"Don Carlos! Back already, I am so glad," said Valentin. "You know what has happened?"
"Marcelino has been imprisoned, that I know. Is there anything else?"
"That is enough, I think," replied Valentin. "He has been three days in prison, and nothing has been done. It is scandalous, but we will soon do something. There are some men here this evening in consultation with my father, pass forward, you will find them in the dining-room."
"Then has nothing been done?"
"Nothing."
"I am glad of it. There is more in this than you know of, my young friend, be content yet for a few days to do nothing."
So saying, Evaña passed on to the dining-room, where he found Don Gregorio Lopez in consultation with Don Fausto Velasquez, Don Cornelio Saavedra, Don Manuel Belgrano, and four others. Evaña joined them, and for an hour they remained talking earnestly together, then, as some of them rose to go, Don Manuel Belgrano said:
"Yet after all I do not like the idea of leaving my young friend in prison, when, if that be the crime charged against him, I am the real culprit."
"For many reasons I agree with Don Carlos," said Don Gregorio, "that it is the wisest course."
"Above all things it is necessary that they take the initiative," said Don Cornelio Saavedra. "The Señor Don Santiago Liniers is a man of no decision, and in order that he put full confidence in us we must show our acquiescence in any measure that he may think fit to adopt."