CHAPTER V.
I APPRECIATE THE SITUATION.
The flight of time brought no alleviation to the troubles of
Aureataland. If an individual hard up is a pathetic sight, a nation
hard up is an alarming spectacle; and Aureataland was very hard up.
I suppose somebody had some money. But the Government had none; in
consequence the Government employees had none, the officials had
none, the President had none, and finally, I had none. The bank had a
little--of other people's, of course--but I was quite prepared for
a "run" on us any day, and had cabled to the directors to implore a
remittance in cash, for our notes were at a discount humiliating to
contemplate. Political strife ran high. I dropped into the House of
Assembly one afternoon toward the end of May, and, looking down from
the gallery, saw the colonel in the full tide of wrathful declamation.
He was demanding of miserable Don Antonio when the army was to be
paid. The latter sat cowering under his scorn, and would, I verily
believe, have bolted out of the House had he not been nailed to his
seat by the cold eye of the President, who was looking on from his
box. The minister on rising had nothing to urge but vague promises of
speedy payment; but he utterly lacked the confident effrontery of his
chief, and nobody was deceived by his weak protestations. I left the
House in a considerable uproar, and strolled on to the house of a
friend of mine, one Mme. Devarges, the widow of a French gentleman
who had found his way to Whittingham from New Calendonia. Politeness
demanded the assumption that he had found his way to New Caledonia
owing to political troubles, but the usual cloud hung over the precise
date and circumstances of his patriotic sacrifice. Madame sometimes
considered it necessary to bore herself and others with denunciations
of the various tyrants or would-be tyrants of France; but, apart from
this pious offering on the shrine of her husband's reputation, she
was a bright and pleasant little woman. I found assembled round her
tea-table a merry party, including Donna Antonia, unmindful of her
father's agonies, and one Johnny Carr, who deserves mention as being
the only honest man in Aureataland. I speak, of course, of the place
as I found it. He was a young Englishman, what they call a "cadet," of
a good family, shipped off with a couple of thousand pounds to make
his fortune. Land was cheap among us, and Johnny had bought an estate
and settled down as a landowner. Recently he had blossomed forth as a
keen Constitutionalist and a devoted admirer of the President's, and
held a seat in the assembly in that interest. Johnny was not a clever
man nor a wise one, but he was merry, and, as I have thought it
necessary to mention, honest.
"Hallo, Johnny! Why not at the House?" said I to him. "You'll want
every vote to-night. Be off and help the ministry, and take Donna
Antonia with you. They're eating up the Minister of Finance."
"All right! I'm going as soon as I've had another muffin," said
Johnny. "But what's the row about?"
"Well, they want their money," I replied; "and Don Antonio won't give
it them. Hence bad feeling."
"Tell you what it is," said Johnny; "he hasn't got a--"
Here Donna Antonia struck in, rather suddenly, I thought.
"Do stop the gentleman talking politics, Mme. Devarges. They'll spoil
our tea-party."
"Your word is law," I said; "but I should like to know what Don
Antonio hasn't got."
"Now do be quiet," she rejoined; "isn't it quite enough that he has
got--a charming daughter?"
"And a most valuable one," I replied, with a bow, for I saw that for
some reason or other Donna Antonia did not mean to let me pump Johnny
Carr, and I wanted to pump him.
"Don't say another word, Mr. Carr," she said, with a laugh. "You know
you don't know anything, do you?"
"Good Lord, no!" said Johnny.
Meanwhile Mme. Devarges was giving me a cup of tea. As she handed it
to me, she said in a low voice:
"If I were his friend I should take care Johnny didn't know anything,
Mr. Martin."
"If I were his friend I should take care he told me what he knew, Mme.
Devarges," I replied.
"Perhaps that's what the colonel thinks," she said. "Johnny has just
been telling us how very attentive he has become. And the signorina
too, I hear."
"You don't mean that?" I exclaimed. "But, after all, pure kindness, no
doubt!"
"You have received many attentions from those quarters," she said. "No
doubt you are a good judge of the motives."
"Don't, now don't be disagreeable," said I. "I came here for peace."
"Poor young man! have you lost all your money? Is it possible that
you, like Don Antonio, haven't got a--"
"What is going to happen?" I asked, for Mme. Devarges often had
information.
"I don't know," she said. "But if I owned national bonds, I should
sell."
"Pardon me, madame; you would offer to sell."
She laughed.
"Ah! I see my advice comes too late."
I did not see any need to enlighten her farther. So I passed on to
Donna Antonia, who had sat somewhat sulkily since her outburst. I sat
down by her and said:
"Surely I haven't offended you?"
"You know you wouldn't care if you had," she said, with a reproachful
but not unkind glance. "Now, if it were the signorina--"
I never object to bowing down in the temple of Rimmon, so I said:
"Hang the signorina!"
"If I thought you meant that," said Donna Antonia, "I might be able to
help you."
"Do I want help?" I asked.
"Yes," said she.
"Then suppose I do mean it?"
Donna Antonia refused to be frivolous. With a look of genuine distress
she said:
"You will not let your real friends save you, Mr. Martin. You know you
want help. Why don't you consider the state of your affairs?"
"In that, at least, my friends in Whittingham are very ready to help
me," I answered, with some annoyance.
"If you take it in that way," she replied sadly, "I can do nothing."
I was rather touched. Clearly she wished to be of some use to me, and
for a moment I thought I might do better to tear myself free from my
chains, and turn to the refuge opened to me. But I could not do
this; and, thinking it would be rather mean to take advantage of
her interest in me only to use it for my own purposes, I yielded to
conscience and said:
"Donna Antonia, I will be straightforward with you. You can only help
me if I accept your guidance? I can't do that. I am too deep in."
"Yes, you are deep in, and eager to be deeper," she said. "Well, so be
it. If that is so I cannot help you."
"Thank you for your kind attempt," said I. "I shall very likely be
sorry some day that I repulse it. I shall always be glad to remember
that you made it."
She looked at me a moment, and said:
"We have ruined you among us."
"Mind, body, and estate?"
She made no reply, and I saw my return to flippancy wounded her. So I
rose and took my leave. Johnny Carr went with me.
"Things look queer, eh, old man?" said he. "But the President will
pull through in spite of the colonel and his signorina."
"Johnny," said I, "you hurt my feelings; but, still, I will give you a
piece of advice."
"Drive on," said Johnny.
"Marry Donna Antonia," said I. "She's a good girl and a clever girl,
and won't let you get drunk or robbed."
"By Jove, that's not a bad idea!" said he. "Why don't you do it
yourself?"
"Because I'm like you, Johnny--an ass," I replied, and left him
wondering why, if he was an ass and I was an ass, one ass should marry
Donna Antonia, and not both or neither.
As I went along I bought the _Gazette_, the government organ, and read
therein:
"At a Cabinet Council this afternoon, presided over by his Excellency,
we understand that the arrangements connected with the national debt
formed the subject of discussion. The resolutions arrived at are at
present strictly confidential, but we have the best authority for
stating that the measures to be adopted will have the effect of
materially alleviating the present tension, and will afford unmixed
satisfaction to the immense majority of the citizens of Aureataland.
The President will once again be hailed as the saviour of his
country."
"I wonder if the immense majority will include me," said I. "I think I
will go and see his Excellency."
Accordingly, the next morning I took my way to the Golden House, where
I learned that the President was at the Ministry of Finance. Arriving
there, I sent in my card, writing thereon a humble request for a
private interview. I was ushered into Don Antonio's room, where I
found the minister himself, the President, and Johnny Carr. As I
entered and the servant, on a sign from his Excellency, placed a chair
for me, the latter said rather stiffly:
"As I presume this is a business visit, Mr. Martin, it is more regular
that I should receive you in the presence of one of my constitutional
advisers. Mr. Carr is acting as my secretary, and you can speak freely
before him."
I was annoyed at failing in my attempt to see the President alone, but
not wishing to show it, I merely bowed and said:
"I venture to intrude on your Excellency, in consequence of a
letter from my directors. They inform me that, to use their words,
'disquieting rumors' are afloat on the exchanges in regard to the
Aureataland loan, and they direct me to submit to your Excellency the
expediency of giving some public notification relative to the payment
of the interest falling due next month. It appears from their
communication that it is apprehended that some difficulty may occur in
the matter."
"Would not this application, if necessary at all, have been, more
properly made to the Ministry of Finance in the first instance?" said
the President. "These details hardly fall within my province."
"I can only follow my instructions, your Excellency," I replied.
"Have you any objection, Mr. Martin," said the President, "to allowing
myself and my advisers to see this letter?"
"I am empowered to submit it only to your Excellency's own eye."
"Oh, only to my eye," said he, with an amused expression. "That was
why the interview was to be private?"
"Exactly, sir," I replied. "I intend no disrespect to the Minister of
Finance or to your secretary, sir, but I am bound by my orders."
"You are an exemplary servant, Mr. Martin. But I don't think I need
trouble you about it further. Is it a cable?"
