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"Don't shout so," said Roberto, provoked by this rumpus. "They'll imagine that we've come here to assassinate you, at the very least." "I shout because I please to." "All right, man; shout away to your heart's content." "Don't you talk to me like that or I'll push in your face," yelled Tabuenca.
Roberto began to strike out right and left and he must have landed once upon some delicate part of Tabuenca's anatomy, for the man began to shout in horrible tones: "Assassins! Murder!" At this, several persons came running into the zaguan, among them a stout mule-driver with an oil-lamp in his hand. "What's the trouble?" he asked. "These murderers are after my life," bellowed Tabuenca.
"Isn't it Tabuenca that lives there, father?" interrupted Encarna. "That's the fellow. That's it. El Tabuenca. You go and see him. And tell him," added Senor Zurro, turning to Roberto, "that I sent you. He's a grouchy old fellow, as testy as they make 'em." Roberto took leave of the second-hand man and his daughter, and in company of Manuel walked out to the gallery of the house.
"Not a bit of it," replied Roberto in a calm voice. "The fact is, we came here to ask this fellow a civil question, and without any reason at all he began to yell and insult me." "I'll smash your face for you!" interjected Tabuenca. "Well suppose you try it, and don't stand there talking all day about it!" Roberto taunted, "Rascal! Coward!" "It's you who are the coward.
Tabuenca, his mind made up, withdrew and returned in a short while with a rapier-cane, which he unsheathed; Roberto looked in every direction for something with which he might defend himself, and found a carter's stick; Tabuenca aimed a thrust at Roberto, who parried it with the stick; then another thrust, and Roberto, as again he parried it, smashed the lantern at the entrance, leaving the scene in darkness.
Tabuenca made his living through a number of inventions that he himself constructed. When he saw that the public was tiring of one thing, he would put another on the market, and so he managed to get along. One of these contraptions was a wafer-mold wheel that revolved around a circle of nails among which numbers were inscribed and colours painted.
When enough bets were placed, and this happened fairly often, Tabuenca would set the wheel spinning, at the same time repeating his slogan: "'Round goes the wheel!" The marble would bounce amidst the nails and even before it came to a stop the operator knew the winning number and colour, crying: "Red seven...." or "the blue five," and always he guessed right.
I'd give anything to have a try at her." Roberto In Quest of a Woman El Tabuenca and his Inventions Don Alonso or the Snake-Man. A few months later Roberto appeared in the Corrala at the hour when Manuel and the shoe-shop employes were returning from their day's work. "Do you know Senor Zurro?" Roberto asked Manuel. "Yes. He lives here on this side." "I know that. I'd like to have a talk with him.
They questioned a boy. El Tabuenca had just come, he told them. They walked into the vestibule, which was illuminated by a lantern. There was a man inside. "Does anybody live here by the name of Tabuenca?" asked Roberto. "Yes. What is it?" asked the man. "I'd like to have a talk with him." "Well, talk away, then, for I'm Tabuenca."
Roberto thought at first that the man had not understood his question, and he repeated it twice. Tabuenca gave no heed; but all at once, seized with the utmost indignation, he snatched the cigar furiously from his mouth and began to blaspheme in a whining, gull-like voice, shrieking that he couldn't make out why folks pestered him with matters that didn't concern him a particle.
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