Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1915-09-17

Where am II"
in the hut Of victory" said Fatou
Ami
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
his face. Fatou Ami. with whisk of
straw, swept the flies from him. A
great weakness spread its wings above
him and he fell asleep.
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
we're Indifferent to Lin. 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 lost 1t,
he went down, down.
Fatou Ami cherished him. He was
a soldier who had fallen in the battle
against her sons and grandsons. He
was a man and strong one, and she
despised women. He was her prey
for him; as she did so, she became
maternal
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-grandmothers heart. Once he
smiled at one of the naked, big-bellied
great-great-grandchi Benz Has.
san, three years old, came up to Sab
ron with his fingers in his mouth
and chartered like 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 f1ies 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.
Sabron was reduced to skin and
bone. His nourishment was INSULT
Client, and the absence of all decent
care was slowly taking him to death
It will never be known why he did not
die
Pitchoune took to making long ex
cursions. He would be absent for days
and in his clouded mind Sabror
thought the dog was accommodating fol
him over the vast pink sea without
there-which. If one could sail across
as in ship, one would sail to France
con, to the chateau of good King Rene;
one would sail as the moon sails, anC
through an open window one might
hear the sound of a woman's voice
singing. The song, ever Elusive anC
irritating in its persistency, tantalizec
his sick ears.
Sabron did not know that he would
have found the chateau shut had he
sailed there in the moon. 1t was as
we'll that he did not know. for his wan
dering thought would not have known
where to follow, and there was repost
in thinking of the Chateau d'Esclig
nae.
1t grew terribly hot. Fatou Ami, by
his side, famed him with a fan she
had woven. The great-great-grand
children on the floor in the mud Tough
together They quarreled over bits O
colored glass. Sabron's breath came
painting. Without, he heard the cries
of the warriors, the lance-bearers-h,
heard the cries of Fatou Anni's sons
who we're going out to battle. TIL,
French soldiers were in distant par
of the Sahara and Fatou Anni's grand
children were going out to pillage anC
destroy. The old woman by his sid'
cried out and beat her breast. Nov
and then she looked at him curiously
as II she saw death on his pale face
Now that all her sons and grandson
had gone, he was the only man left il
the village, as even boys of sixteer
had joined the raid. She wiped hii
forehead and gave him a potion tina
had been pierced with arrows. 1t wal
all she could do for a captive.
Toward shutdown, for the first time
Sabron felt a little better, and afte
twenty-four hours absence, Pitchoun'
whined at the hut door, but would no
come in. Fatou Ami called on Allah
left her patient and went out to SEE
what was the matter with the dog. A
the door, in the shae of palm, stooC
two Bedouins.
CTO BE cONTINUED)