22 
LAND & WATER 
November 23, 1916 
(Continutd from page 20) 
Captain Relval was greatly amused at this : 
■ 1 say, I say ! And why shan't I see you again, Little 
Mother Coralie ? 
" Because I don't wish it." 
" And your reason, please ? 
" My reason ? 
She turned her eyes to him and said, slowly . 
" 1 am married." 
Belval seemed in no way disconcerted by this news. On 
the contrary, he said, in the calmest of tones : 
" Well, you must marry again. No doubt your liusband 
^^ an old man and you do not love him. He will therefore 
understand that, as you have some one in love with you. . ." 
" Don't jest, please." 
He caught hold of her hand, just as she was rising to go : 
" You are right, Little Mother Coralie, and I apologise for 
not adopting a more serious manner to speak to you of very 
serious things. It's a question of our two Uves. I am pro- 
foundly convinced that they are moving towards each other 
and that you are powerless to restrain them. That is why 
your answer is beside the point. I ask nothing of you. I 
expect everything from fate. It is fate that will bring us 
together." 
" No," she said. 
" Yes," he declared, " that is how things will happen." 
" It is not. They will not and shall not happen hke that. 
Yo« must give me your word of honour not to try to see me 
again nor even to learn my name. 1 might have granted 
more if you had been content to remain friends. The con- 
fession which you have made sets a barrier between us. I 
want nobody in my life . . . nobody." 
She made this declaration with a certain vehemence and at 
the same time tried to release her arm from his grasp. Patrice 
Belval resisted her efforts and said : 
" You are wrong. . . . You have no right to expose 
yourself to danger Uke this. . . . Please reflect. . . ." 
She pushed him away. As she did so, she knocked off the 
mantelpiece a little bag which she had placed there. It fell 
on the carpet and opened. Two or three things escaped ; 
and she picked them up, while Patrice Belval knelt down on 
the floor to help her : 
■ Here," he said, " you've missed this." 
It was a httle case in plaited straw, which had also come 
open : the beads of a rosary protruded from it. They both 
stood up in silence. Captain Belval examined the rosary. 
" What a curious coincidence ! " he muttered. " These 
amethyst beads ! This old-fashioned gold filigree setting ? . . 
It's strange to find the same materials and the same work- 
manship. . . 
He gave a start ; and it was so marked that Coralie asked : 
■ '■ Why, what's the matter ? " ' 
He was holding in his fingers a bead larger than most of the 
others, forming a link between the string of tens and the 
shorter prayer-chain. And this bead was broken half-way 
across, almost level with the gold setting which held it. 
"The coincidence," he said, "is. so inconceivable that I 
hardly dare. . . . And yet the fact can be verified at 
once. But first one question : who f;ave you this rosary ? " 
" f>Jobody gave it me. I've always had it." 
' But it must have belonged to somebody before ? " 
" To my mother, I suppose." 
Your mother ? " 
■' I expect so, in the same way as the different jewels which 
she left me." 
" Is your mother dead ? 
" Yes, she died when I was four years old. 1 have only the 
vaguest recollection of her. But what has all this to do With 
a rosary ? " 
' It's because of this," he said. " Because of this amethyst 
bead broken in two." 
He undid his jacket and took his watch from his waist- 
coat-f)ocket. It had a number of trink.ets fastened to it by a 
Uttle leather and silver strap. One of these trinkets consisted 
of the half of an amethyst bead, also broken across, also held 
in a filigree setting. The original size of the two beads 
seemed to be identical. The two amethysts were of the same 
colour and contained in the same filigree. 
Coralie and Belval looked at each other anxiously. She 
stammered : " It's only an accident, nothing else. " . ." 
" I agree," he said. " But, supposing these two halves 
fit each other exactly. . . ." 
" It's impossible," she said, herself frightened at the 
thought of the simple little act needed for the proof. 
The officer, however, decided upon that act. He brought 
his right hand, which held the rosary-bead, and his left, 
which held the trinket, together. The hands hesitated, felt 
about and stopped. The contact was made. 
The projections and indentations of the broken stones corre- 
sponded precisely. Each protruding part found a space to fit 
!t. The two half amethysts were the two halves of the same 
amethyst. When joined, they formed one and the same bead. 
