FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143  
144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   >>   >|  
ong list of black marks stood against their names. Max feared that there was little hope for Valdez, though he meant to do what he could to help. And he found it strange that he, a born soldier as he knew himself to be, should think of tacitly aiding another to desert, no matter on what pretext. At home in the same position it could not have been so; but in the Foreign Legion recruits talked freely, even before old Legionnaires to whom the Legion was mother and father and country. There was no fear of betrayal. The whole point of view seemed different. If a man felt that he had borne all he could, and was desperate enough to risk death by starvation or worse, why let him go with his comrades' blessing--and his blood on his own head! If he had money he might get through. If not, he was lost; but that, too, was his own business. March was bitterly cold in wind-swept Sidi-bel-Abbes. April was mild; May warm; June hot; July and August a furnace, but Legionnaires drank no less of the heavy, red Algerian wine than before the summer heat engulfed them. Max had heard men say jokingly or solemnly of each other, "He has the _cafard_." Vaguely he knew that _cafard_ was French for beetle, or cockroach; that soldiers who habitually mixed absinthe and other strong drinks with their cheap but beloved _litre_ were often affected with a strange madness which betrayed itself in weird ways, and that this special madness was familiarly named _le cafard_. When the hot wave arrived he saw for himself what the terrible insect could do in a man's brain. In the canteen it was bad enough on pay nights--so called "the Legion's holidays"--but there reigned Madame la Cantiniere, young, good looking, a respected queen, who would go on march with the Legion in her cart, and who must at all times to a certain extent be obeyed. But in dim side-streets of the town, far from the lights of the smart, out-of-doors cafes, were _casse croutes_ kept by Spaniards who cared nothing for the fate of Legionnaires when they had spent their last sou. The _cafard_ grew and prospered there. He tickled men's gray matter and kneaded it in his microscopic claws. There his victims fought each other, for no reason which they could explain afterward, or mutilated themselves, tearing off an ear, or tattooing a face with some design to rival Four Eyes; or they sold parts of their uniforms to buy a little more drink, or tried to blow out their brains, or the brains of some
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143  
144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Legion

 

cafard

 

Legionnaires

 

brains

 
matter
 
strange
 

madness

 

Cantiniere

 

Madame

 

respected


reigned

 

arrived

 

special

 

familiarly

 

betrayed

 

beloved

 

affected

 
canteen
 

nights

 

called


terrible
 
insect
 

holidays

 

mutilated

 

tearing

 

afterward

 

explain

 
microscopic
 

victims

 

fought


reason

 
tattooing
 

uniforms

 
design
 

kneaded

 

lights

 
obeyed
 
streets
 

drinks

 

croutes


prospered

 

tickled

 

Spaniards

 

extent

 

Algerian

 

mother

 
father
 

freely

 
talked
 

position