of that. The minutes are far too 
 precious. Come down on the beach. Around 
 that point, perhaps, we can get out of sight of 
 all these hospital appliances. You must want 
 to get away from them sometimes ? " 
 
 " Do you find them depressing ? " she asked 
 him serenely. " You'd soon get over that. 
 But we'll go down on the beach by all means." 
 
 They walked together along the firm damp 
 sand toward the lighthouse, till they had left 
 the last of the tents behind them and were alone 
 with the curling waves, the winged clouds, and 
 the great sand dunes tufted with coarse grass. 
 
 " Who would have thought that night at the 
 Cartwrights's dinner, when I met you two girls 
 in pretty evening gowns, that I'd ever see one 
 of you dressed as an army nurse and the other 
 as a nun ! " 
 
 " Oh," she cried, ignoring her own share of 
 the remark, " poor Barbara ! Isn't it dreadful ? 
 But she likes it. She revels in it. Of course 
 she hasn't taken the vows yet. She can give it 
 up if she wants to. But she won't, she won't, 
 unless you can induce her to ? "
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 307 
 
 " // " he exclaimed, in obvious astonishment. 
 " What in the world should she care for my 
 views ? Besides, I'm inclined to think it's just 
 the life she's suited for. A coif and bandeau 
 will harmonize perfectly with that seraphic face 
 of hers." 
 
 " You take it very coolly," said Sue. " Are 
 you all over it then ? " 
 
 "Over what?" 
 
 His evident bewilderment bewildered her in 
 turn. She had recourse to utter frankness. 
 
 " Surely you used to be in love with Bar- 
 bara ? " 
 
 "// Good Lord, what put such an idea as 
 that into your head ? You're thinking of 
 Ferris." 
 
 " I'm hardly likely to confuse the two. But 
 I was so sure " 
 
 " You were sure of a very big mistake then." 
 
 A wave of color had swept over her face, and 
 to save her from embarrassment, he hastily 
 changed the subject. 
 
 " Did you see that picture of Ferris in the 
 paper the other day labelled ' Hero Ferris ' P
 
 3 o8 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 I've seen Poet Jones and Artist Smith, but I 
 believe Hero Ferris is a shade worse. We 
 have no patents of nobility, but our fearful and 
 wonderful press does its best to make up for 
 the lack." 
 
 "Who would ever have thought," she 
 mused, " that he would be the one to perform 
 barring the Merrimac episode almost the 
 only spectacular act of heroism of the whole 
 war?" 
 
 " Why not ? He's earnest and fearless. 
 Drawing-room cleverness isn't necessary to 
 heroism." 
 
 " As if I cared for drawing-room cleverness ! 
 But I remember Captain Cartwright's saying 
 once that he had the making of a Casabianca, 
 and I suppose a certain amount of stupidity is 
 necessary to produce that type." 
 
 " Don't belittle Ferris's achievement. He 
 handled his torpedo-boat magnificently." 
 
 " Oh, I know. It was tremendously fine. 
 I wrote and told him so, though he must be 
 too much snowed under by celebrity to care 
 about a note more or less."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 309 
 
 " I wonder if Miss Thornhill wrote ? " 
 
 Oh no. She'd be afraid to." 
 
 " For fear of encouraging him ? You think 
 his becoming so distinguished hasn't softened 
 her heart any ? " 
 
 " How could .it, if she didn't love him ? " 
 
 " You are sure she didn't ? " 
 
 " Oh, very sure." 
 
 " But sometimes you make mistakes about 
 the state of people's affections." 
 
 " So it appears. But there's no doubt about 
 that" 
 
 "Your old friend Mr. Fairchild is recom- 
 mended for five numbers' advance for cable- 
 cutting, I see." 
 
 " He's no friend of mine." 
 
 " Not since he failed in friendliness to the 
 Mothers' Club ? You are very unforgiving." 
 
 " I could forgive much larger things more 
 easily. That happened to be a sort of touch- 
 stone. . . . But tell me, how does it feel to 
 be a returning hero ? " 
 
 His face fell. 
 
