"
"He will tell you, unless he does not choose to do so; for often he is
pleased to do good, and if you take it into your head to ask him why, he
will not mind answering, 'Mind your own business!'"
"And does M. Rudolph know that you are here?"
"Not so stupid as to tell him my idea; he would not, perhaps, have allowed
me the fun, and without bragging, it is rich."
"But the risks you have run and still run?"
"What did I risk? not to be conducted to La Force, where you were, that is
true. But I counted on the protection of M. Rudolph, to have my prison
changed and join you; a lord like him can do everything. And when I was
once shut up, he would have wished me to be of service to you."
"But when your trial comes on?"
"Well! I will beg M. Murphy to send me my trunk; I will put on before the
big wig, _my_ big wig, the blue spectacles, and the hump, and I will
become M. Gregoire again, send for the porter who let me the chamber, and
for the shopkeepers who sold me the furniture; so much for the robbed. If
they wish to see the robber again, I will throw off my disguise, and it
will be as clear as day that the robbed and the robber make the sum total
of the Slasher, neither more nor less. Then, what the devil would you have
them do to me, when it shall be proved that I have robbed myself?"
"That's true!" said Germain, more assured; "but since you felt so much
interest for me, why did you not speak to me on entering the prison?"
"I knew at once the plot which was formed against you; I could have exposed
it before Pique-Vinaigre had commenced his story: but to denounce even such
ruffians does not go down with me.
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