n the last gun, and then,
right above me, was a Russian major and with him a dozen of his men.
Tap! and I had the nail half-way home as the major jumped down beside
me, with his sword raised. I knew that I could parry his blow with the
hammer and then, possibly, get away; but I wanted to make sure that that
gun could not be turned. And so--it was quick thinking that I did just
then, Monsieur--tap! and the gun was no better than old iron! At
that same instant it seemed to me that the whole world burst into a
tremendous roar and ten thousand blazing stars--but it only was the
sword of that confounded Russian major banging against my skull!"

The little woman was almost sobbing. She took her husband's hand in both
of hers.

"But you see that I was _not_ killed, little one," he said; and he
raised her hands to his lips and kissed them.

"It was not until the next day, Monsieur," he went on, "that I knew
anything. Then I was in the hospital.

"'How did it go?' I asked of the hospital-steward.

"'Shut up,' said the steward.

"This made me angry. 'How did it go, _polisson?_' I cried. 'Tell me, or
I'll crush your bones.'

"Then the man was more civil. 'The Russians were driven back,' he said,
'and a lot of them were captured. You owe it to the same Russian major
who almost killed you that your life was saved. As soon as he was
brought into camp he sent a message to the general begging that you
might be looked after quickly. If there was any life left in you, it was
worth saving, he said, for you were a brave man--and he told how you had
spiked those last two guns! _Parbleu_, but for that message you would
have died! When they brought you in here you were nearly gone!'

"'And the lieutenant who ran away?' I asked.

"'Oh, he was killed--as he deserved. Now you know all about it. Hold
your tongue.'

"I felt so foolishly weak, and there was such a pain in my head as
I began to remember it all once more, that I could not ask any more
questions. Presently my head began to buzz and the pain in it to get
worse, and then for a week I had a fever that came near to taking me
off. But I pulled through"--he squeezed his wife's hand, that again
had been laid in his--"and in three weeks I was back with the regiment
again. It was all due to my having such a wonderfully thick skull, the
doctors said, that the major's sword had not broken it past all mending.
When I came into camp the boys all cheered me, and I was as proud as a
coc