The Seven Madmen 1732 Studios

Spanish · Part Two

La farsa

The Farce

313 sentences · 115 notes

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  1. 1

    As he came in, the circle of men rose to their feet, but Erdosain stopped short, dumbfounded to see among the gathering an army officer in a major's uniform.

    AlUponal · prepositionpreposition marking entrar
    entrarenteringentrar · verb, infinitiveadverbial clause on puso
    eltheel · determiner, masculine, singulardeterminer of círculo
    círculocirclecírculo · noun, masculine, singularsubject of puso
    deofde · prepositionpreposition marking hombres
    hombresmenhombre · noun, masculine, pluralmodifies círculo
    se(reflexive)él · pronoun, accusative, reflexivereflexive particle of puso
    pusoroseponer · verb, past, indicative, third-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
    detode · prepositionpreposition marking pie
    piefeetpie · noun, masculine, singularoblique complement of puso
    masbutmas · conjunctionlinks the coordination
    ErdosainErdosainErdosain · proper nounsubject of detuvo
    se(reflexive)él · pronoun, accusative, reflexivereflexive particle of detuvo
    detuvostoppeddetener · verb, past, indicative, third-person, singularcoordinated with puso
    estupefactodumbfoundedestupefacto · adjective, masculine, singularmodifies Erdosain
    aluponal · prepositionpreposition marking observar
    observarseeingobservar · verb, infinitiveadverbial clause on detuvo
    entreamongentre · prepositionpreposition marking reunidos
    lostheel · determiner, masculine, pluraldeterminer of reunidos
    reunidosgatheredreunido · adjective, masculine, pluraloblique complement of observar
    unanuno · determiner, masculine, singulardeterminer of oficial
    oficialofficeroficial · noun, masculine, singulardirect object of observar
    delof thedel · prepositionpreposition marking ejército
    ejércitoarmyejército · noun, masculine, singularmodifies oficial
    conincon · prepositionpreposition marking uniforme
    eltheel · determiner, masculine, singulardeterminer of uniforme
    uniformeuniformuniforme · noun, masculine, singularmodifies oficial
    deofde · prepositionpreposition marking mayor
    mayormajormayor · noun, masculine, singularmodifies uniforme

    False friend: here 'mayor' means the military rank 'major,' not 'bigger/older.'

  2. 2

    There sat the Gold Seeker, Haffner, a stranger, and the Major.

  3. The first two with their elbows on the table.

  4. Haffner rereading some blank sheets, and the Gold Seeker with a map in front of him.

  5. 3

    A sealed lump of stone kept the wind from carrying off the drawing.

  6. The Ruffian shook Erdosain's hand, and Erdosain sat down beside him, beginning to study the Major, who had abruptly aroused all his curiosity.

  7. The Astrologer was truly a master of surprises.

  8. 4

    Even so, the stranger made a bad impression on him.

  9. 5

    This was a man of tall stature, livid, with jet-black eyes.

  10. There was something repugnant in him, namely the lower lip drawn back in a perpetual sneer of contempt, the long, arched nose, wrinkled over the brow by three crosswise furrows.

  11. A silky moustache fell over his red lips, and his gaze barely settled on Erdosain, for the moment he was introduced to him he let himself drop into a hammock, staying that way with his head propped against a backrest, his sword between his knees, and a lock of hair stuck to his flat forehead.

  12. 6

    And for a few minutes they all stayed silent, eyeing one another with evident unease.

  13. The Astrologer, seated to one side of the arbor's entrance, lit a cigarette, watching the "chiefs" out of the corner of his eye.

  14. That is what they were called at a later meeting.

  15. Suddenly he raised his head, looking at the other five men who sat facing the head of the table, and said:

  16. 7

    —I don't think it necessary for us to repeat what we all know and have agreed upon in private meetings…, that is, the founding of a secret society whose upkeep will be funded through moral or immoral trades.

  17. On this we are all agreed, no?

  18. How would it suit you (I happen to like geometry) for us to call the society's various branch chiefs "cells"?

  19. 8

    —That is what they are called in Russia —said the Major—.

