The violet cat no longer purred. Marceline became persuaded that in his perturbation her husband had left it on the tea-table. She took it up, holding her breath, and set it back on the bureau. The violet cat made its purring heard for the fourth time. Marceline and Theophrastus heard it with the same equanimity with which they had heard the second purring. The fourth purring stopped. Another quarter of an hour passed: they were not asleep or even sleepy; and then there came _a fifth purring_. Then, incredible to relate, Theophrastus leapt from the bed like a tiger, and cried: "_By the throttle of Madame Phalaris!_ This is too much of a good thing! What the deuce is that infernal violet cat up to?" CHAPTER X THE EXPLANATION OF THE STRANGE ATTITUDE OF A LITTLE VIOLET CAT It is necessary to mount to the floor above, to the flat occupied by Signor and Signora Petito, to the room in which Theophrastus, with never a thought of the imprudence he was committing, had asked for the needful information about the handwriting of the document. What imprudence indeed could there be in showing to an expert in handwriting a document so torn, stained, and obliterated that it was impossible, at a first glance, to discover any sense or meaning at all in it? Yet by a truly strange chance it was that very document that Signor Petito and his wife were that night discussing. The Signora Petito was saying: "I don't understand it at all; and the behaviour of M. Longuet at Saint-Germain throws no fresh light on it. The fact is, you do not remember the instructions--all the instructions. _Go and take the air at the Chopinettes, look at the Cock, look at the Gall_: it's all so vague. What can it mean?" "The first thing it means is that the treasure is to be found on the outskirts of Paris, of the Paris of that epoch. _Go and take the air..._ My opinion is that we ought to search in the neighbourhood of Montrouge, or Montmartre, because of the Cock. There was a Château du Coq at Porkers village. Look at this plan of old Paris," said her husband. They pored over the plan on the table. "It's still very vague," said Signor Petito gloomily. "For my part, I think we ought to pay particular attention to the words 'The Gall.'" "That's just the vaguest thing in the whole thing," said his wife. "Still, I'm sure it's important," said her husband. "As I remember the document (and you know what a magnificent memory I have), there was a short space between the word 'the' and the word 'Gall,' and after 'Gall' a longer space. Reach me the dictionary." The Signora Petito rose with the greatest precaution, she walked noiselessly and stealthily across the room (she was the conspirator to her finger-tips), and brought a small dictionary. They began to run down a column, writing down all the words which began with the syllable gall: Gallantly, Gallery, Galley, and so forth. Then the clock on the mantelpiece began to strike twelve.