U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [126]
"Jez, Ben, that's a smooth bastard," said Mac to Ben after J. Ward Moorehouse had gone.
" Mac," said Ben, "that baby's got a slick cream of mil-lions al over him. By gum, I'd like to make some of these contacts he talks about . . . By gorry, I may do it yet . . . You just watch your Uncle Dudley, Mac. I'm goin' to associate with the big hombres after this." After that the party was not so refined. Ben brought out a lot more cognac and the men started taking the girls into the bedrooms and hal ways and even into the pantry and kitchen. Barrow cottoned onto a blonde named Nadia
-319-who was half English and talked to her al evening about the art of life. After everybody had gone Ben found them locked up in his bedroom.
Mac got to like the life of a storekeeper. He got up when he wanted to and walked up the sunny streets past the cathedral and the façade of the national palace and up Independencia where the sidewalks had been freshly sprinkled with water and a morning wind was blowing through, sweet with the smel of flowers and roasting coffee. Concha's little brother Antonio would have the shutters down and be sweeping out the store by the time he got there. Mac would sit in the back reading or
would roam about the store chatting with people in Eng-lish and Spanish. He didn't sel many books, but he kept al the American and European papers and magazines and they sold wel , especial y The Police Gazette and La Vie Parisienne. He started a bank account and was planning to take on some typewriter agencies. Salvador kept tel ing him he'd get him a contract to supply stationery to some government department and make him a rich man.
One morning he noticed a big crowd in the square in front of the National Palace. He went into one of the cantinas under the arcade and ordered a glass of beer. The waiter told him that Carranza's troops had lost Torreón-and that Vil a and Zapata were closing in on the Federal District. When he got to the bookstore news was going down the street that Carranza's government had fled and that the revolutionists would be in the city before night. The storekeepers began to put up their shutters. Concha and her mother came in crying saying that it would be worse than the terrible week when Madero fel and that the revolutionists had sworn to burn and loot the city. An-tonio ran in saying that the Zapatistas were bombarding Tacuba. Mac got a cab and went over to the Chamber of Zapatistas were bombarding Tacuba. Mac got a cab and went over to the Chamber of Deputies to see if he could find anybody he knew. Al the doors were open to the street and there were papers lit--320-tered along the corridors. There was nobody in the theater but an old Indian and his wife who were walking round hand in hand looking reverently at the gilded ceiling and the paintings and the tables covered with green plush. The old man carried his hat in his hand as if he were in church.
Mac told the cabman to drive to the paper where Sal-vador worked, but the janitor there told him with a wink that Salvador had gone to Vera Cruz with the chief of police. Then he went to the Embassy where he couldn't get a word with anybody. Al the anterooms were ful of Americans who had come in from ranches and concessions and who were cursing out President Wilson and giving each other the horrors with stories of the revolutionists. At the consulate Mac met a Syrian who offered to buy his stock of books. "No, you don't," said Mac and went back down Independencia.
When he got back to the store newsboys were already running through the street crying, " Viva la revolucion revindicadora." Concha and her mother were in a panic and said they must get on the train to Vera Cruz or they'd al be murdered. The revolutionists were sacking convents and murdering priests and nuns. The old woman dropped on her knees in the corner of the room and began chant-ing "Ave Marias."
"Aw, hel !" said Mac, "let's sel out and go back to the States. Want to go to the States, Concha?" Concha nodded vigorously and began to smile through her tears.
"But what the devil can we do with your mother and Antonio?" Concha said she had a married sister in Vera Cruz. They could leave them there if they could ever get to Vera Cruz.