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genre : Mystery & Detective

1 hour and 4 minute

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The Messenger

Robert William Chambers

Published: 1897

Categorie(s): Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Short Stories

Source: http://gutenberg.org About Chambers:

Robert William Chambers (May 26, 1865 – December 16, 1933) was an American artist and writer. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, to William P. Chambers (1827 - 1911), a famous lawyer, and Caroline Chambers (née Boughton), a direct descendant of Roger Williams, the founder of Providence, Rhode Island. Robert's brother was Walter Boughton Chambers, the world famous architect. Robert was first educated at the the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute,and then entered the Art Students' League at around the age of twenty, where the artist Charles Dana Gibson was his fellow student. Chambers studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, and at Académie Julian, in Paris from 1886 to 1893, and his work was displayed at the Salon as early as 1889. On his return to New York, he succeeded in selling his illustrations to Life, Truth, and Vogue magazines. Then, for reasons unclear, he devoted his time to writing, producing his first novel, In the Quarter (written in 1887 in Munich ) . His most famous, and perhaps most meritorious, effort is The King in Yellow, a collection of weird fiction short stories, connected by the theme of a book (to which the title refers) which drives those who read it insane. Chambers' fictitious drama The King in Yellow features in Karl Edward Wagner's story "The River of Night's Dreaming", while James Blish's story "More Light" purports to include much of the actual text of the play. Chambers later turned to writing romantic fiction to earn a living. According to some estimates, Chambers was one of the most successful literary careers of his period, his later novels selling well and a handful achieving best-seller status. Many of his works were also serialized in magazines. After 1924 he devoted himself solely to writing Historical fiction . On July 12, 1898, he married Elsa Vaughn Moller (1882-1939). They had a son, Robert Edward Stuart Chambers (later calling himself Robert Husted Chambers) who also gained some fame as an author. H. P. Lovecraft said of him in a letter to Clark Ashton Smith, "Chambers is like Rupert Hughes and a few other fallen Titans - equipped with the right brains and education but wholly out of the habit of using them." Frederic Taber Cooper commented, "So much of Chambers's work exasperates, because we feel that he might so easily have made it better." He died in New York on December 16th 1933. A critical essay on Chambers' work appears in S. T. Joshi's book The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004). Source: Wikipedia

Also available on Feedbooks Chambers:

- The King in Yellow (1895)

- The Hidden Children (1914)

- The Dark Star (1916)

- Between Friends (1914)

- In Search of the Unknown (1904)

- In Secret (1919)

- The Green Mouse (1910)

- The Slayer of Souls (1920)

- Police!!! (1915)

- Ailsa Paige (1910)

Copyright: This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA.

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> Little gray messenger,

>

> Robed like painted Death,

>

> Your robe is dust.

>

> Whom do you seek

>

> Among lilies and closed buds

>

> At dusk?

>

> Among lilies and closed buds

>

> At dusk.

>

> Whom do you seek

>

> Little gray messenger.

>

> Robed in the awful panoply

>

> Of painted Death?

>

> —R.W. C.

> All—wise.

>

> Hast thou seen all there is to see with thy two eyes?

>

> Dost thou know all there is to know and so,

دنیای رمان مرجع رمان های ایرانی و خارجی. https://novelonline.ir

>

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> Omniscient,

دنیای رمان مرجع رمان های ایرانی و خارجی. https://novelonline.ir

>

دنیای رمان مرجع رمان های ایرانی و خارجی. https://novelonline.ir

> Darest thou still to say thy brother lies?

دنیای رمان مرجع رمان های ایرانی و خارجی. https://novelonline.ir

>

دنیای رمان مرجع رمان های ایرانی و خارجی. https://novelonline.ir

> —R.W.C.

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Chapter 1

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"The bullet entered here," said Max Fortin, and he placed his middle finger over a smooth hole exactly in the centre of the forehead.

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I sat down upon a mound of dry seaweed and unslung my fowling piece.

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The little chemist cautiously felt the edges of the shot-hole, first with his middle finger, then with his thumb.

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"Let me see the skull again," said I.

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Max Fortin picked it up from the sod.

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"It's like all the others," he observed. I nodded, without offering to take it from him. After a moment he thoughtfully replaced it upon the grass at my feet.

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"It's like all the others," he repeated, wiping his glasses on his handkerchief. "I thought you might care to see one of the skulls, so I brought this over from the gravel pit. The men from Bannalec are digging yet. They ought to stop."

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"How many skulls are there altogether?" I inquired.

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"They found thirty-eight skulls; there are thirty-nine noted in the list. They lie piled up in the gravel pit on the edge of Le Bihan's wheat field. The men are at work yet. Le Bihan is going to stop them."

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"Let's go over," said I; and I picked up my gun and started across the cliffs, Fortin on one side, Môme on the other.

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"Who has the list?" I asked, lighting my pipe. "You say there is a list?"

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"The list was found rolled up in a brass cylinder," said the little chemist. He added: "You should not smoke here. You know that if a single spark drifted into the wheat—"

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"Ah, but I have a cover to my pipe," said I, smiling.

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Fortin watched me as I closed the pepper-box arrangement over the glowing bowl of the pipe. Then he continued:

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"The list was made out on thick yellow paper; the brass tube has preserved it. It is as fresh to- day as it was in 1760. You shall see it."

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"Is that the date?"

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"The list is dated 'April, 1760.' The Brigadier Durand has it. It is not written in French."

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"Nor written in French!" I exclaimed.

