He knelt down on his commode, stretched out his arm, seized the sheet of paper, softly detached a bit of plaster from the wall, wrapped the paper round it, and tossed the whole through the crevice into the middle of the den.
It was high time.
Thenardier had conquered his last fears or his last scruples, and was advancing on the prisoner.
"Something is falling!" cried the Thenardier woman.
"What is it?" asked her husband.
The woman darted forward and picked up the bit of plaster. She handed it to her husband.
"Where did this come from?" demanded Thenardier.
"Pardie!" ejaculated his wife, "where do you suppose it came from? Through the window, of course."
"I saw it pass," said Bigrenaille.
Thenardier rapidly unfolded the paper and held it close to the candle.
"It''s in Eponine''s handwriting.
The devil!"
He made a sign to his wife, who hastily drew near, and showed her the line written on the sheet of paper, then he added in a subdued voice:--
"Quick!
The ladder!
Let''s leave the bacon in the mousetrap and decamp!"
"Without cutting that man''s throat?" asked, the Thenardier woman.
"We haven''t the time."
"Through what?" resumed Bigrenaille.
"Through the window," replied Thenardier.
"Since Ponine has thrown the stone through the window, it indicates that the house is not watched on that side."