The evening world. Newspaper, September 4, 1915, Page 11

Benton's a W eee. om Darty, » the terrible Mahdi; | story Wee patched together from dis: ene the camels, ea any, geo Touggourt enjoyed such fame as they La we his future ip) Mrs. Stanton as far as Cairo SELES American Hrprnars 1d 44M Wenn) 6 OTROPSIS OF PRECADINO ORArTAn® Mes Ueree fied bee tel the om ot bw as ut quarvetiog. asia winere Manda te visiting te * te hredqusrton wt whe sing Ws daguiee, eu the chance thet the Prmeiers sod Ournte may fied a che ep The chyement te euerenetul et Homie start back trom the oasis to the Legion's Petting os 40 eRploring rip aed #0 par ORM Karte mary bun ond - the * pourmer we bis wie | Man, ot wlresty deers from the Lew Biante and Hane fuarrel over Abmare oorvants to civihiestion, Undertake Us mewurt Manda beck CHAPTER XIV. The Play of Cross Purposes, HEN Max St. George, with seven emactated Arabs and five dilapidated camel crawled into Omdurman, , bringing Hiebard Stanton’s young . widow, their arrival made « sensation for all Egypt. Later, in Khartoum, when the history of the murder and the subsequent march of 900 miles came out, it became a sensation for Kurope and America Rumors had run ahead of the little from Kordofan, birthiand of but the whole ‘jointed te only, when the caravan arrived in civilization, Very litte Was got out of the fever-stricken, haggard young man who (according to Mrs, Stanton) was the boro of the great adventure, impossible to have beon carried through for a single day vwithout him, * It was Sanda who told the tale, told {t voluntarily, even eagerly, to every one who questioned her, She could not give Max St, George—that mysterious young man who appar- ently had no country and no past— -lo enough praise to satisty her gratitude. “hrM@ere had been terrible sandstorms fa which they would have given themselves up for lost if it had not becn for his energy and courage. Once they had strayed a long way off their track and nearly starved and died of thirst before they could find an oasis they had aimed for and re- new exhausted supplies. But Max St, George's spirit had ver flagged even after the mosquito- ridden swamp where he had caught @ touch of malarial fever. Through » bis presence of mind and military * skill the party had been saved from extinction in a surprise attack by a ~, band of desert marauders twice their number. Every night he had pro- 7) tected the little camp by forming round it a hollow square of camela and baggage, and keeping a sentinel ested, generally himself, It was through these precautions they had Deen ablo to withstand the surprise and drive tho robbers off with the Joss only of @ few men and some of They had fought and conquered the enemy under a flag of the Legion, a miniature copy givor by Col. DeLisle to his daughter. There had not been one desertion from thelr ranks, except by death, and all wes owing—Sanda said—to the spirit Max St. George ball Infused jnto ois fol owers. Ho insisted that “the latter were the only heroes, It and the Arabs from far-off had associated with the delights of a 2? paradise resor’ed for warr'ors. Bul of himsewf Maa St. George would not thix; ana people sald to cach other, . "Who Is this young fellow who was dor the only white man with Stanton? {ie He seems at home in every language. © Where did he come from?” 2" Nobody could tell, Nobody knew what his past had been, But as for it memed not unlikely that it micht be Hmited on this earth; for having finished his mission and taken way back to Algeria, he succur He the fever he had resisted feroe &* while his services were needed. Whea there was nothing to do he relaxed a tittle and the flame in his blood burned unchecked, The Wer Romance of an C.N.and A. M. WILLIAMSO in Alg buenes oe on and th i vent becouse of M@anton’s am mednees thet newnpapers over (he eivilined world gave col to the atory, Bomehow, snap.) ole of Man Bt. George, a uae ral of Banda, had been gnatened | enterprising Journaliata before Ht. | orgs fell 1h in Cairo, These were eraphed for and bought by ni ef Engiond, tpein y noe, America, Almeria, and even oh hed wot loved Stan ‘The next thing fat happened was the report in Algerian papers that Max Bt, George, “the young man of mystery.” was & miseing goldier of | the Legion, who had deserted from an important mismon to join Btam- ton's caravan Sensation every- where! Paragraphs