drawing himself up into a
standing position, he shouted:

"Monsieur Fandor ... I am a traitor!"

Though far from expecting so brutal a declaration, Fandor sat tight.
He well knew that in such circumstances comments are useless. He rose
slowly, approached the soldier, and, placing his hands on the agitated
man's shoulders, pushed him back into the arm-chair.

"Control yourself, Monsieur, I beg of you," he said in a kind voice.
"You must not upset yourself like this! Be calm!"

Great tears flowed down the corporal's sunburnt cheeks, and Fandor
considered him, not knowing how to console so great, so spontaneous a
grief.

Amidst his despair, Corporal Vinson stammered out:

"Yes, Monsieur, it's because of a woman--you will understand--you who
write articles in which you say that there should be pity for such
unfortunates as I am--for one is a miserable wretch when a woman has
you in her clutches, and you have no money--and then, with that sort,
once you have started getting mixed up in their affairs, you are jolly
well caught--you have to do as you are told--and always they ask more
and more of you.... Ah, Monsieur, the death of Captain Brocq is a
frightful disaster! As for me.... If I have turned traitor--it is
their fault."...

The corporal murmured some unintelligible words, pronouncing names
unknown to Fandor; but our journalist was rejoicing more and more at
this outpouring.

Suddenly he got the impression that the mysterious happenings, the
obscure drama he had been on the fringe of for some days past was
becoming clear, that the veil of ignorance was being torn away. Fandor
had the sensation of being a spectator, before whose eyes a curtain
was slowly rising which until then had concealed the scenery of the
play.

The corporal continued, stammeringly:

"Ah, Monsieur, you do not know what it is to have for your mistress
such a woman as ... she whom I love, ... such a woman as ... Nichoune!
Nichoune! Ah, all Chalons knows what she is like. Her wickedness is
well known ... but for all that, there is not a man who."...

Fandor interrupted:

"But, my good corporal, why are you telling me all this?"

"Why, Monsieur," replied Vinson, after a pause and a piteous look,
"because--it's because ... I have sworn to tell you everything before
I die!"

"Hang it all! What do you mean to do?" asked Fandor.

The corporal replied simply, but his tone was decisive:

"I mean to kill myself!"

From this moment it w