“A hundred, seventy-two.”
“And the contract was for one-fifty. What’s in the odd twenty-two? Tell me that.”
“Pianos,” said Lord Dunseverick. “Look at your clearance papers. ‘Nature of Cargo—Pianos.’”
“You’d have your joke,” said McMunn, “if the flames of hell were scorching the soles of your boots.”
“It’s peculiar,” said Ginty.
“It’s more than peculiar,” said McMunn. “I’ve been in business for thirty years, and it’s the first time I ever had goods given me that I didn’t ask for.”
“Well,” said Lord Dunseverick, “if we’ve got an extra five hundred rifles we can’t complain. There’s plenty of men in Ulster ready to use them.”
“Maybe you’ll tell me,” said McMunn, “why they wouldn’t let me pay for the goods in the office this afternoon. Did anyone ever hear the like of that—a man refusing money that was due to him, and it offered?”
“It’s out of the course of nature,” said Ginty.
“They told you,” said Lord Dunseverick, “that you could pay Von Edelstein, and he’d give you a receipt.”