gitation, while the good tidings which he
could no longer hold fairly bubbled from his lips, Rosendo dragged the
priest into the parish house and made fast the doors. Swinging his
chair to the floor, he hastily unstrapped his kit and extracted a
canvas bag, which he handed to Jose.

"Padre," he exclaimed in a loud whisper, "we have found it!"

"Found what?" the bewildered Jose managed to ask.

"Gold, Padre--gold! Look, the bag is full! _Hombre!_ not less
than forty _pesos oro_--and more up there--quien sabe how much!
_Caramba!_"

Rosendo fell into a chair, panting with excitement. Jose sat down with
quickening pulse and waited for the full story. It was not long
coming.

"Padre--I knew we would find it--but not this way! _Hombre!_ It was
back of Popales. I had been washing the sands there for two days after
my return. There was a town at that place, years ago. The stone
foundations of the houses can still be seen. The Tigui was rich at
that point then; but it is washed out now. _Bien_, one morning I
started out at daybreak to prospect Popales creek, the little stream
cutting back into the hills behind the old settlement. There was a
heavy mist over the whole valley, and I could not see ten feet before
my face. _Bien_, I had gone up-stream a long distance, perhaps several
miles, without finding more than a few colors, when suddenly the mist
began to clear, and there before me, only a few feet away, stood a
young deer, just as dumfounded as I was."

He paused a moment for breath, laughing meanwhile at the memory of his
surprise. Then he resumed.

"_Bueno_, fresh venison looked good to me, Padre, living on salt
_bagre_ and beans. But I had no weapon, save my _machete_. So I let
drive with that, and with all my strength. The big knife struck the
deer on a leg. The animal turned and started swiftly up the mountain
side, with myself in pursuit. _Caramba_, that was a climb! But with
his belly chasing him, a hungry man will climb anything! Through palms
and ferns and high weeds, falling over rocks and tripping on ground
vines we went, clear to the top of the hill. Then the animal turned
and plunged down a glen. On the descent it traveled faster, and in a
few minutes had passed clean from my sight. _Caramba_, I was angry!"

He stopped to laugh again at the incident.

"The glen," he continued, "ran down for perhaps a hundred yards, and
then widened into a clearing. I have been in the Popales country many
times, Padre,