Los
había que empuñaban escandalosos
garrotes o barras de hierro forradas de
piel, golpeando con estrépito los
adoquines, como si quisieran anunciar el
paso de la fiera; pero otros usaban bastoncillos
endebles o no se apoyaban en nada, pues
bastante compañía llevaban
sobre las caderas, con el cuchillo como
un machete y la pistola del quince, más
segura que el revólver.
Aquel desfile de guapos detúvose
en todos los cafetines del tránsito
para refrescar con medias libras de aguardiente,
convidando a los policías conocidos
que encontraban al paso, y cerca de las
doce llegaron a la alquería del camino
de Burjasot, donde la paella burbujeaba
ya sobre los sarmientos, faltando sólo
que le echasen el arroz. Cuando se sentaron
a comer estaban medio borrachos; mas no
por esto perdieron su fúnebre y despreciativa
gravedad.
It them was that they were clutching scandalous clubs or bars of iron lined with skin, striking with tumult the paving stones, as if they wanted to announce the step of the wild animal; but others were using weak rods or were not resting on anything, so enough company they were going on the hips, with the knife as a machete and the gun of fifteen, surer than the revolver.
That gallants' parade stopped in all the cafetines of the transit to refresh with half a pounds sterling of firewater, inviting the well-known police officers who were finding to the step, and about twelve o'clock they came to farmhouse of the way of Burjasot, where the paella was already bubbling on the vine shoots, being absent only that they were throwing the rice. When they sat down to eating they were average drunk; more because of it they lost his funeral and scornful gravity.
