"Alas, sir, your brother-in-law said to me that he was pursued by the police, and that they were hard on his tracks."
"Great G.o.d!" murmured Madam Desmarais faintly. "My brother!"
"Let him get out of here!" cried the attorney, pale with terror. "Let him get out this instant!"
"You repulse my brother, when he is in danger of his life, perhaps!"
exclaimed Madam Desmarais indignantly. And running to Gertrude she demanded, "Where is my brother?"
"In the dining room, taking off his cloak--" But interrupting herself she exclaimed, "Here is Monsieur Hubert, now!"
In fact, it was none other than Hubert himself who appeared in the parlor door. He was laboring under strong emotion; he received his sister in his arms and embraced her effusively.
Advocate Desmarais, a prey to the keenest anxiety, was as yet uncertain as to how his troublesome brother-in-law was to be received. In a whisper he interrogated Gertrude:
"Do you think the porter recognized Monsieur Hubert?"
"With his slouch hat pulled over his eyes, blue gla.s.ses on, and his chin hidden in the collar of his great-coat, Monsieur Hubert was unrecognizable."
The attorney pondered a few seconds, and continued his conversation with Gertrude: "You have a key to the little garden gate? Go open it, and leave it ajar. In ten minutes run to the janitor with a great air of alarm and tell him that the person who just asked for me was a robber, that you just surprised him with his hand in the drawer of the dining-room buffet; that he took flight as soon as discovered, that he ran down stairs in a hurry, and that he probably made good his escape by scaling the garden wall. You understand all I"ve told you? Execute my orders precisely, and not a word on my brother-in-law"s presence."
"It shall all be done as you wish."
"Not a word of all this to Jeanette or Germain. Let no one into the parlor for any reason whatsoever, and do not come in yourself until I ring for you." Then Desmarais added, as one who had a brilliant idea, "For greater safety, I"ll bolt the door, Go!"
Gertrude went out, and Desmarais cautiously bolted the door of the parlor.
"To see you again brother, perhaps at the moment of losing you forever!"
sobbed Madam Desmarais addressing Hubert; "the thought is misery to me."
"Rea.s.sure yourself, sister. I know how to baffle the pursuits of which I am the object. I have thrown off the scent the spies who dogged my steps. And certes, they will never come to seek me in the house of a member of the Convention. I ask asylum of your husband till midnight only. At that hour I shall quit his house."
"Ah, I swear, that do I, that you will have quit it in ten minutes!"
retorted the attorney, going over slowly to his wife"s side, at the same moment that Hubert, perceiving the wooden packing-case, said to his sister:
"Ah, there is my box!"
"Poor brother," began Madam Desmarais, interrupting the financier. "In the midst of your anxieties, you still remembered my birthday. How can I tell you how touched I am at this proof of your affection!"
"I deserve no thanks, my dear sister. The case is not intended for you; it contains some precious objects which I wish to save from the domiciliary visits they make upon suspects."
"Compromising papers, no doubt!" gasped Desmarais, aside. "Such an object to drop upon me!"
"I thought these things would be safer here than anywhere else, that is why I sent them in the case," continued Hubert; "but for reasons useless to tell you, your servant and the porter must transport it at once to a house at an address I shall give you."
"I shall go at once to tell our men," said Madam Desmarais, moving toward the door. But the lawyer stopped her with his hand, and said coldly:
"Madam, you shall not go out!"
"Pardon, my dear brother-in-law, my not yet having pressed your hand, you whose hospitality I shall share for a few hours," spoke up Hubert, stepping to meet the lawyer; "but it was so long since I saw my sister, that my first movement was to run to her, and--"
"Citizen Hubert," broke in the attorney, pale and trembling between rage and fear, "the house of a Mountainist of the Convention shall not serve as the refuge of traitors."
"Good G.o.d!" Madam Desmarais murmured, clasping her hands in fright.
"What, brother-in-law, I ask you for shelter for a few hours, you, my relative, you, erstwhile my friend, and you dare drive me from your door?"
"Citizen Hubert, the enemies of the Republic are my enemies; I shall treat them as political enemies when they fall into my hands. Out you go!"
"Such greetings from you!" stammered Hubert, dazed.
"Brother," cried Madam Desmarais, "do not believe what my husband says!
He is incapable of committing such an act of infamy. It was only a few moments ago that he was cursing the excesses of the Revolution."
"Wretch!" shrieked Desmarais, seizing his wife by the wrist. "Will you hold your peace!" Then, turning to his brother-in-law, "Citizen Hubert, if you do not leave this building on the instant, I shall send for the patrol of the Section, and have you arrested."
"Ah!" cried Hubert with indignation. "I come to ask a relative for a few hours" refuge, and the coward, for fear of being compromised, wishes to send me to the scaffold!"
As Hubert p.r.o.nounced these last words, Gertrude rapped at the door and called in a quaking voice:
"Open, open! The commissioner of the Section, in his scarf of office, is here with the mounted police. He is coming upstairs."
Hubert drew from his coat pockets a brace of double-barreled pistols, c.o.c.ked them, and said in a low voice:
"I shall sell my life dear; but, by the thousand G.o.ds! my first bullet will be for you, my coward and traitor brother-in-law!"
Advocate Desmarais leaped to the door and drew back the bolt. His wife, struck with a sudden inspiration, and displaying, in the terror which seized her, an unwonted strength, dragged her brother into her bed-chamber, which opened on the parlor, slammed the door after her, and shot the bolt into its socket.
CHAPTER XII.
HOWLING WITH THE WOLVES.
While Hubert was thus perforce following his sister to safety, Desmarais did not notice his brother-in-law"s disappearance; for the lawyer, at the moment, was leaving the parlor to meet the commissioner. Contrary to his expectations, he did not find the officer in the ante-room, and was compelled to go as far as the stair-landing, where he encountered him and accompanied him back to the parlor.
The commissioner was a man of cold and rigid physiognomy; in his suite were some gendarmes of the Republic, and several police agents. Bowing to the commissioner, the advocate said:
"Citizen, if I had a son a traitor to the nation, I would myself give him up to the public powers. I would follow the example of Brutus the Roman." Then stopping short and casting about him looks of stupefaction, he added: "But where has my brother-in-law gone to?"
"That is for me to ask you, Citizen Representative of the people,"
rejoined the commissioner. "This disappearance is strange!"
"I commence to see! My wife has let out her brother by her bed-chamber; the rear staircase descends to the court, and from the court the rascal will gain the garden!"
The advocate flung himself against the bedroom door, and beating upon it with both fists, cried breathlessly, "G.o.d be praised, the traitor will not escape us!"