Charteris, Leslie - 33 by Senor Saint

Author:Senor Saint
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-08-29T12:44:50+00:00

3.

Out there in the Miramar district where the Comodoro Hotel is located, Havana's Fifth Avenue (which, like Manhattan's Sixth, has been officially re-christened "Avenue of the Americas," and is just as stubbornly known only by its old name to every native) is far from being the city's busiest thoroughfare, and as he reached it Simon was wondering if he would have trouble finding a taxi. He did not want to be wandering around the streets of that neighborhood for long, where not only might the plain-clothes men he had already encountered decide belatedly to investigate him, but Ramón Venino might come driving by from any direction en route to his rendezvous with Beryl Carrington.

He need have had no anxiety. He had barely taken one glance up and down the street when a taxi, drawn by the uncanny instinct for prey that achieves its supreme development in the vulture and the Havana taxi driver, made a screaming U turn and swooped in to the curb beside him.

"Where to?" asked the driver cheerily, starting off without waiting to find out. "Are you hoping to meet a girl, or is your wife here with you? I have a young sister, a lovely girl, but very naughty, who is crazy for Americanos."

"I have a weak heart," said the Saint, "and the doctor has ordered me to leave naughty girls alone."

"Some sightseeing, then? I can take you to the Botanical Gardens, then to the Cathedral—"

Simon frowned at the briefcase on the seat beside him. Wherever he went, its pristine newness would be conspicuous; and to walk into his hotel with it in full view, where either policemen or friends of the man he had called Pancho might be watching for him, would be too naïve to even consider.

"How about visiting one of the rum distilleries?" Simon suggested.

"Yes, sir. I will take you to Trocadero."

Presently they drew up beside a large low building, at an entrance with sliding doors designed for trucks to drive through. The driver waved aside the Saint's proffered payment.

"I will be here when you come out."

Simon stepped into the odorous interior, and was adopted at once by the nearest of a number of men who stood waiting by the entrance.

"Good morning, sir. This is where we make that famous Cuban rum. Step this way, please." They entered one corner of a vast barn-like factory. "The sugar cane is pulped in that machine there, and then the juice is fermented in those tanks over there. Then it passes through those stills which you see there, and the rum goes into those barrels to be aged. Now this way, please." They passed through another door into a large room conveniently at hand, where there were several tables already well populated by other visitors concluding their research into the manufacture of rum. "Here we invite you to sample our products. Sit down and be comfortable—there is no hurry."

Each table was provided with stools on three sides and a long row of bottles on the fourth.

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