Collected Works of Gaston Leroux

by Gaston Leroux

  “You dared to tell him so,” exclaimed Dolores, and then pulling herself up, “We mustn’t speak too loud.”

  “Oh, we need have no fear. He went to his rooms and set to work after wishing me good night.... He hardly gives us a thought, I assure you, and he has more important things to do than to spy on us; besides, he doesn’t care a rap what we say.”

  “Particularly as he knows what we think,” said Dolores.... “That is the extraordinary part of it. But what did he say to you, Doctor?”

  “He said: ‘I foresaw your request and you will be at liberty in a few days.... I might even tell you that I’ve already got five to take your place.’”

  “Five!” echoed the young people.

  “Yes, five! It seems that there is going to be a great deal of doctor’s work soon.”

  “Here?” asked Dolores with a shudder.

  “Here... or elsewhere,” answered the Doctor mysteriously.

  “Here! I thought they were only wanted here for the executioners,” rapped out Gabriel in a strained voice.

  “Be quiet, wretch,” exclaimed Dolores, placing her hand over the young man’s mouth. “You know, I’ve told you not to speak like that about the angels of the waters. But, Doctor, you say he told you that you would be free in a few days. What about us?”

  “You will be free too.”

  “You see, Gabriel!” said Dolores, nestling against the young man. “We must have patience. Did he say anything else?”

  “There is only one condition attached to my freedom,” replied the Doctor. “I must give him my word of honour fearlessly to publish in the newspapers everything that I have seen here.”

  “You don’t mean to say so?”

  “And he added: ‘ I hope those who have had the heart to read about the tortures and massacres in Louvain and Aerschot won’t shrink with horror when they learn that some one is getting ready to avenge the victims and to frighten their executioners.’”

  “Getting ready! “repeated Gabriel with a mournful smile. “Then what has be been doing so far?”

  “I think I can swear that so far... so far...” declared the Doctor in a voice that shook slightly.

  “What... what do you know about it yourself?”

  “You know very well what he is waiting for in order to begin... to begin in earnest the great punishments.”

  “Well, that’s promising.... And you... you are running away. Here, there is nothing but crime and terror.”

  The doctor was ill at ease.

  “Don’t condemn him without a hearing,” he said.

  “That’s true,” sighed Dolores, blowing out at the same time the smoke of a fragrant cigarette. “Until we have heard the Captain we must say nothing... nothing.” —

  “When he speaks,” continued the Doctor, sighing in his turn, “I bow my head and say to myself that perhaps I am only a child or a coward.”

  “That’s not true,” interposed Gabriel, shaking him by the hand. “You are an honest man. As to your Captain, he must be a madman,... that’s the least I can say... to have conceived this work of blood and darkness.”

  “Hush, Gabriel!” implored Dolores.

  “Don’t judge him... don’t judge him.... You have less right than any one else.... Did he not save your Dolores?... Think, my boy... if one day she had been brought to you with her limbs or her breast cut off... that is what they did to my daughter....”

  The unhappy man could say no more... he covered his face with his hands and silently wept.

  The two young people, motionless, respected his grief. At last he stood up abruptly and said: “I tell you that there are moments when I consider myself a coward.” And he hurried out of the room.

  “It’s all very terrible,” sighed Gabriel. “ But I still repeat that it doesn’t do away with this fact; if you want to be revenged decently you have only to take up arms in the light of day.”

  “Yes, certainly... and I, too, think that everything around us is horrible,” said Dolores in her soft voice. “Certainly one may think... but I ask you not to talk.... Once for all, do you understand me? Shut your eyes and ears for the present, and, above all, ‘don’t judge,’ as the Doctor says. You were more reasonable when you came here first.... Do you remember?”

  “Yes, because I was still under the influence of a great shock. I thought you were lost to me!”

  “You see! Imagine if I had really been ‘lost,’ through their fault, through their crime!”

