"No," he said, presently, "her heart is still beating. But that may not last long. To work, lads. It must all be over in ten minutes."
The preparations were soon made; and Vorski himself took an active part in them. Resting the ladder against the trunk of the tree, he passed one end of the rope round his victim and the other over one of the upper branches. Then, standing on the bottom rung, he instructed his accomplices:
"Here, all you've got to do now is to pull. Get her on her feet first and one of you keep her from falling."
He waited a moment. But Otto and Conrad were whispering to each other; and he exclaimed:
"Look here, hurry up, will you? . . . Remember I'm making a pretty easy target, if they took it into their heads to send a bullet or an arrow at me. Are you ready?"
The two assistants did not reply.
"Well, this is a bit thick! What's the matter with you? Otto! Conrad!"
He leapt to the ground and shook them:
"You're a pair of nice ones, you are! At this rate, we should still be at it to-morrow morning . . . and the whole thing will miscarry . . . . Answer me, Otto, can't you?" He turned the light full on Otto's face. "Look here, what's all this about? Are you wriggling out of it? If so, you'dbetter say so! And you, Conrad? Are you both going on strike?"
Otto wagged his head:
"On strike . . . that's saying a lot. But Conrad and I would like a word or two of explanation?"
"Explanation? What about, you pudding-head? About the lady we're executing? About either of the two brats? It's no use taking that line, my man. I said to you, when I first mentioned the business, 'Will you go to work blindfold? There'll be a tough job and plenty of bloodshed. But there's big money at the end of it.'"
"That's the whole question," said Otto.
"Say what you mean, you jackass!"
"It's for you to say and repeat the terms of our agreement. What are they?"
"You know as well as I do."
"Exactly, it's to remind you of them that I'm asking you to repeat them."
"I remember them exactly. I get the treasure; and out of the treasure I pay you two hundred thousand francs between the two of you."
"That's so and it's not quite so. We'll come back to that. Let's begin by talking of this famous treasure. Here have we been grinding away for weeks, wallowing in blood, living in a nightmare of every sort of crime . . . and not a thing in sight!"
Vorski shrugged his shoulders:
"You're getting denser and denser, my poor Otto! You know there were certain things to be done first. They're all done, except one. In a few minutes, this will be finished too and the treasure will be ours!"
"How do we know?"
"Do you think I'd have done all that I have done, if I wasn't sure of the result . . . as sure as I am that I'm alive? Everything has happened in a certain given order. It was all predetermined. The last thing will come at the hour foretold and will open the gate for me."
"The gate of hell," sneered Otto, "as I heard Maguennoc call it."
"Call it by that name or another, it opens on the treasure which I shall have won."
"Very well," said Otto, impressed by Vorski's tone of conviction, "very well. I'm willing to believe you're right. But what's to tell us that we shall have our share?"
"You shall have your share for the simple reason that the possession of the treasure will provide me with such indescribable wealth that I'm not likely to risk having trouble with you two fellows for the sake of a couple of hundred thousand francs."
"So we have your word?"
"Of course."
"Your word that all the clauses of our agreement shall be respected."
"Of course. What are you driving at?"
"This, that you've begun to trick us in the meanest way by breaking one of the clauses of the agreement."
"What's that? What are you talking about? Do you realize whom you're speaking to?"
"I'm speaking to you, Vorski."
Vorski laid violent hands on his accomplice:
"What's this? You dare to insult me? To call me by my name, me, me?"
"What of it, seeing that you've robbed me of what's mine by rights?"
Vorski controlled himself and, in a voice trembling with anger:
"Say what you have to say and be careful, my man, for you're playing a dangerous game. Speak out."
"It's this," said Otto. "Apart from the treasure, apart from the two hundred thousand francs, it was arranged between us—you held up your hand and took your oath on it—that any loose cash found by either of us in the course of the business would be divided in equal shares: half for you, half for Conrad and myself. Is that so?"
"That's so."
"Then pay up," said Otto, holding out his hand.
"Pay up what? I haven't found anything."
"That's a lie. While we were settling the sisters Archignat, you discovered on one of them, tucked away in her bodice, the hoard which we couldn't find in their house."
"Well, that's a likely story!" said Vorski, in a tone which betrayed his embarrassment.
"It's absolutely the truth."
"Prove it."
"Just fish out that little parcel, tied up with string, which you've got pinned inside your shirt, just there," said Otto, touching Vorski's chest with his finger. "Fish it out and let's have a look at those fifty thousand-franc notes."
Vorski made no reply. He was dazed, like a man who does not understand what is happening to him and who is trying to guess how his adversary procured a weapon against him.
"Do you admit it?" asked Otto.
"Why not?" he rejoined. "I meant to square up later, in the lump."
"Square up now. We'd rather have it that way."
"And suppose I refuse?"
"You won't refuse."
"Suppose I do?"
"In that case, look out for yourself!"
"I have nothing to fear. There's only two of you."
"There's three of us, at least."
"Where's the third?"
"The third is a gentleman who seems cleverer than most, from what Conrad tells me: brrr! . . . The one who fooled you just now, the one with the arrow and the white robe!"
"You propose to call him?"
"Rather!"
Vorski felt that the game was not equal. The two assistants were standing on either side of him and pressing him hard. He had to yield:
"Here, you thief! Here, you robber!" he shouted, taking out the parcel and unfolding the notes.
"It's not worth while counting," said Otto, snatching the bundle from him unawares.
"Hi! . . ."
"We'll do it this way: half for Conrad, half for me."
"Oh, you blackguard! Oh, you double-dyed thief! I'll make you pay for this. I don't care a button about the money. But to rob me as though you'd decoyed me into a wood, so to speak! I shouldn't like to be in your skin, my lad!"
He continued to insult the other and then, suddenly, burst into a laugh, a forced, malicious laugh:
"After all, Otto, upon my word, well played! But where and how did you come to know it? You'll tell me that, won't you? . . . Meanwhile, we've not a minute to lose. We're agreed all round, aren't we? And you'll get on with the work?"
