“Six hundred gulden,” he said slowly and with gusto. “Six hundred gulden. It is a large sum of money; but we should be without horses;” and he looked at me cunningly.

“I’ll make it a thousand.”

“Easy to promise. As easy a thousand as ten.”

“What I promise I can do.”

“May the Stone of the Sepulchre crush me if I understand,” he exclaimed after a pause.

“It may help you to decide if I remind you I can take the horses without even promising a single gulden.”

“And about the prisoner?”

“She goes with me.”

“Why?”

“Because she prefers to.”