There was a long pause, laden with excitement and mystery. 
Then, speaking in a low voice : 
■■ I do not know cither exactly where this trinket comes 
from," Captain Belval said. " Ever since I was a child I 
used to see it among other things of trifling value which I 
kept in a cardboard box ; watch-keys, old rings, old-fashioned 
seals. I picked out these trinkets from among them two 
or three years ago. Where does this one come from ? I 
don't know. But what I do know. . . ." 
He had separated the two pieces and, examining them care- 
fully, concluded : 
" \\'hat I do know, beyond a doubt, is that the largest bead 
in this rosary came off one day and broke , and that the 
other, with its setting, went to form the trinket which I now 
have. You and 1 therefore possess the two halves of a thmg 
which somebody else posses,sed twenty years ago." 
He went up to her and. in the same low and serious voice, 
said : " You protested j ust now when I declared my laith in 
destiny and my certainty that events were leading us towards 
each other. Do you still deny it ? For, after all, this is either 
an accident so extraordinary that we have no right to admit 
it or an actual fact which proves that our two lives have already 
touched in the past at some mysterious point and that they 
will meet again in the future, never to part. And that is why, 
without waiting for the perhaps distant future, I ofier you 
to-daj', when dang(^r hangs over you, the support of my friend 
ship. Observe that I am no longer speaking ot love but only 
of iriendship. Do you accept ? " 
She was nonplussed and so much perturbed by that iwracle 
of the two broken amethysts, fitting each other exactlv. that 
she apf)eared not to hear Belval's voice. 
" Do you accept ? " he repeated. 
After a moment, she replied : 
" Then the proof which destiny has given you of its i»ishcs 
does not satisfy you ? " he said, good humouredly. 
" We m.ist not see each other again," she declared. 
" Very well. I will leave it to chance. It will not be for 
long. Meanwhile, I promise to m-^ke no eflort to sec you." 
" Nor to find out my name ? " 
" Yes. I promise you." 
" Good bye, ' she said, giving him her hand. 
" Au revoir," he answered. 
She moved away. When she reached the door, she seemed 
to hesitate. He was standing motionless by the •himney. 
Once more she said : 
" Good-bye." 
4u revoir, little Mother Coralie." 
Then she went out. 
Only when the street-door had closed behind her did Cap- , 
tain Belval go to one of the windows. He saw Coralie passing 
through the trees, looking quite small in the surroundin;^ 
darkness. He felt a pang at his heart. Would he ever see 
her again ? 
" Shall I ? Rather ! " he exclaimed. " Why, t»-inorrow 
perhaps. Am I not the favourite of the god?. ? " 
And, taking his stick, he set off, as he said, with his wooden 
leg foremost. 
That evening, after dining at the nearest restaurant. Captain 
Belval went to Neuilly. The home run in connection with the 
hospital was a pleasant villa on the Boulevard Maillot, look- 
ing out on the Bois de Boulogne. Discipline was not too 
strictly enforced. The captain could come in at any hour of 
the night ; and the men easily obtained leave from the matron. 
" Is Ya-Bon there ? " he asked this lady. 
" Yes, he's playing cards with his sweetheart." 
" He has the right to love and be loved," he said. " Any 
letters for me ? " 
" No. only a parcel." 
" From whom ? " 
' " A commissionaire brought it and just said ftiat k was 
' for Captain Belval.' I put it in your room." 
The officer went up to his bedroom on the top floor and saw 
the parcel, done up in paper and string, on the table. He 
opened it and discovered a box. The box contained a key 
a large rusty key, of a shape and. manufacture that were 
obviously old. 
What could it all mean ? There was no address on the 
box and no mark. He presumed that there was some mis- 
take which would come to hght of itself ; and he slipped the 
kev into his pocket. 
" Enough riddles for one day," he thought. " Let's go to 
bed." 
But when he went to the window to draw the curtains, he 
saw, across the trees of the Bois, a cascade of sparks which 
spread to some distance, in the dense blackness of the night. 
And he remembered the conversation which he had over- 
heard in the restaurant and the rain of sparks mentioned by 
the men who were plotting to kidnap Little Mother Coralie. 
(/'.o be conlinued). 
