Caesar or Nothing by Pio Baroja

P >> Pio Baroja >> Caesar or Nothing

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22

Next, Caesar spoke about life in Castro, and pointed out the town's
needs.

"You have here," he said, "three fundamental problems, as is the case
with almost all towns in the interior of Spain. First: water. You have
neither good drinking water, nor enough water for irrigation. For
want of drinkable water, the mortality of Castro is high; for want of
irrigation, you cannot cultivate more than a very small zone, under
good conditions. For that reason water must be brought here, and an
irrigation canal begun. Second problem: subsistence. Here, as in the
whole of Castile, there are people who corner the grain market and raise
the price of wheat, and people who corner the necessities of life and
put up their prices as high as they feel like. To prevent this, it is
necessary for the Municipality to establish a public granary which shall
regulate prices. For, want of that, the people are condemned to hunger,
and people that do not eat can neither work nor be free. Third problem:
means of transport. You have the railway here, but you have neither good
highways nor good byways, and transportation is most difficult. I,
for my part, will do all I can to keep the federal government
from neglecting this region, but we must also stir up the little
municipalities to take care of their roads.

"These three are questions that must be settled as soon as possible.

"Water, subsistence, transportation; those are not matters of luxury,
but of necessity, matters of life. They belong to what may be called the
politics of bread.

"I cannot make the reforms alone; first, because I have not the means;
next, because even supposing I had, if I must leave these improvements
in a township that would not look after them, not take care of them,
they would soon disappear; they would be like the canals dug by the
Moors and afterwards allowed to fill up through the neglect of
the Christians. That is what politics are needed for, to convince
reactionaries.

"At the same time, looking toward the future, let us start the school,
which I should like to see not merely a primary school, but also a
school for working-men.

"Let us endeavour, too, to turn the field of San Roque into a park."

After explaining his program, Caesar called on all progressive men who
had liberal ideas and loved their city, to collaborate in his work.

When he ended his speech, all the audience applauded violently.
Alzugaray was able to verify the fact that the majority of them had not
understood what Caesar was saying. "They didn't understand anything. A
few sparkling phrases would have pleased them much better."

"Ah, of course. But that makes no difference," replied Caesar. "They
will get used to it."

The inauguration over, the bookseller, San Román, Dr. Ortigosa, Señor
Camacho, who was the pharmacist that called himself an inventor of
explosives, and some others, met in the office of the Club, and talked
with great enthusiasm of the transformation that was obviously taking
place at Castro.

XI

THE PITFALL OF SINIGAGLIA

A COMMISSION FOR THE MINISTER

A few days later, during Carnival, the Minister of the Treasury
presented himself at Caesar's hotel. The famous financier was a trifle
nervous.

"Come along with me," he said.

"Come on."

They got into a motor, and the Minister suddenly asked:

"Could you go to Paris immediately?"

"There's nothing to prevent. What is it to do?"

"You know that the great financier Dupont de Sarthe is studying out a
plan for restoring the value of the currency of Spain."

"Yes."

"Well, today the Speaker asked me several times if it was ready. It is
necessary for me to introduce it soon, as soon as possible, and along
with the plan for restoring the currency, one for the suppression of the
government tax."

"The Speaker wishes to have these plans introduced?"

"Yes, he wishes them introduced at once."

"That indicates that the Conservative situation is very strong," said
Caesar.

"Obviously."

"And what do you want me to do?"

"Go to Dupont de Sarthe and have him explain his scheme clearly, and
tell you the difficulties; if he has an outline of it, have him give it
to you; if not, have him give you his notes."

"All right. Shall I go tonight?"

"If you can, it would be the best thing." "There's nothing to prevent.
Take me back to the hotel and I will pack."

The Minister told the chauffeur to go back to Caesar's house.

"As soon as you arrive, let me know by wire, and write to me explaining
the scheme in the greatest possible detail."

"Very good."

"You will need money; I don't know if I have any here," said the
Minister, feeling for his pocket-book.

"I have enough for the trip," replied Caesar. "But, as I might need some
in Paris, it would not be a bad idea for you to open an account for me
at a bank there, or else to give me a cheque."

The Minister vacillated, then went into the hotel writing-room and
signed a cheque on a Parisian banker in the Rue de Provence, which he
handed to Caesar.

"See you on your return," he said.

"Good-bye."

Caesar called a servant and bade him:

"Telephone to my friend Alzugaray. You know his number. Tell him to be
here inside an hour."