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"No," replied Fortin solemnly, "it is written in Breton."

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"But," I protested, "the Breton language was never written or printed in 1760."

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"Except by priests," said the chemist.

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"I have heard of but one priest who ever wrote the Breton language," I began.

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Fortin stole a glance at my face.

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"You mean—the Black Priest?" he asked.

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I nodded.

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Fortin opened his mouth to speak again, hesitated, and finally shut his teeth obstinately over the wheat stem that he was chewing.

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"And the Black Priest?" I suggested encouragingly. But I knew it was useless; for it is easier to move the stars from their courses than to make an obstinate Breton talk. We walked on for a minute or two in silence.

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"Where is the Brigadier Durand?" I asked, motioning Môme to come out of the wheat, which he was trampling as though it were heather. As I spoke we came in sight of the farther edge of the wheat field and the dark, wet mass of cliffs beyond.

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"Durand is down there—you can see him; he stands just behind the Mayor of St. Gildas."

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"I see," said I; and we struck straight down, following a sun-baked cattle path across the heather.

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When we reached the edge of the wheat field, Le Bihan, the Mayor of St. Gildas, called to me, and I tucked my gun under my arm and skirted the wheat to where he stood.

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"Thirty-eight skulls," he said in his thin, high-pitched voice; "there is but one more, and I am opposed to further search. I suppose Fortin told you?"

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I shook hands with him, and returned the salute of the Brigadier Durand.

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"I am opposed to further search," repeated Le Bihan, nervously picking at the mass of silver buttons which covered the front of his velvet and broadcloth jacket like a breastplate of scale armour.

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Durand pursed up his lips, twisted his tremendous mustache, and hooked his thumbs in his sabre belt.

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"As for me," he said, "I am in favour of further search."

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"Further search for what—for the thirty-ninth skull?" I asked.

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Le Bihan nodded. Durand frowned at the sunlit sea, rocking like a bowl of molten gold from the cliffs to the horizon. I followed his eyes. On the dark glistening cliffs, silhouetted against the glare of the sea, sat a cormorant, black, motionless, its horrible head raised toward heaven.

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"Where is that list, Durand?" I asked.

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The gendarme rummaged in his despatch pouch and produced a brass cylinder about a foot long. Very gravely he unscrewed the head and dumped out a scroll of thick yellow paper closely covered with writing on both sides. At a nod from Le Bihan he handed me the scroll. But I could make nothing of the coarse writing, now faded to a dull brown.

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"Come, come, Le Bihan," I said impatiently, "translate it, won't you? You and Max Fortin make a lot of mystery out of nothing, it seems."

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Le Bihan went to the edge of the pit where the three Bannalec men were digging, gave an order or two in Breton, and turned to me.

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As I came to the edge of the pit the Bannalec men were removing a square piece of sailcloth from what appeared to be a pile of cobblestones.

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"Look!" said Le Bihan shrilly. I looked. The pile below was a heap of skulls. After a moment I clambered down the gravel sides of the pit and walked over to the men of Bannalec. They saluted me gravely, leaning on their picks and shovels, and wiping their swearing faces with sunburned hands.

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"How many?" said I in Breton.

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"Thirty-eight," they replied.

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I glanced around. Beyond the heap of skulls lay two piles of human bones. Beside these was a mound of broken, rusted bits of iron and steel. Looking closer, I saw that this mound was composed of rusty bayonets, sabre blades, scythe blades, with here and there a tarnished buckle attached to a bit of leather hard as iron.

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I picked up a couple of buttons and a belt plate. The buttons bore the royal arms of England; the belt plate was emblazoned with the English arms, and also with the number "27."

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"I have heard my grandfather speak of the terrible English regiment, the 27th Foot, which landed and stormed the fort up there," said one of the Bannalec men.

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"Oh!" said I; "then these are the bones of English soldiers?"

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"Yes," said the men of Bannalec.

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Le Bihan was calling to me from the edge of the pit above, and I handed the belt plate and buttons to the men and climbed the side of the excavation.

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"Well," said I, trying to prevent Môme from leaping up and licking my face as I emerged from the pit, "I suppose you know what these bones are. What arc you going to do with them?"

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"There was a man," said Le Bihan angrily, "an Englishman, who passed here in a dog-cart on his way to Quimper about an hour ago, and what do you suppose he wished to do?"

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"Buy the relics?" I asked, smiling.

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"Exactly—the pig!" piped the mayor of St. Gildas. "Jean Marie Tregunc, who found the bones, was standing there where Max Fortin stands, and do you know what he answered? He spat upon the ground, and said: 'Pig of an Englishman, do you take me for a desecrator of graves?' "

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I knew Tregunc, a sober, blue-eyed Breton, who lived from one year's end to the other without being able to afford a single bit of meat for a meal.

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"How much did the Englishman offer Tregunc?" I asked.

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"Two hundred francs for the skulls alone."

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I thought of the relic hunters and the relic buyers on the battlefields of our civil war.

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"Seventeen hundred and sixty is long ago," I said.

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"Respect for the dead can never die," said Fortin.

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"And the English soldiers came here to kill your fathers and burn your homes," I continued.

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"They were murderers and thieves, but—they are dead," said Tregunc, coming up from the beach below, his long sea rake balanced on his dripping jersey.

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"How much do you earn every year, Jean Marie?" I asked, turning to shake hands with him.

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"Two hundred and twenty francs, monsieur."

