“I asked Don Santiago, but he said that he would tell me nothing until to-morrow. Have you no information regarding him?”
“Why, yes; everybody knows about him. He died in prison.”
The young man stepped back and stared wildly at the officer. “In prison! Who died in prison?” he asked in astonishment.
“Why, your father, who had been arrested,” answered the officer somewhat surprised.
“What! My father in prison! Arrested and imprisoned! Man, what are you talking about? Do you know who my father was? Are you——?” asked the young man, nervously grasping the officer’s arm.
“I don’t think that I am mistaken: Don Rafael Ibarra.”
“Yes. Don Rafael Ibarra,” repeated the young man, scarcely able to utter the words.
“I thought that you knew it,” said the officer, in a sympathetic voice, as he saw the emotion his words had caused. “I thought that you knew it; but be brave. Here, you know, no man can be honorable without being imprisoned.”
“I cannot believe that you are not jesting,” replied Ibarra, after a few minutes of deep silence. “Can you tell me for what offense he was imprisoned?”
The old man paused as if to meditate. “It seems strange to me that you have not been kept informed as to the affairs of your family.”