“Bueno,” he said.
Yet even now he made no effort to start. He rummaged in the after locker and presently produced some nails, which were bent, and a hammer with a broken handle. Then he set himself to repair the hammer handle by lashing another piece of wood to it. Next he rummaged among the bottom boards of the boat for a pig of ballast. He placed this on the stern sheets thwart as an anvil. Then with great deliberation he began to straighten his nails. Time seemed to have no meaning for him.
“You go La Boca soon?” Hi asked. “La Boca pronto?”
“Si, si.”
But he made no attempt to start. He hammered his nails straight with great skill, then very neatly he straightened the heads, which had been bent. Then he rummaged for a file and touched up the points with it. Another boat stood away from the pier towards La Boca. Her helmsman called out something to Giordano, which Giordano answered reflectively. After the boat had gone he fitted the two pieces of wood together and with great care drove his nails so as to clinch them.
“You start La Boca?” Hi asked.
“Si, si. La Boca.”
“I believe the brute isn’t going to La Boca at all,” Hi thought. “There, they’ve put out the pier light now. I might have been at La Boca an hour ago. If there’s another boat going, I would go in that.”
He clambered up the stairs of the pier to look for someone who could speak English. The rush of the market was now over. He found Enrique and his friends in a corner among the baskets.
“I want to go at once, pronto, to La Boca,” he said.