Page 47 - down-and-out-in-paris-and-london

wrapped up in anything. He said that they must be put ei-
ther in a valise or a cardboard box. This spoiled everything,
for we had no box of any kind, and with only twenty-five
centimes between us we could not buy one.
I went back and told Boris the bad news. ‘MERDE!’ he
said, ‘that makes it awkward. Well, no matter, there is al-
ways a way. We’ll put the overcoats in my suitcase.’
‘But how are we to get the suitcase past the PATRON?
He’s sitting almost in the door of the office. It’s impossible!’
‘How easily you despair, MON AMI! Where is that Eng-
lish obstinacy that I have read of? Courage! We’ll manage
it.’
Boris thought for a little while, and then produced an-
other cunning plan. The essential difficulty was to hold
the PATRON’s attention for perhaps five seconds, while we
could slip past with the suitcase. But, as it happened, the
PATRON had just one weak spot—that he was interested
in LE SPORT, and was ready to talk if you approached him
on this subject. Boris read an article about bicycle races in
an old copy of the PETIT PARISIEN, and then, when he
had reconnoitred the stairs, went down and managed to
set the PATRON talking. Meanwhile, I waited at the foot of
the stairs, with the overcoats under one arm and the suit-
case under the other. Boris was to give a cough when he
thought the moment favourable. I waited trembling, for at
any moment the PATRON’S wife might come out of the
door opposite the office, and then the game was up. How-
ever, presently Boris coughed. I sneaked rapidly past the
office and out into the street, rejoicing that my shoes did not

Down and Out in Paris and London