They proceed to the meat market in the pre-dawn hours to sharpen their knives and announce to the owner and other butchers that they plan to kill Santiago. No one believes the threat because the brothers are such "good people", or they interpret the threat as "drunkards' baloney". Faustino Santos, a butcher friend, becomes suspicious and reports the threat to the policeman, Leandro Pornoy. The brothers proceed to Clotilde Armenta's milk shop where they tell her about the plan to kill Santiago, and she notices the knives wrapped in rags. Meanwhile, Officer Leandro talks with Colonel Aponte who, after leisurely dressing and enjoying his breakfast, proceeds to the milk shop and takes away their knives and sends them off to sleep though he considers them "a pair of big bluffers". Clotilde wants "to spare those poor boys from the horrible duty" and tries to convince Colonel Aponte to investigate further so they can be stopped. He does nothing more. Since the brothers had announced their plans to kill Santiago at the meat market and the milk store, the news spreads through the town, but no one directly warns Santiago. Clotilde asks everyone she sees to warn Santiago, but people do not warn him for several reasons: they assume he must have been warned already, believe that someone else should warn him, can't find him easily, don't believe it will happen, are too excited about the Bishop's arrival, want him secretly dead, or believe the killing to be justified. The brothers show up again to the milk shop with two new knives, and this time Pedro has hesitations about killing because he feels they had fulfilled their duty "when the mayor disarmed them". Nevertheless, they yell their plans to kill Santiago. Even the priest later confesses, "I didn't know what to do...it wasn't any business of mine but something for the civil authorities." He decides to mention it to Santiago's mother, but because he was excited about the bishop coming, he forgets about Santiago.