  “Dolores, Dolores,” said Gabriel, shaking his fine head of hair like a young lion. “Have you ever met in any corner of a passage a Living Witness being taken back to his prison? If you have not, you have never seen horror depicted on a face.”

  “I have never seen these horrors because I have always obeyed Captain Hyx, who has been kindness itself to me. He advised me to restrict myself to the big saloons, or to use the lift, and the tenth alley-way and the second staircase and the first companion if I wanted a breath of fresh air on deck when we come to the surface.... ‘If you do that,’ he said, ‘ there is no danger of going past the railed recesses.’... I have not seen... but I have heard.... It was one evening, one fine evening, about a week after Captain Hyx had snatched me from death. I knew that you would be with me the next day... and we should be together for a long time, far from every danger.... After that terrible incident in which I had given myself up for dead... my heart was at rest, my mind at peace.... Your name was on my lips, I let myself be lulled by the sea, soothed by the stillness of the hour.... The early stars, gleaming in the heavens, seemed to give me hope. Alas, I did not know that, thinking me dead, my mother had already gone to those beautiful heavens.

  “I was happy, so happy that I could not leave the deck without uttering a prayer of thankfulness to the Blessed Virgin and to Saint Iago of Compostella.... Then I went below as unthinking as a child; and, forgetting all the warnings that I had received, I wandered about the marvellous vessel which had started to submerge as if she, too, were preparing to take a few hours’ rest.... Every sound on board had ceased.... I no longer heard the powerful breathing of the engines. We slid beneath the sombre mystery of the waters as in a dream.

  “Suddenly a most unearthly chorus burst forth. My ears were stunned and my whole being shaken by a fearful clamour from four distinct voices. But I did not run away. Thinking that some terrible accident had occurred, I was rushing forward in the direction from which this awful fourfold din came, when I was seized roughly by an iron hand which pulled me back, and dragging me like a bundle through the dormitory, flung me, gasping with terror, in a corner of this saloon... here... here on this divan.

  “It was he; the man whose face I had not yet seen; the man whose face I shall, perhaps, never see, my rescuer; it was he who had treated me like that.... I did not recognise his voice... it was terrible.... He reproached me for my disobedience. He reminded me that I had been forbidden to come that way. He told me, above all, with a sort of concentrated fury, that those shrieks were no concern of a young girl like me.... But terrible as was his voice, those shrieks ringing in my ears were more terrible still, and I dared to ask him if an accident had happened!...

  “Then he shrugged his shoulders with scorn for the poor little thing that I was, the poor little thing who knew nothing, and said:

  “‘No: there has been no accident.... But, I repeat, those shrieks are no concern of yours.’

  “And he left me.

  “The next day I was ill; I had a touch of fever. The good Doctor took care of me, and in a moment when he was moved by a fit of compassion, as is often the case with him, he explained everything to me.

  “Certainly it was dreadful, but much less, yes, much less dreadful than one might have supposed from such shrieks. The Doctor told me that at present it is solely a question of letting the prisoners, who are brought to the railed recesses, see exactly what will be done to them one day to avenge particular persons who have met with short shrift in a similar manner from the Huns in Belgium and
other places. They see it on the bodies of Boches killed horribly but honourably in the warfare waged by the Vengeance. And these sights are photographed so that the prisoners themselves may send pictures of them to Germany to terrify the butchers, and give them something to think about.... Well, what do you say? What is your opinion about it? It may be an admirable stratagem; frighten them.... That’s what I meant just now. I am very certain that the Captain... don’t be so restless... will not go further: frighten them I...”

  “Well, you can take it from me that what you say is childish,” exclaimed Gabriel. “It is you who dare not let your thoughts go further.... How can you imagine for one moment that an affair of this sort has been organised merely to intimidate? And people don’t shriek like that at pretended tortures. You don’t know what you are talking about. You see yourself that the Doctor is running away. He is running away from the assassin.”

