Omaha daily bee., 1898-07-24
By ROBERT ". CHAMBERS.

| "a sIteJ OUTSIDE was rudy Win the
glare of burning houses; the shells streamed
high overhead toward the Pantheon now,
falling beyond the rue serpente, som in the
boulevard st. Michel, some on the Sorbonne,
many on the Val dc Grace and a few even
in the river. The fire OF the Prussian guns
shifted capriciously; now the Montparnasse
quarter was covered with projectiles, now
the Luxembourg, now the Latin quarter.
But always the shells streamed thickest
toward the hospitals, the barracks, the
churches, palaces and great public build
ings.
AS the shells ceased falling in the rue Ser
pente, the people crept from the cellars,
the soldiers OF the Garde Mobile skunk off
and a company of fremen came up on a
run, dragging their hand machine. Bands
OF s~kulking Migrants prowled through the
street, half bold, half timid, peering into
doorways, hanging about shell-wrecked
houses, showing. prying, insulting women.
One of these ruffians entered the hallway
where Hide stood, and started to ascend
the stairs, but, evidently considering the
shabby house not worth his attention,
turned and stood hesitatingly in the full
glare of a burning house.
mile. Hide whispered Red Riding
Hood. Look! Lookl" At the same mo-
ment the vagabond saw Hide and shrank
back against the wall. 1t was the Mouse.
Hide sprang to the shaky stairs and seized
the Mouse by his ragged sleeve. That
startled young ruffiian suffered himself to
be dragged up the stairs and into the little
apartment, now brightly illuminated by the
flames from the burning house on the cor
ner. Yolette and Red Riding Hood fol-
lowed.
"Now,' muttered Hide, breathlessly, tell
l pna ubarn ha &c What boya yo, dana yrith,
him?" She stood before the Mouse with
flashing eyes and little fists clenched, re-
peating harshly: you swore to me that
you would be with him, that you would keep
him from harm! You skunk out of the
house with that promise to me-and l let
you go-I promised to say nothing to the
others. What have you done with him."
Hes been shot, gasped the Mouse. 'lIe
was"
"Shot!" whispered Hide.
"He isn't dead,' growled the Mouse. ~
came to find NJ. Bourke, but when l went to
the rue d'Ypres you had all decamped."
"Then," he continued, with a cringing
gesture, 81 started to look-and quite by ac-
cident, mademoiselle, l met SOM friends
but was not stealing!' he whined, glanc-
ing f~urtively around, mo indeed, 1 stole
nothing. as the others did. You will tell M.
Bourke that! You will tell M. Bourke that
1 was not pillaging houses"
Where is M. Hardwood? interrupted
Hide.
II was going to tell you said the Mouse,
submissively. II was going to tell made
moiselle that M. Hardwood is in the case
mates of the Nanterre fort-very sick since
they cut the bullet out. And it is quite
true / was not pillaging. God is my wit
ness. I have never stolen a PIN"
l II 1onlyal nh1ipt,olv OF vplatta cpivoI1a1 n
little, hitched his tatterred trousers and
shifted.
Twice Hide strove to speak, but her col
orless lips scarcely moved. Yolette put one
arm around her and turned to the Mouse.
"What message have you for M. Bourke?"
she asked. did NJ. Hardwood not send a
messenger"
YES" said the Mouse. HE wants to see
him. 1t was not until last night that those
sacre Prussians gave me a chance to leave
the fort. We have been there since lie
Bourget, when Monsieur was shot as he left
the church."
He did not add that he had half carried,
half dragged Hardwood across the Mollette
under a frenzied fusillade from the Prus-
sian pickets. He was a coward, as towards
go; his very ferocity proved it. Yet he had
instinctively chung to Hardwood when a
bullet through the leg knocked him sprawl
ing; he had hauled him out Of the Prus-
sian fire, much as a panther hauls its
young from a common danger, with no rea-
son in the world that human minds could
fathom, totally unconscious that he de-
served credit. The Mouse had received
Harewood's thanks with ennui, If not sus-
picion, and now it never occurred to him
to say that he had saved Harewood's life,
although, like most criminals, he was a
keen appreciator of the dramatic. No
what occupied the meager brain of the
Mouse was the fear that Bourke might re-
turn and learn from Hide and Yolette that
he, the Mouse, had been footing.
He looked sideways at Yolette, who was
leading Hide to the bedroom. He listened
stupidity to the paroxysms of grief when
Hide flung herself on the bed. That was
all very confusing, but what would Bourke
say? He looked down at his blackened
hands, at the bludgeon still gripped in one
bleeding fist, evidences of his share in the
riotous nights work.
"Mince! je me ~sauve!" he blurted out,
and at the same moment he saw Red Rid
ing Hood staring at him from the sofa.
What are you making eyes at-hein?"
he demanded, sullenly. Perhaps you are
going to say / was pillaging houses!"
The child, seized with a fit of shivering,
coNtleu against lit wall, uTdWlnS neT Ieet
in under her nightdress.
The Mouse regarded her ~fiercely. twirl-
ing his bludgeon between his blackened
fingers. Then, apparently satisfied that she
was too terrified TO understand, he pulled
his cap over his sightless eye, put the blud-
geon in his pocket and started toward the
door. Before he went out he hesitated. The
sight of the frightened child seemed to ex-
ercise a certain fascination for him. He
looked back, frowning, just to see whether
1t would frighten her a little more. 1t did;
but, strangely enough, her fear gave him
no qualification.
"Voyons, petite, do l scare you?" he
asked. curiously.
yes" whispered the child. A curious
sensation, an unaccustomed thrill, some
thing that had never come over him before,
sent the blood ~tingling in the Mouse's large
ears. He peered at the child narrowly.
Don't look like that he said, "for l
| amt going to hurt you"
The child was silent.