"He himself has never seen them, and he only talked about them to give you a higher opinion of him."
"And his castle in the puszta, and his seventeen companies of freebooters?"
"He invented them entirely for your honour's edification. The freebooter is no fool, he lives in no castle in the puszta, but in a simple village as modest Mr. Kökényesdi, and his seventeen companies scarcely amount to more than seventeen hundred men."
"Then why did he consent so easily to take only seventeen hundred thalers?"
"Because he does not mean to give his lads a single farthing of it."
Raining shook his head, and grumbled to himself all the way home.
In a week's time they sent to Kökényesdi the stipulated money. Raining, moreover, fearing lest the fellow might forget the fixed time, did not hesitate to go personally to Vásárhely, to seek him at his own door. There stood Master Kökényesdi in his threshing-floor, picking his teeth with a straw.
"Good-day," said the quartermaster.
"If it's good, eat it," murmured Kökényesdi to himself.