  20. The members of each cell will not be able to know the members of another.

  21. 9

    —What do you mean…, the chiefs won't know one another?

  22. 10

    —The ones who won't know each other, I insist, are not the chiefs, but the members.

  23. 11

    The Gold Seeker broke in:

  24. 12

    —This way it's going to be impossible to do anything.

  25. What is it that binds the members of the various cells together?

  26. 13

    —But the society is the six of us.

  27. 14

    —No, sir… the society is me —objected the Astrologer—.

  28. Speaking seriously, I'll tell you the society is everyone…, always with reservations as far as I am concerned.

  29. 15

    The Major spoke up:

  30. 16

    —I think the argument is pointless, because, as I understand it, there will be a perfectly fixed ladder of ranks.

  31. Each promotion will put the cell member in contact with a new chief.

  32. 17

    There will be as many promotions as there are cell chiefs.

  33. 18

    —How many do the cells come to at the moment?

  34. 19

    —There are four.

  35. I will be in charge of everything —the Astrologer went on—.

  36. You, Erdosain, Chief of Industries; the Gold Seeker —a young man at the corner of the table bowed his head— will have charge of the Colonies and Mines; the Major will branch our society into the army, and Haffner will be the Chief of the Brothels.

  37. 20

    Haffner stood up, exclaiming:

  38. 21

    —Excuse me, I will not be chief of anything.

  39. I'm here the way I could be anywhere else.

  40. The only thing I do as a favor to you is give you a budget, and nothing more.

  41. If I'm bothering you, I can leave.

  42. 22

    —No, stay —the Astrologer corrected.

  43. 23

    The Melancholy Ruffian sat down again and went back to scrawling doodles on the paper with a pencil.

  44. Erdosain admired his insolence.

  45. 24

    But beyond all doubt the one who drew everyone's attention and curiosity there was the Major, with the prestige of his uniform and the strangeness of his society.

  46. 25

    The Gold Seeker turned toward him:

  47. 26

    —How is that?

  48. Do you have hope of slipping our society into the army?

  49. 27

    They had all sat up in their chairs.

  50. That was the surprise of the meeting, the coup de théâtre prepared in silence.

  51. Undoubtedly, the Astrologer had all the makings of a leader.

  52. The regrettable thing was that he always kept the secret of his methods.

  53. But Erdosain felt proud to share a complicity with him.

  54. Now they had all sat up in their seats to listen to the Major.

  55. He looked at the Astrologer, and then said:

  56. 28

    —Gentlemen, I will speak to you with carefully weighed words.

  57. If not, I would not be here.

  58. Here is what is happening:

  59. 29

    Our army is riddled with discontented officers.

  60. It's not worth listing the reasons, nor will they interest you.

  61. The ideas of "dictatorship" and the political-military events of these recent times — I mean Spain and Chile — have made many of my comrades think that our country could also be fertile ground for a dictatorship.

  62. 30

    The most extraordinary astonishment was opening everyone's mouths.

  63. That was the unexpected thing.

  64. 31

    The Gold Seeker replied:

  65. 32

    —But do you believe that the Argentine army… I mean… the officers, will accept our ideas?

  66. 33

    —Of course they'll accept them…, provided you know how to set them in order.

  67. I can tell you right now that the officers disenchanted with democratic theories, parliament included, are more numerous than you think.

  68. Don't interrupt me, sir.

  69. Ninety percent of our country's deputies are inferior in education to a first lieutenant in our army.

  70. A politician accused of having taken part in the murder of a governor put it very aptly: "To govern a people you need no more skills than those of a ranch foreman".

  71. And that man spoke the truth in regard to our America.

  72. The Astrologer was rubbing his hands with evident satisfaction.

  73. 34

    The Major went on, with everyone's eyes fixed on him:

  74. 35

    —The army is a higher state within a lower society, since we are the country's defining force.

  75. And yet we are subject to the government's decisions… and who makes up the government?… the legislative and executive powers… that is, men chosen by shapeless political parties… and what representatives they are, gentlemen!

