Delphi Collected Works of Maurice Leblanc (Illustrated) (Delphi Series Nine Book 17)

by Maurice Leblanc

  “What do I care? The truth comes first, surely? Once we are in the right, we are bound to see that our rights are recognized and that Jorancé is released.”

  Morestal planted himself firmly in front of his son:

  “You’re of my way of thinking, I suppose?”

  “No.”

  “How do you mean, no?”

  “Listen, father: the circumstances seem to me to be very serious. The examining-magistrate’s enquiry is most important. It will serve as a basis for later enquiries. It seems to me that we ought to reflect and give our evidence with a certain reserve, with caution.... We must behave prudently....”

  “We must behave like Frenchmen who are in the right,” cried Morestal, “and who, when they are in the right, fear nobody and nothing in this world!”

  “Not even war?”

  “War! What are you talking about? War! But there can’t be war over an incident like this! The way things are shaping, Germany will yield.”

  “Do you think so?” said Philippe, who seemed relieved by this assertion.

  “Certainly! But on one condition, that we establish our right firmly. There has been a violation of the frontier. That is beyond dispute. Let us prove it; and every chance of a conflict is removed.”

  “But, if we don’t succeed in proving it?” asked Philippe.

  “Ah, in that case, it can’t be helped!... Of course, they will dispute it. But have no fear, my boy: the proofs exist; and we can safely go ahead.... Come along, they’re waiting for us downstairs....”

  He grasped the door-handle.

  “Father!”

  “Look here, what’s the matter with you to-day? Aren’t you coming?”

  “No, not yet,” said Philippe, who saw a way out and who was making a last effort to escape. “Presently.... I must absolutely tell you.... You and I start from a different point of view.... I have rather different ideas from yours ... and, as the occasion happens to present itself ...”

  “Impossible, my boy! They are waiting for us....”

  “You must hear me,” cried Philippe, blocking the way. “I refuse to accept with a light heart a responsibility that is not in accordance with my present opinions; and that is why an explanation between us has become inevitable.”

  Morestal looked at him with an air of amazement:

  “Your present opinions! Ideas different from mine! What’s all this nonsense?”

  Philippe felt, even more clearly than on the day before, the violence of a conflict which a confession would provoke. But, this time, his resolve was taken. There were too many reasons urging him towards a breach which he considered necessary. With his mind and his whole frame palpitating with his tense will, he was about to utter the irrevocable words, when Marthe hurried into the room:

  “Don’t keep your father, Philippe; the examining-magistrate is asking for him.”

  “Ah!” said Morestal. “I am not sorry that you have come to release me, my dear Marthe. Your husband’s crazy. He’s been talking a string of nonsense these past ten minutes. What you want, my boy, is rest.”

  Philippe made a slight movement. Marthe whispered:

  “Be quiet.”

  And she said it in so imperious a tone that he was taken aback.

  Before leaving the room, Morestal walked to the window. Bugle-notes sounded in the distance and he leant out to hear them better.

  Marthe at once said to Philippe:

  “I came in on chance. I felt that you were seeking an explanation with your father.”

  “Yes, I had to.”

  “About your ideas, I suppose?”

  “Yes, I must.”

  “Your father is ill.... It’s his heart.... A fit of anger might prove fatal ... especially after last night. Not a word, Philippe.”

  At that moment, Morestal closed the window. He passed in front of them and then, turning and placing his hand on his son’s shoulder, he murmured, in accents of restrained ardour:

  “Do you hear the enemy’s bugle, over there? Ah, Philippe, I don’t want it to become a war-song!... But, all the same, if it should ... if it should!...”

  * * *

  At one o’clock on the afternoon of Tuesday the 2nd of September, Philippe, sitting opposite his father, before the pensive eyes of Marthe, before the anxious eyes of Suzanne, Philippe, after relating most minutely his conversation with the dying soldier, declared that he had heard at a distance the cries of protest uttered by Jorancé, the special commissary.

