Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/157

Rh Without taking any notice of what the usurer was saying, the marquis explained that, besides his valuable cases of jewels, he had a piece of land near Cusco that he would sell at a price far below its real value.

"Land!" exclaimed Samuel. "Why, it's land that ruins us! We can't get any labor to till the land since the Indians have withdrawn to the mountains. Land! why, its produce does not pay its expenses!"

"But, tell me," said the marquis, "at how much do you value the diamonds alone?"

The old man drew from his pocket a small pair of jeweler's scales, and proceeded to weigh the gems with an air of minute precision, at the same time, according to his habit, keeping up a running current of depreciation.

"Diamonds! yes, they are diamonds; but see how badly set! One might as well bury his money in the ground. Look here! what a stone! no purity about it. I can assure your lordship that I shall find it very difficult to get a customer at all for this costly purchase. Perhaps if I send them to the States, the Northerners will buy them in order to get rid of them to some English purchaser. No doubt they will make a good profit out of them, but then the loss would all fall upon me. Upon my word, your lordship, you must be satisfied with ten thousand piastres. It seems a little, but—" "I have already told you that ten thousand piastres are of no use to me," said the marquis, with an air of profound contempt. "Not one half-real more. I could not afford it," rejoined the inflexible Jew.

"Then take the caskets; only let me have the sum I ask, and give it me at once. Thirty thousand I must have, and you shall have a bond upon this house of mine. Substantial, is it not?"

"Ah, your lordship, but there are so many earthquakes here. One never knows who may be alive and who may be dead from one moment to another, nor yet which houses may stand, or which may fall."

And all the time the Jew was talking he kept stamping with his foot upon the inlaid floor, as if to test its real stability. He paused for an instant, and then resumed, " However, to oblige your lordship, it shall be as you wish;