ABOUT BUYING A HORSE. 159 



//////. I can imagine the interview. Practically it would be 

 the same as the supposed case between myself and the 

 robber, suggested just now by Cazell. The horse-dealer is 

 justj as it v,-ere, going to put his hand in my pocket, to rob 

 me of seventy pounds for a horse which is not worth thirty, 

 when I grasp it, squeeze it, give him the sign, whatever it is, 

 he starts back, and exclaims, '' What ! my Brother ! " We 

 embrace, and I say, " A'ozc, how much for the horse ? " 

 " O," says he, making an extra sign perhaps, " Do not give 

 me more than twenty-five, for I can't take thirty from 

 ycmy 



" Then," argues Cazell, '* Freemasonry's of use in battle • 

 German Freemason meets a French Mason, they're just 

 going to kill one another ; one makes the sign, t'other 

 replies ; they shake hands and pass on." 



This sounds pleasant. But isn't it disloyal on both sides ? 

 Aren't they there to fight and kill one another ? Because, 

 argue this out, and suppose the Generals Freemasons, the 

 Commanders-in-Chief on both sides Freemasons, — why, 

 they'd so lay out their plan of campaign as to avoid clashing 

 with each other at all 1 -- " 



Cazell says, warmly, " '' Nonsense ! argue it right up to the 

 top. If all Crowned Heads were Freemasons there'd be no 

 fighting at all." I reply that if all men were spotless 

 Christians the result would be the same, and that all Crowned 

 Heads can be Christians, but all can riot be Freemasons, as 

 for instance Queens. 



Cazell here tells me a story how Countess Somebody hid 

 herself behind a picture in a wall, overheard the Masonic 



