A door on one of the landings stood ajar. The Nut pushed it open. A little boy and girl began to utter shrill cries. Chéri-Bibi gave them a fierce look which frightened them out of their lives and at once silenced them.
The Nut turned the key in the lock; and the policemen passed the landing, without stopping, on their way to the roof.
Unfortunately, at that moment the children's mother appeared. She had gone out to do some shopping, or to have a gossip with a neighbor, and was hastening home to her children in a state of anxiety caused by the disturbance in the house. She was amazed to find that she could not open the door.
"Didi! . . . Gégé!" she cried, and the children at once returned to life and began to squall anew, and then suddenly they held their tongues, silenced by the frightful look in Chéri-Bibi's eyes.
The mother furiously shook the door.
"But who can have locked the door? . . . Not the youngsters. . . . Didi! . . . Gégé! . . ."
Fresh cries and fresh silence. Then the mother had a fit of hysterical sobbing on the landing. The police came back. She told them that she had just come home to find the door locked. Her children were alone and something dreadful must have happened. At that moment the youngsters began to cry as if they were being flayed alive. They had recovered their breath, for Chéri-Bibi was no longer looking at them. The mother began to scream. . . .
"Hang it all, they're here!" said a policeman.
The mother grasped the situation, and was seized with indescribable fright. She threw herself against the door, shouting imprecations.
"Murder! . . . Murder! . . . They're murdering my children! . . ."