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So the transaction was duly terminated, and when Markos had at last parted with his money and his fine old wine, his jolly face cleared once more; for, after all, he had not lost by the bargain, though he had not made much, and the good-will of the two most famous and dangerous cut-throats in all the Venetian territory was worth something to a man who always lived more or less on the outer edge of the law.
Wings have been thrown out from both Markos and Bagos to the extreme north, making a monster 'E' of which we are the middle arm." Carter betrayed surprise. "Well, what force was that which passed during the night?" he asked. "I thought you said Sutphen had only a small command on the frontier, yet there were two or three parks of heavy artillery went by."
Whence spring the Samuels and the Davids, whence a Leonidas and a Markos Bozzaris, whence the Scipios and the Gracchi, whence the Augustines and the Chrysostoms, whence the Alfreds and the Gladstones, whence the Washingtons and the Lincolns, whence the Seaburys and the Doanes, and many another? Are they not all hewn from the quarries of a noble motherhood?
'Markos, said Trombin, 'apply your excellent sight and your money-lender's intelligence to this marvellous ring, with which unfortunate circumstances now oblige me to part. It belonged to my sainted aunt, the Abbess of Acquaviva, who left it to me with her blessing when I was young and innocent.
'We have not quite finished, and if you will join us we shall be delighted to begin again from the beginning. A clean cloth, Markos, he went on at once, turning to the host, 'and the same dishes over again! 'Your hospitality confounds me, sirs, protested the Senator. 'I can but accept your gracious invitation. He sat down at the end of the small table, turning his back to the hall.
'How much do you want on it? interrupted Markos, who had been examining the stone as well as he could by the light of the oil-lamp, while Trombin was talking in his grand style. 'A hundred ducats down, and no wine, answered Gambardella, without hesitation, in his deep voice. 'We would accept half a dozen jars of Samos, to be drunk here, suggested Trombin, 'if we sealed them ourselves.
"Anything doing?" he inquired with a cheerful air. Sobieska nodded. "Zulka's in command of Schallberg. Sutphen with a small force occupies Markos due east of the capital. Lesky's Rifles have seized Bagos on a line with both at the western frontier. This completes our alignment on the south.
Markos grinned from ear to ear. 'Twenty ducats, he said quietly, 'and a hogshead of "rezinato," worth ten ducats more! That is all I can give. 'Rezinato at ten ducats! sneered Gambardella. 'It costs me that, retorted the money-lender, 'so it must be worth it. Possibly I might make the cash twenty-five ducats, but that would only be out of old friendship.
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