MADAME PETUKHOV'S TREASURE

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

A MAGIC NIGHT ON THE VOLGA

The smooth operator stood with his friend and closest associate, Pussy

Vorobyaninov, on the left of the passenger landing-stage of the state-owned

Volga River Transport System under a sign which said: "Use the rings for

mooring, mind the grating, and keep clear of the wall".

Flags fluttered above the quay. Smoke as curly as a cauliflower poured

from the funnels. The S.S. Anton Rubinstein was being loaded at pier No. 2.

Dock workers dug their iron claws into bales of cotton; iron pots were

stacked in a square on the quayside, which was littered with treated hides,

bundles of wire, crates of sheet glass, rolls of cord for binding sheaves,

mill-stones, two-colour bony agricultural implements, wooden forks,

sack-lined baskets of early cherries, and casks of herrings.

The Scriabin was not in, which greatly disturbed Ippolit Matveyevich.

"Why worry about it?" asked Ostap. "Suppose the Scriabin were here. How

would you get aboard? Even if you had the money to buy a ticket, it still

wouldn't be any use. The boat doesn't take passengers."

While still on the train, Ostap had already had a chance to talk to

Mechnikov, the fitter in charge of the hydraulic press, and had found out

everything. The S.S. Scriabin had been chartered by the Ministry of Finance

and was due to sail from Nizhni to Tsaritsin, calling at every river port,

and holding a government-bond lottery. A complete government department had

left Moscow for the trip, including a lottery committee, an office staff, a

brass band, a cameraman, reporters from the central press and the Columbus

Theatre. The theatre was there to perform plays which popularised the idea

of government loans. Up to Stalingrad the Columbus Theatre was on the

establishment of the lottery committee, after which the theatre had decided

to tour the Caucasus and the Crimea with The Marriage at its own risk.

The Scriabin was late. A promise was given that she would leave the

backwater, where last-minute preparations were being made, by evening. So

the whole department from Moscow set up camp on the quayside and waited to

go aboard.

Tender creatures with attache1 cases and hold-alls sat on the bundles

of wire, guarding their Underwoods, and glancing apprehensively at the

stevedores. A citizen with a violet imperial positioned himself on a

mill-stone. On his knees was a pile of enamel plates. A curious person could

have read the uppermost one:

Mutual Settlement Department

Desks with ornamental legs and other, more modest, desks stood on top

of one another. A guard sauntered up and down by a sealed safe. Persidsky,

who was representing the Lathe, gazed at the fairground through Zeiss

binoculars with eightfold magnification.

The S.S. Scriabin approached, turning against the stream. Her sides

were decked with plyboard sheets showing brightly coloured pictures of

giant-sized bonds. The ship gave a roar, imitating the sound of a mammoth,

or possibly some other animal used in prehistoric times, as a substitute for

the sound of a ship's hooter.

The finance-and-theatre camp came to life. Down the slopes to the quay

came the lottery employees. Platon Plashuk, a fat little man, toddled down

to the ship in a cloud of dust. Galkin, Palkin, Malkin, Chalkin and Zalkind

flew out of the Raft beer-hall. Dockers were already loading the safe.

Georgetta Tiraspolskikh, the acrobatics instructress, hurried up the gangway

with a springy walk, while Simbievich-Sindievich, still worried about the

scenic effects, raised his hands, at one moment to the Kremlin heights, and

at another towards the captain standing on the bridge. The cameraman carried

his camera high above the heads of the crowd, and as he went he demanded a

separate cabin in which to set up a darkroom.

Amid the general confusion, Ippolit Matveyevich made his way over to

the chairs and was about to drag one away to one side.

"Leave the chair alone!" snarled Bender. "Are you crazy? Even if we

take one, the others will disappear for good. You'd do better to think of a

way to get aboard the ship."

Belted with brass tubes, the band passed along the landing-stage. The

musicians looked with distaste at the saxophones, flexotones, beer bottles

and Esmarch douches, with which the sound effects were armed.

The lottery wheels arrived in a Ford station wagon. They were built

into a complicated device composed of six rotating cylinders with shining

brass and glass. It took some time to set them up on the lower deck. The

stamping about and exchange of abuse continued until late evening.

