Chapter 31 - Page 2

asked Athos.

“Level with the water, and below it; a dangerous passage, but one I have cleared a thousand times. The gentleman required me to land him at Ste. Marguerite.”

“Well?”

“Well, Monsieur!” cried the fisherman, with his provencal accent, “a man is a sailor, or he is not; he knows his course, or he is nothing but a fresh-water lubber. I was obstinate, and wished to try the channel. The gentleman took me by the collar, and told me quietly he would strangle me. My mate armed himself with a hatchet, and so did I: we had the affront of the night before to pay him off for. But the gentleman drew his sword, and used it in such an astonishingly rapid manner that we neither of us could get near him. I was about to hurl my hatchet at his head,- and I had a right to do so, hadn’t I, Monsieur? for a sailor aboard is master, as a citizen is in his chamber,- I was going, then, in self-defence, to cut the gentleman in two, when all at once (believe me or not, Monsieur) the great carriage-case opened of itself, I don’t know how, and there came out of it a sort of a phantom, his head covered with a black helmet and a black mask, something terrible to look upon, which came towards me threatening with its fist.”

“And that was?” said Athos.

“That was the Devil, Monsieur,- for the gentleman, with great glee, cried out on seeing him, ‘Ah, thank you, Monseigneur!’”

“A strange story!” murmured the count, looking at Raoul.

“And what did you do?” asked the latter of the fisherman.

“You must know, Monsieur, that two poor men like us were already too few to fight against two gentlemen; but against the Devil, ah! Well, we didn’t stop to consult each other,- we made but one jump into the sea, for we were within seven or eight hundred feet of the shore.”

“Well, and then?”

“Why, and then, Monseigneur, as there was a little wind from the southwest, the boat drifted into the sands of Ste. Marguerite.”

“Oh! but the two travellers?”

“Bah! you need not be uneasy about them! It was pretty plain that one was the Devil, and protected the other,- for when we recovered the boat, after she got afloat again, instead of finding these two creatures injured by the shock, we found nothing, not even the carriage-case.”

“Very strange! very strange!” repeated the count. “But since that what have you done, my friend?”

“I made my complaint to the governor of Ste. Marguerite, who brought my finger under my nose while telling me if I plagued him with such silly stories he would have me flogged.”

“What! did the governor say so?”

“Yes, Monsieur; and