reminding the public of & curious fact: that young Mra, Stanton w daughter of the colonel of the Lagi Btrange| if she had not known from the firm that the reeruit to her husband's pedition was a deserter from he father's regiment, And what a situ- ation for the colonel himself! His! daughter protected during a lone! desert Journey of incalculable peril, by & man whom it would be her father’s duty to have arrested and) court-martialied if he were on) French soll. Journalis argued the delicate question, whether, in the ciroum- stances, it would be possible for Col. Delisle to do anything officially to- ward obtaining a pardon for St. George, since no man wore anything no obvious a4 bis own name in the Foreign Legion. Retired officers wrote lotters to the papers and pointed out that for DeLisle to work in St. George's favor, simply becaure accl- dent had enabled the deserter to aid a member of his colonel’s family, would be insdminsibie, If St. George were the right sort of man and sol- dier he would not expect or wish it, As a matter of fact, he did neither; but, then, at the time, he was in a physical state which precluded con- scious wishes and expectations, He did not know or care what hap- pened; though sometimes, in inter- vals of seeing marvellous mirages of the Lost Oasis, and fighting robbers, or prescribing for sick camels, he ap- peared vaguely to recognize the face of his nurse; not the professional, but the amateur. “Sanda, Sanda!" he would mutter, or ery out aloud; but as fortunately no one knew that Mrs. Stanton, nee Corisande DeLisie, was called “Sanda” by those who loved her, the doctor and the professional nurse supposed he was babbling about the sand of the desert, He had certainly had a distressing amount of it! Max would have been immensely in- terested if he could have known at this time of three persons in different parts of the world who were working for him in different ways; There was Manoel Valdez in Romo, where he had arrived with Ourleda by way of Tunis and Sicily, instead of getting to Spain according to his earller plan. Manoel, singing with magnificent success in grand opera, proclaimed himself Juan Garcia, a fellow deserter with St. George, in order to gild St. George's excapado with glory. Not only did he talk to every one, ant permit his fas- cinating Spanish-Arab bride to talk, but he let himself be interviewed by newspapers. Perhaps all this was A”. good advertisement in @ way; but he was making a wonderful success and did not need advertisement, Genu- inely and sincerely be was baring his heart and bringing his wife into the garish limelight because of his pass sionate gratitude to Max St, George, The interview was copled every- where, und Sanda read it in Cairo, learning for the first time not only many generous acts of St. George which she had never heard, but gath- ering details of Ourleda’s escape with Valdez, at which till then she had merely been able to guess. ‘The entire plot of Manoe!'s love drama, from the first grim scene of stunning the proa- pective bridegroom on the way to his unwilling bride, to the escape from the douar in the quiet hours when Tahar was supposed to be left alone with the "Agha's Rose,” on to the hiding at Djazerta, and stealing away in dissulse With a caravan while tie hunt took another direction, all had played itself ouc according to bis plan, Valdez attributed the whole success to St, George's héip, advice and gifts of money, down to the last franc in his possession, And now Manoel be- gun to pay the debt he owed, by eall- | Mrs. Stanton's exhibition of gratl- ing on the world's sympathy for the i tude, however, was admirable in the deserter, who might not set foot on eyos of Kreneh poll withon, being arrested. | -1¢ Richard Stanton had not been a Thus the singer's golden volce was / magniticont .man, celebrated for hie raised for Max in Italy, In Algeria j Sp success with women, and having th ol wax working for him ndded attraction of fame as an e¥- like the demon that he looked, having | plorer, people might have suggested returned with his Colonel and com. . that the widow's remaining in Cairo to rades to Sidi-bel-Abbes after the long ve, arse St, Gvorge was not entirely digs march and a satisfactory fight with ’ pe! But as tt was nobody sald the ‘“Detiverer,” he soon received ible things about the beautls news of the lost