"Voyons!" said Stromboli, as he caught me coming out of the gate of
Lincoln's Inn, clutched me by the arm, and drew me into the Chancery
Lane Bodega. "On the proceeds of my former story I have dined--dined
sumptuously--dined several times. Think of it! Several dinners for one
story! It is an advantage over the plutocracy and the _bourgeoisie_ at
which my heart rejoices."
"But how about the creditors?" I inquired, as we settled down at a small
table in a corner.
Stromboli lit his large pipe meditatively.
"The creditors! Precisely. That is the weak point in my position. The
great happiness of having money to spend caused me to forget them.
Nevertheless, they still exist, and now that the money is gone they
write, recalling themselves to my recollection. It is unfortunate. For
it seems that, even in this free country of yours, the law gives them
the power to make themselves unpleasant."
I assented, and tried to explain to him the exact nature of a judgment
summons, and a committal order. Then I continued--
"But you know other stories, I suppose?"
Stromboli banged the table and made the glasses ring, as he answered,
half in derision, half in indignation--
"If I know other stories! He asks if I know other stories. When I tell
you that I--_moi qui vous parle_--have lain under sentence of death in a
Spanish prison at Santiago de Cuba, and escaped from it under
circumstances which will not occur again----"
"That sounds all right," I interrupted.
"You really think so?"
"I am quite sure of it."
"Then I must make haste. The letters of the creditors begin,
'Unless----' There is evidently no time to be lost."
"There is no time like the present," I rejoined.
"Let us begin, then. And, since more money is in sight, there is no
reason why I should not spend the little money that remains to me. You
shall drink champagne with me, and we will smoke cigars."
And then and there, in the corner of the Bodega, while the men about us
talked of the business of the Law Courts, and of the price of shares,
Stromboli wafted me, in imagination, to the shores of the Pearl of the
Antilles, and told me the story which I entitled--