Read Online Ashenden by W. Somerset Maugham - Free Book Online

together, remained cold and steely. R.’s stare would have been embarrassing if Ashenden had not been used to it. He knew that R. was considering how he would broach the subject that he had in mind. The silence must have lasted for two or three minutes.
    â€˜I’m expecting a fellow to come and see me to-night,’ he said at last. ‘His train gets in about ten.’He gave his wrist-watch a glance. ‘He’s known as the Hairless Mexican.’
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜Because he’s hairless and because he’s a Mexican.’
    â€˜The explanation seems perfectly satisfactory,’ said Ashenden.
    â€˜He’ll tell you all about himself. He talks nineteen to the dozen. He was on his uppers when I came across him. It appears that he was mixed up in some revolution in Mexico and had to get out with nothing but the clothes he stood up in. They were rather the worse for wear when I found him. If you want to please him you call him General. He claims to have been a general in Huerta’s army, at least I think it was Huerta; anyhow he says that if things had gone right he would be minister of war now and no end of a big bug. I’ve found him very useful. Not a bad chap. The only thing I really have against him is that he will use scent.’
    â€˜And where do I come in?’ asked Ashenden.
    â€˜He’s going down to Italy. I’ve got rather a ticklish job for him to do and I want you to stand by. I’m not keen on trusting him with a lot of money. He’s a gambler and he’s a bit too fond of the girls. I suppose you came from Geneva on your Ashenden passport.’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜I’ve got another for you, a diplomatic one, by the way, in the name of Somerville with visas for France and Italy. I think you and he had better travel together. He’s an amusing cove when he gets going, and I think you ought to get to know one another.’
    â€˜What is the job?’
    â€˜I haven’t yet quite made up my mind how much it’s desirable for you to know about it.’
    Ashenden did not reply. They eyed one another in a detached manner, as though they were strangers who sat together in a railway carriage and each wondered who and what the other was.
    â€˜In your place I’d leave the General to do most of the talking. I wouldn’t tell him more about yourself than you find absolutely necessary. He won’t ask you any questions, I can promise you that, I think he’s by way of being a gentleman after his own fashion.’
    â€˜By the way, what is his real name?’
    â€˜I always call him Manuel, I don’t know that he likes it very much, his name is Manuel Carmona.’
    â€˜I gather by what you have not said that he’s an unmitigated scoundrel.’
    R. smiled with his pale blue eyes.
    â€˜I don’t know that I’d go quite so far as that. He hasn’t had the advantages of a public-school education. His ideas of playing the game are not quite the same as yours or mine. I don’t know that I’d leave a gold cigarette-case about when he was in the neighbourhood, but if he lost money to you at poker and had pinched your cigarette-case he would immediately pawn it to pay you. If he had half a chance he’d seduce your wife, but if you were up against it he’d share his last crust with you. The tears will run down his face when he hears Gounod’s “Ave Maria” on the gramophone, but if you insult his dignity he’ll shoot you like a dog. It appears that in Mexico it’s an insultto get between a man and his drink and he told me himself that once when a Dutchman who didn’t know passed between him and the bar he whipped out his revolver and shot him dead.’
    â€˜Did nothing happen to him?’
    â€˜No, it appears that he belongs to one of the best families. The matter was hushed up and it was announced in the papers that the Dutchman had committed suicide. He did