“From a corregidor who hides himself?”
“And the prefect orders that you be furnished what you need at a just price,” he added triumphantly, ignoring my reply.
“Exactly.”
“Then you will pay two bolivianos for each mattress.”
“Very well; but you will first make out a receipt for that amount, that I may send it back to the prefect.”
It was not the first time I had played this unfailing card against an Andean “authority” attempting extortion. He knew he was beaten; for though he could read, after a Bolivian fashion, he probably could not write, and certainly would not dare let such a document reach the prefect. Like a true Latin-American, however, he saved his face as long as possible:
“Very well, give me some paper to write it on.”
“As corregidor, you should furnish your own paper. I have none.”
“Well, you may use one mattress, but not two,” he growled.
“You lose. In my country we are not accustomed to sleep two on the same mattress.”