U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [124]
-314-Ben and Barrow sat with their heads together at a table in the corner talking about the oil business. Barrow was saying that there was an investigator for certain oil interests coming down; he'd be at the Regis almost any day now and Ben was saying he wanted to meet him and Barrow put his arm around his shoulder and said he was sure Ben was just the man this investigator would want to meet to get an actual working knowledge of conditions. Meanwhile Mac and Salvador were dancing the Cuban
danzon with the girls. Then Barrow got to his feet a little unsteadily and said he didn't want to wait for the French girls but why not go to that place where they'd been and try some of the dark meat, but Salvador insisted on taking them to the house of Remedios near the American em-bassy. " Quelquecosa de chic," he'd say in bad French. It was a big house with a marble stairway and crystal chande-liers and salmonbrocaded draperies and lace curtains and mirrors everywhere. " Personne que les henerales vieng aqui," he said when he'd introduced them to the madam, who was a darkeyed grayhaired woman in black with a black shawl who looked rather like a nun. There was only one girl left unoccupied so they fixed up Barrow with her and arranged about the price and left him. "Whew, that's a relief" said Ben when they came out. The air was cold and the sky was al stars.
Salvador had made the three old men with their instru-ments get into the back of the car and said he felt romantic and wanted to serenade his novia and they went out to-wards Guadalupe speeding like mad along the broad cause-way. Mac and the chauffeur and Ben and Salvador and the three old men singing La Adelita and the instruments chirping al off key. In Guadalupe they stopped under some buttonbal trees against the wal of a house with big grated windows and sang Cielito lindo and La Adelita and Cuatro mil pas, and Ben and Mac sang Just to keep her from the foggy foggy dew and were just starting Oh, -bury me not on the lone prairie
-315-bury me not on the lone prairie when a girl came to the window and talked a long time in low Spanish to Sal-vador. Salvador said, "El a dit que nous make escandalo and must go away. Très chic."
By that time a patrol of soldiers had come up and were about to arrest them al when the officer arrived and rec-ognized the car and Salvador and took them to have a drink with him at his bil et. When they al got home to Mac's place they were very drunk. Concha, whose face was drawn from waiting up, made up a mattress for Ben in the diningroom and as they were al going to turn in Ben said, "By heavens, Concha, you're a swel girl. When I make my pile I'l buy you the handsomest pair of dia-mond earrings in the Federal District." The last they saw of Salvador he was standing up in the front seat of the car as it went round the corner on two wheels conducting the three old men in La Adelita with big gestures like an orchestra leader.
Before Christmas Ben Stowel came back from a trip
to Tamaulipas feeling fine. Things were looking up for him. He'd made an arrangement with a local general near Tampico to run an oil wel on a fifty-fifty basis. Through Salvador he'd made friends with some members of Car-ranza's cabinet and was hoping to be able to turn over a deal with some of the big claimholders up in the States. He had plenty of cash and took a room at the Regis. One day he went round to the printing plant and asked Mac to step out in the al ey with him for a minute.
"Look here, Mac," he said, "I've got an offer for you
. . . You know old Worthington's bookstore? Wel , I got drunk last night and bought him out for two thousand pesos . . . He's pul ing up stakes and going home to blighty, he says."
"The hel you did!"
"Wel , I'm just as glad to have him out of the way."
-316-"Why, you old whoremaster, you're after Lisa."
"Wel , maybe she's just as glad to have him out of the way too."
"She's certainly a goodlooker."
"I got a lot a news I'l tel you later . . . Ain't goin'
to be so healthy round The Mexican Herald maybe . . . I've got a proposition for you, Mac . . . Christ knows I owe you a hel ova lot . . . You know that load of office furniture you have out back Concha made you buy that time?" Mac nodded. "Wel , I'l take it off your hands and give you a half interest in that bookstore. I'm opening an office. You know the book business . . . you told me yourself you did . . . the profits for the first year are yours and after that we split two ways, see? You certainly ought to make it pay. That old fool Worthington did, and kept Lisa into the bargain . . . Are you on?"