"Very good, sir."

This arranged, Caesar went to the main door and saw that the Minister's
motor was headed for down town. Immediately he took a carriage and went
to the Chamber. The undersecretary of the Speaker was a friend of his;
sometimes he gave him advice about playing the market.

Caesar looked him up, and when he found him, said:

"How are we getting on?"

"All right, man," replied the undersecretary.

"Come over here, so I can see you in the light," said Caesar, and taking
him by the hand, he looked into his eyes.

"It's true," said the undersecretary, laughing, "that the situation is
not very strong."

"What is the danger?"

"The only danger is your friend, the famous financier. He is the one who
could play us a dirty trick."

"Do you suspect what it could be?" "No. Not clearly. You must know
better than any one else."

"I have just seen the Minister, and he gave me the impression of being
satisfied."

"Then everything is all right. But I haven't much confidence."

Caesar left the undersecretary, went out of the Chamber, and returned
home in the carriage. Alzugaray was waiting in the entry for him.

Caesar called to him from the carriage:

"I am going to Paris," he told him, "to spend a few days."

"Good."

"I must draw out what money I have in the Bank."

"Let's go there now."

They went to the Bank, to the paying teller, and Caesar drew out twenty
thousand pesetas of his few months' winnings on the market.

"You are not going to play at all, this month?" asked Alzugaray.

"No, not this month."

They left the Bank.

"I will wire you my address in Paris," said Caesar.

"Very good. And nothing is to be done?"

"No. That is to say, my partner and I are not going to play.
Nevertheless, I am going to leave you two thousand pesetas, and if you
think well, you can use it as you choose."

"All right," said Alzugaray, pleased at Caesar's confidence in his
talents for speculation.

"In case I need any information which had best not be public," Caesar
went on, "I will wire you in code. Do you know the Aran code?"

"No."

"I will give it to you, directly, at my house. If you receive a telegram
from me from Paris, beginning with your name: 'Ignacio, do thus or so,'
you will know it is in the code."

"I follow you. What's up?"

"An affair the Minister is putting through, which we will not let him
pull off without getting our share out of him. I will explain it to you,
when I come back."

"How long do you expect to be there?"

"Two weeks at most; but perhaps I'll come right back."

INDUCTION

On arriving at the train, Caesar bought all the evening papers. In one
of them he found an article entitled: _The Projects of the Minister of
Finance_, and he read it carefully.

The writer said that the Minister of Finance had never been so closely
identified with the Conservative Cabinet as at that moment; that he
had plans for a number of projects for the salvation of the Spanish
Treasury, which he would briefly explain.

"It's a witty joke," thought Caesar.

He was too well acquainted with the market and monetary affairs in
general, too well acquainted with the sterling worth of the famous
financier not to understand the idea of his scheme.

Caesar knew that the Minister not only was not on good terms with his
colleagues in the Government, but was at sword's points with them, and
was moreover disposed to give up his portfolio from one day to the next.

Whence came this haste to launch the plan for the suppression of the
government tax and restoring the value of the currency? Why did he send
him, Caesar, on this errand, and not somebody in the Department?

His haste to launch the plan was easy to comprehend.

The Minister was about to give a decisive impulse to all stocks; the
suppression of the affidavit and the restoring the value of the currency
would shove up domestic paper in Spain and foreign stocks in France to
extraordinary heights. Then a difficulty with the Speaker, a moment of
anger, such as was to be expected in a character like the Minister's,
would oblige him to offer his resignation ... prices would take a
terrible drop, and the Minister, having already planned for a big bear
scoop in Paris, would clear some hundreds of thousands of francs and
keep his reputation as a patriot and an excellent financier.

Why was he sending Caesar? No doubt because he suspected his secretary,
whom he had probably given similar missions to previously.

Caesar knew the Minister well. He had described him in his notes in
these words: "He is dark and brachicephalic; a man of tradition and
good common sense; average intellect, astute, a good father and a good
Catholic. He believes himself cleverer than he really is. His two
leading passions are vanity and money."

Caesar knew the Minister, but the Minister did not know Caesar. He
imagined him to be a man of brilliant intellect, but incapable of
grasping realities.

After thinking a long while over the business, while he was undressing
to go to bed in the sleeping-car, Caesar said:

"There is only one thing to find out. Who is the Minister's broker in
Paris, and who is his banker? With Yarza's assistance that is not going
to be difficult for me to ascertain. When we know what broker he works
through and what banker, the affair is finished."

