[alde-devel] Day. They purposed to call about

[Eggart <enf...@ci...>]

Asted! A mile ahead I came to a tumbledown roadhouse, with quite a crowd
of loud-voiced men standing around, who evidently had been indulging in
the fiery aguardiente sold there. Like the Levite and priest, I passed
by on the other side, giving the place a wide berth. Soon after I
entered a town or hamlet of a dozen houses. Two or three passed me in
the darkness with a "Buenas noches, senor," to which I mumbled some
reply, they doubtless taking me for a neighbor. Two uniformed men,
evidently police or soldiers, were lounging in the only shop, and I
dared not enter until they were gone. Planting myself in a deep shadow,
I sat down waiting for them to go out, but they showed no sign of moving
until a shrill voice from a female throat issued from a nearby house,
bidding one of the loungers to lounge no more just then, and he,
hurriedly obeying the summons, went; soon his companion followed; then,
leaving my empty bottle in the road, and with my hand on the revolver in
my outside pocket, I entered the shop. The easy-going Cuban shopkeeper
paid no particular attention to me, did not even stop rolling the
cigarette he was making. After deliberately lighting it, he lazily
responded to my "Buenas noches, senor," I saw bread, cakes and ham, and
ordered of each; the