Eco: Foucalt's Pendulum by eco foucault (important books to read .txt) 📗

"The Zohar," he explained. "Lekh Lekha. Passages stillcompletely misunderstood."

21

The Graal...is a weightso heavy that creatures in the bondage of sin are unable to move itfrom its place.

¡XWolfram vonEschenbach, Parzival, IX, 477

I hadn't taken to thecolonel, yet he had piqued my interest. You can be fascinated evenby a tree frog if you watch it long enough. I was savoring thefirst drops of the poison that would carry us all toperdition.

I went back to see Belbothe following afternoon, and we talked a little about our visitor.Belbo said the man had seemed a mythomaniac to him. "Did you noticehow he quoted that Rakosky, or Rostropovich, as if the man wereKant?"

"But these are typicalold tales," I said. "Ingolf was a lunatic who believed them, andthe colonel is a lunatic who believes Ingolf."

"Maybe he believed himyesterday and today he believes something else. Before he left, Iarranged an appointment for him with¡Xwell, with another publisher,a firm that's not choosy and brings out books financed by theauthors themselves. He seemed enthusiastic. But I just learned thathe didn't show up. And¡Ximagine¡Xhe even left the photocopy of thatmessage here. Look. He leaves the secret of the Templars around asif it were of no importance. That's how these charactersare."

At this moment the phonerang. Belbo answered: "Good morning, Garamond Press, Belbospeaking. What can I do for you?...Yes, he was here yesterdayafternoon, offering me a book...Sorry, that's rather confidential.If you could tell me..."

He listened for a fewseconds, then, suddenly pale, looked at me and said: "The colonel'sbeen murdered, or something of the sort." He spoke into the phoneagain: "Excuse me. I was talking to Signer Casaubon, a consultantof mine who was also present at yesterday's conversation...Well,Colonel Ardenti came to talk to us about a project of his, a storyI consider largely fabrication, about a supposed treasure of theTemplars. They were medieval knights..."

Instinctively, he puthis hand around the mouthpiece as if to talk privately, then tookhis hand away when he saw I was watching. He spoke with somehesitation: "No, Inspector De Angelis, the colonel discussed a bookhe wanted to write, but only in vague terms...What, both of us?Now? All right, give me the address."

He hung up and wassilent for a while, drumming his fingers on the desk. "Sorry,Casaubon," he said. "I'm afraid I've dragged you into this. Ididn't have time to think. That was a police inspector named DeAngelis. It seems the colonel was staying in an apartment hotel,and somebody claims to have found him there last night,dead..."

"Claims? The inspectordoesn't know if it's true or not?"

"It sounds strange, butapparently he doesn't. They found my name and yesterday'sappointment in a notebook. I believe we're the only clue. What canI say? Let's go."

We called a taxi. Duringthe ride Belbo gripped my arm. "Listen, Casaubon, this may be justa coincidence. Maybe my mind is warped. But where I come fromthere's a saying: ¡¥Whatever you do, don't name names.' When I wasa boy, I used to

go see this Nativityplay performed in dialect. A pious farce, with shepherds who didn'tknow whether they were in Bethlehem or on the banks of the Tanaro,farther up the Po valley. The Magi arrive and ask a shepherd's boywhat his master's name is. The boy answers: Gelindo. When Gelindofinds out, he beats the daylights out of the boy. ¡¥Never give awaya man's name,' he says. Anyway, if it's all right with you, thecolonel never mentioned Ingolf or the Provins message."

"We don't want to meetIngolf's mysterious end," I said, trying to smile.

"As I said,- it's allnonsense. But there are some things it's better to keep outof."

I promised I would goalong with him on this, but I was nervous. After all, I was astudent who participated in demonstrations. The police made meuneasy. We arrived at the hotel¡X not one of the best¡Xin anoutlying neighborhood. They sent us right up to what they calledColonel Ardenti's apartment. Police on the stairs. They let us intonumber 27¡Xtwo plus seven is nine, I thought. A bedroom, vestibulewith a little table, closet-kitchen, bathroom with shower, nocurtain. Through the half-open door I couldn't see if there was abidet, though in a place like this it was probably the onlyconvenience the guests demanded. Drab furnishings, not manypersonal effects, but what there was, in great disorder. Someonehad hastily gone through the closets and suitcases. Maybe thepolice; there were about a dozen of them, includingplainclothesmen.

A fairly young man withfairly long hair came over to us. "I'm De Angelis. Dr. Belbo? Dr.Casaubon?"

"I'm not a doctor yet.Still working toward my degree."

"Good for you. Keep atit. Without a degree you won't be able to take the police exams,and you don't know what you're missing." He seemed irritated."Excuse me, but let's get the preliminaries out of the way. This isthe passport that belonged to the man who rented this room. Heregistered as Colonel Ar-denti. Recognize him?"

"That's Ardenti," Belbosaid. "But can you tell us what's going on here? From what you saidon the phone, I didn't quite understand if he's deador¡X"

"I'd be delighted if youcould tell me that," De Angelis said with a frown. "But all right,you gentlemen are probably entitled to know a bit more. SignorArdenti¡Xor Colonel Ardenti¡X checked in four days ago. As you mayhave noticed, this place isn't the Grand. The one desk clerk goesto bed at eleven, because the guests have a key to the front door.There are a couple of maids who come in every morning to do therooms, and an old alcoholic who acts as porter and takes liquor upto the rooms if the customers ring. Not only alcoholic, butarteriosclerotic, too. It was hell getting anything out of him. Thedesk clerk says the old man sees spooks and sometimes scares theguests. Last night the clerk saw Ardenti come in around ten and goup to his room with two men. In this place they don't bat an eye ifsomebody takes a whole troop of transvestites upstairs. The menlooked normal, though according to the clerk they had foreignaccents. At ten-thirty Ardenti called the old alcoholic and askedhim to bring up a bottle of whiskey, mineral water, and threeglasses. At about one or one-thirty the old