A primrose dawn of spring touched the mountains as Madame de Ferrier and I stepped into the tunnel's mouth. The wind that goes like a besom before sunrise, swept off the fog to corners of the sky, except a few spirals which still unwound from the lake. The underground path to De Chaumont's manor descended by terraces of steps and entered blackness. A rank odor of earth filled it; and I never passed that way without hearkening for the insect-like song of the rattlesnake. The ground was slippery, and thick darkness seemed to press the soul out of the body. Yet I liked it; for when we reached the staircase of rock that entered the house, she would vanish. And so it was. She did say--"Good-night--and good-morning." And I answered, "Good-morning and good-night." We were both physically exhausted. My head swarmed as with sparkles, and a thousand emotions tore me, for I was at the age when we risk all on chances. I sat alone on the steps, unmindful of that penetrating chill of stone which increases rather than decreases, the longer you sit upon it, and thought of all that had been said by my new friend at the camp-fire, while the moon went lower and lower, the potter turned his wheel, and the idiot slept. The mixed and oblique motives of human nature--the boy's will--worked like gigantic passions. She had said very little to me in the boat, and I had said very little to her; not realizing that the camp talk, in which she took no part, separated us in a new way. Sitting alone on the steps I held this imaginary conversation with her. "I am going to France!" "You, monsieur?" "Yes, I!" "How are you going?" "I don't know; but I am going!" "The Duke of Orleans did not mention such a thing." "Bother the Duke of Orleans!" "When are you going?" "Now!" "But it may not be best to go at this time." "It is always best to go where you are!" "Monsieur, do not throw away your future on an unconsidered move." "Madame, I will throw away my eternity!" Then I went back through the tunnel to the beach, stripped, and took a plunge to clear my head and warm my blood, rubbing off with my shirt. On reaching my room the first thing I did was to make a bundle of everything I considered necessary and desirable. There was no reason for doing this before lying down; but with an easier mind I closed my eyes; and opened them to find sunset shining through the windows, and Doctor Chantry keeping guard in an arm-chair at my side. "Nature has taken her revenge on you, my lad," said he. "And now I am going to take mine." "I have slept all day!" "Renegades who roam the woods all night must expect to sleep all day." "How do you know I have been in the woods all night?" "I heard you slipping up the tunnel stairs without any shoes on at daylight. I have not been able to sleep two nights on account of you." "Then why don't you go to bed yourself, my dear master?" "Because I am not going to let you give me the slip another time. I am responsible for you: and you will have me on your back when you go prowling abroad again." "Again?" I questioned innocently. "Yes, again, young sir! I have been through your luggage, and find that you have packed changes of clothing and things necessary and unnecessary to a journey,--even books." "I hope you put them neatly together"-- "Nothing of the kind. I scattered them." "Do you want me to go bare into the world?" I laughed. "Lazarre," said my master, "you were a good lad, studious and zealous beyond anything I ever saw." "And now I am bad and lazy." "You have dropped your books and taken to wild ways." "There is one thing, dear master, I haven't done: I haven't written poetry." He blinked and smiled, and felt in his breast pocket, but thought better of it, and forebore to draw the paper out. There was no escaping his tenacious grip. He sat by and exercised me in Latin declensions while I dressed. We had our supper together. I saw no member of the household except the men, Pierre and Jean. Doctor Chantry ordered a mattress put in my room and returned there with me. We talked long on the approaching departure of the count and Madame de Ferrier. He told me the latest details of preparation, and tremulously explained how he must feel the loss of his sister. "I have nothing left but you, Lazarre." "My dear master," I said, patting one of his shriveled hands between mine, "I am going to be open with you." I sat on the side of my bed facing his arm-chair, and the dressing-glass reflected his bald head and my young head drawn near together. "Did you ever feel as if you were a prince?" Doctor Chantry wagged a pathetic negative. "Haven't you ever been ready to dare anything and everything, because something in you said--I must!" Again Doctor Chantry wagged a negative. "Now I have to break bounds--I have to leave the manor and try my fortune! I can't wait for times and seasons--to be certain of this--to be certain of that!