An uproar of approaching voices broke upon his word. The café hitherto had been but thinly peopled, mostly by weather-stressed citizens, who had been conversing apart, low and rapid, on the subject of the eternal lottery, while they sipped their liqueurs or bacchierino, and flourished their cigarettes back and forth to their lips. Now, “Cartouche!” exclaimed someone, and the sombre quietude seemed instantly to splinter into light. The mirrors cleared to reflect it; the sensuous figures in the pictures woke to a Bacchanalian dance. Louis-Marie stared, speechless, at his companion, who, for his part, appeared as dumbfoundered.
“Sentite!” he muttered. “Scaramucchio! Si, ê vero!”
The tumult, as he spoke, had broken in, running with the feet and voices of half a score young men, a contingent, truculent and vivacious, of the bellimbusti, or “bloods” of Turin. And in the midst appeared Cartouche, commanding, insolent, policing a captive, a youth of the same guild, but, unlike the rest, in a state of moral and physical collapse. He, the latter, struggled, sobbing hysterically, in the determined grasp of his gaoler, while the others hovered, cackling and circling, about their neighbourhood.
“Listen, my Severo,” said Cartouche; “thou shalt drink first, and destroy thyself afterwards, if thou wilt.”
“He has lost his whole fortune in the lottery,” whispered one onlooker to another.
The wretched boy fought to escape.
“I will drink the river,” he gasped; “no dog shall prevent me.”
Cartouche’s hold tightened.
“Call me not a dog, little Severo,” he said, “or perchance I may show my teeth. Be wise, while there is time. There are beer and grassini still in Turin, and trollops enough at a penny. Beggary will yet buy thee all that Fortune is worth but the silly gilding. Nay” (he darkened), “if thou wilt be stubborn for death, insult me—I am more certain than the river—and save, at least, thy immortal soul.”
The boy, writhing round and sputtering with his lips, managed to strike his captor lamely on the cheek. The next moment he was free, and cowering into himself, the wind all clapped out of his heroics. The whole company stood silent and aghast.