THE LAW
The cupboard--for it was little more--into which I had been hurried was
low and narrow, and I felt in the darkness that it was heaped with
peculiar round wickerwork baskets, the nature of which I could by no
means imagine, although I discovered afterwards that they were lobster
traps. The only light which entered was through the cracks of the old
broken door, but these were so wide and numerous that I could see the
whole of the room which I had just quitted. Sick and faint, with the
shadow of death still clouding my wits, I was none the less fascinated
by the scene which lay before me.
My thin friend, with the same prim composure upon his emaciated face,
had seated himself again upon the box. With his hands clasped round one
of his knees he was rocking slowly backwards and forwards; and I
noticed, in the lamplight, that his jaw muscles were contracting
rhythmically, like the gills of a fish. Beside him stood Lesage, his
white face glistening with moisture and his loose lip quivering with
fear. Every now and then he would make a vigorous attempt to compose
his features, but after each rally a fresh wave of terror would sweep
everything before it, and set him shaking once more. As to Toussac, he
stood before the fire, a magnificent figure, with the axe held down by
his leg, and his head thrown back in defiance, so that his great black
beard bristled straight out in front of him. He said not a word, but
every fibre of his body was braced for a struggle. Then, as the howl of
the hound rose louder and clearer from the marsh outside, he ran forward
and threw open the door.
'No, no, keep the dog out!' cried Lesage in an agony of apprehension.
'You fool, our only chance is to kill it.'
'But it is in leash.'
'If it is in leash nothing can save us. But if, as I think, it is
running free, then we may escape yet.'
Lesage cowered up against the table, with his agonised eyes fixed upon
the blue-black square of the door. The man who had befriended me still
swayed his body about with a singular half-smile upon his face. His
skinny hand was twitching at the frill of his shirt, and I conjectured
that he held some weapon concealed there. Toussac stood between them
and the open door, and, much as I feared and loathed him, I could not
take my eyes from his gallant figure. As to myself, I was so much
occupied by the singular drama before me, and by the impending fate of
those three men of the cottage, that all thought of my own fortunes had
passed completely out of my mind. On this mean stage a terrible
all-absorbing drama was being played, and I, crouching in a squalid
recess, was to be the sole spectator of it. I could but hold my breath
and wait and watch.
And suddenly I became conscious that they could all three see something
which was invisible to me. I read it from their tense faces and their
staring eyes. Toussac swung his axe over his shoulder and poised
himself for a blow. Lesage cowered away and put one hand between his
eyes and the open door. The other ceased swinging his spindle legs and
sat like a little brown image upon the edge of his box. There was a
moist pattering of feet, a yellow streak shot through the doorway, and
Toussac lashed at it as I have seen an English cricketer strike at a
ball. His aim was true, for he buried the head of the hatchet in the
creature's throat, but the force of his blow shattered his weapon, and
the weight of the hound carried him backwards on to the floor. Over
they rolled and over, the hairy man and the hairy dog, growling and
worrying in a bestial combat. He was fumbling at the animal's throat,
and I could not see what he was doing, until it gave a sudden sharp yelp
of pain, and there was a rending sound like the tearing of canvas.
The man staggered up with his hands dripping, and the tawny mass with
the blotch of crimson lay motionless upon the floor.
'Now!' cried Toussac in a voice of thunder, 'now!' and he rushed from
the hut.
Lesage had shrunk away into the corner in a frenzy of fear whilst
Toussac had been killing the hound, but now he raised his agonised face,
which was as wet as if he had dipped it into a basin.
'Yes, yes,' he cried; 'we must fly, Charles. The hound has left the
police behind, and we may still escape.'
But the other, with the same imperturbable face, motionless save for the
rhythm of his jaw muscles, walked quietly over and closed the door upon
the inside.
'I think, friend Lucien,' said he in his quiet voice, 'that you had best
stay where you are.'
Lesage looked at him with amazement gradually replacing terror upon his
pallid features.
'But you do not understand, Charles,' he cried.
'Oh, yes, I think I do,' said the other, smiling.
'They may be here in a few minutes. The hound has slipped its leash,
you see, and has left them behind in the marsh; but they are sure to
come here, for there is no other cottage but this.'
'They are sure to come here.'
'Well, then, let us fly. In the darkness we may yet escape.'
'No; we shall stay where we are.'
'Madman, you may sacrifice your own life, but not mine. Stay if you
wish, but for my part I am going.'
