The Young Franc Tireurs Part 34

There was a general movement of interest. The furniture of the room was a wreck, the papers were hanging in strips, a broken chair was blazing upon the fire; several family portraits on the wall were pierced with holes, having evidently served the purpose of targets, for pistol shooting.

Ralph's conductor left the room for a moment, and returned with a very handsome drawing room clock; worth, Ralph knew, at least fifteen hundred francs.

"How much will you give for that?"

Ralph examined it critically.

"Four hundred francs," he said.

"Nonsense! It cost five times that."

"About four times," Ralph said, "when it was new. It is not new, now, and it has to be taken to Germany. If you prefer it, I will carry it to Frankfort; and send it on thence by rail, at ten percent upon its value."

"Yes, I will agree to that," the officer said. "How much will that be?"

"I am content to take it at your own valuation," Ralph said. "The value you set upon the clock was two thousand francs."

There was a laugh among the other officers.

"He has you there, major."

"Not at all," the officer said. "He shall take it at the valuation he placed upon it--four hundred francs."

"Pardon me," Ralph said, "I did not value it at that sum, I only offered to give that sum for it; besides which, that was an estimate of the value I set upon it at Viroflay, not the value I should set upon it at Frankfort.

"I will say one thousand francs; that is, I will undertake it at a hundred, if you will get it put into a case of some sort."

The other officers now offered various objects, either for sale or transport--pictures, vases, clocks, and even pianos. Ralph haggled over the price of each article, in a way which would have done honor to his appearance. At last--having arranged all their matters--he said that he was going on to Bellevue; but would call and complete the purchases, and receive the goods entrusted to him, either that night or the next morning.

"If any of you gentleman would kindly give me your card, to give to the officer of the regiment at Bellevue, saying that you have found me fair in my dealing, I should feel very grateful," Ralph said, humbly.

The officer laughed, but one of them took out his card, and wrote upon it:

"Dear Von Koch, this man is--for a Hebrew--tolerably fair in his ideas."

"That is for the major of the regiment, at Bellevue," he said; and Ralph bowed, as if he had received a recommendation of the warmest kind.

"I was beginning to be alarmed, Ralph," Percy said, when his brother again took his place in the wagon.

"I have been haggling over prices," Ralph said. "Fortunately, we are not pressed for time."

They had another stop, of some duration, at Chaville; and it was nearly three o'clock in the afternoon before they came down to the back of Bellevue. Here they were stopped and, upon Ralph producing his pa.s.s, an officer came up.

"You cannot go any farther," he said. "You are close to Bellevue, now; but if you were to take this wagon into the main road, you would draw Valerien's fire upon us, at once.

"You will find most of the officers there," pointing to a large house, near.

"I have this card, for Major Von Koch," Ralph said. "I am here to buy, or carry home on commission, goods of all kinds."

The officer went with Ralph; and the scene at Viroflay was repeated, but upon a much larger scale. Viroflay is a small village, containing only a few large villas; Bellevue is composed almost entirely of handsome residences, owned by Parisians. The quant.i.ty of articles "saved" was proportionately large.

After examining and bargaining for a large number of valuable articles of furniture, pictures and clocks; Ralph left, with some of the officers, to view other articles in the villas upon the side of Bellevue, looking down upon the river. Percy had taken the horses out of the wagon, and accompanied his brother, ostensibly to carry back any articles purchased.

At one of the villas Ralph expressed a great desire to go out into the garden, to look over Paris; and the officer with him--being in an excellent humor, at the disposal of some articles at much higher prices than he had expected to receive; and at having the proceeds, in German bank notes, in his pockets--went out himself, and pointed out all the various objects of interest.

The fog of a winter's evening was already shutting in the view, but the boys could see the princ.i.p.al buildings of Paris. The towers of Notre Dame, the domes of the Pantheon and Invalides, the heights of Montmartre and Vilette, and the forts of Issy and Vanves were distinctly visible. The boys' eyes turned, however, more to the river at their feet, and the intervening ground, than upon the objects--however interesting--of distant Paris.

