The Freebooters Part 51

"But it will cost me a tremendous sum," said the Count, pressingly, for fear was more and more overpowering him.

"Pooh!" the stranger said, carelessly, and thrusting out his lower lip in disdain, "less than nothing, a trifle."

"And how long will you require to finish my fortress as it stands on the parchment?"

"Wait," the other said, calculating on his fingers, and scratching his forehead like a man who is seeking the solution of a difficult problem; "it is about nine o'clock, I think?"

"About," the Count said, not at all understanding the stranger's meaning.

"Well! By sunrise all will be ready, and you can take possession of your new residence."

"What, why, you must be the demon!" the Count exclaimed in utter stupefaction.

The stranger rose, bowed to the pirate courteously, and answered him with great politeness and a most gentlemanly manner.

"In person, Excellency. On my honour," he added, "I never could leave a worthy man in a difficulty. I was affected by your perplexity, and resolved to come to your aid."

"You are most kind," the old sailor muttered mechanically, not knowing what he was saying.

"That is my motive," said the other, with a modest bow.

"Thanks; and you ask me--"

"I have told you already--a mere trifle."

"Still----"

"We shall come to an agreement; besides, I am too much of the gentleman to treat you as a greenhorn. Still, to keep things straight, just sign this simple agreement."

"Pardon me; but I cannot read. I can sign nothing; besides, you can easily understand that I am not at all desirous to give you my soul."

"Come, Excellency," said Mephistopheles, "you can hardly suppose that I have any intention of taking you in?"

"What?

"Hang it all! Your soul has been mine for a long time, and I do not require your authorization to take it."

"Nonsense," said the worthy pirate, who was quite rebuffed, "do you think our Lord will not look twice before condemning a man of my sort?"

"Not the least in the world," the demon continued good-humouredly; "so rea.s.sure yourself. It is not that I intend to ask of you."

"Speak, then; and, on the word of a gentleman adventurer, I will grant it."

"Done!" said Satan, graciously stretching out his hand.

"Done!" the pirate replied.

"Come, that is settled. Well, you will surrender to me the first living creature you address in the morning when you wake. You see that I am not exigent, for I might have charged you much more dearly."

Don Stephen made a face, for the first person he was in the habit of addressing in the morning was his daughter.

"Do you hesitate?" the demon asked in a sub-acid voice.

The pirate sighed. The conditions seemed hard, still he must accept them.

"No, I don't," he said; "it is a bargain."

"Very good; now leave me to my work."

"As you please," the pirate answered, and prepared to go down; but, suddenly reflecting, he added, "Tell me, can you not do me a service?"

"With pleasure."

"During our conversation night has fallen; it is as black as in your domains, and I am frightfully afraid of breaking my neck in going down to the plain."

"Do you wish to rest?"

"Yes; the day has been fatiguing, and I am desirous of sleep."

"All right; nothing is easier."

"Then, I shall have my castle tomorrow?"

"At sunrise I promised it."

"Thanks; and now, if you will help me----"

"Certainly; hold on."

And the demon, seizing the tail of the horse on which the pirate was mounted, whirled the animal round his head, and then hurled it into s.p.a.ce. The pirate, slightly stunned by the rapidity of his flight, fell without the slightest injury at the entrance of his tent; he immediately dismounted, and prepared for bed.

His boatswain's mate was waiting to help him in taking off his harness.

The Count threw himself anxiously on his couch, but though he might close his eyes and turn and roll in every direction, sleep shunned him.

The mate, who was lying in the doorway of the tent, was also awake, but through another motive; he fancied he saw strange lights running along the rock; he heard the sound of hammers and crowbars, stone being sawn, and the creaking of pullies--in a word, those thousand rumours produced by masons, carpenters, and blacksmiths, when at work.

The poor sailor, not knowing to what he should attribute what he fancied he saw and heard, rubbed his eyes to a.s.sure himself that he was not asleep, and then thrust his fingers in his ears--fearing, for good reasons, that it must all be an illusion. At length, unable to doubt any longer, he resolved to inform his Captain, and entered his tent.

As we have said, the Count was not asleep. He rose in haste, and followed his boatswain's mate; then, as he placed the utmost confidence in this worthy man, who had served him for twenty years, he did not hesitate to tell him what had pa.s.sed between him and the devil, and what he had himself promised, adding, in the most insinuating tone he could a.s.sume, that he counted on the mate's attachment to prevent his daughter entering the tent the next morning, as she was accustomed to do, and to find some means of getting him out of the sc.r.a.pe.

On hearing this avowal, and the proof of confidence that accompanied it, the boatswain's mate became anxious; he was very fond of his Chief, for he had risked his life twenty times for him; but the worthy sailor was a Breton and excellent Christian, and was not at all desirous of placing himself under the claws of Messire Satanas for an affair that did not at all concern him. Still, after a few moments' reflection, his face brightened and rea.s.sumed its ordinary look of careless gaiety, and he said with a laugh:

"Go and sleep, my Lord; tomorrow it will be day. After all, the demon may not be so crafty as he looks."

The pirate, comforted by the joyous air of his boatswain's mate, felt more tranquil; he returned to his couch, and speedily fell asleep. The sailor pa.s.sed the whole night in prayer, and when the dawn began to suffuse the sky with white tints, he went to the kennel, fetched a poor mangy dog dying in a corner, thrust it into the tent, and letting fall the curtain, waited for what would happen. The poor brute was no sooner at liberty than it leaped into its master's bed and began licking his face.

"May the demon take thee, accursed animal!" the pirate shouted, awaking with a start, and furious at having been thus disturbed in his sleep.

A fearful blast shook the tent, a terrible yell was heard, and the dog disappeared. The demon fled, all abashed, with the scurvy booty he had secured. Messire Satanas had worked, however, conscientiously: a formidable fortress now rose haughtily on the crest of the rock which on the previous evening had been naked and deserted. The Count was delighted, and took possession of his castle the same day.