"That ride was about three months ago. It was my turn next to ride. I was warming myself in the stable between my horses, for it was very cold. About eleven o'clock in the morning I heard click-clack, click-clack, a cracking of the whip for all the world as if for another hundred sous for the guide, and the voice of Jean Pierre all out of breath calling out, 'Two carriage horses!' "'_Bon_,' said I, 'here is a good thing and it is my turn to go; 'so I went out to get a look at the traveller. "Well, there stood a sort of an old gig with a leather apron, a thing we used to call a berlingot; the whole affair so covered and spattered with mud that you couldn't tell its colour. "I said to myself: 'Good! 'Tis a doctor who is hurrying to see some one at the point of death.' But, _saprejeu!_ What do I hear but the voice of the dying man himself calling out from the depths of the berlingot, calling as loud as it could call--half a cough--half a sniffle: "'Ah, beggar of a postilion! Ah, miserable wretch! Do you mean to kill me tearing over the roads like this?' "The fact is Jean Pierre had dragged the old thing along at such a pace that the hubs were smoking. "'Hope you've got the worth of your money, _not'-bourgeois_,' said Jean Pierre, in a furious voice to the old berlingot. "'There'll be four francs for the guide, won't there?' said I to Jean Pierre, who was unhitching his horses and swearing like a pagan. "'Four francs! Not much! Ah, no, not much; the old beast only pays twenty-five sous.' "'Twenty-five cents? The tariff? And you galloping him along as though he were a prince?' "'Yes; and the only thing I'm sorry for is that I couldn't jounce him any faster.' "'You are a great stupid,' said I to Jean Pierre. "'You'll do just as I did.' "'Not much,' said I to Jean Pierre. "Well, they finally brought me my mount. I had named him Devastator because he was continually committing injuries to others. It was a way he had, that beast; man or horse, 'twas all the same to him, so that he could get in a bite or a kick, in front or behind, anywhere in fact. Poor Devastator!" added my guide, with a sad sigh. Then he continued: "They brought me my horse, and before mounting him I saw a great, dried-up, bony hand as dark as walnut-wood stretched out of the leather apron of the berlingot to pay Jean Pierre his twenty-five sous. "Seeing Jean Pierre get only his twenty-five sous, I shuddered--and I said to myself: "'All right, old consumptive, you're going to get a famous promenade for your twenty-five sous. We're going to take it at a walk.' "'Where are we going, monsieur?' I asked the berlingot, for I saw no one, even the big, dried-up, yellow fist had disappeared. "'We are going to ----,' answered a voice, but so feebly, so faintly, that it was as the voice of a dying man; and then the voice added, always half coughing, half sniffling, 'But I must tell you one thing, my good friend--' "His good friend!" repeated my guide, in a rage.