"See here, Señor Marroquín!" he said in an undertone, "let us talk about something else."
Marroquín, smiling in a superior manner, replied:—
"Don't have any fears, my friend Don Leandro; the police have come in here already several times; but they did not see fit to lay their hands on any one: if they should, the affair is now so well matured it would be the signal for the eruption to break out."
"What eruption?"
"The revolution, man alive!"
"Santo Crísto! Do you know, Señor Marroquín, these things are very serious, very serious! If you will not take it in bad part, I should like to be going.... Anyway, I have something that I must be doing...."
Marroquín took him by the arm, and compelled him to sit down again.
"Don't you have any apprehension, my dear friend! Nothing can happen to you, at any rate, because you do not, like me, figure in all the lists which the police have been sending to the authorities."
"No matter; if it does not make any difference to you, we will change the subject."
The subject was changed, indeed, but the topic which followed was still more terrible and demoniacal.