door,
last night, along with the rest? Catch me doing your work for you again,
when you're too drunk to do it yourself!"

"Hold your tongue, and let me have another look at the list!" returned
the hunchback, turning away from the cell door, and snatching a slip of
paper from the other's hand. "The devil take me if I can make head
or tail of it!" he exclaimed, scratching his head, after a careful
examination of the list. "I could swear that I read over their names at
the grate yesterday afternoon with my own lips; and yet, look as long as
I may, I certainly can't find them written down here. Give us a pinch,
friend. Am I awake, or dreaming? drunk or sober this morning?"

"Sober, I hope," said a quiet voice at his elbow. "I have just looked in
to see how you are after yesterday."

"How I am, Citizen Lomaque? Petrified with astonishment. You yourself
took charge of that man and woman for me, in the waiting-room, yesterday
morning; and as for myself, I could swear to having read their names at
the grate yesterday afternoon. Yet this morning here are no such things
as these said names to be found in the list! What do you think of that?"

"And what do you think," interrupted the aggrieved subordinate, "of
his having the impudence to bully me for being careless in chalking the
doors, when he was too drunk to do it himself? too drunk to know his
right hand from his left! If I wasn't the best-natured man in the world,
I should report him to the head jailer."

"Quite right of you to excuse him, and quite wrong of him to bully
you," said Lomaque, persuasively. "Take my advice," he continued,
confidentially, to the hunchback, "and don't trust too implicitly to
that slippery memory of yours, after our little drinking bout yesterday.
You could not really have read their names at the grate, you know, or
of course they would be down on the list. As for the waiting-room at
the tribunal, a word in your ear: chief agents of police know strange
secrets. The president of the court condemns and pardons in public; but
there is somebody else, with the power of ten thousand presidents, who
now and then condemns and pardons in private. You can guess who. I
say no more, except that I recommend you to keep your head on your
shoulders, by troubling it about nothing but the list there in your
hand. Stick to that literally, and nobody can blame you. Make a fuss
about mysteries that don't concern you, and--"

Lomaque stopped, and holding his ha