CHAPTER IX
THE PASTEUR CONQUERS
Meanwhile, following a short cut through the snowy woods that ran overthe shoulder of the intervening hill, the pair were wending their waytowards Lucerne. Godfrey, a fixed and vacant look upon his face, wentfirst; the Pasteur clinging to his arm like a limpet to a rock, puffedalong beside him.
"Heaven!" he gasped, "but this attraction of yours must be strong thatit makes you walk so fast immediately after dinner."
"It is, it is!" said Godfrey, in a kind of agony. "I feel as though myinside were being drawn out, and I must follow it. Please hold my armtight or I shall run."
"Ah! the witch. The great witch!" puffed the Pasteur, "and up this hilltoo, over snow. Well, it will be better on the down grade. Give me yourhand, my boy, for your coat is slipping, and if once you got away howshould I catch you?"
They accomplished the walk into Lucerne in absolutely record time.Fortunately, at this after-dinner hour few people were about, but someof those whom they met stared at them, and one called:
"Do you take him to the police-station? Shall I summon the_gens-d'arme_?"
"No, no," replied the Pasteur, "he goes to keep an assignation, and isin a hurry."
"Then why does he take you with him? Surely a clergyman will make a badthird at such an affair?" ejaculated an outspoken lady who was standingat her house door.
"Where is the street? I do not know it," asked the Pasteur.
"Nor do I," answered Godfrey, "but we shall come there all right. Tothe left now."
"Oh! the influence! The strong influence!" muttered Monsieur Boiset."Behold! it leads him."
Truly it did lead him. Round corners and across squares they went intoan old part of the town with which neither of them was acquainted, tillat length Godfrey, diving beneath an archway, pulled up in front of anantique doorway, saying:
"I think this is the place."
"Look at the writing and make sure," said the Pasteur, "for it seemsridiculous----"
At that moment the door opened mysteriously, and Godfrey disappearedinto the passage beyond. Scarcely had the Pasteur time to follow himwhen it shut again, although he could see no _concierge_.
"Doubtless it is one of those that works with a wire," he thought tohimself, but he had no time to stop to look, for already Godfrey wasclimbing the stairs. Up he went, three floors, and up after himscrambled the Pasteur. Suddenly Godfrey stopped at a door and notwaiting to ring the bell, knocked with his hand. Immediately it openedand Godfrey, with his companion, passed into a very dark hall roundwhich were several other doors. Here in the gloom the Pasteur lost him.Godfrey had gone through one of the doors, but which he could not see.He stood still, listening, and presently heard a deep peculiar voicespeaking English with a very foreign accent, say:
"So you have come to see your godmamma, my dear little clever boy.Well, I thought you would, and last night I sent you a pretty messengerto give you remembrance."
Then the Pasteur found the handle of the door and entered the room. Itwas a curious place draped, not without taste of a bizarre kind, invivid colours, wherein purple dominated, and it gave an idea of mingledmagnificence and squalor. Some of the furniture was very good, as wereone or two of the pictures, though all of it was of an odd and unusualmake. Thus, the sideboard was shaped like a sarcophagus, and supportedon solid sphinxes with gilded faces. In a corner of the room also stoodan unwrapped mummy in a glass case.
In the midst of all this stood a common deal table, whereon were ablack bottle, and the remains of Madame's meal, which seemed to haveconsisted of large supplies of underdone meat. In front of the fire wasa large, well-worn couch, and by it a small stout table such asspiritualists use, on which gleamed a ball of glass or crystal. On thiscouch was seated Madame clad in a kind of black dressing-gown and awide gold scarf tied about her ample waist. Her fat, massive face waspainted and powdered; on her head she wore a kind of mantilla alsogold-coloured, and about her neck a string of old Egyptian amulets.Anything more unwholesome or uncanny than were her general appearanceand surroundings as the bright flames of the fire showed them in thisstuffy, shadowed room, it would be impossible to imagine.
"Sit down here by my side, my little son in the speerit, where I havemade a place ready for you, and let me hold your hand while you tell meall that you have been doing and if you have been thinking much of meand that beautiful Eleanor whom I sent to see you last night," went onMadame Riennes in her ogreish, purring voice, patting the sofa.
Just then she looked up and caught sight of the Pasteur standing in theshadow. Staring at him with her fierce, prominent eyes, she startedviolently as though at last she had seen something of which she wasafraid.
"Say, my Godfrey," she exclaimed in a rather doubtful voice, "what isthis that you have brought with you? Is it a scarecrow from the fields?Or is it a speerit of your own? If so, I should have thought that ayoung man would have liked better the lovely Eleanor than this olddevil."
"Yes, Madame Jezebel," said the Pasteur striding forward, speaking in aloud, high voice and waving a large umbrella, which had come partlyunfolded in his hurried walk. "It is a scarecrow--one that scares thecrows of hell who seek to pick out the souls of the innocent, like_you_, Madame Jezebel."
Madame uttered a voluminous oath in some strange tongue, and sprang toher feet with an agility surprising in one so stout.
