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Show (&:T"'r- Author of Cardigan"The Conspirators" Maids -at -Arms'etc YVj'W) COPYRIGHT gy ROBT. W CHAIBER7 COPIG-HT 0y P.F. COLLIER ft SCVf I removed his helmet and thrust his j blond head through the smoky aper-! aper-! ture. "March those prisoners in below!" be-low!" he shouted down. A moment later came a trample of feet on the landing outside, the door was flung open, and three prisoners were brutally pushed into the room. I tried to turn and look at them; they stood in the dusk near the bed, but I could only make out that one was a Turco, his jacket in rags, his canvas breeches covered with mud. Again the lieutenant came to the loop-hole and glanced out, then shook his head, motioning the soldiers back. "It is too high and the arc of fire too limited." he said, shortly. "Detail four men to hold the stairs, ten men and a sergeant in the room below, and you'd better take your prisoners down there. Bayonet that Turco tiger if he shows his teeth again. March!" As the prisoners filed out I turned once more and thought I recognized Salah Ben Ahmed in the disheveled Turco, but could not be certain, so disfigured and tattered the soldier appeared. ap-peared. Under the windows the flat, high-pitched high-pitched drums began to rattle; deep voices shouted; the whole street undulated un-dulated with masses of gray-and-black uniforms, moving forward through the smoke. A superb regimental band began be-gan to play; the troops broke out into heavy cheering. "Vorwarts! Vorwarts!" came the steady commands. "The invasion has begun," I said. Her face was expressionless, save for the brightness of her eyes. Suddenly a company of pioneers ar rived on the double-quick, halted, fell out, and began to break down the locked doors of 'the houses on either side of the street. At the same time Prussian infantry came hurrying past, dragging behind them dozens of vehi' cles, long hay-wagons, gardeners' carts, heavy wheelbarrows, even a dingy private carriage, with tarnished lamps, rocking crazily on rusty springs. The soldiers wheeled these wagons into a double line, forming a complete chain across the street, where the Tur-cos Tur-cos had commenced to dig their ditch and breastworks a barricade high enough to check a charge, and cunningly cun-ningly arranged, too, for the wooden abatis could not be seen from the eastern end of the street, where a charge of French infantry or cavalry must enter Morsbronn if it entered at all. "Something is going to happen," I said, as a group of smartly uniformed officers appeared on the roof of the opposite house and hastily scrambled to the ridgepole. A colonel of infantry, splendidly mounted, drew bridle under our loophole loop-hole and looked up at the officers on the roof across the way. "Attention, you up there!" he shouted. shout-ed. "Is it infantry?" "No!" bawled an officer, hollowed hand to his cheek. "It's their brigade of heavy cavalry coming like an earthquake!" earth-quake!" "The cuirassiers!" I cried, electrified. electri-fied. "It's Michel's cuirassiers, mad-dame! mad-dame! And oh, the barricade!" I groaned, twisting my fingers in help- V ' fok There!" She Cried in Terror. 'yage. "They'll be caught in a - they'll die like flies in that -sprang to her feet, stood a V: then stepped swiftly forward V rngle of the tower. V vitrei" she cried, in terror. V v ch'-oiick ! '' 1 eaid. SYNOPSIS. S.ail'Lt. an A iikii, a n soldier of for- !.. Ill ll I, Hili, y f ih,. Kr.-nrh Im- lii-nal I'iiIU c at Itnr oiirt,r.-ak of II. I'ran-ri, I'ran-ri, I'ruHian war. Is .-il.-r...l fi lUT'-sl .lulu) HuikliuiHl, a I. ,Vr nf Hi'- ' muiiisla an. I xtis ,.-, ,., ,,r l,ayiilf Ml'il--ii Ihi. I l-t -1 n -1 1 rniivii Jivv.-ls Whll.- s.-ar.ll-lat,' rur Hui'k hill -.1. Si arl.-lt 1m ur.li-r.-.t lu arn-.-i! I 'i, 11 1 1 1 i'sm ill- VaHMarl anil laT nnil ..r Mi.HallMls an. I i-H. i,rl lh. ,ii Tin- 11. I- J Klan l,(,n!,.-. S. 'all. -It fln.lH Svlvla Kh'.-n ,,f II,.- I i..- hi ih.,Kuls.-il iih a a-a-,a Ml ami . arrl.-s h. r til I -a Tra,,.- ivh.-n- tta-riiuiili-MH iin.1 ln-r frl.-mls nr.- a.H.H.-ii"ll--.l. All nr.! ni l-. ;;t(-.l. 'I'll- i-.,i i n t khi.-.h H.-arl.-tl riaiitl a rata fall frum tin- r....r nf tlai ll.iii.s.-. H-- ,!..ii,uii,-..M r.iirUltiirst iim llif I.a.l.-r nf llu- li.ala an. I Hi.- i-.iuii-t.