Gros-Boiteux, "Follow him
to the door, and, when you see him leave the yard, cry Gargousse, and
the informer is a dead man."

"All right," said Le Gros-Boiteux, who accompanied the guardian, and
remained at the door watching his steps as he went away.

"I tell you, then," resumed Pique-Vinaigre, "that Gringalet, during the
whole time of his triumph, said, 'Little flies, I have--'"

"Gargousse!" cried Gros-Boiteux, as the turnkey quitted the yard.

"I'm here, Gringalet, and I will be your spider!" cried the Skeleton,
instantly, and darting so suddenly on Germain that he could not make a
struggle or utter a cry. His voice expired under the tremendous gripe of
the Skeleton's iron fingers.

"If you are the spider, I'm the golden fly, Skeleton of evil," cried a
voice, at the moment when Germain, surprised at the violent and sudden
attack of his implacable enemy, had fallen back on the bench entirely at
the mercy of the ruffian, who, with his knee on his breast, held him by
the neck. "Yes, I will be the fly, and a fly of the right sort!"
repeated the man in the blue cap, of whom we have already spoken, and
then, with a fierce spring, he dashed upon the Skeleton, and assailed
him on the skull and between his eyes with a shower of blows from his
fist, so tremendous that it sounded like the noise of a smith's hammer
ringing on an anvil.

[Illustration: "_The Skeleton Staggered at First_"
Original Etching by Marcel]

The man in the blue cap, who was no other than the Chourineur, added, as
he redoubled the quickness of his hammering on the Skeleton's head:

"It is the shower of blows which M. Rodolph drummed on my sconce, and I
have recollected them."

At this unexpected assault the prisoners were all struck with surprise,
and did not take part either for or against the Chourineur. Several of
them, still under the influence of the salutary impression made on them
by Pique-Vinaigre's story, were even glad of an event which saved
Germain. The Skeleton staggered at first, and, reeling like an ox under
the butcher's poleaxe, mechanically extended his hands to try and ward
off his adversary's blows, and Germain, thus freed from the deadly
clutch of the Skeleton, half raised himself.

"What does this mean? Who is this scoundrel?" exclaimed Le Gros-Boiteux,
and, rushing at the Chourineur, he endeavoured to seize his arms from
behind, whilst the latter was making violent efforts to keep the
Skeleton down on the bench. Germain