Rejtő, Jenő: The three musketeers in Africa; Q 19045
18 punishment centre or is it the Café de Döme in Paris? Even Levin's most discriminating taste for food can be satisfied. It was a great moment when Levin was served his Marinaded Fish Tourbigo with Sliced Boiled Egg. Tears were streaming down his cheeks as, in closed-eye rapture, he tasted it. During the ritual-like scene we looked on in silence. Having swallowed the first mouthful, he looked up, grave and taken aback, like one who had been poisoned . "I say," he whis pered, and there was a catch in his voice. "Whoever prepared this dish learned to cook under Levin." He swallowed another spoonful. "He is French, because he uses too little pepper... Single, because he doesn't sweeten the tartare sauce..." "And no longer a young man," said Hopkins. "Must be at least forty." "How do you know?" "He's turning white fast," said Hick, lifting a hair from the edge of Levin's plate. In the afternoon, prisoners and guards play cricket together on a square. A bit farther on, there is a bowling alley. Radios are on — through an amplifier, jazz music is coming over from a European station. The canteen is comfortably and elegantly furnished, with a black mixer in the bar preparing cocktails -- on the rocks ! Money is no problem — a paymaster hands out sums without limit to each and everyone.
