Sparrow in a cage E-Book

Max du Veuzit

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Seitenzahl: 324

Beschreibung

Who is Erika, the wild and violent teenager who by chance led to the castle of Kolos, at the foot of the Caucasus? A barefoot, a rascal, or a poor child once taken from the love of her family by gypsies, as she claims? His arrival will throw the disruption. Indeed, the master of Kolos, the Earl of Mordaw, had a cruel ordeal: his little girl had disappeared thirteen years earlier without her trace ever being found. Could it be that Erika was the heiress of the Mordaw? A new existence then begins for her. Waiting for proof of her origin, the Count's entourage will try to transform the wild woman who was running the roads into an accomplished young girl. Not without difficulty.... In Erika's life entered a young lord full of pride and contempt: the viscount Sigismund. Will the secret held by old Marouska bring young people closer together? After so many trials and tribulations, will Erika finally experience the tenderness of a home and the love of the one her heart has chosen?

Leseprobe

Sparrow in a cage

Pages de titreIIIIIIIVCopyright

Max the Veuzit

Sparrow in a cage

Max the Veuzit is the pen name of Alphonsine Zéphirine Vavasseur, born in Petit-Quevilly 29 October 1876 and died in Bois-Colombes 15 April 1952. It is a French language writer, author of numerous romance novels with great success.

I

- Mick, look out! The gendarmes!

The arrested, about a young man of twenty, let the wicker boot cut and he had turned to the little girl, in a low voice, had thrown the warning.

- Well, what! It does not hurt, he said, pushing his foot bundle in water, for concealing the unwelcome attention of the authorities.

- They do not want to be cut green wood, gently insisted the girl.

He protested with a shrug.

- Wicker, it's not the same thing: it grows in the water and not in the forest.

- A guard grabbed me the other day ...

The boy had a fine contempt motion:

- Because you're just a girl, you! You're scared and you get saved. To me, no one dares to say anything.

However, despite its great confidence, he crouched in a crevice of the shoreline, behind a clump of willows young.

A few meters away, across the plain foliage shrubs, he had just seen the blue suit, bedecked in white, instinctive terror of all vagrants.

And in early kid that misery has matured, he explained his gesture of caution:

- Better hide; it was nice to have nothing wrong with these men, you never know!

The girl did not wait for his opinion to burrow itself into another hiding place.

The rhythmic step gendarmes approached, grew and took shape in front of them.

Both, motionless, holding their breath. Their clothes, blush and discolored by water and sun, mingled with the soil color.

The brave Pandores - they were four - passed without causing suspect the presence of children, without seeing the feverish glow of eyes fixed worried about them.

They seemed rushed and walked quickly, shoulder to shoulder, as if they were on an expedition.

- The account is good, it's relegation this time.

- This is a brute who does not deserve better!

The children heard these words without attaching any importance.

When they were gone, the two children's heads, gradually rose up.

- They take left, the girl said.

- Yes, they go by the wood. There are not yet hamlet by one!

- And why are they four?

In the distance, not the noise decreased and silhouettes shrank.

Suddenly, the children uttered an exclamation of surprise and even a curious movement rose up standing.

- Ah! Damn it ! It looks like they are going there!

All eyes on the group moved away undergrowth, they anxiously waited.

And suddenly, not doubting:

- That's it ! they cried. They take the footpath!

- They go to the clearing directly!

- Just! The trailer is at the end of the trail.

- For The Red, then?

- Unless it is for us.

- Oh, shut up, Mick! Do not say such a thing. We did not do anything, we! Cut wicker baskets or take our sticks for our wicker chairs, it's not a crime that!

The eyes full of tears, the girl looked at Mick, watching a reassuring word that would have calmed her sudden anxiety.

As he was silent, she added, hoarse voice full of tears:

- It's not our fault! This is the Red who commanded us. He would beat us if we did not obey ...

In this humble and childlike voice crying distress, Mick broke his silence:

- Do not worry, Frika. For The Red they are going there.

- What could have done yet? said the young girl already reassured by the air of certainty of the boy.

- There will be stolen again, Pardine!

