CHAPTER XXXIX
THE CONVERSION OF CHANOT
"The gentleman has perfectly recovered," he announced with sympatheticgravity in answer to Alida's questions. "Matteo of Arqua has long beensubject to such attacks, but the best medical advice agrees that theyhave lost force of late, and, in fact, are not likely again to recur. Asfor Messieurs, the gentlemen who have taken him for an airing, they havebusiness which calls them away before the morning, so they will not beable to return. I make their apologies. They came with us--yes--forsafety, but they were not quite of our world, Chardon's and mine--eh,Chardon?"
Chardon mutely acquiesced, and Chanot sat down beside Alida, who, with agesture of gratitude, gave him her hand.
"He frightened me," she said, smiling gratefully, "that man from Arqua.He has the Evil Eye. Thank you for taking him away. Ugh!--I can feel hishands upon me still."
Chanot kept the little hand with the silver ring upon it in both of his.He bent and kissed it reverently. As he did so the door opened and therestood in the dark passage-way a startling figure. It was Keller Bey, hishead wrapped about with bandages like cere cloths, his reddish whitebeard shaggy and unkempt, his arm bandaged, and his dressing-gown frayedand tarnished. But in his eyes the fire of fever burned like the braiseof a Yule log, dull and ominous.
With one lean finger he pointed to Chanot as he sat by the table. Hecalled him by name.
"What do you here, bandit and traitor?" he demanded. "But for you therewould have been peace in Aramon, the best of governments, and--you brokeit all up. Touch not the hand of the daughter of kings! There is bloodupon your own, sower of the wind, assassin, wild ass of the desert!"
Here he leaped into Arabic, understood only by Alida and Gordon Cawdor.
"Go--get hence, hound!" he thundered. "You have done enough evil--wouldyou pursue me even to this quiet place?"
"Hush, father!" said Alida, going hastily to his side; "he has saved mylife--perhaps all our lives."
"He is my enemy!"
"He is my friend!"
As Alida said this, she turned and smiled upon Chanot. The young manrepressed a groan.
"If I had known," he muttered, "ah, if I had known. But it is too late."
Linn had been watching her time, and now, by a swift intervention, gotKeller Bey out of the library and back to his own room. He had in factmissed her presence and wandered out in search. Then, at sight of thearch-enemy of his ideal rule, memory had returned to him.
After the departure of Keller Bey my father left the room to assurehimself that all was well in the sick man's chamber, and that Linnwanted for nothing. Chanot and Alida were left practically alone, forChardon, obedient to his chief's eye, had withdrawn into an alcovewhere, with a book in his hand, he slept or pretended to sleep.
"My father is wandering in his mind," she said, letting the light of heryoung eyes dwell upon his. "He had a bullet which grazed the brain----"
"I fired that bullet," said Chanot, with bent head.
"But not in anger--not to do him any hurt?" The voice of Alida wasalmost pleading now. She wanted to think well of this young man.
"Not more than any other," he answered, after a look at her. "We did notwish--we could not permit--I will not weary you with politics, but Iwant you to know that I put down Keller Bey. I fired the River Quarter.I was the chief of the plunderers. I deserve death a score of times. Icame here to rob and if necessary to kill----"
"No--no!" cried Alida, reaching out her hand a second time. "I saw youwith the little Italian. He had a knife. I saw him reaching for it, andthat made me feel for mine. You see, I am from Algeria and go armed. Hecame to kill, if you like. But not you--you are a gentleman!"
"Thank you," said Chanot quickly, but still not taking her hand, "itwill help--that which you have said--when it comes to the pinch. I am--Iwas a gentleman!"
"A brave one and true," said the girl, and then, something she had heardor read working in her head, she added, "gentle and a gentleman."
The day was coming up over the river, and soon the lamps in the roomburned faint and yellow. Chardon, waking, opened the window by which hesat and the fresh air of the May morning fanned out the heatedatmosphere. The coolness brought a faint flush to Alida's cheek and herlips grew redder.
Chanot rose to his feet and held out his hand.
"Good-bye, dear lady--I have met you too late. Yet do not think quiteunkindly of me, of whom much evil will be spoken."
"Chardon," he said, "I leave you here on guard. I commit these ladies toyou--should--should any of our people--you understand."
