Read Online The Three Sentinels by Geoffrey Household - Free Book Online Page A

just arrived. One of them shot the ampoule out of his hand while the other dealt with the bottles.’
    ‘Those were the days!’ Gil exclaimed.
    ‘Yes, we wouldn’t stand interference from the outside. Did you ever hear that for a week we declared Cabo Desierto an independent republic?’
    ‘Who? The British?’ Rafael asked with a shade of resentment.
    ‘Not we! We were sick with laughing. The drilling crews were at the bottom of it. They didn’t approve of an import tax on our liquor.’
    ‘And was your republic taken seriously?’
    ‘Only by the Government—and the poor harbourmaster who had to entertain the ship’s company of the gunboat which was sent. Friends, I know we cannot go back to the beginning,
but never forget that Cabo Desierto was once my home!’
    ‘It’s plain you understand its dogs,’ said Gil Delgado.
    A trap there. If he answered anything like a simple affirmative, the fellow would quote him as saying or implying that the workers of Cabo Desierto were dogs.
    ‘The man who does not understand them is either a fool or a coward. To understand one’s fellow citizens is harder. But perhaps we could work together in some things.’
    ‘For example?’ Rafael asked.
    ‘For example, something healthy to drink while none of us has much money. There is a surplus of wine in Chile. It would be very cheap and the duty is low. Shall I buy in bulk for the
canteen?’
    ‘We cannot use the canteen.’
    ‘Who is stopping you?’
    ‘Man, it’s understood.’
    ‘So long as it is not against your principles! In my day it might have been. There was always a taste of oil in everything.’
    ‘You would permit it?’
    ‘Why not? The cooks and servers might as well do some work for their pay. And the profit, if there is any, goes to the Welfare Fund.’
    ‘We cannot draw on the Welfare Fund.’
    ‘But it is yours like the land.’
    ‘No! The land belongs to the Co-operative. But the Fund belongs to the employees of the Company. And since we are no longer employees …’
    ‘I see. You should be a lawyer, Sr. Garay. But I hear there is some suffering.’
    ‘Among the children,’ Rafael admitted.
    ‘You have a son, I believe. What is his name?’
    ‘Chepe,’ Rafael answered and then, feeling that the nickname was too informal for managerial society, added: ‘José -Maria.’
    ‘Doña Catalina was a churchwoman?’
    ‘Yes, but she had no need to be.’
    ‘I have heard that where she was, was heaven already.’
    Rafael did not respond. The General Manager had no right to state a truth which had never—in so many words—occurred to him.
    ‘I will see what I can do about the Welfare Fund. Lend it to the Mayor, perhaps. We do not want children in our battle.’
    ‘There is no battle, Mr. Manager,’ Rafael said impassively. This is a boycott, not a strike.’
    ‘What do you propose to end it?’
    ‘Nothing. We of Cabo Desierto have decided to live without oil.’
    ‘And what do
you
propose?’ Gil asked.
    ‘Also nothing. Since we are agreed, some more rum? And as I am an older inhabitant than either of you I must be permitted to pay.’
    ‘We thank you,’ said Rafael, rising. ‘But we have much to do.’
    The two leaders shook hands with the General Manager and strolled up the street with an air of importance they could not help. Until they had turned into the Company’s housing estate, away
from the main street and its eyes, they did not discuss at all the unprecedented occurrence.
    ‘You were very formal, Rafael,’ Gil said.
    ‘Look! No one would expect us to refuse to allow him to sit down. But to continue in friendship and to accept his drinks, no!’
    ‘All the same, there is much to discuss if he is willing.’
    ‘At a café table? That would be beneath his dignity.’
    ‘He is a man who carries his dignity about with him.’
    Rafael Garay silently agreed and resented it. Respect for the enemy was an unnecessary complication of his boycott, so deadly simple if it were kept