"No, you won't," returned his antagonist.
"Why not, pray?"
"Because to-morrow you shall hang."
"Oh, no," replied Manasseh, lightly, "for that would require my personal presence, and I am needed elsewhere."
The Wallachian continued to lose. Finally, in his fury, he staked his last penny—"and your brothers' heads into the bargain!" he added, in desperation.
The other took him up and staked his own head in addition to the bundle of notes which he threw down nonchalantly before him.
They played, and again Manasseh won. A man less bold of temperament might have thought to gain his enemies' good-will by leaving his winnings on the table. But Manasseh knew better. His opponents, angered by their losses, called him a robber, but still respected him. Had he, however, been so timid as to leave the money lying there, they would have regarded his action as such an insult that he would have been compelled to fight the entire company, one after another, in single combat.
"Now, then," said the leader, "we have time to talk. Why are you here—to persuade us to release your two brothers and leave Toroczko in peace?"
"A man of your discernment can fathom my motives without asking any questions," replied Manasseh, with a courteous bow.
"Well, let us see how you are going to work to bring this about. Your brother David, like the simple rustic he is, thought to talk me over with Bible quotations. He preached me a sermon on the love of one's neighbour, Christ's commandments, the almighty power of Jehovah, and a lot more of the same sort, until at last I grew tired of it and had him locked up to keep him quiet. Your brother Simon is a shrewder man; he has been to school at Kolozsvar. He came to me with threats in his mouth, delivered a long harangue on the constitution, the powers of the government, our past history, and kept up such a din in my ears that finally I had to shut him up, too. But you are the cleverest of the three; you have been trained as a diplomat, and have taken lessons in Vienna from Metternich himself. Let us hear what you have to say."