The wind
was blowing from the Guadarrama range so that they were in the lee.
For the afternoon and part of the evening the rain came pouring down;
they passed the time chatting about women, thefts and crimes. Two or
three of these youngsters had a home to go to, but they didn't care to
go. One, who was called El Mariane, related a number of notable tricks
and swindles; others, who displayed prodigious skill and ingenuity,
roused the gathering to enthusiasm. After this theme had been
exhausted, a few suggested a game of cane, and the idler with the long
black locks, whom they called El Canco, sang in a low feminine voice
several _flamenco_ songs.
At night, as it grew cold, they lay down quite close to each other
upon the ground and continued their conversations. Manuel was repelled
by the malevolent spirit of the gang; one of them told a story about
an aged fellow of eighty, "old Rainbow," who used to sleep furtively
in the Manzanares laundry in a hole formed by four mats; one night
when an icy cold wind was blowing they opened two of his mats and the
next day he was found frozen to death; El Mariane recounted how he had
been with a cousin of his, a cavalry sergeant, in a public house and
how the sergeant mounted upon a naked woman's back and gashed her
thighs with his spurs.
"The fact is," concluded El Mariane, "there's nothing like making
women suffer if you want to keep 'em satisfied.
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