A moment later he came in, and she turned her head languidly and smiled.
“Jacqueline! Jacqueline!” he whispered, bending close above her.
“Ah, Jacqueline,” he stammered, “more than you can understand.”
Suddenly a step sounded on the stairs, a rifle-stock grounded, clanging, and a sonorous voice rang out:
“Salute, O my brother of the toug! The enemies of France are dead!”
And in the silence around him Salah Ben-Ahmed the Marabout recited the fatha, bearing witness to the eternal unity of God.
Late that night the light cavalry from Lorient rode into Paradise. At dawn the colonel, established in the mayory, from whence its foolish occupant had fled, sent for Speed and me, and when we reported he drew from his heavy dolman our commissions, restoring us to rank and pay in the regiment de marche which he commanded.
At sunrise I had bade good-bye to the sweetest woman on earth; at noon we were miles to the westward, riding like demons on Buckhurst’s heavy trail.