"Brought the game?"
"That"s what we"re sending down now!..."
"That"s a bit of all right!"
Sailor now seized the trussed Jules from the bucket and flung him on the ground.
"Damaged goods, that--eh?" he laughed evilly.
The Beadle, Beard, and Emilet were coming down in turn. The group below bent curiously over the prisoner.
"He"s soft--that sort is!" cried Ernestine. And tapping him on the face with her foot, big Ernestine tried to make Jules show signs of life.
Beard dropped out of the bucket and stopped the game.
"Let"s see, Ernestine?... Stop it now!"
After gripping the hand of each comrade in turn, after hugging a bottle and draining it in a long draught, emptying it to the dregs, Beard flung it aside.
"Let"s get to work--no time to waste!... If we finish him off, we"ll have to get rid of him before morning!"
Sailor lifted Jules with the aid of two comrades. They propped him against a ma.s.sive pillar of wood which supported the cellar roof. They bound their wretched victim to it with strong cords.
Meanwhile, Ernestine was unwinding the gag.
"Take your places on the tribunal!" commanded Nibet.
"And you others, a gla.s.s of pick-me-up for the fellow!"
The pick-me-up intended to restore Jules to consciousness was brought by Mother Toulouche, under the form of a large earthen pot full of cold water. She dashed the water in the prisoner"s face.
Jules slowly opened his eyes and regained his wits, amidst an ominous silence. The band watched his return to life with evil smiles: they quietly watched his pallid face turn a livid green with terror.
The wretched creature could not utter a syllable. He stared wildly at those about him, his friends of yesterday, at those seated on the mock judgment bench who, crouching forward, were observing him with sardonic smiles.
Nibet put a question.
"You hear and understand us, Jules?"
"Pity!" howled the victim.
Nibet was indifferent to the cry.
"He understands!... For my part, I am all for keeping to a proper procedure.... I would not have agreed to sit in judgment on him if he had been unable to defend himself.... We don"t act that way down here!"
Turning to his acolytes for signs of their approval, he continued:
"Beard! The word is with you! Let us hear why he has been brought up to judgment!... Tell us what he is accused of!... Bring up all there is against him!"
Beard, who was marching up and down between the hooligan tribunal and the accused, who was half dead, and incapable of making a rational statement, stopped, squared himself with an air of satisfaction, and began his speech for the prosecution.
"Jules, has anyone ever done you any harm here?... Has anyone played cowardly tricks on you?... Set traps to catch you in?... Have you ever been cheated out of your fair share of the spoil?... Is there anything you can bring up against us?... No?... Well, here"s what we have against you ... it"s not worth while lying about it either!... You are the one who has taken the wind out of our sails over the Danidoff affair ... do you confess that?"
In a voice barely intelligible Jules gasped out:
"Beard ... I don"t understand you!... I have done nothing--nothing....
What have you against me?..."
Beard took his time.
Planted before the prisoner, with hip stuck out and hand in pocket, the other hand raised in tragic invocation towards his comrades:
"You have heard?... Monsieur does not understand!... He has not the pluck to be open and aboveboard!"
Turning again to the wretched captive, he continued:
"Well, I"m going to explain ... it was you, wasn"t it, who had to put through the robbery of the lady"s jewels?... Well, do you know what you did? Do you want me to tell you?... Instead of lending us a hand as was promised and sworn, you kept the cake for yourself!... In other words, you, and some of your sort, serving at the ball, put your heads together, and shut up the lady in the room they found her in; and that way, you got out of sharing with us!... So we have been done in the eye over that deal!... The proof that you have comrades we know nothing about is, that yesterday when you were done in, they found a way to get you out of the Salad Basket!... It wasn"t us!... But to return to the Danidoff robbery ... oh, you must have laughed then!... But everyone has his turn ... you are going to laugh on the wrong side of your mouth now!... Do you know what they call it--what you"ve done--dared to do?"
In the same strangled voice, Jules managed to get out the words:
"But it"s not true!... I swear to you ..."
Beard did not listen.
"There"s not one of our lot who would give me the lie!... To behave like that is treachery!... You have betrayed the Numbers. There it is in a nutsh.e.l.l!... What have you to reply to that?"
For the third time, Jules repeated in a hoa.r.s.e whisper, for he felt life was gradually leaving him: an awful fear gripped him, he saw he was completely done for.
"I swear I did not do that!... I didn"t rob the princess.... I don"t even know who did!"
Jules was, perhaps, speaking the truth, but he took the worst way to defend himself.... If he had had pluck and wit enough to take the Beard"s accusation with a high hand, if he had met threats with violent denial and a.s.sertion, it is quite possible he might have made an impression in his favour; but he cried for pity and for mercy from men who were pitiless!
He was afraid!... His fear was shown by the convulsive trembling which agitated his wretched body, by his ghastly pallor, by the cold drops of sweat rolling down his forehead.... He was no longer a man: it was a lamentable bit of human wreckage the hooligans had before them!... And the more lamentable this wreck showed itself to be, the less worthy of their interest it seemed!
When Jules gasped out once again:
"I swear to you it was not I! No!... I did not do it!"
The hooligans, moved by a common impulse, rose, indignant, furious, mad with rage.
"That"s a good one, that is!" yelled Nibet, who, beside himself with rage, suddenly forgot his avowed respect for judicial forms.
"Since he is determined to tell lies, and hasn"t the pluck to say what he"s done, there"s only one thing for us to do, and that"s to stop his mouth up!... Ernestine, put the plug back!"
And as the girl once more rolled the scarf round and round the head of the miserable Jules, Nibet turned to his comrades.
"Now then? One hasn"t any need to waste more time over it!... We know all the story--not so?... It"s settled, I tell you!... A fellow who has done what he has done, what does he deserve?... You answer first, Mother Toulouche, since you are the oldest?..."
Mother Toulouche stretched out a trembling hand, as though calling on Heaven to witness an oath.