Part 19 (1/2)
THE RED MARK
Even now nobody can tell his narand and a proud one Perhaps you could find it in the files of the Bordeaux press twenty years ago, when they sentenced him to transportation for life for five proved otten But the man himself has lived on He lives and he continues to develop his capabilities--as we are all expected to do here in New Caledonia
M de Nou, we call him He is our only convict official Ordinarily, you comprehend, our jailers do not admit convicts to the administration We are citizens, if you like, in this criminal commonwealth We are the populace of this outlaw colony at the far navel of the earth We are artisans, workmen, domestics: we are masons, cooks, far the high privilege of forced labor, the lofty civic title of cattle in a bull-pen It is all very philanthropic: but we have not yet risen to fill posts under the government Except one of us He has been raised because they could find no other, convict or free, to perform the peculiar duties of the position That is M de Nou We hate him There is not a creature of us from Balade to Noumea, from the nickel mines of Thio to the forests of Baie du Sud, that does not hate and fear him as some other people hate and fear sin The very Canaques flee at the whisper of his coainst this white deht of him in daily bitterness We have been thieves, assassins, poisoners: we have been set aside in a sort of infected rubbish-box, the sweepings of the prisons: but the last of us, perishi+ng from thirst, would turn back a cup that had been polluted by the touch of M de Nou When M de Nou co a deeper pit hell is too good for M de Nou
He is the executioner He operates the guillotine Not for any pay or profit nor for the rank it gives hi he likes to do
Me, I aainst all tih his hands some day, should he stand to perform his last dreadful offices for rin from under the slide itself and I would say to him--”M de Nou, I am even with you!” But I would not tell him hoould turn silent fro at me, and I would die content to leave him to his da you, truly, so that perhaps this tale may reach some of our friends who have escaped froain They will remember, and they will rejoice to hear how I evened the score on M de Nou Listen:
It was soon after my release from the Collective--when I was considered to be properly chastened by residence in the cells--that I had the ill-luck to meet this individual
You can see for yourself I was never built for rude labor But I have a certain deftness of ers and perhaps also--well, a certain polish--what? Monsieur agrees? Too kind! Your servant, Monsieur
Anyway, it was quite natural I should find eeo, he who keeps the barber shop in the Rue des Fleurs
Maitre Sergeo is a worthy man, a libere, which means he was forh since restored to certain rights within the colony li an assistant at his lathery trade he applied to the penitentiary on Ile de Nou
”Here is a brisk fellow,” said the sub-co me out like a horse at a fair ”Nuht years Having served his Collective with a clear record If you are ever dull about your place he will sing you the latest operas He has all the polite accoeo, regarding me with his sober twinkle ”What roe he should have said that Strange, too, that I should have heard the term then and there for the first tih, a kind of by-word a people who affect to share the inner ood reason to re no unofficial illusions onabout a duke,” he returned ”But this is a superior type He has been a student in his day and even has taken prizes”
”I hope he has not the habit of taking theeo, like a prudent patron ”What was his little affair?”
The sub-coument with a knife, it appears A favorable case Only his enemy was so ill-conditioned as to die”
”I shall eeo ”A man who is handy with a knife should also qualify with a razor”
That is how I ca throats instead of cutting them Myself, I considered the jest rather poor taste and Bibi-Ri a good deal of a chattering ry with that ed
Also, as it happened, Bibi-Ri hile client on this particular afternoon of which I speak I recall it with an authentic clearness: one of those days atory: the air sweet and mellow, spiced with tropic blossoht tawny in the street outside as if seen through a glass of rich wine
It was very quiet and peaceful From the Place des Cocotiers not far away one heard the band discoursing Those convictto raceful etting the shameful canvas uniform and the mockery of one's freedom on a leash I even hum my blade
I waited for Bibi-Ri By an aet his chin new razored--though in truth it rese so much as a small onion: as I often told him
”That is no reason why you should peel it, sacred farceur!” he would sputter ”Please to notice I have only the one skin to my face!”
But this day he was late I missed the merry rascal His hour went by and still he did not co a the market stalls on the opposite pave: unht-buttoned to the chin as he alore it and the convict's straw hat pulled low on his brow Bibi-Ri in fact But he never even glanced to my side At the pace of a rent collector he hurried by and disappeared This is singular, I thought What ga back again, and this trip I discovered he was following a girl But yes! A --I could not see her well--a dainty piece she seemed, supple as a kitten, who threaded her ith a basket on her arht a flash of bare ankle white as : and she was gone, with Bibi-Ri at her skirts
Three ti