ON THE BOAT.
At night, the appearance of the island inhabited by the Martial family
was gloomy, but in the brilliant sunlight nothing could be more
charming and cheerful than the cursed dwelling-place.
Bordered by willows and poplars and almost entirely covered with thick
grass, intersected with winding paths of yellow gravel, the island
contained a small vegetable garden and a number of fruit trees. In
this orchard was situated the thatched roof dwelling where Martial had
wished to retire, with Francois and Amandine. From this place the
island terminated at its point by a breakwater, formed of large piles,
to prevent the washing away of the earth.
Before the house was an arbor of green trellis work, reaching quite to
the landing-place, destined to support during the summer the hop-vine
and honeysuckle under whose shade were arranged the seats and tables
of the guests.
At one of the extremities of the main building, painted white and
covered with tiles, a woodhouse, surmounted by a granary, formed a
wing, much lower than the principal edifice. Immediately over this
wing was a window with shutters covered with plates of iron, and
fastened exteriorly by two bars of the same material.
Three boats were lying at the landing-place, and at the bottom of one
of them Nicholas was trying how the trap worked which he had arranged.
Mounted on a bench outside of the arbor, Calabash, with her eyes
shaded with her hand, was looking in the direction where she expected
Seraphin and Fleur-de-Marie to appear.
"No one yet, neither old nor young," said Calabash, descending from
her bench, and addressing Nicholas; "it will be as yesterday! Like
poor fellows waiting for their ship to come in! If these women don't
come before a half hour, we must go: the affair of Bras-Rouge is
better worth our while; he is waiting for us. The broker is to be at
his house in the Champs Elysees at five-o'clock--we must be there
before him. This very morning La Chouette repeated it to us."
"You are right," answered Nicholas, leaving his boat. "May the thunder
crush this old woman, who physics us for no purpose! The trap works
like a charm--of the two jobs perhaps we shall have neither."
"Besides, Bras-Rouge and Barbillon have need of us--of themselves they
can do nothing."
"It is true; for while one does the business, Red-Arm must remain
outside his tavern to watch, and Barbillon is not strong enough to
drag the broker into the cellar alone; this old woman will kick."
"Did not La Chouette tell us, laughingly, that she kept the Maitre
d'Ecole as a boarder in this cellar?"
"Not in this one; in another which is much deeper, and inundated when
the river is high."
"Mustn't he vegetate there, in that cellar! To be there all alone and
blind as he is, after the accident to him!"
"He will see clear there, if he sees nowhere else: the cellar is as
dark as a furnace."
"All the same; when he has sung all the songs he knows to amuse
himself, the time must appear devilishly long to him."
"La Chouette says that he amuses himself in hunting rats, and that
this cellar is very full of game."
"I say, Nicholas, speaking of individuals who must be rather wearied,
fatigued," said Calabash with a ferocious smile, pointing with her
finger to the window just described, "there is one there who must be
sucking his own blood."
"Bah! he is asleep. Since this morning he has made no noise; and his
dog is silent."
"Perhaps he has strangled it for food; these two days past they must
have been almost mad with hunger up there."
"It is their business. Martial may endure all this as long as he
pleases, if it amuses him; when he has finished, we will say that he
died from a severe illness; there will be no difficulty."
"You think so?"
"Most surely. On going this morning to Asnieres, mother met Ferot, the
fisherman; as he expressed his surprise at not having seen his friend
Martial for two days, she told him that Martial did not leave his bed,
he was so ill, and his life was despaired of. He swallowed all that
just like honey; he will tell it to others--and when the affair
happens it will seem all natural."
"Yes, but he will not die at once; it takes a long time in this way."
"There is no other way to manage it. This madman, Martial, when he has
a mind, is as wicked as the devil, and as strong as a bull in the
bargain; had he suspected us, we could not have approached him without
danger; while with his door once well nailed up on the outside, what
can he do? His window was already ironed."
"He could loosen the bars by breaking away the plaster with his knife,
which he would have done, if, mounted on a ladder, I had not mangled
his hands with the hatchet every time he commenced his work!"
"What a duty!" said the other, chuckling; "how much you must have been
amused!"
"I had to give you time to arrive with the iron plate and bars which
you went to Micou's for."
"How he must have foamed. Dear brother!"
"He ground his teeth like a madman; two or three times he tried to
push me off with blows from his club, but then, having but one hand
free, he could not work at the grating."
"Fortunately, there is no fireplace in the room!"
"Yes, and the door is strong and his hands wounded! but for this he
would be capable of making a hole through the plank."
"No, no, there is no danger that he can escape. His bier is more solid
than if it were made of oak and lead."
