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The Frog approached and gently requested The Hat to seat himself upon a chair the better of two chairs boasted by The Enormous Room. The Frog, successor to The Barber, brandished his scissors. The Hat lay and scratched. "Allez, Nom de Dieu" the planton roared. The poor Hat arose trembling, assumed a praying attitude; and began to talk in a thick and sudden manner.
Upon being sentenced to cabinot, whether for writing an intercepted letter, fighting, threatening a planton, or committing some minor offense for the nth time, a man took one blanket from his bed, carried it downstairs to the cachot, and disappeared therein for a night or many days and nights as the case might be.
B. said to me "Probably he's going to take you to the Gestionnaire. You're supposed to see him when you arrive. He's got your money and will keep it for you, and give you an allowance twice a week. You can't draw more than 20 francs. I'll hold your bread and spoon." "Where the devil is the American?" cried the planton. "Here I am." "Follow me."
I was still wondering at my good luck in occupying the same miserable yard with this exquisite personage when a hoarse, rather thick voice shouted from the gate: "L'americain!" It was a planton, in fact the chief planton for whom all ordinary plantons had unutterable respect and whom all mere men unutterably hated.
At the end of twenty minutes our thirst stimulated by an especially salty dose of lukewarm water for lunch attained truly desperate proportions. Several of the bolder thirsters leaned from the various windows of the room and cried "De l'eau, planton; de l'eau, s'il vous plait"
Fourth, a tiny old man who looked like a caricature of an East Side second-hand clothes dealer having a long beard, a long, worn and dirty coat reaching just to his ankles, and a small derby hat on his head. A great tempest ensued immediately. A planton was hastily summoned.
I am a fool, and I am going into the street, and I am going by myself with no planton into the little street of the little city of La Ferte Mace which is a little, a very little city in France, where once upon a time I used to catch water for an old man.... I have already shaken hands with the Cook, and with the cordonnier who has beautifully mended my shoes.
Les hommes were in fact about equally divided; half considering that the occult sound had been intended for "B.," half that the somewhat asthmatic planton had unwittingly uttered a spontaneous grunt or sigh, which sigh or grunt we had mistaken for a proper noun.
Moreover the pinard was excellent. "Come on! Arrange yourselves!" the bull-neck cried hoarsely as the five of us were lighting up; and we joined the line of fellow-prisoners with their breads and spoons, gaping, belching, trumpeting fraternally, by the doorway. "Tout le monde en haut!" this planton roared. This would be about ten thirty. I am fairly certain that I went on afternoon promenade.
"Planton" it cried heavily to the wooden-handed one, "Two men to go get water." Harree and Pompom were already at the gate with the archaic water-wagon, the former pushing from behind and the latter in the shafts. The guardian of the cour walked up and opened the gate for them, after ascertaining that another planton was waiting at the corner of the building to escort them on their mission.
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