Vivi and Rosanne sat down on the cot, glancing shyly at each other. Minuit sat on Vivi’s knee and looked distrustfully at Rosanne, who stroked his bony back timidly.
Humphrey went over to the rude fireplace, and after some puffing of his fat cheeks, and shoving of paper here and there, started a good blaze. When the wood was burning nicely he put a very small shovelful of coal on top of it. Then he came back and spoke to the two children on the cot.
“Listen well to what I say, please, tha in particular, Miss Rosanne, as, perhaps, I’d best be calling tha. Vivi does not understand much that I say. I am going abroad now for food. I may be back within a half hour. Th’art to bolt the door after me when I go, and th’art not to let any one in but me. Tha will know me because I’ll say 'Buns’ very loud outside the door. Tell Vivi what I have said to thee. Tell her she must na open to any one!”
Rosanne promised. “I’ll not let any one in who does not say 'Buns,’” she assured him, and again, to his relief, he saw that she was smiling. He went out and waited on the top stair until he heard the bolt turn.
Because of the unusual and exciting turn of events, Humphrey for once had not brought food to Vivi. He would buy the food now and go back with it to the girls. Then he would go up to his own room and think. He must have an hour to think, to consider, to plan. Rosanne de Soigné would be safe enough that night with Vivi, and they both would be warm and fed. He thought Rosanne might be safe there for some time. The next all important problem was Lisle Saint Frère, the boy with the proud face, who had told him that he trusted him out of all Paris! To find out who were his captors, to find where they had hidden him, to rescue him, and to bring him to safety—these were the things above all others that he must do. He would think out what was the best thing to do during the snowy night, while the rats scudded back and forth in the walls of the dark alley and the two girls slept cuddled close together in the room below, covered with the blue velvet table cover and the piece of torn sacking.
Rosanne would wake in the morning to find herself in the cold gloom of a poor tenement, but that night she had been too dazed and tired to take stock of her surroundings. She had eaten the bread which Humphrey had brought, and with it a piece of cheese. She had sat close to the fire with Vivi, and she had seen Vivi looking at her with the big, astonished black eyes that somehow were like Marie Josephine’s. The whole event of the evening had taken place so suddenly and unexpectedly. She and Lisle had been cosily roasting chestnuts by the fire one moment, and the next moment, so it seemed, he was gone, and Humphrey Trail had come and carried her off! It all seemed like a dream to her that evening, and she felt as though she would wake up at any moment. The dirty, dark room and the quiet, staring little girl did not seem real. But she liked Vivi and after the two girls had smiled at each other, they felt somehow like friends. Rosanne was very glad indeed that Vivi was there. She put her arm around Vivi, who sleepily did the same. Then she fell asleep and dreamt that she was running along the south terrace at Les Vignes with Marie Josephine and that the lilies were in bloom all along the way.
Chapter XII
DIAN MAKES A FRIEND
Dian had reached the gates of Paris and passed through. Though he did not in any way realize it, it was a remarkable thing that he had done. There had been a slight scrimmage among a flock of sheep at the west barrier when he came up to it, and much shouting and bad language had ensued. The guards at the gates were stupid, bad-tempered men, and they berated the market farmers loudly. Dian had called out to the flock in the tones so well known by his own sheep at home in Pigeon Valley. He knew well that the sheep would listen to him, and in an instant it seemed as though all the wild disorder among them had never been. They passed through the gates, and Dian went with them. There was no one in the motley crowd who did not think that he was their shepherd except the men who owned them, and they were glad enough to be out of the brawl! It had been easy enough to get into Paris, and Dian, with his simple faith, felt that when the right time came it would be easy to get out again.
His journey had not been difficult for he was used to every kind of weather and he loved the wind and the snow. He rested whenever he was tired, and he never minded sleeping in the corner of a barn, with his warm cloak wrapped snugly about him. He had brought food in his wallet, and whenever he had thought it wise, he had asked for a glass of warm milk. He walked with long strides, knowing well how to save himself unnecessary fatigue, and he thought not at all about his own welfare. He had never been in a city before in all his life, and had never seen large numbers of people together, and as he stood quietly on a street corner watching the wild tide of life that swept past him, he wondered greatly.