"What a pity that the Alderman had not been there--what a fine dance for Cut-in-half," said Blue Cap; "it is in such times as these that it is good to be strong."
"Yes, my son; but, unfortunately, the Alderman was not there! Cut-in-half took the child by the seat of his trousers, and carried him into his den, where he kept his big ape tied to the foot of his bed. On seeing the child, the beast began to leap and grind his teeth like a mad thing, and to spring the whole length of his chain, as if he wished to devour him."
"Poor Gringalet, how did he ever get out of this?"
"Why, if he had fallen into the clutches of the ape, he would have been strangled at once."
"Thunder! it makes me half dead," said Blue Cap: "as for me at this moment, I could not harm a mouse--what do you say, mate?"
"Nor I either."
"Nor I."
At this moment the clock struck three-quarters past three. Skeleton, fearing more and more that time would be wanting, cried, furious at these interruptions, which seemed to indicate that several of the prisoners were becoming softened, "Silence in the crowd! He will never finish, if you jabber as much as he does."
Pique-Vinaigre continued: "When one reflects that Gringalet had had all the trouble in the world to become accustomed to his turtle, and that the most courageous of his comrades trembled at the name alone of Gargousse, let him imagine his terror when he saw himself carried by his master near to this fiend of an ape. "Pardon, master," he cried, his teeth chattering as if he had an ague,--"pardon, master! I"ll never do it again, I promise you."
"The poor little fellow cried, "I will never do it again," without knowing why he said so, for he had nothing to reproach himself with; but Cut-in-half laughed at that. In spite of the cries of the child, who struggled hard, he placed him within reach of Gargousse, and the beast sprung upon him and clutched him!"
A shudder pa.s.sed through the audience, who were more and more attentive.
"How stupid I should have been to go away," said the keeper, approaching still nearer.
"And this is nothing yet; the finest has to come," answered Pique-Vinaigre.
"As soon as Gringalet felt the cold and hairy paws of the great ape, which seized him by the throat and by the head, he thought himself devoured, became, as it were, off his nut, and began to cry with groans which would have softened a tiger.
"" The spider of my dream, good Lord! the spider of my dream--little golden gnat, help, help!"
""Will you hush? will you hush?" said Cut-in-half, giving him heavy kicks, for he was afraid that his cries would be heard; but at the end of a moment there was no more danger: poor Gringalet cried no more, struggled no more; on his knees, as white as a sheet, he shut his eyes and shivered as if it had been January. Meantime the ape beat him, pulled his hair, and scratched him; and from time to time, the wicked beast stopped to look at his master, absolutely as if they understood each other. As for Cut-in-half, he laughed so loud, that if Gringalet had cried, the shouts of his master would have drowned his cries. It would seem as if this encouraged Gargousse, for he was more and more cruel to the child."
"Oh! you sanguinary ape," cried Blue Cap. "If I had hold of you by the tail, I would spin you round like a mill--just like a sling, and I would crack your conk on the pavement."
"Rascally ape! he was as wicked as a man!"
"There are no men so wicked as that!"
"Not so wicked?" answered Pique-Vinaigre. "You forget old Cut-in-half!
Judge of it--this is what he did afterward: he unfastened the chain (which was very long) from the bed, took the child, more dead than alive, from the paws of Gargousse, and fastened him at one end of it, with Gargousse at the other. There was an idea!"
"It is true, there are men more cruel than the most cruel beasts."
"When Cut-in-half had done this, he said to his ape, which appeared to understand him,
""Attention, Gargousse! they have led and shown you, now in your turn you shall show Gringalet; he shall be your ape. Come, hop, stand up, Gringalet, or I say to Gargousse, "Speak to him, fellow!""
"The poor child had fallen on his knees, his hands clasped, but not able to speak; his teeth chattered in his head.
""There! make him walk, Gargousse," said Cut-in-half to his ape; "and if he is sulky, do as I do."
