I perceived now that the whole face of the wall was honeycombed with tunnels of natural formation running into the recesses of the limestone. I wondered that the whole structure, undermined thus and pressed down by the weight of millions of tons of ice above where the glacier lay, did not collapse and crumble down in ruin.
Rivulets gushed from the wall everywhere, mingling their contributory waters with those of the twin torrents. The plateau seemed to be the watershed in which the drainage of the entire territory had its origin. Within those connecting caves, if a man knew their secret, he might hide from a regiment.
Pierre followed me to the mouth of the tunnel and gripped me by both arms.
"What you do?" he asked. "You go to Père Antoine to-night? What you do now?"
I took the pistol from my coat pocket.
"Pierre," I answered, "I have two bullets here, and both of them are for Simon. To-night I had him in my power and spared him. Now I am going back, and I shall shoot him down like a dog, whether he is armed or defenceless."
"You no shoot Simon," the Indian grunted. "Le diable him frien'. You had him to-night; why you no shoot him then?"
I did not know. But I was going to find out soon.
"I am going back to kill him now," I repeated. "Afterward I do not know what will happen. But you can go on to the hut of Père Antoine and, if luck is with me, I shall meet you, there—perhaps with Mlle. Jacqueline."
But I had little hope of meeting him with Jacqueline. Only I could not forbear to speak her name again.