Caesar or Nothing Part 67

"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 a.s.sured 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.

Senor 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.

"n.o.body 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.

Senor 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 Senor Perez Cuesta. In respect to the other matter, they had an engagement for ten the next morning at a cafe in the neighbourhood of the Bourse.

There were no great difficulties to overcome. They saw a broker named Muller. 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."