He smiled so wickedly at this question that I saw he had penetrated my
little fiction. However, I only said:
"A letter, sir."
"Well, gentlemen," said he to the others, "I think we may reassure Mr.
Martin. Tell your directors this, Mr. Martin: The Government does not
see any need of a public notification, and none will be made. I think
we agree, gentlemen, that to acknowledge the necessity of any such
action would be highly derogatory. But assure them that the President
has stated to you, Mr. Martin, personally, with the concurrence of
his advisers, that he anticipates no difficulties in your being in a
position to remit the full amount of interest to them on the proper
day."
"I may assure them, sir, that the interest will be punctually paid?"
"Surely I expressed myself in a manner you could understand," said he,
with the slightest emphasis on the "you." "Aureataland will meet her
obligations. You will receive all your due, Mr. Martin. That is so,
gentlemen?"
Don Antonio acquiesced at once. Johnny Carr, I noticed, said nothing,
and fidgeted rather uneasily in his chair. I knew what the President
meant. He meant, "If we don't pay, pay it out of your reserve fund."
Alas, the reserve fund was considerably diminished; I had enough, and
just enough, left to pay the next installment if I paid none of my
own debts. I felt very vicious as I saw his Excellency taking keen
pleasure in the consciousness of my difficulties (for he had a shrewd
notion of how the land lay), but of course I could say nothing. So I
rose and bowed myself out, feeling I had gained nothing, except a very
clear conviction that I should not see the color of the President's
money on the next interest day. True, I could just pay myself. But
what would happen next time? And if he wouldn't pay, and I couldn't
pay, the game would be up. As to the original loan, it is true I had
no responsibility; but then, if no interest were paid, the fact that
I had applied the second loan, _my_ loan, in a different manner from
what I was authorized to do, and had represented myself to have done,
would be inevitably discovered. And my acceptance of the bonus, my
dealings with the reserve fund, my furnishing inaccurate returns of
investments, all this would, I knew, look rather queer to people who
didn't know the circumstances.
When I went back to the bank, revolving these things in my mind, I
found Jones employed in arranging the correspondence. It was part of
his duty to see to the preservation and filing of all letters arriving
from Europe, and, strange to say, he delighted in the task. It was
part of my duty to see he did his; so I sat down and began to turn
over the pile of letters and messages which he had put on my desk;
they dated back two years; this surprised me, and I said:
"Rather behindhand, aren't you. Jones?"
"Yes, sir, rather. Fact is, I've done 'em before, but as you've never
initialed 'em, I thought I ought to bring 'em to your notice."
"Quite right--very neglectful of me. I suppose they're all right?"
"Yes, sir, all right."
"Then I won't trouble to go through them."
"They're all there, sir, except, of course, the cable about the second
loan, sir."
"Except what?" I said.
"The cable about the second loan," he repeated.
I was glad to be reminded of this, for of course I wished to remove
that document before the bundle finally took its place among the
archives. Indeed, I thought I had done so. But why had Jones removed
it? Surely Jones was not as skeptical as that?
"Ah, and where have you put that?"
"Why, sir, his Excellency took that."
"What?" I cried.
"Yes, sir. Didn't I mention it? Why, the day after you and the
President were here that night, his Excellency came down in the
afternoon, when you'd gone out to the Piazza, and said he wanted it.
He said, sir, that you'd said it was to go to the Ministry of Finance.
He was very affable, sir, and told me that it was necessary the
original should be submitted to the minister for his inspection; and
as he was passing by (he'd come in to cash a check on his private
account) he'd take it up himself. Hasn't he given it back to you, sir?
He said he would."
I had just strength enough to gasp out:
"Slipped his memory, no doubt. All right, Jones."
"May I go now, sir?" said Jones. "Mrs. Jones wanted me to go with her
to--"
"Yes, go," said I, and as he went out I added a destination different,
no doubt, from what the good lady had proposed. For I saw it all now.
That old villain (pardon my warmth) had stolen my forged cable, and,
if need arose, meant to produce it as his own justification. I had
been done, done brown--and Jones' idiocy had made the task easy. I
had no evidence but my word that the President knew the message was
fabricated. Up till now I had thought that if I stood convicted I
should have the honor of his Excellency's support in the dock. But
now! why now, I might prove myself a thief, but I couldn't prove him
one. I had convinced Jones, not for my good, but for his. I had forged
papers, not for my good, but for his. True, I had spent the money
myself, but--
"Damn it all!" I cried in the bitterness of my spirit, "he won about
three-quarters of that."
And his Excellency's words came back to my memory, "I make the most of
my opportunities."
