Half an hour after Chéri-Bibi's departure a curious silence fell in the dormitory. Every game was stopped and every eye turned in one direction. The cavity made by Chéri-Bibi was almost directly under the Nut's hammock, and his legs had just reached the floor when he stopped short, taken aback by the sudden hush.
The convicts rushed up to him.
"Where are you going?"
The Nut saw by their threatening attitude that they would stick at nothing to prevent him from leaving the dormitory.
He sought to argue with them.
"I'm going to meet Chéri-Bibi. He has asked me to lend him a hand. What is there in that to annoy you?"
The Nut never used prison slang. That also had helped to excite their animosity against him, and they could not forgive him for holding aloof from them now as he did in the first days.
"Rot, humbug, swanker . . . liar! It's not true. Chéri-Bibi won't let anyone help him in the job. There's no need for you to work for him."
"He asked me to join him."
"You lie. You've got to stay here. Take my advice. It'll be all the better for you if you put your feet up and do a snore."