its in the wall. No doubt several
people were hurt by balls bounding back from the rock, but I am
confident that nobody was killed.

When we ceased firing it was impossible to see anything in the oratory,
because of the dense cloud of sulphurous smoke wherewith it was filled;
but such shrieks and yells of soul-racking terror as came from beneath
that black canopy I hope I may never hear again. I waited a little,
until this wild outburst had somewhat quieted, and then--placing my
mouth close to one of the openings and speaking in a voice that I tried
to make like that of Fray Antonio--I said, in deep and solemn tones,
"Behold the vengeance of the strangers' God!"

What effect my words produced I cannot tell. Our firing must have
loosened a fragment of rock between the gold plating that lined the
oratory and the outer surface of the wall, and even as I spoke this
fragment fell. With its fall the opening was irrevocably closed.

"That was a boss dodge," said Young, as he recharged his revolver.
"Those fellows 'll just think hell's broke loose in here, for sure; and
I guess after they've onct fairly got outside they'll rather be skinned
alive than come back again. But what did you say to 'em? Hearin' you
talkin' like th' Padre, that way, gave me a regular jolt. Don't you
think, though, maybe it was a little bit risky t' give ourselves away?"

But when I had repeated in English the words which I had spoken, Young
very seriously shook hands with me. "Shake!" he said. "I've done you
injustice, Professor. Sometimes I've thought that you was too much
asleep for your own good--but if anybody ever did anything more wide
awake than that, I'd like t' know _what_ he did and who he was. Why,
when those fellows tell about all that's been goin' on in here--about
their busted idol, an' their dead Priest Captain, an' our skippin,' an'
this row our shootin' has made, an' then about th' Padre's ghost talkin'
to 'em that way--it's bound t' give 'em such a jolt that th' whole
outfit 'll slew smack round an' be Christians right off!"

Some such notion as this had been in my own mind as I executed the plan
that on the spur of the moment I had formed. When, later, I thought
about it more calmly, I could not but regret, for Fray Antonio's sake,
my hasty action; for he would have been the very last man to approve of
such stringent methods of advancing the Christian faith. If any result
came from my demonstration, it certainly came through terr