New Britain herald., 1923-03-30

Quartier of Marseilles, I lived in tn
 Foret du Dom, on the far side o
 Hyeres, the life of dog. Ther
 were three of us woodmen in the fu
 Pierre, Jacques and myself.
 Solitude more complete than tha
 which shared with these two men
 have never imagined I read th'
 newspapers, which we obtained witt
 difficulty from the neighboring villag'
 read of myself as the most notori
 ous criminal at large, read of all thu
 world-famed detectives of London
 Paris and New York who had sworr
 to effect my capture, read of m,
 crimes. my daring, my cunning. reat
 of all these things outside my shant,
 on the hillside-and smiled. Given 2
 certain amount of resignation and pa.
 tience and I knew very well that
 was safe as long as I chose.
 One day a chance incident set me thinking. We had paused for a second to fill our pipes with filthy to- bacco. berely a dozen yards round one of the hairpin corners of the forest road. leaving our wagons. as usual, in the middle of the thorough fare Suddenly car swung round the corner, travelling too fast for the driver to apply his brakes with safe- ty. With great skill he passed us, grazing the long trunks of the Topped trees and escaping the precipice by a matter of inches. That night I saw that Pierre and Jacques drank more than their usual share of the sour wine, and afterward I propound- ed my scheme.
 Comrades" I said, it is a dogs life we lead"
 They growled assent.
 Today" I continued, 'an idea came to me. If our wagons had been an inch or two nearer the out side corner of the road, or the man in the automobile shade less skillful, he could not possibly have escaped. His automobile would have been smashed, and he would have gone over the dge Of the precipice."
 They made strange noises in their tflroats and continued to listen.
 Its a dogs life, this," I repeated. What we need. to make things en- durable, is money-money, so that you two can go down to the cafe at the foot of the hill and drink brandy with the daughters of the village, they who leave you now so unkindly alone because you have nothing to spend upon them."
 Their pipes were out of their mouths now, and they were listening intently.
 "A man like that one today would have money-a pocketbook. Whilst he was unconscious, look you, we would take it. One of us would bring it up here here where there are hundred hiding-places. in the ground, the trees, the cracks of the earth. pocketbook which is lost, is lost. What do you say. coinrades?'
 There was no doubt about how the scheme appealed to them.
 Ut would be an equal share be- tween the three?" Pierre urged.
 Between the three," I agreed. sIeave the details to me"
 We went to our work the next morning with a new zest. All the time we were at work in the forest we were thinking of what fortune might have in store for us on our Iomeward crawl. We crawled round each corner ,loitering at the psycho- logical spot always with the same evil hope in our hearts.
 The affair, however, was not so easy. Sometimes we were seen from above or below; sometimes drivers were too careful On the fourth day, however, success rewarded our perse- verence. A small automobile which | I had spotted from distance came | round the corner where we were, so to speak, anchored, driven with that full measure of recklessness which | only a Frenchman, anxious to have his engine, can obtain. There was a wild cry from the driver, a crash into our wagon and over went the auto- mobile and man down the side of the precipice.
 It was I who clambered down to where our victim was lying. and drew B pleasing looking black pocket-book from the inside of his coat. After ward I felt his heart and discovered that he was alive. I ordered Pierre 10 move the wagons over to our own side of the road. and we secreted the among the logs we were carrying. Presently public touring -aT ITOIfl 1dflttSs oii iIs "eJ tc iiS NiNpf ,rrived. The accident was eXplained; .oom was made for the injured man; md a liberal pourboire was given us, among the passengers. We hen made our way home, and later ,n, when we had lighted our even- ng fire we opened the pocketbook. livfded the money into three portions, ut I spoke to them as a master.
 "Listen, Jacques, and you, Pierre said. T am a man of justice, but .lthough I am one of you, I have raveled beyond these forests, and now the world. If you take this honey with you to the village tonight, on will be drunk, the truth will be nown and we shall all go to prison. will swear to you the woodcutters' ath. the oath across the flames, that our share shall be saved. But go , the village tonight with 20 francs ach, the pourboire given us by the and let me keep the rest pr you or hide it for yourselves"
 They had just sufficient wit to ralize that I was their superior in Ifellisence and that my advice was