第十三章 独处僻地，无以祷告
马吕斯虽然耽于幻想，但正如我们所说，本性刚毅果决。他独处冥思的习惯虽培养了他的同情与怜悯，或许削弱了易怒的性情，却未损其义愤填膺的能力；他有婆罗门的仁慈，也有法官的严苛；他怜悯蟾蜍，却会碾碎毒蛇。此刻，他的目光正投向蛇穴，眼前所见正是群魔的巢穴。
"这些恶棍必须被碾碎。"他说。
他原以为能解开的谜团一个都未能阐明；相反，所有谜团似乎更加扑朔迷离；他对卢森堡公园那位美丽少女以及他称为白先生的人依然一无所知，只知道容德雷特认识他们。透过那些神秘的话语，他唯一能看清的是：一个埋伏正在筹备中，一个阴暗而可怕的陷阱；这两人都面临巨大危险——她或许有危险，而她父亲必定有危险；必须拯救他们；必须挫败容德雷特一家的阴谋，撕破这些蜘蛛的网。
他打量了容德雷特婆娘片刻。她正从角落里拉出一个旧铁皮炉子，在那堆旧铁器中翻找着。
他尽可能轻手轻脚地从五斗柜上下来，生怕弄出半点声响。在预感到即将发生可怕事件而恐惧、在容德雷特一家使他感到厌恶的同时，他心中涌起一种喜悦：或许上天会赐予他机会，为他所爱的人效劳。
但该如何做呢？如何警告那些面临威胁的人？他不知道他们的地址。他们在他眼前出现片刻，便又隐没在巴黎无边的深渊中。他是否应在傍晚六点等在门口，在那个白先生到来之际警告他有陷阱？但容德雷特和他的人会看见他在守望，那个地方偏僻无人，他们人多势众，定会设法抓住他或把他支开，那样马吕斯想救的人就完了。刚敲过一点钟，陷阱预定在六点触发。马吕斯还有五个小时。
只有一件事可做。
他穿上体面的外套，在脖子上系了条丝巾，戴上帽子，悄然出门，仿佛赤脚踩在苔藓上一般无声。
容德雷特婆娘仍在她的旧铁器中翻找。
一走出那栋房子，他便朝小银行家街走去。
走到这条街中段附近，靠着一道极矮的墙——有些人很容易从某些地方翻过去，那道墙通向一块荒地——他因心事重重而走得很慢，积雪掩盖了脚步声；忽然，他听到近处有人在低声交谈。他转过头，街上空无一人，空荡荡的，大白天里，他却清清楚楚听到人声。
他想到要探头看看他正沿着走的那道墙的另一边。
墙那边果然坐着两个人，背靠着墙蹲在雪地上，正低声交谈。
这两个人他都不认识：一个是穿工装的大胡子，另一个是衣衫褴褛的长发汉子。大胡子戴着土耳其毡帽，另一个光着头，雪落在他头发里。
马吕斯把脑袋探过墙头，能听见他们的对话。
长发汉子用胳膊肘捅了捅另一个人，说道：
"——有巴托名师傅帮忙，准错不了。"
"你觉得呢？"大胡子说。
长发汉子又说：
"每人至少能拿到五百法郎，最坏的结果也就是五年、六年，顶多十年！"
另一个犹豫地答道，在毡帽下哆嗦着：
"那是真事。这种事你没法反对。"
"我告诉你，这事绝不会出岔子，"长发汉子接着说，"那个老头子家的马车已经备好了。"
接着，他们开始谈论前一天晚上在盖特剧院看的一出情节剧。
马吕斯继续走他的路。
他感到，这两个男人如此奇怪地躲在墙后、蜷缩在雪地里所说的神秘话语，必定与容德雷特那可恶的计划有关。那一定就是"那件事"。
他朝圣马塞尔郊区走去，在第一家店铺里打听哪里能找到警察局长。
他被告知在蓬图瓦兹街十四号。
马吕斯便往那里走去。
路过一家面包店时，他买了一个两个苏的面包吃掉，预感到这顿晚饭是吃不成了。
一路上，他感谢上苍。他暗想，如果早上他没有给容德雷特家的姑娘那五法郎，他就会跟随白先生的马车，结果对一切一无所知，那样容德雷特的陷阱将畅通无阻，白先生必遭不测，他的女儿也定难幸免。
PATER NOSTER
Marius, dreamer as he was, was, as we have said, firm and energetic by
nature. His habits of solitary meditation, while they had developed in
him sympathy and compassion, had, perhaps, diminished the faculty for
irritation, but had left intact the power of waxing indignant; he had
the kindliness of a brahmin, and the severity of a judge; he took pity
upon a toad, but he crushed a viper. Now, it was into a hole of vipers
that his glance had just been directed, it was a nest of monsters that
he had beneath his eyes.
