'Bring it here, Pierre,' she said. 'Place it in the doorway where wecan see it. See how nice it is! It shuts out the darkness from us; itis just right!'
Just right for her and her purposes! It threw all its light on myface, leaving in gloom the faces of both Pierre and the woman, who satoutside of me on each side.
I felt that the time of action was approaching, but I knew now thatthe first signal and movement would come from the woman, and sowatched her.
I was all unarmed, but I had made up my mind what to do. At the firstmovement I would seize the butcher's axe in the right-hand corner andfight my way out. At least, I would die hard. I stole a glance roundto fix its exact locality so that I could not fail to seize it at thefirst effort, for then, if ever, time and accuracy would be precious.
Good God! It was gone! All the horror of the situation burst upon me;but the bitterest thought of all was that if the issue of the terribleposition should be against me Alice would infallibly suffer. Eithershe would believe me false--and any lover, or any one who has everbeen one, can imagine the bitterness of the thought--or else she wouldgo on loving long after I had been lost to her and to the world, sothat her life would be broken and embittered, shattered withdisappointment and despair. The very magnitude of the pain braced meup and nerved me to bear the dread scrutiny of the plotters.
I think I did not betray myself. The old woman was watching me as acat does a mouse; she had her right hand hidden in the folds of hergown, clutching, I knew, that long, cruel-looking dagger. Had she seenany disappointment in my face she would, I felt, have known that themoment had come, and would have sprung on me like a tigress, certainof taking me unprepared.
I looked out into the night, and there I saw new cause for danger.Before and around the hut were at a little distance some shadowyforms; they were quite still, but I knew that they were all alert andon guard. Small chance for me now in that direction.
Again I sto
le a glance round the place. In moments of great excitementand of great danger, which is excitement, the mind works very quickly,and the keenness of the faculties which depend on the mind grows inproportion. I now felt this. In an instant I took in the wholesituation. I saw that the axe had been taken through a small hole madein one of the rotten boards. How rotten they must be to allow of sucha thing being done without a particle of noise.
The hut was a regular murder-trap, and was guarded all around. Agarroter lay on the roof ready to entangle me with his noose if Ishould escape the dagger of the old hag. In front the way was guardedby I know not how many watchers. And at the back was a row ofdesperate men--I had seen their eyes still through the crack in theboards of the floor, when last I looked--as they lay prone waiting forthe signal to start erect. If it was to be ever, now for it!
As nonchalantly as I could I turned slightly on my stool so as to getmy right leg well under me. Then with a sudden jump, turning my head,and guarding it with my hands, and with the fighting instinct of theknights of old, I breathed my lady's name, and hurled myself againstthe back wall of the hut.
Watchful as they were, the suddenness of my movement surprised bothPierre and the old woman. As I crashed through the rotten timbers Isaw the old woman rise with a leap like a tiger and heard her low gaspof baffled rage. My feet lit on something that moved, and as I jumpedaway I knew that I had stepped on the back of one of the row of menlying on their faces outside the hut. I was torn with nails andsplinters, but otherwise unhurt. Breathless I rushed up the mound infront of me, hearing as I went the dull crash of the shanty as itcollapsed into a mass.
It was a nightmare climb. The mound, though but low, was awfullysteep, and with each step I took the mass of dust and cinders toredown with me and gave way under my feet. The dust rose and choked me;it was sickening, foetid, awful; but my climb was, I felt, for life ordeath, and I struggled on. The seconds seemed hours; but the fewmoments I had in starting, combined with my youth and strength, gaveme a great advantage, and, though several forms struggled after me indeadly silence which was more dreadful than any sound, I easilyreached the top. Since then I have climbed the cone of Vesuvius, andas I struggled up that dreary steep amid the sulphurous fumes thememory of that awful night at Montrouge came back to me so vividlythat I almost grew faint.
The mound was one of the tallest in the region of dust, and as Istruggled to the top, panting for breath and with my heart beatinglike a sledge-hammer, I saw away to my left the dull red gleam of thesky, and nearer still the flashing of lights. Thank God! I knew whereI was now and where lay the road to Paris!
For two or three seconds I paused and looked back. My pursuers werestill well behind me, but struggling up resolutely, and in deadlysilence. Beyond, the shanty was a wreck--a mass of timber and movingforms. I could see it well, for flames were already bursting out; therags and straw had evidently caught fire from the lantern. Stillsilence there! Not a sound! These old wretches could die game, anyhow.
I had no time for more than a passing glance, for as I cast an eyeround the mound preparatory to making my descent I saw several darkforms rushing round on either side to cut me off on my way. It was nowa race for life. They were trying to head me on my way to Paris, andwith the instinct of the moment I dashed down to the right-hand side.I was just in time, for, though I came as it seemed to me down thesteep in a few steps, the wary old men who were watching me turnedback, and one, as I rushed by into the opening between the two moundsin front, almost struck me a blow with that terrible butcher's axe.There could surely not be two such weapons about!
Then began a really horrible chase. I easily ran ahead of the old men,and even when some younger ones and a few women joined in the hunt Ieasily distanced them. But I did not know the way, and I could noteven guide myself by the light in the sky, for I was running away fromit. I had heard that, unless of conscious purpose, hunted men turnalways to the left, and so I found it now; and so, I suppose, knewalso my pursuers, who were more animals than men, and with cunning orinstinct had found out such secrets for themselves: for on finishinga quick spurt, after which I intended to take a moment's breathingspace, I suddenly saw ahead of me two or three forms swiftly passingbehind a mound to the right.
