The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-20
CHAPTER XVIII.
OII<AI I LII ~ TIT
THE WOMAN WHO WATTS.


| That very night, unknown to Hare
wood, a. sortie was attempted from the
gates of the sOuth-a sortie, as usual,
/ inadequately supported by artillery.
About midnight the cannon on the
southern forts aroused him. Bourke
came into his room, and together they
looked out into the night, where, above
the Issy fort, the sky reflected duh
! crimson flashes as gun after gun
| doomed through the, darkness.
After awhile Bourke went back to
! bed. Hardwood, too, slept soundly.
lulled by the swelling harmony of the
cannonade. The grumble of the guns
ceased with the night. In the morning
they knew the troops had failed at
/ Chatillon. They knew also that the
raid on the Hotel de Vile had proven
a ridiculous fiasco, so ridiculous that
the government allowed Flourens to
retire to his Belleville fastness undis-
turbed, and drink mournfully to the
commune with his carbineers. 1t is
probable that the government believed
it had its hands full without inaug-
urating civil strife in Belleviile under
the muzzle of the Prussian guns. The
! inertia or cowardice of the government
was the beginning of that disastrous
temporizing later criminally INDUCED
in by Theirs, and which cost Paris the
commune
So Major Flourens fourished his
heels in security, and Buckhurst, en-
boldened by the governments apathy,
refused admittance at the Undertake
ers' to reporters or government Off
GERS, while Speyer and Stauffer whis-
pered discomfort and treason among
the carbineers.
The week passed slowly for the
Mouse He was waiting for revenge.
. e.. ID Il
was in love. AS for Hide and Hare
wood, the days appeared and vanished
like April rainbows. He was with her
in the evenings. In the mornings he
haunted the war office, ears open for
any bit of gossip that might indicate
the date of the next sortie.
The war Office remained in a state Of
indescribable confusion. Everything
lay at loose ends. There appeared to
be no system or order. The place was
thronged by irresponsible young Off
GERS, who knew everything and moth
ing, and who talked, talked, talked.
Surely it needed no extraordinary spy
system on the German side TO keep NJ.
Bismarck au courant with the daily
life in Paris, with the physical and
moral conditions of the French army.
Every movement contemplated was
discussed with unheard-of carelessnesS,
shouted aloud to anybody who cared
to listen. The vital necessity of Sc
crecy in arranging for q. sortie was
absolutely ignored. Is it, then, any
wonder that hours before a sortie the
Germans knew of it and were already
massing in the threatened zone?
Hardwood, always welcomed among
men wherever he went, found no diff
Guilty in learning whatever he wished
to learn.
This knowledge he used. He bought
hundreds of tins of meat and vegeta-
bles, all the flour he could get, all the
biscuits and preserves. He had heard
things from high sources that appalled,
him, and he looked fearfully at the
lines of people beginning to gather in
front of the provision depots.
Fuel and candles he bought too but
he could purchase no oil, although pc
troleum was cheap. The OH was used
to initiate balloons: thu stroieum could
not be burned in lamps.
Hide and Yoiette were very busy
storing provisions In the cellar and bot
Ting red wine, aided by Red Riding
Hood and the Mouse.
The Mouse, cleaned and chastened
and warmly clothed, worked as he was
hidden To- work-not because he wished
to, but because Hardwood told him 10
do so or get out To lind himself work
ing was an endless sort of painful
amazement TO the Mouse.
"Malheur-si ca fait pas pitieI" he
would excIaim, regarding his apron and
sabots with unfeigned establishment.
But he carried and fetched and scrub
bed and rubbed, living half in a daze.
half in a nightmare. He was not re-
sentful, however; he knew his skin was