e you afraid, Rosendo?" queried the amused Jose.

"I--I would--rather not," the old man replied hesitatingly. "The
Virgin has sealed it." Physical danger was temperamental to this noble
son of the jungle; yet the religious superstition which Spain had
bequeathed to this oppressed land still shackled his limbs.

As they descended the hill Carmen seized an opportunity to speak to
Jose alone. "Some day, Padre," she whispered, "you and I will open the
door and let the bad angel out, won't we?"

Jose pressed her little hand. He knew that the door of his own mind
had swung wide at her bidding in these few days, and many a bad angel
had gone out forever.

CHAPTER 6

The dawn of a new day broke white and glistering upon the ancient
_pueblo_. From their hard beds of palm, and their straw mats on the
dirt floors, the provincial dwellers in this abandoned treasure house
of Old Spain rose already dressed to resume the monotonous routine of
their lowly life. The duties which confronted them were few, scarce
extending beyond the procurement of their simple food. And for all,
excepting the two or three families which constituted the shabby
aristocracy of Simiti, this was limited in the extreme. Indian corn,
_panela_, and coffee, with an occasional addition of _platanos_ or
rice, and now and then bits of _bagre_, the coarse fish yielded by the
adjacent lake, constituted the staple diet of the average citizen of
this decayed hamlet. A few might purchase a bit of lard at rare
intervals; and this they hoarded like precious jewels. Some
occasionally had wheat flour; but the long, difficult transportation,
and its rapid deterioration in that hot, moist climate, where swarms
of voracious insects burrow into everything not cased in tin or iron,
made its cost all but prohibitive. A few had goats and chickens. Some
possessed pigs. And the latter even exceeded in value the black, naked
babes that played in the hot dust of the streets with them.

Jose was up at dawn. Standing in the warm, unadulterated sunlight in
his doorway he watched the village awaken. At a door across the
_plaza_ a woman appeared, smoking a cigar, with the lighted end in her
mouth. Jose viewed with astonishment this curious custom which
prevails in the _Tierra Caliente_. He had observed that in Simiti
nearly everybody of both sexes was addicted to the use of tobacco, and
it was no uncommon sight to see children of tender age smoking heavy,
black cigars with ke