ayed that his remaining days might be few. The
blows which had fallen, one after another, upon his keen, raw nerves
had left him benumbed. The cruel bruises which his faith in man had
received in Rome and Cartagena had left him listless, and without
pain. He was accepting the Bishop's final judgment mutely, for he had
already borne all that human nature could endure. His severance from a
life of faith and love was complete.

Nor could Jose learn when he might hope to reach Badillo, though he
made listless inquiry.

"_Na, Senor Padre_," the captain had said, "we never know where to
find the water. It is on the right to-day; on the left to-morrow.
There is low tide to-night; the morning may see it ten feet higher.
And Badillo--_quien sabe_? It might be washed away when we arrive."
And he shrugged his shoulders in complete disclaimer of any
responsibility therefor.

The captain's words were not idle, for the channel of the mighty river
changes with the caprice of a maiden's heart. With irresistible
momentum the tawny flood rolls over the continent, now impatiently
ploughing its way across a great bend, destroying plantations and
abruptly leaving towns and villages many miles inland; now savagely
filching away the soft loam banks beneath little settlements and
greedily adding broad acres to the burden of its surcharged waters.
Mighty giants of the forest, wrested from their footholds of
centuries, plunge with terrifying noise into the relentless stream;
great masses of earth, still cohering, break from their moorings and
glide into the whirling waters, where, like immense islands, they
journey bobbing and tumbling toward the distant sea.

Against the strong current, whose quartzose sediment tinkled
metallically about her iron prow, the clumsy Honda made slow headway.
She was a craft of some two hundred tons burden, with iron hull,
stern paddle wheel, and corrugated metal passenger deck and roof.
Below the passenger deck, and well forward on the hull, stood the
huge, wood-burning boiler, whose incandescent stack pierced the open
space where the gasping travelers were forced to congregate to get
what air they might. Midway on this deck she carried a few cabins at
either side. These, bare of furnishings, might accommodate a dozen
passengers, if the insufferable heat would permit them to be
occupied. Each traveler was obliged to supply his own bedding, and
likewise hammock, unless not too discriminating to use the soiled