She bent over the ring for a moment, her face quite concealed asthough examining it. The old man looked straight out of the front ofthe shanty before him, at the same time fumbling in his pockets andproducing a screw of tobacco in a paper and a pipe, which he proceededto fill. I took advantage of the pause and the momentary rest from thesearching eyes on my face to look carefully round the place, now dimand shadowy in the gloaming. There still lay all the heaps of variedreeking foulness; there the terrible blood-stained axe leaning againstthe wall in the right hand corner, and everywhere, despite the gloom,the baleful glitter of the eyes of the rats. I could see them eventhrough some of the chinks of the boards at the back low down close tothe ground. But stay! these latter eyes seemed more than usually largeand bright and baleful!
For an instant my heart stood still, and I felt in that whirlingcondition of mind in which one feels a sort of spiritual drunkenness,and as though the body is only maintained erect in that there is notime for it to fall before recovery. Then, in another second, I wascalm--coldly calm, with all my energies in full vigour, with aself-control which I felt to be perfect and with all my feeling andinstincts alert.
Now I knew the full extent of my danger: I was watched and surroundedby desperate people! I could not even guess at how many of them werelying there on the ground behind the shanty, waiting for the moment tostrike. I knew that I was big and strong, and they knew it, too. Theyknew also, as I did, that I was an Englishman and would make a fightfor it; and so we waited. I had, I felt, gained an advantage in thelast few seconds, for I knew my danger and understood the situation.Now, I thought, is the test of my courage--the enduring test: thefighting test may come later!
The old woman raised her head and said to me in a satisfied kind ofway:
'A very fine ring, indeed--a beautiful ring! Oh, me! I once had suchrings, plenty of them, and bracelets and earrings! Oh! for in thosefine days I led the town a dance! But they've forgotten me now!They've forgotten me! They? Why they never heard of me! Perhaps theirgrandfathers remember me, some of them!' and she laughed a harsh,croaking laugh. And then I am bound to say that she astonished me, forshe handed me back the ring with a
certain suggestion of old-fashionedgrace which was not without its pathos.
The old man eyed her with a sort of sudden ferocity, half rising fromhis stool, and said to me suddenly and hoarsely:
'Let me see!'
I was about to hand the ring when the old woman said:
'No! no, do not give it to Pierre! Pierre is eccentric. He losesthings; and such a pretty ring!'
'Cat!' said the old man, savagely. Suddenly the old woman said, rathermore loudly than was necessary:
'Wait! I shall tell you something about a ring.' There was somethingin the sound of her voice that jarred upon me. Perhaps it was myhyper-sensitiveness, wrought up as I was to such a pitch of nervousexcitement, but I seemed to think that she was not addressing me. As Istole a glance round the place I saw the eyes of the rats in the boneheaps, but missed the eyes along the back. But even as I looked I sawthem again appear. The old woman's 'Wait!' had given me a respite fromattack, and the men had sunk back to their reclining posture.
'I once lost a ring--a beautiful diamond hoop that had belonged to aqueen, and which was given to me by a farmer of the taxes, whoafterwards cut his throat because I sent him away. I thought it musthave been stolen, and taxed my people; but I could get no trace. Thepolice came and suggested that it had found its way to the drain. Wedescended--I in my fine clothes, for I would not trust them with mybeautiful ring! I know more of the drains since then, and of rats,too! but I shall never forget the horror of that place--alive withblazing eyes, a wall of them just outside the light of our torches.Well, we got beneath my house. We searched the outlet of the drain,and there in the filth found my ring, and we came out.
'But we found something else also before we came! As we were comingtoward the opening a lot of sewer rats--human ones this time--cametowards us. They told the police that one of their number had goneinto the drain, but had not returned. He had gone in only shortlybefore we had, and, if lost, could hardly be far off. They asked helpto seek him, so we turned back. They tried to prevent me going, but Iinsisted. It was a new excitement, and had I not recovered my ring?Not far did we go till we came on something. There was but littlewater, and the bottom of the drain was raised with brick, rubbish, andmuch matter of the kind. He had made a fight for it, even when historch had gone out. But they were too many for him! They had not beenlong about it! The bones were still warm; but they were picked clean.They had even eaten their own dead ones and there were bones of ratsas well as of the man. They took it cool enough those other--the humanones--and joked of their comrade when they found him dead, though theywould have helped him living. Bah! what matters it--life or death?'
'And had you no fear?' I asked her.
'Fear!' she said with a laugh. 'Me have fear? Ask Pierre! But I wasyounger then, and, as I came through that horrible drain with its wallof greedy eyes, always moving with the circle of the light from thetorches, I did not feel easy. I kept on before the men, though! It isa way I have! I never let the men get it before me. All I want is achance and a means! And they ate him up--took every trace away exceptthe bones; and no one knew it, nor no sound of him was ever heard!'Here she broke into a chuckling fit of the ghastliest merriment whichit was ever my lot to hear and see. A great poetess describes herheroine singing: 'Oh! to see or hear her singing! Scarce I know whichis the divinest.'
And I can apply the same idea to the old crone--in all save thedivinity, for I scarce could tell which was the most hellish--theharsh, malicious, satisfied, cruel laugh, or the leering grin, and thehorrible square opening of the mouth like a tragic mask, and theyellow gleam of the few discoloured teeth in the shapeless gums. Inthat laugh and with that grin and the chuckling satisfaction I knew aswell as if it had been spoken to me in words of thunder that my murderwas settled, and the murderers only bided the proper time for itsaccomplishment. I could read between the lines of her gruesome storythe commands to her accomplices. 'Wait,' she seemed to say, 'bide yourtime. I shall strike the first blow. Find the weapon for me, and Ishall make the opportunity! He shall not escape! Keep him quiet, andthen no one will be wiser. There will be no outcry, and the rats willdo their work!'
It was growing darker and darker; the night was coming. I stole aglance round the shanty, still all the same! The bloody axe in thecorner, the heaps of filth, and the eyes on the bone heaps and in thecrannies of the floor.
Pierre had been still ostensibly filling his pipe; he now struck alight and began to puff away at it. The old woman said:
'Dear heart, how dark it is! Pierre, like a good lad, light the lamp!'
Pierre got up and with the lighted match in his hand touched the wickof a lamp which hung at one side of the entrance to the shanty, andwhich had a reflector that threw the light all over the place. It wasevidently that which was used for their sorting at night.
'Not that, stupid! Not that! the lantern!' she called out to him.
He immediately blew it out, saying: 'All right, mother I'll find it,'and he hustled about the left corner of the room--the old woman sayingthrough the darkness:
'The lantern! the lantern! Oh! That is the light that is most useful tous poor folks. The lantern was the friend of the revolution! It is thefriend of the chiffonier! It helps us when all else fails.'
Hardly had she said the word when there was a kind of creaking of thewhole place, and something was steadily dragged over the roof.
Again I seemed to read between the lines of her words. I knew thelesson of the lantern.
'One of you get on the roof with a noose and strangle him as he passesout if we fail within.'
As I looked out of the opening I saw the loop of a rope outlined blackagainst the lurid sky. I was now, indeed, beset!
Pierre was not long in finding the lantern. I kept my eyes fixedthrough the darkness on the old woman. Pierre struck his light, and byits flash I saw the old woman raise from the ground beside her whereit had mysteriously appeared, and then hide in the folds of her gown,a long sharp knife or dagger. It seemed to be like a butcher'ssharpening iron fined to a keen point.
The lantern was lit.