A terrible silence succeeded. I stood with clinched hands. Had I heard the cart move away again I should have thrown myself upon this demon and sought to strangle him. Then, “Oh, my God! oh, my God!” he said twice, in a dreadful strained voice, and that was all.
Suddenly he made a swift movement towards me. I stood rigid, still with my back to the damning grate; but, come within a foot of me, he as suddenly wheeled and went to the door.
“Open, Gamache,” he whispered, like a man winded, and tapped on the oak: “open—I have something to say to thee.”
In another moment I was alone. I turned, and, in a frenzy of haste, drove the bars right and left with all my force. Like a veritable ape of destiny I leapt to the sill and looked down. A white face stared up at me. The owner of it was already in the act of gathering his reins together. I heard a soft tremulous ouf! issue from his lips, and on the breath of it I dropped and alighted with a thud upon something that squelched beneath my weight. As I got to my knees, he on the driving-board was already whipping his horses to a canter.
“Quick, quick!” he said. “Come up and sit here beside me.”
I managed to do so, though the cargo we carried gave perilous foothold.
Then at once I turned and regarded my preserver.
“Saints in heaven!” I whispered, “Crépin!”
* * * * * * *
He was a very sans-culotte, and his face and eyebrows were darkened. But I knew him.