An Eagle Flight Part 38

"I don't know. She says you had best forget her, and then she cries. This morning when we were wondering where you were I said to tease her: 'Perhaps he has gone a-courting.' But she was quite grave, and said: 'It is G.o.d's will!'"

"Tell Maria I must see her alone," said Ibarra, troubled.

"It will be difficult, but I'll try to manage it."

"And when shall I know?"

"To-morrow. But you are going without telling me the secret!"

"So I am. Well, I went to the pueblo of Los Banos to see about some cocoanut trees!"

"What a secret!" cried Sinang aloud in a tone of a usurer despoiled.

"Take care, I really don't want you to speak of it."

"I've no desire to," said Sinang scornfully. "If it had been really of importance I should have told my friends; but cocoanuts, cocoanuts, who cares about cocoanuts!" and she ran off to find Maria.

Conversation languished, and Ibarra soon took his leave. Captain Tiago was torn between the bitter and the sweet. Linares said nothing. Only the curate affected gayety and recounted tales.

XLVI.

A CONSPIRACY.

The bell was announcing the time of prayer the evening after. At its sound every one stopped his work and uncovered. The laborer coming from the fields checked his song; the woman in the streets crossed herself; the man caressed his c.o.c.k and said the Angelus, that chance might favor him. And yet the curate, to the great scandal of pious old ladies, was running through the street toward the house of the alferez. He dashed up the steps and knocked impatiently. The alferez opened.

"Ah, father, I was just going to see you; your young buck----"

"I've something very important----" began the breathless curate.

"I can't allow the fences to be broken; if he comes back, I shall fire on him."

"Who knows whether to-morrow you will be alive," said the curate, going on toward the reception-room.

"What? You think that youngster is going to kill me?"

"Senor alferez, the lives of all of us are in danger!"

"What?"

The curate pointed to the door, which the alferez closed in his customary fashion.

"Now, go ahead," he said calmly.

"Did you see how I ran? When I thus forget myself, there is some grave reason."

"And this time it is----"

The curate approached him and spoke low.

"Do you--know--of nothing--new?"

The alferez shrugged his shoulders.

"Are you speaking of Elias?"

"No, no! I'm speaking of a great peril!"

"Well, finish then!" cried the exasperated alferez.

The curate lowered his voice mysteriously:

"I have discovered a conspiracy!"

The alferez gave a spring and looked at the curate in stupefaction.

"A terrible conspiracy, well organized, that is to break out to-night!"

The alferez rushed across the room, took down his sabre from the wall, and grasped his revolver.

"Whom shall I arrest?" he cried.

"Be calm! There is plenty of time, thanks to the haste with which I came. At eight o'clock----"

"They shall be shot, all of them!"

"Listen! It is a secret of the confessional, discovered to me by a woman. At eight o'clock they are to surprise the barracks, sack the convent, and a.s.sa.s.sinate all the Spaniards."

The alferez stood dumbfounded.

"Be ready for them; ambush your soldiers; send me four guards for the convent! You will earn your promotion to-night! I only ask you to make it known that it was I who warned you."

"It shall be known, father; it shall be known, and, perhaps, it will bring down a mitre!" replied the alferez, his eyes on the sleeves of his uniform.

While this conversation was in progress, Elias was running toward the house of Ibarra. He entered and was shown to the laboratory, where Crisostomo was pa.s.sing the time until the hour of his appointment with Maria Clara.

"Ah! It is you, Elias?" he said, without noticing the tremor of the helmsman. "See here! I've just made a discovery: this piece of bamboo is non-combustible."

"Senor, there is no time to talk of that; take your papers and flee!"

Ibarra looked up amazed, and, seeing the gravity of the helmsman's face, let fall the piece of bamboo.

"Leave nothing behind that could compromise you, and may an hour from this time find you in a safer place than this!"