MURCIA--LAST DAYS
Next morning we sent Marciana to tell Jesus, the water-carrier, to bring
our registered luggage from the station. After a long delay she came
back saying that no luggage with a number corresponding to that of the
receipt was to be found. We set off through the mud to the station, and
after having suffered from some lack of courtesy on the part of one or
two of the clerks we were able to convince ourselves that Jesus had
spoken the truth. Our luggage, consisting of a suit-case, a rucksack and
a hold-all, containing all our warm clothes, our painting materials, all
our drawings of the past five months, was missing. We were assured that
we had nothing to be anxious about. The next train from Lorca would
arrive about six-thirty, and the things which _must_ have been left
behind at Lorca would come on by it. But the Spanish reassurances had no
foundation, the baggage did not come, and the baggage officials
confessed themselves astounded. "Such a thing," they said, "has never
happened before." The station-master, a short, portly, grumpy fellow, at
first refused to listen to our complaints. When at last we compelled him
to do so, he shrugged his shoulders and said, "It is a fatality." After
some pressing, however, he consented to telegraph to Lorca, and to
telephone to Alcantarilla, the junction.
The next day no news was forthcoming of our luggage, and the
station-master was hostile. He saw in us persons who were troubling the
peaceful round of his easy duties. The other station officials said
plainly the baggage had gone to Madrid by mistake, or perhaps to
Carthagena. But neither Lorca, Alcantarilla, Madrid nor Carthagena would
confess knowledge of our errant luggage. We were indeed in rather an
awkward situation. We had reserved just enough money with which to
travel homewards, but were now faced with the prospect of a long stay in
Murcia waiting till our luggage was found and, if it continued missing,
with the purchase of many necessary articles which we now lacked. For
instance, we had no boots, having made the journey in alpagatas.
By this time, of course, Antonio, and indeed, through the agency of
Marciana and of Jesus, the whole quarter had learned of our misfortune.
Antonio arranged for a meeting with a clerk of some commercial firm.
This clerk's chief occupation seemed to be the pestering of the Spanish
railways for lost objects, and he entered with gusto into our affair. He
made us work out a list of our losses and added on a thousand pesetas to
our total, which he said was ridiculously underestimated. Then we went,
backed by Antonio, to the railway station.
"What do you want?" snarled the station-master, as he saw us appear once
more.
"These Señores have come to make a claim," said Antonio.
"Ha ha!" said the station-master, grinning. "They won't be able to do
so. They are foreigners, and will not be able to write it out properly."
"Pardon me," answered the clerk. "I am here to write it properly in
their names, and they will sign it. This will be sufficient."
After a short argument the station-master gave way. He took us into an
office and spread out before us a large book. It seemed that the railway
companies had made ample provision for recording losses.
The clerk opened it, tucked up his sleeves, squared his elbows, and in
careful orthography began to shape on the page a complex document, full
of Spanish equivalents for "whereas" and "wherefore." When the signing
was completed we went home.
"I have given them a week in which to find the luggage," said the clerk.
"After that delay is over, they will have to pay you. Even if the
luggage is recovered the day after the week is up, you may refuse it,
and demand the cash in its place."
We went home to count up our diminishing resources: "Here is a week,"
said we, "here are two pairs of boots." We had heard rumours of boats
which travelled round the coast, and understanding these to be cheaper
than the railways we made inquiries; but Murcia was just too far from
the sea to be interested in shipping, and we had to give up the idea of
reaching France by this means.
Murcia was bitterly cold during those days of waiting. Our warmer
underclothes were lost with the luggage, and our friend's house,
wonderfully cool on the hottest day of summer, was frigid in the damp,
rainy autumn. We had nothing to do, for all our materials were missing,
and one could not make excursions on foot, because the roads were deep
in mud. So we waited, shivering, until we could escape from a country
which had no suitable appliances for warming its chilled inhabitants.
We at last came to the end of the week's grace, and the luggage had not
appeared. So, finding that the process of extracting payment from the
railways was going to be a long one, we decided to give Antonio a power
of attorney to manage the affair for us. We were assured that payment
would certainly be made eventually, though with a little delay. Antonio
took charge of arrangements to draw up the necessary papers, while we
set to packing what remained to us of luggage, including the large
Sevillian basin given to us by La Merchora. At last everything was
ready; on the following day we were to sign the papers in the presence
of a lawyer, and the next day we were to set out for Alicante by the
morning train.
On the morning of the last day, while we were sewing La Merchora's
Sevillian basin into a huge rush basket which was to protect it from
damage on the journey, we looked out of the window and saw, somewhat to
our dismay, a fat, familiar figure strolling along the pavement. The
bootmaker had arrived from Lorca hunting for work.
In spite of a feeling of gratitude which we entertained towards him for
the help he had given us at Lorca, we could not but wish that he had
come at some other time. Our day would be as full as we could well
manage. The complications which might be added by having to dance
attendance on the zapatero filled us with dismay. To our relief the
bootmaker sauntered on towards the town. Selfishly we hoped that he
would leave us alone. We had told Antonio about him, and both Luis and
Flores had promised to help him to find work when he arrived.
