Page:The reign of greed (1912).pdf/131

 loved by the professors, and had before him a promising future.

Meanwhile, the groups began to move inside, for the professor of physics and chemistry had put in his appearance. The students appeared to be cheated in their hopes and went toward the interior of the building with exclamations of discontent. Placido went along with the crowd.

"Penitente, Penitente!" called a student with a certain mysterious air. "Sign this!"

"What is it?"

"Never mind—sign it!"

It seemed to Placido that some one was twitching his ears. He recalled the story of a cabeza de barangay in his town who, for having signed a document that he did not understand, was kept a prisoner for months and months, and came near to deportation. An uncle of Placido's, in order to fix the lesson in his memory, had given him a severe ear-pulling, so that always whenever he heard signatures spoken of, his ears reproduced the sensation.

"Excuse me, but I can't sign anything without first understanding what it's about."

"What a fool you are! If two celestial carbineers have signed it, what have you to fear?"

The name of celestial carbineers inspired confidence, being, as it was, a sacred company created to aid God in the warfare against the evil spirit and to prevent the smuggling of heretical contraband into the markets of the New Zion.

Placido was about to sign to make an end of it, because he was in a hurry,—already his classmates were reciting the O Thoma,—but again his ears twitched, so he said, "After the class! I want to read it first."

"It's very long, don't you see? It concerns the presentation of a counter-petition, or rather, a protest. Don't