Mrs.Kautz, a handsome and accomplished Austrian, presided over her lovely army home in a manner to captivate my fancy, and the luxury of their surroundings almost made me speechless.
"The other side of army life," thought I.
A visit to Angel Island, one of the harbor defences, strengthened this impression.

Four years of life in the southern posts of Arizona had almost made me believe that army life was indeed but "glittering misery," as the Germans had called it.
In the autumn, the troops returned from Oregon, and C company was ordered to Camp MacDermit, a lonely spot up in the northern part of Nevada (Nevada being included in the Department of California).

I was sure by that time that bad luck was pursuing us.

I did not know so much about the "ins and outs" of the army then as I do now.
At my aunt's suggestion, I secured a Chinaman of good caste for a servant, and by deceiving him (also my aunt's advice) with the idea that we were going only as far as Sacramento, succeeded in making him willing to accompany us.
We started east, and left the railroad at a station called "Winnemucca." MacDermit lay ninety miles to the north.

But at Winnemucca the Chinaman balked.