xactly how to manage
his dreadful tools. "The moll is a beauty; she is well informed, and
stands by her mates, and a first-rate hand. Yes, la Gonore has made a
new man of you! What a flat you must be to risk your nut when you have
a trip like her at home! You noodle; you should have set up some
respectable little shop and lived quietly.--And what does she do?"

"She is settled in the Rue Sainte-Barbe, managing a house----"

"And she is to be your legatee? Ah, my dear boy, this is what such sluts
bring us to when we are such fools as to love them."

"Yes, but don't you give her anything till I am done for."

"It is a sacred trust," said Jacques Collin very seriously.

"And nothing to the pals?"

"Nothing! They blowed the gaff for me," answered la Pouraille
vindictively.

"Who did? Shall I serve 'em out?" asked Jacques Collin eagerly, trying
to rouse the last sentiment that survives in these souls till the last
hour. "Who knows, old pal, but I might at the same time do them a bad
turn and serve you with the public prosecutor?"

The murderer looked at his boss with amazed satisfaction.

"At this moment," the boss replied to this expressive look, "I am
playing the game only for Theodore. When this farce is played out, old
boy, I might do wonders for a chum--for you are a chum of mine."

"If I see that you really can put off the engagement for that poor
little Theodore, I will do anything you choose--there!"

"But the trick is done. I am sure to save his head. If you want to get
out of the scrape, you see, la Pouraille, you must be ready to do a good
turn--we can do nothing single-handed----"

"That's true," said the felon.

His confidence was so strong, and his faith in the boss so fanatical,
that he no longer hesitated. La Pouraille revealed the names of his
accomplices, a secret hitherto well kept. This was all Jacques needed to
know.

"That is the whole story. Ruffard was the third in the job with me and
Godet----"

"Arrache-Laine?" cried Jacques Collin, giving Ruffard his nickname among
the gang.

"That's the man.--And the blackguards peached because I knew where they
had hidden their whack, and they did not know where mine was."

"You are making it all easy, my cherub!" said Jacques Collin.

"What?"

"Well," replied the master, "you see how wise it is to trust me
entirely. Your revenge is now part of the hand I am playing.--I do
not ask you to tell me where the dibs are, you can tell me at the l