“He has guaranteed that no attacks aimed at me shall hurt me; that I shall never be robbed; that I shall live a hundred years and succeed in everything I undertake, and be as young to the day of my death as a two-year old cockerel—”
“Well, if that’s so,” said Marie, “it must be devilishly easy for you to save my brother from the conscription—”
“If he chooses, that’s to say. He’ll have to lose a finger,” returned Rigou. “I’ll tell him how.”
“Look out, you are taking the upper road!” exclaimed Marie.
“I never go by the lower at night,” said the ex-monk.
“On account of the cross?” said Marie, naively.
“That’s it, sly-boots,” replied her diabolical companion.
They had reached a spot where the high-road cuts through a slight elevation of ground, making on each side of it a rather steep slope, such as we often see on the mail-roads of France. At the end of this little gorge, which is about a hundred feet long, the roads to Ronquerolles and to Cerneux meet and form an open space, in the centre of which stands a cross. From either slope a man could aim at a victim and kill him at close quarters, with all the more ease because the little hill is covered with vines, and the evil-doer could lie in ambush among the briers and brambles that overgrow them. We can readily imagine why the usurer did not take that road after dark. The Thune flows round the little hill; and the place is called the Close of the Cross. No spot was ever more adapted for revenge or murder, for the road to Ronquerolles continues to the bridge over the Avonne in front of the pavilion of the Rendezvous, while that to Cerneux leads off above the mail-road; so that between the four roads,—to Les Aigues, Ville-aux-Fayes, Ronquerolles, and Cerneux,—a murderer could choose his line of retreat and leave his pursuers in uncertainty.
“I shall drop you at the entrance of the village,” said Rigou when they neared the first houses of Blangy.
“Because you are afraid of Annette, old coward!” cried Marie. “When are you going to send her away? you have had her now three years. What amuses me is that your old woman still lives; the good God knows how to revenge himself.”