House of All Nations (66 page)

‘I knew him too, when I was flying,' said William grimly.

‘Oh, you—you're the flat-footedest airman I ever saw.'

Alphendéry put in, ‘Maes in Antwerp says he was thrown out by the Belgian police. I asked him to try and get his record. It's not easy.'

‘Ah, I'd rather pay him than go to all that trouble for Parouart,' cried Jules. ‘Next time he comes make out a check, William. Let him have the pleasure of blackmailing us. We can afford it and he can have the fun.'

‘Nothing doing,' said William.

‘I looked up this chap with the unpronounceable name, Czorvocky. Marcuzo is the nominal chief but he doesn't seem to have any money in it. He's doing a nice little business in discounting German bonds. I wanted to do that: I could have made a fortune if you hadn't put me off, Michel,' said Jules, with annoyance. He resumed loftily, ‘He makes them loans, and they hand over the bonds and sign a paper. On the back of the paper, printed in nonpareil type, are at least a dozen excuses for him to sell the bonds the next day. They pay interest, too. Seems a smart fellow … Do you think Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern could get us that business, Michel? All grain merchants are plastered up in bonds.'

Michel and Alphendéry started. ‘You went to see him?'

‘Sure. I went to see him as soon as I got the confidential report. I thought I might smell out how he did it and if I could steal some of the business. He's got a nice little office, some grilles, some clerks, no business that I could see. I asked him about Parouart, saying he was placing orders with me. He looked queer at that. I suppose he's paying him to make a stink round my place. He told me Parouart is connected with the police. If he tells me, it's hard to believe; if he says it! He belongs to the special milieu they're talking about … Forget it …' his lip curled. ‘All these Balkan geniuses have got Russia on the brain, anyhow. Perhaps he is in with the Soviets. It made me suspect Léon's scheme, too. I see it's just a geographical obsession of theirs, not a great scheme at all. I thought it was original with Léon. They're not Western European.
Weltpolitik
, heu! Want a finger in every pie. Want to make the whole world one big pie! They've got el-e-phant-i-asis,' he pronounced with care.

Alphendéry shot up to the defense of Léon. ‘He has his foolish hours, when he thinks he's a field marshal of industry and then he makes his worst mistakes: ‘Don't stop me, Alphendéry, don't interrupt me!' He's Napoleonic and has a star: ‘My instinct tells me to do such-and-such and do it now. Even if you're right, and I'm wrong, I'm right. The creative impulse can't go wrong!' He is a giant, he makes giant mistakes. He never stops to know whether he is ridiculous or sublime. Why should one? You can use such a man. To make profit out of a man who is such a natural ‘bull,' you have only got to notice his good points. He is very simple at heart, good, generous, and a superb money-maker. Now this scheme …'

‘I don't trust any Roumanian, or any Bulgarian, either,' said Jules with petulance.

‘He doesn't trust you, either, don't worry,' William consoled him. Jules turned his back on his elder brother.

‘Bomba has got all his publicity ready and Stevie Pentous is sailing for America tomorrow,' he threw out at Alphendéry imperially.

‘Does Léon know?'

‘Where is Bomba now?' asked William.

‘Bomba is in New York. Got there yesterday.' Jules's tone forbade exclamation and inquiry.

‘That's fine,' said William.

‘Does Stevie know anything about the scheme?' Alphendéry was appalled.

‘Sure, I told him all about it and I gave him your notes. Besides, Dan Waters, who just came from official business in Germany, is going over on that boat and Stevie can explain it all to him on the way over.'

‘That might save the day; Waters is a brilliant fellow.' Jules refused to answer any more.

There was a knock at the door. A boy in uniform came in,

‘From Van Cleef and Arpels, sir.'

‘Here, give it to this gentleman.' He pointed to Alphendéry. He signed for it, thrust his hand in his pocket, and, without looking, gave the boy a fifty-franc note. The boy said, ‘Sir?'

‘It's yours. Go on, scamper,' said Jules.

Alphendéry was clumsily trying to undo a knot. He slipped off the string. In a purple velvet case, on purple satin, lay a long thick gold pencil. Alphendéry picked it up and let it roll back into his palm in surprise.

‘It's your birthday, isn't it?' asked Jules.

‘Yes, but Jules—it weighs ounces. It must be pure gold.'

