Adventure Magazine Cover — page 94: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

658 On the town side the hill dropped ab- ruptly to the narrow plain; beyond lay the river like a sheet of quicksilver, and then Bou-Denib, half-hidden behind the motion- less fronds of the palmeraie, its blue-washed walls and house-tops crowded with women and children. Even a couple of priests could be seen on the minaret of the mosque. But not a sound came to the hill. In the other direction the French column advanced in the form of a rectangle. The caravans had been left behind; the infantry formed the lines; within were the cavalry and artil- lery. A crowd of Arabs hung on either flank and kept up a continual harassing. Each puff of smoke when a gun was fired rose like a tiny white cloud. All day the French had been kept so continually on the alert that their nerves were worn to a raw edge. No one knew how many men Mo- hammed Jebbour had, and the desert as far as they could see was swarming with them. And lives were cheap in the desert— Mohammedan lives were doubly cheap. At times the Arabs took advantage of a rise of ground to make a frantic charge and were swept back by the volleys of the infantry. Soon the pops of the firing began to come to the Hadgi’s ear as they drew nearer. The French could see him too plainly as he stood high on the crest of the hill in his green tur- ban and snow-white faik. He was within range and Dixie Pasha, who knew it, won- dered why they did not open fire, for the sun was sinking and in a few moments it would be dark and too late. He knew that the attack was to take place when it grew dark enough to get to close quarters without being swept down by the volleys. But the French were old hands at this sort of business. ‘They, too, were waiting for the darkness to come—to admin- ister a crushing blow. “That is the Hadgi on the hill yonder,” thee General had said. ‘Just before the Arabs start to charge, shell it and sweep in with mitrailleuse. When the enemy break and retreat, let the cavalry follow them around both sides of the hill and let the infantry support them. The hill is very difficult of descent on the other side, the guides say, and if he waits there a few mo- ments longer we will get him.” But Dixie Pasha had a keen eye and he knew the warfare of the Roumi. When they trained the machine-guns and six-pounders on the hill he threw his men around the Adventure Hadgi and the sheiks and hustled them over the summit. At the same moment the cry of “Allah il Allah!” thundered from the plain below and the thousands of Arabs swept forward in a universal charge. But they were not met by volleys this time. The infantry opened up and the machine-guns began to rattle when the Arabs were only a hundred yards away. They swept the floor of the desert clear in a moment and then the infantry poured a volley into the Arabs that completed the work, and the Spahis and Chasseurs d’Afrique rode out and cut down the few that had got to close quarters. But the bulk of the Arabs had broken and fled un- der the withering hail of the machine-guns. Shells were bursting on the hill-top too, but the men of Dixie Pasha, with the Hadgi in their midst, were picking their way with difficulty down its precipitous farther side. A company or two of the Foreign Legion took the hill, on one side of it the Spahis swept at a trot, followed closely by the Zouaves and Legionaries, on the other side the Chasseurs d’Afrique pursued, the Algerian Tirailleurs at their heels. It grew totally dark with the suddenness of the esert; the stars came out and a thread of moon swung over the minaret of the mosque dimly outlined against the sky. The Arabs had seen the Hadgi himself flee in the last gleams of light, and never drew rein until they had splashed through the ouved and were gathered on the farther shore. And Dixie Pasha, with his eighty men thrown about the Hadgi and his sheiks, reached the foot of the hill just as the two wings of French troops came curving around its flanks. They met out beyond him in the center of the plain, between him and Bou-Denib. He was caught between them like a grain of corn between two millstones. But first the millstones were to grind each other a bit. The Spahis galloped up in the darkness. The sound of their hoofs was like far-mut- tering thunder, but only their white tur- bans were visible at a distance of fifty yards. The Chasseurs and Tirailleurs were waiting, and the last poured a volley into them, and then the Chasseurs were out to meet the charge with drawn swords. They in their turn were riddled by the blast of a volley from the Zouaves and Legionaries, and it was only when the cavalry gasped under the COMICOOCKKS. ECO