“Yes, we must go.”
He turned the car and started back, going as fast as he dared. He was shaking, and so flustered that he almost ran into a tree. He wanted to get home. He wanted to put her out as soon as possible and get home. Was this what she meant about Revelita? Now he couldn’t possibly ask Madden anything about it: some day, perhaps——
“You’re not very fast, are you?” she asked him, breaking the silence for the first time.
“Well, I could go faster, but I’m afraid of the traffic cop,” he explained.
“That is not what I mean.”
A sudden scream rang out from the sidewalk, and Maria clutched his arm. He pulled on the brake and looked over.
“Maria!” someone was yelling, very stridently. There was a large crowd on the pavement, made of children and a woman. No, there was a little man too, standing behind the woman and pulling feebly at her dress. She was making all the noise, and oddly enough she seemed to be angry at him, at Blake. He blinked and looked at her again.
As he stared, terrified, she came over to the car and jerked Maria out by the arm. She shrieked at him in Spanish, then translated in a louder tone than ever.
“But Mamma....” said Maria, and was forced to stop while Mamma screamed. “Mamma,” she wailed at last, “it was all right! It was all right! It was all right!”
The little man approached and tried again to soothe Mamma. She swept him aside and cried to Blake,