"Willingly, since you're taking the thing so well," said Otto. And he added, obsequiously, "After all . . . you have a style about you, sir! You're a fine gentleman, you are!"
"And you, you're a varlet whom I pay. You've had your money, so hurry up. The business is urgent."
The "business," as the frightful creatures called it, was soon done. Climbing on his ladder, Vorski repeated his orders, which were executed in docile fashion by Conrad and Otto.
They raised the victim to her feet and then, keeping her upright, hauled at the rope. Vorski seized the poor woman and, as her knees were bent, violently forced them straight. Thus flattened against the trunk of the tree, with her skirt tightened round her legs, her arms hanging to right and left at no great distance from her body, she was bound round the waist and under the arms.
She seemed not to have recovered from her blow and uttered no sound of complaint. Vorski tried to speak a few words, but spluttered them, incapable of utterance. Then he tried to raise her head, but abandoned the attempt, lacking the courage to touch her who was about to die: and the head dropped low on the breast.
He at once got down and stammered:
"The brandy, Otto. Have you the flask? Oh, damn it, what a beastly business!"
"There's time yet," Conrad suggested.
Vorski took a few sips and cried:
"Time . . . for what? To let her off? Listen to me, Conrad. Rather than let her off, I'd sooner . . . yes, I'd sooner die in her stead. Give up my task? Ah, you don't know what my task or what my object is! Besides . . ."
He drank some more:
"It's excellent brandy, but, to settle my heart, I'd rather have rum. Have you any, Conrad?"
"A drain at the bottom of a flask."
"Hand it over."
They had screened the lantern lest they should be seen; and they sat close up to the tree, determined to keep silence. But this fresh drink went to their heads. Vorski began to hold forth very excitedly:
"You've no need of any explanations. The woman who's dying up there, it's no use your knowing her name. It's enough if you know that she's the fourth of the women who were to die on the cross and was specially appointed by fate. But there's one thing I can say to you, now that Vorski's triumph is about to shine forth before your eyes. In fact I take a certain pride in telling you, for, while all that's happened so far has depended on me and my will, the thing that's going to happen directly depends on the mightiest of will, wills working for Vorski!"
He repeated several times, as though smacking his lips over the name:
"For Vorski . . . For Vorski!"
And he stood up, impelled by the exuberance of his thoughts to walk up and down and wave his arms:
"Vorski, son of a king, Vorski, the elect of destiny, prepare yourself! Your time has come! Either you are the lowest of adventurers and the guiltiest of all the great criminals dyed in the blood of their fellow-men, or else you are really the inspired prophet whom the gods crown with glory. A superman or a highwayman: that is fate's decree. The last heart-beats of the sacred victim sacrificed to the gods are marking the supreme seconds. Listen to them, you two!"
Climbing the ladder, he tried to hear those poor beats of an exhausted heart. But the head, drooping to the left, prevented him from putting his ear to the breast; and he dared not touch it. The silence was broken only by a hoarse and irregular breath.
He said, in a low whisper:
"Véronique, do you hear me? Véronique . . . . Véronique . . . ."
After a moment's hesitation:
"I want you to know it . . . yes, I myself am terrified at what I'm doing. But it's fate . . . . You remember the prophecy? 'Your wife shall die on the cross.' Why, your very name, Véronique, demands it! . . . Remember St. Veronica wiping Christ's face with a handkerchief and the Saviour's sacred image remaining on the handkerchief . . . . Véronique, you can hear me, surely? Véronique . . ."
He ran down hurriedly, snatched the flask of rum from Conrad's hands and emptied it at a draught.
He was now seized with a sort of delirium whichmade him rave for a few moments in a language which his accomplices did not understand. Then he began to challenge the invisible enemy, to challenge the gods, to hurl forth imprecations and blasphemies:
"Vorski is the mightiest of all men, Vorski governs fate. The elements and the mysterious powers of nature are compelled to obey him. Everything will fall out as he has determined; and the great secret will be declared to him in the mystic forms and according to the rules of the Kabala. Vorski is awaited as the prophet. Vorski will be welcomed with cries of joy and ecstasy; and one whom I know not, one whom I can only half see, will come to meet him with palms and benedictions. Let the unknown make ready! Let him arise from the darkness and ascend from hell! Here stands Vorski. To the sound of bells, to the singing of alleluias, let the fateful sign be revealed upon the face of the heavens, while the earth opens and sends forth whirling flames!"
He fell silent, as though he had descried in the air the signs which he foretold. The hopeless death-rattle of the dying woman sounded from overhead. The storm growled in the distance; and the black clouds were rent by lightning. All nature seemed to be responding to the ruffian's appeal.
His grandiloquent speech and his play-acting made a great impression on the two accomplices.
"He frightens me," Otto muttered.
"It's the rum," Conrad replied. "But all the same he's foretelling terrible things."
"Things which prowl round us," shouted Vorski, whose ears noticed the least sound, "things which make part of the present moment and have been bequeathed to us by the pageant of the centuries. It's like a prodigious childbirth. And I tell the two of you, you will be the amazed witnesses of these things! Otto and Conrad, be prepared as I am: the earth will shake; and, at the very spot where Vorski is to win the God-Stone, a column of fire will rise up to the sky."
"He doesn't know what he's saying," mumbled Conrad.
"And there he is on the ladder again," whispered Otto. "It'll serve him right if he gets an arrow through him."
But Vorski's exaltation knew no bounds. The end was at hand. Extenuated by pain, the victim was in her death-agony.
Beginning very low, so as to be heard by none save her, but raising his voice gradually, Vorski said:
"Véronique . . . . Véronique . . . . You are fulfilling your mission . . . . You are nearing the top of the ascent . . . . All honour to you! You deserve a share in my triumph . . . . All honour to you! Listen! You hear it already, don't you? The artillery of the heavens is drawing near. My enemies are vanquished; you can no longer hope for rescue! Here is the last beat of your heart . . . . Here is your last cry: 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?'"
