--Someone saluted you, Mr Bloom said.
A figure of middle height on the prowl evidently under the arches saluted
again, calling:
--NIGHT!
Stephen of course started rather dizzily and stopped to return the
compliment. Mr Bloom actuated by motives of inherent delicacy inasmuch as
he always believed in minding his own business moved off but nevertheless
remained on the QUI VIVE with just a shade of anxiety though not funkyish
in the least. Though unusual in the Dublin area he knew that it was not
by any means unknown for desperadoes who had next to nothing to live on
to be abroad waylaying and generally terrorising peaceable pedestrians by
placing a pistol at their head in some secluded spot outside the city
proper, famished loiterers of the Thames embankment category they might
be hanging about there or simply marauders ready to decamp with whatever
boodle they could in one fell swoop at a moment's notice, your money or
your life, leaving you there to point a moral, gagged and garrotted.
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