The Redwood gazette., 1901-06-19

/ ID his tent as the ch1ef pearl OF all l1;
! treasures; all, save the honor of his
tribe, he would have surrendered
| rather than surrender Djelma. It was
| a passion with him-a passion that
| not even the iron of his temper and
! the dignity Of his austere calm could
abate or conceal-an the runner Of ii
and of the beauty of its object reached
the French camp till an Impatient curl
osity was reused about her, and raid
that should bear her off became the
fayorite speculation round the picket
fires at night and the scorching moons.
The heat was intense; the water was
bad and very rare; dysentery came
with the scorch and the toll Of this
endless charge. The chief in command.
NJ. lie Marquis de Chateauroy, swore
heavily as he saw many of his best
men dropping off like sheep in a mur-
rain, and he offered 200 napoIeons to
Whosoever should bring either the
dead sheik's head or the living beauty
Of Djemla.
One day the chasseurs had pitched
their camp where a few barren, with
cred trees gave a semblance of shelter
and a little thread of brackish water
oozed through the yellow earth. Sud
denly the noon lethargy Of the camp
was broken. A trumpet call rang
through the stiffness. Against the am
|, Der transparency Of the horizon line
the outliaes Of half dozen horsemen
were seen coming nearer and nearer
with every moment. They were some
spahis who had been out sweeping the
country for food. The mighty frame
Of Chateauroy, almost as unclothed as
an athlete, started from its slumberous
painting rest His eyes lightened hun
grily ''Hah. they have the woman!"
he cried.
They had the woman. She had been
netted near water spring, to which
she had wandered too loosely guarded,
and the colcneps face flushed darkly
with an eager, lustful warmth as he
looked upon his captive. Rumor had
not outboasted the Arab girls beauty.
Only Djemla was as innocent as the
gazelle, whose grace she resembled,
and loved her lord with great love.
OF her suffering her captor took no
more heed than if she were young
bird dying Of shot wounds; but, with
one triumphant admiring glance at her,
he wrote a message in Arabic to send
to the khalifa ere her loss was discoy-
ered-a message more cruel than iron.
he hesitated second where he lay at
the opening of his tent whom he should
send with it. His men were almost all
half dead with the sun blaze. His
glance CHANGED to light in the distance
on a soldier to whom he bore no love-.
causelessly, but bitterly all the same.
He had him summoned and eyed him
with curious amusement. Chateau
roy treated his squadrons with much
the same familiarity and brutality that
a chief of filibnsters uses to his.
$50. you heed the heat SO little you
give up your turn of water to a drum
mer, they say
The chasseur gave the salute with
calm. Difference. A faint flush passed
over the sun bronze Of his forehead.
He had thought the sacrifice had been
utlobserved.
s.The drummer was but a child, colo
neil"
BE so good as to give us no more Of
those melcdramatic acts," said the mar
quis contenptuously. "You are too
fond Of traficking in those snowy fool
cries. You bribe your comrades for
their favoritism too openly. 1 forbid
it. Do you hear?"
ct hear, colonel"
The assent was perfectly tranquil
and respectful. He was too good sol
dier not to render perfect obedience
and keep perfect silence under any
goad of provocation to break both.
"Obey, Them said Chateauroy saw
agely. ..Well, since you love heat so
well, you shall take a flag Of truce and
my scroll to the Sidi Ilderim. But tell
me first, what do you think Of this
capture?"
''It is not my place to give opinions,
colonel"
"Parbleu! It is your place when I
bid you. Speak, or will have the stick
cut the words out Of your
Il may speak frankly?''
"Ten thousand curses, yes!'
s'Then think that those who make
war on women are no longer fit to
fight with men"
For a moment the long, sinewy, mas
sive form Of Chateauroy started from
the skins on which he lay at full length
like a lion starting from its lair. His
veins swelled like black cords. Under
the mighty muscle of his bare chest his
heart beat yisibly in the fury Of his
wrath.
"By heaven, have a mind to have
you shot like a dogy'
The chasseur looked at him careless
{ ", composedly, but with a serene def
erence still, as due from soldier to his
| chief.
You have threatened it before, colo
| mel. 1t may be as well to do it, or the
army may think you capricious."
Chateauroy crushed a blasphemous
/ fb thrornh ol3nohnd ,,S