"I do not care to disclose my plan, even to you."

"I thought you came here hoping I should further your project, and
perhaps finance it. Am I wrong in such a surmise?"

"Sir, you are not. The very first proviso is that you pay to me across
this table a thousand thalers in gold."

The smile came again to the lips of the merchant.

"Anything else?" he asked.

"Yes. You will select one of your largest barges, and fill it with
whatever class of goods you deal in."

"Don't you know what class of goods I deal in?"

"No! I do not."

Goebel's smile broadened. That a youth so ignorant of everything
pertaining to the commerce of Frankfort, should come in thus boldly and
demand a thousand thalers in gold from a man whose occupation he did not
know, seemed to the merchant one of the greatest pieces of impudence he
had encountered in his long experience of men.

"After all, my merchandise," he said, "matters little one way or another
when I am engaged with such a customer as you. What next?"

"You will next place a price upon the shipload; a price such as you