In the lottery hall people were erecting a stage, fixing notices and

slogans to the walls, arranging benches for the visitors, and joining

electric cables to the lottery wheels. The desks were in the stern, and the

tapping of typewriters, interspersed with laughter, could be heard from the

typists' cabin. The pale man in the violet imperial walked the length of the

ship, hanging his enamel plates on the relevant doors.

Mutual Settlement Department

Personnel Department

Office

Engine Room

To the larger plates the man with the imperial added smaller plates.

No entry except on business

No consultations

No admittance to outsiders

All inquiries at the registry

The first-class saloon had been fitted up for an exhibition of bank

notes and bonds. This aroused a wave of indignation from Galkin, Palkin,

Malkin, Chalkin and Zalkind.

"Where are we going to eat?" they fretted. "And what happens if it

rains?"

"This is too much," said Nich. Sestrin to his assistant. "What do you

think, Seryozha? Can we do without the sound effects?"

"Lord, no, Nicholas Constantinovich. The actors are used to the rhythm

by now."

A fresh racket broke out. The "Five" had found that the stage manager

had taken all four chairs to his cabin.

"So that's it," said the "Five" ironically. "We're supposed to rehearse

sitting on our berths, while Sestrin and his wife, Gusta, who has nothing to

do with our group, sit on the four chairs. Perhaps we should have brought

our own wives with us on this trip."

The lottery ship was watched malevolently from the bank by the smooth

operator. A fresh outbreak of shouting reached the concessionaires' ears.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" cried a committee member.

"How was I to know he would fall ill."

"A hell of a mess we're in! Then go to the artists'-union office and

insist that an artist be sent here immediately."

"How can I? It's now six o'clock. The union office closed long ago.

Anyway, the ship is leaving in half an hour."

"Then you can do the painting yourself. Since you're responsible for

the decorations on the ship, get out of the mess any way you like!"

Ostap was already running up the gangplank, elbowing his way through

the dockers, young ladies, and idle onlookers. He was stopped at the top.

"Your pass?'

"Comrade!" roared Bender. "You! You! The little fat man! The one who

needs an artist!"

Five minutes later the smooth operator was sitting in the white cabin

occupied by the fat little assistant manager of the floating lottery, and

discussing terms.

"So we want you to do the following, Comrade," said fatty. "Paint

notices, inscriptions, and complete the transparent. Our artist began the

work, but is now ill. We've left him at the hospital. And, of course,

general supervision of the art department.

Can you take that on? I warn you, incidentally, there's a great deal of

work."

"Yes, I can undertake that. I've had occasion to do that kind of work

before."

"And you can come along with us now?"

"That will be difficult, but I'll try."

A large and heavy burden fell from the shoulders of the assistant

manager. With a feeling of relief, the fat man looked at the new artist with

shining eyes.

"Your terms?" asked Ostap sharply. "Remember, I'm not from a funeral

home."

"It's piecework. At union rates."

Ostap frowned, which was very hard for him.

"But free meals as well," added the tubby man hastily. "And a separate

cabin."

"All right," said Ostap, "I accept. But I have a boy, an assistant,

with me."

"I don't know about the boy. There are no funds for a boy. But at your

own expense by all means. He can live in your cabin."

"As you like. The kid is smart. He's used to Spartan conditions."

Ostap was given a pass for himself and for the smart boy; he put the

key of the cabin in his pocket and went out onto the hot deck. He felt great

satisfaction as he fingered the key. For the first time in his stormy life

he had both a key and an apartment. It was only the money he lacked. But

there was some right next to him in the chairs. The smooth operator walked

up and down the deck with his hands in his pockets, ignoring Vorobyaninov on

the quayside.

At first Ippolit Matveyevich made signs; then he was even daring enough

to whistle. But Bender paid no heed. Turning his back on the president of

the concession, he watched with interest as the hydraulic press was lowered

into the hold.

Final preparations for casting off were being made. Agafya Tikhonovna,

alias Mura, ran with clattering feet from her cabin to the stern, looked at

the water, loudly shared her delight with the balalaika virtuoso, and

generally caused confusion among the honoured officials of the lottery

enterprise.

