oung man? Why, she looks like a war-horse when he
hears the blast of the trumpet!"

"You mean to send her as a lookout?"

"Precisely so."

"No. 17, Allee des Veuves, isn't it, my man?" cried the Chouette,
impatiently. "Make yourself easy: I have but one eye, but that is a good
one."

"Do you see, young man,--do you see she is all impatience to be at
work?"

"If she manages cleverly to get into the house, I do not think your idea
a bad one."

"Take the umbrella, _fourline_; in half an hour I will be here again,
and you shall see what I will do," said the Chouette.

"One moment, Finette; we are going down to the Bleeding Heart,--only two
steps from here. If the little Tortillard (cripple) is there, you had
better take him with you; he will remain outside on the watch whilst you
go inside the house."

"You are right,--little Tortillard is as cunning as a fox; he is not ten
years of age, and yet it was he who the other day--"

A signal from the Schoolmaster interrupted the Chouette.

"What does the 'Bleeding Heart' mean? It is an odd sign for a cabaret,"
asked Rodolph.

"You must complain to the landlord."

"What is his name?"

"The landlord of the Bleeding Heart?"

"Yes."

"What is that to you? He never asks the names of his customers."

"But, still--"

"Call him what you like,--Peter, Thomas, Christopher, or Barnabas,--he
will answer to any and all. But here we are, and it's time we were, for
the rain is coming down again in floods; and how the river roars! It has
almost become a torrent! Why, look at it! Two more days of such rain,
and the water will overflow the arches of the bridge."

"You say that we are _there_, but where the devil is the cabaret? I do
not see any house here."

"Certainly not, if you look round about you."

"Where should I look, then?"

"At your feet."

"At my feet?"

"Yes."

"And whereabouts?"

"Here,--look; do you see the roof? Mind, and don't step upon it."

Rodolph had not remarked one of those subterraneans which used to be
seen, some years since, in certain spots in the Champs Elysees, and
particularly near the Cours la Reine.

A flight of steps, cut out of the damp and greasy ground, led to the
bottom of this sort of deep ditch, against one end of which, cut
perpendicularly, leaned a low, mean, dilapidated hovel; its roof,
covered with moss-covered tiles, was scarcely so high as the ground on
which Rodolph was standing; two or three out-buildings, constru