  76. You know better than I do that to become a deputy one must have had a career of lies, started out as a party-committee loafer, cutting deals and keeping company with scoundrels of every stripe — in short, a life on the margins of the law and of truth.

  77. I don't know whether this happens in countries more civilized than ours, but here it is so.

  78. In our chamber of deputies and senators there are men accused of usury and homicide, bandits sold to foreign companies, individuals of such gross ignorance that parliamentarism here turns out to be the most grotesque farce that could ever have debased a country.

  79. Presidential elections are run on North American capital, in exchange for the prior promise of granting concessions to a company keen to exploit our national wealth.

  80. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the struggle of the political parties in our homeland is nothing more than a squabble between merchants who want to sell the country to the highest bidder.

  81. 36

    Everyone stared at the Major, dumbfounded.

  82. Through the diamond panes and bellflowers the pale-blue morning sky could be seen, but no one took notice of it.

  83. Erdosain told me later that none of those attending the Wednesday meeting had foreseen a scene of such high interest.

  84. The Major drew a handkerchief across his lips and went on:

  85. 37

    —I'm glad that my words are of interest.

  86. There are many young officers who think as I do.

  87. 38

    We even count on some new generals… What is advisable — and don't be shocked by what I'm about to tell you — is to give the society a completely communist appearance.

  88. I tell you this because communism does not exist here, and one cannot call communists that bloc of carpenters who rave about sociology on a block where nobody takes off his hat.

  89. I wish to set out my thinking to you clearly.

  90. Every secret society is a cancer in the community.

  91. Its mysterious workings unbalance the functioning of that very community.

  92. Well then, we, the cell chiefs, will give them a completely Bolshevik character.

  93. —It was the first time that word was spoken there, and involuntarily they all looked at one another—.

  94. This appearance will draw in numerous unhinged people and, in consequence, the multiplication of the cells.

  95. In this way we will create a fictitious revolutionary body.

  96. We will especially cultivate terrorist attacks.

  97. An attack that meets with middling success awakens all the dark and ferocious consciences of society.

  98. If over the span of a year we repeat the attacks, backing them with antisocial manifestos that incite the proletariat to create "soviets"… Do you know what we will have achieved?

  99. Something admirable and simple.

  100. To create revolutionary unrest in the country.

  101. 39

    "I would define 'revolutionary unrest' as a collective disquiet that dares not voice its desires; everyone feels agitated, inflamed; the newspapers stoke the storm and the police help it along by arresting innocents, who, from the suffering they endure, turn into revolutionaries; every morning people wake hungry for news, expecting an attack fiercer than the last and one that will justify their suspicions; police injustices inflame the tempers of those who did not suffer them, there is always some hothead who empties his revolver into a constable's chest, the workers' organizations rise up and declare strikes, and the words revolution and Bolshevism spread terror and hope everywhere.

  102. Now then, when numerous bombs have gone off in the corners of the city and the manifestos are read and revolutionary unrest is ripe, then we, the military, will step in…"

  103. 40

    The Major drew his boots out of a ray of sunlight and went on:

  104. 41

    —Yes, we, the military, will step in.

  105. We will say that, in view of the government's scant capacity to defend the homeland's institutions, capital, and the family, we are seizing the State, proclaiming a transitional dictatorship.

  106. All dictatorships are transitional, so as to inspire confidence.

  107. 42

    Bourgeois capitalists, and conservative foreign governments in particular, will immediately recognize the new state of affairs.

  108. We will blame the Soviet government for forcing us to take such a stance, and we will shoot a few poor devils convicted and confessed of making bombs.

  109. We will abolish the two chambers, and the country's budget will be reduced to a minimum.

  110. The administration of the State will be placed in the hands of the military administration.

  111. In this way the country will attain a greatness never before seen.

  112. 43

    The Major fell silent, and in the flowering arbor the men burst into applause.

