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Updated: May 24, 2025
Out on the road, some two hundred yards away, a solitary male native was passing. Private Green was a quick guesser. "Kantab!" he gasped hoarsely. Then "Long" Green's legs got into swift action. Vaulting the porch rail, and almost falling in his trembling weakness, William made a straight line for the hospital, vanishing inside. Five minutes later Hospital Steward Hicks appeared on the scene.
"But Slosson was telling me about two soldiers who got kantab in their rations a few years ago," insisted Green. "Was the quartermaster court-martialed?" asked Sergeant Overton. "Or was it the fault of the company cook?" "Nothing like it," replied Green. "Two soldiers were on outpost one morning, and they had just prepared their breakfast.
"Hello, there, 'Long'!" called Private Kelly. "Yes?" answered Private William Green, turning at the hail. "Did you bring along your kantab and pass plenty of it to the goo-goos?" "I'll make no money here," grunted William disdaining to answer Kelly's teasing question. "There's no chance to spend money here, so none of the fellows will borrow from me." "Making no money?" Kelly rebuked him.
That noise had been a ruse to draw them off, while some native slipped in and put the kantab in their coffee. Ugh! That's a cowardly way to fight. If I find anything bitter about my food, even here in barracks, I'm going to toss the grub out. No kantab for mine," wound up "Long" Green earnestly. "Did that really happen, Slosson?" asked Sergeant Hal, glancing up from his book.
"Two capsules; there should be three," remarked the hospital man, after having raised the lid from the box. "Green, you idiot, the kantab you're howling about came from the missing capsule that Kelly can't return to me." "Do you give kantab at the hospital, too?" gasped "Long," looking more scared than ever. "We do," said the steward grimly. "But we medical men call it quinine."
"Slosson has been telling me about kantab," replied Green, with a grimace and a shudder. "Never heard of him," replied Hal. "It isn't a 'him' at all, Sarge," rejoined Green. "Kantab is the name of a poison that the Moros extract from one of their plants up in the hills." "Well, cheer up," urged Sergeant Overton, seating himself and opening a book. "There are no poisons issued in the rations."
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