It was a new photograph that Max had never seen. The smiling face, head drooped slightly in order to give Billie"s celebrated upward look from under level brows, had the place of honour in the middle of the page.
And a paragraph beneath announced that Billie would leave the stage on her marriage with "Millionaire Jeff Houston, of Chicago."
No doubt Houston was the man she had mentioned in her last letter. Round her neck, in the picture, Max thought he recognized his pearls, and on the pretty hand, raised to play with a rope of bigger pearls--"Millionaire Houston"s" perhaps--was the ring Max had given her the night when the telegram came. The photograph, which was large and clearly reproduced, showed the curiously shaped stone on the middle finger of Billie"s left hand. A large round pearl adorned the finger on which Max had once hoped she might wear the blue diamond, a pearl so conspicuous that the original of the picture appeared to display it purposely. "Millionaire Houston"
would be flattered; and that was what Billie Brookton wanted. As for what Max Doran might think if he saw the portrait, why should she care? For her, he was numbered with the dead.
Max was no longer in love with Billie. The shock of Rose Doran"s terrible accident, the story she had to tell, and her death, had chilled the fire of what he thought was love. The letter of farewell had put it out. But the scar of the burn sometimes hurts. To-night was one of those times; and Max believed that his disappointment in Billie had had its influence in driving him to the Legion. She stood now as a type of what was mercenary, calculating, and false in womankind, just as (almost unknown to himself) Sanda DeLisle stood for what was gentle, yet brave and true. He felt that Billie Brookton had made him hard, with a hardness that was not good; and that not only she, but all those he had cared for most in his old life, had deceived and tricked or at best forgotten him. Lying in his narrow bunk, Max lifted his head and let his eyes wander over the faces of his comrades, turned to gray stone by the moonlight. Not one which was not sad, except that of the Alsatian who had joined on the day of his own recruitment. The boy was smiling in some dream and looked like a child, but a sickly child, for the heat and the severe marching drill for _les bleus_ were telling upon him. Faces of twenty different types, faces which by day masked their secrets with sullenness, defiance, or stolidity, could hide nothing in sleep, but fell into lines of sadness that gave a strange family resemblance to the stone soldiers on the tombs. Saddest of all, after Manoel Valdez, perhaps, was the wrecked visage of Pelle, whose own particular _cafard_ had been leading him a merry dance the last few days.
To Sidi-bel-Abbes, with a letter of introduction to the colonel, had come an old officer of the British army, a man of distinction. Pelle, as an Englishman and an ex-soldier, had been honoured by being appointed his guide. The two had recognized one another. Pelle had served under the officer years ago. The encounter had been too much for Quatro Oyos: that, and the money the general gave him at parting. Remembrance of past days was the enemy in the Legion. Four Eyes had been half drunk ever since, and had escaped prison only by a miracle. That, however, was nothing new for him. He had been corporal twice and sergeant once; each time he had been "broke" because of drink. In spite of all, he had stuck to the Legion. There was no other place for him on earth. The Legion was his country now--his only country and his only home. His medals he had asked Max to keep till he "settled down again." They mustn"t go to the places where the _cafard_ would take him. They mustn"t risk disgrace through things which the _cafard_ might make him do. He looked like the ruin of a man in the revealing moonshine. But to-morrow he would be a soldier again till night came, and sooner or later he would pull himself together--more or less. The medals he had won and his love of sport were his incentives. Yet there were other men who had no medals and no special incentives, and to-night Max felt himself down on a level with those.
"What incentive have I?" he asked, in a flash of furious rebellion against fate, conscious yet not caring that such thoughts sp.a.w.ned the beetle in the brain. Five years of this life to look forward to!--the life he had pledged himself to live. The officers did their best. It was _vieux style_ nowadays for an officer of the Legion to be cruel. But try as they might to break the sameness of barrack life by changing the order of drill and exercise--fencing one day, boxing the next, then gymnastics, target-practice, marching, skirmishing, learning first aid to the wounded, giving all the variety possible, the monotony was heart-breaking, as Colonel DeLisle had warned him it would be. And a great march, when a march meant the chance of a fight, didn"t always come in the way of a young soldier, even one whose conduct was unsmirched by any stain. Max did not know yet whether he would be taken on the march that all the garrison was talking of. To-night the beetle in his brain tried to make him think he would not be taken. There was no luck any more for him! And as for his corporal"s stripe, if he got it soon, what a pathetic prize for a man who had been a lieutenant in the --th Cavalry, the crack cavalry regiment of the United States Army!
