“Yes. There is one, Mason, at Chicuna Mine.”
“Can you go to him? Will you go?”
“Yes.”
“Will you tell him of me and ask him to come here?”
“Yes. Listen. That corporal is a fool. He is put on to ask money by the lieutenant.”
“Indeed.”
“He is a greedy one, the lieutenant. But one who will squeeze his feet will bleed his mother, as we say. And to ask money of one whom God has afflicted . . .”
“You, who ask no money, shall be well rewarded.”
“I ask no reward,” the man said. “God forbid that I should make profit from distress. One thing only I would ask: that you would lend me your coat, so that I could leave the barracks, since in uniform it is forbidden.”
“Truly I will do that,” Sard said.