The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1918-10-17
The recollection Of those four
minutes seemed to divert him i'm

r.E.
Valenglay and the Project of
Police, who were neither of them
men to be unduly surprised at
courage and GOODNESS, had listened
to him, nevertheless, and were
now looking at him in bewilder-
cred silence. Was it possible for
a human being to carry heroism
to such unlikely lengthsf
Meanwhile, he went up to the
other side of the chimney and
pointed to a larger map, repre-
senting the French roads.
"You told me, Monsieur lie
President, that the ~scoundrel's
motor car had left Versailles and
was going toward Manifest"
eyes, and all our arrangements
are made to arrest him either on
the way, or at Nantes or at Saint
Nazaire, where he may intend to
take ship"
Don Luis Perenna followed
with his forefinger the road
across France, stopping here and
there, marking successive stages.
And nothing could have been
more impressive than this dumb
show.
The man hat he was, preserv-
ing his cOmposure amid the over
throw of all that he had most at
heart, seemed by his calmness to
dominate time and circumstances.
1t was as though the murderer
were running away at one end of
an unbreakable thread of which
Don Luis held the other, and as
though Don Luis could stop his
flight at any time by a mere
movement of his finger and
thumb.
AS he studied the map, the
master seemed to command not
only a sheet Of cardboard, but al
so the highroad on which a mo-
tor car was. spinning along, sub
ject to his despotic will.
He went back to the table and
continued:
1.-THE battle was over. And
there was no question of it's be-
ing resumed. Ny AZ worthless
found themselves face to face
with a conqueror, against whom
revenge is always possible, by fair
means or foul, but with one who
had subjugated them in a super
natural manner. There was no
other explanation of the inexplic-
able facts which they had wit
messed. l was a s~orcerer, a kind
OF marabout, a direct emissary
of the Prophet"
Valenglay laughed and said:
Their Interpretation was not
so very unreasonable, for after
all, you must have performed a
slight-of-hand trick which strikes
me also as being little less than
miraculous"
Monsieur lie President, do you
know a curious short story of
Balzac's called "A Passion I'M the
EDesertf"
"Yes."
"Well, the key to the riddle lies
in that"
"Does itY I don't quite see.
You were not under the claws of
a tigress. There was no tigress
to tame in this instance"
mo, but there were women"
"Ehq How do you meant"
Upon my word, Monsieur lie
President" said Don Luis gayly,
Fl should not like to shock you.
But | repeat that the troop which
carried me off on that weeks
march included women; and
women are like Blazac's tigress,
creatures whom it is not impossi-
lbe to tame, to charm, to break
in, until you make friends of
them"
eyes, yes" muttered the Pre-
mier, madly puzzled, but that
needs time"
II had a week"
"And complete liberty of ac-
ton"
"No, no, Monsieur lie President.
The eyes are enough to start with.
The eyes give rise to sympathy,
interest, affection, curiosity, a
wish to know you better. And
that merest opportunity--hS
And did an opportunity Of
fer?"a
Yes, one night. II was FAST
ened up, or at least they thought
II was | knew that the 49,"
IfavOrne was alone in her tent
close by. | went there. I left
her an hour afterward."
And the tigress was tamedf"
Eyes, rs thoroughly a s Bal
!zac's: tanned and blindly submis-
sive.""