Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XIII. A Vision of Sudden Death
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294 DAYS IN THE SUN
firmed his statement, ‘‘and he has deserved his duro.
You must admit it, Senor Foreigner!”
And one of them took me by the arm as he pointed
to his watch: “He has arrived an hour and a half
ahead of time.. You have had some fine driving and
you must pay.”
“Yes, but how about the result!” I interposed. “The
point for me was to make the express !”
They shrugged their shoulders and turned theis
backs on me. The expression of their backs clearly
pronounced the word ‘‘Quibbler!”
“Its always that way with foreigners when they
are expected to live up to their agreements,” one of
them said aloud. I took counsel with myself swiftly
and paid the duro.
Of course the others were right and I was wrong;
for we were in Spain, not at home, and my fierce in-
dignation was mere Nordic pedantry—though for a
Nordic I do not suffer excessively from moral pedan-
try.
There was the case of an Andalusian waiter who
was supposed to give me some small change. Among
the small coins returned to me there were three or
four that were worth nothing. I pushed them across
the table to him as his tip. He shoved them gently
back and said laconically:
“No, not these, Sir, these are really no good.” And
I gave him others without protest, pocketed the coun-
terfeits, to place them later furtively into circulation.
It was still a long time before midnight’ so we
strolled forth to take a look at the neighborhood.
All sorts of fruit as well as grapes grew near the town;
wherever human hands had been active, the arid earth |
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