He screamed with laughter, like a man laughing at the most riotous adventure. Then came silence. The roars of thunder ceased. Vorski bent forward and suddenly, from the top of the ladder, shouted:
"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani!The gods have forsaken her. Death has done its work. The lastof the four women is dead. Véronique is dead!"
He was silent once again and then roared twice over:
"Véronique is dead! Véronique is dead!"
Once again there was a great, deep silence.
And all of a sudden the earth shook, not with a vibration produced by the thunder, but with a deep inner convulsion, which came from the very bowels of the earth and was repeated several times, like a noise reechoing through the woods and hills.
And almost at the same time, close by, at the other end of the semicircle of oaks, a fountain of fire shot forth and rose to the sky, in a whirl of smoke in which flared red, yellow and violet flames.
Vorski did not speak a word. His companions stood aghast. One of them stammered:
"It's the old rotten oak, the one which has already been struck by lightning."
Though the fire had disappeared almost instantly, the three men retained the fantastic vision of the old oak, all aglow, vomiting flames and smoke of many colours.
"This is the entrance leading to the God-Stone," said Vorski, solemnly. "Destiny has spoken, as I said it would: and it has spoken at the bidding of me who was once its servant and who am now its master."
He advanced, carrying the lantern. They were surprised to see that the tree showed no trace of fire and that the mass of dry leaves, held as in a bowl where a few lower branches were outspread, had not caught fire.
"Yet another miracle," said Vorski. "It is all an inconceivable miracle."
"What are we going to do?" asked Conrad.
"Go in by the entrance revealed to us . . . . Take the ladder, Conrad, and feel with your hand in that heap of leaves. The tree is hollow and we shall soon see . . ."
"A tree can be as hollow as you please," said Otto, "but there are always roots to it; and I can hardly believe in a passage through the roots."
"I repeat, we shall see. Move the leaves, Conrad, clear them away."
"No, I won't," said Conrad, bluntly.
"What do you mean, you won't? Why not?"
"Have you forgotten Maguennoc? Have you forgotten that he tried to touch the God-Stone and had to cut his hand off?"
"But this isn't the God-Stone!" Vorski snarled.
"How do you know? Maguennoc was always speaking of the gate of hell. Isn't this what he meant when he talked like that?"
Vorski shrugged his shoulders:
"And you, Otto, are you afraid too?"
Otto did not reply: and Vorski himself did not seem eager to risk the attempt, for he ended by saying:
"After all, there's no hurry. Let's wait till daylight comes. We will cut down the tree with an axe: and that will show us better than anything how things stand and how to go to work."
They agreed accordingly. But, as the signal had been seen by others besides themselves and as they must not allow themselves to be forestalled, they resolved to sit down opposite the tree, under the shelter offered by the huge table of the Fairies' Dolmen.
"Otto," said Vorski, "go to the Priory, fetch us something to drink and also bring an axe, some ropes and anything else that we're likely to want."
The rain was beginning to pour in torrents. They settled themselves under the dolmen and each in turn kept watch while the other slept.
Nothing happened during the night. The storm was very violent. They could hear the waves roaring. Then gradually everything grew quiet.
At daybreak they attacked the oak-tree, which they soon overthrew by pulling upon the ropes.
They now saw that, inside the tree itself, amid the rubbish and the dry rot, a sort of trench had been dug, which extended through the mass of sand and stones packed about the roots.
They cleared the ground with a pick-axe. Some steps at once came into sight: there was a sudden drop of earth: and they saw a staircase which followed a perpendicular wall and led down into the darkness. They threw the light of their lantern before them. A cavern opened beneath their feet.
Vorski was the first to venture down. The others followed him cautiously.
The steps, which at first consisted of earthen stairs reinforced by flints, were presently hewn out of the rock. The cave which they entered was in no way peculiar and seemed rather to be a vestibule. It communicated, in fact, with a sort of crypt, which had a vaulted ceiling and walls of rough masonry of unmortared stones.
All around, like shapeless statues, stood twelve small menhirs, each of which was surmounted by a horse's skull. Vorski touched one of these skulls; it crumbled into dust.
"No one has been to this crypt," he said, "for twenty centuries. We are the first men to tread the floor of it, the first to behold the traces of the past which it contains."
He added, with increasing emphasis:
"It is the mortuary-chamber of a great chieftain. They used to bury his favourite horses with him . . . and his weapons too. Look, here are axes . . . and a flint knife; and we also find the remains of certain funeral rites, as this piece of charcoal shows and, over there, those charred bones . . . ."
His voice was husky with emotion. He muttered: "I am the first to enter here. I was expected. A whole world awakens at my coming."
Conrad interrupted him:
"There are other doorways, another passage; and there's a sort of light showing in the distance."
A narrow corridor brought them to a second chamber, through which they reached yet a third. The three crypts were exactly alike, with the same masonry, the same upright stones, the same horses' skulls.
"The tombs of three great chieftains," said Vorski. "They evidently lead to the tomb of a king; and the chieftains must have been the king's guards, after being his companions during his lifetime. No doubt it's the next crypt."
He hesitated to go farther, not from fear, but from excessive excitement and a sense of inflamed vanity which he was enjoying to the full:
"I am on the verge of knowledge," he declaimed, in dramatic tones. "Vorski is approaching the goal and has only to put out his hand to be regally rewarded for his labours and his struggles. The God-Stone is there. For ages and ages men have sought to fathom the secret of the island and not one has succeeded. Vorski came and the God-Stone is his. So let it show itself to me and give me the promised power. There is nothing between it and Vorski, nothing but my will. And I declare my will! The prophet has risen out of the night. He is here. If there be, in this kingdom of the dead, a shade whose duty it is to lead me to the divine stone and place the golden crown upon my head, let that shade arise! Here stands Vorski."
He went in.
The fourth room was much larger and shaped like a dome with a slightly flattened summit. In the middle of the flattened part was a round hole, no wider than the hole left by a very small flue; and from it there fell a shaft of half-veiled light which formed a very plainly-defined disk on the floor.