one, t ature and the hag- ith roars of derision he refused to skeleton of a man who had plo- believe in the little “Corporal's" vol- neered her safely through the Sahara untury desertion, and from the first wand Libyan deserts, mom began to agita What! ; It was as much, because of her puniel a hero for his heroism? That. beauty, which gave a glamour of al- in Four Byes's vilely profane opinion, most classic romance to the wild expressed with elaborate expletives nee te in the Legion's own cholcest vernacus lar, was what it would amount to If George were branded “deserter.” cisely why Max had joined Btan- ton's caravan instead of returning to BSidi-bel-Abbes, perhaps a few days late, Four Eyes was not certain, but there was no one better instructed than he in pretending to know things he merely conjectured, He had seen Ahmara, the dancer, and had told Max the scandal con- necting ber with the explorer. “What more natural than that a soldier of the Legion should, for his Colonel's sake, sacrifice his whole career to protect the daughter from such a husband as Stanton? No doubt the boy knew that Stanton meant to take Ahmara with him, and had left everything to stand between the girl and such @ pair.” In his own picturesque and lurid language Four Byes presented these conjectures of his as if they were ts; and to do him justice he be- lieved in them, Also, he took pains to rake up every old tale of cruelty, vanity or lust that had been told in the past about Richard Stanton, and embroider them, Beside the satyr figure which he flaunted like a dummy Guy Fawkes, Max St. George shone a pure young martyr. Never had old Four Eyes enjoyed such pop- ularity among the townfoik of Sidi- bol-Abbes as in these days, and he had the satisfaction of seeing velled allusions to his anecdotes in newspa- pers when he could afford to buy or Was able to steal them, On the strength of his triumph he got up among his fellow Legionnaires a pe- tition for the pardon and reinstate- ment of Corporal St. George, Not a man refused to sign, for even those who might have hesitated would not have done so long under the basilixk stare of the ex-chaimpion of boxing. “Sign, or I'll smash you to jelly.” was his remark to one recruit: who had not heard enough of St, George or Four ‘s to dash his name on paper the instant he saw a pen, While the petition was growing Col, DeLisle (who gave no sign that he had heard of it) obtained ten days’ leave, the first he had asked for in many years, and took ship for Al- giers to Alexandria to see his daugh- ter, But that did not discourage hour byes; on the contrary, ‘the Oid Man doesn't want to be in it?” said Pelle, “It ain't for him, in the cir- ous, to do the trick; it's for us, sen enfants! And damn all four of my eyes, we'll do it if we have to mutiny 44 our comrades once did before us when thoy made big history in the Legion." The third person, took an active {nt George's affairs was, of all people on earth, the last whom he or any one else would have expected to meddle with them, ‘This wos Billie Brookton, married to her Chicago millionaire, and trying, tooth and nail, with the who, unasked, at in Max St, aid of his money, to preak into the inner fastnesses of New York and Newport's Four Hundred. It was all because of a certain resistance to her efforts that suddenly, out of revenge and not through love, she took up Max's cause. The powder train was- unwittingly—laid months before by Josephine Deran-Reeves, as she pre- ferred to call herself after her mar- riage with the son of the Dorans’ law- yer, Neither she nor Grant—who had taken the name of Doran-Reeves also liked to think or talk of the man who had disappeared. On considera- tion, the Reeveses, father and son, had decided not to make public the story of Josephine's birth which Max had given to them. They feared that his great sacrifice would create too much sympathy for Max and rouse indignation against Josephine and her husband for accepting it, allowing the martyr to disappear, penniless, into space. At first they gaid nothing at all about him, merely giving out that Josephine Doran was a distant rela- tive who had been brought to the Doran house on Rose's death; but all sorts of inconvenient questions began to be asked about Max Doran, into whore house and fortune the strange- looking, half-beautiful, haif-terribie, red-haired girl had