- Or maybe he was beaten? This morning he spoke to stun everyone: three days ago that he is drunk.

- And when he's drunk, he beats down, Mick whispered, rubbing his ribs, bitter memory of some recent correction.

Speaking, they had picked up their wicker luggage.

- Hey, Frika, must see, decided the boy. Runaway in road and on the run. Is to keep an eye!

They left the bank, crossed the thorn hedge, crossed the road and entered the woods.

They loved the bushes that hide and instinctively habit, they chose in preference to major roads and open places ...

This time, they did not leave the edge of the woods. Their eager eyes were looking in the distance, the uniform of the gendarmes that they no longer perceived.

- If it is stopped, will scroll the rest of us, said thoughtfully adolescents.

- Sure ! approved his companion.

- But how will we do without money, without anything? she added with terror at the idea of ​​leak that was needed.

- We'll manage ! He replied confidently.

- Another time, there was still the woman with us ... but now we're alone ... all alone!

- Bah! It's better! No one to chase after us!

- And no one to feed us and collect us when night comes.

- Shut up, the kid. You talking nonsense, 'said Mick. When The Red tape on you, do not you think it is so necessary that our existence.

- It is true ! but when it is, we still have someone and at the end you get used ...

- To receive blows, ever!

It was peremptory and his companion was silent.

The character of the two children showed himself completely in this conversation.

Frika, frail and timid child of fifteen, had all the exquisite weaknesses girls her age: the fear that brings strong, sweetness makes them cuddly and submitted the generous pardon relieves their loving heart, too small even to contain the hatred and vengeance.

Mick, however, had all the strength of character that a strong teenager can have. In respect to the boldness and decision, it was well worth mature men without his vindictive grudge against the brutal master who terrorized from childhood Deformity judgment or made a bad boy.

Both, alone, isolated, without friends, no parents, no home; delivered since their childhood abuse as generously granted them an itinerant merchant baskets, it Rouge they spoke only with terror, they had grown up side by side, sharing the same suffering as the same menus pleasures.

And they were both so accustomed to this shared existence, they would not have been able to pass one another.

Frika admired all that Mick was doing. She was proud of his strength, his skill, his courage. With him, she dared to face all dangers-without the thought of leaving it in danger could come to him.

For its part, in its sudden Mick outside, truly loved his little companion. He was happy to see her smile on arrival, sigh and shake his departure when his natural impetuosity drove him to climb trees, to climb the slope, jump ditches, and he might get hurt in violent exercises .

To see shine in the eyes of the Frika glimmer worried that delighted the inside he had faced, pleasure, many other dangers.

But what good kiss he gave her then, this little loving sister and how happy he was, whenever he could pick for her some nice flower or steal some succulent fruit orchards paddocks.

Under the cover of the trees, the children progressed quietly.

- Let us leave our fagots. We will come back later, Mick advised.

- Do not approach too closely, cautiously replied his companion.

- We do not put in the legs of the wolf, that's obvious! replied the boy. However, we must see!

Rid of their burden, they slipped easily into the bushes.

Suddenly the sound of a discussion of a struggle perhaps, with great shouting, reached them.

The wind held to hear better, they stopped and listened.

The wind blew, cracking branches, kept them to grasp the meaning of the words uttered near them.

Mick resumed his journey.

- We understand. Approaching again.

- I'm scared, muttered the girl who had become pale.

- What a coward! Mick was looking forward to.

However, he turned to the little and took her hand.

- Come on, Frika. Do not stay there. We are too close to the feel. If the police caught sight of us, they take us with them to ask us, or maybe to put us to the "Power-assisted".

This perspective gave legs to the little fearful.

The hospital, with its high walls and large gates that no free passes, is the nightmare, the threat of all street children, hungry for freedom, because they have never known their obstruction vagabond life.

Mick comes back to his idea:

- We need to know if it's Rouge we take and for how long.

- We will learn soon enough!

- At all ! I want to know right away. I have an idea.

The voices came closer and children understood that the group of gendarmes retraced his steps.

- Already! We would we be wrong? They had barely time to reach the clearing.

