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Updated: May 16, 2025
Then with a vigorous stroke of the boat-hook he sent the bark into the middle of the stream. Three days later, thanks to the assistance of Pere Menoul, Gaston was concealed on the three-masted American vessel, Tom Jones, which was to start the next day for Valparaiso.
After leaving Valentine de la Verberie, Gaston underwent great peril and difficulty in effecting his escape. But for the experienced and faithful Menoul, he never would have succeeded in embarking.
"If Pere Menoul were alive, he would tell you how he took charge of your brother until he embarked for Marseilles. But that is nothing compared to the rest. M. Gaston has a son." "My brother had a son! You certainly have lost your mind, my poor woman." "Alas, no. Unfortunately for my happiness in this world and in the world to come, I am only telling the truth; he had a child, and Mlle.
"You must have assistance; I will secure you a guide in whom I have unbounded confidence; old Menoul, the ferryman, who lives near us. He owns the boat which he plies on the Rhone." The lovers passed through the little park gate, of which Gaston had the key, and soon reached the boatman's cabin. He was asleep in an easy-chair by the fire.
Having left his mother's jewels with Valentine, his sole fortune consisted of not quite a thousand francs; and with this paltry sum in his pocket, the murderer of two men, a fugitive from justice, and with no prospect of earning a livelihood, he took passage for Valparaiso. But Menoul was a bold and experienced sailor.
After visiting the vessel, and finding, during a conversation over a glass of rum with the captain, that he was quite willing to take a sailor without disturbing himself about his antecedents, Menoul returned to Gaston. "Left to my own choice, monsieur," he said, "I should have settled this matter on the spot; but you might object to it." "What suits you, suits me," interrupted Gaston.
He looked at Gaston, and, seeing his clothes wet and covered with mud, said to him: "Allow me to offer you my dead son's clothes, monsieur; they will serve as a disguise: come this way." In a few minutes Pere Menoul returned with Gaston, whom no one would have recognized in his sailor dress. Valentine went with them to the place where the boat was moored.
"It is impossible," said the old man, shaking his head; "I would not dare venture on the river in its present state." "But, Pere Menoul, it would be of immense service to me; would you not venture for my sake?" "For your sake? certainly I would, Mlle. Valentine: I will do anything to gratify you. I am ready to start."
When Valentine stood before him with Gaston, the old man jumped up, and kept rubbing his eyes, thinking it must be a dream. "Pere Menoul," said Valentine, "M. Gaston is compelled to fly the country; he wants to be rowed out to sea, so that he can secretly embark. Can you take him in your boat as far as the mouth of the Rhone?"
While Gaston remained concealed in a farm-house at Camargue, Menoul went to Marseilles, and that very evening discovered, from some of his sailor friends, that a three-masted American vessel was in the roadstead, whose commander, Captain Warth, a not over-scrupulous Yankee, would be glad to welcome on board an able-bodied man who would be of assistance to him at sea.
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