he tail, or all the water-carriers in the
world shall never make me give up the ass. Don't imagine because there
are so many of you, that I will let you put any cheating tricks on me,
for I am a man who can stand up to another man, and put two handbreadths
of cold steel into his guts without his being able to tell how he came
by them. Moreover, I won't be paid in money for the tail at so much a
pound, but I will have it in substance, and cut off from the ass, as I
have said."

The winner of the four quarters and the rest of the company began to
think that it would not be advisable to resort to force in this
business, for Lope seemed to them to be a man of such mettle, that he
would not be vanquished without some trouble. Nor were they mistaken;
for, as became a man who had spent three seasons at the tunny fisheries,
where all sorts of rows and brawls are familiar things, he rattled out a
few of the most out of the way oaths in vogue there, threw his cap into
the air, whipped out a knife from beneath his cloak, and put himself
into such a posture as struck the whole company with awe and respect. At
last, one of them, who seemed the most rational, induced the rest to
agree that Lope should be allowed to stake the tail against a quarter of
the ass at a game of _quinola_. So said, so done. Lope won the first
game; the loser was piqued and staked another quarter, which went the
way of the first; and in two more games the whole ass was gone. He then
proposed to play for money: Lope was unwilling, but was so importuned on
all hands, that at last he consented; and such was his run of luck that
he left his opponent without a maravedi. So intense was the loser's
vexation, that he rolled and writhed upon the ground and knocked his
head against it. Lope, however, like a good-natured, liberal gentleman,
raised him up, returned all the money he had won, including the sixteen
ducats the price of the ass, and even divided what he had left among the
bystanders. Great was the surprise of them all at this extraordinary
liberality; and had they lived in the time of the great Tamerlane, they
would have made him king of the water-carriers.

Accompanied by a great retinue, Lope returned to the city, where he
related his adventure to Tomas, who in turn recounted to him his own
partial success. There was no tavern, or eating house, or rogues'
gathering, in which the play for the ass was not known, the dispute
about the tail, and the high spiri