  113. A dove took to flight.

  114. 44

    —Your idea is beautiful —said Erdosain—, but the thing is that we'll be working for you…

  115. 45

    —Didn't you want to be chiefs?

  116. 46

    —Yes, but what we'll receive will be the crumbs from the banquet…

  117. 47

    —No, sir… you're confusing… what was planned…

  118. 48

    The Astrologer spoke up:

  119. 49

    —Gentlemen… we have not gathered to debate directions that are of no interest right now… but to organize the activities of the cell chiefs.

  120. If you're ready, let's begin.

  121. 50

    A burly young man who until then had stayed quiet broke into the discussion.

  122. 51

    —May I?

  123. 52

    —Of course.

  124. 53

    —Well then, I think the matter has to be put this way: Do you want the revolution or not?

  125. The details of organization must come afterward.

  126. 54

    —That… that, those come afterward… yes, sir.

  127. 55

    The stranger finally explained himself:

  128. 56

    —I am a friend of señor Haffner.

  129. I am a lawyer.

  130. I have given up the profits my profession could bring me, so as not to compromise with the capitalist system.

  131. Do I or do I not have the right to hold such an opinion?

  132. 57

    —Yes, sir, you do.

  133. 58

    —Well then, I assure you that what the Major has said gives our society a new direction.

  134. 59

    —No —objected the Gold Seeker—.

  135. It can be the basis of it without excluding its other principles.

  136. 60

    —Of course.

  137. 61

    —Yes.

  138. 62

    The argument was about to start up again.

  139. The Astrologer stood up:

  140. 63

    —Gentlemen, you'll argue another day.

  141. Right now it's a matter of the commercial organization… not of ideas.

  142. Therefore we will set aside everything that strays from that.

  143. 64

    —That is dictatorship —exclaimed the lawyer.

  144. 65

    The Astrologer looked at him for a moment, then said unhurriedly:

  145. 66

    —You feel you have the makings of a leader, it seems to me… I think you do have it.

  146. Your duty, if you're intelligent, is to organize another society far from us.

  147. That way we'll bring about the collapse of the present one.

  148. Here you obey me, or you leave.

  149. 67

    For an instant the two men examined each other; the lawyer rose, fixed his eyes on the Astrologer, bowed with the smile of a strong man, and walked out.

  150. 68

    The Major's voice ended everyone's silence, saying to the Astrologer:

  151. 69

    —You have acted very well.

  152. Discipline is the basis of everything.

  153. We're listening to you.

  154. 70

    Diamonds of sunlight laid their golden mosaic on the black earth of the arbor.

  155. In the distance the anvil of a smithy rang out; countless birds set their warbling rolling through the branches.

  156. Erdosain sucked at the white honeysuckle flower, and the Gold Seeker, his elbows propped on his knees, stared intently at the ground.

  157. 71

    The Ruffian smoked, and Erdosain spied on the Astrologer's Mongol-like face, with his gray dust-coat buttoned up to the throat.

  158. 72

    An awkward silence followed these words.

  159. What was that intruder after there?

  160. Erdosain, suddenly in a bad mood, stood up, exclaiming:

  161. 73

    —There'll be all the discipline you like here, but it's absurd that we should be talking about military dictatorship.

  162. The military can only interest us by falling in with a red movement.

  163. 74

    The Major sat up in his seat and, looking at Erdosain, said with a smile:

  164. 75

    —So you admit I play my part well?

  165. 76

    —Part?…

  166. 77

    —Yes, man… I'm as much a Major as you are.

  167. 78

    —Do you realize now the power of the lie? —said the Astrologer—.

  168. I dressed this friend up as a soldier, and you yourselves already believed, even though you were almost in on the secret, that we had a revolution going in the army.

  169. 79

    —And so?

  170. 80

    —This was nothing more than a rehearsal… since we will stage the farce in earnest one day.

  171. The words rang out so menacing that the four men sat there watching the Major, who said:

  172. 81

    —In truth I never got past sergeant —but the Astrologer cut off his explanations, saying:

  173. 82

    —Friend Haffner, do you have the budget?

