Pelletan handed the bag to Jacques. It was his last act. As though the gold coins had been his last drops of blood he fell back on the pillows and in five minutes he was no longer a soldier of the Legion. Jacques gave the orderly a louis and marched off with the little bag in his pocket. He was rich enough now to attempt his escape again from Algeria and to have a fair sum left over with which to begin life in some foreign country, but he was not thinking of escape. He was thinking of Mimi Tricot. Mimi was always bewailing the fact that she had not enough money to start in a bigger business. "Even a few hundred francs," she had said, "would help to get credit with and with credit one can get anything--but what can one do with customers like you légionnaires?" This speech was in his memory as he went back to barracks, and all through the afternoon drill he was thinking of Mimi. He was greatly torn in his mind, the gold pulling one way and Mimi the other. The gold meant a lot to him. Twenty-nine pieces of gold, an unthinkable treasure, hauled upon the rope at the other end of which pulled Mimi. He made two mistakes at drill that day and got reprimanded for the first time since wearing the insignia of corporal. The gold was already beginning to bring him into trouble, but he did not think of this, or take warning. At six o'clock, when the work of the day was over and the Légionnaires starting off to the town, Jacques left the barracks. He took his way with the others till he reached the Place Sadi Carnot, where the band of the Legion was already occupying the bandstand, around which the townsfolk and visitors were collecting. It was a superb evening, the warm wind blowing from the Thessala Mountains and a great moon rising in the east against the setting sun. Jacques, his pocket bulging with gold, turned from the Place into a narrow lane. It was the Ghetto of Sidi-bel-Abbès. Sidi-bel-Abbès has its Spanish quarter, its negro quarter--outside the gates--its Arab quarter and its Jewish quarter. It was through the latter that Jacques took his way till he reached Mustapha Street and the café of the charmer. A half tipsy Spahi was talking to her across the little counter and Jacques took a seat and called for a cup of coffee. He noted with approval how well she kept the Spahi at a distance and at the same time as a customer. Then, the Spahi having taken his departure, he rose, came to the counter and plunged into the business on hand. There was no time to waste as more customers might arrive at any moment. "Mimi," said Jacques, "you've always been saying how well you could get on but for the want of a few francs. Well, here's something. Open it and see." He placed the little bag on the counter. Mimi opened it and shook out the coins. There were twenty-five louis in the bag. He had kept back four for himself, which, with the one he had given to the hospital orderly, made up the six hundred francs of Pelletan's gift.