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Utu: A Story of Love, Hate and Revenge

Chapter XXVIII. A Moonlight Promena De—A Nefarious Business—Pierre's Revenge—A Deadly Embrace

Chapter XXVIII. A Moonlight Promena De—A Nefarious Business—Pierre's Revenge—A Deadly Embrace.

As Monsieur d'Estrelles' valet had foretold, when the kainga lay wrapped in slumber that personage came out from his whare, and, seeking the beach, wandered to and fro, like one possessed. The night was beautifully clear and light, but silence brooded over the scene, the moon cast eerie shadows. But Monsieur d'Estrelles, though somewhat unhinged by lack of sleep and excess of brandy, was of a practical type, and no fear of moon-made phantoms mingled with ins disagreeable thoughts. Backwards and forwards before the kainga he passed for some time; then, extending his walk, he strode on and on, as if purposed to circumambulate the island. He had made about half the distance, when suddenly his ears caught the sound of a stealthy step behind him. Turning hastily, he was in the very act tripped up and thrown violently to the ground, where he lay on his back partially stunned. He came to in a few moments, only to find himself blind-folded, gagged, and bound hand and foot. Swiftly the red giant bore him to the canoe, and silently, save for the sound, of page 138 their paddles, the two accomplices shot away from the island in the direction of the rocky bluff, above whose distant face they designed to chain their victim. Neither spoke, for Arnaud had made the other promise not to address him.

By the time they reached their destination the moon was near its zenith, and its mellow light revealed every detail of the solitary scene. From a storm-twisted pohutukawa129 overhanging the cliff depended a strong cable, and a zigzag row of projections in the face of the precipice indicated a possible but dangerous means of reaching the top, while at its base great masses of disintegrated rock promised certain destruction to the unlucky climber who should lose his foothold. Pierre's gloating eyes took in every detail, and, chuckling grimly, he proceeded to lift the unfortunate prisoner out of the canoe with an unnecessary roughness which proved the fixity of his baleful purpose.

Arnaud soon made himself scarce, leaving to Pierre the congenial task of completing the nefarious business. Slipping the noose over his victim's head, he unbound his feet and removed the gag from his lacerated mouth. Blind-folded still, and manacled, Monsieur made desperate efforts for freedom; but his efforts were futile, and served only to excite the brutal mirth of his merciless foe, who, pulling the bandages from his eyes, laughed in his face with bitter malignancy.

All was now ready. Manacled still, and held by the tight-drawn noose, his toes just touching the sand, Monsieur was at the mercy of his enemy, whose reasons for bringing him here he was at a loss to divine. In the first moments of his capture he had imagined his assailant to be a native, and took it for granted that he was backed up by a following; but, lying in the bottom of the canoe, he remembered the Maori dread of the night, and now that his eyes were unbound he saw that his captor was one of the crew. But having come but little in contact with any of the seamen, no motive for the treatment he was undergoing suggested itself, though intense animosity and malignant purpose on the giant's part were very clear. His cogitations were, however, soon cut short by a very unpleasant sensation of swift upward movement, and a few seconds later his feet rested on the brittle edge of the beetling bluff, and glancing downwards, he could see his adversary fasten the free end of the lifting cable around a jutting rock, and essay the critical task of clambering up the face of the precipice. Avoiding overhaste, Pierre accomplished this in safety, and then, deliberately taking his stand a few feet from his prisoner, he pushed back his fiery locks and glared at him savagely.

