Year: 1879

come forward in his turn and give me
his piece of bamboo; and the thief, let
him do what he may, will have the
longest piece


"Now, you know what superstitious
hounds those Asiatic fellows always are;
and when they heard this announce
ment they all looked at each other like
children going to be whipped. The
Colonel took the bamboos one after an
other, as solemnly as if he were on a
court-martial, but when about dozen
men had gone past he suddenly sprang
forward and seized one of them by the
throat, shouting at the full pitch Of his
voice, You are the mani


"Down went the fellow on his knees
and yelled for mercy, confessing that he
s0as the man, sure enough. As for the
rest, they looked as frightened as if all
the gods in the caverns of Elephanta
had come flying down among them at
once; and from that day forth they sa-
iaamed to the very ground at the mere
sight of the Colonel half mile off.


"'How on earth did you manage that,
Colonel?' asked the senior Major,
great fat fellow, as stupid as carp.


"'Nothing simpler, my dear fellow
answered De Malet, laughing. The
strips were all exactly the same length,
and the thief, fearing to get the longest
piece, betrayed himself by biting off the
end.'


"This, as you may think, added a
good deal to the Colonel's reputation;
and when we had that affair with the
Bedouins at Laghouat we saw that he
could fight as well as maneuver. In the
thick Of the skirmish one of the rogues,
seeing De Malet left alone, flew at him
with drawn yataghan, but the Colonel
just dropped on his horses neck and let
the blow pass over him, and then gave
point and ran the fellow right through
the body, as neatly as any fencing
master could have done it. You may
be sure that we thought none the less of
him after that; but all this was nothing
to what was ,ming.


"Well, De Malet had been with us
about a year when the railway was be-
gun from Algiers to Blidah, and the di-
recting engineer happened to be one of
my greatest friends, Eugene Latour, as
good fellow as l ever met. 1t was
quite fete with us whenever he dined
at mess, for his jokes and good stories
kept every one brisk and then to hear
him sing! ma fot, it was wonderful! |!
One minute some rattling refrain that
seemed to set the very chairs dancing,
and then suddenly low, sad air that
fairly brought the tears into your eyes.
They were in mine, know, every time
I heard him sing those last two verses
of The Conscript's FAREWELL
Thought to gain rich spoils-pve gained
OF bullets half a score:


thought to come back Corporal
shall come back no more.


Feed my poor dog. pray thee, Rose.
And with him gentle be:


He'll miss his master for a while
Adieu! remember me!


"Well, as was saying, Eugene had
been put over the work, and don't
know where they could have found a
better man for it. Whether it poured
with rain or came on hot enough to cook
outlet without fire, it was all one to
him: there he was as his post, looking
after every thing, with his eyes in ten
places at once. You may think that
under such chief the laborers had nc
chance of idling; and every thing was
getting on splendidly when one morn.
ing, as he was standing on the parapet
of bridge, his foot slipped and down
he went, l don't know how far. The
fall would have killed him outright il
by good luck there hadn't happened te
be an Arab underneath (the only time
that an Arab ever Was of any use,
should say, and Eugene, alighting upon
him, broke his own fall and the Bedouin'
neck to boot.


Snow, if there had been nobody there
to tell tales, this wouldn't have mattered
a pin, for an Arab more or less is no sucf
great matter; but, as ill-luck would have
it, there were three or four more of tht
rascals near enough to see what ha6
happened, and of course they raised {
hue and cry directly. And when it was
noised abroad that Christian dog Ca
they politely call us) had killed Mus
sulman, you should have seen what as
uproar there was! The people cam,
running together like vultures when /,
camel drops down in the desert, ant
there was yelling and dancing ant
shaking of fists that made ones yer,
head turn round. Poor Eugene would
have been torn to pieces on the spot
the guard hadn't formed round him ant
defended him; and the only way W,
could pacify the mob was to promis
them justice from the district magis
trate; SO away to the magistrate we al
went.


"Now, dare say Mr.. Magistrate wa
very good fellow in his way, and


don't want to say word against him
but still, it must be owned that he WASH
exactly the kind of man to stand firm
in the midst of a rabble of wild Moham


medans, all bowling and fourishing thei
knives at once under his very nose. Z
tell the plain truth, he was frightene