Rejtő, Jenő: The three musketeers in Africa; Q 19045

/ Till? THREE MUSKETEERS IN AFRICA /Beginning of Chapter One, translated/ Assembled at the table were representatives of four nations: an American infantryman, a French lance corporal, a British machine-gunner» and a Russian meat salad. The infantryman, the LC, and the MG man sat on a bench; the meat salad, heaped on a dish, sat on the table. Time

: 7 pm. Place: Africa. Rakhmar, an oasis in a remote, tucked-away corner of the Sahara, that is peopled by a garrison of consigned-to-oblivion legionnaires and a handful of miserable Arabs managing to scrape a living of sorts. Persons: Impersonal. Action: Nil. The most striking characteristic of Oasis Rakhmar is the fact that it is the least striking oasis in Africa, one that is not characteristic in the slightest degree . Its hub is a military camp surrounded by an adobe wall that in the technical jargon is referred to, without any foundation, out of sheer habit, as a "fort"... The fort is ringed by some fifty palm-trees, tall, dusty, parched and half-dead, in whose tops a few heart-sick apes are hanging about... The centre of things in Oasis Rakhmar is the robber named Brigeron who, after serving a full ten-year prison sentence, settled there, and from the outcome of his diligent labours Grand Hotel. Unlike European establishments of the same name, Grand Hotel Rakhmar is a seedy small shed. Its proprietor is a one-eyed