The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1901-08-07


rode nearer to see. That was just up
on sunrise dismounted and ran up
palm there, And Cigarette pointed
to faroff slope crowned with the re-
mains Of once mighty palm forest.
81 got up very high. / could see miles
round. saw how things We're with
you. For the moment was coming
straight to you. Then thought I
should do more service if let the main;
army know and brought you a re-en-
forcement fode fast. Dieu! rode
fast. Ny horse dropped under me
twice. but reached them at last, and.
/ went at once to the general He,
guessed at glance how things were,
and told him to give me my spahis
and let me go. So he did. got on a.
| mare of his own staff, and away we
came. It was near thing. If we had!
been minute later, it had been all up
with you
True, indeed muttered the zouave,
| in his beard. "a superb action. my lit
tie one. But did you meet no Arab
scouts to stop you?'
Cigarette laughed.
did not? Met them by dozens.
shot from me. One fellow nearly wing
ed me. but | got through them all
somehow. Sapristi! galloped so fast
was very hard to hit flying Those
things only require a little Judgment.
But some men always are creeping
when they should fly and always are
scampering when they should saunter,
and then they wonder when they make
fasco. Bah!"
And Cigarette laughed again. MEN
were such bunglers Oufr'
"Mademoiselle, if all soldiers were
like YOU" answered the major Of
zouayes CURLY, ito command a battal-
ion would be paradise"
All soldiers would do anything I
have done.' retorted Cigarette, who
never took a compliment at the ex-
pense of her children "They do not
all get the opportunity. Opportunity
is little angel. Some catch him as he
goes; some let him pass by forever
You must be quick with him, for he is
like an eel to wriggle away. If you
want a good soldier, take that aristo-
crat that handsome Victor. Poufg
All his officers were down, and how
splendidly he led the troop! He was.
going to die with them rather than sur
render. Napoleon7-and Cigarette I'M
covered her curly head reverentially.
| as at the name of a deity-"N apoleoni
would have given him his brigade ere
this. If you had seen him kill the.
| chiefp'
"He will have justice done him, new
er fear. And for you-the cross shall
be on your breast, Cigarette, if live
over tonight to write my dispatches.
| And the major saluted her once more
and turned away to view the carnage
strewn plain and number the few who
remained out of those who had been
wakened by the clash of the Arab
arms in the gray of the earliest dawn.
/ Cigarettes eyes flashed like sun play
ing 9n water ana her flushed sueeEs
! grew Scarlet. Since her infdfhhcy it rad
/ been her dream to have the cross to lie
above her little lions heart. 1t had
been the one longing, the one ambition,
the. one undying desire, Of her soul
and, 10, she touched it's realization,
The wild, frantic, tumultuous cheers
1 and caresses Of her soldery. who could
not triumph in her and triumph with
her enough to satiate them, recalled her
to the actual moment. She sprang
down from her elevation and turned
\ ~ az, 4 I,
making this fuss about me while hun
dreds of better soldiers than | lie yon-
der. Let us look to them first. We
will play the fool afterward.'
And although she had ridden so
miles that day if she had ridden one,
though she had eaten nothing since
sunrise and had only had one draft OF.
bad water, though she was tired and.
stiff and bruised and parched with.
thirst, Cigarette dashed off as lightly
as a young goat to look for the wound.
4 ed and the dying men who strewed the
1 plain far and near. -s.~ss7-e:1s 80
She remembered one whom she had:
not seen after that first moment iH
4 which she had given the word to the
squadrons to charge. :
1t was a terrible sight the arid plain
lying in the scarlet glow Of sunset. COW
cred with dead bodies, with mutilatedI
4 limbs. with horses gasping and with
| ing, with men raying like mad crea-
lures in the torture of their wounds.
She had seen great slaughter often
! enough. but even she had not seen any.
struggle more close, more murderous,
than this had been. The dead lay by
hundreds, French and Arab locked in
one another's limbs as they had fallen.
when the ordinary mode Of warfare
| had failed to satiate their violence, and
they had wrestled together like wolves
/ fighting and rending one another over
| a disputed carcass.
Is he killed? Is he killedw she
thought as she bent over each knot of
motionless bodies where here and there.
some faint stifed breath or some moan