ing under the bed and the furniture," she replied, continuing
to arrange her hair; "there's no one here."

"Booby!" yelled her father. "Come here this minute! And don't waste any
time about it!"

"Coming! Coming!" said she. "One has no time for anything in this
hovel!"

She hummed:--

Vous me quittez pour aller a la gloire;[29]
Mon triste coeur suivra partout.

She cast a parting glance in the mirror and went out, shutting the door
behind her.

A moment more, and Marius heard the sound of the two young girls' bare
feet in the corridor, and Jondrette's voice shouting to them:--

"Pay strict heed! One on the side of the barrier, the other at the
corner of the Rue du Petit-Banquier. Don't lose sight for a moment of
the door of this house, and the moment you see anything, rush here on
the instant! as hard as you can go! You have a key to get in."

The eldest girl grumbled:--

"The idea of standing watch in the snow barefoot!"

"To-morrow you shall have some dainty little green silk boots!" said the
father.

They ran down stairs, and a few seconds later the shock of the outer
door as it banged to announced that they were outside.

There now remained in the house only Marius, the Jondrettes and
probably, also, the mysterious persons of whom Marius had caught a
glimpse in the twilight, behind the door of the unused attic.

CHAPTER XVII--THE USE MADE OF MARIUS' FIVE-FRANC PIECE

Marius decided that the moment had now arrived when he must resume his
post at his observatory. In a twinkling, and with the agility of his
age, he had reached the hole in the partition.

He looked.

The interior of the Jondrette apartment presented a curious aspect, and
Marius found an explanation of the singular light which he had noticed.
A candle was burning in a candlestick covered with verdigris, but
that was not what really lighted the chamber. The hovel was completely
illuminated, as it were, by the reflection from a rather large
sheet-iron brazier standing in the fireplace, and filled with burning
charcoal, the brazier prepared by the Jondrette woman that morning. The
charcoal was glowing hot and the brazier was red; a blue flame flickered
over it, and helped him to make out the form of the chisel purchased by
Jondrette in the Rue Pierre-Lombard, where it had been thrust into the
brazier to heat. In one corner, near the door, and as though prepared
for some definite use, two heaps were visible, w