Banco: The Further Adventures of Papillon by Henri Charrière Read Free Book Online Page A

You aren’t going to send me away today?”
    “No, dear. I told you I didn’t want to set up house, but sending you away is something else again. If you can stay without any trouble, stay as long as you like.”
    It was close to twelve and I had to leave for the mine. Maria decided to hitch a lift home in a truck and come back in the evening.
    “Hey there,” Charlot said. He was standing in the door of his room, wearing pajamas; and he spoke to me in French. “So you’ve found the chick you needed all by yourself. A luscious one, too: I congratulate you.” He added that, as the next day was Sunday, we might drink to the occasion.
    “Maria, tell your father and sisters to come and spend Sunday with us to celebrate this. And you come back whenever you like-- the house is yours. Have a good day, Papi; watch out for the number three pump. And when you quit work, you don’t have to drop in on Simon. If you don’t see the stuff he is looking after so badly, you’ll feel it less.”
    “You dirty old crook. No, I won’t go see Simon. Don’t worry, man. Ciao .”
    Maria and I walked through the village arm in arm, close together, to show the girls she was my woman.
    The pumps ran sweetly, even number three. But neither the hot, wet air nor the beat of the motor kept me from thinking about Charlot. He had grasped why I was so thoughtful, all right. It hadn’t taken long for him, an old crook, to see that the heap of gold was at the bottom of it all. Nor for Simon either; and Simon must certainly have told him about our conversation. Those were the sort of friends a man should have--real friends, aglow with joy because I’d got myself a woman. They were hoping that this black-haired godsend would make me forget the blazing heap of loot.
    I turned all this over and over in my head, and in time I began to see the position more clearly. These good guys were now as straight as so many rulers; they were leading blameless lives. But in spite of living like squares they had kept the underworld outlook and they were utterly incapable of tipping off the police about anyone whatsoever, even if they guessed what he was up to and knew for sure it would mean bad trouble for them. The two who would be taken in right away if the thing came off were Simon and Alexandre, the men who guarded the treasure. Charlot would come in for his share of the hornets’ nest, too, because every single one of the ex-convicts would be trundled off to jail. And then farewell peace and quiet, farewell house, vegetable garden, wife, kids, hens, goats and pigs. So I began to see how these former crooks must have quaked not for themselves but for their homes, when they thought how my caper was going to ruin everything. “How I hope he doesn’t go and screw it all,” they must have said. I could see them holding a council of war.
    I had made up my mind. I’d go and see Simon that evening and ask him and his family to the party tomorrow, and I’d tell him to invite Alexandre, too, if he could come. I must make them all think that having a girl like Maria was all I could ever want.
    The hoist brought me up to the open air. I met Charlot on his way down, and I asked, “The party still on?”
    “Of course it is, Papillon. More than ever.”
    “I’m going to ask Simon and his family. And Alexandre, too, if he can come.”
    Old Charlot was a deep one. He looked me straight in the eye and then in a rather flip tone he said, “Why, that’s a sweet idea, my friend.” Without another word he stepped into the hoist, and it took him down to where I had just come from. I went around by the store and found Simon.
     
     
    The party was a marvelous success. José congratulated us on loving one another, and Maria’s sister whispered questions in her ear--full of curiosity. Simon and his fine family were there, and Aiexandre, too, since he had found someone to fill in for him guarding the treasure. He had a charming wife, and a well-dressed little boy and girl