  174. 83

    —Yes… here it is.

  175. 84

    The Astrologer leafed for a few minutes through the sheets scrawled over with figures and explained to the gathering:

  176. 85

    —The most solid foundation of the economic side of our society is the brothels.

  177. 86

    The Astrologer went on:

  178. 87

    —The gentleman has handed me a budget for setting up a brothel with ten girls.

  179. Here are the expenses to be incurred.

  180. 88

    And he read:

  181. 89

    —10 bedroom sets, used $2,000

  182. 90

    —Rent of the house, monthly $400

  183. 91

    —Deposit, three months $1,200

  184. 92

    —Fitting-out, kitchen, baths and bar. $2,000

  185. 93

    —Monthly bribe to the police chief $300

  186. 94

    —Bribe to the doctor $150

  187. 95

    —Bribe to the political boss for the license $2,000

  188. 96

    —Monthly municipal tax $50

  189. 97

    —Electric piano $1,500

  190. 98

    —Manageress $150

  191. 99

    —Cook $150

  192. 100

    Total: $9,000

  193. 101

    "Each girl pays 14 pesos a week toward food costs and has to buy from the house her yerba, sugar, kerosene, candles, stockings, powders, soap, and perfumes.

  194. 102

    "After all expenses we can count on a minimum income of two thousand five hundred pesos a month.

  195. In four months we have recovered the invested capital.

  196. With fifty percent of the net takings we will set up other brothels, twenty-five percent will be earmarked to cover debts, and the other third will go to the upkeep of the cells.

  197. Is the expenditure of ten thousand pesos approved or not?

  198. 103

    They all bowed their heads in approval, except the Gold Seeker, who said:

  199. 104

    —Who is the auditor of accounts?

  200. 105

    —One will be chosen once everything is finished.

  201. 106

    —Agreed.

  202. 107

    —You too, Major?

  203. 108

    —Yes.

  204. 109

    Erdosain raised his head and looked at the pale face of the pseudo-sergeant, whose sinister eyes had come to rest on a white butterfly fluttering its wings in the greenery, and this time he could not help wondering to himself how it was possible that the Astrologer could maneuver such play-actors.

  205. But the Astrologer read his thoughts:

  206. 110

    —You, señor Erdosain, how much do you need to set up the electroplating workshop?

  207. 111

    —A thousand pesos.

  208. 112

    —Ah! You're the inventor of the copper rose? —the Major said to him.

  209. 113

    —Yes.

  210. 114

    —Congratulations.

  211. I think the sales will be a success.

  212. Naturally one has to metal-plate flowers in great quantity.

  213. 115

    —That's right.

  214. I've thought of adding a photography line.

  215. It would cover the workshop's costs.

  216. 116

    —That is left to your judgment.

  217. 117

    —Besides, I already have a skilled friend of mine lined up for the electroplating —as he said this he was thinking of the Espila family, who could well join the secret society, but the Astrologer cut off his musings, saying:

  218. 118

    —The Gold Seeker is going to give us news of the area where we plan to set up our colony —and he rose to his feet.

  219. 119

    Erdosain was astonished when he took in the other man's build.

  220. He had pictured him according to the conventions of the movies — a huge man, with a great blond beard, reeking of drink.

  221. There was no such thing.

  222. 120

    The Gold Seeker was a young man his own age, the skin drawn tight and very pale over the flat bones of his face, and quick, jet-black eyes.

  223. The enormous ribcage seemed to belong to a man twice as developed as he was.

  224. The legs were thin and bowed.

  225. Between the leather belt and the cloth of his trousers the butt of a revolver could be seen.

  226. His voice was clear, but in him everything took on a strange bearing, as if the man were assembled out of different human parts belonging to men of different conditions.

  227. Thus his face was that of a gambling man used to squinting over his cards, his chest that of a boxer, and his legs those of a jockey.

  228. And he had a little of that jumble in him, in the shapeless reality that emanated from his body.

  229. Until the age of fourteen he had lived in the countryside, then he shot a thief dead, and later the fear of tuberculosis flung him out onto the plains again, and he had galloped over incredible distances for days and nights.

