"If we were every day to give a signal from here that we are watching?"
"But from the platform the queen could not see it; for the attics alone are as high as the platform, and I am doubtful even about them."
"Never mind," said Dixmer, "either Maury or Toulan may see it from some opening, and they will inform the queen."
And Dixmer tied several knots in a white calico curtain, passing it backward and forward before the window as if shaken by the wind.
Then both, as if impatient to visit the attic, awaited the proprietor's return on the staircase, having first closed the door, not wishing to afford the worthy man a sight of his waving curtain.
The garrets, as Morand had foreseen, did not reach the height of the summit of the tower. This was at once an advantage and disadvantage,—a disadvantage, because they could not communicate by signs with the queen; and an advantage, because the very impracticability alone disarmed all suspicion. The highest houses were naturally the objects of the strictest surveillance.
"It is necessary, either by means of Toulan, Maury, or Tison's daughter, to find some way to tell her to keep upon the watch," murmured Dixmer.
"I have thought of that," said Morand.
They descended; the notary waited in the salon with the contract signed.