Chardon stood without bareheaded, watching his leader go. Chanot reachedthe Garden Cottage in time to find himself face to face with a companyof soldiers--red-breeched infantry men they were, of the 131st of theline. These were under the command of a very young officer in atremendous haste. He held a piece of paper in one hand and with theother he knocked loudly, with the hilt of his recently acquired sword,on the door of the Garden Cottage.
"I have a warrant for the instant arrest of the chief of the Aramoninsurrection. I am advised that he lives here. His name is Keller,Charles Keller."
"I am the chief of the Aramon insurrection," said Chanot calmly, "I amKeller!"
The rattle of the _peloton_ fire came irregularly from above, among therocks of St. Andre. Chanot heard it and knew his fate. No lingeringtrial for him, no stupid military commanders murmuring sleepily over aforegone verdict.
"There against the wall--we must cross the river--there is no time tolose. Form a firing party." The young officer, in a hurry, fairly jettedout his orders.
"_Mon lieutenant_," said Chanot coolly, "there are ladies within theChateau of Gobelet--the house you see yonder through the trees. Itbelongs to a great English scholar, who is a friend of Monsieur Thiers,and a historian like him. I have no objections to being shot, but youwill have the goodness to let me march with you till we turn the cornerof the policies. Then we will have a steep cliff and the river below,which will be convenient."
The lieutenant nodded. His men were ordered in that direction, and so itchanced that twenty of the defenders of our Chateau Schneider witnessedthe end of the Black Insurrection of Aramon.
Jack Jaikes and the others of the old machine-gun gang greeted theappearance of Chanot guarded and marching to execution with a yell oftriumph.
"Allerdyce--Allerdyce!" they shouted, and turned aside that they mightsee. I also went with them, not knowing aught of the history of thenight. We came out on a plain sward overlooking the river. A path ranalong and there was a low wall, with lizards darting everyway in thesun.
The _peloton_ formed up with the readiness of practice, and the officerraised his sword. Chanot stepped briskly to the wall, and as he drew uphis tall figure and stood facing us with squared shoulders, I think Inever saw anyone so transfigured. The sullen wolfishness was all gone.His eyes shone like those of a boy engaged in some innocent frolic. Buthis mien was grave as befitted the circumstances. He had been smoking acigarette when the officer accosted him. He threw away the remainderwith a smile.
"Have you anything to say?" demanded the officer.
"Only good-bye!"
"Anything to leave?"
"Only life!"
"Then you are ready?"
"I am ready!"
The officer let his sword drop and as from a great distance I seemed tohear his voice commanding "Fire!" The volley rang out, and Chanot,taking a step backwards as if driven by the impact of the bullets,toppled over into the deep and rapid Rhone and was seen no more.
The young officer was methodical. He drew out of his breast a note-book,and into this he entered several lines which, perhaps that we might bearwitness, he read aloud.
"May 25th, 1871. Upon the hill called St. Andre, immediately above theRhone, I caused to be executed one Charles Keller, upon his ownconfession, as being the chief of the revolt in Aramon-les-Ateliers."
"No, no!" cried Jack Jaikes and several others before they thought.
"E
h! what's that?" demanded the infantry lieutenant, wheeling upon uswith his note-book and pencil still in his hand. I had just time towhisper one word to Jack Jaikes. That word was "Fool!" To the others Iconveyed as well as I could that they were to hold their tongues.
"Who are you, and what do you mean by 'No, no'?"
"I am Dennis Deventer's second-in-command," said Jack Jaikes. "I stoodthe two sieges in command of the machine guns, which I had made myself,and by saying 'No--no' I meant that there were other chiefs besides thisone whom you have sent to his account!"
"No doubt," said the officer drily; "the others are up yonder under thewalls. We surrounded them while they were blocked by young Deventer'swire entanglements and dazzled by his electric light. But why have youleft your fortifications and why----"
He stopped his questions, for just then Rhoda Polly strollednonchalantly upon the sward. He stood staring at her. Rhoda Polly heldout her hand to the young man.
"I am Dennis Deventer's daughter," she said, English, smiling, andfrank, "not his only one, but the only one who counts on days likethese."
The lieutenant flushed and bowed. He wished the firing party would standa little closer about a certain square of the green turf. He need nothave troubled, Rhoda Polly's mind was a hundred miles from any idea ofminute observation at that moment.
"_Tiens!_ The 131st!" she exclaimed. "If you cross the river you must goup and see my father. Your colonel is rather a pet of his!"