-MM i-iiliiliictii hill! tu Wlirm 1 lui-li liursl lM hlMl-fl.-.i. CHAPTER IV. Continued. lluckluit'Ht looked at. me, long enough (o see that the end of his rope had come. Tlii-u he slowly turned his deadly eyes on the girl before him. Scarlet to the roots of her hair, she stood llii'te, uki rly stunned. Then the siidil.-ii double beat ot horses' hoofs broke out along tho avenue below, be-low, and, through the red sunset I Raw a dozen horsemen come scampering scamper-ing up the drive toward us. At tho same moment I stepped out into the driveway to signal tho riders, raising my hand. Instantly a pistol flashed then another an-other and another, and a dozen harsh volce.B shouted: "llouura! Hourra! ProuHseo ! " "Mille tonnerro!" roared Delmont; ut "the Prussians are here!" nil, "Look out! Stand back there! Get nowtho women back!" I cried, as an "Tihlun wheeled his horse straight yVnid tKugh a bed of geraniums and fired Viid sencrse-pistol at me. TNjo'm," ont dragged tho young Count-, Count-, they 0'. shelter of an elm; Sylvia 1 to gibnavernier followed; Buck- was mlghue c-o-c-tace and leaped I'm sorry the clothvnont ,ii Has he worked any j fj I ear':d very much, now that Buck-hurst Buck-hurst was gone. Suddenly the chapel bell of La Trappe rang out a startling peal; the 1'ruHsian captain f.houted: "Stop that bell! Shoot every civilian in the house!" Hut tho Uhlans, who rushed up the terrace, found the great doors J bolted and the lower windows screened with steel ehutters. On the battlements of the south wing a red radiance grew brighter; Homebody had thrown wood into the iron basket of the ancient beacon, and sconce to it. "That teaches me a lesson!" bawled the enraged Rittmeistcr, shaking his list up at the brightening alarm signal. An Uhlan laid a heavy hand on the shoulder of the listening Countess; she tried to draw back, but he pushed her brutally into the carriage, and she stumbled and fell into the cushions beside mo. Fever had already begun to turn my head; the jolting of the carriage brought me to my senses at times. If I could only have fainted, but I could not, and the agony grew so intense that I bit my lip through to choke the scream that strained my throat. Once it was, I think, very near daybreak day-break I came out of a dream in which I was swimming through oceans of water, drinking as I ewam. The carriage car-riage had stopped. "Are you suffering?" came a low voice, close to my ear. "Madame,' could I have a little water?" wa-ter?" I muttered. Very gently she laid me back. I was entirely without power to move below my waist, or to support my body. She filled my cap with river water and held It while I drank. After I had my fill she bathed my face, passing pass-ing her wet hands through my hair and over my eyes. The carriage moved on and I fainted. iU CHAPTER V. S CL The Immortals, IBERI-n I became conscious again I X. "LK on a t. , " rpn were Xvigh Uut confined, They Ac t Want of Food. Vigton. To relieve German a Vian prisoners of war a com- t "Parbleu, in Morsbronn! Can't you hear the orchestra, zim-bam-zim! The Prussians are playing their Wagner nniriic for us. Here, swallow this. How-do How-do you feel now?" "Sleepy. Did you say a day or two, doctor?" "I said a week or two perhaps longer. I'll look in this evening if I'm not up to my chin in amputations. Take these every hour if in pain. Go to sleep, my son." As I lay there on my long, cushioned chair, burning with that insatiable thirst which, to thoroughly appreciate, one must be wounded, the door opened and a Turco soldier came into the room and advanced toward me on tiptoe. tip-toe. I beckoned him, and the tall, bronzed fellow came up, smiling, showing show-ing his snowy, pointed teeth under a crisp beard. "Water, Mustapha," I motioned with stiffened lips, and the good fellow un-slung un-slung Ills blue water-bottle and set it to my burning mouth. "Merci, mon brave!" I m"W ".Ifs.v you dwell in Paradise with Ali, the fourth Caliph, the Lion of God!" The Turco stared, muttered the Tek-bir Tek-bir in a low voice, bent and kissed my hands. "Were you once an officer of our African battalions?" he asked, in the Arab tongue. "Sous-officier of spahi cavalry," I said, smiling. "And you are a Kabyle mountaineer from Constantine, I see." "It is true as I recite the fatha," cried the great fellow, beaming on me. The music of his long-forgotten