Having concluded thus, he got into his berth, put out the light, and lay
there dozing.

IN PARIS

On arriving at Paris next evening, he left his luggage in the hotel at
the Quai d'Orsay station. He wired his address to the Minister and to
Alzugaray, and went out at once to look for Carlos Yarza. He was unable
to find him until very late at night. He explained to his friend what
had brought him, and Yarza told him he was at his disposition.

"When you need me, let me know."

"Good."

Caesar went off to bed, and the next morning he proceeded to the
banking-house in the Rue de Provence where he was to cash the cheque
handed him by the Minister of the Treasury.

He entered the bank and asked for the president. A clerk came out and
Caesar explained to him that on arriving at his hotel he had missed a
cheque for three thousand francs from the Spanish Minister of Finance.
He introduced himself as a Deputy, as an intimate friend of the
Minister's, and behaved as if much vexed. The department manager told
him that they could do no more than take the number and not pay the
cheque if anybody presented it for payment.

"You don't handle the Minister's business here?" asked Caesar.

"No, only very rarely," said the manager.

"You don't know who his regular banker is?"

"No; I will ask, because it is very possible that the chief may know."

The clerk went out and came back a little later, informing Caesar that
they said the house the Spanish Minister of Finance did his banking with
was Recquillart and Company, Rue Bergère.

The street was near at hand, and it took Caesar only a very little while
to get there. The building was dark, lighted by electricity even in the
daytime, one of those classic corners where Jewish usurers amass great
fortunes.

There was no question of employing the same ruse as in the Rue de
Provence, and Caesar thought of another.

He asked for M. Recquillart, and out came a heavy gentleman, a blond
going grey, with a rosy cranium and gold eyeglasses.

Caesar told him he was secretary to a rich Spanish miner, who was then
in Paris. That gentleman wanted to try some business on the Bourse, but
was unable to come to the bank because he was ill of the dropsy.

"Who recommended our house to this gentleman?" asked the banker.

"I think it was the Minister of Finance, in Spain."

"Ah, yes, very good, very good! And how are we to communicate with him?
Through you?"

"No. He told me he would prefer to have a clerk who knows Spanish come
to him and take his orders." "That is all right; one shall go. We
happen to have a Spanish clerk. At what hour shall he come?" said M.
Recquillart, taking out a pencil.

"At nine in the evening."

"For whom shall he ask?"

"For Señor Pérez Cuesta."

"At what hotel?"

"The one in the Quai d'Orsay station."

"Very good indeed."

Caesar bowed; and after he had sent Yarza a telephone message, making
an appointment for after the Bourse at the Café Riche, he took an
automobile and went to hunt for the great financier Dupont de Sarthe,
who lived on the other bank of the Seine, near the Montparnasse station.

He had a large, sumptuous office, with an enormous library. Two
secretaries were at work at small tables placed in front of the
balconies, and the master wrote at a big Ministerial table full of
books. When Caesar introduced himself, the great economist rose, offered
his hand, and in a sharp voice with a Parisian accent, asked what he
desired.

Caesar told him the Minister's request, and the great economist became
indignant.

"Does that gentleman imagine that I am at his bidding, to begin a piece
of work and stop it according as it suits him, and take it up again when
he orders? No, tell him no. Tell him the scheme he asked me for is not
done, not finished; that I cannot give him any data or any information
at all."

In view of the great man's indignation, Caesar made no reply, but left
the house. He lunched at his hotel, gave orders that if any one brought
a letter or message for Señor Pérez Cuesta they should receive it, and
went again to the Rue de Provence, where he said he had had the good
luck to find his cheque.

With all these goings and comings it got to be three o'clock, and Caesar
turned his steps toward the Café Riche. Yarza was there and the two
talked a long while. Yarza knew of the manoeuvres of the Minister of
Finance, and he gave his opinion about them with great knowledge of the
business questions. He also knew Recquillart's clerk, the Catalan Pujol,
of whom he had not a very good opinion.

The two friends made an engagement for the next day and Caesar
hurried to his hotel. He wrote to the Minister, telling him what the
fundamentals of Dupont de Sarthe's project were; and between his own
ideas and those Yarza had expounded to him, he was able to draw up a
complete enough plan.

