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Back The Fifth Column Save as PDF
Chapters (16)
  1. Cover
  2. Colophon
  3. The Hemingway eBook Collection
  4. Title Page
  5. Copyright
  6. Contents
  7. Part one
  8. The Fifth Column
  9. Act Two  •  Scene One
  10. Act Three  •  Scene One
  11. Part two
  12. The Denunciation
  13. The Butterfly and the Tank
  14. Night Before Battle
  15. Under the Ridge
  16. About the Author

[PHILIP stands there looking into the electric stove. MAX looks into the stove too. In the other room PETRA has come to the door]

PETRA. Yes, Señorita.

[DOROTHY is sitting on the bed. Her head is up but there are tears running down her cheeks. PETRA goes over to her]

What is it, Señorita?

DOROTHY. Oh, Petra, he’s bad just as you said he was. He’s bad, bad, bad. And like a damn fool I thought we were going to be happy. But he’s bad.

PETRA. Yes, Señorita.

DOROTHY. But oh, Petra, the trouble is I love him.

[PETRA stands there by the bed with DOROTHY. In Room 110 PHILIP stands in front of the night table. He pours himself a whiskey and puts water in it]

PHILIP. Anita.

ANITA. [From inside the bathroom] Yes, Philip.

PHILIP. Anita, come out whenever you’ve finished your bath.

MAX. I go.

PHILIP. No. Stay around.

MAX. No. No. No. Please, I go.

PHILIP. [In a very dry flat voice] Anita, was the water hot?

ANITA. [From inside the bathroom] Was lovely bath.

MAX. I go. Please, please, please, I go.

CURTAIN

Part two

denunciation

The Denunciation

Chicote’s in the old days in Madrid was a place sort of like The Stork, without the music and the debutantes, or the Waldorf’s men’s bar if they let girls in. You know, they came in, but it was a man’s place and they didn’t have any status. Pedro Chicote was the proprietor and he had one of those personalities that make a place. He was a great bartender and he was always pleasant, always cheerful, and he had a lot of zest. Now zest is a rare enough thing and few people have it for long. It should not be confused with showmanship either. Chicote had it and it was not faked or put on. He was also modest, simple and friendly. He really was as nice and pleasant and still as marvelously efficient as George, the chasseur at the Ritz bar in Paris, which is about the strongest comparison you can make to anyone who has been around, and he ran a fine bar.