xcitement Sorez found his opportunity to escape, with the help
of the girl, the image still beneath his coat,--the image fated to
light in him the same fires which drove on Raleigh and Quesada. Before
he reached the home trail he had a chance to see this strange Priest
of whom he had heard so much in connection with the rumored treasure
in the lake. He came upon him, a tall, sallow-faced man, when within
an hour of safety. Sorez had never before met eyes such as looked from
beneath the skull-like forehead of this man; they bored, bored like
hot iron. The Priest spoke good English.

"Leave the image," he said quietly.

Sorez, his hand upon a thirty-two caliber revolver, laughed (even as
Quesada had laughed) and disappeared in the dark. The next time he met
the Priest was many months later and many thousand miles from the
Andes.

The girl who, at the command of her father, had given Sorez the image
was made an exile in consequence of this act by a decree of the
priest. But the thread of love is universal. It is the strain out of
which springs all idealism--even the notion of God--and as such is
bounded by neither time nor place. It is in the beating hearts of all
things human--the definition perhaps of humanity. Civilization differs
from savagery in many things, but both have in common, after all,
whatever is eternal; and love is the thing alone which we know to be
eternal. Just human love--love of man for woman and woman for man.

Flores followed her into the mountains among which they had both
grown. He built a shelter for her, bought sheep and toiled for her,
and with her, found the best of all that a larger life brings to many.
The Priest, of course, could have easily annihilated the two, but he
hesitated. There was something in the hearts of his people with which
he dare not tamper. So the two had been able to live their idyl in
peace, though Flores slept always with one eye open and his knife
near.

It was quite by accident that Sorez and the tired girl came upon the
two at the finish of his second journey into these mountains. The
woman in the hut recognized him instantly and bade him welcome. The
one-room structure was given up to the women while Flores built near
it a leanto for himself and Sorez. This simplified things mightily for
the exhausted travelers, and gave them at once the opportunity for
much-needed rest. They slept the major part of two days, but Sorez
again showed his remarkable recuperative po