Once outside the house, he turned into the Rue du Petit Banquier. About the middle of the street he found himself near a very low wall, which it was possible to bestride in some places, and which surrounded unoccupied ground. He was walking slowly, deep in thought as he was, and the snow deadened his footsteps, when all at once he heard voices talking close to him. He turned his head, but the street was deserted; it was open day, and yet he distinctly heard the voices. He thought of looking over the wall, and really saw two men seated in the snow, and conversing in a low voice. They were strangers to him: one was a bearded man in a blouse, and the other a hairy man in rags. The bearded man wore a Greek cap, while the other was bareheaded, and had snow in his hair. By thrusting out his head over them Marius could hear the hairy man say to the other, with a nudge,-- "With Patron Minette it cannot fail." "Do you think so?" asked the bearded man; and the hairy man added,-- "It will be five hundred balls for each, and the worst that can happen is five years, six years, or ten at the most." The other replied with some hesitation, and shuddering under his Greek cap,-- "That is a reality; and people must not go to meet things of that sort." "I tell you that the affair cannot fail," the hairy man continued. "Father What's-his-name's trap will be all ready." Then they began talking of a melodrama which they had seen on the previous evening at the Gaité. Marius walked on; but it seemed to him that the obscure remarks of these men, so strangely concealed behind this wall, and crouching in the snow, must have some connection with Jondrette's abominable scheme; that must be the _affair_. He went toward the Faubourg St. Marceau, and asked at the first shop he came to where he could find a police commissary. He was told at No. 14, Rue de Pontoise, and he proceeded there. As he passed a baker's he bought a two-sous roll and ate it, as he foresaw that he should not dine. On the way he rendered justice to Providence. He thought that if he had not given the five francs in the morning to the girl, he should have followed M. Leblanc's hackney coach and consequently known nothing. There would, in that case, have been no obstacle to Jondrettes ambuscade, and M. Leblanc would have been lost, and doubtless his daughter with him. CHAPTER XIV. A POLICE-AGENT GIVES A LAWYER TWO "KNOCK-ME-DOWNS." On reaching No. 14, Rue de Pontoise, he went up to the first floor and asked for the commissary. "He is not in at present," said a clerk, "but there is an inspector to represent him. Will you speak to him? Is your business pressing?" "Yes," said Marius.