She glanced toward the secluded apartment; its occupants--the subject of their conversation, and a priest, a feeble-looking man of about seventy, whose delicate, sad face shone white and out-of-keeping in that adventuresome company. "At any rate, the Black Seigneur hasn"t lost his good looks!"
"Take care _you_ don"t lose your heart!"
"Bah!" Her strong bold eyes swept back. "Much good it would do me!"
"And for that reason--"
"Messieurs!" the landlord"s voice broke in upon them; "behold!" it seemed to say, as pushing through the company, he preceded a lanky lad who bore by their legs many plucked fowls and birds--woodc.o.c.k, wild duck, cliff pigeons--and made his way to the great open fireplace at one end of the room. There, bending over the glowing embers, the landlord deliberately stirred and spread them; then, reaching for a bar of steel, he selected a poulet from the hand of the lanky attendant and prepared to adjust it; but before doing so, prodded it with his finger, surveyed it critically, and held it up for admiring attention.
"Who says old Pierre Laroche doesn"t know how to care for his friends?
What think you of it, my masters?"
"Plump as the King"s confessor," muttered the poet.
"Or your King himself!" said one of the islanders.
"On with the King! Skewer the King!" exclaimed a fierce voice.
"And then we"ll eat him!" laughed the girl, showing her white teeth.
"Thoughtless children!" From his place at the table in the small room adjoining, the priest, attracted by the grim merriment of the islanders, looked down to regard them; the red fire; the red gown.
"Here, at least, will you find a safe asylum, Father," said his companion, the Black Seigneur, in an absent tone; "a little rough, perhaps, to suit your calling--"
"The rougher, the more suitable--as I"ve often had occasion to learn since leaving Verranch."
"Since being driven from it, you mean!" shortly.
"Ah, those revolutionary doc.u.ments--placed in my garden!"
"To make you appear--you, Father!--a sanguinary character!" But the other"s laugh rang false.
"Alas, such wickedness! But I was too content; the rose-covered cottage too comfortable; its garden, an Eden! It was more meet I should be driven forth; go out into the highways, where I found--such misery! I reproached myself I had not sought it sooner--voluntarily.
From north to south peasants dying, women and children starving, no one to administer the last rites--on every side, work, work for the outcast priest! For ten years it has occupied him--a blessed privilege--"
"And then," the young man, who had seemed absorbed in other thoughts, hardly listening, looked mechanically up, "you came back?"
"A weakness of age! To see the old place once more! The little church; G.o.d"s acre at its side; to stand on the hill at Verranch and look out a last time over the beautiful vale toward the Mount!"
Briefly he paused. "Yet I am glad I yielded to the temptation; otherwise should I not have met your old servant, Sanchez; who told me all--how you had long been looking for me, and arranged our meeting for that day--on the island of Casque!"
"But not," the young man"s demeanor at once became intent; his eyes gleamed with sudden fierce lights, "for what followed!"
The priest sighed. "Shall I ever forget it? The terrible night, the troop-ship, the killed and wounded. And the poor fellows taken prisoners! I can not but think of them and their fate. What will it be?"
The other did not answer; only impatiently moved his injured arm and, regarding him, the down-turned, dark countenance, the knit brows, quickly the priest changed the subject of conversation.
In the large room some one began to play, and before the fire, where now the birds were turning and the serving-lad, with a long spoon was basting, the dark-browed girl started to dance. At the side of the hearth old Pierre smoked stolidly, gazed at the coals, and dreamed--perhaps of the past, and dangers he had himself encountered, or of the present, and his ships scattered--where?--on profitable, if precarious errands. Somberly, in no freer mood than on the occasion of their first visit to the inn, the crew looked on; but a tall, savage-appearing islander soon matched her step; a second took his place; from one partner to another she pa.s.sed--wild, reckless men whose touch she did not shun; yet it might have been noticed her eyes turned often, through wreaths of smoke, mist-like in the glare and glimmer of dips and torches, toward the Black Seigneur.
Why--her gaze seemed to say--did he not join them, instead of sitting there with a priest? She whirled to the threshold; her flushed face looked in. "Are you saying a ma.s.s for the souls of your men who were captured?"
"I see," he returned quietly, "you have been gossiping."
"A woman"s privilege!" she flashed back. "But how did it happen? And not only your arm," more sharply regarding him, "but your head! I fancy if I were to push back a few locks of that thick hair I should discover--it must have been a pretty blow you got, my Seigneur Solitude!" He made no reply and she went on. "You, who I thought were never beaten! By a mere handful of troops, too! Did you have to run away very fast? If I were a man--"
"Your tongue would be less sharp," he answered coolly, the black eyes indifferent.
"Much you care for my tongue!" she retorted.
"No?"
"No!" she returned mockingly, when above the din of voices, the crackling of the fire, and the wild moaning of the wind in the chimney, a low, but distinct and prolonged call was heard,--from somewhere without, below.
"What is that?" Quickly Nanette turned; superst.i.tious, after the fashion of most of her people, a little of the color left her cheek.
Again was it wafted to them, nearer, plainer! "The voices of dead men from the sea!"
"More like some one on the steps who would like to get in--some fisherman who has just got to sh.o.r.e!" said old Pierre Laroche, waking up and emptying his pipe. "Throw open the door. The stones are slippery--the night dark--"
One of the crew obeyed, and, as the wind entered sharply, and the lights flickered and grew dim, there half staggered, half rushed from the gloom, the figure of a man, wild, wet, whose clothes were torn and whose face was freshly cut and marked with many livid signs of violence.
"Sanchez!" From his place the Black Seigneur rose.
The others looked around wonderingly; some with rough pity. "What"s the matter, man?" said one. "You look as if you had had a bad fall."
"Fall!" Standing in the center of the room, where he had come to a sudden stop, the man gazed, bewildered, resentful, about him; then above the circle of questioning faces, his uncertain look lifted; caught and remained fixed on that of the Black Seigneur. "Fall?" he repeated, articulating with difficulty. "No; I had--no fall--but I will speak--with my master--alone!"
CHAPTER XIII
THE SEETHING OF THE SEA
""I have concluded to deal leniently with you," said the Governor; "set you free!" I could not believe."
Alone in the little chamber, the door of which now was closed, shutting them from sight of the company in the general eating and drinking room adjoining, Sanchez and the Black Seigneur sat together. Before them the viands that had been placed on the table were untouched; the filled gla.s.ses, untasted. As he spoke, the man bent forward, his words disjointed; his eyes gleaming.
""But," the Governor added, "the criminal must be taught not to forget"; then turned to his soldiers. "Beat me this fellow from the Mount!" he commanded."
"What!" The blood sprang to the dark face of the listener; he half started from his chair. "And they did! A merry chase, down the streets, across the sands! I, an old soldier!" His voice choked.
"Beaten like a dog!"
For some moments the young man looked at him; then again sank back; stared straight ahead. Without, the laughter and harsh voices of the islanders had become louder; within the little chamber, the only sound now was the hard, persistent ticking of the clock on the shelf.
"But how," at length Desaurac made a movement, "did he--"
"Learn!" violently. "The way I told you he would!"
"You mean--"