The Nut helped to release the handsome child, and their hands touched. The most trivial gesture, the most insignificant incident sometimes assumes a considerable importance. . . . A few minutes later the Nut learned the young girl's name. It was Mlle. Françoise de la Boulays, and she was returning with her father from the Upper Amazon, to which district he had been sent on an official mission. They were going back to France saddened beyond measure by the startling events which had followed one upon the other during the preceding month.
The Nut did not venture to appear in the saloon at dinner time. To begin again, in this way without some intermediate stage, civilized life, after having been buried in the grave for more than ten years; to meet the frank look of that pure-souled girl when he was still shuddering from the "evil eye" of the warders; to help himself to well cooked food from a luxurious dish when he was still feeling the nausea of the service tubs which contained the convicts' skilly! . . . He was afraid. . . . He was afraid.
And then a few minutes before as he stood in front of a glass, he took off his hat, and he saw his bare forehead, the bare forehead of a convict on which he seemed to read in letters of fire "Number 3213."
He remained on deck.
At that moment the wireless operator hurriedly passed him and entered the dining saloon, and almost immediately afterwards the Captain's voice was heard:
"Ladies and Gentlemen . . . it's victory . . . victory for France. Joffre has defeated the Germans on the Marne."
The thunders of applause which followed may be imagined. . . .
When Mlle. de la Boulays mounted the deck again she found the Nut in tears; and she spoke to him and shook him by the hand. When she left him he remained behind. Her voice continued to ring in his ears during the night. He was still on deck after the other persons in the ship, except the watch, had gone to sleep.
Then the sun appeared and lit up the Nut's radiant face, and leaning on the bulwarks he beheld the rise of a new dawn on the world.