The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1915-04-15

last hut of the village. She could
satisfy her curiosity without shocking
her neighbors. She bent down to
scrutinize Pitchoune's collar. There
was a sacred medal on 1t with sacred
inscriptions which she could not read.
But as soon as she had freed him this
time, Pitchoune tore himself away
from her. flew out Of the sacred ring
and disappeared. The he ran back,
barking appealingly; he took the hem
Of her dress =: =: ~ -: :: youth and pulled
ner. He repeatedly d1d this and the
superstitious Arabian believed herself
to be called divinely. She cautiously
left the doorstep, her veil falling be-
fore her face, came out Of the sacred
ring, followed to the edge Of the berry
field. From there Pitchoune sped over
the desert; when he stopped and
looked back at her. Fatou Ami did
not follow, and he returned to renew
his entreaties. When she tried to
touch him he escaped, keeping at q
safe distance. The village began to
stir. Blue and yellow garments flut.
tered in the streets.
Allah Akbar," Fatou Anni muir
INJURED, these are days of victory, of
recompense." #.a@
She gathered her robe around her
and, statelily and impressively, started
toward the huts of her grandsons.
When she returned, eight young war
riors, fully armed, accompanied her.
Pitchoune sat beside the parched corn,
watching the brazier and her meal.
Fatou Ami pointed to the desert.
She said to the young men, go
with this genie. There is something
he wishes to show US. Allah is great.
Co."
.
When the Capitaine de Sabron
opened his eyes in consciousness,
they encountered a square of blazing
blue heaven. He weakly put up his
hand to shade his sight, and cotton
awning, supported by four bamboo
poles, was swiftly raised over his
head. He saw objects and took cogni-
zance of them. On the floor in the
low doorway of mud hut sat three
little naked children covered with
flies and dirt He was the guest Of
Fatou Ami. These were three of her
hundred Observation-Disclosures
The babies were playing with a little
Co1 hn Int
not articulate his name. BY his side
sat the woman to whom he owed his
life. Her veil fell over her face. She
was braiding straw. He looked at her
intelligently. She brought him a
drink of cool water in an earthen ves-
sci, with the drops oozing from it's
porous sides. The hut reeked with
odors which met his nostrils at every
breath he drew. He asked in Arabic:
Where am II"
In the hut of victory" said Fatou
Ami. @ .> aa
Pitchoune overheard the voice and
came to. Sabron's side. His master
murmured:
where are we, my friend?"
The dog leaped on his bed and licked
bis face. Fatou Ami, with whisk of
straw, swept the flies from him. A
great weakness spread it's wings above
him and he fell asleep. rs
Days are all alike to those who lie
In mortal sickness. The hours are in
tensely colorless and they slip and slip
and slip into painful wakefulness, into
fever, into drowsiness finally, and then
into weakness.
The Capitaine de Sabron. although
he had no family to speak of, did pos.
sess, unknown to the Marquise d'Es.
clignac, an old aunt in the provinces,
and handful of heartless cousins who
were Indifferent to him. Nevertheless
he chung to life and in the hut Of Fatou
Ami fought for existence. Every time
that he was conscious he struggled
anew to hold to the thread of life.
Whenever he grasped the thread he
vanquished, and whenever he los4 it.
he went down, down.
Fatou Ami cherished him. He was
a soldier who had fallen in the battle
against her sons and Hrandsons. He
was a man and a strong one, and she
despised women. He was her prey
and he was her reward and she cared
for him; as she did so, she became
maternal. s..
His eyes which, when he was con.
scious, thanked her; his thin hands
that moved on the rough blue robe
thrown over him, the devotion Of the
dog-found responsive chord in the
great-grandmother's heart. Once he
smiled at one Of the naked, big-bellied
Observation-Disclosures. BENZ Has.
san. three years old, came up to Sab.
ron with his fingers in his mouth
and chartered like q bird This proved
to Fatou Ami that Sabron had not
the Evil Eye No one but the children
were admitted to the hut, but the sun
and the flies and the cries Of the vii.
lage came in without permission. and
now and then, when the winds arose,
he could hear the stirring Of the palm
trees.
SAFFRON was reduced to skin and