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"What is that to me?" said Rodin, in a sharp voice, but hardly able to dissemble his growing anxiety. "It concerns you nearly. We sons of Bowanee have a horror of shedding blood," resumed Faringhea; "to pass the cord round the neck of our victims, we wait till they are asleep. When their sleep is not deep enough, we know how to make it deeper.
I replied: 'Nothing now, brother hereafter, much. The time has arrived. I have come to ask for much." "My dear sir," said Rodin, still impassible, "before we continue this conversation, which appears hitherto tolerably obscure, I must repeat my wish to be informed to whom I have the advantage of speaking. "You know the writing of M. Van Dael?" said Faringhea, interrupting Rodin.
The half-blood Faringhea, wishing doubtless to escape from the dark thoughts which the words of the Indian on the mysterious course of the Cholera had raised within him, abruptly changed the subject of conversation. His eye shone with lurid fire, and his countenance took an expression of savage enthusiasm, as he cried: "Bowanee will always watch over us, intrepid hunters of men!
Being somewhat mystified with all this, the reverend father said to the half-caste: "What are you going to do with that crucifix?" "Nothing," said Faringhea, still absorbed in painful thought. "Nothing?" resumed the reverend father, in astonishment. "What, then, was the use of bringing it so far?"
"And who kept you so well informed, sir, of the prince's habits?" said Faringhea, unable to control his vexation. "If I have been well informed as to his habits, my dear sir, I have had no such correct knowledge of yours," answered Dupont, with a mocking air; "for I assure you that I had no more notion of seeing you than you had of seeing me."
The words of the Hindoo, by drawing attention to these dreadful eccentricities, made a strong impression upon the minds of the negro and Faringhea wild natures, brought by horrible doctrines to the monomania of murder.
The doctor said to Djalma, before he left him: 'Your wound is doing well, but the fatigue of the journey might bring on inflammation; it will be good for you, in the course of to-morrow, to take a soothing potion, that I will make ready this evening, to have with us in the carriage. The doctor's plan was a simple one," added Faringhea; "to-day the prince was to take the potion at four or five o'clock in the afternoon and fall into a deep sleep the doctor to grow uneasy, and stop the carriage to declare that it would be dangerous to continue the journey to pass the night at an inn, and keep close watch over the prince, whose stupor was only, to cease when it suited your purposes.
It was before these delicate lines of bright carmine that Djalma now stood in deep contemplation, after perusing and reperusing, and raising twenty times to his lips, the letter he had received the night before from the hands of Dupont. Djalma was not alone. Faringhea watched all the movements of the prince, with a subtle, attentive, and gloomy aspect.
Leaving Djalma and Faringhea in the coach, on their way, a few words are indispensable before continuing this scene. Sainte-Colombe, having accepted this proposition, too advantageous to be refused, had set out that morning with her servants, to whom she wished, she said, in return for their good services, to give a day's pleasure in the country.
Thinking he would also make use of the sprinkling-brush, which, Faringhea, still motionless, held with a trembling hand, Father Caboccini stretched out his fingers to reach it, when the half-breed, as if determined to confine his favors to Rodin, hastily withdrew the instrument.
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