"And at the same time he gave the child a torrent of blows with a switch, and afterward handed it to the ape. You know how these animals imitate by nature, but Gargousse in this respect excelled; so he took the rod in his hand and fell upon Gringalet, who was obliged to get up. Once on his legs he was about the same size as the ape; then Cut-in-half went out of his room and descended the staircase, calling Gargousse, and Gargousse followed him, driving Gringalet before him with blows from the rod. They reached thus the little court of the building. There Cut-in-half counted on amusing himself; he shut the door leading into the lane, and signed to Gargousse to make the child run before him around the court, by striking him with the switch. The ape obeyed, and began to chase Gringalet in this manner, while Cut-in-half held his sides with laughter. You think that this wickedness was enough? Oh! yes, but it was nothing as yet. Up to this time, Gringalet would have escaped with a few scratches, lashes, and horrible fear. Now this is what Cut-in-half did: to make the ape furious against the child, who, panting and out of breath, was more dead than alive, he took Gringalet by the hair, pretending to belabor him with blows, and then he handed him back to Gargousse, crying, "Speak to him, speak to him!" and then he showed him a piece of sheep"s heart, as much as to say to him, "This shall be your reward!" Oh! then, my friends, truly it was a dreadful sight. Imagine a great red ape with a black snout, grinding his teeth like a madman, and throwing himself furiously on this poor little unfortunate, who, not being able to defend himself, had been thrown down at the first blow, and lay with his face to the ground, in order to protect it. Seeing this, Gargousse, his master setting him at the child continually, mounted on his back, took him by the neck, and fell to biting him, until he made the blood come. "Oh! the spider of my dream--the spider!" cried Gringalet in a stifled voice, believing now that he was going to be killed. Suddenly there was a knock at the door!"
"Ah! the Alderman!" cried the prisoners with joy.
"Yes, this time it was he, my friends; he called through the door, "Will you open, Cut-in-half? will you open? Do not sham deaf; for I see you through the keyhole!"
"Cut-in-half, forced to reply, went grumbling to open the door for the Alderman, who was a rough, as solid as a bridge, in spite of his fifty years, and with whom it was worth no one"s while to joke when he was angry.
""What do you want with me?" said Cut-in-half to him, half opening the door. "I want to speak to you," said the Alderman, who entered almost by force into the little yard; then, seeing the ape still savage after Gringalet, he ran, caught Gargousse by the nape of his neck, and tried to take the child away from under him; but he only then saw that the child was chained to the ape. Seeing this, he looked at Cut-in-half in a terrible manner, and cried, "Come, then, at once, and unchain this poor boy!" You can judge of the joy and surprise of Gringalet, who, half dead with fright, found himself saved as it were by a miracle. Then he could not but think of the golden gnat of his dream, although the Alderman did not look much like a gnat, the big buffer."
"Ah," said the keeper, making a step toward the door; "now Gringalet is saved, I"ll go to eat my soup."
"Saved?" cried Pique-Vinaigre, "oh yes, saved! but not yet at the end of his troubles, poor Gringalet."
"Really?" said several of the prisoners, with interest.
"But what is going to happen to him now?" asked the keeper, drawing near.
"Remain, and you shall know," answered the patterer.
"Cunning Pique-Vinaigre, he does with one just as he pleases," said the keeper; "I will remain a little longer."
