Collected Works of Gaston Leroux

by Gaston Leroux

  “These chests, indeed, contained his own private treasure, but my surmise as to the hat-box proved entirely wrong, for when it was opened later on it contained nothing but madame’s hats. Many will laugh over it, and I was the first to laugh. Well, I was wrong, as will be seen in due course. Ouenetrou knew what men are like. He was worthy of being a king.

  “Rain ceased, as I nave said, on the fourth day. While we were resting for a few hours we were able to admire the immense luxuriant verdure of the plateau shimmering in all its beauty in the setting sun and rolling in endless stretches before our eyes to the boundless horizon.

  “Madame’s eyes were fixed on the east as though she still hoped for the coming of the long-expected succour....

  “We slept on the rain-sodden ground in our cloaks and a rug which the king surrendered to my mistress, and she was kind enough to share with me.

  “In the morning we resumed our march, which became increasingly laborious. That evening our foot-gear was lost while we were crossing a muddy swamp, from which we had the utmost difficulty in extricating ourselves. From that moment we were reduced to brave the ground, covered with sharp stones and thorny scrub, in our bare feet, and suffered agony. My feet bled less than my heart when I beheld the pitiable state of my mistress’s feet. She who was accustomed to the most exquisite and refined luxury uttered no word of complaint. She was content to fix her eyes on Ouenetrou XIV with a terrible look of reproach, even when he was carrying her for hours at a stretch.

  “I say again that this attitude of mute disdain was not calculated to improve our position.

  “After suffering so much fatigue and privation the king allowed us two days rest, considering doubtless that he was beyond the reach of pursuit. The place itself was well chosen. Owing to multifarious clumps of low forest round a lake, it was easy to find shelter and make a comfortable bed. We shook off our ague. But next day the weather again became threatening.

  “The king and high priest built a small shelter for us with some smooth stones in a break in the ground, and for forty-eight hours we remained there as in a tomb assailed by a terrific storm.

  “The king tended to my mistress’s feet, rubbing them with an ointment which worked wonders. But no one gave mine a second thought. I had to care for them myself.

  “When the storm abated the king went shooting and returned with some game, which was cooked over a scrub fire. We resumed the trail, and as we advanced the country assumed a richer and more fertile aspect. We came across the embers of several fires, which proclaimed the presence of Indians.

  “Suddenly they appeared in great numbers from all sides as if by magic, darting up to us, uttering their piercing shrieks and brandishing on high their spears and lassoes and bolas — the latter consisting of heavy balls covered with raw hide and fastened to twisted thongs, and used in hunting and fishing.

  “They assumed the most threatening attitudes, but as soon as they recognized Black Lake, and when Ouenetrou XIV held up his hand which bore a peculiar ring set with a blue stone to which nature seemed to have imparted an almost human shape, they yelped for joy and fell flat on their faces before him as they were wont to do before the sun at prayer-time.

  “This blue stone was called calfoucousat, and was said to have been sent to Prince Languequetrou in his youth by honacouvou, the spirit of evil, in order to protect the real heir to the throne from danger and make him invincible. At the sight of this talisman they acknowledged the king whose coming they were expecting.

  “Nothing could be more fantastic in my eyes than the aspect of these nearly nude beings mounted on fiery horses which they managed with such swiftness and accuracy, the swarthy colour of their wiry bodies and their thick, unkempt hair falling over their faces and giving a glimpse of features as a whole extraordinarily fierce.

  “‘Are these your people?’ asked Mademoiselle Irene de Troie of the Comédie Française.

  “‘Yes, madame, and I am proud of them,’ returned the king. ‘They have not yet mixed, like so many of their brethren, with those unworthy specimens of humanity which Europe has poured forth on our shores. They have not bartered the weapons which satisfied their forefathers and enabled them to distinguish themselves in many a field of battle for the wicked rifle. They drink water direct from the fountain head, and know nothing of the fire-water sold in the bars of Santa Cruz or Punta Arenas. We will take them such as nature has made them and train them to be men of wisdom worthy of a real civilization.’

