"It is evident that you are both good judges of horse flesh, gentlemen, so you won't doubt my word when I tell you that I can get over a mile or two of ground in the twinkling of an eye with the Friar and Sans-Culotte, as I call his mate."
"Yes, it must be a real pleasure to have a horse like that between one's legs, my worthy fellow. Though I'm a sailor, I've ridden horseback a good deal, but I never had the good fortune to bestride an animal like that."
"I can very readily believe that, monsieur; but this I know, you will never bestride a finer one."
"And it is too bad!"
"I don't see what you are going to do about it."
"Would you like to make forty francs, my friend?" inquired the Englishman, after a brief silence.
"Forty francs, I?" exclaimed the astonished postilion.
"Yes."
"But how the devil could I?"
"In the easiest way imaginable."