the survivors, spahis and
sharpshooters, and they began to retreat, leaving behind them the
baggage and provisions, for want of camels to carry them.

"Then they started on their journey through this solitude without shade
and boundless, beneath the devouring sun, which burned them from morning
till night.

"One tribe came to tender its submission and brought dates as a tribute.
The dates were poisoned. Nearly all the Frenchmen died, and, among them,
the last officer.

"There now only remained a few spahis with their quartermaster,
Pobeguin, and some native sharpshooters of the Chambaa tribe. They
had still two camels left. They disappeared one night, along with two,
Arabs.

"Then the survivors understood that they would be obliged to eat each
other, and as soon as they discovered the flight of the two men with the
two camels, those who remained separated, and proceeded to march, one
by one, through the soft sand, under the glare of a scorching sun, at a
distance of more than a gunshot from each other.

"So they went on all day, and when they reached a spring each of them
came to drink at it in turn, as soon as each solitary marcher had moved
forward the number of yards arranged upon. And thus they continued
marching the whole day, raising everywhere they passed, in that level,
burnt up expanse, those little columns of dust which, from a distance,
indicate those who are trudging through the desert.

"But one morning one of the travellers suddenly turned round and
approached the man behind him. And they all stopped to look.

"The man toward whom the famished soldier drew near did not flee, but
lay flat on the ground, and took aim at the one who was coming toward
him. When he believed he was within gunshot, he fired. The other was not
hit, and he continued then to advance, and levelling his gun, in turn,
he killed his comrade.

"Then from all directions the others rushed to seek their share. And
he who had killed the fallen man, cutting the corpse into pieces,
distributed it.

"And they once more placed themselves at fixed distances, these
irreconcilable allies, preparing for the next murder which would bring
them together.

"For two days they lived on this human flesh which they divided between
them. Then, becoming famished again, he who had killed the first man
began killing afresh. And again, like a butcher, he cut up the corpse
and offered it to his comrades, keeping only his own portion of it.

"And so