gallantry, approached Maria Clara, who declined it with a smile. The
friars, the Government employees and the alferez, one after another
went down and repeated the ceremony. Captain Tiago was not forgotten.

Ibarra had been omitted. He was about to order the yellow man to lower
the other stone, when the curate remembered him. In a pleasant tone
and, with an affectation of familiarity, he said to him. "Aren't you
going to put on your trowelful, Senor Ibarra?"

"I would be like the fellow who made the stew and then ate it,"
replied the young man in the same tone.

"O, go on!" said the Alcalde, giving him a gentle push. "If you don't,
I will order them not to lower the stone and then we will have to
wait here till Judgment Day."

So terrible a threat forced Ibarra to obey. He exchanged the small
silver trowel for a larger iron one, which made some of the people
smile. He advanced quietly and descended the stairs. Elias looked at
him with an indescribable expression. If you had seen him, you would
have thought that all his life was concentrated in his eyes. The
yellow man looked down into the abyss opening at his feet.

Ibarra, after glancing at the stone which hung over his head, and then
at Elias and the yellow man, said to Nor Juan in a trembling voice:
"Give me the bucket of mortar and find another trowel for me above."

The young man stood alone. Elias was no longer looking at him; his eyes
instead were riveted on the yellow man's hand, while the latter leaned
over the ditch and followed with anxiety the movements of Ibarra.

The noise of the trowel removing a mass of sand and lime was heard,
accompanied by the low murmur of the employees who were congratulating
the Alcalde on his address.

Suddenly there was a frightful creaking. The pulley which was tied to
the base of the crane jumped and then the windlass struck the apparatus
like a battering-ram. The timbers swayed, ropes flew into the air and,
in a second, all came down with a terrible crash. A cloud of dust was
raised, and a thousand cries filled the air. Nearly all fled; a few
hurried to the ditch. Only Maria Clara and Father Salvi remained in
their places without moving, both pale and silent.

When the cloud of dust had partially cleared away, Ibarra could be
seen standing among a mass of beams, bamboos, and cables, between
the windlass and the massive stone, which in its descent had shaken
and crushed everything. The young man was still holding the t