red
with cactus, and a man sitting in the cactus, who was supposed to
represent death. And then they had a Virgin Mary, too. Four _penitentes_
just like the others, with nothing on but bloody pants and black bandages
around their eyes, carried the image on a litter raised up over their
heads, and they had swords fastened to their elbows and stuck between
their ribs, so that if they let down, the swords would stick into their
hearts and kill them. And behind that came the _Cristo_--the man that
represented Jesus, you know, dragging a big cross. Behind him came twenty
or thirty more _penitentes_, the most I ever saw at once, some of them
whipping themselves with big broad whips made out of _amole_. One was too
weak to whip himself, so two others walked behind him and whipped him.
Pretty soon he fell down and they walked over him and stepped on his
stomach.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}"

"But did they crucify the man, the whatever-you-call-him?" Gordon
demanded.

"The _Cristo_. Sure. They crucify one every year. They used to nail him.
Now they generally do it with ropes, but that's bad enough, because it
makes him swell up and turn blue.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} Sometimes he dies."

Julia was listening with lips parted and eyes wide, horrified and yet
fascinated, as are so many women by what is cruel and bloody. But Gordon,
who had become equally interested, was cool and inquisitive.

"And you mean to tell me that at one time nearly all the--er--native people
belonged to this barbaric organization, and that many of them do yet?"

"Nearly all the common _pelados_," Ramon hastened to explain. "They are
nearly all Indian or part Indian, you know. Not the educated people." Here
a note of pride came into his voice. "We are descended from officers of
the Spanish army--the men who conquered this country. In the old days,
before the Americans came, all these common people were our slaves."

"I see," said Gordon Roth in a dry and judicial tone.

The _penitentes_, as a subject of conversation, seemed exhausted for the
time being and Ramon had given up all hope of being alone with Julia. He
rose and took his leave. To his delight Julia followed him to the door. In
the hall she gave him her hand and looked up at him, and neither of them
found anything to say. For some reason the pressure of her hand and the
look of her eyes flustered and confused him more than had all the coldness
and disapproval of her family. At last he said good-bye