emical laboratory. Greatly to his surprise he found
himself face to face with the severe and mysterious figure of Elias.

"You saved my life," said the pilot in Tagalog, noticing Ibarra's
start of surprise. "I have partly paid the debt and you have nothing to
thank me for, but quite the opposite. I've come to ask a favor of you."

"Speak!" answered the youth in the same language, puzzled by the
pilot's gravity.

Elias stared into Ibarra's eyes for some seconds before he replied,
"When human courts try to clear up this mystery, I beg of you not to
speak to any one of the warning that I gave you in the church."

"Don't worry," answered the youth in a rather disgusted tone. "I know
that you're wanted, but I'm no informer."

"Oh, it's not on my account, not on my account!" exclaimed Elias with
some vigor and haughtiness. "It's on your own account. I fear nothing
from men."

Ibarra's surprise increased. The tone in which this rustics--formerly
a pilot--spoke was new and did not seem to harmonize with either his
condition or his fortune. "What do you mean?" he asked, interrogating
that mysterious individual with his looks.

"I do not talk in enigmas but try to express myself clearly; for your
greater security, it is better that your enemies think you unsuspecting
and unprepared."

Ibarra recoiled. "My enemies? Have I enemies?"

"All of us have them, sir, from the smallest insect up to man, from
the poorest and humblest to the richest and most powerful! Enmity is
the law of life!"

Ibarra gazed at him in silence for a while, then murmured, "You are
neither a pilot nor a rustic!"

"You have enemies in high and low places," continued Elias, without
heeding the young man's words. "You are planning a great undertaking,
you have a past. Your father and your grandfather had enemies because
they had passions, and in life it is not the criminal who provokes
the most hate but the honest man."

"Do you know who my enemies are?"

Elias meditated for a moment. "I knew one--him who is dead," he
finally answered. "Last night I learned that a plot against you was
being hatched, from some words exchanged with an unknown person who
lost himself in the crowd. 'The fish will not eat him, as they did his
father; you'll see tomorrow,' the unknown said. These words caught my
attention not only by their meaning but also on account of the person
who uttered them, for he had some days before presented himself to
the foreman on the wor