CHAPTER XXII
THE WHIRLING OF THE WHEEL
As old as church or cloister, the massive wheel of the Mount had, inthe past, played prominent part in the affairs of succeedingcommunities on the rock. It, or the hempen strand it controlled, hadprimarily served as a link between the sequestered dwellers, and theflesh-pots and material comforts of the lower world. Through its usehad my lord, the abbot, been ever enabled to keep full the mightywine-butts of his cellars; to provide good cheer for the tables of thebrethren, and to brighten his cold stone interiors with the freshgreens of Flemish tapestry, or the sensuous hues of rugs and fabricsfrom seraglio or mosque. Times less ancient had likewise claimed itsservices, and even in recent years, by direction of his Excellency, theGovernor, had it occasionally been used for the hoisting of goods,wares, or giant casks, overcumbersome for men or mules.
Toward this simple monkish contrivance, the summit's rough lift, orelevator, wherein serfs or henchmen had walked like squirrels in a cageto bring solace to generations of isolated dwellers, the Black Seigneurhad at first stepped impetuously; then stopped, hardly breathing, tolook over his shoulder at the door that had been left unfastened. Aninvoluntary question flashing through his brain--the cause of thisseeming carelessness--found almost immediate answer in his mind, andthe certainty that he stood not there alone--a consciousness of someone else, near, became abruptly confirmed.
"What are you doing, soldier?" A voice, rough, snarling, drew swiftlyhis glance toward a presence, intuitively divined; an undersized,grotesque figure that had entered the place but a few moments beforeand now appeared from behind boxes and casks where he had been about toretire to his mattress in a corner.
"What do you want?" repeated this person, the anger and viciousness onhis distorted features, revealed in the moonlight from the largeopening, like that of some animal unwarrantedly disturbed.
"You, landlord of the thieves' inn!" And inaction giving way tomovement on the intruder's part, a knife that had flashed back in thehand of the hunchback, with his query, was swiftly twisted from him andkicked aside, while a scream of mingled pain and rage became abruptlysuppressed. Struggling and writhing like a wildcat, Jacques proved nomean antagonist; with a strength incredible for one of his size,supplemented by the well-known agility of his kind, he scratched,kicked, and had managed to get the other's hand in his mouth, when,making an effort to throw off that clinging burden, the Black Seigneurdashed the dwarf's head violently against the wooden support of theplace. At once all belligerency left the hunchback, and, releasing hishold, he sank to the ground.
An instant the intruder regarded the inert form; then, going to thedoor, latched and locked it with a key he found inside. Having thus ina measure secured himself from immediate interruption without--for anyone trying the door would conclude the wheel-room vacant, or that thedwarf slept there or in the store-house beyond--the Black Seigneurwalked to the aperture, and reaching up, began to pay out the rope froma pulley above. As he did so, with feet braced, he leaned over tofollow in its descent a small car along the almost perpendicularplanking from the mouth of the wheel-room to the rocks, several hundredfeet below.
A sudden slackening of the rope--assurance that the car, at the end ofthe line, had reached the loading-spot below without thefortifications--and the young man straightened; in an attitude ofattention, stood listening. But the stillness, impregnated only with afaint underbreath, the far-away murmur of water, or the just audibledroning of insects near the fig-trees on the rocks, continued unbroken.An impatient frown gathered on his brow; more eagerly he bent forwardto gaze down, when through the air a distant sound--the low, melancholyhoot of an owl--was wafted upward.
Upon him at the aperture, this night-call, common to the Mount and itsenvirons, acted in magical manner, and swiftly had he stepped towardthe wheel, when an object, intervening, stirred; started to stagger toits feet. At once was the young man's first impelling movementarrested; but, thus forcibly drawn from his purpose, he did not longpause to contemplate; his hand, drawing the soldier's sword, held itquickly at the hunchback's throat.
"A sound, and you know what to expect!"
With the bare point at his flesh, Jacques, dully hearing, vaguelycomprehending, could, indeed, guess and the fingers he hadinvoluntarily raised to push the bright blade aside, fell, while at thesame time any desire to attempt to call out, or arouse the guard, wasreplaced by an entirely different emotion in his aching brain. Neverbefore had he actually felt that sharp touch--the prelude to the finalthrust. At the sting of it, a tremor ran through him, while cowardice,his besetting quality, long covered by growl and egotism in hisstrength and hideousness to terrify, alone shone from hisunprepossessing yellow features.
