"You must tell them that the roads are not safe, and give them each twenty-five livres; that will be by way of advance on their pay."
The tradesman stared at him in wondering admiration.
"Upon my word," said he, "it takes a soldier to find a way out of every difficulty!"
Having counted out the two hundred and fifty livres to Cauvignac, he withdrew, overjoyed to have found an opportunity to be rid, for five hundred livres, of a nephew and godson who cost him more than two hundred pistoles a year.
V.
"Now, Master Barrabas," said Cauvignac, "have you in your valise a coat something less elegant than the one you are wearing,—one in which you might pass for an employee of the custom-house?"
"I have the tax-collector's coat, you know, that we—"
"Very good! and you have his commission, too, no doubt?"