The Mad and the Bad

41

Subsequently, Fuentès would undergo several operations and survive, and Julie would be detained for a week while her confused explanations were disentangled. Before that she’d had to muster enough strength to walk several kilometers before she ran into a shepherd who came to her aid. Later on she would spend more time in a sanitarium before vanishing into the great wide world. And she never saw either Peter or Fuentès again.

But, before any of this, the boy, from the roof of the labyrinth, contemplated the smoking mass that contained the incinerated body of his uncle. He did not clearly comprehend how his uncle had ended up on the side of the bad guys, but since he had always detested the redhead the question did not strike him as of any great import.

Leaving his vantage point, he made for the staircase down which Julie had disappeared. On the way, the boy performed pointless acrobatic tricks. But eventually he was at the bottom of the stairs, where he found Julie sobbing.

Julie looked at him and pulled him close to her, still weeping convulsively and incapable of uttering a word, terrified as she was by the idea that Hartog might reappear. Peter wriggled out of her embrace, which made him uncomfortable, proceeded down the hallway, and examined the hideous remains of Thompson with curiosity.

“You’re dead,” he declared.

To make sure of it, he prodded the corpse with the tip of his bow. Then he went on, searching for Fuentès, but he almost got lost and failed to find the gravely injured man. Eventually he came out into the open air on the side of the Moorish Tower opposite from the potter’s kiln. The air was pure. It was a super day. Peter was delighted by the delay that the shooting had caused to his departure. His ear hurt when he touched it, but he didn’t want alcohol put on it. He went off to play cowboys and Indians.