Ruggiero, however, cared for none of these things, but
ballasted the tub properly with bags of pebbles and demonstrated to the
crowd that she was no longer easy to upset, inviting any one who pleased
to stand on the gunwale and try.
"But the ballast makes her heavy to pull," objected Black Rag, as he
looked on.
"If you had arms like the Children of the King," retorted the Cripple,
"you would not trouble yourself about a couple of hundredweight more or
less. But you have not. So you had better go and play three numbers at
the lottery, the day of the month, the number of the boat and any other
one that you like. In that way you may still make a little money if you
have luck. For you have made a bad bargain with the Children of the
King, and you know it."
Black Rag was much struck by the idea and promptly went up to the town
to invest his spare cash in the three numbers, taking his own age for
the third. As luck would have it the two first numbers actually turned
up and he won thirty francs that week, which, as he justly observed,
brought the price of the boat up to eighty. For if he had not sold her
he would never have played the numbers at all, and no one pretended that
she was worth more than eighty francs, if as much.
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