Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1912-02-28
Wy
He Had Found chambret.

He Had Found chambret.
gers left behind, came to the Irish.
man: he began to breathe more free
ly. though still the polished butt of a
repeating rifle swinging from the sad
die remained comfort to his palm.
He grew more confident, mentally at
ease, seeing the desert take shapes
in the moonlight and show itself deso-
late on every hand.
Even as he gained assurance from
this thought, the guide turned in his
saddle and cried warning: "The Tou-
aregg!" From that moment on both
welded merciless whips. For out Of
the moonlit wastes behind them had
shrilled a voice, cruel and wild, an
'nouncing discovery and the inception
OF the chase. The fugitives had need
of no sharper spur.
A rifle shot rang sharp on the echoes
'of that cry, but the bullet must have
fallen far short. A moment later, in
,deed, they opened brisk, scattering
-fire-naturally Intellectual, though the
bullets dropping right and left in the
ssand proved that the chase had got
within range.
Even with that warning, the end
was nearer than he had dreamed or
hoped. 1t came in a twinkling ard as
unexpected as bolt out Of a clear
sky: a flash of fire ahead, a spitful
snap and-pttt!-the song of a bullet
speeding past his head.
The guide pulled up with jerk
'o'Rourke, refining in desperately,
swung his camel wide to avert the
threatened collision. simultaneously
the sharp "Qui vive?" of a French
sentry rang out, loud and sweet to
hear.
Thank God!" said the adventurer
in his heart. And aloud, "Friends!"
he cried. driving past the sentry In
cloud of dust.
By a blessed miracle the man was
quick of wit, and swift to grasp the
situation-of which, however, he
must have had some warning from
the rattle Of firing. He screamed
something in OsRourke's ear as the
latter passed, and turning threw him
self fiat and began to pump the trig-
ger of his carbine, emptying the maga-
zine at the on-sweeping line of Tou-
aregg.
The alarm was hardly needed;
O'Rourke and the guide swept on
over the slip of depression in the
desert and halted in the midst of
camp already quickened and alive
with shadowy figures running method
ically to their posts, carbine and ac-
coutrement cleaning in the moon
light: men of the camel crops, hard
ened to and familiar with their work.
They buckled down to 1t in busi-
ness-like way that thrilled the heart
of O'Rourke. In trice they were
doubling out past lines Of tethered
mehara, past the white hillocks of
the officers shelter-tents and, like the
sentry, throwing themselves down
upon the ground to take shelter OF
whatever inequalities the face Of TIE
desert offered; and their firing ringed
the bivouac with fringe OF fame.
o'Rourke slipped from his camel
and turned to watch the skirmish.
Massed. the Touaregg, in strength
greater than the adventurer had be-
lieved-something like two hundred
mounted men, in all-charged down
upon the camp as II to oyer-run and
stampede 1t.
Yet at the critical moment, when
it seemed that of surety there was
no stopping them, they divided and
swung round the camp in two wide
circles, scattering into open order and
firing as they scattered. Here and
there a horse fell, rider threw out
his hands and toppled from his sad
die, a camel seemed to buckle at full
tilt like a faulty piece of machinery;
and so gaps appeared In the flying
wings.
For the men of the flying column
were picked shots. They had need to
be, who had such tasks as this to cope
with.
Nor-for that matter-were the Tou-
aregg the only sufferers. Here and
there in the camp a man plunged for
ward In mid-stride, and on the firing
line beyond the tents now and again
a sharpshooter shuddered and lay still
upon his arms. Even at O'Rourke's
side an officer was shot as he ran to
the front, and would have fallen had
not the Irishman caught him with
ready arms and let him easily to the
earth. AS he did 80 the stricken man
rolled an agonized eye upward.
"O'Rourke!" he said between q
groan and sigh.