tongue refreshed me; old scenes and memories of the camp at Oran, the never-to-be-forgotten cavalry with the scarlet cloaks, rushed on me thick and fast; incidents, trivial matters of the bazaars, faces of comrades dead, came to me in flashes. My eyes grew moist, my throat swelled, I whimpered: Give me a drink, in God's name!" Again he held up the blue water-bottle. water-bottle. After a moment I said: "Is it a battle or a bouseulade? But I need not ask; the cannon tell me enough. Are they storming the heights, Mus-tapha?" Mus-tapha?" "Macache comprendir," said the sol-' sol-' dier, dropping into patois. "There is much noise, but we Turcos are here in 1, Morsbronn, and we have seen nothing hi'ut sparrows." us "Are you detailed to look after me?" L-iciHe said he was, and I informed him jyi I needed nobody; that it was I we i more important for everybody 'ricttie should rejoin his battalion in 'mpr(set helow, where even now I V'lucePr tne Algerian bugles blow- inly lfy - sonnerie "Garde a "unt- 4 ui2n Ben-Ahmed, a mara-tfhird mara-tfhird Turcos," he said. Nfci10 -3 I my inspector's per- '"Ahmed, the mara- r ing. V,ned to attention; Va1!. to his scarlet y,es "inspector!" ippinl3 Sne at L"like X delt,.nless "I ought to," she said, faintly amused. "I was born in this room. It was to this house that I desired to come before my exile." After a silence 1 said, "I wish I could look out of the window." She went to the window and folded up the varnished blinds. "How dreadful the cannonade Is growing." she said. "Wait! don't think of moving! I will push you close to the window, where you can see." Lying there, watching the slow-shadows slow-shadows crawling out over the sidewalk, side-walk, 1 had been for some minutes thinking of my friend Mr. Buckhurst, when I heard the young Countess stirring stir-ring in the room behind me. "You are not going to be a cripple?" she said, as I turned my head. "Oh no, indeed!" said I. "Nor die?" she added, seriously. "How could a man die with an angel straight from heaven to guard him! Pardon, I am only grateful, not impertinent." imper-tinent." I looked at her humbly, and she. looked at me without the slightest expreo,.on. "Are you English, Monsier Scarlett?" Scar-lett?" she asked quietly. "AiiicrfJ madame." "And yet you taRe service under an emperor." "I have taken harder service than that." "Of necessity?" "Yes, madame." She was silent. "'Would It amuse you to hear what I have been?" I said, smiling. "That is not the word," she said, quietly. "To hear of hardship helps one to understand the world." Suddenly a shell fell into the courtyard court-yard opposite, bursting immediately in a cloud of gravel which rained against our turret like hail. Stunned for an instant, the Countess stood there motionless, her face turned towards the window. I struggled to sit upright. "Where is the safest place for us to stay?" she asked. Her voice was perfectly steady. "In the cellar. I beg you to go at once." Bang! A shell blew up in a shower of slates and knocked a chimney into a heap of bricks. "Do you insist on staying by that loop-hole?" she asked, without a quiver in her voice. "Yes, I do," said I. "Will you go to the cellar?" ""o," she said, shortly. I saw her -walk toward the rear of the room, hesitate, sink down by the edge of the bed and lay her face in the pillow. Shells rained fast on Morsbronn; nearer and nearer bellowed the guns; the plaster ceiling above my head cracked and fell in thin flakes, filling the room with an acrid, smarting dust. Down the street a dull sound grew into a steady roar; the Turcos dropped pick and shovel and seized their rifles. "Garde! Garde a vous!" rang their startled bugles; the tumult increased to a swelling uproar, shouting, cheering, cheer-ing, the crash of shutters and of glass, and "The Prussians!" bellowed the captain. cap-tain. "Turcos charge!" His voice was lost;- a yelling mass ''of soldiery burst into view; spiked elmets and bayonets glittering Vrough the smoke, the Turcos were Vnrled about like brilliant butterflies i tornado; the fusillade swelled to Y'lpefying din, exploding in one 'e crash; and, wrapped in light-Jhe light-Jhe Prussian onset passed. the. stairs below came the ' a voiceless struggle, '. e nd panting and click1,1 im Vf a sudden a voict . wadful screaming.' Unites V b6Jvanother,i-KaB Clt- VilSSUE. . |