 " Don't laugh at my misfortune," he said.
 
 310 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 u It isn't kind. It's not a thing to say much 
 about, but don't you suppose I feel the dis- 
 appointment keenly enough ? " 
 
 " What are you talking about ? " 
 
 " That the war should have come and gone, 
 perhaps the only one I shall ever have a 
 chance at, with all its golden opportunities, 
 and all of them should have passed me by." 
 
 " How passed you by ? " 
 
 " My application to go in with the Merri- 
 mac was turned down. I had no chance to 
 destroy an enemy's ship with a torpedo-boat, 
 like Ferris. I wasn't at Manila Bay or at 
 Santiago. I didn't even have the luck to be 
 sent out in a launch to cut cables." 
 
 " But those things were not your fault." 
 
 " Possibly not." 
 
 " You went where you were sent." 
 
 "Of course." 
 
 " And did your whole duty." 
 
 " I hope so." 
 
 " It was only by an unlucky chance that 
 your ship was away chasing a blockade-runner 
 the day of the Santiago fight."
 
 " There is pardon sometimes for the wicked, 
 but never for the unlucky." 
 
 Sue was watching him with troubled, kindly 
 eyes. 
 
 " I don't understand you," she said. " You 
 are showing me a new side of yourself to-day. 
 I didn't know you cared a rap for fame." 
 
 " I don't for myself," he replied. " But 
 I wanted it to lay at your feet." 
 
 She started. When she spoke her voice 
 was low and full of feeling. 
 
 " Don't you know that I am far prouder 
 of what you are than of what anybody else 
 has done ? " 
 
 They had sat down on the slope of a big 
 sand-hill which blotted out the view of the 
 camp. Sue's hands lay idly in her lap ; but 
 McMasters, more restless apparently, leaned 
 on one elbow and scooped out holes in the 
 dry sand, which slid down from the edges and 
 filled them up as fast as he hollowed them 
 out. He stopped now and looked at her 
 steadfastly. 
 
 "Are you just being kind, or "
 
 312 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 " Or what ? " she prompted. 
 
 " I can't bear to spoil our friendship ! " he 
 burst out. 
 
 She looked bewildered again. 
 
 " Is there any earthly reason why you 
 should ? " she asked. 
 
 " I'm afraid, abjectly afraid," he con- 
 fessed. 
 
 " I don't see anything to be afraid of," she 
 said evenly. 
 
 " Help me, then." 
 
 The veil had fallen. His heart was in his 
 eyes. 
 
 " What is it you wish me to say ? " 
 
 Her voice was hardly above a whisper. 
 
 " That you've changed your mind." 
 
 " About what ? " 
 
 "What you said that night about second- 
 hand men." 
 
 For an instant she looked dazed. Then, as 
 the flood of memory swept over her, she gave 
 a low cry, like that of a mother who finds a 
 child in unsuspected pain. 
 
 " You poor, poor boy ! " Her voice thrilled
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 313 
 
 tenderly. She laid her hand on his shoulder, 
 and the tears swam in her eyes. 
 
 He possessed himself of the hand and laid it 
 against his cheek. 
 
 "Who repeated that hideous phrase to you ? " 
 she cried, with dawning indignation. 
 
 " I heard it from your own dear lips," he 
 said. " I had left my overcoat behind " 
 
 "Yes, I remember." 
 
 " I turned around to come back for it, glad 
 of an excuse to leave the others, glad of an 
 excuse to get back to the blessed house that 
 held you, hoping for the chance of another 
 word with you, Oh, you can't guess how 
 full of you I was ! There was never any one 
 like you in the world. You carried me off my 
 feet. You were so beautiful, so brilliant, and 
 so sweetly unconscious of it all, so alive to 
 the finger tips, so full of enthusiasm. I had 
 not stopped to think of myself, whether I 
 was worthy or not, whether there was the 
 slightest hope for me or not. The universe 
 was simply full of you. And as I came around 
 under the drawing-room windows, they were
 
 3H THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 all wide open, the light was streaming out, 
 I could distinguish your voice among the 
 others. I was walking slowly to finish my 
 cigarette before I got to the door. I didn't 
 intend to listen, but I couldn't help hearing 
 what you said." 
 