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"Forty-five dollars a year," I said. "Bah! you are worth more, Jean. Will you take care of my garden for me? My wife wished me to ask you. I think it would be worth one hundred francs a month to you and to me. Come on, Le Bihan—come along, Fortin—and you, Durand. I want somebody to translate that list into French for me."

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Tregunc stood gazing at me, his blue eyes dilated.

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"You may begin at once," I said, smiling, "If the salary suits you?"

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"It suits," said Tregunc, fumbling for his pipe in a silly way that annoyed Le Bihan.

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"Then go and begin your work," cried the mayor impatiently; and Tregune started across the moors toward St. Gildas, taking off his velvet-rib-boned cap to me and gripping his sea rake very hard.

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"You offer him more than my salary," said the mayor, after a moment's contemplation of his silver buttons.

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"Pooh!" said I, "what do you do for your salary except play dominoes with Max Fortin at the Groix Inn?"

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Le Bihan turned red, but Durand rattled his sabre and winked at Max Fortin, and I slipped my arm through the arm of the sulky magistrate, laughing.

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"There's a shady spot under the cliff," I said; "come on, Le Bihan, and read me what is in the scroll."

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In a few moments we reached the shadow of the cliff, and I threw myself upon the turf, chin on hand, to listen.

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The gendarme, Durand, also sat down, twisting his mustache into needlelike points. Fortin leaned against the cliff, polishing his glasses and examining us with vague, near-sighted eyes; and Le Bihan, the mayor, planted himself in our midst, rolling up the scroll and tucking it under his arm.

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"First of all," he began in a shrill voice, "I am going to light my pipe, and while lighting it I shall tell you what I have heard about the attack on the fort yonder. My father told me; his father told him."

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He jerked his head in the direction of the ruined fort, a small, square stone structure on the sea cliff, now nothing but crumbling walls. Then he slowly produced a tobacco pouch, a bit of flint and tinder, and a long-stemmed pipe fitted with a microscopical bowl of baked clay. To fill such a pipe requires ten minutes' close attention. To smoke it to a finish takes but four puffs. It is very Breton, this Breton pipe. It is the crystallization of everything Breton.

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"Go on," said I, lighting a cigarette.

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"The fort," said the mayor, "was built by Louis XIM and was dismantled twice by the English. Louis XV restored it in 1739. In 1760 it was carried by assault by the English. They came across from the island of Groix—three shiploads—and they stormed the fort and sacked St. Julien yonder, and they started to burn St. Gildas—you can see the marks of their bullets on my house yet; but the men of Bannalec and the men of Lorient fell upon them with pike and scythe and blunderbuss, and those who did not run away lie there below in the gravel pit now—thirty-eight of them."

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"And the thirty-ninth skull?" I asked, finishing my cigarette.

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The mayor had succeeded in filling his pipe, and now he began to put his tobacco pouch away.

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"The thirty-ninth skull," he mumbled, holding the pipestem between his defective teeth—"the thirty-ninth skull is no business of mine. I have told the Bannalec men to cease digging."

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"But what is—whose is the missing skull?" I persisted curiously.

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The mayor was busy trying to strike a spark to his tinder. Presently he set it aglow, applied it to his pipe, took the prescribed four puffs, knocked the ashes out of the bowl, and gravely replaced the pipe in his pocket.

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"The missing skull?" he asked.

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"Yes," said I impatiently.

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The mayor slowly unrolled the scroll and began to read, translating from the Breton into French. And this is what he read:

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" 'ON THE CLIFFS OF ST. GILDAS, "'April 13, 1760.

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" 'On this day, by order of the Count of Soisic, general in chief of the Breton forces now lying in Kerselec Forest, the bodies of thirty- eight English soldiers of the 27th, 50th, and 72d regiments of Foot were buried in this spot, together with their arms and equipments."'

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The mayor paused and glanced at me reflectively.

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"Go on, Le Bihan," I said.

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" 'With them,' " continued the mayor, turning the scroll and reading on the other side, " 'was buried the body of that vile traitor who betrayed the fort to the English. The manner of his death was as follows: By order of the most noble Count of Soisic, the traitor was first branded upon the forehead with the brand of an arrowhead. The iron burned through the flesh, and was pressed heavily so that the brand should even burn into the bone of the skull. The traitor was then led out and bidden to kneel. He admitted having guided the English from the island of Groix. Although a priest and a Frenchman, he had violated his priestly office to aid him in discovering the password to the fort. This password he extorted during confession from a young Breton girl who was in the habit of rowing across from the island of Groix to visit her husband in the fort. When the fort fell, this young girl, crazed by the death of her husband, sought the Count of Soisic and told how the priest had forced her to confess to him all she knew about the fort. The priest was arrested at St. Gildas as he was about to cross the river to Lorient. When arrested he cursed the girl, Marie Trevec—' "

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"What!" I exclaimed, "Marie Trevec!"

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" 'Marie Trevec,' " repeated Le Bihan; " 'the priest cursed Marie Trevec, and all her family and descendants. He was shot as he knelt, having a mask of leather over his face, because the Bretons who composed the squad of execution refused to fire at a priest unless his face was concealed. The priest was l'AbbeÌ Sorgue, commonly known as the Black Priest on account of his dark face and swarthy eyebrows. He was buried with a stake through his heart.' "

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Le Bihan paused, hesitated, looked at me, and handed the manuscript back to Durand. The gendarme took it and slipped it into the brass cylinder.

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"So," said I, "the thirty-ninth skull is the skull of the Black Priest."

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"Yes," said Fortin. "I hope they won't find it."

