Part 94 (2/2)
”'Tis true--I said so, and I say it again”
”And I answered you, Porthos, that it was not a good plan; that we couldn't go a hundred steps without being recaptured, because ithout clothes to disguise ourselves and arms to defend ourselves”
”That is true; we should need clothes and ar, ”we have the better”
”Bah!” said Porthos, looking around
”Useless to look; everything will come to us anted At about what ti yesterday?”
”An hour after sunset”
”If they go out to-day as they did yesterday we shall have the honor, then, of seeing them in half an hour?”
”In a quarter of an hour at h, is it not, Porthos?”
Porthos unbuttoned his sleeve, raised his shi+rt and looked co of any ordinary man
”Yes, indeed,” said he, ”I believe so”
”So that you could without trouble convert these tongs into a hoop and yonder shovel into a corkscrew?”
”Certainly” And the giant took up these two articles, and without any apparent effort produced in theested by his companion
”There!” he cried
”Capital!” exclaiifted individual!”
”I have heard speak,” said Porthos, ”of a certain Milo of Crotona, who perfor his forehead with a cord and bursting it--of killing an ox with a blow of his fist and carrying it home on his shoulders, et cetera I used to learn all these feat by heart yonder, down at Pierrefonds, and I have done all that he did except breaking a cord by the corrugation of th is not in your head, Porthos,” said his friend
”No; it is in ratified naivete
”Well, my dear friend, let us approach theand there you can ainst that of an iron bar”
Porthos went to the , took a bar in his hands, clung to it and bent it like a bow; so that the two ends came out of the sockets of stone in which for thirty years they had been fixed
”Well! friend, the cardinal, although such a genius, could never have done that”
”Shall I take out any more of them?” asked Porthos
”No; that is sufficient; a h that”
Porthos tried, and passed the upper portion of his body through
”Yes,” he said
”Now pass your ar”
”Why?”
”You will know presently--pass it”
Porthos obeyed with
”Adoes forward, it seems”
”On wheels, dear friend”
”Good! What shall I do now?”
”Nothing”
”It is finished, then?”
”No, not yet”
”I should like to understand,” said Porthos
”Listen, my dear friend; in tords you will know all The door of the guardhouse opens, as you see”
”Yes, I see”
”They are about to send into our court, which Monsieur de Mazarin crosses on his way to the orangery, the two guards who attend hi out”
”If only they close the guardhouse door! Good! They close it”
”What, then?”
”Silence! They may hear us”
”I don't understand it at all”