"It was I, my poor dear friend."

"You?"

"I, myself. I had hurt myself in a fall from my horse; but if I had known-"

"You would have left me my mule?"

"No; but I would have taken you up behind me." "To fall for the sixteenth time. I should not have arrived alive. Ah! no, I shall never be caught again." With this he rose from the table, and announced that he was going to bed.

"You know," said the Commandant, "that we start to-morrow?"

"Oh," cried M. de Chany, "surely you will give the doctor one day?"

"One day, then. So be it."

"And, besides, we have arranged a wild-boar hunt for to-morrow."

"All right. The wild-boars to-morrow; but we start the day after."

A good journey to you," said Quiès quietly.

"We shall pick you up on our way back in a fortnight."

"You can't.

With the exception of the fort, Boghar is uninhabitable. And the fort-but you must not think of such a thing."

"A cabin will do for me; a hole; anything you please. I will not stir from hence."

'As you please," said Henri and La Carriole, laughing. Did they believe in the doctor's resolution? Did they think it useless to endeavour to dissuade him? Or did they merely bear in mind that "the night brings counsel"? We cannot tell. At any rate they bade their host goodnight in merry mood, and went off together to make their preparations for the morrow.

CHAPTER XIV.

IN WHICH IT WILL BE MADE EVIDENT THAT DOCTOR J. B. QUIÈS WAS VERY WRONG TO HAVE PIGEONS STEWED WHICH OUGHT TO HAVE BEEN ROASTED.

THE numerous wild boars in the vast forest of O-Anteur and the smaller forests in its vicinity did not hesitate in those days, and probably do not hesitate in these, to make excursions so far as Boghar, and even as Boghari, at the entrance of the valley of the Chelif.

The tusked brutes had arranged many parties of pleasure of this kind during the year that witnessed the events now in progress of narration, and a great number of the inhabitants had helplessly looked on at the ravages committed by these unmannerly visitors upon their gardens. Hunting-parties had been organized in order to get rid of them, and in several places pits had been dug on the boundaries of the fields and gardens, and covered over with boughs. But, for ten wild boars caught in these primitive traps, twenty others had come out of the wood, and the plague was increasing. The approaching battue promised magnificent results, judging by the abundance of the

game.

Let us leave our sportsmen to their sport, and remain at Boghar with J. B. Quiès.

The Commandant had asked him, for politeness' sake, whether he was quite determined not to join the huntingparty. He had not, however, even waited for an answer, but galloped off with the parting words,—

"Mind you look after our dinner"

damp, like breath, passed over his face. He reopened his eyes, and found himself face to face, or rather nose to nose in the most literal sense, with an animal looking at him with big eyes full of amazement, and smelling him cautiously, while its big ears stood up in the air, expressing surprise as eloquently as its eyes.

It was a mule! A mule saddled and bridled; in other words, it was rescue, safety! In a second the Commandant stood upright, and put his foot in the stirrup. Yes-but the mule belonged to somebody. For the sake of his conscience, the Commandant called out two or three. times:

"Hallo! hallo! Anybody there?"

No answer.

"All right," said he to himself, "the mule belongs to some Arab marauder. He will not fail to come and ask for it, and then he shall have it."

Without any farther scruple he mounted the mule, and, taking the road to Boghar, reached that place two hours afterwards, utterly worn out. He took all the necessary measures for sending aid to his poor horse before he had his own bruise attended to; then, after he had undergone a good rubbing, he went to bed and to sleep, and awoke only to sit down to dinner with Henri and the Captain, who had come back well pleased with the result of their day's excursion. The Commandant was preparing to relate the particulars of his misadventure, when the door was suddenly thrown open.

"Ah! who's this?" "Impossible!"

"You!"

These three exclamations were uttered simultaneously. And not without reason, for it was Doctor Quiès who had entered the room. Yes, Doctor Quiès in person. But, good heavens, in what a state! Covered with dust and perspiration, as red as a peony, his eyes starting out of his head! He made an unavailing attempt to speak; he

could only throw himself into the arms of Henri and the Commandant. After that effort he closed his eyes, and let himself drop into a seat. No explanation was to be expected from him.

The Commandant had him carried to his own room, ard

It was Dr. Quiès who entered the room.

when he was convinced that the doctor was not dead, since he was snoring loudly enough to shake the windowpanes, he went downstairs again, and resumed his place at table, muttering:

"What the deuce can have induced Quiès to come here?"

CHAPTER XIII.

TREATS OF THE EVENTS WHICH LED TO DOCTOR J. B. QUIÈS' HAVING MADE AN ADDITIONAL JOURNEY OF ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHT KILOMETERS.

QUIES had not been induced to do anything of the sort. Chance, which was so inexorably against him, had once more played him a cruel trick. We think it well, in order to show (although the demonstration be accounted superfluous) of what small and insignificant details the great events of life are composed, to relate as briefly as possible the principal facts of that lamentable Odyssey.

When Commandant La Carriole and Henri were about to leave Algiers, they came to bid Quiès good-bye, and the former asked him whether he wanted anything.

"Nothing but rest," was the doctor's curt reply.

It had not occurred to him that, as he had left SaintPignon with one hundred francs in his purse, expended eighty-five francs seventy-five centîmes on the day of the christening, and not received a centîme since, he was now the possessor of precisely fourteen francs twenty-five centîmes. Reckoning his expenses at the minimum of ten francs a day, it was evident that his funds would not last long. Henri and the Commandant overlooked this little matter as completely as Quiès did. They did not expect to be more than a month away; the doctor had written to Saint-Pignon-the answer to his letter and the money would arrive together. They set off, therefore, without any prevision of the future embarrassment of their unfortunate friend.