The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard - How the Brigadier Came to the Castle of Gloom Part 3

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Part 3 of Chapter 1 of The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
For a moment we could not realize it. Such indescribable baseness was outside all our experiences. Then as we understood how foolish we had been to trust for an instant a man with such a history, a flush of rage came over us, rage against his villainy and against our own stupidity. We rushed at the door together, beating it with our fists and kicking with our heavy boots. The sound of our blows and of our execrations must have resounded through the castle. We called to this villain, hurling at him every name which might pierce even into his hardened soul. But the door was enormous, such a door as one finds in medieval castles, made of huge beams clamped together with iron. It was as easy to break as a square of the old guard, and our cries appeared to be of as little avail as our blows, for they only brought for answer the clattering echoes from the high roof above us. When you have done some soldiering, you soon learn to put up with what cannot be altered. It was I then who first recovered my calmness and prevailed upon Duroc to join with me in examining the apartment which had become our dungeon. There was only one window which had no glass in it and was so narrow that one could not so much as get one's head through. It was high up and Duroc had to stand upon a barrel in order to see from it. What can you see? I asked. Fur woods and an avenue of snow between them, said he. Ah, he gave a cry of surprise. I sprang upon the barrel beside him. There was, as he said, a long clear strip of snow in front. A man was riding down it, flogging his horse and galloping like a madman. As we watched, he grew smaller and smaller, until he was swallowed up by the black shadows of the forest.
What does that mean? asked Yurok. No good for us, said I. He may have gone for some brigands to cut our throats. Let us see if we cannot find a way out of this mousetrap before the cat can arrive. The one piece of good fortune in our favor was that beautiful lamp. It was nearly full of oil and would last us until morning. In the dark our situation would have been far more difficult. By its light we proceeded to examine the packages and cases which lined the walls. In some places there was only a single line of them, while in one corner they were piled nearly to the ceiling. It seemed that we were in the store-house of the castle, for there were a great number of cheeses, vegetables of various kinds, bins full of dried fruits and a line of wine barrels. One of these had a spigot in it, and, as I had eaten little during the day, I was glad of a cup of claret and some food. As to Duroc, he would take nothing but paste up and down the room in a fever of anger and impatience. I'll have him yet, he cried every now and again, the rascal shall not escape me.
This was all very well, but it seemed to me, as I sat on a great round cheese eating my supper, that this youngster was thinking rather too much of his own family affairs, and too little of the fine scrape into which he had got me. After all, his father had been dead fourteen years, and nothing could set that right, but here was Etienne Gerard, the most dashing lieutenant in the whole Grand Army, in imminent danger of being cut off at the very outset of his brilliant career. Who was ever to know the heights to which I might have risen if I were knocked on the head in this hole-and-corner business, which had nothing whatever to do with France or the Emperor? I could not help thinking what a fool I had been when I had a fine war before me and everything which a man could desire to go off on a hair-brained expedition of this sort as if it were not enough to have a quarter of a million Russians to fight against without plunging into all sorts of private quarrels as well.
That is all very well, I said at last, as I heard Duroc muttering his threats. You may do what you like to him when you get the upper hand. At present, the question rather is, what is he going to do to us?