I put my hand to my mouth.
"Nick!" I shouted.
There came for an answer, with the careless and unskilful thrumming of the guitar, the end of the verse:--
"Thine eyes are bright as the stars at night, Thy cheeks like the rose of the dawning, oh!"
"Helas!" exclaimed Hippolyte, sadly, "there is no other boat."
"Nick!" I shouted again, reenforced vociferously by the others.
The music ceased, there came feminine laughter across the water, then Nick"s voice, in French that dared everything:--
"Go away and amuse yourselves at the dance. Peste, it is scarce an hour ago I threatened to row ash.o.r.e and break your heads. Allez vous en, jaloux!"
A scream of delight from Suzanne followed this sally, which was received by Gaspard and Hippolyte with a rattle of sacres, and--despite our irritation--the Colonel, Monsieur Gratiot, and myself with a burst of involuntary laughter.
"Parbleu," said the Colonel, choking, "it is a pity to disturb such a one. Gratiot, if it was my boat, I"d delay the departure till morning."
"Indeed, I shall have had no small entertainment as a solace," said Monsieur Gratiot. "Listen!"
The tinkle of the guitar was heard again, and Nick"s voice, strong and full and undisturbed:--
"S"posin" I was to go to N" O"leans an" take sick an" die, Like a bird into the country my spirit would fly.
Go "way, old man, and leave me alone, For I am a stranger and a long way from home."
There was a murmur of voices in the boat, the sound of a paddle gurgling as it dipped, and the dugout shot out towards the middle of the pond and drifted again.
I shouted once more at the top of my lungs:--
"Come in here, Nick, instantly!"
There was a moment"s silence.
"By gad, it"s Parson Davy!" I heard Nick exclaim. "Halloo, Davy, how the deuce did you get there?"
"No thanks to you," I retorted hotly. "Come in."
"Lord," said he, "is it time to go to New Orleans?"
"One might think New Orleans was across the street," said Monsieur Gratiot. "What an att.i.tude of mind!"
The dugout was coming towards us now, propelled by easy strokes, and Nick could be heard the while talking in low tones to Suzanne. We could only guess at the tenor of his conversation, which ceased entirely as they drew near. At length the prow slid in among the rushes, was seized vigorously by Gaspard and Hippolyte, and the boat hauled ash.o.r.e.
"Thank you very much, Messieurs; you are most obliging," said Nick. And taking Suzanne by the hand, he helped her gallantly over the gunwale.
"Monsieur," he added, turning in his most irresistible manner to Monsieur Gratiot, "if I have delayed the departure of your boat, I am exceedingly sorry. But I appeal to you if I have not the best of excuses."
And he bowed to Suzanne, who stood beside him coyly, looking down. As for "Polyte and Gaspard, they were quite breathless between rage and astonishment. But Colonel Chouteau began to laugh.
"Diable, Monsieur, you are right," he cried, "and rather than have missed this entertainment I would pay Gratiot for his cargo."
"Au revoir, Mademoiselle," said Nick, "I will return when I am released from bondage. When this terrible mentor relaxes vigilance, I will escape and make my way back to you through the forests."
"Oh!" cried Mademoiselle to me, "you will let him come back, Monsieur."
"a.s.suredly, Mademoiselle," I said, "but I have known him longer than you, and I tell you that in a month he will not wish to come back."
Hippolyte gave a grunt of approval to this plain speech. Suzanne exclaimed, but before Nick could answer footsteps were heard in the path and Lenoir himself, perspiring, panting, exhausted, appeared in the midst of us.
"Suzanne!" he cried, "Suzanne!" And turning to Nick, he added quite simply, "So, Monsieur, you did not run off with her, after all?"
"There was no place to run, Monsieur," answered Nick.
"Praise be to G.o.d for that!" said the miller, heartily, "there is some advantage in living in the wilderness, when everything is said."
"I shall come back and try, Monsieur," said Nick.
The miller raised his hands.
"I a.s.sure you that he will not, Monsieur," I put in.
He thanked me profusely, and suddenly an idea seemed to strike him.
"There is the priest," he cried; "Monsieur le cure retires late. There is the priest, Monsieur."
There was an awkward silence, broken at length by an exclamation from Gaspard. Colonel Chouteau turned his back, and I saw his shoulders heave. All eyes were on Nick, but the rascal did not seem at all perturbed.
"Monsieur," he said, bowing, "marriage is a serious thing, and not to be entered into lightly. I thank you from my heart, but I am bound now with Mr. Ritchie on an errand of such importance that I must make a sacrifice of my own interests and affairs to his."
"If Mr. Temple wishes--" I began, with malicious delight. But Nick took me by the shoulder.
"My dear Davy," he said, giving me a vicious kick, "I could not think of it. I will go with you at once. Adieu, Mademoiselle," said he, bending over Suzanne"s unresisting hand. "Adieu, Messieurs, and I thank you for your great interest in me." (This to Gaspard and Hippolyte.)
"And now, Monsieur Gratiot, I have already presumed too much on your patience. I will follow you, Monsieur."
We left them, Lenoir, Suzanne, and her two suitors, standing at the pond, and made our way through the path in the forest. It was not until we reached the road and had begun to climb out of the valley that the silence was broken between us.
"Monsieur," said Colonel Chouteau, slyly, "do you have many such escapes?"
"It might have been closer," said Nick.
"Closer?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the Colonel.
"a.s.suredly," said Nick, "to the extent of abducting Monsieur le cure.
As for you, Davy," he added, between his teeth, "I mean to get even with you."
It was well for us that the Colonel and Monsieur Gratiot took the escapade with such good nature. And so we walked along through the summer night, talking gayly, until at length the lights of the village twinkled ahead of us, and in the streets we met many parties making merry on their homeward way. We came to Monsieur Gratiot"s, bade our farewells to Madame, picked up our saddle-bags, the two gentlemen escorting us down to the river bank where the keel boat was tugging at the ropes that held her, impatient to be off. Her captain, a picturesque Canadian by the name of Xavier Paret, was presented to us; we bade our friends farewell, and stepped across the plank to the deck. As we were casting off, Monsieur Gratiot called to us that he would take the first occasion to send our horses back to Kentucky. The oars were manned, the heavy hulk moved, and we were shot out into the mighty current of the river on our way to New Orleans.
Nick and I stood for a long time on the deck, and the windows of the little village gleamed like stars among the trees. We pa.s.sed the last of its houses that nestled against the hill, and below that the forest lay like velvet under the moon. The song of our boatmen broke the silence of the night:--