Percival Christopher Wren

“ Look here, Lejaune, don't be a silly fool. Can't you understand that in about two minutes you may be hanging on that wall with bayonets through your hands—and left there, in a burning fort, to die? Or pinned out on the roof with the sun in your face? Don't be such an ass. We've got no diamond and you've got five good men to fight for you, more's the pity! Stop gibbering about jewels and be thankful that we five know our duty if you don't. ”

“ When the other two joined us, Lejaune said:
"St. André and Cordier—remain here until relieved. If any man wakes, order silence, cover him with your rifle, and say you'll shoot him if he leaves his bed. Do it at once, to any man and every man, who disobeys. Fail, and I'll shoot you myself. ... Follow me, you others," and he quietly returned to his quarters.
"Guard the door, you," he said to Maris, "and shoot anybody who approaches. Anybody, I say."
"Now you, quick," he said, entering the room and closing the door. "Give me this wretched diamond that is the cause of all this trouble." ”

“ Danger to oneself is unpleasant enough, when it is that of being murdered by a lunatic. When to it is added the danger, and constant fear, of a similar fate overtaking people whom one loves, it becomes ten times worse.
Michael and I both begged each other not to be so foolish as to play into Lejaune's hands, by giving him the faintest chance to accuse us of any breach of duty or discipline, or of so much as an insubordinate look, even under the greatest provocation. ”

“ You're a pretty leader of a gang of desperate mutineers, aren't you?"
Schwartz stared in amazement, struck dumb by the cool daring of the person who had the courage and effrontery to taunt and insult him.
Michael turned to Brandt, Haff, Delarey, Guantaio, Vogué, and the rest of Schwartz's familiars.
"A remarkable leader," he said. "Here you are, the gang of you, making your wonderful plans, and Lejaune knows every word you say, and precisely what you are going to do—almost as soon as you know it yourselves! ... Join you? No, thanks. ”

“ Of all those who had sprung from their beds with cries of joy, at the shout of "Aux armes!" yesterday morning, only Lejaune, St. André, Michael, Colonna, Marigny, Vogué, Moscowski, Gotto, Vaerren, and I were still alive.
The end was inevitable, unless relief came from Tokotu before the Arabs assaulted the place. All they had to do now, was to run in and climb. Ten men cannot hold back a thousand. ”

“ Lejaune himself never left the roof, but had soupe, coffee, and wine brought up to him.
To the look-out platform he sent Vogué to join the bodies of his fellow-conspirators, Schwartz, Haff, and Delarey.
Except for a crouching sentry in the middle of each wall of the roof, those who were not below, feeding and resting, sat with their backs to the wall, each beside his embrasure.
The fire of the Arab sharpshooters did no harm, and they wasted their ammunition on dead men. ”

“ And if no one goes and does it spontaneously, there'll be a plot to murder him—if there isn't one already, which I believe there is, as you say—and we should have the choice of fighting for Lejaune— (for Lejaune!) —or being two of a gang of silly, murdering mutineers with nothing but a choice of beastly deaths—thirst and Arabs in the desert, or court martial and a firing party at dawn. ”

“ If any man comes out with only one rifle, shoot him at once. Shoot anybody who comes through that doorway, except a man with half a dozen rifles. And shoot to kill too."
I raised my rifle and covered the lighted doorway below me, at the other side of the courtyard.
"You understand," growled Lejaune. "The moment Sergeant Dupré enters that guard-room, after I've spoken to him, you shoot anybody who carries one rifle. A man with a rifle is a proclaimed and confessed mutineer. ”

“ Suppose one of us goes and tells him the truth—isn't that enough? If he likes to punish the man and ignore his warning, that's his affair."
"Quite," agreed Michael. "But it's ours too! We don't want to be shot in our beds because Lejaune won't listen to us. ... If Schwartz isn't forestalled, every man in this fort who hasn't joined his gang by the day after to-morrow will share Lejaune's fate."
"That means us five, Boldini, Dupré, and Lejaune," said Cordier.
"Unless Boldini is in with them,—which is quite likely," put in St. André.
"Yes, seven of us," mused Michael, "even without Boldini. ”

