rats of an accursed monarchy and a thrice-accursed
empire!"

A roaring cheer burst from the excited soldiers, drowning the voice of
Buckhurst.

"Silence!" shouted Mornac, savagely. And as the angry voices were
stilled, one by one, above the banging of rifle-stocks and the rattle
of bayonets, Buckhurst's calm voice rose in a sinister monotone.

"I accuse the woman Sylvia Elven of communication with Prussian
agents; of attempted corruption of soldiers under my command. I accuse
the citoyenne Eline Trecourt, lately known as the Countess de Vassart,
of aiding, encouraging, and abetting these enemies of France!"

He waited until the short, fierce yell of approval had died away.
Then:

"Call the soldier Rolland!" he said.

My heart began to hammer in my throat. "I believe it's going hard
with us," I muttered to Speed.

"Listen," he motioned.

I listened to the wretched creature Rolland while he told what had
happened at the semaphore. In his eagerness he pushed close to where I
stood, menacing me with every gesture, cursing and lashing himself
into a rage, ignoring all pretence of respect and discipline for his
own superiors.

"What are you waiting for?" he shouted, insolently, turning on
Buckhurst. "I tell the truth; and if this man can afford to pay
hundreds of francs for a telegram, he must be rich enough to pluck, I
tell you!"

"You say he bribed you?" asked Buckhurst, gently.

"Yes; I've said it twenty times, haven't I?"

"And you took the bribes?"

"Parbleu!"

"And you thought if you admitted it and denounced the man who bribed
you that you would help divide a few millions with us, you rogue?"
suggested Buckhurst, admiringly.

The wretch laughed outright.

"And you believe that you deserve well of the commune?" smiled
Buckhurst.

The soldier grinned and opened his mouth to answer, and Buckhurst shot
him through the face; and, as he fell, shot him again, standing
wreathed in the smoke of his own weapon.

The deafening racket of the revolver, the smoke, the spectacle of the
dusty, inert thing on the floor over which Buckhurst stood and shot,
seemed to stun us all.

"I think," said Buckhurst, in a pleasantly persuasive voice, "that
there will be no more bribery in this battalion." He deliberately
opened the smoking weapon; the spent shells dropped one by one from
the cylinder, clinking on the stone floor.

"No--no more bribery," he mused, touching the dead man with the
carefully polished toe o