Chapter 4 4. Whistle

Maxim was only dizzy for a while.As soon as he woke up, he felt that he had to make a decisive decision. Under the circumstances at that time, the most urgent thing was to find rescuers. “Governments have a responsibility to protect us,” he said confidently. "Go to the policeman," echoed Nathalie, who had controlled her emotions, amused by Maxim's frightened look. "No, the mounted police! I'll drive and bring back a dozen gendarmes from Cannes..." "Isn't that a joke? There are two servants in the villa, and you, Maxim, you can't alarm a dozen gendarmes just because you're afraid that thieves will climb up."

"It's all right! We must act now," he shouted. "We can't sit still! I'm going to report to the neighbors." "We have no neighbors." "I can find it. Then, I will gather passers-by." "There are no passers-by here." "I'll let them come! Do you think I'm going to be slaughtered like a lamb? Hey, what the hell! Who lives in a villa like this surrounded by pirates." He ran to the garden. Only Alan Rock and Natalie are left.It was getting dark.In the distance, the bright sky showed streaks of still red clouds.The blue of the sea is slowly turning black.

Nathalie watched the Baron de Ellen-Roque the way we watch a person and waits for him to speak and act, and she wondered about her own state of mind, as she is usually used to making up her own mind things. He paced back and forth quietly in the open space, with long and slow steps. Although there were some absent-minded movements, the expression on his face clearly showed that he had a plan in mind.He lit a cigarette, but quickly threw it away, lit another, and threw it likewise over the parapet.Then, he looked at his watch, stopped, and said as if drawing a conclusion to his own thoughts: "There are some coincidences, there is no need to be too nervous, and you must not be negligent. Miss, you mean to stay Is it here?"

She replied: "Why should I leave? Just because of this seeming danger?  …" "yes." "Then I won't go." "If that's the case, can you allow me to stay here too? It's a quarter past seven. In two hours, if nothing happens, I don't think anything will happen, and I will leave here." "Thank you," she said. "Let's have dinner, the three of us." The two were silent for a long time. Alan Rock leaned his tall body against a pillar of the flower shed, watched the red clouds gradually darken, and said to himself: "It's so beautiful!"

Afraid of another silent embarrassment between the two of them, Natalie took up the conversation: "Yeah, it's so beautiful! I was thinking that there would be some vague memories in your heart... in your mind... …Such a beautiful view will make certain impressions on you.” "That's true," Allen Rock said. "Really? Do you remember a moment like this?" "It seems so," he said. "I don't think there's ever been a more beautiful moment... Otherwise, I'd remember." Natalie almost shuddered.Is it because of the coolness of the night?Is it because the night is getting darker?She said, "It's getting dark, it's time to light the lights."

"It's not time yet," he objected. He spoke in a crisp, unquestionable tone that offended Natalie.She couldn't bear to be directed by others, so she rang the bell and called the butler. "Light up, Dominique," she said, pointing to the large gas lamp on the pedestal. Dominique was about to light another lamp in the open space, but was stopped by Alan Rock: "Light it later, the sky is quite bright!" "I thought..." she said with a sting in her voice. "I'm sorry. It's better not to have light." She gave in, and said to the butler, "You go, Dominique."

Dominique stood still, obviously having something to say.She asked, "What's the matter? What are you waiting for?" "Miss, please forgive me." The servant replied awkwardly, "But we have discovered some disturbing and strange things... Besides, Mr. Maxim has already told us." "Tell you what?" "Someone is going to attack the villa in a while." "Attack what? There is no such thing at all." The maid Susan also came in at this time, and then Maxim appeared yelling, he looked very flustered: "I saw them...they were hiding behind the bushes... there is no time to waste... I Seeing them...they ran away."

"Who are you talking about?" Natalie said impatiently. "Italian singer . . . the woman and her two companions." "What's the matter?" "It was they who signaled to Jericho's gang. The Baron de Ellen-Roque will not deny it...he heard this morning..." He was like an ant on a hot pot, completely lost his mind, he tried to reason and persuade people, but his voice trembled, and the servants, who were already afraid, became more irrational and funny now.The driver Alexander rushed in at this moment.He found the lock broken on the little door where the Italians had sung.It's all messed up now.The driver felt that he had to make up his mind to leave immediately. He said to Natalie unequivocally: "If the lady must stay, it is the lady's business. We, we are going to drive to Cannes."

