ant matter...."

"I can't allow your goat to go on breaking down my fence.... I'll
shoot him if he gets in there again."

"That is if you are alive to-morrow," said the curate, breathless,
and directing himself toward the sala.

"What! do you think that that seven-months-old puppy will kill me? I'll
kick him to pieces."

Father Salvi stepped back and looked instinctively at the feet of
the alferez.

"Whom are you talking about?" asked he, trembling.

"Of whom could I be talking but that big blockhead who proposes to
challenge me to a duel with revolvers at one hundred paces?"

"Ah!" sighed the curate, and added: "I have come to speak about a
most urgent matter which seriously concerns the life of all of us."

"Seriously!" repeated the alferez, turning pale in turn. "Does this
young fellow shoot well...?"

"I am not speaking about him."

"Then?"

The friar pointed to the door which the alferez shut in his customary
manner, by a kick. The alferez usually found his hands superfluous. An
imprecation and a groan from without were heard.

"You brute. You have cut open my head!" cried his wife.

"Now unbosom yourself," said he to the curate in a quiet manner. The
latter looked at him for some time. Afterward he asked, in that nasal
and monotonous priest's voice:

"Did you see how I came running?"

"Umph! I thought something was the matter with you."

"When I leave my duties in this manner there are grave motives."

"And what is it?" asked the other, stamping his foot on the floor.

"Calm yourself!"

"Then, why did you come in such a hurry?"

The curate approached him and asked in a mysterious way:

"Don't--you--know--anything--new?"

The alferez shrugged his shoulders.

"You confess that you know absolutely nothing?"

"What! do you mean to tell me about Elias, whom your sacristan mayor
hid last night?" he asked.

"No, no! I don't speak of such matters now," replied the curate,
in a bad humor. "I am talking about a great danger."

"Then d----n it! Let it out."

"Now then," said the friar slowly and with a certain disdain, "you
will see again how important we priests are. The lowest layman is
worth a regiment, so that a curate...."

And then lowering his voice in a very mysterious manner:

"I have discovered a great conspiracy."

The alferez started and looked at the friar astonished.

"A terrible and well-laid conspiracy, which is to break out this
very night."

"This very night!" excl