Volume I Part 69 (1/2)

”At Uargla”

”Where are the Christian prisoners? Have my commands been obeyed?”

”Yes, master, not a hair of their heads has been touched; but the believers gru them mercy and demanded their deaths, especially in the case of one, a French captain”

”What does a nify--the drops of blood are lost in the sands, and their trails lost forever Go tell the brothers that before the moon has reached its twentieth course, I shall be in their midst, and blood will flow in streams! Go!”

With an imperious wave of the hand Maldar pointed toward the horizon, and the Mekkadem prostrated himself anew

”Yes,” said Maldar to hione, ”they shall all die, and the strea out of which Allah's warriors shall drink courage”

CHAPTER LI

UARGLA

Lost in the ila, the queen of the oases, was, up to thirty years ago, little known On the day Maldar had conversed with the saint a dense la, and loud voices arose in the air A horriblehiue the crowd

”You think you are acting wisely,” he cried, ”and yet you are only fools In the prisons of Kiobeh you keep the ene over theyour wives and children Arise, believers of Islaes

For more than six months prisoners had been kept in the fortress, and in spite of all the protestations of the inhabitants, their lives had been spared It was tiht, to kill them and expose their heads to the birds of prey The ht, they said, and the crowd dehted at the effect of his words, and uttering a cry he sprang from his perch and disappeared in the crowd He knew the excited fanatics would follow hi on he pictured to hionies the victilory of Allah In their blind hatred of the Christians, the Aratins, whose deep black color is not found in any other tribe, allied themselves with the Arabs, the Soudanese with the Mozauns and daggers, the savages marched toward the Kiobeh Woe to the unfortunates who fell victims to such blind fanaticis away in the Kiobeh!

CHAPTER LII

CAPTAIN JOLIETTE

Twenty feet under the Kiobeh were the cells hewn out of the rock In one of the darkest of these dungeons lay a young s covered the emaciated form of the man, and only fro could it be seen that he wore the uniform of a French soldier Fro, and a scabbard without any sword in it was tied around his waist

A dark form appeared in the doorway, shoved so a word

Ten years before the prisoner was the bearer of a proud na, rich and courted, Albert de Morcerf was the lion of the Parisian salons and the joy of his parents One day a crash ca from a clear sky, and destroyed his whole existence His father was denounced in the Chamber of Peers as a traitor and an assassin Count de Morcerf could not defend hied as the truth

The Countess of Morcerf buried herself at Marseilles under the naeria or Chasseurs d'Afrique In three years Albert Joliette had become a captain As he lay now in his cell the past rose before hie to the Count of Monte-Cristo, and his subsequent apology when he had heard Mercedes' story That day on co home he discovered his father dead with a bullet in his brain, inflicted by his own hand

But now the past had been atoned for The bravery of the son expiated the old father's crimes When Albert returned home, Mercedes enjoyed new life at his side But alas! The proud hopes soon vanished All news from Albert ceased, and at the end of three months Mercedes, in despair, had written to the Count of Monte-Cristo

Three months before Albert had been captured by the rebels, and incarcerated in the dungeon in which he still was Not a human voice was ever heard The black slave who served him with coffee could not be induced to say a word to him Mercedes had told him the story of the Count of Monte-Cristo; he knew that Edmond Dantes had spent fourteen years in the Chateau d'If, and treht of it Yet if he were only able to escape! But Albert soon became convinced that this was iloomy walls He then made up his mind to starve hi, so that he was astonished at finding himself still alive When the slave withdrew on this particular day, Albert felt his head turn and he ive me, but I cannot do otherwise”

At this moment a loud noise was heard, and the assassins led by the eon