The Argosy, March 1907 — page 79: what you’re looking at

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

=P AE EAGLE guard, an inch higher, and the hairy fingers would clasp the shining hilt. Then the grenadier made a quick move- ment, the hand rose rapidly and the fingers were buried in the tawny bristling mustache, » It was the natural movement of one who is puzzled at something, who has forgotton and is trying to remember. Unconsciously Inwood emulated the other’s example; then he remembered. In the stable that night his face had been clean shaven. Weeks upon a_ bed of sickness had altered his appearance. A thick, untrimmed beard covered his cheeks and chin. The soldier was trying to place him. | Another moment and the danger would have passed, when the American made a fatal blunder. It was natural, for the grenadier stood directly in the path and small courtesies come easily. “ Bon jour, monsieur,’ said Inwood carelessly, and would have passed on. Suddenly the other’s fingers dropped from his mustache and he took a half step forward. “ Mort du.diable! It is the American,” said he. Then, before Inwood could form the words to reply: “Had you killed him that night. Peste’ had you but killed him!” This greeting was so unexpected that for a moment Inwood was dumb with surprise. The soldier could mean but one person when he cried gruffly: “ Had you but killed him!” And that person was Napoleon’s officer, Colonel Ettori. Scarcely able to comprehend his mean- ing—why, being discovered in Paris by one who knew what had occurred in the stable loft, the grenadier did not mdke of him a prisoner—he answered: “You were saying, monsteur; it was concerning a certain incident——”’ ‘“ Dame! and of what else, mon ami? I repeat: had you but killed him I would thank you forever. Then, what has hap- pened would not have happened.” Inwood glanced at the servant of Mademoiselle de Freron. The man’s face expressed no interest in what was occur-’ ring, but it was plain he was listening. The grenadier had knocked the ashes from his pipe and returned it to his pocket. bourg St. Germain. esting hearing. OF EMPIRE. “T can see plainly that monsiew is. surprised. Sacré/ for these two months I have been surprised that it is permitted © me to walk the streets of Paris. But you see, the emperor does not wholly forget those who have served him faithfully. Had it not been for that——” He made a gesture “signifying many things. Inwood glanced for a second time at his companion of ‘the house in the Fau- The man took the hint quickly. “ Monsteur has but to walk to the end of the alley and he wiil find me waiting,” he remarked dispassionately, and moved off in the direction of the boulevard> ‘My friend,” said Inwood, looking the soldier full in the face, “it so happened that you once befriended me. You know what happened afterward, that night, and you ask me why I did not kill your colonel. Surely it would seem that some- thing has occurred which will be inter- ? He spoke with easy assurance, for it was plain that the soldier had no inten- tion of calling him to account for what had occurred in the stable. Why he did not hold him to be an enemy to Napoleon —one who had nearly strangled to death the emperor’s officer—was a riddle be- yond his guessing. Yet he was fast reaching the point where he was _ sur- prised at nothing. The grenadier shrugged his broad shoulders. “Nom de diable’” cried he, ‘“ and do you call him my colonél, monsieur? Who and what he may be I know not, but my colonel, never. Had he been with the emperor before, even for a little while, things would not be as they hap- pened. To slander an old soldier of the empire; to fill the emperor’s ears with lies. i, and many another, monsieur, be- lieve he was nothing more than a miser- able mouchard, such a one as avoids bullets carefully, so carefully that he never gets in range of one, but works always, always in the dark, where none may see him. Whefe was he before we went to Elba? I[ have seen all those whom the emperor trusted and who led the eagles into battle, but until ‘that night at Cannes that one I had never seen. My colonel, indeed! ”’ a CONMIC OO Sas) el im z “ys