The Carlisle independent., 1915-09-30

breath he drew He asked in Arabic:
 Where am F"
 Tn the hut of victory" said Fatou Anni.
 Pitchoune overheard the voice and came to Sabron's side. His master murmured:
 Where are we, my friend?"
 The dog leaped on his bcd and licked his face. Fatou Anni, witL whisk of straw, swept the flies frUni 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 a handful of heartless cousins who were indifferent to him. Nevertheless he clung 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, Ee went down, down.
 Fatou Ami cherished him. He was a soldier who had fallen in the battle | against her sons and grandsons. He was 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
 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 a responsive chord in the great-grandmother's heart. Once he smiled at one of the naked, big -bellied great-great-grandchi Beni Has san, three years old, came up to Sab ron with his fingers in his mouth and chattered 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 flies and the cries of the will lage came in without permission. and now and then, when the winds arose, he could hear the stirring of the palm l trees.
 Sabron was reduced to skin and bone His nourishment was insuffi- 1 hn oh Of H6nPnt 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 Sabron thought the dog was reconnoitering for him over the vast pink sea without there-which, if one could sail across as in a ship, one would sail to France, through the walls of mellow old Taras- con, to the chateau of good King Rene; one would sail as the moon sails, and l through an open window one might hear the sound of woman's voice singing. The song, ever illusive and irritating in it's persistency. tantalized his sick ears.
 i Sabron did not know that he would have found the chateau shut had he sailed there in the moon. It was as we'll that he did not know, for his wan- dering thought would not have known where to follow, and there was repose in thinking of the Chateau d'Esclig- mac.
 It 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 fought together. They quarreled over bits of colored glass. Sabrons breath came panting. Without he heard the cries of the warriors, the lance-hearers-he heard the cries of Fatou Anni's sons who were going out to battle. The French soldiers were in a distant part of the Sahara and Fatou Annis grand children were going out to piliage and destroy. The old woman by his side cried out and beat her breast. Now and then she looked at him curiously. as if she saw death on his pale face. | Now that all her sons and grandsons had gone, he was the only man left in the village, as even boys of sixteen had joined the raid. She wiped his forehead and gave him a potion that had been pierced with arrows. It WAS all she could do for a captive
 Toward sundown, for the first time Sabron felt little better, and after | twenty-four hours absence, Pitchoune whined at the hut door, but would not come in. Fatou Ami called on Allah. left her patient and went out to see what was the matter with the dog At the door, in the shade of palm. stood two Bedouins.
 cTO BE CONTINUED