Banco: The Further Adventures of Papillon Read Online Free PDF Page B

tempting to see something like that just lying about.”
    “It’s not just lying about, because I’m looking after it.”
    “Maybe. But you aren’t here twenty-four hours a day.”
    “No. Only from six at night to six in the morning. But during the day there’s another guard: maybe you know him--Alexandre, of the forged postal orders.”
    “Yes, I know him. Well, I’ll see you later, Simon. Say hello to your family for me.”
    “You’ll come and visit us?”
    “Sure. I’d like to. Ciao .”
    I left quickly, as quickly as I could to get away from this scene of temptation. It was unbelievable! Anyone would say they were yearning to be robbed, the guys in charge of this mine. A store that could hardly hold itself upright, and two onetime high-ranking crooks taking care of all that treasure! In all my life on the loose I’d never seen anything like it!
    Slowly I walked up the winding path to the village. I had to go right through it to reach the headland where Charlot’s chateau was. I dawdled; the eight-hour day had been tough. In the second gallery there had been precious little air, and even that was hot and wet, in spite of the ventilators. My pumps had stopped sucking three or four times and I had had to set them right again. It was half past eight now, and I had gone down the mine at noon. I’d earned eighteen boilvars. If I had had a workingman’s mind, that wouldn’t have been so bad. Meat was 2.50 bolIvars per kilo; sugar 0.70; coffee 2. Vegetables weren’t dear either: 0.50 for a kilo of rice and the same for dried beans. You could live cheaply, that was true. But did I have the sense to put up with this kind of life?
    In spite of myself, as I climbed the stony path, walking easily in the heavy nailed boots they had given me at the mine--in spite of myself, and although I did my best not to think about it, I kept seeing that million dollars in gold bars just calling out for some enterprising hand to grab it. At night, it wouldn’t be hard to jump Simon and chloroform him without being recognized. And then the whole thing was in the bag, because they carried their fecklessness to the point of leaving him the key to the store so he could take shelter if it rained. Criminal irresponsibility! All I’d have to do then was carry the two hundred ingots out of the mine and load them into something--a truck or a cart. I’d have to prepare several caches in the forest, all along the road, to salt the ingots away in little bundles of a hundred kilos each. If it was a truck, then once it was unloaded I’d have to carry on as far as possible, pick the deepest place in the river and toss it in. A cart? There were plenty in the village square. The horse? That would be harder to find, but not impossible. A night of very heavy rain would give me all the time I needed for the job, and it might even let me get back to the house and go to bed meek as a monk.
    By the time I reached the lights of the village square, I had already brought the heist off in my mind, and was slipping into the sheets of Big Charlot’s bed.
    “ Buenos noches ,” called a group of men sitting at the village bar.
    “Hello there, one and all. Good night, hombres .”
    “Come and join us for a while. Have an iced beer.”
    It would have been rude to refuse, so there I was sitting among those good souls, most of them miners, who wanted to know whether I was all right, whether I’d found a woman, whether Conchita was looking after Picolino properly, and whether I needed money for medicine or anything else. These generous, spontaneous offers brought me back to earth. A gold prospector said that if I didn’t care for the mine and if I only wanted to work when I felt like it I could go off with him. “It’s tough going, but you make more. And then there’s always the possibility you’ll be rich in a single day.” I thanked them all and offered to stand a round.
    “No, Frenchman, you’re our guest. Another time, when you’re rich. God be