t settles upon him--is it not so?"

Jose still kept silence before the old man's inbred superstition. A
few minutes later they stood before the old church. It was in the
Spanish mission style, but smaller than the one in the central
_plaza_.

"This was built in the time of your great-grandfather, Padre, the
father of Don Ignacio," offered Rosendo. "The Rincon family had many
powerful enemies throughout the country, and those in Simiti even
carried their ill feeling so far as to refuse to hear Mass in the
church which your family built. So they erected this one. No one ever
enters it now. Strange noises are sometimes heard inside, and the
people are afraid to go in. You see there are no houses built near it.
They say an angel of the devil lives here and thrashes around at times
in terrible anger. There is a story that many years ago, when I was
but a baby, the devil's angel came and entered this church one dark
night, when there was a terrible storm and the waves of the lake were
so strong that they tossed the crocodiles far up on the shore. And
when the bad angel saw the candles burning on the altar before the
sacred wafer he roared in anger and blew them out. But there was a
beautiful painting of the Virgin on the wall, and when the lights went
out she came down out of her picture and lighted the candles again.
But the devil's angel blew them out once more. And then, they say, the
Holy Virgin left the church in darkness and went out and locked the
wicked angel in, where he has been ever since. That was to show her
displeasure against the enemies of the great Rincons for erecting this
church. The _Cura_ died suddenly that night; and the church has never
been used since The Virgin, you know, is the special guardian Saint of
the Rincon family."

"But you do not believe the story, Rosendo?" Jose asked.

"_Quien sabe?_" was the noncommittal reply.

"Do you really think the Virgin could or would do such a thing,
Rosendo?"

"Why not, Padre? She has the same power as God, has she not? The frame
which held her picture"--reverting again to the story--"was found out
in front of the church the next morning; but the picture itself was
gone."

Jose glanced down at Carmen, who had been listening with a tense, rapt
expression on her face. What impression did this strange story make
upon her? She looked up at the priest with a little laugh.

"Let us go in, Padre," she said.

"No!" commanded Rosendo, seizing her hand.

"Ar