‘I shouldn't be surprised—or nearly,' said Jules carelessly. He took out his hat and coat and wrapped himself elegantly in them. He always had the curious appearance of being less material than the rest of mankind, part of him seemed always to belong to the chiaroscuro of a room, to the dark substance of lampposts in a street. When he moved amongst the pillars downstairs, it was almost impossible to see him clearly. He passed through crowds of his clients and they never saw him unless they ran into him, face to face, when, if they were intimate, he gave them a steel handgrip. His hands were long, beautiful, sculptured, firm, as the hands of one whose family has been in high commerce for long generations. His handshake showed a most uncommon strength in that frail form.

* * *

Scene Fifty-five: Bomba

J
uly-August, 1931 Stevie Pentous played the grand seigneur all the way, trailed by enchanted telegraph boys and reporters. The first intimation of Stevie's state of mind received by Alphendéry was a telegram from the luxury-liner
Ile de France
.

DAN WATERS ABOARD STOP ARRANGING PARALLEL COTTON RACKET STOP MODIFYING YOUR SCHEME NO ATTRACTION AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGY ELIMINATING RUSSIAN BILLS STOP ARRANGING STRAIGHT CREDITS SCHEME STOP HAVE TELEGRAPHED DEMOCRITUS HERMES

‘Hermes' meant Pentous; ‘Democritus' meant Bomba.

‘But Russia is essential,' cried Alphendéry. ‘Oh, I hope at least, Bomba understands the plan: he spent a week end in Amsterdam with Léon.' This doubt was not settled by the telegram received from ‘Democritus' in New York the next day.

THALES, ANAXIMANDRE ASSURE INTERVIEW EMPEDOCLES AND LEUCIPPE IF ARRIVAL WITHIN MONTH STOP SUCCESS BEST OMENS STOP NEED TO WATER THE TIGRIS ONE THOUSAND THANKS DEMOCRITUS

The translation of the code was penciled above. Thales = Waters, Anaximandre = Devlin-Smith (a Washington official who blew hot and cold in one breath according to Bomba), Empedocles = Jules himself (apparently Bomba, in traditional style, was sabotaging Stevie Pentous), Leucippe = the President of the U.S.A. himself (who being an engineer preferred material values). The ‘best omens' was in keeping. ‘Need to water the Tigris' Jules, without the help of classical learning, understood well enough meant ‘more money.' Democritus = Theodor Bomba (a self-flattery; he likened himself to Democritus born in a colony where Asiatic culture entered into contact with Greek culture, the reference being to Berlin).

No one commented on the code. Theodor Bomba knew men's weaknesses. The code was sufficiently uncanny to impress unlettered businessmen as a sort of incantation, when proposed in Bomba's inimitable medicine-man style.

Bomba had once, for example, organized a ‘financial service' in Europe, on the strength of such a code, using the names of the characters in the
Nibelungenlied
, and half a dozen bright financial journalists with himself had gone abroad in the service of several of the leading American banks to gather ‘secret' information. Each one was to cable each Monday from the leading European capitals.

On the first Monday morning the opening salvo was from Bomba himself (well-planted in Berlin, his favorite city):

DUE DE FACTO RECOVERY RING ALBERICH KRIEMHILDE RENOUNCES POLITICAL DESTRUCTION SIEGLINDE WILL SEEK RHEINGOLD WOTAN STOP MIME CONVALESCENT 1927 BALMUNG UPSWEEP TARNHELM REPORTS HAGEN IS SEEKING ECONOMIC PLAN

The solemn conclave of the werewolves of Wall Street which had assembled at twelve noon to receive the ‘secret' message from beyond the Atlantic read this telegram and were greatly impressed. But they had entirely forgotten the code except that Rheingold meant the U.S.A. dollar and Wotan meant the U.S.A. However, it took them several weeks to get over their gratification at their private European service and, of course, in due course, with the mails, arrived Bomba's confirmation with the translation,

‘Due de facto stabilization of the franc by Poincaré, Germany (Kriemhilde) renounces (the idea of the) political destruction of France and will seek loans from the U.S.A. England expects recovery in 1927. Belgium (Balmung, the sword, pointed at the heart of England) bull market. Secret agents (Tarnhelm) report Russia is seeking an economic plan.'

It had been months before Bomba had ceased to draw a salary on the basis of telegrams so conceived, telegrams which grew and grew in an undeciphered pile in the desk of a secretary: and he had never failed to draw on his ‘ring of the Nibelungs' trick in later employment. He knew men very well. He knew that financial giants have two skins, ‘one to face the world with and one to show a crony when they love him.' The first is the
Financial and Commercial Chronicle
face and the second is their true face, their face of superstition, mental chaos, and childish absurdity. He was ashamed of nothing.

