With excellent reason did Canardin's taste in the everyday color of a coat run to the greenish gray which so aptly matched the stones in the dark alleys of Paris by day; and to the waistcoat and small clothes of a rusty red, which so nicely harmonized with the tiles of its roofs by night. So Canardin hummed his little tune and crept along. The narrowest avenue of escape would suffice for a cunning which had never yet failed him. It is true that the lateness of the hour brought every minute nearer the rising of the moon; but the same lateness had sent to bed the people who might play the spy upon him if they dared.