Volume III Part 27 (1/2)
”I am as sure of it as that I see ham! And, then, how the devil would you have him spy?--he is always alone; he speaks to no one, and no one speaks to him; he runs away from us as if we had the cholera. Besides, he will not spy for a long time; he is going to be boxed up alone.”
”He!” cried Skeleton; ”when?”
”To-morrow morning there will be a cell vacant.”
”You see we must kill him at once. He does not sleep in my ward; to-morrow will be too late. To-day we have only until four o'clock, and now it is almost three,” whispered Skeleton to Nicholas, while Pique-Vinaigre talked with Barbillon.
”All the same,” answered Nicholas aloud, pretending to answer an observation of Skeleton, ”Germain looks as if he despises us.”
”On the contrary, my children,” answered Pique-Vinaigre, ”you intimidate this young man. He looks upon himself, in comparison with you, as the least of the least. Just now, what do you think he said?”
”How should I know?”
”He said to me, 'You are very happy, Pique-Vinaigre, to dare to speak with the famous Skeleton (he used the word famous) as an equal and a companion.'
I am dying to speak to him; but he produces an effect upon me so respectful--so respectful--that, should I see the chief of police in flesh, and bones, and uniform, I could not be more overcome.”
”He told you that?” replied Skeleton, feigning to believe him, and to be flattered at the admiration he excited in Germain.
”As true as that you are the greatest magsman on the earth, he told me so.”
”Then it is different,” answered Skeleton; ”I must make it up with him.
Barbillon had a mind to pick a quarrel, but he, too, will do well to let him alone.”
”He will do better,” cried Pique-Vinaigre, persuaded that he had turned away the danger with which Germain was threatened. ”He will do better, for this poor fellow won't dispute; he is one of my kind, bold as a hare.”
”Yes, it is a pity,” said Skeleton; ”we reckoned on this quarrel to amuse us after dinner, the time appears so long.”
”Yes. What shall we do then?” asked Nicholas.
”Since it is so, let Pique-Vinaigre tell us a story. I will not seek a quarrel with Germain,” said Barbillon.
”Agreed, agreed!” cried the story-teller. ”That is one condition; but there is another, and without both I tell no stories.”
”Come, what is your other condition?”
”It is, that the honorable society which is poisoned with capitalists,”
said Pique-Vinaigre, a.s.suming his mountebank tw.a.n.g, ”will make for me the trifle of a contribution of twenty sous. Twenty sous, ladies and gents, to hear the famous Pique-Vinaigre, who has had the honor to perform before the most renowned robbers, before the most famous rogues, of France and Navarre, and who is immediately expected at Brest and at Toulon, where he goes by order of the government. Twenty sous! A mere nothing, gents.”
”Come, you shall have twenty sous when you have told your story.”
”After? No; before!” cried Pique-Vinaigre.
”I say, do you think us capable of cheating you out of twenty sous?” said Skeleton, with a displeased air.
”Not at all,” answered Pique-Vinaigre; ”I honor the family with my confidence, and it is to spare its purse that I ask twenty sous in advance.”
”On your word of honor?”
”Yes, gents; for after my tale is finished, you will be so satisfied that it is no longer twenty sous, but twenty francs--a hundred francs that you will force me to take! I know, myself, I should have the _meanness_ to accept the offering; so, you see, that for economy's sake, you will do better to give me twenty sous in advance.”