"Oh, Monsieur Tollemache!" screamed Barbe.
"Please come back, Monsieur!" cried Madeleine.
"Hi! Hi! It is forbidden by the prefect!" bellowed Père Jean.
But Yvonne, though angry and pallid with fright, only said, "Don't be stupid, Lorry. I should never have thought you would show off in that silly manner."
She spoke in English. Tollemache, gazing down at her in a comical, sidelong way, answered in the same language.
"I'm not showing off. Do you think that any Frenchman ever lived who could climb where I couldn't?"
"No one said a word about you."
"Yes. Mère Pitou said I'd shiver when I saw the place. Now watch me shiver!"
He swung outward. Even in her distress, Yvonne noticed that he took a strong pull at each ring before trusting his whole weight to it. But she made no further protest, nor uttered a sound; though Madeleine and Barbe were screaming frantically, and the old caretaker's voice cracked with reiteration of the prefect's commands.