  Having made the declaration, he signed it.

  CHAPTER IV

  THE ENQUIRIES

  THE TRAGEDY ENACTED that night and morning was so harsh, so virulent and so swift that it left the inmates of the Old Mill as though stunned. Instead of uniting them in a common emotion, it scattered them, giving each of them an impression of discomfort and uneasiness.

  In Philippe, this took the form of a state of torpor that kept him asleep until the next morning. He awoke, however, in excellent condition, but with an immense longing for solitude. In reality, he shrank from finding himself in the presence of his father and his wife.

  He went out, therefore, very early, across the woods and fields, stopped at an inn, climbed the Ballon de Vergix and did not come home until lunch-time. He was very calm by then and quite master of himself.

  To men like Philippe, men endowed with upright natures and generous minds, but not prone to waste time in reflecting upon the minor cases of conscience that arise in daily life, the sense of duty performed becomes, at critical periods, a sort of standard by which they judge their actions. This sense Philippe experienced in all its fulness. Placed by a series of abnormal circumstances between the necessity of betraying Suzanne or the necessity of swearing upon oath to a thing which he did not know, he felt that he was certainly entitled to lie. The lie seemed just and natural. He did not deny the fault which he had committed in succumbing to the young girl’s fascinations and wiles: but, having committed the fault, he owed it to Suzanne to keep it secret, whatever the consequences of his discretion might be. There was no excuse that permitted him to break silence.

  He found, on the drawing-room table, the three newspapers which were taken at the Old Mill: the Éclaireur des Vosges; a Paris evening-paper; and the Börsweilener Zeitung, a morning-paper printed in German, but French in tone and inspiration. A glance at these completely reassured him. Amid the confusion of the first reports devoted to the Jorancé case, his own part passed almost unnoticed. The Éclaireur des Vosges summoned up his evidence in a couple of lines. When all was said, he was and would be no more than a supernumerary.

  “A walking gentleman, at the outside,” he murmured, with satisfaction.

  “Yes, at the outside. It’s your father and M. Jorancé who play the star parts.”

  Marthe had entered and caught his last words, which he had spoken aloud, and was answering him with a laugh.

  She put her arm around his neck with the fond gesture usual to her and said:

  “Yes, Philippe, you need not worry yourself. Your evidence is of no importance and cannot influence events in any way. You can be very sure of that.”

  Their faces were quite close together and Philippe read nothing but gaiety and affection in Marthe’s eyes.

  He understood that she had ascribed his behaviour of the previous day, his first, false version, his reticence and his confusion to scruples of conscience and vague apprehensions. Anxious about the consequences of the business and dreading lest his testimony might complicate it, he had tried to avoid the annoyance of giving evidence.

  “I believe you’re right,” he said, with a view to confirming her in her mistake. “Besides, is the business so very serious?”

  They talked together for a few minutes and, gradually, while watching her, he changed the subject to the Jorancés:

  “Has Suzanne been this morning?”

  Marthe appeared astonished:

  “Suzanne?” she said. “Don’t you know?... Oh, of course, you were asleep last even
ing. Suzanne spent the night here.”

  He turned aside his head, to hide the flush that spread over his features, and he said:

  “Oh, she slept here, did she?”

  “Yes. M. Morestal wishes her to stay with us until M. Jorancé’s return.”

  “But ... but where is she now?...”

  “She is at Börsweilen ... she has gone to ask for leave to see her father.”

  “Alone?”

  “No, Victor went with her.”

  With an air of indifference, Philippe asked:

  “How is she? Depressed?”

  “Very much depressed.... I don’t know why, but she imagines that it was her fault that her father was kidnapped.... She says she urged him to go for that walk!... Poor Suzanne, what interest could she have in remaining alone?...”

  He plainly perceived, from his wife’s voice and attitude, that, although certain coincidences had surprised her, her mind had not been touched by the shadow of a suspicion. On that side, everything was over. The danger was averted.

