XXII
HAVE THEY BOLTED?
Whilst Juve and Henri de Loubersac were watching through the midnighthours for the arrival of the traitors, Fandor in his hotel was also onthe alert. He did not mean to sleep a wink. The noise of themerry-making below helped him in that.... The revellers retired atlast, and silence fell on _The Flowery Crossways_. Fandor, feigningsleep, lay as still as a mouse; but how interminable seemed the hours!
"Ah!" thought Fandor, "if only my abbe were sleeping, I should decamp;but that little bundle of mystery is wide awake: I can sense hiswakefulness!"
Fandor lay listening for the next eternity of an hour to strike andpass into limbo.... At last dawn began to break: the window curtainsbecame transparent, a cock crowed in the yard below, the voice of astable-boy sounded loud in the stillness of early day.
"You are awake, Corporal?" asked the priest in a low voice.
"Quite, Monsieur l'Abbe. You feel rested?"
"I only dosed off a little."
"Liar!" thought Fandor. He replied:
"That is just what I did!" Fandor yawned loudly.
"Will you get up first, Corporal? When you have finished dressing Iwill start.... In that way we shall not interfere with each other."
"But, Monsieur l'Abbe, I do not want to keep you waiting.... Do get upfirst!"
"Certainly not! No, no! Do not let us stand on ceremony."
Fandor did not insist. He was too pleased with his room-mate'srequest.
In next to no time--with a kind of barrack-room lick andpolish--Fandor-Vinson had washed his face, had dressed, was ready.
"My dear Abbe," said he, "if you would like me to, I will ascertainwhether your chauffeur is up, and will tell him to get ready tostart."
"I was going to ask you to do that very thing, Corporal."
As the door closed on him, Fandor turned with an ironic salute towardsthe little priest.
"Much pleased!" said he to himself. "And with the hope of nevermeeting you on my road without Juve on my heels to offer you a pair ofhandcuffs--the right bracelets for you, and richly deserved."
Fandor did not awaken the chauffeur. He went into the yard: there heencountered the hotel-keeper. A brazen lie was the safe way, hedecided.
"We have passed a very good night," declared he. "My companions aregetting ready.... I am going to see if the car is in order for ourstart."
To himself Fandor added: "As my little priest's window looks in theopposite direction he cannot see what I am up to."
Fandor was an expert chauffeur. The car was fully supplied with petroland water--was in admirable order. The hotel-keeper was watching him.
"If they ask for me," said Fandor-Vinson, "tell them I have gone for atest run, and will be back in three minutes."
With that he jumped into his seat, set the car in motion, passedbeneath the archway and on to the high road. He turned in thedirection of Barentin.
Fandor felt the charm of this early drive through the pastoral landsof Normandy. Hope rose in him: was he not escaping from the terrifyingconsequences of his Vinson masquerade!
"Evidently," thought he, "I must definitely abandon the role ofsoldier: the risks are too great: if the military authorities laid meby the heels, it would be all up with Fandor-Vinson!... The realVinson is certainly in foreign parts by now, and safe from arrest....I know by sight the head spies at Verdun, the Norbet brothers: theelegant tourist and his car, and that false priest!... I can continuemy investigations better in my own shoes, and I can get Juve to helpme!"
His thoughts dwelt on the mysterious abbe.
"I would give a jolly lot to know who this pretended abbe really is!"
He tore through the village of Barentin at racing speed.
A covered cart full of peasants stopped the way. Fandor drew up. Headdressed the driver:
"Monsieur, I have rather lost my bearings: will you kindly tell me inwhich direction the nearest railway station lies?"
The driver, who was the mail carrier for Maronne, answered civilly:
"You must go to Motteville, Corporal. At the first cross-roads youcome to, turn to the right--keep straight on--that will bring you tothe station."
Corporal Fandor-Vinson thanked the man, and started off in thedirection indicated.
"All I have to do now," thought he, "is to discover some nice, lonelyspot for."...
Shortly after this he sighted a grove with a thick undergrowth. Itbordered the road. Fandor rushed his machine into a field, and broughtit to a stand-still in the centre of a clump of trees. He alighted.
"That motor is a good goer," said he, "but it is too dangerous acompanion--too conspicuous a mark."
As he thought of the stranded bundle of mystery at _The FloweryCrossways_ he laughed. Then he started for the station at a steadypace.
