One might lay one's fingers no matter where, and carry off thirty or forty francs by merely closing the hands.

They had felt suspicious several times already on noticing how strange Gervaise looked when she stuck herself in front of the gold.

This time, however, they meant to watch her.

And as she approached nearer, with her feet on the board, the chainmaker roughly called out, without giving any further answer to her question: "Look out, pest--take care; you'll be carrying some scraps of gold away on the soles of your shoes.

One would think you had greased them on purpose to make the gold stick to them." Gervaise slowly drew back.