He leans forward to my ear.
"Are you ignorant of everything?”
"Yes.”
"India?”
I admit..
"So you know nothing at all! I suspected!.. Hm! Hm! You’ll have trouble!”
It sounded nuts.
"Oh! of course!”
"The devil? You understand me?”
"Sure, I believe you.”
"Do you follow me?”
"Of course!”
The drunks were raising hell at the bar, it was a real din plus the player piano!.. So he yells in my ear.. the really utterly confidential words..
"The Armadalis of Tibet? the flower of Tara-Tohe?.. You know nothing about that flower?.. Absolutely nothing?”
He stares at me to see if I’m hesitant. he's suspicious.. "Oh! not at all, Monsieur! I swear!”
"The Flower of the Magi?”
"No, really I don’t!”
"Well, / know it! I know where it is! the way to the Sanctuary!”
Ah! I sit there flabbergasted!
"But that’s nothing yet! Now listen closely! I, you hear me? I’ve approached the Armadalis of Tibet three consecutive times! Yes! the Tara-Tohe!.. It’s not where people think it is!.. Ah! not at all! ah! no indeed! No!.. No!”
Some joke!
"To mislead idiots! you, for example, where would you think it is? in the Convent of Arthampajar? Now I’ll tell one! nonsense! phew! phew! don’t hand me that!”
I was making him laugh.
"I know where they’re hiding the Armadalis of Tibet!.. Prospecting mercury quartz for the scoundrels in Calcutta… the Gem Proceeding Company.. Ah! those bloodsuckers! What bloodsuckers! Still they’ve been of use to me, after all!.. I’ve discovered everything! Chance! exactly!.. The secret of Things!”
Ah! it’s superb! I admire him more. Everything’s fine! My fingers go right into my nose now that I’ve got confidence. We’d have it easy since he’d discovered everything! I was rolling snotballs.
"I’ll have you read the passages! Verses 25 and 42 of the secret Vega!.. for the time being, sh!.. mum’s the word!
When we come to Mahe… the little monsoon port.. then I'll reveal everything to you!..Mahe! Karikal! of course!” "Miss! Miss! please two glasses of Bass! two glasses of Bass!” He was ordering two more glasses of beer.. His head must have been going round… his eyes shining.. cheekbones red.. imaginarily… He was tipsy with seltzer water, the waitress didn’t bring any stout or Bass! all we’d had was soda.
"So we’ll put into port at Mahe, as I was saying, then Delhi! You see it, don’t you?… the borders!.. the little Lama Raw-pidor!..Ah! watch out! What a rascal! A shrewd little article! I interest him 50 %!.. Greedy!.. Greedy!.. I’ll hook him later on!.. I’ll hook him!”
Things were shaping up.
"The whole Mission! Everything! You, the convoy! The porters! Off we go! Tara-Tohe’s ours! My boy! At the nose of the Universe! Exactly the word for it!.. At least twenty Missions at the present time!.. You understand?.. Dead sure!
.. Very secret! Flawless! Get it straight! the most austere initiates! at this very moment exploring! stirring up! rummaging through Tibet in all directions, north and south! They’re turning all the lamaseries inside out! Foiled! Not a word more! It would compromise everything! No! I won’t tell you anything more!.. Sh!.. The Gem Proceeding Company owes me, just imagine, $25,000 at the very least!.. For my quartz alone! and I’m not talking about the emeralds! or the ebonites! A fortune! my mercurous isocenes!.. The mere waste products of my prospectings! What if I presented my entire bill!. In short!.. A fantastic swindle!.. But we’ll talk about it another time!.. Here are the accounts!”
He rummages around in his cassock… He takes out a big roll… He spreads it on the table.. columns and columns of figures!.. What additions!.. staggering!..
"Credit!.. My credit! Read there! in red!.. 25,000.. right? 25,000.. more! and 75,000 for something else!..
dollars! dollars! more! credit! Hindu piasters!.. That tells you everything!.. ana pounds sterling!.. And my options!.. and that’s nothing!.. not a tenth! Trifles!.. Does that give you an inkling?.. What if Gem Proceeding should learn of my return?.. then it all goes wrong! Of course!.. the poor victim resurrected?.. The gentlemen learn of it!.. the scoundrels immediately take action!”
In my ear.
’'They all think I’m dead!.. buried!.. Some joke, young fellow!”
He beats his chest… it resounds..
"Then and there! They send their craftiest murderers out after us!.. They poison our wells! all our wells!.. all along our route!.. I know them! capable of anything! even before approaching the places!.. The Falls of Madrapore!.. We’ll perish murdered!.. In ambush! Pfft!.. It’s over!.. That tells everything!.. Those people stop at nothing!.. I know that crowd!.. The Viceroy? Pfft! one of the gang! Shuts his eyes, obviously! Thick as thieves! Wait! Wait!”
He starts searching again… he hesitates… He wants to give me real proof.. the utter importance of the great secret!.. entirely convincing!..
"Listen, Ferdinand, at this very moment the Brahmanic Consistories would offer me all the gold in the world!.. You hear me? All the gold in the world! that’s something! If I turned over to them all my plans and diagrams. the sketch of the route of the summits!.. Nothing doing! I’d tell them to go to hell!.. No go!.. mum’s the word!.. Ah! you see what we’re in for?”
Obviously it was serious.. Then he gets anxious again.. he frowns… all those people around us… the coming and going at the door.. Ah what a bother! the voices of the men drinking and arguing next to us.. He feels in another pocket, another lining… He decides to.. another roll… He unrolls it.. all over the table!.. a big parchment. He pushes the glasses aside.. It’s a huge map.. heights, surveys, ridges. full of mountains.. a wide river.. deep hollows.. dark abysses..
"There!” he points with his finger.. "that red cross!. there!.. that blue cross!.. Here! this one!.. all our stopping places!”
Ah! fine.. It’s the beginning!
"You understand me?”
Ah! of course, I understand!.. Maps, I know all about them! But watch out! I’m getting excited, I’m talking too much… If I go shooting my mouth off, it won’t look good… he won’t want to any more! He fumbles around in his linings. he takes out another piece of cardbord… a colored square.. "Here’s the Convent!.. You hear me?.. The Convent!” "Oh yes, oh yes! ”
I’m with him in everything.
"The place of Magic! ”
I bend forward to get a better look.
"Oh! perfectly!”
I stare.
"There we are!”
No doubt about it.
He murmurs to me.
"The Tara-Tohe!”
He’s in his stride.
"Ah! Ah!”
"The Flower of the Secret! ”
I’m pleased too.
"Moscow!. Lhasa!”. He’s going over it in his mind. He’s muttering our whole route!. possessed by it, imbued. "Listen to me, Moscow! Lhasa!.. another stage. two weeks here… the coast! We mobilize!.. our transport!.. our guides!. our letters of welcome!. Requisitioning of ponies!
.. You attend to the foraging!. I leave these matters to you!
.. I set out alone!.. I go away!.. I spend a few days in Swoboly, in the Province of Penwane!. The Pagoda with jade lazuli! Just a purification! I sign an agreement with Gow-pur, the Lama of the Brahmans.. Oh! a real bloodsucker!.. I bring him my prayer rolls. perfection itself… the praying wheel I invented.. 37 prayers all at once!.. automatic!.. I grant him exclusive rights!. Oh! he’s so eager!. All the customers of the Plateaus!.. He wants them all!.. everything for himself!..for him alone!.. What a demand!.. The whole Roof of the world!. Every Brahman becomes his customer!.. He lets us pass!.. He attends to our provisions!.. fifty-fifty!.. I his prayer wheels!.. He our corn meal!.. We barter! we can’t do anything without him!.. When you hear his name! Gowpur Rawpidor. Three bows! North! South! Southeast! ”