“These wretches must be stamped upon,” said he.
Not one of the enigmas which he had hoped to see solved had been
elucidated; on the contrary, all of them had been rendered more dense,
if anything; he knew nothing more about the beautiful maiden of the
Luxembourg and the man whom he called M. Leblanc, except that Jondrette
was acquainted with them. Athwart the mysterious words which had been
uttered, the only thing of which he caught a distinct glimpse was the
fact that an ambush was in course of preparation, a dark but terrible
trap; that both of them were incurring great danger, she probably, her
father certainly; that they must be saved; that the hideous plots of
the Jondrettes must be thwarted, and the web of these spiders broken.
He scanned the female Jondrette for a moment. She had pulled an old
sheet-iron stove from a corner, and she was rummaging among the old
heap of iron.
He descended from the commode as softly as possible, taking care not to
make the least noise. Amid his terror as to what was in preparation,
and in the horror with which the Jondrettes had inspired him, he
experienced a sort of joy at the idea that it might be granted to him
perhaps to render a service to the one whom he loved.
But how was it to be done? How warn the persons threatened? He did not
know their address. They had reappeared for an instant before his eyes,
and had then plunged back again into the immense depths of Paris.
Should he wait for M. Leblanc at the door that evening at six o’clock,
at the moment of his arrival, and warn him of the trap? But Jondrette
and his men would see him on the watch, the spot was lonely, they were
stronger than he, they would devise means to seize him or to get him
away, and the man whom Marius was anxious to save would be lost. One
o’clock had just struck, the trap was to be sprung at six. Marius had
five hours before him.
There was but one thing to be done.
He put on his decent coat, knotted a silk handkerchief round his neck,
took his hat, and went out, without making any more noise than if he
had been treading on moss with bare feet.
Moreover, the Jondrette woman continued to rummage among her old iron.
Once outside of the house, he made for the Rue du Petit-Banquier.
He had almost reached the middle of this street, near a very low wall
which a man can easily step over at certain points, and which abuts on
a waste space, and was walking slowly, in consequence of his
preoccupied condition, and the snow deadened the sound of his steps;
all at once he heard voices talking very close by. He turned his head,
the street was deserted, there was not a soul in it, it was broad
daylight, and yet he distinctly heard voices.
It occurred to him to glance over the wall which he was skirting.
There, in fact, sat two men, flat on the snow, with their backs against
the wall, talking together in subdued tones.
These two persons were strangers to him; one was a bearded man in a
blouse, and the other a long-haired individual in rags. The bearded man
had on a fez, the other’s head was bare, and the snow had lodged in his
hair.
By thrusting his head over the wall, Marius could hear their remarks.
The hairy one jogged the other man’s elbow and said:—
“—With the assistance of Patron-Minette, it can’t fail.”
“Do you think so?” said the bearded man.
And the long-haired one began again:—
“It’s as good as a warrant for each one, of five hundred balls, and the
worst that can happen is five years, six years, ten years at the most!”
The other replied with some hesitation, and shivering beneath his fez:—
“That’s a real thing. You can’t go against such things.”
“I tell you that the affair can’t go wrong,” resumed the long-haired
man. “Father What’s-his-name’s team will be already harnessed.”
Then they began to discuss a melodrama that they had seen on the
preceding evening at the Gaîté Theatre.
Marius went his way.
It seemed to him that the mysterious words of these men, so strangely
hidden behind that wall, and crouching in the snow, could not but bear
some relation to Jondrette’s abominable projects. That must be _the
affair_.
He directed his course towards the faubourg Saint-Marceau and asked at
the first shop he came to where he could find a commissary of police.
He was directed to Rue de Pontoise, No. 14.
Thither Marius betook himself.
As he passed a baker’s shop, he bought a two-penny roll, and ate it,
foreseeing that he should not dine.
On the way, he rendered justice to Providence. He reflected that had he
not given his five francs to the Jondrette girl in the morning, he
would have followed M. Leblanc’s fiacre, and consequently have remained
ignorant of everything, and that there would have been no obstacle to
the trap of the Jondrettes and that M. Leblanc would have been lost,
and his daughter with him, no doubt.
