"I went straight to No. 17, leaving Tortillard on the lookout and concealed in a corner. It was still daylight, and I rung at a side door which opens outwards, and here's about two inches of space between it and the sill; nothing else to notice. I rang; the porter opened. Before I pulled the bell I had put my bonnet in my pocket, that I might look like a neighbour. As soon as I saw the porter I pretended to cry violently, saying that I had lost a pet parrot, Cocotte,—a little darling that I adored. I told him I lived in the Rue Marboeuf, and that I had pursued Cocotte from garden to garden, and entreated him to allow me to enter and try and find the bird."
"Ah!" said the Schoolmaster, with an air of proud satisfaction, pointing to Finette, "what a woman!"
"Very clever," said Rodolph. "And what then?"
"The porter allowed me to look for the creature, and I went trotting all around the garden, calling 'Cocotte! Cocotte!' and looked about me in every direction to scrutinise every thing. Inside the walls," continued the horrid old hag, going on with her description of the premises, "inside the walls, trellis-work all around,—a perfect staircase; at the left-hand corner of the wall a fir-tree, just like a ladder,—a lying-in woman might descend by it. The house has six windows on the ground floor, and has no upper story,—six small windows without any fastening. The windows of the ground floor close with shutters, having hooks below and staples in the upper part: press in the bottom, use your steel file—"
"A push," said the Schoolmaster, "and it is open."
The Chouette continued:
"The entrance has a glass door, two Venetian blinds outside—"
"Memorandum," said the ruffian.
"Quite correct; it is as precise as if we saw it," said Rodolph.
"On the left," resumed the Chouette, "near the courtyard, is a well; the rope may be useful (for at that particular spot there is no trellis against the wall), in case retreat should be cut off in the direction of the door. On entering into the house—"