"Well, my friend, you're a great, strong fellow!" observed Mr. Pelikan, lighting himself a cigar from Sándor's.
"Yes! If he had not been ill!" grumbled the overseer.
"I wasn't ill!" bragged the herdsman, and tossed back his head contemptuously.
"What on earth, were you then? When a man lies three days in the Mata Hospital——"
"How can a man lie in the Mata Hospital? It is only for horses!"
"What were you doing then?"
"Drunk!" said Sándor Decsi. "As a man has a right to be!"
The old man twisted his moustache, and muttered, half-pleased, half-vexed, "There, you see these 'betyárs'! Not for all the world would they confess anything had ailed them."
Then the time for payment came round.
They settled the price of the four young horses at eight hundred florins.