Gordon was swimming as he had never done save once—when he had swum the Hellespont years before, and in mid-channel a strange, great piebald fish had glided near him. The lawyer saw him reach and grasp the helpless man, and, supporting him, bring him to shore. He sniffed with satisfaction.
“Only one man in the canton can swim like that,” he said, “and that’s the one you came to see. No wonder the peasants call him ‘the English fish’!”
The young man whom Gordon had aided wore a blonde curling beard, contrasting strongly with his older companion’s darker shaven cheeks and bushy black Greek eyebrows. The unseen spectators on the terrace saw him drink from his rescuer’s pocket-flask—saw him rise and grasp the other’s hand and knew that he was thanking him. As they watched, a servant ran to the coach-house, and the syndic observed:
“He’s sending them into town by carriage. They’re going indoors now. We’ll go down presently.”
“Take my advice,” urged the attorney above the terrace, “and let the Englishman alone. Haven’t we court business enough in Switzerland, that we must work for Flanders? What have we to do with the complaints of Brussels coachmakers? And how do you know it’s true, anyway?”
The syndic’s lips snapped together.
“I know my business,” he bridled. “He is a worshiper of Satan and a scoffer at religion.”
“And you’d burn him with green wood if you could, as Calvin did Servetus in the town yonder, eh?”
“He has committed every crime in his own country,” went on the other angrily. “He has formed a conspiracy to overthrow by rhyme all morals and government. My brother wrote me from Copet that one of Madame de Staël’s guests fainted at seeing him ride past, as if she had seen the devil. They say in Geneva that he has corrupted every grisette on the rue Basse! Do you think he is too good to be a thief? Murderer or absconder or heretic, it is all one to me. Cologny wants none such on her skirts. Let us go down,” he added, rising; “it will be dark soon.”
The counsellor shrugged his shoulders and followed the other over the sloping terrace.