Adrift in Pacific and Other Great Adventures – 17 Titles in One Volume (Illustrated Edition). Jules Verne
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embark in such adventures was the act of a madman, not of a lover. But notwithstanding her prayers, the lovely girl was always afraid that the forester would make some such attempt. What reassured her a little was that Nic Deck had not formally declared that he would go to the castle, for no one had sufficient influence over him to stop him—not even herself. She knew him to be an obstinate, resolute man, who would never go back on his promise. If he said a thing, the thing was as good as done. And Miriota would have been all anxiety had she suspected what the young man was thinking about.
However, as Nic Deck said nothing, the shepherd’s proposition received no reply. Visit the Castle of the Carpathians now that it was haunted? Who would be mad enough to do that? And all those present discovered the best reasons for not doing anything. The biro was no longer of an age to venture over so rough a road. The magister had to look after his school. Jonas had to look after his inn. Frik had his sheep to attend to; and the other peasants had to busy themselves with their cattle and their pastures.
No! not one would venture, all of them saying to themselves,—
“He who dares go to the castle may never come back!”
At this moment the door suddenly opened to the great alarm of the company.
It was only Doctor Patak, and it would have been difficult to mistake him for one of those bewitching lamias of whom Magister Hermod had been speaking.
His patient being dead—which did honour to his medical acumen, if not to his talent—Doctor Patak had hurried on to the meeting at the “King Mathias.”
“Here he is at last!” said Master Koltz.
Doctor Patak hastily shook hands with everybody, much as if he were distributing drugs, and, in a somewhat ironical tone, remarked,—
“Then, my friends, it is the castle, the Castle of the Chort, you are busy about! Oh! you cowards. But if the old castle wants to smoke, let it smoke! Does not our learned Hermod smoke, and smoke all day? Really, the whole country is in a state of terror! I have heard of nothing else during my visits. Somebody has returned and made a fire over there! And why not, if they have got a cold in the head? It would seem that it freezes in the month of May in the rooms of the donjon, unless there is some bread cooking for the other world. I suppose they want food in that place—that is if they come to life again? Perhaps they are some of the heavenly bakers who have come to start their oven.”
And so on in a series of jests that were much to the distaste of the Werst people, who made no attempt to stop him.
At last the biro asked,—
“And so, doctor, you attach no importance to, what is taking place at the castle?”
“None, Master Koltz.”
“Have you never said you are ready to go there—if any one dared you to do so?”
“I?” answered the doctor, with a certain look of annoyance at anyone reminding him of his words.
“Yes. Have you not said so more than once?” asked the magister.
“I have said so, certainly, and there is no need to repeat it.”
“But there is need to do it!” said Hermod.
“To do it?”
“Yes; and instead of daring you, we are content to ask you to do it,” added Master Koltz.
“You understand—my friends, certainly—such a proposal—”
“Well, since you hesitate,” said the innkeeper, we will not ask you—we dare you!”
“Dare me?”
“Yes, doctor.”
“Jonas,” said the biro, “you are going too far. There is no need to dare Patak. We know he is a man of his word. What he has said he will do—if only to render a service to the village and to the whole country.”
“But is this serious? You want me to go to the Castle of the Carpathians?” said the doctor, whose red face had become quite pale.
“You cannot get out of it,” said Master Koltz.
“I beg you, my good friends—I beg you to be reasonable, if you please.”
“We are reasonable,” said Jonas.
“Be just, then. What is the use of my going there? What shall I find? A few good fellows have taken refuge in the castle, who are doing no harm to any one—”
“Well,” replied Magister Hermod, “if they are good fellows you have nothing to fear from them, and it will be an opportunity for you to offer them your services.”
“If they need them,” said Doctor Patak, “if they send for me, I should not hesitate to go to the castle. But I do not go without an invitation, and I do not pay visits for nothing.”
“We will pay you,” said Master Koltz, “and at so much an hour.”
“Who will pay me?”
“I will—we will—at any rate you like!” replied the majority of Jonas’s customers.
Evidently, in spite of his bluster, the doctor was as big a coward as the rest of Werst. But after having posed as a superior person, after having ridiculed the popular legends, he found it difficult to refuse the service he was asked to render. But to go to the Castle of the Carpathians, even if he were paid for his journey, was in no way agreeable to him. He therefore endeavoured to show that the visit would produce no result, that the village was covering itself with ridicule in sending him to explore the castle—but his arguments hung fire.
“Look here, doctor,” said Magister Hermod, “it seems to me you have absolutely nothing to fear. You do not believe in spirits?”
“No; I do not believe in them.”
“Well, then, if they are not spirits who have returned to the castle, they are human beings who have taken up their quarters there, and you can get on all right with them.”
The schoolmaster’s reasoning was logical enough; it was difficult to get out of it.
“Agreed, Hermod,” said the doctor; “but I might be detained at the castle.”
“Then you will be welcomed there”, said Jonas.
“Certainly; but if my absence is prolonged, and if some one in the village wants me—”
“We are all wonderfully well,” said Master Koltz, “and there is not a single invalid in Werst now your last patient has taken his departure for the other world.”
“Speak frankly,” said the innkeeper. “Will you go?”
“No, I will not!” said the doctor. “Oh! it is not because I am afraid. You know I have no faith in these sorceries. The truth is, it seems to me absurd, and, I repeat, ridiculous. Because a smoke has appeared at the donjon chimney—a smoke which may not be a smoke—certainly not! I will not go to the Castle of the Carpathians.”
“I will go!”
It was the forester Nic Deck who had suddenly joined in the conversation.
“You, Nic?” exclaimed Master Koltz.
“I—but on condition that Patak goes with me.”
This was a direct thrust for the doctor, who gave a jump as if to avoid it.
“You think that, forester?” said he, “I—to go with you? Certainly. It will be a pleasant expedition for both of us, if it is of any use. Look here, Nic, you know well enough there is no road to the castle. We shall not get there.”
“I have said I will go to the castle,” replied Nic Deck, “and as I have said so I will go.”
“But I have not