In a camp along a Spanish beach, two men discuss the prospect of being sent to work in Mexico. One man, Angel, comments that they need workers in Mexico and he believes they could use someone like him, who can make anything. The other man, who remains unnamed, asks about the contract Angel has signed, but when Angel says he doesn’t know anything about it because he cannot read, the other man asks him to take his knife and cut a worm out of his foot.  The next day, the men in the camp spend their time walking up the beach. This camp is not pleasant at all: there are thirty-five thousand men separated by barbed wire by the Senegalese, and every day someone escapes. The unnamed man runs into Angel on the beach and asks if he has received any news, and although Angel says he has not heard anything, he believes he is to be sent to Mexico soon as well.  The next week, a big-bodied and daunting Basque man refuses to give one of the men, Jesus, an envelope addressed to him because a certain stamp is not on it. The Basque man requests a payment of one franc, but because Jesus has no money, he asks for a blade and removes one of his gold teeth. Jesus exclaims that his tooth would be worth sixty letters, and since he will never receive sixty letters, he wants all of his friends to receive their letters even if there are no stamps.  The unnamed man soon hears that there is no longer a need for carpenters in Mexico and decides to avoid Angel. More people escape. The man accidentally runs into Angel, who tells him that he is to leave for Mexico soon. The man congratulates him and gives him one of his neckties when Angel asks, and the men’s friends host a small fiesta to say goodbye, all offering him small gifts. The next day, the man goes to see Angel off but does not see him get on the truck with the other men, and after looking everywhere, he still cannot find a trace of the other man. The man thinks to himself that Angel must have left right after the fiesta the prior night and escaped on the S.S. Libertad.