A Pawn in the Game (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VIII "THE EAT8" The chief interests of Jean's life at this time lay in the friendships and enmities born of his street wanderings, and some of these were very odd. The Paris gamins of those days, when the great city was stirring through every lane and alley with the ferment of the coming revolution, were of a special type. The political passions of the day soaked through to even their dens. They had their clubs, their policies, their watchwords, their leaders, their wars with rival bands. The dim and filthy regions which lay about the Tuileries were infested by a swarm of gamins organised into a band under the title of "The Rats." Jean's ramblings through their territory attracted their attention, and began to be watched with jealous eyes. One evening Jean was confronted by an odd figure in ragged dress and unwashed face, but with an air of strutting arrogance that contrasted absurdly with his rags. "What are you doing here?" demanded this strange figure." Jean stared at his questioner with silent wonder. "I'm the Rat," said the ragged youth with an air of indescribable pride, "and this is my district. The Eats do not love strangers and spies," and he glared fiercely at Jean. There was something rodent-like in the slanting eyes and pointed chin of the Eat. Jean had noticed him before, and admired the speed and soft-footedness with which he could slip down some dark lane or cellar, and disappear. Jean's cool silence, even more than his steady eyes and his evident preparedness for battle, seemed to chill the Eat's ardour for instant combat, and with a gesture of menace, as though threatening open war, he disappeared down the nearest lane. But from that moment Jean found himself exposed to incessant onfalls and ambushes whenever he...