Only on that day, lest some involuntary sign of interest or favor arouse the suspicion of the court, would the strange confidant be designated to the orphan in a manner that had to remain unknown even to Le Quillec, who was doomed for the present to a long period of passive waiting.

Dismissing the jester, Kourmelen took a puppet clothed in pink from a supply of toys intended for his daughter and removed one of its eyes.

During her pregnancy, Queen Pleveneuc had with her own hands embroidered a sumptuous blue cushion upon which she had intended her expected child to lie beside her on her couch, until the day of her churching. Kourmelen had always done his best to instil respect for this relic in Hello, whose poor mother, surprised by death, had never been able to use it. He undid a length of the overcasting and slipped the puppet as deep as possible into the feathers; then he instructed the chambermaid to sew up the open part, which he explained was due to an accident.

With no witnesses present, the King told Hello (directing her to keep their conversation secret) that a present awaited her within the blue cushion, but that she was only to explore its interior at a command from Heaven.

To the very end Kourmelen had merely followed Jouël’s instructions to the letter, while inwardly praising his acuity and foresight. Hello would not in fact receive the celestial warning until age had armed her against her adversaries, and when she did search the cushion, which in view of its august origin was in no danger of being lost, she would be bound to look for some symbolic meaning in the extraordinary gift to a grown woman of a simple, unsophisticated toy. Eventually the puppet’s pink dress and missing eye would necessarily suggest the jester Le Quillec to her questing mind and she would go to consult him. Moreover, if by their odious insistence the related princes managed to extract the secret of the blue cushion from Hello while she was still a helpless child, they would have no reason to persist as far as the most essential confession that a heavenly sign was awaited, because their good fortune would seem complete, and when an odd, amusing doll emerged from the thick stuffing — without the precious document they were hoping for — seeing the gift was so appropriate to the recipient’s age, this would seem merely to indicate the fond whim of a father who wished to make his present doubly attractive by hiding it in an ingenious and unexpected place. The object, of no palpable significance, would of course be handed over to Hello, who for the time being would confine herself to playing with it. She would realize abruptly later — on the day of the heavenly apparition — that only then had the hour struck for her to examine the cushion. She would notice how the juvenility of the gift jarred with her full-blown youth, and this would at once start a fruitful chain of thought: recollecting the toy’s two striking peculiarities, she would draw the required parallel that would lead her directly to Le Quillec.

Soon Kourmelen died. His brothers, taking advantage of Hello’s youth to rally their followers, unleashed civil war, each attempting to seize power. But without the sacred gold to reconstitute the Load not one of them managed to have himself recognized as king. In vain were new words tried for opening Morne-Vert’s inflexible gate, now particularly alluring as the monarchical ingot’s resting place. When her uncles beset her with questions, as a likely recipient for some paternal disclosure that might lead them to their goal, Hello was able to keep her secret quite intact.

From then onward anarchy ravaged the kingdom, since Hello herself could not become queen until she possessed the Load.

Still tricked out in pink, Le Quillec, provided with a life pension bequeathed on him by Kourmelen, entertained old courtiers in the public walks, countering their gibes with his shrewd repartee.

Time passed, and Hello, now eighteen, began thinking incessantly of the heavenly token foretold by her father, hoping that she would then be given a means to save the country, which had been utterly ruined by a period of uninterrupted confusion and civil strife.

One evening in July, as the young princess was returning alone, her arms laden with flowers, to the ancestral castle where she passed each summer, the long clouds lying on the horizon began to blaze with a magnificent red luster from the sun that had just set. Stopping to admire the enchanted evening, Hello noticed that certain slender wisps of cloud were curving strangely under the influence of the breeze, until, in vague letters, they formed the word:

NOW

The word soon became ragged in the sky. But Hello, her heart pounding, had recognized by its celestial nature the promised warning. It was now that she must act.

On returning to the castle, she opened the cushion, which she had never failed to treat with the greatest devotion and solicitude — so well justified by the sanctifying contact of her mother’s hands that it did not seem suspicious. Disappointed at first at finding only the puppet inside, she pondered at length, spurred to deep thought by the toys’ evident inconsistency with her age.

Suddenly, from the color of its dress and the eye socket’s emptiness, the girl perceived a suggestion of Le Quillec in the enigmatic doll. She summoned the jester to the castle and told him everything.

Le Quillec in turn transmitted to her the secrets with which he had been entrusted, beseeching her to go at once to Morne-Vert and follow the clouds’ command with prompt obedience — an urgent command intentionally sent at a most propitious moment when none of the would-be usurpers, mutually exhausted just then by their excessive strife, could effectively hinder the progress of a legitimate queen in possession of the ingot fetish, once she aroused general enthusiasm in her wake.

Hello immediately set off in an enormous litter, escorted by the jester who intentionally disclosed the real object of their journey everywhere, inducing many fervent supporters to join the procession in their impatience to witness the memorable event that was destined to bring the era of ruin and anarchy to an end. So the young princess reached Morne-Vert in the midst of a vast throng — which delighted Le Quillec, for he was anxious to have witnesses at the scene of identification.

Secretly whispering the proper sentence, the jester opened the gate and walked through the cave to the appointed spot while a part of the crowd followed him, at his request, to verify the absence of any collusion in his slightest gesture. Kourmelen’s marmoreal block was pointed out by Le Quillec, then lifted by many hands and carried outside, and the gate, still wide open, did not close — so very brief was their visit — until the last of the intruders had departed.

The jester removed the concealing layer of sand to let everyone see the late king’s signature on the upper surface of the block beside the dynastic ingot, which it thus authenticated.

Hello went away to Gloannic, carrying off the green block placed intact beside her in a corner of her litter. Amidst wild ovations caused by the expedition’s success, her popular following swelled at each halt. To stop her advance the pretenders harangued their troops in vain, for when the remarkable discovery became known all came of their own accord to range themselves under the happy princess’s banner, bewitched by the ingot’s magical crown.

Borne in triumph to her palace, Hello had the Load restored from the original gold, and one day, to wild cries of “Long live the Queen!,” she publicly placed it upon her head. When evening came, Jouël’s star was seen to be shining even more brightly than usual.

The sovereign next desired to restore her country’s fortunes with the millions in the cave, and their exploitation was promptly organized. To enable workmen with picks to come and go, the formula for the gate was divulged — and soon, thanks to the mass of gold extracted from the green marble’s inner depths, the kingdom prospered. Happy at last and beloved by her people, Hello showered favors on Le Quillec.

In a burst of joyous exultation, a statue was commissioned, rep­resenting the young queen with the crown on her head — which was placed in the depth of a certain spacious niche, like the image of a saint. Beneath it three colored reliefs commemorated the sublime adventure.

∗ ∗ ∗

Now examination proved that it was this very niche that had been unearthed by the most recent excavations carried out by the society of which Canterel was a shareholder. A simple enquiry showed that, at the time of the discovery, the missing statue, broken into a thousand pieces, was lying obscured and sheltered by the niche, which had been overturned by the cataclysm that had buried it long ago.

The professor coveted this venerable object, whose very existence endowed the legend with a curious element of truth. By firmly out-bidding everyone at the auction he was fortunate enough to purchase it. Setting it in his park, he left the stone shelter empty for six years, finding no statue whose age and value made it worthy of such a precious lodging — lately merited by the ancient and glorious Federal, which found a shelter there from wind and rain.

After casting a last look at the double curiosity, we started after Canterel, who was already ahead of us on the rising path.

2

The vegetation became sparser as we ascended and soon the ground was bare on every side. At the top we came in sight of a broad promenade which was completely bare and very smooth.

We advanced a few paces toward a spot where a sort of paving implement stood, similar in construction to the punners — or paving beetles — used for leveling roads.