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Show i ; "THE GREEN FLjA G" i taTov I If ftftowfitfit (Copyright, by A. C. Doyle.) J When Jnck Conolly of the Irish Shot- If. gun Brifrade, the Rory of the Hills In- ' nor Circle, nnd the extreme left wine of If Ak the Land league, was Incontinently shot b' Sergt. Murdoch of the constabulary, ! in a little moonlight frolic near Kan-turk, Kan-turk, his twin brother Dennis Joined the British army. The countryside had become too hot for him; and, as the seventy-live shillings were wnntlng which might have carried him to ' America, he took the only way handy of getting himself out of the way. The sergeant, smiling complacently over his six feet of brawn and his forty-four-lnch chest, whisked him off with a dozen other of the boys to the depot at Fermoy, whence In a few weeks they were sent on, with the spadeworl: kinks 1 taken out of their backs, to the First battalion of the Royal Mallows, at the top of the roster for foreign service. The Royal Mallows, at about that date, were ns strange a lot of men as ever were paid by a great empire to fight Its battles. It was the darkest hour of the land struggle, when the one Bide came out with crowbar and battering batter-ing ram by day, and the other with mask and with shotgun by night. Men driven from their homes and potato patches found their way even Into the service of the Government, to which It seemed to them that they owed their troubles, and now and then they did wild things before they came. There were recruits In the Irish regiments iwho would forget to answer to their own names, eo short had been their acquaintance ac-quaintance with them. Of these the I Royal Mallows had their full share, and. while they still retained their fame I as being: one of the smartest corps In the army, no one knew better than 1 1 their officers that they were dry-rotted mp with treason nnd with bitter hatred of p the flag under which they served. M . And the center of all the disaffection H m was C company, In which Dennis Con- k ffi oily found himself enrolled. They were Bjli jj, Celts, Catholics, and men of the tenant MM. jr class to a man. and their whole experl- ij; ence of the British Government had . 1? SI, been an Inexorable landlord, and a con- Lu Sj K 1 stabulary who seemed to them to be JbJv 9 I always on the side of the rent-collector. Dennis was not the only moonlighter In lM the ranks, nor was he alone in having r tit13, an '"tolerable family blood feud to F Vira-' harden his heart. .Vflrti J Ifc wns a March morning upon the Ajf ' 1 eastern, fringe of the Nubian desert. , . Mtfrc The sun had not yet risen, but a tinge of pink flushed up as far as the cloud-fen cloud-fen less zenith, and the long strip of sea 0 lay like a rosy ribbon across the horl- I V Some eight or ten miles Inland the I ij rolling plain curved upward with a I V steeper slope until It ran Into a line of I n red basaltic rock which zlg-zagged I u from north to south, heaping Itself up. I 1 r at one point into a fantastic knoll.- On I , 1 the summit of this there stood, upon V that March morning, three Arab chlef- I tflinB the Sheik Kadra of the Hadcn- ftd , cfcViyas, Moussa Wad Aburhegel. who t n ' ted1 ne Berber dervishes, and Hamld y1 AM "vTald Hussein, who had come northward Hl! with his fighting men from the land of Y BU the Buggaras. Two miles from where J ' i ''fill they stood, amid the sand hills and the ''IrVwll mimosa scrub, a great parallelogram ill 'll nad ocen niarked by plled-up bushes. Vn 'Sfli From the inside of this dozens of tiny F V vT h blue smoke-reeks curled up Into the still morning air, while there rose from It a confused, deep murmur, the voices of men and the gruntlngs of camels blended blend-ed Into the same Insect buzz. "The unbelievers have cooked their morning food," said the Baggara chief, shading his eyes with his tawny, sinewy hand "Truly their sleep has been but scanty; for Hamld and a hundred hun-dred of his men have fired upon them since the rising of the moon." A fanfare of bugle calls burst from the distant camp. At the same time the bank of bushes at one side had been thrown or trampled down, and