Part 47 (1/2)

Monsieur Joseph glanced up at the Crucifix hanging over his bed, and, presently, seeing a glimmer of dawn through the shutters, knelt down and said his morning prayers.

He had scarcely finished when all the dogs began to bark, and there was a frightful growling and snarling outside his window. He opened it, and pushed back the shutters. The woods were grey and misty in a pale, unearthly dawn, and the house threw a shadow from the waning moon, which had risen behind the buildings and trees to the east. The howling wind of the night had gone down; the air was cold and still.

Monsieur Joseph saw a man with his head tied up, armed with a police carbine, making a short cut over the gra.s.s from the western wood. It was this man, Simon, whom the dogs were welcoming after their manner.

Monsieur Joseph's voice silenced them. He stepped out, unarmed as he was, and met Simon in the sandy square.

”Ah no, no, my friend!” he said. ”Your tricks are over, your work is done.”

”Pardon, monsieur!” said Simon, respectfully enough.

”Do you understand me? Come, now, what authority had you for arresting my nephew? You are going to find it was a serious mistake. Be off with you, and let him alone in the future.”

”I know all about that, monsieur,” Simon answered coolly. ”Your nephew is lucky enough to have a loyal father, who can pull him out of his sc.r.a.pes. Your nephew has plenty of friends--but even his connections won't save him, I think, if he is mixed up in this new plot of yours. I must search your house at once, if you please.”

”What do you mean, you scoundrel? You will not search my house,” said Monsieur Joseph, fiercely.

”By order, monsieur.”

”Whose order? The Prefect's? Show it me.”

”Pardon! There has not been time to apply to Monsieur le Prefet. We have intelligence of a plot, hatched here in your house, a plan for a rising.

We know that certain gentlemen are starting this very morning on a mission to England, to bring back arms and men. They will be caught--are caught already, no doubt--at their rendezvous. There was not time to go to Sonnay for orders and warrants; we had to strike while the iron was hot. We applied to General Ratoneau, who was at the ball at Lancilly. He not only gave us authority to search your house for arms and conspirators--he accompanied us himself. He is there, beyond the wood, with enough men to enter your house by force, if you refuse to let us enter peaceably.”

For a moment Monsieur Joseph said nothing. Simon grinned as well as his stiff and aching head would let him, as he watched the little gentleman's expressive face.

”We have got them, Monsieur le General!” he said to himself. He added aloud and insolently: ”An unpleasant experience for the young gentleman, so soon after his wedding, but a final warning, I imagine. If he comes free and happy out of this, he will have done with Chouannerie!”

”Silence!” said Monsieur Joseph. ”If you want conspirators, there is one here, and that is myself. I will go to Sonnay with you--though your accusations are ridiculous, and there is no plan for a rising. But I will not allow you to search my house, if there were ten generals and an army behind the wood there. I will shoot down any one who attempts it.”

”So much the worse for you, monsieur,” said Simon.

”Go back to General Ratoneau and tell him what I say,” said Monsieur Joseph. ”He will not doubt my word. Wait. I will speak to him myself.

Tell him I will meet him in ten minutes under the old oaks up there. I wish for a private word with him.”

”Ten minutes, monsieur,”--Simon hesitated.

”Do as you are told,” said Monsieur Joseph; and he stepped back into his room, pulled the shutters sharply to, and shut the window.

Simon lingered a minute or two, looking round the house, giving the growling dogs a wide berth, then went back with his message to the wood, and took the precaution of sending a man to watch the lanes on the other side. He did not, of course, for a moment suppose that there was any one there, except, most probably, Ange de la Mariniere and his bride; but it would not do to let him once again escape the General. What his plans might be, Simon only half guessed; but he knew they were desperate, and he knew that the man who balked him would repent it. And besides all this, he had not yet received a sou for all the dirty work he had lately done. But in the bitter depths of his discontented mind, Simon began to suspect that he had made a mistake in committing himself, body and soul, to General Ratoneau.

Monsieur Joseph took a small pistol from a cabinet, loaded it, then ran lightly upstairs and called Riette, who came flying to meet him. He took her in his arms and kissed her s.h.a.ggy pate.

”Your hair wants brus.h.i.+ng, mademoiselle,” he said. ”You are a contrast to your beautiful cousin.”

”Oh, papa, isn't it glorious to think that Helene has married Angelot?

They do love each other so. She has been telling me that if only he were back safe from the etang des Morts, she would be the very happiest woman in the world.”

”I hope she will be, and soon,” said Monsieur Joseph. But he trembled as he spoke, for if Simon was right, Angelot and Cesar might be even now in the hands of the police.

”Listen, Riette,” he said. ”There are some men outside, police and officials--General Ratoneau is with them. Once again there are fancies in these people's heads about me and my friends. They want to search the house. There is no reason for it, and I will not have it done. I am going out now to speak to the General. Look at the clock. If I am not back in ten minutes, go out at the back with your cousin, take the path behind the stables, and make all the haste you can to La Mariniere. It will be light, you cannot lose your way. Only keep in the shelter of the trees, that those people over in the wood may not see you.”