Part 23 (2/2)
”Yes, but he answered every thrust, just the same,” added the lace-maker.
”Yah! Did you see him?”
”Certainly.”
”Bah, you must be soused to the gills!”
”You only wish you were as sober as I. Bah!”
”What? You're so full you can't talk!”
”Go on; shut up. You're so drunk you can't stand; I tell you, if you run afoul of this guy”--and Besuguito pointed to Leandro--”you're in for a bad time.”
”h.e.l.l, no!”
”That's my opinion, anyhow.”
”You don't have any opinion here, or anything like it,” exclaimed Leandro. ”You're going to clear out and shut up. Valencia's liver is whiter than paper; it's as Pastiri says. Brave enough when it comes to exploiting b.o.o.bs like you and the other tramps and low lives,... but when he bucks up against a chap that's all there, hey? Bah! He's a white-livered wretch, that's what.”
”True,” a.s.sented all.
”And maybe we won't let him hear a few things,” said the escaped convict, ”if he has the nerve to return here for his share of the winnings.”
”I should say!” exclaimed Pastiri.
”Very well, gentlemen, it's my treat now,” said Leandro, ”for I've got the money and I happen to feel like it.” He fished out a couple of coins from his pocket and slapped them down on the table. ”Lady, let's have something to drink.”
”Right away.”
”Manuel! Manuel!” shouted Leandro several times. ”Where in thunder has that kid disappeared?”
Manuel, following the example of the bully, had made his escape by the back door.
CHAPTER IX
An Unlikely Tale--Manuel's Sisters--Life's Baffling Problems.
It was already the beginning of autumn; Leandro, on the advice of Senor Ignacio, was living with his aunt on Aguila street; Milagros continued keeping company with Lechuguino. Manuel gave up going with Vidal and Bizco on their skirmishes and joined the company of Rebolledo and the two Aristas.
The elder, Ariston, entertained him and frightened him out of his wits with lugubrious tales of cemeteries and ghosts; the little Aristas continued his gymnastic exercises; he had constructed a springboard by placing a plank upon a heap of sand and there he practised his death-defying leaps.
One day Alonso, Tabuenca's aid, appeared in the Corralon accompanied by a woman and a little girl.
The woman seemed old and weary; the tot was long and thin and pale.
Don Alonso found them a place in a dingy corner of the small patio.
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