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gion, roared forth the chorus) of the Legion so.ng, the song the Legion sings on its way to fight. Ahead of them in the misty distance was a black line of hills-a good twenty- fiv-e miles off. But what is twenty- five miles to the Legion? Are they called the "cavalerie au pied"?
The merciless sun blazed down hour after hour a.s the column marched. Sometimes the expanse of sand was smooth and level like tne surface of a placid lake; sometimes the column wound up and down huge
billows of sand, drifted like the wav- es of a frozen ocean; but always the sun glared down and the white sanJs threw back the intolerable heat.
Shortly after noon the column halted in the scanty shade afforded by some black rocks. Here they rest- ed while the sun was at its worst. The time was all too short, however, and again the legionaires plodded over the baked rocks and scorchin6 sands. The hills were no longer dim but had taken a sharper outline. The landscape al'so changed. Here and there a scanty shrub, or a struggling tuft of wilted grass, drooped in the dizzy heat. A few date-palms were to be seen in the distance. 1. ·
still beat down. No longer were the men singing. Talking had long since ceased. The black rocks of the moun- tains drew nearer. Presently the blazing sun dropped behind the cast- led peaks and they threw long shad- ows over the burning ground. The order to halt rang out and the weary men threw themselv-es on the ground too tired to even eat.
*****
That short, yet most beautiful of
Nature's spectacles, the Sahara sun· set, had vanished leaving. in its place darkness. The Legion watch-fires glowed and the shadows of weary sentinels passed to and fro in the flickering gloom. In the heavens the stars shone as only they can shine in the desert. The mountains to the rear formed mystic shapes in the weird Sahara night. The silence of the darkness was only broken by the thud of the sentries' feet or the rav-
ings of a heat-stricken soldier. *****
The gray streaks of the dawn were breaking into the inky blackness when a wild shout arose from the
dark: rock\s above', '' U-u-uJl-a-a-llah !" Down from/ the heights swept a thundering horde of Tuareg horse- men. From every black rock came jabs of red from long, lean barrels held in long, lean fingers.
The Legion was taken unawarea. In anY! other body panic would have ensued. Not the Legion, however, for making use of every available bit of cover-even the bodies of fallen comrades-they returned the fire of the enemy: and the wild rush of the Tuareg was stopped. Again and again the fanatic desert tribesmen came at the camp ·only to be thrown back -decimated. The Tuareg could not stand this forever. Already the rushes were weakening. The desert horsemen falter·ed and hesitated. Their last charge had cost them their leader, Ibrahim, the Strong. As they seemed undetermined what course to follow, a wild figure forced its way to their front ranks. In his hand with the butt resting on his stirrup, was a pole from which streamed a huge green banner-the banner of Islam.
"Show me the infidels", he scream- ed. "Whither are the enemy? Who will .say that Yakoub is weak? Who will say that he should go to his women? Who, I ask, will say he is a white-livered coward?" Waving his sword in his right hand he shouted, "Follow me, Tuaregs, the Forgotten of Allah. Today we shall drink with the houris in Paradise. U-u-ull- AllLah !"
The green banner flashed in the wind as he tore at the French. The tirst rays of the rising sun caught its streaking folds like a ~1uge spot- light. The Legion poure(l volley after volley into th~ careening horseman hut still he came on. Th~ tribesmen, awaking from their !:t•.,;t surprise, thundered down again, their Pyes fo- cussed on the green banner. 'The rem- nant of white men seemed doomed.