Part 9 (1/2)
He came out, presently, dressed in his odd, ill-fitting uniform of the Legion, tunic unb.u.t.toned, collarless of s.h.i.+rt, his bright, thick hair, now of decent length, in boyish disorder.
Delicious odours of soup and of Breton cider greeted him; he seated himself; Marie-Josephine waited on him, hovered over him, tucked a sack of feathers under his maimed leg, placed his crutches in the corner beside the gun.
Still eating, leisurely, he began:
”Marie-Josephine--a strange thing has happened on Quesnel Moors which troubles me.... Listen attentively. It was while waiting for ducks on the Eryx Rocks, that once I thought I heard through the roar of wind and sea the sound of a far cannonading. But I said to myself that it was only the imagination of a haunted mind; that in my ears still thundered the cannonade of Lens.”
”Was it nevertheless true?” She had turned around from the fire where her own soup simmered in the kettle. As she spoke again she rose and came to the table.
He said: ”It must have been cannon that I heard. Because, not long afterward, out of the fog came a great aeroplane rus.h.i.+ng inland from the sea--flying swiftly above me--right over me!--and staggering like a wounded duck--it had one aileron broken--and sheered away into the fog, northward, Marie-Josephine.”
Her work-worn hands, tightly clenched, rested now on the table and she leaned there, looking down at him.
”Was it an enemy--this airs.h.i.+p, Jacques?”
”In the mist flying and the ragged clouds I could not tell. It might have been English. It must have been, I think--coming as it came from the sea.
But I am troubled, Marie-Josephine. Were the guns at sea an enemy's guns?
Did the aeroplane come to earth in safety? Where? In the Forest of Las? I found no trace of it.”
She said, tremulous perhaps from standing too long motionless and intent:
”Is it possible that the Boches would come into these solitary moors, where there are no people any more, only the creatures of the Las woods, and the curlew and the lapwings which pa.s.s at evening?”
He ate thoughtfully and in silence for a while; then:
”They go, usually--the Boches--where there is plunder--murder to be done.... Spying to be done.... G.o.d knows what purpose animates the Huns.... After all, Lorient is not so far away.... Yet it surely must have been an English aeroplane, beaten off by some enemy s.h.i.+p--a submarine perhaps. G.o.d send that the rocks of the Isle des Chouans take care of her--with their teeth!”
He drank his cider--a sip or two only--then, setting aside the gla.s.s:
”I went from the Rocks of Eryx to Las Woods. I called as loudly as I could; the wind whirled my voice back into my throat.... I am not yet very strong....
”Then I went into the wood as far as my strength permitted. I heard and saw nothing, Marie-Josephine.”
”Would they be dead?” she asked.
”They were planing to earth. I don't know how much control they had, whether they could steer--choose a landing place. There are plenty of safe places on these moors.”
”If their airs.h.i.+p is crippled, what can they do, these English flying men, out there on the moors in the rain and wind? When the coast guard pa.s.ses we must tell him.”
”After lunch I shall go out again as far as my strength allows.... If the rain would cease and the mist lift, one might see something--be of some use, perhaps----”
”Ought you to go, Monsieur Jacques?”
”Could I fail to try to find them--Englishmen--and perhaps injured? Surely I should go, Marie-Josephine.”
”The coast guard----”