In the meantime, a strange event had taken place at the Convent of Le
Bon Berger, through the curiosity of the old priest, who, while bending
over his book in the chapel, had overheard Carmontelle's story of the
mysterious drug and its strange antidote. Although outwardly absorbed
in his devotions, he had listened with an excited gleam in his dim old
eyes, and once had half started forward to speak, but checked himself
quickly, and remained quiescent during the time that elapsed before
Carmontelle and the praying nuns took their departure from the chapel.
When all were gone, and there remained only himself and that still form
in the black-draped coffin, he started eagerly forward and stood in
excited silence gazing at the beautiful face of the dead girl. Once he
lifted his old, wrinkled hand and pressed hers tenderly, then withdrew
it, shuddering at that mortal coldness.
It was no wonder that the old priest had been excited by the story
of Carmontelle, for years ago he had been an enthusiastic traveler
in Eastern lands, and an old witch--or sorceress, as she was called
there--had given him two drugs to which she ascribed the mysterious
properties possessed by those of which Carmontelle had spoken. He had
kept them always, certainly with no intention of ever testing the
strange power claimed for them, but only because they were part and
parcel of the box of curiosities he had brought with him from that
fascinating tour. To-day the two vials lay safely in the box, wrapped
in a bit of yellow parchment on which, in a strange tongue, were
inscribed the directions for their use.
It flashed over him that the hour had come when the gift of the old
hag, at whose strange leer he had shrunk and shuddered, was to be
instrumental in saving a human life.
But he was old and wise, and he knew that life is not always a
blessing; that often and often it is but the bearing of a heavy
cross, with lagging steps and weary heart, to a far Golgotha. In the
dim confessional men and women, and even the young and tender, had
poured their griefs and their sins into his compassionate hearing, and
many had waited for death with infinite yearning, while some--and he
trembled and crossed himself at the sad remembrance--had gone mad over
wrong and ruth, and in despair had cut the Gordian knot of life. It was
of all this he had thought when he had restrained his impulse to speak
to Carmontelle; it was of this he was thinking now, as he stood there,
old and gray and holy, by the side of that beautiful bud of life in the
coffin.
He was, as it were, weighing entity and non-entity in careful,
metaphorical scales. He was solemnly asking himself, "Which is
better--life or death?"
From the saints and angels in that bright world beyond, where his pious
thoughts continually rested, seemed to come a low, eager answer:
"Death!"
He looked again, with agonized doubt, at that fair, lovely face, so
innocent in its deep repose.
The mother superior had told him that the girl, had she lived, was
destined to be the bride of Carmontelle.
"I know the man--rich, generous, and worldly. As his wife, she will be
a society queen. Her idols will be wealth and pleasure. She will be
gay and heartless, forgetful of all holy things, living only for this
world. Better, far better, the bride of Heaven."
And crossing himself again, with a muttered prayer he went out of
the little chapel, where presently the pale-faced nuns came again,
muttering their pious aves for the dead.
That night in his cell, impelled by some irresistible force within
himself, he took out the small vial from the curiosity-box, and read
the strangely lettered parchment, for he was an earnest student, and
versed in Oriental lore.
Great drops of dew beaded his temples as he spelled out the meaning of
the parchment; and no wonder, for he read there that, although one lay
as dead for three days, a few drops of the antidote poured between the
lips would break that deathly sleep and restore life; but after those
wondrous three days the drug could be of no avail--death must surely
ensue.
In the cold and cheerless cell the old priest shivered as with a chill.
"What an awful responsibility lies upon me!" he muttered. "It is for
me to decide whether to give her back to Carmontelle and the world, to
be spoiled by its vanities, or leave her soul, now pure and unspotted,
free to enter heaven."
After an hour of painful meditation he put away the mysterious drug and
spent the night upon his knees on the cold stone floor of the cell,
calling on all the saints to uphold him in his pious resolve to save
the soul of the lovely girl by the sacrifice of her life.
And the next afternoon, in a shaken voice and a holy resolve written on
his ashen features, he read the long Latin prayers for the dead to the
assembled nuns and to Carmontelle among them, and saw the form of poor
Little Nobody consigned to the grim vault in the convent cemetery.
Two days and a night had thus passed while the girl lay in that
death-like trance. A few hours more and the prisoned soul would be
separated from the body, and the story of her brief life be ended.
