Manuel L. Morales

The Croesus Ring ____ JI

by Manuel L. Morales

JIMMY'S Cellar is the best bar in town, everybody says so; GIs and Filipinos alike leave the place satisfied with the drinks and the service. And when the drinks and the company pall, as sometimes they do, Jimmy always can be depended upon to liven things up. Jimmy owns the place but he acts as bartender most of the time because he says he got his start that way.

Jimmy himself is a man of indetermi-

nate age and nationality, probably with a touch of English blood i'n his veins. How he managed to escape internment

in Santo Tomas is a tale that Jimmy loves to tell. But theTe is one story that Jimmy has told nobody except me, and I got it out of him when he was in an

expansive mood.

One afternoon I was perched on a stoor

in front of the counter, the only

er in the house, when Jimmy started the ball rolling by saying, "Working in a bar like I do, I meet all sorts of people. I have been a bartender off and on for maybe twelve years. And the type of man I'm not familiar with just does not exist. There is one fellow whom I remember welI, though I met him only

twice, because of a story he told me."

HWell, how's business nowadays?" I

hastily interrul'ted, leery of a boring monologue. I thought then that I had heard all of Jimmy's stories.

,"Oh, very good; in fact, it's downright

scandalous. As I was saying, this fellow told me a most unusual story, most unu-

I sighed and resigned myself to listening. Besides, I might get a drink on the house with Jimmy in this mood. "You've heard of Alfredo P. Villoz?" he asked.

As I straigh1lemed up and nodded, I felt a prick of interest, for who had not heard of Villoz, the millionaire who died in 1941 and left his entire estate to charity? "Well, this man I'm talking aboutret's call him Jao--met Villoz one night at the J ai Alai Keg Room in the most unusual way. Joe was at that time in

dire financial straits, as they say it in

books. Besides, his pretty wife had just died in childbirth and as he couldn't work a lick with her always on his mind, he got the sack, naturally. He had just about decided to end it all, like in the shows. But the sporting instinct in him demanded one last fling; sO he sold everything he had and now we find him at the K:eg Room. And what does he do when he steps in but bump into old man Villoz who was going out. Villoz is knocked down but he is unhurt, only dazed, sort of. He looks at his hand and sees that the ring on his finger is no longer there bu·t is lying On the floor right )lndJer his very nose. People rush up to help the rich c>ld man. But he waves them alI aside, picks up the ring; looks at Joe queerly, and gaes off on his

way."

"Are you trying to tell me crude, roundabout manner tbat houn<1ed to death by Villoz?"

in your Joe was

Jimmy looked pained. "To continue with Joe. He dropped in at the place where I was working about a week after the incident. Then, as now, there wasn't anybody in the saloon but him and me. We soon got to the chinning stage when he had had four or five shots; he loosened up and told me about the incident with VHloz. Only, it seemS there was more to it than just the shoulder bumping. It seems that Villo., who had grown very ill, sent for him. Well, Joe at first did not want to go, but he said to himself, what the hell, he can't get anything out of me as I am stone broke. "So he goes to the old man's house, only it is not a house but a mansion. He is admitted right away and is led to the old man's room. The old man is not only sick; he is dl'ing. He says to Joe something about being brave in the fa<le of insurmountable obstades and such rot. Joe is relieved, for nothing is said about what had happened before. Very soon Villoz is telling Joe the story of his life, bu t Joe is keeping only one ear cocked to the sp,eakel' because he is busy looking around at the richness of the place and wishing he had one !'ike it. Pretty soon he has seen everything and he is getting bored and now wishing he is some place else, preferably a place with liquor. The old man keeps on talking and slowly draws from his finger the ring that had fallen when Joe bumped into him and hands it to Joe who is very much bowled over. ESpiecially when he learns that the old man is giving it to him, no strings attached. T HE ring is curiously shaped, with dark stones set in old gold. The old man has noticed that Joe has nc>t been listening, so once he tell's him that the ring belonged to Croesus or some such person with an odd name. The ring is a luck charm; with it on him, the old man said, he had started with hardly a shoestring and wound up with half the greenbacks in the hlands. It now belongs to Joe because the holder must relinquish it to the man who causes it to faH from his finger. As the ring fits snugly, it is not easy for any ordinary man to do this-<mly he who is really fated to succeed to the ownership of the ring can do it. Joe is bewildered but recovers sufficien tiy to say thank you to the old man. Pretty soon the interview is over and Joe goes off. "Next day Joe learns that Villoz is dead. He decides to test the power of the "ing, to see if it is what it is cracked up to be. He gets into a crap game, but as he is broke, he stakes the ring. The crap game ends early and Joe walks off with his pockets full of money. He is feeling high and decides to celiebrate: he enters the first saloon he sees. Which is when, I meet him. "That was the day before the papiers were full of war. The J aps were getting too big for their pants. I forgot all about Joe and his ring in the struggle that carnie. As you know I went to the hills and joined the guerrillas. After nearly a year of that life I told myself I could never help the cause any by hiding up them in the wilds; I ought to be here in the city where things hummed. So I came down and got me a job at a downtown bar. Boy, those Japs were sure dumb. They thought they had all the white men rounded: up and when I told them I was a. mestizo they left me alone except for a few routine raids and questionings. But as they never could g1e't anything on me they soon got tired of it and forgot me altogether. "Then I heard Joe. The man is making money hand OVler fist. I never see him in all this time,. but everybody keeps talking of how h" has put over nu·merous deals running into big money, and sporting expensive clothes, and strutting like ·a walking jewelry store. Buying up real estate right and left and spending money in general like hie was turning it out of his own private pmnting press. Right up to the

end of the occupation he is flying high,

wide and handsome. Yessir, Joe's ring was what it was cracked up to be."

HDid you see him again 1"

"YIeS, I saw him for the second time last April. I was, getting off an Army truck when I slipped and fell on top of a man, and who do you think it was? Old Joe in person I He looked at me queerly while he was dusting himself off. I recognized him right away and asked him if he remembered me and our talk at the bar 80_ years ago. He was startled and looked at hts hand involuntarily. Then he nodded and grinned. We started talking to each other, but we were rudely interrupbed by the two men who were with him. It seems that they were guarding him and that he was bound for Bilibid Prison; ;n fact, he was getting into a car on his way there when I fell on him. He was booJoed on a charge of treason while in th€l process of getting rich when the Japs were here." "Is that aIJ? Of courSe he was bound to end up in Muntinlupa for having been a buy and tycoon. I thought there was more, a moral or something Jiloo tha t. Oh, yes, if the ring is really a luck charm it will him out of there in no

time .at all, won't it?"

Jimmy smiled slowly and said, "Why, I suppose it would at that, if he stiJI had it. But when I feU on him the ring eame off his finger."

He picked up the glasses carefully. I sab still on the stool and stared in fascination at his hand. On thJe third finger was a curiously wrought cing-dark stones set in old gold.

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