"I say--when La Louve gets out of prison, and comes here to seek her
man, as she calls him?"
"Well! we will tell her to look for him."
"Apropos, do you know that if mother had not shut up these scamps of
children, they would have been capable of gnawing the door like rats,
to deliver Martial! That little scoundrel, Francois, is a real devil
since he suspects that we have shut up our big brother."
"But are you going to leave them in the room upstairs while we are
away from the island? Their window is not grated--they have only to
descend from the outside."
At this moment cries and sobs in the house attracted the attention of
Nicholas and Calabash. They saw the opened door of the ground-floor
shut violently: a moment after the pale and sinister face of the widow
appeared at the kitchen-window. With her long, bony arm she beckoned
her children to come to the house.
"Come, there is a squabble! I bet it is Francois who kicks," said
Nicholas.
"Scoundrel of a Martial! except for him the boy would have been all
alone. Watch well, and if you see the two females coming, call me."
While Calabash, mounted on the bench, awaited their approach, Nicholas
entered the house. Little Amandine, kneeling in the middle of the
kitchen, wept, and asked pardon for her brother Francois. He,
irritated and threatening, stood in one of the corners of the room,
brandishing a hatchet. He seemed this time to make a desperate
resistance to the wishes of his mother.
As usual, quiet and calm, she pointed to the half-open door leading to
the cellar, and made a sign to her son that she wished Francois shut
up there.
"I will not go there!" cried the determined child, whose eyes sparkled
like those of a wild cat; "you wish to let us die with hunger, like
brother Martial."
"Mamma, for the love of God, leave us upstairs in our own room, as you
did yesterday," asked the little girl in a supplicating tone, clasping
her hands; "in the dark cellar we shall be so much afraid!"
The widow looked at Nicholas in an impatient manner, as if to reproach
him for not having executed her orders, and she again pointed to
Francois.
Seeing his brother approach, the young boy brandished his hatchet in a
desperate manner, and cried, "If you want to shut me up there, whether
it is brother, mother, or Calabash--I strike, and the hatchet cuts!"
Both Nicholas and the widow felt the necessity of preventing the two
children from going to the assistance of Martial during their absence,
and also to conceal from them what was about to take place on the
river. But Nicholas, as cowardly as he was ferocious, and not caring
to receive a blow from the dangerous hatchet with which his brother
was armed, hesitated to approach him.
The widow, vexed at the hesitation of her eldest son, pushed him
roughly by the shoulder toward Francois.
But Nicholas, again drawing back, cried, "If he wounds me, what shall
I do, mother? You know well enough I am about to need the use of both
my arms, and I still feel the blow that Martial has given me."
The widow shrugged her shoulders with contempt, and made a step toward
Francois.
"Do not come near me, mother!" cried the enraged boy, "or you shall be
paid for all the blows you have given me and Amandine."
"Brother, rather let yourself be locked up. Oh! do not strike our
mother!" cried Amandine, terrified.
At this moment Nicholas saw on a chair a large woolen coverlet, which
was used for the ironing-table; he seized it, and adroitly threw it
over the head of Francois, who, in spite of all his efforts, finding
himself entangled in its thick folds, could make no use of his arms.
Then Nicholas threw himself upon him, and, with the aid of his mother,
carried him into the cellar. Amandine had remained kneeling in the
middle of the kitchen. As soon as she saw the fate of her brother, she
arose quickly, and, notwithstanding her alarm, went of her own accord
to join him in his gloomy prison. The door was double-locked on the
brother and sister.
"It is the fault of Martial, if these children are like unchained
devils against us," cried Nicholas.
"Nothing has been heard in his chamber since this morning," said the
widow, in a thoughtful manner, and she shuddered; "nothing."
"That proves, mother, that you did well to say to Ferot, the fisherman
of Asnieres, that Martial was sick in bed, and like to die. In this
way, when all is over, no one will be astonished." After a moment's
pause, as if she wished to escape a horrible thought, the widow said,
roughly, "Did La Chouette come here while I was at Asnieres?"
"Yes, mother."
"Why did she not remain and go with us to Bras-Rouge? I am suspicious
of her."
"Bah! you suspect everybody, mother: to-day it is La Chouette;
yesterday it was Bras-Rouge."
"Bras-Rouge is at liberty; my son is at Toulon; they both committed
the same robbery."
