In self-defence I
assumed as drowsy and vacant an expression as I could summon on the
instant to a countenance by nature almost too ingenuous. I pretended
not to hear, or to misunderstand, everything that was said to me;
finally I grew so sleepy that I was several times on the point of
falling off my chair, then, after each extravagant nod, I would start
up and stare vacantly around me. My grim little host could scarcely
conceal a quiet smile, for never had he seen a person so outrageously
sleepy before. At length he mercifully remarked that I seemed fatigued,
and advised me to retire. Very gladly I made my exit, followed in my
retreat from the kitchen by a pair of sad, reproachful eyes.
I slept soundly enough in the comfortable bed, which my obese Gulnare
had provided for me, until the numerous cocks of the establishment
woke me shortly after daybreak with their crowing. Remembering that
I had to secure Marcos in the stocks before the irascible little
magistrate should appear on the scene, I rose and hastily dressed
myself. I found the greasy man of the brass buttons already in the
kitchen sipping his matutinal _mate-amargo,_ and asked him to
lend me the key of the prisoner's room; for this was what I had been
instructed to do by the senora. He got up and went with me to open the
door himself, not caring, I suppose, to trust me with the key.
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