At Bas Obispo I strained my eyes in vain to
make out a familiar face in the familiar uniform, there was a
glimpse of "Old Fritz" water-gauge as we rumbled across the
Chagres, and the train churned away into the heavy green
uninhabited night.
Only once more was I aroused, as the lights of Gatun flashed up;
then we rolled past the noisy glaring corner of New Gatun and on
to Colon. In Cristobal police station I put badge and passes into
a heavy envelope and dropped them into the train-guard's box; then
turned in for my last night on the Zone. For the steamer already
had her fires up that would bear me, and him who was the studious
corporal of Miraflores, away in the morning to South America. My
police days were ended.
Then a last hand to you all, oh, Z. P. May you live long and
continue to do your duty frankly and unafraid. I found you men
when I expected only policemen. I reckon my days among you time
well spent and I left you regretting that I could stay no longer
with you--and when I leave any place with regret it must be
possessed of some exceeding subtle charm. But though the world is
large, it is also small.
"So I'll meet you later on,
In the place where you have gone,
Where--"
Well, say at San Francisco in 1915, anyway, Hasta luego.
THE END
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Zone Policeman 88, by Harry A.
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