- It may not be for Rouge that they were there.

- Good! whispered the girl.

- Never mind ! Mick replied.

But, suddenly, they stopped and anxious, in a mutual need relief, crowded one against the other.

Pale, disheveled, they looked.

- It's Rouge!

Through the already yellow leaves early autumn days they saw, again, the dreaded uniform of authority figures.

And maintained by the four men, mastered, tamed, they recognized Rouge.

He was a rough fellow of about forty, with shifty eyes, low forehead.

He must try to resist and fight, since a bloody gash across his forehead, while on the tunic of a policeman, a white frog hanging, torn.

- It is forbidden! They were four, otherwise they would not have taken.

In fact, the man seemed a Herculean strength. His height, his neck short and wide, powerful shoulders, his huge fists, gave him a formidable appearance that did not belie the bad light look.

Sometimes even, the revolt movements and stiffened by two or three sudden release of the body back, he tried to free himself from the strong grip that held him prisoner.

Insults, low and vile words hiccupped between her lips burned by alcohol.

It was gross, gross and massive huge, for which we really did not feel much pity, whatever the crime of which she was accused.

- Assassin! coward! to death, to death!

This sinister cry pierced the wood.

Driven by a group of farmers who have followed from afar the four gendarmes, these cries were repeated, prolonged, by the ruthless and they echo resounded in more dismally in the heart of the two children.

- Assassin! It is called assassin!

They hugged each other in the same terror as if the fault of the Red had spilled over them.

- To death ! To death ! Must be burned alive, the killer!

The peasant, fortunately, has the respect of the uniform.

Men were screaming but stood at a reasonable distance from the group of gendarmes; so the prisoner and they were free to continue their arduous march.

The death cries, pushed against him, appeared to have mellowed Rouge who, with now looks distraught hunted animal, stretched not hastily, realizing that his best defense at this time, these were policemen that insulted earlier defeated in his rage.

As long as the dual group of men was visible, the children remained motionless and mute.

Never, as in this tragic moment, they were felt so abandoned, so low.

They were aware that despite their youth and their innocence, they would be abused by these men shouting cries of death.

Parents or not the prisoner, it was enough that they had lived with him for the same value. The excitement of the peasants would have quickly made them adversely prey good to assuage popular vengeance that claimed a victim.

All these things, they understood them, by instinct rather than reflection, so do they left their hiding place after the well some distance from the pack escorting their former tormentor.

*

The low head and big heart, all thrilled the scene they had just seen, the children had gained in silence deserted clearing where the fallen leaves, is packing it in corners, were scorched frame green grass middle.

Before leaving the thick bushes that concealed them again, Mick prudently held his companion.

- Do not thus arrive, all right, 'he said softly.

- Why ?

- The trailer can be kept. No need to go jump in the lion's den.

- What to do then?

- Let's turn and look around.

Without discussing the girl followed him through the undergrowth.

Sometimes the foliage was so thick that they had to get on all fours to go under too low branches.

- They tied the horse to the wheel of the trailer, remarked suddenly Mick.

- Maybe this is the Red who took this precaution.

- It should rather be a police.

- So ... Do you think that ...?

- They'll come back later to look the beast and the car. Let's hurry.

- What are you going to do ?

- Filer anything there ... but not walk, if possible! He replied briefly, uncovering without fear now.

- Come Frika! We must hurry, affectionately he encouraged.

At the same time, he leapt over a bramble bush which barred his way and he advanced toward the trailer.

- The door is locked, will have to use drastic measures!

His playful gesture indicated that the lock was forced.

Hesitantly, the girl approached.

- There is no one, are you sure?

- There's us and that's enough ... Hey, pass me the iron rod after bent like a hook ... you will find it under the car ... in the box tools ... Come on! , shoo!

- There she is. What do you do?

- A catch-all! I know the trick. I saw the red one day when he had lost the key, use the same steel rod.

Having introduced the bent end of the iron hook into the keyhole, he weighed slowly trying to play the bolt.

He had to start over three times without success, the same routine; but having pressed a little more strongly on the rod, the lock squeaked and the door opened.

