heavy sighs and sobs
common to children after a day of painful excitement.

"Then, Dr. Hirsch, you don't think him ill?" asked Madame Moronval,
anxiously.

"Not in the least, madame; that race has a covering like a monitor!"

When they were alone, Jack took Madou's hand and found it as burning
hot as a brick from the furnace. "Dear Madou," he whispered. Madou half
opened his eyes and looked at his friend with an expression of utter
discouragement.

"It's all over with Madou," he murmured; "Madou has lost his Gri-gri,
and will never see Dahomey again."

This was the reason, then, that he had not left Paris. Two hours after
he had run away from the academy, the fifteen francs of market-money
and his medal had been stolen from him. Then, relinquishing all idea of
Marseilles, of the ship and of the sea, knowing that without his Gri-gri
Dahomey was unattainable, Madou had spent eight days and nights in the
lowest depths of Paris, looking for his amulet. Fearing that Moronval
would discover his whereabouts, he hid during the day and ventured
into the streets only after nightfall. He slept by the side of piles of
bricks and mortar, which partly protected him from the wind; or crawled
into an open doorway, or under the arches of a bridge.

Favored by his size and by his color, Madou glided about almost unseen;
he had associated with criminals of all classes, and had escaped without
contamination, for he thought only of finding his amulet. He had shared
a crust of bread with assassins, and drank with robbers; but the little
king escaped from these dangers as he had from others in Dahomey, where,
when hunting with Kerika, he had been awakened by the trumpeting of
elephants and the roaring of wild beasts, and saw, under some gigantic
tree, the dim shadow of some strange animal passing between himself
and the bivouac fires; or caught a glimpse of some great snake slowly
winding through the underbrush. But the monsters to be found in Paris
are more terrible even than those in the African forests; or they would
have been, had he understood the dangers he incurred. But he could
not find his Gri-gri. Madou could not talk much, his exhaustion was so
great; and Jack fell asleep with his curiosity but partially satisfied.

In the middle of the night he was awakened suddenly by a shout from
Madou, who was singing and talking in his own language with frightful
volubility. Delirium had begun.

In the morning, Dr. Hirsch announced th