e will deal with him in the morning."

The unfortunate Matteo remained dumb with fright; he looked appealingly
at me, and I, of course, could not do otherwise than explain matters.
Taking the Prosecutor on one side, I told him that Matteo was really
assisting the Prefect to capture the brigand; but as I told him all
about the matter, his face assumed a hard, judicial expression.

"I am sorry for the Prefecture," he said; "but I have Quastana's cousin,
and I won't let him go! He will be tried with some peasants, who are
accused of having supplied the brigand with provisions."

"But I repeat that this man is really in the service of the Prefecture,"
I protested.

"So much the worse for the Prefecture," said he with a laugh. "I am
going to give the Administration a lesson it won't forget, and teach it
not to meddle with what doesn't concern it. There is only one brigand in
Corsica, and you want to take him! He's my game, I tell you. The Prefect
knows that, yet he tries to forestall me! Now I will pay him out. Matteo
shall be tried; he will, of course, appeal to your side; there will be a
great to-do, and the brigand will be put on his guard against his cousin
and gentlemen of the Prefecture who go shooting."

Well, he kept his word. We had to appear on behalf of Matteo, and we had
a nice time of it in the court. I was the laughing-stock of the place.
Matteo was acquitted, but he could no longer be of use to us, because
Quastana was forewarned. He had to quit the country.

As to Quastana, he was never caught. He knew the country, and every
peasant was secretly ready to assist him; and although the soldiers and
gendarmes tried their best to take him, they could not manage it. When I
left the island he was still at liberty, and I have never heard anything
about his capture since.

[Illustration]

ZIG-ZAG AT THE ZOO

By

Arthur Morrison

AND

J. A. Shepherd

VIII.

ZIG ZAG PHOCINE

The seal is an affable fellow, though sloppy. He is friendly to man:
providing the journalist with copy, the diplomatist with lying practice,
and the punster with shocking opportunities. Ungrateful for these
benefits, however, or perhaps savage at them, man responds by knocking
the seal on the head and taking his skin: an injury which the seal
avenges by driving man into the Bankruptcy Court with bills for his
wife's jackets. The puns instigated by the seal are of a sort to make
one long for the animal's extermination. I