"They can have a room if they will take their meals here."
The Italian had been following us, vainly begging us to walk over the frontier with him, but as we had still a trunk, two rucksacks, and the large Sevillian dish in its basket, his suggestion did not seem feasible. So we finally said good-bye to one another, he setting off again on foot for France.
We were sitting over our coffee after lunch, when the black-eyed host came near, drew a chair close up to us, stared at us with perplexed brows for a moment, then said, suddenly:
"We have come because the bridge is broken," we said.
"You need not mince matters with me," he answered. "I can see, I have two eyes. I have plenty of opium upstairs."
"Yes, you can smuggle it over to France quite easily from here."
"I'll let you have it cheap," answered the host, closing one eye.
We again protested the entire innocence of our trafficking, but obviously did not convince him. He knew that people in our condition did not come to his shanty for nothing. He renewed his attack after supper.
"Why have you come to my dram shop?" he asked.
"Because big hotels are dull," we answered.
"You have some reason for wanting to get to France secretly," he persisted. "Your papers, for instance, are not in order."
"You need not be afraid of me," went on our host. "I am quite trustworthy."
We replied that in spite of the high opinion he had of us we had done nothing to deserve it.
"Let me see your passports," said the landlord.
"I knew it," he went on, as soon as he had examined them. "You have not been viséd at Barcelona. You will not be able to get over the frontier. They will turn you back."
We had understood that no visé was necessary to get back into France. He said that we were mistaken.
"This is where I can aid you," said the host. "I can get you over the frontier, so that you need not pass the customs or the passport office at all. I have a special route by which I pass French deserters to and fro. Of course, as you are not really dangerous, I would only charge you a small sum--say forty or fifty pesetas apiece. For the deserters the charge is considerably higher, as the risk if caught is considerable; while if you were caught you would only be sent back again into Spain. One of my men would drive you up at night, and then at about four o'clock in the morning you would dash over the frontier. I have sent hundreds to and fro."