. . . D'you hear me, blast your soul? Answer me, damn you."
"I hear you, mon Adjudant," I replied.
"Very well. To-morrow morning, you and your brother and the others will have duties assigned you. You'll be given ammunition. You or your brother or both, will be put over the magazine, and will shoot anyone, except myself, who approaches it. Anyone, you understand, whether non-commissioned officer or légionnaire. . . . I'll teach the swine--by God, I'll teach them! . . . Now then . . . it was your brother I wanted, but you happened to be awake and I saw no point in entering that cage of treacherous hyenas--go and tell your brother what I have said, and as soon as I have that diamond locked for safety in the Company treasure-chest, I'll give you a chance to save your worthless lives. . . .
"Listen carefully now. Creep back and wake your brother, St. André, Maris, and Cordier, and tell them to get up and steal silently from the room with their rifles. . . . I shall be at the door with that revolver and I'll shoot anybody--on the first movement that I don't like. . . . Go! . . ."
I saluted and turned about.
So the hour had come! And Lejaune was about to act! Moreover he was going to act on Bolidar's information that Michael, Maris, St. André, Cordier, and I had refused to join the mutineers, and so belonged to neither party. He was going to make us five loyal soldiers the executioners of the rebels.
He had a perfect right to order us to seize any mutineer and to shoot the man if he resisted arrest. Also it was our plain duty to obey him. . . .
But Michael? What would happen when Michael denied any knowledge of a diamond? How would he fare at Lejaune's hands when the mutiny had been suppressed? Lejaune's bare word was sufficient to send him to join the defeated mutineers--whether they were in the next world or in that antechamber of the next world, the Penal Battalion. . . .
"Make a sound--or a false move, and you'll be the first that dies--the first of many, I hope," growled Lejaune, as I crept down the passage between thick mud walls, and I felt the muzzle of his revolver jabbed into the small of my back.
The blood surged to my head, and I all but sprang round. One second's space of time for a drive at the point of his jaw--and I asked no more.
But he wouldn't give me that second, and I couldn't do much for Michael with my spine shattered by a ·450 expanding bullet. Lejaune would think as much of shooting me as he would of putting his foot on a scorpion. . . . And if, by any wild chance, I succeeded, and knocked him out and secured the revolver--how should we be any the better off? Boldini and his gang, and probably Dupré too, were after the "diamond," and would kill Michael to get it. . . .
With Lejaune following, I reached the door of our barrack-room. Here the adjudant halted, his revolver raised, and whispered:
"Your brother, Maris, Cordier, St. André--quick. . . ." I crept to Michael's bed.
What would happen if he sprang up with a shout, and roused the snoring sleepers around him? Could Lejaune overawe the lot, or would they, empty-handed, have the courage to rush him? Probably they would not. Everybody waits for a lead in a case like that.
I began whispering in Michael's ear.
"Beau, old chap! . . . It's John. . . . Don't make a noise. . . . Beau, old chap! . . . It's John. . . . Hush! Don't make a noise. . . ."
He woke, and was instantly alert.
"What's up?" he whispered.
"Take your tunic and trousers and boots, get your rifle, and go out. Lejaune is relying on our party. Take your bayonet. . . ."
He saw Lejaune in the doorway, near which was the night-lamp, and got off his cot.
I crept to St. André, and woke him in the same way.
"The adjudant wants us," I whispered. "He's at the door."
"Good!" said St. André. "It is time he did something."
Maris also woke quietly, and soon grasped what was wanted of him.
By the time I had roused Cordier, Michael was creeping from the room, dressed, his rifle in his hand. I saw Lejaune give him some cartridges from his bulging side-pockets. I crept out too, taking my rifle and bayonet, and Lejaune gave me ten cartridges.
"Go outside and load," he whispered. "Quick. . . . Then shoot any man, at once, if he sets his foot on the floor, after a warning."
We charged our magazines and stood behind Lejaune in the doorway, rifles at the ready. St. André joined us and received the same orders. Lejaune shook his fist at Maris and Cordier, and beckoned to them angrily. Not one of the sleepers stirred.
When the other two joined us, Lejaune said:
"St. André and Cordier--remain here until relieved. If any man wakes, order silence, cover him with your rifle, and say you'll shoot him if he leaves his bed. Do it at once, to any man and every man, who disobeys. Fail, and I'll shoot you myself. . . . Follow me, you others," and he quietly returned to his quarters.
"Guard the door, you," he said to Maris, "and shoot anybody who approaches. Anybody, I say."
"Now you, quick," he said, entering the room and closing the door. "Give me this wretched diamond that is the cause of all this trouble."
He glared at Michael.
"You jewel-thieves have corrupted the whole of this garrison, and are a menace to discipline. I'll take charge of it now; and then I'll take charge of some of those swine who think they can plot murder and robbery and desertion in my Company, by God! . . . Out with it, you thieving gaol-bird. . . . Quick. . . . Unless you want your throat cut by those mad dogs of mutineers who've fixed your business for this morning, at parade. . . . Oh yes, I know all about it. . . . Quick, I say--the Devil blast your dirty soul . . ." and he shook his fist.
Michael stared back, as one lost in astonishment and wonder.
"'Diamond,' Monsieur l'Adjudant?" he murmured.
Lejaune's swarthy face was suffused, his eyes bulged and blazed.
"You try any tricks with me and I'll blow your filthy head off--here and now!" he roared, picking up his revolver from the table where he had laid it.
"Give me that diamond, you scurvy hound, and I'll keep it until I know whose property it is. D'you think I'm going to have the discipline of this fort spoiled by every cursed runaway jewel-thief that chooses to hide here with his swag, and tempt honest men? . . . Out with it, you gallows-cheating gaol-breaker, before I put you where you belong. . . . Quick!"
"I have no diamond, mon Adjudant," replied Michael quietly, and giving back look for look.
"As I could have told you, mon Adjudant," I put in, "my brother has never had a diamond in his life and neither have I."
Words failed Lejaune.
I thought (and hoped) that he was going to have an apoplectic fit. His red face went purple and his eyes bulged yet more. He drew back his lips, baring his cruel-looking teeth and causing his moustache to bristle.
He raised and pointed the revolver, and I was just about
