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?­o, 1872-1956

"The Quest"

I have reared a whole mountain;
a dense mist prevents people from seeing it; tomorrow the clouds will
scatter and the mountain will stand forth with snow-crowned crests."
Manuel thought it silly to be talking of all this opulence when
neither of them had enough to buy a meal. Pretending important
matters, he took leave of Roberto.


CHAPTER IV,
Dolores the Scandalous--Pastiri's Tricks--Tender Savagery--A
Modest Out-of-the-way Robbery.

After a week spent in sleeping in the open Manuel decided one day to
rejoin Vidal and Bizco and to take up their evil ways.
He inquired after his friends in the taverns on the Andalucia
cart-road, at La Llorosa, Las Injurias, and a chum of El Bizco, who
was named El Chingui, told him that El Bizco was staying at Las
Cambroneras, at the home of a well-known thieving strumpet called
Dolores the Scandalous.
Manuel went off to Las Cambroneras, asked for Dolores and was shown a
door in a patio inhabited by gipsies.
Manuel knocked, but Dolores refused to open the door; finally, after
hearing the boy's explanations, she allowed him to come in.
Dolores' home consisted of a room about three metres square; in the
rear could be made out a bed where El Bizco was sleeping in his
clothes, beside a sort of vaulted niche with a chimney and a tiny
fireplace.


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