‘So, Conrad d'Estrelles,’ he said harshly, after some minutes survey, ‘you do not know me, it seems.’ Then, with a sneer, ‘When you discarded your old name and obligations, you doubtless threw off old memories with them—a very convenient mode of getting through the page 139 world if one can only carry it out. But I wonder not at your failing to recognise me, for I, too, am changed. Two can play at the game of disguises, and when you saw me last my hair was another colour. You start. Yes, Conrad d'Estrelles, alias Louis St. Maur, alias Jacques le Blanc, the wolf has come up with you. Pierre le Loup has run you to earth. Ha! You thought you had finally eluded me, did you? You dreamed that at the Antipodes you would be safe. But you reckoned without book, my fine gentleman, and even here the law of Utu prevails. A very good law it is too.’ He laughed grimly. ‘And now Jacques le Blanc, since you have spent my money, you shall pay me with your life, and then we shall he quits. It was not enough,’ he resumed with increased bitterness—‘it was not enough to steal mon amante130 , but you must also rob me of the reward of my patient plotting, the labour of years. I forgave you the first—though I sent her quick l'enfer131 —for she was pretty, and you were young, and—I had need to you: but I owed you a grudge, nevertheless, and now Babette Michel, as well as I, shall be avenged, for you were her real destroyer—you, who enticed her from me. Yes, Babette was pretty, and fresh as a spring flower,’ he continued with a faint touch of regret in his harsh voice ‘and too light-hearted to die so young. But——Bah! What am I saying? The dead only are happy. And I treated you both in orthodox fashion, for does not society pet the libertine and spit at his paramour? Ha-ha! It's a queer world we live in, Jacques le Blanc, and you will be well out of it, now you have lost your illgotten gains, for it loves not poor devils. But your death shall be less speedy than that of Babette, my boy. You shall have time for repentance. Ha-ha! But keep your eyes open, mon ami, lest you lose your footing, for with this necklace round your throat you would in that case be somewhat uncomfortable, and no one likes discomfort less.’ He paused, leering with triumphant malice upon the dumbfounded villain who had so long eluded his search, for the fastidious Monsieur d'Estrelles was in very truth no other than the Gipsy fiend, Jacques le Blanc. Roger Radcliffe's murderous valet. ‘You are silent, man,’ he mocked again, presently. ‘Have you then naught to say, no plea to urge, no confession to make? Well, it grows late, and I must be going. Not being in orders, I cant offer to shrive132 you, but I can at least render you one last office. Ha-ha! And then, good-bye for ever.’

He bent forward, and by a dexterous and unexpected movement encircled with a leathern strap his prisoner's throat, but jerking violently backwards the latter wrenched himself free, at the same instant flinging his manacled arms over the giant's head, and drawing him closer in a vice-like clasp. His own fate he felt was sealed, but at least he might make his enemy share it, and to that end he applied himself with the energy of despair.

page 140

Pierre was fairly trapped. Struggle as he would, he could not disengage himself from the savage grip of the arms he had himself bound together, and the malignant laughter of his so lately helpless captive drove him frantic. A frightful struggle ensued, a struggle to be decided, as it seemed, by main strength, for neither could freely use his arms those of Monsieur pressing Pierre's at the elbows. Wildly they glared into each other's bursting eyes, each hugging the other like a veritable bruin, fiercely they swayed to and fro, using their nether limbs to aid the upper. No strength was wasted in speech. In hate too intense for words each sought to press the life out of the other's body. Forgetful of all the world beside, they struggled and strove, every faculty being absorbed in the deadly duel. Minute succeeded minute quarter followed quarter, and still breast to breast they wrestled on the verge of the precipice, held from destruction only by the rope by which Monsieur had been elevated, and upon the lower end of which the long-continued friction was beginning to tell, though in their fury neither thought of such a possibility.

At length their struggles sensibly relaxed. D'Estrelles was growing faint. Pierre, with every muscle set for a supreme effort, was on the point of victory, when the last strand of the fretted rope gave way, and in a twinkling both combatants were precipitated upon the rocks below, a short, sharp cry awakening the startled echoes as they fell.

129 Known as the New Zealand Christmas tree due to the time of year that it flowers. Its flowers are distinctive spiky red balls (Crowe 15).

[Note added by Vicki Hughes as annotator]

130 My lover.

[Note added by Vicki Hughes as annotator]

131 Hell.

[Note added by Vicki Hughes as annotator]

132 To hear the confession of.

[Note added by Vicki Hughes as annotator]