"So, Martin," said the Captain in a great rage, "you dare to read papers in the barracks,[35] and as you are now undergoing eight days' _Salle de Police_ you cannot possibly have brought it in yourself. I want to know from whom you got it?" "I didn't get it from anybody, sir," replied Titi. "I found it in the courtyard of the infantry barracks." "Don't tell me lies," said the Captain sternly, "or you'll be sorry for it. Tell me who gave you that paper." "Nobody, sir." "If you tell me," said the Captain, "I won't increase the punishment Lieutenant Pernod has given you. If you don't, I'll give you eight days' prison." "I found it, sir," insisted Titi. "Very well," said the Captain, "get your things ready to go to prison." "Yes, sir," politely replied Titi. "And if you go on much longer like that," said the Captain, in a voice shaking with rage, "you'll soon go to Biribi."[36] The Captain walked out, accompanied by the Lieutenant, and soon afterwards two men from the guard, accompanied by a Corporal, came into the room with drawn swords, and Titi was marched away between them to the prison. On inspection-days we did squadron duty after "Stables," having neither drill nor school, and those _Volontaires_ who were not undergoing punishment were at liberty to go out of barracks until 8 P.M. The troopers who had twenty-four hours' leave were allowed to quit the barracks after evening stables and remain away until the next Monday at 5 A.M. After stables the regimental orders for the day were, as usual, read out to us, as well as the punishments. Those were numerous, and included two days' confinement to the room, for a Lieutenant, for being out in civilian clothes the previous afternoon; _Salle de Police_ for three Sergeants as a result of the inspection, while about twenty men were punished similarly, getting from two to eight days, their outfit having been found short, or their clothes soiled. Among the troopers punished with _Salle de Police_ were three _Volontaires_, and, finally, came Titi's name, with a sentence of eight days' prison by the Captain "for having introduced a newspaper into barracks, and having obstinately refused to give the name of the trooper from whom he had obtained it." That evening, I was, as usual, taken to the _Salle de Police_, where I was much astonished to find Titi lying on a straw mattress rolled up in a blanket. He called out to me as soon as the non-commissioned officer had locked us in, "Come here, old chap," he said; "I'll make some room for you, old Decle, and we'll share my mattress and blanket." Although a scoundrel, Titi was at the bottom of his heart a kind fellow, and I felt most grateful to him for sharing his rough bedding with me, especially when a little later on he produced his inevitable candle, and I saw that in order to let me lie down comfortably he was lying himself on the bare boards, his back only resting against the mattress.