Q: CHAPTER VI

THE RAT MORT

I

The guide had stepped out of the house into the street, Yvonne following closely on his heels. The night was very dark and the narrow little Carrefour de la Poissonnerie very sparsely lighted. Somewhere overhead on the right, something groaned and creaked persistently in the wind. A little further on a street lanthorn was swinging aloft, throwing a small circle of dim, yellowish light on the unpaved street below. By its fitful glimmer Yvonne could vaguely perceive the tall figure of her guide as he stepped out with noiseless yet firm tread, his shoulder brushing against the side of the nearest house as he kept closely within the shadow of its high wall. The sight of his broad back thrilled her. She had fallen to imagining whether this was not perchance that gallant and all-powerful Scarlet Pimpernel himself: the mysterious friend of whom her dear milor so often spoke with an admiration that was akin to worship. He too was probably tall and broad--for English gentlemen were usually built that way; and Yvonne's over-excited mind went galloping on the wings of fancy, and in her heart she felt that she was glad that she had suffered so much, and then lived through such a glorious moment as this.

Now from the narrow unpaved yard in front of the house the guide turned sharply to the right. Yvonne could only distinguish outlines. The streets of Nantes were familiar to her, and she knew pretty well where she was. The lanthorn inside the clock tower of Le Bouffay guided her--it was now on her right--the house wherein she had been kept a prisoner these past three days was built against the walls of the great prison house. She knew that she was in the Carrefour de la Poissonnerie.

1. The guide

Numbered questions:
1. Who left the house?

Q: CHAPTER XII. THE AWAKENING

La Boulaye awakened betimes next morning. It may be that the matter on his mind and the business that was toward aroused him; certainly it was none of the sounds that are common to an inn at early morn, for the place was as silent as a tomb.

Some seconds he remained on his back, staring at the whitewashed ceiling and listening to the patter of the rain against his window. Then, as his mind gathered up the threads of recollection, he leapt from his bed and made haste to assume a garment or two.

He stood a moment at his casement, looking out into the empty courtyard. From a leaden sky the rain was descending in sheets, and the gargoyle at the end of the eaves overhead was discharging a steady column of water into the yard. Caron shivered with the cold of that gloomy February morning, and turned away from the window. A few moments later he was in Tardivet's bedchamber, vigorously shaking the sleeping Captain.

"Up, Charlot! Awake!" he roared in the man's ear.

"What o'clock?" he asked with a yawn. Then a sudden groan escaped him, and he put his hand to his head. "Thousand devils!" he swore, "what a headache!"

But La Boulaye was not there on any mission of sympathy, nor did he waste words in conveying his news.

"The coach is gone," he announced emphatically.

"Coach? What coach?" asked the Captain, knitting his brows.

"What coach?" echoed La Boulaye testily. "How many coaches were there? Why, the Bellecour coach; the coach with the treasure."

1. treasure
2. he was gone
3. La Boulaye
4. the Captain
5. Tardivet
6. Charlot
7. yes
8. February
9. no
10. raining
11. the gargoyle
12. no
13. at the end of the eaves
14. into the yard
15. no
16. a tomb
17. the matter on his mind aroused him
18. no
19. Caron
20. had a headache

Numbered questions:
1. what did the coach have?
2. what had happened to him?
3. who announced this?
4. to who?
5. what's his name?
6. and what does La Boulaye call him?
7. was it a cold morning?
8. what month was it?
9. was it snowing?
10. then?
11. what was releasing water?
12. was it in his room?
13. where?
14. where was the water flowing?
15. was the hotel noisy?
16. what is the quietness described as?
17. why did he get up so early?
18. and did he get out of bed right away?
19. what is his first name?
20. what was wrong with the captain?

Q: CHAPTER XII

THE GOLD HOUSE

"How you like Asiki-land, Major?" asked Jeekie, who had followed him and was now leaning against a wall fanning himself feebly with his great hand. "Funny place, isn't it, Major? I tell you so before you come, but you no believe me."

"Very funny," answered Alan, "so funny that I want to get out."

"Ah! Major, that what eel say in trap where he go after lob-worm, but he only get out into frying pan after cook skin him alive-o. Ah! here come cook--I mean Asika. She only stop shut up those stiff 'uns, who all love lob-worm one day. Very pretty woman, Asika, but thank God she not set cap at me, who like to be buried in open like Christian man."

"If you don't stop it, Jeekie," replied Alan in a concentrated rage, "I'll see that you are buried just where you are."

"No offence, Major, no offence, my heart full and bubble up. I wonder what Miss Barbara say if she see you mooing and cooing with dark-eyed girl in gold snake skin?"

Just then the Asika arrived and by way of excuse for his flight, Alan remarked to her that the treasure-hall was hot.

"I did not notice it," she answered, "but he who is called my husband, Mungana, says the same. The Mungana is guardian of the dead," she explained, "and when he is required so to do, he sleeps in the Place of the Treasure and gathers wisdom from the spirits of those Munganas who were before him."

1. Major
2. "How you like Asiki-land, Major?"
3. No
4. No
5. Asika
6. Yes
7. the cook
8. Alan
9. buried where you are
10. Miss Barbara
11. mooing and cooing with a girl
12. dark-eyed
13. gold snake skin
14. Asika
15. treasure-hall
16. Alan
17. Mungana
18. the dead
19. Place of the Treasure
20. Yes

Numbered questions:
1. Who did Jeekie ask a question?
2. What did he say?
3. Does he talk properly?
4. Did Alan find it funny?
5. Who was a pretty?
6. Is he Christian?
7. What does Asika do?
8. Who got upset?
9. What did he threaten?
10. Who should he be concerned about?
11. What would she object to?
12. what was the girls eyes like?
13. what was she wearing?
14. Who arrived next>
15. what did she hear was hot?
16. who said it?
17. Whats her husbands name?
18. What does he guard?
19. where does he sleep?
20. Does he gather wisdom?