The Son of Monte-Cristo Volume I Part 18

"Certainly. The courageous animal has been working to free us for over a month. As you might have noticed, I smeared the floor of our pontoon with grease, in consequence of which our shrewd rat has spent all his spare moments here, and now his business is ended. The boards are gnawed through."

"Ah! then we are to escape by swimming?" asked Benedetto, surprised.

"Have you finally found out? You are not afraid, are you?"

"No, no!" exclaimed Benedetto hastily. "Freedom at any price."

"Now you please me! Let us go now and take up our work again before our absence is noticed."

"One word more! Have you thought of our clothes?"

"I have thought of everything. Trust in me."

The convicts returned to their work, but soon after the weather became so bad that the jailers stopped work and formed the prisoners in columns to return them to the pontoons. The storm broke with such fury that the masts snapped and the sails flew about. A piece of a mast knocked a convict overboard, and when he was fished up his skull was found to be fractured. A cry of terror ran through the lines and the jailers hastened to bring the columns to the pontoons. Benedetto and Anselmo cowered in their corners and listened to the roar of the mistral. The louder it became, the more their hearts beat with joy.

"Are you ready?" whispered Anselmo to his comrade.

"Yes."

"Then forward! It is a question of life or death."

They both lay flat on the ground and Anselmo drew from a hole a package wrapped in sail cloth. "Here, take this package," the ex-priest told his companion, "and give it to me as soon as I am in the water. Do you see the plank which our little pet gnawed through? Well, it can be shoved aside, and by that way we come to a cave where instruments and nails are kept. In this cave is a door, to which I have the key which locks it.

Now pay attention; I am turning the key. Forward, in the devil's name!"

Through the open door Anselmo carefully glided into the water, which surged and roared. Benedetto handed him the package and glided likewise into the river, and while the pontoon creaked and groaned, torn by the force of the storm, the two convicts disappeared in the darkness.

CHAPTER XVII

IN THE MOUNTAIN Pa.s.s OF OLIOLLES

Madame Danglars had returned to the inn and asked feverishly for fresh horses, so as to be able to drive to Beaussuet. The innkeeper politely a.s.sured her it was impossible to carry out her wishes. Madame Danglars, without changing a muscle, looked steadily at the man. To her idea money could do anything, and she therefore opened her purse, and placing five hundred francs on the table, asked once more for fresh horses. The innkeeper immediately remembered that there was a man in Toulon who would risk his own and his horses' lives for money, and he sent a messenger for him. Two long hours pa.s.sed before the messenger returned.

He brought a favorable answer. Father Jacob, that was the man's name, would come at four o'clock with two good horses.

"Who is this Father Jacob?" asked Madame Danglars of the innkeeper.

"Oh, he is a former city boarder," replied the host, laughing, as he gave a suggestive glance in the direction of the Bagnio.

Madame Danglars shuddered.

"Does he know how to drive?" she asked.

"Like Satan. He used to be a driver of the mail coach, but got a few years in the galleys for a.s.sisting robbers to plunder the mails. He is now, however, a good, honest man, and you can safely trust yourself to his care."

What was the baroness to do? She patiently sat down, and breathed more freely when the clock struck four, and the expected coachman arrived with two splendid horses.

"So you want to drive me to Beaussuet?" asked Madame Danglars, vivaciously.

"Yes, madame, for five hundred francs."

"Then harness your horses at once."

"But," stammered the ex-convict, scratching his head, "I make it a rule to take money in advance."

"Good! Here is the money, and go quick, because I am in a hurry."

"I am in a hurry to go too. The roads will not get any better, and the mountain pa.s.ses of Oliolles are not easy to ride over, even in good weather."

In less than a quarter of an hour, the baroness sat in the coach. The innkeeper stood at the door, and, as the horses started, he whispered to the coachman: "Take care of yourself, old fellow. You know you have every reason to be prudent."

"I will be so," replied Jacob, as he whipped the horses and drove off.

In the meantime, the storm continued with unabated vigor, tearing up trees, rolling the waves mountains high, and sometimes shaking the heavy coach as if it had been a feather. The horses seemed to care as little for the weather as the coachman. Madame Danglars, however, became terribly excited, and, sobbing bitterly, cowered in a corner of the carriage. Around about her, as within her, all was dark. She still thought she heard the rattling of Benedetto's chains in the roar and fury of the storm--she thought she could distinguish the soft voice of Benedetto. Suddenly a sharp jolt was felt, the coachman uttered an oath, and Madame Danglars sank in a semi-unconscious condition against the cushions of the coach.

When she recovered herself she became aware that one of the horses had stumbled; the coachman was still swearing, and tried to raise the animal up. Suddenly he came to the carriage door, and grumblingly said:

"Madame, I must give you your money back. We will not be able to reach Beaussuet."

The storm whistled and roared with bitter fury. Madame Danglars looked anxiously at the man, and in a hollow voice asked:

"Where are we?"

"The devil only knows. These pa.s.ses look all alike."

"But we cannot remain here. What would become of us?" said the poor woman sobbing.

"Come, come, do not carry on so," Jacob consolingly said.

"These pa.s.ses have always been dangerous. Thirty years ago I met with a misfortune at this same place; oh, when I think of that time--"

The face of the ex-convict darkened; Madame Danglars looked anxiously at him, and murmured softly:

"May G.o.d have mercy upon me!"

The man paused for a moment and then said:

"I know another way out of the difficulty. We could return to Oliolles, which is fifteen minutes distant, and some one there would fix my axle, which the horse in falling broke. We could wait at Oliolles until the storm subsides. It won't rage so furiously long. I know the mistral well."

"And you promise me you will go ahead again as soon as the storm is over?"

"As true as I stand here," the man replied.

Madame Danglars rose up and got out, while Jacob unharnessed the horses and took one of the coach lamps in his hand.

"Now follow me," he said, holding the lantern aloft.

He threw the reins about his arm and strode bravely along, while Madame Danglars slowly walked behind.