nunc?_ [155] What! Does Don Crisostomo owe you anything?"

"No, but you know, Tinong invited him to dinner and spoke to him
on the Bridge of Spain--in broad daylight! They'll say that he's a
friend of his!"

"A friend of his!" exclaimed the startled Latinist, rising. "_Amice,
amicus Plato sed magis amica veritas_. Birds of a feather flock
together. _Malum est negotium et est timendum rerum istarum
horrendissimum resultatum!_ [156] Ahem!"

Capitan Tinong turned deathly pale at hearing so many words in _um_;
such a sound presaged ill. His wife clasped her hands supplicatingly
and said:

"Cousin, don't talk to us in Latin now. You know that we're not
philosophers like you. Let's talk in Spanish or Tagalog. Give us
some advice."

"It's a pity that you don't understand Latin, cousin. Truths in
Latin are lies in Tagalog; for example, _contra principia negantem
fustibus est arguendum_ [157] in Latin is a truth like Noah's ark,
but I put it into practise once and I was the one who got whipped. So,
it's a pity that you don't know Latin. In Latin everything would be
straightened out."

"We, too, know many _oremus, parcenobis_, and _Agnus Dei Catolis_,
[158] but now we shouldn't understand one another. Provide Tinong
with an argument so that they won't hang him!"

"You're done wrong, very wrong, cousin, in cultivating friendship
with that young man," replied the Latinist.

"The righteous suffer for the sinners. I was almost going to advise you
to make your will. _Vae illis! Ubi est fumus ibi est ignis! Similis
simili audet; atqui Ibarra ahorcatur, ergo ahorcaberis--_" [159]
With this he shook his head from side to side disgustedly.

"Saturnino, what's the matter?" cried Capitana Tinchang in dismay. "Ay,
he's dead! A doctor! Tinong, Tinongoy!"

The two daughters ran to her, and all three fell to weeping. "It's
nothing more than a swoon, cousin! I would have been more pleased
that--that--but unfortunately it's only a swoon. _Non timeo mortem
in catre sed super espaldonem Bagumbayanis_. [160] Get some water!"

"Don't die!" sobbed the wife. "Don't die, for they'll come and arrest
you! Ay, if you die and the soldiers come, ay, ay!"

The learned cousin rubbed the victim's face with water until he
recovered consciousness. "Come, don't cry. _Inveni remedium_: I've
found a remedy. Let's carry him to bed. Come, take courage! Here I am
with you--and all the wisdom of the ancients. Call a doctor, and you,
cousin, go right aw