Topay greeted the horseman, who lifted his hat in silence and allowed them to draw nearer.
“There are three of you gentlemen together,” he observed guardedly; “but that doesn’t matter,” he continued. “It would be all the same to me if there were ten times as many of you, for there’s a pistol in every one of my holsters, from which I can fire sixteen bullets in succession, and in each bullet is a magnet, so that even if I don’t aim at my man I bring him down all the same.”
“Very good, very good indeed, Master Kökényesdi,” said Topay; “we have not come here for you to pepper us with your magnetic globules, but we have come to ask your assistance for the accomplishment of a doughty deed, the object of which is an attack upon our pagan foes.”
“Oh, my good sirs, I am ready to do that without the cooperation of your honours. In the courtyard of a castle in the Baborsai puszta there is a well some hundred fathoms deep and quite full of Turkish skulls, and I will not be satisfied till I have piled up on the top of it a tower just as high made of similar materials.”
“So I believe. But you would gain glory too?”
“I have glory enough already. I am known in foreign countries as well as at home. The King of France has long ago only waited for a word from me to make me chief colonel of a long-tailed regiment, and quite recently, when the King of England heard how I bored through the hulls of the munition ships on the Theiss, he did me the honour to invite me to form a regiment of divers to ravage the enemy under water. And I’ve all the boys for it too.”
“I know, I know, Master Kökényesdi, but there will be booty here too, and lots of it.”
“What is booty to me? If I choose to do so, I could bathe in gold and sleep on pearls.”
“Have you really as much treasure as all that?” inquired Raining with some curiosity.
“Ah,” said Kökényesdi, “you ought to see the storehouse in the Szilicza cavern, where gold and silver are filled up as high as haystacks. There, too, are the treasures dug up from the sands of the sea, nothing but precious stones, diamonds, rubies, carbuncles, and real pearls. I, myself, do not know how many sackfuls.”
“And cannot you be robbed of them?”
“Impossible; the entrance is so well concealed that no man living can find it. I myself can never tell whether I am near it; the shifting sand has so well covered it. Only one living animal can find it when it is wanted, and that is my horse. And he will never betray it, for if anyone but myself mounts him, not a step farther will he go.”
“And how did you come into possession of these enormous treasures?” asked Raining with astonishment.
“God gave them to me,” said the horse-dealer, raising his voice and his eyebrows at the same time.
“Very edifying, no doubt, my friend,” said Topay; “but tell me now, briefly, for how much will you join us against the Turks of Grosswardein?—not counting the booty, which of course will be pretty considerable.”
“Well—that is not so easily said. Of course I shall have to collect together my twelve companies, and it will cost something to hold them together and give them what they want and pay them.”
“At any rate you can name a good round sum for the services you are going to render us, can’t you? Come! how much do you require?”
The robber chief reflected.
“Well, as it is your honours’ own business I hope your honours won’t say that I tax you too highly. Let us look at the job in this way: suppose I came to the attack with seventeen companies, and I charge one thousand thalers for each company. Let us say each company consists of one thousand men, that will be a thaler per head—and what is that, ’twill barely pay for their keep. Thus the whole round sum will come to seventeen thousand thalers.”
“That won’t do at all, Master Kökényesdi. ’Twere a shame to fatigue so many gallant fellows for nothing, but suppose you bring with you only a hundred men and the rest remain comfortably at home? In that case you shall receive from us seventeen hundred florins in hard cash.”
“Pooh!” snapped the robber, “what does your honour take me for, eh? Do you suppose you are dealing with a gipsy chief or a Wallachian bandit, who are paid in pence? Why, I wouldn’t saddle my horse for such a trifle, I had rather sleep the whole time away.”
“But you have so much treasure besides,” observed Raining naively.
“But we may not break into it,” rejoined the robber angrily.
“Why not?”
“Because we have agreed not to make use of till it has mounted up to a million florins.”
“And what will you do with it then?”
“We shall then buy a vacant kingdom from the Tartar king, where the pasturage is good, and thither we will go with our men and set up an empire of our own. We will buy enough pretty women from the Turks for us all, and be our own masters.”
Topay smiled.
“Well,” said he, “this seventeen hundred florins of ours will at any rate purchase one of the counties in this kingdom of yours.” He was greatly amused that Raining should take the robber’s yarn so seriously, and he pushed the German gentleman aside. “Mr. Kökényesdi,” said he, “you have nothing to do with this worthy man; he is come with us only to see the fun, but it is we who pay the money, and I think we understand each other pretty well.”
“Why didn’t you tell me so sooner?” said the robber sulkily, “then I shouldn’t have wasted so many words. With which of you am I to bargain?”
“With this young gentleman here,” said Topay. “Ladislaus Rákóczy. I suppose you
