2/17 I did a bit of bombing, too, in the campaign against Sheik Abd el Rahman, in 1913." "Yes, so I have heard. You almost lost your life, that time ?" "Only by the thickness of a _semmah_ seed did I preserve it," answered the Frenchman. "My mechanician, Lebon, and I--we fell among them on account of engine trouble, near the oasis of Adrar, not far from here. We stood them off for seven hours, before they rushed us. They captured us only because our last cartridges were gone." "You did not save the mercy-bullet that time, eh ?" "I did not, _Effendi._ I did not know them then as I do now. |