The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1920-08-27
CHAPTER |.
Belgian and Arab.


Lieut.. Albert Werper had only the
prestige of the name he had dishon-
ored to thank for his narrow escape
from being cashiered. At first he had
been humbly thankful, too, that they
had sent him to this God-forsaken
Congo post instead of court-martial-
ing him, as he had so justly deserved !;
but now six months of the monotony,
the frfghtful isolation and the loneli-
ness had wrought a change. The
young man brooded continually over
his fate.
He regretted the gay life of Brussels
as he never had regretted the sins
which had snatched him from that
gayest of capitals, and as the days
passed he came to center his resent
ment upon the representative in Congo
land of the authority which had exiled
him-his captain and immediate SUI
perior.
The senseless hatred Of the lieuten-
ant grew at last into form of mania.
The captains natural taciturnity he
distorted into studied attempt to in
suit him because of his past shortcom-
ings. He imagined that his superior
held him In contempt, and so he chafed
and fumed inwardly until one evening
his madness became suddenly homi-
cidal. He fingered the butt Of the re-
volver at his hip, his eyes narrowed
and his brows contracted. At last he
spoke.
"You have insulted me for the last
timei" he cried, springing to his feet.
''I am an officer and a gentleman, and
shall put up with it no longer without
an accounting from you, you pigw
The captain, an expression of sur
prise upon his features, turned toward
his junior. He had seen men before
with the jungle madness upon them
the madness of solitude and unre-
strained brooding. and perhaps a touch
of fever.
He rose and extended his hand to
lay it upon the others shoulder. Quiet
words of counsel were upon his lips !;
but they were never spoken. Werper
construed his superior's action into
an attempt to close with him. His re-
volver was on a level with the cap
tain's heart, and the latter had taken
but step when Werper pulled the
trigger. Without a moan the man sank
to the rough planking of the veranda,
and as he fell the mists that had
clouded Werper's brain lifted. so that
he saw himself and the deed that he
had done in the same light that those
who must judge him would see them.
He heard excited exclamations from
xI,, aF hn ha
heard men running in his direction.
They would seize him, and If they
didn't kill him they would take him
down the Congo to a point where a
properly ordered military tribunal
would do SO just as effectively, though
in a more regular manner.
Werper had no desire to die. Never
before had he so yearned for life as In
this moment that he had so effectively
forfeited his right to live. The men
were nearing him. What was he to
do?
In despair. he turned and fled from
the oncoming soldiery. Across the
compound he ran, his revolver still
clutched tightly in his hand. At the
gates q sentry halted him. Werper did
not pause to parley or to exert the in
fiuence of his commission-he merely
raised his weapon and shot down the
innocent black. A moment later the
fugitive had torn open the gates and
vanished into the blackness of the
Jungle, but not before he had trans
ferred the rifle and ammunition belt of
the dead sentry to his own person.
All that night Werper fled farther
and farther into the heart of the will
derness, more fearful of the human
huntsmen in his rear than of the wild
carnivora ahead.
Dawn came at last, but still the man
plodded on. All sense of hunger and
fatigue were lost in the terrors of con-
templated capture He could think
only of escape. He dared not pause