Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-11

out for Morocco three DAYS before Not one of them
possessed other than bayonet each-the men of
the Legion not permitted easy their rifles
And no of them carried more than three days
tons. They their uniforms for it is not possible
penny day. The seven had deserted together head
ing the desert for Morocco where there just
chance in thousand that they might win clear away,
providing they could get there In their hearts they
had all known that the attempt was foredoomed to
failure that they practically committing suicide;
but they had ignored their black knowledge.
They had the eafard, which is the Legion's name
for the fearful broodng Madness born of the heat the
poverty the tyrannous discipline the despair and hope
essness that later temporarily SEXES upon
every egonnaire. 1t is really the eafard that
soldier in any and then, in hot countries,
to seize his re-if he get at t-and supply of am
munition and hurry out into the his brain seethng
with the lust to kll-and kil-and kill aimlessly,
without 1t is the catard that to lay bare
every quvering in mans body to every rrita-
ton in the world when, if he is strong wed he will
lay very still on his narrow bed in the huge white
washed, sitting barrack with set teeth and wait
dumbly, desperately, for the tension to slacken.
1t is impossible for the dweler in cool places who
works under the easy disc pine of civil life to understand
exactly what the caard of the Foreign Legion is But
if such man imag every irritation of his life hap
pening simultaneously on the hottest day he has
known, during which he has worked harder physically
than he has worked and at the most loathsorne
kind of work he has known,such as, for instance,
cleansing the of Arab prison under the eers
of the black prisoners which at any rate once
part of the duties of the egonnaire,- in addition to
this he is wholly frendless and knows that practically
sincerely
that he has lost trivial part of his outfit worth
perhaps farthng for which he will probably have to
weeks imprisonment when his superior dis
covers the oss that he is absolutely pennless, smoker
without tobacco, accustomed to alcoholic stlmuant
without the means of purchasing it. that he has years
and years of the life to endure before he legally
escape it;-then, and only then the average man
realize tenth of the state of mind that induces madness
1t under the influence of this madness that Bel
mont and his six companions had effected their hopeless
desertion.
ON the second day of their fight the six had been sur
prised by company of Goums the Legion has
continually about the desert outside Sid Bel
Abbes on the lookout for deserters, for the
capture of whom reward is paid.
Belmont by sheer luck had crawled into
a tiny in the rocks some distance from the
others-had escaped the notice of the Arabs.
Peering out, he had seen each of his unfortunate
comrades chained to a horse, and, half marching,
half dragged, start on his miserable journey
back to the inevitable court martial at Oran, and
the equally inevitable horrors of life in the penal
section that would follow.
And now he was alone in the desert,-lost,
famished, half Naked with failing senses, an easy
I prey to those of the desert the ackas,
M the hyenas the huge, flesh eating birds
W. He went aimlessy, shvering with cold, blum
IS dering under the stars that longer of
any service to him. He was walking in circles:
and there is only end to that:-the walker goes
on till he drops, and dies where he drops. Tall
though he was, and of singularly powerful ply
sique, he was impotent now and helpless Brains
- and muscles had all been trained and tried in
Hu English public school, in an English regiment, in
iH the wide and varied fields of sport cultivated by
sV English officers; but all that was past and done
lilB with Belmont had been high in the world
IlD once; but he had gone under, and now he could
WI sink to no lower deep of misery.
n1 He on the edge of death-the forerunners
H of death in the desert already skulkng round
I him; their bright eyes shone through the shadows
HIN all about him. He wandered Presently he
Hill began to talk to himself, to humble.
RI SUDDENLY he stood still, stiffening, listening.
Il ~ Even to his bunted senses the drumming
III of hoofs was plain. The danger acted as sort