The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-01-15

one Oh IIlGSC Ndol OAL EtLiAhCbN'
the tunic of an African officer, withlts
MANIPULATED skirt, and its triple gold
band twisted into q figure OF eight on
the sleeve as the hussars wear 1t.
.Look here" said he; this is the
uniform of my old COrps-a captains
tuniC.' -.
And he went nearer to examine it
more closely, and read the number en-
graved on the bnttOns, he added, en-
Enthusiastically;
aves."
But all at once Pere Vidal's hand,
which had already sliced the skirt OF
the old tuniC, grew mOtiOnless, hlstace
face darkened, his lips began to trem-
bic, and locking down, he muttered,
in q tone Of horror:
'My God! Supposing it were his?'
Then, with a sudden movement, he
turned the tunic round, so that lCOuld
see. in the middle of the back, a little
round hole in the cIoth-a hole made
by the bullet-with a dirty-lOOking
! black circle round it, of dried blood,
probably; an Unlocking hole, that
made one feel both horror and pity
as if it had been q wound.
ooh. OH" said | to Pere Vidal, who
had dropped thegarment and walked
on with a hurried step, hanging his
head; "there is an ugly scar
And guessing there was some tale at
tached to it, | added, togoad my COM
panion into relating it:
at is not generally in the back that
a captain of Zouaves gets hit by a bull
let"
But he did not seem to hear me; he
was muttering to himself, and biting
his mustaChe.
How could it have come there? 1t
is a long way from the battlefield of
MeIegnano to the Boulevard de Gre
nellie. Yes, / know, there are the vul-
lures, who follow the army and plum
der the corpses. But why just there,
not two steps from the Military
| School, but where the others regiment
is quartered? And he must have
passed here; he must have recognized
it. Oh, it is like seeing aghost."
Come now, Pere Vidal" said l.,
taking him by the arm, intensely in
terested: you are not going on talk
ing riddles; you may just as we'll tell
me what that old, torn tunic has re-
minded you of"
But / verify believe that If he had
not drankthose two absinths / should
never have heard the story; for when
/ asked him to tell me, Pere Vidal
shot a suspicious and almost frighten-
ed glance at me, then suddenly, as if
he had made up his mind, he began to
speak, in a dry, hard voice:
Well, then, yes, | will tell you about
it; for you are a clever young man,
and honorable, and / can trust you;
and you will tell me-honestly, on
your conscience-whether you think l
was right to act as | did. Let me
see-where shall | begin? Ali in the
first place, / can not tell you his name
the others, | mean, because
to call him by the nickname we gave
him in the regiment. Thirsty, we
called him, and he deserved the name,
too, for he was one of those fellows
who are never out of the canteen, and
would toss of his twelve glasses OF
brandy, one for each stroke, when the
clock struck twelve. He was sergeant
in the same company where / was
quartermaster, and we walked side by
side in the ranks. A good soldier-a
capital soldier. A drunkard, quarrel
some, and a brawler, he had all the
faults of an African army. But he
was as brave as an African lion. He
was not an easy one to manage-you
could see that with the first look at
his sun-burnt face, with its red beard
and cold, steel-blue eyes. When
joined the regiment Thirsty had just
finished his time; he re-enlisted, re-
ceived the bounty, and went in for a
three-days' regular carouse, in the
lowest parts of Algiers. With four or
five boon companions like himself,
they drove about all packed in an
/ open carriage, and fiourlshing a trl,
Ecolored with the motto, "This can't
last forever!" on it. He was brought
back to the barracks with his head
cut open by a sword wound, that he
had got in some Moorish den, where
he had q fight with the Arabs. Some
woman there got a kick in the
scramble, and died. Thirsty got we'll
he was sent to prison for q fortnight.
and had his stripes taken from him
It was the second time he had beer
put back into the ranks. If it hadn't
been for his bad conduct, Thirsty
would have been an officer long ago
for he belonged to a very respectable
family and had been well educated
Well, he lost his stripes afterthe affair
with the Moorish woman, but he go'
them back again eighteen months later
at the same time that I myself rose tt
be sergeant-quartermaster, thanks t.
the kindness of the captain, who hal
great patience with Thirsty. He wa
an old soldier himself, and had seel
him under fire in KabyIie.
|, But just at that time our old cap
tain was promoted and left the req
ment, and they sent us out a yOun