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This was absurd. A man does not resign from his regiment and within
a year or two disappear like a ghost from the ken of every one of
his brother officers. I read the letter again. Did the severance of
connection mean the casting out of a black sheep from their midst?
I came to the conclusion that it did. They had washed their hands of
Captain Vauvenarde, and desired to hear nothing of him in the future.
So I awoke from my lethargy, and springing up sent not for my shield and
spear, but for an "Indicateur des Chemins de Fer." I would go to Tlemcen
and get to the bottom of it. I searched the time-table and found two
trains, one starting from Algiers at nine-forty at night and getting
into Tlemcen at noon next day, and one leaving at six-fifty in the
morning and arriving at half-past ten at night. I groaned aloud. The
dealing unto oneself a happy life and portion did not include abominable
train journeys like these. I was trying to decide whether I should
travel all night or all day when the Arab chasseur of the hotel brought
me a telegram.


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