Peppuccio found himself there at noon, unable to count cashed money. It took a huge effort for Nino to return to his senses and then convince the other to replace him in the afternoon, so that the Chevalier wouldn’t go on a rampage. After having struggled, Peppuccio eventually accepted, although he believed that a noble mind certainly couldn’t belong to a person apt to deal with a bandit from Palermo.
“A Palermitan understands something only if he sees blood pouring,” he had said.
Totò remained silent the whole way there. He barely answered his questions, and then politely refused any form of dialogue. He had arrived early at the pasta factory and locked himself in his father’s office, who was not in town. And when Nino came to warn him that it was time to go, he found him with a stick i
