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It is a dog's life, still it is life!" La Pouraille's eyes glittered with suppressed delirium. "With seven hundred thousand francs you can get a good many drinks," said Jacques Collin, making his pal quite drunk with hope. "Ay, ay, boss!" "I can bamboozle the Minister of Justice. Ah, ha! Ruffard will shell out to do for a reeler. Bibi-Lupin is fairly gulled!"
"That is the whole story. Ruffard was the third in the job with me and Godet " "Arrache-Laine?" cried Jacques Collin, giving Ruffard his nickname among the gang. "That's the man. And the blackguards peached because I knew where they had hidden their whack, and they did not know where mine was." "You are making it all easy, my cherub!" said Jacques Collin. "What?"
As soon as Godet and Ruffard are nabbed, they will be supposed to have got rid of what is missing from their shares. And I will make Godet believe that I have saved a hundred thousand francs for him, and that la Gonore has done the same for la Pouraille and Ruffard.
"Why, the public prosecutor wants you," replied Ruffard, "and we have been hunting for you everywhere, and found you in the cemetery, where you had nearly taken a header into that boy's grave." Jacques Collin was silent for a moment. "Is it Bibi-Lupin that is after me?" he asked the other man. "No. Monsieur Garnery sent us to find you." "And he told you nothing?"
"Idiot, if we promise to give the money back to the family, you will only be lagged for life. I would not give a piece for your nut if we keep the blunt, but at this moment you are worth seven hundred thousand francs, you flat." "Good for you, boss!" cried la Pouraille in great glee. "And then," said Jacques Collin, "besides casting all the murders on Ruffard Bibi-Lupin will be finely cold.
"Well," replied the master, "you see how wise it is to trust me entirely. Your revenge is now part of the hand I am playing. I do not ask you to tell me where the dibs are, you can tell me at the last moment; but tell me all about Ruffard and Godet." "You are, and you always will be, our boss; I have no secrets from you," replied la Pouraille. "My money is in the cellar at la Gonore's."
The two men looked at each other, holding council in expressive pantomime. "Come, what did he say when he gave you your orders?" "He bid us fetch you at once," said Ruffard, "and said we should find you at the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Pres; or, if the funeral had left the church, at the cemetery." "The public prosecutor wants me?" "Perhaps."
You must set old Nourrisson to find her; I will give you the necessary information in a letter which Gault will give you. Come for it to the gate of the Conciergerie in two hours' time. You must place the girl with a washerwoman, Godet's sister; she must seem at home there. Godet and Ruffard were concerned with la Pouraille in robbing and murdering the Crottats.
"What is up now?" asked Jacques Collin when he recovered consciousness and had looked about him. He saw himself between two constables, one of whom was Ruffard; and he gave him a look which pierced the murderer's soul to the very depths of la Gonore's secret.
"Have Ruffard and Godet had their spree yet? Have they forked out any of the yellow boys?" asked Jacques Collin. "They dare not," replied la Pouraille. "The wretches are waiting till I am turned off. That is what my moll sent me word by la Biffe when she came to see le Biffon." "Very well; we will have their whack of money in twenty-four hours," said Jacques Collin.
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