th little army within began to move slowly slow-ly out onto the plain. Once clear of the camp they halted, and the slant rays of the sun struck flashes from bayonet and from gun-barrel as the ranks closed up until the big pith helmets Joined Into a single long white ribbon. Two streaks of scarlet glowed on either side ! of the square, but elsewhere the fringe of fighting men was of the dull yellow khaki tint which hardly shows against the desert sand. Inside their array was a dense mass of camels and mules bearing stores and ambulance needs Outside a twinkling clump of cavalry was drawn up on ench flank, and In front a thin, scattered line of mounted Infantry was alrcndy slowly advancing over the bush-strewn plain, halting on every eminence, and peering warily around as men might who have to pick their steps among the bones of those who have preceded them. The three chieftains still lingered upon the knoll, looking down with hungry- eyes and compressed lips at the dark steel-tipped patch. "They are slower to start than the men of Egypt," the Sheik of the Ha-dendowas Ha-dendowas growled In his beard. "Slower also to go back, perchance, my brother," murmured the dervish "And yet they are not many three thousand at the most " "And we ten thousand, with the Prophet's grip upon our spcar-shafts and his word upon our banner. See to their chieftain, how he rides upon the right and looks up at us with the glass that sees from afar! It may be that he sees this also." The Arab shook his sword at the small clump of horsemen who had spurred out from the square "Lo! he beckons," cried the dervish, "and see those others at the corner, how they bend and heave. Ha! by the Prophet, I had thought It." As he spoke a little woolly puff of smoke spurted up at the corner of the square, and a seven-pound shell burst with a hard metallic smack just over their heads. The splinters knocked chips from the red rocks around them. t "Blsmlllah!" cried the Hadendown; "If the gun can carry thus far, then ours can answer to It Ride to the left. ' Moussa, and tell Ben All to cut the skin from the Egyptians if they cannot hit yonder mark. And you, Hamld, to i the right, and see that three thousand j men lie close in the wady that we have chosen. Let the others beat the drum and show the banner of the Prophet: for,- by the black stone, their spears will 1 have drunk deep ere they look upon the stars again." As the Sheik Kadra sprang into his saddle and drew his sword there was a wild whoop and a clatter of waving spears, while the one ended war drums burst Into a dull crash like a wave upon up-on shingle. For a moment 10,000 men were upon the rocks with brandished arms and leaping figures; the next they were under cover, again waiting sternly and silently for their chieftain's orders The square was less than half a mile from the ridge now, and shell after shell MBRKlrl Wl m from the seven-pound guns were pitching pitch-ing over it. A deep roar on the right, and then a second one showed that the Egyptian Krupps were In action. From all along the crest burst the hard, sharp craokle of Remington fire. The square had slowly advanced, rippling rip-pling over the low sandhills, and halting every few minutes to rearrange its formation. Now, having made sure that there was no force of the enemy In the scrub. It changed its direction, and began to take a lino pa'rrallel to the Arab position. It was1 too steep to assail as-sail from the front, and If they moved far enough to the right the General hoped that he might turn it. On the top of those ruddy hills lay n baronetcy , for him, and a few extra hundreds In his pension, and he meant having them both that day. The Remington fire was annoying, and so were those Krupp 1 guns; already there were more cacolets full than he cared to see. But on the whole he thought It better to hold the fire until he had Tnore to aim at than a few hundred of fuzzy heads peeping over a razor-back ridge. The left front of the square was formed by four companies of the Royal Wcbscx and the right ty four of the Royal Mallows. On either ride the other halves of the same regiments marched In quarter column of