“Why, you have told the biggest story that has passed your lips to-day.”
“What, about the cannon?”
“Two hundred or three hundred! Why, your regiment captured all the guns the Austrians had!”
“Didn’t I tell you I couldn’t remember whether it was two hundred or three hundred? You are the most critical young man I ever met in the whole course of my life!”
“But two hundred would be an abominable exaggeration. Perhaps you meant muskets?”
“No; cannon.”
“But, my dear captain, just consider for one moment. Of course the batteries were supported?”
“To be sure they were.”
“Six guns to a battery would have made fifty batteries; and——”
“Oh, confound your statistics!” exclaimed the captain impatiently.