His adventures during that journey of eighty miles or less would fill
a brilliant chapter of fiction. He was stopped and spoken to by a
police patrol and escaped suspicion of being a deserter by assuming
the role of a deaf mute. He joined a band of wandering Arabs and,
suspecting their good intentions, escaped from them. This little
escape within an escape caused him more trouble than any other
incident of the journey. Lastly, by means of a bribe of two francs,
he managed to enter Oran in a cart laden with esparto grass and drawn
by two mules, thus avoiding the attentions of the gentlemen at the
gate of the town.
There was a rat in the cart as well, and the maddening fumes of it
surged through Choc's brain, but he did not lose his reason or his
self-command and held his place, crouching beside his master, though
shivering in every muscle and thrilling in every nerve.
The driver managed to unload his passengers in a back yard
unobserved, and Jacques, with Choc at his heels, found himself in the
streets of Oran with nothing but the sea between himself and freedom.
He had little fear of detection in these bustling streets where every
imaginable sort of business seemed going forward to the clatter of
every European tongue.
Tall, white-clad Arabs stalked along and bare-legged Arab women with
faces veiled; negro porters with glistening skins and red fez caps,
Spaniards, Portuguese, Frenchmen, Italians, Spahis back from Senegal,
sailors up from the warships in the harbour and English travellers
just arrived, formed the crowd through which Jacques made his way
with Choc at his heels and not the faintest notion in his head as to
what course he was going to pursue.
The obvious course was the mail boat that runs between Oran and
Marseilles, but there were difficulties in the way. The boats were
sure to be watched for deserters. Mail boats and railway trains were
simply roads to arrest. He had known and heard of numerous cases of
escaped men caught either at the Oran railway station or on board the
_General Chanzy_, or one of the other boats of the Algerian line.
He had an idea in his head of boarding some small trading vessel and
either stowing himself away or making friends with the captain, and
he was taking his way towards the harbour with a view to this when at
a street corner he ran into the arms of Casmir. It was Casmir who
recognized him and not he Casmir. For Casmir had dyed his face with
walnut juice, and the suit of grey jean that he wore being too large
for him, he had stuffed himself out at the waist with old newspapers,
giving himself a corporation that was the very best disguise in the
world. He looked like a disreputable old Spaniard.
"_Mon Dieu!_" said Jacques. "Casmir!"
Then he burst into a laugh. Only such a short time ago he had been
warning Casmir on the parade ground of the Legion against running
away!
They walked along the street together and Casmir explained matters.
He had run away, it seemed, on the same night that Jacques had made
his evasion, had boldly taken the train for Oran, and with the good
luck that comes with daring had found the matter perfectly easy.
"I was never stopped or questioned once," said he. "But here it is
different. I cannot get across. It seems that they are watching the
boats. I went down to the steamboat quay yesterday and there was an
official at the gangway of the boat for Marseilles. He was demanding
the papers of all the passengers--the men. To leave this place one
must be either a fish or a sea bird, it seems, and I am neither."
"Come into this café and let us talk," said Jacques.
They entered a shabby café that was close by and Jacques called for
coffee and food for them both.
"How much money have you?" said he.
"A hundred francs," replied Casmir. "I had a hundred and twenty to
start with. I had received a money order from a relation for two
hundred francs the morning I was talking to you. It cost me eighty
francs to get this rig-out. It was that money order that fixed me in
my idea of bolting, and I am beginning to wish now that I had never
received it."
"Courage," said Jacques.
He said nothing for a few minutes and then he began to disclose his
plan. There were ships always leaving Oran for the French and
Spanish ports. Ship captains of the lesser mercantile marine were
venal folk, for eighty francs, say, the pair of them might be able to
get a passage on some barque, a place in the hold on top of the cargo
would do.
"Ah," said Casmir, brightening up. "Now you are talking. If any man
can do the trick you can, you have the gift of the gab and a way with
you that I have not."
"Well, then," said Jacques, "let's go down to the wharves now,
straight away, and try and fix up the business."
But Casmir demurred.
"There is no use in our going about the streets together," said he,
"for if one is caught the other will be nabbed too. I'll meet you
here in an hour if you will go and try and do the business. The café
won't run away and you may be very sure that I won't either."
Jacques saw at once the reason of this and off he started, leaving
Choc with Casmir.
Choc was fond of Casmir, who had often fed him with scraps; all the
same, Jacques borrowed a piece of string from the dingy waiter and
tied the end of it round the dog's neck.
"That will give you something to hold him by," said he, "in case he's
up to any of his tricks."
Then he paid the bill and started off, leaving Casmir seated and
holding the dog by the string.
There are two harbours at Oran. An outer anchorage not very good in
rough weather, unless the wind is off the land, and a small inner
harbour, a little hole of a place, always full because of its small
size.
Jacques came along the quay-side, walking in a leisurely manner and
smoking a cigarette. Beside the warships in the harbour there were
two small barque-rigged vessels, one discharging grain, the other
with closed hatches and evidently a full cargo.
Jacques was walking towards the gangplank of the latter when a hand
fell on his arm and, turning, he found himself face to face with
Sergeant Pelletier of the military police of Sidi-bel-Abbès.
"_That's_ all right," said the sergeant, releasing Jacques' arm, and
placing his hand on his shoulder in a fatherly way. "And you may be
thankful your uniform was returned. Whoever sold you that rig-out
sent it back, left it at the barrack gates done up in a parcel. _Mon
Dieu_! Jacques, but I would never have thought it of you, to play a
fool's game like this! A smart légionnaire like you, time nearly
expired and all. What made you?"
Jacques laughed.
The game had gone against him and there was no use in grumbling.
His mind was engaged less on the business of arrest than on the
problem of what he should do about Casmir and Choc.
To regain possession of Choc he would have to give Casmir away, and
Choc was condemned to death, so there was no use in regaining
possession of him. So he did nothing.
He lit another cigarette and, walking side by side with Pelletier, he
went to the station, and twenty minutes later he was in the train
returning to Sidi-bel-Abbès.
At the barracks he was placed promptly under arrest, and he marched
off to his cell with that terrible lightheartedness which is a legacy
of the Legion inherited from Crime.
As no single item of his uniform was lost he only received a month's
imprisonment, and at the end of the month the Legion was marched off
south where the Arabs were kicking up a dust, and hard fighting
helped him to work off the stiffness caused by imprisonment.
He seemed to have forgotten Casmir, who had not been recaptured, and
the dog, which was never heard of again, yet in the great battle that
was fought that month near the Oasis of the Five Palms, an old
légionnaire--the same who told me this story--fighting beside
Jacques, was amazed, even in the heat of battle, at the fury of the
latter.
"He was working off the dog," said the old fellow. "It is always so
with the Legion, and that is what makes the Legion so terrible in
battle--They are not so much fighting with the enemy, monsieur, they
are bayoneting the Past, and what the Past has done to them."