Who is Marcial's Knife

The knife that Marcial reveals to the narrator in "The Lord Rides a Swift Cloud" symbolizes that character's desperation. Marcial, an older man who feels left behind by the country's booming economy, resorts to the prospect of robbing the narrator at knifepoint to solve these problems. When the narrator takes the knife from Marcial, he keeps it, one can conclude, as a kind of remembrance of this pivotal moment.