He ran towards the door with a foolish, helpless flapping of his hands,
but the other sprang in front of him with so determined a gesture of
authority that the younger man staggered back from it as from a blow.
'You fool!' said his companion. 'You poor miserable dupe!'
Lesage's mouth opened, and he stood staring with his knees bent and his
spread-fingered hands up, the most hideous picture of fear that I have
ever seen.
'You, Charles, you!' he stammered, hawking up each word.
'Yes, me,' said the other, smiling grimly.
'A police agent all the time! You who were the very soul of our
society! You who were in our inmost council! You who led us on!
Oh, Charles, you have not the heart! I think I hear them coming,
Charles. Let me pass; I beg and implore you to let me pass.'
The granite face shook slowly from side to side.
'But why me? Why not Toussac?'
'If the dog had crippled Toussac, why then I might have had you both.
But friend Toussac is rather vigorous for a thin little fellow like me.
No, no, my good Lucien, you are destined to be the trophy of my bow and
my spear, and you must reconcile yourself to the fact.'
Lesage slapped his forehead as if to assure himself that he was not
dreaming.
'A police agent!' he repeated, 'Charles a police agent!'
'I thought it would surprise you.'
'But you were the most republican of us all. We were none of us
advanced enough for you. How often have we gathered round you, Charles,
to listen to your philosophy! And there is Sibylle, too! Don't tell me
that Sibylle was a police spy also. But you are joking, Charles.
Say that you are joking!'
The man relaxed his grim features, and his eyes puckered with amusement.
'Your astonishment is very flattering,' said he. 'I confess that I
thought that I played my part rather cleverly. It is not my fault that
these bunglers unleashed their hound, but at least I shall have the
credit of having made a single-handed capture of one very desperate and
dangerous conspirator.' He smiled drily at this description of his
prisoner. 'The Emperor knows how to reward his friends,' he added,
'and also how to punish his enemies.'
All this time he had held his hand in his bosom, and now he drew it out
so far as to show the brass gleam of a pistol butt.
'It is no use,' said he, in answer to some look in the other's eye.
'You stay in the hut, alive or dead.'
Lesage put his hands to his face and began to cry with loud, helpless
sobbings.
'Why, you have been worse than any of us, Charles,' he moaned. 'It was
you who told Toussac to kill the man from Bow Street, and it was you
also who set fire to the house in the Rue Basse de la Rampart. And now
you turn on us!'
'I did that because I wished to be the one to throw light upon it all--and
at the proper moment.'
'That is very fine, Charles, but what will be thought about that when I
make it all public in my own defence? How can you explain all that to
your Emperor? There is still time to prevent my telling all that I know
about you.'
'Well, really, I think that you are right, my friend,' said the other,
drawing out his pistol and cocking it. 'Perhaps I _did_ go a little
beyond my instructions in one or two points, and, as you very properly
remark, there is still time to set it right. It is a matter of detail
whether I give you up living or give you up dead, and I think that, on
the whole, it had better be dead.'
It had been horrible to see Toussac tear the throat out of the hound,
but it had not made my flesh creep as it crept now. Pity was mingled
with my disgust for this unfortunate young man, who had been fitted by
Nature for the life of a retired student or of a dreaming poet, but who
had been dragged by stronger wills than his own into a part which no
child could be more incapable of playing. I forgave him the trick by
which he had caught me and the selfish fears to which he had been
willing to sacrifice me. He had flung himself down upon the ground, and
floundered about in a convulsion of terror, whilst his terrible little
companion, with his cynical smile, stood over him with his pistol in his
hand. He played with the helpless panting coward as a cat might with a
mouse; but I read in his inexorable eyes that it was no jest, and his
finger seemed to be already tightening upon his trigger. Full of horror
at so cold-blooded a murder, I pushed open my crazy cupboard, and had
rushed out to plead for the victim, when there came a buzz of voices and
a clanking of steel from without. With a stentorian shout of 'In the
name of the Emperor!' a single violent wrench tore the door of the hut
from its hinges.