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"I have forbidden them to proceed," said the mayor querulously. "You heard me, Max Fortin."

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I rose and picked up my gun. Môme came and pushed his head into my hand.

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"That's a fine dog," observed Durand, also rising.

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"Why don't you wish to find his skull?" I asked Le Bihan. "It would be curious to see whether the arrow brand really burned into the bone."

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"There is something in that scroll that I didn't read to you," said the mayor grimly. "Do you wish to know what it is?"

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"Of course," I replied in surprise.

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"Give me the scroll again, Durand," he said; then he read from the bottom:

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" 'I, l'AbbeÌ Sorgue, forced to write the above by my executioners, have written it in my own blood; and with it I leave my curse. My curse on St. Gildas, on Marie Trevec, and on her descendants. I will come back to St. Gildas when my remains are disturbed. Woe to that Englishman whom my branded skull shall touch!' "

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"What rot!" I said. "Do you believe it was really written in his own blood?"

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"I am going to test it," said Fortin, "at the request of Monsieur le Maire. I am not anxious for the job, however."

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"See," said Le Bihan, holding out the scroll to me, "it is signed, 'l'AbbeÌ Sorgue.' "

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I glanced curiously over the paper.

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"It must be the Black Priest," I said. "He was the only man who wrote in the Breton language. This is a wonderfully interesting discovery, for now, at last, the mystery of the Black Priest's disappearance is cleared up. You will, of course, send this scroll to Paris, Le Bihan?"

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"No," said the mayor obstinately, "it shall be buried in the pit below where the rest of the Black Priest lies."

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I looked at him and recognised that argument would be useless. But still I said, "It will be a loss to history, Monsieur Le Bihan."

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'All the worse for history, then," said the enlightened mayor of St. Gildas.

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We had sauntered back to the gravel pit while speaking. The men of Bannalec were carrying the bones of the English soldiers toward the St. Gildas cemetery, on the cliffs to the east, where already a knot of white-coiffed women stood in attitudes of prayer; and I saw the sombre robe of a priest among the crosses of the little graveyard.

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"They were thieves and assassins; they are dead now," muttered Max Fortin.

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"Respect the dead," repeated the Mayor of St. Gildas, looking after the Bannalec men.

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"It was written in that scroll that Marie Trevec, of Groix Island, was cursed by the priest—she and her descendants," I said, touching Le Bihan on the arm. "There was a Marie Trevec who married an Yves Trevec of St. Gildas—"

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"It is the same," said Le Bihan, looking at me obliquely.

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"Oh!" said I; "then they were ancestors of my wife."

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"Do you fear the curse?" asked Le Bihan.

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"What?" I laughed.

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"There was the case of the Purple Emperor," said Max Fortin timidly.

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Startled for a moment, I faced him, then shrugged my shoulders and kicked at a smooth bit of rock which lay near the edge of the pit, almost embedded in gravel.

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"Do you suppose the Purple Emperor drank himself crazy because he was descended from Marie Trevec?" I asked contemptuously.

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"Of course not," said Max Fortin hastily.

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"Of course not," piped the mayor. "I only— Hello! what's that you're kicking?"

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"What?" said I, glancing down, at the same time involuntarily giving another kick. The smooth bit of rock dislodged itself and rolled out of the loosened gravel at my feet.

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"The thirty-ninth skull!" I exclaimed. "By jingo, it's the noddle of the Black Priest! See! there is the arrowhead branded on the front!"

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The mayor stepped back. Max Fortin also retreated. There was a pause, during which I looked at them, and they looked anywhere but at me.

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"I don't like it," said the mayor at last, in a husky, high voice. "I don't like it! The scroll says he will come back to St. Gildas when his remains are disturbed. I—I don't like it, Monsieur Darrel—"

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"Bosh!" said I; "the poor wicked devil is where he can't get out. For Heaven's sake, Le Bihan, what is this stuff you are talking in the year of grace 1896?"

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The mayor gave me a look.

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"And he says 'Englishman.' You are an Englishman, Monsieur Darrel," he announced.

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"You know better. You know I'm an American."

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"It's all the same," said the Mayor of St. Gildas, obstinately.

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"No, it isn't!" I answered, much exasperated, and deliberately pushed the skull till it rolled into the bottom of the gravel pit below.

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"Cover it up," said I; "bury the scroll with it too, if you insist, but I think you ought to send it to Paris. Don't look so gloomy, Fortin, unless you believe in were-wolves and ghosts. Hey! what the—what the devil's the matter with you, anyway? What are you staring at, Le Bihan?"

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"Come, come," muttered the mayor in a low, tremulous voice, "it's time we got out of this. Did you see? Did you see, Fortin?"

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"I saw," whispered Max Fortin, pallid with fright.

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The two men were almost running across the sunny pasture now, and I hastened after them, demanding to know what was the matter.

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"Matter!" chattered the mayor, gasping with exasperation and terror. "The skull is rolling uphill again!" and he burst into a terrified gallop. Max Fortin followed close behind.

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I watched them stampeding across the pasture, then turned toward the gravel pit, mystified, incredulous. The skull was lying on the edge of the pit, exactly where it had been before I pushed it over the edge. For a second I stared at it; a singular chilly feeling crept up my spinal column, and I turned and walked away, swear starting from the root of every hair on my head. Before I had gone twenty paces the absurdity of the whole thing struck me. I halted, hot with shame and annoyance, and retraced my steps.

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There lay the skull.