  Happily released from his fears, Philippe had the further satisfaction of learning that his father had spent a very good night and that he had gone to the town-hall at Saint-Élophe. He questioned his mother. Mme. Morestal, yielding like Philippe to that desire for assuagement and security which comes over us after any great shock, reassured him on the subject of the old man’s health. Certainly, there was something the matter with the heart: Dr. Borel insisted upon his leading the most regular and monotonous life. But Dr. Borel always looked at the dark side of things; and, all considered, Morestal had borne the fatigue attendant on his capture and escape, hard though it was, very well indeed.

  “Besides, you have only to look at him,” she concluded. “Here he comes, back from Saint-Élophe.”

  They saw him alight from the carriage with the brisk and springy step of a young man. He joined them in the drawing-room and at once cried:

  “Oh, what an uproar! I’ve telephoned to town.... They’re talking of nothing else.... And who do you think swooped down upon me at Saint-Élophe? Quite half-a-dozen reporters! I sent them away with a flea in their ears! A set of fellows who make mischief wherever they go and who arrange everything as it suits them!... They’re the scourge of our time!... I shall give Catherine formal orders that no one is to be admitted to the Old Mill.... Why, did you see how they report my escape? I’m supposed to have strangled the sentry and to have made a couple of Uhlans who pursued me bite the dust!...”

  He could not succeed in concealing his satisfaction and drew himself to his full height, like a man who sees nothing astonishing in an exploit of that kind.

  Philippe asked.

  “And what is the general feeling?”

  “Just what the papers say. Jorancé’s release is imminent. I told you as much. The more we assert ourselves, as we have every right to do, the sooner the thing will be over. You must understand that friend Jorancé is being examined at this moment and that he is giving exactly the same replies that I did. So you see!... No, once more, Germany will give way. It is only a question of a day or two. So don’t upset yourself, my boy, since you’re so afraid of war ... and the responsibilities attaching to it!...”

  This, when all was said and done, was the motive to which he, like Marthe, ascribed the incoherent words which Philippe had uttered previous to his appearance before the magistrates; and, without going deeper into the matter, it gave him, on his side, a certain sense of anger, mingled with a mild contempt. Philippe Morestal, old Morestal’s son, afraid of war! He was one more corrupted by the Paris poison!...

  Lunch was very lively. The old man never ceased talking. His good-humour, his optimism, his steady belief in a favourable and immediate solution overcame every resistance; and Philippe himself was glad to share a conviction that delighted him.

  * * *

  The afternoon was continued under equally propitious auspices. Morestal and Philippe were sent for to the frontier, where, in the presence of the public prosecutor, the sub-prefect, the sergeant of gendarmes and a number of journalists whom they tried in vain to send away, the examining-magistrate carefully completed the investigations which he had begun the day before. Morestal had to repeat the story of the aggression on the spot where it occurred, to point definitely to the road followed before the attack and during the flight, to fix the place where Private Baufeld had crossed the frontier-line and the place where the commissary and himself were arrested.

  He did so without hesitation, walking to and fro, talking and making his statements so positively, so logically and so sincerely that the scene, as pictured by him, lived again before the spectators’ eyes. His demonstration was lucid and commanding. Here, the first shot was fired. There, a sharp divergence to the right, on German territory. Here, back in France and, further on, at that exact spot, fifteen yards on this side of the frontier, the scene of the fight, the place of the arrest. Indications, undeniable indications, abounded. It was the truth, with no possible fear of a mistake.

  Philippe was carried away and categorically confirmed his original declaration. He had heard the special commissary shouting, as he approached the Butte-aux-Loups. The words, “We are in France!... There is the frontier!” had reached him distinctly. And he described his search, his conversation with Private Baufeld and the wounded man’s evidence concerning the encroachment on French territory.

