hings 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.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

FATALITY

_Matanglawin_ was the terror of Luzon. His band had as lief appear
in one province where it was least expected as make a descent upon
another that was preparing to resist it. It burned a sugar-mill in
Batangas and destroyed the crops, on the following day it murdered the
Justice of the Peace of Tiani, and on the next took possession of the
town of Cavite, carrying off the arms from the town hall. The central
provinces, from Tayabas to Pangasinan, suffered from his depredations,
and his bloody name extended from Albay in the south to Kagayan in
the north. T