“Si,” a voice answered.
Enrique explained that here was a gentleman eager to go to La Boca; he displayed Hi. Giordano was a very tall, thin, melancholy man, dark and distinguished.
“Can you take me to La Boca, please?” Hi asked.
“La Boca? Si.”
“It is so,” Enrique exclaimed. “Giordano can take you to La Boca.”
“There,” another man said. “Giordano will convey you.”
Giordano spread a boat rug for Hi. When Hi was seated in the boat, he bent over a job of fitting two pieces of wood together. He explained what he was doing, but Hi could not understand. He sat in the boat, which bobbed and rocked at the side of the steps. Giordano went on with his work, whittling a piece of wood with his knife and trying if the pieces would fit, then whittling some more. Presently a boat shoved off from the pier beside them and stood away for La Boca. Then another boat pushed off and presently a third. But Giordano still went on with his carpentry with no apparent thought of starting. Hi thought that perhaps there had been some mistake.
“I say,” he said, “you are going to La Boca, aren’t you? You go La Boca?”
“Si,” Giordano answered.
He went on trying to fit the pieces of wood. After some time, with a gesture of triumph, he showed that at last they fitted.