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cry out.' 'Is it far off?' 'They would be here in ten minutes.' 'Let us call out for help; there are passers-by who will come and help us.' 'No, as we have got him we must hold him here. But I am growing weak, I am wounded.' 'Thunder and lightning! then run and get assistance, if you have strength left; I will try and hold him.' M. Murphy then disengaged himself, and I was alone with the Schoolmaster. I don't want to brag, but, by Jove! these were moments when I was not having a holiday. We were half on the ground, half on the bottom step of the flight. I had my arms round the neck of the villain, my cheek against his cheek; and he was puffing like a bull, I heard his teeth grind. It was dark, it rained pouring; the lamp left in the passage lighted us a little. I had twisted one of my legs around his, but, in spite of that, his loins were so powerful that he moved himself and me on to the bare ground. He tried to bite me, but couldn't; I never felt so strong. Thunder! my heart beat, but it was in the right place. I said, 'I am like a man who is grappling with a mad dog, to prevent him from fastening on some passer-by.' 'Let me go, and I will do you no harm,' said the Schoolmaster, in an exhausted voice. 'What! a coward?' says I to him. 'So, then, your pluck is in your strength? So you wouldn't have stabbed the cattle-dealer at Poissy, and robbed him, if he had only been as strong as me, eh?' 'No,' says he; 'but I will kill you as I did him.' And saying that, he made so violent a heave, and gave so powerful a jerk with his legs at the same time, that he half threw me over; if I had not kept a tight hold of his wrist which held the stiletto, I was done for. At this moment my left hand was seized with the cramp, and I was compelled to loosen my hold; that nearly spoiled all, and I said to myself, 'I am now undermost and he at top—he'll kill me. Never mind, I had rather be in my place than his; M. Rodolph said that I had heart and honour.' I felt it was all over with me, and at that moment I saw the Chouette standing close by us, with her glaring eye and red shawl. Thunder and lightning! I thought I had the nightmare. 'Finette,' cries the Schoolmaster, 'I have let fall the knife; pick it up, there, there, under him, and strike him home, in the back, between the shoulders; quick! quick!' 'Only wait, only wait till I find it, till I see it,
fourline.' And then the cursed Chouette turned and poked about us, like an old bird of mischief as she was. At last she found the dagger and sprung towards it, but as I was flat on my belly I gave her a kick in the stomach, which sent her neck over crop; she got up, and in a desperate rage. I could do no more; I still held on and struggled with the Schoolmaster, but he kept giving me such dreadful blows on my jaw that I was about to let go my hold, when I saw three or four armed men who came down the stairs, and M. Murphy, pale as ashes, and with difficulty supporting himself with the assistance of the doctor here. They seized hold of the Schoolmaster and the Chouette, and soon bound them hand and foot. That was not all, I still wanted M. Rodolph. I sprang at the Chouette; remembering the tooth of the poor dear Goualeuse, I grasped her arm and twisted it, saying, 'Where is M. Rodolph?' She bore it well, and silently. I took a second turn, and then she screeched out, 'At Bras Rouge's, in the vault at the Bleeding Heart!' All right! As I went, I meant to take Tortillard from his cabbage-bed, as it was on my road. I looked for him, but only found my blouse—he had gnawed his way out with his teeth. I reached the Bleeding Heart, and I laid hold of Bras Rouge. 'Where is the young man who came here this evening with the Schoolmaster?' 'Don't squeeze so hard, and I'll tell you. They wanted to play him a trick and shut him up in my cellar; we'll go now and let him out.' We went down, but there was no one to be seen. 'He must have gone out whilst my back was turned,' says Bras Rouge; 'you see plain enough he is not here.' I was going away sad enough, when, by the light of the lantern, I saw at the bottom of the cellar another door. I ran towards it and opened the door, and had, as it were, a pail of water thrown at me. I saw your two poor arms in the air. I fished you out and brought you here on my back, as there was nobody at hand to get a coach. That's all my tale, M. Rodolph; and I may say, without bragging, that I am satisfied with myself."
"My man, I owe my life to you; it is a heavy debt, but be assured I will pay it. David, will you go and learn how Murphy is," added Rodolph, "and return again instantly?"
The black went out.
"Where is the Schoolmaster, my good fellow?"
"In another room, with the Chouette. You will send for the police, M. Rodolph?"
"No."
"You surely will not let him go! Ah, M. Rodolph, none of that nonsensical generosity! I say again, he is a mad dog—let the passengers look out!"
"He will never bite again, be assured."
"Then you are going to shut him up somewhere?"
"No; in half an hour he will leave this house."
"The Schoolmaster?"
"Yes."
"Without gens-d'armes?"
"Yes."
"He will go out from here, and free?"
"Free."
"And quite alone?"
"Quite alone."
"But he will go—"
"Wherever he likes," said Rodolph, interrupting the Chourineur with a meaning smile.
The black returned.
"Well, David, well, and how is Murphy?"
"He sleeps, my lord," said the doctor, despondingly; "his respiration is very difficult."
"Not out of danger?"
"His case is very critical, my lord; yet there is hope."
"Oh, Murphy! vengeance! vengeance!" exclaimed Rodolph, in a tone of concentrated rage. Then he added, "David, a word—"
And he whispered something in the ear of the black. He started back.
"Do you hesitate?" said Rodolph. "Yet I have often suggested this idea to you; the moment is come to put it into practice."
"I do not hesitate, my lord; the suggestion is well worthy the consideration of the most elevated jurists, for this punishment is at the same time terrible and yet fruitful for repentance. In this case it is most applicable. Without enumerating the crimes which have accumulated to send this wretch to the Bagne for his life, he has committed three murders—the cattle-dealer, Murphy, and yourself; it is in his case justice—"
"He will have before him an unlimited horizon for expiation," added Rodolph. After a moment's silence he resumed: "And five thousand francs will suffice, David?"
"Amply, my lord."
"My good fellow," said Rodolph to the bewildered Chourineur, "I have two words to say to M. David; will you go into that chamber on the other side, where you will see a large red pocketbook on a bureau; open it and take out five notes of a thousand francs each, and bring them to me."
"And," inquired the Chourineur, involuntarily, "who are those five thousand francs for?"
"For the Schoolmaster. And do you, at the same time, tell them to bring him in here."
[8] Receiver of stolen goods.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE PUNISHMENT.
Table of Contents
The scene we are about to describe took place in a room hung with red, and brilliantly lighted. Rodolph, clothed in a long dressing-gown of black velvet, which increased the pallor of his features, was seated before a large table covered with a green cloth. On this table was the Schoolmaster's pocketbook, the pinchbeck chain of the Chouette (to which was suspended the little Saint Esprit of lapis lazuli), the blood-stained stiletto with which Murphy had been stabbed, the crowbar with which the door had been forced, and the five notes of a thousand francs each, which the Chourineur had fetched out of the next apartment.
The negro doctor was seated at one side of the table, the Chourineur on the other. The Schoolmaster, tightly bound with cords, and unable to move a limb, was placed in a large armchair on casters, in the
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