“Look you, I will tell you what I will do. I will do it for you, because I like you. I would not do it for anyone else on earth, may St. James be my witness. I will give you 3.75 the tierce.”
“By God, I had rather fling them back into the sea. By God, I will fling them back into the sea. Here go some back into the sea. The rest shall follow. 4.30 the tierce or back they go.”
“Now look here, I will tell you what I will do. I will do it for you because I like you. I wouldn’t do it for anyone else on earth,” etc., etc.
Beside the bidders lay heaps of fish, many of them still gasping. Small, black, slimy things, which looked like pickles, crawled over their bodies. The fish lay in heaps of shining paleness with odd jags of fins and prickles, vacuous eyes, and mouths which bulged out and then collapsed in.
Hi stopped a fisherman with the question:
“Are you Pedro Ruiz?”
“How?”
“Are you Pedro Ruiz?”
“Who knows?”
“Pedro Ruiz?”