"Do not show yourself," the officer said. "If we were caught sight of, from Issy or Point du Jour--or from that gunboat, below--we should have a rain of sh.e.l.ls about us, in no time. You can look out from among the trees; but do not get beyond their shelter, or you will be seen, instantly."

The house in whose garden they were standing stood upon the brow of the hill. Behind was a little wood, and gardens sloping pretty-steeply down. Then along by the water was a street, with houses upon either side. The river was, here, divided by an island; the lower end of which, however, scarcely extended low enough to be opposite to the spot upon which the boys were standing.

"Bless me," Ralph said, "it must be very dangerous, living down there. Why, that gunboat could blow the place into the air."

"That she could," the officer said, "and consequently, none of our men live there. We have sentries along the river bank, and a few others scattered about; but none of the troops are quartered there, nor even in this line of villas where we now are. If we were to show a light at night, in any window here, we should have a sh.e.l.l in in a couple of minutes. We have no fear, whatever, of a sortie in this direction; and have plenty of force behind."

Ralph and Percy lingered, upon one excuse or another; asking questions as long as they could, and making the best use of their time, to gain a fair idea of the ground that they would have to cross. They had with them, in the wagon, a map of Bellevue and Meudon upon a large scale, with every house marked upon it.

"It is going to be a dark night," the officer said, as they hurried away, "and we shall have snow before midnight."

Another hour or two was spent in purchasing various articles, taken from the French villas. Darkness had come on, and Ralph told the officers that he should not return until the next morning to Versailles; and that if the articles to be entrusted to his care for delivery were put in rough cases--of which there were plenty, which had come full of stores--and brought by ten o'clock in the morning, carefully directed, it would be in sufficient time.

"Will you give us leave to sleep in one of the villas, upon the farther side of the road?" Ralph asked the officer in command. "My boy has never seen a shot fired, in earnest; and I should like him to be able to say he had watched the fire of the forts, round Paris."

"If you sleep there," the colonel said, "you must not light a fire, or show a light, or you would bring the fire of a hundred guns upon us."

"I will be very careful, sir," Ralph answered. "Will you kindly let an orderly go with us, to pa.s.s us through the sentries? For, as it's dark now, they would not let us pa.s.s."

The colonel gave the order, and an orderly went with them. They stopped at the wagon, and each took out a large bundle.

"We shall want our blankets, tonight," Ralph said. "It is bitterly cold.

"Would you like a gla.s.s of brandy, to help keep it out, my man?"

The soldier smiled an a.s.sent, drank off a gla.s.s of brandy, and then accompanied them to the villa. Short as was the distance, they were challenged twice, and the sign and counter-sign had to be exchanged. They reached the deserted villa, threw down the bundles in a corner; and then the orderly said good night, and left them to themselves.

Chapter 16: A Desperate Attempt.

"So far, so good, Percy!" Ralph said, when they heard the street door slam, as the orderly left. "Hitherto we have had the most extraordinary good fortune and, as it's going to snow--for I felt a few flakes, as we came along--I look upon it as good as done."

"It will take away from us risk of being hit, but I don't see that it will make much difference in our risk of being drowned," Percy said. "I own, Ralph, I am a great deal more afraid of that, than of the other."

"But it does, Percy. It makes all the difference in the world. We had agreed that we would put on life belts; but that we would blow the smallest quant.i.ty of air possible into them, so that they might give us some slight a.s.sistance, and yet not be too buoyant to prevent us from diving. Now we can blow them up with wind, so as to prevent the possibility of our being drowned. Once in the water, and we are safe from everything except a stray bullet. In a snowstorm, on such a dark night as this, they could not see our heads five yards off."

"But what is worse, Ralph, we shall not be able to see five yards, either; and should have no idea where we were swimming."