Is not Martial here?"
"No," said his sister.
"So much the better; we will put away the swag before he sees it; leastways, if he can be kept from knowing about it."
"What! Are you afraid of him, you coward?" asked Calabash, provokingly.
Nicholas shrugged his shoulders significantly; then replied:
"Afraid of him? No, I should rather think not! But I have a strong suspicion he means to sell us,--that is my only fear; as for any other sort of dread, my weazen-slicer (knife) has rather too keen an edge for that!"
"Ah, when he is not here, you are full of boast and brag; but only let him show his face, and you are quiet as a mouse!"
This reproach seemed quite thrown away upon Nicholas, who, affecting not to have heard it, exclaimed:
"Come, come! Let"s unload the boat at once. Where is Francois, mother?
He could help us a good deal."
"Mother has locked him up, after having preciously flogged him; and, I can tell you, he will have to go to bed without any supper."
"Well and good as far as that goes; but still, he might lend a hand in unloading the boat,--eh, mother? Because, then myself and Calabash could fetch all in at once."
The widow raised her hand, and pointed with her finger towards the ceiling. Her daughter perfectly comprehended the signal, and departed at once to fetch Francois.
The countenance of the widow Martial had become less cloudy since the arrival of Nicholas, whom she greatly preferred to Calabash, but by no means entertaining for him the affection she felt for her Toulon son, as she designated him; for the maternal love of this ferocious woman appeared to increase in proportion to the criminality of her offspring.
This perverse preference will serve to account for the widow"s indifference towards her two younger children, neither of whom exhibited any disposition to evil, as well as her perfect hatred of Martial, her eldest son, who, although not leading an altogether irreproachable life, might still have pa.s.sed for a perfectly honest and well-conducted person if placed in comparison with Nicholas, Calabash, or his brother, the felon at Toulon.
"Which road did you take to-night?" inquired the widow of her son.
"Why, as I returned from the Quai de Billy, where, you know, I had to go to meet the gentleman who appointed to see me there, I spied a barge moored alongside the quay; it was as dark as pitch. "Halloa!" says I, "no light in the cabin? No doubt," says I, "all hands are ash.o.r.e. I"ll just go on board, and have a look; if I meet any one, it"s easy to ask for a bit of string, and make up a fudge about wanting to splice my oar." So up the side I climbs, and ventures into the cabin. Not a soul was there; so I began collecting all I could find: clothes, a great box, and, on the deck, four quintals of copper. So, you may guess, I was obliged to make two journeys. The vessel was loaded with copper and iron; but here comes Francois and Calabash. Now, then, let"s be off to the boat. Here, you young un, you Amandine! Look sharp, and make yourself useful; you can carry the clothes; we must get new things, you know, before we can throw aside our old ones."
Left alone, the widow busied herself in preparations for the family supper. She placed on the table bottles, gla.s.ses, earthenware, plates, with forks and spoons of silver; and, by the time this occupation was completed, her offspring returned heavily laden.
Little Francois staggered beneath the weight of copper which he carried on his shoulders, and Amandine was almost buried beneath the ma.s.s of stolen garments which she bore on her head, while Nicholas and Calabash brought in between them a wooden case, on the top of which lay the fourth lump of copper.
"The case,--the case!" cried Calabash, with savage eagerness. "Come, let"s rip it open, and know what"s in it."
The lumps of copper were flung on the ground. Nicholas took the heavy hatchet he carried in his belt, and introduced its strong iron head between the lid and the box which he had set down in the middle of the kitchen, and endeavoured with all his strength to force it open. The red and flickering light of the fire illumined this scene of pillage, while, from without, the loud gusts of the night wind increased in violence.
Nicholas, meanwhile, attired in his goatskin vest, stooped over the box, and essayed with all his might to wrench off the top, breaking out into the most horrible and blasphemous expressions, as he found the solidity of the fastenings resist all his endeavours to arrive at a knowledge of its contents; and Calabash, her eyes inflamed by covetousness, her cheeks flushed by the excitement of plunder, knelt down beside the case, on which she leaned her utmost weight, in order to give more power to the action of the lever employed by Nicholas. The widow, separated from the group by the table, on the other side of which she was standing, in her eagerness to behold the spoils, threw herself almost across the table, the better to gaze on the booty; her longing eyes sparkled with eagerness to learn the value of it. And finally--though unhappily, too true to human nature--the two children, whose naturally good inclinations had so often triumphed over the sea of vice and domestic corruption by which they were surrounded, even they, forgetting at once both their fears and their scruples, were alike infected by the same fatal curiosity.
