“Ah, Yaco, I see that the law of Moses makes you people very selfish, Yaco. You don’t want to waste any time, do you, Yaco?”
The bearded compositor glared at his companion with a sinister look; the blond fellow burst into laughter and then showed Manuel where the various letters of the alphabet were to be found; then he brought over a column of used type which he had drawn quickly from an iron form, and said:
“Now you’re to distribute every letter back into its proper box.”
Manuel began the task at an exceedingly slow pace.
The blond compositor wore a long blue smock and a derby perched on one side of his head. Bent over the case, his eyes very close to his copy, with his composing-stick in his left hand, he set up one line after the other with astonishing speed; his right hand leaped dizzyingly from box to box.
Often he would pause to light a cigarette, look at his bearded companion and in a very jovial tone ask him a question,—either a very silly one or such as admits of no possible reply,—to which the other man answered only with a sinister glance from his black eyes.
It struck twelve; everybody ceased working and went out. Manuel was left alone in the shop. At first he had harbored the hope that he would be given something to eat; then he came to the realization that nobody had given himself any concern as to his food. He reconnoitred the place; nothing in the premises, unfortunately, was edible; he wondered whether, if he were to remove the ink from the surface of the rollers, they would be palatable, but he arrived at no decision.
Yaco returned at two; shortly after came the blond young man, whose name was Jesús, and the work was resumed. Manuel continued distributing the type, and Jesús and Yaco, setting.
The cripple corrected galleys, inked them, drew proof by placing paper on them and striking it with a mallet, after which, with a pair of tweezers, he would extract certain letters and replace them with others.
At midafternoon Jesús quit setting type and changed work. He took the galleys, which were tied around with twine, loosened them, shaped them into columns, placed them in an iron chase and locked them with quoins.