The centre of this disk was occupied by a little block of stones set together. And on this block, as though purposely displayed, lay a metal rod.
In other respects, this crypt did not differ from the first three. Like them it was adorned with menhirs and horses' heads, like them it contained traces of sacrifices.
Vorski did not take his eyes off the metal rod. Strange to say, the metal gleamed as though no dust had ever covered it. He put out his hand.
"No, no," said Conrad, quickly.
"Why not?"
"It may be the one Maguennoc touched and burnt his hand with."
"You're mad."
"Still . . ."
"Oh, I'm not afraid of anything!" Vorski declared taking hold of the rod.
It was a leaden sceptre, very clumsily made, but nevertheless revealing a certain artistic intention. Round the handle was a snake, here encrusted in the lead, there standing out in relief. Its huge, disproportionate head formed the pommel and was studded with silver nails and little green pebbles transparent as emeralds.
"Is it the God-Stone?" Vorski muttered.
He handled the thing and examined it all over with respectful awe; and he soon observed that the pommel shifted almost loose. He fingered it, turned it to the left, to the right, until at length it gave a click and the snake's head became unfastened.
There was a space inside, containing a stone, a tiny, pale-red stone, with yellow streaks that looked like veins of gold.
"It's the God-Stone, it's the God-Stone!" said Vorski, greatly agitated.
"Don't touch it!" Conrad repeated, filled with alarm.
"What burnt Maguennoc will not burn me," replied Vorski, solemnly.
And, in bravado, swelling with pride and delight, he kept the mysterious stone in the hollow of his hand, which he clenched with all his strength:
"Let it burn me! I will let it! Let it sear my flesh! I shall be glad if it will!"
Conrad made a sign to him and put his finger to his lips.
"What's the matter?" asked Vorski. "Do you hear anything?"
"Yes," said the other.
"So do I," said Otto.
What they heard was a rhythmical, measured sound, which rose and fell and made a sort of irregular music.
"Why, it's close by!" mumbled Vorski. "It sounds as if it were in the room."
It was in the room, as they soon learnt for certain; and there was no doubt that the sound was very like a snore.
Conrad, who had ventured on this suggestion, was the first to laugh at it; but Vorski said:
"Upon my word, I'm inclined to think you're right. Itisa snore . . . . There must be some one here then?"
"It comes from over there," said Otto, "from that corner in the dark."
The light did not extend beyond the menhirs. Behind each of them opened a small, shadowy chapel. Vorski turned his lantern into one of these and at once uttered a cry of amazement:
"Some one . . . yes . . . there is some one . . . . Look . . . ."
The two accomplices came forward. On a heap of rubble, piled up in an angle of the wall, a man lay sleeping, an old man with a white beard and long white hair. A thousand wrinkles furrowed the skin of his face and hands. There were blue rings round his closed eyelids. At least a century must have passed over his head.
He was dressed in a patched and torn linen robe,which came down to his feet. Round his neck and hanging over his chest was a string of those sacred beads which the Gauls called serpents' eggs and which are actually sea-eggs or sea-urchins. Within reach of his hand was a handsome jadeite axe, covered with illegible symbols. On the ground, in a row, lay sharp-edged flints, some large, flat rings, two ear-drops of green jasper and two necklaces of fluted blue enamel.
The old man went on snoring.
Vorski muttered:
"The miracle continues . . . . It's a priest . . . a priest like those of the olden time . . . of the time of the Druids."
"And then?" asked Otto.
"Why, then he's waiting for me!"
Conrad expressed his brutal opinion:
"I suggest we break his head with his axe."
But Vorski flew into a rage:
"If you touch a single hair of his head, you're a dead man!"
"Still . . ."
"Still what?"
"He may be an enemy . . . he may be the one whom we were pursuing last night . . . . Remember . . . the white robe."
"You're the biggest fool I ever met! Do you think that, at his age, he could have kept us on the run like that?"
He bent over and took the old man gently by the arm, saying:
"Wake up! . . . It's I!"
There was no answer. The man did not wake up.
Vorski insisted.
The man moved on his bed of stones, mumbled a few words and went to sleep again.
Vorski, growing a little impatient, renewed his attempts, but more vigorously, and raised his voice:
"I say, what about it? We can't hang about all day, you know. Come on!"
He shook the old man more roughly. The man made a movement of irritation, pushed away his importunate visitor, clung to sleep a few seconds longer and, in the end, turned round wearily and, in an angry voice, growled:
"Oh, rats!"
The three accomplices, who were perfectly acquainted with all the niceties of the French language and familiar with every slang phrase, did not for a moment mistake the true sense of that unexpected exclamation. They were astounded.
Vorski put the question to Conrad and Otto.
"Eh? What does he say?"
"What you heard . . . . That's right," said Otto.
Vorski ended by making a fresh attack on the shoulder of the stranger, who turned on his couch, stretched himself, yawned, seemed to fall asleep again, and, suddenly admitting himself defeated, half sat up and shouted:
"When you've quite finished, please! Can't a man have a quiet snooze these days, in this beastly hole?"
A ray of light blinded his eyes: and he spluttered, in alarm:
"What is it? What do you want with me?"
Vorski put down his lantern on a projection in the wall; and the face now stood clearly revealed. The old man, who had continued to vent his ill temper in incoherent complaints, looked at his visitor, became gradually calmer, even assumed an amiable andalmost smiling expression and, holding out his hand, exclaimed:
"Well, I never! Why, it's you, Vorski! How are you, old bean?"
Vorski gave a start. That the old man should know him and call him by his name did not astonish him immensely, since he had the half-mystic conviction that he was expected as a prophet might be. But to a prophet, to a missionary clad in light and glory, entering the presence of a stranger crowned with the double majesty of age and sacerdotal rank, it was painful to be hailed by the name of "old bean!"
Hesitating, ill at ease, not knowing with whom he was dealing, he asked:
"Who are you? What are you here for? How did you get here?"
