A HOT NIGHT
(_This Chapter should be omitted by Prudes_)
The expense of an omnibus is not necessary to the experienced traveller.
A Spanish friend took us to a bureau of town porters in Madrid, and we
gave instructions to a dark-faced man in a shabby uniform, who promised
to see all our baggage to the station in good time for the evening train
to Murcia. Señor Don Mateo Bartolommeo was the name of the porter, for
he gave us his visiting card, on which was his professional and private
address, and a deep black mourning border like that on one's
grandmother's envelopes.
The preliminaries to travelling in Spain are lengthy. The ticket office
opens fifteen or twenty minutes before the train leaves, but the
passengers arrive an hour before, so that there is always a long queue
waiting at the ticket office. One can buy either tickets for the journey
or tickets for the thousand or more kilometres. The latter are a great
saving if one does much travelling, but they entail further delay at the
booking office, for verifying, tearing off, stamping, and so forth. Then
with one's tickets one goes to the luggage bureau, where the van luggage
is weighed, overweight charged, and a long slip receipt given. The
luggage is then presumed to travel to the journey's end and should be
forthcoming on the production by the passenger of the receipt. This is
not invariably the case; but of that we will tell in its place. The
wealthy traveller does not undergo all this fatigue. He shows a porter
the luggage for the van, tells him the station to which he wishes to
travel, gives him the money to pay for ticket and luggage, and bothers
his head no more about it. The Spanish porter is unusually honest. You
can give him two or three hundred pesetas to buy tickets with, and a few
minutes before the train starts up he runs with the tickets, the luggage
receipt, and the exact change.
We, however, wanted to experience everything; we did not wish to spend
our small capital on exorbitant tips, so I, leaving Jan to see to the
tickets and heavy luggage, argued my way past the ticket collector, who
is supposed to let nobody on to the platform without a ticket, found an
empty carriage, appropriated seats, and sat on the step waiting for the
porter to bring up the smaller luggage. An old lady in black, with a
huge bandbox and a birdcage, accompanied by three hatless girls dressed
in purple silk, all carrying at least four parcels apiece, filled up my
compartment, and I thought: "We are going to have a stuffy time of it."
The train was full of talk. In the corridors the people chattered at the
top of their voices like a rookery. Presently, conversing in shrill
tones, the old lady and her three daughters swooped back into the
carriage, and with much rustling of silk dragged all their parcels to
some other part of the train. A young officer, carrying about six
packages, took one of the vacated places, and marked his seat by
unbuckling his sword, which he placed in the corner. An old man, rather
run to stomach, took the seat opposite the soldier. He then stood in the
doorway, wedging his stomach into the opening, so that nobody else
should enter. The time drew closer to the departure of the train.
The noise increased a hundredfold. Three girls rushed along the corridor
and unceremoniously butted the old gentleman in the waistcoat. The
corridor was filled with a confused crowd of people, who handed in large
hat-boxes, brightly striped, square cardboard boxes, small suit-cases
with gilt locks, and a huge doll. The carriage was filled with a strong
smell of scent. There was giggling and the kissing of adieux. The escort
then retreated down the corridor and the three girls set to arranging
themselves for the journey. One of the girls was very dark, her face
like old ivory, her eyes large caverns of gloom, and her mouth painted a
brilliant scarlet; one was fair with a long face and grey eyes, very
excitable in manner, talking a high-pitched Spanish with a queer
intonation; the third was bigger than either of her companions, yet less
remarkable. One could easily have imagined her dressed in cowgirl's
costume, performing in a travelling Buffalo Bill show. All three had
bobbed hair, though that of the second girl was an elaborate _coiffure_
of short hair rather than a mere bob.
The dark girl picked up the soldier's sword and tossed it into the
luggage rack. The cowgirl pushed the stout old man's suit-case out of
his corner and took his seat. The old man but grinned and guffawed,
seeming pleased rather than angry. The soldier stood in the corridor and
glowered at the dark girl through the glass. He offered no objection to
the robbery of his seat, but it was evident what were his thoughts. The
second girl flung herself down on the seat next to Jan, blew out a long
sigh and exclaimed: "Aie, que calor, que calor."
It was indeed hot. All day long the sun had been beating down into
Madrid. The Puerto del Sol had been more like the "Puerto del Infierno."
The little trickles of water which the repaired aqueduct had afforded to
Madrid had done little to mitigate the dull reverberant heat of the
still air. Even now that the night had come the air was yet quivering,
and came into the lungs like half-warmed water.
The girls got down their dainty suit-cases from the rack, opened them,
burrowing amongst tawdry finery, manicure sets, powder-boxes and other
articles of toilet use, found boxes of cigarettes. To do this, the
cowgirl placed her suit-case on the seat and, standing, bent over it.
