Mateo Gil were up and about their usual affairs. But even Mateo
had revived wonderfully; and Jose was confident that the good news
would be the leaven of health that would work a complete restoration
within him in time. The exiles left the hilltop and the old church,
and returned again to their homes. Don Jorge took up his abode with
Jose.

"_Bien_," he said, as they sat at the rear door of the priest's house,
looking through the late afternoon haze out over the lake, "you have
had a strange experience--_Caramba_! most strange!--and yet one from
which you should gather an excellent lesson. You are dealing with
children here--children who have always been rocked in the cradle of
the Church. But--" looking archly at Jose, "do I offend? For, as I
told you on the boat a year ago, I do not think you are a good
priest." He laughed softly. "_Bien_," he added, "I will correct that.
You are good--but not a priest, is it not so?"

"I have some views, Don Jorge, which differ radically from those of
the faith," Jose said cautiously.

"_Caramba!_ I should hope so!" his friend ejaculated.

"But," interposed Jose, anxious to direct the conversation into other
channels, "may I ask how and where you have occupied yourself since I
left the boat at Badillo?"

"Ah, _Dios_!" said Don Jorge, shaking his head, although his eyes
twinkled. "I have wandered ever since--and am poorer now than when I
started. I left our boat at Puerto Nacional, to go to Medellin; and
from there to Remedios and Guamoco. But while in the river town I met
another _guaquero_--grave hunter, you know--who was preparing to go to
Honda, to investigate the 'castles' at that place. There is a strange
legend--you may have heard it--hanging over those rocks. It appears
that a lone hermit lived in one of the many caverns in the great
limestone deposits rising abruptly from the river near the town of
Honda. How he came there, no one knew. Day after day, year after year,
he labored in his cave, extending it further into the hillside. People
laughed at him for tunneling in that barren rock, for gold has never
been found anywhere in it. But the fellow paid them no attention; and
gradually he was accepted as a harmless fanatic, and was left
unmolested to dig his way into the hill as far as he would. Years
passed. No one knew how the fellow lived, for he held no human
intercourse. Kind people often brought food and left it at the mouth
of his cavern, but he would have none of