  “‘You will have your work cut out,’ declared Irene with the smile of supreme irony which was wholly hers and had won for her many a triumph in classical drama. It was then I realized that our national Celimene still had life in her in spite of cruel hardships and affronts.

  “I do not know whether Ouenetrou noticed that she was making game of him, but I was none too easy in my mind on her account as he replied:

  ‘With your assistance it would be criminal of me to doubt myself.’

  “Horses were provided for us which enabled us to cover the last stages of our journey without undue discomfort. And in this way, escorted by all our savages, we marched through the passes of the last spurs of the Cordillera and found ourselves in the presence of a huge encampment which seemed to be King Ouenetrou’s metropolis. The entire body of men were assembled outside their tents, and the chiefs first came up to us.

  “‘You know my people,’ said the king. ‘Let me present my courtiers to you.’

  CHAPTER XXV

  OUENETROU XIV AT “COURT”

  “I WILL ENDEAVOUR to describe them. The caciques were dressed in a sort of tunic with short sleeves made up of six seals’ skins sewn one upon the other and lined with llama’s skin. The tunic is decorated all over with quaint designs, which give it a most grotesque appearance.

  “In fighting, these tunics form a sort of breastplate. In addition to this they wear a fiat round head-dress made of two skins sewn together and crowned with an ostrich feather.

  “This variegated tunic and peculiar head-dress mark the difference between the chiefs and the people, who are almost nude. Moreover, they paint their faces, a privilege of which they are extremely jealous. The eyelashes and eyelids are stained black, the cheeks red and the lips blue.

  “Newly daubed in honour of the king, they advanced and bowed low and took the oath of allegiance, which Ouenetrou accepted with cold dignity like a prince who is aware of his own importance and what is due to him. Then the general body of Indians followed suit, and after making their obeisance began to take stock of us, madame and myself, with grim curiosity.

  “Next we entered the scene of the banquet served by Ouenetrou’s thirty-two wives in a huge tent which in comparison with the other shelters seemed almost a palace. These thirty-two women were his wives by heritage since they had belonged to his father and the brother who was to have been king. Such was Ouenetrou’s explanation to madame.

  “‘But cannot your brother who was to have been king return and spoil the feast?’ she asked in a scarcely veiled attempt to be disagreeable.

  “‘No, I have no fear of that,’ he returned.

  “‘One can never tell. Where is he?’

  “‘Ask that of the vultures,’ said the king.

  “Ouenetrou had not seemed in good humour since our arrival in camp. Madame made a mistake to irritate him, but if I may express an opinion I should say that his dissatisfaction was due less to madame’s disdainful attitude towards him than the very feeble impression which we had made on his subjects. After staring at us with disquieting curiosity they were practically all of one mind in showing, by their general manner, their contempt or indifference. Some of them, and this was the worst feature of it, laughed inanely in our faces when the king’s back was turned.

  “In truth, considering our sorry faces and our ragged clothes we were scarcely an agreeable sight, and they might well wonder why their king should bring such miserable-looking foreigners with him when there were so many handsome women of his own race i
n the country. Moreover, each people has its own standard of beauty in women, and we were not, as the saying goes, their style.

  “The Indian women in the encampment who had been chosen among the most attractive, possessed powerful and solid figures, for they develop their physical strength by their skilful use of the lasso and bolas; their broad, square shoulders form part of a bust which does not seem comely in Patagonian eyes unless the breasts are lengthened and stretched by dint of special massage like a leather bottle. These breasts, shaped like a leather bottle, and greatly valued because of their exceptional capacity, are destined, in their eyes, to contain a greater quantity of milk for their children than they would otherwise hold. Thanks be, we have nothing like that to offer our menfolk!

