Excerpt from The Colonel of the Red Huzzars It was raining heavily and I fastened my over-coat to the neck as I came down the steps of the Government Building. Pushing through the crowds and clanging electrical cars, at the Smithfield Street corner, I turned toward Penn Avenue and the Club, whose home is in a big, old-fashioned, grey-stone building - sole remnant of aristocracy in that section where, once, naught else had been. For three years I had been the engineer officer in charge of the Pittsburgh Harbor, and "the navigable rivers thereunto belonging" - as my friend, the District Judge, across the hall, would say - and my relief was due next week. Nor was I sorry. I was tired of dams and bridges and jobs, of levels and blue prints and mathematics. I wanted my sword and pistols - a horse between my legs - the smell of gunpowder in the air. I craved action - something more stirring than dirty banks and filthy water and coal-barges bound for Southern markets. Five years ago my detail would have been the envy of half the Corps. But times were changed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.