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CORDOBA 65
offer him a seat or touch him. He must not even sit
on the steps or on low walls where others might sit
down after him—he is unclean. He must carry his
own stool with him everywhere.
The people at the end of the car beckon us to come
to them; but I pretend not to have seen them and in-
stead offer the hangman a cigarette. He looks up
hastily, discovers that I am a foreigner and suddenly
loses his eager interest. ‘‘No, thank you,” he says
with a quiet smile, as he drops again into revery. I
put the cigarette on his knee and offer him my own to
light it with—that is a kindlier act than the offer of a
match. And he goes so far as to light his cigarette
without dignifying me with a word or glance. The
gendarmes signal to me with their eyes that I had bet-
ter have nothing to do with him.
I try a number of Spanish courtesies, without re-
sult; he disregards me. Then I fold up my traveling
blanket and ask him to sit on it. “Your chair must be
pretty uncomfortable if you use it all the time.”
“I suppose you do not know who I am,” with a bit-
ter smile.
“I know,” I say.
“Tn your country, are hangmen not outcasts?’ He
raises his head as he asks the question.
“One hundred and twenty-nine applicants asked for
the job when it was vacant a few years ago.”
“Caraja, that’s the place I’m going to!” he bursts
out in a sudden attack of sardonic humor. ‘You say
the job was advertised? Had the whole family died
out? The place is never vacant in Spain; and if it
should be, no one would try for it, not even criminals.
But we have plenty of people in this trade; I alone
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