Huddling close to each other, their eyes glittering with excitement, the breathing short and quick, Francois and Amandine seemed of all the party most impatient to ascertain the contents of the case, and the most irritated and out of patience with the slow progress made by Nicholas in his attempts to break it open. At length the lid yielded to the powerful and repeated blows dealt on it by the vigorous arm of the young man, and as its fragments fell on the ground a loud, exulting cry rose from the joyful and almost breathless group, who, joining in one wild ma.s.s, from the mother to the little girl, rushed forward, and with savage haste threw themselves on the opened box, which, forwarded, doubtless, by some house in Paris to a fashionable draper and mercer residing near the banks of the river, contained a large a.s.sortment of the different materials employed in female attire.
"Nicholas has not done amiss!" cried Calabash, unfolding a piece of mousseline-de-laine.
"No, faith!" returned the plunderer, opening, in his turn, a parcel of silk handkerchiefs; "I shall manage to pay myself for my trouble."
"Levantine, I declare!" cried the widow, dipping into the box, and drawing forth a rich silk. "Ah, that is a thing that fetches a price as readily as a loaf of bread."
"Oh, Bras Rouge"s receiver, who lives in the Rue du Temple, will buy all the finery, and be glad of it. And Father Micou, the man who lets furnished lodgings in the Quartier St. Honore, will take the rest of the swag."
"Amandine," whispered Francois to his little sister, "what a beautiful cravat one of those handsome silk handkerchiefs Nicholas is holding in his hand would make, wouldn"t it?"
"Oh, yes; and what a sweet pretty _marmotte_ it would make for me!"
replied the child, in rapture at the very idea.
"Well, it must be confessed, Nicholas," said Calabash, "that it was a lucky thought of yours to go on board that barge,--famous! Look, here are shawls, too! How many, I wonder? One, two, three. And just see here, mother! This one is real Bourre de Soie."
"Mother Burette would give at least five hundred francs for the lot,"
said the widow, after closely examining each article.
"Then, I"ll be sworn," answered Nicholas, "if she"ll give that, the things are worth at least fifteen hundred francs. But, as the old saying is, "The receiver"s as bad as the thief." Never mind; so much the worse for us! I"m no hand at splitting differences; and I shall be quite flat enough this time to let Mother Burette have it all her own way, and Father Micou also, for the matter of that; but then, to be sure, he is a friend."
"I don"t care for that, he"d cheat you as soon as another; I"m up to the old dealer in marine stores. But then these rascally receivers know we cannot do without them," continued Calabash, putting on one of the shawls, and folding it around her, "and so they take advantage of it."
"There is nothing else," said Nicholas, coming to the bottom of the box.
"Now, let us put everything away," said the widow.
"I shall keep this shawl for myself," exclaimed Calabash.
"Oh, you will, will you?" cried Nicholas, roughly; "that depends whether I choose to let you or not. You are always laying your clutches on something or other; you are Madame Free-and-Easy!"
"You are so mighty particular yourself--about taking whatever you have a fancy to, arn"t you?"
"Ah, that"s as different as different can be! I filch at the risk of my life; and if I had happened to have been nabbed on board the barge, you would not have been trounced for it."
"La! Well, don"t make such a fuss,--take your shawl! I"m sure I don"t want it; I was only joking about it," continued Calabash, flinging the shawl back into the box; "but you never can stand the least bit of fun."
"Oh, I don"t speak because of the shawl; I am not stingy enough to squabble about a trumpery shawl. One more or less would make no difference in the price Mother Burette would give for the things; she buys in the lump, you know," continued Nicholas; "only I consider that, instead of calling out you should keep the shawl, it would have been more decent to have asked me to give it you. There--there it is--keep it--you may have it; keep it, I say, or else I"ll just fling it into the fire to make the pot boil."
These words entirely appeased Calabash, who forthwith accepted the shawl without further scruple.
Nicholas appeared seized with a sudden fit of generosity, for, ripping off the f.a.g end from one of the pieces of silk, he contrived to separate two silk handkerchiefs, which he threw to Amandine and Francois, who had been contemplating them with longing looks, saying:
"There! that"s for you brats; just a little taste to give you a relish for prigging; it"s a thing you"ll take to more kindly if it"s made agreeable to you. And now, get off to bed. Come, look sharp, I"ve got a deal to say to mother. There--you shall have some supper brought up-stairs to you."
The delighted children clapped their hands with joy, and triumphantly waved the stolen handkerchiefs which had just been presented to them.
"What do you say now, you little stupids?" said Calabash to them; "will you ever go and be persuaded by Martial again? Did he ever give you beautiful silk handkerchiefs like those, I should be glad to know?"
Francois and Amandine looked at each other, then hung down their heads, and made no answer.
"Answer, can"t you?" persisted Calabash, roughly. "I ask you whether you ever received such presents from Martial?"
"No," answered Francois, gazing with intense delight on his bright red silk handkerchief, "Brother Martial never gives us anything."
To which Amandine replied, in a low yet firm voice: