Part 61 (2/2)
”This landscape enchants me,” said Caesar.
”It seems hard and gloomy,” responded Alzugaray.
”Yes, that is true; hard and gloomy, but n.o.ble. When one is drenched with a miserable political life, when one actually forms a part of that Olympus of madmen called Congress, one needs to be purified. How miserable, how vile that political life is! How many faces pale with envy there are! What low and repugnant hatreds! When I come out nauseated by seeing those people; when I am soaked with repugnance, then I come out here to walk, I look at those serious mountains, so frowning and strong, and the mere sight of them seems like a purifying flame which cleanses me from meanness.”
”I see that you are as absurd as ever, Caesar. It would never occur to anybody to come and comfort himself with some melancholy mountains, out here between an abandoned hospital, which looks like a leper-asylum, and a deserted cemetery.”
”Well, these mountains give me an impression of energy and n.o.bility, which raises my spirits. This leper-asylum, as you call it, sunken in a pit, this deserted cemetery, those distant mountains, are my friends; I imagine they are saying to me: 'One must be hard, one must be strong like us, one must live in solitude....'”
They did not continue their walk much further, because the night and the fog combined made it difficult to see the path along the Ca.n.a.lillo, which made it possible to fall in, and that would have been disagreeable.
They returned the way they had come. From the top of a hill they saw Madrid in the twilight, covered with fog; and in the streets newly opened between the sides of sand, the lights of the gas-lamps sparkled in a nimbus of rainbow....
X. POLITICAL LABOURS
MONEY ON THE EXCHANGE
Although Caesar did not distinguish himself especially in Congress, he worked hard. His activities were devoted mainly to two points: the stock exchange and Castro Duro.
Caesar had found a partner to play the market for him, a Bilboan capitalist, whom he had convinced of the correctness of his system.
Senor Salazar had deposited, in Caesar's name, thirty thousand dollars.
With this sum Caesar played for millions and he was drawing an extraordinary dividend from his stocks.
Their operations were made in the name of Alzugaray, whose job it was to go every month to see the broker, and to sign and collect the certificates. Caesar gave his orders by telephone, and Alzugaray communicated them to the broker.
Alzugaray often went to see Caesar and said to him:
”The broker came to my house terrified, to tell me that what we are going to do is an absurdity.”
”Let it alone,” Caesar would say. ”You know our agreement. You get ten percent of the profits for giving the orders. Do not mix in any further.”
Often, on seeing the positive result of Caesar's speculations, Alzugaray would ask him:
”Do you find out at the Ministry what is going to happen?”
”Pshaw!” Caesar would say; ”the market is not a capricious thing, as you think. There are signs. I pay attention to a lot of facts, which give me indications: coupons, the amount shares advance, the calculation of probabilities; and I compare all these scientific data with empirical observations that are difficult to explain. In such a situation, events are what make the least difference to me. Is there going to be a revolution or a Carlist war?... I am careless about it.”
”But this is impossible,” Alzugaray used to say. ”Excuse me for saying so, but I don't believe you. You have some secret, and that is what helps you.”
”How fantastic you all are!”' Caesar would exclaim; ”you refuse to believe in the rational, and still you believe in the miraculous.”
”No, I do not believe in the miraculous; but I cannot explain your methods.”
”That's clear! Am I to explain them to you! When you don't know the mechanism of the market! I am certain that you have never considered the mechanism of the rise produced by the reintegration of the coupon, or the way that rise is limited to double its value. Tell me. Do you know what that means?”
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