And, when the other stared at him with a look of surprise, he repeated, in a louder voice:
"Answer me, can't you? Who are you?"
"Who am I?" replied the old man, in a husky and bleating voice. "Who am I? By Teutatès, god of the Gauls, is it you who ask me that question? Then you don't know me? Come, try and remember . . . . Good old Ségenax—eh, do you get me now—Velléda's father, good old Ségenax, the law-giver venerated by the Rhedons of whom Chateaubriand speaks in the first volume of hisMartyrs? . . . Ah, I see your memory's reviving!"
"What are you gassing about!" cried Vorski.
"I'm not gassing. I'm explaining my presence here and the regrettable events which brought me here long ago. Disgusted by the scandalous behaviour of Velléda, who had gone wrong with thatdismal blighter Eudorus, I became what we should call a Trappist nowadays, that is to say, I passed a brilliant exam, as a bachelor of Druid laws. Since that time, in consequence of a few sprees—oh, nothing to speak of: three or four jaunts to Paris, where I was attracted by Mabille and afterwards by the Moulin Rouge—I was obliged to accept the little berth which I fill here, a cushy job, as you see: guardian of the God-Stone, a shirker's job, what!"
Vorski's amazement and uneasiness increased at each word. He consulted his companions.
"Break his head," Conrad repeated. "That's what I say: and I stick to it."
"And you, Otto?"
"I think we ought to be on our guard."
"Of course we must be on our guard."
But the old Druid caught the word. Leaning on a staff, he helped himself up and exclaimed:
"What's the meaning of this? Be on your guard . . . against me! That's really a bit thick! Treat me as a fake! Why, haven't you seen my axe, with the pattern of the swastika? The swastika, the leading cabalistic symbol, eh, what? . . . And this? What do you call this?" He lifted his string of beads. "What do you call it? Horse-chestnuts? You've got some cheek, you have, to give a name like that to serpents' eggs, 'eggs which they form out of slaver and the froth of their bodies mingled and which they cast into the air, hissing the while.' It's Pliny's own words I'm quoting! You're not going to treat Pliny also as a fake, I hope! . . . You're a pretty customer! Putting yourself on your guard against me, when I have all my degrees as an ancient Druid, all my diplomas, allmy patents, all my certificates signed by Pliny and Chateaubriand! The cheek of you! . . . Upon my word, you won't find many ancient Druids of my sort, genuine, of the period, with the bloom of age upon them and a beard of centuries! I a fake, I, who boast every tradition and who juggle with the customs of antiquity! . . . Shall I dance the ancient Druid dance for you, as I did before Julius Caesar? Would you like me to?"
And, without waiting for a reply, the old man, flinging aside his staff, began to cut the most extravagant capers and to execute the wildest of jigs with perfectly astounding agility. And it was the most laughable sight to see him jumping and twisting about, with his back bent, his arms outstretched, his legs shooting to right and left from under his robe, his beard following the evolutions of his frisking body, while the bleating voice announced the successive changes in the performance:
"The ancient Druids' dance, or Caesar's delight! Hi-tiddly, hi-tiddly, hi-ti, hi! . . . The mistletoe dance, vulgarly known as the tickletoe! . . . The serpents' egg waltz, music by Pliny! Hullo there! Begone, dull care! . . . The Vorska, or the tango of the thirty coffins! . . . The hymn of the Red Prophet! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Glory be to the prophet!"
He continued his furious jig a little longer and then suddenly halted before Vorski and, in a solemn tone, said:
"Enough of this prattle! Let us talk seriously, I am commissioned to hand you the God-Stone. Now that you are here, are you ready to take delivery of the goods?"
The three accomplices were absolutely flabbergasted. Vorski did not know what to do, was unable to make out who the infernal fellow was:
"Oh, shut up!" he shouted, angrily. "What do you want? What's your object?"
"What do you mean, my object? I've just told you; to hand you the God-Stone!"
"But by what right? In what capacity?"
The ancient Druid nodded his head:
"Yes, I see what you're after. Things are not happening in the least as you thought they would. Of course, you came here feeling jolly spry, glad and proud of the work you had done. Just think; furnishings for thirty coffins, four women crucified, shipwrecks, hands steeped in blood, murders galore. Those things are no small beer; and you were expecting an imposing reception, with an official ceremony, solemn pomp and state, antique choirs, processions of bards and minstrels, human sacrifices and what not; the whole Gallic bag of tricks! Instead of which, a poor beggar of a Druid, snoozing in a corner, who just simply offers you the goods. What a come down, my lords! Can't be helped, Vorski; we do what we can and every man acts according to the means at his disposal. I'm not a millionaire, you know; and I've already advanced you, in addition to the washing of a few white robes, some thirty francs forty for Bengal lights, fountains of fire and a nocturnal earthquake."
Vorski started, suddenly understanding and beside himself with rage:
"What! So it was . . ."
"Of course it was me! Who did you think it was? St. Augustine? Unless you believed in anintervention of the gods and supposed that they took the trouble last night to send an archangel to the island, arrayed in a white robe, to lead you to the hollow oak! . . . Really, you're asking too much!"
Vorski clenched his fists. So the man in white whom he had pursued the night before was no other than this impostor!
"Oh," he growled, "I'm not fond of having my leg pulled!"
"Having your leg pulled!" cried the old man. "You've got a cheek, old chap! Who hunted me like a wild beast, till I was quite out of breath? And who drove bullets through my best Sunday robe? I never knew such a fellow! It'll teach me to put my back into a job again!"
"That'll do!" roared Vorski. "That'll do. Once more and for the last time . . . what do you want with me?"
"I'm sick of telling you. I am commissioned to hand you the God-Stone."
"Commissioned by whom?"
