M. Madeleine found Master Scaufflaire at home, engaged in stitching a harness over.
“Master Scaufflaire,” he inquired, “have you a good horse?”
“Mr. Mayor,” said the Fleming, “all my horses are good. What do you mean by a good horse?”
“I mean a horse which can travel twenty leagues in a day.”
“The deuce!” said the Fleming. “Twenty leagues!”
“And how long can he rest at the end of his journey?”
“He must be able to set out again on the next day if necessary.”
“The deuce! the deuce! And it is twenty leagues?”
M. Madeleine drew from his pocket the paper on which he had pencilled some figures. He showed it to the Fleming. The figures were 5, 6, 8½.
“You see,” he said, “total, nineteen and a half; as well say twenty leagues.”
“Mr. Mayor,” returned the Fleming, “I have just what you want. My little white horse—you may have seen him pass occasionally; he is a small beast from Lower Boulonnais. He is full of fire. They wanted to make a saddle-horse of him at first. Bah! He reared, he kicked, he laid everybody flat on the ground. He was thought to be vicious, and no one knew what to do with him. I bought him. I harnessed him to a carriage. That is what he wanted, sir; he is as gentle as a girl; he goes like the wind. Ah! indeed he must not be mounted. It does not suit his ideas to be a saddle-horse. Every one has his ambition. ‘Draw? Yes. Carry? No.’ We must suppose that is what he said to himself.”
“Your twenty leagues all at a full trot, and in less than eight hours. But here are the conditions.”
“In the first place, you will give him half an hour’s breathing spell midway of the road; he will eat; and some one must be by while he is eating to prevent the stable boy of the inn from stealing his oats; for I have noticed that in inns the oats are more often drunk by the stable men than eaten by the horses.”
“In the second place—is the cabriolet for Monsieur le Maire?”
“Does Monsieur le Maire know how to drive?”
“Well, Monsieur le Maire will travel alone and without baggage, in order not to overload the horse?”
“But as Monsieur le Maire will have no one with him, he will be obliged to take the trouble himself of seeing that the oats are not stolen.”
“I am to have thirty francs a day. The days of rest to be paid for also—not a farthing less; and the beast’s food to be at Monsieur le Maire’s expense.”