The pair then walked up and down, precisely like two animals in a cage, while mutually playing the following scene:-- "Have you brought the fifteen thousand francs ?" "No, but I have them at home." "Why not have them in your pocket ?" asked Cerizet, sharply.
"I'll tell you," replied Theodose, who, as he walked from the rue Saint-Dominique to the Estrapade, had decided on his course of action.
The Provencal, writhing upon the gridiron on which his partners held him, became suddenly possessed with a good idea, which flashed from the body of the live coal under him.

Peril has gleams of light.

He resolved to rely on the power of frankness, which affects all men, even swindlers.

Every one is grateful to an adversary who bares himself to the waist in a duel.
"Well!" said Cerizet, "now the humbug begins." The words seemed to come wholly through the hole in his nose with horrible intonations.
"You have put me in a magnificent position, and I shall never forget the service you have done me, my friend," began Theodose, with emotion.
"Oh, that's how you take it, is it ?" said Cerizet.
"Listen to me; you don't understand my intentions." "Yes, I do!" replied the lender by "the little week." "No, you don't." "You intend not to give up those fifteen thousand francs." Theodose shrugged his shoulders and looked fixedly at Cerizet, who, struck by the two motions, kept silence.
"Would you live in my position, knowing yourself within range of a cannon loaded with grape-shot, without feeling a strong desire to get out of it?
Now listen to me carefully.

You are doing a dangerous business, and you would be glad enough to have some solid protection in the very heart of the magistracy of Paris.