  The enquiry ended with a piece of good news. On Monday, a few hours before the attack, Farmer Saboureux was said to have seen Weisslicht, the chief of the German detectives, and a certain Dourlowski, a hawker, walking in the woods and trying to keep hidden. Now Morestal, without confessing the relations that existed between him and that individual, had nevertheless spoken of the visit of this Dourlowski and of his proposal that the witness should act as an accomplice. An understanding between Dourlowski and Weisslicht was a proof that an ambush had been laid and that the passing of Private Baufeld across the frontier, arranged for half-past ten, was only a pretext to catch the special commissary and his friend in a trap.

  The magistrates made no secret of their satisfaction. The Jorancé case, a plot hatched by subordinate officials of police, whom the imperial government would not hesitate to disown was becoming rapidly reduced to the proportions of an incident which would lead to nothing and be forgotten on the morrow.

  “That’s all right,” said Morestal, walking away with his son, while the magistrates went on to Saboureux’s Farm. “It will be an even simpler matter than I hoped. The French government will know the results of the enquiry this evening. There will be an exchange of views with the German embassy; and to-morrow ...”

  “Do you think so?...”

  “I go further. I believe that Germany will make the first advance.”

  As they came to the Col du Diable, they passed a small company of men headed by one in a gold-laced cap.

  Morestal took off his hat with a flourish and grinned:

  “Good-afternoon!... I hope I see you well!”

  The man passed without speaking.

  “Who is that?” asked Philippe.

  “Weisslicht, the chief of the detectives.”

  “And the others?”

  “The others?... It’s the Germans making their investigation.”

  It was then four o’clock in the afternoon.

  * * *

  The remainder of that day passed peacefully at the Old Mill. Suzanne arrived from Börsweilen at nightfall, looking radiant. They had given her a letter from her father and she would be authorized to see him on Saturday.

  “You will not even have to go back to Börsweilen,” said Morestal. “Your father will come to fetch you here, won’t he, Philippe?”

  Dinner brought them all five together under the family lamp; and they experienced a feeling of relaxation, comfort and repose. They drank to the special commissary’s health. And it seemed to them as if his place were not even empty, so great was the certainty with which they expected his return.

  Phil
ippe was the only one who did not share in the general gaiety. Sitting beside Marthe and opposite Suzanne, he was bound, with his upright nature and his sane judgment, to suffer at finding himself situated in such a false position. Since the night before last, since the moment when he had left Suzanne while the dawning light of day stole into her room at Saint-Élophe, this was the first instant that he had had any sort of time to conjure up the memory of those unnerving hours. Alarmed by the course of events, obsessed by his anxiety about the way in which he was to act, his one and only thought of Suzanne had been how not to compromise her.

  Now, he saw her before him. He heard her laugh and talk. She lived in his presence, not as he had known her in Paris and found her at Saint-Élophe, but adorned with a different charm, of which he knew the mysterious secret. True, he remained master of himself and he clearly felt that no temptation would induce him to succumb a second time. But could he help it that she had fair hair, the colour of which bewitched him, and quivering lips and a voice melodious as a song? And could he help it that all this filled him with an emotion which every minute that passed made more profound?

  Their eyes met. Suzanne trembled under Philippe’s gaze. A sort of bashfulness decked her as with a veil that gives added beauty to its wearer. She was as desirable as a wife and as winsome as a bride.

  At that moment, Marthe smiled to Philippe. He turned red and thought:

  “I shall go away to-morrow.”

  His decision was taken then and there. He would not remain a day longer between the two women. The mere sight of their intimacy was hateful to him. He would go away without a word. He knew the danger of leave-takings between people who love, knew how they soften us and disarm us. He wanted none of those compromises and evasions. Temptation, even if we resist it, is a fault in itself.

  When dinner was over, he stood up and went to his bedroom, where Marthe joined him. He learnt from her that Suzanne’s room was on the same floor. Later, he heard the young girl come upstairs. But he knew that nothing would make him fall again.