The man considered.
"Do you wish to buy?" he asked at last.
Colonel Edwards indicated that he did.
"Then I can accommodate you," was the reply. "I have a dozen of my own animals, but times are hard and I need the money."
He named a sum and Colonel Edwards agreed to pay it.
"Have them all brought out immediately," the Colonel instructed.
The man bowed and departed after pocketing the money the Colonel gave him. Colonel Edwards returned to the others.
"It's all right," he said in a low voice. "Our horses are still here and
I have bought three more—one each for Nikol, Ivan and Nicolas."
"Good," said Hal.
He gathered his friends about him, Nicolas in the center, and in a few brief words explained a plan he had hit upon: