“We should leave around four, you know. It will take us a good two hours to drive over to Altdorf. The Sunday traffic is always so terrible. I do wish you hadn’t given Heinrich the weekend off.”
The phone rang. Both appeared startled.
“I’ll take it,” said Hofer’s wife. “It’s probably Mary. Her young man from the bank picked her up very early this morning while you were still sleeping.” She picked up the receiver.
“Walter, it’s Lima, Peru. For you. I must say, at this hour on a Sunday morning!”
Hofer took the phone, listened very intently, said no more than two sentences, and then hung up.
“Who in the world was that, Walter?”
“Oh, just some unfinished business.”
“Anything to do with those troubles at the bank?”
“No, Martha. Something quite unimportant that has now been completed—successfully. And about those troubles at the bank, they have also been dealt with, equally successfully.”
“Oh, Walter, I’m so happy for you. Now you just go back to your speech. I’ve got a lot to do in the kitchen.”
At four o’clock they left in the Mercedes. The trip took them around the Lake of Zurich, through Zug and Lucerne, and then down the east side of the Vierwaldstättersee. Soon they were on the famous, and dangerous, part of the Gotthardt route known as the Axenstrasse. In the 1930s kilometre after kilometre had been blasted out of the towering rock which bordered the lake at this point. Tunnel after tunnel, curve after curve. On the left hand side, the wall of rock; on the right, deep cold mountain water. Hofer, who knew fully well that his driving talents were limited, kept the car at very low speeds. The traffic was sparse, since the heavy winter clouds had long ago closed in on central Switzerland, making an afternoon in front of a TV set much more attractive for the bourgeois Swiss than a Sunday drive around a lake almost totally invisible in the fog and often driving rain.
By the time the Hofers reached Altdorf it was dark. But they had no trouble finding their destination. The Oxen Hotel was right in the centre of town, opposite the huge memorial to William Tell—the town’s most famous, though legendary, son. The Oxen had been established in 1654. The old wooden timbers, small stained-glass windows, and the brightly polished bronze figure of an ox which hung on a massive chain above its entrance door made it a landmark known to travellers for many centuries. Its prize attraction for many generations had been the Goethestube. Even that great man had dined at the Oxen on his way to Italy to discover the culture which revolutionized his thinking.
Dr. and Mrs. Hofer were met by the Bürgermeister, flanked by both the Protestant pastor and Catholic priest of this ancient community.
The people of inner Switzerland are not known for ceremony. Soon after the Hofers had taken their place at the head table in the room which had already filled with the invited guests in their Sunday best, all sat down to dinner. The soup was followed by Holsteinschnitzel with Roesti. Dessert took the form of Zwetschgentorte and whipped cream. The wines were strictly Swiss: for those that preferred white, an Aigle; a dark heavy Dole for the rest. Coffee was served with a choice of either cognac or Kirschwasser. It was a solid Swiss dinner.
Silence was complete when the Bürgermeister rose to introduce the speaker to this audience of mixed religious affiliations whose mutual cause was that of promoting the ecumenical movement in a world which was rapidly coming closer together, even in Switzerland.
Hofer made a strong speech, pointing out that the time had come for the leaders of the community to raise their voices in spiritual matters. Demonstrated leadership, moral leadership, was the key to success whether in matters of church, government, yes, also banking. His was a plea for these leaders, many of whom he thought were gathered in Altdorf this evening, to take their fair share of the burden. To stand up, as good men, for the good of the community. He ended with an admonition, a citation from the ancient Greek New Testament, the Gospel according to Saint Luke, chapter 6, verse 45: πὁ ἀγαθòς ἄνθρωπος ἐκ το̑υ ἀγαθο̑υ θησαυρō̑υ τ̑ης καρδίας προφέρει τò ἀγαθόν, καì ὁ πονηρóς ἐκ το̑υ πονηρο̑υ προφέρει τò πονηρóυ.
The banker, having duly demonstrated his credentials as a scholar and humanist, then condescended to translate: “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good: and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil.”
Hofer’s final words: “My friends, our record will speak for itself.”
As the Hofers headed back toward Zurich, it was through an ugly night. The winds were high, whipping an icy spray off the white-caps and across the Axenstrasse. The road was totally deserted. Suddenly the headlights of the massive Mercedes struck a car, straddling the road in front of a tunnel entrance. Two men waved as he braked.
“Walter, don’t stop for God’s sake.”
“Martha, now take it easy. I have no choice, and these people appear to need help.”
The two men approached the car as Hofer wound down his window.
“Walter, be careful. They look like Arabs.”
The warning came just a bit late. At precisely that moment an incredibly strong hand came through the open window and pinned Hofer’s head to the back of the car seat. Another hand soon had the door open. Within seconds, a sharp blow, just one, had broken Walter Hofer’s neck. Within minutes, both Walter and Martha Hofer were 110 metres below the surface of the Vierwaldstättersee inside their Mercedes 300.
Three months later a memorial was erected on the scene of this tragic automobile accident. The citizens of Altdorf contributed the stone, the General Bank of Switzerland the gold plate firmly imbedded in the granite. The only inscription was a citation from the New Testament, the Gospel according to Saint Luke, chapter 6, verse 45, first half only: πὁ ἀγαθòς ἄνθρωπος ἐκ το̑υ ἀγαθο̑ν θησαυρο̑υ τ̑ης καρδίας προφἐρει τò ἀγαθόν.
Copyright
Copyright © 1973 by Paul E. Erdman
All rights reserved.
This Dover edition, first published in 2018, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, in 1973.
Names: Erdman, Paul, 1932–2007, author.
Title: The billion dollar sure thing / Paul E. Erdman.
Description: Mineola, New York : Dover Publications, Inc., 2018. | “This Dover edition, first published in 2018, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, in 1973.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018031753| ISBN 9780486828114 | ISBN 0486828115
Subjects: LCSH: International finance—Fiction. | Banks and banking—Fiction. | Conspiracies—Fiction. | Switzerland—Fiction. | LCGFT: Political fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3555.R4 B55 2018 | DDC 813/.54—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018031753
Manufactured in the United States by LSC Communications
82811501 2018