GERMINAL
shouted Étienne. "It was you in the forest who called for a strike of the engine-men, to stop the pumps, and now you want to play us a filthy trick! Very well! By God! we will go back to Gaston-Marie. I will have you smash the pump; yes, by God! you shall smash it!"
He was drunk; he was urging his men against this pump which he had saved a few hours earlier.
"To Gaston-Marie! to Gaston-Marie!"
They all cheered, and rushed on, while Chaval, seized by the shoulders, was drawn and pushed violently along, while he constantly asked to be allowed to wash.
"Will you take yourself off, then?" cried Maheu to Catherine, who had also begun to run again.
This time she did not even draw back, but turned her burning eyes on her father, and went on running.
Once more the mob ploughed through the flat plain. They were retracing their steps over the long straight paths, by the fields endlessly spread out. It was four o'clock; the sun, which approached the horizon, lengthened the shadows of this horde with their furious gestures over the frozen soil.
They avoided Montsou, and farther on rejoined the Joiselle road; to spare the journey round Fourche-aux-Bœufs, they passed beneath the walls of Piolaine. The Grégoires had just gone out, having to visit a lawyer before going to dine with the Hennebeaus, where they would find Cécile. The estate seemed asleep, with its avenue of deserted limes, its kitchen-garden and its orchard bared by the winter. Nothing was stirring in the house, and the closed windows were dulled by the warm steam within. Out of the profound silence an impression of good-natured comfort arose, the patriarchal sensation of good beds and a good table, the wise happiness of the proprietor's existence.
Without stopping, the band cast gloomy looks through the grating and at the length of protecting walls, bristling with broken bottles. The cry arose again:
"Bread! bread! bread!"
The dogs alone replied, by barking ferociously, a pair of big Danes, with rough coats, who stood with open jaws. And behind the closed blind there were only the servants, Mélanie the cook and Honorine the housemaid, attracted by this cry, pale and perspiring with fear at seeing these savages go by.
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