The Argosy — page 92: what you’re looking at

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

Checkmate in Ten Moves. 79 ing, that I was ordered to keep my room; and it was not till late in the day that Mariette was allowed to enter. The town was full of strange reports, she whispered, and neighbours had been running in and out with stories all the morning, each one more important than the other. ‘The real facts, as far as she gathered them, were these. Two citizens of Trois Etoiles, returning home the evening before, had suddenly encountered M. le Maire, in full dress, emerging fromthe wood. ‘They had made an attempt to address him, so as to explain why they were so late ; but he had waved his cane in so authoritative a manner, that they could only take the hint, and let him go by. Curiosity, which they accounted for by their natural concern for his safety, made them watch him as he marched down the next field, and they could see him, on approaching a hedge, make a sudden dart through, as if to seize something hiding behind it. The dusk made it difficult to be certain, but they both agreed that they made out at least one figure on horseback galloping away in the distance ; there might have been more—probably half a dozen. Of course, but for his own orders, they would have gone on cheerfully to see if he wanted help, but all the world knew that M. le Maire would forgive no one for interfering with his deep-laid plans; and they made the best of their way at once into the town. Another story was flying about, bearing on the same mystery. Old Madame Perrin (the greatest scold in Trois Etoiles) had a famous goat, more precious to her soul than all her relations put together. This treasure had disappeared the day before, and the small granddaughter, whose only use in the world (as everybody knew) was to look after poor Loulou, was sent into the wood, well chastised, to hunt for her, under pain of worse penalty. The little girl, crying and frightened at being alone when it was getting dark, was suddenly confronted by a somebody in a cloak and cap, who told her to dry her eyes, and go home to her grandmother, and she would find her goat tied to a tree at the end of the path—which proved to be the case. And Madame Perrin, having scolded the child well for telling such a story, could not help telling it again in the morning to all she knew, and the tale of the two valiant citizens came just in time to make the whole thing clear. While they had been quietly unconscious, busy about their ordinary duties, the Maire, like a true French magistrate, had been watching over the whole town, defeating the plots of the Prussians,. arresting (or very nearly) ever so many mounted spies, and winning back, single-handed, all the plunder they had meant to drive away even to the poor goat. In avery short time the two stories had assumed such a character that the press (duly represented in Trois Ktoiles by a daily sheet of advertisements), took it up with enthu- siasm, and published an account that caused a run upon the office. Four editions of the paper were sold as fast as the printers could Cconniclbooolks Co