New Ulm weekly review., 1886-01-13

which had already siezed the skirt Of
| the old tunic, grew motionless, his face
face darkened, his lips began to trem-
BILE, and locking down, he 1nuttered,
in a tone of horror:
"My God! Supposing it were his?'
Then, with a sudden movement, he
| turned the tunic round so that could
see, in the middle of the back, a little
round hole in the cloth-a hole made
by the bullet-with dirty-looking
black circle round it, OF dried blood,
| probably; an ill-looking hole, that
made one feel both horror and pity
/ as if it had been wound.
HOh, OH" said to Pere Vidal, who
had dropped hegarment 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, to goad my COM
panion into relating it:
1T 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.
/ GLOW could it have come there? It
is a long way from the battlefield of
| Melegnano to the Boulevard de Gre.
nellie. Yes, I 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 other S 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 I,
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 drank those two absinths I 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 I can trust you;
and you will tell me--honestly, on
your Observation-Disclosures you think I
was right to act as / did. Let me
see-where shall l begin? All! in the
first place, I can not tell you his name
the Others, I mean, because
he is still alive. 1 shall have
to call him by the nickname we gave
him in the regiment. Thirsty, we
called him, and he deserved thename,
too, for he was one OF those fellows
who are never out OF the canteen, and
would toss off his twelve glasses of
brandy, one for each stroke, when the
clock struck twelve. He was sergeant
in the same company whore | 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 it's 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 fourishing a tri-
colored 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 a fight with the Arabs. Some
woman there got q kick in the
scramble, ,and died. Thirsty got well;
he was sent to prison for a fortnight,
and had his stripes taken from him.
1t was the second time he had been
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 we'll educated.
Well, he lost his stripes after the affair
with the Moorish woman, but he got
them back again eighteen months later,
at the same time that I myself rose to
be nt-quartermaster thanks to
O1lC hA11OllCSS VI Cllc CdpUdlll, WHO llclu
great patience with Thirsty. He was
an old soldier himself, and had seen
him under fire in Kaby]ie.
But just at that time our old cap
tain was promoted and left the regi-
ment, and they sent us out a young
fellow only twenty-eight to take his
place. He was aCorsican named Gen
tile, a cold, ambitious man, just out
ofthe school-a very good officer, they
said, but fearfully hard on the men.
He would give you eight days under
arrest for a spot OF rust on your rife
or q button missing off your CATERS;
he had never served in Algeria, and he
had no notion of any insubordination
or disorder. From the very first mo-
ment he and Thirsty were at daggers
drawn. THAT they were sure to be.
The first time the sergeant was absent
at roll-call he put him under arrest
for a week; the first time he gotdrunk,
for a FORTNIGHT. When the captain
"a little dark man, as stiff as a
poker. with bristlinp mustaches-ord-