"Donnerwetter!" rattled the wires. "The entire French iron-clad
fleet is looking for her."
"And I hope they catch her," I telegraphed.
"Are you crazy?" came the frantic reply. "Who are you?"
"A Yankee, idiot!" I replied. "Run for your life, you hopeless
ass!"
There was, of course, no reply, though I sent a few jocular remarks
flying after what must have been the most horrified German spy south
of Metz.
Then, at a venture, I set the switch on the arsenal line, got a quick
reply, and succeeded in alarming them sufficiently, I think, for in a
few moments I was telegraphing directly to the governor of Lorient,
and the wires grew hot with an interchange of observations, which
resulted in my running to the locker, tumbling out all the signal
bunting, cones, and balls, sorting five flags, two red cones, and a
ball, and hastening out to the semaphore.
Speed and the soldier Rolland saw me set the cones, hoist away, break
out the flags on the halyards, and finally drop the white arm of the
semaphore.
I had set the signal for the _Fer-de-Lance_ to land in force and wipe
Buckhurst and his grotesque crew from the face of the earth.
"Rolland," I said, "here is another hundred francs. Watch that
halyard and guard it. To-night you will string seven of those little
lamps on this other halyard, light them, hoist them, and then go up
that tower and light the three red lamps on the left."
"'Tendu," he said, promptly.
"If you do it I will give you two hundred francs to-morrow. Is it a
bargain?"
The soldier broke out into a torrent of promises which I cut short.
"That lady will never come here again, I think. If she does, she must
not touch those halyards. Do you hear? If she offers you money,
remember I will double it. But, Rolland, if you lie to _me_ I will
have you killed as the Bretons kill pigs; you understand how that is
done?"
He said that he understood, and followed us, fawning and whining his
cowardly promises of fidelity until we ordered the wretch back to the
post which he had already twice betrayed, and would certainly betray
again if the opportunity offered.
Walking fast over the springy heath, I told Speed briefly what I had
done--that the treasure-train would not now leave Lorient, that as
soon as the _Fer-de-Lance_ came in sight of the semaphore Buckhurst's
game must come to an end.
Far ahead of us we saw the flutter of a light dress on the moor;
Sylvia Elven, the spy, was going home; and from the distance, across
the yellow-flowered gorse, her gay song floated back to us:
"Those who die for a maid
Are paid;
Those who die for a creed
God-speed;
Those who die for their own dear land
Shall stand forever on God's right hand!--"
"A spy!" muttered Speed.
"I think," said I, "that she had better leave Paradise at once. Oh,
the little fool, to risk all for a caprice--for a word to the poor
fellow she ruined! Vanity does it every time, Speed."
"I don't understand what you mean," he said.
"No, and I can't explain," I replied, thinking of Kelly Eyre. "But
Sylvia Elven is running a fearful risk here. Mornac knows her record.
Buckhurst would betray her in a moment if he thought it might save his
own skin. She ought to leave before the _Fer-de-Lance_ sights the
semaphore and reads the signal to land in force."
"Then you'll have to tell her," he said, gloomily.
"I suppose so," I replied, not at all pleased. For the prospect of
humiliating her, of proving to this woman that I was not as stupid as
she believed me, gave me no pleasure. Rather was I sorry for her,
sorry for the truly pitiable condition in which she must now find
herself.
As we reached the gates of Trécourt, dusty and tired from our moorland
tramp, I turned and looked back. My signal was still set; the white
arm of the semaphore glistened like silver against a brilliant sky of
sapphire. Seaward I could see no sign of the _Fer-de-Lance_.
"The guns I heard at sea must have been fired from the German cruiser
_Augusta_," I suggested to Speed. "She's been hovering off the coast,
catching French merchant craft. I wish to goodness the _Fer-de-Lance_
would come in and give her a drubbing."
"Oh, rubbish!" he said. "What the deuce do we care?"
"It's human to take sides in this war, isn't it?" I insisted.
"Considering the fashion in which France has treated us individually,
it seems to me that we may as well take the German side," he said.
"Are you going to?" I asked.
He hesitated. "Oh, hang it all, no! There's something about France
that holds us poor devils--I don't know what. Barring England, she's
the only human nation in the whole snarling pack. Here's to her--damn
her impudence! If she wants me she can have me--empire, kingdom, or
republic. Vive anything--as long as it's French!"
I was laughing when we entered the court; Jacqueline, her big, furry
cat in her arms, came to the door and greeted Speed with:
"You have been away a very long time, and the thorns are all out of
my arms and my legs, and I have been desiring to see you. Come into
the house and read--shall we?"
Speed turned to me with an explanatory smile. "I've been reading the
'Idyls' aloud to her in English," he said, rather shyly. "She seems
to like them; it's the noble music that attracts her; she can't
understand ten words."
"I can understand nearly twenty," she said, flushing painfully.
Speed, who had no thought of hurting her, colored up, too.
"You don't comprehend, little one," he said, quickly. "It was in
praise, not in blame, that I spoke."
"I knew it--I am silly," she said, with quick tears trembling in her
eyes. "You know I adore you, Speed. Forgive me."
She turned away into the house, saying that she would get the book.
"Look here, Speed," I said, troubled, "Jacqueline is very much like
the traditional maid of romance, which I never believed existed--all
unspoiled, frankly human, innocently daring, utterly ignorant of
convention. She's only a child now, but another year or two will bring
something else to her."
"Don't you suppose I've thought of that?" he said, frowning.
"I hope you have."
"Well, I have. When I find enough to do to keep soul and body
friendly I'm going to send her to school, if that old ruffian, her
father, allows it."
"I think he will," I said, gravely; "but after that?"
"After what?"
"After she's educated and--unhappy?"
"She isn't any too happy now," he retorted.
"Granted. But after you have spent all your money on her, what
then?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that you'll have no child to deal with, but a woman in full
bloom, a woman fairly aquiver with life and intelligence, a
high-strung, sensitive, fine-grained creature, whose educated
ignorance will not be educated innocence, remember that! And I tell
you, Speed, it's the heaviest responsibility a man can assume."
"I know it," he replied.
"Then it's all right, if you do know it," I said, cheerfully. "All I
can say is, I am thankful she isn't to spend her life in the circus."
"Or meet death there," he added. "It's not to our credit that she
escapes it."
Jacqueline came dancing back to the porch, cat under one arm, book
under the other, so frankly happy, so charmingly grateful for Speed's
society, that the tragedy of the lonely child touched me very deeply.
I strove to discover any trace of the bar sinister in her, but could
not, though now I understood, from her parentage, how it was possible
for a poacher's child to have such finely sculptured hands and feet.
Perhaps her dark, silky lashes and hair were Mornac's, but if this was
so, I trusted that there the aristocratic blood had spent its force in
the frail body of this child of chance.
I went into the house, leaving them seated on the porch, heads
together, while in a low monotone Speed read the deathless "Morte
d'Arthur."
Daylight was waning.
Out of the west a clear, greenish sky, tinged with saffron tints,
promised a sea-wind. But the mild land-breeze was still blowing and
the ebb-tide flowing as I entered the corridor and glanced at the
corner where the spinning-wheel stood. Sylvia sat beside it, reading
in the Lutheran Bible by the failing light.
She raised her dreamy eyes as I passed; I had never seen her piquantly
expressive face so grave.
"May I speak to you alone a moment, after dinner?" I asked.
"If you wish," she replied.