"What is the reason Bréguet's watches are so good, M. l'inspecteur?"
"The deuce! because of their action."
"Exactly, M. l'inspecteur; Bréguet's action!... action worthy of a gold case to it!"
Everybody burst out laughing. I laughed like the others, though I could not in the least understand Bobino's retort.
I was just going up to Bobino to ask him to explain his own joke, when Choron signed to us it was time to keep quiet.
We were five hundred steps from the place where a boar was in its lair.
Not a whisper was to be heard from that moment. Choron suggested the plan of attack to the inspector, who gave us our orders in a low voice, and we went to take up our places round; while Choron, with his bloodhound in leash, prepared to search the enclosure.
I apologise most humbly to my readers for making use of all these hunting terms, after the fashion of the baron in les Facheux. But these terms alone express my meaning, and besides I think they are sufficiently well known not to require explaining.
My mother had, as you may imagine, put me under M. Deviolaine's care: she would only let me go on condition M. Deviolaine would not let me out of his sight. He had promised her to do so, and in order religiously to keep his word he had put me between himself and Moinat, telling me to keep entirely hidden behind a large oak; then, if I shot a boar, and he turned on me, I could seize hold of one of the oak's branches, raise myself up by my arms, and let the beast pass under me.
All experienced huntsmen know that this is the method to adopt under such circumstances.