The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1879-01-30
The Colonel's Sentence.
An Algerian Story.

1--we known many clever fellows in
III my time" said Paul Dumont, French
sous lieutenant in the TIL of the line,
as he sat lazily slipping his coffee in
front OF the Hotel de la Regenco at AL
giers, shut by far the cleverost man l
ever met was onr old Colonel, Henri de
Malet. People said he ought to have
been an avocat but that was giving him
but half his due, for III be bound he
could have outhanked any lawyer that
ever wore gown. In his latter days ne
always went by the name of Solomon
H., and if you care to hear how he
came by it I'll tell you.
g Before be came to us Malet was mil
itary commander at Oran, and it was
there that he did one Of his best strokes
.-outgeneraling q camel driver from Tan
gier, one of those thorough paced ras-
Gals of whom the saying goes, two Nal
tese to q jew, three Jews to Moor
Now this Tangerine, when pulled up for
some olfense or other, swore that he was
not Mulcy, the camel driver, at all, but
quite another man; and his friends all
swore ii e same, and he had managed TO
alter his appearance Tit before he was
arrestsC and he seemed III fair way TO
get safe oil But our Colonel wasn't to
be done il that way. Ito pretended to
dismiss tas case, and allowed the fellow
to gee righr out in the street as if all
was over, and then he suddenly shouted
after him, Mulcy, the camel driver, |
want to speak to you The old rogue,
hearing his own name, turned and came
back before he could rccolieot himself;
and SO be was caught in spite of his cum
ming.
"The fame of this exploit won't abroad
like wildire, and it got TO be saying
among US whenever we heard of any
very clever trick, that it was one of
Colonel de Malets Judgments and so,
when he was transferred from Oran to
Algiers, it was Just az if we knew him
already, though none Of us had ever seen
him before But it wasn't long before
we got much better story than that
about him. for one light man dined at
our mess who had known the Colono,
out in India, and told us a grand stor,
Of how he had astonishcd them all at
Ponchiderry. 1t seems that some things
had been stolen from the officers quar-
ters, and no one could tell who had done
it. The first thing next morning the
Colonel went along the line of parade,
giving each of the native soldiers a small
strip of bamboo; and then he said very
solcmnly; " Nv children. there is gull
ty mar among US, and it has been re
vealcd to me by Brahma himself how his
guilt liz to be made clear. Let every
man OF you como forward in his turn
and give me his piece OF bamboo, and the
thief, be who he may, will have the long;
est piece
Nov, you know what saperstitious
hounds those Asiatic follows always are,
and when they heard this announcement
they all looked at each other like chill
drcn going TO be whipped. The Colonel
took the bamboos ono after another, as
solemnly as if he were on a court mar
tial, but when about a dozen men had
gone he suddenly sprang forward and
seized one of them by the throat, shout
ing at tho full pitch of his voice, "You
are the maa~
Down went the fellow on his knees
and yelled for mercy, confessing that he
was the man, sure enough. AS for the
rest they locked as frightened rs ii all
the gois in the caverns Of Elephanta had
como Gyins down among them at once;
and from that day forth they salaame,i
TO the ve'y ground at the mere sight of
tho Colonel half mile of.
elbow on earth did you manage that,