"You always repeat that old story. Bras-Rouge escaped because he is as
cunning as a steel trap, that's all. La Chouette did not remain here,
because she had an appointment at two o'clock, near the Observatory,
with the tall man in black, on whose account she carried off this girl
from the country, with the assistance of the Maitre d'Ecole and
Tortillard; and it was even Barbillon who drove the hack which this
tall man in black hired for the occasion. Come, now, mother, why
should La Chouette inform against us, since she tells us what jobs she
has in hand, and we do not tell her ours? for she knows nothing of our
proposed drowning scrape. Be tranquil, mother--dog don't eat dog. The
day's work will be a good one. When I think that the broker has often
twenty or thirty thousand francs' worth of diamonds in her bag, and
that in two hours' time we shall have her in Red Arm's cellar. Thirty
thousand francs in diamonds! only think of it."
"And while we hold the broker, Bras-Rouge remains outside?" said the
widow, with an air of suspicion.
"And where should he be? If any one should come in, must he not
answer, and prevent them approaching the place where we are doing our
job?"
"Nicholas, Nicholas!" cried Calabash, from without, "here are the two
women."
"Quick, quick, mother! your shawl! I will row you over--it will be so
much done," said Nicholas.
The widow had replaced her morning-cap with one of black tulle. She
wrapped herself in a large shawl of white and gray tartan, locked the
kitchen door, placed the key behind one of the shutters, and followed
her son to the landing-place.
Almost in spite of herself, before she left the island, she cast a
long, lingering look at Martial's window, knit her brows, bit her
lips, then, after a sudden fit of shivering, she murmured to herself,
"It is his fault--his own fault."
"Nicholas! do you see them? there, just by that rising ground," cried
Calabash, pointing to the other side of the river, where Mrs. Seraphin
and Fleur-de-Marie appeared, descending a small path leading to the
shore, near a small elevation, on which was placed a plaster-kiln.
"Let us wait for the signal, and have no bungling," said Nicholas.
"Are you blind? Don't you recognize the fat woman who came here the
day before yesterday? Look at her orange shawl, and see what a hurry
the little peasant girl is in! poor little puss--it is plain to see
she don't know what is coming."
"Yes, I see the fat woman now. Come, it looks like work."
"The old woman is making a sign with her handkerchief," said Calabash:
"there they are on the shore."
"Come, come, step on board, mother," cried Nicholas, unfastening the
boat: "come in the boat with the hole, so that the women will not
suspect anything. And you, Calabash, jump into the other one, my girl--
row strong. Oh! hold, take my hook, put it alongside of you--it is
pointed like a lance--it may be of use--now, push ahead!" said the
bandit, placing in the boat a long boathook, one end of which
terminated with a sharp spike of iron.
In a few moments the two boats touched the shore, where Mrs. Seraphin
and Fleur-de-Marie had been waiting impatiently.
While Nicholas was tying his boat to a post, Mrs. Seraphin approached
him, and whispered, hurriedly, "Say that Madame George awaits us;"
then she said in a loud tone, "We are a little behindhand, my lad."
"Yes, my good lady; Madame George has asked for you several times."
"You see, my dear, Madame George is waiting for us," said Mrs.
Seraphin, turning toward Fleur-de-Marie, who, notwithstanding her
confidence, had felt her heart beat at the appearance of the sinister
faces of the widow, Calabash and Nicholas.
But the name of Madame George reassured her, and she answered, "I am
also very impatient to see her; happily, the passage is short."
"Won't the dear lady be happy!" said Mrs. Seraphin. Then, turning
toward Nicholas, she added: "Come, bring your boat a little nearer,
that we can embark;" and, in a low tone, she whispered, "The little
one must be drowned; if she comes up, put her under again."
"It is settled; don't you be afraid; when I make a sign, give me your
hand. She will sink all alone--all is prepared--you have nothing to
fear," answered Nicholas, in a low tone. Then, with savage
imperturbability, without being touched either with the beauty or
youth of Fleur-de-Marie, he offered her his arm.
The girl leaned lightly on him, and entered the boat. "Now your turn,
my good lady," said Nicholas to Mrs. Seraphin. And he offered to
assist her.
Whether it was a presentiment, suspicion, or only a fear that she
could not jump quick enough from the boat where La Goualeuse and
Nicholas were seated when it should sink, the housekeeper of Jacques
Ferrand said to Nicholas, drawing back, "On second thoughts, I will go
in the boat of mademoiselle." And she took a seat alongside of
Calabash.
"Very good," said Nicholas, exchanging a glance with his sister; and,
with the end of his oar, he shoved off his boat, his sister doing the
same as soon as Mrs. Seraphin had taken her seat. Standing on the
shore, erect, immovable, indifferent to this scene, the widow, pensive
and absorbed, kept her eyes fixed on Martial's window, which could be
distinguished, through the poplar trees, from the shore.
During this time the two boats moved slowly off toward the opposite
side.