'I make it very easy for you, yes?'
'OK. You make it easy.'
'Some small ting you can afford to give away, and if you did happen to lose it you would not feel too bad. Right?'
'Such as what?'
'Such as, perhaps, de little finger on your left hand.'
'My what?' The boy stopped grinning.
'Yes. Why not? You win, you take de car. You looss, I take de finger.'
'I don't get it. How d'you mean, you take the finger?'
'I chop it off.'
'Jumping jeepers! That's a crazy bet. I think I'll just make it a dollar.'
The little man leaned back, spread out his hands palms upwards and gave a tiny contemptuous shrug of the shoulders. 'Well, well, well,' he said. 'I do not understand. You say it lights but you will not bet. Den we forget it, yes?'
The boy sat quite still, staring at the bathers in the pool. Then he remembered suddenly he hadn't lighted his cigarette. He put it between his lips, cupped his hands around the lighter and flipped the wheel. The wick lighted and burned with a small, steady, yellow flame and the way he held his hands the wind didn't get to it at all.
'Could I have a light, too?' I said.
'God, I'm sorry, I forgot you didn't have one.'
I held out my hand for the lighter, but he stood up and came over to do it for me.
'Thank you,' I said, and he returned to his seat.
'You having a good time?' I asked.
'Fine,' he answered. 'It's pretty nice here.'
There was a silence then, and I could see that the little man had succeeded in disturbing the boy with his absurd proposal. He was sitting there very still, and it was obvious that a small tension was beginning to build up inside him. Then he started shifting about in his seat, and rubbing his chest, and stroking the back of his neck, and finally he placed both hands on his knees and began tap-tapping with his fingers against the knee-caps. Soon he was tapping with one of his feet as well.
'Now just let me check up on this bet of yours,' he said at last. 'You say we go up to your room and if I make this lighter light ten times running I win a Cadillac. If it misses just once then I forfeit the little finger of my left hand. Is that right?'
'Certainly. Dat is de bet. But I tink you are afraid.'
'What do we do if I lose? Do I have to hold my finger out while you chop it off?'
'Oh, no! Dat would be no good. And you might be tempted to refuse to hold it out. What I should do I should tie one of your hands to de table before we started and I should stand dere with a knife ready to go chop de momint your lighter missed.'
'What year is the Cadillac?' the boy asked.
'Excuse. I not understand.'
'What year — how old is the Cadillac?'
'Ah! How old? Yes. It is last year. Quite new car. But I see you are not betting man. Americans never are.'
The boy paused for just a moment and he glanced first at the English girl, then at me. 'Yes,' he said sharply. 'I'll bet you.'
'Good!' The little man clapped his hands together quietly, once. 'Fine,' he said. 'We do it now. And you, sir,' he turned to me, 'you would perhaps be good enough to, what you call it, to — to referee.' He had pale, almost colourless eyes with tiny black pupils.
'Well,' I said. 'I think it's a crazy bet. I don't think I like it very much.'
'Nor do I,' said the English girl. It was the first time she'd spoken. 'I think it's a stupid, ridiculous bet.'
'Are you serious about cutting off this boy's finger if he loses?' I said.
'Certainly I am. Also about giving him Cadillac if he win. Come now. We go to my room.'
He stood up. 'You like to put on some clothes first?' he said.
'No,' the boy answered. 'I'll come like this.' Then he turned to me. 'I'd consider it a favour if you'd come along and referee.'
'All right,' I said. 'I'll come along, but I don't like the bet.'
'You come too,' he said to the girl. 'You come and watch.'
The little man led the way back through the garden to the hotel. He was animated now, and excited, and that seemed to make him bounce up higher than ever on his toes as he walked along.
'I live in annexe,' he said. 'You like to see car first? Iss just here.'
He took us to where we could see the front driveway of the hotel and he stopped and pointed to a sleek pale-green Cadillac parked close by.
'Dere she iss. De green one. You like?'
'Say, that's a nice car,' the boy said.
'All right. Now we go up and see if you can win her.'
We followed him into the annexe and up one flight of stairs. He unlocked his door and we all trooped into what was a large pleasant double bedroom. There was a woman's dressing-gown lying across the bottom of one of the beds.
'First,' he said, 'we 'ave a little Martini.'
The drinks were on a small table in the far corner, all ready to be mixed, and there was a shaker and ice and plenty of glasses. He began to make the Martini, but meanwhile he'd rung the bell and now there was a knock on the door and a coloured maid came in.
'Ah!' he said, putting down the bottle of gin, taking a wallet from his pocket and pulling out a pound note. 'You will do something for me now, pleess.' He gave the maid the pound.
'You keep dat,' he said. 'And now we are going to play a little game in here and I want you to go off and find for me two — no tree tings. I want some nails, I want a hammer, and I want a chopping knife, a butcher's chopping knife which you can borrow from de kitchen. You can get, yes?'
'A chopping knife!' The maid opened her eyes wide and clasped her hands in front of her. 'You mean a real chopping knife?'
'Yes, yes, of course. Come on now, pleess. You can find dose tings surely for me.'
'Yes, sir, I'll try, sir. Surely I'll try to get them.' And she went.
The little man handed round the Martinis. We stood there and sipped them, the boy with the long freckled face and the pointed nose, bare-bodied except for a pair of faded brown bathing shorts; the English girl, a large-boned fair-haired girl wearing a pale blue bathing suit, who watched the boy over the top of her glass all the time; the little man with the colourless eyes standing there in his immaculate white suit drinking his Martini and looking at the girl in her pale blue bathing dress. I didn't know what to make of it all. The man seemed serious about the bet and he seemed serious about the business of cutting off the finger. But hell, what if the boy lost? Then we'd have to rush him to the hospital in the Cadillac that he hadn't won. That would be a fine thing. Now wouldn't that be a really fine thing? It would be a damn silly unnecessary thing so far as I could see.
'Don't you think this is rather a silly bet?' I said.
'I think it's a fine bet,' the boy answered. He had already downed one large Martini.
'I think it's a stupid, ridiculous bet,' the girl said. 'What'll happen if you lose?'
'It won't matter. Come to think of it, I can't remember ever in my life having had any use for the little finger on my left hand. Here he is.' The boy took hold of the finger. 'Here he is and he hasn't ever done a thing for me yet. So why shouldn't I bet him? I think it's a fine bet.'
The little man smiled and picked up the shaker and refilled our glasses.
'Before we begin,' he said, 'I will present to de — to de referee de key of de car.' He produced a car key from his pocket and gave it to me. 'De papers,' he said, 'de owning papers and insurance are in de pocket of de car.'
Then the coloured maid came in again. In one hand she carried a small chopper, the kind used by butchers for chopping meat bones, and in the other a hammer and a bag of nails.
'Good! You get dem all. Tank you, tank you. Now you can go.' He waited until the maid had closed the door, then he put the implements on one of the beds and said, 'Now we prepare ourselves, yes?' And to the boy, 'Help me, pleess, with dis table. We carry it out a little.'