The Collected Works of P. C. Wren: Complete Beau Geste Series, Novels & Short Stories. P. C. Wren
staggered. If Lejaune knew all about it, what of our precious threat to Schwartz? And what was our position now?
"Why doesn't Lejaune do something then?" asked Michael.
"Oh, he'll do something all right," said Bolidar. "He'll do a good deal, the night before Schwartz and his fools intend to strike."
"Why does he wait?" we asked simultaneously.
"To see what you two are going to do," was the reply. "If you join Schwartz you'll be killed with Schwartz, the night before the mutiny is due--and I'm to secure the diamond. It is not really supposed that you'll join him though. And if you don't join Schwartz you are to be killed in the attack on him instead."
"By whom?" asked Michael.
"By me," replied Bolidar. "You see, if you should join Schwartz, I am to be loyal and enter the barrack-room with Lejaune and the others on the night. As we cover the mutineers with our rifles, mine is to go off and kill you. . . . If you don't join Schwartz, I am to be a mutineer, and when you enter the barrack-room with Lejaune and the loyal party, in the night, I am to shoot you from my bed. . . . Either way you are to die--and I am perfectly sure that I shall die too. . . . Oh, God! Oh, Jesus Christ! Oh, Holy Virgin! Oh, Saints in Heaven!" he blubbered.
"And suppose I refuse to give Schwartz any answer, and remain perfectly neutral?" asked Michael.
"Then I am to harangue the mutineers and urge them to kill you as a non-supporter! You and any others that won't join them, so that it will not look as though I have any personal motive or feeling with regard to you specially. Then I am to offer to 'execute' you. . . . Having done it, I am to get the diamond and give it to Lejaune. . . . Yes," he added with another whispered gasp, "Lejaune is going to shoot me if you are killed without my securing the jewel for him . . ." and he rocked his body to and fro in despair.
"He ought to have an apron to throw over his head and cry into--like an old peasant woman whose cow has died," said Michael in English.
"Yes," I agreed. "Let's get all we can out of the brute before we let him go."
"Is Boldini in this?" Michael asked Bolidar. "I mean, are he and Lejaune working together?"
"Well--Boldini knows that Lejaune knows," was the reply. "And those two are going to use Dupré and St. André and Cordier and Maris and you two, for the arrest of the unarmed mutineers in the middle of the night. That is, if you refuse to join Schwartz as they anticipate. . . . But I doubt if Boldini and Lejaune quite trust each other. Guantaio says they don't. He thinks that Boldini intends to get the diamond for himself, and that Lejaune suspects as much. At least that is what Guantaio tells me--but I don't wholly trust him. . . ."
"Don't you really?" said Michael.
"No. I don't think he's absolutely honest," said Bolidar doubtfully.
"You surprise me," admitted Michael. "The dirty dog!"
"He has made proposals to me which I have rejected with contempt," said Bolidar.
"Dangerous?" asked Michael.
"Absurdly," replied Bolidar. "Besides, how was I to know that I should get my share! It's bad enough to have to trust Lejaune as one is compelled to do--without risking things with a rascal like Guantaio."
"Has Boldini made--er--proposals which you rejected with contempt?" Michael enquired.
"Oh, yes. But as I pointed out to him--Lejaune is adjudant while Boldini is only caporal."
"And what did he say to that?" asked Michael.
"That a live caporal is better than a dead adjudant," was the interesting reply.
"Sounds sinister," I observed in English.
"Nice little crowd," said Michael in the same language. "One really doesn't know where one is, nor where to start on the job of making head or tail of the business.
"Let's get this clear now," he said to Bolidar. "You are Lejaune's--er--man. You warned him of Schwartz's plot to mutiny and kill him, while acting as though you were a ringleader. You have told every detail to Lejaune and kept him up to date with every development. Lejaune has given you the job of killing me. If I join Schwartz, you are to turn loyal, go over to Lejaune, and shoot me in my bed when we are arrested.
"If I refuse to join Schwartz you are to continue as a mutineer and shoot me, from your bed, when I come in with the loyal party to arrest you.
"If I decline to declare myself you are to be my executioner, self-appointed, on behalf of the worthy mutineers--who will have no neutrals about. And all this in order that Lejaune may get a diamond that is supposed to be in my possession. . . ."
Bolidar was sunk in a lethargy of miserable thought. He slowly nodded in affirmation.
"And probably Boldini has a plan of his own which involves a dead adjudant and leaves a live caporal--also in pursuit of a diamond! And Boldini's plan, I suppose, is to support Lejaune until he has got the diamond, and then withdraw the support--and the diamond? . . ."
Bolidar came out of his fit of brooding abstraction.
"That is what Guantaio said," he replied. "He wanted me to join Boldini, Colonna, Gotto, and himself. We were to plot, and kill Lejaune and those who stood by him against the mutineers, after those poor fools had been arrested and either shot (in 'self-defence,' of course) or put in the cells. When we had got the diamond we could decide whether to liberate the mutineers and use them in fighting our way to Morocco, or whether their mouths had better be closed. . . . We could set fire to the fort and clear out--and everything would be put down to the account of the Arabs. . . ."
"And why did you not fall in with this pretty scheme?" asked Michael.
"Well--who could trust Boldini? Or Guantaio? Or any of them, for that matter? They are not honest men. Once Boldini had the diamond, what would be the worth of the life of the man who had a claim on a share of it? To have the diamond would, of course, be death! To be one of a syndicate owning it would, of course, be death! Even to know who had got it would be death, for the man who had it would kill you lest you robbed him or demanded your share. . . . How can one work with such dishonest people?" and the speaker's voice broke with righteous indignation.
"And has Guantaio made any other proposals which you have rejected with contempt?" asked Michael.
"Oh--any number," replied Bolidar. "He seems to think I'm a fool. He actually proposed that I should rob you, and he and I should desert together, before all this mutiny business takes place. I was almost tempted--but--but----"
"Quite," said Michael. "It must be a great handicap."
"It is," agreed Bolidar. "And besides," he added, "how could two men walk across two thousand miles of desert, apart from the question of goums and the Touaregs? . . . And wouldn't Guantaio murder me directly we got to Morocco?"
"Unless you murdered him first," said Michael.
"Yes," agreed Bolidar, "but one might leave it too late . . ." and he meandered on about the untrustworthiness of Italians.
"Well, now. Let's get down to business," Michael interrupted. "What have you told us all this for? What do you want us to do?"
"Why," said Bolidar, "I felt I must deal with honest men and I must get away. It is certain death for me. If I get the diamond I shall be killed for it, or for knowing that Lejaune has got it. If I don't get it, Lejaune will kill me for failing him, or else for knowing too much when there is a court martial about the mutiny. . . ."
"Well?" Michael encouraged him.
"I thought that if I told you two all about it--the real truth to honest men--you would save my life and your own, and give me a share in the diamond."
"How save our lives?" Michael asked.
"All desert together before the mutiny, and you give me a third-part share in the diamond when we are safe."
"How do you