CHAPTER XVII. INVESTIGATIONS
Two persons were waiting for Roland's return; one in anguish, the otherwith impatience. These two persons were Amelie and Sir John. Neither ofthem had slept for an instant. Amelie displayed her anguish only bythe sound of her door, which was furtively closed as Roland came up thestaircase. Roland heard the sound. He had not the courage to pass beforeher door without reassuring her.
"Be easy, Amelie, I am here," he said. It did not occur to him that hissister might be anxious for any one but him.
Amelie darted from her room in her night-dress. It was easy to see fromher pallor and the dark circles which spread nearly to the middle of hercheeks that she had not closed her eyes all night.
"Has nothing happened to you, Roland?" she cried, clasping her brotherin her arms and feeling him over anxiously.
"Nothing."
"Nor to any one else?"
"No."
"And you saw nothing?"
"I didn't say that," answered Roland.
"Good God! What did you see?"
"I'll tell that to you later. Meantime, there is no one either killed orwounded."
"Ah! I breathe again!"
"Now, let me give you a bit of advice, little sister. Go to bed andsleep, if you can, till breakfast. I am going to do the same thing,and can assure you I won't need any rocking. Good-night, or rathergood-morning."
Roland kissed his sister tenderly. Then affecting to whistle ahunting-air carelessly, he ran up the next flight of steps. Sir John wasfrankly waiting for him in the hall. He went straight to the young man.
"Well?" he asked.
"Well, I didn't roll my stone entirely for nothing."
"Did you see any ghosts?"
"At any rate I saw something that resembled one very closely."
"Come, tell me all about it."
"I see you won't be able to sleep, or at best only fitfully, if I don't.Here's what happened, in a nutshell."
And Roland gave him a minute account of the night's adventure.
"Excellent," said Sir John, when Roland had finished. "I hope you haveleft something for me to do."
"I am even afraid," answered Roland, "that I have left you the hardestpart."
Then, as Sir John went over each detail, asking many questions about thelocalities, he said:
"Listen, Sir John. We will pay the Chartreuse a visit in broad daylightafter breakfast, which will not interfere in the least with yournight-watch. On the contrary, it will acquaint you with the localities.Only you must tell no one."
"Oh!" exclaimed Sir John, "do I look like a gabbler?"
"No, that's true," cried Roland laughing, "you are not a gabbler, but Iam a ninny." So saying, he entered his bedchamber.
After breakfast the two young men sauntered down the slopes of thegarden, as if to take a walk along the banks of the Reissouse. Then theybore to the left, swung up the hill for about forty paces, struck intothe highroad, and crossed the woods, till they reached the convent wallat the very place where Roland had climbed over it on the precedingnight.
"My lord," said Roland, "this is the way."
"Very well," replied Sir John, "let us take it."
Slowly, with a wonderful strength of wrist, which betokened a man welltrained in gymnastics, the Englishman seized the coping of the wall,swung himself to the top, and dropped down on the other side. Rolandfollowed with the rapidity of one who is not achieving a feat for thefirst time. They were both on the other side, where the desertion anddesolation were more visible by night than by day. The grass was growingknee high in the paths; the espaliers were tangled with vines so thickthat the grapes could not ripen in the shadow of the leaves. The wallhad given way in several places, and ivy, the parasite rather than thefriend of ruins, was spreading everywhere.
As for the trees in the open space, plums, peaches and apricots, theyhad grown with the freedom of the oaks and beeches in the forest, whosebreadth and thickness they seemed to envy. The sap, completely absorbedby the branches which were many and vigorous, produced but little fruit,and that imperfect. By the rustle of the tall grass, Sir John and Rolanddivined that the lizards, those crawling offsprings of solitude, hadestablished their domicile there, from which they fled in amazement atthis disturbance.
Roland led his friend straight to the door between the orchard and thecloister, but before entering he glanced at the clock. That clock, whichwent at night, was stopped in the day time. From the cloister he passedinto the refectory. There the daylight showed under their true aspectthe various objects which the darkness had clothed with such fantasticforms the night before. Roland showed Sir John the overturned stools,the table marked by the blow of the pistol, the door by which thephantom had entered. Accompanied by the Englishman, he followed thepath he had taken in pursuit of the spectre. He recognized the obstacleswhich had hindered him, and noted how easily one who knew the localitymight cross or avoid them.
At the spot where he had fired, he found the wad, but he looked in vainfor the bullet. The arrangement of the passage, which ran slanting, madeit impossible for the bullet, if its marks were not on the walls, tohave missed the ghost. And yet if the ghost were hit, supposing it tobe a solid body, how came it to remain erect? How had it escaped beingwounded, and if wounded, why were there no bloodstains on the ground?And there was no trace of either blood or ball.
Sir John was almost ready to admit that his friend had had to do with averitable ghost.
"Some one came after me," said Roland, "and picked up the ball."
"But if you fired at a man, why didn't the ball go into him?"
"Oh! that's easily explained. The man wore a coat of mail under hisshroud."
That was possible, but, nevertheless, Sir John shook his head dubiously.He preferred to believe in a supernatural occurrence; it gave him lesstrouble.
