"Cannot you prevent the soldiers from descending there?"
"I have no means of so doing, I know none, and cannot think of any."
Indeed, it was evident the turnkey was taxing all his mental energies to discover some means of winning the fifty thousand francs.
"But," demanded the Citizen Théodore, "could we not enter to-morrow?"
"Yes; but to-morrow a grate of iron will be placed across the passage, occupying its whole width; and for the greater security it is arranged that this partition should be entirely solid, and without even a door."
"Then we must think of something else," said Théodore.
"Yes; we must find some other way," said the turnkey.
It will be seen from the joint manner in which Gracchus expressed himself, that an alliance had already been struck between himself and the Citizen Théodore.
"That will be my concern," said Théodore. "What do you do at the Conciergerie?"
"I am a turnkey."