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THE STEEL FLEA
They gave it to him.
The carriage was already harnessed, and the coachman and the postillion were in their places. The Cossacks immediately seated themselves beside the coachman, and raised their whips over him, and, after executing a flourish, held them so.
Platoff tore off the green case, opened the casket, drew the golden snuff-box from the soft cotton, and from the snuff-box the diamond as big as a walnut, and beheld the English flea lying there exactly as before, and nothing else whatever.
Says Platoff: "What's this? And where is your work, wherewith you wished to solace the Emperor?"
The gunsmiths reply: "Our work is here, also."
Platoff inquires: "Wherein does it consist?"
And the gunsmiths reply: "Why
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