lonel DeLisle, shrugging his shoulders, "I
suppose I should do what he does. What _I_ might do, isn't the question,
however. But I've said enough.... Now I have to get back to barracks.
For you, Sanda, this must be 'good-bye,' I fear, to the friend of your
journey."

"My friend for always," the girl amended, holding out her hand to Max.
"And I'd rather say 'Au revoir' than 'Good-bye'; we shall meet
again--away in the desert, perhaps."

She caught her father's warning eye and stopped. "Good-bye,
then--Soldier of the Legion."

"If he doesn't change his mind," muttered DeLisle. "There's still time."

Max looked from the girl to the flag in its glass case.

"I shall not change my mind," he said.

CHAPTER XI

FOUR EYES

Beyond the barracks of the Legion, going toward the Porte de Tlemcen,
and opposite the drill-ground and cavalry barracks of the Spahis, there
is a sign: _Bureau de Recrutement_.

Early in the morning after taking his resolution, Max walked down the
narrow, lane-like way which led off from the Rue de Tlemcen and the long
front wall of the Legion's barracks, and found the door indicated by the
sign.

In a bare office room, furnished with a table and a few benches, sat a
corporal, busily writing. He looked up, surprised to see such a visitor
as Max, and was at some trouble to hide his amazement on hearing that
this well-dressed young man, evidently a gentleman, wished to enlist in
the Legion. Opening off the outer room, with its white-washed walls and
display of posters tempting to recruits, was another office, the _Bureau
du Commandant de Recrutement_, and there Max was received by a
lieutenant, older than most of the men of that rank in the English or
American armies. Something in his manner made Max wonder if the officer
had been told of him and his intention by Colonel DeLisle. At first he
put only the perfunctory questions which a man entering the wide-open
gate of the Legion may answer as he chooses. But when in its turn came
an inquiry as to the recruit's profession, the officer looked at Max
sharply yet with sympathy.

"No profession," was the answer; a true one, for Max's resignation had
already taken effect.

"At present, but--in the past?" the lieutenant encouraged him kindly.
"If you have military experience, you can rise quickly in the Legion."

For good or ill, Max stuck to yesterday's resolve, knowing that he might
be weak enough to regret it, and anxious therefore to make