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against one of the elephant’s forelegs. Near the point where
the ladder ended, a sort of black hole in the belly of the co-
lossus could be distinguished.
Gavroche pointed out the ladder and the hole to his
guests, and said to them:—
‘Climb up and go in.’
The two little boys exchanged terrified glances.
‘You’re afraid, brats!’ exclaimed Gavroche.
And he added:—
‘You shall see!’
He clasped the rough leg of the elephant, and in a twin-
kling, without deigning to make use of the ladder, he
had reached the aperture. He entered it as an adder slips
through a crevice, and disappeared within, and an instant
later, the two children saw his head, which looked pale, ap-
pear vaguely, on the edge of the shadowy hole, like a wan
and whitish spectre.
‘Well!’ he exclaimed, ‘climb up, young ‘uns! You’ll see
how snug it is here! Come up, you!’ he said to the elder, ‘I’ll
lend you a hand.’
The little fellows nudged each other, the gamin fright-
ened and inspired them with confidence at one and the
same time, and then, it was raining very hard. The elder
one undertook the risk. The younger, on seeing his brother
climbing up, and himself left alone between the paws of this
huge beast, felt greatly inclined to cry, but he did not dare.
The elder lad climbed, with uncertain steps, up the rungs
of the ladder; Gavroche, in the meanwhile, encouraging
him with exclamations like a fencing-master to his pupils,