Part 16 (1/2)

Then in a shrill voice, he shouted:

”Apostle, will you have a drink?”

The Apostle rose from his place amongst the gamblers. He was dead drunk and could hardly move; his eyes were viscous, like those of an angered animal; he staggered over to Leandro and took the gla.s.s, which trembled in his grasp; he brought it to his lips and gulped it down.

”Want more?” asked the gypsy.

”Sure, sure,” he drooled.

Then he began to babble, showing the stumps of his yellow teeth, but n.o.body could understand a word; he drained the other gla.s.ses, rested his forehead against his hand and slowly made his way to a corner, into which he squatted, and then stretched himself out on the floor.

”Do you want me to tell your fortune, princess?” asked the gipsy of f.a.n.n.y, seizing her hand.

”No,” replied the lady drily.

”Won't you give me a few coins for the _churumbeles_?”

”No.”

”Wicked woman! Why won't you give me a few coins for the _churumbeles_?”

”What does _churumbeles_ mean?” asked the lady.

”Her children,” answered Leandro, laughing.

”Have you children?” f.a.n.n.y asked the gipsy.

”Yes.”

”How many?”

”Two. Here they are.”

And the gipsy fetched a blond little fellow and a girl of about five or six.

The lady petted the little boy; then she took a duro from her purse and gave it to the gipsy.

The gipsy, parting her lips in amazement and bursting forth into profuse flattery, exhibited the duro to everybody in the place.

”We'd better be going,” advised Leandro. ”To pull one of those big coins out in a dive like this is dangerous.”

The four left the tavern.

”Would you like to make the rounds of this quarter?” asked Leandro.

”Yes. Let's,” said the lady.

Together they wound in and out of the narrow lanes of Las Injurias.