suddenly, inex- Plicably stepped. . Max's friends in society and the army did not let him pass into ob- livion without @ word; therefore some sort of story to eventually be told to silence tongues, and, still worse, newspapers, Grant was singularly good at making up stories, and al- waya had been since, as a boy, he had unobtrusively contrived to throw blame off his own shoulders on to those of Max if they were in @ acrape together. Half @ Jie, nicely mixed with a few truths, makes a concoction that the public swallows readily, Max was too young, and had been too much away from New York, to be greatly missed there, dexpite Rose Doran's popular- ity; and when such an interesting and handsome couple as Grant and Jo- sephine Doran-Reeves began enter- taining gorgeously in the renovated Doran house, the ex-licutenant of cavalry was forgotten comparatively soon, It seemed, according to reluc- tant aAmiusions made at last by Grant and Josephine to their acquaintances, that Max had had secret reasons for resigning his commission in the army and vanishing into apace, It was his own wish to give up the old house to Josephine, his “distant cousin from France," and in saying this they care~ fully gave the !mpression that he had been well paid, Nobody dreamed that the money Mr. and Mrs. Grant Doran- Reeves spent in auch charming ways had once belonged to Max, He was supposed to have 4 cropper" somehow, a8 80 many young men did, and to have disappeared with every- thing he had, out of the country, for om rd his country’s good. When people realized that there was A secret, per- haps a disgraceful one, many were sorry for poor Grant and Josephine, mixed up in it through no fault of their own; and the name of Max Doran was dropped from conversation whenever his innocent relatives were within hearing distance, Then, by and by, It was practically dropped al- together, because it had passed out of recollection, This was the atate of affairs when the beautiful Billie (Mrs. Jeff Hous- ton) arrived, covered with diamonds and pearls (the best of the latter were Max's), to storm social New York, She had already won its heart as oa actress, but as a respectable married woman who had left the stage and connected herself by marriage with a sausage maker she was @ different “propoaltion.” “You ought to know some woman in the emart set,” advised a friend in the hal€-wmart set who had re- ceived favors from Billie, and had not been able to give the right sort of re- turn, “Oh, of course, you do know @ lot of the men, but they're worse than no use to you now. It must be @ woman, ‘way high up at the top,'" Billie racked her brains, and thought of Josephine Doran-Reeves, Jose- phine was “way up at the top,” be- cause she was @ Doran and very rich, and #o queer that she amused the most bored people, whether she meant to or not, Unfortunately, Billie did not know her, but the next best thing, was to have known Max Doran, Billie had made capital out of Max in the shape of a famous blue dia- mond and @ string of uniquely fine pearls, and her idea had been that she had got all there was to bo got from him. in fact, she bad not men- tioned this little love-idyl even to her husband, Suddenly, however, she re- membered that they two had been dear, dear frienda—pertectly platonic friends, of course—and she felt justl- fled in writing a sweet letter to Jo- sephine asking tactfully for news of Max. She put her point charmingly, and begged that she might be allowed to call on dear Mrs, Doran-Reeves, to chat cozily about “that darling boy," or would Mrs, Doran-Reeves rather come and have tea with he one day, any day, at the Pings row She was staying there until the hous her husband had bought for her (quite near the Doran house) should be out of the decorator’s handa, But the last thing that appealed to Josephine Was the thought of a cozy chat about “that darling boy" Max, Besides, the moment wan @ bad o America, at first, and rather flat- fr ned, But soon #he found ¢ Iie had come to black- mail her. re were some silly let~ ters she had written when they were In the thick of their flirtation at Bidi- bpl-Abbes, and the height of her am- tered, If slight me es hol an agror ligned, she w bition had been to marry a French offcer, no matter how poo! pean de la Tour had kept thone letters. He did not threaten to show them to Grant Doran-Reeves. Ho judged the