The stout old man, with a giggle, leant forward and gave the girl a
resounding smack with his open palm upon that part of her which was
nearest to him. The officer, through the glass, frowned and pursed up
his lips. The girl next to Jan caught my eye, smiled at me, and winked.
"Aie, que calor!" she exclaimed, blowing cigarette smoke into the air.
The train dragged itself out of the station and started southward
through the night.
The girl who was sitting next to Jan broke out into unexpected French.
"Mon Dieu! Qu'il fait chaud!" she exclaimed, as though Spanish would not
properly express the quality of the heat.
"But," said Jan to her, "you speak French very well."
"Well," she retorted, "I ought to, seeing that I am French."
Suddenly she came to a resolution. She stood up and again took down her
suit-case. She took from it a wrapper of tinted muslin. Slowly then she
began to take off her clothes. Her silk dress she folded up very neatly
and laid along the little rack which is set just below the ordinary one.
Then she slipped off her petticoat and camisole, and put on the muslin
wrapper.
"That is better," she exclaimed; folded up her discarded underwear, put
it into the suit-case, which she then replaced on the rack.
She then began on her _coiffure_. She detached a series of little curls
from over her ears, and twisting the wires on which they were made into
hooks, she suspended them from the netting of the rack, where over her
head they swung to and fro with the movement of the train.
"Maintenant," she said, "on est plus à son aise. Besides," she added,
with the instinct of true French economy, "it does so spoil one's
clothes if one takes a long railway journey in them."
The act had been performed with naturalness, and in view of the heat of
the night we could not help envying the French girl for her good sense
in making the long journey as comfortable as possible.
She began to tell Jan the story of her life. "Mother was a nuisance,"
she said; "she made life a little bit of hell at home. Well, one day we
had a fine old flare-up. I told mother that she could go to the devil if
she liked, and I just packed up and ran away. I came down to Madrid, and
on the whole I haven't done so badly. I send mother about eight hundred
pesetas a month. Most of that she'll keep for me, and I'll have a nice
little sum to start business with when I get back. Of course one can't
keep up a quarrel with one's mother for ever. _Hein!_"
Jan asked her how long she had been in Spain.
"Four months," she answered.
"You speak very good Spanish," said Jan.
"Oh," she answered, with a touch of desperation in her voice, "one can't
be all day doing nothing. It's a distraction learning something new."
"Where are you going now?" asked Jan.
"We are all going to Carthagena," said the French girl. "We'll be down
there all the summer. There are English there too, I have
heard--sailors. I like sailors. You see, I had to get away from Madrid.
I had a friend, and one day while I was out he stole all my spare money,
and all my clothes, which he took to the pawnshop. And that left me
stranded. Then I heard these two girls were going to Carthagena, to a
place, so I said, 'I'll come too,' and here I am. Anyway one has to be
somewhere, and I adore knocking about. It's life, isn't it?"
The dark girl was merely a selfish, pretty animal. She curled up on the
officer's seat like a black cat. She then slyly prodded the poor little
stout man with her high heels, so that he gradually moved up towards me,
leaving me little room in which to sit, while the dark girl could
stretch out at her ease. The other girl sat in her corner, saying
little, smoking cigarette after cigarette. She seemed to be one of those
stolid creatures who drop through life, taking good and bad without
change of face or of manner. She might have been rather South German
than Spanish. In contrast with these two the French girl was simple and
attractive. One noted, too, that she had a fine streak of unselfishness
in her character; she even talked without bitterness of the man who had
robbed her.
[Illustration]
Young men drifted along the corridors and stared in at the girls. One
man, who looked well off, dressed in a tweed sporting coat, came in and
made friends. He gave them cigarettes and drinks of brandy from a flask.
At about one o'clock in the morning, one of the cardboard boxes was
opened and disclosed a large pie, which was divided. The stout old
gentleman had a piece, so did "Tweeds." Some was offered to us, but we
had dined well at Madrid and did not feel hungry. But to refuse in Spain
is a delicate matter, so we gave them cigarettes to indicate goodwill.
We stopped at a dark station. The door was flung open and a tall
sunburned man clambered into the carriage. He had around his waist a
broad leather belt which was stuck full of knives. These implements were
clasp knives, and varied from small pocket knives and pruning knives to
veritable weapons a foot in length. He was not a famous brigand, though
he looked one, but a salesman. The larger knives had a circular ratchet
and a strong spring at the back, so that upon opening they made a
blood-curdling noise, which in itself would be enough to induce any
angry man to finish the matter by burying the blade in his enemy's
gizzard. He did no business in our carriage, and went off down the
platform opening and shutting a sample of his murderous wares, crying
out: "Navajos! Navajos!"