 As he spoke, her face was tense with the pain 
 of sympathy. She drew her hand away from 
 him and pressed it with the other over her eyes 
 for a moment, as though to shut out some too 
 painful vision. 
 
 " Oh, how cruel it must have sounded ! " 
 she murmured. 
 
 " It was not cruel," he said gently. "It 
 was true. You were perfectly right about it. 
 But it tumbled me head over heels out of 
 my fool's paradise. I could no more help 
 loving you than I could help breathing, but 
 I knew you were not for me, and that my 
 only chance to be with you, to see you, and 
 hear you, was to keep myself well in hand." 
 
 " You were very successful," she said. 
 
 " Miss Barbara used to let me talk about 
 you to her by the hour. It was very nice
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 315 
 
 of heV. If it hadn't been for that, I'm afraid 
 I should have given myself away." 
 
 She made no reply. His power of articu- 
 late speech had outlasted hers. But he was 
 at an end, too. His marvellous self-control 
 was deserting him. 
 
 For a long moment they looked into each 
 other's eyes looked, and read the glowing 
 message, looked, while their hearts stood 
 still with rapturous fear, looked, till the 
 heavens reeled and time and space melted 
 away. 
 
 " Beloved ! " he whispered, as his arms 
 closed around her.
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 THE Portland was the first of the vessels 
 taking part in the battle of Manila 
 Bay to be ordered home. The en- 
 thusiasm kindled by the war was still blazing, 
 and every nerve was strained to make the wel- 
 come of the ship a fitting expression of it. 
 
 When she was reported off Sandy Hook, 
 with her four-hundred-foot homeward-bound 
 pennant floating from the main truck, every 
 yacht, tugboat, and excursion steamer in New 
 York harbor hastened to meet her and escort 
 her to the anchorage in North River. Reck- 
 less sightseers in rowboats and sailboats 
 courted death under the white bow of the 
 cruiser. The people on the excursion boats 
 crowded to the rail till the decks were steeply 
 aslant and only a miracle prevented their cap- 
 sizing. Flags and handkerchiefs fluttered, hats 
 
 316
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 317 
 
 waved, thousands of throats cheered them- 
 selves hoarse, steam whistles shrieked deafen- 
 ingly, and brass bands tried vainly to make 
 themselves heard above the din. The cap- 
 tains of the excursion boats ran as close as 
 they dared to the sides of the man-of-war. 
 
 " That's him ! That's him ! " cried a chorus 
 of jubilant sightseers, as they made out an 
 officer on the bridge whose features were 
 already familiar to them in newspaper cuts 
 and magazine illustrations. " Welcome home, 
 Captain Cartwright ! " 
 
 " Why, thank you," said the officer, simply, 
 doffing his cap, obviously surprised at the 
 personalness of the greeting. 
 
 The great American populace were not con- 
 tent with this. Whom they love, they slap 
 on the back. Being prevented by the stretch 
 of water between them from expressing their 
 admiration of Captain Cartwright in this man- 
 ner, they conveyed the spirit of the act, at 
 least, by addressing him as "Julius," calling 
 him a " bully boy," informing him that he 
 was the " real stuff," and could " have them
 
 318 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 all," and assuring him that they " wouldn't do 
 a thing to him " when they got him ashore. 
 An inspired punster called out that he was 
 " All-right as well as Cartwright," and the bon- 
 mot was repeated and the changes rung on it 
 till the flesh crept. 
 
