e before reason would again lay her restraining
hand upon the rent nation! For--strange anomaly--no strife is so
venomous, no wars so bloody, no issues so steeped in deadliest hatred,
as those which break forth in the name of the humble Christ.

A buzzing concourse was gathering in the _plaza_ before the church.
Leaving Carmen in charge of Dona Maria, Jose mingled with the excited
people. Juan had brought no definite information, other than that
already imparted to Jose, but his elastic Latin imagination had
supplied all lacking essentials, and now, with much gesticulation and
rolling of eyes, with frequent alternations of shrill chatter and
dignified pomp of phrase, he was portraying in a _melange_ of
picturesque and poetic Spanish the supposed happenings along the great
river.

Jose forced the lad gently aside and addressed the thoroughly excited
people himself, assuring them that no reliable news was as yet at
hand, and bidding them assemble in the church after the evening meal,
where he would advise with them regarding their future course. He then
sought the Alcalde, and drew him into his store, first closing the
door against the excited multitude.

"_Bien, Senor Padre_, what are you going to do?" The Alcalde was
atremble with insuppressible excitement.

"Don Mario, we must protect Simiti," replied the priest, with a show
of calm which he did not possess.

"_Caramba_, but not a man will stay! They will run to the hills! The
_guerrillas_ will come, and Simiti will be burned to the ground!"

"Will you stay--with me?"

"_Na_, and be hacked by the _machetes_ of the _guerrillas_, or lassoed
by government soldiers and dragged off to the war?" The official
mopped the damp from his purple brow.

"_Caramba!_" he went on. "But the Antioquanians will come down the
Simiti trail from Remedios and butcher every one they meet! They
hate us Simitanians, since we whipped them in the revolution of
seventy-six! And--_Diablo_! if we stay here and beat them back,
then the federal troops will come with their ropes and chains and
force us away to fight on their side! _Nombre de Dios!_ I am for the
mountains--_pronto_!"

Jose's own fear mounted by leaps. And yet, in the welter of
conflicting thought two objects stood out above the rest--Carmen and
Rosendo. The latter was on the trail, somewhere. Would he fall afoul
of the bandits who find in these revolutions their opportunities for
plunder and bloodshed? As for Carmen--the pri