Each with his favorite hunting pig on a stout string, a band of the
leading citizens of Montpont moved in dignified procession down the Rue
Victor Hugo in the direction of the hunting preserve.
It was a mild, delicious Sunday, cool and tranquil as a pool in a
woodland glade. To Perigord alone come such days. Peace was in the air,
and the murmur of voices of men intent on a mission of moment. The men
of Montpont were going forth to hunt truffles.
As Brillat-Savarin points out in his "Physiology of Taste"--"All France
is inordinately truffliferous, and the province of Perigord particularly
so." On week-days the hunting of that succulent subterranean fungus was
a business, indeed, a vast commercial enterprise, for were there not
thousands of Perigord pies to be made, and uncounted tins of _pate de
foie gras_ to be given the last exquisite touch by the addition of a bit
of truffle?
But on Sunday it became a sport, the chief, the only sport of the
citizens of Montpont. A preserve, rich in beech, oak and chestnut trees
in whose shade the shy truffle thrives, had been set apart and here the
truffle was never hunted for mercenary motives but for sport and sport
alone. On week-days truffle hunting was confined to professionals; on
Sunday, after church, all Montpont hunted truffles. Even the sub-prefect
maintained a stable of notable pigs for the purpose. For the pig is as
necessary to truffle-hunting as the beagle is to beagling.
A pig, by dint of patient training, can be taught to scent the buried
truffle with his sensitive snout, and to point to its hiding place, as
immobile as a cast-iron setter on a profiteer's lawn, until its proud
owner exhumes the prize. An experienced pointing pig, with a creditable
record, brings an enormous price in the markets of Montpont.
At the head of the procession that kindly Sunday marched Monsieur
Bonticu and Monsieur Pantan, with the decisive but leisurely tread of
men of affairs. They spoke to each other with an elaborate, ceremonial
politeness, for on this day, at least, they were rivals. On other days
they were bosom friends. To-day was the last of the fall hunting season,
and they were tied, with a score of some two hundred truffles each, for
the championship of Montpont, an honor beside which winning the Derby is
nothing and the _Grand Prix de Rome_ a mere bauble in the eyes of all
Perigord. To-day was to tell whether the laurels would rest on the round
pink brow of Monsieur Bonticu or the oval olive brow of Monsieur Pantan.
Monsieur Bonticu was the leading undertaker of Montpont, and in his
stately appearance he satisfied the traditions of his calling. He was a
large man of forty or so, and in his special hunting suit of jade-hued
cloth he looked, from a distance, to be an enormous green pepper. His
face was vast and many chinned and his eyes had been set at the bottom
of wells sunk deep in his pink face; it was said that even on a bright
noon he could see the stars, as ordinary folk can by peering up from
the bottom of a mine-shaft. They were small and cunning, his eyes, and a
little diffident. In Montpont, he was popular. Even had his heart not
been as large as it undoubtedly was, his prowess as a hunter of truffles
and his complete devotion to that art--he insisted it was an art--would
have endeared him to all right-thinking Montpontians. He was a bachelor,
and said, more than once, as he sipped his old Anjou in the Cafe de
l'Univers, "I marry? Bonticu marry? That is a cause of laughter, my
friends. I have my little house, a good cook, and my Anastasie. What
more could mortal ask? Certainly not an Eve in his paradise. I marry? I
be dad to a collection of squealing, wiggling cabbages? I laugh at the
idea."
Anastasie was his pig, a prodigy at detecting truffles, and his most
priceless treasure. He once said, at a truffle-hunters' dinner, "I have
but two passions, my comrades. The pursuit of the truffle and the flight
from the female."
Monsieur Pantan had applauded this sentiment heartily. He, too, was a
bachelor. He combined, lucratively, the offices of town veterinarian and
apothecary, and had written an authoritative book, "The Science of
Truffle Hunting." To him it was a science, the first of sciences. He was
a fierce-looking little man, with bellicose eyes and bristling
moustachio, and quick, nervous hands that always seemed to be rolling
endless thousands of pills. He was given to fits of temper, but that is
rather expected of a man in the south of France. His devotion to his
pig, Clotilde, atoned, in the eyes of Montpont, for a slightly irascible
nature.
