THE CITY OF MYSTERY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 230, 26 September 1903, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE CITY OF MYSTERY.

By ARCHIBALD CLAVERJWQ GUNTER, Aaihorel "Mr. Barnes of New York," "The Fighting TroatedcDr," "The Empty Hotel," Etc., Etc

CHAPTER XVIB. L'OEIL CREVE. At Versailles we stopped i&r hicnk- : fast, a delay very much to D'Ajibigne'3 disgust. He muttered: "Keep on; let me at these Spanish plotters who get young girls into the meshes of justice." , We had fast horses as we started lor '. Rambouillet, and on this part of the j journey I went to sleep. Thank Go 4, ■ I went to sleep. For two nights my ; Lead had not touched the pillow. Na- i ture claimed its meed.

I hardly noticed the narrow streets Of old Chartres, as we rumbled through .them, fifty-seven miles from Paris.

Then taking our way down towards the valley of the Loire, we passed, I presume, through Couralaiu and by Chateaudun, for I was sleeping all the Way. .

At Vendome 1 awoke and we got a late dinner. From here the balance of the journey to Blois was by no means happy. Had D'Argenson striven to put an unpleasaut spirit in my travelling companion, he could have hit upon „ Bo finer device than Raoul's anxiety for Ms culprit sweetheart. All the time the young man was urging the post boys along with promises of gold, and asking me: "What shall we do when we overtake these Spaniards?" "Nothing," 1 said. "Nothing for a day longer, at ler3t." "You are going to let them pass us at Blois and make no effort for that

packet?" "At Blois," I answered, "they must not even know that we are in pursuit pi them."

"Mon Dieu," D'Aubigne snapped his fingers, "another day of torture!" then went to torturing .ne. He said gloomily, yet almost piteonsly: "After you had "told me last night, I surreptitiously asked an avocat what might be the punishment for treason." "Well, what did he say?" "0, my God! he said death at least, though they have abolished breaking on the wheel for women. But Gabrielle is not the guilty one. Madame _ Boucher was much more concerned in this conspiracy than my dear one, was not she? So'her punishment will be much more severe. They will execute Madame Boucher, but a few in a convent or something of that kind for the child I love."

These remarks drove me distracted. I said, careless of my words: "Oh, J presume they will both suffer the same."

At this he cried out to me: "Devil you are torturing me!" then pleaded pathetically: "Forgive me, my pooi friend. Your fate is a3 hard as mine. 1 forgot yon love Claire Boucher." Together we had a delightful drive into Blois, where we arrived at about tea o'clock in the evening. The old inn called la Tete-noir I made our stop ping-placo, as it was there post-horses ■were furnished.

Careful inquiries indicated that the two Spaniards had not reached this point. They would stop at Orleans for the night, I imagined; therefore, we •would wait here till they passed through. They might go on the other Bide of the Loire, but pondering on this matter, I thought it not probable. Da Provenzo and hi 3 comrade, being Sn a hurry, would take the main roads, •where they could get the bast post3bor3es.

We had supper. Rswml ate a little. In fact, he ate a good deal. Even though in love, he was still a boy. I thought of giving a bribe to the postmaster to tell me if Da Provenzo and Portocarrero passed through in the night, but deemed that unwise. So I proposed that Raoul stay up a portion of the night to see if tbey pass. I would be on watch the remainder, so they did not escape us. But the boy cried to me: "I cannot Bleep. Let me look after it. Morblen, Da Provenzo will not pass me. , ' . I permitted him to do it hoping it .■would make him snooze in the postchaise the next day, and not torture me with hi 3 surmises as to the fate that would befall our sweethearts.

For two nights I had not bsen in bed. Though the cot furnished me was not particularly comfortable my exhaustion ■was so great I again went to sleep, thanking God for the mercy of forgelfulness.

". The winter sun was up when Kaoui -aTOUsed me with: "They are here! They must have left Orleans very early. They are having breakfast now." "Let. them get on ahead of U3," 1 said. "Don't make any move yet." Then I gazed at the youth's face. Line 3of care had aged it. D'Aubigne no longer was a boy. I got up and looked cautiously out of the window into the little courtyard. From this the voice that I knew and recognised came to me as it had in the Osteria di Roma in Naples. Da Provenzo was saying lightly to Portoearrero: "I wish we had time to look at the great chateau here, the one in which the Due de Guise was murdered a • ft rrn "

But Portoearrero laughed: "You are rather romantic for a banker's clerk. We must hurry on to Tours. That is where we arrange for our first bank, i believe."

This conversation was for the post boys. A few minutes after, I saw them 'drive away, Raoul whispering to me. "One of them always keeps in his hand a portmanteau, probably of papers, as it dotJ not seem very heavy."

They had no sooner gone than I stepped down stairs and ordered breakfast. "We must not get too close to them," I said to the mousquetaire, who, I believe, would have driven within a hundred yards of them all the way. "We are perfectly sure as to tuedr going to Tours, and we will not touch these gentlemen until after that. D'Argenson said three day 3. He had some reason for picking out the place. Three days: that will be somewhere between Tours and Poitiei?."

In addition, we -were Hearing the provinces that were so distracted by the revocation of tbe Edict of jSfantes, the ones that suffered so their peasants became brigands; they were suffering only three years ago r.t *he derJ.h of Louis XIV. Probably there are enough of them left to gfre t slour to

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our attack. "Marc Bete d'Argenson kno\V3 where bandits are if any man in Trance does," I cogitated glumly a.3 we got into the post-chaise and rattled off into the cool air of the morning.

That day I had a quieter time. D'Aubigne,' thank God, went to sleep, though once he awoke with a start, crying: "My God, not the torture chamber for her!"

