Bisbee daily review., 1909-09-17

able champion. was clad in the uni- form of my rank and carried my drawn sword in my hand. having dis carded my scaboard so as to avoid the risk of accidentally tripping over it in the coming encounter. My weapon. the regulation cavalry sabre. was 8 good one and knew that it would not play me false.
 Midway between the two forces my savage adversary awaited me, and as l advanced towards him his tai spare figure standing outlined against the red disk of the setting sun was truly an overlapping spectacle. He was robed entirely in white. and held in his right hand his famous scimeter, whtie his left gripped a small circular buckler of hippopotamus hide. A great silence. had fallen over both forces, and, as walked briskly over the heat ed sands of the desert. it seemed to me that had never known the air to be so still.
 Within dozen paces of my adver- sary I halted Then for a few mo ments neither of US moved, but each subjected the other to the keenest scrutiny, seeking to discover some weak point of which he might take advantage
 T saw at once that the possession of the buckler gave the Algerian an enormous advantage over me, since 1t enabled him to both cut and parry al the same time. while l had to rely upon the sword itseif for both attack and defense. S
 For what seemed minutes we stood gazing intently at each other; and then with 2 wild cry of 'Allsh, the Algerian raised his glittering blade 1 aloft and rlshed upon me.
 With my sword in tierce I stood my ground and let him come. Down came his blade with a vicious cut for my right shoulder, up sprang my sword and met the blow, back went my point for his breast, pnly 10 be put aside by his buckler while he cut again. this time for -1v head I successfully parried his head cut. and. seeing that it had failed, he sprang quickly back in time to avoid my riposte For a few seconds neither of us moved, except thatzI shifted my ground bit so as to get the sun on ny left, instead of in front of me as it hsd been at first Then with an- other shout he charged me again.
 And so the fight went on, until our breath came in hoarse quick gasps and the precipitation streamed down oar faces. vell-nigh binding us. My savage opponent was rot governed by any conventionahties in his style Of 1 fighting. but rushed at me now from one side and now from the other. ut | tering all the while fierce cEies and l delivering cuts wherever he saw an opening without regard to whether ! tkey would be considered fair CT foul ir a civilized salle d'armes
 And yet, wit. all his apparent recklessness. he guarded well. and | try as would was unable to get in fatal stroke. Time and again l sent the point back to him after a parry, 1 only to have it dashed aside by his buckler, or tried to use the edge, only | to have it met with his sword
 The red sun had by this time sunk below the horizon, but still we con tinued to struggle, sometimes out of distance and sometimes locked so close together in corps-a-corps that each could feel the others hot breath On his cheek.
 However. it is evident that such a combat could not go on forever. and st last l determined to risk a ruse- a trick which WIS sc1oeti=3es en-