Mystics of the Tuolumne

Plentitude #

Albert, this telegraph is disastrous news."  Mr. McKinley was alarmed and irritated at the audacity the nation had trying to interrupt his son's plans.  "I will telegraph the Governor immediately."

"Father, please don't do that."  Albert pleaded.  "I want to serve with my company."

"Your company is the McKinley Ranch."  Roberts Sr. was livid.  "In war, you could die from bullets or worse a  slow painful death from some disease."  Mr. McKinley spoke wisely.  "Does Dahlia know about this yet?"

"I don't know, sir?  I didn't tell her" Albert was contrite.

"You go and tell her now before she finds out from someone else."  Robert Sr. was watching out for his investment.  This war could drive the price of wheat through the roof of the Chicago pit.

As soon as Albert reached Dahlia's garden he made a flying dismount. "Dahlia, I have good news."  He was truly excited.  "I am being sent to the Philippines to fight the Spanish."  He stood proudly.

"Dios, mio!  That is horrible news, tonto."  She was angry and flabbergasted.  "You don't know how to make war.  What will I do without you?"

Albert feeling chastized and defensive, "What did you do before you knew me?"

"We were born at the same time on the same day.  I have always known you.  I have never been without you."  She was furious.

"Oh, yes you have.  Every summer when I went on tours abroad."  Albert's mind was never a secret place he could hide from Dahlia.

"Don't try to trick me, you can't.  You know that a liitle boy with his mother in Paris is not the same as a soldier on a horse in wild Asia."  Dahlia's hands were on her hips and she was leaning into her arguement.  "Stop and think or I will make you think."

"You are right.  It just seems like an adventure."  He was chastized and more afraid of Dahlia than he was of the Spanish soldiers.  "I want to prove myself."

"You'll do that at the University of California."  Dahlia's temper had abated some. "I will do what I have to to keep you safe."

"Pax."  Albert hoped his offer was accepted.  Dahlia walked to him and fiercely embraced him.  He had to choke back tears.  "I don't know what to do.  My father offered to help."

"You must think, you must clear your mind and think."  Dahlia looked deeply behind his eyes.

Albert rode to his father's office on the ranch.  "Father, I will accept your help.  I want your help."  He was contrite and humbled.

Albert followed his orders and assembled with his troop at the Presidio of San Francisco.  "Lieutenant McKinley, you have been assigned to the gunnery school at Fort Windfield Scott."  A bored Regular Army sergeant intoned.

"Where is that?"  Albert hesitantly asked.  The sergeant glanced up and used his pencil to point to the brick structure at the end of the grass parade ground.  "Oh, thank you, kind sir."  The sergeant rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Sir, Second Lieutenant McKinley reporting."  He saluted the corporal sitting at the desk just past the entry to the fort.

"Lieutenant, let me make your life a little easier.  You don't salute me, I salute you.  If there are red chevrons on the uniform, don't salute.  If there are red shoulder epaulettes salute them.  You don't outrank any other officer."  The corporal was paternalistic to the baby lieutenant.  "Sir, take these papers to the duty officer around the corner second door on the left."

Albert was assigned a room with another lieutenant from the Regular Army.  He was told to report to the  seaward battery control officer at 0700hrs in the morning.  He spent a restless night while the other lieutenant snored sonorously.  He was cold after having livedso long in the heat of the Great Valley.

"Lieutenant McKinley reporting sir."  Albert made an excellent first impression in his tailored uniform.

"Son you'll need one of these,"  he handed him an artillery registration work pad. "and these," he handed him some ballistic manuals and plotting tools.  Albert knew what the tools were and how to use them.  "Now put them on the plotter table behind battery A abd B. and I'll be over to help you shortly."

Albert was a nautrual for artillery.  He understood all the math involved.  He studied the external ballistic books.  He worked one firing solution after another until he could calculate them in his head.

"Sir, the leieutenant is the fastest study I have ever seen.  I think he needs to be retained here to help teach while the regulars prepare for Spanish attack."  The Lieutenant Colonel who commanded the fort nodded and looked through the paperwork he was handed.  "I'll take it from here Major Blanding."

Albert was assigned to mthe Presidio of Sab Francisco as an artillery instructor on May 25, 1898.  His unit, The First California Volunteer Infantry sailed for Manila that same day.  He was allowed to register for the university and conduct personal business when he wasn't teaching.  He taught for one week every third week.

"Isn't this a beautiful fort.  The entire land around it is beautiful.  The city is exciting.  The food is strange and exotic."   Albert waxed on about the city.

"Can you show me what you do here?'  Dahlia was truly interested.  She could see where he worked through their gifts but not the details. 

"This is the interior ground.  We go through these arches to the interior walkway.  The shot, powder, and preloads are brought up from the magazine and distributed around this covered runway.  The batteries are in here.  This makes it safe in case the enemy gets in a lucky shot." Albert let out his breath.  Dahlia was smiling proudly.

They spent the night at the Mark Hopkin's Hotel in a lust filled but careful reunion.  They ate a late supper at a restaurant named The Cliff House.  It was high on a bluff overlooking the Pacific entrance to San Francisco Bay.  "What is abalone?"  Dahlia queried.

"It is like a clam.  I can't really tell you but it's good."  Albert was happy being able to introduce Dahlia to new things.  He noticed that other diners were staring at her.  She was by far the most beautiful woman in the room.

Albert was released from duty in time to attend the university.  Robert Sr's. solution to the housing problem was too buy a house in the nicer part of Oakland for Robert Jr. and his wife, Marie Therese. "Isn't this wonderful?  Your father is so kind."  Dahlia was vibrating she was so excited.

'Dahlia darling, you are so naive.  You are of such great value to him.  He must assure he has private access to your gifts."  Robert Jr. was welcoming and Marie Therese already loved Dahlia.  "Dahlia you and Albert will each have your own room and a library for the two of you. It is a short trolley ride to the university."

They toasted the future with a Moet et Chandon champagne and then retired to their rooms.