Caesar or Nothing Part 65

"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 ent.i.tled: _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 pa.s.sions 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 a.s.sistance 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.