Skeleton, mute, foamed with rage. Pique-Vinaigre continued:
"Cut-in-half, who feared the Alderman as he did fire, had grumblingly loosened the child from the chain; when that was done, the Alderman threw Gargousse into the air, received him on the end of a most magnificent kick, and sent him sprawling ten feet off. The ape cried like a burned child, gnashed his teeth, but fled quickly, and went to take refuge on the top of a shed, where he shook his fist at the Alderman. "Why do you beat my ape?"
said Cut-in-half to the Alderman. "You ought rather to ask me, why I do not beat you, to cause this child such suffering! You are drunk pretty early this morning!" "I am no more drunk than you are; I was teaching a trick to my ape; I wish to give a representation where he and Gringalet will appear together; I am following my business--why do you meddle with it?" "I meddle with what concerns me. This morning, not seeing Gringalet pa.s.s before my door with the other children, I asked them where he was; they did not answer--they looked embarra.s.sed. I know you. I thought you were after no good, and I was not wrong. Listen to me: every time I do not see Gringalet pa.s.s before my door with the others in the morning, I will be here at once, and you must show him to me, or I"ll knock you down." "I will do as I please; I have no orders to receive from you," answered Cut-in-half, riled at this threat. You shall not knock me down; and if you do not take yourself off from this, or if you return, I---" Flip flap! went the Alderman, interrupting Cut-in-half by a duet of blows enough to silence a rhinoceros: "There is what you get for answering to the Alderman of Little Poland.""
"Two blows! it was too little," said Blue Cap; "in his place, I should have given him a bigger dose."
"And he should not have had it too hastily," added a prisoner.
"The Alderman," replied Pique-Vinaigre, "could have eaten ten like Cut-in-half. So he was obliged to put these blows in his pocket; but he was none the less furious at being struck, and above all, before Gringalet. So at this very moment he promised to avenge himself, and an idea occurred to him which could only have occurred to a demon of wickedness like himself.
While he was ruminating on this diabolical idea, the Alderman said: "Remember, that if you attempt to injure this child again, I will force you to clear out from Little Poland, you and your beasts; otherwise I will stir up the neighborhood against you; you know they hate you here, so you will have a pa.s.sport which your back will remember, I promise you." Traitor as he was, in order to be able to execute his wicked idea, instead of continuing to be angry against the Alderman, Cut-in-half cringed like a dog, and said: "Faith of a man! you were wrong to strike me, Alderman, and to think that I wished any harm to Gringalet; on the contrary, I repeat to you that I was teaching a new trick to my ape; he is not sweet-tempered when he is angry, and if, in the scuffle, the little one was bitten, I am sorry for it. "Hum!" said the Alderman, looking at him out of the corner of his eye, "is this really true, what you tell me? If you wish to teach a trick to your ape, why did you fasten him to Gringalet?" "Because Gringalet must also know it. This is what I wish to do; I will dress Gargousse in a red coat and a cap with feathers; I will seat Gringalet in a child"s chair; then I will put a towel around his neck, and the ape, with a large wooden razor will pretend to shave him."
"The Alderman could not keep from laughing at this idea. "Is it not comical?" said Cut-in-half, with a smirking look. "In truth, it is," said the Alderman, "so much the more as they say your ape is sufficiently cunning and knowing to play such a part.
""I think so. When he has seen me five or six times pretend to shave Gringalet, he will imitate me with his large wooden razor; but on that account, as the child must become used to him, I have tied them together."
""But why have you chosen Gringalet rather than any other?"
""Because he is the smallest of all, and, being seated, Gargousse will be larger than he is; besides, I intended to give half the profits to Gringalet."
""If this is so," said the Alderman, rea.s.sured by the hypocrisy of the owner of the beasts, "I regret the dose I gave you; consider it as an advance against the next time you do wrong."
"While his master spoke with the Alderman, Gringalet dared not breathe; he trembled like a leaf, and longed to throw himself at the Alderman"s feet, and beg to be taken away; but his courage failed him, and he began again to despair, saying to himself, "I shall be like the poor fly of my dream--the spider will devour me; I was wrong to believe that the golden gnat would save me!"
""Look here, my boy; since Daddy Cut-"em-in-half gives you half of the money, that ought to encourage you to accustom yourself to the ape. Bah!
bah! you will do it; and if the profits are large, you will have no cause to complain."
""He complain! Have you any reason to complain?" asked his master, giving him a side look so terrible that the child wished he was a hundred feet under ground.