 Familiarity of this sort was altogether new 
 in Captain Cartwright's experience, and he was 
 far from relishing it. He would have taken 
 refuge in his cabin, had his presence not been 
 absolutely required on the bridge for the bring- 
 ing of his ship into port. His whole soul 
 writhed under the vulgarity of it, till at last 
 in utter disgust he exclaimed : 
 
 " The good Lord, in His infinite mercy, 
 may be able to forgive the Admiral for lead- 
 ing us into Manila Bay, but / never can ! " 
 
 The reporters got hold of the phrase and 
 served it up with embellishments in the even- 
 ing papers. Instead of hurting anybody's 
 feelings, it seemed somehow to tickle the 
 popular sense of humor. From having been 
 merely an ex officio hero, what the news- 
 papers delighted to describe as " one of the
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 319 
 
 fighting captains of Manila Bay," Captain 
 Cartwright suddenly found himself the per- 
 sonal idol of seventy millions of his fellow- 
 countrymen. 
 
 His speech at the banquet that night added 
 to his popularity. The American public is 
 convinced that naval and military heroes 
 should be inarticulate, not stupidly so, of 
 course, but intelligently, and, as one may say, 
 sympathetically inarticulate. So, when Captain 
 Cartwright rose in response to the toast of 
 the evening, and having said in a well modu- 
 lated voice, " It is good to be back in God's 
 country, and we thank you from our hearts 
 for the warmth of the welcome you have given 
 us," sat down again, the Citizens' Committee 
 of One Hundred and their numerous guests 
 went wild over him, and the morning papers 
 grew eloquent in praise of his modesty and 
 simple manliness. 
 
 The day following the arrival of the Port- 
 land was devoted to a great procession. The 
 streets through which it passed were gayly 
 decked with bunting. Every window along
 
 320 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 the route seemed alive with faces. Tempo- 
 rary stands, with seats on bare boards selling 
 at five dollars apiece, were full of enthusias- 
 tic sightseers effervescing with patriotism. 
 Every inch of standing room on the sidewalk 
 was packed, and the long line of police on 
 either side of the street with difficulty held 
 back the swaying masses. 
 
 There were cheers for the visiting govern- 
 ors and dapper state troops, cheers for the 
 Civil War veterans, wild applause for the 
 soldiers back from Cuba, with their rough 
 field equipment, torn battle flags, and piti- 
 fully thinned ranks ; but the frenzy of en- 
 thusiasm was saved for the detachment of 
 brown-legginged blue-jackets in whose honor 
 the celebration was held, and the very essence 
 of its fury was concentrated on the quiet, 
 middle-aged gentleman in full-dress naval 
 uniform with cocked hat and epaulets, who 
 rode in an open carriage at the right hand of 
 the mayor. 
 
 The ways of returning heroes are various. 
 Some are visibly elated to the point of hilarity.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 321 
 
 Some are touched to tears. Some, trying to 
 play the part appropriately, achieve wooden- 
 ness instead of dignity. One would have 
 said, had such a thing been possible, that this 
 particular hero was utterly unconscious of 
 occupying the center of the stage, and that the 
 sentiment with which he regarded the whole 
 spectacle was a mild and genial amusement. 
 
 They passed a living flag composed of 
 school children dressed in red, white, and 
 blue, singing the " Star-spangled Banner." 
 
 " Charming ! " said the hero of the occa- 
 sion, as he sat, hat in hand, to pass them. 
 
 But, to the disappointment of the mayor 
 and the newspaper men, he wiped no tear 
 from the corner of his eye. There was ob- 
 viously none to wipe. 
 
 Then they came to a band of white-gowned 
 young girls scattering flowers. 
 
 The hero picked up a rose that fell on his 
 sleeve and fastened it in his buttonhole. 
 
 " This is quite overwhelming," he said to 
 the mayor, but his voice did not tremble in 
 the least.
 
 322 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 Next, passing an open square, they came 
 upon a chorus, five hundred strong, who 
 greeted them with " Hail to the Chief." 
 
 " This appears to be a conspiracy to turn 
 my head," said the hero, but his unemotional 
 manner showed how little the conspiracy had 
 succeeded. 
 
 Once only did he betray something warmer 
 than polite and decorous appreciation of the 
 efforts of others. As they approached the 
 flag-decked front of an up-town hotel, he 
 spoke a few words to the mayor and began 
 to scan the windows and balconies with some- 
 thing like eagerness. 
 
 " Oh, there he is ! There's Gran'fadder ! " 
 cried a high, childish voice. 
 