The train went on, and as we reached southward the night became warmer.
The stout old man left us, and the black girl stretched out at full
length, occasionally prodding me with her French heels. Presently the
darkness became less opaque. A faint silhouette of low hills, and then a
dim reflection from flat lands, appeared.
We stopped at another station; an unimportant wayside station with a
small house for booking-office and a drinking-booth in a lean-to
alongside.
"I must have a drink," exclaimed "Tweeds." "Who will come with me?"
Neither the black girl nor the cowgirl would move. We had still lemonade
in our Thermos flasks. So the French girl, in her muslin _peignoir_,
and "Tweeds" clambered down the carriage steps and disappeared through
the door of the fonda.
Disappeared is the right word. Without warning, the train began to move.
It gathered speed and clattered away southward. We never saw "Tweeds" or
the French girl again. In the thinnest of _négligés_ she was left
stranded upon the wayside station, to which no other train would come
for at least twelve hours, and possibly not for twenty-four.
The day broke, and we pounded along through a dusty arid country. There
was green in the bottom of the valley, but from the roads rose high
columns of dust, while the plastered villages of box-like houses near
the railroad were dried up and dust-coated. Dust blew in through the
carriage windows and settled thick upon the curls which, still swinging
and bobbing from the netting of the rack, were fast leaving their
mistress behind. At first her companions had been anxious; now they were
laughing.
"But," they said, "we wonder if she knows where to come for her things
when she does arrive?"
The train became more crowded. Soon people were running up and down,
looking angrily for places. Third-class passengers began to fill the
corridor of our second-class carriage. A boy of about nineteen, with the
half-angry intense face characteristic of some Latins, came into the
carriage and demanded a seat from the dark girl who was still stretched
at full length. This seat "Darkey," with her habitual selfishness,
refused to give up. Suddenly, we were in the middle of a full-fledged
Spanish row.
To us it had a comic side. It was not what we would have called a row,
as much as a furious debate. Of course with our slight acquaintance with
Spanish we missed the finer points of the varied arguments.
"Darkey" began by saying that she was keeping the seat for a friend who
was somewhere else. This was to some extent true; the French girl was
somewhere else, though there was little likelihood of her claiming the
seat.
The boy retorted that if she was somewhere else she probably had another
seat.
This argument went to and fro, increasing in acerbity. Each of the
quarrellers listened in silence to what the other had to say, making no
attempt to interrupt, though the voices grew hoarse with anger.
[Illustration]
Presently "Darkey" was telling the boy that he was a wretched
third-class passenger anyhow, and that he had no right in a second-class
carriage, and even if the seat were free he wasn't going to have it.
The boy retorted by saying that anybody could see what she was, and that
her mother was probably sorry that she had ever been born, etc., etc.
No English quarrel could have gone to half the length that this
proceeded. We were waiting to see either the boy jump into the carriage
and shake the life out of "Darkey," or to see "Darkey" spring, like the
young tiger-cat she was, at the boy and scratch his face. But nothing
happened. The crowded corridor listened with delight to the progress of
the quarrel.
The train stopped at a station. "Darkey" had sat up to pulverize the
impertinent youth with some evil retort. The carriage door on the
opposite side opened, and a placid, middle-aged peasant woman, followed
by an ancient peasant man, stepped into the carriage, and before
"Darkey" had well discovered what was happening had squashed down in the
disputed seat, left vacant by the removal of "Darkey's" feet. The woman
grinned at us all and sat nursing a large basket on her lap.
Then the quarrel slowly died down. After a while the boy went away.
However, he came back again whenever he had thought of something good,
and barked it round the corner of the door at "Darkey," who, usually
taken by surprise, could find nothing to retort before he had lost
himself again in the crowd.
The peasant woman smiled at us all, and, opening her basket, handed to
each of us a large peach. She selected one especially big for "Darkey,"
presumably as refreshment after the tiring argument.
The day became hotter and hotter. The dust gathered more thickly on to
the French girl's poor little curls. When the train stopped, children
ran up and down beside the carriages, selling water at the price of "one
little bitch" the glass. We were now in the province of Murcia, and the
scenery put on the characteristic appearance of that province, tall bare
hills of an ochreous mauve, sloping down into a flat, irrigated, fertile
valley. The division between mountain and valley, between the "desert
and the strown" was as sharp as though drawn with the full brush of a
Japanese. On the mountains were dead remnants of Saracen castles, of
dismantled Spanish robber fortresses, and the white or coloured
buildings of monasteries which still lived sparkling in the sun.