“ What would happen when the five slept, ate, cooked, mounted guard on the roof? It couldn't be done. It was their lives or his, and the very existence of the fort.
Perhaps he'd only shoot the ringleaders?
What should I do if Lejaune ordered me to open fire on unarmed men in their beds? What would Michael do?
What was my duty in such a case, with orders from such an officer? Private conscience said, "Absolutely impossible! Sheer murder! You are not an executioner. ... Not the public hangman."
Military conscience said, "Absolutely necessary. These men are guilty of the greatest military crime. ”

“ I also sounded Marigny, but he takes the line that we can't possibly be such curs as to warn the unspeakable Lejaune and betray our own comrades."
"We can't be such curs as not to do so," said Michael.
"Precisely what I tried to make him see," replied St. André. "It's a question of the point of view and of the degree of mental and moral development. ... To us it is unthinkable that we should stand by and see murder done, the regiment disgraced, the Flag betrayed, and the fort imperilled. ... We are soldiers of France. ..." ”

“ You ..." roared Schwartz. "Why should you ..."
"Oh, don't be such a noisy nuisance, Schwartz," interrupted Michael. "I and a party of my friends don't choose to give Lejaune the chance he wants, and we don't really like murder either. ... We have as much right to live as you, haven't we?"
"Live," snarled Brandt. "D'you call this living?"
"We aren't dying of thirst, anyhow," replied Michael. "And if we are chivvied and hunted and hounded by Lejaune, it's better than being hunted to our deaths by a camel-company of goums or by the Touaregs, isn't it?" ”

“ My hand, still grasping my bayonet, fell to my side.
"Good!" said Lejaune. "Armed attack on a superior officer—and in the face of the enemy! ... Excellent! I court martial you myself. I find you guilty and I sentence you to death. ... I also carry out the sentence myself. ... Thus ..." and the revolver travelled slowly from my face to the pit of my stomach.
"There! ..."
As Lejaune had spoken, Michael's right hand had moved. As the last word was uttered, the hand seized Lejaune's foot, jerking him from his balance, as he pulled the trigger in the act of looking down and of stumbling. ”

“ And, in every case, Lejaune would prop and pose and arrange the body, dead or dying, in the embrasure whence it had fallen, and to the distant Arab eyes it must have seemed that the number of the defenders was undiminished.
As the morning wore on, Lejaune took a rifle, and, crouching beside each dead man in turn, fired several shots from each embrasure, adding to the illusion that the dead were alive, as well as to the volume of fire.
Later still, he set one man to each wall to do the same thing, to pass continually up and down, firing from behind the dead. ”

“ Or was he waiting to be surer of Boldini or Dupré?
Of course, if he felt that in the presence of the "diamond" no reliance could be placed on either of these two colleagues, and if, as a shrewd and experienced judge of men, he estimated Bolidar and Guantaio at their true worth, or worthlessness—perhaps it was quite impossible for him to act at all. If practically every one in the garrison belonged to one of two parties—the "honest" mutineers determined to desert, or the rascally thieves determined to steal the great jewel and get away with it—what could the man do? ”

“ Or Boldini. ... What shall I do! What can I do!" he screamed.
Michael patted the poor rascal's shoulder.
"There! There! Never mind. No one's going to kill you," he soothed him, almost as though he had been a baby. "Now tell us all about it and we'll see what can be done. ... You join our party and you'll be safe enough."
"Your party?" asked Bolidar. "What is your party? And what are you going to do?"
"Oh—we are a party all right. The stoutest fellows in the garrison—and we're going to warn Lejaune—if Schwartz doesn't agree to give up the murder part of the plot," replied Michael. ”

“ Michael and I being denounced to the mutineers as traitors, Guantaio might well be moved to murder and rob Michael—secure in his honourable rôle of executioner of justice upon a cowardly traitor.
The Legion knew no punishment too severe for infliction upon any man who acted contrary to the interests of his comrades. Guantaio need not fear the fate of Bolidar in such circumstances.
"What would you do if you were me?" I asked.
"Join the butchers," was the prompt reply. "You and your brother must follow Schwartz. Better the enmity of Lejaune than of half the barrack-room led by Schwartz. ”