"The Minister being a man who knows nothing about all this," thought
Caesar, "when he understands that the ideas I expound are those of the
celebrated Dupont de Sarthe, will find them wonderful."

RECQUILLART'S CLERK

After having written his letter and taken a little tea, he lay stretched
out on a divan, until they brought him word that a young man was asking
for Señor Pérez Cuesta.

"Send him up."

Señor Puchol entered, a dark little man who wore a morning-coat and had
a hat with a flat brim edged with braid.

Caesar greeted him affably and made him sit down.

"But are you not Spanish?" Caesar asked him.

"Yes, I was born in Barcelona."

"I should have taken you for a Frenchman."

"In dress and everything else, I am a complete Parisian."

"This poor man is full of vanity," thought Caesar. "All the better." He
immediately began to explain the affair.

"Look," he said, "the whole matter is this: the Spanish Minister of
Finance, my chief, has dealings on a large scale with the Recquillart
bank; you know that, and so do I; but the Recquillarts, besides charging
an inflated commission, interfere in his buying and selling with so
little cleverness, that whenever he buys, it turns out that he bought
for more than the market price of the security, and whenever he sells,
he sells lower than the quotation. The Minister does not wish to break
off with the Recquillarts...."

"He can't, you meant to say," replied Puchol, in an insinuating manner.
"Since you know the situation..." responded Caesar.

"Oughtn't I to?"

"Since you know the whole situation," continued Caesar, "I will say that
he cannot indeed break off with the Recquillarts, but the Minister would
like to do business with somebody else, without passing under the yoke
of the chief."

"He ought to make arrangements with another broker here," said Puchol.

"Ah, certainly. I have brought some twenty thousand francs with that
object."

"Then there is no difficulty."

"But we need a go-between. The Minister doesn't care to turn to the
first banker at hand and explain all his combinations to him."

"That's where I come in."

"Good, but we must know beforehand how much you are to get. Your
demands may be such that it would be better for him to stick to the
Recquillarts."

"Recquillart gets ten percent of the profits, besides a small commission
as broker. I will take five."

"It's a good deal."

"I will not accept less; the arrangement might cost me my career.
Consult him...."

"If I could consult him! The truth is that there may not be time. We
will accept five."

"What does the Minister wish to speculate in? The same things as with
Recquillart? Foreign Loans and Northerns?"

"Exactly. Just as before."

"All right. The investment, as you can see, is safe," Puchol continued.
"I would put my fortune in it, if I had one. There are a lot of
newspapers bought; all the financial reviews are predicting a rise."

The clerk took out a folded review and handed it to Caesar, who read:

"We are assured that the plan of the Spanish Minister of Finance must
make foreign securities rise considerably. Northerns will follow the
same path, and there are indications that their rise will be very rapid
and will cover several points."

"The field is going to be covered with corpses," said Caesar.

Señor Puchol burst out laughing; Caesar invited him to dine with him,
and gave him a sumptuous dinner with good wines.

Puchol was absolutely vain, and he boasted of his triumphs on the
Bourse; it was he who guided Recquillart in the dealings he had with
Spaniards, in which they had plucked various incautious persons.

"How much will the Minister's operation amount to?" Caesar asked him.

"Nobody can prevent his making three hundred thousand, at the least.
With the increase he has ordered you to make, it will come to six
hundred thousand. We will gobble up the two points it falls."

"I don't know if there may have been some new order while I was in the
train coming to Paris," said Caesar.

"No, his operation is all arranged," replied Puchol, and he got out a
note-book and consulted it. "It will be like giving away bread. We are
going to sell ten millions of Foreigns and five hundred Northerns on the
seventeenth, the eighteenth, and the twentieth."

"And the scoop will take place?" asked Caesar.

"On the 27th."

"So that on those days we shall sell just as much again?"

"And we shall sell much dearer."

They dropped that point and talked of other things.

Señor Puchol was a literary man and was writing a symbolistic drama
which he wanted to read to Caesar.

At twelve they said good-night. Puchol was to tell his chief that he had
not been able to do any business with Señor Pérez Cuesta. In respect to
the other matter, they had an engagement for ten the next morning at a
café in the neighbourhood of the Bourse.

There were no great difficulties to overcome. They saw a broker named
Müller. Caesar entrusted him with his twenty thousand francs, and hinted
that the speculation was being made for some rich people, who would
have no objection to making up any loss, if he should exceed the twenty
thousand francs.

