Page:Dumas - Tales of Strange adventure (Methuen, 1907).djvu/89

Rh middle of the garden walk, a mere nothing, a bit of twine, something stretched across my path. I had my knife in my pocket; I opened it, and slash! I cut the cord.

"But at the same moment, look you, I received a crack with a stick across the loins,—my word! such a crack! 'You scoundrel!' I shouted, and seized hold of the stick. But there was nobody there, only a pear tree, to which the stick was fastened in a very ingenious way; by cutting the thread I had released the stick, and the stick once released came thump on my back. I scuttled off rubbing my back. My first thought had been that the girl's father or her brothers had got an inkling of what was going on, and being afraid to attack me face to face, they had prepared this ambuscade. However, as nobody had laughed or made a sound or even stirred, I made oflf on tip-toe and back to my inn.

"At ten o'clock we left Edam, and half an hour later were in the harbour of Monnikendam. The instant I could make out my own house, I saw the Buchold standing at the door; she was waiting for me with looks of irritation that struck me as ominous. For my own part I put on a most smiling expression. No sooner had I crossed the threshold than she slammed to the door behind me.

"'Ah!' she began, 'here's pretty behaviour for a man six weeks married.'

"'What behaviour?' I asked, with a look of extreme innocence.

"'You dare to ask me that!' she cried.

"'Certainly I do.'

"'Hold your tongue, and answer my questions.' Her green eyes were flashing fire.

"'Where were you last night at eleven o'clock? tell me that. Where did you stay from eleven o'clock till five next morning? What happened to you as you came out from the place where you had spent those six hours?"

"'I don't know what you mean.'

"'Oh, you don't, don't you? '

"'No, I don't.'

"'Well then, I am going to tell you. You left the Inn at eleven o'clock, you climbed over a wall, you opened a door, you scaled a window, you got into a room where you stopped until five o'clock in the morning. At five in the morning you came out again, and you received a blow with a stick, and you went back to the Inn, rubbing your back. Just tell me, pray, if it is not all true.'

"Of course I said it was not, though I must confess I did not do so with the same confidence as the other time; besides, I bore my condemnation upon my person, for I had the mark of the stick across my shoulders.

"Still all the time I kept making sheep's eyes at the Buchold. I managed to kiss her hand and presently her cheek, and grumbling still she ended by forgiving me.

"'Take care,' she said, 'next time you won't get off so cheaply.'

"' Oh no!' I said to myself, 'next time, mind you, I will keep a better look out, and then we shall see.'

"She nodded her head as if to say, 'Yes, we shall see!'

"That witch of a Buchold, it really seemed as if she could read my thoughts.

"However, this time again we patched up the quarrel.

"A week later I took a party of travellers to Stavoren. It was a long way, and it was out of the question to get back the same day; I did not know how to pass the time, when suddenly I remembered I had a sweetheart in that neighbourhood. It was a pretty girl who lived at a mill on the banks of a pretty little lake between Bath and Stavoren. In former days when I went to see her, I used to swim across the lake, and as her window gave on the water she had only to reach me a hand and there I was in her room.

"This time it was even more convenient, for the lake was frozen. I borrowed a pair of skates. At ten o'clock I set out from Stavoren, at a quarter past ten I was by the lake side; at twentyfive minutes past I was under the fair lady's window. I gave the usual signal and the window opened. They had heard of my marriage at the mill, so my sweetheart might well have shown some resentment. But she was a good-natured wench, so I soon made my peace.

"At six o'clock I took my leave. I felt perfectly secure; the lake was utterly lonely, nobody had seen me come and nobody was likely to see me go. I put on my skates and away I went. At the third or fourth stroke I felt the ice cracking under me. I tried to turn back,