第66章
When she was at the bayou's edge she stood there, and shouted for help as if a life depended upon it:-- "Oh, P'tit Maitre! P'tit Maitre! Venez donc! Au secours! Au secours!"No voice responded.Cheri's hot tears were scalding her neck.She called for each and every one upon the place, and still no answer came.
She shouted, she wailed; but whether her voice remained unheard or unheeded, no reply came to her frenzied cries.And all the while Cheri moaned and wept and entreated to be taken home to his mother.
La Folle gave a last despairing look around her.Extreme terror was upon her.She clasped the child close against her breast, where he could feel her heart beat like a muffled hammer.Then shutting her eyes, she ran suddenly down the shallow bank of the bayou, and never stopped till she had climbed the opposite shore.
She stood there quivering an instant as she opened her eyes.Then she plunged into the footpath through the trees.
She spoke no more to Cheri, but muttered constantly, "Bon Dieu, ayez pitie La Folle! Bon Dieu, ayez pitie moi!"Instinct seemed to guide her.When the pathway spread clear and smooth enough before her, she again closed her eyes tightly against the sight of that unknown and terrifying world.
A child, playing in some weeds, caught sight of her as she neared the quarters.The little one uttered a cry of dismay.
"La Folle!" she screamed, in her piercing treble."La Folle done cross de bayer!"Quickly the cry passed down the line of cabins."Yonda, La Folle done cross de bayou!"Children, old men, old women, young ones with infants in their arms, flocked to doors and windows to see this awe-inspiring spectacle.Most of them shuddered with superstitious dread of what it might portend."She totin' Cheri!" some of them shouted.
Some of the more daring gathered about her, and followed at her heels, only to fall back with new terror when she turned her distorted face upon them.Her eyes were bloodshot and the saliva had gathered in a white foam on her black lips.
Some one had run ahead of her to where P'tit Maitre sat with his family and guests upon the gallery.
"P'tit Maitre! La Folle done cross de bayou! Look her! Look her yonda totin' Cheri!" This startling intimation was the first which they had of the woman's approach.
She was now near at hand.She walked with long strides.Her eyes were fixed desperately before her, and she breathed heavily, as a tired ox.
At the foot of the stairway, which she could not have mounted, she laidthe boy in his father's arms.Then the world that had looked red to La Folle suddenly turned black,--like that day she had seen powder and blood.
She reeled for an instant.Before a sustaining arm could reach her, she fell heavily to the ground.
When La Folle regained consciousness, she was at home again, in her own cabin and upon her own bed.The moon rays, streaming in through the open door and windows, gave what light was needed to the old black mammy who stood at the table concocting a tisane of fragrant herbs.It was very late.
Others who had come, and found that the stupor clung to her, had gone again.P'tit Maitre had been there, and with him Doctor Bonfils, who said that La Folle might die.