areas was extremely vague, but at last, after months of consultation,
intrigue, and vigils in the sun outside the offices of the Arab Bureau,
it was established that on the one hand the lion was, when killed, on
military ground, but on the other hand that Tartarin when he fired the
fatal shot was in civilian territory. The affair was therefore a civil
matter, and Tartarin was freed on the payment of an indemnity of two
thousand five hundred francs, not including costs.

How was this to be paid? The little money left after the prince's
defection had long since gone on legal documents and judicial absinthe.
The unfortunate lion killer was now reduced to selling off his armament
rifle by rifle. He sold the daggers, the knives and coshes. A grocer
bought the preserved food, a chemist what was left of the medicine
chest. Even the boots went, with the bivouac tent, into the hands of
a merchant of bric-a-brac. Once everything had been paid, Tartarin
was left with little but the lion-skin and the camel. The lion-skin he
packed up carefully and despatched to Tarascon, to the address of the
brave Commandant Bravida. As for the camel, he counted on it to get him
back to Algiers: not by riding it, but by selling it to raise the fare
for the stage-coach, which was at least better than camel-back. Sadly
the camel proved a difficult market, and no one offered to buy it at any
price.

Tartarin was determined to get back to Algiers, even if it meant
walking. He longed to see once more Baia's blue corslet, his house, his
fountain and to rest on the white tiles of his his little cloister while
he awaited money to be sent from France. In these circumstances
the camel did not desert him. This strange animal had developed an
inexplicable affection for its master, and seeing him set out from
Orleansville it followed him faithfully, regulating its pace to his and