 At the same instant the Captain saw them 
 and waved his hat. His wife's handkerchief 
 fluttered enthusiastically in response, and the 
 child's hand, unsteady with excitement, hurled 
 a bunch of violets toward the carriage, which 
 fell far short of the mark. 
 
 " Oh, he didn't get them ! " cried the boy. 
 
 "Never mind, sonny, he shall," said a good-
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 323 
 
 natured voice from the crowd; and the little 
 bunch of flowers was passed along, high over 
 men's heads, till it reached its destination. 
 
 Hardly a score of people caught enough of 
 the incident to guess that the excited little 
 sailor boy who threw the flowers was the 
 " hero's " grandson, and the gray-haired lady 
 who held the child on the rail of the balcony 
 was his wife. The newspapers did not get 
 hold of it at all. Yet, had they but known 
 it, the five minutes during which he was in 
 sight of that particular balcony were the only 
 ones of the day when his heart beat faster than 
 its wont. 
 
 That evening, after having shown them- 
 selves for a short time at the banquet ten- 
 dered by the city to the enlisted men of the 
 Portland, Captain and Mrs. Cartwright re- 
 tired to their rooms at the hotel, leaving 
 word at the office that the Captain was resting 
 and on no account to be disturbed. The ex- 
 perience of the last thirty-six hours had taught 
 them the inadequacy of such precautions, and 
 they hastened to turn out the gas in their sit-
 
 324 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 ting-room, for the discouragement of any enter- 
 prising reporter who might be lurking about 
 their door in search of copy, as well as for the 
 better enjoyment of the firelight. 
 
 They drew their arm-chairs up in front of 
 the grate, a glowing center from which ven- 
 turesome rays strayed out capriciously into 
 the shadowy room. The Captain lighted his 
 cigar and leaned back, luxuriously watching 
 the play of the yellow flames above the red 
 lumps of coal. 
 
 " This is the first peaceful moment I've 
 had since we got into port," he remarked. 
 
 Several minutes elapsed before he spoke 
 again. 
 
 "You observe that row of silver gimcracks 
 on the table that were presented to me at 
 City Hall this morning by the various mu- 
 nicipal boards, aldermen, police commis- 
 sioners and the rest ? " 
 
 "Yes, you showed them to me before 
 dinner." 
 
 " It was not pleasant for a decent man to 
 have to accept such things, knowing that
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 325 
 
 they had been paid for in the first place by 
 the dive-keepers of the Tenderloin." 
 
 "Julius!" 
 
 " Well, weren't they ? But there is one 
 of them that I shall always regard as an in- 
 teresting souvenir, that two-handled tooth 
 mug second from the end." 
 
 "You might be more gracious," she pro- 
 tested. "They did their best." 
 
 He leaned forward to knock the ashes off 
 his cigar against the edge of the grate. 
 
 " I don't remember what board it repre- 
 sents. The inscription will probably tell. 
 But the member who was chosen to present 
 it, who came forward beaming to make his 
 little speech, was you would never guess ! " 
 
 " Who ? " she begged. 
 
 "John C. O'Meara!" 
 
 " No ! " 
 
 " Yes. He has been rising in the world 
 too." 
 
 " Julius, what did you do ? " 
 
 " What would you expect under the cir- 
 cumstances ? c Captain,' said he, c we've had
 
 326 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 our differences, but I hope you bear no 
 malice. We're all Americans together to- 
 day, and I want to shake the hand of the 
 grandest sailor that ever trod the quarter- 
 deck.' " 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright beamed magnanimity. 
 
 " And what did you do, Julius ? " she 
 repeated. 
 
 He smiled at her quizzically. 
 
 "Do?" he bantered. "Why, what could 
 I do ? Wasn't I in the power of the Phi- 
 listines ? . . . I wrung his hand most cor- 
 dially." 
 
 " Thank heaven ! " she ejaculated. 
 
 " I made a few appropriate remarks, and he 
 was obliged to blow his nose repeatedly to 
 carry off his superfluous emotion." 
 
