Page 1648 - les-miserables

gamin directed his steps towards the flue, which it was easy
to enter, thanks to a large crack which touched the roof. At
the moment when he was on the point of ascending, Thenar-
dier, who saw life and safety approaching, bent over the edge
of the wall; the first light of dawn struck white upon his brow
dripping with sweat, upon his livid cheek-bones, his sharp
and savage nose, his bristling gray beard, and Gavroche rec-
ognized him.
‘Hullo! it’s my father! Oh, that won’t hinder.’
And taking the rope in his teeth, he resolutely began the
ascent.
He reached the summit of the hut, bestrode the old wall
as though it had been a horse, and knotted the rope firmly to
the upper cross-bar of the window.
A moment later, Thenardier was in the street.
As soon as he touched the pavement, as soon as he found
himself out of danger, he was no longer either weary, or
chilled or trembling; the terrible things from which he had
escaped vanished like smoke, all that strange and ferocious
mind awoke once more, and stood erect and free, ready to
march onward.
These were this man’s first words:—
‘Now, whom are we to eat?’
It is useless to explain the sense of this frightfully trans-
parent remark, which signifies both to kill, to assassinate,
and to plunder. To eat, true sense: to devour.
‘Let’s get well into a corner,’ said Brujon. ‘Let’s settle it
in three words, and part at once. There was an affair that
promised well in the Rue Plumet, a deserted street, an isolat-

1648 Les Miserables