ke a sausage, the old chap still had
the stiff appearance of a lay-figure. And the whole effect was so
ludicrous and so unexpected that the onlookers screamed with laughter.

The stranger unbound his head; and they saw a veiled mask of tangled
gray beard encroaching on every side upon a skeleton face lit up by two
eyes burning with fever.

The laughter was louder than ever.

"The money! The six notes!" roared the farmer.

The stranger kept him at a distance:

"One moment ... we'll give you that back, sha'n't we, Trainard?"

And, taking his knife and cutting away the straw and cloth, he jested,
cheerily:

"You poor old beggar, what a guy you look! But how on earth did you
manage to pull off that trick? You must be confoundedly clever, or else
you had the devil's own luck.... So, on the first night, you used the
breathing-time they left you to rig yourself in these togs! Not a bad
idea. Who could ever suspect a scarecrow?... They were so accustomed to
seeing it stuck up in its tree! But, poor old daddy, how uncomfortable
you must have felt, lying flat up there on your stomach, with your arms
and legs dangling down! All day long, like that! The deuce of an
attitude! And how you must have been put to it, when you ventured to
move a limb, eh? And how you must have funked going to sleep!... And
then you had to eat! And drink! And you heard the sentry and felt the
barrel of his gun within a yard of your nose! Brrrr!... But the
trickiest of all, you know, was your bit of straw!... Upon my word, when
I think that, without a sound, without a movement so to speak, you had
to fish out lengths of straw from your toggery, fix them end to end, let
your apparatus down to the water and suck up the heavenly moisture drop
by drop.... Upon my word, one could scream with admiration.... Well
done, Trainard...." And he added, between his teeth, "Only you're in a
very unappetizing state, my man. Haven't you washed yourself all this
month, you old pig? After all, you had as much water as you wanted!...
Here, you people, I hand him over to you. I'm going to wash my hands,
that's what I'm going to do."

Farmer Goussot and his four sons grabbed at the prey which he was
abandoning to them:

"Now then, come along, fork out the money."

Dazed as he was, the tramp still managed to simulate astonishment.

"Don't put on that idiot look," growled the farmer. "Come on. Out with
the six notes...."

"What?... What do you want of me?" stammere