"Come!" cried Skeleton, no longer able to restrain his rage, and addressing Blue Cap, "will you shut up? Have I not already said, 'Silence in the band'? Am I, or am I not, the ruler here?" For sole answer, Blue Cap looked him in the face, and then made a gesture, perfectly well known to street arabs, which consists in placing on the tip of the nose the thumb of the right hand, opened, and touching with the little finger the thumb of the left, also spread out like a fan. Blue Cap accompanied this mute answer with an expression so grotesque that several of the prisoners shouted with laughter, while some of the others, on the contrary, remained stupefied at the audacity of the new prisoner. Skeleton shook his fist at Blue Cap, and said, grinding his teeth, "We'll settle this to-morrow." "And I will make the addition on your hide. I'll set down seventeen and carry naught." For fear the keeper should find a new reason for remaining in order to prevent a possible quarrel, Skeleton answered calmly: "That is not the question. I have the ruling of the hall, and I must be obeyed; is it not so, keeper?" "It is true," said the officer. "Do not interrupt. And you, Pique-Vinaigre, go on; but make haste, my boy." "Then," resumed Pique-Vinaigre, continuing his story, "Gringalet, seeing himself abandoned, gave himself up to his unhappy fate. Broad daylight came, and all the children prepared to depart with their beasts. Cut-in-half opened the trap and called the roll, in order to give each one his piece of bread; all descended the ladder, and Gringalet, more dead than alive, crouching in a corner of the garret, moved no more than it did; he saw his companions going off one after the other; he would have given anything to do as they did. Finally, they were all gone. The heart of the poor child beat strongly; he hoped that, perhaps, his master would forget him. Ah, well, he heard Cut-in-half at the foot of the ladder, cry in a harsh voice: 'Gringalet! Gringalet!' 'Here I am, master.' "'Come down at once, or I'll fetch you,' answered Cut-in-half. Gringalet thought his last day was come. "'I must,' he said to himself, trembling in every limb, and remembering his dream, 'now you _are_ in for it, little fly: the spider is going to eat you.' "After having placed his turtle softly on the ground, he bade him good-bye, for he had become attached to the creature, and approached the trap-door. He placed his foot on the ladder to descend, when Cut-in-half, taking him by his poor little leg, as slender as a spindle, drew him so strongly, so harshly, that Gringalet tumbled down, and polished his face against the whole length of the ladder." "What a pity that the Alderman had not been there--what a fine dance for Cut-in-half," said Blue Cap; "it is in such times as these that it is good to be strong."