“Look!” continued Ibarra, without noting the agitation of the young man, and putting a piece of bamboo to a flame. “I have made a great discovery. This bamboo is incombustible....”
“Don’t talk about bamboo now, Señor. Talk about collecting your papers and fleeing in a minute.”
Ibarra looked at him surprised, and, on seeing the seriousness in Elias’s countenance, he dropped the object which he had in his hands.
“Burn everything that can possibly implicate you in any way and put yourself in a more secure place within an hour.”
“And what for?” he asked at last.
“Put all that you have of value in a secure place....”
“And what for?”
“Burn all papers written by you or to you. The most innocent can be interpreted in a bad sense.”
“But what for?”
“What for? Because I have just discovered a conspiracy which will be attributed to you in order to ruin you.”