CROSSING PARIS
551
that, the going
is
better. In the little streets, you avoid running into
a stairway or .a pile of sand, and in the avenues, there is much less
risk of meeting someone. But look, always keep on the left side so
you can see the cars and bicycles as they come toward you.
If
you
don't, on the other side they come up behind you and make mince
meat of you."
He was not forgetting his anger against the ram, he was holding
it in reserve. First of all, they had to deliver the pig .at Montmartre.
Two solid hours walking to do, with listening ears, clear head, and
the eyes of a cat. They could settle affairs between them afterward.
In t4e meanwhile, he determined to be calm, and to concentrate
all of his attention and
his
will power on the success of an enterprise
which, in view of Gr.andgil's unpredictable behavior, might not be
easy. "Mter a while," he was thinking, "we'll have a talk, man to
man, but before that you will have polished off several miles. I'll
change my name
if
I don't hold you in the shafts till the end of
this trip."
Coming out of the Boulevard de I'Hopital, a brutal and freez–
ing wind, which blew from the north through a wide opening, took
their breath .away. Martin had to put down one of his valises in
order to rescue his hat, which was in the act of leaving his head.
Grandgil was giving vent to his bad humor by swearing, but the
wind was so strong that one had almost to shout to make himself
heard. In the blackness of the night, broken by a few feeble blue
rays, the two men felt .around them the desolation of the great
deserted boulevard, which the wailing of the wind seemed to in–
tensify. Walking was now so painful that they felt they were going
forward very slowly.
Martin resisted the temptation to cross the Seine by the Auster–
litz bridge, which would have led them very quickly to streets that
were comparatively sheltered. The nearness of the Lyon Railway
Station and of the Austerlitz Station made the crossing of the bridge
rather risky. The police very often lay in wait there, and spies on
bicycles were passing every few minutes, not counting the patrols
and the German soldiers who, at this late hour, would look at the
valises with a suspicious eye. It was decided that they would follow
the quays as far as the Ile S.aint Louis, perhaps a kilometer to go
under the whip of the north wind.
