WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK. A TALE OF LOVE AND WAR.D Chapter XXXIV.

Otago Witness, Issue 2179, 28 November 1895, Page 45

WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK. A TALE OF LOVE AND WAR.D

Chapter XXXIV.

By JOSEPH HATTON,

[All Rights Reseuved.2

After the Adventure of the White Buttons. HE Buttons bad disappeared as if by magic. Da Fournier mada a dash for the Hotel Dien. His first idea ( was to beop clear of the Ooni clergerie ; his next was to seek 1 for shelter in his own house. This might be madness, but -rvi »- there was method in it. There was more than one entrance opsn to him. He carried a master-key to most of the doors. j He could hear the shouts of the mob making its way to the Palais de Justice. The streets running east were free from tumult. At the Hotel Dieu everything was quiet. He crept stealthily along to the Pont Notre Dame. The towers of the church seemed to touch the early morning sky. Day was rapidly breaking. The Seine was lapping its shelving banks. A few boats were moored almost in midstream. From the Pont Notre Dame, across the Rua St. Denis and the Hue St Martin, into the Rue St. Honore, De Fournier found Paris still and calm ; but it was the calmness of a city that might hare been stricken with the plague. If an early shatter was opened, or the latch of a window raised, it was done fear fully. Pale faces looked out, but swiftly disappeared as a patrol of the National Guard tramped by. Da Fournier had been very careful to avoid these arrogant forces of the night. Once he had fled from a mob racing as if for their lives to some wicked place of rendezvous. This and the sounds of riot and bloodshed whioh he had left behind were the only active indications of what was

going on at the Abbaye La Force and the Oonoiergerie. Half Paris had gone to the frontiers. Some bad bolted their doors and prayed for Bafety, and the rest were left to the BWordß and pikes of 300 hired assassins and their assistants. When De Fournier, skirting the Palais Royal, and with a view to reconnoitring bis hotel from various points, arrived at the outer gates giving upon the Rue St. Honore, he saw a carriage and pair drive from the court-yard. The gates were held open by his butler. A gendarme sat on the box with the driver. Before the gates were closed he observed that the windows in the grand fs.ca.de were illuminated. What could this mean 7 Had the Municipality taken possession of his property 7 Had confiscation already begun 7 Who was going to occupy it 7 What was the meaning of his butler being in attendance 7 And on whom 7 What could he do 7 The sun was beginning to rise. It would hardly be discreet to remain out of doors. His disguise was complete, to be sure; but the affair near the Abbaye might lead to his arrest as Rsnnier, of the Button Club, which might turn out as ill as 'if he were taken in hia true character. He knew an estaviinet near the Halle aux Bles, the haunt, as Daniel had informed him, of some of their brethren, kept by a pretended insurgent of the moßfc obtrusively murderonß type, and as safe a place for a meal as any in Paria. The Ortolan had already opened its' doors — if indeed they had been closed all night. GiHz-aa Yonae and his buxom wife were busy, even now, serving early guests with coffee and cognac and other refreßhments. Cooking was going on in a room bebind what might be called the bar, with its counter, its stove, and its assortment of bottles and mugs. Da Fournier noticed among tho company the quiet official of the Battons. He was listening to a youug fellow of the working class, who was detailing some of the scenes at the Abbaye. A third joined in, with news from the Conciergerie. While they were talking a pair of ruffians entered, their smocks bloody, and with pikes in their hands. They salu fed Citfzsn Yonne with a peremptory order for eau-de-vie. " And some meat, Yonne," said one of the two ; " we are hungry." " And tired with hard work." " Yes ; done while you lazy folk have been sleeping." "I couldn't have believed that killing was such hard labour,"- said a third, who had now joined the other two. " I shall pity butchers, of all toilorp, in future." " E or my part, I shall knock off until evening," said the first. "That's right, citizen, don't overdo it," said Yonne ; " moreover, while you rest you give others a chance. Madame Yonne will provide you with water at th 9 back ; go and wash, messieurs." " Wash, be cursed 1 " was the reply. " The good workman is not ashamed of the colour of hie calling." " May I wash, citizen 7 " said D«s Fournier. "I, too, have been at work. It's all right while it last?, but I don'b like the smell of it after." "You are proud, comrade," said one of the three. * " Proud of my work, yes ; but lam a confectioner by trade, and cleanliness is a habit." j " Where did you work with your pike 7 " asked the other, crediting Da Fournier with a | weapon that was standing by the wall near him. " I did my bit of business," said De Fournier, " at the Abbaye." " Good luck to you ! " responded the man who pitied butchers, taking his glass of eaude vie at a gulp. "If you really would like a wash," Baid j Yonne to De Fournier, " being, as you say, ! a bit squeamish — though I hold no man should be squeamish over the blood of priests and aristocrats— why, come this way ; anything to oblige a true patriot." Yonne opened a door behind the bar. De Fournier followed him. " Madame Yonne 1 " said the innkeeper, '« some water and a towel." As madame came forward from the kitchen, where two other women were busy over the fire, Yonoe whispered to his wife ; and as he passed De Fournier he said, "Is it 'Fidelite?'" " Yes," said De Fournier. " Then let us call the counter-word 1 Courage,' " said Yonne, whose voice the next moment was heard denouncing the enemies of France, and prophesying good times for all so soon as the people should have slain their enemies, Parisian and foreign. " Has madame a bedroom where a tired man might rest 7 " asked De Fournier, as she poured a bowl of water for htm and placed in his hands a piece of soap. " Yes," said madame. " Observe the door on your right; it leads to the yard; outside there is a garjgway to the upper rooms on the left. Say nothing ; when you have washed, disappear. Take the first room, Yonne will come to yen," De Fournier washed. He carefully removed the plaster over hie imaginary scar. If he had been really se6n sufficiently for detection in the affray near the Abbaye his pretended wound might have been the means of his identification. Presently he acted upon Madame Yonne's instructions, and found himself in a small chamber, not ill-furnished, and with a comfortable bed. He fastened the outer door — there were two heavy bolts upon it ; and he had barely done so when another door opened near the bed and Yonne entered. " You may rest here, monsieur, and in safety. Take your fill of a good bed while you may.> I have brought you a bottle of wine, some bread, and a small cheese ; make yonr breakfast and go to sleep. A man's no good who has had no rest; and you look overdone, triste, broken." "Do 1 7 As bad as that, eh 1 Thank you, dear friend. The Buttons did not belie your good heart, nor your great discretion." " That's all right, monsieur. I have seen you before." "No doubt. Whom have you not seen at the Ortolan 7 " 1 m Mowdfinr. Rannisj, I believe I ™

11 The same," said De Fonrnier. " Banker 7 Ah, well, it is of do importance ; you are well vouched for."

" I fear my diaguiee ia a poor one," said De Fournier, more than pleased with it.

" No, on the contrary, it is a good one. A Button had already bespoken my good offices for you. But it is full confidence with me or none, Monsieur Rennier. I remember your face somewhere, and under painful oircumstances. But what does it matter 7 Before you go I can help you, perhaps, with another touch or two. I have a wig that might suit yon. My wife is clever at that kind of thing; she was a dresser at the opora." " Thank you," said Da Fournier ; " you are very good." "Trouble is your only equality," said Yonne. " Eat, drink, and sleep. I canst leave you now. I will give you five hours' rest. Five hours, mark you— five hours of safety, five hours of repose — not a minute more or less. And, by the saints, I'll lock you in until the time is up 1 "