The Man in Black | Page 6

understand, boy?"
"Yes, yes," Jehan cried again, groping in the straw for the tool, which
had fallen at his feet. "I know."
"When you are loose, cover up the chain," continued the other in a slow
biting tone. "Or lie on that part of it, and wait until morning. As soon as
you see the first gleam of light, climb out through the window. You
will find me outside."
The boy would have uttered his trembling thanks. But lo! in a moment
the aperture was clear again; the moon sailed unchanged through an
unchanged sky; and all was as before. Save for the presence of the little
bit of rough steel in his hand, he might have thought it a dream. But the
file was there; it was there, and with a choking sob of hope and fear and
excitement, he fell to work on the chain.

It was clumsy work he made of it in the dark. But the link was so much
worn, a man might have wrenched it open, and the boy did not spare
his fingers. The dispute next door covered the song of the file; and the
smoky horn lantern which alone lighted that end of the stable had no
effect in the dark corner where he lay. True, he had to work by feel,
looking out all the while for his tyrant's coming; but the tool was good,
and the fingers, hardened by many an hour of work on the rope, were
strong and lithe. When the showman at last stumbled to his place in the
straw, the boy lay free--free and trembling.
All was not done, however. It seemed an hour before the man settled
himself--an hour of agony and suspense to Jehan, feigning sleep; since
at any moment his master might tae it into his head to look into things.
But Crafty Eyes had no suspicion. Having kicked the boy and heard the
chain rattle, and so assured himself that he was there--so much caution
he exercised every night, drunk or sober--he was satisfied; and
by-and-by, when his imagination, heated by thoughts of wealth,
permitted it, he fell asleep, and dreamed that he had married the
Cardinal's cook-maid and ate collops on Sundays.
Even so, the night seemed endless to the boy, lying wakeful, with his
eyes on the sky. Now he was hot, now cold. One moment the thought
that the window might prove too strait for him threw him into a bath of
perspiration; the next he shuddered at the possibility of re-capture, and
saw himself dragged back and flayed by his brutal owner. But a
watched pot does boil, though slowly. The first streak of dawn came at
last--as it does when the sky is darkest; and with it, even as the boy rose
warily to h is feet, the sound of a faint whistle outside the window.
A common mortal could no more have passed through that window
without noise than an old man can make himself young again. But the
boy did it. As he dropped to the ground outside he heard the whistle
again. The air was still dark; but a score of paces away, beyond a low
wall, he made out the form of a horseman, and went toward it.
It was the man in the cloak, who stooped and held out his hand. "Jump
up behind me," he muttered.

The boy went to obey, but as he clasped the outstretched hand, it was
suddenly withdrawn. "What is that? What have you got there?" the
rider exclaimed, peering down at him.
"It is only Taras, the monkey," Jehan said timidly.
"Throw it away," the stranger answered. "Do you hear me?" he
continued in a stern, composed tone. "Throw it away, I say."
The boy stood hesitating a moment; then, without a word, he turned
and fled into the darkness the way he had come. The man on the horse
swore under his breath, but he had no remedy; and before he could tell
what to expect, the boy was at his side again. "I've put it through the
window," Jehan explained breathlessly. "If I had left it here, the dogs
and the boys would have killed it."
The man made no comment aloud, but jerked him roughly to the
crupper; and bidding him hold fast, started the horse, which, setting off
a an easy amble, quickly bore them out of Fecamp. As they passed
through the fair-ground of yesterday--a shadowy, ghastly waste at this
hour, peopled by wandering asses and packhorses, and a few lurking
figures that leaped up out of the darkness, and ran after them whining
for alms--the boy shivered and clung close to his protector. But he had
no more than recognized the scene before they were out of sight of it,
and riding