Commissions called us into the town, and we slunk along the streets,
spying for a portly form. But upon our return we met it, coming out of
Antonio's house. Our Fate could not be avoided, so we asked him in to a
simple lunch, at which we put before him, amongst other things, a large
dish of especially selected olives which we had bought to take back with
us to England. The zapatero approved so much of our taste in olives
that, to our dismay, he almost finished up our store; and in consequence
we had to waste more of our precious time in buying a new supply. We
might indeed have saved ourselves the trouble: we were fated to reach
England without olives, for the bottle holding them was afterwards
forgotten and left in a railway waiting-room. After lunch we dismissed
the zapatero, hinting to him as broadly as we could that we now had a
lot to do, but that we would be delighted to see him at about seven
o'clock, by which time our business would be over.
However, when at three o'clock we called at Antonio's house to bring him
to the lawyer's office at which the power of attorney was to be signed,
the zapatero was sitting comfortably in one of the rocking-chairs
awaiting our arrival. We suggested to him that we had business to attend
to. He replied that he would accompany us into the town.
So Antonio, the clerk, the zapatero, Jan and I set out for the lawyer's
office. We had expected the bootmaker to leave us on the threshold, but
he stalked gravely in our rear, and introduced himself to the lawyer's
clerks as a friend of the family. The lawyer's office was a large
apartment with a black and white tiled floor, at one end of which was
the clerk's table and at the other that of the lawyer. He was a
thick-set man covered with a huge golfing cap in loud checks. Over his
head was suspended from the ceiling, with outstretched wings, a stuffed
and dilapidated eagle from which generations of moth had stolen all hint
of beauty. We discovered that this eagle, in some form or another, is
the recognized trademark of the lawyer. One is tempted to wonder if this
bird of prey hovers thus emblematically over the head of the man of law
as a sort of symbolic warning to the simple-minded peasants.
The legal preliminaries were brought to a stop by the discovery that Jan
had forgotten the passports; so, while he set off in a hurry to get
them, we sat around in an uncomfortable circle. Meanwhile the chill from
the tiled floor crept upwards through my feet. To break the silence the
lawyer began to pay me the usual compliments on my Castilian.
Immediately in came the zapatero.
"She is a talented lady," he exclaimed. "Not only does she speak English
in addition to our language, but she can paint pictures, and play on
musical instruments. These I have seen and heard myself. Furthermore,
she has other talents: she can read and write, and so can her husband.
In case you do not believe this latter statement I can prove it."
[Illustration]
Whereupon he pulled from his pocket the address which Jan had written
for him at Lorca and, unfolding it with some solemnity, placed it on the
lawyer's desk. The latter, perceiving nothing humorous in the zapatero's
action, read the writing gravely and handed it back with expressions of
approval.
But the arrival of Jan with the passports by no means seemed to satisfy
the lawyer. He turned the papers over and over and said that with these
nothing could be done. After much difficulty we discovered that no
justice could be claimed in Spain unless one were registered at the
municipal offices. The tax for registration depended upon one's station
and possessions. There was just time, with luck, to get ourselves
registered before the offices were shut; so, fearful that we should miss
another day, we hurried through the narrow Murcian streets, led by
Antonio and followed by the bootmaker. On the way a sudden doubt
attacked Jan. His passport name is Godfrey Jervis, but he generally
signs himself by his pen-name of "Jan." Thoughtlessly he had signed the
claim in the station book "Jan" and was afraid that if this name was not
entered in the other papers a legal flaw might be entailed. The
municipal registry office was a long, dark passage pierced with small,
square, deep-set pigeon-holes and about large enough to admit the
passage of a head. Through one of these holes we made our claim, asking
for tramps' certificates--the cheapest of all. My municipal paper was
filled in easily enough, but we had a tough struggle to induce the
official to alter "Godfrey Jervis" to "Jan."
At first, as is official habit, he was hidebound, but in Spain by
persistence one can achieve anything. In turn Jan, myself, Antonio and
the zapatero, thrust a head through the hole adding urging to
expostulation. Luckily the passport name was not very clearly written,
and at last the official admitted a compromise: he put "Godfrey Jan,"
and our spirits rose once more.
Back we went to the lawyer's office, where, with some delays, and the
expenditure of eighteen pesetas, we turned Antonio into our
representative against the railway companies. We may add that one year
and six months have passed since then; we have since paid twenty-two
pesetas more for another document; and a few months ago we were informed
that possibly our case would come up for settlement next year.[31]
Before the night was over we also learned to our satisfaction that Luis
had found a job for the zapatero, and that Antonio had got him a bedroom
at the small confectioner's in a street close by.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 31: At the time of going to press we have just received a
message from Spain. The Spanish authorities announce a _happy_ ending to
the trouble. Our luggage has been discovered at Alcantarilla, four miles
from Murcia, where it has been all the while.]