The party, by now, had reached the hunting preserve, and with eager,
serious faces, they lengthened the leashes on their pigs, and urged them
to their task. By the laws of the chase, the choicest area had been left
for Monsieur Bonticu and Monsieur Pantan, and excited galleries followed
each of the two leading contestants. Bets were freely made.
* * * * *
In a scant nine minutes by the watch, Anastasie was seen to freeze and
point. Monsieur Bonticu plunged to his plump knees, whipped out his
trowel, dug like a badger, and in another minute brought to light a
handsome truffle, the size of a small potato, blackish-gray as the best
truffles are, and studded with warts. With a gesture of triumph, he
exhibited it to the umpire, and popped it into his bag. He rewarded
Anastasie with a bit of cheese, and urged her to new conquests. But a
few seconds later, Monsieur Pantan gave a short hop, skip and jump, and
all eyes were fastened on Clotilde, who had grown motionless, save for
the tip of her snout which quivered gently. Monsieur Pantan dug
feverishly and soon brandished aloft a well-developed truffle. So the
battle waged.
At one time, by a series of successes, Monsieur Bonticu was three up on
his rival, but Clotilde, by a bit of brilliant work beneath a chestnut
tree, brought to light a nest of four truffles and sent the Pantan
colors to the van.
The sun was setting; time was nearly up. The other hunters had long
since stopped and were clustered about the two chief contestants, who,
pale but collected, bent all their skill to the hunt. Practically every
square inch of ground had been covered. But one propitious spot
remained, the shadow of a giant oak, and, moved by a common impulse, the
stout Bonticu and the slender Pantan simultaneously directed their pigs
toward it. But a little minute of time now remained. The gallery held
its breath. Then a great shout made the leaves shake and rustle. Like
two perfectly synchronized machines, Anastasie and Clotilde had frozen
and were pointing. They were pointing to the same spot.
Monsieur Pantan, more active than his rival, had darted to his knees,
his trowel poised for action. But a large hand was laid on his shoulder,
politely, and the silky voice of Monsieur Bonticu said, "If Monsieur
will pardon me, may I have the honor of informing him that this is my
find?"
Monsieur Pantan, trowel in mid-air, bowed as best a kneeling man can.
"I trust," he said, coolly, "that Monsieur will not consider it an
impertinence if I continue to dig up what my Clotilde has, beyond
peradventure, discovered, and I hope Monsieur will not take it amiss if
I suggest that he step out of the light as his shadow is not exactly
that of a sapling."
Monsieur Bonticu was trembling, but controlled.
"With profoundest respect," he said from deep in his chest, "I beg to be
allowed to inform Monsieur that he is, if I may say so, in error. I must
ask Monsieur, as a sportsman, to step back and permit me to take what is
justly mine."
Monsieur Pantan's face was terrible to see, but his voice was icily
formal.
"I regret," he said, "that I cannot admit Monsieur's contention. In the
name of sport, and his own honor, I call upon Monsieur to retire from
his position."
"That," said Monsieur Bonticu, "I will never do."
They both turned faces of appeal to the umpire. That official was
bewildered.
"It is not in the rules, Messieurs," he got out, confusedly. "In my
forty years as an umpire, such a thing has not happened. It is a matter
to be settled between you, personally."
As he said the words, Monsieur Pantan commenced to dig furiously.
Monsieur Bonticu dropped to his knees and also dug, like some great,
green, panic-stricken beaver. Mounds of dirt flew up. At the same second
they spied the truffle, a monster of its tribe. At the same second the
plump fingers of Monsieur Bonticu and the thin fingers of Monsieur
Pantan closed on it. Cries of dismay rose from the gallery.
