'Very well, Captain, I
will take her in charge.' He then petted the child, made her sociable, and
led her away with him, and two hours later he had manufactured a little
cradle for her out of biscuit boxes which are used on the march for making
coffins. In the evening Michel put her to bed in it. He had christened her
'Tonton,' an abbreviation of Touareg. In the morning the cradle was bound
on an ass, and behold Tonton following the column with the baggage, in the
convoy of the rear guard, under the indulgent eye of Michel.

"This lasted for days and weeks. In the evening at the halting place,
Tonton was brought into my tent, with the goat, which furnished her the
greater part of her meals, and her inseparable friend, a large chameleon,
captured by Michel, and responding or not responding to the name of
Achilles.

"Ah, well! old fellow, you may believe me or not; but it gave me pleasure
to see the little one sleeping in her cradle, during the short night full
of alarm, when I felt the weariness of living, the dull sadness of seeing
my companions dying, one by one, leaving the caravan; the enervation of
the perpetual state of alertness, always attacking or being attacked, for
weeks and months. I, with the gentle instincts of a civilized man, was
forced to order the beheading of spies and traitors, the binding of women
in chains and the kidnapping of children, to raid the herds, to make of
myself an Attila. And this had to be done without a moment of wavering,
and I the cold and gentle Celt, whom you know, remained there, under the
scorching African sun. Then what repose of soul, what strange meditations
were mine, when free at last, at night, in my sombre tent, around which
death might be prowling, I could watch the little Touareg, saved by me,
sleeping in her cradle by the side of her chameleon lizard. Ridiculous, is
it not? But, go there and lead the life of a brute, of a plunderer and
assassin, and you will see how at times your civilized imagination will
wander away to take refuge from itself.

"I could have rid myself of
Tonton. In an oasis we met some rebels, bearing a flag of truce, and
exchanged the women for guns and ammunition. I kept the little one,
notwithstanding the five months of march we must make, before returning to
Tlemcen. She had grown gentle, was inclined to be mischievous, but was
yielding and almost affectionate with me. She ate with the rest, never
wanting to sit down, but running from one to