companies. com-panies. Behind them, on the right, was a battalion of guards, and on the left one of marines, while the rear wag closed In by a rifle batallon. Two royal artillery seven-pound screw-guns kept pace with the square, and a dozen white bloused sailors, under their blue coated, tight walsted officers, trailed, their Gardner In front, turning every now and then to spit up at the draggled banners which waved over the cxagged ridge. Hussars and lancers scouted In the scrub at each side, and within moved tho clump of camels, with humorous eyes and supercilious Hps, their comic faceB a contrast to the blod-Btalned men who already lay huddled In the cacolets on either side. Tho square was now moving fcflowly on a lino parallel with the rocks, stopping stop-ping every few minutes to pick up wounded and to allow the screw-jgunB and Gardner to make themselves felt. The men looked serious, for that spring on to the rocks of the Arab army had given them a vaguo glimpse of the number and ferocity of their foes; but their faces were set like stone, for they knew to a man that they must wtfn or they rmiBt die and die, too, in a particularly par-ticularly unlovely fashion. But most serious of all wsb the General, fcr he had seen that which brought a fluitfh to his cheeks and a frown to hlB brotr. "I say, Stephen," said ho to his nral-loper, nral-loper, "those Mallows seem a trifle Jumpy. The right flank company bulged a bit when the niggers showed) on the hill." "Youngest troops in the square, sir," murmured the aid, looking at thiim critically through his eyeglass. "Tell Col. Flanagan to see to It, Stephen," Ste-phen," said the General, and the galloper gal-loper Bped on his way. The Colonel, a fine old Celtic warrior, was over at C company in an instant. "How are the men, Capt. Foley?" "Never better, sir." answered tho senior Captain In the spirit that makes a Madras officer look murder If ywu suggest recruiting his regiment fiom the Punjaub. "Stiffen them up!" cried the Colonel. As he rode away a color Eergetuit seemed to trip and fell forward into a mimosa buslu He made no effort to rise, but lay lu a heap among the thorns. "Sergt. O'Rooke's gone, sorr," cried) a "Nc,ver mind, lads," said Capt. Foley. "He's died like a soldier, fighting for his Queen." iH "To hell with the Quecnl" shouted a hoarse voice from the ranks, But the roar of the Garden and the typewriter like clicking of the hopper IH hurst in at the tall of the words. Capt. IH Foley heard them, and Subalterns IH Grlce and Murphy heard them; but IH there are times when a deaf car Is a IH gift from the gods "Steady Mallows!" cried the Captain, in a pause of the grunting machine gun. "We have tho honor of Ireland to guard this day." "And well we know how. to guard It, tWEm Captain," cried the same ominous voice; IH and there was a buzz from the length IH of the company. The Captain and the two subs, camo M together behind the marching line. WM "They seem a bit out of hand," mur- mured the Captain. mmt "Bedad," said the Galway boy, "they WRWi mean to scoot like redshanks." "They nearly broke when the blacks Wm showed on the hill," Bald Grlce. - WmW "The first man that turns my sword VWM Is through him," cried Foley, loud 'mRU enough to be heard by five flies on mm either side of him. Then, in a lower j voice: "It's a bitter drop to swallow, tm but It's my duty to report what you mWM think to the chief and have a company JWM of Jollies put behind us." He turned away with the safety of the square IH upon his mind, and before he had JH reached his goal the square had ceased to exist IH In their march In frdnt of what looked like a face of cliff,, they had IH come opposite to the mouth of the gully, In which, screened by scrub and bould-ers, bould-ers, 3000 chosen dervishes, under Hamld Wad Hussein of the Bagarras, wcro crouching. Tat, ta, ta, went the rifles 'H of three mounted Infantrymen In front of the left shoulder of the square, and an Instant later they were spurring It for their lives, crouching over the j manes of their horses and pelting over I the sandhills with thirty or forty gal- loping chieftains at their heels. Rocks ll and scrub and