- You see, it is a pleasure to work with such a tool. Well, leave it up carefully the precious mat.

So saying, he threw at the feet of the small, the iron rod no longer needed, and with one bound he climbed the steps.

At a glance, Mick kissed the disorder of the trailer.

- Everything is heckled as every time the Red drunk. Looks like the living room of a rag!

Suddenly he stopped.

At the back of the trailer, on a bunk where torn and dirty cloths used sheets, he had just seen a pinned paper.

- A talkative! if he exclaimed. What does that mean ?

Crossing easily in regular of similar disorders, disparate objects piled on the floor of the car, he soon seized the paper.

- This is the writing of The Red.

- What is he saying ?

Mick first read to him, the few thick and irregular lines that his former teacher had written.

- Owl ! It inherits! Listen to this, 'he said then, addressing Frika. Here's what he said:

"I'm done, the kids! I tumbled, just now, an innkeeper who wanted to put me out of home. If you pinch me, my case is clear? Already, they have to be at my heels. I entrust you Gamin and jaw harp. Go soon before we make you a fuss. I'll try to win the wide, alone. I shall know how to reach you later; if not, keep it. Good luck.

The Red "

Despite himself, the voice of the boy trembled in reading these lines. The mischievous urchin was moved by the churning thoughts that rose in him ...

Rouge had killed! The brutal master was afraid to turn: he was fleeing the justice of men; but feeling good so it was not death in him, he thought, in that supreme moment in her young companions of misery ...

And this rough board he threw them, "Run! "

The unfortunate who was perhaps back to the trailer, which to scribble a few lines, had just been arrested. The children had seen in the hands of the police ...

- He has not had time to escape, said the girl after a painful silence.

- No. He did grasp as he tried to flee. We heard his screams and the sounds of the struggle there.

- The police have not seen the car. They did not come so far?

- They did not need. They have discovered the master when he still believed them away.

- It is he who will Gamin attached to the car.

- Yes surely ! Lest the horse away.

- We are therefore very quiet, now, here.

- Oh ! no ! The police can return from one moment to the next. Someone can show them the trailer.

- Oh my god ! Save ourselves, then!

- That's what we'll do.

- Hurry up, I'm afraid.

These few sentences exchanged with Frika had made Mick his presence of mind.

He slid the letter from the Red in his waistcoat.

- I put up the will, he said with a wan smile.

Then resuming his decisiveness, he ordered.

- We must hurry. Collect all that is round about the car while I tackle Kid. Three days this horse is at rest; it will be able to provide us a good step this evening and tonight.

The girl quickly gathers lean cookware that littered the floor. Jumble, not having learned the cleanliness nor the order, she gathered them in the car at random free places remaining on the floor.

Mick, meanwhile, was diligently. In a trice, he adjusted somehow thin straps and bits of rope that made the trappings Gamin.

- I finished, Mick, soon announced early.

- Me too, he said. It remains for us to leave.

- Those we meet will let us know and we will follow us, made Frika.

Mick nodded. The same thought had occurred to him.

- I was thinking, 'he said thoughtfully.

- Too bad we do not have time to paint the car a different color, said the orphan who had seen several times Rouge user of this process, while under a secret terror that he did not explain to children he felt the need to lose track of him.

Mick had thought, replied:

- We can do better than to repaint the car. Let's change in appearance by covering it with tarp tent which serves us when we run the markets ... While I'll pull from under the axles, take out the speck that is in the mattress; we will put in the boot behind the car and well equipped, our caravan will look, I hope, a brave campaign heavily loaded cart.

The idea Mick was great because when he secured to the roof and sides of the big blue canvas tarpaulin, the trailer was truly meek and harmless appearance of a gardener car.

However, before closing the door and hang on the back of the straw bales that were completed to hide the vehicle, Mick took in a large overcoat and a fur hat that had belonged to the Red.

Without unnecessary scruple, he wrapped himself in the mantle and donned the hat.

- I must have the appearance of a lord and sumptuously dressed. Admire me, Frika!

So saying, he threw on the shoulders of his companion a warm cap that advised him to fall back on the head.

