We heard him
squalling and screaming--"
Jacket started to his feet. "That's a dam' lie." he exclaimed,
resentfully. "I'm not scared of no dark."
"Didn't you holler till you woke the whole camp?"
"I ain't scared of no dark," the boy repeated; but his pride, his
complacency, had suddenly vanished. He dug his toes into the dirt;
in his eyes were tears of mortification. His cigar had evidently
become tasteless, for he removed it from his lips and gazed at it
indifferently.
"Did you cry?" O'Reilly smiled; and the lad nodded reluctantly.
"Did he cry?" Judson echoed. "Why, we thought we were attacked. He
put the whole camp in an uproar."
"What was the trouble, Jacket?"
"I--I was--" The boy's smooth brown cheeks paled, and his moist
eyes dilated at the memory. "I ain't scared of any-------Spaniard
when he's ALIVE, but--it's different when he's dead. I could see
dead ones everywhere!" He shuddered involuntarily. "They fetched
me to General Gomez and--Caramba! he's mad. But after I tell him
what I seen in the dark he say I don't have to go back there no
more. He let me go to sleep 'longside of his hammock, and bimeby I
quit cryin'. I ain't never stood no picket duty since that night.
I won't do it."
It was plain that discussion of this unhappy subject was deeply
distasteful to the youthful hero of Pino Bravo, for he edged away,
and a moment later disappeared.
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