The ship gave a second hoot. At the terrifying sound the clouds moved

aside. The sun turned crimson and sank below the horizon. Lamps and street

lights came on in the town above. From the market in Pochayevsky Ravine

there came the hoarse voices of gramophones competing for the last

customers. Dismayed and lonely, Ippolit Matveyevich kept shouting something,

but no one heard him. The clanking of winches drowned all other sounds.

Ostap Bender liked effects. It was only just before the third hoot,

when Ippolit Matveyevich no longer doubted that he had been abandoned to the

mercy of fate, that Ostap noticed him.

"What are you standing there like a coy suitor for? I thought you were

aboard long ago. They're just going to raise the gangplank. Hurry up! Let

this citizen board. Here's his pass."

Ippolit Matveyevich hurried aboard almost in tears.

"Is this your boy?" asked the boss suspiciously.

"That's the one," said Ostap. "If anyone says he's a girl, I'm a

Dutchman!"

The fat man glumly went away.

"Well, Pussy," declared Ostap, "we'll have to get down to work in the

morning. I hope you can mix paints. And, incidentally, I'm an artist, a

graduate of the Higher Art and Technical Workshops, and you're my assistant.

If you don't like the idea, go back ashore at once."

Black-green foam surged up from under the stern. The ship shuddered;

cymbals clashed together, flutes, cornets, trombones and tubas thundered out

a wonderful march, and the town, swinging around and trying to balance,

shifted to the left bank. Continuing to throb, the ship moved into midstream

and was soon swallowed up in the darkness. A minute later it was so far away

that the lights of the town looked like sparks from a rocket that had frozen

in space.

The murmuring of typewriters could still be heard, but nature and the

Volga were gaining the upper hand. A cosiness enveloped all those aboard the

S.S. Scriabin. The members of the lottery committee drowsily sipped their

tea. The first meeting of the union committee, held in the prow, was marked

by tenderness. The warm wind breathed so heavily, the water lapped against

the sides of the ship so gently, and the dark outline of the shore sped past

the ship so rapidly that when the chairman of the union committee, a very

positive man, opened his mouth to speak about working conditions in the

unusual situation, he unexpectedly for himself, and for everyone else, began

singing:

"A ship sailed down the Volga,

Mother Volga, River Volga. . ."

And the other, stern-faced members taking part in the meeting rumbled

the chorus:

"The lilac bloo-ooms. . ."

The resolution on the chairman's report was just not recorded. A piano

began to play. Kh. Ivanov, head of the musical accompaniment, drew the most

lyrical notes from the instrument. The balalaika virtuoso trailed after

Murochka and, not finding any words of his own to express his love, murmured

the words of a love song.

"Don't go away! Your kisses still fire me, your passionate embraces

never tire me. The clouds have not awakened in the mountain passes, the

distant sky has not yet faded as a pearly star."

Grasping the rail, Simbievich-Sindievich contemplated the infinite

heavens. Compared with them, his scenic effects appeared a piece of

disgusting vulgarity. He looked with revulsion at his hands, which had taken

such an eager part in arranging the scenic effects for the classical comedy.

At the moment the languor was greatest, Galkin, Palkin, Malkin, Chalkin

and Zalkind, who were in the stern of the ship, began banging away at their

surgical and brewery appliances. They were rehearsing. Instantly the mirage

was dispelled. Agafya Tikhonovna yawned and, ignoring the balalaika

virtuoso, went to bed. The minds of the trade unionists were again full of

working conditions, and they dealt with the resolution. After careful

consideration, Simbievich-Sindievich came to the conclusion that the

production of The Marriage was not really so bad. An irate voice from the

darkness called Georgetta Tiraspolskikh to a producer's conference. Dogs

began barking in the villages and it became chilly.

Ostap lay in a first-class cabin on a leather divan, thoughtfully

staring at a green canvas work belt and questioning Ippolit Matveyevich.

"Can you draw? That's a pity. Unfortunately, I can't, either."

He thought for a while and then continued.

"What about lettering? Can't do that either? Too bad. We're supposed to

be artists. Well, we'll manage for a day or so before they kick us out. In

the time we're here we can do everything we need to. The situation has

become a bit more complicated. I've found out that the chairs are in the

producer's cabin. But that's not so bad in the long run. The important thing

is that we're aboard. All the chairs must be examined before they throw us

off. It's too late for today. The producer's already asleep in his cabin."

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 673