one; we can keep the flames to one room if we work
hard," I said. A sailor stood by the door wiping the stained blade of
his broadaxe, and I called on him to aid us.

A fresh company of sailors passed on the double, rifles trailing,
their officer shouting encouragement, And as we came in view of the
semaphore, I saw the signal tower on fire from base to top.

The gray moorland was all flickering with flashes where the bulk of
the insurgent infantry began firing in retreat; the marines' fusillade
broke out from Paradise village; rifle after rifle cracked along the
river-bank. Suddenly the deep report of a cannon came echoing landward
from the sea; a shell, with lighted fuse trailing sparks, flew over us
with a rushing whistle and exploded on the moors.

All this I saw from the house where I stood with Speed and a sailor,
buried in smoke, chopping out blazing woodwork, tearing the burning
curtains from the windows. The marines fired steadily from the windows
above us.

"They want the Red Terror!" laughed the sailors. "They shall have
it!"

"Hunt them out! Hunt them out!" cried an officer, briskly. "Fire!"
rang out a voice, and the volley broke crashing, followed by the
clear, penetrating boatswain's whistle sounding the assault.

Blackened, scorched, almost suffocated, I staggered back to the
tea-room, where the Countess stood clasping Jacqueline, huddled in a
blanket, and smoothing the child's wet curls away from a face as white
as death.

Together we carried her back through the smoking hallway, up the
stairs to my bedroom, and laid her in the bed.

The child opened her eyes as we drew the blankets.

"Where is Speed?" she asked, dreamily.

A moment later he came in, and she turned her head languidly and
smiled.

"Jacqueline! Jacqueline!" he whispered, bending close above her.

"Do you love me, Speed?"

"Ah, Jacqueline," he stammered, "more than you can understand."

Suddenly a step sounded on the stairs, a rifle-stock grounded,
clanging, and a sonorous voice rang out:

"Salute, O my brother of the toug! The enemies of France are dead!"

And in the silence around him Salah Ben-Ahmed the Marabout recited the
fatha, bearing witness to the eternal unity of God.

* * * * *

Late that night the light cavalry from Lorient rode into Paradise. At
dawn the colonel, established in the mayory, from whence its foolish
occupant had fled, sent for Speed and me, and when