Part 59 (2/2)
At half-past eight the first members of the committee arrived; the others kept on coming lazily in. Each one had some pretext to excuse his being late.
The fact was that the matter interested n.o.body; the politics of the district were going to go on as formerly, and really it wasn't worth while thinking about. Caesar was a decorative figure with no background.
At nine all the members of the committee were in the Casino. Don Calixto made a speech which he prolonged in an alarming manner. Caesar answered him in another speech, which was heard with absolute coldness.
Then a frantic gabbling let loose; everybody wanted to talk. They abandoned themselves fruitfully to distinctions. ”If it is certain that.... Although it is true.... Not so much because...” and they eulogized one another as orators, with great gravity.
The next day, Sunday, the proclamation of the candidates took place.
They were three: Moncada, Governmental; Garcia Padilla, Liberal; and San Roman, Republican.
San Roman was the old Republican bookseller; it was sure beforehand that he couldn't win, but it suited Caesar that he should run, so that the Workmen's Club elements should not vote for the Liberal candidate.
Two days before the election Caesar went to Cidones and entered the Cafe Espanol.
He asked for Uncle Chinaman, and told him that he was the future Deputy.
Uncle Chinaman recognized the young man with whom he had talked some months previous in his cafe, he remembered him with pleasure, and received him with great demonstrations.
”Man,” Caesar said to him, ”I want you to do me a favour.”
”Only tell me.”
”It is a question about the election.”
”Good. Let's hear what it is.”
”There are several towns where Padilla's adherents are ready, after the count, to change the real returns for forged ones. Everything is prepared for it. As I have sent people to their voting-places, they intend to make the change on the road, taking the returns from the messengers and giving them forged ones instead. I want twenty or thirty reliable men to send, four by four, to accompany the messengers that come with the returns, or else to carry them themselves.”
”All right, I will get them for you,” said Uncle Chinaman.
”How much money do you need?”
”Twenty dollars will do me.”
”Take forty.”
”All right. Which towns are they?”
Caesar told him the names of the towns where he feared subst.i.tution.
Then he warned him:
”You will say nothing about this.”
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