“ What, I ask you? ... Death, I tell you. Death! Death! Death!" he screamed, trembling and slavering like a trapped beast.
"And who did tell him about this wonderful diamond?" asked Michael.
"Boldini," replied Bolidar. "As soon as he rejoined, he told him of the gang of famous London jewel-thieves who had fled from the English police to the Legion. He and Guantaio and Gotto were to get it and give it to Lejaune, who would protect them and who would either place it and share with them, or keep it until they had all served their time. ... ”

“ But Michael? What would happen when Michael denied any knowledge of a diamond? How would he fare at Lejaune's hands when the mutiny had been suppressed? Lejaune's bare word was sufficient to send him to join the defeated mutineers—whether they were in the next world or in that antechamber of the next world, the Penal Battalion. ...
"Make a sound—or a false move, and you'll be the first that dies—the first of many, I hope," growled Lejaune, as I crept down the passage between thick mud walls, and I felt the muzzle of his revolver jabbed into the small of my back. ”

“ I observed in English.
"Nice little crowd," said Michael in the same language. "One really doesn't know where one is, nor where to start on the job of making head or tail of the business.
"Let's get this clear now," he said to Bolidar. "You are Lejaune's—er—man. You warned him of Schwartz's plot to mutiny and kill him, while acting as though you were a ringleader. You have told every detail to Lejaune and kept him up to date with every development. Lejaune has given you the job of killing me. ”

“ Michael addressed the meeting first.
"As you all very well know," said he, "there is a plot to murder Lejaune and the non-coms., to desert and to abandon the fort. Schwartz is the ringleader and says that those who do not declare themselves supporters will be considered as enemies—and treated as such. Personally, I do not do things because Schwartz says I must, nor do I approve of shooting men in their beds. Supposing I did, I still should disapprove of being led out into the desert by Schwartz, to die of thirst. ”

“ To-morrow at six, beyond the oasis. All our friends and all who are not actually of Schwartz's gang. You get Marigny, Blanc, and Cordier, and any other Frenchman you think might join us, and we'll bring Maris, Ramon, Dobroff, and Glock, and possibly one or two more. They'll come. ... They'll come, because, obviously, it's a life-or-death matter for all of us. We must try to see that none of Schwartz's gang know about the meeting, at any rate until it's over—but if they do, we can't help it. I suppose we have as much right to lay plans as they have? ”

“ That night I told Michael what I had heard.
The next day it was Guantaio. I was sitting in the same place and he crept towards me purposefully.
"Who's that?" he asked, and, hearing my name, came and sat down beside me, as Schwartz had done.
"It's hot," he said, removing his képi and puffing.
"It is," I agreed.
"Are you fond of hot ... porc?" he enquired.
"Cochon!" said I playfully.
"Ah!" he replied at once. "What do you think of it all?"
"I never think," said I.
This silenced him for a minute.
"They are ten to one," he said suddenly. "Ten butchers to a pig. ”

“ By the time I had roused Cordier, Michael was creeping from the room, dressed, his rifle in his hand. I saw Lejaune give him some cartridges from his bulging side-pockets. I crept out too, taking my rifle and bayonet, and Lejaune gave me ten cartridges.
"Go outside and load," he whispered. "Quick. ... Then shoot any man, at once, if he sets his foot on the floor, after a warning."
We charged our magazines and stood behind Lejaune in the doorway, rifles at the ready. St. André joined us and received the same orders. Lejaune shook his fist at Maris and Cordier, and beckoned to them angrily. ”

“ André. "Lejaune is incidental. We're going to fight a murderous mutiny—and another incidental is that we are probably going to save our own lives thereby. ..."
"Who'll tell Schwartz?" interrupted Cordier.
"I will," said Michael.
"We all will," said I. "Let us five just go to him together and warn him. We won't emphasise the fact that we speak for ourselves only."
"That's it," agreed St. André. "We'll tell Schwartz that we're a 'deputation' to him—and do the same when we go on to interview Lejaune—if that's necessary." ”