- It'll give you a martial air. As we only see the tip of your nose, you may think you're a bold accomplice. Eh, my little Frika, that makes you change!

Then he fetched the gray blanket of bed

- We'll put on our knees. The nights are cool; no need to deprive us since we made an inheritance.

As for all the coverage faded baskets merchant was using for the same purpose, she went down on the horse's back which had not often such a windfall.

- This will perhaps pop to trot, but we have to hide the poverty of his harness.

Thus equipped, people, stupid and car, they could move forward without drawing attention to themselves.

- Contemplate our crew! Mick cried triumphantly when he finally had all completed. We'll take us for large landowners on tour.

- Provided that we can leave this clearing smoothly and gain the high road. We are not yet safe, whispered the little girl who was probing the way.

- Cover your face, Frika: have the appearance of a brave, if you do not have the soul!

Despite his joke, Mick looked at him as the path darkened with nightfall.

- I believe that the way is clear. Moving forward. We will light the lanterns when it gets a little darker. On the way !

He cracked his whip and the vehicle moved off heavily at first; and soon he spun rapidly, the large dark firs.

Courageously, the two children sitting side by side at the front of the car, well sheltered under their borrowing clothes, were going into the unknown, right in front of them, without any momentary purpose than to flee faster places the fault of another had rendered dangerous for them.

*

The heart was beating hard, the two children when the car left the covered way, led to the highway.

There, especially, at this junction, the place appeared to them dangerous.

People interested in their loss could be ambushed and watch them; unprejudiced eyes could see them and betray them; we could follow them, stop them ...

In one breath, Frika murmured:

- Everything looks calm?

- I see no one, Mick replied in the same tone.

- Which way do we go?

- To the right ; it is more careful.

And a boost, wrapping the horse, he made him take the opposite direction to the village.

Output ruts of the trail, the car sped rife about the free road, well maintained.

For a quarter of an hour, worried and frightened by the slightest shadow point, the children kept an anxious silence.

Sometimes Mick leaned his head out and cast a glance back.

- You're afraid, you fear anything? Frika asked the worried look of his companion began to frighten.

- I'm afraid that does not follow us. It rained yesterday and on the road, wet, we can clearly see the traces of four wheels.

- What to do, my God?

- Nothing, but continue and exit at earlier in this forest. Outdoors, the path will be dry and very clever who will report our track.

- Do we still have a lot of time walking the woods?

- I do not know. We came by road that ran along the river and we had to continue. I did the village with our baskets, trying to sell them, but I did not come here.

- So you do not know where we're going?

- I do not know! But that does not matter. Every road leads to Rome. The main thing is that we walked away from the village.

Again they were silent, taken by worries over their age, they suffered some hours.

Gradually, it was night. The sky, that night, was dark and very few stars above their heads. The thick foliage of the trees still clouded the atmosphere, so that, being black around them, they hardly distinguished the dark ribbon of road. The Kid instinct rather guided them they ran the.

In this atmosphere of gloom, a deaf malaise earned Mick.

- It's black as pitch, down there! he said at last feeling shiver in the night dew. Will have to turn and shake a bit all this melancholy.

- In the darkness we passed better unnoticed, observed Frika.

- Perhaps ; but all black, it makes you a stampede in the soul!

He stopped Gamin and jumped down.

- Hold the reins while I light the lanterns. I put new plugs, it will take us a long.

- For they last longer, we can not turn on one at a time.

- Not at all, we will replace them when they are worn out, but I prefer to see clearly tonight. I do not feel on my plate.

The girl was silent.

In light of the candle, she saw the pale face of the boy, and in this tragic hour when both fled distracted, the sadness of his companion appeared more poignant him again.

However, already small thoughtful woman, not wanting to give substance to the dark thoughts she guessed, she said no more.

When Mick took his place beside her, she just pressed her hand affectionately.

- Huh! we see now! The light that's life and that hunting ghosts!

As she replied only by another hand pressure, he hugged her back and friendly, explained:

- You see, Frika, it's not because I was afraid that I so wanted to have light. No, shadow and me always, we know! Tonight, I needed to see to distract my thoughts.

