Hobohemians

11Misery clambered on to Willy’s rücksack.—We have only just started and Viktor gets like this. What was the good of fighting through hungry months at Konstanz to jabber depression so near Italy?—The misery of being penniless in the middle of Europe with a madman overwhelmed him.

12“We must turn into a field now,” said Viktor. “It is too dark for us to be found walking about. We shall be pulled up as vagabonds. We shall have to sleep till it’s light again.”

13Fireflies and damp meadows of bull-throated frogs.

14“It is two o’clock,” said Viktor.

* * *

15At the moment when two tramps swung out of sunny Bellinzona station, a troop of bannered Flemish activists swung round the corner of the rue Haute into the Place de l’Hotel de Ville in Antwerp. Pieter van Gree stuck to the shoulders of his stout friend Jan. Jan waved energetically a placard: Down with the French.

16In the cobbled square they were greeted by another troop fresh from smashing the presses of a francophile newspaper. Mingled a moment. Then banners fell from view, waved, were rent. “The nationalists are here,” shouted Jan. Pieter and Jan were separated and then flung ugly together. There were shots. Policemen ran suddenly everywhere. Three were around Jan holding him. Pieter kicked right and left. Jan was fighting. Fighting hard. A policeman stepped back with a bleeding eye. Pieter grew dizzy. Someone’s head knocked in—smashed to bits. That was Jan. Why should they do that to Jan? Jan would be dead now. Friend Jan dead.

17Flung kicking in the Marché aux Gants, Pieter ran wildly. Three days later he arrived in Paris.

* * *

18At the moment when a young Englishman opened his eyes on fireflies in the meadows of Tessine a stranger of darker hue walked along the railway platform at Mannheim between two cockhatted dangling sworded policemen. Ali was brought into the station police office.

19He was placed on a long bench, full stop to a sentence of four prostitutes and several beggars. Two of them were questioned and taken out.

20“What is your name?”

21“Muhammed Ali Zakir. Indian.”

22“Nationality?”

23“Indian.”

24“What are you doing on the station without a ticket?”

25“I was sleeping there.”

26“Why haven’t you a ticket?”

27“I came to Mannheim this evening. I only had four marks.”

28“Show me your papers. So, you are a student. Where do you come from?”

29“Konstanz.”

30“Why aren’t you registered there?”

31“I never thought about it. I am registered in Berlin.”

32“Wait a moment.”

33From Mannheim a call to Konstanz. Minutes. Hours. Frightened Ali passed a libidinous eye on the night beauty next to him. Deep beyond a contempt for women as individuals was a faith in the willingness of any one of them to perform miracles for the phallos [phallus]. Smile and she will get up and take the three months penalty for not registering. Shining hour.

34“No, not wanted here. Yes, he had been staying there a week, paid everything.”

35“Show me your passport again. What are you doing here without money?”