Blondet, completely mastered by the eagerness of the old man and boy, allowed the demon of the chase to get the better of him,--that demon with the double claws of hope and curiosity, who carries you whithersoever he will.
"The hat-makers buy the skin," continued the old man; "it's so soft, so handsome! They cover caps with it." "Do you really think so, my old man ?" said Blondet, smiling.
"Well truly, my good gentleman, you ought to know more than I, though I am seventy years old," replied the old fellow, very humbly and respectfully, falling into the attitude of a giver of holy water; "perhaps you can tell me why conductors and wine-merchants are so fond of it ?" Blondet, a master of irony, already on his guard from the word "scientific," recollected the Marechal de Richelieu and began to suspect some jest on the part of the old man; but he was reassured by his artless attitude and the perfectly stupid expression of his face.
"In my young days we had lots of otters," whispered the old fellow; "but they've hunted 'em so that if we see the tail of one in seven years it is as much as ever we do.

And the sub-prefect at Ville-aux-Fayes,--doesn't monsieur know him?
though he be a Parisian, he's a fine young man like you, and he loves curiosities,--so, as I was saying, hearing of my talent for catching otters, for I know 'em as you know your alphabet, he says to me like this: 'Pere Fourchon,' says he, 'when you find an otter bring it to me, and I'll pay you well; and if it's spotted white on the back,' says he, 'I'll give you thirty francs.' That's just what he did say to me as true as I believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

And there's a learned man at Soulanges, Monsieur Gourdon, our doctor, who is making, so they tell me, a collection of natural history which hasn't its mate at Dijon even; indeed he is first among the learned men in these parts, and he'll pay me a fine price, too; he stuffs men and beasts.

Now my boy there stands me out that that otter has got the white spots.

'If that's so,' says I to him, 'then the good God wishes well to us this morning!' Ha! didn't you see the water bubble?
yes, there it is! there it is! Though it lives in a kind of a burrow, it sometimes stays whole days under water.