diff --git "a/data/test/30312.txt" "b/data/test/30312.txt"
new file mode 100644--- /dev/null
+++ "b/data/test/30312.txt"
@@ -0,0 +1,49344 @@
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: In the name of the Church he would serve these humble
+people.
+--Book 2, Page 77.]
+
+
+
+
+CARMEN ARIZA
+
+BY
+
+CHARLES FRANCIS STOCKING, E. M.
+
+Author of THE DIARY OF JEAN EVARTS, THE MAYOR OF FILBERT, Etc.
+
+CHICAGO
+
+THE MAESTRO CO.
+
+1921
+
+
+
+
+Copyright 1915
+
+BY
+
+CHARLES FRANCIS STOCKING
+
+ISSUED JANUARY 1916
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+TWENTY-FIFTH EDITION
+
+PRINTED IN U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+CARMEN ARIZA
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 1
+
+
+  Doth this offend you?--the words that I speak unto you, they are
+  spirit, and they are life.
+
+                                                          --_Jesus._
+
+
+
+
+CARMEN ARIZA
+
+CHAPTER 1
+
+
+The tropical sun mounted the rim of the golden Caribbean, quivered
+for a moment like a fledgeling preening its wings for flight, then
+launched forth boldly into the vault of heaven, shattering the
+lowering vapors of night into a myriad fleecy clouds of every form
+and color, and driving them before it into the abysmal blue above.
+Leaping the sullen walls of old Cartagena, the morning beams began to
+glow in roseate hues on the red-tiled roofs of this ancient metropolis
+of New Granada, and glance in shafts of fire from her glittering
+domes and towers. Swiftly they climbed the moss-grown sides of church
+and convent, and glided over the dull white walls of prison and
+monastery alike. Pouring through half-turned shutters, they plashed
+upon floors in floods of gold. Tapping noiselessly on closed
+portals, they seemed to bid tardy sleepers arise, lest the hurrying
+midday _siesta_ overtake them with tasks unfinished. The dormitory of
+the ecclesiastical college, just within the east wall of the city,
+glowed brilliantly in the clear light which it was reflecting to
+the mirror of waters without. Its huge bulk had caught the first rays
+of the rising sun, most of which had rebounded from its drab,
+incrusted walls and sped out again over the dancing sea. A few,
+however, escaped reflection by stealing through the slanting
+shutters of a window close under the roof of the building. Within,
+they fell upon a man kneeling on the tiled floor beside a rude cot
+bed.
+
+In appearance the man was not more than twenty-five years of age. His
+black, close-curling hair, oval face, and skin of deep olive tint
+indicated a Latin origin. His clerical garb proclaimed him a son of
+the Church. The room was a small, whitewashed cell of stone, musty
+with the dampness which had swept in from the sea during the night. It
+was furnished with Spartan simplicity. Neither image, crucifix, nor
+painting adorned its walls--the occupant's dress alone suggested his
+calling. A hanging shelf held a few books, all evidently used as
+texts in the adjoining college. A table, much littered; a wooden
+dressing stand, with a small mirror; and an old-fashioned, haircloth
+trunk, bearing numerous foreign labels, eked out the paucity of
+furnishings.
+
+If the man prayed, there was only his reverent attitude to indicate
+it, for no words escaped his lips. But the frequent straining of his
+tense body, and the fierce clenching of his thin hands, as he threw
+his arms out over the unopened bed, were abundant evidence of a soul
+tugging violently at its moorings. His was the attitude of one who has
+ceased to inveigh against fate, who kneels dumbly before the cup of
+Destiny, knowing that it must be drained.
+
+With the break of day the bells awoke in the church towers throughout
+the old city, and began to peal forth their noisy reminder of the
+virility of the Holy Catholic faith. Then the man raised his head,
+seemingly startled into awareness of his material environment. For a
+few moments he listened confusedly to the insistent clatter--but he
+made no sign of the cross, nor did his head bend with the weight of a
+hollow _Ave_ on his bloodless lips while the clamoring muezzins filled
+the warm, tropical air with their jangling appeal. Rising with an air
+of weary indifference, he slowly crossed the room and threw wide the
+shutters of the solitary window, admitting a torrent of sunlight. As
+he did this, the door of the cell softly opened, and a young novitiate
+entered.
+
+"With your permission, Padre," said the boy, bowing low. "His Grace
+summons you to the Cathedral."
+
+The man made a languid gesture of dismissal, and turned from the lad
+to the rare view which greeted him through the open window. The dusty
+road below was beginning to manifest the city's awakening. Barefooted,
+brown-skinned women, scantily clad in cheap calico gowns, were
+swinging along with shallow baskets under their arms to the _plaza_
+for the day's marketing. Some carried naked babes astride their hips;
+some smoked long, slender cigars of their own rolling. Half-clad
+children of all ages, mixtures of _mestizo_, Spaniard, and Jamaican
+<DW64>, trotted along beside them; and at intervals a blustering
+_cochero_ rattled around the corner in a rickety, obsolete type of
+trap behind a brace of emaciated horses.
+
+The lively gossip of the passing groups preluded the noisy chaffering
+to follow their arrival at the market place.
+
+"_Caramba_, little pig!" shrilled a buxom matron, snatching her naked
+offspring away from a passing vehicle. "Think you I have money to
+waste on Masses for your naughty soul?"
+
+"_Na, senora_," bantered another, "it will cost less now than later to
+get him out of purgatory."
+
+"But, _comadre_, do you stop at the Cathedral to say a _Pater-noster_?"
+
+"To be sure, _amiga_, and an _Ave_, too. And let us return by way of
+the Hotel Espana, for, _quien sabe_? we may catch a glimpse of the
+famous _matador_."
+
+"Senor Varilla?"
+
+"Yes. He arrived from Barranquilla last night--so my Pedro tells
+me--and will fight in the arena this Sunday. I have saved fifty
+_pesos_ to see him. _Madre de Dios!_ but I would sell my soul to see
+him slay but a single bull. And do you go?"
+
+"God willing!"
+
+The soft air, tempered by the languid ocean breeze, bore aloft the
+laughter and friendly bantering of the marketers, mingled with the
+awakening street sounds and the morning greetings which issued from
+opening doors and windows. The scent of roses and the heavier
+sweetness of orchids and tropical blooms drifted over the ancient city
+from its innumerable _patios_ and public gardens. The age-incrusted
+buildings fused in the mounting sun into squares of dazzling white,
+over which the tiled roofs flowed in cinctures of crimson. Far off at
+sea the smoke of an approaching vessel wove fantastic designs against
+the tinted sky. Behind the city the convent of Santa Candelaria,
+crowning the hill of La Popa, glowed like a diamond; and stretching
+far to the south, and merging at the foot of the _Cordilleras_ into
+the gloom-shrouded, menacing jungle, the steaming llanos offered
+fleeting glimpses of their rich emerald color as the morning breeze
+stirred the heavy clouds of vapor which hung sullenly above them.
+
+To all this the man, looking vacantly out across the city walls to
+where the sea birds dipped on the rippling waves, was apparently
+oblivious. Nor did he manifest the slightest interest in the animated
+scene before him until a tall, heavy-set young priest emerged from the
+entrance of the dormitory below and stopped for a moment in the middle
+of the road to bask in the brilliant sunlight and fill his lungs with
+the invigorating ocean breeze. Turning his eyes suddenly upward, the
+latter caught sight of the man at the window.
+
+"Ah, _amigo_ Jose!" he called in friendly greeting, his handsome face
+aglow with a cordial smile. "Our good Saint Claver has not lobbied for
+us in vain! We shall yet have a good day for the bulls, no?"
+
+"An excellent one, I think, Wenceslas," quickly replied the man
+addressed, who then turned abruptly away as if he wished to avoid
+further conversation. The priest below regarded the empty window for a
+moment. Then, with a short, dry laugh and a cynical shrug of his broad
+shoulders, he passed on.
+
+As the man above turned back into the room his face, wearing the look
+of one far gone in despair, was contorted with passion. Fear,
+confusion, and undefined soul-longing seemed to move rapidly across
+it, each leaving its momentary impression, and all mingling at times
+in a surging flood that swelled the veins of his temples to the point
+of rupture. Mechanically he paced his narrow cell, throwing frequent
+furtive glances at the closed door, as if he suspected himself
+watched. Often he stopped abruptly, and with head bowed and brows
+furrowed, seemed to surrender his soul to the forces with which it was
+wrestling. Often he clasped his head wildly in his hands and turned
+his beseeching eyes upward, as if he would call upon an invisible
+power above to aid him, yet restrained by the deadening conviction of
+experience that such appeal would meet with no response, and that he
+must stand in his own strength, however feeble.
+
+Hours passed thus. The sun gained the zenith and the streets were
+ablaze. Belated marketers, with laden baskets atop their heads, were
+hurrying homeward, hugging the scanty shade of the glaring buildings.
+Shopkeepers were drawing their shutters and closing their heavy doors,
+leaving the hot noon hour asleep on the scorching portals. The midday
+_Angelus_ called from the Cathedral tower. Then, as if shaken into
+remembrance of the message which the boy had brought him at daybreak,
+the man hurriedly took his black felt hat from the table, and without
+further preparation left the room.
+
+The stone pavements and narrow brick walks, above which the intense
+heat hung in tremulous waves, were almost deserted as he hastened
+toward the Cathedral. The business of the morning was finished; trade
+was suspended until the sun, now dropping its fiery shafts straight as
+plummets, should have sunk behind La Popa. As he turned into the Calle
+Lozano an elderly woman, descending the winding brick stairway visible
+through the open door of one of the numerous old colonial houses in
+the lower end of this thoroughfare, called timidly to him.
+
+"Marcelena," the priest returned, stopping. "The girl--is she--?"
+
+"She is dying," interrupted the woman in a voice broken with sobs.
+
+"Dying! Then the child--?"
+
+"Yes, Padre, born an hour ago--a boy. It lives. Ah, _Santa Virgen_,
+such suffering! Pray for us, Mother of God!" murmured the weeping
+woman, bending her head and repeatedly making the sign of the cross.
+
+"Who is with her now?" the priest continued hurriedly.
+
+"Only Catalina. The doctor said he would return. He is good to the
+blessed child. And Padre Lorenzo came--but he would not shrive her
+little white soul--"
+
+"And the father--?"
+
+"He does not know," the woman sobbed. "Who would dare to tell him!
+Think you he would come? That he would own the babe? He would not give
+one blessed candle to set beside the little mother's poor sweet body!
+Ah, _Santa Maria_! who will buy Masses for her little soul? Who--?"
+
+"But he _shall_ know!" cried the priest, his face livid. "And he shall
+acknowledge his child and care for it! _Dios--!_ But wait, Marcelena.
+I can do nothing now. But I will return." Leaving the woman sobbing
+prayers to the Virgin Mother, the priest hurried on.
+
+Within the Cathedral the cool atmosphere met him with a sweet calm,
+which flowed over his perturbed soul like a benediction. He drew a
+chair from a pile in a corner and sat down for a moment near one of
+the little side chapels, to recover from the stifling heat without and
+prepare his thought for the impending interview with the Bishop. A dim
+twilight enveloped the interior of the building, affording a grateful
+relief from the blinding glare of the streets. It brought him a
+transient sense of peace--the peace which his wearied soul had never
+fully known. Peace brooded over the great nave, and hovered in the
+soft air that drifted slowly through the deserted aisle up to the High
+Altar, where lay the Sacred Host. A few votive candles were struggling
+to send their feeble glow through the darkness. The great images of
+the suffering Christ, of the Saints and the Virgin Mother had merged
+their outlines into the heavy shadows which lay upon them.
+
+The haunting memory of years of soul-struggle with doubt and fear, of
+passionate longing for the light of truth in the gloom of superstition
+and man-made creeds, for guidance among the devious paths of human
+conjecture which lead nowhither--or to madness--seemed to fade into
+the darkness which wrapped him in that holy calm. After all, what had
+he won in his lifelong warfare with human beliefs? What had he gained
+by his mad opposition to Holy Church? There she stood, calm, majestic,
+undisturbed. Had not the Christ himself declared that the gates of
+hell should not prevail against her? Was not the unfoldment of truth a
+matter, not of years, but of ages? And were the minds of men to-day
+prepared for higher verities than those she offered? Did not the
+Church plant the seed as rapidly as the barren soil of the human mind
+was tilled and made fallow? True, her sons, whom he had so obstinately
+opposed, were blindly zealous. But were they wholly without wisdom?
+Had not his own zeal been as unreasoningly directed to the forcing of
+events? And still, through it all, she had held her indulgent arms
+extended to him, as to all erring mankind. Why not now, like a tired
+child, weary of futile resistance, yield to her motherly embrace and
+be at last at peace? Again the temptation which he had stubbornly
+resisted for a lifetime urged upon him with all its mesmeric
+insistence.
+
+He looked up, and his glance fell upon a small, glass-covered case,
+dimly visible in the uncertain light at one side of the little altar.
+The case was filled with tiny images of gold--_milagros_. Each had
+received priestly blessing, and each was believed to have worked a
+miraculous cure. The relaxed lines of the priest's care-worn face
+instantly drew into an expression of hard austerity. Like the ebb of
+the ocean, his recalcitrant thought surged back again in a towering
+flood.
+
+"What a spectacle!" he murmured. "Holy Church, assuming spiritual
+leadership of the world, sunken in idolatry, and publicly parading her
+fetishism in these lingering echoes of primitive demon-worship!"
+
+Ah, the Master taught the omnipotence of God, whose ways he declared
+as high above the blind grovelings of man as the dome of heaven swings
+above earth. But how long, gentle Master, shall such as this be
+declared thy Father's ways? How long shall superstition and idolatry
+retain the power to fetter the souls of men? Is there no end to the
+black curse of ignorance of Truth, which, after untold centuries,
+still makes men sink with vain toil and consume with disease? And--are
+those who sit about Peter's gorgeous tomb and approve these things
+unerring guides to a right knowledge of God, to know whom, the Christ
+has said, is life eternal?
+
+A step behind him broke the flow of his dark revery.
+
+"Our good Jose dreams below, while His Grace bites his nails above,"
+said a soft, mellifluous voice. "_Que chiste!_ It is--"
+
+The priest sprang to his feet and faced the speaker. For a moment the
+men regarded each other, the one uncertain as to the impending event,
+but supremely confident of his ability to meet it; the other sick in
+soul and torn with mental struggle, but for the moment fired anew with
+the righteous wrath which his recent brief interview with the woman,
+Marcelena, had kindled.
+
+"Wenceslas--" The priest spoke in a strained, uncertain tone, striving
+to hold his emotions in leash. "I have learned to-day--The girl,
+Maria--"
+
+"_Caro amigo_," interrupted Wenceslas smoothly, "what you have learned
+to-day, or any other day, of the girl, Maria, is a lie."
+
+"_Hombre!_" The priest turned livid. Stepping closer to Wenceslas--
+
+"Do you think, inhuman! that I have not long known of your relations
+with this girl? Who has not! And, further, I know--and Cartagena shall
+know--that to-day she lies dying beside your child!"
+
+Wenceslas recoiled. His face flushed, and the veins of his forehead
+swelled with a purple flood. Then a pallor spread over his features,
+and beads of perspiration started from his pores.
+
+It was but momentary. Recovering himself, he laid a large hand on the
+priest's shoulder, and, his face assuming its wonted smile, said in
+his usual low tone, "_Amigo_, it seems that you have a penchant for
+spreading gossip. Think you I am ignorant of the fact that because of
+it Rome spewed you out for a meddlesome pest? Do you deceive yourself
+that Cartagena will open her ears to your garbled reports? The hag,
+Marcelena, lies! She has long hoped to gain some advantage from me, I
+have told you-- But go now above and learn from His Grace, whom you
+have had the impudence to keep waiting all morning, how tongues that
+wag too freely can be silenced." He checked himself suddenly, as if he
+feared he had said too much. Then, turning on his heel, he quickly
+left the Cathedral.
+
+The priest's head sank upon his breast, and he stood, infirm of
+purpose and choking with words which he could not voice. The whirl in
+which his confused brain had revolved for months--nay, years--had made
+the determination of conduct with him a matter of hours, of days, of
+weeks. Spontaneity of action had long since ceased within his fettered
+mind, where doubt had laid its detaining hand upon his judgment.
+Uncertainty of his steps, fear of their consequence, and dread lest he
+precipitate the calamity which he felt hung always just above him, had
+sapped the courage and strength of will which his soul needed for a
+determined stand, and left him incapable of decisive action, even in
+the face of grossest evil. The mordant reply of Wenceslas only
+strengthened his conviction of the futility of massing his own feeble
+forces against those of one so thoroughly entrenched as this man, who
+had the ear of the Bishop--nay, whose resourceful mind was now said to
+be actually directing the policies of the feeble old ecclesiastic who
+held the bishopric of Cartagena.
+
+As if groping through the blackness of midnight, he moved slowly down
+the deserted nave of the Cathedral and mounted the winding stairs to
+the ambulatory above. Pausing at the door of the _sanctum_ for a
+moment to gather up his remnant of moral strength, he entered and
+stood hesitant before the waiting Bishop.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2
+
+
+The long War of Independence which destroyed the last vestige of
+Spanish control over the Peruvian colonies of South America was
+virtually brought to a close by the terrific battle of Ayacucho,
+fought on the plains between Pizarro's city of Lima and the ancient
+Inca seat of Cuzco in the fall of 1824. The result of this battle had
+been eagerly awaited in the city of Cartagena, capital of the newly
+formed federation of Colombia. It was known there that the Royalist
+army was concentrating for a final stand. It was known, too, that its
+veterans greatly outnumbered the nondescript band of patriots, many of
+whom were provided only with the _arma blanca_, the indispensable
+_machete_ of tropical America. This fact lent a shred of encouragement
+to the few proud Tory families still remaining in the city and
+clinging forlornly to their broken fortunes, while vainly hoping for a
+reestablishment of the imperial regimen, as they pinned their fate to
+this last desperate conflict. Among these, none had been prouder, none
+more loyal to the Spanish Sovereign, and none more liberal in
+dispensing its great wealth to bolster up a hopeless cause than the
+ancient and aristocratic family at whose head stood Don Ignacio Jose
+Marquez de Rincon, distinguished member of the _Cabildo_, and most
+loyal subject of his imperial majesty, King Ferdinand VII. of Spain.
+
+The house of Rincon traced its lineage back to the ferocious
+adventurer, Juan de Rincon, favorite lieutenant of the renowned
+_Conquistador_, Pedro de Heredia. When the latter, in the year 1533,
+obtained from Charles V. the concession of New Andalusia, the whole
+territory comprised between the mouths of the Magdalena and Atrato
+rivers in what is now the Republic of Colombia, and undertook the
+conquest of this enormously rich district, the fire-eating Juan, whom
+the chroniclers of that romantic period quaintly described as "causing
+the same effects as lightning and quicksilver," was his most
+dependable support. Together they landed at the Indian village of
+Calamari, and, after putting the pacific inhabitants to the sword--a
+manner of disposal most satisfactory to the practical Juan--laid the
+foundations of the present city of Cartagena, later destined to become
+the "Queen of the Indies," the pride, as it was the despair, of the
+haughty monarchs of Spain.
+
+For his eminent services in this exploit Juan received a large tract
+of land in the most fertile part of the Magdalena valley--which he
+immediately staked and lost at the gaming-table. As a measure of
+consolation, and doubtless with the view of checking Juan's gambling
+propensities, Pedro de Heredia then bestowed upon him a strip of bleak
+and unexplored mountain country adjacent to the river Atrato. Stung by
+his sense of loss, as well as by the taunts of his boisterous
+companions, and harassed by the practical conclusion that life's
+brevity would not permit of wiping out their innumerable insults
+singly by the sword, the raging Juan gathered together a few
+blood-drinking companions of that ilk and set out to find diversion of
+mind on his possessions.
+
+Years passed. One day Juan again appeared on the streets of Cartagena,
+and this time with gold enough to buy the city. The discovery of rich
+auriferous sands on his estates adjoining the Atrato, which were
+worked extensively for him by the natives whom he and his companions
+had forced into subjection, had yielded him enormous wealth. He
+settled in Cartagena, determined to make it his future home, and at
+once set about buying great blocks of houses and erecting a palace for
+himself. He began to acquire lands and mines in all directions. He
+erected a sumptuous summer residence in what is now the suburb of
+Turbaco. He built an _arena_, and bred bulls for it from famous stock
+which he imported from the mother-country. He gave _fetes_ and public
+entertainments on the most lavish scale imaginable. In short, he
+quickly became Cartagena's most influential and distinguished citizen,
+as he was easily her richest.
+
+But far more important to mention than all these dry details was the
+undoubted change of character which had come over the man himself.
+Perhaps it was the awful heat of the steaming Atrato valley that drew
+the fire from his livid soul. Perhaps it was a dawning appreciation of
+the opportunities made possible by his rapid acquisition of wealth
+that had softened his character. Some said he had seen a vision of the
+Virgin Mary. Others laid it to a terrible fever, in which for days he
+had lain delirious in the shadow of death. Be that as it may, the
+bloodthirsty _Conquistador_, who a few years before angrily shook the
+dust of Cartagena from his feet, had now returned a changed man.
+
+At once Juan began to manifest in an ever increasing degree an
+interest in matters religious. In this respect his former character
+suffered a complete reversal. He assiduously cultivated the clergy,
+and gave large sums for the support of the Cathedral and the religious
+orders of the city. The Bishop became a frequent guest at his
+sumptuous table; and as often he in turn sought the Bishop for
+consultation anent his benefactions and, in particular, for
+consolation when haunted by sad memories of his devilish exploits in
+early life. When the great-hearted Padre Bartolome de las Casas,
+infirm but still indefatigable in his work for the protection and
+uplift of the Indians, arrived one memorable day in his little canoe
+which his devoted native servants had paddled through the _dique_ from
+the great river beyond, Juan was the first to greet him and insist
+that he make his home with him while in the city. And on the night of
+the Padre's arrival it is said that Juan, with tears streaming down
+his scarred and wrinkled face, begged to be allowed to confess to him
+the awful atrocities which he had committed upon the innocent and
+harmless aborigines when, as was his wont, his breath hot with the
+lust of blood, he had fallen upon them without provocation and hewed
+them limb from limb.
+
+In his old age the now gentle Juan, his former self almost obliterated,
+expressed a desire to renounce the world, bestow his great wealth upon
+the Church, and enter a monastery to pass his remaining years. Despite
+the protestations of his numerous family, for whom his religious zeal
+would permit him to leave but scanty provision, he was already
+formulating plans toward this end when death overtook him, and his vast
+estates descended intact to the family which he had founded.
+
+So complete had been the transformation of Juan de Rincon during the
+many years that he lived after his return to Cartagena that the
+characteristics which he transmitted to his posterity were, in
+general, quite the reverse of those which he himself had manifested so
+abundantly in early life. Whereas, he had formerly been atrociously
+cruel, boastingly impious, and a scoffer at matters religious, his
+later descendants were generally tender of heart, soft of manner, and
+of great piety. Whereas, in early manhood he had been fiery and
+impulsive, quick of decision and immovable of opinion, his progeny
+were increasingly inclined to be deliberate in judgment and
+vacillating of purpose. So many of his descendants entered the
+priesthood that the family was threatened with extinction, for in the
+course of time it had become a sacred custom in the Rincon family to
+consecrate the first-born son to the Church. This custom at length
+became fixed, and was rigidly observed, even to the point of bigotry,
+despite the obliteration of those branches where there was but a
+single son.
+
+The family, so auspiciously launched, waxed increasingly rich and
+influential; and when the smoldering fires of revolution burst into
+flame among the oppressed South American colonies, late in the year
+1812, the house of Rincon, under royal and papal patronage, was found
+occupying the first position of eminence and prestige in the proud old
+city of Cartagena. Its wealth had become proverbial. Its sons,
+educated by preceptors brought from Paris and Madrid, were prominent
+at home and abroad. Its honor was unimpeachable. Its fair name was one
+of the most resplendent jewels in the Spanish crown. And Don Ignacio
+epitomized loyalty to Sovereign and Pope.
+
+With the inauguration of hostilities no fears were felt by the
+Rincon family for the ultimate success of the royalist arms, and
+Don Ignacio immediately despatched word to his Sovereign in Madrid
+that the wealth and services of his house were at the royal
+disposal. Of this offer Ferdinand quickly availed himself. The Rincon
+funds were drawn upon immediately and without stint to furnish men
+and muniments for the long and disastrous struggle. Of the family
+resources there was no lack while its members held their vast
+possessions of lands and mines. But when, after the first successes
+of the patriots, reprisals began to be visited upon the Tories of
+Cartagena, and their possessions fell, one after another, into the
+hands of the successful revolutionists, or were seized by former
+slaves, Don Ignacio found it difficult to meet his royal master's
+demands. The fickle King, already childish to the verge of imbecility,
+gave scant thanks in return for the Rincon loyalty, and when at last,
+stripped of his fortune, deserted by all but the few Tory families
+who had the courage to remain in Cartagena until the close of the
+war, Don Ignacio received with sinking heart the news of the battle
+of Ayacucho, he knew full well that any future appeal to Ferdinand for
+recognition of his great sacrifices would fall upon unhearing ears.
+
+But to remain in republican Cartagena after the final success of the
+revolutionists was to the royalist Don Ignacio quite impossible. Even
+if permitted the attempt, he was so attached to the ancient order of
+things that he could not adjust himself to the radically changed
+conditions. So, gathering about him the sorrowing remnant of his
+family, and converting into a pitifully small sum his few remaining
+possessions, he took passage on an English trader and sailed for the
+mother-country, to begin life anew among those whose speech and
+customs were most familiar to him.
+
+He settled in Seville, where the elder of his two sons, Rafael de
+Rincon, a lad of fifteen, was studying for the priesthood, under the
+patronage of the Archbishop. There he established himself in the wine
+business, associating with him his second son, Carlos, only a year the
+junior of his brother. But, broken in spirit as well as in fortune, he
+made little headway, and two years later died pitiably in poverty and
+obscurity.
+
+Through the influence of the Archbishop, the business, which Carlos
+was far too young and immature to conduct, was absorbed by larger
+interests, and the young lad retained as an employe. As the years
+passed the boy developed sufficient commercial ability to enable him
+to retain his position and to extract from it enough to provide for
+the needs of himself and his dependents. He married, late in life, a
+woman whose family had fled from Cartagena with his own and settled in
+Seville. She was but a babe in arms at the time of the exodus, and
+many years his junior. A year after the marriage a child was born to
+them, a son. The babe's birth was premature, following a fright which
+the mother received when attacked by a beggar. But the child lived.
+And, according to the honored family custom, which the father insisted
+on observing as rigidly in Spain as it had been formerly in Cartagena,
+this son, Jose Francisco Enrique de Rincon, was at birth consecrated
+to the service of God in the Holy Catholic Church.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3
+
+
+If, as Thoreau said, "God is on the side of the most sensitive," then
+He should have been very close to the timid, irresolute lad in
+Seville, in whom the softer traits of character, so unexpectedly
+developed in the adventurous founder of the Rincon family, now stood
+forth so prominently. Somber, moody, and retiring; delicately
+sensitive and shrinking; acutely honest, even to the point of
+morbidity; deeply religious and passionately studious, with a
+consuming zeal for knowledge, and an unsatisfied yearning for truth,
+the little Jose early in life presented a strange medley of
+characteristics, which bespoke a need of the utmost care and wisdom on
+the part of those who should have the directing of his career. Forced
+into the world before his time, and strongly marked by his mother's
+fear; afflicted with precarious health, and subjected to long and
+desperate illnesses in childhood, his little soul early took on a
+gloom and asceticism wholly unnatural to youth. Fear was constantly
+instilled into his acutely receptive mind by his solicitous, doting
+parents; and his life was thereby stunted, warped, and starved. He was
+reared under the constant reminder of the baleful effects of food, of
+air, of conduct, of this and that invisible force inimical to health;
+and terror and anxiety followed him like a ghost and turned about all
+his boyish memories. Under these repressing influences his mind could
+not but develop with a lack of stamina for self-support. Hesitancy and
+vacillation became pronounced. In time, the weight of any important
+decision gave him acute, unendurable agony of mind. Called upon to
+decide for himself a matter of import, his thought would become
+confused, his brain torpid, and in tears and perplexity the tormented
+lad would throw himself into the arms of his anxious parents and beg
+to be told what course to pursue.
+
+Thus his nature grew to depend upon something stronger than itself to
+twine about. He sought it in his schoolmates; but they misread him.
+The little acts which were due to his keen sensitiveness or to his
+exaggerated reticence of disposition were frequently interpreted by
+them as affronts, and he was generally left out of their games, or
+avoided entirely. His playmates consequently became fewer and more
+transient as the years gained upon him, until at length, trodden upon,
+but unable to turn, he withdrew his love from the world and bestowed
+it all upon his anxious mother. She became his only intimate, and from
+her alone he sought the affection for which he yearned with an
+intensity that he could not express. Shunning the boisterous,
+frolicking children at the close of the school day, he would seek her,
+and, nestling at her side, her hand clasped in his, would beg her to
+talk to him of the things with which his childish thought was
+struggling. These were many, but they revolved about a common
+center--religion.
+
+The salient characteristics already mentioned were associated with
+others, equally prominent, and no less influential in the shaping of
+his subsequent career. With the development of his deep, inward
+earnestness there had appeared indications of latent powers of mind
+that were more than ordinary. These took the form of childish
+precocity in his studies, clearness of spiritual vision, and
+maturity in his conduct and mode of life. The stunting of his
+physical nature threw into greater prominence his exaggerated
+soul-qualities, his tenderness, his morbid conscientiousness, and a
+profound emotionalism which, at the sight of a great painting, or
+the roll of the Cathedral organ, would flood his eyes and fill his
+throat with sobs. When the reckless founder of the family experienced
+a reversal of his own dark traits of soul, nearly three centuries
+before, it was as if the pendulum had swung too far in the opposite
+direction, and at the extreme point of its arc had left the little
+Jose, with the sterner qualities of the old _Conquistador_ wholly
+neutralized by self-condemnation, fear, infirmity of purpose, a high
+degree of intellectuality, and a soul-permeating religious fervor.
+
+At the mention of religion the timid lad at once became passionate,
+engrossed--nay, obsessed. In his boyhood years, before the pall of
+somber reticence had settled over him, he had been impressed with the
+majesty of the Church and the gorgeousness of her material fabric. The
+religious ideals taught him by his good mother took deep root. But the
+day arrived when the expansion of his intellect reached such a point
+as to enable him to detect a flaw in her reasoning. It was but a
+little rift, yet the sharp edge of doubt slipped in. Alas! from that
+hour he ceased to drift with the current of popular theological
+belief; his frail bark turned, and launched out upon the storm-tossed
+sea, where only the outstretched hand of the Master, treading the
+heaving billows through the thick gloom, saved it at length from
+destruction.
+
+The hungry lad began to question his parents incessantly regarding the
+things of the spirit. His teachers in the parochial school he plied
+with queries which they could not meet. Day after day, while other
+boys of his tender age romped in the street, he would steal into the
+great Cathedral and stand, pathetically solitary, before the statues
+of the Christ and the Virgin Mary, yearning over the problems with
+which his childish thought was struggling, and the questions to which
+no one could return satisfying replies.
+
+Here again the boy seemed to manifest in exaggerated form the reversed
+characteristics of the old _Conquistador_. But, unlike that of the
+pious Juan, the mind of the little Jose was not so simple as to permit
+it to accept without remonstrance the tenets of his family's faith.
+Blind acceptance of any teaching, religious or secular, early became
+quite impossible to him. This entailed many an hour of suffering to
+the lad, and brought down upon his little head severe punishments from
+his preceptors and parents. But in vain they admonished and
+threatened. The child demanded proofs; and if proofs were not at hand,
+his acceptance of the mooted teaching was but tentative, generally
+only an outward yielding to his beloved mother's inexorable
+insistence. Many the test papers he returned to his teachers whereon
+he had written in answer to the questions set, "I am taught to reply
+thus; but in my heart I do not believe it." Vainly the teachers
+appealed to his parents. Futilely the latter pleaded and punished. The
+placid receptiveness of the Rincon mind, which for more than three
+hundred years had normally performed its absorptive functions and
+imbibed the doctrines of its accepted and established human
+authorities, without a trace of the heresy of suspecting their
+genuineness, had at last experienced a reversal. True, the boy had
+been born in the early hours of nineteenth century doubt and religious
+skepticism. The so-called scientific spirit, buried for ages beneath
+the _debris_ of human conjecture, was painfully emerging and preening
+its wings for flight. The "higher criticism" was nascent, and ancient
+traditions were already beginning to totter on the foundations which
+the Fathers had set. But Spain, close wrapped in mediaeval dreams, had
+suffered no taint of "modernism." The portals of her mind were well
+guarded against the entrance of radical thought, and her dreamers were
+yet lulled into lethargic adherence to outworn beliefs and musty
+creeds by the mesmerism of priestly tradition. The peculiar cast of
+mind of the boy Jose was not the product of influences from without,
+but was rather an exemplification of the human mind's reversion to
+type, wherein the narrow and bigoted mentality of many generations had
+expanded once more into the breadth of scope and untrammeled freedom
+of an ancient progenitor.
+
+As the boy grew older his ability to absorb learning increased
+astonishingly. His power of analysis, his keen perception and
+retentive memory soon advanced him beyond the youths of his own age,
+and forced him to seek outside the pale of the schoolroom for the
+means to satisfy his hunger for knowledge. He early began to haunt the
+bookstalls of Seville, and day after day would stand for hours
+searching the treasures which he found there, and mulling over books
+which all too frequently were _anathema_ to the orthodox. Often the
+owner of one of these shops, who knew the lad's parents, and whose
+interest had been stirred by his passion for reading, would let him
+take one or more of the coveted volumes home over night, for the
+slender family purse would not permit him to purchase what his heart
+craved. Then came feasts for his famished little soul which often
+lasted until daybreak.
+
+It happened one evening that, when he crept off to his little room to
+peer into one of these borrowed treasures, his father followed him.
+Pushing the chamber door softly open the parent found the boy propped
+against his pillow in bed, absorbed in a much-thumbed volume which he
+was reading by the pale light of the single candle.
+
+"Is it thus that you deceive your poor parents?" the fond father
+began, in a tone of mock severity.
+
+The startled lad stifled a cry and hastily thrust the book beneath his
+pillow. The father's interest now became genuine. Leaning over the
+terrified boy he drew forth the volume.
+
+"Voltaire!"
+
+The doting father stood petrified. Voltaire, _Antichrist_, Archfiend
+of impiety--and in the hands of his beloved son!
+
+Sleep fled the little household that night. In his father's arms,
+while the distressed mother hung over them, the boy sobbed out his
+confession. He had not intended to deceive. He had picked up this book
+in the stall without knowing its nature. He had become so interested
+in what it said about the Virgin Mary that he forgot all else. The
+shopkeeper had found him reading it, and had laughed and winked at his
+clerk when he bade the boy take it home for the night. The book had
+fascinated him. He himself--did not his father know?--had so often
+asked how the Virgin could be the mother of God, and why men prayed to
+her. Yes, he knew it mocked their faith--and the sacred Scriptures. He
+knew, too, that his father would not approve of it. That was why he
+had tried to hide it beneath his pillow. He had been wicked,
+desperately wicked, to deceive his dear parents--But the book--It made
+him forget--It said so many things that seemed to be true--And--and--
+
+"Oh, _padre mio_, forgive me, forgive me! I want to know the truth
+about God and the world!" The delicate frame of the young lad shook in
+paroxysms of grief.
+
+Alas! it was but the anguished soul-cry which has echoed through the
+halls of space since time began. What a mockery to meet it with empty
+creed and human dogma! Alas! what a crime against innocence to stifle
+the honest questionings of a budding mind with the musty cloak of
+undemonstrable beliefs.
+
+"But, my son, have I not often told you? The Holy Church gives us the
+truth," replied the father, frightened by the storm which raged within
+the childish soul, yet more alarmed at the turn which the mind of his
+cherished son was apparently taking--his only son, dedicated to the
+service of God from the cradle, and in whom the shattered hopes of
+this once proud family were now centered.
+
+"But this book laughs at us because we pray to a woman!" sobbed the
+boy.
+
+"True. But does not its author need the prayers of so pure a woman as
+the Virgin? Do we not all need them? And is it not likely that one so
+good as she would have great influence with God--much greater than we
+ourselves, or even the best of men, could have?"
+
+"But how can she be the mother of God? The Bible does not teach
+that!"
+
+"How do you know that the Bible does not teach it, my son?"
+
+"I--I--have read--the Bible," faltered the lad.
+
+"You have read the Bible!" cried the astonished father. "And where
+have you done that, you wicked boy?"
+
+"At the bookstore of Mariano," confessed the trembling child.
+
+"_Madre de Dios!_" burst from the father, as he started to his feet.
+"Mariano is a wicked infidel! The Bishop shall hear of this! Ah, well
+may the Holy Father in Rome grieve to see his innocent babes led
+astray by these servants of hell! But, my son," returning to the boy
+and clasping him again in his arms, "it is not too late. The Virgin
+Mother has protected you. You meant no harm. Satan covets your pure
+little soul--But he shall not have it!" The father's tremulous voice
+mounted high, "No, by the Saints in heaven, he shall not have it!"
+
+The boy's assurance slowly returned under the influence of his
+father's tender solicitude, even though he remained dimly conscious of
+the rift widening little by little between his parents' settled
+convictions and his own groping thought. With the assuaging of his
+grief came again those insistent questions which throughout his life
+had tormented his peace and driven him even to the doors of infidels
+in search of truth.
+
+"Father," he began timidly, "why was I wicked to read the Bible?"
+
+"Because, my son, in doing so you yielded to the temptations of Satan.
+The Bible is a great and mysterious book, written by God himself. He
+meant it to be explained to us by the Holy Father, who is the head of
+the Church which the good Saint Peter founded. We are not great enough
+nor good enough to understand it. The Holy Father, who cares for God's
+Church on earth, he is good enough, and he alone can interpret it to
+us. Satan tries to do with all men just what he did with you, my
+child. He seeks to make them read the Bible so that he can confuse
+them and rob them of their faith. Then when he gets possession of
+their souls he drags them down with him to hell, where they are lost
+forever."
+
+"And does the Holy Father really believe that Mary is the mother of
+God?" persisted the boy, raising his tear-stained face.
+
+"Yes--is she not? The blessed Saviour said that he and God were one.
+And, as Mary is the mother of Christ, she is also the mother of
+God--is she not? Let us read what the good Saint John Chrysostom
+says." He rose and went into another room, returning in a few minutes
+with a little volume. Taking the boy again on his knee, he continued,
+"The blessed Saint tells us that the Virgin Mary was made the mother
+of God in order that she might obtain salvation for many who, on
+account of their wicked lives, could not be saved, because they had so
+offended divine justice, but yet, by the help of her sweet mercy and
+mighty intercession, might be cleansed and rendered fit for heaven. My
+little son, you have always been taught that Mary is heaven's Queen.
+And so she is ours, and reigns in heaven for us. Jesus loves to have
+her close to him, and he can never refuse her requests. He always
+grants what she asks. And that is the reason why we pray to her. She
+never forgets us--never!"
+
+A troubled look crossed the boy's face. Then he began anew. "Father
+dear, God made everything, did He not? The Bible says that, anyway."
+
+"Yes, child."
+
+"Did He make Satan?"
+
+The father hesitated. The child hurried on under the lash of his holy
+inquisitiveness. "Father, how did evil come into the world? Is God
+both good and bad? And how can a good God punish us forever for sins
+committed here in only a few short years?"
+
+"Ah, _queridito_!" cried the harassed father. "Such questions should
+not have entered your little head for years to come! Why can you not
+run and play as do other children? Why are you not happy as they are?
+Why must you spend your days thinking of things that are far too deep
+for you? Can you not wait? Some day you shall know all. Some day, when
+you have entered the service of God, perhaps you may even learn these
+things from the Holy Father himself. Then you will understand how the
+good God lets evil tempt us in order that our faith in Him may be
+exercised and grow strong--"
+
+"And He lets Satan harm us purposely?" The boy's innocent dark eyes
+looked up appealingly into his father's face.
+
+"It is only for a short time, little son. And only those who are never
+fit for heaven go down with Satan. But you are not one of those," he
+hastily added, straining the boy to him. "And the Masses which the
+good priests say for us will lift us out of purgatory and into heaven,
+where the streets are pure gold and the gates are pearl. And there we
+will all live together for--"
+
+"Father," interrupted the boy, "I have thought of these things for a
+long, long time. I do not believe them. And I do not wish to become a
+priest."
+
+The father fell silent. It was one of those tense moments which every
+man experiences when he sees a withering frost slowly gathering over
+the fondest hopes of a lifetime. The family of Rincon, aristocratic,
+intensely loyal to Church and State, had willingly laid itself upon
+the sacrificial altar in deference to its honored traditions. Custom
+had become law. Obedience of son to parent and parent to Sovereign,
+spiritual or temporal, had been the guiding star of the family's
+destinies. To think was lawful; but to hold opinions at variance with
+tradition was unspeakable heresy. Spontaneity of action was
+commendable; but conduct not prescribed by King or Pope was
+unpardonable crime. Loss of fortune, of worldly power and prestige,
+were as nothing; deviation from the narrow path trodden by the
+illustrious scions of the great Juan was everything. That this lad, to
+whom had descended the undying memories of a long line of glorious
+defenders of kingly and papal power, should presume to shatter the
+sacred Rincon traditions, was unbelievable. It was none other than the
+work of Satan. The boy had fallen an innocent victim to the devil's
+wiles.
+
+But the house of Rincon had withstood the assaults of the son of
+perdition for more than three centuries. It would not yield now! The
+all-powerful Church of Rome stood behind it--and the gates of hell
+could not prevail against her! The Church would save her own. Yes, the
+father silently argued, through his brother's influence the case
+should be laid before His Eminence, the Archbishop. And, if need be,
+the Holy Father himself should be called upon to cast the devil out of
+this tormented child. To argue with the boy now were futile, even
+dangerous. The lad had grown up with full knowledge of his parents'
+fond hopes for his future. He had never openly opposed them, although
+at times the worried mother would voice her fears to the father when
+her little son brought his perplexing questions to her and failed to
+find satisfaction. But until this night the father had felt no alarm.
+Indeed, he had looked upon the child's inquisitiveness as but a
+logical consequence of his precocity and unusual mental powers, in
+which he himself felt a father's swelling pride. To his thought it
+augured rapid promotion in the Church; it meant in time a Cardinal's
+hat. Ah, what glorious possibilities! How the prestige of the now
+sunken family would soar! Happily he had been aroused to an
+appreciation of the boy's really desperate state in time. The case
+should go before the Archbishop to-morrow, and the Church should hear
+his call to hasten to the rescue of this wandering lamb.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4
+
+
+Seville is called the heart of Spain. In a deeper sense it is her
+soul. Within it, extremes touch, but only to blend into a harmonious
+unit which manifests the Spanish temperament and character more truly
+there than in any other part of the world. In its Andalusian
+atmosphere the religious instinct of the Spaniard reaches its fullest
+embodiment. True, its bull-fights are gory spectacles; but they are
+also gorgeous and solemn ceremonies. Its _ferias_ are tremendously
+worldly; but they are none the less stupendous religious _fetes_. Its
+picturesque Easter processions, when colossal images of the Virgin are
+carried among bareheaded and kneeling crowds, smack of paganism; but
+we cannot question the genuineness of the religious fervor thus
+displayed. Its Cathedral touches the _arena_; and its Archbishop
+washes the feet of its old men. Its religion is still the living force
+which unites and levels, exalts and debases. And its religion is
+Rome.
+
+On the fragrant spring morning following the discovery of the
+execrated Voltaire, the little Jose, tightly clutching his father's
+hand, threaded the narrow Sierpes and crossed the Prado de San
+Sebastian, once the _Quemador_, where the Holy Inquisition was wont to
+purge heresy from human souls with fire. The father shuddered, and his
+stern face grew dark, as he thought of the revolting scenes once
+enacted in that place in the name of Christ; and he inwardly voiced a
+prayer of gratitude that the Holy Office had ceased to exist. Yet he
+knew that, had he lived in that day, he would have handed his beloved
+son over to that awful institution without demurral, rather than see
+him develop those heretical views which were already rising from the
+soil of his fertile, inquisitive mind.
+
+The tinkling of a bell sounded down the street. Father and son quickly
+doffed their hats and knelt on the pavement, while a priest, mounted
+on a mule, rode swiftly past on his way to the bedside of a dying
+communicant, the flickering lights and jingling bell announcing the
+fact that he bore with him the Sacred Host.
+
+"Please God, you will do the same some day, my son," murmured the
+father. But the little Jose kept his eyes to the pavement, and would
+make no reply.
+
+Meanwhile, at a splendidly carved table in the library of his palatial
+residence, surrounded by every luxury that wealth and ecclesiastical
+influence could command, the Archbishop, pious shepherd of a restless
+flock, sat with clouded brow and heavy heart. The festive ceremonials
+of Easter were at hand, and the Church was again preparing to display
+her chief splendors. But on the preceding Easter disturbances had
+interrupted the processions of the Virgin; and already rumors had
+reached the ears of the Archbishop of further trouble to be incited
+during the approaching Holy Week by the growing body of skeptics and
+anticlericals. To what extent these liberals had assumed the
+proportions of a propaganda, and how active they would now show
+themselves, were questions causing the holy man deep concern. Heavy
+sighs escaped him as he voiced his fears to his sympathetic secretary
+and associate, Rafael de Rincon, the gaunt, ascetic uncle of the
+little Jose.
+
+"Alas!" he murmured gloomily. "Since the day that our Isabella yielded
+to her heretic ministers and thrust aside the good Sister Patrocinio,
+Spain has been in a perilous state. After that unholy act the
+dethronement and exile of the Queen were inevitable."
+
+"True, Your Eminence," replied the secretary. "But is there no cause
+for hope in the elevation of her son, Alfonso, to the throne?"
+
+"He is but seventeen--and absent from Spain six years. He lacks the
+force of his talented mother. And there is no longer a Sister
+Patrocinio to command the royal ear."
+
+"Unfortunate, I admit, Your Eminence. She bore the _stigmata_, the
+very marks of our Saviour's wounds, imprinted on her flesh, and worked
+his miracles. But, in Alfonso--"
+
+"No, no," interrupted the Archbishop impatiently; "he has styled
+himself the first Republican in Europe. He will make Catholicism the
+state religion; but he will extend religious toleration to all. He is
+consumptive in mind as well as in body. And the army--alas! what may
+we look for from it when soldiers like this Polo Hernandez refuse to
+kneel during the Mass?"
+
+"The man has been arrested, Your Eminence," the secretary offered in
+consolation.
+
+"But the court-martial acquitted him!"
+
+"True. Yet he has now been summoned before the supreme court in
+Madrid."
+
+The Archbishop's face brightened somewhat. "And the result--what think
+you?"
+
+The secretary shrugged his drooping shoulders. "They will condemn
+him."
+
+Yes, doubtless he would be condemned, for mediaevalism dies hard in
+Spain. But the incident was portentous, and the Archbishop and his
+keen secretary heard in it an ominous echo.
+
+A servant appeared at the heavy portieres, and at a sign from the
+secretary ushered Jose and his father into the august presence
+awaiting them.
+
+An hour later the pair emerged from the palace and started homeward.
+His Eminence, rousing himself from the profound revery in which he had
+been sunk for some moments, turned to his expectant secretary.
+
+"A Luther in embryo!" he ejaculated.
+
+"I feared as much, Your Eminence," returned the austere secretary.
+
+"And yet, a remarkable intellect! Astonishing mental power! But all
+tainted with the damnable so-called scientific spirit!"
+
+"True, Your Eminence."
+
+"But marked you not his deep reverence for God? And his sturdy
+honesty? And how, despite his embarrassment, the religious zeal of his
+soul shown forth?"
+
+"He is morbidly honest, Your Grace."
+
+"A trait I wish we might employ to our own advantage," mused the
+churchman. Then, continuing, "He is learned far beyond his years.
+Indeed, his questions put me to some stress--but only for the
+difficulty of framing replies intelligible to a mind so immature," he
+added hastily. "Either he feared my presence, or he is naturally
+shrinking."
+
+"He is so by nature, Your Eminence."
+
+The Archbishop reflected. "Naive--pure--simple--mature, yet childish.
+Have we covered the ground?"
+
+"Not fully, Your Eminence. We omitted to mention his absorbing filial
+devotion."
+
+"True. And that, you tell me, is most pronounced."
+
+"It is his strongest characteristic, Your Eminence. He has no will to
+oppose it."
+
+"Would that his devotion were for Holy Church!" sighed the Archbishop.
+
+"I think it may be so directed, Your Eminence," quickly returned the
+secretary.
+
+"But--would he ever consent to enter the priesthood? And once in,
+would he not prove a most dangerous element?"
+
+The secretary made a deprecating gesture. "If I may suggest, such a
+man as he promises to become is far more dangerous outside of the
+Church than within, Your Eminence."
+
+The Archbishop studied the man's face for a few moments. "There is
+truth in your words, my friend. Yet how, think you, may he be
+secured?"
+
+"Your Eminence," replied the secretary warmly, "pardon these
+suggestions in matters where you are far better fitted to pass sound
+judgment than a humble servant of the Church like myself. But in this
+case intimacy with my brother's family affords me data which may be
+serviceable in bringing this matter to a conclusion. If I may be
+permitted--"
+
+The Archbishop nodded an unctuous and patronizing appreciation of his
+elderly secretary's position, and the latter continued--
+
+"Your Eminence, Holy Week is approaching, and we are beset with fears
+lest the spirit of heresy which, alas! is abroad in our fair city,
+shall manifest itself in such disturbances as may force us to abandon
+these religious exercises in future. I need not point out the serious
+nature of these demonstrations. Nor need I suggest that their relative
+unimportance last year was due solely to lack of strong leadership.
+Already our soldiers begin to refuse to kneel during the Mass. The
+Holy Church is not yet called upon to display her weapons. But who
+shall say to what measures she may not be forced when an able and
+fearless leader shall arise among the heretics? To-day there has stood
+before Your Eminence a lad possessing, in my opinion, the latent
+qualifications for such leadership. I say, latent. I use the term
+advisedly, for I know that he appears to manifest the Rincon lack of
+decision. But so did I at his age. And who can say when the unfolding
+of his other powers, now so markedly indicated, may not force the
+development of those certain traits of character in which he now seems
+deficient, but which, developed, would make him a power in the world?
+Shall the Church permit this promising lad to stray from her, possibly
+later to join issue with her enemies and use his great gifts to
+propagate heresy and assault her foundations? Are we faithful to our
+beloved Mother if we do not employ every means, foul or fair, to
+destroy her enemies, even in the cradle? Remember, 'He who gains the
+youth, possesses the future,' as the saying goes."
+
+"Loyally spoken, faithful son," replied the Archbishop, shifting into
+a more comfortable position. "And you suggest--?"
+
+"This: that we wisely avail ourselves of his salient characteristics--his
+weaknesses, if you wish--and secure him now to the Church."
+
+"And, more specifically--?" with increasing animation.
+
+"Your Eminence is already aware of the custom in our family of
+consecrating the first-born son to the service of God. This boy has
+been so consecrated from birth. It is the dearest hope of his parents.
+At present their wishes are still his law. Their judgments yet
+formulate his conduct. His sense of honor is acute. Your Eminence can
+see that his word is sacred. His oath once taken would bind him
+eternally. _It is for us to secure that oath!_"
+
+"And how?" The Archbishop leaned forward eagerly.
+
+"We, cooeperating with his parents, will cater to his consuming passion
+for learning, and offer him the education which the limited resources
+of his family cannot provide. We save him from the drudgery of
+commercialism, and open to him the life of the scholar. We suggest to
+him a career consecrated to study and holy service. The Church
+educates him--he serves his fellow-men through her. Once ordained, his
+character is such, I believe, that he could never become an apostate.
+And, whatever his services to Holy Church may be thereafter, she at
+least will have effectually disposed of a possible opponent. She has
+all to gain, and nothing to lose by such procedure. Unless I greatly
+mistake the Rincon character, the lad will yield to our inducements
+and his mother's prayers, the charm of the Church and the bias of her
+tutelage, and ultimately take the oath of ordination. After that--"
+
+"My faithful adviser," interrupted the Archbishop genially, as visions
+of the Cardinal's hat for eminent services hovered before him, "write
+immediately to Monsignor, Rector of the _Seminario_, in Rome. Say that
+he must at once receive, at our expense and on our recommendation, a
+lad of twelve, who greatly desires to be trained for the priesthood."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5
+
+
+Thus did the Church open her arms to receive her wandering child. Thus
+did her infallible wisdom, as expressed through her zealous agents in
+Seville, essay to solve the perplexing problems of this agitated
+little mind, and whisper to its confused throbbing, "Peace, be still."
+The final disposition came to the boy not without some measure of
+relief, despite, his protest. The long days of argument and pleading,
+of assurance that within the Church he should find abundant and
+satisfactory answers to his questions, and of explanations which he
+was adjured to receive on faith until such time as he might be able to
+prove their soundness, had utterly exhausted his sensitive little
+soul, and left him without the combative energy or will for further
+remonstrance.
+
+Nor was the conflict solely a matching of his convictions against
+the desires of his parents and the persuasions of the Archbishop and
+his loyal secretary. The boy's hunger for learning alone might have
+caused him to yield to the lure of a broad education. Moreover, his
+nature contained not one element of commercialism. The impossibility
+of entering the wine business with his father, or of spending his life
+in physical toil for a bare maintenance, was as patent to himself,
+even at that early age, as to his parents. His bent was wholly
+intellectual. But he knew that his father could not afford him an
+education. Yet this the Church now offered freely. Again, his nature
+was essentially religious. The Church now extended all her learning,
+all her vast resources, all her spiritual power, to develop and foster
+this instinct. Nay, more, to protect and guide its development into
+right channels.
+
+The fact, too, that the little Jose was a child of extreme emotions
+must not be overlooked in an estimate of the influences which bore
+upon him during these trying days. His devotion to an object upon
+which he had set his affections amounted to obsession. He adored his
+parents--reverenced his father--worshiped his mother. The latter he
+was wont to compare to the flowers, to the bright-plumed birds, to the
+butterflies that hovered in the sunlight of their little _patio_. He
+indited childish poems to her, and likened her in purity and beauty to
+the angels and the Virgin Mary. Her slightest wish was his inflexible
+law. Not that he was never guilty of childish faults of conduct, of
+little whims of stubbornness and petulance; but his character rested
+on a foundation of honesty, sincerity, and filial love that was never
+shaken by the summer storms of naughtiness which at times made their
+little disturbances above.
+
+The parents breathed a sigh of relief when the tired child at last
+bowed to their wishes and accepted the destiny thrust upon him. The
+coming of a son to these loyal royalists and zealous Catholics had
+meant the imposition of a sacred trust. That he was called to high
+service in the Church of God was evidenced by Satan's early and
+malicious attacks upon him. There was but one course for them to
+pursue, and they did not for a moment question its soundness. To their
+thought, this precocious child lacked the wisdom and balance which
+comes only with years. The infallible Church, their all-wise spiritual
+guide, supported their contentions. What they did was for her and for
+the eternal welfare of the boy. Likewise, for the maintenance of
+family pride and honor in a generation tainted with liberalism and
+distrust of the sacred traditions.
+
+The Church, on the other hand, in the august person of the Archbishop,
+had accomplished a triumph. She had recognized the child's unusual
+gifts of mind, and had been alert to the dangers they threatened. If
+secured to herself, and their development carefully directed, they
+would mold him into her future champion. If, despite her careful
+weeding and pruning, they expanded beyond the limits which she set,
+_they should be stifled_! The peculiar and complex nature of the child
+offered her a tremendous advantage. For, if reactionary, his own
+highly developed sense of honor, together with his filial devotion and
+his intense family pride, should of themselves be forced to choke all
+activity in the direction of apostasy and liberalism. Heaven knew, the
+Church could not afford to neglect any action which promised to secure
+for her a loyal son; or, failing that, at least effectually check in
+its incipiency the development of a threatened opponent! Truly, as the
+astute secretary had said, this boy might prove troublesome within the
+fold; but he might also prove more dangerous without. Verily, it was
+a triumph for the cause of righteousness! And after the final
+disposition, the good Archbishop had sat far into the night in the
+comfort of his _sanctum_, drowsing over his pleasant meditations on
+the rewards which his unflagging devotion to the cause of Holy Church
+was sure some day to bring.
+
+Time sped. The fragrant Sevillian spring melted into summer, and
+summer merged with fall. The Rincon family was adjusting itself to the
+turn in the career of its heir, the guardian and depository of its
+revived hopes. During the weeks which intervened between his first
+interview with the Archbishop and his final departure for Rome, Jose
+had been carefully prepared by his uncle, who spared no effort to
+stimulate in the boy a proper appreciation of his high calling. He was
+taught that as a priest of the Holy Catholic Church he would become a
+representative of the blessed Christ among men. His mission would be
+to carry on the Saviour's work for the salvation of souls, and, with
+the power of Christ and in His name, to instruct mankind in true
+beliefs and righteous conduct. He would forgive sins, impose
+penalties, and offer sacrificial atonement in the body of the
+Saviour--in a word, he was to become _sacerdos alter Christus_,
+another Christ. His training for this exalted work would cover a
+period of six or eight years, perhaps longer, and would fit him to
+become a power among men, a conserver of the sacred faith, and an
+ensample of the highest morality.
+
+"Ah, _sobrinito_," the sharp-visaged, gray-haired uncle had said,
+"truly a fortunate boy are you to hear this grandest of opportunities
+knocking at your door! A priest--a God! Nay, even more than God, for
+as priest God gives you power over Himself!"
+
+The boy's wondering eyes widened, and a look of mingled confusion and
+astonishment came into his wan face. "I do not see, _tio mio_--I do
+not see," he murmured.
+
+"But you shall, you shall! And you shall understand the awful
+responsibility which God thus reposes upon you, when He gives you
+power to do greater things than He did when He created the world. You
+shall command the Christ, and He shall come down at your bidding. Ah,
+_chiquito_, a fortunate boy!" But the lad turned wearily away, without
+sharing his uncle's enthusiasm.
+
+The day before his departure Jose was again conducted before the
+Archbishop, and after listening to a lengthy resume of what the Church
+was about to do for him, and what she expected in return, two solemn
+vows were exacted from him--
+
+"First," announced the uncle, in low, deliberate tones, "you will
+solemnly promise your mother and your God that, daily praying to be
+delivered from the baneful influences which now cause doubt and
+questioning in your mind, and refraining from voicing them to your
+teachers or fellow-students, you will strive to accept all that is
+taught you in Rome, deferring every endeavor to prove the teachings
+you are to receive until the end of your long course, when, by
+training and discipline, you shall have so developed in goodness,
+purity, and power, that you shall be found worthy to receive spiritual
+confirmation of the great tenets upon which the Holy Roman Catholic
+Church has been founded and reared."
+
+He paused for a moment to catch his breath and let his portentous
+words sink into the quivering brain of the lad before him. Then he
+resumed--
+
+"Second, keeping ever in mind your debt of gratitude to the Church,
+you promise faithfully to finish your course, and at the end offer
+yourself to the service of God in the holy priesthood."
+
+The solemn hush that lay over the room when he finished was broken
+only by the muffled sobs of the mother.
+
+Tender in years, plunged into grief at the impending separation from
+home and all that he held dear, the boy knelt before the secretary and
+gave his trembling word to observe these obligations. Then, after he
+had kissed the Bible and the Archbishop's extended hand, he threw
+himself upon the floor in a torrent of tears.
+
+On the following morning, a bright, sparkling November day, the little
+Jose, spent with emotion, tore himself from his mother's clinging
+embrace and set out for Rome, accompanied by his solicitous uncle.
+
+"And, _queridito_," were the mother's last words, "I have your promise
+that never will you voluntarily leave the Church?"
+
+The appeal which his beseeching look carried back to her was not
+granted. He slowly bowed his acquiescence, and turned away. A week
+later he had entered upon the retreat with which the school year opens
+in the _Seminario_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6
+
+
+Rome, like a fallen gladiator, spent and prostrate on the Alban
+hills, still awaits the issue of the conflict between the forces of
+life and death within. Dead, where the blight of pagan and mediaeval
+superstition has eaten into the quivering tissues; it lives where
+the pulsing current of modernism expands its shrunken arteries and
+bears the nourishing truth. Though eternal in tradition and
+colossal in material achievement, the glory of the Imperial City
+nevertheless rests on a foundation of perishable human ambitions,
+creeds, and beliefs, manifested outwardly for a time in brilliant
+deeds, great edifices, and comprehensive codes, but always bearing
+within themselves the seeds of their own decay. No trophy brought to
+her gates in triumph by the Caesars ever approached in worth the
+simple truth with which Paul of Tarsus, chained to his jailer,
+illumined his gloomy dungeon. Had the religious principles which he
+and his devoted associates labored so unselfishly to impart to a
+benighted world for its own good been recognized by Rome as the
+"pearl without price," she would have built upon them as foundation
+stones a truer glory, and one which would have drawn the nations of
+the earth to worship within her walls. But Rome, in her master,
+Constantine, saw only the lure of a temporal advantage to be gained
+by fettering the totally misunderstood teachings of Jesus with the
+shackles of organized politics. From this unhallowed marriage of
+religion and statecraft was born that institution unlike either
+parent, yet exhibiting modified characteristics of each, the Holy
+Church. To this institution, now mighty in material riches and
+power, but still mediaeval in character, despite the assaults of
+centuries of progress, a combination of political maneuver, bigotry,
+and weakness committed the young Jose, tender, sensitive, receptive,
+and pure, to be trained as an agent to further its world-embracing
+policies.
+
+The retreat upon which the boy at once entered on his arrival at
+the seminary extended over ten days. During this time there were
+periods of solitary meditation--hours when his lonely heart cried out
+in anguish for his beloved mother--visits to the blessed sacrament,
+recitations of the office, and consultations with his spiritual
+advisers, at which times his promises to his parents and the
+Archbishop, coupled with his natural reticence and the embarrassment
+occasioned by his strange environment, sealed his lips and prevented
+the voicing of his honest questions and doubts. It was sought
+through this retreat to so bring the lad under the influence of the
+great religious teachings as to most deeply impress his heart and
+mind with the importance of the seminary training upon which he had
+entered. His day began with the dreaded meditation at five in the
+morning, followed by hearing the Mass and receiving Communion. It
+closed, after study and class work, with another visit to the blessed
+sacrament, recital of the Rosary, spiritual reading, and prayer. On
+Sundays he assisted at solemn High Mass in the church of the
+_Seminario Pio_. One day a week was a holiday; but only in the
+sense that it was devoted to visiting hospitals and charitable
+institutions, in order to acquire practical experience and a
+foretaste of his future work among the sick and needy. Clad in his
+little violet cassock, low-crowned, three-cornered hat, and
+_soprana_, he might be seen on these holidays trotting along with
+his fellow-students in the wake of their superior, his brow
+generally contracted, and his childish face seldom lighted by a happy
+smile.
+
+The first year passed without special incident. The boy, filled with
+that quenchless ambition to know, which characterizes the finest
+minds, entered eagerly upon his studies and faithfully observed his
+promises. If his tender soul warped and his fresh, receptive mind
+shriveled under the religious tutelage he received, no one but himself
+knew it, not even his fond mother, as she clasped him again in her
+arms when he returned home for the first summer vacation. With the
+second year there began studies of absorbing interest to the boy, and
+the youthful mind fed hungrily. This seemed to have the effect of
+expanding somewhat his self-contained little soul. He appeared to grow
+out of himself to a certain extent, to become less timid, less
+reticent, even more sociable; and when he returned to Seville again at
+the close of the year he had apparently lost much of the somberness of
+disposition which had previously characterized him. The Archbishop
+examined him closely; but the boy, speaking little, gave no hint of
+the inner working of his thought; and if his soul seethed and
+fermented within, the Rincon pride and honor covered it with a placid
+demeanor and a bearing of outward calm. When the interview ended and
+the lad had departed, the Archbishop descended to the indignity of
+roundly slapping his ascetic secretary on his emaciated back, as an
+indication of triumphant joy. The boy certainly was being charmed into
+deep devotion to the Church! He was fast being bound to her altars!
+Again the glorious spectacle of the Church triumphant in molding a
+wavering youth into a devoted son!
+
+Four years passed thus, almost in silence on the boy's part. Yet his
+character suffered little change. At home he strove to avoid all
+mention of the career upon which he was entering, although he gave
+slight indication of dissatisfaction with it. He was punctilious in
+his attendance upon religious services; but to have been otherwise
+would have brought sorrow to his proud, happy parents. His days were
+spent in complete absorption in his books, or in writing in his
+journal. The latter he had begun shortly before entering the seminary,
+and it was destined to exert a profound influence upon his life. Often
+his parents would playfully urge him to read to them from it; but the
+boy, devotedly obedient and filial in every other respect steadfastly
+begged permission to refuse these requests. In that little whim the
+fond parents humored him, and he was left largely alone to his books
+and his meditations.
+
+During Jose's fourth summer vacation a heavy sorrow suddenly fell upon
+him and plunged him into such an excess of grief that it was feared
+his mind would give way. His revered father, advanced in years, and
+weakened by overwork and business worries, succumbed to the malaria so
+prevalent in Seville during the hot months and passed away, after a
+brief illness. The blow descended with terrific force upon the
+morbidly disposed lad. It was his first intimate experience with
+death. For days after the solemn events of the mourning and funeral he
+sat as one stunned, holding his mother's hand and staring dumbly into
+space; or for hours paced to and fro in the little _patio_, his face
+rigidly set and his eyes fixed vacantly on the ground beneath. The
+work of four years in opening his mind, in expanding his thought, in
+drawing him out of his habitual reticence and developing within him
+the sense of companionship and easy tolerance, was at one stroke
+rendered null. Brought face to face with the grim destroyer, all the
+doubt and confusion of former years broke the bounds which had held
+them in abeyance and returned upon him with increased insistence.
+Never before had he felt so keenly the impotence of mortal man and the
+futility of worldly strivings. Never had he seen so clearly the fatal
+defects in the accepted interpretation of Christ's mission on earth.
+His earlier questionings returned in violent protests against the
+emptiness of the beliefs and formalities of the Church. In times past
+he had voiced vague and dimly outlined perceptions of her spiritual
+needs. But now to him these needs had suddenly taken definite form.
+Jesus had healed the sick of all manner of disease. He himself was
+being trained to represent the Christ on earth. Would he, too, be
+taught to heal the sick as the Master had done? The blessed Saviour
+said, "The works that I do, ye shall do also." But the priests, his
+representatives, clearly were not doing the works of the Master. And
+if he himself had been an ordained priest at the time of his father's
+death, could he have saved him? No, he well knew that he could not.
+And yet he would have been the Saviour's representative among men.
+Alas! how poor a one he well knew.
+
+In his stress of mind he sought his uncle, and by him was again led
+before the Archbishop. His reticence and timidity dispersed by his
+great sorrow, the distraught boy faced the high ecclesiastic with
+questions terribly blunt.
+
+"Why, my Father, after four years in the _Seminario_, am I not being
+taught to do the works which our blessed Saviour did?"
+
+The placid Archbishop stared at the boy in dumb astonishment. Again,
+after years of peace that had promised quiescence on these mooted
+points! Well, he must buckle on his armor--if indeed he had not
+outgrown it quite--and prepare to withstand anew the assaults of the
+devil!
+
+"H'm!--to be specific, my son--you mean--?" The great man was
+sparring.
+
+"Why do we not heal the sick as he did?" the boy explained tersely.
+
+"Ah!" The peace-loving man of God breathed easier. How simple! The
+devil was firing a cracked blunderbuss.
+
+"My son," he advanced with paternal unction, "you have been taught--or
+should have been, ere this--that the healing miracles of our blessed
+Saviour belong to a dispensation long past. They were special signs
+from God, given at the time of establishing His Church on earth, to
+convince an incredulous multitude. They are not needed now. We
+convince by logic and reason and by historical witnesses to the deeds
+of the Saints and our blessed Saviour." As he pronounced this sacred
+name the holy man devoutly crossed himself. "Men would believe no more
+readily to-day," he added easily, "even if they should see miracles of
+healing, for they would attribute them to the human mentality, to
+suggestion, hypnotism, hallucination, and the like. Even the mighty
+deeds of Christ were attributed to Beelzebub." The complacent Father
+settled back into his chair with an air of having disposed for all
+time of the mooted subject of miracles.
+
+"That begs the question, my Father!" returned the boy quickly and
+excitedly. "And as I read church history it is thus that the question
+has been begged ever since the first century!"
+
+"What!" The Archbishop was waxing hot. "Do you, a mere child of
+sixteen, dare to dispute the claims of Holy Church?"
+
+"My Father," the boy spoke slowly and with awful earnestness, "I have
+been four years in the _Seminario_. I do not find the true Christ
+there; nor do I think I shall find him within the Church."
+
+"_Sanctissima Maria!_" The Archbishop bounded to his feet "Have you
+sold yourself to the devil?" he exploded. "Have you fed these years at
+the warm breasts of the Holy Mother, only to turn now and rend her?
+Have you become a Protester? Apostate and forsworn!"
+
+"My Father," the boy returned calmly, "did Jesus tell the truth--or
+did he lie? If he spoke truth, then I think he is _not_ in the
+Church to-day. She has wholly misunderstood him--or else she--she
+deliberately falsifies."
+
+The Archbishop sank gasping into his chair.
+
+Jose went on. "You call me apostate and forsworn. I am neither. One
+cannot become apostate when he has never believed. As to being
+forsworn--I am a Rincon!"
+
+The erect head and flashing eyes of the youth drew an involuntary
+exclamation of approval from the anxious secretary, who had stood
+striving to evolve from his befuddled wits some course adequate to the
+strained situation.
+
+But the boy's proud bearing was only momentary. The wonted look of
+troubled wistfulness again settled over his face, and his shoulders
+bent to their accustomed stoop, as if his frail body were slowly
+crushing beneath a tremendous burden.
+
+"My Father," he continued sadly, "do not the Gospels show that Jesus
+proved the truth of all he taught by doing the works which we call
+miracles? But does the Church to-day by any great works prove a single
+one of her teachings? You say that Christianity no longer needs the
+healing of the sick in order to prove its claims. I answer that, if
+so, it likewise no longer needs the preaching of the gospel, for I
+cannot find that Jesus made any distinction between the two. Always he
+coupled one with the other. His command was ever, 'Preach the gospel,
+heal the sick!' His works of healing were simply signs which showed
+that he understood what he taught. They were his proofs, and they
+followed naturally his great understanding of God. But what proofs do
+you offer when you ask mankind to accept your preaching? Jesus said,
+'He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also.' If
+you do not do the works which he did, it shows plainly that you do not
+believe on him--that is, that you do not understand him. When I am an
+ordained priest, and undertake to preach the gospel to the world, must
+I confess to my people that I cannot prove what I am teaching? Must I
+confess that there is no proof within the Church? Is it not so, that
+true believers in Jesus Christ believe exactly in the proportion in
+which they obey him and do his works?"
+
+The boy paused for breath. The Archbishop and his secretary sat
+spellbound before him. Then he resumed--
+
+"How the consecrated wafer through the words of a priest becomes the
+real body of Christ, I am as yet unable to learn. I do not believe it
+does. How priests can grant absolution for sins when, to me, sins are
+forgiven only when they are forsaken, I have not been taught. I do not
+believe they can. The Church assumes to teach these things, but it
+cannot prove them. From the great works of Jesus and his apostles it
+has descended to the blessing of _milagros_ and candles, to the
+worship of the Virgin and man-made Saints, to long processions, to
+show and glitter--while without her doors the poor, the sick and the
+dying stretch out their thin, white hands and beseech her to save
+them, not from hell or purgatory in a supposed life to come, but from
+misery, want and ignorance right here in this world, as Jesus told his
+followers they should do. If you can show forth the omnipotence of God
+by healing the sick and raising the dead, I could accept that as proof
+of your understanding of the teachings of Jesus--and what you _really_
+understand you can demonstrate and teach to others. Theological
+questions used to bother me, but they do so no longer. Holy oil, holy
+water, blessed candles, incense, images and display do not interest me
+as they did when a child, nor do they any longer seem part of an
+intelligent worship of God. But"--his voice rising in animation--"to
+touch the blind man's eyes and see them open; to bid the leper be
+clean, and see his skin flush with health--ah! that is to worship God
+in spirit and in truth--that is to prove that you understand what
+Jesus taught and are obeying, not part, but _all_ of his commands. I
+am not apostate"--he concluded sadly--"I never did fully believe that
+the religion of Jesus is the religion which the Church to-day preaches
+and pretends to practice. I do not believe in her heaven, her
+purgatory or her hell, nor do I believe that her Masses move God to
+release souls from torment. I do not believe in her powers to pardon
+and curse. I do not believe in her claims of infallibility. But--"
+
+He hesitated a moment, as if not quite sure of his ground. Then his
+face glowed with sudden eagerness, and he cried, "My Father, the
+Church needs the light--do you not see it?--do you not, my uncle?"
+turning appealingly to the hard-faced secretary. "Can we not work to
+help her, and through her reach the world? Should not the Church
+rightly be the greatest instrument for good? But how can she teach the
+truth when she herself is so filled with error? How can she preach the
+gospel when she knows not what the gospel is? But Jesus said that if
+we obeyed him we should know of the doctrine, should know the true
+meaning of the gospel. But we must first obey. We must not only
+preach, but we must become spiritually minded enough to heal the
+sick--"
+
+"_Dios nos guarde!_" interrupted the Archbishop, attempting to rise,
+but prevented by his secretary, who laid a restraining hand on his
+arm. The latter then turned to the overwrought boy.
+
+"My dear Jose," he said, smiling patronizingly upon the youth,
+although his cold eyes glittered like bits of polished steel, "His
+Eminence forgives your hasty words, for he recognizes your earnestness,
+and, moreover, is aware how deeply your heart is lacerated by your
+recent bereavement. But, further--and I say this in confidence to
+you--His Eminence and I have discussed these very matters to which you
+refer, and have long seen the need of certain changes within the
+Church which will redound to her glory and usefulness. And you must know
+that the Holy Father in Rome also recognizes these needs, and sees,
+too, the time when they will be met. However, his great wisdom
+prevents him from acting hastily. You must remember that our blessed
+Saviour suffered many things to be so for the time, although he knew
+they would be altered in due season. So it is with the Church. Her
+children are not all deep thinkers, like yourself, but are for the most
+part poor and ignorant people, who could not understand your high
+views. They must be led in ways with which they are familiar until
+they can be lifted gradually to higher planes of thought and conduct.
+Is it not so? You are one who will do much for them, my son--but you
+will accomplish nothing by attempting suddenly to overthrow the
+established traditions which they reverence, nor by publicly prating
+about the Church's defects. Your task will be to lead them gently,
+imperceptibly, up out of darkness into the light, which, despite your
+accusations, _does_ shine in the Church, and is visible to all who
+rightly seek it. You have yet four years in the _Seminario_. You gave
+us your promise--the Rincon word--that you would lay aside these
+doubts and questionings until your course was completed. We do not
+hold you--_but you hold yourself to your word_! Our sincere advice
+is that you keep your counsel, and silently work with us for the Church
+and mankind. The Church will offer you unlimited opportunities for
+service. She is educating you. Indeed, has she not generously given you
+the very data wherewith you are enabled now to accuse her? You will
+find her always the same just, tolerant, wise Mother, leading her
+children upward as fast as they are able to journey. Her work is
+universal, and she is impervious to the shafts of envy, malice, and
+hatred which her enemies launch at her. She has resources of which you
+as yet know nothing. In the end she will triumph. You are offered an
+opportunity to contribute toward that triumph and to share in it.
+His Eminence knows that you will not permit Satan to make you reject
+that offer now."
+
+The secretary's sharp, beady eyes looked straight into those of the
+youth, and held him. His small, round head, with its low brow and
+grizzled locks, waved snake-like on the man's long neck. His tall
+form, in its black cassock, bent over the lad like a spectre. His
+slender arms, of uncanny length, waved constantly before him; and the
+long, bony fingers seemed to reach into the boy's very soul and choke
+the springs of life at their origin. His reasoning took the form of
+suggestion, bearing the indisputable stamp of authority. Again, the
+boy, confused and uncertain, bowed before years and worldly
+experience, and returned to his solitude and the companionship of his
+books and his writing.
+
+"Occupy till I come," the patient Master had tenderly said. From
+earliest boyhood Jose had heard this clarion call within his soul. And
+striving, delving, plodding, he had sought to obey--struggling toward
+the distant gleam, toward the realization of something better and
+nearer the Master's thought than the childish creeds of his
+fellow-men--something warmer, more vital than the pulseless decrees of
+ecumenical councils--something to solve men's daily problems here on
+earth--something to heal their diseases of body and soul, and lift
+them into that realm of spiritual thinking where material pleasures,
+sensations, and possessions no longer form the single aim and
+existence of mankind, and life becomes what in reality it is, eternal
+ecstasy! The Christ had promised! And Jose would occupy and wait in
+faith until, with joy inexpressible, he should behold the shining form
+of the Master at the door of his opened tomb.
+
+"With Your Eminence's permission I will accompany the boy back to
+Rome," the secretary said one day, shortly before Jose's return to the
+seminary. "I will consult with the Rector, and suggest that certain
+and special tutelage be given the lad. Let them bring their powers of
+reasoning and argument to bear upon him, to the end that his thinking
+may be directed into proper channels before it is too late. _Hombre!_"
+he muttered, as with head bent and hands clasped behind his back he
+slowly paced before the Archbishop. "To think that he is a Rincon! And
+yet, but sixteen--a babe--a mere babe!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7
+
+
+It must have been, necessarily, a very complex set of causes that
+could lay hold on a boy so really gifted as Jose de Rincon and,
+against his instincts and, on the part of those responsible for the
+deed, with the certain knowledge of his disinclination, urge him into
+the priesthood of a religious institution with which congenitally he
+had but little in common.
+
+To begin with, the bigoted and selfish desires of his parents found in
+the boy's filial devotion a ready and sufficient means of compelling
+him to any sacrifice of self. Only a thorough understanding of the
+Spanish temperament will enable one to arrive at a just estimate of
+Jose's character, and the sacredness of the promises given his mother.
+Though the child might pine and droop like a cankered rosebud, yet he
+would never cease to regard the sanctity of his oath as eternally
+binding. And the mother would accept the sacrifice, for her love for
+her little son was clouded by her great ambitions in respect to his
+earthly career, and her genuine solicitude for his soul's eternal
+welfare.
+
+Family tradition, sacred and inviolable, played its by no means
+small part in this affair. Custom, now as inviolable as the Jewish
+law, decreed that the first-born son should sink his individuality
+into that of the Mother Church. And to the Spaniard, _costumbre_
+is law. Again, the vacillating and hesitant nature of the boy
+himself contributed largely to the result; for, though supremely
+gifted in receptivity and broadness of mind, in critical analysis
+and keenness of perception, he nevertheless lacked the energy of will
+necessary to the shaping of a life-course along normal lines. The boy
+knew what he preferred, yet he said _Amen_ both to the prayers of
+his parents and the suggestions of doubt which his own mind offered.
+He was weakest where the greatest firmness was demanded. His love
+of study, his innate shrinking from responsibility, and his
+repugnance toward discord and strife--in a word, his lack of
+fighting qualities--naturally caused him to seek the lines of least
+resistance, and thus afforded a ready advantage to those who sought
+to influence him.
+
+But why, it may be asked, such zeal on the part of the Archbishop and
+his secretary in forcing upon the boy a career to which they knew he
+was disinclined? Why should loyal agents of the Church so tirelessly
+urge into the priesthood one who might prove a serpent in her bosom?
+
+The Archbishop may be dismissed from this discussion. That his motives
+were wholly above the bias of worldly ambition, we may not affirm. Yet
+we know that he was actuated by zeal for the Church; that he had its
+advancement, its growth in power and prestige always at heart. And we
+know that he would have rejoiced some day to boast, "We have saved to
+the Church a brilliant son who threatened to become a redoubtable
+enemy." The forces operating for and against this desideratum seemed
+to him about equally matched. The boy was still very young. His mind
+was as yet in the formative period, and would be for some years. If
+the Church could secure her hold upon him during this period she would
+doubtless retain it for all time; for, as the sagacious secretary so
+often quoted to his superior, "Once a priest, always a priest,"
+emphasizing the tenet that the character imprinted by ordination is
+ineffaceable.
+
+As for the secretary, he was a Rincon, proud and bigoted, and withal
+fanatically loyal to the Church as an institution, whatever its or
+his own degree of genuine piety. It was deeply galling to his
+ecclesiastical pride to see the threatened development of heretical
+tendencies in a scion of his house. These were weeds which must
+and should be choked, cost what it might! To this end any means were
+justified, for "What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world
+and lose his own soul?" And the Rincon soul had been molded centuries
+ago. The secretary hated the rapidly developing "scientific" spirit
+of the age and the "higher criticism" with a genuine and deadly
+hatred. His curse rested upon all modern culture. To him, the Jesuit
+college at Rome had established the level of intellectual freedom.
+He worshiped the landmarks which the Fathers had set, and he would
+have opposed their removal with his life. No, the Rincon traditions
+must be preserved at whatever cost! The heretical buddings within Jose
+should be checked; he should enter the priesthood; his thinking
+should be directed into proper channels; his mind should be bent into
+conformity with Holy Church! If not--but there was no alternative.
+The all-powerful Church could and would accomplish it.
+
+In the choice of Rafael de Rincon as secretary and assistant, the
+Archbishop had secured to himself a man of vast knowledge of
+ecclesiastical matters, of great acumen, and exceptional ability. The
+man was a Jesuit, and a positive, dynamic representative of all that
+the order stands for. He was now in his sixty-eighth year, but as
+vigorous of mind and body as if he bore but half his burden of age.
+For some years prior to his connection with the See of Seville he had
+served in the royal household at Madrid. But, presumably at the
+request of Queen Isabella, he had been peremptorily summoned to Rome
+some three years before her exile; and when he again left the Eternal
+City it was with the tentative papal appointment to Seville.
+
+Just why Padre Rafael had been relieved of his duties in Madrid was
+never divulged. But gossip supplied the paucity of fact with the usual
+delectable speculations, the most persistent of which had to do with
+the rumored birth of a royal child. The deplorable conduct of the
+Queen after her enforced marriage to Don Francisco D'Assis had thrown
+the shadow of suspicion on the legitimacy of all her children; and
+when it began to be widely hinted that Padre Rafael, were he so
+disposed, might point to a humble cottage in the sunlit hills of
+Granada where lay a tiny _Infanta_, greatly resembling the famous
+singer and favorite of the Queen, Marfori, Marquis de Loja, Isabella's
+alarm was sufficient to arouse the Vatican to action. With the removal
+of Padre Rafael, and the bestowal of the "_Golden Rose of Faith and
+Virtue_" upon the Queen by His Holiness, Pio Nono, the rumor quickly
+subsided, and was soon forgotten.
+
+Whether because of this supposed secret Padre Rafael was in favor at
+the court of Pio Nono's successor, we may not say. The man's character
+was quite enigmatical, and divulged nothing. But, if we may again
+appeal to rumor, he did appear to have influence in papal circles. And
+we are not sure that he did not seek to augment that influence by
+securing his irresolute little nephew to the Church. And yet, the
+sincerity of his devotion to the papacy cannot be questioned, as
+witness his services to Pius IX., "the first Christian to achieve
+infallibility," during the troublesome years of 1870-71, when the
+French _debacle_ all but scuttled the papal ship of state. And if now
+he sought to use his influence at the Vatican, we shall generously
+attribute it to his loyalty to Rincon traditions, and his genuine
+concern for the welfare of the little Jose, rather than to any desire
+to advance his own ecclesiastical status.
+
+But, it may be asked, during the eight years of Jose's course in the
+seminary, did his tutors not mark the forces at work in the boy's
+soul? And if so, why did they not urge his dismissal as unfit for the
+calling of the priesthood?
+
+Because, true to his promises, and stubbornly hugging the fetish of
+family pride, the boy gave but little indication during the first four
+years of his course of the heretical doubts and disbeliefs fermenting
+within his troubled mind. And when, after the death of his father and
+its consequent release of the flood of protest and mental disquiet so
+long pent up within him, the uncle returned to Rome with the lad to
+advise his instructors to bring extra pressure to bear upon him in
+order to convince him of the truths upon which the Church rested, Jose
+subsided again into his wonted attitude of placid endurance, even of
+partial acceptance of the religious tutelage, and seldom gave further
+sign of inner discord. Acting upon the suggestions of the uncle,
+Jose's instructors took special pains to parade before him the
+evidence and authorities supporting the claims of Holy Church and the
+grand tenets upon which the faith reposed. In particular were the
+arguments of Cardinal Newman cited to him, and the study of the
+latter's Apology was made a requirement of his course. The writings of
+the great Cardinal Manning also were laid before him, and he was told
+to find therein ample support for all assumptions of the Church.
+
+Silently and patiently the boy to outward appearance acquiesced; but
+often the light of his midnight candle might have revealed a wan face,
+frowning and perplexed, while before him lay the Cardinal's argument
+for belief in the miraculous resuscitation of the Virgin Mary--the
+argument being that the story is a beautiful one, and a comfort to
+those pious souls who think it true!
+
+Often, too, there lay before him the words of the great Newman:
+
+  "You may be taken away young; you may live to fourscore; you may
+  die in your bed, or in the open field--but if Mary intercedes for
+  you, that day will find you watching and ready. All things will be
+  fixed to secure your salvation, all dangers will be foreseen, all
+  obstacles removed, all aid provided."
+
+And as often he would close the book and drop his head in wonder that
+a man so humanly great could believe in an infinite, omnipotent God
+amenable to influence, even to that of the sanctified Mary.
+
+"The Christ said, 'These signs shall follow them that believe,'" he
+sometimes murmured, as he sat wrapped in study. "But do the Master's
+signs follow the Cardinals? Yet these men say they believe. What can
+they do that other men can not? Alas, nothing! What boots their
+sterile faith?"
+
+The limitations with which the lad was hedged about in the _Seminario_
+quite circumscribed his existence there. All lay influences were
+carefully excluded, and he learned only what was selected for him
+by his teachers. Added to this narrowing influence was his promise
+to his mother that he would read nothing proscribed by the Church. Of
+Bible criticism, therefore, he might know nothing. For original
+investigation of authorities there was neither permission nor
+opportunity. He was taught to discount historical criticism, and to
+regard anarchy as the logical result of independence of thought.
+He was likewise impressed with the fact that he must not question the
+official acts of Holy Church.
+
+"But," he once remonstrated, "it was by an ecumenical council--a group
+of frail human beings--that the Pope was declared infallible! And that
+only a few years ago!"
+
+"The council but set its seal of affirmation to an already great and
+established fact," was the reply. "As the supreme teacher and definer
+of the Church of God no Pope has ever erred, nor ever can err, in the
+exposition of revealed truth."
+
+"But Tito Cennini said in class but yesterday that many of the Popes
+had been wicked men!"
+
+"You must learn to distinguish, my son, between the man and the
+office. No matter what the private life of a Pope may have been, the
+validity of his official acts is not thereby affected. Nor is the
+doctrine of the Church."
+
+"But,--"
+
+"Nay, my son; this is what the Church teaches; and to slight it is to
+emperil your soul."
+
+But, despite his promises to his mother and the Archbishop, and in
+despite, too, of his own conscientious endeavor to keep every
+contaminating influence from entering his mind, he could not prevent
+this same Tito from assiduously cultivating his friendship, and
+voicing the most liberal and worldly opinions to him.
+
+"_Perdio_, but you are an ignorant animal, Jose!" ejaculated the
+little rascal one day, entering Jose's room and throwing himself upon
+the bed. "Why, didn't you know that the Popes used to raise money by
+selling their pardons and indulgences? That fellow Tetzel, back in
+Luther's time, rated sacrilege at nine ducats, murder at seven,
+witchcraft at six, and so on. Ever since the time of Innocent VIII.
+immunity from purgatory could be bought. It was his chamberlain who
+used to say, 'God willeth not the death of a sinner, but that he
+should pay and live.' Ha! ha! Those were good old days, _amico mio_!"
+
+But the serious Jose, to whom honor was a sacred thing, saw not his
+companion's cause for mirth. "Tito," he hazarded, "our instructor
+tells us that we must distinguish--"
+
+"Ho! ho!" laughed the immodest Tito, "if the Apostolic virtue has been
+handed down from the great Peter through the long line of Bishops of
+Rome and later Popes, what happened to it when there were two or three
+Popes, in the Middle Ages? And which branch retained the unbroken
+succession? Of a truth, _amico_, you are very credulous!"
+
+Jose looked at him horrified.
+
+"And which branch now," continued the irrepressible Tito, "holds a
+monopoly of the Apostolic virtue, the Anglican Church, the Greek, or
+the Roman Catholic? For each claims it, and each regards its rival
+claimants as rank heretics."
+
+Jose could not but dwell long and thoughtfully on this. Then, later,
+he again sought the graceless Tito. "_Amico_," he said eagerly, "why
+do not these claimants of the true Apostolic virtue seek to prove
+their claims, instead of, like pouting children, vainly spending
+themselves in denouncing their rivals?"
+
+"_Prove them!_" shouted Tito. "And how, _amico mio_?"
+
+"Why," returned Jose earnestly, "by doing the works the Apostles did;
+by healing the sick, and raising the dead, and--"
+
+Tito answered with a mocking laugh. "_Perdio, amico!_ know you not
+that if they submitted to such proof not one of the various
+contestants could substantiate his claims?"
+
+"Then, oh, then how could the council declare the Pope to be
+infallible?"
+
+Tito regarded his friend pityingly. "My wonder is, _amico_," he
+replied seriously, "that they did not declare him _immortal_ as well.
+When you read the true history of those exciting days and learn
+something of the political intrigue with which the Church was then
+connected, you will see certain excellent reasons why the Holy Father
+should have been declared infallible. But let me ask you, _amico_, if
+you have such doubts, why are you here, of all places? Surely it is
+not your own life-purpose to become a priest!"
+
+"My life-purpose," answered Jose meditatively, "is to find my soul--my
+_real_ self."
+
+Tito went away shaking his head. He could not understand such a
+character as that of Jose. But, for that matter, no one ever
+fathoms a fellow-being. And so we who have attempted a sketch of
+the boy's mentality will not complain if its complexity prevents
+us from adequately setting it forth. Rather shall we feel that we
+have accomplished much if we have shown that the lad had no slight
+justification for the budding seeds of religious doubt within his
+mind, and for concluding that of the constitution of God men
+know nothing, despite their fantastical theories and their bold
+affirmations, as if He were a man in their immediate neighborhood,
+with whom they were on the most intimate terms.
+
+In the course of time Jose found the companionship of Tito increasingly
+unendurable, and so he welcomed the formation of another friendship
+among his mates, even though it was with a lad much older than himself,
+Bernardo Damiano, a candidate for ordination, and one thoroughly
+indoctrinated in the faith of Holy Church. With open and receptive
+heart our young Levite eagerly availed himself of his new friend's
+voluntary discourses on the mooted topics about which his own thought
+incessantly revolved.
+
+"Fear not, Jose, to accept all that is taught you here," said Bernardo
+in kindly admonition; "for if this be not the very doctrine of the
+Christ himself, where else will you find it? Among the Protesters?
+Nay, they have, it is true, hundreds of churches; and they call
+themselves Christians. But their religion is as diverse as their
+churches are numerous, and it is not of God or Jesus Christ. They have
+impiously borrowed from us. Their emasculated creeds are only
+assumptions of human belief. They recognize no law of consistency, and
+so they enjoy unbridled license. They believe what they please, and
+each interprets Holy Writ to suit his own fantastical whims."
+
+"But, the Popes--" began Jose, returning again to his troublesome
+topic.
+
+"Yes, and what of them?" replied his friend calmly. "Can you not see
+beyond the human man to the Holy Office? The Holy Father is the
+successor of the great Apostle Peter, whom our blessed Saviour
+appointed his Vicar on earth, and constituted the supreme teacher and
+judge in matters of morals. Remember, _Jesus Christ founded the
+Catholic religion_! He established the Church, which he commanded all
+men to support and obey. That Church is still, and always will be, the
+infallible teacher of truth, for Jesus declared that it should never
+fall. Let not Satan lead you to the Protesters, Jose, for their creeds
+are but snares and pitfalls."
+
+"I know nothing of Protestant creeds, nor want to," answered Jose. "If
+Jesus Christ established the Catholic religion, then I want to accept
+it, and shall conclude that my doubts and questionings are but the
+whisperings of Satan. But--"
+
+"But what, my friend? The Popes again?" Bernardo laughed, and put his
+arm affectionately about the younger lad. "The Pope, Jose, is, always
+has been, and always will be, supreme, crowned with the triple crown
+as king of earth, and heaven, and hell. We mortals have not made him
+so. Heaven alone did that. God himself made our Pontiff of the Holy
+Catholic Church superior even to the angels; and if it were possible
+for them to believe contrary to the faith, he could judge them and lay
+the ban of excommunication upon them."
+
+Jose's eyes widened while his friend talked. Was he losing his own
+senses? Or was it true, as his lamented father had said, that he had
+been cast under the spell of the devil's wiles? Had he been
+foreordained to destruction by his own heretical thought? For, if what
+he heard in Rome was truth, then was he damned, irrevocably!
+
+"Come," said his friend, taking his arm; "let us go to the library and
+read the _Credo_ of the Holy Father, Pius the Fourth, wherein is set
+forth in detail the doctrinal system of our beloved Church. And let me
+urge you, my dear young friend, to accept it, unreservedly, and be at
+peace, else will your life be a ceaseless torment."
+
+Oh, that he could have done so! That he could have joined those
+thousands of faithful, loyal adherents to Holy Church, who find in its
+doctrines naught that stimulates a doubt, nor urges against the divine
+institution of its gorgeous, material fabric!
+
+But, vain desire! "I cannot! I cannot!" he wailed in the dark hours of
+night upon his bed. "I cannot love a God who has to be prayed to by
+Saints and Virgin, and persuaded by them not to damn His own children!
+I cannot believe that the Pope, a mere human being, can canonize
+Saints and make spiritual beings who grant the prayers of men and
+intercede with God for them! Yes, I know there are multitudes of good
+people who believe and accept the doctrines of the Church. But, alas!
+I am not one of them, nor can be."
+
+For, we repeat, the little Jose was morbidly honest. And this gave
+rise to fear, a corroding fear that he might not do right by his
+God, his mother, and himself, the three variants in his complex
+life-equation. His self-condemnation increased; yet his doubts
+kept pace with it. He more than ever distrusted his own powers after
+his first four years in the seminary. He more than ever lacked
+self-confidence. He was more than ever vacillating, hesitant, and
+infirm of purpose. He even at times, when under the pall of
+melancholia, wondered if he had really loved his deceased father,
+and whether it was real grief which he felt at his parent's demise.
+Often, too, when fear and doubt pressed heavily, and his companions
+avoided him because of the aura of gloom in which he dwelt, he
+wondered if he were becoming insane. He seemed to become obsessed
+with the belief that his ability to think was slowly paralyzing. And
+with it his will. And yet, proof that this was not the case was
+found in his stubborn opposition to trite acquiescence, and in his
+infrequent reversals of mood, when he would even feel an intense,
+if transient, sense of exaltation in the thought that he was doing
+the best that in him lay.
+
+It was during one of these lighter moods, and at the close of a school
+year, that a great joy came to him in an event which left a lasting
+impress upon his life. Following close upon a hurried visit which his
+uncle paid to Rome, the boy was informed that it had been arranged for
+him to accompany the Papal Legate on a brief journey through Germany
+and England, returning through France, in order that he might gain a
+first-hand impression of the magnitude of the work which the Church
+was doing in the field, and meet some of her great men. The
+broadening, quieting, confidence-inspiring influence of such a journey
+would be, in the opinion of Padre Rafael, incalculable. And so, with
+eager, bubbling hope, the lad set out.
+
+Whatever it may have been intended that the boy should see on this
+ecclesiastical pilgrimage, he returned to Rome at the end of three
+months with his quick, impressionable mind stuffed with food for
+reflection. Though he had seen the glories of the Church, worshiped in
+her matchless temples, and sat at the feet of her great scholars, now
+in the quiet of his little room he found himself dwelling upon a
+single thought, into which all of his collected impressions were
+gathered: "The Church--Catholic and Protestant--is--oh, God, the
+Church is--not sick, not dying, but--_dead_! Aye, it has served both
+God and Mammon, and paid the awful penalty! And what is left?
+_Caesarism_!" The great German and British nations were not Catholic.
+But worse, the Protestant people of the German Empire were sadly
+indifferent to religion. He had seen, in Berlin, men of family trying
+to resell the Bibles which their children had used in preparation for
+confirmation. He had found family worship all but extinct. He had
+marked the widespread indifference among Protestant parents in regard
+to the religious instruction of their young. He had been told there
+that parents had but a slight conception of their duty as moral
+guides, and that children were growing up with only sensuous pleasures
+and material gain as their life-aims. Again and again he was shown
+where in whole districts it was utterly impossible to secure young men
+for ordination to the Protestant ministry. And he was furnished with
+statistics setting forth the ominous fact that within a few years,
+were the present decline unchecked, there would be no students in the
+Protestant universities of the country.
+
+"Do you not see in this, my son," said the Papal Legate, "the blight
+of unbelief? Do you not mark the withering effects of the modern
+so-called scientific thought? What think you of a religion wherein the
+chief interest centers in trials for heresy; whose ultimate effect
+upon human character is a return to the raw, primitive, immature sense
+of life that once prevailed among this great people? What think you
+now of Luther and his diabolical work?"
+
+The wondering boy hung his head without reply. Would Germany at length
+come to the true fold? And was that fold the Holy Catholic Church?
+
+And England--ah! there was the Anglican church, Catholic, but not
+Roman, and therefore but a counterfeit of the Lord's true Church.
+Would it endure? "No," the Legate had said; "already defection has set
+in, and the prodigal's return to the loving parent in Rome is but a
+matter of time."
+
+Then came his visit to the great abbey of Westminster, and the
+impression which, to his last earthly day, he bore as one of his most
+sacred treasures. There in the famous Jerusalem Chamber he had sat,
+his eyes suffused with tears and his throat choked with emotion. In
+that room the first Lancastrian king long years before had closed his
+unhappy life. There the great Westminster Confession had been framed.
+There William of Orange had held his weighty discussion of the
+Prayer-Book revision, which was hoped to bring Churchmen and
+Dissenters again into harmony. And there, greatest of all, had
+gathered, day after day, and year after year, the patient, devoted
+group of men who gave to the world its Revised Edition of the Holy
+Bible, only a few brief years ago. As the rapt Jose closed his eyes
+and listened to the whispered conversation of the scholarly men about
+him, he seemed to see the consecrated Revisers, seated again at the
+long table, deep in the holy search of the Scriptures for the profound
+secrets of life which they hold. He saw with what sedulous care they
+pursued their sacred work, without trace of prejudice or religious
+bias, and with only the selfless purpose always before them to render
+to mankind a priceless benefit in a more perfect rendition of the Word
+of God. Why could not men come together now in that same generous
+spirit of love? But no, Rome would never yield her assumptions. But
+when the lad rose and followed his guides from the room, it was with a
+new-born conviction, and a revival of his erstwhile firm purpose to
+translate for himself, at the earliest opportunity, the Greek
+Testament, if, perchance, he might find thereby what his yearning soul
+so deeply craved, the truth.
+
+That the boy was possessed of scholarly instincts, there could be no
+doubt. His ability had immediately attracted his instructors on
+entering the seminary. And, but for his stubborn opposition to
+dogmatic acceptance without proofs, he might have taken and maintained
+the position of leader in scholarship in the institution. Literature
+and the languages, particularly Greek, were his favorite studies, and
+in these he excelled. Even as a child, long before the eventful night
+when his surreptitious reading of Voltaire precipitated events, he had
+determined to master Greek, and some day to translate the New
+Testament from the original sources into his beloved Castilian tongue.
+Before setting out for Rome he had so applied himself to the worn
+little grammar which the proprietor of the bookstall in Seville had
+loaned him, that he was able to make translations with comparative
+fluency. In the seminary he plunged into it with avidity; and when he
+returned from his journey with the Papal Legate he began in earnest
+his translation of the Testament. This, like so much of the boy's work
+and writing, was done secretly and in spare moments. And his zeal was
+such that often in the middle of the night it would compel him to rise
+and, after drawing the shades carefully and stopping the crack under
+the door with his cassock, light his candle and dig away at his
+Testament until dawn.
+
+This study of the New Testament in the Greek resulted in many
+translations differing essentially from the accepted version, as could
+not but happen when a mind so original as that of the boy Jose was
+concentrated upon it. His first stumbling block was met in the prayer
+of Jesus in an attempt to render the petition, "Give us this day our
+daily bread," into idiomatic modern thought. The word translated
+"daily" was not to be found elsewhere in the Greek language.
+Evidently the Aramaic word which Jesus employed, and of which this
+Greek word was a translation, must have been an unusual one--a coined
+expression. And what did it mean? No one knows. Jose found means to
+put the question to his tutor. He was told that it doubtless meant
+"super-supernal." But what could "super-supernal" convey to the
+world's multitude of hungry suppliants for the bread of life! And so
+he rendered the phrase "Give us each day a better understanding of
+Thee." Again, going carefully through his Testament the boy crossed
+out the words translated "God," and in their places substituted
+"divine influence." Many of the best known and most frequently
+quoted passages suffered similarly radical changes at his hands. For
+the translation "truth," the boy often preferred to substitute
+"reality"; and such passages as "speaking the truth in love" were
+rendered by him, "lovingly speaking of those things which are real."
+"Faith" and "belief" were generally changed to "understanding" and
+"real knowing," so that the passage, "O ye of little faith,"
+became in his translation, "O ye of slight understanding." The word
+"miracle" he consistently changed to "sign" throughout. The command to
+ask "in the name of Jesus" caused him hours of deep and perplexing
+thought, until he hit upon the, to him, happy rendering, "in his
+character." Why not? In the character of the Christ mankind might ask
+anything and it would be given them. But to acquire that character
+men must repent. And the Greek word "metanoia," so generally
+rendered "repentance," would therefore have to be translated "radical
+and complete change of thought." Again, why not? Was not a complete
+change of thought requisite if one were to become like Jesus? Could
+mortals think continually of murder, warfare, disaster, failure,
+crime, sickness and death, and of the acquisition of material
+riches and power, and still hope to acquire the character of the
+meek but mighty Nazarene? Decidedly no! And so he went on delving
+and plodding, day after day, night after night, substituting and
+changing, but always, even if unconsciously, giving to the Scripture
+a more metaphysical and spiritual meaning, which displaced in its
+translation much of the material and earthy.
+
+Before the end of his seminary training the translation was complete.
+What a new light it seemed to throw upon the mission of Jesus! How
+fully he realized now that creeds and confessions had never even begun
+to sound the profound depths of the Bible! What a changed message it
+seemed to carry for mankind! How he longed to show it to his
+preceptors and discuss it with them! But his courage failed when he
+faced this thought. However, another expedient presented: he would
+write a treatise on the New Testament, embodying the salient facts of
+his translation, and send it out into the world for publication in the
+hope that it might do much good. Again, night after night in holy zeal
+he toiled on the work, and when completed, sent it, under his name, to
+a prominent literary magazine published in Paris.
+
+Its appearance--for it was accepted eagerly by the editor, who was
+bitterly hostile to the Church--caused a stir in ecclesiastical
+circles and plunged the unwise lad into a sea of trouble. The essay in
+general might have been excusable on its distinct merits and the
+really profound scholarship exhibited in its composition. But when the
+boy, a candidate for holy orders, and almost on the eve of his
+ordination, seized upon the famous statement of Jesus in which he is
+reported to have told Peter that he was the rock upon which the Lord's
+church should be eternally founded, and showed that Jesus called Peter
+a stone, "_petros_," a loose stone, and one of many, whereas he then
+said that his church should be founded upon "_petra_," the living,
+immovable rock of truth, thus corroborating Saint Augustine, but
+confuting other supposedly impregnable authority for the superiority
+and infallibility of the Church, it was going a bit too far.
+
+The result was severe penance, coupled with soul-searing reprimand,
+and absolute prohibition of further original writing. His translation
+of the Testament was confiscated, and he was commanded to destroy
+all notes referring to it, and to refrain from making further
+translations. His little room was searched, and all references and
+papers which might be construed as unevangelical were seized and
+burned. He was then transferred to another room for the remainder of
+his seminary course, and given a roommate, a cynical, sneering
+bully of Irish descent, steeped to the core in churchly doctrine,
+who did not fail to embrace every opportunity to make the suffering
+penitent realize that he was in disgrace and under surveillance. The
+effect was to drive the sensitive boy still further into himself,
+and to augment the sullenness of disposition which had earlier
+characterized him and separated him from social intercourse with
+the world in which he moved apart from his fellow-men.
+
+Thus had Jose been shown very clearly that implicit obedience would at
+all times be exacted from him by the Church. He had been shown quite
+unmistakably that an inquisitive and determined spirit would not be
+tolerated if it led to deductions at variance with accepted tradition.
+He might starve mentally, if his prescribed food did not satisfy his
+hunger; but he must understand, once for all, that truth had long
+since been revealed, and that it was not within his province to
+attempt any further additions to the revelation.
+
+Once more, for the sake of his mother, and that he might learn all
+that the Church had to teach him, the boy conscientiously tried to
+obey. He was reminded again that, though taught to obey, he was being
+trained to lead. This in a sense pleased him, as offering surcease
+from an erking sense of responsibility. Nevertheless, though he
+constantly wavered in decision; though at times the Church won him,
+and he yielded temporarily to her abundant charms; the spirit of
+protest did wax steadily stronger within him as the years passed. Back
+and forth he swung, like a pendulum, now drawn by the power and
+influence of the mighty Church; now, as he approached it, repelled by
+the things which were revealed as he drew near. In the last two years
+of his course his soul-revolt often took the form of open protest to
+his preceptors against indulgences and the sacramental graces, against
+the arbitrary Index Expurgatorius, and the Church's stubborn
+opposition to modern progression. Like Faust, his studies were
+convincing him more and more firmly of the emptiness of human
+hypotheses and undemonstrable philosophy. The growing conviction that
+the Holy Church was more worldly than spiritual filled his shrinking
+soul at times with horror. The limiting thought of Rome was often
+stifling to him. He had begun to realize that liberty of thought and
+conscience were his only as he received it already outlined from the
+Church. Even his interpretation of the Bible must come from her. His
+very ideas must first receive the ecclesiastical stamp before he might
+advance them. His opinions must measure up--or down--to those of his
+tutors, ere he might even hold them. In terror he felt that the Church
+was absorbing him, heart and mind. His individuality was seeping away.
+In time he would become but a link in the great worldly system which
+he was being trained to serve.
+
+These convictions did not come to him all at once, nor were they as
+yet firmly fixed. They were rather suggestions which became
+increasingly insistent as the years went on. He had entered the
+seminary at the tender age of twelve, his mind wholly unformed, but
+protesting even then. All through his course he had sought what
+there was in Christianity upon which he could lay firm hold. In
+the Church he had found an ultra-conservative spirit and extreme
+reverence for authority. Tito had told him that it was the equivalent
+of ancestor-worship. But when he one day told his instructors that he
+was not necessarily a disbeliever in the Scriptures because he did
+not accept their interpretation of them, he could not but realize
+that Tito had come dangerously near the truth. His translation of
+the Greek Testament had forced him to the conclusion that much of the
+material contained in the Gospels was not Jesus' own words, but the
+commentaries of his reporters; not the Master's diction, but
+theological lecturing by the writers of the Gospels. Moreover, in
+the matter of prayer, especially, he was all at sea. As a child he had
+spent hours formulating humble, fervent petitions, which did not seem
+to draw replies. And so there began to form within his mind a
+concept, faint and ill-defined, of a God very different from that
+canonically accepted. He tried to believe that there was a Creator
+back of all things, but that He was inexorable Law. And the lad
+was convinced that, somehow, he had failed to get into harmony with
+that infinite Law. But, in that case, why pray to Law? And, most
+foolish of all, why seek to influence it, whether through Virgin or
+Saint? And, if God is a good Father, why ask Him to _be_ good? Then,
+to his insistent question, "_Unde Deus_?" he tried to formulate
+the answer that God is Spirit, and omnipresent. But, alas! that
+made the good God include evil. No, there was a terrible human
+misunderstanding of the divine nature, a woeful misinterpretation.
+He must try to ask for light in the character of the Christ. But
+then, how to assume that character? Like a garment? Impossible! "Oh,
+God above," he wailed aloud again and again, "I don't know what to
+believe! I don't know what to think!" Foolish lad! Why did he think
+at all, when there were those at hand to relieve him of that
+onerous task?
+
+And so, at last, Jose sought to resign himself to his fate, and,
+thrusting aside these mocking questions, accept the opportunities for
+service which his tutors so wisely emphasized as the Church's special
+offering to him. He yielded to their encouragement to plunge heartily
+into his studies, for in such absorption lay diversion from dangerous
+channels of thought. Slowly, too, he yielded to their careful
+insistence that he must suffer many things to be so for the nonce,
+even as Jesus did, lest a too radical resistance now should delay the
+final glorious consummation.
+
+Was the boy actuated too strongly by the determination that his
+widowed mother's hopes should never be blasted by any assertion of
+his own will? Was he passively permitting himself to be warped and
+twisted into a minion of an institution alien to his soul in bigoted
+adherence to his morbid sense of integrity? Was he for the present
+countenancing a lie, rather than permit the bursting of a bomb
+which would rend the family and bring his beloved mother in sorrow to
+the grave? Or was he biding his time, an undeveloped David, who
+would some day sally forth like the lion of the tribe of Juda, to
+match his moral courage against the blustering son of Anak? Time
+only would tell. The formative period of his character was not yet
+ended, and the data for prognostication were too complex and
+conflicting. We can only be sure that his consuming desire to know
+had been carefully fostered in the seminary, but in such a manner as
+unwittingly to add to his confusion of thought and to increase his
+fear of throwing himself unreservedly upon his own convictions. That
+he grew to perceive the childishness of churchly dogma, we know.
+That he appreciated the Church's insane license of affirmation, its
+impudent affirmations of God's thoughts and desires, its coarse
+assumptions of knowledge of the inner workings of the mind of
+Omnipotence, we likewise know. But, on the other hand, we know
+that he feared to break with the accepted faith. The claims of
+Protestantism, though lacking the pomp and pageantry of Catholicism
+to give them attractiveness, offered him an interpretation of Christ's
+mission that was little better than the teachings he was receiving.
+And so his hesitant and vacillating nature, which hurled him into the
+lists to-day as the resolute foe of dogma and superstition, and
+to-morrow would leave him weak and doubting at the feet of the
+enemy, kept him wavering, silent and unhappy, on the thin edge of
+resolution throughout the greater part of his course. His lack of
+force, or the holding of his force in check by his filial honesty and
+his uncertainty of conviction, kept him in the seminary for eight
+years, during which his being was slowly, imperceptibly descending
+into him. At the age of twenty he was still unsettled, but further
+than even he himself realized from Rome. Who shall say that he was
+not at the same time nearer to God?
+
+On the day that he was twenty, three things of the gravest import
+happened to the young Jose. His warm friend, Bernardo, died suddenly,
+almost in his arms; his uncle, Rafael de Rincon, paid an unexpected
+visit to the Vatican; and the lad received the startling announcement
+that he would be ordained to the priesthood on the following day.
+
+The sudden demise of the young Bernardo plunged Jose into an excess of
+grief and again encompassed him with the fear and horror of death. He
+shut himself up in his room, and toward the close of the day took his
+writing materials and penned a passionate appeal to his mother,
+begging her to absolve him from his promises, and let him go out into
+the world, a free man in search of truth. But scarcely had he finished
+his letter when he was summoned into the Rector's office. There it was
+explained to him that, in recognition of his high scholarship, of his
+penitence and loyal obedience since the Testament episode, and of the
+advanced work which he was now doing in the seminary and the splendid
+promise he was giving, the Holy Father had been asked to grant a
+special indult, waiving the usual age requirement and permitting the
+boy to be ordained with the class which was to receive the holy order
+of the priesthood the following day. It was further announced that
+after ordination he should spend a year in travel with the Papal
+Legate, and on his return might enter the office of the Papal
+Secretary of State, as an under-secretary, or office assistant. While
+there, he would be called upon to teach in the seminary, and later
+might be sent to the University to pursue higher studies leading to
+the degree of Doctor.
+
+Before the boy had awakened to his situation, the day of his
+ordination arrived. The proud mother, learning from the secretary of
+the precipitation of events, and doting on the boy whom she had never
+understood; in total ignorance of the complex elements of his soul,
+and little realizing that between her and her beloved son there was
+now a gulf fixed which would never be bridged, saw only the happy
+fruition of a life ambition. Fortunately she had been kept in
+ignorance of the dubious incident of the Testament translation and its
+results upon the boy; and when the long anticipated day dawned her
+eyes swam in tears of hallowed joy. The Archbishop and his grim
+secretary each congratulated the other heartily, and the latter,
+breaking into one of his rare smiles, murmured gratefully, "At last!
+And our enemies have lost a champion!"
+
+The night before the ordination Jose had begged to occupy a room
+alone. The appeal which emanated from his sad face, his thin and
+stooping body, his whole drawn and tortured being, would have melted
+flint. His request was granted. Throughout the night the boy, on his
+knees beside the little bed, wrestled with the emotions which were
+tearing his soul. Despondency lay over him like a pall. A vague
+presentiment of impending disaster pressed upon him like a millstone.
+Ceaselessly he weighed and reviewed the forces which had combined to
+drive him into the inconsistent position which he now occupied.
+Inconsistent, for his highest ideal had been truth. He was by nature
+consecrated to it. He had sought it diligently in the Church, and now
+that he was about to become her priest he could not make himself
+believe that he had found it. Now, when bound to her altars, he faced
+a life of deception, of falsehood, as the champion of a faith which he
+could not unreservedly embrace.
+
+But he had accepted his education from the Church; and would he shrink
+from making payment therefor? Yet, on the other hand, must he
+sacrifice honor--yea, his whole future--to the payment of a debt
+forced upon him before he had reached the age of reason? The oath of
+ordination, the priest's oath, echoed in his throbbing ears like a
+soul-sentence to eternal doom; while spectral shades of moving priests
+and bishops, laying cold and unfeeling hands upon him, sealing him to
+endless servitude to superstition and deception, glided to and fro
+through the darkness before his straining eyes. Could he receive the
+ordination to-morrow? He had promised--but the assumption of its
+obligations would brand his shrinking soul with torturing falsehood!
+If he sank under doubt and fear, could he still retract? What then of
+his mother and his promise to her? What of the Rincon honor and pride?
+Living disgrace, or a living lie--which? Sacrifice of self--or mother?
+God knew, he had never deliberately countenanced a falsehood--yet,
+through circumstances which he did not have the will to control, he
+was a living one!
+
+Fair visions of a life untrammeled by creed or religious convention
+hovered at times that night before his mental gaze. He saw a cottage,
+rose-bowered, glowing in the haze of the summer sun. He saw before its
+door a woman, fresh and fair--his wife--and children--his--shouting
+their joyous greetings as they trooped out to welcome him returning
+from his day's labors. How he clung to this picture when it faded and
+left him, an oath-bound celibate, facing his lonely and cheerless
+destiny! God! what has the Church to offer for such sacrifice as this!
+An education? Yea, an induction into relative truths and mortal
+opinions, and the sad record of the devious wanderings of the human
+mind! An opportunity for service? God knows, the free, unhampered
+mind, open to truth and progress, loosed from mediaeval dogma and
+ignorant convention, seeing its brothers' needs and meeting in them
+its own, has opportunities for rich service to-day outside the Church
+the like of which have never before been offered!
+
+To and fro his heaving thought ebbed and flowed. Back and forth the
+arguments, pro and con, surged through the still hours of the
+night. After all, had he definite proof that the tenets of Holy
+Church were false? No, he could not honestly say that he had. The
+question still stood in abeyance. Even his conviction of their
+falsity at times had sorely wavered. And if his heart cried out
+against their acceptance, it nevertheless had nothing tangibly
+definite to offer in substitution. But--the end had come so
+suddenly! With his life free and untrammeled he might yet find the
+truth. Oath-bound and limited to the strictures of the Church, what
+hope was there but the acceptance of prescribed canons of human
+belief? Still, the falsities which he believed he had found within the
+Church were not greater than those against which she herself fought in
+the world. And if she accepted him, did it not indicate on her part
+a tacit recognition of the need of just what he had to offer, a
+searching spirit of inquiry and consecration to the unfoldment of
+truth? Alas! the incident of the Greek translation threw its
+shadow of doubt upon that hope.
+
+But if the Church accepted him, she _must_ accept his stand! He
+_would_ raise his voice in protest, and would continually point to the
+truth as he discerned it! If he received the order of priesthood from
+her it was with the understanding that his acceptance of her tenets
+was tentative! But--forlorn expedient! He knew something of
+ecclesiastical history. He thought he knew--young as he was--that the
+Church stood not for progress, not for conformity to changing ideals,
+not for alignment with the world's great reforms, but for _herself_,
+first, midst, and last!
+
+Thus the conflict raged, while thoughts, momentous for even a mature
+thinker, tore through the mind of this lad of twenty. Prayers for
+light--prayers which would have rent the heart of an Ivan--burst at
+times from the feverish lips of this child of circumstance. Infinite
+Father--Divine Influence--Spirit of Love--whatever Thou art--wilt Thou
+not illumine the thought-processes of this distracted youth and thus
+provide the way of escape from impending destruction? Can it be Thy
+will that this fair mind shall be utterly crushed? Do the agonized
+words of appeal which rise to Thee from his riven soul fall broken
+against ears of stone?
+
+"Occupy till I come!" Yea, beloved Master, he hears thy voice and
+strives to obey--but the night is filled with terror--the clouds of
+error lower about him--the storm bursts--and thou art not there!
+
+Day dawned. A classmate, sent to summon the lad, roused him from the
+fitful sleep into which he had sunk on the cold floor. His mind was no
+longer active. Dumbly following his preceptors at the appointed hour,
+he proceeded with the class to the chapel. Dimly conscious of his
+surroundings, his thought befogged as if in a dream, his eyes
+half-blinded by the gray haze which seemed to hang before them, he
+celebrated the Mass, like one under hypnosis, received the holy
+orders, and assumed the obligations which constituted him a priest of
+Holy Church.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8
+
+
+On a sweltering midsummer afternoon, a year after the events just
+related, Rome lay panting for breath and counting the interminable
+hours which must elapse before the unpitying sun would grant her a
+short night's respite from her discomfort. Her streets were deserted
+by all except those whose affairs necessitated their presence in
+them. Her palaces and villas had been abandoned for weeks by their
+fortunate owners, who had betaken themselves to the seashore or to the
+more distance resorts of the North. The few inexperienced tourists
+whose lack of practical knowledge in the matter of globe-trotting had
+brought them into the city so unseasonably were hastily and
+indignantly assembling their luggage and completing arrangements to
+flee from their over-warm reception.
+
+In a richly appointed suite of the city's most modern and
+ultra-fashionable hotel two maids, a butler, and the head porter were
+packing and removing a formidable array of trunks and suit cases,
+while a woman of considerably less than middle age, comely in person
+and tastefully attired in a loose dressing gown of flowered silk,
+alternated between giving sharp directions to the perspiring workers
+and venting her abundant wrath and disappointment upon the chief
+clerk, as with evident reluctance she filled one of a number of signed
+checks to cover the hotel expenses of herself and servants for a
+period of three weeks, although they had arrived only the day before
+and, on account of the stifling heat, were leaving on the night
+express for Lucerne. The clerk regretted exceedingly, but on Madam
+Ames' order the suite had been held vacant for that length of time,
+during which the management had daily looked for her arrival, and had
+received no word of her delay. Had Madam herself not just admitted
+that she had altered her plans en route, without notifying the hotel,
+and had gone first to the Italian lakes, without cancelling her order
+for the suite? And so her sense of justice must convince her that the
+management was acting wholly within its rights in making this demand.
+
+While the preparations for departure were in progress the woman's
+two children played about the trunks and raced through the rooms
+and adjoining corridor with a child's indifference to climatal
+conditions.
+
+"Let's ring for the elevator and then hide, Sidney!" suggested the
+girl, as she panted after her brother, who had run to the far end of
+the long hall.
+
+"No, Kathleen, it wouldn't be right," objected the boy.
+
+"Right! Ho! ho! What's the harm, goody-goody? Go tell mother, if you
+want to!" she called after him, as he started back to their rooms.
+Refusing to accompany him, the girl leaned against the balustrade of a
+stairway which led to the floor below and watched her brother until he
+disappeared around a turn of the corridor.
+
+"Baby!" burst from her pouting lips. "'Fraid of everything! It's no
+fun playing with him!" Then, casting a glance of inquiry about her,
+"I'd just like to hide down these stairs. Mother and nurse never let
+me go where I want to."
+
+Obeying the impulse stimulated by her freedom for the moment, the
+child suddenly turned and darted down the stairway. On the floor
+beneath she found herself at the head of a similar stairway, down
+which she likewise hurried, with no other thought than to annoy her
+brother, who was sure to be sent in search of her when her mother
+discovered her absence. Opening the door below, the child unexpectedly
+found herself in an alley back of the hotel.
+
+Her sense of freedom was exhilarating. The sunlit alley beckoned to a
+delightful journey of discovery. With a happy laugh and a toss of her
+yellow curls she hurried along the narrow way and into the street
+which crossed it a short distance beyond. Here she paused and looked
+in each direction, uncertain which way to continue. In one direction,
+far in the distance, she saw trees. They looked promising; she would
+go that way. And trotting along the blazing, deserted street, she at
+length reached the grateful shade and threw herself on the soft grass
+beneath, tired and panting, but happy in the excitement of her little
+adventure.
+
+Recovering quickly, the child rose to explore her environment. She was
+in one of those numerous public parks lining the Tiber and forming the
+city's playground for her less fortunate wards. Here and there were
+scattered a few people, mostly men, who had braved the heat of the
+streets in the hope of obtaining a breath of cool air near the water.
+At the river's edge a group of ragged urchins were romping noisily;
+and on a bench near them a young priest sat, writing in a notebook. As
+she walked toward them a beggar roused himself from the grass and
+looked covetously through his evil eyes at the child's rich clothes.
+
+The gamins stopped their play as the girl approached, and stared at
+her in expectant curiosity. One of them, a girl of apparently her own
+age, spoke to her, but in a language which she did not understand.
+Receiving no reply, the urchins suddenly closed together, and holding
+hands, began to circle around her, shouting like little Indians.
+
+The child stood for a moment perplexed. Then terror seized her.
+Hurling herself through the circle, she fled blindly, with the gamins
+in pursuit. With no sense of direction, her only thought to escape
+from the dirty band at her heels, she rushed straight to the river and
+over the low bank into the sluggish, yellow water. A moment later the
+priest who had been sitting on the bench near the river, startled by
+the frenzied cries of the now frightened children, rushed into the
+shallow water and brought the girl in safety to the bank.
+
+Speaking to her in her own language, the priest sought to soothe the
+child and learn her identity as he carried her to the edge of the park
+and out into the street. But his efforts were unavailing. She could
+only sob hysterically and call piteously for her mother. A civil guard
+appeared at the street corner, and the priest summoned him. But
+scarcely had he reported the details of the accident when, suddenly
+uttering a cry, the priest thrust the girl into the arms of the
+astonished officer and fled back to the bench where he had been
+sitting. Another cry escaped him when he reached it. Throwing himself
+upon the grass, he searched beneath the bench and explored the ground
+about it. Then, his face blanched with fear, he rose and traversed the
+entire park, questioning every occupant. The gamins who had caused the
+accident had fled. The beggar, too, had disappeared. The park was all
+but deserted. Returning again to the bench, the priest sank upon it
+and buried his head in his hands, groaning aloud. A few minutes later
+he abruptly rose and, glancing furtively around as if he feared to be
+seen, hastened out to the street. Then, darting into a narrow
+crossroad, he disappeared in the direction of the Vatican.
+
+At midnight, Padre Jose de Rincon was still pacing the floor of his
+room, frantic with apprehension. At the same hour, the small girl who
+had so unwittingly plunged him into the gravest danger was safely
+asleep in her mother's arms on the night express, which shrieked and
+thundered on its way to Lucerne.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9
+
+
+Always as a child Jose had been the tortured victim of a vague,
+unformed apprehension of impending disaster, a presentiment that some
+day a great evil would befall him. The danger before which he now grew
+white with fear seemed to realize that fatidic thought, and hang
+suspended above him on a filament more tenuous than the hair which
+held aloft the fabled sword of Damocles. That filament was the slender
+chance that the notebook with which he was occupied when the terrified
+child precipitated herself into the river, and which he had hastily
+dropped on seeing her plight and rushing to the rescue, had been
+picked up by those who would consider its value _nil_ as an instrument
+of either good or evil. Before the accident occurred he had been
+absorbed in his writing and was unaware of other occupants of the park
+than himself and the children, whose boisterous romping in such close
+proximity had scarce interrupted his occupation. Then their frightened
+cries roused him to an absorbing sense of the girl's danger. Nor did
+he think again of the notebook until he was relating the details of
+the accident to the guard at the edge of the park, when, like a blow
+from above, the thought of it struck him.
+
+Trembling with dread anticipation, he had hurried back to the bench,
+only to find his fears realized. The book had disappeared! His
+frenzied search yielded no hint of its probable mode of removal.
+Overcome by a sickening sense of misfortune, he had sunk upon the
+bench in despair. But fear again roused him and drove him, slinking
+like a hunted beast, from the park--fear that the possessor of the
+book, appreciating its contents, but with no thought of returning it,
+might be hovering near, with the view of seeing what manner of priest
+it could be who would thus carelessly leave such writings as these in
+the public parks and within the very shadow of St. Peter's.
+
+But to escape immediate identification as their author did not remove
+his danger. Their character was such that, should they fall into
+certain hands, his identity must surely be established. Even though
+his name did not appear, they abounded in references which could
+hardly fail to point to him. But, far worse, they cited names of
+personages high in political and ecclesiastical circles in references
+which, should they become public, must inevitably set in motion forces
+whose far-reaching and disastrous effects he dared not even imagine.
+
+For the notebook contained the soul-history of the man. It was
+the _journal intime_ which he had begun as a youth, and continued
+and amplified through succeeding years. It was the repository of
+his inmost thoughts, the receptacle of his secret convictions.
+It held, crystallized in writing, his earliest protests against
+the circumstances which were molding his life. It voiced the
+subsequent agonized outpourings of his soul when the holy order of
+priesthood was conferred upon him. It recorded his views of life,
+of religion, of the cosmos. It held in burning words his thoughts
+anent the Holy Catholic faith--his sense of its virtues, its
+weaknesses, its assumptions, its fallacies. It set forth his
+confession of helplessness before circumstances too strong for
+his feeble will, and it cited therewith, as partial justification
+for his conduct, his tender love for his mother and his firm
+intention of keeping forever inviolable his promises to her. It
+voiced his passionate prayers for light, and his dim hopes for
+the future, while portraying the wreck of a life whose elements
+had been too complex for him to sift and classify and combine in
+their normal proportions.
+
+A year had passed since the unhappy lad had opened his mouth to
+receive the iron bit which Destiny had pressed so mercilessly against
+it. During that time the Church had conscientiously carried out
+her program as announced to him just prior to his ordination.
+Associated with the Papal Legate, he had traveled extensively through
+Europe, his impressionable mind avidly absorbing the customs,
+languages, and thought-processes of many lands. At Lourdes he had
+stood in deep meditation before the miraculous shrine, surrounded
+with its piles of discarded canes and crutches, and wondered what
+could be the principle, human or divine, that had effected such
+cures. In Naples he had witnessed the miraculous liquefaction of
+the blood of St. Januarius. He had seen the priests pass through the
+great assemblage with the little vial in which the red clot slowly
+dissolved into liquid before their credulous eyes; and he had turned
+away that they might not mark his flush of shame. In the Cathedral at
+Cologne he had gazed long at the supposed skulls of the three Magi who
+had worshipped at the rude cradle of the Christ. Set in brilliant
+jewels, in a resplendent gilded shrine, these whitened relics,
+which Bishop Reinald is believed to have discovered in the twelfth
+century, seemed to mock him in the very boldness of the pious fraud
+which they externalized. Was the mystery of the Christ involved in
+such deceit as this? And perpetrated by his Church? In unhappy Ireland
+he had been forced to the conviction that misdirected religious zeal
+must some day urge the sturdy Protesters of the North into armed
+conflict with their Catholic brothers of the South in another of
+those deplorable religious--nay, rather, _theological_--conflicts
+which have stained the earth with human blood in the name of the
+Prince of Peace. It was all incomprehensible to him, incongruous,
+and damnably wicked. Why could not they come together to submit their
+creeds, their religious beliefs and tenets, to the test of practical
+demonstration, and then discard those which world-history has long
+since shown inimical to progress and happiness? Paul urged this very
+thing when he wrote, "_Prove_ all things; hold fast to that which is
+good." But, alas! the human doctrine of infallibility now stood
+squarely in the way.
+
+From his travels with the Legate, Jose returned to Rome, burning with
+the holy desire to lend his influence to the institution of those
+reforms within the Church of which now he so clearly saw the need.
+Savonarola had burned with this same selfless desire to reform the
+Church from within. And his life became the forfeit. But the present
+age was perforce more tolerant; and was likewise wanting in those
+peculiar political conditions which had combined with the religious
+issue to send the great reformer to a martyr's death.
+
+As Jose entered Rome he found the city in a state of turmoil. The
+occasion was the march of the Catholic gymnastic associations from
+the church where they had heard the Mass to St. Peter's, where they
+were to be received by the Holy Father. Cries of "Long live
+free-thinking!" were issuing from the rabble which followed hooting in
+the wake of the procession. To these were retorted, "Viva il Papa Re!"
+Jose had been caught in the _melee_, and, but for the interference of
+the civil authorities, might have suffered bodily injury. With his
+corporeal bruises he now bore away another ineffaceable mental
+impression. Were the Italian patriots justified in their hostility
+toward the Vatican? Had United Italy come into existence with the
+support of the Papacy, or in despite of it? Would the Church forever
+set herself against freedom of thought? Always seek to imprison the
+human mind? Was her unreasonably stubborn attitude directly
+accountable for the presence of atheism in the place, of all places,
+where her own influence ought to be most potent, the city of St.
+Peter?
+
+For reasons which he could only surmise--perhaps because of his high
+scholarship--perhaps because of his remarkable memory, which
+constituted him a living encyclopedia in respect of all that entered
+it--Jose was now installed in the office of the Papal Secretary of
+State as an office assistant. He had received the appointment with
+indifference, for he was wholly devoid of ecclesiastical ambition. And
+yet it was with a sense of relief that he now felt assured of a career
+in the service of the Administrative Congregation of the Church, and
+for all time removed from the likelihood of being relegated to the
+performance of merely priestly functions. He therefore prepared to
+bide his time, and patiently to await opportunities to lend his
+willing support to the uplift of the Church and his fellow-men.
+
+The limitations with which he had always been hedged about had not
+permitted the lad to know much, if anything, of the multitude of books
+on religious and philosophical subjects annually published throughout
+the world; and his oath of obedience would have prevented him from
+reading them if he had. But he saw no reason why, as part preparation
+for his work of moral uplift, he should not continue to seek, at first
+hand, the answer to the world-stirring query, What does the Bible
+mean? If God gave it, if the theory of verbal inspiration is correct,
+and if it is infallible, why then was it necessary to revise it, as
+had been done in the wonderful Jerusalem Chamber which he had once
+visited? Were those of his associates justified who had scoffed at
+that work, and, with a sneer on their lips, voiced the caustic query,
+"Fools! Why don't they let the Bible alone?" If the world is to be
+instructed out of the old sensual theology, does the Bible contain the
+truth with which to replace it? For to tear down an ideal without
+substituting for it a better one is nothing short of criminal. And so
+Jose plunged deeply into the study of Scriptural sources.
+
+He had thought the rich treasures of the Vatican library unrestrictedly
+open to him, and he therefore brought his fine Latin and Greek
+scholarship to bear on its oldest uncial manuscripts. He began the study
+of Hebrew, that he might later read the Talmud and the ancient Jewish
+rabbinical lore. He pursued unflaggingly his studies of the English,
+French, and German languages, that he might search for the truth
+crystallized in those tongues. As his work progressed, the flush of
+health came to his cheeks. His eyes reflected the consuming fire which
+glowed in his eager soul. As he labored, he wrote; and his discoveries
+and meditations all found lodgment in his sole confidant, his journal.
+
+If the Church knew what Christianity was, then Jose was forced to
+admit that he did not. He, weak, frail, fallible, _remit sins_?
+Preposterous! What was the true remission of sins but their utter
+destruction? He change the wafer and wine into the flesh and blood
+of Jesus? Nay, he was no spiritual thaumaturgus! He could not do even
+the least of the works of the Master, despite his priestly character!
+Yet, it was not he, but the Christ, operating through him as a
+channel, who performed the work. Then why did not the Christ
+through him heal the sick and raise the dead? "Nay," he deplored,
+as he bent over his task, "the Church may teach that the bones, the
+teeth, the hair, and other human relics of canonized Saints can heal
+the sick--but even the Cardinals and the Holy Father when they fall
+ill demand the services, not of these, but of earthly physicians.
+They seek not the Christ-healing then; nor can they by their boasted
+powers heal themselves."
+
+Israel's theme was: Righteousness is salvation. But Jose knew not how
+to define righteousness. Surely it did not mean adherence to human
+creeds! It was vastly more than observance of forms! "God is a
+spirit," he read; "and they that worship Him must worship Him in
+spirit and in truth." Then, voicing his own comments, "Why, then, this
+crass materializing of worship? Are images of Saviour, Virgin, and
+Saint necessary to excite the people to devotion? Nay, would not the
+healing of the sick, the restoration of sight to the blind, and the
+performance of the works of the Master by us priests do more than
+wooden or marble images to lead men to worship? Proof! proof! proof!
+'Show us your works, and we will show you our faith,' cry the people.
+'Then will we no longer sacrifice our independence of thought to the
+merciless tyranny of human tradition.'" And he knew that this related
+to Catholic and Protestant, Jew and Mohammedan alike.
+
+One day a Cardinal, passing through the library, saw the diligent
+student at work, and paused to inquire into his labors. "And what do
+you seek, my son?" was the kindly query of the aged churchman.
+
+"Scriptural justification for the fundamental tenets of our faith,"
+Jose replied quickly, carried away by his soul's animation.
+
+"And you find it, without doubt?"
+
+"Nay, Father, except through what is, to me, unwarranted license and
+assumption."
+
+The Cardinal silently continued his way. But permission to translate
+further from the Vatican manuscripts was that day withdrawn from
+Jose.
+
+Again the youth lapsed into his former habit of moody revery. Shackled
+and restless, driven anew into himself, he increasingly poured his
+turbulent thought into his journal, not for other and profane eyes to
+read--hardly, either, for his own reference--but simply because he
+_must_ have some outlet for the expression of his heaving mind. He
+turned to it, as he had in other crises in his life, when his pent
+soul cried out for some form of relief. He began to revise the record
+of the impressions received on his travels with the Papal Legate. He
+recorded conversations and impressions of scenes and people which his
+abnormally developed reticence would not permit him to discuss
+verbally with his associates. He embodied his protests against the
+restrictions of ecclesiastical authority. And he noted, too, many a
+protest against the political, rather than religious, character of
+much of the business transacted in the office to which he was
+attached. In the discharge of his ordinary duties he necessarily
+became acquainted with much of the inner administrative polity of the
+Vatican, and thus at times he learned of policies which stirred his
+alien soul to revolt. In his inferior position he could not hope to
+raise his voice in protest against these measures which excited his
+indignation; but in the loneliness of his room, or on his frequent
+long walks after office hours, he was wont to brood over them until
+his mind became surcharged and found relief only in emptying itself
+into this journal. And often on summer days, when the intense heat
+rendered his little room in the dormitory uninhabitable, he would take
+his books and papers to some one of the smaller parks lining the
+Tiber, and there would lose himself in study and meditation and the
+recording of the ceaseless voicing of his lonely soul.
+
+On this particular afternoon, however, his mind had been occupied with
+matters of more than ordinary import. It happened that a Bishop from
+the United States had arrived in Rome the preceding day to pay his
+decennial visit to the Vatican and report on the spiritual condition
+of his diocese. While awaiting the return of the Papal Secretary, he
+had engaged in earnest conversation with a Cardinal-Bishop of the
+Administrative Congregation, in a small room adjoining the one where
+Jose was occupied with his clerical duties. The talk had been
+animated, and the heavy tapestry at the door had not prevented much of
+it from reaching the ears of the young priest and becoming fixed in
+his retentive memory.
+
+"While I feel most keenly the persecution to which the Church must
+submit in the United States," the Bishop had said, "nevertheless
+Your Eminence will admit that there is some ground for complaint in
+the conduct of certain of her clergy. It is for the purpose of
+removing such vantage ground from our critics that I again urge an
+investigation of American priests, with the view of improving their
+moral status."
+
+"You say, 'persecution to which the Church _must_ submit.' Is that
+quite true?" returned the Cardinal-Bishop. "That is, in the face of
+your own gratifying reports? News from the American field is not only
+encouraging, but highly stimulating. The statistics which are just at
+hand from Monsignor, our Delegate in Washington, reveal the truly
+astonishing growth of our beloved cause for the restoration of all
+things in Christ. Has not God shown even in our beloved America that
+our way of worshiping Him is the way He approves?"
+
+"But, Your Eminence, the constant defections! It was only last week
+that a priest and his entire congregation went over to the Episcopal
+faith. And--"
+
+"What of that? 'It must needs be that offenses come.' Where one drops
+out, ten take his place."
+
+"True, while we recruit our depleted ranks from the Old World. But,
+with restricted immigration--"
+
+"Which is not restricted, as yet," replied the Cardinal-Bishop with a
+sapient smile. "Nor is there any restriction upon the inspiration,
+political as well as spiritual, which the American Government draws
+from Rome--an inspiration much more potent, I think, than our
+Protestant brethren would care to admit."
+
+"Is that inspiration such, think you, as to draw the American
+Government more and more into the hands of the Church?"
+
+"Its effect in the past unquestionably has been such," said the
+Cardinal-Bishop meditatively.
+
+"And shall our dreams of an age be fulfilled--that the Holy Father
+will throw off the shackles which now hold him a prisoner within the
+Vatican, and that he will then personally direct the carrying out of
+those policies of world expansion which shall gather all mankind into
+the fold of Holy Church?"
+
+"There is a lessening doubt of it," was the tentative reply.
+
+"And--" the Bishop hesitated. "And--shall we say that those
+all-embracing policies ultimately will be directed by the Holy Father
+from Washington itself?"
+
+A long pause ensued, during which Jose was all ears.
+
+"Why not?" finally returned the Cardinal-Bishop slowly. "Why not, if
+it should better suit our purposes? It may become advisable to remove
+the Holy See from Rome."
+
+"But--impossible!"
+
+"Not at all--quite possible, though I will not say probable. But let
+us see, can we not say that the time has arrived when no President of
+the United States can be elected without the Catholic vote? Having our
+vote, we have his pledges to support our policies. These statistics
+before us show that already seventy-five per cent of all Government
+employes in Washington are of our faith. We control Federal, State,
+County and City offices without number. I think--I think the time is
+not distant when we shall be able to set up a candidate of our faith
+for the Presidency, if we care to. And," he mused, "we shall elect
+him. But, all in good time, all in good time."
+
+"And is that," the Bishop interrogated eagerly, "what the Holy Father
+is now contemplating?"
+
+"I cannot say that it is," answered the noncommittal Cardinal-Bishop.
+"But the Holy Father loves America. He rejoices in your report of
+progress in your diocese. The successes attained by Catholic
+candidates in the recent elections are most gratifying to him. This
+not only testifies to the progress of Catholicism in America, but is
+tangible proof of the growth of tolerance and liberal-mindedness in
+that great nation. The fact that the Catholic Mass is now being said
+in the American army affords further proof."
+
+"Yes," meditated the Bishop. "Our candidates who receive election are
+quite generally loyal to the Church."
+
+"And should constitute a most potent factor in the holy work of making
+America dominantly Catholic," added the older man.
+
+"True, Your Eminence. And yet, this great desideratum can never come
+about until the youth are brought into the true fold. And that means,
+as you well know, the abolishing of the public school system."
+
+"What think you of that?" asked the Cardinal-Bishop off-handedly.
+
+The Bishop waxed suddenly animated. A subject had been broached which
+lay close to his heart. "The public schools constitute a godless sink
+of pollution!" he replied heatedly. "They are nurseries of vice! They
+are part of an immoral and vicious system of education which is
+undermining the religion of American children! I have always contended
+that we, the Holy Catholic Church, _must_ control education! I hold
+that education outside of the Church is heresy of the most damnable
+kind! We have heretofore weakly protested against this pernicious
+system, but without success, excepting"--and here he smiled
+cynically--"that we have very generally succeeded in forcing the
+discontinuance of Bible reading in the public schools. And in certain
+towns where our parochial schools do not instruct beyond the eighth
+grade, it looks as if we might force the introduction of a form of the
+Catholic Mass to be read each morning in the High School."
+
+"Excellent!" exclaimed the Cardinal-Bishop. "Your voice thrills me
+like a trumpet call."
+
+"I would it were such," cried the Bishop excitedly, "summoning the
+faithful to strike a blow which shall be felt! What right have the
+United States, or any nation, to educate the young? None whatever!
+Education belongs to the Church! Our rights in this respect have been
+usurped! But they shall be restored--if need be, at the point of
+the--"
+
+"You positively make my old heart leap to the fray," interrupted the
+smiling, white-haired churchman. "But I feel assured that we shall
+accomplish just that without violence or bloodshed, my son. You echo
+my sentiments exactly on the pregnant question. And yet, by getting
+Catholics employed in the public schools as teachers, and by electing
+our candidates to public offices, we quietly accomplish our ends, do
+we not?"
+
+"But when will the Holy Father recognize the time as propitious for a
+more decisive step in that respect?"
+
+"Why, my son, I think you fail to see that we keep continually
+stepping. We are growing by leaps and bounds in America. At the close
+of the War of Independence the United States numbered some forty-five
+thousand adherents to the Catholic faith. Now the number has increased
+to twelve or fifteen millions. Of these, some four millions are
+voters. A goodly number, is it not?"
+
+"Then," cried the Bishop, "let the Holy Father boldly make the demand
+that the States appropriate money for the support of our parochial
+schools!"
+
+Jose's ears throbbed. Before his ordination he had heard the Liturgy
+for the conversion of America recited in the chapel of the seminary.
+And as often he had sought to picture the condition of the New World
+under the religio-political influence which has for centuries
+dominated the Old. But he had always dismissed the idea of such
+domination as wholly improbable, if not quite impossible in America.
+Yet, since coming into the Papal Secretary's office, his views were
+slowly undergoing revision. The Church was concentrating on America.
+Of that there could be no doubt. Indeed, he had come to believe its
+success as a future world-power to be a function of the stand which it
+could secure and maintain in the United States. Now, as he strained
+his ears, he could hear the aged Cardinal-Bishop's low, tense words--
+
+"There can be no real separation of Church and State. The Church is
+_not_ inferior to the civil power, nor is it in any way dependent
+upon it. And the Church can never be excluded from educating and
+training the young, from molding society, from making laws, and
+governing, temporally and spiritually. From this attitude we shall
+_never_ depart! Ours is the only true religion. England and Germany
+have been spiritually dead. But, praise to the blessed Virgin who
+has heard our prayers and made intercession for us, England, after
+long centuries of struggle with man-made sects and indefinite dogma,
+its spiritually-starving people fast drifting into atheism and
+infidelity because of nothing to hold to, has awakened, and in these
+first hours of her resurrection is fast returning to the Holy
+Church of Rome. America, in these latter days, is rousing from the
+blight of Puritanism, Protestantism, and their inevitable result,
+free-thinking and anarchy, and is becoming the brightest jewel in
+the Papal crown."
+
+The Bishop smiled dubiously. "And yet, Your Eminence," he replied, "we
+are heralded from one end of the land to the other as a menace to
+Republican institutions."
+
+"Ah, true. And you must agree that Romanism is a distinct menace to
+the insane license of speech and press. It is a decided menace to the
+insanity of Protestantism. But," he added archly, while his eyes
+twinkled, "I have no doubt that when Catholic education has advanced a
+little further many of your American preachers, editors, and
+Chautauqua demagogues will find themselves behind the bars of
+madhouses. Fortunately, that editor of the prominent American magazine
+of which you were speaking switched from his heretic Episcopal faith
+in time to avoid this unpleasant consequence."
+
+The Bishop reflected for a moment. Then, deliberately, as if
+meditating the great import of his words, "Your Eminence, in view of
+our strength, and our impregnable position as God's chosen, cannot the
+Holy Father insist that the United States mails be barred against the
+infamous publications that so basely vilify our Church?"
+
+"And thereby precipitate a revolution?" It was the firm voice of the
+Papal Secretary himself, who at that moment entered the room.
+
+"But, Monsignor," said the Bishop, as he rose and saluted the
+newcomer, "how much longer must we submit to the gross injustice and
+indignities practiced upon us by non-believers?"
+
+"As long as the infallible Holy Father directs," replied that eminent
+personage. "Obey him, as you would God himself," the Secretary
+continued. "And teach your flock to do likewise. The ballot will do
+for us in America what armed resistance never could. Listen, friend,
+my finger is on the religious pulse of the world. Nowhere does this
+pulse beat as strongly as in that part which we call the United
+States. For years I have been watching the various contending forces
+in that country, diligently and earnestly studying the elements acting
+and reacting upon our Church there. I have come to the conclusion that
+the success of Holy Church throughout the world depends upon its
+advance in the United States during the next few years. I have become
+an American enthusiast! The glorious work of making America Catholic
+is so fraught with consequences of vastest import that my blood surges
+with the enthusiasm of an old Crusader! But there is much still to be
+done. America is a field white for the harvest, almost unobstructed."
+
+"Then," queried the Bishop, "you do not reckon Protestantism an
+obstruction?"
+
+"Protestantism!" the Secretary rejoined with a cynical laugh. "No, I
+reckon it as nothing. Protestantism in America is decadent. It has
+split, divided, and disintegrated, until it is scarcely recognizable.
+Its adherents are falling away in great numbers. Its weak tenets and
+senile faith hold but comparatively few and lukewarm supporters. It
+has degenerated into a sort of social organization, with musicals,
+pink teas, and church suppers as attractions. No, America is _bound_
+to be classed as a Catholic nation--and I expect to live to see it
+thus. Our material and spiritual progress in the United States is
+amazing, showing how nobly American Catholics have responded to the
+Holy Father's appeal. New dioceses are springing up everywhere.
+Churches are multiplying with astonishing rapidity. The discouraging
+outlook in Europe is more, far more, than counterbalanced by our
+wonderful progress in the United States. We might say that the
+Vatican now rests upon American backs, for the United States send
+more Peter's Pence to Rome than all other Catholic countries
+together. We practically control her polls and her press. America was
+discovered by Christopher Columbus, a Catholic in the service of a
+Catholic ruler. It is Catholic in essence, and it shall so be
+recognized! The Holy Catholic Church always has been and always will
+be the sole and _only_ Christian authority. The Catholic religion by
+rights ought to be, and ultimately shall be, the exclusively
+dominant religion of the world, and every other sort of worship shall
+be banished--interdicted--destroyed!"
+
+For a while Jose heard no more. His ears burned and his brain
+throbbed. He had become conscious of but one all-absorbing thought,
+the fact of his vassalage to a world-embracing political system,
+working in the name of the Christ. Not a new thought, by any
+means--indeed an old one, often held--but now driven home to him most
+emphatically. He forgot his clerical duties and sank into profound
+revery on his inconsistent position in the office of the highest
+functionary of Holy Church aside from the Supreme Pontiff himself.
+
+He was aroused at length from his meditations by the departure of the
+American Bishop. "It is true, as you report," the Papal Secretary was
+saying earnestly. "America seems rife with modernism. Free-masonry,
+socialism, and countless other fads and religious superstitions are
+widely prevalent there. Nor do I underestimate their strength and
+influence. And yet, I fear them not. There are also certain freak
+religions, philosophical beliefs, wrung from the simple teachings of
+our blessed Saviour, the rapid spread of which at one time did give me
+some concern. The Holy Father mentioned one or two of them to-day, in
+reference to his contemplated encyclical on modernism. But I now see
+that they are cults based upon human personality; and with their
+leaders removed, the fabrics will of themselves crumble."
+
+He took leave of the Bishop, and turned again to address the
+Cardinal-Bishop within. "A matter of the gravest import has arisen,"
+he began in a low voice; "and one that may directly affect our
+negotiations in regard to the support which the Holy Father will need
+in case he issues a _pronunciamento_ that France, Spain, and Austria
+shall no longer exercise the right of veto in papal elections. That
+rumor regarding Isabella's daughter is again afloat. I have summoned
+Father Rafael de Rincon to Rome to state what he knows. But--" He rose
+and looked out through the door at Jose, bending over his littered
+desk. Then he went back, and resumed his conversation with the
+Cardinal-Bishop, but in a tone so low that Jose could catch only
+disconnected scraps.
+
+"What, Colombia?" he at length heard the Cardinal-Bishop exclaim.
+
+"Yes," was the Secretary's reply. "And presumably at the instigation
+of that busybody, Wenceslas Ortiz. Though what concern he might have
+in the _Infanta_ is to me incomprehensible--assuming, of course, that
+there is such a royal daughter."
+
+"But--Colombia elects a President soon, is it not so?"
+
+"On the eve of election now," replied the Secretary. "And if the
+influence of Wenceslas with the Bishop of Cartagena is what I am
+almost forced to admit that it is, then the election is in his hands.
+But, the _Infanta_--" The sound of his voice did not carry the rest of
+his words to Jose's itching ears.
+
+An hour later the Secretary and the Cardinal-Bishop came out of the
+room and left the office together. "Yes," the Secretary was saying,
+"in the case of Wenceslas it was 'pull and percuniam' that secured him
+his place. The Church did not put him there."
+
+The Cardinal-Bishop laughed genially. "Then the Holy Ghost was not
+consulted, I take it," he said.
+
+"No," replied the Secretary grimly. "And he has so complicated the
+already delicate situation in Colombia that I fear Congress will table
+the bill prohibiting Free-masonry. It is to be deplored. Among all the
+Latin Republics none has been more thoroughly Catholic than
+Colombia."
+
+"Is the Holy Father's unpublished order regarding the sale and
+distribution of Bibles loyally observed there?" queried the
+Cardinal-Bishop.
+
+The door closed upon them and Jose heard no more. His day's duties
+ended, he went to his room to write and reflect. But the intense
+afternoon heat again drove him forth to seek what comfort he might
+near the river. With his notebook in hand he went to the little park,
+as was his frequent wont. An hour or so later, while he was jotting
+down his remembrance of the conversation just overheard, together with
+his own caustic and protesting opinions, his absorption was broken by
+the strange child's accident. A few minutes later the notebook had
+disappeared.
+
+And now the thought of all this medley of personal material and secret
+matters of Church polity falling into the hands of those who might
+make capital of it, and thereby drag the Rincon honor through the
+mire, cast the man prostrate in the dust.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10
+
+
+Days passed--days whose every dawn found the priest staring in
+sleepless, wide-eyed terror at the ceiling above--days crowded with
+torturing apprehension and sickening suggestion--days when his knees
+quaked and his hands shook when his superiors addressed him in the
+performance of his customary duties. No mental picture was too
+frightful or abhorrent for him to entertain as portraying a possible
+consequence of the loss of his journal. He cowered in agony before
+these visions. He dared not seek the little park again. He feared to
+show himself in the streets. He dreaded the short walk from his
+dormitory to the Vatican. His life became a sustained torture--a
+consuming agony of uncertainty, interminable suspense, fearful
+foreboding. The cruelty of his position corroded him. His health
+suffered, and his cassock hung like a bag about his emaciated form.
+
+Then the filament snapped and the sword fell. On a dismal, rainy
+morning, some two months after the incident in the park, Jose was
+summoned into the private office of the Papal Secretary of State. As
+the priest entered the small room the Secretary, sitting alone at his
+desk, turned and looked at him long and fixedly.
+
+"So, my son," he said in a voice that froze the priest's blood, "you
+are still alive?" Then, taking up a paper-covered book of medium size
+which apparently he had been reading, he held it out without comment.
+
+Jose took it mechanically. The book was crudely printed and showed
+evidence of having been hastily issued. It came from the press of a
+Viennese publisher, and bore the startling title, "Confessions of a
+Roman Catholic Priest." As in a dream Jose opened it. A cry escaped
+him, and the book fell from his hands. _It was his journal!_
+
+There are sometimes crises in human lives when the storm-spent mind,
+tossing on the waves of heaving emotion, tugs and strains at the ties
+which moor it to reason, until they snap, and it sweeps out into the
+unknown, where blackness and terror rage above the fathomless deep.
+Such a crisis had entered the life of the unhappy priest, who now held
+in his shaking hand the garbled publication of his life's most sacred
+thoughts. Into whose hands his notes had fallen on that black day when
+he had sacrificed everything for an unknown child, he knew not. How
+they had made their way into Austria, and into the pressroom of the
+heretical modernist who had gleefully issued them, twisted,
+exaggerated, but unabridged, he might not even imagine. The terrible
+fact remained that there in his hands they stared up at him in hideous
+mockery, his soul-convictions, his heart's deepest and most inviolable
+thoughts, details of his own personal history, secrets of state--all
+ruthlessly exposed to the world's vulgar curiosity and the rapacity of
+those who would not fail to play them up to the certain advantages to
+which they lent themselves all too well.
+
+And there before him, too, were the Secretary's sharp eyes, burning
+into his very soul. He essayed to speak, to rise to his own defense.
+But his throat filled, and the words which he would utter died on his
+trembling lips. The room whirled about him. Floods of memory began to
+sweep over him in huge billows. The conflicting forces which had
+culminated in placing him in the paradoxical position in which he now
+stood raced before him in confused review. Objects lost their definite
+outlines and melted into the haze which rose before his straining
+eyes. All things at last merged into the terrible presence of the
+Papal Secretary, as he slowly rose, tall and gaunt, and with arm
+extended and long, bony finger pointing to the yellow river in the
+distance, said in words whose cruel suggestion scorched the raw soul
+of the suffering priest:
+
+"My son, be advised: the Tiber covers many sins."
+
+Then pitying oblivion opened wide her arms, and the tired priest sank
+gently into them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11
+
+
+Rome again lay scorching beneath a merciless summer sun. But the
+energetic uncle of Jose was not thereby restrained from making another
+hurried visit to the Vatican. What his mission was does not appear in
+papal records; but, like the one which he found occasion to make just
+prior to the ordination of his nephew, this visit was not extended to
+include Jose, who throughout that enervating summer lay tossing in
+delirium in the great hospital of the Santo Spirito. We may be sure,
+however, that its influence upon the disposition of the priest's case
+after the recent _denouement_ was not inconsiderable, and that it was
+largely responsible for his presence before the Holy Father himself
+when, after weeks of racking fever, wan and emaciated, and leaning
+upon the arm of the confidential valet of His Holiness, the young
+priest faced that august personage and heard the infallible judgment
+of the Holy See upon his unfortunate conduct.
+
+On the throne of St. Peter, in the heavily tapestried private audience
+room of the great Vatican prison-palace, and guarded from intrusion by
+armed soldiery and hosts of watchful ecclesiastics of all grades, sat
+the Infallible Council, the Vicar-General of the humble Nazarene, the
+aged leader at whose beck a hundred million faithful followers bent in
+lowly genuflection. Near him stood the Papal Secretary of State and
+two Cardinal-Bishops of the Administrative Congregation.
+
+Jose dragged himself wearily before the Supreme Pontiff and bent low.
+
+"_Benedicite_, my erring son." The soft voice of His Holiness floated
+not unmusically through the tense silence of the room.
+
+"Arise. The hand of the Lord already has been laid heavily upon you in
+wholesome chastening for your part in this deplorable affair. And the
+same omnipotent hand has been stretched forth to prevent the baneful
+effects of your thoughtless conduct. We do not condemn you, my son. It
+was the work of the Evil One, who has ever found through your
+weaknesses easy access to your soul."
+
+Jose raised his blurred eyes and gazed at the Holy Father in perplexed
+astonishment. But the genial countenance of the patriarch seemed to
+confirm his mild words. A smile, tender and patronizing, in which Jose
+read forgiveness--and yet with it a certain undefined something which
+augured conditions upon which alone penalty for his culpability would
+be remitted--lighted up the pale features of the Holy Father and
+warmed the frozen life-currents of the shrinking priest.
+
+"My son," the Pontiff continued tenderly, "our love for our wandering
+children is but stimulated by their need of our protecting care. Fear
+not; the guilty publisher of your notes has been awakened to his
+fault, and the book which he so thoughtlessly issued has been quite
+suppressed."
+
+Jose bent his head and patiently awaited the conclusion.
+
+"You have lain for weeks at death's door, my son. The words which you
+uttered in your delirium corroborated our own thought of your
+innocence of intentional wrong. And now that you have regained your
+reason, you will confess to us that your reports, and especially your
+account of the recent conversation between the Cardinal-Secretary of
+State and the Cardinal-Bishop, were written under that depression of
+mind which has long afflicted you, producing a form of mental
+derangement, and giving rise to frequent hallucination. It is this
+which has caused us to extend to you our sympathy and protection. Long
+and intense study, family sorrow, and certain inherited traits of
+disposition, whose rapid development have tended to lack of normal
+mental balance, account to us for those deeds of eccentricity on your
+part which have plunged us into extreme embarrassment and yourself
+into the illness which threatened your young life. Is it not so, my
+son?"
+
+The priest stared up at the speaker in bewilderment. This unexpected
+turn of affairs had swept his defense from his mind.
+
+"The Holy Father awaits your reply," the Papal Secretary spoke with
+severity. His own thought had been greatly ruffled that morning, and
+his patience severely taxed by a threatened mutiny among the Swiss
+guards, whose demands in regard to the quantity of wine allowed them
+and whose memorial recounting other alleged grievances he had just
+flatly rejected. The muffled cries of "_Viva Garibaldi!_" as the
+petitioners left his presence were still echoing in the Secretary's
+ears, and his anger had scarce begun to cool.
+
+"We are patient, my Cardinal-Nephew," the Pontiff resumed mildly. "Our
+love for this erring son enfolds him." Then, turning again to Jose,
+"We have correctly summarized the causes of your recent conduct, have
+we not?"
+
+The priest made as if to reply, but hesitated, with the words
+fluttering on his lips.
+
+"My dear son"--the Holy Father bent toward the wondering priest in an
+attitude of loving solicitation--"our blessed Saviour was ofttimes
+confronted with those possessed of demons. Did he reject them? No;
+and, despite the accusations against us in your writings, for which we
+know you were not morally responsible, we, Christ's representative on
+earth, are still touched with his love and pity for one so unfortunate
+as you. With your help we shall stop the mouths of calumny, and set
+you right before the world. We shall use our great resources to save
+the Rincon honor which, through the working of Satan within you, is
+now unjustly besmirched. We shall labor to restore you to your right
+mind, and to the usefulness which your scholarly gifts make possible
+to you. We indeed rejoice that your piteous appeal has reached our
+ears. We rejoice to correct those erroneous views which you, in the
+temporary aberration of reason, were driven to commit to writing, and
+which so unfortunately fell into the hands of Satan's alert
+emissaries. Your ravings during these weeks of delirium shed much
+light upon the obsessing thoughts which plunged you into mild
+insanity. And they have stirred the immeasurable depths of pity within
+us."
+
+The Holy Father paused after this unwontedly long speech. A dumb sense
+of stupefaction seemed to possess the priest, and he passed his
+shrunken hands before his eyes as if he would brush away a mist.
+
+"That this unfortunate book is but the uttering of delirium, we have
+already announced to the world," His Holiness gently continued. "But
+out of our deep love for a family which has supplied so many
+illustrious sons to our beloved Church we have suppressed mention of
+your name in connection therewith."
+
+The priest started, as he vaguely sensed the impending issue. What was
+it that His Holiness was about to demand? That he denounce his
+journal, over his own signature, as the ravings of a man temporarily
+insane? He was well aware that the Vatican's mere denial of the
+allegations therein contained, and its attributing of them to a mad
+priest, would scarcely carry conviction to the Courts of Spain and
+Austria, or to an astonished world. But, for him to declare them the
+garbled and unauthentic utterances of an aberrant mind, and to make
+public such statement in his own name, would save the situation,
+possibly the Rincon honor, even though it stultify his own.
+
+His Holiness waited a few moments for the priest's reply; but
+receiving none, he continued with deep significance:
+
+"You will not make it necessary, we know, for us to announce that a
+mad priest, a son of the house of Rincon, now confined in an asylum,
+voiced these heretical and treasonable utterances."
+
+The voice of His Holiness flowed like cadences of softest music,
+charming in its tenderness, winning in its appeal, but momentous in
+its certain implication.
+
+"In our solicitude for your recovery we commanded our own physicians
+to attend you. To them you owe your life. To them, too, we owe our
+gratitude for that report on your case which reveals the true nature
+of the malady afflicting you."
+
+The low voice vibrated in rhythmic waves through the dead silence of
+the room.
+
+"To them also you now owe this opportunity to abjure the writings
+which have caused us and yourself such great sorrow; to them you owe
+this privilege of confessing before us, who will receive your
+recantation, remit your unintentional sins, and restore you to honor
+and service in our beloved Church."
+
+Jose suddenly came to himself. Recant! Confess! In God's name, what?
+Abjure his writings, the convictions of a lifetime!
+
+"These writings, my son, are not your sane and rational convictions,"
+the Pontiff suggested.
+
+Jose still stood mute before him.
+
+"You renounce them now, in the clear light of restored reason; and you
+swear future lealty to us and to Holy Church," the aged Father
+continued.
+
+"Make answer!" commanded one of the Cardinal-Bishops, starting toward
+the wavering priest. "Down on your knees before the Holy Father, who
+waits to forgive your venial sin!"
+
+Jose turned swiftly to the approaching Cardinal and held up a hand.
+The man stopped short. The Pontiff and his associates bent forward in
+eager anticipation. The valet fell back, and Jose stood alone. In that
+tense mental atmosphere the shrinking priest seemed to be transformed
+into a Daniel.
+
+"No, Holy Father, you mistake!" His voice rang through the room like a
+clarion. "I do not recant! My writings _do_ express my deepest and
+sanest convictions!"
+
+The Pontiff's pallid face went dark. The eyes of the other auditors
+bulged with astonishment. A dumb spell settled over the room.
+
+"Father, my guilt lies not in having recorded my honest convictions,
+nor in the fact that these records fell into the hands of those who
+eagerly grasp every opportunity to attack their common enemy, the
+Church. It lies rather in my weak resistance to those influences which
+in early life combined to force upon me a career to which I was by
+temperament and instinct utterly disinclined. It lies in my having
+sacrificed myself to the selfish love of my mother and my own
+exaggerated sense of family pride. It lies in my still remaining
+outwardly a priest of the Catholic faith, when every fiber of my soul
+revolts against the hypocrisy!"
+
+"You are a subject of the Church!" the Papal Secretary interrupted.
+"You have sworn to her and to the Sovereign Pontiff as loyal and
+unquestioning obedience as to the will of God himself!"
+
+Jose turned upon him. "Before my ordination," he cried, "I was a
+voluntary subject of the Sovereign of Spain. Did that ceremony render
+me an unwilling subject of the Holy Father? Does the ceremony of
+ordination constitute the Romanizing of Spain? No, I am not a subject
+of Rome, but of my conscience!"
+
+Another dead pause followed, in which for some moments nothing
+disturbed the oppressive silence. Jose looked eagerly into the
+delicate features of the living Head of the Church. Then, with
+decreased ardor, and in a voice tinged with pathos, he continued:
+
+"Father, my mistakes have been only such as are natural to one of
+my peculiar character. I came to know, but too late, that my
+life-motives, though pure, found not in me the will for their
+direction. I became a tool in the hands of those stronger than
+myself. For what ultimate purpose, I know not. Of this only am I
+certain, that my mother's ambitions, though selfish, were the only
+pure motives among those which united to force the order of
+priesthood upon me."
+
+"Force!" burst in one of the Cardinal-Bishops. "Do you assume to make
+the Holy Father believe that the priesthood can be _forced_ upon a
+man? You assumed it willingly, gladly, as was your proper return for
+the benefits which the Mother Church had bestowed upon you!"
+
+"In a state of utmost confusion, bordering a mental breakdown, I
+assumed it--outwardly," returned the priest sadly, "but my heart never
+ceased to reject it. Once ordained, however, I sought in my feeble way
+to study the needs of the Church, and prepare myself to assist in the
+inauguration of reforms which I felt she must some day undertake."
+
+The Pontiff's features twitched with ill-concealed irritation at this
+confession; but before he could speak Jose continued:
+
+"Oh, Father, and Cardinal-Princes of the Church, does not the need of
+your people for truth wring your hearts? Turn from your zealous dreams
+of world-conquest and see them, steeped in ignorance and superstition,
+wretched with poverty, war, and crime, extending their hands to you as
+their spiritual leaders--to you, Holy Father, who should be their
+Moses, to smite the rock of error, that the living, saving truth may
+gush out!"
+
+He paused, as if fearful of his own rushing thought. Then: "Is not the
+past fraught with lessons of deepest import to us? Is not the Church
+being rejected by the nations of Europe because of our intolerance,
+our oppression, our stubborn clinging to broken idols and effete forms
+of faith? We are now turning from the wreckage which the Church has
+wrought in the Old World, and our eyes are upon America. But can we
+deceive ourselves that free, liberty-loving America will bow her neck
+to the mediaeval yoke which the Church would impose upon her? Why, oh,
+why cannot we see the Church's tremendous opportunities for good in
+this century, and yield to that inevitable mental and moral
+progression which must sweep her from her foundations, unless she
+conform to its requirements and join in the movement toward universal
+emancipation! Our people are taught from childhood to be led; they are
+willing followers--none more willing in the world! But why lead them
+into the pit? Why muzzle them with fear, oppress them with threats,
+fetter them with outworn dogma and dead creed? Why continue to dazzle
+them with pagan ceremonialism and oriental glamour, and then, our
+exactions wrung from them, leave them to consume with disease and
+decay with moral contagion?"
+
+"The man is mad with heresy!" muttered the Pontiff, turning to the
+Cardinal-Bishops.
