“Kopecks, you mean. Good-night.”
“Wait, wait. Was there ever such an impatient fool as you? Do you really want him?”
“No, only I didn’t want this long walk for nothing: and I’m taking some horses to Noshti Fair.”
“Isn’t there one of the others you’d care for? Don’t be in a hurry.”
“I’m in no hurry. What about these others?”
Then the real bargaining began. He put a price on the horse I wished to have; and we chaffered and smoked and swore and abused one another in the way these bargains are made. I dared not hurry the matter too much. He would boast all over the village the next day of the fool who had given him the price he asked; and the transaction would become public property, with the result that the police might get wind of it.
It was safer to waste the time necessary to drive a hard bargain. And so we wrangled until I had fought the amount down to a fair price, when we spent another ten minutes squabbling whether he should give me an old bridle or merely a rope halter.
When I had gained my point and was riding the horse away he swore so violently that he was a heavy loser by the deal, that I knew he had made enough profit to boast about. I thought it best to alter his opinion, therefore.
“Do you know the history of this horse?” I asked knowingly. “No, you can’t or you’d know that I’ve cheated you. Do you know that he came from General Kolwich’s stable and was sold for four hundred roubles? I should have paid that for him, had you pressed me. I shall get five for him. But you should learn to know a horse when you see one.”
He pushed his cap back and scratched his head, and invoked the name of the Deity in a despair that was almost pathetic.