Oh, better not to think of future or past! Better not to think at all, perhaps, but do as some of the other men did when they wanted to forget even as they had been forgotten: take the few pleasures in their reach, do the very things he had been prig enough to warn Valdez not to do! Let the beetle burrow, as a counter-irritant!
"Soldier St. George--my soldier!" a girl"s voice seemed to encourage him.
Max heard it through the scratching of the beetle in his brain.
Sanda! Yes, Sanda might care a little, a very little, when she had time to think of him--Sanda, who loved another man, but had promised to be his friend. He thought of her eyes as they had looked at him that day in the Salle d"Honneur. He thought of her hair, her long, soft hair....
"She"d be sorry if I let go," he said to himself. "Jove! I _won"t_! I"ll fight this down. And if I"m taken on the march----"
He fell suddenly asleep, thinking of Sanda"s hair, her long, soft hair.
And the moonlight turned him also into a stone soldier on a tomb.
CHAPTER XVII
THE MISSION
It is the darkest hour that comes before the dawn. Next day Soldier St.
George became Corporal St. George, and felt more pleasure in the bit of red wool on his sleeve than Lieutenant Max Doran would have thought possible.
It was Four Eyes who brought him the news, a week later, that his name was among those who would go on "the great march." Four Eyes was somehow invariably the first one to hear everything, good news or bad. Life was not so black after all. There need be no past for a Legionnaire, but there might be a future. None of the men knew for certain when the start was to be made, but it would be soon, and the barracks of the Legion seethed with excitement. Even those who were not going could talk of nothing else. They swore that there was no doubt of the business to be done. The newly risen leader of the Senussi had summoned large bands of the sect to the village, El Gadhari, of which he was sheikh, calling upon them ostensibly to celebrate a certain feast. Close to this village was one of the most important Senussi monasteries. Tribes were moving all through the south, apparently with no warlike intention; but the Deliverer was dangerous. Just such a leader as he--even to the gray eyes and the horseshoe on his forehead--had been prophesied for this time of the world. The Legion would march. And it would maneuver in the desert, in the neighbourhood of El Gadhari. If the warning were enough--there would be no fighting; but the Legion hoped it might not be enough. To be the regiment ordered to give this warning was in itself an honour, for wherever work is hardest there the Legion goes. The Legion must sustain its reputation, such as it is! Desperate men, bad men, let them be called by civilians in times of peace, but give them fighting and they are the glorious soldiers who never turn back, who, even when they fall in death, fall forward as they rush upon the enemy. All the world knew that of them, and they knew it of themselves. They knew, also, that when the moment of starting came men of Sidi-bel-Abbes who drew away from them in the streets and the Place Carnot would take off their hats as the Legion went by. It would be "Vive la Legion!" then.
With each day of burning heat the excitement grew more feverish. Surely this morning, or this night, the order would come! The soldiers whistled as they polished their accoutrements, whistled half beneath their breath the "March of the Legion" which the band is forbidden to play in garrison. Quarrels were forgotten. Men who had not spoken to each other for weeks grinned in each other"s faces and offered one another their cheap but treasured cigarettes.
Almost every one seemed to be happy except Garcia. He was among those who would not be taken on the march--he, who craved and needed to go, as did no other man in the Legion! Max feared Garcia meant to kill himself the night when he lost hope, and would not let him go out alone to walk in the darkness. "I don"t want to ask if you have any plans," he said.
"But there"s one thing I do ask: share with me the money I"ve got left.
You may need it. I shan"t. And if you"ll take it, that"ll be proof that you think as much of me as I do of you."
Garcia took it, from the wallet which a man now lying in the hospital had tried to empty the other night. Then Max knew for certain what the queer light in Manoel"s eyes meant. He could not help a rejoicing thrill in the other"s desperate courage which no obstacle had crushed.
That same night, when the two had separated (St. George rea.s.sured, and believing that Garcia had use for his life after all), Max met Colonel DeLisle face to face, for the first time alone and unofficially since they had parted in the Salle d"Honneur. The colonel was walking unaccompanied, in the street not far from the little garden of the officers" club, where the band was to give a concert, and returning Max"s quick salute he turned to call him back.
"Good evening, Corporal! I should like to speak with you a minute!"
DeLisle cried out cheerfully in English. Max"s heart gave a bound.
Surely never could the word "Corporal" have sounded so like fine music in a poor, non-commissioned officer"s ears!
He wheeled, pale with pleasure that his beau ideal should wish to speak with him, and in English, the language they had used when they were still social equals. "My Colonel!" he stammered.