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"I rolled a stone down instead of the skull," I muttered to myself. Then with the butt of my gun I pushed the skull over the edge of the pit and watched it roll to the bottom; and as it struck the bottom of the pit, Môme, my dog, suddenly whipped his tail between his legs, whimpered, and made off across the moor.

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"Môme!" I shouted, angry and astonished; but the dog only fled the faster, and I ceased calling from sheer surprise.

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"What the mischief is the matter with that dog!" I thought. He had never before played me such a trick.

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Mechanically I glanced into the pit, but I could not see the skull. I looked down. The skull lay at my feet again, touching them.

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"Good heavens!" I stammered, and struck at it blindly with my gunstock. The ghastly thing flew into the air, whirling over and over, and rolled again down the sides of the pit to the bottom. Breathlessly I stared at it, then, confused and scarcely comprehending, I stepped back from the pit, still facing it, one, ten, twenty paces, my eyes almost starting from my head, as though I expected to see the thing roll up from the bottom of the pit under my very gaze. At last I turned my back to the pit and strode out across the gorse-covered moorland toward my home. As I reached the road that winds from St. Gildas to St. Julien I gave one last hasty glance at the pit over my shoulder. The sun shone hot on the sod about the excavation. There was something white and bare and round on the turf at the edge of the pit. It might have been a stone; there were plenty of them lying about.

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Chapter 2

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When I entered my garden I saw Môme sprawling on the stone doorstep. He eyed me sideways and flopped his tail.

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"Are you not mortified, you idiot dog?" I said, looking about the upper windows for Lys.

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Môme rolled over on his back and raised one deprecating forepaw, as though to ward off calamity.

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"Don't act as though I was in the habit of beating you to death," I said, disgusted. I had never in my life raised whip to the brute. "But you are a fool dog," I continued. "No, you needn't come to be babied and wept over; Lys can do that, if she insists, but I am ashamed of you, and you can go the devil."

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Môme slunk off into the house, and I followed, mounting directly to my wife's boudoir. It was empty. "Where has she gone?" I said, looking hard at Môme, who had followed me. "Oh! I see you don't know. Don't pretend you do. Come off that lounge! Do you think Lys wants ran-coloured hairs all over her lounge?"

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I rang the bell for Catherine and 'Fine, but they didn't know where "madame" had gone; so I went into my room, bathed, exchanged my somewhat grimy shooting clothes for a suit of warm, soft knickerbockers, and, after lingering some extra moments over my toilet—for I was particular, now that I had married Lys—I went down to the garden and took a chair out under the fig-trees.

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"Where can she be?" I wondered. Môme came sneaking out to be comforted, and I forgave him for Lys's sake, whereupon he frisked.

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"You bounding cur," said I, "now what on earth started you off across the moor? If you do it again I'll push you along with a charge of dust shot."

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As yet I had scarcely dared think about the ghastly hallucination of which I had been a victim, but now I faced it squarely, flushing a little with mortification at the thought of my hasty retreat from the gravel pit.

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"To think," I said aloud, "that those old woman's tales of Max Fortin and Le Bihan should have actually made me see what didn't exist at all! I lost my nerve like a schoolboy in a dark bedroom." For I knew now that I had mistaken a round stone for a skull each time, and had pushed a couple of big pebbles into the pit instead of the skull itself.

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"By jingo!" said I, "I'm nervous; my liver must be in a devil of a condition if I see such things when I'm awake! Lys will know what to give me."

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I felt mortified and irritated and sulky, and thought disgustedly of Le Bihan and Max Fortin.

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But after a while I ceased speculating, dismissed the mayor, the chemist, and the skull from my mind, and smoked pensively, watching the sun low dipping in the western ocean. As the twilight fell for a moment over ocean and moorland, a wistful, restless happiness filled my heart, the happiness that all men know—all men who have loved.

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Slowly the purple mist crept out over the sea; the cliffs darkened; the forest was shrouded.

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Suddenly the sky above burned with the afterglow, and the world was alight again.

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Cloud after cloud caught the rose dye; the cliffs were tinted with it; moor and pasture, heather and forest burned and pulsated with the gentle flush. I saw the gulls turning and tossing above the sand bar, their snowy wings tipped with pink; I saw the sea swallows sheeting the surface of the still river, stained to its placid depths with warm reflections of the clouds. The twitter of drowsy hedge birds broke out in the stillness; a salmon rolled its shining side above tide-water.

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The interminable monotone of the ocean intensified the silence. I sat motionless, holding my breath as one who listens to the first low rumour of an organ. All at once the pure whistle of a nightingale cut the silence, and the first moonbeam silvered the wastes of mist-hung waters.

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I raised my head.

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Lys stood before me in the garden.

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When we had kissed each other, we linked arms and moved up and down the gravel walks, watching the moonbeams sparkle on the sand bar as the tide ebbed and ebbed. The broad beds of white pinks about us were atremble with hovering white moths; the October roses hung all abloom, perfuming the salt wind.

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"Sweetheart," I said, "where is Yvonne? Has she promised to spend Christmas with us?"

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"Yes, Dick; she drove me down from Plougar this afternoon. She sent her love to you. I am not jealous. What did you shoot?"

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"A hare and four partridges. They are in the gun room. I told Catherine not to touch them until you had seen them."

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Now I suppose I knew that Lys could not be particularly enthusiastic over game or guns; but she pretended she was, and always scornfully denied that it was for my sake and not for the pure love of sport. So she dragged me off to inspect the rather meagre game bag, and she paid me pretty compliments and gave a little cry of delight and pity as I lifted the enormous hare out of the sack by his ears.