other man by himself and realized that, having married a gim for her money, arent would not throw her over, or even hurt her feelings, whilo who atill had it. What Captain de la Tour proposed was to sell the letters and tell the romantic story of M Doran Reeves's life in a little Algerian hotel if she did not buy up the whole aecret and his estates in Fran time. For the two togetl only the ridiculously small pr three bundred thousand franca—aixty thousand dollars, Josephine had raged, for Grant, even more than she, hated to spend money where a show could not bo made with it, But Captain de la Tour Was rather Inaistent and got on her nerves. In an hysterical fit, there- fore, she made a clean breast of the story to her husband, When she had described to him as well as she could what waa in the letters, and what a Hohemian sort of life she had led in Bel-Abbea, Grant decided that it would be romantic as woll as sensible to buy the Chateau de la Tour, Jose: phine had actually been born there, and they could either keep the place or nell it when it had been improved & bit and made famous by a few choice house parties, So the Doran-Reeveses bought the chateau and got back the letters, and hoped that Captain de la Tour would take himself and his ill gotten gains out of the United States, But he lingered, looking out for an American heiress, while Josepnine existed in a state of constant Irritation, fearing some new demand or an indiscretion, And it was just at this time that she received Mrs. Jeff Houston's letter, Naturadly it gave her great pleasure to anub some one, expecially a woman prettier than herself, She took no notice of Billie's appeal, and when Mra, Houston, hoping somehow that it had not reached its destination, spoke to her sweetly one night at the opera, Josephine was rude before nome of the “best people” in New York After that, Billie sald to every one that Mrs, Doran-Reeves was insane as well as deformed; but that “cut ni as Jet Houston remarked, and the snapshot of Max St. George, er from the Foreign Legion, ap- peared with the newspaper story of Sanda Stanton, Billie did what Jet described as “falling over herself” to Ket to the office of Town Taies, She told nothing damaging to the late Mise Hrookton in wentioning Max Doran, and of him she spoke with friendly enthusiasm, He had been so ood, so kind to her, and #0 different from many young men who were good to actresses, It broke her heart to chink of itis Laie ui was no doubt that Max St. George, the Logionnaire, and Max Doran were one, Billie told how, to her certain , Max had sacrificed him- ephine Deran, who (for some reason he was too noble to re- veal, but it had to do with « secret of ancestry) seemed to him the rightful heirens. ennileas, Max had been forced to resign from pensive reximent, where he lived expensively, He had done this for Josephine's Kake, though he had loved hia c r better than anything else in the world, And then, Jast of all, he had effaced himself rather than accept pity or favors, He had enlisted in the Foreign Legion, and now he had further shown the nobility of his nature by the very way ay. September 4. 1915 + nod ignored hie + Jett He ber Guy ae friend te br ne had bee They defendes (he and enems " « Town Tak won being cruelly ma ned, proof of her Jesert exploits, the magnificent yard nded Chateau 4 where he could cultivate make his fortw ‘The papers pointed out woe Newcastle, an st. George, alias Doran, was debarred from entering France he wanted to go to prison. quickly re- f thar thin omething like sending coals to bounty need bh * in France tn o benefit. He could sell or let the Chateau do la Tour through some agent, Not an LIrpoReR re home in Cairo, ho of all this play of crosa hed Max at the nursing where he bad been carried by BSanda's orders after breaking down. Hut Sanda, who took in a dozen papers to see what they had to nay about the “deserter,” read what was going on at New York as well as in Rome and at Bidi-bel- Abbos. If Sanda bad toved her father tn their days together at Bel-Abbes, abe loved him @ thousand times more in thono few days of bis visit at Calro, Ho forgave her without being asked for leaving him “in the turch ahi repen| antly called it, and letting her- wolf bo carried a@ by Stanton. “You thought you loved him, my darlin “And [could forgive anything to love. It was in his arma, with