The Connecticut labor press., 1920-10-02
By A. CONAN DOYLE

this time helter skelter, fifteen thou
 sand of them, and there were great
 gaps left in our line, through which
 the. French cavalry rode as pleased
 them best. Then the French guns had
 been too many and too good for ours
 and our heavy horse had been cut to
 bits, so that things were none toe
 merry with us. On the other hand,
 HougoumOnt, blood-soaked ruin, was
 still ours, and every British regiment
 was firm, though, to tell the honest
 truth, as man is bound to do, there were a sprinkling of red coats among the blue ones who made for the rear. But these were lads and stragglers. the faint hearts that are found every where, and say again that no regi- ment fiinched. It was little we could see of the battle, but man would be l blind not to know that all the fields behind us were covered with flying men. But then, though we on the right wing knew nothing of it, the Prussians had begun to show, and Na- poleon had set twenty thousand of his men to face them, which made up for ours that had belted, and left us much as we began. That was all dark to us, however, and there was a time when the French horsemen had flooded in between us and the rest of the army, that we thought we were the only brigade left standing, and had set our teeth with the intention of selling our lives as dearly as we could.
 At that time it was between four and five in the afternoon, and we had had nothing to eat, the most of us, since the night befofe, and were soaked with rain into the bargain. 1t had drizzIed off and on all day, but for the last few hours we had not had thought to spare either upon the weather or our hunger. Now we be- I gan to look around and tighten our waistbe1ts, and ask who was hit, and who was spared. was glad to see ! Jim, with his face all blackened with powder, standing on my right rear. leaning on his fre-lock. He saw me looking at him, and shouted out to know if were hurt.
 l "All right. Jim" I answered.
 l T fear I'm here on wild-goose l chase" said he gloomily, sbut it's not 1 over yet. By God, I'll have him or he'll have me !" He had brooded so much on his wrong, had poor Jim, that really believe it had turned his head, for he had a glare in his eyes as he spoke that was hardly human. He was always a man that took even a little thing to heart, and since Edie had left him I am sure that he was no longer his own master.
 "A single fights which they tell me were common enough in the battles of old, before men were trained in masses. As we lay in the hollow, two horse men came spurring along the ridge in front of us, riding as hard as hoof could rattle. The first was an English dragoon, his face right down on his horses mane. with French cuirassier, an old, gray-headed fellow, laundering behind him on a big, black mare. Our chaps set up a hooting as they came flying on, for 1t seemed shame to see an Englishman run like that; but as they swept across our front we saw where the trouble lay. The dragoon had dropped his sword and was un- armed, while the other was pressing
 
 weapon. At last, stung maybe by our hooting. he made up his mind to chance it. His eye fell on a lance beside a dead Frenchman, so he swerved his horse to let the other pass, and hop ping off cleverly enough, he gripped hold of 1t. But the other was too tricky for him, and was on him like ! a shot. T@ dragoon thrust up with the lance, but the other turned and sliced him through the shoulder blade. It was all done in an instant, and the Frenehman cantered his horse up the brae, showing his teeth at us over his shoulder like a snarling dog.
 That was one to them, but we scored one for us presently. They had pushed forward a skirmfsh-line whose fire was left rather than on us, but we sent out two companies of the Ninety fifth to keep them in check. It was strange to hear the cracking kind of noise that l they made, for both sides were using l the rife. An officer stood among the | French skirmishers, tall. lean man with mantle over his shoulders, and I as our fellows came forward he ran | out midway between the two parties | and stood as a fencer would with his | sword up and his head back. I can | see him now, with his lowered eye lids, and the kind of sheer that he had | upon his face. On this the subaltern of the Rifles. who was a fine we'll grown lad, ran forward and drove full tilt at him with one of the queer, crooked swords that the rifiemen carry. They came together like two rams, for each ran at the other, and down they tumbled at the shock, but the French man was below. Our man broke his sword short off. and took the others blade through his left arm, but he was the stronger man, and he man. aged to let the life out of his enemy with the jagged stump of his blade. I thought that the French skirmishers would have shot him down, but not trigger was drawn, and he got back to his company with one sword through his arm and half another in his hand.
 CHAPTER XIII,