The others seemed somewhat surprised by Musichetta's presence at the café, but since Enjolras was neither acknowledging her nor complaining, the matter wasn't raised. Admittedly Bossuet demanded the return of today's Corsaire so that he could have a go at the word puzzle at the back, but after probably less than a minute, he tossed it back to us with a snort of disdain.
"That was hardly a puzzle at all!"
Musichetta turned the folded paper over to look at the back, where at the top of the righthand column was written:
LOGOGRIPHE
Sur mes cinq pieds, lecteur, si tu veux me connaitre
Dans le quatier latin tu m'as suivi peut-etre;
Si tu tranches mon chef, tu trouveras en moi
Dangereux animal semant partout l'effroi.
"On my five feet, reader, if you want to know me
Perhaps in the Latin Quarter you'll follow me;
If you take off my head, you'll find in me
A dangerous animal spreading fear everywhere," I read.
"So it's got five letters," Musichetta explained. "That's what the five feet are. And the cutting off the head is if we take off the first letter - it'll make another word - the dangerous animal."
"And he said this was easy?!"
"I'm sure we can manage it," she smiled. "We want a dangerous animal spelled with four letters - I think that will be easier to work out than the first bit."
Gavroche's arrival, today without Navet, distracted me somewhat, but he threw himself into trying to solve the word problem. Bossuet had turned away to a conversation with Courfeyrac, but looked over occasionally, listening to our efforts. It turned out to be a useful accidental lesson for Gavroche in spelling, as we began to compile a list of dangerous animals. Of those that had four letters, we so far had loup [wolf], ours [bear], and lion [lion]. Gavroche had put in a spirited argument for the elephant being a dangerous animal, but the fact that it definitely had more than four letters, combined with the fact that it didn't seem to be in the habit of spreading fear meant that it didn't make it to the list. Wasp, crocodile, and tiger were all discarded for similar reasons.
"Well, we've got some four lettered dangerous animals. Shall we try the first part of the puzzle again?"
"So we need to add a letter to the beginning of the word, to make something that a reader would follow in the Latin Quarter specifically."
"Where all the students are."
"So it's got to be something that you can follow there, but not somewhere else in Paris? So not a road or a path or something."
"Ah ha! I have it! I know the answer!" said Musichetta.
"Oh good. I'm still completely stuck. Can you give me a clue?"
"The animal is ours [bear]. And you were right about the first part being something that can only really be followed in the Latin Quarter."
"Right. So we're in the Latin Quarter at the moment. There's not really much that you can't find anywhere else beyond the university buildings, the Pantheon..."
"You're thinking too literally!" she smiled. "It's not follow like you would a trail - it's follow like attend."
"'Chetta, you're giving her far too many clues," Bossuet interjected, leaning back on his chair to look around at us. "At this rate, you'll be giving her the answer!"
YOU ARE READING
Lisette
Fanfiction"Don't put your trust in revolutions. They always come round again. That's why they're called revolutions. People die, and nothing changes." - Terry Pratchett, Night Watch A retelling of part of Les Miserables, from about 1828-1832. Élise was born i...
