Evening star., 1918-03-24
M THE WAGER M !
A French War Story by Pierre Mile

they accepted my bottles with su0sn-
siasm.
"FYve or six officers and . sursaa
major with two stripes came to msst
me. / explained my mission to tn.
They had an air Of diSillusiouDue
They would have preferred. ] suppoea.
to believe that l had merely come Gown
out Of the heavens at their call.
81 Things are bad. very bad. one o6
the captains answered. Then he inter.
rupted himself to explain. as II II wefe
a matter Of current news: I am swing
You the information you came for be-
cause / have taken charge OF the group.
Mai x has been killed
II knew Maj. x, and you oaA
imagine the shock this news gave me.
/ didn't try to conceal my feeling. but
the words in which I tried to express
it were received 1t seemed to me. with
a certain impatience. The survivors.
apparently, didn't care to be burdened
with disagreeable recollections Tne
announcement of this loss led nece9-
sarily to an enumeration Of all the
other losses:
Capt So-and-So dead. Three lien.
tenants and another captain Toundsa.
tain unwounded. One-third OF the
men incapacita:ed.
''The faces of all of them grew
somber. Nevertheless the captain COM
manding the group announced:
"'You may tell Gen. ~ that We
can hold on as long as he wishes us
to do so. il he can keep us suppiied
with food and munitions and give Us
two new gun barrels.
81 wrote out his needs and his report
in my notebook
That busiress having heen dispatch-
ed. all of them seemed to breathe
easier They invited me to have some
thing to eat and something warming
to drink. I was exhausted, famished.-
I couldn't decline their invitation-
Their countenances cleared completely
lr1 4 =
to ask of me and that. since I had ar
rived with definite instructions. they
had hesitatcd to say anything eooef
it till now. Finally when We had drunk
little less demolished than the others.
the surgeon major with two stripes
risked opening UP the subject
Listen" he said. You can do us .
service-a real service. you know
'T naturally nrotested that I was
ready. to do even the impossible Tor
them And in fact. these people bad
made great impression on me. The
caotain who had taken commnnd on
the group had a cantivating smile. the
smile of child. which stretched his
morth almost to his ears .-..
at concerns tire major tr"-e. vs-y
deeply. this mater he said He
doesn't want to lose his wager.
'I waited for an explanation The
mn ior broke in:
1T is necessary to t-il .-ou that we
have had dinererc" of opinion. II fS
about the air of The Conspirators.
You know it:
"Quand en- conspire on est conspira-
teIr
1--WE have bet. the two Heutenants
and 1--we have bet twelve bottles OF
champagne that i. is from The Tales
of Hoffman" The Others say that IL Is
fror, "a File de Madame Angot."
".Wello'
when YOU alighted we didn't know
h1t rda IN q n
selves: at the -th Battery, in the
Levault Woods. is Mullie. who was the
first violin Of the Opera. He ought to
know. We agree 10 accep. the judy
ment of Muliie" Then. if you can go to
him get his verdict H,d pass this way
on your -e-urr II viii not he neces-
sarv TO descerd. All YOU will have TO
do is 10 frop us noe
AT tbs rnoment formidable ex-
ploSioa shcok the she'ta~ r"verir~ Ne
With dust and bits of rubhi-h. which
filtered hAtwean the hear,s Of he roof
An adiutant cane ta renc-t: ..e
It's III observation post again, he
said.
".Any damage asked the captain
NO. oaptain'
Then let MS make ourselves COM
Portable rain said the captain. shrug-
ging his shoulders. I'll go and see for
mvsef in q minute
He turned to me and resumed:
ut is agreed. then, isn't f.? You
viii obli-e greatly
Most decidedly they were thinking
only of that. The resr-it was routine.
which was very annoying because IL di-
verted their attention from the thing
with which they were preoccupied.
1T is needless to say that I executed
the ccmiSsion. Two hours later I
dropped them note containing these
words: The air OF The Conspirators.
is from La File de Madame Angot."'
Il presume that this pleased them.
AT least those of them who had won"