第 三十七 章 · THE MYSTERY

Todo se sabe

Notwithstanding so many precautions, rumors reached the public, even

though quite changed and mutilated. On the following night they were

the theme of comment in the house of Orenda, a rich jewel merchant in

the industrious district of Santa Cruz, and the numerous friends of the

family gave attention to nothing else. They were not indulging in

cards, or playing the piano, while little Tinay, the youngest of the

girls, became bored playing chongka by herself, without being able to

understand the interest awakened by assaults, conspiracies, and sacks

of powder, when there were in the seven holes so many beautiful cowries

that seemed to be winking at her in unison and smiled with their tiny

mouths half-opened, begging to be carried up to the home. Even Isagani,

who, when he came, always used to play with her and allow himself to be

beautifully cheated, did not come at her call, for Isagani was gloomily

and silently listening to something Chichoy the silversmith was

relating. Momoy, the betrothed of Sensia, the eldest of the daughters—a

pretty and vivacious girl, rather given to joking—had left the window

where he was accustomed to spend his evenings in amorous discourse, and

this action seemed to be very annoying to the lory whose cage hung from

the eaves there, the lory endeared to the house from its ability to

greet everybody in the morning with marvelous phrases of love. Capitana

Loleng, the energetic and intelligent Capitana Loleng, had her

account-book open before her, but she neither read nor wrote in it, nor

was her attention fixed on the trays of loose pearls, nor on the

diamonds—she had completely forgotten herself and was all ears. Her

husband himself, the great Capitan Toringoy,—a transformation of the

name Domingo,—the happiest man in the district, without other

occupation than to dress well, eat, loaf, and gossip, while his whole

family worked and toiled, had not gone to join his coterie, but was

listening between fear and emotion to the hair-raising news of the lank

Chichoy.

Nor was reason for all this lacking. Chichoy had gone to deliver some

work for Don Timoteo Pelaez, a pair of earrings for the bride, at the

very time when they were tearing down the kiosk that on the previous

night had served as a dining-room for the foremost officials. Here

Chichoy turned pale and his hair stood on end.

“Nakú!” he exclaimed, “sacks and sacks of powder, sacks of powder under

the floor, in the roof, under the table, under the chairs, everywhere!

It’s lucky none of the workmen were smoking.”

“Who put those sacks of powder there?” asked Capitana Loleng, who was

brave and did not turn pale, as did the enamored Momoy. But Momoy had

attended the wedding, so his posthumous emotion can be appreciated: he

had been near the kiosk.

“That’s what no one can explain,” replied Chichoy. “Who would have any

interest in breaking up the fiesta? There couldn’t have been more than

one, as the celebrated lawyer Señor Pasta who was there on a visit

declared—either an enemy of Don Timoteo’s or a rival of Juanito’s.”

The Orenda girls turned instinctively toward Isagani, who smiled

silently.

“Hide yourself,” Capitana Loleng advised him. “They may accuse you.

Hide!”

Again Isagani smiled but said nothing.

“Don Timoteo,” continued Chichoy, “did not know to whom to attribute

the deed. He himself superintended the work, he and his friend Simoun,

and nobody else. The house was thrown into an uproar, the lieutenant of

the guard came, and after enjoining secrecy upon everybody, they sent

me away. But—”

“But—but—” stammered the trembling Momoy.

“Nakú!” ejaculated Sensia, gazing at her fiancé and trembling

sympathetically to remember that he had been at the fiesta. “This young

man—If the house had blown up—” She stared at her sweetheart

passionately and admired his courage.

“If it had blown up—”

“No one in the whole of Calle Anloague would have been left alive,”

concluded Capitan Toringoy, feigning valor and indifference in the

presence of his family.

“I left in consternation,” resumed Chichoy, “thinking about how, if a

mere spark, a cigarette had fallen, if a lamp had been overturned, at

the present moment we should have neither a General, nor an Archbishop,

nor any one, not even a government clerk! All who were at the fiesta

last night—annihilated!”

