ESTATE
OF POMPEII
199
Pompeii was that the man-made ones had not for the most part
been found worth preserving, or had been carried away. Had some
precious part of man been carried away with the ruins? Partly it
was as
if
man built with ruin in view.... See Naples and die!
"Thank you, Tansy dear," Roderick said, clicking the shuuer.
"Now may I take one of you alone, Signor?"
"Si," the guide said, evidently finishing something he'd been say–
ing to Tansy. "Si, I am Pompeiian."
And suddenly laughing as if to please them, the guide, that per–
fectly adjusted man, made a Roman salute, and Roderick snapped
him
standing there-right arm upraised, so that it drew his coat
very tight under
his
arms, and the papers stood out of his pocket–
between the pillars of the demolished Temple of Apollo.
"We thank you very much indeed for everything, Signor,"
Roderick said, winding the film forward and replacing the camera
in his pocket.
They were about to leave Pompeii by the Porta Marina and
Signor Salacci said to them: "The gate is built like a funnel, for a
ventilation, to suck up fresh air from the sea, blowing up to the
mountain and ventilate town-street banked very straight to the
right. So when it rains, water runs to right, you walk dry on left.
"Slaves and animals on one side," he reminded them as they
shook hands at the portal. "People on the other."
They all stood looking back over the ancient town towards
Vesuvius and Roderick asked:
"And when do you think there's going to be another eruption,
Signor?"
"Ah ..." Signor Salacci wagged his head sombrely. And then
as he regarded the mountain a look of enormous pride came over his
face. "But yesterday," he said, "yesterday she give-a the beeg-a
shake
!"