But when the shades of night again fell on the convent walls, a
revulsion of feeling brought remorse to the soul of the old priest. He
was haunted by the thought of the living girl prisoned in the vault
among the dead. In the solitude of his cell that night a strange unrest
grew upon him, and evil spirits seemed to people the gloom.
He started up in terror from his knees, the great drops of sweat
pouring over his face.
"Yes, yes, it is murder!" he uttered, fearfully. "Heaven put the means
of saving her in my hands, and I was too blind to understand. But I
will atone, I will atone!"
A sudden thought came to him, and he hurriedly sought a brother priest
and the mother superior. To them, in deep humility, he confessed his
error.
"I was deceived by tempting devils, but I see my mistake in time
to correct it," he said, humbly. "Several hours yet remain of the
time, and I will restore her to life, by the aid of Heaven and this
mysterious drug, and her return to life must be a secret."
They went with him secretly to the dark vault. They took from the
coffin that unconscious form and bore it in their arms to a secluded
chamber. There they poured between the pale, sealed lips a few drops of
the mysterious drug, and kept anxious vigil all night over her bedside.
In a few hours they began to reap the reward of their solicitude. The
appearance of the girl's face grew less death-like, a delicate moisture
appeared on her skin, a faint color in her lips, and gradually a
barely perceptible respiration became apparent. The drug had done its
restorative work perfectly.
Down on his knees went the anxious old priest, and he thanked Heaven
for the life he had saved.
When the morning light began to gild the convent spire, the dark eyes
opened slowly upon the face of the mother superior, who was watching
intently for this sign of life. The priests had retired, and they were
quite alone. Tears of relief sparkled into the eyes of the good nun.
"Dear child, you are awake at last!" she exclaimed, gladly; but the
girl made no reply. Her lids had closed again, and she had fallen into
a quiet, natural sleep that lasted until the chiming of the vesper
bells.
She awoke to find her slumber guarded by another nun, who had taken the
place of the good mother. When the dark, puzzled eyes wandered around
the room, she chirped sweetly:
"Oh, my dear, you have slept so long, you must be very, very hungry. I
will bring you some food."
She came back presently with some light, nutritious broth in a bowl,
and fed the girl gently from a tea-spoon. She swallowed languidly,
and a few mouthfuls sufficed her appetite. Then she looked at the
pleasant-faced nun, and said, languidly:
"Good sister, I do not understand. Just now I was with Monsieur Van
Zandt. He was wounded. Oh, how pale he was!" shivering. "Another
minute, and I am here. How is it, and where is he?"
The old priest had entered noiselessly, and the low voice was
distinctly audible to his ears. He shuddered.
He had just read in a paper of the mysterious disappearance of Eliot
Van Zandt, who was supposed to have been murdered, and his body flung
into the lake or the river. Hence the girl's strange words struck
coldly on his senses. He thought:
"Her soul has been parted from the body in that strange trance, and
has taken cognizance of the man vainly sought for by friends and
detectives. What if she could tell where he is hidden!"
Muttering a prayer for the girl, he came up to the bedside.
"Bless you, my daughter," he said, soothingly. "And so you have seen
Eliot Van Zandt? Does he yet live?"
She looked at him gently and with surprise. Perhaps, in the strange
experiences of her trance, she was inured to surprises.
"Holy father," she murmured, reverentially, then, gently. "I have seen
him. He is not dead. He is not going to die. But he is very ill; he is
dangerously wounded."
The little nun chirped an "oh!" of vivacious wonder, but the priest
silenced her by a warning glance.
"Where is he? Where is Monsieur Van Zandt, my daughter?" he questioned,
eagerly.
"Where?" echoed Little Nobody. "Why, in the next room, doubtless, good
father, for a minute ago I was with him, and then I found myself here
so suddenly that it seemed a little strange to me."
"Yes, it is strange," said the old priest, growing pale and hurriedly
crossing himself. "But you are mistaken. He is not in this house. If
you know where he is, tell me, daughter."
She shut her eyes reflectively, opened them again, and answered,
dreamily:
"He was lying on a bed in a pretty room, where a lamp was burning all
day. There was a red wound on his breast, and he was pale and ill. I do
not know the house, but Madame Lorraine can tell you, for it was her
servant, Mima, that I saw giving him a glass of water."