“Have you a lantern?”
“Eh, oui!”
“And a candle in it?”
“Eh, oui?”
“Is it lighted?”
“Eh, non! We were not told to.”
“Well, now you're told to; go back and light it.”
Away went the gens de falaise again, and finally returned a third time to the charge with a lantern and a candle in it, and lighted.
This was not very encouraging to persons who wanted to question intelligent observers. We tried it, however, but soon found that rumor had not maligned the simple dwellers on the cliffs, and that nothing was to be gleaned from their dull, unobservant eyes.
Four days passed, and still we were in the same dense darkness. The suspense and inaction became unendurable to me.