I was in the spider's web now indeed! But with the thought of this newdanger came the resource of the hunted, and so I darted down the nextturning to the right. I continued in this direction for some hundredyards, and then, making a turn to the left again, felt certain that Ihad, at any rate, avoided the danger of being surrounded.
But not of pursuit, for on came the rabble after me, steady, dogged,relentless, and still in grim silence.
In the greater darkness the mounds seemed now to be somewhat smallerthan before, although--for the night was closing--they looked biggerin proportion. I was now well ahead of my pursuers, so I made a dartup the mound in front.
Oh joy of joys! I was close to the edge of this inferno of dustheaps.Away behind me the red light of Paris was in the sky, and towering upbehind rose the heights of Montmarte--a dim light, with here and therebrilliant points like stars.
Restored to vigour in a moment, I ran over the few remaining mounds ofdecreasing size, and found myself on the level land beyond. Even then,however, the prospect was not inviting. All before me was dark anddismal, and I had evidently come on one of those dank, low-lying wasteplaces which are found here and there in the neighbourhood of greatcities. Places of waste and desolation, where the space is requiredfor the ultimate agglomeration of all that is noxious, and the groundis so poor as to create no desire of occupancy even in the lowestsquatter. With eyes accustomed to the gloom of the evening, and awaynow from the shadows of those dreadful dustheaps, I could see muchmore easily than I could a little while ago. It might have been, ofcourse, that the glare in the sky of the lights of Paris, though thecity was some miles away, was reflected here. Howsoever it was, I sawwell enough to take bearings for certainly some little distance aroundme.
In front was a bleak, flat waste that seemed almost dead level, withhere and there the dark shimmering of stagnant pools. Seemingly faroff on the right, amid a small cluster of scattered lights, rose adark mass of Fort Montrouge, and away to the left in the dim distance,pointed with stray gleams from cottage windows, the lights in the skyshowed the locality of Bicetre. A moment's thought decided me to taketo the right and try to reach Montrouge. There at least would be somesort of safety, and I might possibly long before come on some of thecross roads which I knew. Somewhere, not far off, must lie thestrategic road made to connect the outlying chain of forts circlingthe city.
Then I looked back. Coming over the mounds, and outlined black againstthe glare of the Parisian horizon, I saw several moving figures, andstill a way to the right several more deploying out between me and mydestination. They evidently meant to cut me off in this direction, andso my choice became constricted; it lay now between going straightahead or turning to the left. Stooping to the ground, so as to get theadvantage of the horizon as a line of sight, I looked carefully inthis direction, but could detect no sign of my enemies. I argued thatas they had not guarded or were not trying to guard that point, therewas evidently danger to me there already. So I made up my mind to gostraight on before me.
It was not an inviting prospect, and as I went on the reality grewworse. The ground became soft and oozy, and now and again gave waybeneath me in a sickening kind of way. I seemed somehow to be goingdown, for I saw round me places seemingly more elevated than where Iwas, and this in a place which from a little way back seemed deadlevel. I looked around, but could see none of my pursuers. This wasstrange, for all along these birds of the night had followed methrough the darkness as well as though it was broad daylight. How Iblamed myself for coming out in my light-coloured tourist suit oftweed. The silence, and my not being able to see my enemies, whilst Ifelt that they were watching me, grew appalling, and in the hope ofsome one not of this ghastly crew hearing me I raised my voice andshouted several times. There was not the slighte
st response; not evenan echo rewarded my efforts. For a while I stood stock still and keptmy eyes in one direction. On one of the rising places around me I sawsomething dark move along, then another, and another. This was to myleft, and seemingly moving to head me off.
I thought that again I might with my skill as a runner elude myenemies at this game, and so with all my speed darted forward.
Splash!
My feet had given way in a mass of slimy rubbish, and I had fallenheadlong into a reeking, stagnant pool. The water and the mud in whichmy arms sank up to the elbows was filthy and nauseous beyonddescription, and in the suddenness of my fall I had actually swallowedsome of the filthy stuff, which nearly choked me, and made me gaspfor breath. Never shall I forget the moments during which I stoodtrying to recover myself almost fainting from the foetid odour of thefilthy pool, whose white mist rose ghostlike around. Worst of all,with the acute despair of the hunted animal when he sees the pursuingpack closing on him, I saw before my eyes whilst I stood helpless thedark forms of my pursuers moving swiftly to surround me.
It is curious how our minds work on odd matters even when the energiesof thought are seemingly concentrated on some terrible and pressingneed. I was in momentary peril of my life: my safety depended on myaction, and my choice of alternatives coming now with almost everystep I took, and yet I could not but think of the strange doggedpersistency of these old men. Their silent resolution, theirsteadfast, grim, persistency even in such a cause commanded, as wellas fear, even a measure of respect. What must they have been in thevigour of their youth. I could understand now that whirlwind rush onthe bridge of Arcola, that scornful exclamation of the Old Guard atWaterloo! Unconscious cerebration has its own pleasures, even at suchmoments; but fortunately it does not in any way clash with the thoughtfrom which action springs.