They called him so, because, with a
hatchet, he had cut in two a little Savoyard!"
At this part of the story the prison clock struck a quarter past three. The
prisoners entering their sleeping apartments at four o'clock, the crime was
to be consummated before that hour.
"Thousand thunders! the keeper does not go," whispered the Skeleton to the
Big Cripple.
"Be quiet; once the story started, he will leave." Pique-Vinaigre continued
his recital.
"No one knew whence Cut-in-half came; some said he was an Italian, others a
gipsy, others a Turk, others an African; the old women called him a
magician, although a magician in these days may appear fishy; as for me, I
should be quite tempted to say the same as the old women. What makes this
likely is, that he always had with him a great red ape called Gargousse,
which was so cunning, and wicked, that one would have said he had Old Nick
in him. By and by I shall speak again of Gargousse. As to Cut-'em-in-half,
I am going to show him up; he had skin the color of a bootlining, hair as
red as the hide of his ape, green eyes, and what makes me think with the
old women that he was a magician, is, that he had a black tongue."
"Black tongue?" said Barbillon.
"Black as ink!" answered Pique-Vinaigre.
"And how is that?"
"Because, before he was born, his mother had probably spoken of a negro,"
answered Pique-Vinaigre, with modest assurance.
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