“Well, that is an idea that no one has had before you.”
“I hope so.”
“Our country, sir, is a wonderful one, for this reason—that you can get whatever you want, provided you have the money. If, therefore, you will allow me to manage——”
“Do so, and do so quickly. That is all I require, and I shall leave to-morrow.”
“I must have thirty pieces of gold in advance. The game you want is strictly preserved, and difficult to procure, Nothing inspirits the hunter so much as to be paid ready money.”
So Ali added thirty more pieces to the sixty he had already received, and hastened off to hide it in a secret spot known only to himself.
“Now I’ll go and see my fourth customer. I am curious to learn what he has to propose to me.”
Maragougnia had not during the whole month left the horrid little hole which he had chosen for his lodgings. Anxious to make a profit by his isolation, he had spent the time in déshabille, in order to save his clothes. When Ali entered he found the knight patching his shirt with his pocket-handkerchief. “You come just at the right moment; I wish to speak to you.”
“I am listening.”
“I hope you will not take amiss what I have to say to you, nor misunderstand my intentions. I think I ought first of all to tell you that I am even more wretched than I look. You will understand, of course, that it is not from a feeling of greed that a man denies himself everything as I do. I should certainly not despise the good things of life if I had the means of getting them. Picture to yourself that my misery is such——”