"'Thank heaven that it was the stucco that fell, not I,' I whispered devoutly, just as a window opened on the floor above, and our old neighbor Avarie appeared. He is always on the lookout for robbers, and keeps at his bedside a big blunderbuss, with a muzzle like a speaking-trumpet.
"'Thieves,' I heard him mutter. I kept perfectly quiet, not giving vent even to a breath.
"'Who's there?'
"I clung close to the shelter of my friendly water pipe.
"'Speak, or I'll fire!'
"I knew he could not see me, and if he did fire his old cannon, I felt sure that it would explode and blow him into atoms; but the noise would alarm the neighborhood, and I had a vision of a score of lights flashing; night-capped heads appearing in all the surrounding windows; gendarmes running up with their lanterns, and poor Gaillard, clinging like a frightened cat to the water spout.
"That gave me an idea.
"'Miauw!' answered I plaintively.
"'It's a cat!' exclaimed old Avarie in disgust.
"'Mew—mew—mew,' cried I.