"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 passed through the audience, who were more and more attentive.