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XII . The Trap The old gentleman gave Jondrette some clothes and blankets , and he listened kindly while Jondrette told a long story about his sorrows . Jondrette said that he would be thrown out of his room if he could not pay sixty francs by the next day . The old man gave him five francs and promised to come back at six o’clock that evening with the rest of the money . The girl did not say a word . While they were there , Marius looked only at her , and he did not notice that Jondrette was looking very closely at the old man . When the visitors had gone , Marius ran down the stairs , but their carriage had already left . Then Éponine came to his door . She had seen how he looked at the young lady , and she said in a strange , sad voice that she would find out the girl’s address for him . Marius was so happy that he hardly noticed how she looked at him . Later that afternoon Marius heard Jondrette talking to his wife through the wall , and his blood went cold . Jondrette had recognised the old gentleman , and the girl too . He had no doubt that this was the rich man who had taken a child away from him years before . “ That is our Lark , ” he said . “ I am sure of it . And this time , he will pay . I will make him rich , the old fool , and he will make us rich ! ” He was planning to rob him that evening . He had hired a gang of the most dangerous criminals in Paris , and when the old man came back at six o’clock , they would tie him up and make him write a letter asking his daughter to come . Then they would hold the girl as a prisoner until the old man paid them a huge sum of money . Marius knew what he had to do . He ran to the nearest police station and asked to speak to an inspector . The inspector was a tall man with a hard face , in a grey coat . He listened to Marius’s story and then gave him two small pistols . “ Go back to your room and watch through the hole , ” he said . “ When the moment comes , fire one of these pistols , and my men will come in . Don’t fire too early . ” Marius learned later that his name was Javert . At six o’clock Monsieur Leblanc arrived alone , with four gold coins in his hand . Jondrette began to talk . Behind him , men came quietly into the room one after another , with their faces painted black and iron bars in their hands . Marius held his pistol and waited . Then Jondrette changed his voice and his face . “ Do you recognise me ? ” he shouted . “ I am not Jondrette ! My name is Thénardier ! I am the innkeeper from Montfermeil ! Do you recognise me now ? ” Marius almost dropped his pistol . Thénardier ! The man who had saved his father’s life at Waterloo ! The man his father had asked him to help ! And now this man was going to commit a terrible crime in front of his eyes . If he fired , he would send to prison the man to whom he owed his father’s life . If he did not fire , he would let them hurt the father of the girl he loved . He could not move . Monsieur Leblanc said calmly that he did not know him . The men threw themselves on him and tied him to the bed . He fought like a giant and knocked down several of them before they held him . Then he wrote the letter that Thénardier asked for , and Madame Thénardier ran off in a carriage to fetch the girl . But when she came back , she was furious . The address was false .
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