“He would put an end to the race of filibusterillos!”
“Don’t they say there are many islands yet uninhabited?”
“If I were the captain-general——”
“Señoras,” said the one-armed man, “the captain-general knows his duty. I understand he is greatly irritated, for he had loaded this Ibarra with favors.”
“Loaded him with favors!” repeated the slim gentlewoman, fanning furiously. “What ingrates these Indians are! Is it possible to treat them like human beings?”
“Do you know what I’ve heard?” asked an officer.
“No! What is it? What do they say?”
“People worthy of confidence say that all this noise about building a school was a pure pretext; what he meant to make was a fort for his own defence when he had been attacked.”
“What infamy! Would any one but an Indian be capable of it?”
“But they say this filibustero is the son of a Spaniard,” said the one-armed man, without looking at anybody.