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"He'll eat no more of our lettuce," I said, attempting to justify the assassination.

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"Unhappy little bunny—and what a beauty! O Dick, you are a splendid shot, are you not?"

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I evaded the question and hauled out a partridge.

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"Poor little dead things!" said Lys in a whisper; "it seems a pity—doesn't it, Dick? But then you are so clever—"

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"We'll have them broiled," I said guardedly; "tell Catherine."

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Catherine came in to take away the game, and presently 'Fine Lelocard, Lys's maid, announced dinner, and Lys tripped away to her boudoir.

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I stood an instant contemplating her blissfully, thinking, "My boy, you're the happiest fellow in the world—you're in love with your wife!"

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I walked into the dining room, beamed at the plates, walked out again; met Tregunc in the hallway, beamed on him; glanced into the kitchen, beamed at Catherine, and went up stairs, still beaming.

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Before I could knock at Lys's door it opened, and Lys came hastily out. When she saw me she gave a little cry of relief, and nestled close to my breast.

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"There is something peering in at my window," she said.

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"What!" I cried angrily.

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'A man, I think, disguised as a priest, and he has a mask on. He must have climbed up by the bay tree."

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I was down the stairs and out of doors in no time. The moonlit garden was absolutely deserted. Tregunc came up, and together we searched the hedge and shrubbery around the house and out to the road.

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"Jean Marie," said I at length, "loose my bulldog—he knows you—and take your supper on the porch where you can watch. My wife says the fellow is disguised as a priest, and wears a mask."

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Tregunc showed his white teeth in a smile. "He will not care to venture in here again, I think, Monsieur Darrel."

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I went back and found Lys seated quietly at the table.

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"The soup is ready, dear," she said. "Don't worry; it was only some foolish lout from Bannalec. No one in St. Gildas or St. Julien would do such a thing."

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I was too much exasperated to reply at first, but Lys treated it as a stupid joke, and after a while I began to look at it in that light.

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Lys told me about Yvonne, and reminded me of my promise to have Herbert Stuart down to meet her.

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"You wicked diplomat!" I protested. "Herbert is in Paris, and hard at work for the Salon."

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"Don't you think he might spare a week to flirt with the prettiest girl in Finistère?" inquired Lys innocently.

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"Prettiest girl! Not much!" I said.

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"Who is, then?" urged Lys.

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I laughed a trifle sheepishly.

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"I suppose you mean me, Dick," said Lys, colouring up.

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"Now I bore you, don't I?"

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"Bore me? Ah, no, Dick."

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After coffee and cigarettes were served I spoke about Tregunc, and Lys approved.

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"Poor Jean! he will be glad, won't he? What a dear fellow you are!"

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"Nonsense," said I; "we need a gardener; you said so yourself, Lys."

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But Lys leaned over and kissed me, and then bent down and hugged Môme, who whistled through his nose in sentimental appreciation.

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"I am a very happy woman," said Lys.

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"Môme was a very bad dog to-day," I observed.

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"Poor Môme!" said Lys, smiling.

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When dinner was over and MoÌ‚me lay snoring before the blaze—for the October nights are often chilly in FinisteÌ€re—Lys curled up in the chimney corner with her embroidery, and gave me a swift glance from under her drooping lashes.

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"You look like a schoolgirl, Lys," I said teasingly. "I don't believe you are sixteen yet."

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She pushed back her heavy burnished hair thoughtfully. Her wrist was as white as surf foam.

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"Have we been married four years? I don't believe it," I said.

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She gave me another swift glance and touched the embroidery on her knee, smiling faintly.

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"I see," said I, also smiling at the embroidered garment. "Do you think it will fit?"

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"Fit?" repeated Lys. Then she laughed.

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"And," I persisted, "are you perfectly sure that you—er—we shall need it?"

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"Perfectly," said Lys. A delicate colour touched her cheeks and neck. She held up the little garment, all fluffy with misty lace and wrought with quaint embroidery.

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"It is very gorgeous." said I; "don't use your eyes too much, dearest. May I smoke a pipe?"

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"Of course," she said, selecting a skein of pale blue silk.

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For a while I sat and smoked in silence, watching her slender fingers among the tinted silks and thread of gold.

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Presently she spoke: "What did you say your crest is, Dick?"

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"My crest? Oh, something or other rampant on a something or other—"

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"Dick!"

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"Dearest?"

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"Don't be flippant."

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"But I really forget. It's an ordinary crest; everybody in New York has them. No family should be without 'em."

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"You are disagreeable, Dick. Send Josephine upstairs for my album."

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'Are you going to put that crest on the—the—whatever it is?"

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"I am; and my own crest, too."

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I thought of the Purple Emperor and wondered a little.

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"You didn't know I had one, did you?" she smiled.

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"What is it?" I replied evasively.

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"You shall see. Ring for Josephine."

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I rang, and, when 'Fine appeared, Lys gave her some orders in a low voice, and Josephine trotted away, bobbing her white-coiffed head with a "Bien, madame!"

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After a few minutes she returned, bearing a tattered, musty volume, from which the gold and blue had mostly disappeared.

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I took the book in my hands and examined the ancient emblazoned covers.

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"Lilies!" I exclaimed.

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"Fleur-de-lis," said my wife demurely.

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"Oh!" said I, astonished, and opened the book.

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"You have never before seen this book?" asked Lys, with a touch of malice in her eyes.

