m.

Five minutes later a sergeant came out, and calling four men from a
company drawn up near the door, went across to the group of prisoners
and presently returned with six of them. In a few minutes they came out
again. Three of the men, in charge of a single soldier, were marched
away in the direction of the gate; the other three were taken to a door
a short distance away, thrust in, the door was locked after them, and
two soldiers placed there as sentries. The barred windows told their
tale, and Edgar had no doubt that the three men who had entered were
sentenced to death. In the meantime, another party had taken six more
prisoners in. So the matter proceeded for upwards of an hour, five
minutes at the outside sufficing for each batch. At the end of this time
the group of Arabs was reached. Hitherto about half of the men taken had
been suffered to depart, but this time the six Arabs were all taken to
the fatal door.

Edgar did not recognize any of them, and indeed, he knew that the
greater part of the sheik's followers had fallen in the attack on the
French column in the street. Sidi was in the next group, and Edgar rose
to his feet, saying to the soldier who still stood by his side, and who
had heard the conversation with the general, "That is the lad." The man
went with him to the door, told the sentries there that the general's
orders were that the witness was to be allowed to enter, and Edgar
followed the party into a large room. Six French officers were seated at
a table. The president, who was the general who had spoken to him,
looked up:

"Is that the lad?" he asked, pointing to Sidi.

"That is he, monsieur."

"As we have heard your testimony, it is not necessary to take it again."
Sidi had given a sudden start on hearing Edgar's voice. "This young
fellow has testified to us," General Rombaud said to two of the members
of the court-martial, who had not been present on the steps when the
conversation took place, "that this young Arab saved him from murder at
the hands of some of the rabble, by killing the man who was about to
slay him, and that he did this in return for a service this young
Italian had rendered him in succouring him when attacked, some time
before, by two robbers. As he is but a lad, and of course acted under
his father's orders, I think we may make him an exception to the rule.
You can go free, young sir, but let the narrow escape that you have had
be a lesson to you not to venture to mi