That's why they call us the Pirates."
The two cousins came to a tiny, squalid district.
"This is the Casa del Cabrero," said Vidal. "And here are our chums."
So it proved; the entire pirate gang was here encamped. Manuel now
made the acquaintance of El Bizco, a cross-eyed species of chimpanzee,
square-shaped, husky, long-armed, with misshapen legs and huge red
hands.
"This is my cousin," added Vidal, introducing Manuel to the gang; and
then, to make him seem interesting, he told how Manuel had come to the
house with two immense lumps that he had received in a Homeric
struggle with a man.
Bizco stared closely at Manuel, and seeing that Manuel, on his side,
was observing him calmly, averted his gaze. Bizco's face possessed the
interest of a queer animal or of a pathological specimen. His narrow
forehead, his flat nose, his thick lips, his freckled skin and his
red, wiry hair lent him the appearance of a huge, red baboon.
As soon as Vidal had arrived, the gang mobilized and all the
ragamuffins went foraging through la Casa del Cabrero.
This was the name given to a group of low tenement hovels that bounded
a long, narrow patio. At this hot hour the men and women, stretched
out half naked on the ground, were sleeping in the shade as in a
trance. Some women, in shifts, huddled into a circle of four or five,
were smoking the same cigar, each taking a puff and passing it along
from hand to hand.
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