2162 Les Miserables
The man in the buttoned-up coat walked to the extremity
of the shore, and remained there in thought for a moment,
his fists clenched, his eyes searching. All at once he smote
his brow. He had just perceived, at the point where the land
came to an end and the water began, a large iron grating,
low, arched, garnished with a heavy lock and with three
massive hinges. This grating, a sort of door pierced at the
base of the quay, opened on the river as well as on the shore.
A blackish stream passed under it. This stream discharged
into the Seine.
Beyond the heavy, rusty iron bars, a sort of dark and
vaulted corridor could be descried. The man folded his arms
and stared at the grating with an air of reproach.
As this gaze did not suffice, he tried to thrust it aside; he
shook it, it resisted solidly. It is probable that it had just been
opened, although no sound had been heard, a singular cir-
cumstance in so rusty a grating; but it is certain that it had
been closed again. This indicated that the man before whom
that door had just opened had not a hook but a key.
This evidence suddenly burst upon the mind of the man
who was trying to move the grating, and evoked from him
this indignant ejaculation:
‘That is too much! A government key!’
Then, immediately regaining his composure, he ex-
pressed a whole world of interior ideas by this outburst of
monosyllables accented almost ironically: ‘Come! Come!
Come! Come!’
That said, and in the hope of something or other, either
that he should see the man emerge or other men enter, he