 " Poor man, perhaps he isn't so bad after 
 all ! Even a Tammany politician seems to 
 have some patriotism if you can only get at 
 it." 
 
 "Patriotism ! " he echoed scornfully. "Emo- 
 tional poppycock ! " 
 
 " Don't be unjust, dear," she urged. " All
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 327 
 
 the world can't have your temperament, you 
 know. There is such a thing as genuine feel- 
 ing which is not concealed." 
 
 He made no reply, but gazed contempla- 
 tively at the cigar between his middle and 
 index ringers. 
 
 " If you had seen, as I have to-day, strong 
 men with tears coursing down their cheeks, 
 women holding up little children that they 
 might be able to say in later years that they 
 had seen you " 
 
 " Don't you know that that same hysterical 
 mob may be abusing me like a pickpocket in 
 six months ? " he interrupted. " They don't 
 rend their hero limb from limb nowadays 
 when they grow tired of him. But they do 
 something crueler. They turn him over to 
 the comic weeklies." 
 
 " Not unless he does something to deserve 
 it," she pleaded. 
 
 " But he's bound to do something to deserve 
 it from their point of view," he assured her, 
 warming to the argument. " The great Ameri- 
 can public throws itself on its face and cries,
 
 328 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 4 Let me lick the dust from the boots of this 
 adorable demigod ! ' The returning hero says, 
 f This is exceedingly kind of you, but there is 
 really some mistake about it. I'm not a demi- 
 god, you know.' But the public only licks the 
 harder, crying, c What a modest deity ! ' And 
 then all at once, when it finds out he is human, 
 it rails at him for an impostor and turns him 
 over to the cartoonist. And when the cartoon- 
 ist is through with him, he drops into oblivion 
 and is thankful to get there." 
 
 " Don't try to spoil my pleasure in it all." 
 
 " Heaven forbid ! I am trying to save you 
 from heart-burning when the inevitable sequel 
 comes." 
 
 "It never occurred to me, Julius, that the 
 popular enthusiasm over your return would 
 always remain at white heat. I didn't suppose 
 you would be greeted with cheers to your dying 
 day whenever you set foot in the street, or be 
 mobbed by thousands, whose highest ambition 
 was to shake your hand " 
 
 " I should hope not." 
 
 " No, it would be a great bore if it lasted.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 329 
 
 But while it is here, it is genuine. And 
 under it all, there will be something that 
 does last. And that something I suppose one 
 may as well call fame." 
 
 " With a capital F ? If it had struck me 
 at two-and-twenty, I might have thought so." 
 
 " Julius, nobody was ever as indifferent to 
 praise as you appear to be. It's an affecta- 
 tion." 
 
 " I am not in the least indifferent to dis- 
 criminating praise, my dear," he smiled at 
 her, cc yours first, then that of my brother 
 officers at home and abroad. And I should 
 value it from intelligent civilians too," he 
 added, with elaborate large-mindedness. " But 
 the fulsome flattery in the newspapers, with 
 its gross exaggerations, its ignorances and in- 
 accuracies, and its execrable bad taste, is a 
 thing to make one feel ashamed, not proud." 
 
 "You should credit them with their good 
 intentions, dear. They are doing the best they 
 know how. Probably nobody was ever praised 
 for what most deserved praise in his life, but 
 if the right man gets about the right amount
 
 330 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 of admiration, the exact distribution of it over 
 his career is immaterial." 
 
 " Ah, now you're treading on the edge of 
 great thoughts. But aren't these the same 
 newspapers and the same sheeplike populace 
 who poured the vials of their wrath on me 
 when I sank the Bell Buoy ? Wasn't I doing 
 my duty then just as much as at Manila Bay ? 
 Is their praise any more discriminating than 
 their blame ? " 
 
 " Very much," she asserted stoutly, but he 
 only laughed at her. 
 
 " Dear lady, be not deceived," he said. 
 " This is not fame. It is only newspaper 
 notoriety, not very different in kind from 
 that bestowed on the last successful prize 
 fighter, or the multi-millionnaire's daughter 
 who marries a decayed foreign nobleman." 
 
