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Captain Deleuze next turned his attention to a dacoit leader who was making himself extremely active in the vicinity of Houi-Bap, collecting revenue for General De-Nam from villages not more than a few days’ march from our Brigade Headquarters.

This was that previously-mentioned brute, De-Nha, concerning whom Doi Linh Nghi had already gathered information, a former sub-prefect under the Emperor Ham Nghi, and now an officer in General De-Nam’s rebel army.

According to information, he was prominent in, if not at the head of, General De-Nam’s intelligence department, and was a man of great ability, considerable activity, and most devilish ingenuity in obtaining both information and subsidies from the wretched villagers in what was officially termed the Pacified Zone.

Concerning this man and his movements, Captain Deleuze gave me all the information he had; and then, himself being unable to leave Headquarters, offered me no less an opportunity and task than the capture of this redoubtable villain.

“Since he has had the courage to venture so near to the jaws of the apparently sleeping tiger, we’ll let them take a snap at him, eh, my son? Show him whether the French tiger is alive or dead, asleep or awake.... What about it?”