SKELETONS IN A CAVE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19777, 3 November 1938, Page 4

SKELETONS IN A CAVE

LEGION SPY’S FATE OFFICER AND GIRL MAIIRAKEESH, Morocco, Sept. 5. A crime committed in the 1-logger Mountain district in the middle ol the Sahara Desert in 1918 has been discovered after 20 years by Col. G. Mercier of the Foreign Legion.

Exploring the subterranean caves of the Hogger Mountain near Marrakcesh, Mercier came upon a skeleton clothed in rags that had once been a uniform. Examining the fragments ol clothing, Mercier discovered that it was a Foreign Legion lieutenant’s uniform. It was not difficult to ascertain that the skeleton was that ol Lieutenant Lacombe wno was sent to the Hogger district in 11)18 to work in the counter-espionage service established by the French to put down the resolution of the Tuaregs.

Lacombe had been sent to the Logger district to find out who were the leaders who organised the luareg rebellion. He started his work by transforming himself into a veritable Tuareg. Not even the most discerning natives could tell him from a native. Mixing freely among the natives, Lacombe succeeded in discovering the centre where the revolution was organised, and indentified the most dangerous of the leaders as a certain Tuareg tribal chief. He gave the chief up to the authorities. He was arrested and executed. Officer Disappears A few days later Lacombe disappeared and was never seen since. No one knew what had happened to him. It was suspected that the Tuaregs, discovering that Lacombe was a French spy and responsible for thenchiefs death, had done away with him. The circumstances of Lacombe’s disappearance and death had been shrouded in mystery until now, when Mercier found his corpse and reconstructed the details of the young lieutenant’s tragic death.

Not far away from the place where liis skeleton was discovered, was another skeleton, that of a Tuaieg woman. Certain objects lying around indicated that she had been the daughter of the chief whose death was brought about bv Lacombe. Investigation revealed ‘that the Tuareg girl had been in love with Lacombe, and although she knew that he had been responsible for her father’s death, she did not give him up to her people. The only person to whom she confided the stranger’s real identity was a woman friend. This \v*oman, however, spread the story. Condemned to Death The Tuaregs, discovering that there was an enemy, a spy among them, condemned both Lacombe and the Tuareg girl to death. They lured the two of them to the subterranean cave in the Hogger and then closed the entrance to the cave. The two young people must have wandered about the tunnels of Hogger for days until they were starved to death. Feeling his end approaching, Lacombe had first killed the girl with a bullet from his revolver and then shot himself. In his diary, that was found near his body, half eaten up by worms, Lacombe attempted to describe their inhuman sufferings and the circumstances that led to them. He repeated over and over again how brave and uncomplaining the Tuareg girl had been while they were expecting death. It was partly through the contents of the diary and partly through other investigation that Mercier’s expedition could solve the mystery of Lacombe’s disappearance 20 years ago.