reclined
in hammocks swung from the branches of the trees, while others
amused themselves around a wide flat rock on which were to be seen
playing-cards, a chess-board, booklets, cowry shells, and pebbles.

They showed the cayman to the curate, but he seemed inattentive
until they told him that the gaping wound had been inflicted by
Ibarra. The celebrated and unknown pilot was no longer to be seen,
as he had disappeared before the arrival of the alferez.

At length Maria Clara came from the bath with her companions, looking
fresh as a rose on its first morning when the dew sparkling on its fair
petals glistens like diamonds. Her first smile was for Crisostomo and
the first cloud on her brow for Padre Salvi, who noted it and sighed.

The lunch hour was now come, and the curate, the coadjutor, the
gobernadorcillo, the teniente-mayor, and the other dignitaries took
their seats at the table over which Ibarra presided. The mothers
would not permit any of the men to eat at the table where the young
women sat.

"This time, Albino, you can't invent holes as in the bankas," said
Leon to the quondam student of theology. "What_!_ What's that?" asked
the old women.

"The bankas, ladies, were as whole as this plate is," explained Leon.

"_Jesus!_ The rascal!" exclaimed the smiling Aunt Isabel.

"Have you yet learned anything of the criminal who assaulted Padre
Damaso?" inquired Fray Salvi of the alferez.

"Of what criminal, Padre?" asked the military man, staring at the
friar over the glass of wine that he was emptying,

"What criminal! Why, the one who struck Padre Damaso in the road
yesterday afternoon!"

"Struck Padre Damaso?" asked several voices.

The coadjutor seemed to smile, while Padre Salvi went on: "Yes, and
Padre Damaso is now confined to his bed. It's thought that he may be
the very same Elias who threw you into the mudhole, senor alferez."

Either from shame or wine the alferez's face became very red.

"Of course, I thought," continued Padre Salvi in a joking manner,
"that you, the alferez of the Civil Guard, would be informed about
the affair."

The soldier bit his lip and was murmuring some foolish excuse, when
the meal was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of a pale, thin,
poorly-clad woman. No one had noticed her approach, for she had come
so noiselessly that at night she might have been taken for a ghost.

"Give this poor woman something to eat," cried the old women. "_Oy_,
come here!"