"Do you take me for a child?"
"Well, perhaps a couple of thousand."
"More than a million."
"You frighten me."
"No matter—halves!"
"But I must sell it first; you shall have your share of the price."
"Of the price? You don't take me in. We will divide at once."
"How is that possible?"
"Very easy. I break the crown into two halves; you take one, I the other. Give it here."
Moses Amschel shook with terror, and clutched the glittering ornament convulsively with both bands. It was in vain: the iron hand of Geigenfritz detached his fingers, one after the other, like those of a child. With the last remains of his exhausted strength, the Jew still clung to his treasure, which, in another second, would have been wrested from him, when suddenly a broad knife, thrust over the shoulder of Geigenfritz, inflicted a swift deep cut across the back of the hand with which he grasped the diadem. Involuntarily, Geigenfritz relaxed his hold both of Jew and jewels.