The Phantom Violin Page 11

  CHAPTER XI SONG OF THE PHANTOM

  It is not difficult to imagine Jeanne's wild joy when, after an hour ofdisappointment because she had no boat for rowing to Duncan's Bay, shesaw the gay gypsy boat slip from out the Narrows and head straight forthe spot where she stood upon the sloping deck.

  "Oh!" she cried to Greta. "They are coming! Florence has found them. Sheknows how I love gypsies who are good. She will bring them." She spranginto a dance so wild that Greta thought she would spin quite off the deckand go flying through the air to meet the gay white boat.

  "It can't be Bihari!" she exclaimed at last, throwing herself down uponthe deck. "It just cannot be!"

  It was Bihari for all that. The schooner was still an arm's length fromthe side of the wreck when with one wild leap Jeanne was in MadameBihari's strong arms.

  "Jeanne! My Petite Jeanne!" the good woman cried. Tears stood in hereyes. "Jeanne, you are with us once more!"

  There followed hours of great joy, of music and feasting; telling ofstories, too.

  "In France," Bihari said to Jeanne, "all is beautiful. Every day growslonger without you. We said, 'Well, we will return to America.' And herewe are.

  "We came to Chicago. You were not there. We came to the shore of LakeSuperior. You were not there. They said, 'She is on an island, IsleRoyale.' We said, 'Take our vans. We must have a boat.' See! We have aboat. Is it not a jolly one? And we have you!

  "And see!" he exclaimed, pointing at a brown mass of fur against thecabin. "See, we have found you a bear. He is almost as wise as your otherone. And Mama here has taught him some of your dances.

  "Come!" he exclaimed, poking the sleeping bear with his foot. "Come!Dance for us!"

  Unrolling himself, the bear stood up. At first, still groggy with sleep,he looked more like an empty sack trying to play it was a man. WhenBihari seized his violin and began to play, it was as if the bear wererun by a motor and the current was suddenly turned on. He began hoppingabout in a most grotesque manner. Soon he and Jeanne were doing a wild,weird dance.

  Florence, accustomed to all this from the past, sat looking on insilence. Greta too was silent. Yet how strange it all seemed to her!

  "Bravo!" Bihari shouted when the dance was over. "We will visit theisland. We will go to every place where there are people. They shall havemusic and dancing, such entertainment as they have never known before."

  The days that followed were one round of joy for the little French girl.The old wreck became once more a pleasure ship. Flags and bunting werehung on every brace and spar. The deserted cabins overflowed with lifeand echoed sounds of joy from dawn to dark.

  Great flat boxes of clay were brought from the mainland. On thesecampfires were kindled. Their red and yellow gleam might be seen waveringupon the water far and near. Strange dishes were prepared in kettles hungover these fires. They feasted, danced, sang and told stories by thehour. Both Jeanne and Florence lived the life of the open as they hadlived it in France with Bihari and his band.

  As for the dark-eyed Greta, it was all so wild and strange she could onlysit shyly smiling in a corner, both charmed and bewildered by the ways ofthese people of the open road.

  At times she stole away to the prow. One night, when songs were loudest,she took her violin from beneath her arm and played to the rushing waves.Then again she would sit staring away toward the land where no lightshone, dreaming strange dreams.

  "Gold," she would murmur, "a barrel of gold. Florence said there might bea barrel of gold buried on the camping ground.

  "But that," she would exclaim, "that is absurd!" In spite of all herdenials, the conviction clung to her that somehow, somewhere a barrel ofgold would play an important part in her life.

  "Wonder how much that would be?" she murmured. "Enough for--foreverything?" For a long time she had wished to study violin under a verygreat master, and had not been able.

  "Money, money, money," she whispered now. "Some have much more than theyneed, and some none at all. How strange life is!"

  Finding in this no source of joy, she gazed away toward the shores ofIsle Royale, to dream that she was once more listening to the magic musicof the phantom violin.

  In this mood she took up her own violin and was soon lost to all else inan attempt to reproduce the notes of the haunting melody that had come toher that night.

  To her unspeakable joy, she found she could catch here and there a fewscattered notes. With time it came to her more and more.

  So engrossed was she in this joyous adventure into the unknown, she didnot know that the gypsy songs had ceased, that soft padded footstepsapproached, that a little circle of eager listeners had gathered abouther.

  "Ah!" someone sighed as her last note died away.

  Then, in consternation she became conscious of their presence.

  "Magnificent!" Bihari exclaimed. "We have artists of the violin inFrance. Few play more wonderfully. What piece is that?"

  "It--" Greta stared. "Why, that is the song of the phantom."

  "Song of the phantom!"

  Greta was obliged to tell her story.

  "That is no phantom!" Bihari declared stoutly. "Some great artist ishidden away in those hills. Why? I wonder. I should like very much tohunt him out and sit at his feet. But tomorrow--no, the day after--webecome water gypsies again. We must play and dance. Coins must jingle,for we must live.

  "And you--" He turned eagerly to Jeanne. "You will go with us, round theisland?"

  "Yes! Yes! She will go, Jeanne will go!" The gypsy band, all old friends,swarmed about her. What more could she say but "Yes, I will go."

  "And you," she cried, gathering Greta and Florence in her arms, "you willgo also?"

  "It would be a grand adventure," Florence replied, "but Greta is here, inpart to rest and grow strong. I think we must stay and keep the shipuntil your return."

  So in the end this was agreed upon. "And we," Greta whispered toFlorence, "we shall go over to Duncan's Bay. We shall dig for a barrel ofgold and hunt down the home of that phantom who plays so divinely."

  "Yes," Florence agreed. "We will do just that." But in her own mind's eyewas the face of a very ugly man. And that man was trying to cut off herhead with an ashen oar.

  Next day was Sunday. There was no wild and hilarious music on this day,for Bihari and his band were deeply religious. All day they sat about theship, some in groups talking quietly, and some alone meditating on theways of a great Creator who rules the waves and watches over His childrenin all their wanderings.

  As darkness fell a bright fire was lighted. Bihari took down his violinand all joined in those sacred melodies that belong to all time, alllands and all people.

  Next day, with many a shout of farewell, the gypsy bark sailed away. Andin the prow, standing beside Bihari, was the little French girl.

  "I'll be back in ten days," she shouted back as the wreck began to growsmall in the distance.

  "Will she?" Florence whispered. "I wonder."