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"You know I haven't. Hello! what's this? Oho! So there should be a de before Trevec? Lys de Trevec? Then why in the world did the Purple Emperor—"

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"Dick!" cried Lys.

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'All right," said I. "Shall I read about the Sieur de Trevec who rode to Saladin's tent alone to seek for medicine for Sr. Louis? or shall I read about—what is it? Oh, here it is, all down in black and white—about the Marquis de Trevec who drowned himself before Alva's eyes rather than surrender the banner of the fleur-de-lis to Spain? It's all written here. But, dear, how about that soldier named Trevec who was killed in the old fort on the cliff yonder?"

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"He dropped the de, and the Trevecs since then have been Republicans," said Lys—"all except me."

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"That's quite right," said I; "it is time that we Republicans should agree upon some feudal system. My dear, I drink to the king!" and I raised my wine-glass and looked at Lys.

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"To the king," said Lys, flushing. She smoothed out the tiny garment on her knees; she touched the glass with her lips; her eyes were very sweet. I drained the glass to the king.

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After a silence I said: "I will tell the king stories. His Majesty shall be amused."

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"His Majesty," repeated Lys softly.

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"Or hers," I laughed. "Who knows?"

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"Who knows?" murmured Lys, with a gentle sigh.

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"I know some stores about Jack the Giant-Killer," I announced. "Do you, Lys?"

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"I? No, not about a giant-killer, but I know all about the were-wolf, and Jeanne-la-Flamme, and the Man in Purple Tatters, and—O dear me! I know lots more."

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"You are very wise," said I. "I shall reach his Majesty English."

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"And I Breton," cried Lys jealously.

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"I shall bring playthings to the king," said I—"big green lizards from the gorse, little gray mullets to swim in glass globes, baby rabbits from the forest of Kerselec—"

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"And I," said Lys, "will bring the first primrose, the first branch of aubepine, the first jonquil, to the king—my king."

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"Our king," said I; and there was peace in Finistère.

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I lay back, idly turning the leaves of the curious old volume.

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"I am looking," said I, "for the crest."

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"The crest, dear? It is a priest's head with an arrow-shaped mark on the forehead, on a field—"

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I sat up and stared at my wife.

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"Dick, whatever is the matter?" she smiled. "The story is there in that book. Do you care to read it? No? Shall I tell it to you? Well, then: It happened in the third crusade. There was a monk whom men called the Black Priest. He turned apostate, and sold himself to the enemies of Christ. A Sieur de Trevec burst into the Saracen camp, at the head of only one hundred lances, and carried the Black Priest away out of the very midst of their army."

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"So that is how you come by the crest," I said quietly; but I thought of the branded skull in the gravel pit, and wondered.

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"Yes," said Lys. "The Sieur de Trevec cut the Black Priest's head off, but first he branded him with an arrow mark on the forehead. The book says it was a pious action, and that the Sieur de Trevec got great merit by it. But I think it was cruel, the branding," she sighed.

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"Did you ever hear of any other Black Priest?"

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"Yes. There was one in the last century, here in St. Gildas. He cast a white shadow in the sun. He wrote in the Breton language. Chronicles, too, I believe. I never saw them. His name was the same as that of the old chronicler, and of the other priest, Jacques Sorgue. Some said he was a lineal descendant of the traitor. Of course the first Black Priest was bad enough for anything. But if he did have a child, it need not have been the ancestor of the last Jacques Sorgue. They say this one was a holy man. They say he was so good he was not allowed to die, but was caught up to heaven one day," added Lys, with believing eyes.

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I smiled.

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"But he disappeared," persisted Lys.

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"I'm afraid his journey was in another direction," I said jestingly, and thoughtlessly told her the story of the morning. I had utterly forgotten the masked man at her window, but before I finished I remembered him fast enough, and realized what I had done as I saw her face whiten.

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"Lys," I urged tenderly, "that was only some clumsy clown's trick. You said so yourself. You are not superstitious, my dear?"

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Her eyes were on mine. She slowly drew the little gold cross from her bosom and kissed it. But her lips trembled as they pressed the symbol of faith.

دنیای رمان مرجع رمان های ایرانی و خارجی. https://novelonline.ir

Chapter 3

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About nine o'clock the next morning I walked into the Groix Inn and sat down at the long discoloured oaken table, nodding good-day to Marianne Bruyère, who in turn bobbed her white coiffe at me.

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"My clever Bannalec maid," said I, "what is good for a stirrup-cup at the Groix Inn?"

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"Schist?" she inquired in Breton.

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"With a dash of red wine, then," I replied.

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She brought the delicious QuimperleÌ cider, and I poured a little Bordeaux into it. Marianne watched me with laughing black eyes.

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"What makes your cheeks so red, Marianne?" I asked. "Has Jean Marie been here?"

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"We are to be married, Monsieur Darrel," she laughed.

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"Ah! Since when has Jean Marie Tregunc lost his head?"

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"His head? Oh, Monsieur Darrel—his heart, you mean!"

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"So I do," said I. "Jean Marie is a practical fellow."

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"It is all due to your kindness—" began the girl, but I raised my hand and held up the glass.

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"It's due to himself. To your happiness, Marianne," and I took a hearty draught of the schist. "Now," said I, "tell me where I can find Le Bihan and Max Fortin."

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"Monsieur Le Bihan and Monsieur Fortin are above in the broad room. I believe they are examining the Red Admiral's effects."

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"To send them to Paris? Oh, I know. May I go up, Marianne?"

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"And God go with you," smiled the girl.