"Say, who are you?" she ejaculated in French, confronting him.
"I am the Pasteur Boiset who accompany my ward to pay this little call,Madame."
"Oh! indeed. That thief of a clergyman, who got his finger into the pieof dead Mademoiselle, eh? Well, there are no more pickings here,Pasteur, but perhaps you come to have your fortune told. Shall I lookin the crystal for you and tell you nice things about--what shall wesay? About the past of that handsome Madame of yours, for instance? Oh!I will do it for love, yes, for love. Or shall I make that mummy speakfor you? I can, for once I lived in that body of hers--it was a gaylife," and she stopped, gasping.
"Hearken, woman," said the Pasteur, "and do not think to frighten me. Iknow all about my wife, and, if once she was foolish, what of it in aworld where none are altogether wise? If you do not wish to visit thepolice cell, you will do well to leave her alone. As for your tricks ofchicanery, I want none of them. What I want is that you take off thespell which you have laid upon this poor boy, as Satan your master hasgiven you the power to do. Now, obey me--or----"
"Or? Or what, you old paid advocate of God?"
"That is a good term. If I am an advocate, I know my Employer's mind,I, who have taken His fee, and am therefore in honour bound to serveHim faithfully. Now I will tell you His mind about you. It is thatunless you change your ways and repent, soon you will go to hell. Yes,quite soon, I think, for one so fat cannot be very strong in the heart.Do what I bid you, Madame, or I, the advocate of God, having Hisauthority, will curse you in the Name of God, and in the ancient formof which you may have heard."
"Bah! would you frighten me, the great Madame Riennes who have spiritsat my command and who, as you admit, can lay on spells and take themoff. A flea for you and your God!"
"Spirits at your command! Yes, some of them in there, I think," and hepointed to the black bottle on the table, "and others too, perhaps; Iwill not deny it. Well, let them advance, and we will see who is on thetop of the mountain, I, the old paid advocate of God, or you and yourspirits, Madame," and hooking the handle of the big umbrella over hiswrist, he folded his arms and stared at her through the blue spectacles.
Madame Riennes gibbered some invocation, but nothing happened.
"I await your spirits. They cannot have gone to bed so early," remarkedthe Pasteur like a new Elijah.
Then, also like Elijah, to use a vulgarism, he "sailed in" after a waywhich even the terrified Godfrey, who was crouching against one of thepurple curtains, felt to be really magnificent with such artistic senseas remained to him. In his mediaeval Latin which, spoken with a foreignaccent, Godfrey, although a good schola
r, could scarcely follow savefor certain holy names, he cursed Madame Riennes in some archaic butmost effective fashion. He consigned, this much Godfrey made out, hersoul to hell and her body to a number of the most uncomfortableexperiences. He trailed her in the dust at the rear of his theologicalchariot; he descended from the chariot, so to speak, and jumped uponher as he had done upon the beetle; he tossed up her mangled remains asthe holy bull, Apis of the Egyptians, might have done with those of aGreek blasphemer. Then, like a triumphant pugilist, metaphorically hestood over her and asked her if she wanted any more.
For a little while Madame Riennes was crushed, also very evidentlyfrightened, for those who deal in the supernatural are afraid of thesupernatural. Indeed, none of us welcome the curse even of a malignantand disappointed beggar, or of the venomous gipsy angered by this orthat, and much less that of a righteous man inspired by just and holyindignation. Madame Riennes, an expert in the trade, a dealer inmaledictions, was not exempt from this common prejudice. As she wouldhave expressed it, she felt that he had the Power on his side.
But Madame was no common charlatan; she had strength of a sort, thoughwhere it came from who could say? Moreover, for all kinds of secretreasons of her own, she desired to keep in her grip this boy Godfrey,who had shown himself to be so wonderful a medium or clairvoyant. Toher he meant strength and fortune; also for him she had conceived somekind of unholy liking in the recesses of her dark soul. Therefore, shewas not prepared to give him up without a struggle.
Presently Madame seemed to cast off the influences with which thePasteur had overwhelmed her. While his maledictions were in full flowshe sank in a huddled heap upon the couch. Of a sudden she revived; shesprang up; notwithstanding her bulk she leapt into the air like aballet-dancer. She tore the golden mantilla from her head, letting downa flood of raven hair, streaked with grey, and waved it round her. Shecalled upon the names of spirits or demons, long, resounding names withan Eastern ring about them, to come to her aid. Then she pranced intothe centre of the room, crying:
"Dog of a clergyman, I defy you and will overcome you. That boy's soulis mine, not yours. I am the greatest mesmerist in the world and he isin my net. I will show you!"
She turned towards the shrivelled, almost naked mummy in the case, andaddressed it:
"O Nofri," she said, "Priestess of Set, great seeress and magician ofthe old world in whom once my spirit dwelt, send forth your Ka, youreverlasting Emanation, to help me. Crush this black hound. Come forth,come forth!"
