When Valmond Came to Pontiac, Complete

his position in the parish, and his former military experience, was made a captain, and the others sergeants of companies yet unnamed and unformed. The limeburner was a dry

id look; his hair was crisp and straight, shooting out at all points, and it flew to meet his cap as if it were alive. He was a genius after a fashion, too, and at all the feasts and on national holidays he in

ded, quoting a well-known song. Then he hummed a little and coughed. "We must have a show"-he hummed again-"we must tickle 'em up a bit-touch 'em where they're silly

n ingenious coup for Valmond, when his Kalathumpians should pa

asped the new

m the war

ons

we ride b

spared

onne l

gh our sc

ronne

the latch

ronne

n Valmond an immediate liking, as keen, after its kind, as that he had for the Cure; and the avocat. With both of these he had had long talks of late, on everything but purely personal matters. They would have thoug

eunesse. Those who recognised him in passing took off their bonnets rouges, some saying, "Good-night, your Highness;" some, "How are you, monseigneur?" some, "God bless you

fiercely, her quick eyes wandering to and fro, and her sharp tongue, like Parpon's, clearing a path before her whichever way she turned. On her arm she carried a little basket of cakes and confitures, and these she dreamed she sold, for they were few who bought of Crazy Joan. The

s the homeless body, whose history even to him was obscure, save in the

ed from the village, and vanished no one knew where, though it had been declared by a wandering hunter that she had been seen in the far-of

o Pontiac, a half-mad creature, and took up the thread of her life alone;

red light of the forge showed through the smithy window. As he neared the door, he heard a v

see where the r

my heart,

mist in the tr

my heart,

r, see far do

ight from my

my heart,

r, hear how th

my heart,

ler heard, ah,

my heart,

r, loud do th

waits by the

my heart,

see you thy tru

my heart,

s joy in the tr

my heart,

ride through th

love by the

my heart,

ting softly on the anvil, and the

nd then softly opened the upper half of the door, for it

the red-hot point of the steel. The sound of the iron hammer on the malleable metal was like muffled silver, and the sparks flew out like jocund fireflies. She was making two hooks for her kitchen wall, for she was clever at the forge, and could shoe a horse if she were let to do so. She was

Paris; had roused in her wild, ambitious hopes of fame and fortune-dreams that, in any case, could be little like the real thing: fanciful visions of conquest and golden living, where never

kept in mind everything he had said to her; the playfully emotional pressure of her hand, his eloquent talks with her uncle, the old sergeant's rhapsodies on his greatness; and there was no place in the room where he had sat or stood, which she had not made sacred-she, the mad cap, who had lovers by the dozen. Importuned by the Cure and her mother to marry, she had threatened, if they worried her further, to wed fat Duclo

lmond watching them from the door. He took off his hat to them, a

a quick motion she pushed her hair back, and as he stepped inside and closed the door behind him, she blew the bellows, as if to give a brighter light to the place. The fire flared up, but th

it with the red steel from the fire, when Elise, snatching up a tiny piece of wood,

our Excell

untarily closed on them, all her impulsive temperament and warm life thrilling through him. The shock of feeling brought his eyes to hers with a sudden burning mastery

w feet away; something with shaggy head, flaring eyes, and a devilish face. The thing raised itself and sprang towards hers with a devouring cry. With desperate swiftness lea

ained for a wild minute, Valmond desperately fighting to keep the huge bony fingers from his neck. Suddenly the giant's knee touched the red-hot steel that Madelinette had dropped, and with

nd the great creature fell with a gurgling sound, and lay like a parcel of loose bones across his knees. Valmond raised himself, a strange, dull wonder on him, for as the weapon smote this lifeless creature, he had seen another hurl by and strike the opposite wall. A moment afterwards

e one being in the world for her, the face which

m Valmond. For a moment he knelt gasping beside the shapeless b

two girls nestled in each other's arms, and Va

Parpon, rocking back and forth beside the

led him," he

wered Valmond. "Some

ere two

hudder. "No, not Elise; it was you," sa

said Valmond. "It

o Valmond. "He was-my brother! Do you not see?" he demanded fiercely, his

, Parpon. It was I, comrade. You saved my life," he added significantly. "The gi

ust be

illed him. Leave it to me-a

ard the story as the dwarf told it, and Valmond returned to the Louis Quinz

his voice, he began to sing softly a lament for the gross-

the house

behind the

till is the

o face in

o fire in

ather besi

Folk of the

the wild do

the swift

and that found

garret of wh

voice that aw

t defied the t

isten besi

olk of the Sc

nk, so immediate and searching was it. When the lamen

her, Parpon-how?

es looked into

illa. We burrowed in the hills, Gabriel and I. One day my mother, because my father struck her, went mad, left us and came to-" He broke off, pausing an instant. "Then Gabriel struck the man, and he died, and we buried him, and my brother also left me, and I was alone. By and by I travelled to P

aid Valmond-"I, P

ild dog!" wailed th

mond suddenly, "whe

. She has forgot

, for a sudden thought had come to him that the m

t see him. Ah, you know! You have guesse

know," repeated the dwarf, his eyes

not reme

but she would remember the dead.

it, and, without a word, trotted from