"Oh, I was caught on the prigging lay--_a la Americaine_."
"Ah, always in the same line."
"Yes, I continue in my usual small way. The rig is common, but there are always "culls"; and but for the stupidity of a pal I should not be here.
However, once caught twice warned; and when I begin again I will be more careful,--I have my plan."
"Ah, here"s Cardillac!" said the Boiteux, going to a little man wretchedly dressed, with ill-looking aspect, full of craft and malignity, and with features partaking of the wolf and fox. "Ah, old chap, how are you?"
"Ah, old limper," replied the prisoner nicknamed Cardillac to the Gros-Boiteux; "they said every day, "He"s coming--he"s not coming!" But you are like the pretty girls, you do as you like."
"Yes, to be sure."
"Well," replied Cardillac, "is it for something spicy that you are here now?"
"Yes, my dear fellow, I had done one or two good things, but the last was a failure; it was an out-and-out-go, and may still be done.
Unfortunately, Frank and I overshot the mark."
And the Gros-Boiteux pointed to his companion, towards whom all eyes now turned.
"Ah, so it is--it"s Frank!" said Cardillac; "I didn"t know him again because of his beard. What, Franky! Why, I thought you"d turned honest, and was, at least, mayor of your village."
"I was an a.s.s, and I"ve suffered for it," said Frank, quickly; "but every sin has its repentance. I was good once, and now I"m a prig for the rest of my days. Let "em look out when I get out."
"What happened to you, Frank?"
"What happens to every free convict who is donkey enough to think he can turn honest. Fate is just! When I left Melun I"d saved nine hundred and odd francs."
"Yes, that"s true," said the Gros-Boiteux, "all his misfortunes have come from his keeping his savings, instead of spending "em jolly when he left the "jug." You see what repentance leads to!"
"They sent me, _en surveillance_, to Etampes," replied Frank; "being a locksmith by trade, I went to a master in my line and said to him, "I am a freed convict, I know no one likes to employ such, but here are nine hundred francs of my savings, give me work, my money will be your guarantee, for I want to work and be honest.""
"What a joke!"
"Well, you"ll see how it answered. I offered my savings as a guarantee to the master locksmith that he might give me work. "I"m not a banker to take money on interest," says he to me, "and I don"t want any freed convicts in my shop. I go to work in houses to open doors where keys are lost, I have a confidential business, and if it were known that I employed a freed convict amongst my workmen I should lose my customers.
Good day, my man.""
"Wasn"t that just what he deserved, Cardillac?"
"Exactly."
"You simpleton!" said the Gros-Boiteux to Frank, with a paternal air; "instead of breaking your ban at once, and coming to Paris to melt your mop.u.s.s.es, so that you might not have a sou left, but be compelled to return to robbing. You see the end of your fine ideas."
"That"s what you are always saying," said Frank, with impatience; "it is true I was wrong not to spend my "tin," for I have not even enjoyed it.
Well, as there were only four locksmiths in Etampes, he whom I had first addressed had soon told all the others, and they said to me as had said their fellow tradesman, "No, thank ye." All sung the same song."
"Only see, now, what it all comes to! You must see that we are all marked for life."
"Well, then, I was on the idle of Etampes, and my money melted and melted," continued Frank, "but no work came. I left Etampes, in spite of my surveillance, and came to Paris, where I found work immediately, for my employer did not know who or what I was, and it"s no boast to say I am a first-rate workman. Well, I put my seven hundred francs which I had remaining into an agent"s hands, who gave me a note for it; when that was due he did not pay me, so I took my note to a _huissier_, who brought an action against him, and recovered the money, which I left in his hands, saying to myself there"s something for a rainy day. Well, just then I met the Gros-Boiteux."
