CHAPTER XXVII.
Nine feet long and six wide was the underground cellar wherein they had plunged our hero.
In this s.p.a.ce, a select company was already a.s.sembled, eighteen individuals all told. And Mathias Raby now made the nineteenth in the already overcrowded cell, and how he was to find a place there was a knotty problem. It was lucky that the window over the door was not filled with gla.s.s, but with an iron grating, which let in some air.
As a matter-of-fact, this cell was the best in the whole a.s.sembly House, as could be testified to by old Tsajkos, the eldest of the prisoners, who was now quartered here. He was an old acquaintance of our hero, by the way, and Raby had often provided the old man with tobacco, a luxury which the prisoners were not allowed to smoke, but might chew, if they could get it.
Nor was Tsajkos long in recognising the new-comer. He limped up to him, rattling the heavy chains he wore on his legs, and clapped Raby on the back in greeting, while the other occupants of the cell looked on in wide-eyed amazement.
"So you have come to it at last, have you, my young friend? Now who would have thought the likes of you would ever have tumbled into this company? Why, I"ve always known you to be a well-brought-up fellow, who never eat an apple that was not peeled. What can they have against you, I should like to know? "Not guilty" may do well enough up above there, but you know as well as I, it does not do down here. Folks don"t come to a place like this for nothing, we all know that! Now tell us what it is."
Disgust and repulsion almost choked Raby"s powers of speech. He covered his face with his hands.
"Come now, none of that sort of thing! We want no blubbering here. Don"t disgrace the company. If you want to cry, be off to the women"s prison; we know you"ve got two wives already there!"
At this, the whole crew yelled with hoa.r.s.e laughter.
"Aha!" exclaimed a voice from the furthest corner. "So that"s the celebrated husband, is it? Well, I can tell you what he"s here for; the women themselves told me, and they had it from the heydukes; he is a spy."
At these words, the whole band were roused to sudden uproar. "A spy! a traitor!" they yelled in chorus. "He"ll strangle us at night. Let"s squeeze the life out of him now."
"Be quiet, all of you," cried old Tsajkos, as he thrust the crowd back.
"You don"t know what you"re talking about. Stop your barking and listen to me. He may be a spy, but he only betrays the gentry, and he"ll never turn on us poor folk. If a great lord robs or steals, he"s down upon him, but never on us."
"That"s another matter," shouted the rest. "Then we"ll be friends with him."
And Raby had thereupon to submit to the rough greetings of his new comrades in misfortune.
"They are not a bad sort," remarked Tsajkos, and he proceeded to point out each individual member of the crew to Raby, specifying which was a horse-stealer, and which a highwayman, identifying as well the thieves and incendiaries among them. Most of them, however, it turned out, were murderers.
To Raby the whole thing seemed more and more like a ghastly dream. Yet his five senses warranted its reality: the low vault of the cell which surrounded him, the fierce criminal faces of the prisoners, the clinking of the fetters, the dirty grimy hands that grasped his own, the damp, mouldy odour of the dungeon, the taste of the brackish water from the prison well that the old man handed him to revive him--all these things warned him that this was no dream, but a grim reality from which he must find a speedy means of escaping.
He looked round, but his companion misconstrued the glance.
"You are wondering how you will manage to get forty winks here, eh, comrade? Yes, it"s a difficult matter, I warrant you; all the places are taken, and each one has a right to his own. Unless Papis will let you have his corner for the night, I really don"t see how you are going to manage it."
"Why not, pray?" exclaimed a voice from another corner. "Of course I will, if I get well paid for it!"
Papis was a gipsy felon, already pretty advanced in years, his complexion wrinkled and tanned like parchment, yet his hair was quite black, and his teeth shone like ivory.
"Bravo, Papis!" cried the old man, while the lithe gipsy crawled between the others and grinned at Raby.
"Don"t have any fear, Papis," said Tsajkos, "the gentleman will pay you, sure enough; he has no end of money. How much do you want for your place?"
The gipsy did not hesitate. "A ducat a day," he retorted promptly.
Raby began to enter into the humours of the situation. He reflected a minute on the proposal.
"That is not much, after all," he said politely.
"Ah, you are the right sort, you are," cried old Tsajkos. "I only hope you"ll be long with us. You shall just see what a good place we"ll make for you against the wall with no one on the other side, and my knees can be your pillow. We can"t do feather beds down here, or even run to straw, but one sleeps soundest on the bricks after all."
"But where will Papis sleep himself?"
For all his own misery, Raby could not repress the question.
The whole crew burst out laughing. As soon as they had stilled their mirth, the prisoners looked at each other embarra.s.sed, and then at their leader to explain.
The old man smiled slily.
"Where will Papis sleep? Why, in the bucket, to be sure, up above there," he answered.
Raby looked up, and saw from the roof two chains hanging, through the links of which two poles were thrust, and on these hung the great bucket in which every evening the prisoners had to carry the water needed in the kitchen of the a.s.sembly House above.
They showed him how Papis got up. One of the prisoners seized the little gipsy by the legs and hauled him up to the roof, after which, Papis took the cover off the bucket, crawled inside, and disappeared from sight.
Raby was still more astonished.
"But how can the man sleep in that pail?" he asked, puzzled.
Everyone laughed, but quickly suppressed it, and all looked again rather sheepish.
Tsajkos patted Raby"s cheek patronisingly with his greasy hand, and cried,
"Bless my stars! what a simple greenhorn it is; Papis will sleep sounder to-night, thanks to you, on a comfortable bed."
"How may that be?"
"I"ll whisper it in your ear. He will leave this place this evening on your account."
"On my account, how can that be?" cried Raby astounded.
"Ay, sure enough, and come back early to-morrow morning again."
"Why, how is it possible?"
"That"s not our affair. All that matters is he will come back. He does this whenever some poor devil has a message to send to anyone outside.
To-day Papis will do it for you. Do you want to send a letter to anyone?
Have it ready, and he"ll see they get it. And what is more, you can trust him with gold; he"ll bring back what you give him, even were it a hundred ducats, all safe and sound. The Emperor himself has no more trusty courier."
Raby"s head began to whirl. How if he should take this means of informing Joseph of his present situation?
"Yes, but how can I write a letter?" he exclaimed anxiously; "they have not left me a single morsel of paper, or even a pencil-end."
"Ay, you shall have any amount, only turn your head away, and don"t look where I get it from; we don"t want new-comers to learn these things all at once."