But Gerard was on General Moinier’s staff, and many reports came under his eyes. Amongst them, one written by a Captain Laguessière, giving an account of an unsuccessful attempt to relieve a little post at the Bab Fetouh on the afternoon of the seventeenth, the second day of the revolt. Gerard was reading the report in his office not overcarefully when a passage leaped out on the written page and startled him. He sat for a moment very still. Then he shook or tried to shake some troublesome thought from his shoulders.
“It couldn’t be, of course!” he said, but he read the passage again.
And here is what he read:
“I met with no trouble until I had passed the lime-kilns and crossed a bridge over the Oued el Kebir. Here further progress was stopped by three strong groups of Moors armed with rifles. It was clear to me that I could not force a way through with my twenty men and retain any hope of relieving the post. I determined, therefore, to make a detour and try to advance by way of the Bab Jedid. As I recrossed the bridge I was violently attacked from the rear, from in front of me and from a street upon my left; whilst from a house upon my right I saw a number of the Askris pour out. I ordered a charge, and, leading ‘au pas gymnastique,’ I brought my men into a narrow turning, whence we were able to clear the street by repeated volleys. I had two men killed and six wounded. I received great assistance from a tall Moor who, jumping from the crowd, charged with my men. He was armed only with a big heavy pole, but he swung it about him with so much vigour and skill that he cleared a space for us. I tried to find this Moor when I had re-formed my men, but he had disappeared as suddenly as he had come.”
Gerard de Montignac sat back in his chair and ran his fingers through his sleek hair.
“Of course, it’s quite out of the question,” he assured himself. But none the less he rose abruptly and, leaving the report on his desk, went into another office inconveniently crowded. At the far end of the room was seated at a desk the man for whom he was looking.
“Baumann!” he called. “Can you spare me a minute?”
Baumann rose and followed Gerard back to his room.
“Take a chair there.” He pointed to one at the side of his desk.
“Do you remember telling me some time ago at Casablanca that you once met Captain Ravenel close to Volubilis?”