Apparently he had had a nightmare. At all events, when roused, he said to me passionately: "If D'Argenson &.ares to fulfil his threat, success or non-success, he will answer to me as gentleman to gentleman. Of course, a3 fox poor Madame Eouelier, who has become a woman of the people, the noblesse cannot aid her, but Mademoiselle de VSleuXponx has not lost her rank by an igopbie marriage. Therefore, greater influences will protect her." 0, Gad, what a travelling companion D'Argenstfn had given me! Early in the afternoon we arrived at Tours," takiftg our lodgings in another inn from the one in which the Spanish bank clerks passed their night. From the chat about the auberge I learned that they ihad negotiated for a shop in which to men a branch of the English and Spanish Bank which they purported to represent; and that one or the other of theixt always carried a valise presumably filled with commercial documents and papsr\ "Tonnerre de Dieu, their packet must be very rich," commented one of the loungers by the inn-fire. '"Shese bank clerks go armed more like soldiers than travellers."

I took a look at the fellow wh\> was speaking, and observed that he had one eye out of his head and the wipkedness of a most diabolical face coit centrated in the other.

A little later in the day I also discovered from the post-house gossip that Da Provenzo and the Aibbe hnd ordered their horses for nine o'clock in the morning. Ours I now ordered for seven. We had to get ahead of our prey to make our bandit preparations. I had even selected the place, somewhere beyond OhatelWault. After the road passes up the river Clam the country grows more broken, a better locality for footpads than the pretty but rather flat valley of the Loire. I cautiously explained these things to D*Aubigne" as we sat a-t dinner, but knowing the boy's ehivalrou3 notions of fighting fair I said nothing to him about' my design upon Pepe, the valet of Da Proven2o, who I had noticed swung a lusty sword at Naples- This fellow, I intended, should not accompany his masters on the morrow. As any* attack on his servant would tend to'make the Cavaliere suspicious unless it happened in an entirely accidental and local manner, I had my plan.

That afternoon I had noticed the Spanish fellow swaggering about and making eyes at a little minx named" Mamon in a wine shop on the Rue Sully. She had received Pepe's amorous looks so eomplaisantly that it had aroused the jealous anger of two or three stout Touranian boys, who ; I imagined, would be perfectly willing with very little provocation to lay the big Spaniard by the heels. So going out by myself in the early evening J chanced to drop into the wine shop. There to my delight T found Pepe making very successful advances to the wench, Mamon, though she was surrounded by her ..local admirers.

Into such a concourse it did not take long to project discord. A couple of silver pieces invested with generous hospitality soon made Bacchus enter into the realms of Venus, and shortly afterwards came the god of war. I carelessly suggested that the big Spaniard was much the best man in the wine shop, and discovered several men to dispute it. In fact, a little judicious twitting put everybody in such a rage with each other that, as I slipped out sof the cabaret, they all seemed beating each other to death. When the sergeants de ville arrived, I was quite happy to see they carried Pepe, more dead than alive, to the lock-up.

A3 I stood in the little crowd that always collects at such spectacles, a fellow standing by me in the darkness whispered to someone immediately beside me: "Dieu Merci, that stout fellow won't travel with them."

To this the other added: "Likewise, mine host has promised to attend to their pistols.'" 1 thought the voice of the first was that of the one-eyed man, but before I could discover, the idiotic policeman seized me as the aixthor of the row in the cabaret, and carried me with them also to the gaol. There I found the first use of the paper D'Argenson had given me. The police official had been inclined, judging by my rather sorry clothes, to get "me" down as a vagabond. Succeeding in rretting a word with him apart, I landed the paper to Mm and he became my slave. "Command me in anything. Pardon me for the stupidity of my country gendarmes," he muttered. "Only please do not mention this to Monsieur D'Argenson." "I will mention to him that you have done your duty as a good policeman. The caution of your officers was perfectly natural." "Here I thought well to assume the official air. "I am glad ;to see that we have an efficient subprefect of police in xours," After that, I owned the police in Tours, though I did not need them. All I further said to the officer was "'Silence! That will ensure my favour." Having now lopped off Pepe's stout sword from the power of the two Spaniards, I was ready the next morning to set out in advance of them. This day, having action ahead of him, the young mousquetaire became a more pleasant companion. "Now that I have a chance to strike," he whispered to me, "I feel assured of Gabrielle's safety." "Yes, but we must strike before Dubois gets Lold of these fellows," I said, "Nothing delay us beyond to-day." Therefore, we hurried our post-chaise ,acro<?3 the Cher river, and then passed the Indre, little streams that run through the placid plain into the Loire. It was the first day of December, and the weather, which uad grown quite eW, produced small licdalea in their

shallow and quiet pools, for the sun had not yet risen. Eaoul looked almost happy as I gave the postboys directions to leave the main road and go to Ligueil, quite a roundabout pa>th, but we had an extra hour and were well in front of the Spanish gentlemen, who probably only aimed to reach Poitiers by the evening, though they were travelling very fast for ordinary travellers, yet not sufficiently so as to throw any suspicion on them as bank clerks. At Montbazan, turning to our left, iwe drove a little distance along the pretty banks of the Indre and about an hour afterwards made Ligueil. Here, as we were changing horses, iyAubigne came to me, and rubbing his nanus said: '"From the postboys' talk, there is a bandit further along. He is at the head of a number of ruffians and calls himself L'Oeil Creve." "Judging by his name, he must be a handsome scoundrel," I jeered. "The fellow's main point of operations is on the Clam beyond Chattellerault," added RaouL "That will be our point of operations," I whispered. "From now on lam L'Oeil Creve." "Then I am c Jacques, the one hand,' his lieutenant!" said the mousquetaire, savagely; "arid there's a reward of a thousand crowns for both our beads!"

(To be continued Wednesday z«.exfc.)