  “The behaviour of the caciques towards us was becoming so unpleasant that the king promptly ordered us to retire to our quarters. We were at once got rid of, which greatly pleased madame, but I was sincerely sorry to go, for it would have interested me to be present at the king’s dinner. The chiefs formed a circle in the eastern manner, with the king seated on vicuna and puma skins in the centre. When we left, accompanied by Black Lake, the women were serving the first dish, consisting of raw ostriches’ liver and deer’s kidneys soaked in congealed blood. Black Lake pushed us before him with scant ceremony, and gave way to an ill-humour modelled on that of his master. On our way, we heard certain words muttered at us which I learned afterwards meant ‘dogs of Christians.’

  “We came to two tents, one large and one small, close together, which had been made ready for us The large one, which was, of course, for madame, was comfortable and provided with furs and decorated with ostrich plumes, which formed a magnificent canopy over the bed.

  “To our great amazement we came upon the whole of madame’s wardrobe in the tent. The things, however, were somewhat crumpled. Two slaves belonging to an enemy tribe were engaged in taking the dresses from the two bales, which our old pack-horse had so laboriously transported to the land of the Tehuelchians. The famous hat-box was there, as may be imagined. The hats had in no way suffered. At the sight of so many wonders the two slaves broke into little cries of admiration.

  “Black Lake told madame to dress as quickly as possible and return to the king’s tent in her most gorgeous robe. Madame stretched herself under the canopy and made answer, as was her wont in Paris when she received an inconvenient invitation, that she had a sick headache that evening and begged not to be disturbed. Black Lake left us, darting furious glances at us while madame dismissed the slaves. As to myself, I was terrified at the thought of the possible consequences of so reckless a bearing....

  CHAPTER XXVI

  THE KING SAYS “I WILL”

  “BEFORE LONG THE leather flap of the tent was lifted again. A number of slave women entered. I imagined that they had come to cut our heads off, but they were servants from the kitchen bringing us milk, eggs and maize cakes. We recruited our strength, and madame seemed almost cheerful.

  “‘Let this be a lesson to you, Sylvia,’ she said. ‘If you knew anything of the hearts of men you would not be surprised at the way I twist this savage round my fingers. I’ll have him under my thumb, and Don Manoel will be here with the troops which Brazil has placed at his disposal before Ouenetrou has got that out of me.’ So saying, she snapped her fingers.

  “Well, surely, I thought to myself, madame shows a bold front, and again I could not help admiring her. Just then Black Lake came in and made a sign to me to follow him.

  “‘See what they want and come back at once,’ said madame.

  “Black Lake pointed to my tent as we passed it. I glanced into it. It consisted of nothing but old canvas walls and a strip of ground trodden and beaten upon and covered with a coarse mat to form a bed. He took me to the king’s tent. I found myself in a room reeking with clouds of tobacco smoke.

  “‘The king has something to say to you,’ said the high priest. ‘Wait here.’

  “As I waited I looked round me.

  “After the banquet the caciques were handed their calumets ready lighted by their womenfolk. They were stone pipes square in shape, cut very narrow, and adorned with silver and gold bands.

  “The Indians do not smoke their tobacco unadulterated. They mix various other ingredients with it. The smokers lie flat on their faces and inhale seven or eight puffs one after another, and do not blow the smoke out through the nostrils until, almost choking, they cannot retain it any longer. Then they start afresh. The effect of this fumigation of the inside is to make them a terrible sight, for their eyes are rolled up and only the whites are visible. The pupils are dilated to such an extent that they seem ready to start from their sockets. The pipe, which they no longer have the power to hold, slips from their mouth, their strength leaves them, they are seized with a convulsive quivering and flung into an intoxication which borders on ecstasy; they snuffle loudly while saliva dribbles from their lips, and their hands and feet writhe like the limbs of a swimming dog. The cause of their ecstasy and intoxication must be attributed to the powerful drugs which are mixed with the tobacco.

  “The king, who had endeavoured to do honour to the manners and customs of his forefathers, seemed to me very ‘mellow.’ When he saw me, however, he had the strength to rise and say: ‘Go and tell your mistress that the wedding and coronation will take place to-morrow, and as is the custom in my kingdom, I shall do her the honour of visiting her to-night, the eve of the ceremony.’

