AN ACT OF TREACHERY
THE very next day Colonel van Waan, the commandant of Flushing, gave orders for the arrest of Mynheer August van Naarvaersen, and appointed an officer and twelve men to carry out his decree.
Chance — the author of all the good and likewise of all the mischief that occurs in the world — miraculously threw Captain Montane across the path of the tall and
lean Quenzius, who was walking by the side of the canal.
A man in sailor’s dress was following him with a line under his arm.
Montane stopped.
The nose of a custom-house officer, especially when it has attained the size which Montane’s nose had reached, is the keenest and most sensitive instrument in the world.
At the time when civilization was in its infancy, men employed the hazel-wand for the discovery of treasure; in our own days this mysterious rod has been superseded by the custom-house officer’s nose. These officers scent their prey with more keenness than the crow scents corpses, and contraband goods cannot escape them even though hidden in the stomach of a Pantagruel or a Gargantua.
“There is something at the bottom of this,” said the captain. “Humph! Humph! Quenzius out of doors and away from his ledgers!—”
And he sniffed the air more emphatically than before. “The fisherman accompanying him is a very clever dog; I have seen him two or three times catch fish as big as my arm. That is not natural for a fisherman to do. He has a parcel in his handkerchief; what the deuce can there be in that parcel?’
And Captain Montane, quickening his pace, pulled Quenzius by his cloak.
Quenzius had pretended all along not to have seen Montane; he now pretended not to feel him. But Montane pulled so violently that Quenzius was obliged to turn round.
“Ah! it is you, monsieur Montane?” said he, smiling. “Delighted to see you!”
“The same to you, monsieur Quenzius.’’
Quenzius was continuing his journey, but that was not Montane’s intention.
“Where are you off to?” he asked.
“Straight in front of us, as you see,” replied Quenzius. “Then you are in no great hurry.”
“On the contrary, I am in a very great hurry.”
“Oh! but you won’t refuse to have a bit with me all the same.”
“I have already breakfasted, monsieur Montane.”
“Well, then, a glass of porter; there is an inn, about twenty yards from here, where they sell excellent stuff.” Every one has his own failing. That of Quenzius was a love of porter.
“Excellent porter, did you say?”
“I said ‘excellent,’ and I won’t unsay it; customhouse officials examine carefully all that passes between their lips.”
Quenzius had already lost a little time in this conversation, when he recollected the errand on which Mynheer August had sent him.
“No thank you, Captain, I am in such a hurry that I must not waste a moment, even in your agreeable company.”
“Oh! come, Mr Secretary, a dry pen will not write: you say you are in a hurry; well, to give quickness to your feet, you must give support to your stomach.”
“I admit the truth of both your proverbs, Captain; but it is no less true that I cannot accompany you.”
“That’s a great pity, my dear Quenzius; I wanted to talk a little business with you. I am going to Vlamhuis presently.”
“Your journey will be useless, Captain; my employer will be at the mill the whole day, as it is the beginning of the month.”
“At the mill? Oho!” thought Montane, “the barrel of gold is rolling into our cellar of its own accord, it seems to me. Now, Mr Cashier, you may go where you please; I have got all I wanted out of you without even going to the expense of a bottle of beer.”
And loosing his hold of Quenzius’ cloak, he left him fiee to continue his road.
Then, summoning his worthy follower, —
“Cabaret,” said he, “follow that rogue,” pointing to Quenzius. “And at the same time give the signal to four or five soldiers to follow you in their turn. Should either he or his companion attempt to launch a boat from the beach, arrest them and bring them to me. If you meet any other soldiers, despatch them to the mill to reinforce their comrades in case of need.”
It shall be done, Captain,” answered Cabaret; “only, the job smacks of profit, you know.”
“Who told you there wouldn’t be any profit?
“Oh! of course, the leaders always make a good thing of it; it is not that which disturbs me.”
Make your mind easy. There will be plenty for everybody,” said the captain, rubbing his hands togsther.
The same evening, Van Naarvaersen arrived at the mill with his daughter and Elim; the sailors had already been there for two days waiting for them, and all was in readiness to start as soon as it was dark.
Van Naarvaersen drew out his watch; it was five o’clock.
Elim rose from his seat with a deep sigh; Jane threw herself in tears upon her father’s neck.
“Farewell, Elim,” said she, “farewell for ever; for I have a presentiment that we shall never meet again.”
Elim kissed the girl’s hand.
“Dearest Jane,” said he, wetting her loved hand with his tears, “may God crush me with His wrath if I don’t soon come back to you somehow or other.”
“Saperloot!” said Mynheer August, “where do you get such words from? Console yourself, my girl, with the thought that the next spring will bring new flowers. It is a curious thing!” he continued as he mounted his horse, “only yesterday I could have sworn that Jane didn’t know the difference between a cock and a hen, and now — Saperloot!”
As Mynheer August was speaking only to himself, it was sufficient that he knew his own meaning.
