we got up and strolled through the starlit darkness to the Fort.
"I suppose we can take it that Sergeant Dupré knows all about the plot?" I said, as we passed into the stifling courtyard.
"No doubt of it," replied Michael. "I am inclined to think Lejaune would try to keep a nice compact 'loyal party' to deal with the mutineers, and hope they'd be like the Kilkenny cats, mutually destructive. . . . Say, Dupré, Boldini, and five or six légionnaires. . . . Some of whom would be killed in the scrap. . . . Of course, one doesn't know what his plans really are--except that he means to get a diamond, a lot of kudos, and a nice little vengeance on his would-be murderers. . . ."
As we entered the barrack-room, we saw that a committee-meeting of the "butcher" party was in session. They stared in hostile fashion at Michael and me as we went to our cots and got out our cleaning-rags from the little bags.
I sat down on my bed and began melting wax on to my belt and pouches, preparatory to astiquage labours.
The conspirators' heads drew together again.
Michael went over to where they were grouped at the end of the long table.
"Have you come with your answer to a question I asked you about some cochons?" growled Schwartz, scowling at him.
"I have come with some news about a cochon, my friend," replied Michael.
Half a dozen pairs of eyes glared at him, and I strolled over. So did St. André from his cot. Just then Maris and Cordier entered, and I beckoned to them.
"He knows all about it," said Michael.
Schwartz sprang to his feet, his eyes blazing, his beard seeming to bristle, and his teeth gleaming as he bared them. He was a dangerous savage-looking ruffian.
"You have told him!" he shouted, pointing in Michael's face. "You treacherous filthy cur, you have betrayed us!" and he glanced to where a bayonet hung at the head of his bed.
"And come straight here and told you?" sneered Michael coldly. "If you were as clever as you are noisy, you might see I should hardly do that. You're a pretty leader of a gang of desperate mutineers, aren't you?"
Schwartz stared in amazement, struck dumb by the cool daring of the person who had the courage and effrontery to taunt and insult him.
Michael turned to Brandt, Haff, Delarey, Guantaio, Vogué, and the rest of Schwartz's familiars.
"A remarkable leader," he said. "Here you are, the gang of you, making your wonderful plans, and Lejaune knows every word you say, and precisely what you are going to do--almost as soon as you know it yourselves! . . . Join you? No, thanks. You have talked cleverly about 'pigs' and 'butchers'--but what about a lot of silly sheep? You make me tired," and Michael produced a most convincing and creditable yawn.
"Well, what are you going to do?" he asked as they sat open-mouthed. "Whatever it is, Lejaune will do it first," he added, "so you'd better do nothing."
"And Lejaune will do it first," I put in.
Michael's coolness, bitter contempt for them, and his obvious sincerity, had won. They knew he spoke the truth, and they knew he had not betrayed them to Lejaune.
I watched Guantaio, and decided that save perhaps for a little courage, he was another Bolidar. Certainly Boldini would hear of Michael's action, if Lejaune did not, as soon as Guantaio could get away from his dupes.
"What to do!" murmured Schwartz. "What to do! If Lejaune knows everything! . . ."
"Declare the whole thing off," said Michael, "and then the noble soul who has told Lejaune so much, can tell him that too," and Michael's eye rested on Guantaio.
It rested so long upon Guantaio, that that gentleman felt constrained to leap to his feet and bluster.
"Do you dare to suggest . . ." he shouted and stopped. (Qui s'excuse s'accuse.)
"I did not know I had suggested anything," said Michael softly. "Why should I suggest anything, my friend?"
"If it were you--I'd hang you to the wall with bayonets through your ears, you yellow dog," growled Schwartz, glaring at Guantaio.
"He lies! He lies!" screamed Guantaio.
"How do you know?" asked Michael. "How do you know what Lejaune knows?"
"I meant that you lie if you say that I betrayed the plot," blustered Guantaio.
"I haven't said it," replied Michael. "It is only you who have said it. . . . You seem to be another of the clever ones. . . ."
Michael's coolness and superiority were establishing a kind of supremacy for him over these stupid creatures, driven and bedevilled as they were by cafard and by Lejaune.
They stared at each other and at us.
"What's to be done?" said Schwartz. . . . "By God! When I catch the traitor . . ." he roared and shook his great fists above his shaggy head.
"Nothing's to be done," replied Michael again, "because you can do nothing. You are in Lejaune's hands absolutely. Take my advice and drop this lunacy, and you may hear nothing more of it. . . . There may be a new Commandant here in a week or two . . ."
"Yes--and his name may be Lejaune," answered Schwartz.
"Anyhow--he knows, and he's got us," put in Brandt. "I vote we all join in the plot and then all vote it abandoned. Then he can't punish one more than another. He can't put the whole blasted garrison in his cursed cells, can he?"
"You're right," said Haff. "That's it. Abandon the whole scheme, I say. And find out the traitor and give him a night that he'll remember through eternity in Hell. . . ."
But the ferocious Schwartz was of a different fibre, and in his dogged and savage brain the murder of Lejaune was an idée fixe.
"Abandon nothing!" he roared, springing to his feet. "I tell you I . . ." And then Michael laid his hand on his arm.
"Silence, you noisy fool," he said quietly. "Don't you understand yet that whatever you say now will go straight to Lejaune?"
Schwartz, foaming, swung round on Guantaio.
"Get out of this," he growled menacingly, and pointed to the door.
"I swear I . . ." began Guantaio indignantly.
"Get out, I say!" bawled Schwartz, "and when the time comes for us to strike our blow--be careful. Let me only suspect you, and I'll hang you to the flagstaff by one foot. . . . By God, I will. . . . Go!"
Guantaio slunk off.
"Now listen to me again," said Michael. "As I told you, Lejaune knows all about your plot to murder him and desert at full moon. I did not tell him. But I was going to tell him, if, after I had warned you, you refused to abandon the scheme."
Schwartz growled and rose to his feet again.
"Oh
