Guillaumin whispered to me:
"His eyes are skinned right enough."
Corporal Bouguet continued to look at me sourly. Donnadieu, sandy-haired and stolid, when I questioned him, shook his head, and did not seem to want to be answerable for anything either.
We had half-an-hour's wait, which was distinctly unnerving. Our turn came at last.
Bouguet was examined first and passed as impeccable. Thank Heaven! And his neighbour, Siméon, too. I was beginning to breathe more freely. The captain escorted by the company quartermaster-sergeant stopped in front of Paquette, a villager with a blank expression.
"Take off your valise. That's right! Now open it. Let's see your housewife ... and the inside...."
The man cautiously emptied the contents, consisting of three old buttons and some rusty pins, into his hand.
"No needles? Or thread?"
"We haven't been given any, sir."