Part 71 (1/2)
”What would you have me say?”
”I wait for your reply.”
”G.o.d has heard it,” said Deruchette.
Then the voice became almost sonorous, and at the same time softer than before, and these words issued from the leaves as from a burning bush:
”You are my betrothed. Come then to me. Let the blue sky, with all its stars, be witness of this taking of my soul to thine; and let our first embrace be mingled with that firmament.”
Deruchette arose, and remained an instant motionless, looking straight before her, doubtless in another's eyes. Then, with slow steps, with head erect, her arms drooping, but with the fingers of her hands wide apart, like one who leans on some unseen support, she advanced towards the trees, and was out of sight.
A moment afterwards, instead of the one shadow upon the gravelled walk, there were two. They mingled together. Gilliatt saw at his feet the embrace of those two shadows.
In certain moments of crisis, time flows from us as his sands from the hour-gla.s.s, and we have no feeling of his flight. That pair on the one hand, who were ignorant of the presence of a witness, and saw him not; on the other, that witness of their joy who could not see them, but who knew of their presence--how many minutes did they remain thus in that mysterious suspension of themselves? It would be impossible to say.
Suddenly a noise burst forth at a distance. A voice was heard crying ”Help!” and the harbour bell began to sound. It is probable that in those celestial transports of delight they heard no echo of that tumult.
The bell continued to ring. Any one who had sought Gilliatt then in the angle of the wall would have found him no longer there.
BOOK II
GRAt.i.tUDE AND DESPOTISM
I
JOY SURROUNDED BY TORTURES
Mess Lethierry pulled the bell furiously, then stopped abruptly. A man had just turned the corner of the quay. It was Gilliatt.
Lethierry ran towards him, or rather flung himself upon him; seized his hand between his own, and looked him in the face for a moment, silent.
It was the silence of an explosion struggling to find an issue.
Then pulling and shaking him with violence, and squeezing him in his arms, he compelled him to enter the lower room of the Bravees, pushed back with his heel the door which had remained half opened, sat down, or sank into a chair beside a great table lighted by the moon, the reflection of which gave a vague pallor to Gilliatt's face, and with a voice of intermingled laughter and tears, cried:
”Ah! my son; my player of the bagpipe! I knew well that it was you. The sloop, _parbleu_! Tell me the story. You went there, then. Why, they would have burnt you a hundred years ago! It is magic! There isn't a screw missing. I have looked at everything already, recognised everything, handled everything. I guessed that the paddles were in the two cases. And here you are once more! I have been looking for you in the little cabin. I rang the bell. I was seeking for you. I said to myself, 'Where is he, that I may devour him?' You must admit that wonderful things do come to pa.s.s. He has brought back life to me.
_Tonnerre!_ you are an angel! Yes, yes; it is my engine. n.o.body will believe it; people will see it, and say, 'It can't be true.' Not a tap, not a pin missing. The feed-pipe has never budged an inch. It is incredible that there should have been no more damage. We have only to put a little oil. But how did you accomplish it? To think that the Durande will be moving again. The axle of the wheels must have been taken to pieces by some watchmaker. Give me your word that I am not crazy.”
He sprang to his feet, breathed a moment, and continued:
”a.s.sure me of that. What a revolution! I pinched myself to be certain I was not dreaming. You are my child, you are my son, you are my Providence. Brave lad! To go and fetch my good old engine. In the open sea, among those cut-throat rocks. I have seen some strange things in my life; nothing like that. I have known Parisians, who were veritable demons, but I'll defy them to have done that. It beats the Bastille. I have seen the _gauchos_ labouring in the _Pampas_, with a crooked branch of a tree for a plough and a bundle of thorn-bushes for a harrow, dragged by a leathern strap; they get harvests of wheat that way, with grains as big as hedgenuts. But that is a trifle compared with your feats. You have performed a miracle--a real one. Ah! _gredin!_ let me hug you. How they will gossip in St. Sampson. I shall set to work at once to build the boat. It is astonis.h.i.+ng that the crank is all right.
Gentlemen, he has been to the Douvres; I say to the Douvres. He went alone. The Douvres! I defy you to find a worse spot. Do you know, have they told you, that it's proved that Clubin sent the Durande to the bottom to swindle me out of money which he had to bring me? He made Tangrouille drunk. It's a long story. I'll tell you another day of his piratical tricks. I, stupid idiot, had confidence in Clubin. But he trapped himself, the villain, for he couldn't have got away. There is a G.o.d above, scoundrel! Do you see, Gilliatt, bang! bang! the irons in the fire; we'll begin at once to rebuild the Durande. We'll have her twenty feet longer. They build them longer now than they did. I'll buy the wood from Dantzic and Breme. Now I have got the machinery they will give me credit again. They'll have confidence now.”
Mess Lethierry stopped, lifted his eyes with that look which sees the heavens through the roof, and muttered, ”Yes, there is a power on high!”
Then he placed the middle finger of his right hand between his two eyebrows, and tapped with his nail there, an action which indicates a project pa.s.sing through the mind, and he continued:
”Nevertheless, to begin again, on a grand scale, a little ready money would have been useful. Ah! if I only had my three bank-notes, the seventy-five thousand francs that that robber Rantaine returned, and that vagabond Clubin stole.”