Part 89 (2/2)

She yielded to the pressure of his arm and moved forward beside him.

He halted for a moment on the curb, looking up and down the empty streets for a cab of any sort, then, with the instinct of a man for whom the Latin Quarter had once been a refuge and a home, he started across the Boulevard, his arm clasping hers.

All the housetops were glittering with the sun as they pa.s.sed the ranks of the Munic.i.p.al cavalry.

A young officer looked down mischievously as they traversed the Boulevard--the only moving objects in that vast and still perspective.

”_Mon Dieu!_” he murmured. ”A night like that is something to remember in the winter of old age!”

Neeland heard him. The gay, bantering, irresponsible Gallic wit awoke him to himself; the rising sun, tipping the city's spires with fire, seemed to relight a little, long-forgotten flame within him. His sombre features cleared; he said confidently to the girl beside him:

”Don't worry; we'll get you out of it somehow or other. It's been a rather frightful dream, Scheherazade, nothing worse----”

Her arm suddenly tightened against his and he turned to look at the shattered Cafe des Bulgars which they were pa.s.sing, where two policemen stood looking at a cat which was picking its way over the ma.s.s of debris, mewing dismally.

One of the policemen, noticing them, smiled sympathetically at their battered appearance.

”Would you like to have a cat for your lively _menage_?” he said, pointing to the melancholy animal which Neeland recognised as the dignified property of the Cercle Extranationale.

The other policeman, more suspicious, eyed Ilse Dumont closely as she knelt impulsively and picked up the homeless cat.

”Where are you going in such a state?” he asked, moving over the heaps of splintered gla.s.s toward her.

”Back to the Latin Quarter,” said Neeland, so cheerfully that suspicion vanished and a faint grin replaced the official frown.

”_Allons, mes enfants_,” he muttered. ”_Faut pas s'attrouper dans la rue_. Also you both are a scandal. _Allons! Filez! Houp!_ The sun is up already!”

They went out across the rue Royale toward the Place de la Concorde, which spread away before them in deserted immensity and beauty.

There were no taxicabs in sight. Ilse, carrying the cat in her arms, moved beside Neeland through the deathly stillness of the city, as though she were walking in a dream. Everywhere in the pale blue sky above them steeple and dome glittered with the sun; there were no sounds from _quai_ or river; no breeze stirred the trees; nothing moved on esplanade or bridge; the pale blue August sky grew bluer; the gilded tip of the obelisk glittered like a living flame.

Neeland turned and looked up the Champs Elysees.

Far away on the surface of the immense avenue a tiny dark speck was speeding--increasing in size, coming nearer.

”A taxi,” he said with a quick breath of relief. ”We'll be all right now.”

Nearer and nearer came the speeding vehicle, rus.h.i.+ng toward them between the motionless green ranks of trees. Neeland walked forward across the square to signal it, waited, watching its approach with a slight uneasiness.

Now it sped between the rearing stone horses, and now, swerving, swung to the left toward the rue Royale. And to his disgust and disappointment he saw it was a private automobile.

”The devil!” he muttered, turning on his heel.

At the same moment, as though the chauffeur had suddenly caught an order from within the limousine, the car swung directly toward him once more.

As he rejoined Ilse, who stood clasping the homeless cat to her breast, listlessly regarding the approaching automobile, the car swept in a swift circle around the fountain where they stood, stopped short beside them; and a woman flung open the door and sprang out to the pavement.

And Ilse Dumont, standing there in the rags of her frail gown, cuddling to her breast the purring cat, looked up to meet her doom in the steady gaze of the Princess Naa Mistchenka.

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