The direct issue again! And if the driver were as obstinate as he looked, the chances of that ultimate victory inclined to the innkeeper"s side.
"The water would be inside the carriage," he urged.
"I "ll ride on the box by you," she rejoined.
"It "ll be up to the horses" shoulders."
"The horses don"t mind getting wet, I suppose."
"They "d be carried off their feet."
"Nonsense," said she, sharply, denying the fact since she could no longer pooh-pooh its significance. "Are you a coward?" she exclaimed indignantly.
"I "ve got some sense in my head," said he with a grin.
At this moment Captain Dieppe, wishing that he were dry, that he had a hat, that his moustache would curl, yet rising victorious over all disadvantages by virtue of his temperament and breeding, concealing also any personal interest that he had in the settlement of the question, approached the carriage, bowed to its occupant, and inquired, with the utmost courtesy, whether he could be of any service.
"It "s of great importance to me to cross," said she, returning his salutation.
"It"s impossible to cross," interposed the driver.
"Nonsense; I have crossed myself," remarked Captain Dieppe.
Both of them looked at him; he antic.i.p.ated their questions or objections.
"Crossing on foot one naturally gets a little wet," said he, smiling.
"I won"t let my horses cross," declared the driver. The Captain eyed him with a slightly threatening expression, but he did not like to quarrel before a lady.
"You "re afraid for your own skin," he said contemptuously. "Stay this side. I "ll bring the carriage back to you." He felt in his pocket and discovered two louis and two five-franc pieces. He handed the former coins to the driver. "I take all the responsibility to your master," he ended, and opening the carriage door he invited the lady to alight.
She was dark, tall, handsome, a woman of presence and of dignity. She took his hand and descended with much grace.
"I am greatly in your debt, sir," she said.
"Ladies, madame," he replied with a tentative advance of his hand toward his moustache, checked in time by a remembrance of the circ.u.mstances, "confer obligations often, but can contract none."
"I wish everybody thought as you do," said she with a deep sigh.
"Shall I mount the box?"
"If you please." He mounted after her, and took the reins. Cracking the whip, he urged on the horses.
"Body of the saints," cried the driver, stirred to emulation, "I "ll come with you!" and he leaped up on to the top of a travelling-trunk that was strapped behind the carriage.
"There is more good in human nature than one is apt to think," observed the Captain.
"If only one knows how to appeal to it," added the lady, sighing again very pathetically.
Somehow, the Captain received the idea that she was in trouble. He felt drawn to her, and not only by the sympathy which her courage and her apparent distress excited; he was conscious of some appeal, something in her which seemed to touch him directly and with a sort of familiarity, although he had certainly never seen her in his life before. He was pondering on this when one of the horses, frightened by the noise and rush of the water, reared up, while the other made a violent effort to turn itself, its comrade, and the carriage round, and head back again for Sasellano. The Captain sprang up, shouted, plied the whip; the driver stood on the trunk and yelled yet more vigorously; her Excellency clutched the rail with her hand. And in they went.
"The peculiarity of this stream," began the Captain, "lies not so much in its depth as in--"
"The strength of the current," interposed his companion, nodding.
"You know it?" he cried.
"Very well," she answered, and she might have said more had not the horses at this moment chosen to follow the easiest route, and headed directly downstream. A shriek from the driver awoke Dieppe to the peril of the position. He plied his whip again, and did his best to turn the animals" heads towards the opposite bank. The driver showed his opinion of the situation by climbing on to the top of the landau.
This step was perhaps a natural, but it was not a wise one. The roof was not adapted to carrying heavy weights. It gave way on one side, and in an instant the driver rolled over to the right and fell with a mighty splash into the water just above the carriage. At the same moment Dieppe contrived to turn the horses in the direction he aimed at, and the carriage moved a few paces.
"Ah, we move!" he exclaimed triumphantly.
"The driver "s fallen off!" cried the lady in alarm.
"I thought we seemed lighter, somehow," said Dieppe, paying no heed to the driver"s terrified shouts, but still urging on his horses. He showed at this moment something of a soldier"s recognition that, if necessary, life must be sacrificed for victory: he had taken the same view when he left M. Guillaume in order to pursue Paul de Roustache.
The driver, finding cries useless, saw that he must shift for himself.
The wheel helped him to rise to his feet; he found he could stand. In a quick turn of feeling, he called, "Courage!" Dieppe looked over at him with a rather contemptuous smile.
"What, have you found some down at the bottom of the river? Like truth in the well?" he asked. "Catch hold of one of the horses, then!" He turned to the lady. "You drive, madame?"
"Yes."
"Then do me the favour." He gave her the reins, with a gesture of apology stepped in front of her, and lowered himself into the water on the left-hand side. "Now, my friend, one of us at each of their heads, and we do it! The whip, madame with all your might, the whip!"
The horses made a bound; the driver dashed forward and caught one by the bridle; the lady lashed. On his side Dieppe, clinging to a trace, made his way forward. Both he and the driver now shouted furiously, their voices echoing in the hills that rose from the river on either side, and rising at last in a shout of triumph as the wheels turned, the horses gained firm footing, and with a last spring forward landed the carriage in safety.
The driver swore softly and crossed himself devoutly before he fell to a rueful study of the roof of the landau.
"Monsieur, I am eternally indebted to you," cried the lady to Dieppe.
"It is a reciprocal service, madame," said he. "To tell the truth, I also had special reasons for wishing to gain this side of the river."
She appeared a trifle embarra.s.sed, but civility, or rather grat.i.tude, impelled her to the suggestion. "You are travelling my way?" she asked.
"A thousand thanks, but I have some business to transact first."
She seemed relieved, but she was puzzled, too. "Business? Here?" she murmured.
Dieppe nodded. "It will not keep me long," he added gravely.
The driver had succeeded in restoring the top of the landau to a precarious stability. Dieppe handed the lady down from the box-seat and into the interior. The driver mounted his perch; the lady leant out of the window to take farewell of her ally.
"Every hour was of value to me," she said, with a plain touch of emotion in her voice, "and but for you I should have been taken back to Sasellano. We shall meet again, I hope."
"I shall live in the hope," said he, with a somewhat excessive gallantry--a trick of which he could not cure himself.
The driver whipped up--he did not intend that either he or his horses, having escaped drowning, should die of cold. The equipage lumbered up the hill, its inmate still leaning out and waving her hand. Dieppe watched until the party reached the zigzags and was hidden from view, though he still heard the crack of the whip.