"Oh, yes, that's true, they don't understand yet, they are so little." And he continued, "Eat." At the same time he gave each of them a lump of bread. Thinking that the elder, who appeared to him more worthy of his conversation, merited some special encouragement, and ought to have any hesitation about satisfying his hunger removed, he added, as he gave him the larger lump,-- "Shove that into your gun." There was one piece smaller than the two others, and he took that for himself. The poor boys, Gavroche included, were starving; while tearing the bread with their teeth, they blocked up the baker's shop, who, now that he was paid, looked at them angrily. "Let us return to the street," said Gavroche. They started again in the direction of the Bastille; and from time to time as they passed lighted shops, the younger boy stopped to see what o'clock it was by a leaden watch hung round his neck by a string. "Well, he is a great fool," said Gavroche. Then he thoughtfully growled between his teeth, "No matter, if I had kids of my own I would take more care of them than that." As they were finishing their bread, they reached the corner of that gloomy Rue de Ballet at the end of which the low and hostile wicket of La Force is visible. "Hilloh, is that you, Gavroche?" some one said. "Hilloh, is that you, Montparnasse?" said Gavroche. It was a man who accosted Gavroche, no other than Montparnasse disguised with blue spectacles, but Gavroche was able to recognize him. "My eye!" Gavroche went on, "you have a skin of the color of a linseed poultice and blue spectacles like a doctor. That's your style, on the word of an old man!" "Silence," said Montparnasse, "not so loud;" and he quickly dragged Gavroche out of the light of the shops. The two little boys followed mechanically, holding each other by the hand. When they were under the black arch of a gateway, protected from eyes and rain, Montparnasse remarked, "Do you know where I am going?" "To the abbey of Go-up-with-regret" (the scaffold), said Gavroche. "Joker!" And Montparnasse added,-- "I am going to meet Babet." "Ah!" said Gavroche, "her name is Babet, is it?" Montparnasse lowered his voice,-- "It is not a she, but a he." "I thought he was buckled up." "He has unfastened the buckle," Montparnasse replied. And he hurriedly told the boy that on that very morning Babet, while being removed to the Conciergerie, escaped by turning to the left instead of the right in the "police-office passage." Gavroche admired his skill. "What a dentist!" said he. Montparnasse added a few details about Babet's escape, and ended with, "Oh, that is not all." Gavroche, while talking, had seized a cane which Montparnasse held in his hand; he mechanically pulled at the upper part, and a dagger blade became visible. "Ah!" he said as he quickly thrust it back, "you have brought your gendarme with you disguised as a civilian." Montparnasse winked.