CHAPTER XXVII
UNDER WHICH KING, BEZONIAN?
The station-master was right. I saw how things were tending and how therevolt was sure to end. Yet I was by nature so curious of the odditiesof the business that I put off speaking to Keller Bey. For one thing, Idid not want to find myself shut up in the Duke's Castle along with theother martyrs of the new rule. I preferred the open air and risk.Besides, I could each day assure myself of the well-being of DennisDeventer and his family.
I discovered where Jack Jaikes was usually to be found on guard, and,early in the dusk of the morning, I slipped from my room in order tospeak half an hour with him in private. He first abused me like apickpocket for taking sides with such a dirty pack, and it was with theutmost difficulty that he could be persuaded that there was after all adifference between a Communard and a prisoner on parole. He did nottrouble to conceal his opinion of the latter.
"Jump over the wall," he whispered, "see, catch hold of my belt. I tellye, man, in business we cannot afford to be so fine. I learned that inGlasgow long syne, when a brither-in-law o' mine took my job from me.Now, he was my brither, though not by blood, and in a manner o' speakingI had promised to love, honour, and obey. But instead I just bashed himtill he was laid up in bed for six weeks--so I got my job back! Now tellme, where would I have been if I had minded about honour and 'paroles'and them things?"
It was in vain that I pointed out to Jack Jaikes that, after all, it wasnot he but his sister who had promised to love, honour, and obey themaltreated job-jumper.
"It doesna maitter. It's all the wan thing!" was all that I could getout of Jack Jaikes. "Now then, catch a haud and I'll hae ye beside me inthe crack o' a cow's tail!"
Now, though I had fought duels on the sly at St. Andre on the mostapproved principles of French honour, I had done so chiefly because Ipossessed an excellent method and a supple wrist trained by years of the"Salle." Really I cared nothing about any artificial code of honour. Butit was quite a different thing to have passed my word to Keller Bey, andentirely unthinkable to leave him in the lurch by making my escapewithout telling him.
I began about this time to imagine a vain thing. It seemed that in someway I could save both Keller Bey and the Deventers. I would be on bothsides of the fence at once, and play a universal providence. I did notthen see that I should end by being outlawed by both sides--as, save fora curious interposition, I should have been.
Jack Jaikes had, however, sufficiently impressed me that I went toKeller Bey and told him that he must trust me completely without anyparole. He must give me back my word about escaping. I might (Iexplained) disappear for a time without leaving him altogether. Inreality I did not mean to do anything of the kind, and if it came to anytrouble about saving the Deventers, he would find me again at his side.All this I believed perfectly feasible at the time. Indeed, I spoke withsuch earnestness and spontaneity that he finished by shutting his eyes,even as I was doing, to the difficulties or, rather, impossibilities ofthe position.
Somehow he clung to my presence among these men to whom he was alreadyno more than a symbol of authority. They did not know the man KellerBey. I did. And he seemed to wish to keep me near him as a link with apast with which he had broken. In his heart I am sure he regretted thegarden and his talks with my father and Professor Renard, while as toLinn and Alida, they did not simply bear thinking about.
Yet he was possessed by that driving fate, ambition, call of duty, whatyou will---which sends men forth from comfortable homes to battle forlife about the frozen pole, to die miserably, to leave their bonesthere--though all the while in bright homes the loving hearts of womenand the laughter of children are waiting for them.
Keller Bey was fate-driven. This Aramon rising had fallen accidentallyin his way. The idealist in the man tempted him to believe that he couldmake a Socialist Land of Promise out of those factories and arsenals,which had grown up in such a beauty spot of nature, where (it was KellerBey's word) "merely to be alive between sea, sky, and earth was a dailyrevelation of religion."
He thought nothing of the small questions of pay and personal interestwhich really made up the gist of the matter to the workmen. Perhapsalso, though quite unwillingly, he had been led astray by DennisDeventer. Dennis was an idealist also, and he saw the workmen's side ofthe question of private ownership. He would express these opinions withsuch dialectic sympathy that it almost seemed to the listener that hewould be found one day persuading the owners of the factories to makeover their possessions to the workers.
His wife often reproached him with this treachery of words.
