Omaha daily bee., 1903-05-24
CHAPTER XLVII.
The Hunting of n Man.

'h ASh6Nr dIoAhiA ouN luNO
the night like a swarm of angry wasps.
And had it not been for the Catholic on
GERS most Of Cavaliers new troops might
have fallen victims to the opinions which
they had fOrsaken. Nay, Jean Cavalier
himself was struck at and wounded in the
arm. The marshal in the first moments
OF his terrible grief hardly noticed anything
that went on about him. and Il was Colonel
Verlat who took Flower-o'-the-Corn and
her father back to the chambers of the
Marechales quarters.
The Camisard regiments had withdrawn
silently and sullenly to their camp. whence
by swimming the Tarn and scattering over
the Causes in the darkness but few re-
manned TO hold their leader in countenance
In the morning.
But through all the tumult of the sud
den ASA destination and the hubbub Of the
camp there were certain, who from the
first followed doggedly the track of the
murderer. Prominent among these there
was that sergeant major of the Maisou
Rouge, who had so long admired Yvette
afar an. There was one of the invited
guests, Monsieur Bechet of the military
prison, to whom she had scarcely spoken
save to make of him her tool. There was
a captain of artillery. and a young sub
altern of foot, to neither of whom had she
ever uttered a sentence. Yet they followed
Martin Foy relentlessly over the rough
scrape and Slaty debrfs-up-up-towards
the wide tableland of the Larzac.
On the way out Of camp the fugitive had
rushed a deserted g~uardhOuse, holding his
great Camisard knife red in his hand. II
was night, when a certain slackness of
discipline was permissible. and the under
officers had most of them gone off to see
the sight down at the great pavilion.
The shout of the single, startled, sleepy
private left in charge was followed by his
instant light.
Whereupon, las was known afterward)
the madman helped himself literally to
arms and ammunition. The weight made
him the easier to come up with, for bare
foot, on his native Larzac and carrying
no weight, hardly a wolf-dOg could have
turned him. And indeed 1t is now none
so sure that escape was the mans purpose.
1t was in the plain midst of the limestone
desert of the largest Cause in France that
they hemmed him in-or, rather, perhaps,
that Martin Foy kneeled down, looked over
his two muskets, and laid out his ammuni-
ton ready to his hand.
He laughed in g~urgling murmurs, chuck
ling to himself as he made his preparations.
NOW" he said, smiling triumphantly,
'let them come. 1t is a fair challenge.
1 will try my craftsmanship against theirs
as soon as the light comes"
At last out of the cloud slid the moon.
The mailman was kneeling on one knee,
his musket to his shoulder. Not In vain
had he been accounted the best shot among
the men of the Larzac, a company of
AuhNora a~l H.,aNn- ~ Ill -
Lord.
"Ah-there! There! Do you see him?
Therev'
Indeed every man of them saw him clear
in the chill moonlight of the Larzac, gray
and frost-tempered with the altitude.
But the quarry also saw his hunters, and
with a sigh Sergeant Peyrat of the Maison
Rouge rolled over and lay stilI-very still
with a bitten bullet in his side.
"One!" said Martin Foy. mo. twor' he
corrected himself. not without a certain
glee, as he marked the moonlight shine on
the blade of his knife.
All the time, up the sides OF the Larzac.
by the narrow defles of the Dourbie men
were NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. men, brave
men. all eager to shed the blood of the
murderer of their chieftain's wife.
In an hour they had former a circle al
most complete, some lying on the scanty
juniper, crawling over the dwarf heath,
spread abroad upon the lavender and sage
-sprawling. c~llnging, gliding and sliding
hither and thither like lizards on hot rocks,
all eager for the death OF one mana man
who asked no better than TO die. While
there, out on the open waste. knelt Martin
Foy, a figure OF fear, hatless, his long gray
hair clotted with sweat and blood, his cloth
Ing mere rags and %tatters, his white teeth
showing I'm the moonlight like those of q
trapped wolf, now singing by snatehes his
Camisard psalms. now yelling in the mere
Joy Of madness and the lust of blood.
OF all that were out upon the face OF the
Larzac that night he alone made DO con-
cealment. He sought no shelter. He dis
dalned alike rock shelter and i1ninar oI,,nn