The head gunner made no reply. Foiled in his efforts to get the visitor away, he now came a little closer to the trio, with the expression of a person who is prepared for the worst.
"So it is to Mlle. Cloarek that I have the honour of speaking," said the ship owner, gallantly, turning to Sabine.
"Yes, monsieur, and you, I understand, are one of my father"s friends."
"He has no more devoted friend and admirer, I a.s.sure you, mademoiselle.
I should be very ungrateful if I were not; I am under such great obligations to him."
"My father has been fortunate enough to render you some service, then, monsieur."
"Some service, mademoiselle? He has made my fortune for me."
"Your fortune, and how?" asked Sabine, much surprised.
"Why, mademoiselle," interrupted Segoffin, hastily, "it is in this gentleman"s interest that your father has made so many--so many trips."
"That is true, mademoiselle," replied the ship owner, "and every one, almost without exception, has yielded rich returns."
"Yes, he is a great manufacturer," whispered Segoffin, edging in between Sabine and Suzanne. "We sell lots of goods for him during our trips."
"Then you are at least partially accountable for the anxiety which my father"s frequent absences cause me, monsieur," remarked Sabine.
"And you have no idea how unreasonable mademoiselle is, monsieur,"
chimed in Suzanne. "She frets just as much as if her father were really in some danger--"
"Some danger! Ah, my dear lady, you may well say--"
"Yes, it is astonishing how people deceive themselves," interrupted Segoffin, with great volubility. "Everybody thinks that everybody else has an easy time of it, and because a person makes a good deal of money, other people think he has only to stop and rake it up."
"Appearances are, indeed, very deceitful, my dear young lady," remarked the ship owner, "and though your father makes so light of the danger he incurs, I a.s.sure you that in the last fight--"
"Fight?" exclaimed the young girl, in astonishment; "fight?"
"What fight are you speaking of, monsieur?" asked Suzanne, in her turn, no less amazed.
"Why, a desperate fight, a fight to the death," whispered Segoffin, "with a merchant who didn"t find our goods to his taste, but M. Cloarek and I finally succeeded so well in bringing him around to our way of thinking that he ended by taking a hundred pieces from us--"
"What on earth is the fellow talking about, my dear ladies?" cried M.
Verduron, who had tried several times to interrupt Segoffin, but in vain. "Has my worthy friend gone stark, staring mad?"
"Mad!" exclaimed Segoffin, in a voice of thunder. Then advancing toward M. Verduron, he said, in threatening tones:
"You call me a madman, do you, you old rascal!"
For the fact is the head gunner, finding himself at the end of his resources, and despairing of averting the evil moment much longer, had resolved upon heroic measures; so, taking advantage of the amazement of the ship owner, who was very naturally stupefied by this sudden change of manner, Segoffin continued, in still more violent tones:
"Yes, you are an insolent old rascal, and if you try any more of your impudence on me, I"ll shake you out of your boots."
"Segoffin, what are you saying, in Heaven"s name?" cried Sabine, all of a tremble.
"What! you have the audacity to speak to me in this way, and in the presence of ladies, too!" exclaimed the ship owner.
"Take mademoiselle away from here at once," Segoffin said to Suzanne, _sotto voce_. "We are going to have a row, and it will be sure to throw her into a spasm. Get her away, get her away at once, I say."
Then, rushing upon the ship owner, and seizing him by the collar, he shouted:
"I"ve a great mind to hurl you down the cliff through that gap in the wall, you old bergamot-scented fop."
"Why, this poor man has gone stark, staring mad. Did any one ever see the like of it? What has happened to him?" stammered the amazed visitor.
"In G.o.d"s name, take mademoiselle away!" thundered Segoffin, again turning to the housekeeper.
That lady, seeing Sabine turn pale and tremble like a leaf, had not waited to hear this injunction repeated before trying to lead Sabine to the house, but the young girl, in spite of her terror and the housekeeper"s entreaties, could not be induced to leave the spot, deeming it cowardly to desert her father"s friend under such circ.u.mstances; so, releasing herself from Suzanne"s grasp, she approached the two men and cried, indignantly:
"Segoffin, your conduct is outrageous. In my father"s name I command you to stop such scandalous behaviour at once."
"Help, help, he is strangling me!" murmured M. Verduron, feebly. "Ah, when the captain--"
The word captain sealed the ship owner"s fate. In the twinkling of an eye Segoffin had seized M. Verduron around the waist, and had sprung with him over the low parapet on to the gra.s.sy slope below, where, still locked in each other"s arms, they rolled unharmed to the bottom of the cliff, while Sabine, unable to control the terror which this last incident had excited, swooned in Suzanne"s arms.
"Help, Therese, help! Mademoiselle has fainted; help!" cried the housekeeper. The servant came running in answer to the summons, and with her a.s.sistance Sabine was carried to the house.
This call was heard by Segoffin, who at once said to himself: "There is no farther cause for fear; our secret is safe!"
So he released his hold upon M. Floridor Verduron, who staggered to his feet, panting and dishevelled, and so angry that he was unable to utter a word, though his eyes spoke volumes. Segoffin, profiting by this silence, said to the ship owner, with the most good-humoured air imaginable, quite as if they were continuing a friendly conversation, in fact:
"Now, my dear M. Verduron, I will explain why I was obliged to force you to follow me to this rather lonely retreat."
"Wretch, how dare you insult me in this fashion?" yelled the ship owner, exasperated beyond endurance by the head gunner"s coolness.
"It was all your fault, M. Verduron."
"My fault? How outrageous!"
"I asked you to give me a moment"s conversation in private, but you wouldn"t do it, so I was obliged to resort to this little manoeuvre to secure it."
"Very well, very well, we will see what the captain says about all this.
To place me in such a position, and in the presence of ladies!"
"I really ask your pardon for the liberty I took, M. Verduron," said Segoffin, seriously enough this time, "but upon my honour I was absolutely compelled to do it."
"What! you dare--"
"Listen to me. For several very important reasons M. Cloarek has carefully concealed from his daughter the fact that he has been engaged in privateering."
"Is that really so?" exclaimed the ship owner, his wrath giving place to profound astonishment. "Possibly that is the reason he took such pains to conceal his real name and address from me, then."
"Yes, and in order to explain his frequent absences he has given his daughter to understand that he sells dry goods on a commission, so you can understand my embarra.s.sment when I saw you drop down upon us from the clouds."