s of old straw in his clothes, and
looked as if he had just been aroused from sleep.

He advanced and exchanged glances with the strangers. The man in the
blouse looked puzzled, but cunning; he said--

"You are the gunsmith?"

The one who had tapped at the window replied--

"Yes; you are the man from Paris?"

"Known as Redskin. Yes."

"Show me the thing."

The man took from under his blouse a weapon extremely rare at that
period in Europe. It was a revolver.

The weapon was new and bright. The two strangers examined it. The one
who seemed to know the house, and whom the man in the blouse had called
"the gunsmith," tried the mechanism. He passed the weapon to the other,
who appeared less at home there, and kept his back turned to the light.

The gunsmith continued--

"How much?"

The man in the blouse replied--

"I have just brought it from America. Some people bring monkeys,
parrots, and other animals, as if the French people were savages. For
myself I brought this. It is a useful invention."

"How much?" inquired the gunsmith again.

"It is a pistol which turns and turns."

"How much?"

"Bang! the first fire. Bang! the second fire. Bang! the third fire. What
a hailstorm of bullets! That will do some execution."

"The price?"

"There are six barrels."

"Well, well, what do you want for it?"

"Six barrels; that is six Louis."

"Will you take five?"

"Impossible. One Louis a ball. That is the price."

"Come, let us do business together. Be reasonable."

"I have named a fair price. Examine the weapon, Mr. Gunsmith."

"I have examined it."

"The barrel twists and turns like Talleyrand himself. The weapon ought
to be mentioned in the _Dictionary of Weathercocks_. It is a gem."

"I have looked at it."

"The barrels are of Spanish make."

"I see they are."

"They are twisted. This is how this twisting is done. They empty into a
forge the basket of a collector of old iron. They fill it full of these
old scraps, with old nails, and broken horseshoes swept out of farriers'
shops."

"And old sickle-blades."

"I was going to say so, Mr. Gunsmith. They apply to all this rubbish a
good sweating heat, and this makes a magnificent material for
gun-barrels."

"Yes; but it may have cracks, flaws, or crosses."

"True; but they remedy the crosses by little twists, and avoid the risk
of doublings by beating hard. They bring their mass of iron under the
great hammer; give it two more good sweat