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A VISION OF SUDDEN DEATH 293
water up to the hubs. In this loam, which is as hard
as stone, nothing but vines grow. And since the vine-
yards had been cut down, the landscape had a discon-
solate appearance. Not even a bit of grass covered
the yellow crust. “We peered about for dwellings, but
saw nothing but occasional entrances to caves along the
slopes. Gradually these became more numerous and
we lumbered through a village consisting of nothing
but inhabited caverns. I counted a hundred such en-
trances as we drove past, most of them with masonry
doorways. But there were also aristocratic caves with
panes of glass and neat brick facades, terminating
above in a cornice of red bricks. Some of the moun-
tain cones were inhabited to the very top, and a trail
wound up the mountain like the course of a snail, to
the “mansard.” Such caves may be seen everywhere
in Guadix in great numbers. Half of the ten thou-
sand inhabitants of the city are said to live under-
ground.
A few miles this side the city we heard a sharp
locomotive whistle and observed the express snorting
away to Madrid. But the mayoral, whose zeal had
diminished considerably during the last few hours, rose
in his seat and lashed the beasts like a madman. We
ended our long drive of some forty miles as we clat-
tered up to the hotel at Guadix. The mayoral, proud
of his work, came to ask for his gratuity.
I looked at him astonished.
“Well, didn’t I drive like the devil?” he asked, re-
lating to the bystanders the arrangement that had been
made between us and describing the manner in which
he had been driving.
“He drove like the son of a Spaniard,” they con-
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