It was still blowing hard, and through the open doorway I could see a
thick cluster of mounted men, with plumes slanted and mantles flapping,
the rain shining upon their shoulders. At the side the light from the
hut struck upon the heads of two beautiful horses, and upon the heavy
red-toupeed busbies of the hussars who stood at their heads. In the
doorway stood another hussar--a man of high rank, as could be seen from
the richness of his dress and the distinction of his bearing. He was
booted to the knees, with a uniform of light blue and silver, which his
tall, slim, light-cavalry figure suited to a marvel. I could not but
admire the way in which he carried himself, for he never deigned to draw
the sword which shone at his side, but he stood in the doorway glancing
round the blood-bespattered hut, and staring at its occupants with a
very cool and alert expression. He had a handsome face, pale and
clear-cut, with a bristling moustache, which cut across the brass
chin-chain of his busby.
'Well,' said he, 'well?'
The older man had put his pistol back into the breast of his brown coat.
'This is Lucien Lesage,' said he.
The hussar looked with disgust at the prostrate figure upon the floor.
'A pretty conspirator!' said he. 'Get up, you grovelling hound! Here,
Gerard, take charge of him and bring him into camp.'
A younger officer with two troopers at his heels came clanking in to the
hut, and the wretched creature, half swooning, was dragged out into the
darkness.
'Where is the other--the man called Toussac?'
'He killed the hound and escaped. Lesage would have got away also had I
not prevented him. If you had kept the dog in leash we should have had
them both, but as it is, Colonel Lasalle, I think that you may
congratulate me.' He held out his hand as he spoke, but the other
turned abruptly on his heel.
'You hear that, General Savary?' said he, looking out of the door.
'Toussac has escaped.'
A tall, dark young man appeared within the circle of light cast by the
lamp. The agitation of his handsome swarthy face showed the effect
which the news had upon him.
'Where is he then?'
'It is a quarter of an hour since he got away.'
'But he is the only dangerous man of them all. The Emperor will be
furious. In which direction did he fly?'
'It must have been inland.'
'But who is this?' asked General Savary, pointing at me. 'I understood
from your information that there were only two besides yourself,
Monsieur--.'
'I had rather no names were mentioned,' said the other abruptly.
'I can well understand that,' General Savary answered with a sneer.
'I would have told you that the cottage was the rendezvous, but it was
not decided upon until the last moment. I gave you the means of
tracking Toussac, but you let the hound slip. I certainly think that
you will have to answer to the Emperor for the way in which you have
managed the business.'
'That, sir, is our affair,' said General Savary sternly. 'In the
meantime you have not told us who this person is.'
It seemed useless for me to conceal my identity, since I had a letter in
my pocket which would reveal it.
'My name is Louis de Laval,' said I proudly.
I may confess that I think we had exaggerated our own importance over in
England. We had thought that all France was wondering whether we should
return, whereas in the quick march of events France had really almost
forgotten our existence. This young General Savary was not in the least
impressed by my aristocratic name, but he jotted it down in his
notebook.
'Monsieur de Laval has nothing whatever to do with the matter,' said the
spy. 'He has blundered into it entirely by chance, and I will answer
for his safe keeping in case he should be wanted.'
'He will certainly be wanted,' said General Savary. 'In the meantime I
need every trooper that I have for the chase, so, if you make yourself
personally responsible, and bring him to the camp when needed, I see no
objection to his remaining in your keeping. I shall send to you if I
require him.'
'He will be at the Emperor's orders.'
'Are there any papers in the cottage?'
'They have been burned.'
'That is unfortunate.'
'But I have duplicates.'
'Excellent! Come, Lasalle, every minute counts, and there is nothing to
be done here. Let the men scatter, and we may still ride him down.'
The two tall soldiers clanked out of the cottage without taking any
further notice of my companion, and I heard the sharp stern order and
the jingling of metal as the troopers sprang back into their saddles
once more. An instant later they were off, and I listened to the dull
beat of their hoofs dying rapidly into a confused murmur. My little
snuff-coloured champion went to the door of the hut and peered after
them through the darkness. Then he came back and looked me up and down,
with his usual dry sardonic smile.
'Well, young man,' said he, 'we have played some pretty _tableaux
vivants_ for your amusement, and you can thank me for that nice seat in
the front row of the parterre.'
'I am under a very deep obligation to you, sir,' I answered, struggling
between my gratitude and my aversion. 'I hardly know how to thank
you.'
He looked at me with a singular expression in his ironical eyes.
'You will have the opportunity for thanking me later,' said he.
'In the meantime, as you say that you are a stranger upon our coast, and
as I am responsible for your safe keeping, you cannot do better than
follow me, and I will take you to a place where you may sleep in
safety.'