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When I knocked at the door of the broad room above little Max Fortin opened it. Dust covered his spectacles and nose; his hat, with the tiny velvet ribbons fluttering, was all awry.

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"Come in, Monsieur Darrel," he said; "the mayor and I are packing up the effects of the Purple Emperor and of the poor Red Admiral."

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"The collections?" I asked, entering the room. "You must be very careful in packing those butterfly cases; the slightest jar might break wings and antennae, you know."

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Le Bihan shook hands with me and pointed to the great pile of boxes.

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"They're all cork lined," he said, "but Fortin and I are putting felt around each box. The Entomological Society of Paris pays the freight."

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The combined collections of the Red Admiral and the Purple Emperor made a magnificent display.

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I lifted and inspected case after case set with gorgeous butterflies and moths, each specimen carefully labelled with the name in Latin. There were cases filled with crimson tiger moths all aflame with colour; cases devoted to the common yellow butterflies; symphonies in orange and pale yellow; cases of soft gray and dun-coloured sphinx moths; and cases of garish nettle-bred butterflies of the numerous family of Vanessa.

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All alone in a great case by itself was pinned the purple emperor, the Apatura Iris, that fatal specimen that had given the Purple Emperor his name and quietus.

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I remembered the butterfly, and stood looking at it with bent eyebrows.

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Le Bihan glanced up from the floor where he was nailing down the lid of a box full of cases.

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"It is settled, then," said he, "that madame, your wife, gives the Purple Emperor's entire collection to the city of Paris?"

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I nodded.

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"Without accepting anything for it?"

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"It is a gift," I said.

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"Including the purple emperor there in the case? That butterfly is worth a great deal of money," persisted Le Bihan.

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"You don't suppose that we would wish to sell that specimen, do you?" I answered a trifle sharply.

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"If I were you I should destroy it," said the mayor in his high-pitched voice. "That would be nonsense," said I—"like your burying the brass cylinder and scroll yesterday."

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"It was not nonsense," said Le Bihan doggedly, "and I should prefer not to discuss the subject of the scroll."

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I looked at Max Fortin, who immediately avoided my eyes.

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"You are a pair of superstitious old women," said I, digging my hands into my pockets; "you swallow every nursery tale that is invented."

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"What of it?" said Le Bihan sulkily; "there's more truth than lies in most of 'em."

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"Oh!" I sneered, "does the Mayor of St. Gildas and Sr. Julien believe in the Loup-garou?"

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"No, not in the Loup-garou."

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"In what, then—Jeanne-la-Flamme?"

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"That," said Le Bihan with conviction, "is history."

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"The devil it is!" said I; "and perhaps, monsieur the mayor, your faith in giants is unimpaired?"

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"There were giants—everybody knows it," growled Max Fortin.

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"And you a chemist!" I observed scornfully.

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"Listen, Monsieur Darrel," squeaked Le Bihan; "you know yourself that the Purple Emperor was a scientific man. Now suppose I should tell you that he always refused to include in his collection a Death's Messenger?"

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"A what?" I exclaimed.

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"You know what I mean—that moth that flies by night; some call it the Death's Head, but in St. Gildas we call it 'Death's Messenger.' "

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"Oh!" said I, "you mean that big sphinx moth that is commonly known as the 'death's-head moth.' Why the mischief should the people here call it death's messenger?"

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"For hundreds of years it has been known as death's messenger in St. Gildas," said Max Fortin. "Even Froissart speaks of it in his commentaries on Jacques Sorgue's Chronicles. The book is in your library."

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"Sorgue? And who was Jacques Sorgue? I never read his book."

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"Jacques Sorgue was the son of some unfrocked priest—I forget. It was during the crusades."

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"Good Heavens!" I burst our, "I've been hearing of nothing but crusades and priests and death and sorcery ever since I kicked that skull into the gravel pit, and I am tired of it, I tell you frankly. One would think we lived in the dark ages. Do you know what year of our Lord it is, Le Bihan?"

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"Eighteen hundred and ninety-six," replied the mayor.

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"And yet you two hulking men are afraid of a death's-head moth."

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"I don't care to have one fly into the window," said Max Fortin; "it means evil to the house and the people in it."

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"God alone knows why he marked one of his creatures with a yellow death's head on the back." observed Le Bihan piously, "but I take it that he meant it as a warning; and I propose to profit by it," he added triumphantly

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"See here, Le Bihan," I said; "by a stretch of imagination one can make out a skull on the thorax of a certain big sphinx moth. What of it?"

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"It is a bad thing to touch," said the mayor, wagging his head.

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"It squeaks when handled," added Max Fortin.

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"Some creatures squeak all the time," I observed, looking hard at Le Bihan.

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"Pigs," added the mayor.

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"Yes, and asses," I replied. "Listen, Le Bihan: do you mean to tell me that you saw that skull roll uphill yesterday?"

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The mayor shut his mouth tightly and picked up his hammer.

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"Don't be obstinate," I said; "I asked you a question."

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"And I refuse to answer," snapped Le Bihan. "Fortin saw what I saw; let him talk about it."

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I looked searchingly at the little chemist.

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"I don't say that I saw it actually roll up out of the pit, all by itself,' said Fortin with a shiver, "but—but then, how did it come up out of the pit if it didn't roll up all by itself?"

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"It didn't come up at all; that was a yellow cobblestone that you mistook for the skull again," I replied. "You were nervous, Max."

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"A—a very curious cobblestone, Monsieur Darrel," said Fortin.

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