As she spoke the fearful Godfrey in his corner saw the door of theglass case fly open, also as he thought, probably erroneously, that hesaw the mummy move, lifting its stiff legs and champing its iron jawsso that the yellow, ancient teeth caught the light as they moved. Thenhe heard and saw something else. Suddenly the Pasteur in tones thatrang like a trumpet, cried out:
"She seems to hesitate, this mummy of yours, Madame. Let me be politeand help her."
With a single bound he was in front of the case. With the hook of hisbig umbrella he caught the shrivelled thing round the neck; with hislong thin arm he gripped it about the middle, just like somebodyleading a lady to the dance, thought Godfrey. Then he bent himself andpulled. Out flew the age-withered corpse. The head came off, the bodybroke above the hips and fell upon the floor, leaving the legs standingin the case, a ghastly spectacle. On to this severed trunk the Pasteurleapt, again as he had done upon the black beetle. It crunched andcrumbled, filling the air with a pungent, resinous dust. Then he stoodamidst the debris, and placing his right foot upon what had been themummy's nose, said mildly:
"Now, Madame, what next? This lady is finished?"
Madame Riennes uttered a stifled scream, more she could not do for ragechoked her. Her big eyes rolled, she clenched and unclenched her hands,and bent forward as though she were about to fly at the Pasteur like awild cat. Still poised upon the fragments of the mummy he lifted thepoint of the umbrella to receive the charge as it came, and takingadvantage of Madame's temporary paralysis of speech, went on:
"Hearken! daughter of Beelzebub. You have the curse and it shall workupon your soul, but, yes, it shall work well. Still your body remains,and of that too I would say something. Know that I have heard much ofyou--oh! the quiet old Pasteur hears many things, especially if he hasmembers of the secret police among his flock. I think that yonder in anoffice there is a _dossier_, yes, an official record concerning you andyour doings both in this country and in other lands. It has beenallowed to sleep, but it can wake again; if it wakes--well, there isthe penitentiary for such as you."
Madame gasped and turned green. If Monsieur had drawn a bow at aventure, evidently that chance arrow had found the bull's-eye, for nowshe truly was frightened.
"What would you have me do?" she asked in a choking voice.
"Free this youth from your influence, as you can if you will."
"My influence! If I had any with him would not that bald skull of yoursby now have been shattered like an egg, seeing that he is strong andholds a stick?"
"I have no time to waste, Madame. The Police Office closes early onSundays."
Then she gave in.
"Come here," she said sullenly to Godfrey, still speaking in French.
He came and stood before her sneezing, for the pungent dust of thesmashed mummy, which the Pasteur still ground beneath his large boots,had floated up his nose.
"Cease that noise, little fool, and look at me."
Godfrey obeyed, but did not stop sneezing, because the mixture ofspices and organic matter would not allow him to do so. She stared athim very evilly, muttered some more words, and made mystic upwardpasses with her hands.
"There now," she said, "you are free, so far as I am concerned. But Ido not think that you are done with spirits, since they are guestswhich once entertained to breakfast, stop to luncheon and to dinner;yes, and pass the night when they are merriest. I think you will seemany spirits before you die, and afterwards--ah! who knows, little pig?Put your string about his leg and take your little pig home, Pasteur.He will not be drawn to come here again."
"Good, Madame, for remember, if he does I shall be drawn to call at thePolice Office. If Madame will take my advice she will try change ofair. Lucerne is cold in the winter, especially for those whose heartsare not too strong. Is it finished?"
"Quite, for my part, but for you, interfering humbug, I do not know.Get out of my room, both of you."
The Pasteur bowed with an old-fashioned politeness, and herding Godfreyin front of him, turned to go. As he passed through the door somethinghard hit him violently in the back, so that he nearly fell. It was thehead of the mummy, which Madame had hurled at him. It fell to thefloor, and striking against a chair leg, recoiled through the doorway.Godfrey saw it, and an impulse seized him. Lifting that head, heturned. Madame was standing in the middle of the room with her back tothe deal table, uttering short little howls of fury.
Godfrey advanced very politely and saying, "I believe this is yourproperty, Madame," placed the battered remnant of humanity upon thetable beside the black bottle. As he did so, he glanced at themesmerist, then turned and fled, for her face was like to that of adevil.
"Monsieur Boiset," he said, when they reached the street, "somethinghas happened to me. I am quite changed. Not for all the world would Igo near Madame Riennes again. Indeed, now I feel as though I wished torun away from her."
"That is good!" said the Pasteur. "Oh! I thought it would be so, for Iknow how to deal with such witches. But not too fast, not too fast, myGodfrey. I wonder what the old Egyptians put into the heads of theirmummies to make them so heavy."
"Bitumen," answered Godfrey, and proceeded in a cheerful voice to givean account of the Egyptian process of mummification to his tutor, whichIsobel and he had acquired in the course of their miscellaneous readingat Monk's Acre. Indeed, as he had said, whatever the reason, he waschanged and prepared to talk cheerfully about anything. A great burdenwas lifted from his soul.