“Vírgen Santísima! This young man—”

“’Susmariosep!” exclaimed Capitana Loleng. “All our debtors were there,

’Susmariosep! And we have a house near there! Who could it have been?”

“Now you may know about it,” added Chichoy in a whisper, “but you must

keep it a secret. This afternoon I met a friend, a clerk in an office,

and in talking about the affair, he gave me the clue to the mystery—he

had it from some government employees. Who do you suppose put the sacks

of powder there?”

Many shrugged their shoulders, while Capitan Toringoy merely looked

askance at Isagani.

“The friars?”

“Quiroga the Chinaman?”

“Some student?”

“Makaraig?”

Capitan Toringoy coughed and glanced at Isagani, while Chichoy shook

his head and smiled.

“The jeweler Simoun.”

“Simoun!!”

The profound silence of amazement followed these words. Simoun, the

evil genius of the Captain-General, the rich trader to whose house they

had gone to buy unset gems, Simoun, who had received the Orenda girls

with great courtesy and had paid them fine compliments! For the very

reason that the story seemed absurd it was believed. “Credo quia

absurdum,” said St. Augustine.

“But wasn’t Simoun at the fiesta last night?” asked Sensia.

“Yes,” said Momoy. “But now I remember! He left the house just as we

were sitting down to the dinner. He went to get his wedding-gift.”

“But wasn’t he a friend of the General’s? Wasn’t he a partner of Don

Timoteo’s?”

“Yes, he made himself a partner in order to strike the blow and kill

all the Spaniards.”

“Aha!” cried Sensia. “Now I understand!”

“What?”

“You didn’t want to believe Aunt Tentay. Simoun is the devil and he has

bought up the souls of all the Spaniards. Aunt Tentay said so!”

Capitana Loleng crossed herself and looked uneasily toward the jewels,

fearing to see them turn into live coals, while Capitan Toringoy took

off the ring which had come from Simoun.

“Simoun has disappeared without leaving any traces,” added Chichoy.

“The Civil Guard is searching for him.”

“Yes,” observed Sensia, crossing herself, “searching for the devil.”

Now many things were explained: Simoun’s fabulous wealth and the

peculiar smell in his house, the smell of sulphur. Binday, another of

the daughters, a frank and lovely girl, remembered having seen blue

flames in the jeweler’s house one afternoon when she and her mother had

gone there to buy jewels. Isagani listened attentively, but said

nothing.

“So, last night—” ventured Momoy.

“Last night?” echoed Sensia, between curiosity and fear.

Momoy hesitated, but the face Sensia put on banished his fear. “Last

night, while we were eating, there was a disturbance, the light in the

General’s dining-room went out. They say that some unknown person stole

the lamp that was presented by Simoun.”

“A thief? One of the Black Hand?”

Isagani arose to walk back and forth.

“Didn’t they catch him?”

“He jumped into the river before anybody recognized him. Some say he

was a Spaniard, some a Chinaman, and others an Indian.”

“It’s believed that with the lamp,” added Chichoy, “he was going to set

fire to the house, then the powder—”

Momoy again shuddered but noticing that Sensia was watching him tried

to control himself. “What a pity!” he exclaimed with an effort. “How

wickedly the thief acted. Everybody would have been killed.”

Sensia stared at him in fright, the women crossed themselves, while

Capitan Toringoy, who was afraid of politics, made a move to go away.

Momoy turned to Isagani, who observed with an enigmatic smile: “It’s

always wicked to take what doesn’t belong to you. If that thief had

known what it was all about and had been able to reflect, surely he

wouldn’t have done as he did.”

Then, after a pause, he added, “For nothing in the world would I want

to be in his place!”

So they continued their comments and conjectures until an hour later,

when Isagani bade the family farewell, to return forever to his uncle’s

side.