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Updated: May 26, 2025
Sinang clucked several times and her mother did not pinch her, perhaps because she too was overcome, or perhaps because she reflected that a jeweler like Simoun was not going to try to gain five pesos more or less as a result of an exclamation more or less indiscreet. All gazed at the gems, but no one showed any desire to handle them, they were so awe-inspiring. Curiosity was blunted by wonder.
"The evil is not," went on Simoun, "in that there are tulisanes in the mountains and uninhabited parts the evil lies in the tulisanes in the towns and cities." "Like yourself," put in the Canon with a smile. "Yes, like myself, like all of us! Let's be frank, for no Indian is listening to us here," continued the jeweler. "The evil is that we're not all openly declared tulisanes.
He coughed, stroked the ends of his mustache, and with a voice as important as though he were at a formal session of the Ayuntamiento, said, "Excuse me, Señor Simoun, my respected friend, if I should say that I am not of your opinion. It would cost a great deal of money and might perhaps destroy some towns." "Then destroy them!" rejoined Simoun coldly. "And the money to pay the laborers?"
Simoun, who was present, having already dined, was in the sala talking with some merchants, who were complaining of business conditions: everything was going wrong, trade was paralyzed, the European exchanges were exorbitantly high. They sought information from the jeweler or insinuated to him a few ideas, with the hope that these would be communicated to the Captain-General.
Then who was the other, the living, this jeweler Simoun, at that time with such an appearance of poverty and wretchedness, but who had now returned loaded with gold and a friend of the authorities? There was the mystery, and the student, with his characteristic cold-bloodedness, determined to clear it up at the first opportunity.
"You know that the virtues a person may possess," gravely argued Padre Sibyla, "are not like the diamonds that may pass from hand to hand, to be sold and resold. They are inherent in the being, they are essential attributes of the subject " "I'll be satisfied then if you pay me with promises," replied Simoun jestingly.
Simoun proceeded to relate how he had been intercepted by a band of tulisanes, who, after entertaining him for a day, had let him go on his way without exacting other ransom than his two fine revolvers and the two boxes of cartridges he carried with him. He added that the tulisanes had charged him with many kind regards for his Excellency, the Captain-General.
"By the way, captain," said Ben-Zayb, turning around, "do you know in what part of the lake a certain Guevara, Navarra, or Ibarra, was killed?" The group looked toward the captain, with the exception of Simoun, who had turned away his head as though to look for something on the shore. "Ah, yes!" exclaimed Doña Victorina. "Where, captain? Did he leave any tracks in the water?"
Sinong, the abused cochero, who had driven him to San Diego, happened to be in Manila at that time and called to give him all the news. Meanwhile, Simoun had recovered his health, or so at least the newspapers said.
Simoun examined him with such marked attention that he was annoyed, turned squarely around, and faced the jeweler with a provoking stare. "Well, what is the province like?" the latter asked, turning again to Basilio. "Why, aren't you familiar with it?" "How the devil am I to know it when I've never set foot in it? I've been told that it's very poor and doesn't buy jewels."
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