, and he signed to Costal to continue.

"Sound again!" said he, in a low but firm voice, "it is Tlaloc who has
responded. Sound again!"

The Indian cast a glance upon his companion, to assure himself that he
was in earnest. The moon showed his face of a greyish tint; but the
expression of his features told that he spoke seriously.

"Bah!" exclaimed Costal, with a sneer, "are you so little skilled in the
ways of the woods, as to mistake the voice of a vile animal for that of
the gods of the Zapoteque?"

"What an animal to make a noise like that?" interrogated Clara, in a
tone of surprise.

"Of course it is an animal," rejoined Costal, "that howls so.
Sufficiently frightful, I admit--to those who do not know what sort of
creature it is; but to those who do, it is nothing."

"What kind of animal is it?" demanded Clara.

"Why, an ape; what else? A poor devil of a monkey, that you could knock
over with a bit of a stick; as easily as you could kill an opossum. Ah,
_hombre_! the voice of the great Tlaloc is more terrible than that. But
see! what have we yonder?"

As Costal spoke, he pointed to the shore of the lake whence they had
come, and near the point where they had left their horses. It was in
this direction, moreover, the howlings of the ape had been heard.

Clara followed the pointing of his companion, and both now saw what gave
a sudden turn to their thoughts--a party of horsemen carrying torches,
and scouring the selvage of the woods, as if in search of something they
had lost.

The two worshippers watched until the torches were put out, and the
horsemen passing round the shore disappeared under the shadows of a
strip of forest.

Costal was about to resume his invocations; when, with his eyes still
turned towards the point where the horsemen had left the shore of the
lake, he beheld an apparition that caused even his intrepid heart to
tremble. By the thicket of reeds, and close to the water's edge, a
white form appeared suddenly, as if it had risen out of the lake. It
was the same which had been seen by Don Cornelio from his perch upon the
tree.

It was not fear that caused the Zapoteque to tremble. It was an emotion
of exulting triumph.

"The time is come at last!" cried he, seizing the arm of his companion.
"The glory of the Caciques of Tehuantepec is now to be restored. Look
yonder!"

And as he spoke he pointed to the form, which, in the clear moonlight,
could be distinguished as that o