“Not even for fifteen years’ wages? Come, it is worth thinking about?”
“For fifteen thousand francs?”
“Yes.”
“Sir, you alarm me.”
“Nonsense.”
“Sir, you are tempting me?”
“Just so; fifteen thousand francs, do you understand?”
“Sir, let me see my right-hand correspondent.”
“On the contrary, do not look at him, but at this.”
“What is it?”
“What? Do you not know these bits of paper?”
“Banknotes!”
“Exactly; there are fifteen of them.”
“And whose are they?”
“Yours, if you like.”
“Mine?” exclaimed the man, half-suffocated.
“Yes; yours—your own property.”
“Sir, my right-hand correspondent is signalling.”
“Let him signal.”
“Sir, you have