"I am not superstitious, monsieur, and yet my old nurse's stories came into my mind, I don't know why, and I had a moment of idiotic distrust, as if I were sitting beside Satan in a cabriolet. I glanced furtively at this individual who travelled thus across mountains and rivers, with no end in view, apparently just for the pleasure of exposing himself or me with him to danger; and I, like a booby, had let him persuade me to get into his infernal gig! "Seeing that I did not speak, he thought it advisable to reassure me. "'My way of travelling about the country surprises you, I see,' he said; 'the fact is that I propose to set up a manufacturing establishment in whatever place seems to me the most suitable. I have some money to invest--whether for myself or for other people is of little consequence to you, I suppose; but you can help me, with a few hints, to attain my object.' "'Very good,' I said, my confidence being fully restored when I found that he talked sensibly; 'but, before advising you, I must know what sort of an establishment you propose to set up.' "'If you will answer all the questions I ask you, that will be enough,' he said, evading my question. 'For example, what is the maximum force of this little stream we have just crossed, between this spot and the point where it empties into the Creuse?' "'It is very irregular; you have just seen it at its minimum; but freshets are frequent and tremendous; and if you choose to inspect the principal mill, formerly the property of the religious community of Gargilesse, you will be convinced of the havoc wrought by the torrent, of the constant damage suffered by that poor old building, and of the utter folly of laying out much money on it.' "'But by laying out money, monsieur, the unruly forces of nature can be confined! Where the poor, rustic mill goes under, the powerful, solidly built factory will triumph!' "'True,' I replied, 'in every river the big fish eat the little ones.'