The Three Eyes Part 24

Velmot continued:

"Logically, old fellow, you're bound to speak. The position is so clear.

We plotted between us a little piece of business which succeeded, thanks to our joint efforts; but you have pocketed all the profits, thanks to your trickery. I want my share, that's all. And for this you need do no more than tell me Noel Dorgeroux's famous formula and supply me with the means of making the experiment to begin with. After that I'll give you back your liberty for I shall feel certain that you will allow me my share of the profits, for fear of compet.i.tion. Is it a bargain?"

Theodore Ma.s.signac must have made a gesture of denial or uttered a grunt of refusal, for he received a smack across the face which resounded through the silence.

"I'm sure you'll excuse me, old fellow," said Velmot, "but you'd try the patience of a plaster saint! Do you really mean to say that you would rather croak? Or perhaps you think I intend to give in? Or that some one will come and help you out of your mess? You a.s.s! You chose this place yourself last winter! No boats come this way. Opposite, nothing but fields. So there's no question of a rescue. Nor of pity either! Why, hang it all, don't you realize the positions? And yet I showed you the article in this morning's paper. With the exception of the formula, it's all set out there: all Dorgeroux's secret and all yours! So who's to tell us that they won't quite easily find the formula? Who's to tell us that, in a fortnight, in a week, the whole thing won't be given away and that I shall have had my hands on a million of money, like a fool, without grabbing it? Oh, no, that would never do!"

There was a pause. A ray of light gave me a glimpse of Ma.s.signac. The water had risen above his shoulders.

"I've nothing more to say to you," said Velmot. "We'll make an end of it. Do you refuse?"

He waited for a moment and continued:

"In that case, since you refuse, I won't insist: what's the good? You shall decide your own fate and take the final plunge. Good-bye, old man.

I'm going to drink a gla.s.s and smoke a pipe to your health."

He bent towards his victim and added:

"Still, it's a chap's duty to provide for everything. If, by chance you think better of it, if you have an inspiration at the last moment, you have only to call me, quite softly. . . . There, I'm loosening your gag a bit. . . . Good-bye, Theodore."

Velmot pushed the boat back and landed, grumbling:

"It's a dog's life! What a fool the brute is!"

As arranged, he sat down again, after bringing the chair and table to the water's edge, poured himself out a gla.s.s of liqueur and lit his pipe:

"Here's to your good health, Ma.s.signac," he said. "At the present rate, I can see that, in twenty minutes from now, you'll be having a drink too. Whatever you do, don't forget to call me. I'm listening for all I'm worth, old chum."

The moon had become veiled with clouds, which must have been very dense, for the bank grew so dark that I could hardly distinguish Velmot's figure. As a matter of fact, I was persuaded that the implacable contest would end in some compromise and that Velmot would give way or Ma.s.signac speak. Nevertheless, ten or perhaps fifteen minutes pa.s.sed, minutes which seemed to me interminable. Velmot smoked quietly and Ma.s.signac gave a series of little whimpers, but did not call out. Five minutes more. Velmot rose angrily:

"It's no use whining, you blasted fool! I've had enough of messing about. Will you speak? No? Then die, you scamp!"

And I heard him snarling between his teeth:

"Perhaps I shall manage better with the other one."

Whom did he mean by "the other one"? Me?

In point of fact, he turned to the left, that is towards the part of the house where the door was:

"d.a.m.n it!" he swore, almost immediately.

There was an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n. And then I heard nothing more from that direction.

What had happened? Had Velmot knocked against the wall, in the dark, or against an open shutter?

I could not see him from where I stood. The table and chair were faintly outlined in the gloom. Beyond was the pitchy darkness from which came Ma.s.signac's m.u.f.fled whimper.

"Velmot is on his way," I said to myself. "A few seconds more and he will be here."

The reason for his coming I did not understand, any more than the reason for trepanning me. Did he think that I knew the formula and that I had refrained from denouncing Ma.s.signac because of an understanding between him and myself? In that case, did he mean to compel me to speak, by employing with me the same methods as with his former accomplice? Or was it a question of Berangere between us, of the Berangere whom we both loved and whose name, to my surprise, he had not even mentioned to Ma.s.signac? These were so many problems to which he would provide the reply:

"That is," I thought, "if he comes."

For, after all, he was not there; and there was not a sound in the house. What was he doing? For some little while I stood with my ear glued to the door by which he should have entered, ready to defend myself though unarmed.

He did not come.

I went back to the window. There was no sound on that side either.

And the silence was terrible, that silence which seemed to increase and to spread all over the river and into s.p.a.ce, that silence which was no longer broken even by Ma.s.signac's stifled moaning.

In vain I tried to force my eyes to see. The water of the river remained invisible. I no longer saw and I no longer heard Theodore Ma.s.signac.

I could no longer see him and I could no longer hear him. It was a terrifying reflection! Had he slipped down? Had the deadly, suffocating water risen to his mouth and nostrils?

I struck the shutter with a mighty blow of my fist. The thought that Ma.s.signac was dead or about to die, that thought which until then I had not realised very clearly, filled me with dismay. Ma.s.signac's death meant the definite and irreparable loss of the secret. Ma.s.signac's death meant that Noel Dorgeroux was dying for the second time.

I redoubled my efforts. There was certainly no doubt in my mind that Velmot was at hand and that he and I would have to fight it out; but I did not care about that. No consideration could stop me. I had then and there to hasten to the a.s.sistance not of Ma.s.signac, but as it appeared to me, of Noel Dorgeroux, whose wonderful work was about to be destroyed. All that I had done hitherto, in protecting by my silence, Theodore Ma.s.signac's criminal enterprise, I was bound to continue by saving from death the man who knew the indispensable formula.

As my fists were not enough, I broke a chair and used it to hammer one of the bars. Moreover, the shutter was not very strong, as some of the slats were already partly missing. Another split and yet another. I was able to slip my arm through and to lift an iron cross-bar hinged to the outside. The shutter gave way at once. I had only to step over the window-sill and drop to the ground below.

Velmot was certainly leaving the field clear for me.

Without losing an instant, I pa.s.sed by the chair, threw over the table and easily found the boat:

"I'm here!" I shouted to Ma.s.signac. "Hold on!"

With a strong push I reached one of the stakes, repeating:

"Hold on! Hold on! I'm here!"

I seized the rope in both hands, at the level of the water, and felt for the hook, expecting to strike against Ma.s.signac's head.

I touched nothing. The rope had slipped down; the hook was in the water and carried no weight. The body must have gone to the bottom; and the current had swept it away.

Nevertheless, on the off-chance, I dipped my hand as far as I could into the water. But a shot suddenly pulled me up short. A bullet had whistled past my ear. At the same time, Velmot, whom I could just make out crouching on the bank, like a man dragging himself on all fours, stuttered, in a choking voice:

"Oh, you sc.u.m, you took your opportunity, did you? And you think perhaps you're going to save Ma.s.signac? Just you wait a bit, you blighter!"

He fired two more shots, guessing at my whereabouts, for I was sculling away rapidly. Neither of them touched me. Soon I was out of range.

CHAPTER XV