"Oh, hanged if I know! I've always been brought up to believe that some day a prince of Almain would appear at Sarek, one Vorski, who would slay his thirty victims and to whom I was to make an agreed signal when his thirtieth victim had breathed her last. Therefore, as I'm a slave to orders, I got together my little parcel, bought two Bengal lights at three francs seventy-five apiece at a hardware shop in Brest,plusa few choice crackers, and, at the appointed hour, took up my perch in my observatory, taper in hand, all ready for work. When you started howling, in the top of the tree, 'She's dead! She's dead!' I thought that was theright moment, set fire to the lights and with my crackers shook the bowels of the earth. There! Now you know all about it."
Vorski stepped forward, with his fists raised to strike. That torrent of words, that imperturbable composure, that calm, bantering voice put him beside himself.
"Another word and I'll knock you down!" he cried. "I've had enough of it."
"Is your name Vorski?"
"Yes; and then?"
"Are you a prince of Almain?"
"Yes, yes; and then?"
"Have you slain your thirty victims?"
"Yes, yes, yes!"
"Well, then you're my man. I have a God-Stone to hand you and I mean to hand it you, come what may. That's the sort of hairpin I am. You've got to pocket it, your miracle-stone."
"But I don't care a hang for the God-Stone!" roared Vorski, stamping his foot. "And I don't care a hang for you! I want nobody. The God-Stone! Why, I've got it, it's mine. I've got it on me."
"Let's have a look."
"What do you call that?" said Vorski, taking from his pocket the little stone disk which he had found in the pommel of the sceptre.
"That?" asked the old man, with an air of surprise. "Where did you get that from?"
"From the pommel of this sceptre, when I unfastened it."
"And what do you call it?"
"It's a piece of the God-Stone."
"You're mad."
"Then what do you say it is?"
"That's a trouser-button."
"A what?"
"A trouser-button."
"How do you make that out?"
"A trouser-button with the shaft broken off, a button of the sort which the niggers in the Sahara wear. I've a whole set of them."
"Prove it, damn you!"
"I put it there."
"What for?"
"To take the place of the precious stone which Maguennoc sneaked, the one which burnt him and obliged him to cut off his hand."
Vorski was silent. He was nonplussed. He had no notion what to do next or how to behave towards this strange adversary.
The ancient Druid went up to him and, gently, in a fatherly voice:
"No, my lad," he said, "you can't do without me, you see. I alone hold the key of the safe and the secret of the casket. Why do you hesitate?"
"I don't know you."
"You baby! If I were suggesting something indelicate and incompatible with your honour, I could understand your scruples. But my offer is one of those which can't offend the nicest conscience. Well, is it a bargain? No? Not yet? But, by Teutatès, what more do you want, you unbelieving Vorski? A miracle perhaps? Lord, why didn't you say so before? Miracles, forsooth: I turn 'em out thirteen to the dozen. I work a little miracle before breakfast every morning. Justthink, a Druid! Miracles? Why, I've got my shop full of 'em! I can't find room to sit down for them. Where will you try first? Resurrection department? Hair-restoring department? Revelation of the future department? You can choose where you like. Look here, at what time did your thirtieth victim breathe her last?"
"How should I know?"
"Eleven fifty-two. Your excitement was so great that it stopped your watch. Look and see."
It was ridiculous. The shock produced by excitement has no effect on the watch of the man who experiences the excitement. Nevertheless, Vorski involuntarily took out his watch: it marked eight minutes to twelve. He tried to wind it up: it was broken.
The ancient Druid, without giving him time to recover his breath and reply, went on:
"That staggers you, eh? And yet there's nothing simpler for a Druid who knows his business. A Druid sees the invisible. He does more: he makes anyone else see it if he wants to. Vorski, would you like to see something that doesn't exist? What's your name? I'm not speaking of your name Vorski, but of your real name, your governor's name."
"Silence on that subject!" Vorski commanded. "It's a secret I've revealed to nobody."
"Then why do you write it down?"
"I've never written it down."
"Vorski, your father's name is written in red pencil on the fourteenth page of the little note-book you carry on you. Look and see."
Acting mechanically, like an automaton whosemovements are controlled by an alien will, Vorski took from his inside pocket a case containing a small note-book. He turned the pages till he came to the fourteenth, when he muttered, with indescribable dismay:
"Impossible! Who wrote this? And you know what's written here?"
"Do you want me to prove it to you?"
"Once more, silence! I forbid you . . ."
"As you please, old chap! All that I do is meant for your edification. And it's no trouble to me! Once I start working miracles, I simply can't stop. Here's another funny little trick. You carry a locket hanging from a silver chain round your shirt, don't you?"
"Yes," said Vorski, his eyes blazing with fever.
"The locket consists of a frame, without the photograph which used to be set in it."
"Yes, yes, a portrait of . . ."
"Of your mother, I know: and you lost it."
"Yes, I lost it last year."
"You mean youthinkyou've lost the portrait."
"Nonsense, the locket is empty."
"Youthinkthe locket's empty. It's not. Look and see."
Still moving mechanically, with his eyes starting from his head, Vorski unfastened the button of his shirt and pulled out the chain. The locket appeared. There was the portrait of a woman in a round gold frame.
"It's she, it's she," he muttered, completely taken aback.
"Quite sure?"
"Yes."
"Then what do you say to it all, eh? There's no fake about it, no deception. The ancient Druid's a smart chap and you're coming with him, aren't you?"
"Yes."
Vorski was beaten. The man had subjugated him. His superstitious instincts, his inherited belief in the mysterious powers, his restless and unbalanced nature, all imposed absolute submission on him. His suspicion persisted, but did not prevent him from obeying.
"Is it far?" he asked.
"Next door, in the great hall."
Otto and Conrad had been the astounded witnesses of this dialogue. Conrad tried to protest. But Vorski silenced him:
"If you're afraid, go away. Besides," he added, with an affectation of assurance, "besides, we shall walk with our revolvers ready. At the slightest alarm, fire."
"Fire on me?" chuckled the ancient Druid.
"Fire on any enemy, no matter who it may be."
"Well, you go first, Vorski . . . . What, won't you?"
He had brought them to the very end of the crypt, in the darkest shadow, where the lantern showed them a recess hollowed at the foot of the wall and plunging into the rocks in a downward direction.
