A POLICE-AGENT GIVES A LAWYER TWO "KNOCK-ME-DOWNS."
On reaching No. 14, Rue de Pontoise, he went up to the first floor and
asked for the commissary.
"He is not in at present," said a clerk, "but there is an inspector to
represent him. Will you speak to him? Is your business pressing?"
"Yes," said Marius.
The clerk led him to the commissary's office. A very tall man was
leaning here against the fender of a stove, and holding up with both
hands the skirts of a mighty coat with three capes. He had a square
face, thin and firm lips, thick grayish whiskers, and a look of turning
your pockets inside out. Of this look you might have said, not that it
penetrated, but that it searched. This man did not appear much less
ferocious or formidable than Jondrette; for sometimes it is just as
dangerous to meet the dog as the wolf.
"What do you want?" he asked Marius, without adding, "sir."
"The police commissary."
"He is absent, but I represent him."
"It is a very secret affair."
"Then speak."
"And very urgent."
"In that case speak quick."
This man, who was calm and quick, was at once terrifying and
reassuring. He inspired both fear and confidence. Marius told him of
his adventure; that a person whom he only knew by sight was to be drawn
that very evening into a trap; that he, Marius Pontmercy, lawyer,
residing in the next room to the den, had heard the whole plot through
the partition; that the scoundrel's name who invented the snare was
Jondrette; that he would have accomplices, probably prowlers at the
barrières, among others one Panchaud, _alias_ Printanier, _alias_
Bigrenaille; that Jondrette's daughters would be on the watch; that
there were no means of warning the threatened man, as not even his name
was known; and that, lastly, all this would come off at six in the
evening, at the most deserted spot on the Boulevard de l'Hôpital, in
the house No. 50-52.
At this number the Inspector raised his head, and said coldly,--
"It must be in the room at the end of the passage."
"Exactly," Marius replied; and added, "do you know the house?"
The Inspector remained silent for a moment, and then answered, while
warming his boot-heel at the door of the stove,--
"Apparently so."
He went on between his teeth, talking less to Marius than his cravat.
"Patron Minette must be mixed up in this."
This remark struck Marius.
"Patron Minette!" he said; "yes, I heard that name mentioned."
And he told the Inspector of the dialogue between the hairy man and the
bearded man in the snow behind the wall in the Rue du Petit Banquier.
The Inspector growled,--
"The hairy man must be Burgon, and the bearded man, Demi-liard, _alias_
Deux Milliards."
He was again looking down and meditating. "As for Father
What's-his-name, I guess who he is. There, I have burnt my great-coat;
they always make too large a fire in these cursed stoves. No. 50-52,
formerly the property of one Gorbeau."
Then he looked at Marius.
"You only saw the hairy man and the bearded man?"
"And Panchaud."
"You did not see a small dandy prowling about there?"
"No."
"Nor a heavy lump of a fellow resembling the elephant in the Jardin-des
Plantes?"
"No."
"Nor a scamp who looks like an old red-tail?"
"No."
"As for the fourth, no one sees him, not even his adjutants,
assistants, and those he employs. It is not surprising, therefore, that
you did not perceive him."
"No. Who are all these men?" Marius asked.
The Inspector continued: "Besides, it is not their hour." He fell into
silence, and presently added,--"50-52. I know the shanty. It is
impossible for us to hide ourselves in the interior without the actors
perceiving us, and then they would escape by putting off the farce.
They are so modest, and frightened at an audience. That won't do, for I
want to hear them sing and make them dance."
This soliloquy ended, he turned to Marius, and asked, as he looked at
him searchingly,--
"Would you be afraid?"
"Of what?" Marius asked.
"Of these men."
"No more than I am of you," Marius answered roughly, for he was
beginning to notice that this policeman had not yet said, "sir."
The Inspector looked at Marius more intently still, and continued, with
a sort of sententious solemnity,--
"You speak like a brave man and like an honest man. Courage does not
fear crime, nor honesty the authorities."
Marius interrupted him,--
"That is all very well, but what do you intend doing?"
The Inspector restricted himself to saying,--
"The lodgers in that house have latch-keys to let themselves in at
night. You have one?"
"Yes," said Marius.
"Have you it about you?"
"Yes."
"Give it to me," the Inspector said.
Marius took the key out of his waistcoat pocket, handed it to the
Inspector, and added,--
"If you take my advice you will bring a strong force."
The Inspector gave Marius such a glance as Voltaire would have given
a Provincial Academician who proposed a rhyme to him; then he thrust
both hands into his immense coat-pockets and produced two small steel
pistols, of the sort called "knock-me-downs." He handed them to Marius,
saying sharply and quickly,--
"Take these. Go home. Conceal yourself in your room, and let them
suppose you out. They are loaded, both with two bullets. You will
watch, as you tell me there is a hole in the wall. People will arrive;
let them go on a little. When you fancy the matter ripe, and you
think it time to stop it, you will fire a pistol, but not too soon.
The rest concerns me. A shot in the air, in the ceiling, I don't care
where,--but, mind, not too soon. Wait till the commencement of the
execution. You are a lawyer, and know what that means."
Marius took the pistols and placed them in a side pocket of his coat.
"They bulge that way, and attract attention," said the Inspector; "put
them in your trousers' pockets."
Marius did so.
"And now," the Inspector continued, "there is not a moment for any one
to lose. What o'clock is it? Half-past two. You said seven?"
"Six o'clock," Marius corrected.
"I have time," the Inspector added; "but only just time. Do not forget
anything I have said to you. A pistol-shot."
"All right." Marius replied.
And as he pat his hand on the latch to leave the room the Inspector
shouted to him,--
"By the way, if you should want me between this and then, come or send
here. Ask for Inspector Javert."