mimosa swarmed sud- yWM denly into life. Rushing black figures Wt came and went In the gaps of the bushes. A. howl that drowned tho shouts of the officers, a long, quavering mmWt yell, burst from tho ambuscade. Two rolling volleys from the Royal Wessex, one crash from the screw-gun tiring shrapnel, and then, before a second cartridge could be rammed In, a living, glistening black wave tipped with steel il had rolled over the gun, the Royal IH Wessex had been dashed back among jl the camels and t a thousand fanatics wore hewing and hacking in the heart of what had been the square. "By Jove, they've got through tho 'JH Wessexl" cried Qrlco of the Mallows. lH "The dlvlls have hurrooshed us, Ted, , jH said his brother subaltern, cocking his ! revolver. Wmmm The ranks were breaking and crowd- lll lng toward Private Connolly, all talk- jf lng together as the ofilccrs peered back 'H through tho veil of dust. The sailors IH had run their Gardner out and she was llH squirting death out of her five barrels ll Into tho flank of the rushing stream oC H savages. 'Il "Oh, this bloody gun!" shouted a voice. "She's Jammed again." Tho ll fierce metallic grunting had ceased, and Ijl her crew were straining and hauling at 1 tho breech. Wm 1 (Continued on. Pag-e 26.) ; "THE GREEN FLAG." (Continued from Page 23.) "ThlB damned vortical feed!" orled an officer. "Tho spanner, Wilson, tho wpannerl Stand to your cutlaBsos, boys, or thoy'ro Into ub." His voice rose Into a shriek as he ended, for a shovol-headed spoar had been burled In his chest. A second wave of dervishes lapped ovor the hillocks, und burst upon tho machine-gun machine-gun and tho right front of the line. The sailors were overborne in an instant, but tho Mallows, with their fighting blood aflame, met tho yoll of the Moslem Mos-lem with an even wlldor, fiercer cry, and dropped two hundred of them with a single point-blank volloy. The howling, howl-ing, leaping crew swerved away to tho right, and dashed on into tho gap which had already beon mado for them, But C company had drawn no trigger trig-ger to stop that fiery ruBh. The men leaned moodily upon their Martinis. Some had even thrown them upon tho ground. Conolly was talking fiercely to thoeo about him. Copt. Foloy, thrusting his way through tho prosrt, rushed up to him with a rovolvar in his nand. "This is your doing, you vlllalnl'1 ho cried. "It you raise your pistol, Captln," youi' brains will be over your ooat," nald n low voloe at his nldo. He 8nw that several rifles wore turnod on him. The two subs, had proBaod forward for-ward and wero by his Bide. ' "What In it, then?" he cried, looking round from ono fieroo mutlnouB faco lo another, "Are you Irishmen? Aro you soldiers? What nre you hero for but to fight for your country?" "England Is no country of ours," orlcd several. "You are not fighting for England. You aro fighting for Ireland, and for tho Emplro of which It is part." "A blaok ourso on tho Implrol" nhout-cd nhout-cd PrlvHto McQulro, throwing down his rifle. " 'Twas tho Implro that backed tho man that druv mo onto tho road-uldo. road-uldo. May mo hand etlffon boforo I draw thrlggor for It." "What'B tho Implro to ub, Capt. Foley, and what's tho wlddor to ub, aythor?" cried a volco. "Lot tho constabulary folght for hor." "Ay, be God, they'd bo bettor im-ployod im-ployod than pullln' a poor man's thatch i about his earn." "Or nhootln' hlB brothor, an thoy did j mine," "It was tho Implro laid my groanln' mother by tho wayside. Hor on will rot boforo ho upholds It, and yo oan put that In tho ohargo sheet In tho noxt court-martial." In vain tho thrco ofllcorn begged, monaced, persuaded. The (square was atlll moving, ever moving, with the name bloody fight raging In lte entrails. Even while they had been spcklng thoy had been Bhufillng backward; and tho UBelesn Gardner, with her slaughtered crew, was alroady a good hundred yards from them. And the pace was acceloratlng. The mass of men, tormented and writhing, was trying, try-ing, by a common Instinct to reach come clearer ground, where they could reform. Three facos were still Intact, but the fourth had been caved In, and badly mauled; without