Adrift in Pacific and Other Great Adventures – 17 Titles in One Volume (Illustrated Edition). Jules Verne
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“Very well indeed,” said Franz de Télek.
Evidently Jonas had nothing to fear from his new customers. These were no supernatural beings, no phantoms who had assumed the shape of men. No! This gentleman was one of those personages of distinction whom an innkeeper is always honoured in welcoming, and who might perhaps bring the “King Mathias” into fashion again.
“How far are we from Kolosvar?” asked the count
“About fifty miles, if you go by the road through Petroseny and Karlsburg,” replied Jonas.
“Is it a tiring sort of walk?”
“Yes, very tiring for walkers; and if I may be permitted to say so, the count would seem to require a rest of a few days before undertaking it—”
“Can we have anything to eat?” asked Franz de Télek, cutting short the innkeeper’s remarks.
“In half an hour’s time I shall have the honour of offering the count a repast worthy of him.”
“Bread, wine, eggs, and cold meat will be enough for to-night.”
“I will go and see about them.”
“As soon as possible.”
“This moment.”
And Jonas was hurrying off to the kitchen when a question stopped him.—
“You do not seem to have many people at your inn?” said Franz de Télek.
“No—not just at the moment, sir.”
“Is not this the time for people to come and have a drink and smoke a pipe?”
“It is too late now, sir. They go to bed with the chickens in the village of Werst.”
Never would he have said why the “King Mathias” was without a customer.
“Are there not three or four hundred people in this village?”
“About that, sir.”
“Why did we not meet a living soul as we came down the main street?”
“That is because—to-day—well, it is Saturday, you see—and the day before Sunday is—”
Franz de Télek did not persist, luckily for Jonas, who did not know what to reply. Nothing in the world would have induced him to reveal the true state of affairs. Strangers would learn that only too soon, and who could tell if they would not hasten to leave a village so deservedly suspected?
“It is to be hoped that that voice will not begin to chatter in the big room while they are at supper!” thought Jonas as he laid the table.
A few minutes afterwards the very simple meal ordered by the young count was neatly served on a clean white cloth. Franz de Télek sat down, and Rotzko seated himself facing him, as they usually did on their travels. Both of them ate with a good appetite; and when the repast was over they retired to their rooms.
As the young count and Rotzko had hardly spoken ten words during their meal, Jonas had not been able to take part in their conversation—to his great displeasure. Besides, Franz de Télek did not seem to be communicative. As to Rotzko, the innkeeper, after due survey, gathered that he would not be able to get anything out of him regarding his master’s family.
Jonas had, therefore, to content himself with bidding his visitors good-night. Before he went up to his attic he gave a good look around the room, and lent an anxious ear to the least noises within and without, saying to himself,—
“May that abominable voice not awake them from their sleep!”
The night passed tranquilly.
At daybreak next morning the news began to spread in the village that two travellers had arrived at the “King Mathias,” and a number of people gathered in front of the inn.
Franz de Télek and Rotzko were still sleeping, tired after their excursion the day before. There was little likelihood of their rising before seven or eight o’clock. And consequently there was great impatience among the spectators, who had none of them the courage to enter the room before the travellers.
At eight o’clock they came in together. Nothing regrettable had happened. They could be seen walking about in the inn. Then they sat down to breakfast. All of which was particularly reassuring.
Jonas stood at the front door and smiled amiably, inviting his old customers to give him another trial. The traveller who honoured the “King Mathias” with his presence was a gentleman—a Roumanian gentleman, if you please, and of one of the oldest Roumanian families what was to be feared in such noble company?
In short, it happened that Master Koltz, thinking it his duty to set an example, took the risk of the first step.
About nine o’clock the biro entered the room in rather a hesitating way. Almost immediately he was followed by Magister Hermod and three or four other customers, as well as the shepherd Frik. As to Doctor Patak, it had been impossible to persuade him to accompany them.
“Set foot again in Jonas’s!” he said. “Never, until he pays me two florins a visit.”
We may here remark, as it is a matter of some importance, that if Master Koltz had consented to return to the “King Mathias,” it was not solely with a view of satisfying his curiosity, nor with the intention of making the acquaintance of Count Franz de Télek, No! self-interest was his chief motive.
As a traveller the young count had become liable for a tax on self and man, and it must not be forgotten that these taxes went direct into the pocket of the chief magistrate of Werst.
The biro at once went forward and politely stated his demand, and Franz de Télek, although taken somewhat by surprise, immediately settled the claim.
He even begged the biro and the schoolmaster to be seated for a moment at his table, and the offer was so politely made that they could not refuse.
Jonas hastened to serve them with drinks, the best he had in his cellar, and then a few of the natives of Werst asked for a drink on their own account, and it seemed as though the old customers, for a moment dispersed, would soon be as plentiful as ever in the “King Mathias.”
Having paid the traveller’s tax, Franz de Télek wished to know if it were productive.
“Not as much as we wish,” replied Master Koltz.
“Do strangers only come here occasionally then?”
“Very occasionally,” said the biro, “and yet the country is worth a visit.”
“So I think,” said the count. “What I have seen appeared to me to be well worth a traveller’s attention. From the top of the Retyezat I much admired the valley of the Syls, the villages away to the east, and the range of mountains which closes in the view.”
“It is very fine, sir, very fine! ” said Magister Hermod; “and to complete your tour you should make the ascent of Paring.”
“I am afraid I shall not have the necessary time,” said the count.
“One day would be enough.”
“Probably; but I am going to Karlsburg, and I must start to-morrow morning.”
“What!” said Jonas with his most amiable air. “Does the count think of leaving us so soon?”
And he would not have been sorry if the visitors could have stayed some time at the “King Mathias.”
“It must be so,” said the Count de Télek, “Besides, what would be the use of my making a longer stay at Werst?”
“Believe me, our village is well worth a tourist’s making some stay at,” said Master Koltz.
“But it does not seem to be much frequented,” said the count, “and that is probably because its neighbourhood has nothing remarkable