"It is the largest of truffles," called voices. "Don't break it. Broken
ones don't count." But it was too late. Monsieur Bonticu tugged
violently; as violently tugged Monsieur Pantan. The truffle, indeed a
giant of its species, burst asunder. The two men stood, each with his
half, each glaring.
"I trust," said Monsieur Bonticu, in his hollowest death-room voice,
"that Monsieur is satisfied. I have my opinion of Monsieur as a
sportsman, a gentleman and a Frenchman."
"For my part," returned Monsieur Pantan, with rising passion, "it is
impossible for me to consider Monsieur as any of the three."
"What's that you say?" cried Monsieur Bonticu, his big face suddenly
flamingly red.
"Monsieur, in addition to the defects in his sense of honor is not also
deficient in his sense of hearing," returned the smoldering Pantan.
"Monsieur is insulting."
"That is his hope."
Monsieur Bonticu was aflame with a great, seething wrath, but he had
sufficient control of his sense of insult to jerk at the leash of
Anastasie and say, in a tone all Montpont could hear:
"Come, Anastasie. I once did Monsieur Pantan the honor of considering
him your equal. I must revise my estimate. He is not your sort of pig at
all."
Monsieur Pantan's eyes were blazing dangerously, but he retained a
slipping grip on his emotions long enough to say:
"Come, Clotilde. Do not demean yourself by breathing the same air as
Monsieur and Madame Bonticu."
The eyes of Monsieur Bonticu, ordinarily so peaceful, now shot forth
sparks. Turning a livid face to his antagonist, he cried aloud:
"Monsieur Pantan, in my opinion you are a puff-ball!"
This was too much. For to call a truffle-hunter a puff-ball is to call
him a thing unspeakably vile. In the eyes of a true lover of truffles a
puff-ball is a noisome, obscene thing; it is a false truffle. In
truffledom it is a fighting word. With a scream of rage Monsieur Pantan
advanced on the bulky Bonticu.
"By the thumbs of St. Front," he cried, "you shall pay for that,
Monsieur Aristide Gontran Louis Bonticu. Here and now, before all
Montpont, before all Perigord, before all France, I challenge you to a
duel to the death."
Words rattled and jostled in his throat, so great was his anger.
Monsieur Bonticu stood motionless; his full-moon face had gone white;
the half of truffle slipped from his fingers. For he knew, as they all
knew, that the dueling code of Perigord is inexorable. It is seldom
nowadays that the Perigordians, even in their hottest moments, say the
fighting word, for once a challenge has passed, retirement is
impossible, and a duel is a most serious matter. By rigid rule, the
challenger and challenged must meet at daybreak in mortal combat. At
twenty paces they must each discharge two horse-pistols; then they must
close on each other with sabers; should these fail to settle the issue,
each man is provided with a poniard for the most intimate stages of the
combat. Such duels are seldom bloodless. Monsieur Bonticu's lips formed
some syllables. They were:
"You are aware of the consequences of your words, Monsieur Pantan?"
"Perfectly."
"You do not wish to withdraw them?" Monsieur Bonticu despite himself
injected a hopeful note into his query.
"I withdraw? Never in this life. On the contrary, not only do I not
withdraw, I reiterate," bridled Monsieur Pantan.
In a _requiescat in pace_ voice, Monsieur Bonticu said:
"So be it. You have sealed your own doom, Monsieur. I shall prepare to
attend you first in the capacity of an opponent, and shortly thereafter
in my professional capacity."
Monsieur Pantan sneered openly.
"Monsieur the undertaker had better consider in his remaining hours
whether it is feasible to embalm himself or have a stranger do it."
With this thunderbolt of defiance, the little man turned on his heel,
and stumped from the field.
Monsieur Bonticu followed at last. But he walked as one whose knees have
turned to _meringue glace_. He went slowly to his little shop and sat
down among the coffins. For the first time in his life their presence
made him uneasy. A big new one had just come from the factory. For a
long time he gazed at it; then he surveyed his own full-blown physique
with a measuring eye. He shuddered. The light fell on the silver plate
on the lid, and his eyes seemed to see engraved there: