ss, I should have thought nothing
of it. But now every little thing was large and important in my eyes;
and although nothing was said but what might have been said by any
visitor at any time, I grew more and more heavy-hearted. After they had
finished eating, which they did very quickly, the stranger prepared
to leave. Gathering up his sombrero and zarape, and receiving a small
package, which looked like a bundle of letters, from the padre, he
strode out to his horse, already waiting for him in front of the
building, the padre close behind him."

"I took my place by the horse, and pretended to be looking at the
saddle, to see that everything was right, while I tried to hear what the
padre and Don Manuel were saying; but they spoke too low for me to make
out more than a word now and then. I heard Don Manuel say 'San Diego;'
'the Pocahontas, a small ship but;' 'Spain,' and a few other words of no
significance. Padre Peyri said hardly a word, but stood with bowed head,
and eyes cast on the ground. At last Don Manuel knelt to receive the
padre's blessing, and with a last low sentence, and an 'adios,' spoken
aloud, as he sprang to his horse, he dashed off down the hill until he
came to the mission road which runs from San Diego into the far north.
The padre watched him turn his horse's head toward the south, and
disappear behind a hill; a few minutes later he came into sight again as
he ascended another hill until at last he stood on the top. With a long
look at the rider hurrying away in the distance, the padre turned and,
without a word to me, went into the house and shut himself in his room."

"Senor, that was the last time I saw him at the mission. Padre Asnzar,
who had been at Pala that day, returned to the mission in the afternoon,
and I saw him at supper, but Padre Peyri did not come out of his room
the rest of the day. Late that night I wandered around the church, so
sad and full of fear of what I knew was coming, that I could not sleep.
There was a light in the church, and I was sure the padre was in there,
but, of course, I could not go in to see, and speak to him. After a
little while the light disappeared, and I went back to my bed."

"Although I now felt certain I knew what the padre was going to do, from
what I had heard and seen, yet I knew nothing of the time, and did not
dream it was so near. But early the next morning I knew all. I was on my
way to the padre's house, when I met Miguel coming toward me on t