Vorski hesitated and then entered. He had to crawl on his hands and knees in this narrow, winding passage, from which he emerged, a minute later, on the threshold of a large hall.
The others joined him.
"The hall of the God-Stone," the ancient Druid declared, solemnly.
It was lofty and imposing, similar in shape and size to the broad walk under which it lay. The same number of upright stones, which seemed to be the columns of an immense temple, stood in the same place and formed the same rows as the menhirs on the walk overhead: stones hewn in the same uncouth way, with no regard for art or symmetry. The floor was composed of huge irregular flagstones, intersected with a network of gutters and covered with round patches of dazzling light, falling from above at some distance one from the other.
In the centre, under Maguennoc's garden, rose a platform of unmortared stones, fourteen or fifteen feet high, with sides about twenty yards long. On the top was a dolmen with two sturdy supports and a long, oval granite table.
"Is that it?" asked Vorski, in a husky voice.
Without giving a direct answer, the ancient Druid said:
"What do you think of it? They were dabs at building, those ancestors of ours! And what ingenuity they displayed! What precautions against prying eyes and profane enquiries! Do you know where the light comes from? For we are in the bowels of the island and there are no windows opening on to the sky. The light comes from the upper menhirs. They are pierced from the top to bottom with a channel which widens as it goes down and which sheds floods of light below. In the middle of the day, when the sun is shining, it's like fairyland. You, who are an artist, would shout with admiration."
"Then that'sit?" Vorski repeated.
"At any rate, it's a sacred stone," declared the ancient Druid, impassively, "since it used to overlook the place of the underground sacrifices, which were the most important of all. But there is another one underneath, which is protected by the dolmen and which you can't see from here; and that is the one on which the selected victims were offered up. The blood used to flow from the platform and along all these gutters to the cliffs and down to the sea."
Vorski muttered, more and more excited:
"Then that's it? If so, let's go on."
"No need to stir," said the old man, with exasperating coolness. "It's not that one either. There's a third; and to see that one you have only to lift your head a little."
"Where? Are you sure?"
"Of course! Take a good look . . . above the upper table, yes, in the very vault which forms the ceiling and which is like a mosaic made of great flagstones . . . . You can twig it from here, can't you? A flagstone forming a separate oblong, long and narrow like the lower table and shaped like it . . . . They might be two sisters . . . . But there's only one good one, stamped with the trademark . . . ."
Vorski was disappointed. He had expected a more elaborate introduction to a more mysterious hiding-place.
"Is that the God-Stone?" he asked. "Why, it has nothing particular about it."
"From a distance, no; but wait till you see it close by. There are coloured veins in it, glittering lodes, a special grain: in short, the God-Stone. Besides, it's remarkable not so much for its substance as for its miraculous properties."
"What are the miracles in question?" asked Vorski.
"It gives life and death, as you know, and it gives a lot of other things."
"What sort of things?"
"Oh, hang it, you're asking me too much! I don't know anything about it."
"How do you mean, you don't know?"
The ancient Druid leant over and, in a confidential tone:
"Listen, Vorski," he said, "I confess that I have been boasting a bit and that my function, though of the greatest importance—keeper of the God-Stone, you know, a first-class berth—is limited by a power which in a manner of speaking is higher than my own."
"What power?"
"Velléda's."
Vorski eyed him with renewed uneasiness:
"Velléda?"
"Yes, or at least the woman whom I call Velléda, the last of the Druidesses: I don't know her real name."
"Where is she?"
"Here."
"Here?"
"Yes, on the sacrificial stone. She's asleep."
"What, she's asleep?"
"She's been sleeping for centuries, since all time. I've never seen her other than sleeping: a chaste and peaceful slumber. Like the Sleeping Beauty,Velléda is waiting for him whom the gods have appointed to awake her; and that is . . ."
"Who?"
"You, Vorski, you."
Vorski knitted his brows. What was the meaning of this improbable story and what was his impenetrable interlocutor driving at?
The ancient Druid continued:
"That seems to ruffle you! Come, there's no reason, just because your hands are red with blood and because you have thirty coffins on your mind, why you shouldn't have the right to act as Prince Charming. You're too modest, my young friend. Look here, Velléda is marvellously beautiful: I tell you, hers is a superhuman beauty. Ah, my fine fellow, you're getting excited! What? Not yet?"
Vorski hesitated. Really he was feeling the danger increase around him and rise like a swelling wave that is about to break. But the old man would not leave him alone:
"One last word, Vorski; and I'm speaking low so that your friends shan't hear me. When you wrapped your mother in her shroud, you left on her fore-finger, in obedience to her formal wish, a ring which she had always worn, a magic ring made of a large turquoise surrounded by a circle of smaller turquoises set in gold. Am I right?"
"Yes," gasped Vorski, taken aback, "yes, you're right: but I was alone and it is a secret which nobody knew."
"Vorski, if that ring is on Velléda's finger, will you trust me and will you believe that your mother, in her grave, appointed Velléda to receiveyou, that she herself might hand you the miraculous stone?"
Vorski was already walking towards the tumulus. He quickly climbed the first few steps. His head passed the level of the platform.
"Oh," he said, staggering back, "the ring . . . the ring is on her finger!"
Between the two supports of the dolmen, stretched on the sacrificial table and clad in a spotless gown that came down to her feet, lay the Druidess. Her body and face were turned the other way; and a veil hanging over her forehead hid her hair. Almost bare, her shapely arm lay along the table. On the forefinger was a turquoise ring.
"Is that your mother's ring all right?" asked the ancient Druid.
"Yes, there's no doubt about it."
Vorski had hurried across the space between himself and the dolmen and, stooping, almost kneeling, was examining the turquoises.
"The number is complete," he whispered. "One of them is cracked. Another is half covered by the gold setting which has worked down over it."
"You needn't be so cautious," said the old man. "She won't hear you; and your voice can't wake her. What you had better do is to stand up and pass your hand lightly over her forehead. That is the magic caress which will rouse her from her slumber."
