u shall
not cry long!' replied Cut-in-Half. 'Golden fly, golden fly, come to my
help!' exclaimed poor Gringalet, almost mad, and remembering the dream
that had had such an effect upon him, 'for the spider is going to kill
me!' 'What!--you call--call--me a spider--do you?' said Cut-in-Half;
'for this--and--other--many other things--you shall die--die, I tell
you--but not by my hand--because that wouldn't do--and besides--they'd
"scrag" me--and so I'll say and prove that it was the ape. I have
managed it all--and so--never mind--for that's all about it!' he added,
preserving his equilibrium with the greatest difficulty. Then calling
the monkey, which, at the end of his chain, was grinning and looking at
his master and the boy, 'Here, Gargousse,' he said, pointing to the
razor, and then to Gringalet, whom he had seized by the hair of his
head, 'do so to him;' and then drawing the back of the razor several
times over Gringalet's throat, he feigned to cut his throat. The devil
of a monkey was such a close imitator--so wicked and so sly--that he
understood what his master desired, and as if to prove to him that he
did so, he took his chin in his left paw, put his head back, and, with
his right paw, pretended to cut his throat. 'That's it,
Gargousse--that's it!' said Cut-in-Half, stammering, with his eyes half
closed, and staggering so much that he almost fell with Gringalet and
the chair. 'Yes, that's it! I'll unfas--unfasten you, and you'll slice
his weasand--won't you, Gargousse?' The ape shrieked as he ground his
teeth, as much as to say yes, and put out his paw as if to take the
razor that Cut-in-Half handed to him. 'Golden fly, come to my rescue!'
murmured Gringalet, in a faint voice, and assured that his last hour was
come. Alas! he called the golden fly without any hopes of its coming to
his rescue; he did so as a drowning man exclaims, '_Mon Dieu! mon
Dieu!_' Yet at this very moment Gringalet saw enter into the room one of
those small gold and green flies, which look like a spangle of gold
flying and flitting around and about; and at the very moment when
Cut-in-Half was going to give the razor to Gargousse, the gold fly went
plump into the eye of this horrible ruffian. A fly in the eye is no
great thing, but at the moment it hurts like the prick of a pin, and
thus Cut-in-Half, who could scarcely support himself, raised his hand to
his eye so suddenly that he staggered and fell at full length, rolling
on the ground like