  “I had but to bow and retire. I returned to madame’s tent.

  “‘Well, what does our tyrant want?’ she inquired flippantly.

  “‘He gave me a message which will certainly not please you,’ I said.

  “‘What is it?’

  “‘He told me that the marriage was fixed for to-morrow and according to the custom of his country he would visit you to-night.’

  “‘He dare not!’ she exclaimed, breathless with indignation.

  “‘He is in the mind to dare all!’

  “I described the state in which I found him.

  “‘Well, since he is drunk we must take advantage of it and trick him. It won’t be so difficult, all things considered, as it was with Don Manoel.’

  “I could scarcely believe my ears. But she began to wheedle me as she did in Rio, and my devotion to her is so great that I allowed myself to be persuaded. Nevertheless I did not augur well for this new experiment.

  “‘In matters of this sort one never succeeds a second time,’ I said.

  “‘But seeing the man is drunk...’

  “‘Of course, but he may not be drunk to-morrow night.’

  “‘What nonsense! His wedding day!’

  “‘ But the day after?’

  “‘The day after we may be rescued. Something tells me that Don Manoel is not far off.’

  But suppose we are not rescued?’

  “‘Well, I’ll think it over. We shall have three days to consider what to do, and perhaps prepare our escape. I have an idea...’

  “I fancied that she had no idea whatever except to get out of the clutches of Ouenetrou XIV, but I was so fond of her that I was ready to incur the risk for her sake. I therefore gave her my clothes, which she put on, and took her place under the canopy of ostrich plumes.

  “Our tents were so close together that we soon cut the thongs which bound together the leather flaps of madame’s tent and then mine with a pair of scissors, which we found in her small dressing-case, without the men on guard, who were gossiping among themselves, noticing anything. She crept through the narrow apertures. Night had fallen. It was already dark in her tent. I covered myself with puma skins and waited the course of events.”

  CHAPTER XXVII

  KING OUENETROU XIV IS MARRIED

  THE TEXT WHICH we have transcribed was written by Mademoiselle Sylvia Vernot herself. To our deep regret her diary ceases at this point. All that we now have are a few brief notes, short, disconnected sketches, a sort of memoranda intended doubtless to enable her to comp
lete her story at some later date. Why did she not carry out her plan? It was doubtless because her discretion and also her natural modesty would have been greatly embarrassed. In any case, these notes, and the facts which Mademoiselle Irene de Troie, of the Comédie Française, was good enough to disclose, enable us to give the fullest details of subsequent proceedings.

  Irene was not without anxiety as to the consequences which might ensue to her and also to her plucky maid from the subterfuge to which she had recourse for the second time. Were Ouenetrou to discover the trick that was being played on him, he was capable of taking a cruel revenge. In the state to which, according to Sylvia’s story, the tobacco orgy had reduced him, they might fear the worst from this man whose self-conceit they had so audaciously flouted, and Irene would find herself powerless before this lion of Patagonia, who would no longer be enslaved by her smile or impressed by her haughty manners.

  Thus she passed a restless night. Wearing her maid’s clothes and lying on her bed, she expected some terrible outburst, and could not close her eyes. Nevertheless, the hours sped by, and nothing disturbed the peace of the camp or the calm of the night. At daybreak, Irene saw the king leave the tent. Ouenetrou yawned, stretched his arms, and turned his steps towards his palace of hide, to all appearances well satisfied with himself. Irene at once slipped into the tent where Sylvia had so fortunately taken her place.

  “Well, my dear,” she exclaimed. “You see, he didn’t notice anything.”

  “Ouenetrou is not a man to be so easily deceived as you imagine, madame,” came the deep and languid voice of her faithful maid from the shadows. “He no sooner entered the tent than he said: ‘I bet that’s Sylvia,’ and he wanted to have our heads cut off.”