“I say No!”
“I say Yes!”
“Thief!”
“Vagabond!”
“Speak more civilly, you ill-mannered fellows! Decent men ought not to treat one another in that way!” said the policeman tranquilly, giving a blow with his closed fist to each of the disputants.
By this time a crowd had gathered, and there soon arrived also on the scene the inspector of public markets.
The policeman resigned his jurisdiction in the case to his Honour, and when this worthy official had learned all the circumstances relating to the affair, he said to the vendor majestically—
“From whom did you purchase those squashes?”
“From Gossip Fulano, a native of Rota,” answered the person thus interrogated.
“It could be no one else!” cried old Buscabeatas. “He is just the one to do it! When his own garden, which is a very poor one, produces little, he takes to robbing the gardens of his neighbours!”