cian into the street gate she pretended that the wind had blown
out of her lamp, and under pretext of relighting it she put out that of
Perrache. All this racket, accompanied by exclamations and a bewildering
loquacity, was so briskly carried out that the porter, if summoned
before the police-court, would not have hesitated to swear that the
doctor, whose arrival he had witnessed, left the house between nine and
ten o'clock.

When the two accomplices were thus in tranquil possession of the field
of operations Madame Cardinal hung up her rabbit's-hair shawl before the
window to exclude all possible indiscretion on the part of a neighbor.
In the Luxembourg quarter life quiets down early. By ten o'clock all
the sounds in the house as well as those out of doors were stilled, and
Cerizet declared that the moment had come to go to work; by beginning at
once they were certain that the sleeper would remain under the influence
of the drug; besides, if the booty were found at once, Madame Cardinal
could, under pretence of a sudden attack on her patient, which required
her to fetch a remedy from the apothecary, get the porter to open the
street gate for her without suspicion. As all porters pull the gate-cord
from their beds, Cerizet would be able to get away at the same time
without notice.

Powerful in advice, Cerizet was a very incapable hand in action; and,
without the robust assistance of Mere Cardinal he could never have
lifted what might almost be called the corpse of the former drum-major.
Completely insensible, Toupillier was now an inert mass, a dead-weight,
which could, fortunately, be handled without much precaution, and
the athletic Madame Cardinal, gathering strength from her cupidity,
contrived, notwithstanding Cerizet's insufficient assistance, to effect
the transfer of her uncle from one bed to the other.

On rummaging the bed from which the body was moved, nothing was
found, and Madame Cardinal, pressed by Cerizet to explain why she had
confidently asserted that her uncle "was lying on one hundred thousand
francs in gold," was forced to admit that a talk with Madame Perrache,
and her own fervid imagination were the sole grounds of her certainty.
Cerizet was furious; having for one whole day dallied with the idea
and hope of fortune, having, moreover, entered upon a dangerous and
compromising course of action, only to find himself, at the supreme
moment, face to face with--nothing! The disappointment was so bitt