“Mistaken!” thought Toni to himself, “Creci was lying, pure and simple.” That Toni knew, for he had seen the whole transaction.
“We are bound, under the circumstances,” said Captain Merrilat, “to take Lieutenant Creci’s word for it. Naturally Madame Ravenel’s word can not be taken.”
Colonel Duquesne pondered for a while, stroking his mustache, and then said:
“Come to me in two days—I will see what can be done,”—and then, after a little more talk, the two officers got up and went away, and Colonel Duquesne strolled out in the garden where Toni was still behind the gooseberry bushes.
The colonel knew the Widow Marcel’s boy and disapproved of him on general principles, but did not suspect the little scamp was hidden behind the gooseberry bushes which the colonel passed as he walked up and down the dark path. As he turned to pass the third time, he heard Tom’s shrill, boyish voice piping out:
“You know, Jacques, I saw it all—I was watching Captain and Madame Ravenel, and I saw Captain Ravenel when he got up and went away—and then the young officer came along, and Madame Ravenel wasn’t looking his way at all—she was looking down with her hands in her lap, and I don’t think she even saw the lieutenant until he came up to her quite close and said something impudent to her, and then Madame Ravenel’s face got as red as red could be, and the lieutenant plumped himself down as close to her as he could and threw his arm around the back of the bench, and Madame Ravenel looked scared to death and jumped up, and then Captain Ravenel came and caught the lieutenant by the collar and threw him on the ground and wiped his foot on him, and you know, Jacques, you saw that just as I did.”
The colonel stopped suddenly in his walk, and looking about, saw Toni’s little black head among the gooseberry bushes. He did not see the other boy with whom Toni was talking, but he understood well enough what Toni meant. Then Toni kept on:
“Jacques, I tell you, Madame Ravenel wasn’t even looking at the lieutenant, and I know she hates him by the way she pushed him off when he sat down by her.”
The colonel walked around the gooseberry bushes and there sat Toni on the ground, but Jacques, whom the colonel innocently supposed to be another boy, was not in sight, being then in Toni’s pocket.
“So, my lad,” said the colonel, “you saw the fight between Captain Ravenel and Lieutenant Creci?”