are jingling money in their
hands; while the people are going down in their pockets for the last
cuarto, or, if that is wanting, pledging their word, promising to
sell their carabao, or their next harvest, two young men, apparently
brothers, follow the gamblers with envious eyes. They approach, timidly
murmur words which nobody catches, and each time become more and more
melancholy, and look at each other with disgust and indignation. Lucas
observes them, smiles malignantly, rattles some silver pesos, passes
near to the two brothers, and looks toward the rueda, shouting:

"I am betting fifty, fifty against twenty on the white!"

The two brothers exchanged looks.

"I told you," murmured the older, "not to bet all your money. If you
had obeyed me, we would have it now to put on the red."

The younger one approached Lucas timidly and touched him on the arm.

"Is it you?" exclaimed the latter turning around and feigning
surprise. "Does your brother accept my proposition or did you come
to bet?"

"How can we bet when we have lost all?"

"Then you accept?"

"He does not want to! If you could lend us something: you have already
said that you knew us...."

Lucas scratched his head, pulled down his camisa and replied:

"Yes, I know you. You are Tarsilo and Bruno, both young and strong. I
know that your brave father died from the result of the hundred
lashes which the soldiers gave him. I know that you do not think of
avenging him."

"You need not meddle in our history," interrupted Tarsilo, the
older. "That is a disgrace. If we did not have a sister, we would
have been hanged long ago."

"Hanged? They only hang cowards, or some one who has no money or
protection. Certainly the mountains are near."

"A hundred against twenty on the blanco," cried one as he passed
the group.

"Loan us four pesos ... three ... two," begged the younger
brother. "Presently I will return it to you doubled. The fight is
going to begin."

Lucas scratched his head again.

"Tst! This money is not mine. Don Crisostomo has given it to me for
those who want to serve him. But I see that you are not like your
father. He was really courageous."

And, saying this, he went away from them, although not far.

"Let us accept. What does it matter?" said Bruno to his brother. "It
amounts to the same thing whether you are hanged or shot down. We
poor serve for nothing else."

"You are right, but think of our sister."

In the meantime, the ci