exclaimed. "You were once forced to leave this town--!"

"Assuredly, _amigo_," Diego replied with great coolness. "And I would
not risk my tender skin again had I not believed that you were here to
shield me. My only safety lies in making the mountains. Their most
accessible point is by way of Simiti. From here I can go to the San
Lucas country; eventually get back to the Guamoco trail; and
ultimately land in Remedios, or some other town farther south, where
the anticlerical sentiment is not so cursedly strong. I have money and
two negro boys. The boat I shall have to leave here in your care.
_Bien_, learning that Rosendo, my principal annoyance and obstruction,
was absent, and that you, my friend, were here, I decided to brave the
wrath of the simple denizens of this hole, and spend a day or two as
guest of yourself and my good friend, the Alcalde, before journeying
farther. Thus you have it all, in _parvo_. But, _Dios y diablo_! that
trip up the river has nearly done for me! We traveled by night and hid
in the brush by day, where millions of gnats and mosquitoes literally
devoured me! _Caramba!_ and you so inhospitable as to have no rum!"

The garrulous priest paused for breath. Then he resumed:

"A voluptuous little wench, that Carmen! Keeping her for yourself, eh?
But you will have to give her up. Belongs to the Church, you know. But
don't let our worthy Don Wenceslas hear of her good looks, for he'd
pop her into a convent _presto_! And later he--_Bien_, you had better
get rid of her before she makes you trouble. I'll take her off your
hands myself, even though I shall be traveling for the next few
months. But, say," changing the subject abruptly, "Don Wenceslas
sprung his trap too soon, eh?"

"I don't follow you," said Jose, consuming with indignation over the
priest's coarse talk.

"_Diablo!_ he pulls a revolution before it is ripe. Is anything more
absurd! It begins as he intended, anticlerical; and so it will run for
a while. But after that--_Bien_, you will see it reverse itself and
turn solely political, with the present Government on top at the last,
and the end a matter of less than six weeks."

"Do you think so?" asked Jose, eagerly grasping at a new hope.

"I know it!" ejaculated Diego. "_Hombre!_ But I have been too close to
matters religious and political in this country all my life not to
know that Don Wenceslas has this time committed the blunder of being
a bit too eager. Had he waited a few mo