CHAPTER XLIX. THE LAND OF ELDORADO
It seems that in the pocket of Heron's coat there was a letter-case withsome few hundred francs. It was amusing to think that the brute's moneyhelped to bribe the ill-tempered keeper of the half-way house to receiveguests at midnight, and to ply them well with food, drink, and theshelter of a stuffy coffee-room.
Marguerite sat silently beside her husband, her hand in his. Armand,opposite to them, had both elbows on the table. He looked pale and wan,with a bandage across his forehead, and his glowing eyes were resting onhis chief.
"Yes! you demmed young idiot," said Blakeney merrily, "you nearly upsetmy plan in the end, with your yelling and screaming outside the chapelgates."
"I wanted to get to you, Percy. I thought those brutes had got you thereinside that building."
"Not they!" he exclaimed. "It was my friend Heron whom they had trussedand gagged, and whom my amiable friend M. Chambertin will find in thereto-morrow morning. By Gad! I would go back if only for the pleasure ofhearing Heron curse when first the gag is taken from his mouth."
"But how was it all done, Percy? And there was de Batz--"
"De Batz was part of the scheme I had planned for mine own escape beforeI knew that those brutes meant to take Marguerite and you as hostagesfor my good behaviour. What I hoped then was that under cover of atussle or a fight I could somehow or other contrive to slip throughtheir fingers. It was a chance, and you know my belief in bald-headedFortune, with the one solitary hair. Well, I meant to grab that hair;and at the worst I could but die in the open and not caged in that awfulhole like some noxious vermin. I knew that de Batz would rise to thebait. I told him in my letter that the Dauphin would be at the Chateaud'Ourde this night, but that I feared the revolutionary Government hadgot wind of this fact, and were sending an armed escort to bring thelad away. This letter Ffoulkes took to him; I knew that he would make avigorous effort to get the Dauphin into his hands, and that duringthe scuffle that one hair on Fortune's head would for one second only,mayhap, come within my reach. I had so planned the expedition that wewere bound to arrive at the forest of Boulogne by nightfall, and nightis always a useful ally. But at the guard-house of the Rue Ste. AnneI realised for the first time that those brutes had pressed me into atighter corner than I had pre-conceived."
He paused, and once again that look of recklessness swept over his face,and his eyes--still hollow and circled--shone with the excitement ofpast memories.
"I was such a weak, miserable wretch, then," he said, in answerto Marguerite's appeal. "I had to try and build up some strength,when--Heaven forgive me for the sacrilege--I had unwittingly risked yourprecious life, dear heart, in that blind endeavour to save mine own.By Gad! it was no easy task in that jolting vehicle with that noisomewretch beside me for sole company; yet I ate and I drank and I slept forthree days and two nights, until the hour when in the darkness I struckHeron from behind, half-strangled him first, then gagged him, andfinally slipped into his filthy coat and put that loathsome bandageacross my head, and his battered hat above it all. The yell he gave whenfirst I attacked him made every horse rear--you must remember it--thenoise effectually drowned our last scuffle in the coach. Chauvelin wasthe only man who might have suspected what had occurred, but he had goneon ahead, and bald-headed Fortune had passed by me, and I had managedto grab its one hair. After that it was all quite easy. The sergeant andthe soldiers had seen very little of Heron and nothing of me; it did nottake a great effort to deceive them, and the darkness of the night wasmy most faithful friend. His raucous voice was not difficult to imitate,and darkness always muffles and changes every tone. Anyway, it was notlikely that those loutish soldiers would even remotely suspect the trickthat was being played on them. The citizen agent's orders were promptlyand implicitly obeyed. The men never even thought to wonder that afterinsisting on an escort of twenty he should drive off with two prisonersand only two men to guard them. If they did wonder, it was not theirsto question. Those two troopers are spending an uncomfortable nightsomewhere in the forest of Boulogne, each tied to a tree, and some twoleagues apart one from the other. And now," he added gaily, "en voiture,my fair lady; and you, too, Armand. 'Tis seven leagues to Le Portel, andwe must be there before dawn."
"Sir Andrew's intention was to make for Calais first, there toopen communication with the Day-Dream and then for Le Portel," saidMarguerite; "after that he meant to strike back for the Chateau d'Ourdein search of me."
"Then we'll still find him at Le Portel--I shall know how to lay handson him; but you two must get aboard the Day-Dream at once, for Ffoulkesand I can always look after ourselves."
It was one hour after midnight when--refreshed with food andrest--Marguerite, Armand and Sir Percy left the half-way house.Marguerite was standing in the doorway ready to go. Percy and Armand hadgone ahead to bring the coach along.
"Percy," whispered Armand, "Marguerite does not know?"
"Of course she does not, you young fool," retorted Percy lightly. "Ifyou try and tell her I think I would smash your head."
"But you--" said the young man with sudden vehemence; "can you bear thesight of me? My God! when I think--"
"Don't think, my good Armand--not of that anyway. Only think of thewoman for whose sake you committed a crime--if she is pure and good, wooher and win her--not just now, for it were foolish to go back to Parisafter her, but anon, when she comes to England and all these past daysare forgotten--then love her as much as you can, Armand. Learn yourlesson of love better than I have learnt mine; do not cause Jeanne Langethose tears of anguish which my mad spirit brings to your sister's eyes.You were right, Armand, when you said that I do not know how to love!"
But on board the Day-Dream, when all danger was past, Marguerite feltthat he did.
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