Roland and he continued their investigations. They reached the end ofthe passage which opened on the furthest extremity of the orchard. Itwas there that Roland had seen his spectre for an instant as it glidedinto the dark vault. He made for the cistern, and so little did hehesitate that he might still have been following the ghost. There heunderstood how the darkness of the night had seemed to deepen by theabsence of all exterior reflection. It was even difficult to see thereby day.
Roland took two torches about a foot long from beneath his cloak, tooka flint, lighted the tinder, and a match from the tinder. Both torchesflared up.
The problem was now to discover the way by which the ghost haddisappeared. Roland and Sir John lowered their torches and examined theground. The cistern was paved with large squares of limestone,which seemed to fit perfectly. Roland looked for his second ball aspersistently as for the first. A stone lay loose at his feet, and,pushing it aside, he disclosed an iron ring screwed into one of thelimestone blocks.
Without a word Roland seized the ring, braced his feet and pulled.The square turned on its pivot with an ease which proved that itwas frequently subjected to the same manipulation. As it turned, itdisclosed a subterranean passage.
"Ah!" exclaimed Roland, "this is the way my spectre went."
He entered the yawning cavern, followed by Sir John. They traversed thesame path that Morgan took when he returned to give an account ofhis expedition. At the end of the passage they came upon an iron gateopening into the mortuary vaults. Roland shook the gate, which yieldedto his touch. They crossed this subterranean cemetery, and came to asecond gate; like the first, it was open. With Roland still in front,they went up several steps, and found themselves in the choir of thechapel, where the scene we have related between Morgan and the Companyof Jehu took place. Only now the stalls were empty, the choir wasdeserted, and the altar, degraded by the abandonment of worship, was nolonger covered by the burning tapers or the sacred cloth.
It was evident to Roland that this was the goal of the false ghost,which Sir John persisted in believing a real one. But, real or false,Sir John admitted that its flight had brought it to this particularspot. He reflected a mom
ent and then remarked: "As it is my turn towatch tonight, I have the right to choose my ground; I shall watchhere."
And he pointed to a sort of table formed in the centre of the choir byan oaken pedestal which had formerly supported the eagle lectern.
"Indeed," said Roland, with the same heedlessness he showed in his ownaffairs, "you'll do very well there, only as you may find the gateslocked and the stone fastened tonight, we had better look for some moredirect way to get here."
In less than five minutes they had found an outlet. The door of the oldsacristy opened into the choir, and from the sacristy a broken windowgave passage into the forest. The two men climbed through the window andfound themselves in the forest thicket some twenty feet from the spotwhere they had killed the boar.
"That's what we want," said Roland; "only, my dear Sir John, as youwould never find your way by night in a forest which, even by day, is soimpenetrable, I shall accompany you as far as this."
"Very well. But once I am inside, you are to leave me," said theEnglishman. "I remember what you told me about the susceptibility ofghosts. If they know you are near, they may hesitate to appear, and asyou have seen one, I insist on seeing at least one myself."
"I'll leave you, don't be afraid," replied Roland, adding, with a laugh,"Only I do fear one thing."
"What is that?"
"That in your double capacity of an Englishman and a heretic they won'tfeel at ease with you."
"Oh," replied Sir John, gravely, "what a pity I shall not have time toabjure before this evening."
The two friends, having seen all there was to see, returned to thechateau. No one, not even Amelie, had suspected that their walk wasother than an ordinary one. The day passed without questions and withoutapparent anxiety; besides, it was already late when the two gentlemenreturned.
At dinner, to Edouard's great delight, another hunt was proposed, andit furnished a topic for conversation during dinner and part of theevening. By ten o'clock, as usual, all had retired to their rooms,except Roland, who was in that of Sir John.
The difference of character showed itself markedly in the preparationsof the two men. Roland had made them joyously, as if for a pleasuretrip; Sir John made his gravely, as if for a duel. He loaded his pistolswith the utmost care and put them into his belt English fashion. And,instead of a cloak, which might have impeded his movements, he wore atop-coat with a high collar put on over his other coat.
At half-past ten the pair left the house with the same precautions thatRoland had observed when alone. It was five minutes before eleven whenthey reached the broken window, where the fallen stones served as astepping-block. There, according to agreement, they were to part. SirJohn, reminded Roland of this agreement.
"Yes," said Roland, "an agreement is an agreement with me. Only, let megive you a piece of advice."
"What is it?"
"I could not find the bullets because some one had been here and carriedthem off; and that was done beyond doubt to prevent me from seeing thedents on them."
"What sort of dent do you mean?"
"Those of the links of a coat of mail; my ghost was a man in armor."
"That's too bad!" said Sir John; "I hoped for a ghost." Then, after amoment's silence and a sigh expressive of his deep regret in resigningthe ghost, he asked: "What was your advice?"
"Fire at his face!"
Sir John nodded assent, pressed the young officer's hand, clamberedthrough the window and disappeared in the sacristy.
"Good-night!" called Roland after him. Then with the indifference todanger which a soldier generally feels for himself and his companions,Roland took his way back to the Chateau des Noires-Fontaines, as he hadpromised Sir John.