Answer:
He said he had no frog.
Step-by-step explanation:
Mark Twain's short story "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" tells the incredulous story told to the narrator by another character. While he was on his search for a man named Leonidas W. Smiley, he encountered Simon Wheeler who told him about Jim Smiley instead.
In the story, Simon recounts how Jim had a very special frog which he claimed is the most intelligent of all frogs. One day, he met a stranger and boasted to him that his frog Dani'l Webster can out-jump any frog. Challenging him to a contest, the stranger accepts but said that he did not have any frog which prompts Jim to go looking for a frog to compete with his Dani'l. Once out of sight, the stranger began pouring lead shots down the throat of the frog, leading to his inability to jump once the competition starts. That was the defeat of Dani'l Webster, and even though Jim found out that he's been cheated, he couldn't catch the man anymore as he had been long gone.