He squatted on
the ground, holding an immense silver watch by a chain--a little gnome
of a man with a huge head thatched with gray hair. As he swung his
watch, tendons in his throat worked as chicken's claws do scratching for
worms; and whenever his watch began to swing violently it meant that he
was over a spring. He found three springs within a few yards of each
other, so we've only to dig, and get torrents of water."
"I'm sure you were children in the hands of those shrewd peasants," said
Rose, "unless your friend the cure was with you."
"No, he wasn't, but he sent a man to translate the _patois_, for the old
Gonzales can't speak much French; and it was lucky we had this man to
take our part, because of a big caroubier-tree on the place which
belongs to a distant cousin of the Gonzales, and has been in his family
for generations. Vanno must buy it separately, otherwise the owner will
have a right to come and beat it all night if he likes, or tether
animals under the branches. Fortunately the cure's friend warned us in
time."
"Gonzales is rather a celebrated old chap," George Winter remarked,
composing his mind as Mary talked on. "He made a reputation by refusing
a fortune in order to keep a tiny _baraque_ of a house which he and his
wife had lived in for forty years."
"So he told us," said Vanno. "A wonderful story; it sounded too good to
be true."
"Was it about the Russian countess who wanted to buy a large piece of
land, and all the other peasant owners were keen to sell, except
Gonzales, who had a bit about twenty yards square, exactly in the
middle?" asked Rose.
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