"Stevenson, Robert Louis - New Arabian Nights" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stevenson Robert Louis)

of the last cream tarts be my example."

So saying, the Prince drew out his purse and took from it a small
bundle of bank-notes.

"You see, I was a week or so behind you, but I mean to catch you up
and come neck and neck into the winning-post," he continued.
"This," laying one of the notes upon the table, "will suffice for
the bill. As for the rest - "

He tossed them into the fire, and they went up the chimney in a
single blaze.

The young man tried to catch his arm, but as the table was between
them his interference came too late.

"Unhappy man," he cried, "you should not have burned them all! You
should have kept forty pounds."

"Forty pounds!" repeated the Prince. "Why, in heaven's name, forty
pounds?"

"Why not eighty?" cried the Colonel; "for to my certain knowledge
there must have been a hundred in the bundle."

"It was only forty pounds he needed," said the young man gloomily.
"But without them there is no admission. The rule is strict.
Forty pounds for each. Accursed life, where a man cannot even die
without money!"

The Prince and the Colonel exchanged glances. "Explain yourself,"
said the latter. "I have still a pocket-book tolerably well lined,
and I need not say how readily I should share my wealth with
Godall. But I must know to what end: you must certainly tell us
what you mean."

The young man seemed to awaken; he looked uneasily from one to the
other, and his face flushed deeply.

"You are not fooling me?" he asked. "You are indeed ruined men
like me?"

"Indeed, I am for my part," replied the Colonel.

"And for mine," said the Prince, "I have given you proof. Who but
a ruined man would throw his notes into the fire? The action
speaks for itself."

"A ruined man - yes," returned the other suspiciously, "or else a
millionaire."