* * * * *
The chauffeur woke. He saw it was nine o'clock.
"Good lord!... I shall catch it hot! We were to start at eight!"
He dressed hastily; ran down to the yard; stared about him: his carhad vanished. Was he still dreaming?... He ran round to the front ofthe hotel--no car! Was the car stolen?... Had they set off withouthim?... The hotel-keeper was marketing in Rouen.... The stablemencould throw no light on this mystery.
"Probably one of your masters has gone for a turn," suggested a man.
The chauffeur's anger grew.
"If they've dared to!" he shouted. "It is not their car!... I'm not intheir service!... That cure came to my garage yesterday and hired mycar for an outing.... What business has this cure or his soldier tomove my car?... I'll teach them who and what I am!"...
The farm boys, stable lads and men were shouting with laughter at thechauffeur's fury. Said one:
"You know their room, don't you?... Why not see if they are in it?...Make sure you have cause for all this dust up!"
The chauffeur rushed upstairs four at a time! He banged on the door ofthe room taken by his temporary employer and the corporal--banged andthumped!... No response!... He tried the door--unlocked!... He openedit, looked in--empty!
Cursing and raging, the chauffeur clattered downstairs and collidedwith the hotel-keeper.
"Where is my cure?" shouted the chauffeur.
"Your cure?" echoed the good fellow, staring.
"Yes, my cure. Or his corporal!... Where are they?... Where, I say?"
"Where are they?" gaped the hotel-keeper.
The entire hotel staff was grouped in the background, laughing.
"It's my car! I can't find it!... Do you know where it is?"
"Your car!" exclaimed the hotel-keeper. "But the corporal went off twohours ago and more! He was going for a 'trial spin,' was what he toldme!"
"Was the cure with him?"
"No. The cure left just after him, saying he was going to send off atelegram. Was it not true?"
The chauffeur sank on a chair.
"Here's a low-down trick!... Those dirty thieves have cut off with mycar! Let me catch them! I'll give them beans and a bit!"
The hotel was in an uproar; the wildest suggestions rained on thedistracted chauffeur. He pulled himself together; rose; called to thehotel-keeper, who was mechanically searching the yard for the vanishedcar:
"Where is the police station? I must warn the police. That priest andcorporal cannot have got so very far in two hours! They did not leavetogether: they had to meet somewhere: they may not know how to managethe car ... that means delay--a breakdown, perhaps!"
Mine host of _The Flowery Crossways_ was all the more ready to helpthe chauffeur in that he had been cheated! Such fugitives would neverpay him the eighteen francs they owed him for bed and board unlessthey were caught and made to disgorge.
"I will come with you to the police station," he announced. "I have mycomplaint to make also!"
At the police station they saw the police sergeant himself. Thechauffeur had barely begun his tale of woe when the sergeantinterrupted with the smile of one imparting good news:
"Y
ou state that you have lost a motor-car. Does it happen to be red,and will seat four persons?"
"Yes. That's it! Have you seen it?"
"Does it happen to have for number 1430 G-7?"
"Exact!... Has it passed this way?"
"Wait!... Were there not goatskin wraps inside?"
"Yes!... Yes!"
The sergeant laughed silently.
"Very well, then! I should say you were in luck! Now I am going totell you where your car is!"
The chauffeur beamed. "You know where my car is?"
"I do--a bare fifteen minutes ago it was found in the--open fields, onFather Flory's land, some seventeen hundred yards from the Mottevillestation.... Father Flory saw it when driving his cattle to pasture: heasked himself if the car had not fallen from the skies during thenight!"
The hotel-keeper and chauffeur stared at each other. What hadpossessed the fugitives to steal the car and then cast it away in theopen fields, so near the scene of their theft?... The devil was in it?
The hotel-keeper had an idea they had fled to avoid paying his bill.The chauffeur cared only to get to the car as quickly as possible, toassure himself that it was his car, and was not injured beyond repair.
After much haggling it was arranged that a little cart and horseshould take him to the desired spot. Meanwhile the hotel-keeper was togo about his duties at _The Flowery Crossways_. The chauffeur mustneeds return and telegraph to his garage in Paris for funds: hedeclared he had not a sou on him.
