The Mena weekly star., 1916-08-24
Continued from Last Week. )
 CHAPTER xxII.
Kisret.

oelAbbes. He had taken three mount ed legionaries with him, and they had followed sullenly silent in the low cloud of yellow dust which rolled back from his horses hoofs It was now close on midnight
 They left the smooth, white military road behind them and galloped out into the waste-faster and faster memory hot at his side, it's merciless hands upon the reins The kilometers flashed past. Vineyard and huddled lightless villages lay far behind in the eastern shadow. There was again a l grim unconquered desolation of rock and stone and yellow ever-changing | hills. He drew rein at last, moved by a curious pity for the panting quiver- ing animal beneath him. The three men were outdistanced. He was alone. his haggard haunted face lifted for an instant to the now darkened sky. Out | of the black unlit waste a horseman raced toward him.
 "Who goes there?"
 | 1Ou are cut off-Sidi- bel el-Abbes-attacked at daybreak--"
 The reeing horse stumbled and l pitched its rider on to the stones. The goum lay motionless. Colonel Destinn | turned in his saddle. The three le- gionaries were already behind him. Their heads were lowered. There was for a moment no sound but that from | the snorting, winded horses. Then from the southwest, borne on a gust of the fitful storm, there came monoton- ous, familiar cry
 "Il La Ilaha fila Allahur'
 They watched him stupidly as he turned his horse and rode forward in- to the mysterious half-light which in the darkest hour hovers over the great i African wastes. Silently they rode i after him.
 Colonel Destlnn did not hear them. He was listening to the wailing mo- notonous chant beyond the darkness. As yet he could see nothing, but he knew with whom he had to deal. Lowe had spoken the truth. The tribes had risen. And he had said, Tomorrow you may have no son" That also would be true. The twenty-five years of exile had been sacrificed to an un- known life perhaps already exun- | guished.
 La Ilaha fila '.lahul'
 He strengthened in his saddle. The high-pitched voices were now close at hand-fii5 trained ear measured at most couple of hundred yards And the man who had long since ceased to believe in God or devil prayed
 God, make it not in vainw
 Then he shook the tired beast into a galop. The flying hoofs scarcely added a sound to the dull thunder of | the Arab advance. Then he was on them-through them, with the horde ] of shouting Arabs at his heels. He | bent low in the saddle. And he gained. ! There had been a diversion. The three | legionaries had followed him. and they | had been mown down almost without resistance. This Destinn did not know.
 There was a narrow passage be- 1 tween the bowlders-room for a couple of horsemen abreast, but no more. If he could reach them there would be an- other hundred yards gained-perhaps more-perhaps safety. Suddenly he | felt the animal beneath him reel in her stride. He dragged her up-an- other ten yards and she pitched for ward, rolled over and lay still. He swung free as she fell, and raced on 1 through the soft clogging sand. But his own strength was gone. This was the end. He smiled grimly to himself.
 "If this be the expiation-O GodF' A shout reached him. As the dark swift-moving line of his pursuers broke out from the lingering shadows he turned Two horsemen raced toward him from the rocks. He saw them | through the mist-new enemies--and took aim and fired with an unshaken nerve As he saw that neither shot had told he cursed irritably. The next moment the foremost rider reached him and swuRg round in cloud of dust.
 Get up behind mel Quickw
 He obeyed. At the terse imperative command his brain had cleared. He had recognized Goetz in the soldier now galloping beside him. He glanced back over his shoulder. The Arabs were in sight. He caught the fash of steel and the waving of pennons above the dark line of dust. The air quiv- cred with their hoarse triumphant shouts. They were gaining. It was at that noment that the mar riding be- fore him swayed and suddenly fell back limp into his arms. Then Des- tim understood One shot at least had told. Exerting all the powers of q brill liant horsemanship, he held on to the unconscious man and forced the strain ing mare to an increased effort. Side by side tue two horses burst into the