ster now ... you'll find it in a
provision store near the Muelle, do you see?... Don't miss your way ...
follow this street down, and you'll see it."

The postmastership, as he discovered afterwards, was one of the
perquisites which the two parties of Serin quarrelled over furiously, it
having passed alternately from the hands of one of Don Servando's
friends to those of one of Don Martin's, and _vice versa_. As each time
it came into the hands of a different person,--for it was necessary to
satisfy all,--it happened that many of the houses in Serin had been
pierced for letter-boxes. The postmaster received the salary of three
thousand five hundred reals[53] a year.

As he was walking along one of the streets he met Don Servando, who
greeted him solemnly, and started to pass on.

"What is the good word, Senor Bustelo; are you going home?"

"No, sir, no; I am taking a little walk; then I have some business to
attend to.... Good by, Senor de Rivera."

Miguel went home, but before he reached the house he saw Don Servando go
in. Why had he lied? God only knows.

When he learned that Miguel had posted a letter, the chief of the Casina
party turned livid.

"What!... Senor Rivera ... a letter?"

"Yes, sir; a letter," replied Miguel, not understanding the reason for
his surprise.

"But don't you know, my dear sir, that Don Matias is ... belongs to the
_others_?"

"What of that?"

"Here we never receive or drop letters at the village post-office; we
send them to Malloriz, and there we have also a person who gets those
directed to us, and forwards them to us afterward."

"Man alive! what distrust!"

"We can't be too careful, my dear sir; we can't be too careful."

Assured by the thought that his letter was for his wife, he immediately
invited Don Servando to take a bottle of beer. For the leader of the
Casina beer-drinking was an august function of life. He had surprised
the community by saying, perhaps with truth, that he drank five duros'
worth a day of this beverage. Such prodigality, truly tremendous in that
region, helped him not a little in maintaining his prestige. Don
Servando was the only rich man who spent all his income in Serin, and
this was because he was a bachelor.

XXII.

The first thing that the Casina party demanded of Miguel, as a condition
of his election, was to accomplish the dismissal of the jailer, get the
post-office from Don Matias, and the tobacco-shop[54] from a man named