tions were absolute; when he believed in the exact truth of a
thing, he did not vacillate, he did not go back and discuss it; but if
his belief faltered, then he changed his opinion radically and went
ahead stating the contrary of his previous statements, without
recollecting his abandoned ideas.

His other fellow-students did not care about discussions with a lad who
appeared to have a monopoly of the truth.

"Professor So-and-So is a beast; What-you-call-him is a talented chap;
that fellow is a thick-witted chap. This kid is all right; that one is
not."

In this rail-splitting manner did young Moncada announce his decisions,
as if he held the secret explanation of all things tight between his
fingers.

Alzugaray seldom shared his friend's opinions; but in spite of this
divergence they understood each other very well.

Alzugaray came of a modest family; his mother, the widow of a government
clerk, lived on her pension and on the income from some property they
owned in the North.

Ignacio Alzugaray was very fond of his mother and his sister, and was
always talking about them. Caesar alone would listen without being
impatient to the meticulous narratives Ignacio told about the things
that happened at home.

Alzugaray was of a very Catholic and very Carlist family; but like
Caesar, he was beginning to protest against such ideas and to show
himself Liberal, Republican, and even Anarchistic. Ignacio Alzugaray was
a nephew of Carlos Yarza, the Spanish author, who lived in Paris, and
who had taken part in the Commune and in the Insurrection of Cartagena.

Caesar, on hearing Alzugaray recount the doings of his uncle Carlos
Yarza various times, said to his fellow-student:

"When I get out of this college, the first thing I am going to do is to
go to Paris to talk with your uncle."

"What for?"

"I have to talk to him."

As a matter of fact, once his course was finished, Caesar left the
college, took a third-class ticket, went to Paris, and from there wrote
to his mother informing her what he had done. Carlos Yarza, Alzugaray's
uncle, received him very affectionately. He took him to dine and
explained a good many things. Caesar asked the old man no end of
questions and listened to him with real avidity.

Carlos Yarza was at that time an employee in a bank. At this epoch his
forte was for questions of speculation. He had put his mind and his will
to the study of these matters and had the glimmering of a system in