her buried on his breast, that she told what her marriage had been, and then came the confession (for it seemed to her @ confession, though | she was not ashamed of it, but proud) Max, didn't speak one word of love to he girl said. “He tried not even to let his eyes speak, But they did, sometimes, In spite of him, And no man could possibly endure or do for a woman the things he endured and did for me, avery one of those terrible So when I about | from viper's bite I wanted him to have one happy moment in this world to re. ff anything like it, member in the next. I told him that I \cared, and he kissed my hand and looked at me, That's all, except just word or two that I keep too sacredly to tell even you. And afterward when Richard was dead and Max and I were alone in the desert, save for a few Arabs, he never again referred to that night or spoke of our love. 1 was sure it was only because we were alone and ded on him, But after those weeks and months of facing death together it seems ig we belong to each other, he and Nothing must part ue—nothing.” Sho was half afraid her father might remind her of the situation which had arisen between Max as & deserter and himself as Colonel of the regiment from which Max had deserted, But Col, DeListe did not say this or He knew that love was the greatest thing in the world for his daughte: and he could not cheat her out of it. He was sad because tt seemed to him that In honor he could do hing for this deserter who had done everything for him-nothing, that is, save give him his daughter and abandon what remained of his own career by resign- ing his commission, As Colonel of the Legion his child could not be allowed to marry a deserter, a fugitive who dare not enter France, As for him, DeLisle, though the Legion was much to him, Sanda was more, Hut she said she and Max would not take hap- piness at that price, They must think of some other Way, And the other way was the plan, When the Colonel returned to Alge- ria and his regiment Max had not yet gained enough strength to be seen and thanked for what he had done, even if Delisie had found it com. patible with his offictal duty to say to a deserter what was Mm his heart to say to Banda’s hero. And perhaps, Sanda thought, it was as well that they did not meet Just then, Irrev- ocable things might have been spoken between them, Tho day after her father's ship sailed for Algiers she too other that went from Port Said to Mar- sellles, Brom Maraeilies she travelled to Paris, which was familiar ground to her. What she did there gave a new Mllip to the Stanton-DeLisle- St, George sensation, though at the same time It put an extinguisher on all dis- cunsions: & blow to thone retired of cers who liked writing to the papers, Lest what the papers suid should \e prematurely seen by the conva- fescent'a eyes, however, Sanda hur- ried back to Ieypt, CHAPTER XIV, The Gitt. AX was sitting up in a res Clining chair, for the frat time, on the day of Sanda’s return to Cairo He knew that she had gene to France on business of some he had so idea what tt was, It did not occur to him that it might have to do with his affairs. Prob- ably (he thought) it was connected with Stanton, who had lett money, and who had “geographicat invest- ments," as he called them, all over the world, in France, perhaps, among other places, But somehow Max could not imagine Sanda accepting money for herself that came from Stanton, even if tt were legally hers. Although Max was still weak, he had begun to think urgently, inslet- ently, about the future, All the ob- Jections that Col, DeLisle could see to the marriang of Sanda Stanton with The Avengers “= By HEADON HILL=== as It had been for him, to the deserter at *. Ceorme enw wan onddiok to ohd Monstrous to thik of giving Ber op Hie aneine round and row whence there seemed no way owt. In (he morning the doctor came ip ond laid down on the table, with Gte het. gloves and stick, Ar he examined bie pationt, the Gree picked up (he journal and begem to lance quickly from colume to ealeme race to heve ateorted the sews by (he time the dotter wanted ber servicers —or bie paper, Buddenty, eet Deng Pomeramed of great seif-comtrel seep! Ih professional emergencies, «he eave vent lo abril litte squeak of eacitement. Max and the doctor both tumed their bende, and when the latter saw bin newspaper open in the young ‘s band, be