Scenes from a Courtesan's Life [231]
"I have heard all that," said la Pouraille lamentably.
"My aunt Jacqueline, with whom I have just exchanged a few words in the office, and who is, as you know, a mother to the pals, told me that the authorities mean to be quit of you; they are so much afraid of you."
"But I am rich now," said La Pouraille, with a simplicity which showed how convinced a thief is of his natural right to steal. "What are they afraid of?"
"We have no time for philosophizing," said Jacques Collin. "To come back to you----"
"What do you want with me?" said la Pouraille, interrupting his boss.
"You shall see. A dead dog is still worth something."
"To other people," said la Pouraille.
"I take you into my game!" said Jacques Collin.
"Well, that is something," said the murderer. "What next?"
"I do not ask you where your money is, but what you mean to do with it?"
La Pouraille looked into the convict's impenetrable eye, and Jacques coldly went on: "Have you a trip you are sweet upon, or a child, or a pal to be helped? I shall be outside within an hour, and I can do much for any one you want to be good-natured to."
La Pouraille still hesitated; he was delaying with indecision. Jacques Collin produced a clinching argument.
"Your whack of our money would be thirty thousand francs. Do you leave it to the pals? Do you bequeath it to anybody? Your share is safe; I can give it this evening to any one you leave it to."
The murderer gave a little start of satisfaction.
"I have him!" said Jacques Collin to himself. "But we have no time to play. Consider," he went on in la Pouraille's ear, "we have not ten minutes to spare, old chap; the public prosecutor is to send for me, and I am to have a talk with him. I have him safe, and can ring the old boss' neck. I am certain I shall save Madeleine."
"If you save Madeleine, my good boss, you can just as easily----"
"Don't waste your spittle," said Jacques Collin shortly. "Make your will."
"Well, then--I want to leave the money to la Gonore," replied la Pouraille piteously.
"What! Are you living with Moses' widow--the Jew who led the swindling gang in the South?" asked Jacques Collin.
For Trompe-la-Mort, like a great general, knew the person of every one of his army.
"That's the woman," said la Pouraille, much flattered.
"A pretty woman," said Jacques Collin, who knew exactly 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