--I am going to leave the house to-night--and I am going to France!" "My God!" cried Doctor Chantry, springing up. "He is going to France!--Rouse the servants!--Call De Chaumont!" He struck his gouty foot against the chair and sat down nursing it in both hands. I restrained him and added my sympathy to his groans. "Have you as much as a Spanish real of your own, my lad?" he catechised me, when the foot was easy. I acknowledged that I had not. "It costs dear to travel about the world. It is not like coming down the trail from St. Regis to Lake George. How are you to travel without money?" I laughed at the very uncertainty, and answered that money would be found. "Found! It isn't found, I tell you! It is inherited by the idle, or gathered by the unscrupulous, or sweated and toiled for! It costs days and years, and comes in drops. You might as well expect to find a kingdom, lad!" "Maybe I shall find a kingdom, master!" "Oh, what a thing it is to be young!" sighed Doctor Chantry. I felt it myself, and hugged my youth. "Do you know how to reach the sea-port?" he continued. I said anybody could follow the Hudson to New York. "You're bitten, my poor lad! It's plain what ails you. You might as well try to swim the Atlantic. De Chaumont intends her for himself. And in the unjust distribution of this world, your rival has the power and you have the feelings. Stay where you are. You'll never forget it, but it will hurt less as years go by." "Master," I said to him, "good sense is on your side. But if I knew I should perish, I would have to go!" And I added from fullness of conviction-- "I would rather undertake to do something, and perish, than live a thousand years as I am." Doctor Chantry struck the chair arm with his clenched fist. "My lad, so would I--so would I!--I wish I had been dowered with your spirit!--I'm going with you!" As soon as he had made this embarrassing resolution my master blew his nose and set his British jaws firmly together. I felt my own jaw drop. "Have you as much as a Spanish real of your own?" I quoted. "That I have, young sir, and some American notes, such as they are, and good English pounds, beside." "And do you know how to reach the seaport?" "Since I came that way I can return that way. You have youth, my lad, but I have brains and experience." "It's plain what ails you, Doctor Chantry. And you might as well try to swim the Atlantic." My poor master dropped his head on his breast, and I was ashamed of baiting him and began to argue tenderly. I told him he could not bear hardships; he was used to the soft life in De Chaumont's house; while my flesh had been made iron in the wilderness. I intended to take a boat from those hidden at our summer camp, to reach the head of Lake George. But from that point to the Hudson river--where the town of Luzerne now stands--it was necessary to follow a trail. I could carry the light canoe over the trail, but he could not even walk it. The more I reasoned with him the more obstinate he became. There was a wonderful spring called Saratoga, which he had visited with De Chaumont a few years before as they came into the wilderness; he was convinced that the water would set him on foot for the rest of the journey. "It is twenty-nine miles above Albany. We could soon reach it," he urged. "I have heard of it," I answered. "Skenedonk has been there. But he says you leave the river and go into the woods." "I know the way," he testily insisted. "And there used to be near the river a man who kept horses and carried visitors to the spring." The spirit of reckless adventure, breaking through years of extreme prudence, outran youth. "What will you do in France?" I put to him. He knew no more than I what I should do. And there was Count de Chaumont to be considered. How would he regard such a leave-taking? Doctor Chantry was as insensible to De Chaumont as I myself. Still he agreed to write a note to his protector while I prepared my quill to write one to Madame de Ferrier. With the spirit of the true parasite he laid all the blame on me, and said he was constrained by duty to follow and watch over me since it was impossible to curb a nature like mine. And he left a loop-hole open for a future return to De Chaumont's easy service, when the hardships which he willingly faced brought him his reward. This paper he brazenly showed me while I was struggling to beg Madame de Ferrier's pardon, and to let her know that I aimed at something definite whether I ever reached port or not. I reflected with satisfaction that he would probably turn back at Saratoga. We descended together to his room and brought away the things he needed. In bulk they were twice as large as the load I had made for myself. He also wrote out strict orders to Pierre to seal up his room until his return. The inability of an old man to tear himself from his accustomed environment cheered my heart. We then went back to bed, and like the two bad boys we were, slept prepared for flight.