bent, digging with his pick.

But the custom-house officer reappeared farther down, in an open space
between the rocks, making repeated signals. They treated him with
contempt. An oval body bulged out under the thinned soil, and sloped
down, was on the point of slipping.

Suddenly another individual, with a sabre, presented himself.

"Your passports?"

It was the field-guard on his rounds, and, at the same instant, the man
from the custom-house came up, having hastened through a ravine.

"Take them into custody for me, Pere Morin, or the cliff will fall in!"

"It is for a scientific object," replied Pecuchet.

Then a mass of stone fell, grazing them all four so closely that a
little more and they were dead men.

When the dust was scattered, they recognised the mast of a ship, which
crumbled under the custom-house officer's boot.

Bouvard said with a sigh, "We did no great harm!"

"One should not do anything within the fortification limits," returned
the guard.

"In the first place, who are you, in order that I may take out a summons
against you?"

Pecuchet refused to give his name, cried out against such injustice.

"Don't argue! follow me!"

As soon as they reached the port a crowd of ragamuffins ran after them.
Bouvard, red as a poppy, put on an air of dignity; Pecuchet, exceedingly
pale, darted furious looks around; and these two strangers, carrying
stones in their pocket-handkerchiefs, did not present a good appearance.
Provisionally, they put them up at the inn, whose master on the
threshold guarded the entrance. Then the mason came to demand back his
tools. They were paying him for them, and still there were incidental
expenses!--and the field-guard did not come back! Wherefore? At last, a
gentleman, who wore the cross of the Legion of Honour, set them free,
and they went away, after giving their Christian names, surnames, and
their domicile, with an undertaking on their part to be more circumspect
in future.

Besides a passport, they were in need of many things, and before
undertaking fresh explorations they consulted the _Geological
Traveller's Guide_, by Bone. It was necessary to have, in the first
place, a good soldier's knapsack, then a surveyor's chain, a file, a
pair of nippers, a compass, and three hammers, passed into a belt, which
is hidden under the frock-coat, and "thus preserves you from that
original appearance which one ought to avoid on a journey." As for the
stick, Pecuchet fr