"You were brave enough with the soldiers at your beck!" went on adetermined voice whose ironical accents in no wise served to alleviatehis panic. "When you had only a mountebank to deal with! But get up!"contemptuously. "And," as the hunchback obeyed, his crooked legsshaking in the support of his misshapen frame, "into the wheel withyou!"
"The wheel!" stammered the dwarf. "Why--what--"
"To take a little of your own medicine! _Pardi_! What a volublefellow! In with you, or--"
With no more words the hunchback, staggering, hardly knowing what hedid, entered the ancient abbot's machine for hoisting. But as hestarted to walk in the great wheel at the side of his captor, a pictureof the past--the times he, himself, had forced prisoners to the wheel,stimulating with jeer and whip--arose mockingly before him, and theincongruous present seemed, in contrast, like a black waking dream.
That it was no dream, however, and that the awakening would neveroccur, he well knew, and malevolently though fearfully he eyed therope, coming in over the pulley at the aperture; to be wound around andaround by a smaller wheel, attached to the larger, and--drawing up what?
An inkling of the sort of merchandise to be expected, under thecircumstances, could but flash through his mind, together with a morevivid consciousness of the only course open for him--to cry out,regardless of consequences! Perhaps he might even have done so, but atthat instant--as if the other had read the thought--came the cold touchof a bare blade on his neck; and with a sudden chill, the brief heroicimpulse passed.
More stealthily now he began to study his companion in the wheel, whilea question, suddenly occurring, reiterated itself in his brain. Thisman--who was he? And what did he know of the mountebank, or his,Jacques', dealings with the clown? That his captor was no soldier ofthe rock, or belonged there, the hunchback felt by this time assured,and a growing suspicion of the other's identity brought home with newforce to the dwarf the thankless part chance, perhaps, had assigned tohim in that night's work. And at the full realization of theconsequences, should his surmise prove correct--what must ultimatelyhappen to himself in that event, when unwilling cooperation at thewheel should become known--almost had he again reached the desperatepoint of calling out; but at that moment a turn in the wheel brought tothe level of the aperture, the car. In it, or clinging thereto, were anumber of figures who, as soon as the rope stopped, sprang noiselesslyto the platform.
"Seigneur, we hardly dared hope--"
"We obeyed orders, but--"
Gazing through the spokes of the wheel, and listening to theirwhispered exclamations, any lingering doubt as to who his captor wascould no longer be entertained by the hunchback. These new-comers tookno pains to conceal it; even when the dwarf's presence became known tothem and unceremoniously was he dragged forth--they displayed acontemptuous disregard of him as a factor to interfere, not calculatedto dull the edge of his apprehension! Too late now might he regretthat pusillanimity that had caused him to draw back from an immortalrole; already was the car again descending!
It came up loaded; went down once more, reappeared. On the littleplatform now were more than a dozen men assembled, but to Jacques thisforce looked multiplied. Amid the confusion of his thoughts, vaguelycould he hear orders given; caught something about the need f
or quiet,haste, overpowering the guard; then saw the door open, and the men,like shadows, go out; leaving him alone. No; with two black figures;ominous; armed. He could see the glitter of their weapons, andventured to move his thick tongue, when, fiercely silenced, he croucheddown; waited, with hands clenched, an interminable period; untilfaintly from afar sounded the note of a night-bird.
Roughly jerked to his feet, between them he walked to the door; heardit close; stepped out into the night. Many times had he made his waybetween wheel-room and guard-house, but now the route seemed strange,and, looking around near the structures at the entrance to his dungeonsJacques shook his head as if to rid his brain of some fantasy. But thescene did not change; the guard-house remained--familiar; unlike, withunknown faces peering from it, and an imperious voice issuing commandsto him, once unquestioned commander here!
And comprehending what was being said, he struck his breast violently;with curses would have answered that the keys were his own; thedungeons, too, and what they held, and that he would never lead themthere; never open those doors! But this grim, savage, determined bandbeat down his arms, and his courage; and, with the shadow of the graveagain before him, the dwarf walked on; past the stable into theguard-house, where familiar forms once had been seated, and into thepassage leading to the dungeons beyond.