Page 28 of The False Chevalier


  CHAPTER XXVII

  JUDE AND THE GALLEY

  The Council of the Galley-on-Land were gathered again in Gougeon's shopat two in the morning. All Paris was sleeping, and even the orgies ofthe Beggars' Ball had sunk to silence. There was animation among theCouncil, for in a corner, not at first visible, lay a subject ofdebate--a prisoner tightly bound with a rope. Each man held some pieceof sharp iron, Wife Gougeon her pistol. The Admiral sat wrapped in hisbrown cloak.

  "_I_ caught him!" shouted Hache hilariously; "I caught him myself."

  "Who is he?" the Admiral asked.

  "The sheep that followed me. They have followed me ever since thebreaking of Bec and Caron. This one was the worst. He follows you alonglike a lizard under a wall; but I caught him, I caught him!"

  A stifled struggle with its fastenings were heard from the bundle in thecorner.

  "Bring him over," order the Admiral.

  Gougeon and Hache went over, lifted the bundle, and deposited it in thecentre of the group, where the candle rays brought out amidst it thelines of a face. A woollen gag was across the mouth, the eyes werebloodshot and fear-distorted, but the features were unmistakable. Theywere those of Jude.

  Jude, when deprived of the favour of the Princess, had offered hisservices to the police administration. He was set on the track of Hache,whom he successfully shadowed and was about to expose, together with theGougeons and their den, when his victim caught him.

  Gougeon took hold of the prisoner's hand roughly, and bound a new gagunder the chin and tightly over the head; he then loosened the mouth gagand turned away, without any interest in the sequel, to pick at adriblet of grease running down the side of the candle.

  The change in the gags allowed of speech between the teeth whilepreventing the prisoner's mouth from opening to cry out.

  "Spy," said the Admiral severely. "You are in the service of theLieutenant of Police?"

  "Oh, no, sir, I pray you," Jude hissed. "I am no spy, a poor Abbe only;and in the name of the Church----"

  "The Church is one of our enemies."

  "But I am not in orders--a secular, a reader, a poor companion. Oh, letme go and I will do you no harm. I have some money--eighty-fiveflorins--at my lodgings; let me but go and bring it."

  "And betray us all!" screamed Wife Gougeon. "No, Monsieur Abbe. When yougo from here it will not be to sing."

  "Monsieur will doubtless sign an order for us to draw this sum," saidthe Admiral most suavely.

  "Immediately on my release," gasped the Abbe.

  "It is more just that we should have the money first."

  "But I am dying of fear. I have no courage. Listen, listen, I pray ofyou good people. I shall give you all I have and fly from you for everas far as I can."

  "Unbind his right hand," commanded the leader. "Is there any paperhere?"

  "His own book. I took it from his pocket," said Wife Gougeon, handingover a note-book.

  The Admiral pounced upon it. The first entry he read aloud was headed"_Hache--ex-convict_," succeeded by a description; following it werememoranda concerning several others of the gang; further on, the numberand street of the shop, and at length an entry: "_The Admiral, anindividual of Brittany, who seems to have some connection with thesepeople._"

  "Oho!" he cried, "Monsieur Abbe, what do you say to this?"

  A hoarse, long groan was the reply.

  Femme Gougeon came over to him, and putting her glittering eyes justover his, caught his neck with her left hand, and stretching her rightup to Gougeon said "A knife!"

  "No," the Admiral exclaimed peremptorily. "What would you do with theblood? To the rats with him rather, like the others. Hache, the trap."

  The ex-felon staggered across a pile of scraps, and raised a triplet ofplanks which covered a pit. A sickening odour arose.

  "Down with him," continued the robber Captain.

  "But his money?" murmured Gougeon.

  "Never mind it."

  All the men present caught up Jude and hurried him quickly over thegaping hole, in which he could hear a scuttling of vermin feet and achorus of squeaks.

  "May the next be Repentigny!" the Admiral began. "Now up with him----"

  A death-like hiss rose from Jude's lips, "Repentigny? He is my enemytoo. I will be your slave. I have too much fear of you to ever harm you.Let me tell you about this Repentigny. Life, life, I beseech--Ibeseech--beseech you!"

  "Back a moment!" the Admiral commanded.

  Jude was carried once more into the candle-light.

  "Who is the Repentigny you say you know?"

  "The officer--of the King's--Bodyguard."

  "What do you know about him?"

  "I lived in the same house at Versailles--the Hotel de Noailles."

  "Then you are an aristocrat?"

  "Oh, no, sir; do not accuse me--only a servant--one of the people--and Iwas dismissed."

  "A reader, you said. Well, what of this Repentigny?"

  "I could inform you concerning all his movements were you only torelease me."

  The Admiral looked away and reflected several minutes. His sinistercountenance was watched with terrible constancy by Jude. At length thevictim caught what he took for a relaxation of the cruel look on theface of the Admiral, who rose and tapped upon the box on which thecandle stood.

  "Ragmen," he said. The spy's breath stopped in his suspense. "Ragmen,carry him back."

  It was a terrific blow to Jude, who still, however, retainedconsciousness, though now incapable of even hiss or contortion. He washeld over the trap again, and the leader once more commenced speaking."Spy," he said, "you have been condemned by the Galley-on-Land to thedeath which now yawns beneath you. Men, lift him up till I give my finalorder." He paused a time; it seemed an eternity to Jude.

  "Monsieur Spy," continued he. "Are you ready, in return for your life,to serve the Galley-on-Land, of which I am Admiral, before all othermasters; to go where I bid you, to do what I command, to inform me ofwhatever will protect us; to succour a ragman before every otherconsideration!"

  "All," the prisoner gurgled, with his last strength.

  "Then live."

  They hurried him back and laid him down on the floor unconscious.

  "Yes, the order must be reversed: Repentigny first, this oneafterwards," mused the Admiral, who could do nothing without indulginghis turn for brutal melodrama.

 
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