"Ah!"
"Comrade, have you been waiting long?"
"For three hours at least."
"Comrade," replied the captain, after a moment's silence, "would you like to make double the sum they give you for following me and spying me?"
"I do not know what you mean. I do not follow you, sir. I am not spying you."
"Yes."
"No."
"Let us end this. I will give you what you want if you will go on your way,—stop, I have the gold in my pocket."
And the captain tingled the gold in his vest pocket, and said:
"I have twenty-five or thirty louis—"