to tear the veil from every woman in the place; and
then I was sent away from Beni-Mora."

"By whom?"

"The French authorities, my own countrymen," he laughed bitterly. "To
save me from getting myself murdered, m'sieu."

"You would have been."

"Why not? Then I came here to keep the inn for the diligence that
carries the mails to the south, for I wouldn't leave the country
till----"

He paused.

"And the sand-diviner?"

"I left him at Beni-Mora. He smiled, and said he knew no more than I;
and perhaps he didn't. How was I to tell?"

"But your name of Fin Tireur?"

"Ah!"--the thing in his eyes glowed like a thing red-hot--"I'd been here
eleven months when, one afternoon of summer, just near sunset, I heard
a noise of drums beating and African pipes screaming, and the snarl of
camels on the road you came to-night. I was in the house, in this room
where we are sitting now, and little Marie was playing just outside by
the well, so that I could see her through the window. By the sounds, I
knew a great caravan was coming up, and passing towards the south. They
always water at the well, and I stood by the window to see them. Little
Marie stood too, shading her eyes with her bit of a hand. The drums and
pipes got louder, and round the corner of the inn came as big a caravan
as I've ever seen; near a hundred camels, horsemen, and led mules and
donkeys, Kabyle dogs and goats, the music playing all the time, and a
Caid's flag flying in the front. They made for the well, as I knew they
would, and little Marie stood all the while watching them. M'sieu, there
were square packs on some of the camels, and veiled women on the packs."

He looked across at me hard.

"Veiled women?" I repeated.

"When they got to the well they made the camels kneel for the women to
get down; and one of the women, when she was down, caught sight of Marie
standing there, with her little hand shading her eyes. That woman gave a
great cry behind her veil. I heard it, m'sieu, as I stood by the window
there, and I saw the woman run at the little one."

He got up from his seat slowly, and stood by the wooden shutter, against
which the sand was driven by the wind.

"In a place like this, m'sieu, one keeps a revolver here."

He put his hand to a pocket at the back of his breeches, brought out a
revolver, and pointed it at the shutter.

"When I heard the woman cry I took my revolver out. When I saw the woman
run I fired, and the bullet struck th