At the idea of their fire-eating bristling old colonel being anybody'spet, a smile passed among the rank and file, but the lieutenant beingwell-mannered remained grave.
"I shall immediately do myself the honour of waiting on your father!"
He marched his men down the hill. Jack Jaikes and his party stepped outon the highway which led to St. Andre. Only Rhoda Polly and I lingered.
CHAPTER XL
THE LAST OF THE "TATTER OF SCARLET"
Rhoda Polly was on her way to see her friend Alida, and knowing wellthat parental permission would be refused her in the troublous state ofthe neighbourhood, she had taken it and followed unobtrusively in thewake of Jack Jaikes and his party.
I had trouble even now to get her away from the scene of the execution.She would have sat down on the very spot, save that I hastened herdeparture, saying that I must go back and see her father. I had, I said,both news and a message for him.
So we walked through the woods to Gobelet, very quietly and without muchtalk between us. We reached there to find that Dennis Deventer had justarrived from the Chateau, that Chardon had disappeared, and that Hughwas in the full flush of his morning's triumph. His father noddedapproval. As for Alida she clung to his arm and looked up in his face. Ido not think she was conscious of my presence in the room, and even uponRhoda Polly she only bestowed a left-handed greeting without letting goher hold upon Hugh Deventer. Verily the manners of the East are strange.
I knew very well that she would find her hero one day, but I neversupposed he would come to her in my poor Hugh's likeness.
I felt a sudden leap of loneliness in my heart and moved nearer to RhodaPolly. _She_ would never look at me like that. But instead she stood ontiptoe till her lips were near my ear and whispered, "I have alwaysknown it would be so--don't they look silly?"
It was a point of view, though at that moment hardly mine, but who was Ithat I should grudge Hugh Deventer his one hour of triumph? He wastelling his story.
"I heard them all about us, and I knew they were getting ready for therush. There were about forty of us, professors, _pions_, and seniors, towhom rifles could be served. I tell you I had a time finding out whocould shoot even a bit. I had to try each with a dummy gun to see how hehandled it. They lied so--yes, even the professors!
"But your old Renard was a brick. He spotted the sportsmen as if bymagic and remembered the boys whose fathers had shootings. He helped alot, I can tell you--and tucked up his black gown and hopped about onhis thin legs (which were black too) as lively as a cricket.
"Brown was attending to the electric lamp and barbed-wire obstacleswhile I was doing the drill sergeant, and by ten we had the business inpretty fair shape. I set the posts as you told me, sir, or as near aspossible. For, of course, having been a pupil, the old place was like mybedroom to me, and I knew just where they would try to rush us."
His father nodded, and the smile which accompanied the nod encouragedthe hero to continue. Not that this was necessary, for at his elbowAlida was behaving most foolishly.
("_You_ never looked at me like that, Rhoda Polly," I whispered, "thenight when we blew them back from the Big Gate, when Jack Jaikes and Ifought in the open."
"Hadn't time," retorted Rhoda Polly, "besides, I was in that business aswell as you. Did you think that I had been left behind in the Chateaucellar?")
"Just when twelve struck," Hugh proceeded, "they dashed into the ditchwith a yell--just at the places you said, father, when I showed you theplan I had made. But the wire and stakes brought them all up standing.My black regiment fired all round the wall. I don't believe they hitmany, but the crackle of the rifle fire was a very disconcertingcircumstance, and at any rate Brown and I 'scourged' them well with yourrepeaters, sir. Brown had switched on his big search-light andeverything was as bright as glory.
"'How many were there?' That I could not say, sir. They looked a lotwhen they clumped together, which was not often. But the line wasthin-sown when they spread out to take cover. The professors swore to ahundred, but I could not really make it more than fifty.
"They let fly at us, but we were all behind the big stone wall. Thebullets whizzed over us, and spotted the walls, but that was all. Thenthey drew off to hold a council.
"Once they nearly got us. They had dynamite or some infernal stuff, andthey blew up the outer main gate. But then, as you know, that did notmuch matter, for the really strong one is twenty yards farther on, andthose who ran in found themselves up Blind Alley. I tell you, sir, Brownand I sacrificed them before they got out. But they kept it up, firingat us till dawn without ever making a hit. They saw the uselessness ofthis at last, and were just hopping off over the plateau on the road toSpain, when the red breeches put in an appearance, and nabbed thelot--that is very nearly all, for some got away by the woods.