- What do you mean ?

- I do not know how to explain ... I fads that running through my brain; it makes me want to cry; it's stronger than me !

And below, in need of expansion, he continued:

- I think the master! I tell myself that usually he is there with us, and his deep voice resounds sharply and cut too deep silence of the night. I also tell me he is in prison right now, and maybe he thinks we ... to escape, to join us. I also think that there is somewhere a cold corpse was this morning a vibrant body. I see poor people weeping, wailing around this death. They curse the Red Murder! ... they curse we too, nomads, who lived with him. Do you understand, my little Frika, all these ideas capsize in me. I tell myself and telling me that I have done nothing wrong, I feel still, at bottom, attached to the real culprit. And the proof is that we run! We are afraid, although we have nothing personally.

- We are afraid because we have neither father nor mother can defend us and ask us if we stopped. We flee, because at our age, it would put us to the Children Assisted and it would be a real captive for us who have never experienced obstacles.

- Yes, there is a lot of that in our fear; but we also feel that with the Red, we had to do many things that we were reluctant.

- When he forced us, for example, to steal chickens.

- Or to steal fruit and vegetables.

- It is true ! we were his accomplices confessed Frika humbly.

- Accomplices he beat and terrorized if they did not obey his orders.

- So are we not responsible.

- Or, let the sponge on the past; but we promise, little Frika if we can this time to preserve our freedom, we promise not to live as before. We will another existence, that we live in our work and we can go head high, without fear of anyone.

- Oh ! you are right, my good Mick. Live it right, to not be worried. You see, I was very scared now ... I'm not even much reassured, because you can sue us!

- Do not be afraid. If we realized that we are on our track, we would have to abandon the car and we sneak into the woods. Under cover of night, we easily would escape our pursuers. No, it's not the police that I was afraid, that's something else. Just now, I was choking feeling so miserable, true outcast among the other men! I wanted to be alone in a corner, in order to scream and cry freely and roll me down to stifle my sobs ...

- Do not think of that, my good Mick, and remains alone with your thoughts ... Tell me? We are too young to bear such blows without being bruised; but as you told me often, relying on each other, we are doubly stronger.

- You're right, Frika, I have not let me down. But my melancholy was good because it made me think about a lot of things we try to do and that will make us a better life.

In talking, they had reached the edge of the woods.

Mick noticed first.

- Finally, here's the plain! exclaimed he happily.

- Ha, fine !

The car, in fact, left the woods to cross a barren plateau.

The children breathed freely.

- At least the sky is seen in full, if the darkness prevents us from enjoying the scenery!

- Above all, we are walking on a very dry road. At the next crossroads, where signposts, we will recognize us and choose our direction.

But they encountered several roads with no plate might give them a clue.

Many times, relying on the stars to guide them, they changed their way, abandoning one to follow a new they left later for another.

Mick watched:

- Here are four hours, at least, that we are on the way. Gamin has trotted and we must be far enough from our point of departure.

- We may be quite far apart, the girl said that sleep was beginning to win.

- No, we'll walk all night.

- Kid will be tired.

- He will rest tomorrow, but as he could trot, we will move forward. Make yourself in your corner and try to sleep; I'll watch myself. Fear not, I do not fall asleep myself.

The small wrapped even better in his coat; then, the head buried under the hood, it nestles in the corner of the hood.

- Good night, Mick.

- Good night, Frika.

And soon the girl slept soundly while, on the watch, Mick continued to monitor the gait of the horse.

*

For eight days, they went ahead and, without bothering to follow a well-off route and with the sole desire to put much distance between them and the town where the Red was apprehended.

They continued to travel at night, sleeping during the day and setting off as soon as dusk gave way to night shadows. They had gone through more than three hundred kilometers, leaving the Caucasus and the plains of the Dnieper, to penetrate in Sylvania, this little corner of rural Balkans border where all the noises of the world seem to come and die.

They had halted for fifteen days in the deserted mountain, a small green plateau, away from home. A forest of ancient trees surrounding the plateau. Wild slopes and precipices separated him from the first inhabited hovel. No road, no trail did not pass nearby, and our two children had the impression of being in a remote corner, ignored the rest of the land.

