The Central Nevadan. [volume] (Battle Mountain, Nev.) 1885-1907, 1903-03-19

DlQtndte u HIS HdPIiiOAs WITH 2nhAaACf
Ions grasp cloaed on It readily.
The ehasseur colored slightly as he
remembered that he had forgotten
alike bis own position and their rela-
live stations.
81 beg your pardon, Monsieur lie
Vicoblte," he said simply as he gave
the salute with ccremonious grace and
passed onward rapidly, as though he
wished TO forget and to have forgotten
The momenfary self oblivion Of which
he had been guilty.
..Heavensi' muttefed Chameleon as
he looked after him and struck his hand
on the marble topped table till the
glasses shook. 81 would give n years
pay to know that fine fellows history.
He Is a gentlemnn-every inch of him."
"And a good soldier, which Is bet
ter growled the general of brigade,
who had begun life in his time driving
an OK pillow over the heavy tillage of
Alsace.
"A private of Chateauroy's, eh?"
asked the Nrailleur, lifting his eye
glass to watch the chasseur as he
went.
"Yes-more's the pity" said Chan
rellon, who spoke his thoughts as has
tily as a hand grenade scatters its pow
der. 1.-The Black Hawk hates him
God knows why-and he is kept down
In consequence, as IL he were the idiest
lout or the most in~corrigible rebel in
the service. Look at what he has
done. All the bureaus will tell you
there is not n finer soldier in Africa.
His limbs are slashed all over with
Bedouin steel. He rode once 20 leagues
to deliver dispatches with a spear
head In his side and fell in a dead
faint out of his saddle just as he gave
them up to the commandments W
hands. He saved the day two years
ago at Granada. We should have been
cut to pieces as sure as destiny If he
had not collected q handful of broken
and rated them and lashed them with
their shame till they dashed with him
to q man into the thickest of the fight
and pierced the Arabs center and
gave us breathing room till we al
charged together and beat them back
like a herd of jackals. There are a
hundred more like stories Of him
every one of them true as my saber-
and in reward he has just been made
O c%orporal!'
Superb" said the general, with grim
significance. twelve years in fire
under Napoleon he would have been at
the head of a brigade. But, then
and the veteran drank his absinth with
d regretful melancholy-"but, then, Ma
poleon read his men himself and never
read them wrong. 1t Is q divine gift
that, for commanders"
1.-THE Black Hawk can read, too"
said Chameleon meditatively. 1t was
the nickname that Chateauroy had
gained long before, and by which he
was best known through the army.
mo eyes are keener than his to trace
a general in embryo. But where he
hates he strikes beak and ~talons-pong
It'll the thing drops dead even when
he strikes a bird of his own brood"
THAT is bad" said the old general
sententiously. "There are four people
who should have no personal likes or
dislikes. They are an innkeeper, a
schoolmaster, a ships skipper and a
military chief"
Meanwhile the chasseur went his
way through the cosmopolitan groups
of the great square. A little farther
onward, laughing. smoking, chatting,
Aaftn0 Inns n1frfAn a no fn ahn nfan
were a group Of Englishmen, a yacht
ing party whose schooner lay in the
harbof. He fingered a moment and
lighted q fusee. just for the sake of
hearing the old familiar words. But
one of them looked at him curiously
and earnestly. '"The deucel' he MUIR
INJURED to the nan nearest him. who
the dickens is that French soldier
like?"
The French soldier heard and. with
the cigar in his teeth, moved away
quickly. He was uneasy in the city
uneasy lest he should be recognized by
any passerby or tourist.
II need net fear that, though" he
thought, with d smile. He was dead"
Therein had lain all his security; there
by had Beauty of the Brigades been
buried beyond all discovery In Bella
faire-peur of the Second Chasseurs
d'Afrique. When on the Marseiiles
rails. during bis ride toward Africa. the
maceration and slaughter of as terrible
an hcciuent rs ever befeil n train rush
ing through midnight darkness at head
long speed had left himself and the n
man faithful to his fortunes unharmed
by little less than a miracle, be had
seen In the calamity the surest screen
from discovery or pursuit.
Leaving the baggage where it was
damned among the debris, be had
struck across the country with Rake
for the few leagues that still lay be-
tween them and the city and had en-
tered Marseilles as weary foot travel
ers before half the ruin on the rails had
been seen by the full noon sun He
then crossed unnoticed to Algeria,
while through Europe the tldings went
that the mutilated form crushed be-
tween iron and wood on the Marseilles
line was bis and that be had persisted
I'm that awful. ink black, sultry south