A little later, Courfeyrac and Bossuet, Marius' student friends, run into him on the street, but he is unaware of their presence as he is intently following Jondrette. The latter, not suspecting he is being followed, enters a hardware store and comes out with a chisel. Then he disappears into the shop of a man who hires out carriages. Marius gives up his spying to return home before the house is locked up for the night. On his way to his room, he glimpses four men lurking in one of the empty apartments, but fearing to be seen, he refrains from investigating.
In his room, he hears Jondrette returning, then giving various instructions and sending the two girls into the street as lookouts. He climbs back on the dresser and peers through the hole. The room is illuminated by an eerie red glow produced by a sizable stove full of burning coal, with a chisel in the middle of the fire. In a corner he notices two piles, one of old pieces of iron, the other of rope, which upon close examination turns out to be a ladder. Jondrette places two chairs at a table, lights his pipe, and waits.
The church bells strike six and, as agreed, M. Leblanc comes in. His first act is to hand Jondrette more money for his rent and his immediate needs. While he thanks him profusely, Jondrette manages to give his wife a disquieting order — "Send away the cab." Jondrette and Leblanc sit down and Jondrette holds his attention with talk while, unobtrusively, a man enters the room behind the old man's back. Warned by a kind of instinct, M. Leblanc turns and perceives the new arrival. Jondrette explains him away as a neighbor, and the same explanation covers the arrival of three more sinister figures.
