Arkansas State press., 1944-03-17

! luItes al WOFh close 10 the RlC
I Grande.
Anne lay down again and closed
her eyes. Don Alyaro was old Spain
Diego Gongaro's wife, who was Ora
eiela's mother. had been killed ir
the Spanish civil war, Miguel's or
derS had been cancelled by the Wal
Department. Maybe it all added w
to what, she couldn't say
Maybe what 1t added up to wa.
Richard Taussig - Except Migue,
;. not Miguel 1t was all bach
again from where it had started.
Richard Taussig gripped the open
window ledge of the crowded station
wagon with one hand and hung on
to his guide book and his yachting
cap with the other. He was in one
Of those new vehicles known locally
as public cars that provide vast
network Of cheap transportation for
the Island and make taxi-drivers
and chauffeurs political bloc that
no party dares to ignore. At the
moment the car was careening ma
niacally across the narrow perilous
causeway out the Bayamon Road
from San Juan. On the right the
garbage dump smoked with evil
smelling pervasiveness. Beyond it.
in the shallow head of the bay, two
dredges pumped softly and monot-
onously, filling the murky oozing
swamp that stretched on the left OF
the road, making firm new land for
the U. S. Navy. 1t was dotted with
a couple of thousand oranges just
then, where truck had gone off
the road, and just behind it a station
wagon like Mr.. Taussig's had gone
like a dive bomber motor-deep in
the mud, It's rear wheels still going
around. A constant stream Of khaki
colored Army trucks and open field
cars trundled noisily past it, and
private cars darting in and out, try.
ing to pass what seemed to MIR.
Taussig to be an already solid line
into town.
An accident would be easy enough,
he thought--up in the hills where
there was no soft cushion of mud
and slime. He froWned. There were
certain complications he expected
and did not mind. He was used to
accidents when necessary. though he
preferred to avoid them. He was
even used to the emotional equa-
ton that women sometimes brought
in but not ON the level that the
girl in ITO across the hall had pre-
scented. He was more used to the
kind Of thing he was headed for
| now.
The public car stopped on the side
of the crowded road under an al
mond tree.
"-Caparra, senor.'
The driver pointed to a low she'd
like group of buildings just beyond
rickety fence. They looked more
like subterranean mushroom sheds
than the ruins of the villa Of Ponce
de Leon, the first governor, who
built his first capitol here four CEN
turtles ago, before he abandoned it
and Puerto Rico to go on his search
for the Fountain Of Youth, and found
instead Florida and death.
Mr. Richard Taussig was only SUI
/ perfcially interested in the blue and
yellow tiles and in the story of the
Indian Cacique and the great Con-
! qustadore who is still heard, and
even seen, clanling UP the ghostly
stairs in his battle armor. He tipped
the caretaker enough to make him
1 remember him but not enough to
| make him suspicious, and made his
way along the shaded road under the
| Indian almonds and tlamboyants to
a roadhouse There he drank a bottle
of cool pale ale in the garden and
read his guide book, That was for
the record too, in case one was be.
ing kept. So far as he knew, nc
one had followed him; but devious
ness and plausibility were a habit
as much as a plan, and in the half
world that Mr.. Taussig operated in
oyerconfdence was more dangerous
than wasted time.
II can get to Rio Piedras-to the
University-out this way?"
He tipped the waiter and pointed
to the left fork of the road he hac
come on. And to the Tuberculosi.
Sanatorium on the way"
The man nodded. Isl, senior
Gracias, senior
IF walk along a public car will
stop for me?'
Isl, senior"
Mr. Taussig set out, walking slow
ly. The road was less crowded thar
the other branch. Nevertheless h,
walked past the blue stucco houst
set behind a great hedge of red ant
pink hibiscus, because a cart load
ed with sugar cane was passing j
just then. When the road was empt,
he turned back, went quickl.
through the tall gate in the hedg,
and closed 1t securely behind him
Diego Gongaro's car stood in tn
drive. Taussig glanced at his watch
He had allowed himself forty-hv
minutes to compensate for the TEN
peramental disregard Of time tina
was another complication Of tn
Latin scene that irritatod his pre-
otea mind Ia had mt uantpd 4