  “Don’t! don’t!” broke in Dolores. “ I used the same word one day before the Doctor, as it happened. The word had scarcely passed my lips when a curtain was raised, and the Captain stood before me. He led me by the hand, as though I were a little girl, to evening prayer....

  “Oh, to think that those men who once were good and kind are now more bloodthirsty than the tiger in the jungle!... Their service terrified me more than the cries did... if possible... if possible.... I looked at the Man whose face one never sees, and I could only moan: ‘It’s horrible!’ The Man once more dragged me roughly behind him and took me to the ‘chapel.’ Then... Oh, then.... You have never been to the ‘chapel’?... and you cannot understand.... If you had only heard him speak in the ‘chapel.’... Don’t judge him. No one has the right to judge him but God... and the Blessed Virgin.

  “I left the chapel, moved to tears, and I kissed his hand.... Then you came... and I no longer cared to think of anything but our love... neither to hear the cries nor to judge the man. Do as I do, my Gabriel. Shut your ears, hold your tongue, and have patience... patience.”

  “I don’t know what Captain Hyx can have said to you to produce such an impression, but I doubt if he would have convinced me. There are certain things that a decent man, a really decent man, will not do or see done.”

  Dolores seemed to lose patience and suddenly throwing her cigarette away, returned:

  “Yes, you are right. There are things that a decent man cannot do or see done, even if he has greatly suffered... even if his enemies have given him good cause for tears. You, Gabriel, you who are the best of men... I am sure that if my body had been brought to you mutilated, my breast cut off, as the Doctor said....”

  Gabriel bounded and seizing Dolores’ hand, with flashing eyes and in ringing tones exclaimed; “I swear to you by the Blessed Virgin that I would not have had one moment’s rest until I had done the same to them, whoever they were.... I would joyfully have waded to my knees in their blood....”

  “Well, then, my Gabriel, have a little more tolerance for the work of these people here.”

  “But what I should have done is very different from what these people do. I should have gone to work without thinking, like a madman, mad for revenge, but I should not have made torture a science or a law. That’s what I find so horrible... horrible.... Admit, Dolores, that you, too, find it horrible.”

  She did not answer, but she kissed his eyes.

  “Gabriel is right,” I cried.

  But they did not hear me as Gabriel was returning her kiss.

  I was convinced that I should never have a better opportunity of revealing myself. They seemed to be the only persons in this confounded vessel to disapprove of the crimes that were being committed. Their hearts were in the right place. I could hope that they would understand my sorry story, and help me to find a way out.

  Perhaps they would give me news of poor Amalia and her three young children.

  Finally, if they advised me to show myself to this remarkable Captain Hyx, I was almost sure that they would endeavour to plead my cause. These young people had attracted me from the first. And though I did not entirely approve of Gabriel’s outburst when Dolores called up the image of her mutilated body, I still felt that I should not meet a kinder soul on board the Vengeance.

  I had already made a movement to introduce myself, when a door opened and the Man with the lifeless eyes stepped into the room.

  “Here is the Irishman,” exclaimed Dolores, and she looked as if she did not like him overmuch, for she offered her hand somewhat coldly. The Man, however, shook it vigorously and asked:

  “How are you this evening?”

  “We are very tired, and it’s bed-time,” replied Gabriel. “ Is there anything new?”

  “Nothing at all.”

  “Why weren’t we allowed to go ashore at Madeira? You had nothing to fear from us there.”

  The Man with the lifeless eyes smiled with a touch of malice and replied:

  “Oh, we were off the Island for such a short time... just long enough to pick up a few casks of good old wine for Captain Hyx who will get you to taste it one of these days.... Have patience... it’s wine for you!”

  “What do you mean?” cried the two young people together.

  But the Man had already gone.

  Gabriel and Dolores exchanged glances.

  “What was his object in speaking to us like that?” said Dolores. “What did he mean? Lieutenant Smith is always ambiguous. Perhaps he was referring to the wine of vengeance.”