  230. Erdosain took to him the moment he met him.

  231. 121

    The Gold Seeker unwrapped some stones.

  232. They were pieces of gold-bearing quartz.

  233. Then he said:

  234. 122

    —Here you have the assay certificate from the Bureau of Mines and Hydrology.

  235. 123

    The stones passed quickly from hand to hand.

  236. The eyes betrayed an extraordinary greed, and the fingertips brushed with delight against the quartz with its flakes and compact veins of gold.

  237. The Astrologer, slowly rolling a cigarette, watched all the faces that had received a discharge of soul… a temptation tightened them as they examined the stones.

  238. The Gold Seeker sat down again and said, talking to them all:

  239. 124

    —Down there is a lot of gold.

  240. No one knows it.

  241. It's in the Campo Chileno.

  242. First I was in Esquel… there sit the machines abandoned from a venture that failed, then I roamed around Arroyo Pescado… I walked… out there, I don't know if you'll know this, the days don't get counted, and I came into the Campo Chileno.

  243. Jungle, sheer forest of thousands of square kilometers.

  244. The Mask came with me, a prostitute from Esquel who knew a trail in, because before she'd been with a miner who was murdered on his way back.

  245. 125

    Well, down there they'll kill a man for nothing.

  246. She was syphilitic, and she died on me there in the forest.

  247. The Mask.

  248. Yes, I remember!

  249. For twenty years she'd been knocking around those parts.

  250. From Puerto Madryn she went to Comodoro, then to Trelew, then to Esquel.

  251. She knew them all, every one of the gold seekers.

  252. First we went as far as Arroyo Pescado… it's forty leagues farther south than Esquel… but there was only a bit of dust in the sands… on horseback we kept on for fifteen days, and from thicket to thicket we reached the Campo Chileno.

  253. 126

    In a clear voice, fixed on the storyteller's theme, the Gold Seeker recounted his odyssey in the south.

  254. 127

    Listening to him, Erdosain had the impression of crossing, in the Mask's company, gigantic black and glacial gorges, closed off at the far edge by violet triangles of yet more mountains.

  255. The high plateaus vanished beneath the towering advance of the perpetual forest of reddish trunks and black-green foliage, and they, in a daze, pressed on beneath a sky deep and smooth as a desert of sky-blue ice.

  256. 128

    With slow gestures, indifferent to the wonder his account stirred up, the Gold Seeker told of his months-long adventure.

  257. They all listened to him, spellbound.

  258. 129

    Then, one morning, he reached the black gorge.

  259. It was a ring of black, basaltic, crested stone, a well-rim plumed with dark stalagmites, where the blue of the sky turned infinitely sad.

  260. Wandering birds grazed the blocks of stone in their flight, shaded by further rings of higher peaks… And at the bottom of that pit, a lake of golden water, into which trickled threads of waterfalls unbraided by the crags.

  261. 130

    Never had the Gold Seeker been in such sinister spots.

  262. That depth of bronze water mirroring the black cliffs stopped him in astonishment.

  263. The stone walls dropped sheer, mottled with greenish growths, with long streaks of malachite, and in that bronze depth his pale, bearded figure was reflected with its feet toward the sky.

  264. 131

    At first it occurred to him that the water might be made of gold, but he dismissed the idea as absurd, because he had never read or heard anything of the kind, and he went on telling his story:

  265. 132

    —But on my way back, finding myself one day in Rawson waiting in a dentist's room, it occurred to me to leaf through a magazine called "La Semana Médica" that was lying on one of the tables in the lobby… and here the marvel happens.

  266. I open the booklet at random, and on the first page I look at I see an article titled: "Gold water, or colloidal gold in the treatment of lupus erythematosus".

  267. I set to reading, and then I learned that gold can stay suspended in water in microscopic particles… and that this phenomenon, which to me was brand-new, had been discovered by the alchemists, who called it "gold water".

