of mercury will
explode, the pomegranate will blow up and with it the dining-room,
in the roof and floor of which I have concealed sacks of powder,
so that no one shall escape."

There wras a moment's silence, while Simoun stared at his mechanism
and Basilio scarcely breathed.

"So my assistance is not needed," observed the young man.

"No, you have another mission to fulfill," replied Simoun
thoughtfully. "At nine the mechanism will have exploded and the report
will have been heard in the country round, in the mountains, in the
caves. The uprising that I had arranged with the artillerymen was
a failure from lack of plan and timeliness, but this time it won't
be so. Upon hearing the explosion, the wretched and the oppressed,
those who wander about pursued by force, will sally forth armed to
join Cabesang Tales in Santa Mesa, whence they will fall upon the city,
[70] while the soldiers, whom I have made to believe that the General
is shamming an insurrection in order to remain, will issue from their
barracks ready to fire upon whomsoever I may designate. Meanwhile,
the cowed populace, thinking that the hour of massacre has come,
will rush out prepared to kill or be killed, and as they have neither
arms nor organization, you with some others will put yourself at
their head and direct them to the warehouses of Quiroga, where I
keep my rifles. Cabesang Tales and I will join one another in the
city and take possession of it, while you in the suburbs will seize
the bridges and throw up barricades, and then be ready to come to
our aid to butcher not only those opposing the revolution but also
every man who refuses to take up arms and join us."

"All?" stammered Basilio in a choking voice.

"All!" repeated Simoun in a sinister tone. "All--Indians, mestizos,
Chinese, Spaniards, all who are found to be without courage, without
energy. The race must be renewed! Cowardly fathers will only breed
slavish sons, and it wouldn't be worth while to destroy and then try to
rebuild with rotten materials. What, do you shudder? Do you tremble,
do you fear to scatter death? What is death? What does a hecatomb of
twenty thousand wretches signify? Twenty thousand miseries less, and
millions of wretches saved from birth! The most timid ruler does not
hesitate to dictate a law that produces misery and lingering death
for thousands and thousands of prosperous and industrious subjects,
happy perchance, merely to satisfy a caprice, a whim, his