re good friends, is it not so? And we are working together for the
good of Simiti. But to have good come to us, we must do good to
others."

He went to his trunk and took out a wallet. "Here are twenty _pesos_,
Don Mario." It was all he had in the world, but he did not tell the
Alcalde so. "Take them on Rosendo's account. Let him have the new
supplies he needs, and I will be his surety. And, friend, you are
going to let me prove to you with time that the report you have from
Cartagena regarding me is false."

Don Mario's features relaxed somewhat when his hand closed over the
grimy bills.

"Do not forget, _amigo_," added Jose, assuming an air of mystery as he
pursued the advantage, "that you and I are associated in various
business matters, is it not so?"

The Alcalde's mouth twitched, but finally extended in an unctuous
grin. After all, the priest was a descendant of the famous Don
Ignacio, and--who knew?--he might have resources of which the Alcalde
little dreamed.

"_Cierto, Padre!_" he cried, rising to depart. "And we will yet
uncover La Libertad! You guarantee Rosendo's debt? _Bien_, he shall
have the supplies. But I think he should take another man with him.
Lazaro might do, no?"

It was a gracious and unlooked for condescension.

"Send Lazaro to me, Don Mario," said Jose. "We will find use for him,
I think."

And thus Rosendo was enabled to depart a third time to the solitudes
of Guamoco.

CHAPTER 14

With Rosendo again on the trail, Jose and Carmen bent once more to
their work. Within a few days the grateful Lazaro was sent to
Rosendo's _hacienda_, biding the time when the priest should have a
larger commission to bestow upon him. With the advent of the dry
season, peace settled over the sequestered town, while its artless
folk drowsed away the long, hot days and danced at night in the
silvery moonlight to the twang of the guitar and the drone of the
amorous canzonet. Jose was deeply grateful for these days of unbroken
quiet, and for the opportunity they afforded him to probe the child's
thought and develop his own. Day after day he taught her. Night after
night he visited the members of his little parish, getting better
acquainted with them, administering to their simple needs, talking to
them in the church edifice on the marvels of the outside world, and
then returning to his little cottage to prepare by the feeble rays of
his flickering candle Carmen's lessons for the following day. He