“How’s that for geographical knowledge?” he asked.
“Good!” I said. “But after this I do not desire your company. I don’t understand why these men followed you, and I don’t like the game, anyhow.”
He regretted my annoyance, and was so polite and amusing that I relented toward him, especially as he told me he was going to Vigo next day.
He wished me good-by that night when he went to bed. But next morning when I left Lisbon for Oporto, he was on the platform, and said that he had changed his plans and was going to the same place as myself.
I was now convinced that he was really shadowing me, and told him so. But he shook his head and laughed.
“Nothing of the kind. I like your company, because you’re the only Englishman in this land of dagoes. Also I want you to get me that handful of pebbles.”
He returned again to the subject of those ridiculous pebbles. I could get them easily for him on the seashore by Oporto. It would give me very little trouble. It would be an enormous favor to him.... I refused to consider the idea.
In Oporto he took me into a jeweler’s shop and bought a little cedarwood box about five inches square.
“I want enough pebbles to fill this box,” he said. “Surely you can get them for me?”