“Then what shall I do?”
“If you want the dog, go down to the place in the Piræus Road, and find the ‘boya’ alone. Now, these hot days, they are afraid of mad dogs, and they pay him one drachma for every dog he catches: so, perhaps, if you were to give him more ….”
“Where is the place?”
“I have never been there. Go down the Piræus Road and ask.”
Aleko started off towards the square at a good pace. The heat of the day had begun and he had eaten nothing yet. But he wiped his forehead with the back of his sleeve and plunged into the Piræus Road. The strange boy had told him that the place was “far down,” therefore it was no good inquiring before he reached the Gas Works. It was a long way; if the “boya’s” cart only stopped a few moments at the Police Station, it might almost be there before him; so he hurried on, quickening his pace, and now and then breaking into a little run.
He must get there in time! He must! Poor little Solon! Poor little warm, white creature, so full of life! “As clever as a Christian,” as he had told Kyr Themistocli the other day. At this point, he looked at the paper bag of coffee still unconsciously clutched in one hand.
“The old man will eat his bread dry this morning after all; well, what is to be done? It is a small evil.”
After passing the Gas Works he began to ask his way; but most of the passers-by seemed vague.
“Somewhere down there,” they said. A carter told him the place was after Phalerum, but a second man contradicted him.
“What are you saying, brother? It is far closer than that!”