Adventure in Sahara

Well, Jimmy, as you Yankees talk,

everything is okay.

We leave, as you Frenchmen say,

tout de suite.

You say that just like a Yankee.

-For you, Monsieur Wilson.

-Thanks.

l wonder who that could be from.

You Americans are funny fellows.

Why you don't look it and see?

That's not a bad idea.

Not good news, Jim?

Get somebody else to take up the ship.

Somebody else to take the ship?

What do you mean?

-l'm not making the trip, l'm leaving.

-But it cannot be!

-You must take off in 10 minutes.

-Well, maybe l must, but l'm not.

-Hello, Pierre. Where's Jim?

-l do not know.

We were standing here and talk.

He receive a telegram,

and he run off like the Mephisto.

And we are taking off in 10 minutes.

Maybe he's at the office.

Mademoiselle. Mademoiselle Preston,

you have seen Monsieur Wilson, yes?

-No.

-No?

-No, where is he?

-Mademoiselle, that l am asking you.

He was here.

He say he will not make the trip.

He is going away, but that cannot be.

The trip, she must be made.

-But what happened?

-l have just told you what happened.

-We're getting nowhere.

-We're getting nowhere.

The plane is getting nowhere!

-You are an American, no?

-Yes.

-You are sure you want to join the Legion?

-Yes.

You understand

that the Legion is no playground?

The life of a legionnaire is...

How shall l say, is not an easy one.

-Yes, l know.

-Very well, young man.

The secrtaire will help you fill out this card.

Now, look, Chief, or Captain

or whatever you are,

there's a certain outfit l'd like to join.

lt's commanded by a Captain Savarre,

or Savant, or some name like that.

-Savant, Savarre. Capitaine Savatt?

-Yes, that's the one.

-You know him?

-No.

No, l don't, but l'd like to.

lt's not so bad, this marching, young one?

We've been on the march for days.

Where are we going, Poule?

l don't know.

You know, Wilson? You, Ladoux?

How should l know?

Only Lieutenant Dumond knows.

-Maybe we're bait for a trap.

-l'm sure you're exaggerating, Ladoux.

When you've been in the Legion as long

as Poule, you don't worry where you go.

This is one part of the Sahara

even l don't recognize.

Now, Poule, don't tell me

that you can recognize sand.

lf l was ever here before,

l'd know every grain of it.

-Well, it's a nice, quiet desert. No Arabs.

-That's what l don't like about it.

lt's too quiet.

So far, we've not even met a camel patrol,

and there's only one stretch of desert

where there are no patrols.

Now it begins to dawn.

lf my calculations are correct,

we are headed for...

-Thanks.

-You shouldn't try to walk

with that blistered foot.

Maybe the Lieutenant would let you ride

on the supply wagon.

lt's not that bad.

The young one has pluck.

-Platoon, halt!

-Platoon, halt!

Dronov.

Platoon, double-time. March!

-Platoon, halt!

-Platoon, halt!

-Corporal, two men.

-Poule. Wilson.

Water. Water. Water.

More.

We could stand it no longer.

We had to desert.

There're two others, somewhere back there.

What happened?

We're fools to try to escape from Agadez.

As l thought.

We're assigned to Agadez,

the last outpost.

-The inferno of the Sahara.

-Silence, Poule.

''Suffer us not, at this late hour,

for any pains of death to fall from Thee.

''For as much as it hath pleased

Almighty God in his wise providence

''to take out of this world the souls

of our deceased brethren in arms,

''we therefore commit their bodies

to the ground.

''Earth to earth,

ashes to ashes, dust to dust.''

Come, come, young one, this is the Legion.

Be with us all forevermore. Amen.

ln the desert, we must erase the graves.

The enemy have peculiar ways

of showing their hatred, even upon the dead.

-l'm sorry, sir, l didn't know.

-You'll learn.

Corporal Dronov, we will dispense

with the hymn. We must be on our way.

-Shall l give the order, sir?

-lmmediately.

lf we stay here any longer,

there may be more graves to fill.

Platoon, route step, forward march.

Platoon, halt!

The Commandant requests you report

to his quarters at once, sir.

Very good, Corporal.

Assign my men to barracks.

Have them wash, change clothes

and prepare for inspection.

-Yes, sir.

-Corporal, take charge of the platoon.

-Yes, sir.

-Glad to see you, Corporal. Follow me.

Platoon, dismissed! Follow me.

Well, there can't be much sand left

in the desert.

l left half the Sahara in that bathtub myself.

-Bathtub? Horse trough, you mean.

-You Americans are spoiled.

That horse trough, as you call it,

made me pretty homesick.

You don't mean to tell me

you still use those in Paris?

No, not in Paris.

At our summer place in Fontainebleau.

Better get your clothes on.

lnspection pretty soon.

That bathtub, Wilson, you should have

seen it. Took up half my bedroom.

Why, it was so big l could swim in it,

when l was a kid.

Come in here. We've got a surprise for you.

-What you got for me, Monsieur Landreau?

-l have a big surprise for you.

Close your eyes, open your mouth.

l've got for you an American.

Sure now?

Well, l've been called worse things

in my life. l'm Jim Wilson.

Yankee talk.

lf that ain't a sound for sore ears.

Let me do that for you, Mr. Wilson.

l've got to do something for home folks.

Well, l better go and polish these boots

good or Captain Savatt will skin me alive.

Savatt, here? Savatt?

Attention!

-Why aren't you working?

-You see, sir, l...

Silence. Move your carcass out of here.

Polish those boots, report to me in an hour.

-Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

-So these are the reinforcements.

l asked for legionnaires, they send me

unweaned whelps and gibbering old men.

-What is this, only 16?

-We lost 1 2 on the march, sir.

You lost 1 2 before l had a chance

to make soldiers of them.

-Your name?

-James Wilson, sir.

-American? Have we ever met before?

-l don't think so, sir.

What is this mess?

Here, the first lesson is neatness.

-He is a new recruit, sir.

-No excuse.

He will learn to arrange his kit properly.

Fort Agadez is no place for a dreamer,

my puppy.

-But it is mine. You have no right...

-Attention!

One thing you must learn immediately.

We are under orders of war,

and at Fort Agadez, l am the law.

The puppy's name?

-Malreaux, sir.

-Malreaux.

Punishment for insubordination

is two weeks solitary confinement.

Sentence to begin at sunset.

You will have time to dream, my friend,

on bread and water,

and you will learn to obey

without complaint.

Perhaps this lesson has been worthwhile

to impress upon you

that this is no playground.

We are at war.

ln the desert, bands are massing for attack.

At any moment, we may be fighting

desperately for our lives.

l understand

you ran into a few ambitious idiots

that tried to escape from this outpost.

You saw what happened to them.

Don't forget it.

Make up your minds to one thing.

lf you go to fight,

you go into action as Savatt's legionnaires,

trained to the teeth and no weaklings.

l shall make legionnaires out of you,

or crush you in the attempt.

Take it easy, kid.

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