light, even complimenting the Sergeant on the upkeep of the post and
the instruction of the men. To me he was charming.

"We are of the same class, aren't we?" he said to me. "I don't have
to ask you to dispense with formalities, it is your right."

Vain marks of confidence, alas! False witnesses to a freedom of
spirit, one in face of the other. What more accessible in appearance
than the immense Sahara, open to all those who are willing to be
engulfed by it? Yet what is more secret? After six months of
companionship, of communion of life such as only a Post in the South
offers, I ask myself if the most extraordinary of my adventures is not
to be leaving to-morrow, toward unsounded solitudes, with a man whose
real thoughts are as unknown to me as these same solitudes, for which
he has succeeded in making me long.

The first surprise which was given me by this singular companion was
occasioned by the baggage that followed him.

On his inopportune arrival, alone, from Wargla, he had trusted to the
Mehari he rode only what can be carried without harm by such a
delicate beast,--his arms, sabre and revolver, a heavy carbine, and a
very reduced pack. The rest did not arrive till fifteen days later,
with the convoy which supplied the post.

Three cases of respectable dimensions were carried one after another
to the Captain's room, and the grimaces of the porters said enough as
to their weight.

I discreetly left Saint-Avit to his unpacking and began opening the