The boys disobeyed instructions at once. They were both surprised already.
Before rising the priest received the benediction from the newcomer, and in another moment they were conversing in Latin; not, it seemed to Kit, like equals talking together, but more like an inferior speaking to a superior. The conversation lasted for some minutes; and at its conclusion the priest of the church, with a profound bow, led the way down the steps, across the stone promenade, and into the small house in which, as their guide had told them, the clergy made their headquarters. It was not, as the boys soon saw, a place where the priests lived, but simply where they could sit and read and make themselves comfortable while waiting for the numerous services during the day and evening; and an adjoining room, the door of which stood open when they entered, was evidently devoted to the uses of the sisters in white.
The room was in darkness at first, but the priest began to light the wax candles that seemed to be kept more for ornament than use, and it was soon bright as day. He drew up chairs for the visitor and his companions, and then, with many low bows, excused himself and went out. The apartment looked somewhat bare, but its scant furniture was heavy and solid.
“This will answer our purpose while we are detained here,” their friend said when they were alone. “I have asked them to let us have a fire, for the wind makes the air chilly.”
In an incredibly short time, the priest returned with a number of attendants, each bearing a load of some kind—attendants, who were evidently young men in training for the priesthood, for they all wore semi-priestly costumes. Two of them carried a large and handsomely carved armchair from the church. Another had a large purple cloth over his arm. Another bore a footstool, and still another brought an armful of wood.
Surprising as all this was, the boys were still more surprised to see that each person as he entered the room immediately dropped upon his knees, and rose only when their guide motioned them to do so, which he did immediately. The two with the big chair had to set it down before they could kneel; but the young man with the armful of wood had the hardest time getting down and up again.
The big chair was placed by the side of the hearth, and with the heavy purple cloth thrown over it, and the footstool in front, it began to look, the boys thought, very much like a throne. But their guide seated himself in it as readily as if a throne was his customary seat, and talked in Latin again with the priest, while one of the young men started a blazing fire. When the priest withdrew again, as he did in a few minutes, accompanied by the young men, it was with many low bows, and walking backward toward the door.
“Some of them are going to break their necks if this thing keeps on,” Harry said to himself. He was fairly tingling for a chance to talk to Kit, but that was still impossible. “But I’d like to know what sort of a Grand High Panjandrum this is we’re travelling with. It must be an awful nuisance to be such a big gun that people have to get down on their knees to you. Why, I don’t believe you have to kneel when you go to see the Governor of Connecticut; no, nor the President.”
“They are going to bring us some trifling refreshment,” their guide said, “as we shall lose our dinners through this accident to the ascenseurs.” Then seeing that the boys hardly knew how to conduct themselves in what was for them a very awkward situation, he skilfully led them into conversation. How long had they been in Marseilles, and what had they seen?
Kit was soon started with the story of their visit to the Castle d’If and what befell them there, in which their friend was very much interested. Then he was led on and on, almost without knowing it, to tell something of his own history; and that took him naturally to the disappearance of his father, and the possibility that he might be the strange man in the New Zealand hospital.