to reach him; but Fernando held him back. The Alcalde
got quickly within the house and secured the door. "Go now to your
home, Padre," urged Fernando; "else I shall call help and put you in
the stocks, too!"

"But I will enter that house! I will take the child from him!" shouted
Jose desperately, struggling to gain the Alcalde's door.

"Listen to me, Padre!" cried Fernando, holding to the frenzied man.
"The little Carmen--she is not in there!"

"Not--in--there! Then where is she, Fernando?--for God's sake tell
me!" appealed the stricken priest. Great beads of perspiration stood
upon his face, and tears rolled down his drawn cheeks.

Fernando could not but pity him. "_Bien_, Padre," he said gently;
"come away. I give you my word that the girl is not in the house of
the Alcalde. But I am not permitted to say where she is."

"Then I will search every house in Simiti!" cried the priest wildly.

"_Na_, Padre, you would not find her. Come, I will go home with you."
He took Jose's arm again and led him, blindly stumbling, to the parish
house.

By this time the little town was agog with excitement. People ran from
house to house, or gathered on the street corners, discussing the
event.

"_Caramba!_" shrilled one wrinkled beldame, "but Simiti was very quiet
until the _Cura_ came!"

"_Na_, senora," cried another, "say, rather, until that wicked little
hada was brought here by Rosendo!"

"_Cierto_, she is an _hada_!" put in a third; "she cured Juanita of
goitre by her charms! I saw it!"

"_Caramba_! she works with the evil one. I myself saw her come from
the old church on the hill one day! _Bien_, what was she doing? I say,
she was talking with the bad angel which the blessed Virgin has locked
in there!"

"Yes, and I have seen her coming from the cemetery. She talks with the
buzzards that roost on the old wall, and they are full of evil
spirits!"

"And she brought the plague two years ago--who knows?" piped another
excitedly.

"_Quien sabe_? But it was not the real plague, anyway."

"_Bueno_, and that proves that she caused it, no?"

"_Cierto_, _senora_, she cast a spell on the town!"

Jose sat in his little house like one in a dream. Fernando remained
with him. Dona Maria had gone to the jail to see Rosendo. Juan had
returned that morning to Bodega Central, and Lazaro was at work on the
plantation across the lake. Jose thought bitterly that the time had
been singularly well chosen for the _coup_. Don Mario'