"I know, I know, colleen," he would answer contritely, "'tis IrishDennis hot in my brain that will get talking--then when I _do_ thingsDeventer the Scot sets the count right."
"But, then, how about the people with whom you have talked, and who maybe depending on your words?"
"'Tis more the pity of them," he would say quizzically, "but, anyway, Iam no worse than these young chicks that you have brought up."
"That is nonsense, Dennis--you are the master and yet you talk like a'red' as often as not--very likely when you have just sent Jack Jaikesto fix a new gun where it will command a street or a gate by which youmay be attacked."
Then Dennis would hold up his hand in token of surrender. It was allgospel truth, due perhaps as much as anything to the family habit offree discussion, when Dennis would take up a losing cause and championit to the bitter end.
There is, however, room to commiserate Keller Bey, from whom thesethings were hidden. He reported to the Commune of Aramon at its dailyseances, of the favourable dispositions of the representative of theCompany. Nay, during the space of a week, it was quite on the cards thatthe men should return to work on the basis of some half-understood (andwholly misunderstood) word of Dennis's, which Keller Bey and his SocialCommission had taken to mean the admission of the men's right to a sharein the half-yearly profits.
Fortunately or unfortunately, another phrase at a succeeding interviewhad revealed that Dennis Deventer had no intention of committing hisowners to anything. Nor had he the power. He had merely been willing tocast his own salary and commissions into the common fund gained by allthe workers, and leave the total to be divided by the committeeaccording to their idea of equity.
But then, though this was exceedingly generous, Dennis was also apartner and a rich man. The men, except Keller Bey, were indignant atwhat they counted a cheat--a false offer. Very unjustly, for to DennisDeventer the rights of labour extended to what a man earned. Those ofproperty, equally important to him, included the defence of his wife'smoney invested in the Small Arms Company, and also what he had been ableto put aside during the years of his strenuous life.
This is how the great misunderstanding arose, and I do not see that anyof the parties to it were free from blame--certainly not Dennis.
But I hasten to tell how the events fell out and what was my part in theadventure.
The same day that I had required my parole back from Keller Bey Imarched boldly and in the face of all to the gate of Chateau Schneider,which was shut and boarded up, strengthened besides by criss-cross workof iron bars, so that the half which was opened creaked and groaned onits hinges when it turned. So careful was the watch that when at lastafter parley and explanation Jack Jaikes let me in, it was only to findmyself commanded by three separate batteries of machine guns from behindwhich peered the perplexed faces of McAllister's gang. They were simplemen and they could not understand this running with the hare and huntingwith the hounds. I do not blame them. No one who did not know Keller Beyand the need of standing by him could possibly have understood. JackJaikes explained as well as he could, but not being convinced himself ofthe goodness of my cause, I fear his words only darkened counsel.
It was generally understood by those on guard at Chateau Schneider that"I would bear watching," and indeed it was not long before the sentinelsof the National Guard on the other side of the wall came to exactly thesame conclusion, so to please all parties
I was blindfolded.
But the welcome I had from the household of Deventer made up for allthis enveloping suspicion. Here, at least, I stood clear. I wasre-established in my own conceit, in my position a most valuable asset.Was I not a martyr to duty, a prisoner on parole, one castaway amongwild and dangerous people, because I had ventured out by night to jointhe Deventer defence?
Jack Jaikes had evidently done his part well. He had given me the roughside of his tongue, but had permitted the Deventers to understand thatin the morning hours he had held converse with a hero and martyr toduty.
Mrs. Deventer came over and graciously kissed me, and I verily believethat I might have kissed all three girls--yes, even Hannah--under theeye maternal, without a reprimand.
Hugh was more comrade-like than he had been for a long time, and linkedarms with me in the good old St. Andre way as we stood by thefire-place. Dennis Deventer came in smiling.
"Now our family is more like itself again. Angus me boy, and how did yeleave my good friend the commander of the forces?"
I told him that Keller Bey was well but much worried by the cares ofoffice. At this he laughed a little mischievously, and burst out in oneof his usual phrases:
"St. Patrick's Day and a fine morning to be whittling shillalahs. ButKeller Bey has not seen the first green of his wild oat-sowing. Let himwait till his lambs begin to frolic. Then I do not envy him his task. Asfor me, Jack Jaikes and I are making this place so strong that theymight blow it piece by piece about our ears without making ussurrender."
