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

came with them. The rabbits were delicious, and the huge cake, shaped like a heart, lasted no time at all. We even danced to the radio and the Victrola, and an old convict played the accordion.
    After a good many liqueurs I laid into my old crooks, in French. “Well, and what have you guys been thinking? Did you really believe I was going to pull something off?”
    “Yes, friend,” said Charlot. “We wouldn’t have said a word if you hadn’t brought it up yourself. But it’s dead certain you had the notion of knocking off that ton of gold, right? Give the straight answer, Papillon.”
    “You know I’ve been chewing over my revenge these fourteen years. Multiply fourteen years by three hundred and sixty.five days and then by twenty-four hours and each hour by sixty minutes and you still won’t have the number of times I’ve sworn to make them pay for what I went through. So when I saw that heap of gold in such a place, why true enough, I did think of working out a job.”
    “What then?” said Simon.
    “Then I looked at the position from every side and I was ashamed. I was running the risk of destroying the happiness of you all. I came to see that this happiness of yours--a happiness I hope to have myself one day--was worth much more than being rich. So the temptation of knocking off the gold quite disappeared. You can take my word for it: I won’t do anything here.”
    “There you are, then,” said Charlot, grinning from ear to ear. “So now we can all sleep easy. Long live Papillon! Long live Maria! Long live love and freedom! And long live decency! Hard guys we were, hard guys we are still, but only toward the pigs. Now we’re all of the same mind, including Papilion.”
     
     
    Six months I’d been here. Charlot was right. On the day of the party I had won the first battle against my longing to pull something off. I had been drifting away from the “road down the drain” ever since I had escaped. Now thanks to my friends’ example I had gained an important victory over myself: I had given up the idea of grabbing that million dollars. One thing was sure: it would not be easy for any other job to tempt me, now that I’d given up a fortune like that. Yet I wasn’t entirely at peace with myself. I had to make my money some other way than stealing it, fair enough; but still I had to get enough to go to Paris and hand in my bill. And that was going to cost me a pretty penny.
    Boom-bom, boom-bom, boom-bom : all the time my pumps sucked up the water that flowed into the galleries. It was hotter than ever. Every day I spent eight hours down there in the bowels of the mine. At this time I was on duty from four in the morning until noon. When I knocked off I’d have to go to Maria’s house in El Callao. Picolino had been there for a month, because in El Cailao the doctor could see him every day. He was being given therapy, and Maria and her sisters looked after him wonderfully. So I was going to see him and to make love to Maria: it was a week since I’d seen her, and I wanted her, physically and mentally. I found a truck that gave me a lift. The rain was pouring down when I opened the door at about one o’clock. They were all sitting around the table, apart from Maria, who seemed to be waiting near the door. “Why didn’t you come before? A week’s a long, long time. You’re all wet. Come and change right away.”
    She pulled me into the bedroom, took my clothes off and dried me with a big towel. “Lie down on the bed,” she said. And there we made love, not caring about the others who were waiting for us on the other side of the door. We dropped off to sleep, and it was Esmeralda, the green-eyed sister, who gently woke us late that afternoon, when night was already coming on.
    When we had all had dinner together, José the Pirate suggested going for a stroll.
    “Enrique, you wrote to the chief administrator asking him to get Caracas to put an end to your con finamiento (compulsory residence), is