quessed instantly had excited her, He anathema- ‘ined bimeelf for putting the paper where she could get at it; for without Jot Mra, Btanton would want to tell (he great newe herself. She must nol be defrauded of the pleasure, for she would certainly make # point of wetting back for # “look at the to-day or to-morrow. If to- ient appear at any minute, for a P. & O. boat-train had arrived at Cairo late the night before, Dr Taylor had beard, and it was now 9.40 in the morning—not too early to expect her. Nurse Yorke must not blurt out the Udings in her common way! Hut how to stop her without arousing George's ourlosity? “Oh, L suppose you've got hold of the advertisement of that sale I told you of,” he said, glaring over the top of Max's head, “Why! I've found"—— the nurse began briskly but withered wader Doctor Taylor's forbidding gase.” “I knew nothing else could have excited you so much,” he went on masterfully, still hypnotising her with his eyes, until even a duller woman would have grasped his meaning, But maybe he wanted to read out the news himself? Nurse Yorke handed him the paper, “Perhaps Mr, St, George will be in- terested in the advertisement of this a she weated, with @ coy emphasis which made Doctor Tayler want to cya rd well-meaning mat wi a - Welt let Mrs, Stanton read it to him when she comes,” he said wasp- ishly: and at that moment Mrs, Stan- ton came, They both knew her knock, and Nurse Yoke flew to open the door. She had @ smile and a word fr “How splendid! You're “Thin te wort! we walt Bit Cc. "aera meta oa jut there is, ‘8 pome'| best to your getting well.” Then she caught sight of the open paper in the one, bee Ny ait Md reading you one nm tel you—or fooday's news? she asked, breath- “Nurse Yorke was just beg oe. to read something about @ sale, I think,’ Max answered, hardly knowing What ho said because his eyes were upon her—this girl of giris, this pearl of peers, whom honor was forcing bim give up and at the same time bid- ding him to keep. He it that he had never seen her so lovely as to- day, in the simple travelling drevs and hat all of black, yet not mourn- ing. There was a look of beaveo in her eyes, and they seemed to say that this heaven was for him. Could ho refuse it? He gave her back look for look, and neither he nor she knew what they said when Doctor Ta: invited Nurse Yorke to go wita him into the next room and examine the Coorg (he (me ond many more, tt oh of marrying her, chart. “Are you glad I'm back?" Sanda asked, drawing a chair close to tho chaise longu “Glad? You're worth e tory, Pedininan and tonion, Pe Sui no fone you dying to hear any '# such wonderful news that you've come, I can't think of any~ thing else," Max assured her, gazing at her hair, her eyes, her mouth— | her sweet, sweet mouth, i the same I'm going to_ tell you,” Banda insisted, panting a little over her heartbeats. “My news is not about @ ‘sale,’ Yet I think it's the very same Nurse Yorke almost read you, I should have been if she had! on, thwarted, cheated, This Is for me to tell you, my Soldier, me, and no one else, for the gift is to for you, The President of the French Republic has given i fe me for Max ®t. jeorge of the Tenth Compan: t Rogiment of the Legion: Max ‘Bt George, owner of the Chateau de la ‘Tour, home of his far-off ancestors (returned to him, through gratitude, by Josephine Doran)—where he and his Sanda will go some day together when he's tired of diering—and SBanda’s father, Ma: grateful colonel, will vialt them, Al that wonderful old Four Ky: who has almost worked the Legion Into a mutiny for the Soldier's sake, will live with them, if he can ever bea: to leave the Legion. Now, can't yt guess what the President ” “Not—not pardon Max ps formed the words which he could not speak aloud, But it was as if Banda heard, “Pardon, and @ Lieutenant's com- mission in the Legion.” “Sanda! All the worship of a man's heart and soul were im that name as it broke from him with a sob. y Soldier!" she answered, arms. And then they spoke no‘more, for again they were living through in that minute all the long months of agony and Dilss in the desert, when their dream had been coming true, 8 6 9 «ewe Your months later Max left Bis bride to go with a French, Engligh pd Russian spose fat fe the a to fight with the allies in France, the War of the World, Sanda waits, and prays—and hopes, THR END ’