Read Fillets of Plaice, by Gerald Durrell for Free Online Page A

pieces.”
    “Well, we'll compromise,” said Mactavish.
    He took all the drachma pieces out of his pocket and handed them to the mayor.
    “There,” he said in Greek, “it was a trick and the money was not yours, but nevertheless, in order that you shall buy yourself some wine, I am giving you half of what I got from your beard.”
    “NO!” roared the villagers in unison. “You'll give him everything!”
    Mother, having got Leonora and Margo safely onto the boat, had come back to rescue me and was horrified at the sight of us surrounded by this threatening mob.
    “Larry, Larry!” she shouted. “Save Gerry!”
    “Oh, don't be stupid,” Larry shouted back. “He's the only one of us who's not going to get beaten up.”
    This was perfectly true because in such a situation only accidentally would any Greek hurt a child.
    “I suppose we could all get into a corner and face it out,” said Donald. “It seems a bit much backing down to a lot of foreigners. I used to be quite good at boxing when I was at Eton.”
    “Um…, have you, um…, er…, noticed that most of them arc wearing knives?” inquired Theodore, as though he were discussing some museum specimen.
    “Ah, I know how to fight wiz a knife,” said Max.
    “But you haven't got one,” said Donald.
    “True,” said Max thoughtfully, “but if you knock one of dem down, I could get his knife off him and den we could fight dem.”
    “I don't think that would be a very wise thing to do,” said Theodore.
    During this, the uproar was still going on and Mactavish was still trying to persuade the mayor that they should split the proceeds of his beard fifty-fifty.
    “Are you saving Gerry?” shouted Mother from the back of the crowd.
    “Oh, shut up, Mother,” yelled Larry, “you're only making things worse. Gerry's perfectly alright.”
    “I think, you know, judging from their tone of voice and the things that some of them are saying,” said Theodore, “that we really will have to persuade Mactavish to give the money to the mayor. Otherwise we'll find ourselves in a rather unpleasant predicament.”
    “Are you saving Gerry?” shouted Mother again from behind the crowd.
    “Oh, for Christ's sake!” said Larry.
    He strode forward, seized Mactavish, delved into his pocket, produced the notes, and handed them to the mayor.
    “Here! But I say! That's my money!” said Mactavish.
    “Yes, and it's my life that you're mucking about with,” said Larry.
    He turned to the mayor,
    “Now,” he said in Greek, “that is the money that this
kyrios
by his magic found in your beard.”
    He turned to Mactavish, seized him by the shoulders, looked him straight in the eye and said,
    “You are to nod your head hard to whatever I say to you, do you understand?”
    “Yes, yes,” said Mactavish, startled by this sudden display of belligerence on the part of Larry.
    “Well,” said Larry. He paused and placed his hand carefully over the part of Mactavish's anatomy that presumably concealed his heart.
    “
Twas brillig and the slithy toves,
    Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
    All minisy were the borogoves,
    And the mome raths outgrabe.
”
    Mactavish, not only startled by Larry's sudden masterly command of the situation but also by the fact that he didn't understand since he had never heard the poem before, nodded his head vehemently at the end of every line. Larry turned to the mayor.
    “The
kyrios
,” he said, placing his hand once more upon Mactavish's heart, “because he has a great heart, has agreed that you should have all the money, but on one condition. You all know how there are certain people that can find water in the ground.”
    There was an “ah” of affirmation from the crowd. “These people are paid for their work,” said Larry. There was much nodding and “yes, yes, yes”. “But when they find the water,” Larry continued, “the water must belong to everyone.”
    Now he was speaking a language they understood, for water and bread were the two life-giving things of any community.
    “Sometimes the people who search for