"All right," he growled, "if you don't mind I'll come in."
Letting go of the top he slid down to the ground. There he found a large hole in which was placed a ladder. This led to the bottom of the ditch where a series of pipes protruded from the soil. Fandor lit his pocket lamp and carefully examined the surroundings.
"Ah," he exclaimed, "it looks as though some perfectly natural repair work was going on."
He then went down listening at each pipe mouth. One of them gave out a peculiar sound, steady and cadenced, in fact, a snore, a real snore.
"Can he be asleep," he muttered.
Climbing quickly out of the ditch, Fandor reached the street again and ran toward the Singing Fountains.
"Either the 'Curiosities of Paris' which I read yesterday in the library is a collection of bad jokes, or the body of the third statue ..."
He did not complete his thought.
After once more making sure that nobody was about, and that the excellent Wulf was still absorbed in contemplation of the Seine, he climbed into the basin at the foot of one of the bronze naiads and waded through mud and water to the base of the statue.
"Now, then, let's see, what must I do next? Seize the statue by the neck, place the left hand in the middle of the body and sway it."