Finally the chauffeur set off; perched on a big white mare which hadbeen rejected time and again by the Remount Department, he took theroad at a galloping trot. When he reached Father Flory's field he gavea sigh of satisfaction. He recognised his car. It proved to be in goodcondition. Whoever had driven it knew what he was about.
"It was the corporal," decided the joyful chauffeur. "That little curewould be afraid of spoiling his little white hands!"
Surrounded by a crowd of peasants who had hurried from all the farmsin the neighbourhood, to see the motor-car which had grown up in asingle night in Father Flory's field, the chauffeur set his car inmotion. Hard work! The car had been driven deep into the soft soil....At last he got to the road.
"A very good evening to you, ladies and gentlemen!" he shouted to thepeasants who, with ironic grins and hands in pockets, had watched himat work. Not one had come forward to help him!
He set off at top speed for _The Flowery Crossways_.
* * * * *
Meanwhile the police sergeant, important, in full official uniform,had started for _The Flowery Crossways_, accompanied by thehotel-keeper.
"This affair requires looking into," he announced. "The law will havemore than a word to say about it. I must get further information andmake notes."
He, with the hotel-keeper at his heels, mounted to the little roomwhere Fandor and the little priest had passed the night. The policemanuncovered on entering what he considered a sumptuous, superblydecorated room. He had not the least idea how to set about hisinvestigations in order to get the best results. He seated himself inan arm-chair. He fixed his eyes on the hotel-keeper.
"Do you know the name of these individuals?"
The hotel-keeper, thinking of the eighteen francs he had lost, and ofhow he could indemnify himself, paid scant attention to the sergeant'sso-called investigations.
"Look here!" he cried. "That's a good thing! In their haste they haveforgotten to take this package!... There may be things of value init!... I may be able to pay myself out of them!"
The policeman rose: he also examined the package.
"In the name of the law I shall open this package to ascertain exactlywhat is in it."
The two men undid the rope tightly bound round the covering; butwhilst mine host of _The Flowery Crossways_ had no idea of what thecontents of the package signified, the sergeant, who had formerlyserved in the artillery, went white: his voice was stern.
"This is serious--very serious--it is the mouthpiece of a largegun--larger than any I have come across!"
* * * * *
The recovered motor-car drew up before _The Flowery Crossways_ with aflourish. The beaming chauffeur jumped down and went towards thehotel-keeper and the police sergeant.
"It was my car all right!" he cried. "And I believed that never againshould I set eyes on it!... When I think."...
The chauffeur stopped short; the unresponsive hotel-keeper and thepolice sergeant were staring at him fixedly. Not a word did theyutter.
The chauffeur stared in turn: then he asked:
"Well?... What is it?... Are you frozen, you two?... What's the matterwith you?... I inform you that I have found my motor, and that's howyou take it!"
The police sergeant answered:
"I must ask you to give us some highly necessary information andexplanations.... Do you know anything about the priest and the soldierwho hired your car and you?"
There was a questioning pause. The chauffeur broke it.
"I have already told you that I do not know them.... If I did, thingswould not have happened as they have!... Now, why have you asked methat question?"
The policeman's reply was another question: his tone was stern.
"Then you declare you had no idea of what they were taking with themin your car?"
"What they were taking with them in my car?" repeated the chauffeur ina tone of bewildered interrogation.
The police sergeant marched up to him.
"Look here, now! It is incredible that you do not know what is in thatcorded-up package you carried in your car! And now your masters havedisappeared; we are to believe that you know nothing about thateither!... And now you return!... What is the reason of that?... Andis it to be supposed that I am going to allow you to make off againwithout asking you to explain yourself and this extraordinarysituation?"
The chauffeur saw that the hotel-keeper sided with the policesergeant: there was no support to be got in that quarter.
"Explain yourself, policeman!" burst out the chauffeur. "What's allthis humbugging claptrap you are giving me?"
"In the name of the law!" declared the offended police officer, insolemn tones: "I think it advisable to arrest you!... You may consideryourself my prisoner!"...
As the astounded chauffeur could not find words to answer this, thesergeant added:
"Ah! My fine fellow! This is the way, then, you steal guns to helpthe Germans to shoot the French? It's a mercy I spotted you!"
"But you are mad!--mad!--mad!" protested the chauffeur.... "You."...
The police sergeant cut him short.
"That is enough!... I am going to take you to Rouen!... You canaccount for yourself to the magistrates!"