Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/149

Rh guard made its appearance right in front. Martin, unable either to advance or to retreat, bounded over the parapet, and leaped into the rapid stream that was dashing along its rocky bed. The soldiers rushed to the bank below the bridge to catch the fugitive as he reached the shore; but their effort was in vain. Martin Paz was nowhere to be seen.

O safely lodged in the house of Samuel, and placed upon a couch that was quickly prepared for him, André Certa recovered his consciousness, and grasped the hand of the Jew. The surgeon who had been summoned was soon in attendance, and pronounced the wound to be unimportant, the shoulder having received the blow in such a way that the poignard had merely made a flesh wound; and there was no doubt that in a few days Andre would be convalescent.

When André found himself alone with Samuel he said to him, " I think you ought to block up the doorway that leads up to the terrace on the roof."

"Why?" rejoined the Jew. "What is there to be afraid of?"

"I don't think," continued André, "that it is right for Sarah to expose herself to the gaze of those Indians. It was from no burglar, it was simply from a rival that I received the cut that might have caused me serious injury: it was only by a miracle that I escaped."

"Ah! by the holy Bible!" shrieked the Jew, "you must be mistaken. My daughter will make you an accomplished wife, and I have always taken care that she shall do nothing that will damage your reputation."

André Certa lifted himself on to his elbow, and said significantly, "Are you not rather forgetting that I am to pay for Sarah's hand the price of no less than a hundred thousand piastres?"

"By no means," said the Jew with a greedy grin, "and I am quite ready to give you a receipt when I get the hard cash." And as he spoke he took from his portfolio a paper, of which André took no notice.