IX
IN THE REFRIGERATORY
It was light in the evening. One by one the rooms in Lâriboisière were being lit up.
The one exception was the grim amphitheatre, whose occupants would never need to see again.
Suddenly—and if anyone had been present, he would have experienced the most frightful impression it is possible to conceive—a corpse stirred.
Having assured himself that the door between the amphitheatre and the gallery was shut, the corpse, shivering with cold, threw off the shroud which enveloped him, and set to work to move his legs and arms about to start up his circulation. Then at the far end of the apartment this living corpse discovered, under a zinc basin attached to the wall, a bundle of linen and garments, which he seized upon.
His body shaking with cold, the man dressed himself in haste, and then waited until he considered his clothes sufficiently dry not to attract attention.
Carefully ascertaining that the gallery was deserted, he then entered it and walked rapidly to the courtyard. To the right of the main gateway, the smaller gate leading into the Rue Ambroise Paré was open.
The man passed under the archway, and in a moment would have been clear of Lâriboisière, when the doorkeeper barred his way.
"Excuse me, who goes there?"