"You can go by car, but you need my approval." Natalie reminded. "Miss should understand that we have to go at once. According to the current situation, the first and foremost consideration is safety." The mood suddenly became so comical that Natalie couldn't be angry.Besides, she knew that being angry wouldn't stop them. "Forget it. You go to Cannes. If the cook is not afraid, please prepare dinner. Huh? Is she going with you? Very good. Are you coming back?" "Come back about eleven o'clock, miss." "Okay, come back when you're free. Go."

As soon as they left, Maxim moved closer to her and said tremblingly: "You are absolutely crazy. We can't fight against fate, let's go." "I do not go." "Then I won't go either," he said. "I'll be back as soon as I send them to Cannes. In times of danger, I will stay by your side. Although it is against my will, it is my duty, because we are Take the greatest risk." He ran away quickly, and Natalie smiled, very forcedly. "My friend Maxime is not a showman. He's definitely not coming back." The above scene lasted only a minute or two, and it seemed that a moment of confusion caused the actors who appeared to suddenly leave the script.No rational words could calm them down.In the words of the coachman, the only way to be safe is to flee immediately.

Allen Rock said nothing.He walked over to the lighted kerosene lamp and turned the wick down slightly.Natalie said to him, "Is it because someone is watching us that you are so afraid of the light?" "I think so. There is no latent talent in me, just a certain premonition... to guess what might happen..." "A mere hunch?" "No. However, there is a lot of evidence. I'm thinking about being more cautious..." "I better hide?" "You leave here with your friend Maxim." "And you, sir?" "I stay. This is my profession. Wherever there is ugliness, it is my mission to find it and eliminate it. And, I like to do it." She said happily: "You are my guest, you are here to help me, but you want me to run away? Besides, it's too late... Listen, the car has gone far away." And so, unexpectedly, Nathalie was left alone in a remote villa with a man she hadn't known three hours before.She did this, neither out of politeness, nor out of affection for him, but out of haughtiness.To leave here is to admit to being afraid. She didn't care that people knew she was overcoming fear, but she didn't want Alan-Rock to see that in her, that sort of inexplicable confusion that a person is bound to experience when he is threatened by a danger he doesn't know. Situation happens. "Do you have jewelry here?" Alan Rock asked. "No. Why do you say they want to attack here? . . . " "Yes," he said, "why? . . . " He strode across the clearing again, and Natalie could feel his heavy heart.It was this that troubled her most, the silence and the half-darkness that surrounded them.How she wished to hear a little voice, to see the sky light up, and the sea to resist the creeping darkness! "I don't even have a pistol in my room," she laughs. "What do you want a pistol for?" Alan Rock said. "A weapon is useless." "What if they attack?" "Just get ready early." "But don't take some precautions?" "I'll ask for it then." "What now?" "Now?……" He walked up to her, pressed her shoulders lightly with his fingers, asked her to sit down on a wicker chair in the open space, and continued: "Now, we can chat, Miss, do you agree?" His voice became light and lively again.Natalie was instantly relieved and eager to hear what he had to say. "I won't talk too long," he said, "but if you listen patiently for a few minutes, you will know the real reason for my coming here. For, besides reminding you to be vigilant and defensive, there is another reason...  That's not an excuse, it's just an opportunity to meet someone I want to meet, and I am determined to meet... Listen to me, please forgive me, I want to tell you about myself, and tell you about the tragedy of my inner life... A Kind of a ridiculous tragedy. I repeat, the tragedy of a man who has no memory of his past, who looks for it like a lost thing, and who has a lost thing in his every nerve. Because, For me, that was everything: finding myself again, getting to know who I was, who I was as a child, as a teenager and as a young man, and unraveling the mysteries of the times I lived and did things that I had no idea I was How do you live?" He paused, looking distressed, and went on to describe his feelings: "Yes. Sometimes, it's a very painful thing! During a crisis, for hours or days, I live within myself , stooping over the bottomless abyss, and staring longingly at what cannot be seen at all. Or, I desperately look outside myself. I pay attention to every person I meet. I pay attention to their subtle reactions of wonder, I hope to find that I am not a stranger in their eyes. Ah! I will pursue everyone I don’t know! As long as his memory can open the iron lock of the first half of my life. Or his appearance and figure can make me buried The past will be seen again. One day..." Natalie instinctively knew what he was going to say, and couldn't help but tense up.However, he pulled her to the lit kerosene lamp, asked her to sit down first, let the light shine on the girl's beautiful face, and then whispered: "It was nine days ago, and I was walking in the square of Monte Carlo." , all of a sudden, I saw you. You were wearing a white flannel suit with a hat in your hand. The setting