They arrived one morning after climbing all night, the ravine of a dried-up river.

Painful ascent, which had led, after ten hours of walking on that tiny plateau green oasis where the horse right away, had found his pasture.

They were tired by their upward march; they stopped to relax; a fortnight later, they were still in the same place.

They were told that the mountain was inaccessible and dangerous. No villagers crossed it because it gave access to the other side of the slope, only a sterile chaos millennia rocks and gaping crevasses. No track or trail it only met, farmers preferring to avoid these dangerous slopes and follow the line of the villages scattered in the round.

And Mick, that this continual leakage exceeded, had decided to go in this wild corner, there hide their misery and fears.

- A few days' rest will do us good to all. You can not go, my poor Frika and Gamin is running out! The poor beast has more than skin and bones: a truce is needed. We'll take a vacation, in full security.

A dozen kilos of flour, two loaves of twelve books and some lard packets had made their meager provisions.

- There are chestnut trees in the forest and we will find much to catch some wild animal had speculated the young man, little hard on her daily menus. The main thing is that we land up before hitting the road. And if, fortunately, we find wicker, we can make some baskets, which will make us some money for later.

They had found neither osier or chestnut, but the woods were full of ripe loquats and they fed. On the other hand, if fine baskets, they made coarse baskets wooden slats, easy to sell in the markets, farmers serving to pick up their vegetables or tighten their onions.

For two weeks, they were there, very quiet, not thinking at the beginning, so happy in this solitude, Mick wondered if they were not possible to overwinter in this wild corner.

- In a matter of potato sacks ... There deadwood as much as we want; we would gather grass and branches to Gamin. Actually, if we could stay here, it would be the dream!

Unfortunately, man proposes and God disposes, the saying goes.

Our two friends were soon to see all their projects awry and rendered useless vows.

Unpredictable their ordeal was reserved. It would change their lives, carrying them into a turbulent whirlwind as a storm that destroys everything in its path ...

*

While Mick had gone into the nearby forest to pick wild apples and gather firewood, Frika had moved to the trailer to work. She graced the small wicker baskets with colorful fabrics meet. Joyfully to the idea of ​​winning it hoped to withdraw from work, she was to sing, so she did not hear footsteps approaching her. When suddenly she saw before her eyes planted two large hobnailed shoes, she gave a frightened start and looked up. A gamekeeper gazed.

Frika, who needed the presence of Mick to have some insurance, was very intimidated at first under the inquisitive eyes of man. It became quite frightened when she saw his sharp gaze head on a rabbit skin, clinging to a piece of wood stuck between two rocks as a nail.

The frown which man marked his discovery began anxiety heart beats at the poor thing.

- Hey! the beautiful child, he growled, where does this body?

- I ... I do not know, she articulated with difficulty.

- How do you not know ?

- No !

- Where did you get it?

- We found it and picked up ... on the road ... for sale in the city.

- You found it?

- Yes sir.

- On the road ?

- Yes...

The gamekeeper crossed his arms with indignation at what he considered a terrible lie.

- Hey! Well, my daughter, do not miss cap!

His voice was ironic and scathing. The child was all returned.

The newcomer now examining the ground. He lives miserable caravan row a few meters below the rock, with his lean horse tethered, grazing grass.

- The gypsies, of course! I'll bet!

Again, facing the small, called out, raising her voice. Do it not necessary, immediately, show its importance and prevent balk?

- You are this vermin that plunders our burrows and rob our henhouses, he cried. Come on, shoo! Let me inspect your car! There must be a lot of "prohibitions" in there.

Without waiting for a reply, he approached the trailer and climbed inside. With his cane hooked end, he rummaged in drawers and in the linen chest, then looked under some furniture that decorated the room. Finally, notifying a crate, he blew three planks which formed the lid. Then he discovered beautiful tawny fur degraded white. All that remained of a hunting laces.

- Ha! ha! he sneered. Here it is, the reserve! Not bad! ... We know it that I see!

He had returned to Frika and he grabbed her arm.