There were two roads leading to the sea: the one short and direct, which our shipwrecked mariners had taken; the other making a bend and going round by Helmond.
It was this last road which our travellers took.
Elim rode along buried in thought: Mynheer August, seeing that he was not inclined for conversation, chatted with the guide who was carrying a lantern.
The five sailors brought up the rear, talking to one another in low tones.
“What the deuce shall we say to our mates when we get aboard again?” observed one of them.
“That we have come from the kingdom of frogs, inasmuch as men live here much as frogs do with us.”
“Go on,” said a third, “it is bad to break the glass out of which you have drunk. What have we come short of here? Ham or brandy? No, thank God! you could eat as fast as you liked, there was plenty more put before you, and before you had finished your first glass, another was already poured out.”
“True,” said the first, “and it would be a sin to be ungrateful: we were helped to our heart’s content; the bread was as white as sugar, the cheeses as big as blocks of stone, and we had coffee every morning I”
“For my part,” replied the second, “I shan’t go out of my way to thank them; in vain did I ask them for black bread; they always answered, ‘Mix goed.’ As for the coffee, they strained it through a cloth, giving us the thin and keeping the thick for themselves, the greedy pigs! while as for the cheese, it was all in holes!”
“Each to his taste,” said Yorsko, sententiously, “and you can’t take your own rules into other people’s establishments. For my own part, if ever I am hungry some fine day, I shall think of the splendid dinners that I got with the worthy man who is walking in front of you, and I warrant you I shall be filled by the mere recollection of them.”
“No doubt; lazy folk are always thinking about stuffing themselves,” replied the second. “It is all very well to go visiting, but, after all said and done, one is always best off at home.”
“Never mind! Heaven send we see our mates again,” said the sailors, quickening their pace.
It seemed at first as though Heaven were sending a favourable answer to this prayer. They arrived at the spot fixed for embarkation without misadventure; the sea, though black-looking, was calm; the shore appeared deserted.
“God zÿ met ons!” said the guide, clapping his hands, “he ought to be waiting for us there.”
“Saperloot!” said Mynheer August.
“Are you certain this is the place?” asked Elim.
“As sure as I am of my Pater noster,” said the guide. They walked some way along the beach, but neither boat nor fisherman was to be seen.
Mynheer August lost all patience: a man who failed to keep his word he regarded as worse than a thief.
“Saperlootl” he cried, “I’ll give them all a good dressing down! To take my money and then not be in time! I’ll make it so hot for them that my ducats will melt in their pockets. Drunken scoundrels! I wager they are at the inn.”
But all this outburst did not advance matters in the slightest degree, and the position of Elim and his men became more and more critical.
Mynheer August sent the guide on Elim’s horse to examine the shore to the left, while he went himself to the fisherman’s hut.
Meanwhile Elim, left alone with his men, proposed that they should make a search on their own account. Accordingly he set off, following the beach in the opposite direction to that taken by the guide, hoping to fall in with the boat which was to take them, or find another which might be hired.
As he approached the spot where he had been cast ashore by the tempest, he noticed something white.
Laying a hand on the shoulder of Yorsko, who was following him, he pointed with the other to the object which had attracted his attention.
“Look,” said he.
“If I wasn’t sure that our boat was broken to bits, Lieutenant, I should say she had come out of the water like a sea-calf and was asleep on the beach; but, anyhow, if it is not our boat, it is some other boat.”
“Go softly and silently, my lads,” said Elim; “I fancy I see some men lying down there.”
“Not only lying down, but asleep,” said one of the sailors, “I can hear them snoring.”
“And there is no sentry,” said Elim joyfully.
“No, none,” answered the sailors.
“In that case,” said Elim, still lowering his voice, “let us surround them and take them prisoners; we won’t kill them if we can possibly avoid it.”
The sailors dispersed, surrounded the little boat, and threw themselves upon the sleeping men, who found themselves pinioned and gagged almost before they awoke.
The man who appeared to be their leader was then ungagged.
“Who are you?” asked Elim in German.
“Dutch custom-house officers,” replied the prisoner. “Who is your captain?”
“Monsieur Montane.”
“Hal an old acquaintance; and what are you doing there?” —
I don’t know; four of us have gone off somewhere into the country by the captain’s order, and we have been left to take care of the boat.”
“Many thanks for taking care of it for us,” said Elim.
Lieutenant,” said Yorsko, “the boat is quite ready and is waiting for you.”
“Put this man and the weapons in the locker of the boat,” said Elim. “The rest of them can remain where they are; we shall probably be a long way from here by the time Captain Montane returns. All is ready, you say, Yorsko?”
“Everything, Lieutenant.”
“Then first our prayer, and then to your oars.”
The prayer being finished, the oars were in the act of being raised, when it seemed to Elim that a feeble cry for help reached his ears.
“Stop!” said he to Yorsko, laying his hand on his shoulder.