"True. Well, Frank was a locksmith and made keys, I had a job in which he could be of service, and I proposed it to him. I had the prints, and he had only to go to work, when, only imagine, he refused,--he meant to turn honest. So, says I, I"ll arrange about that, I"ll make him work, for his own interest. So I wrote a letter, without any signature, to his master, and another to his fellow workmen, to inform them that Frank was a liberated convict,--so the master turned him away. He went to another employer and worked there for a week,--same game again; and if he had gone to a dozen I"d have served him in the same way."
"And if I had suspected that it was you who had informed against me,"
answered Frank, "I"d have given you a pleasant quarter of an hour to pa.s.s. Well, I was at length driven away from my last employer as a scamp only fit to be hanged. Work, then,--be respectable,--so that people may say, not "What are you doing?" but "What have you done?" Once on the _pave_ I said, "Fortunately I have my savings to fall back upon." So I went to the _huissier_, but he had cut his stick, and spent my "tin"; and here was I without a feather to fly with, not even enough to pay for a week"s lodging. What a precious rage I was in! Well, at this moment comes the Gros-Boiteux, and he took advantage of my situation. I saw it was useless trying to be honest, and that once on the prig there"s no leaving it. But, old Gros, I owe you a turn."
"Come, Frank, no malice!" replied the Gros-Boiteux. "Well, he did his part like a man, and we entered upon the business, which promised royally; but, unfortunately, at the moment when we opened our mouths to swallow the dainty bit, the "traps" were down upon us. Couldn"t be helped, you know, lad! If it wasn"t for that, why, our profession would be too good."
"Yet if that vagabond of a _huissier_ had not robbed me I should not have been here," said Frank, with concentrated rage.
"Well, well," continued the Gros-Boiteux, "do you mean to say that you were better off when you were breaking your back with work?"
"I was free," retorted Frank.
"Yes, on Sundays and when you were out of work, but the rest of the week you were tied up like a dog, and never sure of employ. Why, you don"t know when you are well off."
"Will you teach me?" said Frank, bitterly.
"Well, you"ve a right to be vexed, for it was shameful to miss such a good stroke; but it is still to be done in a month or two. The people will become rea.s.sured, and it is a rich, very rich house. I shall be sentenced for breaking my ban, and so cannot resume the job, but if I find an amateur I will hand it over to him a bargain. My woman has the prints, and there is nothing to do but make new keys, and with the information I can give it must succeed. Why, there must be, at least, 400_l._ to lay hands on, and that ought to console you, Frank."
Frank shook his head, crossed his hands over his chest, and made no reply.
Cardillac took the Gros-Boiteux by the arms, led him into a corner of the yard, and said to him, after a moment"s silence:
"Is the affair you have failed in still good?"
"In two months as good as new."
"Can you prove it?"
"Of course."
"And what do you ask for it?"
"A hundred francs as earnest; and I will give you the word arranged with my woman, on which she will hand you the prints, from which you can make the false keys. And, moreover, if the thing comes off, I shall expect a fifth share of the swag to be handed over to my woman."
"That"s not unreasonable."
"As I shall know to whom she has given the prints, if I am done out of my share I shall know whom to inform against."
"And very right, too, if you were choused; but amongst prigs and cracksmen there"s honour,--we must rely on each other, or all business would be impossible."
Another anomaly in this horrid existence. This villain spoke the truth.
It is very seldom that thieves fail in their faith in such arrangements as these, but they usually act with a kind of good faith,--or, rather, that we may not prost.i.tute the word, we will say that necessity compels these ruffians to keep their words; for if they failed, as the companion of the Gros-Boiteux said, "All business would be impossible." A great number of robberies are arranged, bought, and plotted in this way in gaol,--another pernicious result of confinement in common.
"If what you say is sure," continued Cardillac, "I can agree for the job. There are no proofs against me, I am sure to be acquitted, and in a fortnight I shall be out; let us add three weeks in order to turn oneself about, to get the false keys, and lay our plans, and then in six weeks from this--"
"You"ll go to the job in the very nick of time."
"Well, then, it"s a bargain."