CHAPTER IV
BUT when June picked himself up and turned about, he found a verycurious looking man sitting up glaring at him. He had a long pointednose, and fierce little eyes that glowed like red hot cinders, and adrooping white mustache so long that it almost touched the lapels of hisshabby French uniform.
"What do you mean by falling over me like that?" he demandedindignantly.
"I--I--thought you was somebody else," June faltered lamely.
The man glared more fiercely than ever: "You were looking for some one!You were sent here to watch someone! Who did you think I was? Answer methis moment."
He had caught June by the arm and was glaring at him so savagely thatJune blurted out in terror.
"I thought you was the Sleeping Beauty."
For a moment, suspicion lingered in the man's face, then his eyes wentto and his mouth went open, and he laughed until June thought he wouldnever get the wrinkles smoothed out of his face again.
"The Sleeping Beauty, eh?" he said. "Well, whom do you think I am now?"
June smiled in embarrassment. "I know who you look like," he said, halfdoubtfully.
"Who?"
"The White Knight," said June.
"Who is he?"
"In 'Alice in Wonderland,'" explained June. Then when he saw the man'slook of perplexity, he added incredulously, "Didn't you _never_ hear of'Alice in Wonderland'?"
The man shook his head.
June was astounded; he didn't know that such ignorance existed in theworld.
"Didn't you never go to school?" he asked sympathetically.
"Oh yes, a little," said the man, with a funny smile, "but tell me aboutthis White Knight."
June sat down quite close to him and began confidentially:
"He was the one that met Alice in the wood. Don't you remember justbefore she was going to be queen? He kept falling off his horse first onone side and then on the other, and he would have to climb up again bythe mouse traps."
"The mouse traps, on horse-back?"
"Yes, the Knight was afraid the mice _might_ come and he didn't wantthem to run over him. Besides he invented the mouse traps and course,you know, somebody had to use them."
"Of course," said the man taking June's hand and looking at it as aperson looks at something that he has not seen for a very long time.
"He invented lots of things," went on June earnestly, "bracelets for thehorse's feet to keep off shark-bites, and something else to keep yourhair from falling out."
"Eh! what's that?" said his companion rubbing his hand over his own baldhead.
June's eyes twinkled. "You ought to train it up on a stick," he said,"like a vine. That was what the White Knight said, that hair fell offbecause it hung down. It couldn't fall up, could it?"
At this they both had a great laugh and the man said:
"So I am the White Knight, am I?"
"Just your mustache," said June; "it was when you was mad that youlooked like him most. You're lots gooder looking than the picture.What's your real name?"
"Monsieur Garnier,--no, Carre," he corrected himself quickly. "What isyour name?"
"June," then he added formally, "Robert Rogers Royston, Junior's therest of it."
"How did you come here?" asked Monsieur.
June told him at length; it was delightful to find some one beside SekiSan who understood English, and it was good fun to be telling all abouthimself just as if he were some other little boy.
"So your father is a soldier!" said Monsieur, and June noticed that acurious wild look came into his eyes and that his fingers, which hadknots on them, plucked excitedly at his collar. "Ah! yes, I, too, was asoldier, a soldier of France, one time attache of the French Legation,at Tokyo, later civil engineer in the employ of the Japanese Government,now----!" he shrugged his shoulders and his nostrils quivered withanger. "Now a cast-off garment, a thing useless, undesired." He tried torise and June saw that he used crutches and that it was very difficultfor him to walk.
"Do you want me to help you?" he asked.
"'Do you want me to help you?'"]
The man waved him aside. His eyes had changed into red hot cindersagain, and he seemed to have forgotten that June was there. "I ask helpfrom nobody," he muttered fiercely, "I live my own life. The beggarlyJapanese I would never accept from, and my own country does not see fitto help me." His chest heaved with wrath, and he twisted his mustacheindignantly.
"Why don't you go home?" asked June.
Monsieur turned on him fiercely: "Go home? Mon Dieu, do you supposethere is a waking hour that I am not thinking, longing, praying to beback in France? Do you suppose I have left any stone unturned? Any planunmade that might take me away from this hateful place? It has beenfourteen, fifteen years since I came away. It was a Japanese that had medismissed from the service; he bore tales to the minister, he told whatwas not true. Oh, then I had honor, I was too proud to explain, butnow!" he lifted a pair of crippled hands to Heaven, and shook themviolently at the trees above, "now I know that honor does not pay, it isnot worth while. I will give anything to get back to France!"
June sat still and watched him. He had never seen anyone behave soqueerly, and he was very much mixed up as to what it was all about.
"I guess I have to go now," he said, "Toro's waiting."
Monsieur's eyes flashed suspiciously. "Who's waiting?" he asked.
"Toro, he is Seki's brother, he knows how to build awful nice houses andblockades too."
"Blockades?" repeated Monsieur, "what kind of blockades?"
"Like the soldiers make, we watch them all the time; come on, I willshow you."
The two made their way down the steps slowly, for Monsieur could go onlya little way at a time. Toro looked mildly surprised when June came backwith a companion, but he did not give a second glance at Monsieur, whowas evidently a familiar figure about the town.
For a long time the two children played in the sand, and Monsieur satbeside them and acted as interpreter, speaking first to one in Japanese,and then to the other in English, giving directions and suggestions andproving a first-rate play-fellow.
"Why, you know a lot about forts and mines and blockades and things,don't you?" asked June.
Monsieur looked absently across the lake. "Alas!" he said grimly, halfto himself, "I know too much for their good and for mine."
When the temple bell from the hillside boomed the supper hour, the boysgathered up their things and started home.
"Good-by," said June to Monsieur, "I hope you'll come back and play withus another day."
Monsieur bowed very politely, but he did not answer, his half-closedeyes still rested on the little forts that the boys had been making inthe sand, and his thoughts seemed to be far away.
When June reached the street, he turned to wave a good-by, but Monsieurwas hobbling down the hill, his figure, in spite of the crutches,looking very straight and stiff against the evening sky.