Goursac made no answer.
Barabant, turning brusquely, repeated the question:
"Citoyen, did I do wrong?"
"Barabant, my young friend," Goursac answered, avoiding the question, "when I meet a snake, I do not stop to ask if it is another's property!"
"Then I was wrong?"
"If Javogues loses his neck and we keep ours, no. If Javogues keeps his—"
He rubbed his own solicitously, it being unnecessary to complete the sentence.
By six o'clock the prophecy of Goursac was confirmed, and the inhabitants of the Rue Maugout learned, without astonishment, that Javogues had been liberated and was in hiding.