  It was then that, not being able to hold out any longer, I showed myself. I made a commotion in the staircase, and slid down the length of the balusters, a somewhat odd figure. They uttered an exclamation.

  “Hush!” I cried. “ I implore you to be silent or I am lost.”

  They stared at me with wide-open eyes.

  A man, like myself, entirely clothed in flags, entirely rolled up in multi-coloured signals, with an agitated expression and disordered hair, as I had, could not fail to obtain a certain success, tragic or comic, in any society in which he might suddenly emerge.

  Gabriel and Dolores, after a first movement of alarm, began to laugh like the children they were.

  I saw that they looked upon it as some practical joke. But I soon undeceived them, telling my story in a few eager words. First, I told them that I confided in them because I relied on their kindness of heart. Next I argued that the terrible Irishman with the lifeless eyes, with the assistance of his confederates, had committed a veritable crime at Funchal in seizing a woman innocent of any complicity in the frightfulness which, at that time, was soaking the world in blood. Not only had they abducted the mother, but they had taken away her three young children as well.... And it was all done with an object of which the Irishman must alone be aware, for, it seemed, he had not boasted of his work to any one.

  “I was listening to him a moment ago,” I continued, “and he took good care not to let you know anything about his monstrous game. It was in trying to rescue this poor woman and her children, that I was led to jump into a boat and go in pursuit of him....”

  I stopped short for a moment to recover my breath; I was choked with emotion. But I felt that they were listening to me with entire sympathy.

  “Go on,” said Dolores to me. “Go on, my poor fellow.”

  I threw myself on my knees before her, and after narrating the incidents of the chase, the disaster to the boat, and the manner in which I had stealthily affected an entrance into the submarine, I exclaimed!

  “I am sure, mademoiselle, that you will help me to tear this unhappy woman and her children from the hands of these ruffians.”

  “Who is she?... What is her name?” asked Gabriel, who until then had been silent.

  “She is not a German,” I replied, turning to Gabriel. “I swear she is not. She is a good citizen, like myself, of Gutland—”

  “But what is her husband’s name?” pursued Gabriel.

  “He is neither more nor less than Admiral Heinrich von Treischke.”

  I had scarcely uttered these last
two words when the young people caught hold of me with extraordinary fierceness and cried, or rather vociferated, in my face:

  “Admiral von Treischke’s wife! Admiral von Treischke’s wife here! That scoundrel... villain... assassin!” and other similar epithets.

  In the meanwhile several servants attracted by the uproar came hurrying in, and I was handed over to them with wild threats, the meaning of which I could not entirely follow, but which were certainly aimed at Admiral von Treischke’s friend. As a matter of fact I grasped but one sentence flung out by Dolores as I was being dragged away from the room under a shower of blows.

  “I understand now,” she said, “why the Captain played such beautiful music this evening.”

  CHAPTER XII

  A LUXURIOUS PRISON

  THE TURN OF events was so utterly unexpected that in a fit of depression I prepared myself for the worst.

  The brutality with which I was forced through a considerable part of this amazing pirate ship, the pace at which I was rushed along interminable passages and, finally, the violence with which, when the last door was opened, I was flung into the hands of a gigantic negro who received me with a devilish grin; all this confirmed my belief that my last hour had come, and I was glad; glad to have done with thinking and struggling and running away and contriving and seeing and hearing; glad to have done with quarrels and wars and cruelties and revenge. Closing my eyes I fainted again and my sole hope, this time, was never to recover from the swoon into which I was sinking with so much content.

  The next morning I awoke very peacefully in a smart little bedroom, furnished with a nice brass bedstead and a writing-table, a washstand, a chest of drawers and a wardrobe in maple wood. In the latter, a Hindu manservant was just placing some clean clothes and linen.

  “You must be very hungry, sir,” he said in English as soon as he saw that I was awake. “ I will fetch your breakfast.... Had I not better also tell the Doctor! If you will wait a few minutes, sir... I shall be back directly.”