 "Julius," she cried, really pained, "in your 
 dislike of processions and public functions, 
 are you in danger of forgetting that it was a 
 great battle, and that you did have a prominent 
 and highly honorable part in it, and that 
 whether you care for it or not your name
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 331 
 
 has become a part of the history of our coun- 
 try ? " 
 
 " Lake Erie was a great battle, and Perry 
 was in command. But do you happen, by any 
 chance, to remember the names of his cap- 
 tains ? " 
 
 She did not, but she refused to admit the 
 analogy. 
 
 He sat up and tossed his cigar stump into 
 the grate. 
 
 " Have you reflected," he said, willing to 
 change the subject, " that the wedding is over 
 by this time ? " 
 
 " Sue's and McMasters's ? You are right, 
 and I let the hour pass without thinking of it. 
 But I wish them joy with all my heart." 
 
 " And I too," he added. 
 
 " The wedding was to be under the eucalyp- 
 tus trees on the hill behind her father's coun- 
 try house. Sue said that grove had always 
 made her think of a church more than any real 
 one did. Sue couldn't even get married just 
 like any one else. I sometimes wish she were a 
 little less original. It borders on eccentricity."
 
 332 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVIBE 
 
 " Oh, Sue's all right ! It seems to me rather 
 a pretty idea. And think how the roses and 
 lilies and ivy geraniums are blooming now in 
 California ! But Barbara " 
 
 " Don't speak to me of Barbara ! It breaks 
 my heart." 
 
 " Why shouldn't the child be happy in her 
 own way instead of ours ? " 
 
 " Is she happy though ? I always had an 
 idea she was in love with John Me Masters." 
 
 He made a gesture of impatience. 
 
 "Why suppose that? It cheapens the 
 whole episode. I don't believe Barbara was 
 ever in love with anybody. She belongs to 
 another world." 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright shook her head sadly. 
 
 " It's true that she doesn't belong to this 
 world any more. It is awful to think of her 
 having taken the vows that shut her out like 
 iron gates from all that is worth while." 
 
 " Standards of the worth while differ." 
 
 " Is anything worth while ? " she cried, with 
 sudden impatience. 
 
 " Ah, who shall say ? " he mused.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 333 
 
 " Gran'mudder ! " murmured a sleepy voice 
 in the next room, and they both sprang up to 
 go to him. 
 
 " There's our answer," whispered Mrs. Cart- 
 wright, as they stood looking down at the child, 
 who had gone off to sleep again before they 
 reached him. 
 
 He smiled understandingly. 
 
 " If Elizabeth were here " Mrs. Cartwright 
 began, when they had resumed their seats by 
 the fire. 
 
 The shadow of their sorrow fell over them 
 both, and the sentence was left unfinished. 
 
 It was the Captain who took it up. 
 
 " Ah, if Elizabeth were here," he said, " she 
 would enjoy it all aesthetically, appreciate the 
 humor of it, too. But I don't believe she 
 would be dazzled much." 
 
 " She would be as proud of you as I am," 
 her mother asserted. 
 
 " Of me, perhaps, but not of the celebration. 
 Surely, there is a difference ? " 
 
 " Julius," she said, " I couldn't change your 
 mental attitude toward it all if I wished to,
 
 334 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE 
 
 and I'm by no means sure that I do. But for 
 myself " She paused. Her voice trembled 
 a little, and there were tears in her eyes. " For 
 myself I don't despise the love of all those 
 hundreds of thousands of commonplace men 
 and women, lifted for the moment out of the 
 humdrum of their lives by you, Julius, by 
 you. And I shouldn't despise it, if I knew 
 they were going to transfer it to somebody 
 else to-morrow." 
 
 She waited a moment and added, 
 
 " This has been the proudest day of my 
 life." 
 
 He leaned forward and took her hand, lifting 
 it tenderly to his lips. 
 
 "The proudest day of mine," he said, "was 
 when I won you for my wife, and the next 
 proudest "he paused and chuckled "well, 
 I think it was when my father bought me a 
 pair of red-topped boots ! "
 
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