The Coconino sun. [volume] (Flagstaff, Ariz.) 1891-1891, 1891-10-22
bournop.

ridge which hid the horizon iron
sight; the still, hot air OF the Sahar,
was suddenly pervaded with some
thing that reused Us to our feet in al
Instant Santander whipped. out hi
ever-ready sketch book and began
blocking in the landscape and posi-
ton of the troops. while Theveno
snatched his note book and style
graph"
Instantly. somewhere disquietingl,
near, an event or rather whirl O
events that rushed and writhed them
selves together into quiverina wazi
OF dizzying completely, suddenly
evolved and wtsened like the fierce,
quick rpening of some vast scroll, and
Were were zigzag hurryings to and
fro and surging heavcnward nj d
torrent OF noises-~notsss u men and
noises OF *sat, noises OF horses and
Noises OF arms--noses that hustled
Hereby upward above the brown mas
and closed together in the desert air,
blending or joining one with another,
joining and separating reuniting and
dividingi noises that ratified; noises
that clanked; noises that doomed, OF
shrilled, or Numbered, or quavered:
and one-well-known noise that a,
regular intervals, was dominant over
all as of u mighty food OF planks and
boards falling from some vast height
upon the earth eeneath. And then
came sight Of blue-gray tremulous cur
tains-but whether of smoke or dust
l could not say-tumbling and billow.
ing, bellying out with the hot TEN BEST
breath OF the bsttle-demon that ragged
within. end whose outermost fringes
were torn by serrated files of flashing
steel and wavering ranks OF red.
And this was all at first l knew
we had been attacked and that behind
those boiling smoke.blllows some
where and somehow, though exactly
how and where | could Not tell, men
infuriated into BEASTS, were graphing
and struggling, each man with ev-
cry sinew on the strain. honestly striv-
ing to kill his fellow.
And now we were in the midst of n
hollow square OF our soldiery yet how
we came there cannot recall, though
rememher--ttivial enough as it was
that the water OF the Jelifre made
my clothes heavy and clinging and
uncomfortable this al
though a mortal fear sat upon me of
being shot down by some OF our own
frenzied soldiers And then came
that awful rib-cracRing pressure as,
from some outward unseen cause the
square was thrown back upon ITSELF
The smell OF sweat Of horses and men,
the odor of the powder smoke, the
binding suffocatlng. Supplying
clouds Of dust the horrible fear
greater than all others-of being
pushed down beneath those thousands
Of trampling feet the terrible pitch OF
excitement that sickens and weakens,
The momentary conscipusness-van
Ishing as soon as felt-that this was
what men called war" and that we
were experiencing the stern reality of
" hat VIC niu SO Olten read
looked at Bah Azzoun; he vas
standing at tho gunwale OF the scow-
somehow We were back on the scow
'gain-with an unloaded pistol in his
hand. He was watching the battle on
he bank. His nostrils quivsred. and
10 shifted his feet exactly like an ex-
,ited thoroughbred. On a sudden, a
rooper OF the Eleventh Cuirassiers
'ame spinning round and round out OF
ne brown OF the battle sulpihg up
Hood, and pitched, wheeling, face
lownwards into the soft ooze where
ne river licked at the bank, raising
'uddy bubbles in tho same as be blew
lis ife-breath into it and raking it
INTO gridiron patterns as his quiyering.
'lue fingers closed into fists. Instant. |
afterward came mighty rush across
he river beneath our very bows. For
y-odd cuirassiers burst into it, fol-
owed by eighty or q hundred Kabyles.
can recall just how the households
attled on the saucer-like cakes Of dry
mud and flung them up in countless
fragments behind them. They were a
ne sight those Kabyles with their
cree red horses their dazzling white
earrous, their long. thin. murderous
ifle-barrels laundering and splashing
asst while from the whole mass OF
nem from under the shadow of every
'hite haik from every black bearded
p was rolling their war-cry: Allah,
.llah-il-Allah!"
What long dormant rccollections
Tired in Bah Azzoun at this old bat
e-shout! AS he faced them now, he
as no longer the cold. cynical boule-
ardier OF the morning. He looked as
must have looked when he played
six-year-old boy-about the feet OF the
orses in his fathers black tent. He
wv the long lines of the douars OF his
alive home; he saw the camels and
Ie caravan crawling toward tho sun
It; he saw the women grinding meal:
, saw his father, the bearded sheik;
, saw the Arab horsemen riding down
battle; he saw the palm-bro
and the blue yataghans.
Q was no longer the Parisien, the
product OF civilization, tie race
'oblem." In an instant OF time all
o long years OF culture and educa-
IN were as a garment stripped away.
ace more he stood and stepped the
abyle. And with these recollections,
long-forgotten native speech came
shing to his tongue, and in one long,
rill, exultant cry. he answered his
untrymen in their own language:
Allah-il-Allah Mohammed ressoul
lahm
He passed me at a bound, leaned