"I want to congratulate you on your quick promotion," said DeLisle. "It has come to you in spite of your resolution to take no advantage in the beginning over your comrades. I congratulate you on that, too, and on keeping it, now it has turned out so well. I hoped and believed it would be so, though I advised you for your good."
"I know that, my Colonel," answered Max, determined not to presume in speech or act upon his superior officer"s kindness. "I knew it then."
"It may seem a pitifully small step up," DeLisle went on, "but it"s the first reward the Legion can give a soldier. There will be others. I shall have to congratulate you again before long, I"m sure. Meanwhile, I have a message for you." He paused for an instant, slightly hesitating, perhaps. "It is from my daughter. She is in the south, visiting the daughter of an Agha who is very loyal to France as a servant, very loyal to me as a friend. Because of the march last spring, and again this one, now coming (which I expected for this time, and on which I must go myself), I could not have a young girl like Sanda living in Sidi-bel-Abbes. She is happy and interested where she is, and she has not forgotten you. In more than one letter she has wished to be remembered to you, if possible. To-night, Corporal, it _is_ possible, and I"m glad to give the message."
"I thank you for it, my Colonel," Max said, half ashamed of the deep feeling which his voice betrayed. "I--wish I might be able to thank Miss DeLisle. It is a great deal to me that she should remember me--my----"
"Your chivalry? It would be impossible to forget," DeLisle took him up crisply. Then he dismissed the subject, as Max felt. "Tell me," he went on in the same cheerful tone in which he had called out "Corporal!" "Are you happy to escape the caserne, and get away to the desert?"
Suddenly a wild idea sprang into Max"s head. Desperately, not daring to let himself stop and think, he spoke. "I should be happy, my Colonel, but for one thing. Have I your permission to tell you what it is?"
"Yes," said DeLisle. "If I can help you in the matter, I will."
"My Colonel, it"s in your power to do me a favour I would repay you for with my life if necessary, though"--and Max began to stammer again--"that would be at your service in any case. The best friend I have made in the regiment would give his soul to go on this march. I know he hasn"t always behaved as a soldier ought, but he"s as brave as he is hot tempered and reckless. If it could be reconsidered----"
"You mean Garcia?" broke in Colonel DeLisle sharply.
Max was astonished. Instantly he saw that the colonel must have been watching his career. He might have guessed as much from the reward of merit just given him--friendly congratulations and Sanda"s message, a thousand times more valued for the delay; and he had begun to realize that he had never been abandoned, never forgotten. But the colonel"s knowledge of his friendship with Garcia brought the thrilling truth home, almost with a shock.
"Yes, my Colonel--Garcia," he replied.
"Well, I can make no promise," said DeLisle, speaking now more in the tone of an officer with a subordinate, yet showing that he was not vexed. "But--I should like you to go away happy, Corporal. I"ll look into the affair of your friend, and after that--we shall see.
Good-night."
Again the salute was exchanged, and the colonel was gone, turning in at the garden gate of the _Cercle Militaire_. The meeting, and all that had pa.s.sed, seemed like a waking dream. Max could hardly believe it had happened, that Sanda had sent him a message, that her father had given it, and that he, scarcely more than a _bleu_, had dared to speak for Manoel Valdez.
That day it proved not to be a dream, for Garcia learned officially that he was to go with his comrades. Max hardly knew whether or not it would be wise to explain how the miracle had come to pa.s.s, but there was a reason why he wished to tell. When the truth was out, and Valdez ready to worship his friend, Max said: "I did it before I stopped to think; if I _had_ stopped, I don"t know--for you see, in a way, this makes me a traitor to the colonel. I begged him for a favour and he granted it.
_Yet you and I understand what your going means._ I"ve been asking him for your chance to--well, we won"t put it in words! Only, for G.o.d"s sake, try to think of some other way to do what you"ve got to do!"
"Even you admit that I _have_ got to do it!" Valdez argued. "To save a woman--it"s to save her life, you know."
"I know," said Max. "But there may be some other way than this one in your mind."
"If there is, I"ll take it. And now I can give you back your money."
"No! You"ll need every _sou_ if----"
"You"re the best friend a man ever had!" cried the Spaniard.
At midnight the alarm they were all waiting for sounded, and though it was expected at any hour, it came as a surprise.
"_Aux armes!_" rang out the call of the bugle from the barrack-yard and waked the stone soldiers to instant life. The flat, carved figures sat up on their narrow tombs in the moonlight, then sprang to their feet.
There was no need or thought of discipline with that glorious alarm sounding in their ears! The men yelled with joy and roared from dormitory to dormitory in the wonderful Legion language made up of chosen bits from every other language of the world.