The broker told him he could play whatsoever sum he wished.

As Caesar had not entire confidence in Puchol, and did not care either
to tell the broker that he was to begin only when the stocks fell, he
brought Yarza into the deal.

Puchol was to say to Yarza: "The Minister has given the order to sell";
and Yarza would first verify this, if he could verify it; then he would
tell the broker: "Sell." It might go as far as handling twenty millions
of Foreigns and up to a thousand of Northerns.

In order to get all the ends well tied up, Caesar had to get from one
place to another without a moment's rest.

IN MADRID

The trap being set, Caesar took the train, worn out and feverish. He
arrived at Madrid, took a bath, and went to see the Minister; and after
the interview went to his house in the Calle de Galileo and spent two
days in bed, alone in the completest silence.

The third day Alzugaray arrived, anxious.

"What's the matter? Are you sick?" he asked.

"No. How did you know I was here?"

"Your janitress came to my house to tell me you were in bed."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with me, boy."

"You should know that there's a splendid chance to make some money,
today."

"My dear fellow!"

"Yes, and we haven't done anything in the market, except one miserable
little operation."

"And why do you think there is such a good chance?"

"Because there is, because everybody can see it," said Alzugaray.
"Prices are going to rise with this project of the Minister of
Finance's; they are going in for a big deal; everybody has been
indiscreet, without meaning to be, and people on the market are buying
and buying. Everybody is sure of a rise ... and we are doing nothing."

"We are doing nothing," repeated Caesar.

"But it is absurd."

"What's the date?"

"The twenty-second."

"The evening of the twenty-seventh we will talk."

"How mysterious you are, boy."

"I can't tell you any more now. If you have bought anything, sell it."

"But why?"

"I can't tell you."

"All right, when you get on these sibylline airs, I say no more. Another
thing. Various gentlemen have come to tell me that they wanted to play
the market; they have heard that it is about to go up...."

"Who were they?"

"Among others, Amparito's father and Don Calixto García Guerrero."

"If they wish to give security, tell our broker, and I will sell them
anything they want to buy."

"Really?"

"Really. I have my reasons for doing it."

"This time we are all going to make, except you."

"Dear Ignacio, I am at Sinigaglia."

"What does that mean?"

"If you have a moment free, read the history of the Borgias," murmured
Caesar, turning over in bed.

The next few days Caesar lived in constant intranquillity. Yarza
telegraphed him, saying that they had done the whole operation. On the
27th, in the afternoon, Caesar wandered toward the Calle de Alcalá;
Madrid wore its normal aspect; the newspaper boys were calling no
extras. More worried than he liked, Caesar went for his walk by the
Canalillo and then shut himself in his house. In the evening he went out
breathless and bought the newspapers. His first impression was one of
panic; there was nothing; on reaching the third page he uttered an
exclamation and smiled. The Minister of Finance had just offered his
resignation.

The next morning Caesar went to the hotel in the Carrera de San Jerónimo
where he had a room, and in the afternoon to the Chamber. He telephoned
to Alzugaray to come and see him after the exchange closed.

Alzugaray arrived, looking pale, in company with Amparito's father, Don
Calixto, and the broker. They were all wretched. The news was horrible.
Domestics had fallen two points and were still falling; in Paris the
Foreign Loan had fallen more than four; Northern was not falling but
tumbling to the bottom of a precipice.

"Did you know that the Minister was going to present his resignation?"
asked the broker, in despair.

"I, no. How should I know it? Even the Minister himself couldn't have
known it yesterday. But I had scientific data for not believing in that
rise."

"I am ruined," exclaimed the broker. "I have lost my savings."

Don Calixto and Amparito's father had also lost very large sums, which
Caesar won, and they were disconsolate.

When they were gone and only Alzugaray remained, he said to Caesar:

"And you have played in Paris, too, probably."

"Yes."

"On a fall?"

"Certainly."

"You are a bandit."

"This game, my dear Ignacio, based solely on events, is not a
speculator's game, but is, simply, a hold-up. The other day I told you:
'I am at Sinigaglia.' Did you read the history of Caesar Borgia?"

"Yes."

"Well, what he did at Sinigaglia to the _condottieri_, to Vittellozzo,
Oliverotto da Fermo, and his other two captain-adventurers, I have done
to the Minister of Finance, to Don Calixto, Amparito's father, and many
others." And Caesar explained his game. Alzugaray was amazed.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22