  268. They obtained it by the simplest procedure one can imagine: dropping a white-hot piece of gold into rainwater.

  269. Immediately I remembered the lake, whose coloring I had put down to vegetable matter.

  270. I had stood, without realizing it, beside a lake of colloidal gold that perhaps had taken who knows how many centuries to form, from the water passing along the veins of ore.

  271. Do you realize now what ignorance is?

  272. If chance had not thrown that magazine into my hands, I would have remained forever ignorant of the importance of that discovery…

  273. 133

    —And did you go back? —the Major broke in.

  274. 134

    —Why, of course.

  275. I came back only eight months ago from all this; that was when I wrote to you… but I was starting from a mistake… I have to study how to extract the gold as metal… besides, there are veins out there… it's a matter of working at it… getting hold of a diving suit, because the bottom of the water is golden and the water itself has no color.

  276. 135

    Haffner said:

  277. 136

    —Do you know, what you're telling is interesting?

  278. Even supposing there were no gold, that's always more fun than this filthy city.

  279. 137

    The Major added:

  280. 138

    —If the colony is set up in the Campo Chileno, it will be necessary to have a telegraph station.

  281. 139

    Erdosain replied:

  282. 140

    —If that's the case, a portable station can be put together with a wavelength of 45 to 80 meters.

  283. It would cost five hundred pesos and has a range of three thousand kilometers.

  284. 141

    Once again the Major spoke up:

  285. 142

    —The colony has my full preference, because there the factory for asphyxiating gases can be set up.

  286. You, Erdosain, know something about that.

  287. 143

    —Yes, that aristol can be manufactured electrolytically, but I haven't studied anything about it, though the asphyxiating gases and the bacteriological laboratory are what should concern us most.

  288. Above all the laboratory for culturing the microbes of bubonic plague and Asiatic cholera.

  289. We'd need to get hold of some "type" bacteria, the advantage being the enormous cheapness of production.

  290. 144

    The Astrologer spoke up:

  291. 145

    —I think it would be most sensible to leave the organization of the colony for later.

  292. For now we must limit ourselves to carrying out Haffner's project.

  293. Only when we have income coming in will we organize the first contingent to set out for the colony.

  294. You, Erdosain, had spoken to me about a family?

  295. 146

    —Yes; the Espilas.

  296. 147

    Haffner retorted:

  297. 148

    —What the devil!

  298. It seems to me we do nothing but talk nonsense.

  299. While it's true that in your society I'm no more than a mere informant, it seems to me something ought to be decided right now.

  300. 149

    The Astrologer looked at him and retorted:

  301. 150

    —Are you willing to put up the money to do something?

  302. No.

  303. And so?

  304. Wait until we have some capital, which we'll have in no more than a few days, and then you'll see.

  305. Haffner stood up and, looking at the Gold Seeker, said:

  306. 151

    —You know how it is, comrade; when the colony business is ready, let me know; and if you need people, all the better, I'll supply you a gang of crooks who won't have the slightest objection to leaving Buenos Aires —and putting on his hat, shaking no one's hand and saluting them all with a gesture, he was about to leave when, remembering something, he exclaimed, turning to the Astrologer—: If you hurry to get the money, there's a magnificent brothel for sale.

  307. It has an annex and a grill-house, and on top of that there's heavy gambling.

  308. The owner is a Uruguayan and he's asking 15,000 pesos in cash, but with ten thousand and the other five over a one-year term I think he'll settle.

  309. 152

    —Can you come here on Friday?

  310. 153

    —Yes.

  311. 154

    —All right, come see me on Friday, I think we'll settle the matter.

  312. 155

    —So long.

  313. —That is how the Ruffian said goodbye, and he walked out.

The particulars

The text
Los siete locos, Roberto Arlt. Part Two.
Translation
Public-domain Spanish (Arlt, d. 1942). English translation © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC.
Reading aloud
Digital narration, directed by 1732 Studios.
Words
Every word of the text, by letter.
Data
JSON · Markdown · A guide for agents
Two whoopie pies and a pine. An inside joke.