"'After that?'--Well, sir. I shall tell you the rest to-night. I camedown here to see how Mr. Cawdor was getting on."
Hugh Deventer had so clearly the floor that I did not attempt tointerfere. Nor did I grudge him his glory. Had we not, Jack Jaikes,Rhoda Polly, and I, seen a greater thing--the fight over Allerdyce's gunbefore the main entrance?
"Come out on the terrace, Rhoda Polly," I said, for I really had hadenough of Hugh's strutting and Alida's languorous glances. We passedthrough the tall window out upon the lawn, and went slowly to thecrescent sweep of the promenade, which made so beautiful a look-outstation over the river.
The morning smoke was rising over Aramon-les-Ateliers. Within thefactory some of the tall chimneys were already sending forth long trailsof vapour. Dennis Deventer's gangs were preparing for a return to normalconditions.
The secret negotiations had been going on some time. The men werewearying to get back. The tyranny of the Black Band was whollydissipated, and honest folks breathed freely. The women were moreanxious than the men. For if the city should be occupied by troops--ifmilitary tribunals were set up, where would their husbands be so safe asin the factory? Dennis Deventer had the long arm. Dennis Deventer couldprotect his own.
I looked at Rhoda Polly, and she smiled.
"I suppose there is really nothing to say," I said, answering herglance. "This is not proper love-making, but we simply can't do withoutone another, can we, Rhoda Polly? So it has just got to be."
"I suppose so," said Rhoda Polly, looking far out across the flat landsto the blue line of the Mediterranean. "But what are you going to do allday--and I? We are busy people, Angus Cawdor, and in idleness we shouldsoon quarrel!"
She swung her legs engagingly, awaiting my
answer.
"Well," I said, "I will let you into a secret. My father's next book, 'AHistory of the Third Republic,' is to have both our names on thetitle-page. Also I am to translate all his books into French. You havegot to help."
"I shall love it," cried Rhoda Polly, "but what else am I to do?"
"You will have this house of Gobelet to be sole mistress of, and,besides, you and your mother must superintend the housekeeping of Linnand Keller Bey in the Garden Cottage!"
"But, Angus, have you thought of Jeanne?"
"What Jeanne?"
"Jeanne Felix, sir!"
I was so stunned I could not answer, so great was my astonishment. RhodaPolly had not been so blind as I had supposed--or was it possible thatJeanne herself----? No, I thanked Heaven that at least need not bethought of.
Rhoda Polly laughed a ringing, joyous laugh, and gave my arm a littleplayful clutch.
"Silly," she said, "I will put you out of any remorse you may feel forany of your misdeeds. Jeanne is to be married to young Emile Bert, thefruit-grower of Les Cabannes. She is at last going to reward hisconstancy--as I am yours!"
She looked at me with gay, ironic eyes. The vixen!
I did not answer. It was indeed a difficult corner to turn with plainlying, but most happily at that moment we saw a strange and memorablething.
Across the river, from the fort which dominated the town, and also fromthe high tower of the Mairie, we saw the red flag of revolt flutterdown, and simultaneously, like a burst of sunlight, the tricolour wasbroken out at each mast-head, gay and hopeful in that entrancingProvencal air.
Instinctively Rhoda Polly's hand sought mine. We both stood silent andbareheaded as in the presence of the dead, for both of us knew that wehad looked our last upon the "Tatter of Scarlet."
THE END
WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD. PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH
_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_
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Transcriber's Notes:
Dialect was not altered. Alternate and obsolete spellings in Englishwere retained; French words with circonflex or that lack an accent aiguwere not altered. Remaining punctuation was standardized. The list ofbooks by the same author was moved from the beginning to the end of thebook. One footnote is indented and follows the paragraph in which theanchor occurs.
Other alterations:
changed "remoneur" to "ramoneur" ... the woodman, the _ramoneur_ or sweep,... changed "Guguss" to "Gugusse" ... garlic-smelling 'Gugusse' who ... changed "as" to "at" ... just at that moment ... changed "Prefeture" to "Prefecture" ... of the Sous-Prefecture.... added a space between "after a" ... putting a boat to rights after a night's fishing ... changed "beng" to "being" ... roof being long perfected ... changed "wil" to "will" ... the beasts will slink back to their lairs ... removed hyphen from 'fairy-tale' ... at the bottom of this fairy tale.... changed "Espivnet" to "Espivent" ... troops of General Espivent ...
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