lta comrades being be-ing able to help it. Tho Guards had met a fresh rush of the Hadendowao and had blown back the tribesmen with a volley, and the cavalry had ridden over another stream of them as thew welled out of the gulljr. A litter of hamstrung ham-strung horses and haggled men bohlnd them showed that a spearman on his faco among the buBhes can show some sport to the man who charges him. But, In spite of all, the square was still reeling swiftly backward, trying try-ing to shako itself clear of this torment which clung to Its heart. Would it break, or would It reform? The lives of five roglments and tho honor of tho flag hung upon tho answer. Somo. at loast, wero breaking. Tho C company of tho Mallows had lo?it all military order and was pushing back In spite of tho haggard officers, who cureod and nhoved nnd prayed In the vain attempt at-tempt to hold them. Their Captain and tho sub. wore elbowed and Jostled, while tho men orowdod toward Private Conolly for their ordern. Tho confurfon had spread, for the other compr.nlcn, In tho dust and smoko and turmoil, had lest touch with their mutinous comrades. com-rades. Capt, Foley aaw that evon now there might be tlmo to avert a dlroeter. "Think what you are doing, man," ho yelled, ruflhing toward tho rlnebfider. "Thero aro a thousand Irloh Jn tho squaro, and they aro dead men If you break." The words alono might have hod llt- Uo effect on tho old moonlighter. It Ih poarfblo that, in hb schoming brain, he had already plannod how ho waa to club his Irloh together and lead them to the eea. But at that moment the Arabs broke through tho screen of camels which had fonded them off. Thoro was a struggle, a ncreamlng, a mulo rolled over, a wounded man nprang up In a cnoolot with a Bpear through him, and then through the narrow nar-row gap fiurgcd a stream of naked aavagoB, mad with battle, drunk with slaughter, spotted and splashed with blood blood dripping from their apeara, their armo, their fuceu. Their yollB, their boundn, their crouching, darting flguroB, tho horrid onergy of their spoar thrusts, mado them look llko a blast of fiondu from tho pit. And were theo tho AIIIob of Ireland? Were- these tho men who woro to Btrlko for her against her enomlos? Conolly's soul roso up In loathing at the thought. Ho wao a man of firm purpose, and yot at tho firot Bight of those howling fiondR that purpose faltered, and at the econd it waa blown to tho winds. He saw a hugo coal-black negro seize a ohrloklng camel driver and eaw at his throat with a knife. He BaV a chock-headed chock-headed tribesman plunge his groat opear through tho back of their own littlo bugler from Millstreet. He eaw I a dozen deeds of blood the murdor of I tho wounded, the hacking of the j unarmed and caught, too, In a glance, j tho good wholesome faces of tho faced-1 faced-1 about rear rank of tho marlneB. The Mallowo, too, had faced about, und in an Instant Conolly had thrown himself ' into tho heart of C company, , striving with the officers to form the men up with their comrades. But the mlBchlef had gone too fnr. The rank and file had no heart In their work. They had broken before, and this last rush of murderous savages was a hard thing for broken men to stand against- They flinched from the furious faces and dripping forearms. Why should they throw away their lives for a flag for which they cared nothing? Why should their leader urge them to break, and now shriek to them to reform 7 They would not reform. They wanted to get to the sea and to safety. He flung himself among them with outstretched arms, with words of reason, with shouts, with gasplngs. It wn6 useless; the tide was beyond his control. Thoy were shredding out Into the desert with their face3 set for the coast. "Bhoys, will ye stand for this?" screamed a voice. It was so ringing, so strenuous, that tho breaking Mallows glanced backward. They were held by what they saw. .Private Conolly had planted his rifle stock downward In a mimosa bush. From the fixed bayonet thore fluttered a little green flag with the crownless harp. God knows for what black mutiny, for what signal of revolt, that flag had been treasured up within