To Léon he spoke of ‘Kabbala' and ‘
Chedar
techniques,' to Jules of ‘hunches' and ‘lucky touches,' to Alphendéry, when he met him, of ‘the materialist interpretation,' and ‘we undercover auxiliaries of the Third International' and the ‘fascist-liberal Keynes,' while he laughed uproariously at William's jokes, keenly aware that William's detestation of him was measured by the number of francs in his salary check. He even discussed cribbage with ‘Old' Berthellot. Once, the Comtesse de Voigrand being in the bank, while he was dancing round Jules's coattails, Bomba spoke so eloquently about Jesuit culture that the Comtesse very nearly sacked her professor on the spot and employed Bomba.

Such a man, unquestionably, deserves whatever living he can get. Even Jules thought so. Thus he found more amusement in Bomba's telegrams than Alphendéry, William, or Léon did, and so he paid Bomba's calls for money and went pacifically on his way, convinced that if anyone could put across the wheat deal, Bomba, his private magician, could.

Bomba had exactly his idea of moneymaking, that it was a great swindle and that the greatest swindler got the biggest prizes and that the greater the ‘superstructure of graft' the greater the ‘surplus-value' (a phrase which Jules had oddly adapted to mean booty).

Bomba and Jules understood each other very ill: each, in his vanity, saw himself in the other, thought of the other as a complex intellect and bowed to him, secretly impressed by the most frivolous decisions. Besides, when Jules got home each evening, he found a new telegram from his court jester, couched in this style,

NLT FOR YOUR PRIVATE EAR: LÉON'S SUPERSTRUCTURE OVERREFINED, OVERORNAMENTED ALPHENDÉRY'S INTELLECTUALIST GLOSS; YOUR KEEN LINES PREFERRED. AM FOLLOWING YOUR SCHEMA, JETTISONING REST: GREAT GOOD WILL RESULT. REASON DELAY: LEUCIPPE COULD NOT SEE WOOD FOR TREES. LITTLE DANAË SHOWER NEEDED: SEND REQUISITE. AVE. DEMOCRITUS

Jules was getting a classical education, losing a fair sum of money and amusing himself rarely. He concealed his domestic telegrams from his family, from Michel and Léon, and in secret delight saw the whole fortune promised by Léon pouring into his own white hands. Meanwhile Bomba had little to do but compose his macaroni messages. He had sent sixty reporters to meet Stevie Pentous on his arrival in New York by the
Ile de France
, and headlines went flashing across the Continent,

PENTOUS PARK AVENUE PLAYBOY HEADS FRENCH CONSORTIUM TO BUY COTTON EXCESS

and elsewhere,

FRENCH GOVERNMENT BEHIND PENTOUS SYNDICATE IN SIXTY MILLION DOLLAR SCHEME

and again,

BOMBA, FINANCIERS' AGENT HERE: SCHEME SEEN AS PEACE MOVE

with the addition,

PENTOUS HAILED AS UNOFFICIAL AMBASSADOR

and a helping hand for Bomba,

BOMBA FRENCH FINANCIER SCORES FARM BOARD

Bomba and Pentous had by now persuaded themselves that everything was going great guns and were sweeping through expensive hotels and luxury trains in magnificent style, dropping ten-dollar notes and King's Ransom whisky in the style of a maharajah who has just won the Derby and the Spanish Lottery.

Pentous was duly escorted to Washington, heaven of glittering walls and flowery speech, by Bomba. Bomba, a subtly swaggering subaltern, was trying to give the impression that he was the spirit of the thing and was sent by the European consortium to keep a watch on the play-boy. He had Pentous throned in the Mayflower Hotel—and sent their cards to the ‘Thales' and ‘Anaximandre' whom (he alleged) he had ‘lined up.' When Stevie Pentous got stage-fright and suddenly admitted that he had very little idea indeed what he was to say, or what to propose, Bomba walked in on some high officials and being over-excited by the publicity he had got up himself and by the millions of dollars he seemed to see rolling like hailstones at his feet, he allowed himself to use the ridiculously cynical, thieves' jargon that he had heard Jules, William, Léon, and Alphendéry joking in, in their sanctum in Paris.

‘It's a brilliant racket,' he informed the officials, persuaded that he was speaking American. ‘It will make us all rich, you, me, and the other guy. It will astonish the natives from Tokyo to Painted Post: it's the great steal of the century, boys.'

The astonished officials, very polite, were sure that they had to do with a lunatic; and so he came away with equal grandeur, but hollow grandeur, for he had to admit even to himself that he had come away with empty hands. He had so fooled himself that he had expected to carry it all off with pure bluff and blarney: he was living in a mushroom dream of monstrous unreality.