But No One Thought Of Laughing At That Time.
Mrs. Norton Was Carried In, And Her House Searched Throughout.
No one
was found, but burned matches were on the floor of one or two rooms,
which gave evidence that some one had been there.
In the yard back of the house a pair of heavy overshoes, also
government socks, were found, so it was decided that the man had
climbed up on the roof and entered the house through a dormer window
that had not been fastened. No one would look for the piece of shingle
that night, but in the morning I found it on the ground close to the
house.
All the time the search was being made I had been in the window.
Colonel Mills insisted that I should go to his house for the remainder
of the night, but suggested that I put some clothes on first! It
occurred to me then, for the first time, that my own costume was
rather striking - not quite the proper thing for a balcony scene.
Everyone was more than kind, but for a long time after Miss Mills and
I had gone to her room my teeth chattered and big tears rolled down my
face. Mrs. Norton declares that I was more frightened than she was,
and I say, "Yes, probably, but you did not stop to listen to your own
horrible screams, and then, after making us believe that you were
being murdered, you quietly dropped into oblivion and forgot the whole
thing."
Just as the entire garrison had become quiet once more - bang! went a
gun, and then again we heard people running about to see what was the
matter, and if the burglar had been caught. But it proved to have been
the accidental going off of a rifle at the guardhouse. The instant
that Colonel Gregory ascertained that a soldier had really been in
Mrs. Norton's house, check roll-call was ordered - that is, the officer
of the day went to the different barracks and ordered the first
sergeants to get the men up and call the roll at once, without warning
or preparation. In that way it was ascertained if the men were on
their cots or out of quarters. But that night every man was "present
or accounted for." At the hospital, roll-call was not necessary, but
they found an attendant playing possum! A lantern held close to his
face did not waken him, although it made his eyelids twitch, and they
found that his heart was beating at a furious rate. His clothes had
been thrown down on the floor, but socks were not to be found with
them.
So he is the man suspected.. He will get his discharge in three days,
and it is thought that he was after a suit of citizen clothes of the
doctor's. Not so very long ago he was their striker. No one in the
garrison has ever heard of an enlisted man troubling the quarters of
an officer, and it is something that rarely occurs.
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