- And you're alone here? I guess not ... It's not a girl like you could take rabbits. Where is he, your accomplice?

Frika was scared to cry, when suddenly at the other end of the clearing, she saw Mick. He left the bushes and carried a death bundle of wood on his shoulders.

- To me, Mick! to me ! She shouted.

The guard jumped. He had not yet seen the coming and could imagine that this was a dangerous man.

The sight of the young man, tall but slender, reassured him. His youth, however, made him a little formidable opponent.

- Ah! behold, this young scamp! exclaimed the guard, straightening his stature to take a threatening attitude. You arrive on time, boy!

Mick dropped his bundle down.

- What's the matter ? asked he, without arrogance but humility.

This calm and serene attitude brought him to guard more moderation.

- You'll have some explaining to do, to Count on the presence of this small stock of furs you hide so carefully. Unfortunately for you, your companion had the awkwardness to leave a drag.

- These furs have nothing to do with the rabbits of your wood. They are dry and there are months that they were purchased far away. You see that these are domestic rabbits.

- You explain to with in Count ... I note, moreover, that you also allow you to steal wood.

- This dead wood.

- The ivy roots are green.

- Oh ! it cleans your trees, you should thank me.

- You were not responsible to do the cleaning! Come, come both, with the boss. Shoo! Follow me !

If Mick had been alone, he could certainly save because with long supple legs could challenge any runner to runner. But there was Frika and not a moment, it would come to him to give up his companion.

Resolutely, despite his inner turmoil, he approached the man.

- Before coming to the end, perhaps we could explain ...

- You have something to say to apologize?

- Yes, because if the skins of rabbits who are there want to talk, I have to tell you that they are not us.

- And then? asked the guard.

- At Padok people who charge us to pick up for them.

Before the suspicions against him, Mick was about to say:

- These skins are Rouge!

Fortunately, he had changed his mind.

He understood immediately the danger there was to pronounce the dreaded name that newspapers should speak as that of a criminal wanted by the police.

Furthermore, he recalled in time, the buyer who Padok The Red sold each year, over a thousand of rabbit skins, gleaned on the road at random opportunities or ... rapine.

- It is buyers Padok, he repeated firmly.

- What you say, rascal! Say their name, just to see? insisted the guard.

A challenge gleamed in the eyes of the adolescent. He was quite certain that the Nikolai to Padok, had confirmed his words - between buyers and sellers of their kind, we support! - but he was less certain that the name of The Red was not pronounced.

But he felt it was best not to reveal the man that Frika and belonged to him, somehow, the band of the terrible Rouge. This could only complicate things. The least you could have done to them after such a confession would have been to lock them up in some asylum until their majority.

But the warden, intrigued by the silence of Mick insisted on a response.

- Well, answer, boy ... Who are they, these skins I found in your car!?

Mick lowered his head without answering.

- Ah! ah! growled the man. We want to run the authority now.

He paused, looked at one after the other two young men, and appeared only noticed a young age.

- By the way, 'he said, where are your friends?

- We are alone here.

- But your parents?

- We do not have it.

- How? he said before. You will not try to make me believe that two brats like you carry around alone on the road, this jalopy.

- If, sir.

The man was silent for a moment, then deciding:

- All that is not very clear. If this car is yours, need to know where you found it. Too bad for you! ... Come, come! You will explain to the castle.

Mick was a gesture of discouragement.

- What a story ! he growled. It was so quiet!

However, there is no rebellion marked desire. The thought of Frika gave him the strength to remain calm.

In silence, he went to Gamin and patted his hand. In truth, he hesitated, not knowing what a useful gesture it was appropriate to do so,

- I think I can leave here my horse? He asked the guard, after a few minutes of silence. No one will take it in my absence.

- Your horse? replied the other. But he has behind your car. I will not take you to the castle, without evidence to believe ... If you believe, too, that the Count will allow you to stay in its woods, you're wrong again, boy! It would be too afraid that you put fire to his fields.

- So I have to repackage all this?

He showed the table, seats and kitchen gadgets spread on the ground.

- But of course ! Take anything you want to keep.