the corporal's tunic! Now Its greon wisp ntood amid the rush, while thrco proud regimental colors were reeling reel-ing slowly backward. "What for the flag?" yelled the private. pri-vate. "My heart's blood for It! and mine! and mine!" cried a score of voices. "God blesa itl Tho flag, boys the flag!" C company wero rallying upon It. Tho Btrp.gglora clutched at oach other, and pointed. "Here, McQulre, Flynn, O'Hara," ran the shoutings. "Cloao on thft flagl BRck to the flag!" The throe BtandardB reolod backward, and tho neethliig square strove for a clearer Bpaoe whoro they could form their shattered ranks; but C company, grim and powder-stained, choked with anemic and falling fast, still closed In on the little rebel ensign that flapped j jH from the mimosa bush. torQ the ll sqarT Uff JSSS its difficulties and dressed t8 ,g began to slowly move forward ou -fine ground, acrosB which In i lis laooi u ( anguish It had been driven. The ng trail of Wesnex men nnd Arabs showeu i but tSo clearly the path they had come. H "How many got into us, Step hen? ttH naked tho General, tapping his nnurc box. fuM "I should put them down at a thou- EM sand or twelvo hundred, sir. . "I did not see any get out again. What tho devil were the Wesscx think- lng about? The Guards stood well, though; so did tho Mallows." J "Col. Flanagan reports that his front flank company was cut off. air. JM "Why, that's the company that was out of hand when wo advancedl "Col Flanagan reports, sir, that tno company took the whole brunt Of tho attack and gave the square time to re- IH "Tell tho Hussar3 to ride forward, Stephen," said the General, "and try If they can see anything of cm. mm There's no firing, and I fear that the Mallows will want to do some recruit-lng. recruit-lng. Let the square take ground by the right and then advance!" But the Sheik TCadra of tho Haden-dowas Haden-dowas saw from his knoll that the men with the big hats had rallied, and that they were coming back In the quiet jH business fashion of men whose work IM was beforo them. He took counsel with IH Moussa the Dervish and Hussein the IH I Bagarra, and a woe-struck man was ho IH when he learned that the third of hlfl jH men were safe In the Moslem paradise. IH So, having still sorre signs of victory IH to show, he gave the word, and the H desert warriors flitted off unseen and H unheard, even as they had come. H A red rock plateau, a few hundred spears and Remingtons, and a plain which for tho second time was strewn H with slaughtered men, was all that his B day's fighting gave to the English Gn- jH It was a squadron of Hussars whlcbt jH came first to tho spot where tho rebel H flag had waved. A dense litter of Arab H dead marked the place. Within tho H flag waved no longer, but the rifle still H stood In tho mimosa bush, and round H It, with their wounds In front, lay tho H Fenian private and tho silent ranks of Hj his Irlshry. Sentiment is not an Eng- llBh falling, but the Hussar Captain jH raised hlH hilt In a salute as he roda past the blood-soaked ring. H The British General sent homo dls- H patches to his Government, and so did H tho chlof of tho Hadendowas to his, H though tho stylo and manner differed P somewhat In each. "The Sheik Kadra jH of tho Hadendowa peoplo to Moham- j med Ahmeh, the chosen of Allah, horn- B nge and greeting," began the latter. "Know by this that on the fourth day .HH of this moon we gave battle to the IH KafflrB who call themselves Ingloes, IH having with ub the Chief Husaoln with ten thousand of tho faithful By tha 1 blessing of Allah we havo broken them,' and chased them for a mile, though, Indeed, these Infidels are different from tho dogs of Egypt, and have slain very , many of our men. Yet we hope to JH smite them again ere the new moon bo jHj come, to which end I trust that you will iB send us a thousand dervishes from Omdurman. In token of our -victory I Hi nond you by this mossenger a flag Ki which we have taken. By tho color it might well seem to have belonged to thoEe of tho true faith, but the Kaffirs J 1 IH gavo their blood freely to save it. andjl MH eo we think that, though small, it .13 - HB very dear to them." .S |