sun was shining on your face from the front. This was an unprecedented moment... I beg you, don't avoid me... I want to say, what I felt at the time was not admiration, but panic and excitement. You, I didn't know your name at the time, but I felt as if I had seen you somewhere! Do you understand? For the first time, something was in my In the bottom of my heart, I was beating in that dead place. I was deeply touched by your dazzling appearance. I had such a feeling once before. This shock must have been a big deal. Suddenly, my eyes reappeared The previous ecstasy scene." He picked up the kerosene lamp, looked at Natalie carefully for a few seconds, and murmured: "I saw you before. The sun was shining on your head. You were in the garden, standing by the fountain, wearing a with a wreath." "wreath?" "I can see it clearly...it's stuck right in your hair..." Natalie mused as she mused, "A wreath on my head... I remember one time, in the garden of the mansion in Naples, with my father... There were citrus flowers... I made a wreath for fun... ...I remembered... the next day my father went to Sicily and died there." "Yes," he continued. "It was in a garden. My God, how beautiful you were then! You are still so beautiful now! No one will ever forget you... your image will always be imprinted on my heart, and including the changes that have been made by your presence Everything around it comes alive...the marble fountain, the three dancing naked children, the water glistening in the sun, the citrus trees reflected in the water... O God! God! I feel my whole life come to life in your eyes Now, if I could watch you forever and ever..." He couldn't go on.After trying his best to remember, he seemed tired.Natalie let him watch her. For her, the dangers she had spoken of: the Jericho gang, the boats stalking the villa by night, all of that was gone.They watched each other closely. At last she spoke: "I don't know you. I'm sure I didn't know you before today." He said with certainty: "I, I've seen you... I've seen you... I'm as confident as you are that we had a moment together, so, I recognized you in Monte Carlo, so, a For weeks, I have been living around you, waiting for the opportunity to meet you, looking at your villa, even visiting your villa, and the footprints that your friend Maxim found were mine. So here I am. " He added in a low voice: "All my hopes are in you. You cannot understand how much you mean to me. My life depends on you..." He is too close.Natalie leaned back slightly, looking up to the sky, as if trying to avoid the oppression of the other party. The life of this man was gradually seeping into her life, and she felt that he was restraining herself more and more powerfully.After a while, Alan Rock turned down the wick, leaving only a little light like a bean. The breeze blows and time passes.Anxiety from the silence and a dreadful sense of loneliness seized the girl again. Alan Rock went to lean against the parapet.Intuition told Natalie that although it was a very quiet night, he was not at ease.She walked over and said, "You didn't hear anything, did you?" After a while, he replied, "I think I heard... yes... listen carefully... I heard a regular sound, a rhythmic clapping..." "Oh!" she said, her heart tightened. "Impossible? Isn't it the sound of the waves?" He said brokenly, "No... no... not the waves. I know the sound of the sea all too well! . . . It's the sound of oars, and the oarsmen trying to make it as quiet as possible." She sighed inwardly, tensing up all over. "It's about time, isn't it?" "Yes, there are still a few minutes." Natalie worked up her courage and tried to keep her usual voice, making Alan Rock feel as calm as he was. "So," she said, "they're coming soon?" "They've come." "They've come!" Natalie repeated, feeling the horror of these ordinary words. After a minute or two, she said again: "Yes, really... I also heard some muffled sounds... It seems to be the sound of running water." "It's them," said Alan Rock. "There's a narrow pebble beach under the cliffs, and we can't stop them from landing here." "Isn't there a way to stop them?" she said, "if... well, I'm sure you can." "There is no way." "What? You don't know what to do?" "To be honest, I don't know." He said easily. "I only know one thing. The darkness and silence are beneficial to the enemy. Otherwise, there is no danger at all." She responded, desperately suppressing the fear in her heart: "Actually, there is no danger. In case of emergency, we can leave the villa through the garden and the back mountain." "Where's the Italian singer?" he said. "Did it not occur to you that they would guard the garden gate? Escape from it was impossible." "They're just two of them." "Yes, but they have weapons and they are hidden in the dark." "So, if they attack, they'll drive right in, because the garden gate must be open." "It's definitely on," Alan Rock said. They were lying on the parapet, talking in a low voice, surrounded by the leaves of climbing vines and geraniums, there seemed to be a few shadows flashing in the darkness, and some voices came from the silence. "They're coming, aren't they?" Natalie said. "Yes... yes... I saw them... there were two boats..." "Yeah," said Natalie, "I saw that too...they raised their oars...two boats followed. I saw them. I guess they..." She stopped suddenly. On the other side of the villa on the hillside, there was a whistle.