EL FILIBUSTERISMO

II. ON THE LOWER DECK.

CHAPTER II

ON THE LOWER DECK

There, below, other scenes were being enacted. Seated on benches

or small wooden stools among valises, boxes, and baskets, a few

feet from the engines, in the heat of the boilers, amid the human

smells and the pestilential odor of oil, were to be seen the great

majority of the passengers. Some were silently gazing at the changing

scenes along the banks, others were playing cards or conversing in the

midst of the scraping of shovels, the roar of the engine, the hiss of

escaping steam, the swash of disturbed waters, and the shrieks of the

whistle. In one corner, heaped up like corpses, slept, or tried to

sleep, a number of Chinese pedlers, seasick, pale, frothing through

half-opened lips, and bathed in their copious perspiration. Only

a few youths, students for the most part, easily recognizable from

their white garments and their confident bearing, made bold to move

about from stern to bow, leaping over baskets and boxes, happy in

the prospect of the approaching vacation. Now they commented on the

movements of the engines, endeavoring to recall forgotten notions of

physics, now they surrounded the young schoolgirl or the red-lipped

_buyera_ with her collar of _sampaguitas,_ whispering into their ears

words that made them smile and cover their faces with their fans.

Nevertheless, two of them, instead of engaging in these fleeting

gallantries, stood in the bow talking with a man, advanced in years,

but still vigorous and erect. Both these youths seemed to be well

known and respected, to judge from the deference shown them by their

fellow passengers. The elder, who was dressed in complete black, was

the medical student, Basilio, famous for his successful cures and

extraordinary treatments, while the other, taller and more robust,

although much younger, was Isagani, one of the poets, or at least

rimesters, who that year came from the Ateneo, [6] a curious character,

ordinarily quite taciturn and uncommunicative. The man talking with

them was the rich Capitan Basilio, who was returning from a business

trip to Manila.

"Capitan Tiago is getting along about the same as usual, yes, sir,"

said the student Basilio, shaking his head. "He won't submit to any

treatment. At the advice of _a certain person_ he is sending me to San

Diego under the pretext of looking after his property, but in reality

so that he may be left to smoke his opium with complete liberty."

When the student said _a certain person_, he really meant Padre Irene,

a great friend and adviser of Capitan Tiago in his last days.