Part 35 (1/2)
”M'sieu',” Joan said grandly, ”there's nothing more to say. Carry word to your captain that we'll overhaul him by sundown, and sink him before supper.”
Lafarge burst out laughing.
”Well, by the Lord, but you're a swashbuckler, Joan--”
”M'sieu'--”
”Oh, nonsense! I tell you, nonsense! Let's have over with this, my girl.
You're the cleverest woman on the continent, but there's a limit to everything. Here, tell me now, and if you answer me straight I'll say no more.”
”M'sieu', I am here to consider conditions, not to--” ”Oh, for G.o.d's sake, Joan! Tell me now, have you got anything contraband on board?
There'll be a nasty mess about the thing, for me and all of us, and why can't we compromise? I tell you honestly we'd have come on, if I hadn't seen you aboard.”
Joan turned her head back with a laugh. ”My poor m'sieu'! You have such bad luck. Contraband? Let me see? Liquors and wines and tobacco are contraband. Is it not so?” Lafarge nodded.
”Is money--gold--contraband?”
”Money? No; of course not, and you know it. Why won't you be sensible?
You're getting me into a bad hole, and--”
”I want to see how you'll come out. If you come out well--” She paused quaintly.
”Yes, if I come out well--”
”If you come out very well, and we do not sink you before supper, I may ask you to come and see me.”
”H'm! Is that all? After spoiling my reputation, I'm to be let come and see you.”
”Isn't that enough to start with? What has spoiled your reputation?”
”A man, a boy, and a slip of a girl.” He looked meaningly enough at her now. She laughed. ”See,” he added; ”give me a chance. Let me search the Ninety-Nine for contraband,--that's all I've got to do with,--and then I can keep quiet about the rest. If there's no contraband, whatever else there is, I'll hold my tongue.”
”I've told you what there is.”
He did not understand. ”Will you let me search?” Joan's eyes flashed.
”Once and for all, no, Orvay Lafarge. I am the daughter of a man whom you and your men would have killed or put in the dock. He's been a smuggler, and I know it. Who has he robbed? Not the poor, not the needy; but a rich Government that robs also. Well, in the hour when he ceases to be a smuggler for ever, armed men come to take him. Why didn't they do so before? Why so pious all at once? No; I am first the daughter of my father, and afterwards--”
”And afterwards?”
”What to-morrow may bring forth.”
Lafarge became very serious. ”I must go back. Mr. Martin is signalling, and your father is calling. I do not understand, but you're the one woman in the world for my money, and I'm ready to stand by that and leave the customs to-morrow if need be.”
Joan's eyes blazed, her cheek was afire. ”Leave it to-day. Leave it now.
Yes; that's my one condition. If you want me, and you say you do, come aboard the Ninety-Nine, and for to-day be one of us-to-morrow what you will.”
”What I will? What I will, Joan? Do you mean it?”
”Yes. Pshaw! Your duty? Don't I know how the Ministers and the officers have done their duty at Quebec? It's all nonsense. You must make your choice once for all now.”