Chapter X

After buying some fishing rods and tackle, Jake, Bill, and Cohn set out for Pamplona.  The bus service is not yet running, so they rent a car and a driver and are travel through Basque country to Pamplona.  Along the way, they stop briefly at the Spanish border and speak with a border guard about fishing, and about smuggling.  Then they drive up into the mountains, and Jake and Bill admire the Spanish scenery.

They arrive in Pamplona at the Hotel Montoya. Jake knows the owner, and they get good rooms.  They eat in the hotel, and Cohn starts to annoy Jake and Bill.  He isn't sure if Jake and Bill know that he was with Brett in San Sebastian, and assumes an air of superior knowledge that annoys Bill into betting him that Mike and Brett will join them in Pamplona that night.  The three men split up for a few hours, and Jake walks around Pamplona, visiting his supplier of bull-fight papers and the cathedral.  He spends a few moments praying in the cathedral for a variety of causes: his friends, himself, a successful bull-fight, and money, and he starts to feel like a bad Catholic.  Afterward, they eat dinner together, and Jake and Cohn go to the train station to wait for Mike and Brett.  Jake notices that Cohn has been to a barber and bathed in preparation for seeing Brett.  Jake notices with enjoyment that Cohn is nervous, saying that Cohn has a way of bringing out the worst in people.  The train comes, but Brett and Mike are not on it.  Jake and Cohn walk back to the hotel and tell Bill that he lost the bet.  Cohn asks if people bet on bull-fights, and Bill and Jake say that it isn't necessary.  They receive a telegram from Brett and Mike saying that they stayed the night in San Sebastian, and Jake makes a vague comment about Cohn and Brett in San Sebastian.  He admits to himself that he is jealous. 

They decide to leave the next morning to fish in Burguete, and to have Mike and Brett follow them there.  Jake goes to bed while Bill and Cohn stay out late.  Jake buys bus tickets to Burguete for the three of them in the morning.  He meets Cohn at a cafe, and Cohn says that he is staying in Pamplona to wait for Brett and Mike.  He says he is worried about a misunderstanding with Brett, and wants to wait to help clear it up.  He says that he asked Brett if they wanted to meet him at San Sebastian.  Jake gets annoyed that Cohn seems to be hinting again at his relationship with Brett.  Jake goes to find Bill, and Cohn goes to the barber again.

Bill and Jake talk briefly about Cohn.  Bill says that Cohn claimed to have planned a date with Brett in San Sebastian, and that this might have been the reason that they stopped. They decide that Cohn can be nice, but that he is also "awful."  Jake and Bill also talk about Cohn and Brett, and about their liaison in San Sebastian.  They decide that it is a good thing that Cohn will not be with them when they are fishing. 

Analysis, Chapter X

This chapter is important in establishing the conflict between Jake and Cohn, and the different conflict between Bill and Cohn.  Jake's jealousy of Cohn's rendezvous with Brett begins to influence his behavior, in the sense that he seems to be doing things in this chapter to annoy Cohn.  For Bill, Cohn seems to be an annoyance for his presumption and his naivete, though his feelings for Cohn are also conditioned (perhaps more so than Jake's) by his unpleasant attitude towards Jews.  Cohn's Jewishness becomes an important part of Bill's understanding of Cohn's character.