Presently I found myself at luncheon at the Deventers' table. Nothingappeared to have changed, except that the young apprentices were nolonger to be seen, and indeed there was no external service of any kind.We cut and poured out at the sideboard for ourselves. Mrs. Deventer wasthe only one waited upon, Rhoda Polly bringing her what she wanted.
The discussion grew as loud as ever, but hushed instantly when amessenger appeared at the door, cap in hand and a little breathless, toreport the situation of the various posts, or to request instructions.Sometimes Dennis merely bade the messenger to "Ask Jack Jaikes!" Moreoften he reeled off a detailed and technical explanation which theapprentice understood though I did not. Or again he would dash a fewlines on the leaf of a note-book, indicate a design sketchily, and sendthe lad off again as fast as he could clatter down the stairs.
I could not help being struck with admiration of the Chief's method andscience. Keller Bey was a leader of men, but I could not help seeing,apart from his indubitable personal magnetism, how things were bungledfor lack of those very qualities of science and method. It went well inChateau Schneider. No need for speech or lifted hand. Silence fell likea spell whenever the runner appeared in that ever-open doorway. Andwhile the master of men launched his commands there was not even theordinary clatter of knives and forks. Everyone seemed to feel theimportance of the decision to be given. All were proud of the giver,though the moment before and the moment after they would be refuting hisarguments, denying his statements, and generally assaulting hispositions in a Donnybrook of sound and fury, without the least apparentreverence for the grey hairs to which he often appealed with mockpathos.
I took care not to see any of the defences of the workshops, or thoseabout the Chateau. These had been wholly reorganised since the attemptsof January, and were now nearing completion on a far more serious scale.
I had to go back and I should assuredly be questioned. If I did notanswer I might doubtless be suspected. Therefore it was arranged thatwhen the time came for me to go Jack Jaikes should blindfold me and leadme out by the main fortified entrance of the works, which wasimmediately in front of a large post of National Guards.
I was longing to get Rhoda Polly by herself and hear the news from herown lips, but Dennis was so eager for more and more detailed gossipabout this one and that other among the members of the Commune, that hedetained me a long while. He did not fish for secrets nor ask me todivulge any of Keller's plans. I think he felt himself too strong andsure for that.
He was, moreover, genuinely interested in the men, and wishful to knowhow they conducted themselves in their new spheres. He was speciallyamused at my account of the staffing of the Post-Office-Without-Letters,and when he heard the names he instantly baptized it "The Bureau of theIncompetents"--a sobriquet which afterwards got abroad and became asaying, so that many of those who had earned the name left the place toescape from it.
At last Rhoda Polly and I did manage to take refuge up on the roofbehind our favourite chimney-stack at a place where the parapet wasalmost breast high. It was comfortable hiding and quite secluded--thefortifications of the Chateau roof being long perfected, and indeed onlyto be used as a watch-tower or as a last line of defence.
Rhoda Polly told me how she had sent three messengers to Alida, of whomonly one had been faithful to his trust. She had had to enlist JackJaikes in the business, and between them they had called up lads fromthe town, butchers' boys and such-like, known to the foreman from theClyde. To each of these she had perforce to commit her letter, takingcare that it should contain nothing compromising in case of capture. Butonly one ever returned with an answer, and he a little bare-footedrascal of a boot-black, from whom nothing had been expected. He had evenbrought back a letter from Alida, telling her friend that they were wellbut that for safety's sake Linn and she, with the two Tessier maids, hadbeen taken into the main building of Gobelet, where at least they shouldbe farther from the road and have men to protect them.
Alida went on to say that Linn went about as usual, but evidentlygrieved for her husband in silence. She herself was occupied in learningLatin from Mr. Cawdor, and already could read in a book called "Caesar"and in another by an author named Sallust.
I saw the letter as Rhoda Polly turned it over, and noted that not aword of inquiry was wasted upon myself. My name was not once mentioned.The Lady Alida had taken dire offence at my flight, and this was inspite of the fact that Rhoda Polly had mentioned that I was with KellerBey in the city of Aramon.
A Tatter of Scarlet: Adventurous Episodes of the Commune in the Midi 1871 Page 28