Henri Charrière - Banco - the Further Adventures of Papillon

"Nor do I," he said, doubling up with laughter.

"How come? We aren't going to the mines to dig up diamonds? Where do we get them from, then?"

"Out of the miners' pockets."

"How?"

"By shooting craps every night, and by sometimes losing."

"I get it, mac. When do we leave?"

"Wait a minute." He was very pleased with the effect of his words. Slowly he stood up, pulled a table into the middle of the room, spread a blanket over it and brought out six pairs of dice. "Have a good look." Very carefully I examined them. They were not loaded.

"No one could say those dice were loaded, could they?"

"Nobody."

He took a gauge out of a felt case, gave it to me and said, "Measure." One of the sides had been carefully filed and polished, reducing it less than a tenth of a millimeter. All you could see was shine. "Try and throw seven or eleven." I rolled the dice. Neither seven nor eleven. "My turn now." Jojo deliberately made a little wrinkle in the blanket. He held the dice with the tips of his fingers. "That's the trick," he observed. "Here we go! And there's seven! And there's eleven! And eleven! And seven! You want six? Boom, there's six! Six with four and two or five and one? There you are. Is the gentleman satisfied?"

I was fascinated, utterly fascinated. I'd never seen such a thing: it was extraordinary. You couldn't make out the slightest false move.

"Listen, mac. I've been shooting craps forever. I started on the Butte when I was eight. I've risked shooting them with dice like that, and you know where? On the crap table at the Gare de l'Est, in the days of Roger Sole and Company."

"I remember. There were some very tough customers there."

"You don't have to tell me. And among the regulars, as well as the tough guys and the pimps and the burglars, there were cops as famous as Jojo-le-Beau, the pimp cop from La Madeleine, and specialists from the gambling squad. And I took them as well as the rest. So you see there's no way to lose if you shoot these craps in a miners' camp."

"True enough."

"But get this: the one place is as dangerous as the other. At the Gare de l'Est the crooks were as quick on the draw as the miners. Just one difference: in Paris you shoot and you light out as quick as you can. At the mine, you shoot and stay put. There are no pigs; the miners make their own laws." He paused, slowly emptied his glass and went on, "Well now, Papillon, are you coming with me?"

I reflected for a moment; but not for long. The adventure tempted me. It was risky, without doubt; those miners would not be choirboys-far from it; but there might be big money to be picked up. Come on, Papillon, banco on Jojol And again I asked, "When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow afternoon, if you like: at five, after the heat of the day. That'll give us time to get things together. We'll travel by night at first. You got a gun?"

"No."

"A good knife?"

"No knife."

"Never mind. I'll look after that. _Ciao_."

I went back to the house, thinking about Maria. She'd certainly rather I went into the bush than to Caracas. I'd leave Picolino with her. And then tomorrow, on my way for the diamonds! And seven! And eleven! _Once, siete! Et sept, et onze!_ I was there already; all I had to do was learn the numbers in Spanish, English, Brazilian and Italian.

I found José at home. I told him I'd changed my mind. Caracas would be for another time; at present I was going off with an old white-haired Frenchman called Jojo to the diamond mines.

"What are you going with him as?"

"As his partner, of course."

"He always gives his partners half his winnings."

"That's the rule. Do you know men who've worked with him?"

"Three."

"Did they make plenty of money?"

"I don't know. I dare say they did. Each one of them made three or four trips."

"And what about after those three or four trips?"

"After? They never came back."

"Why not? Did they settle down there at the mines?"

"No. They were dead."

"Is that right? Fever?"

"No. Killed by the miners."

"Oh. Jojo must be a lucky guy, if he always got out of it."

"Yes. But Jojo, he's very clever. He never wins much himself: _he works it so that his partner wins_."

"I see. So it's the other man who's in danger; not him. It's good to know. Thanks, José."

"You're not going, now that I've told you that?"

"One last question, and give me the straight answer: Is there a chance of coming back with a lot of dough after two or three trips?"

"Sure."

"So Jojo is rich. Why does he go back there, then? I saw him loading the mules."

"To begin with Jojo doesn't risk anything, as I said. Secondly, he was certainly not going off. Those mules belong to his fatherin-law. He made up his mind to go because he met you."

"But what about the stuff he was loading, or getting ready to load?"

"How do you know it was for him?"

"Oh-ho. What other advice have you got?"

"Don't go."

"Not that. I've made up my mind to go. What else?"

José bent his head as if to think. A long pause. When he looked up again his face was bright. His eyes shone with intelligence, and slowly, drawing out his words, he said, "Listen to the advice of a man who knows that world through and through. Every time there's a big game, a real big game-when there's a heap of diamonds in front of you and everything is at the boiling point, get up unexpectedly and don't sit there with your winnings. Say you've got a bellyache and go straight to the john. You don't come back, of course; and that night you sleep somewhere else, not in your own place."

"Pretty good, José. And what else?"

"Although the buyers at the mine pay a good deal less than the ones in El Cailao or Ciudad Boilvar, you want to sell them all the diamonds you win-sell them every day. And _don't ever take the cash_. Make them give you receipts in your name so as to cash them at El Callao or Ciudad Boilvar. Do the same with foreign banknotes. You say you're afraid of losing everything you've won in a single day and so you avoid the risk by never having much on you. And you tell everybody just what you're doing, so it becomes well known."

"So that way I'll have a chance of coming back?"

"Yes. You'll have a chance of coming back alive, if God wills."

"Thanks, José. _Buenos noches_."

Lying in Maria's arms, exhausted with love, my head in the hollow of her shoulders, I felt her breath on my cheek. In the darkness, before I closed my eyes, I saw a heap of diamonds in front of me. Gently I picked them up, as though I was playing with them, and put them into the little canvas bag that all miners carry; then I got up right away and having looked round I said to Jojo, "Keep my place. I'm going to the john. I'll be back in a minute." And as I dropped off, there were José's knowing eyes, shining full of light-only people who live very close to nature have eyes like that.

The morning passed quickly. Everything was settled. Picolino was to stay there; he would be well cared for. I kissed everybody. Maria shone with delight. She knew that if I went to the mines I'd have to come back this way, whereas Caracas never gave back the men who went to live there. She went with me as far as the meeting place. Five o'clock; Jojo was there, and in great form. "Hello there, man! Okay? You're prompt-fine, fine! The sun will be down in an hour. It's better that way. No one can follow you at night."

A dozen kisses for my true love and I climbed into the saddle. Jojo fixed the stirrups for me and just as we were setting off Maria said to me, "And above all, _mi amor_, don't forget to go to the lavatory at the right moment."

I burst out laughing as I dug my heels into the mule. "You were listening behind the door, you Judas!"

"When you love, it's natural."