the use of spoiling the only fun we've had that way? Why, if I'd
known you could get that much excitement out of this rank prairie I'd
have put a match to it myself three months ago. It's the only fun
I've had, and he goes and preaches a funeral oration at me."

Ranson came into the army at the time of the Spanish war because it
promised a new form of excitement, and because everybody else he knew
had gone into it too. As the son of his father he was made an
adjutant-general of volunteers with the rank of captain, and unloaded
on the staff of a Southern brigadier, who was slated never to leave
Charleston. But Ranson suspected this, and, after telegraphing his
father for three days, was attached to the Philippines contingent and
sailed from San Francisco in time to carry messages through the surf
when the volunteers moved upon Manila. More cabling at the cost of
many Mexican dollars caused him to be removed from the staff, and
given a second lieutenancy in a volunteer regiment, and for two years
he pursued the little brown men over the paddy sluices, burned
villages, looted churches, and collected bolos and altar-cloths with
that irresponsibility and contempt for regulations which is found
chiefly in the appointment from civil life. Incidentally, he enjoyed
himself so much that he believed in the army he had found the one
place where excitement is always in the air, and as excitement was
the breath of his nostrils he applied for a commission in the regular
army. On his record he was appointed a second lieutenant in the
Twentieth Cavalry, and on the return of that regiment to the States--
was buried alive at Fort Crockett.

After six months of this exile, one night at the mess-table Ranson
broke forth in open rebellion. "I tell you I can't stand it a day
longer," he cried. "I'm going to resign!"