Vorski stood up. Nevertheless he hesitated to approach the woman, who inspired him with ungovernable fear and respect.
"Don't come any nearer, you two," said the ancient Druid, addressing Otto and Conrad."When Velléda's eyes open, they must rest on no one but Vorski and behold no other sight. Well, Vorski, are you afraid?"
"No, I'm not afraid."
"Only you're not feeling comfortable. It's easier to murder people than to bring them to life, what? Come, show yourself a man! Put aside her veil and touch her forehead. The God-Stone is within your reach. Act and you will be the master of the world."
Vorski acted. Standing against the sacrificial altar, he looked down upon the Druidess. He bent over the motionless bust. The white gown rose and fell to the regular rhythm of the breathing. With an undecided hand he drew back the veil and then stooped lower, so that his other hand might touch the uncovered forehead.
But at that moment his action remained, so to speak, suspended and he stood without moving, like a man who does not understand but is vainly trying to understand.
"Well, what's up, old chap?" exclaimed the Druid. "You look petrified. Another squabble? Something gone wrong? Must I come and help you?"
Vorski did not answer. He was staring wildly, with an expression of stupefaction and affright which gradually changed into one of mad terror. Drops of perspiration trickled over his face. His haggard eyes seemed to be gazing upon the most horrible vision.
The old man burst out laughing:
"Lord love us, how ugly you are! I hope the last of the Druidesses won't raise her divine eyelids and see that hideous mug of yours! Sleep, Velléda, sleep your pure and dreamless sleep."
Vorski stood muttering between his teeth incoherent words which conveyed the menace of an increasing anger. The truth became partly revealed to him in a series of flashes. A word rose to his lips which he refused to utter, as though, in uttering it, he feared lest he should give life to a being who was no more, to that woman who was dead, yes, dead though she lay breathing before him: she could not but be dead, because he had killed her. However, in the end and in spite of himself, he spoke; and every syllable cost him intolerable suffering:
"Véronique . . . . Véronique . . . ."
"So you think she's like her?" chuckled the ancient Druid. "Upon my word, may be you are right: there is a sort of family resemblance . . . . I dare say, if you hadn't crucified the other with your own hands and if you hadn't yourself received her last breath, you would be ready to swear that the two women are one and the same person . . . and that Véronique d'Hergemont is alive and that she's not even wounded . . . not even a scar . . . not so much as the mark of the cords round her wrists . . . . But just look, Vorski, what a peaceful face, what comforting serenity! Upon my word, I'm beginning to believe that you made a mistake and that it was another woman you crucified! Just think a bit! . . . Hullo, you're going to go for me now! Come to my rescue, O Teutatès! The prophet wants to have my blood!"
Vorski had drawn himself up and was now facing the ancient Druid. His features, fashioned forhatred and fury, had surely never expressed more of either than at this moment. The ancient Druid was not merely the man who for an hour had been toying with him as with a child. He was the man who had performed the most extraordinary feat and who suddenly appeared to him as the most ruthless and dangerous foe. A man like that must be got rid of on the spot, since the opportunity presented itself.
"I'm done!" said the old man. "He's going to eat me up! Crikey, what an ogre! . . . Help! Murder! Help! . . . Oh, look at his iron fingers! He's going to strangle me! . . . Unless he uses a dagger . . . or a rope . . . . No, a revolver! I prefer that, it's neater . . . . Fire away, Alexis. Two of the seven bullets have already made holes in my best Sunday robe. That leaves five. Fire away, Alexis."
Each word aggravated Vorski's fury. He was eager to get the work over and he shouted:
"Otto . . . Conrad . . . are you ready?"
He raised his arm. The two assistants likewise took aim. Four paces in front of them stood the old man, laughingly pleading for mercy:
"Please, kind gentlemen, have pity on a poor beggar . . . . I won't do it again . . . . I'll be a good boy . . . . Kind gentlemen, please . . . ."
Vorski repeated:
"Otto . . . Conrad . . . attention! . . . I'm counting three: one . . . two . . . three . . . fire!"
The three shots rang out together. The Druid whirled round with one leg in the air, then drew himself up straight, opposite his adversaries, and cried, in a tragic voice:
"A hit, a palpable hit! Shot through the body! Dead, for a ducat! . . . The ancient Druid'skaput! . . . A tragic development! Oh, the poor old Druid, who was so fond of his joke!"
"Fire!" roared Vorski. "Shoot, can't you, you idiots? Fire!"
"Fire! Fire!" repeated the Druid. "Bang! Bang! A bull's eye! . . . Two! . . . Three bull's eyes! . . . Your shot, Conrad: bang! . . . Yours, Otto: bang!"
The shots rattled and echoed through the great resounding hall. The bewildered and furious accomplices were gesticulating before their target, while the invulnerable old man danced and kicked, now almost squatting on his heels, now leaping up with astounding agility:
"Lord, what fun one can have in a cave! And what a fool you are, Vorski, my own! You blooming old prophet! . . . What a mug! But, I say, however could you take it all in? The Bengal lights! The crackers! And the trouser-button! And your old mother's ring! . . . You silly juggins! What a spoof!"
Vorski stopped. He realized that the three revolvers had been made harmless, but how? By what unprecedented marvel? What was at the bottom of all this fantastic adventure? Who was that demon standing in front of him?
He flung away his useless weapon and looked at the old man. Was he thinking of seizing him in his arms and crushing the life out of him? He also looked at the woman and seemed ready to fall upon her. But he obviously no longer felt equal to facing those two strange creatures, who appeared to himto be remote from the world and from actuality.
Then, quickly, he turned on his heel and, calling to his accomplices, made for the crypts, followed by the ancient Druid's jeers:
"Look at that now! He's slinging his hook! And the God-Stone, what about it? What do you want me to do with it? . . . I say, isn't he showing a clean pair of heels! . . . Hi! Are your trousers on fire? Yoicks, tally-ho, tally-ho! Proph—et Proph—et! . . ."