"Rot! They're fooling!" he said. "There's room in there for fifteen or twenty."
He gave me a shove.
"Get along up!"
I put my foot on the first rung and began to climb up. Humel had called for help. Descroix seized the ladder with both hands and shook it. I nearly took a toss.
"The brute!"
I jumped down. The others up there were howling with laughter. If I was sickened by it, Guillaumin appeared more offended. He set to work to blackguard them, in language very much to the point. Playoust tried to appease them: "Why make such a fuss! I was so fond of being alone. It was very good of them to offer him a place! Why not bring the viscount along too straight away?"
"De Valpic? He's going to sleep in the open air!" Humel yelped.
"Very well, then; why can't Dreher do the same thing!"
I considered it useless to insist. I should manage all right, I said to Guillaumin, but I advised him most strongly to take advantage of the stroke of luck—as he was so thick with them!
Not at all! He protested that nothing on earth would induce him to desert me. It was shameful, the way they had treated me. On active service all ought to help one another. How delighted the Bosches would have been if they had witnessed the scene.