"Hello! Here's a go. Come, now, that won't go down. It might with some folks, but not with me," said Barlow in a threatening tone. "I have bought six salted horses for you—they cost me a hundred and ten pounds apiece, but I told you that you could have them for a hundred, and I am a man of my word—and hired nine servants for you. I have also engaged that friend of mine of whom I told you, and he is all ready to inspan, and go down to Port Natal after your guns and other truck, just as soon as you give me the stumpy down. Cash in hand was the agreement, you know. Here's the bill, itemized and receipted—all regular," added the cattle-dealer as he drew a folded paper from his pocket, and made an effort to put it into the boy's hand.
"I don't want to see it," said Oscar, who was fairly staggered by the man's effrontery. "You must think I have taken leave of my senses. Do you suppose that I would purchase an expensive outfit without seeing it?"
"I told you it was the best in the colony, and you took my word for it and agreed to buy it."
"I did nothing of the kind! I tell you now that I will not take it!"
"Here is a go, sure enough!" exclaimed Barlow. "What shall I do with these six salted horses?"
"I don't care what you do with them."
"And what shall I say to my friend and to the servants I engaged for you?"
"That is a matter in which I am not interested. If you engaged them at all you did so without any authority from me."
"Come, now," said the cattle-dealer, slapping the folded paper into his open palm, "take the outfit, and I'll knock off half the hundred pounds I have charged you for my services and call it fifty. Can anything be fairer than that? Come, now."
"A hundred pounds!" cried Oscar. "Do you pretend to say that you've done nearly five hundred dollars' worth of work since yesterday afternoon?"