Fifty-Fifty O'Brien (12 page)

¿
Que pasó?:
(Spanish) What happened?
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¿
Quién sabe?:
(Spanish) Who knows?
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Quoi?:
(French) What?
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rattler:
a fast freight train.
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salopard:
(French) an offensive expression for a detestable person.
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Scheherazade:
the female narrator of
The Arabian Nights,
who during one thousand and one adventurous nights saved her life by entertaining her husband, the king, with stories.
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shavetail:
a second lieutenant.
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Sidi:
Sidi-bel-Abbès, which is a capital of the Sidi-bel-Abbès province in northwestern Algeria. The city was developed around a French camp built in 1843. From 1931 until 1961, the city was the “holy city” or spiritual home of the French Foreign Legion, the location of its basic training camp and the headquarters of its first foreign regiment.
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solo:
(Spanish) alone.
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Springfield:
any of several types of rifle, named after Springfield, Massachusetts, the site of a federal armory that made the rifles.
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top kick:
a first sergeant, the senior enlisted grade authorized in a company.
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Tuaregs:
members of the nomadic Berber-speaking people of the southwestern Sahara in Africa. They have traditionally engaged in herding, agriculture and convoying caravans across their territories. The Tuaregs became among the most hostile of all the colonized peoples of French West Africa, because they were among the most affected by colonial policies. In 1917, they fought a vicious and bloody war against the French, but they were defeated and as a result, dispossessed of traditional grazing lands. They are known to be fierce warriors; European explorers expressed their fear by warning, “The scorpion and the Tuareg are the only enemies you meet in the desert.”
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twenty-two
or
.22 rifle:
.22-caliber rifle. The relatively short effective range, low report and light recoil have made it a favorite for use in target practice. With its quiet report, it is ideal for indoor shooting or in areas that are confined.
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two bits:
a quarter; during the colonial days, people used coins from all over the world. When the US adopted an official currency, the Spanish milled (machine-struck) dollar was chosen and it later became the model for American silver dollars. Milled dollars were easily cut apart into equal “bits” of eight pieces. Two bits would equal a quarter of a dollar.
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USMC:
United States Marine Corps.
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volley fire:
simultaneous artillery fire in which each piece is fired a specified number of rounds without regard to the other pieces, and as fast as accuracy will permit.
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Webley:
Webley and Scott handgun; an arms manufacturer based in England that produced handguns from 1834. Webley is famous for the revolvers and automatic pistols it supplied to the British Empire's military, particularly the British Army, from 1887 through both World War I and World War II.
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yanqui:
(Spanish) Yankee; term used to refer to Americans in general.
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