CHAPTER V

THE FORT AT ZINDERNEUF “They learn that they are not as others are, Till some go mad, and some sink prone to earth, And some push stumbling on without a star.” Things began badly and rapidly grew worse in this ill-omened mud fort, isolated in the illimitable desert like a tiny island in the midst of a vast ocean. _Cafard_ broke out early, and in a very virulent form, both suicidal and homicidal in its nature. It took this terrible form, I verily believe, largely by reason of th…