useless! Listen--the night is coming on and there's no time to be
lost. I must tell you my secret, and intrust to you my last request,
I must lay my life open before you. At the supreme moment I want to
lighten myself of a load, I want to clear up a doubt of mine. You
who believe so firmly in God--I want you to tell me if there is a God!"

"But an antidote, Senor Simoun! I have ether, chloroform--"

The priest began to search for a flask, until Simoun cried impatiently,
"Useless, it's useless! Don't waste time! I'll go away with my secret!"

The bewildered priest fell down at his desk and prayed at the feet
of the Christ, hiding his face in his hands. Then he arose serious
and grave, as if he had received from his God all the force, all
the dignity, all the authority of the Judge of consciences. Moving
a chair to the head of the bed he prepared to listen.

At the first words Simoun murmured, when he told his real name,
the old priest started back and gazed at him in terror, whereat
the sick man smiled bitterly. Taken by surprise, the priest was not
master of himself, but he soon recovered, and covering his face with
a handkerchief again bent over to listen.

Simoun related his sorrowful story: how, thirteen years before, he
had returned from Europe filled with hopes and smiling illusions,
having come back to marry a girl whom he loved, disposed to do good
and forgive all who had wronged him, just so they would let him live
in peace. But it was not so. A mysterious hand involved him in the
confusion of an uprising planned by his enemies. Name, fortune, love,
future, liberty, all were lost, and he escaped only through the heroism
of a friend. Then he swore vengeance. With the wealth of his family,
which had been buried in a wood, he had fled, had gone to foreign
lands and engaged in trade. He took part in the war in Cuba, aiding
first one side and then another, but always profiting. There he made
the acquaintance of the General, then a major, whose good-will he won
first by loans of money, and afterwards he made a friend of him by
the knowledge of criminal secrets. With his money he had been able to
secure the General's appointment and, once in the Philippines, he had
used him as a blind tool and incited him to all kinds of injustice,
availing himself of his insatiable lust for gold.

The confession was long and tedious, but during the whole of it the
confessor made no further sign of surprise and rarely interrupte