+
+"No, it is not I who is mad with heresy, but the Holy Church, of which
+you are the spiritual Head!" cried the priest, his loud voice
+trembling with indignation and his frail body swaying under his
+rapidly growing excitement. "She is guilty of the damnable heresy
+of concealing knowledge, of hiding truth, of stifling honest
+questionings! She is guilty of grossest intolerance, of deadliest
+hatred, of impurest motives--she, the self-constituted, self-endowed
+spiritual guide of mankind, arrogating to herself infallibility,
+superiority, supreme authority--yea, the very voice of God himself!"
+
+The priest had now lost all sense of environment, and his voice waxed
+louder as he continued:
+
+"The conduct of the Church throughout the centuries has made her
+the laughing-stock of history, an object of ridicule to every man
+of education and sense! She is filled with superstition--do you not
+know it? She is permeated with pagan idolatry, fetishism, and
+carnal-mindedness! She is pitiably ignorant of the real teachings of
+the Christ! Her dogmas have been formed by the subtle wits of Church
+theologians. They are in this century as childish as her political
+and social schemes are mischievous! Why have we formulated our
+doctrine of purgatory? Why so solicitous about souls in purgatorial
+torment, and yet so careless of them while still on earth? Where is
+our justification for the doctrine of infallibility? Is liberty to
+think the concession of God, or of the Holy Father? Where, oh,
+where is the divine Christ in our system of theology? Is he to be
+found in materialism, intolerance, the burning of Bibles, in
+hatred of so-called heretics, and in worldly practices? Are we not
+keeping the Christ in the sepulcher, refusing to permit him to
+arise?"
+
+His speech soared into the impassioned energy of thundered denunciation.
+
+"Yes, Holy Father, and Cardinal-Bishops, I _am_ justified in
+criticizing the Holy Catholic Church! And I am likewise justified in
+condemning the Protestant Church! All have fallen woefully short of
+the glory of God, and none obeys the simple commands of the Christ.
+The Church throughout the world has become secularized, and worship is
+but hollow consistency in the strict performance of outward acts of
+devotion. Our religion is but a hypocritical show of conformity. Our
+asylums, our hospitals, our institutions of charity? Alas! they but
+evidence our woeful shortcoming, and our persistent refusal to rise
+into the strength of the healing, saving Christ, which would render
+these obsolete institutions unnecessary in the world of to-day! The
+Holy Catholic Church is but a human institution. Its worldliness, its
+scheming, its political machinations, make me shudder--!"
+
+"Stop, madman!" thundered one of the Cardinal-Bishops, rushing upon
+the frail Jose with such force as to fell him to the floor. The
+Pontiff had risen, and sunk again into his chair. The valet hurried to
+his assistance. The Papal Secretary, his face contorted with rage, and
+his throat choking with the press of words which he strove to utter,
+hastened to the door to summon help. "Remove this man!" he commanded,
+pointing out the prostrate form of Jose to the two Swiss guards who
+had responded to his call. "Confine him! He is violent--a raging
+maniac!"
+
+A few days later, Padre Jose de Rincon, having been pronounced by the
+Vatican physicians mentally deranged, as the result of acute cerebral
+anaemia, was quietly conveyed to a sequestered monastery at
+Palazzola.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two summers came, and fled again before the chill winds which blew
+from the Alban hills. Then one day Jose's uncle appeared at the
+monastery door with a written order from His Holiness, effecting the
+priest's conditional release. Together they journeyed at once to
+Seville, the uncle alert and energetic as ever, showing but slight
+trace of time's devastating hand; Jose, the shadow of his former self
+physically, and his mind clouded with the somber pall of melancholia.
+
+Toward the close of a quiet summer, spent with his mother in his
+boyhood home, Jose received from his uncle's hand another letter,
+bearing the papal insignia. It was evident that it was not unexpected,
+for it found the priest with his effects packed and ready for a
+considerable journey. A hurried farewell to his mother, and the
+life-weary Jose, combining innocence and misery in exaggerated
+proportions, and still a vassal of Rome, set out for the port of
+Cadiz. There, in company with the Apostolic Delegate and Envoy
+Extraordinary to the Republic of Colombia, he embarked on the West
+Indian trader Sarnia, bound for Cartagena, in the New World.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 12
+
+
+There is no region in the Western Hemisphere more invested with the
+spirit of romance and adventure than that strip of Caribbean coast
+stretching from the Cape of Yucatan to the delta of the Orinoco and
+known as the Spanish Main. No more superb setting could have been
+chosen for the opening scenes of the New World drama. Skies of profoundest
+blue--the tropical sun flaming through massive clouds of vapor--a sea
+of exuberant color, foaming white over coral beaches--waving cocoa
+palms against a background of exotic verdure marking a tortuous shore
+line, which now rises sheer and precipitous from the water's edge to
+dizzy, snowcapped, cloud-hung heights, now stretches away into vast
+reaches of oozy mangrove bog and dank cinchona grove--here flecked with
+stagnant lagoons that teem with slimy, crawling life--there flattened
+into interminable, forest-covered plains and untrodden, primeval
+wildernesses, impenetrable, defiant, alluring--and all perennially bathed
+in dazzling light, vivid color, and soft, fragrant winds--with
+everywhere redundant foliage--humming, chattering, screaming
+life--profusion--extravagance--prodigality--riotous waste! Small wonder
+that when this enticing shore was first revealed to the astonished
+_Conquistadores_, where every form of Nature was wholly different from
+anything their past experience afforded, they were childishly receptive to
+every tale, however preposterous, of fountains of youth, of magical
+lakes, or enchanted cities with mountains of gold in the depths of the
+frowning jungle. They had come with their thought attuned to enchantment;
+their minds were fallow to the incredible; they were fresh from their
+conquest of the vast _Mare Tenebrosum_, with its mysteries and terrors.
+At a single stroke from the arm of the intrepid Genoese the mediaeval
+superstitions which peopled the unknown seas had fallen like fetters
+from these daring and adventurous souls. The slumbering spirit of
+knight-errantry awoke suddenly within their breasts; and when from their
+frail galleons they beheld with ravished eyes this land of magic and
+alluring mystery which spread out before them in such gorgeous
+panorama, they plunged into the glittering waters with waving swords
+and pennants, with shouts of praise and joy upon their lips, and
+inaugurated that series of prodigious enterprise, extravagant deeds of
+hardihood, and tremendous feats of prowess which still remain
+unsurpassed in the annals of history for brilliancy, picturesqueness,
+and wealth of incident.
+
+With almost incredible rapidity and thoroughness the Spanish arms
+spread over the New World, urged by the corroding lust of gold and the
+sharp stimulus afforded by the mythical quests which animated the
+simple minds of these hardy searchers for the Golden Fleece. Neither
+trackless forests, withering heat, miasmatic climate nor savage
+Indians could dampen their ardor or check their search for riches and
+glory. They penetrated everywhere, steel-clad and glittering, with
+lance and helmet and streaming banner. Every nook, every promontory of
+a thousand miles of coast was minutely searched; every island was
+bounded; every towering mountain scaled. Even those vast regions of
+New Granada which to-day are as unknown as the least explored parts of
+darkest Africa became the scenes of stirring adventure and brilliant
+exploit of these daring crusaders of more than three centuries ago.
+
+The real wonders yielded by this newly discovered land of enchantment
+far exceeded the fabled Manoa or El Dorado of mythical lore; and the
+adventurous expeditions that were first incited by these chimeras soon
+changed into practical colonizing and developing projects of real and
+permanent value. Amazing discoveries were made of empires which had
+already developed a state of civilization, mechanical, military, and
+agricultural, which rivaled those of Europe. Natural resources were
+revealed such as the Old World had not even guessed were possible.
+Great rivers, vast fertile plains, huge veins of gold and copper ore,
+inexhaustible timber, a wealth of every material thing desired by man,
+could be had almost without effort. Fortunate, indeed, was the Spanish
+_Conquistador_ in the possession of such immeasurable riches;
+fortunate, indeed, had he possessed the wisdom to meet the supreme
+test of character which this sudden accession of wealth and power was
+to bring!
+
+With the opening of the vast treasure house flanked by the Spanish
+Main came the Spaniard's supreme opportunity to master the world.
+Soon in undisputed possession of the greater part of the Western
+Hemisphere; with immeasurable wealth flowing into his coffers;
+sustained by dauntless courage and an intrepid spirit of adventure;
+with papal support, and the learning and genius of the centuries at
+his command, he faced the opportunity to extend his sway over the
+entire world and unite all peoples into a universal empire, both
+temporal and spiritual. That he failed to rise to this possibility
+was not due to any lack of appreciation of his tremendous opportunity,
+nor to a dearth of leaders of real military genius, but to a
+misapprehension of the great truth that the conquest of the world is
+not to be wrought by feats of arms, but by the exercise of those
+moral attributes and spiritual qualities of heart and soul which he
+did not possess--or possessing, had prostituted to the carnal
+influences of lust of material riches and temporal power.
+
+In the immediate wake of the Spanish _Conqueros_ surged the drift and
+flotsam of the Old World. Cities soon sprang up along the Spanish Main
+which reflected a curious blend of the old-time life of Seville and
+Madrid with the picturesque and turbulent elements of the adventurer
+and buccaneer. The spirit of the West has always been synonymous with
+a larger sense of freedom, a shaking off of prejudice and tradition
+and the trammels of convention. The sixteenth century towns of the New
+World were no exception, and their streets and _plazas_ early
+exhibited a multicolored panorama, wherein freely mingled knight and
+predaceous priest, swashbuckler and staid _hidalgo_, timid Indian and
+veiled _doncella_--a potpourri of merchant, prelate, <DW64>, thief, the
+broken in fortune and the blackened in character--all poured into the
+melting pot of the new West, and there steaming and straining,
+scheming and plotting, attuned to any pitch of venturesome project, so
+be it that gold and fame were the promised emoluments thereof.
+
+And gold, and fame of a certain kind, were always to be had by those
+whose ethical code permitted of a little straining. For the great
+ships which carried the vast wealth of this new land of magic back to
+the perennially empty coffers of Old Spain constituted a temptation
+far more readily recognized than resisted. These huge, slow-moving
+galleons, gilded and carved, crawling lazily over the surface of the
+bright tropical sea, and often so heavily freighted with treasure as
+to be unsafe in rough weather, came to be regarded as special
+dispensations of Providence by the cattle thieves and driers of beef
+who dwelt in the pirates' paradise of Tortuga and Hispaniola, and
+little was required in way of soul-alchemy to transform the
+_boucanier_ into the lawless and sanguinary, though picturesque,
+corsair of that romantic age. The buccaneer was but a natural
+evolution from the peculiar conditions then obtaining. Where human
+society in the process of formation has not yet arrived at the
+necessity of law to restrain the lust and greed of its members; and
+where at the same time untold wealth is to be had at the slight cost
+of a few lives; and, too, where even the children are taught that
+whosoever aids in the destruction of Spanish ships and Spanish lives
+renders a service to the Almighty, the buccaneer must be regarded as
+the logical result. He multiplied with astonishing rapidity in these
+warm, southern waters, and not a ship that sailed the Caribbean was
+safe from his sudden depredations. So extensive and thorough was his
+work that the bed of the Spanish Main is dotted with traditional
+treasure ships, and to this day remnants of doubloons or "pieces of
+eight" and bits of bullion and jewelry are washed up on the shining
+beaches of Panama and northern Colombia as grim memorials of his
+lawless activities.
+
+The expenditure of energy necessary to transport the gold, silver and
+precious stones from the New World to the bottomless treasury of Spain
+was stupendous. Yet not less stupendous was the amount of treasure
+transported. From the distant mines of Potosi, from the Pilcomayo,
+from the almost inaccessible fastnesses of what are now Bolivia and
+Ecuador, a precious stream poured into the leaking treasure box of
+Spain that totalled a value of no less than ten billion dollars. Much
+of the wealth which came from Peru was shipped up to the isthmus of
+Panama, and thence transferred to plate-fleets. But the buccaneers
+became so active along the Pacific coast that water shipment was
+finally abandoned, and from that time transportation had to be made
+overland by way of the Andean plateau, sometimes a distance of two
+thousand miles, to the strongholds which were built to receive and
+protect the treasure until the plate-fleets could be made up. Of these
+strongholds there were two of the first importance, the old city of
+Panama, on the isthmus, and the almost equally old city of Cartagena,
+on the northern coast of what is now the Republic of Colombia.
+
+The spirit of ancient Carthage must have breathed upon this "Very
+Royal and Loyal City" which Pedro de Heredia in the sixteenth century
+founded on the north coast of New Granada, and bequeathed to it a
+portion of its own romance and tragedy. Superbly placed upon a narrow,
+tongue-shaped islet, one of a group that shield an ample harbor from
+the sharp tropical storms which burst unheralded over the sea without;
+girdled by huge, battlemented walls, and guarded by frowning
+fortresses, Cartagena commanded the gateway to the exhaustless wealth
+of the _Cordilleras_, at whose feet she still nestles, bathed in
+perpetual sunshine, and kissed by cool ocean breezes which temper the
+winds blowing hot from the steaming _llanos_ of the interior. By the
+middle of the sixteenth century she offered all that the adventurous
+seeker of fame and fortune could desire, and attracted to herself not
+only the chivalry, but the beauty, wealth and learning which, mingled
+with rougher elements, poured into the New World so freely in the
+opening scenes of the great drama inaugurated by the arrival of the
+tiny caravels of Columbus a half century before.
+
+The city waxed quickly rich and powerful. Its natural advantages of
+location, together with its massive fortifications, and its wonderful
+harbor, so extensive that the combined fleets of Spain might readily
+have found anchorage therein, early rendered it the choice of the
+Spanish monarch as his most dependable reservoir and shipping point
+for the accumulated treasure of his new possessions. The island upon
+which the city arose was singularly well chosen for defense. Fortified
+bridges were built to connect it with the mainland, and subterranean
+passageways led from the great walls encircling it to the impregnable
+fortress of San Felipe de Barajas, on Mount San Lazaro, a few hundred
+yards back of the city and commanding the avenues and approaches of
+the land side. To the east, and about a mile from the walls, the
+abrupt hill of La Popa rises, surmounted by the convent of Santa
+Candelaria, likewise connected by underground tunnels to the interior
+of the city, and commanding the harbor and its approaches from the
+sea. The harbor formerly connected with the open sea through two
+entrances, the Boca Grande, a wide, fortified pass between the island
+of Tierra Bomba and the tongue on which the city stands, and the Boca
+Chica, some nine miles farther west, a narrow, tortuous pass, wide
+enough to permit entry to but a single vessel at a time, and commanded
+by forts San Fernando and San Jose.
+
+By the middle of the seventeenth century Cartagena, "Queen of the
+Indies and Queen of the Seas," had expanded into a proud and beautiful
+city, the most important mart of the New World. Under royal patronage
+its merchants enjoyed a monopoly of commerce with Spain. Under the
+special favor of Rome it became an episcopal See, and the seat of the
+Holy Inquisition. Its docks and warehouses, its great centers of
+commerce, its sumptuous dwellings, its magnificent Cathedral, its
+colleges and monasteries, and its proud aristocracy, all reflected the
+spirit of enterprise which animated its sons and found expression in a
+city which could boast a pride, a culture, and a wealth almost
+unrivalled even in the Old World.
+
+But, not unlike her ancient prototype, Cartagena succumbed to the very
+influences which had made her great. Her wealth excited the cupidity
+of freebooters, and her power aroused the jealousy of her formidable
+rivals. Her religion itself became an excuse for the plundering hands
+of Spain's enemies. Again and again the city was called upon to defend
+the challenge which her riches and massive walls perpetually issued.
+Again and again she was forced to yield to the heavy tributes and
+disgraceful penalties of buccaneers and legalized pirates who, like
+Drake, came to plunder her under royal patent. Cartagena rose and
+fell, and rose again. But the human heart which throbs beneath the
+lash of lust or revenge knows no barriers. Her great forts availed
+nothing against the lawless hordes which swarmed over them. Neither
+were her tremendous walls proof against starvation. Again and again,
+her streets filled with her gaunt dead, she stubbornly held her gates
+against the enemies of Spain who assaulted her in the name of
+religion, only at last to weaken with terror and throw them open in
+disgraceful welcome to the French de Pontis and his maudlin, rag-tag
+followers, who drained her of her last drop of life blood. As her
+gates swung wide and this nondescript band of marauders streamed in
+with curses and shouts of exultation, the glory of this royal
+mediaeval city passed out forever.
+
+Almost from its inception, Cartagena had been the point of attack of
+every enterprise launched with the object of wresting from Spain her
+rich western possessions, so much coveted by her jealous and
+revengeful rivals. It was Spain herself who fought for very existence
+while Cartagena was holding her gates against the enemies of Holy
+Church. And these enemies knew that they had pierced the Spanish heart
+when the "Queen of the Indies" fell. And in no small measure did Spain
+deserve the fate which overtook her. For, had it not been for the
+stupendous amount of treasure derived from these new possessions, the
+dramatic and dominant part which she played in the affairs of Europe
+during the sixteenth century would have been impossible. This treasure
+she wrested from her South American colonies at a cost in the
+destruction of human life, in the outraging of human instincts, in
+the debauching of ideals and the falsifying of hope, in hellish
+oppression and ghastly torture, that can never be adequately
+estimated. Her benevolent instruments of colonization were cannon and
+saintly relics. Her agents were swaggering soldiers and bigoted
+friars. Her system involved the impression of her language and her
+undemonstrable religious beliefs upon the harmless aborigines. The
+fruits of this system, which still linger after three centuries, are
+superstition, black ignorance, and woeful mental retardation. To the
+terrified aborigines the boasted Spanish civilization meant little
+more than "gold, liquor, and sadness." Small wonder that the simple
+Indians, unable to comprehend the Christian's lust for gold, poured
+the molten metal down the throats of their captives, crying, "Eat,
+Christian, eat!" They had borrowed their ideals from the Christian
+Spaniards, who by means of the stake and rack were convincing them
+that God was not in this western land until they came, bringing their
+debauched concept of Christianity.
+
+And so Cartagena fell, late in the seventeenth century, never to
+regain more than a shadow of her former grandeur and prestige. But
+again she rose, in a semblance of her martial spirit, when her native
+sons, gathering fresh courage and inspiration from the waning powers
+of the mother-country in the early years of the century just closed,
+organized that federation which, after long years of almost hopeless
+struggle, lifted the yoke of Spanish misrule from New Granada and
+proclaimed the Republic of Colombia. Cartagena was the first city of
+Colombia to declare its independence from Spain. And in the great war
+which followed the "Heroic City" passed through terrible vicissitudes,
+emerging from it still further depleted and sunken, a shell of massive
+walls and battered defenses, with desolated homes and empty streets
+echoing the tread of the mendicant _peon_.
+
+As the nineteenth century, so rich in invention, discovery, and
+stirring activity in the great States to the north, drew to a close, a
+chance visitor to this battle-scarred, mediaeval city would have found
+her asleep amid the dreams of her former greatness. Approaching from
+the harbor, especially if he arrived in the early hours of morning,
+his eyes would have met a view of exquisite beauty. Seen thus, great
+moss-grown structures rise from within the lofty encircling walls,
+with many a tower and gilded dome glittering in the clear sunlight and
+standing out in sharp relief against the green background of
+forest-plumed hills and towering mountains. The abysmal blue of the
+untainted tropical sky overhead contrasts sharply with the red-tiled
+roofs and dazzling white exteriors of the buildings beneath; and the
+vivid tints, mingling with the iridescence of the scarcely rippling
+waters of the harbor, blend into a color scheme of rarest loveliness
+in the clear atmosphere which seems to magnify all distant objects and
+intensify every hue.
+
+A closer approach to the citadel which lies within the landlocked
+harbor reveals in detail the features of the stupendous walls which
+guard this key to Spain's former treasure house. Their immensity and
+their marvelous construction bear witness to the genius of her famous
+military engineers, and evoke the same admiration as do the great
+temples and monuments of ancient Egypt. These grim walls, in places
+sixty feet through, and pierced by numerous gates, are frequently
+widened into broad esplanades, and set here and there with bastions
+and watch towers to command strategic points. At the north end of the
+city they expand into an elaborately fortified citadel, within which
+are enormous fresh water tanks, formerly supplied by the rains, and
+made necessary by the absence of springs so near the coast. Within the
+walls at various points one finds the now abandoned barracks,
+storerooms, and echoing dungeons, the latter in the days of the
+stirring past too often pressed into service by the Holy Inquisition.
+Underground tunnels, still intact, lead from the walls to the
+Cathedral, the crumbling fortress of San Felipe de Barajas, and the
+deserted convent on the summit of La Popa. Time-defying, grim,
+dramatic reliques of an age forever past, breathing poetry and romance
+from every crevice--still in fancy echoing from moldering tower and
+scarred bulwark the clank of sabre, the tread of armored steed, and
+the shouts of exulting _Conquistadores_--aye, their ghostly echoes
+sinking in the fragrant air of night into soft whispers, which bear to
+the tropical moon dark hints of ancient tragedies enacted within these
+dim keeps and gloom-shrouded tunnels!
+
+The pass of Boca Grande--"large mouth"--through which Drake's band of
+marauders sailed triumphantly in the latter part of the sixteenth
+century, was formerly the usual entrance to the city's magnificent
+harbor. But its wide, deep channel, only two miles from the city
+walls, afforded too easy access to undesirable visitors in the heyday
+of freebooters; and the harassed Cartagenians, wearied of the
+innumerable piratical attacks which this broad entrance constantly
+invited, undertook to fill it up. This they accomplished after years
+of heroic effort and an enormous expenditure of money, leaving the
+harbor only the slender, tortuous entrance of Boca Chica--"little
+mouth"--dangerous to incoming vessels because of the almost torrential
+flow of the tide through it, but much more readily defended. The two
+castles of San Fernando and San Jose, frowning structures of stone
+dominating this entrance, have long since fallen into disuse, but are
+still admirably preserved. Beneath the former, and extending far below
+the surface of the water, is the old Bastile of the Inquisition,
+occasionally pressed into requisition now to house recalcitrant
+politicians, and where no great effort of the imagination is required
+still to hear the groans of the tortured and the sighs of the
+condemned, awaiting in chains and _san benitos_ the approaching _auto
+da fe_.
+
+But the greater distance from the present entrance of the harbor to
+the city walls affords the visitor a longer period in which to enjoy
+the charming panorama which seems to drift slowly out to meet him as
+he stands entranced before it. The spell of romance and chivalry is
+upon him long ere he disembarks; and once through the great gateway of
+the citadel itself, he yields easily to the ineluctable charm which
+seems to hover in the balmy air of this once proud city. Everywhere
+are evidences of ancient grandeur, mingling with memories of enormous
+wealth and violent scenes of strife. The narrow, winding streets,
+characteristic of oriental cities; the Moorish architecture displayed
+in the grandiose palaces and churches; the grated, unglazed windows,
+through which still peep timid _senoritas_, as in the romantic days of
+yore; the gaily painted balconies, over which bepowdered _doncellas_
+lean to pass the day's gossip in the liquid tongue of Cervantes, all
+transport one in thought to the chivalrous past, when this picturesque
+survival of Spain's power in America was indeed the very Queen of the
+western world and the proud boast of the haughty monarchs of Castile.
+
+Nor was the city more dear to the Spanish King than to the spiritual
+Sovereign who sat on Peter's throne. The Holy See strove to make
+Cartagena the chief ecclesiastical center of the New World; and
+churches, monasteries, colleges, and convents flourished there as
+luxuriantly as the tropical vegetation. The city was early elevated to
+a bishopric. A magnificent Cathedral was soon erected, followed by
+other churches and buildings to house ecclesiastical orders, including
+the Jesuit college, the University, the women's seminary, and the
+homes for religious orders of both sexes. The same lavish expenditure
+of labor and wealth was bestowed upon the religious structures as on
+the walls and fortifications. The Cathedral and the church of San Juan
+de Dios, the latter the most conspicuous structure in the city, with
+its double towers and its immense monastery adjoining, became the
+special recipients of the liberal outpourings of a community rich not
+only in material wealth, but in culture and refinement as well. The
+latter church in particular was the object of veneration of the
+patrons of America's only Saint, the beneficent Pedro Claver, whose
+whitened bones now repose in a wonderful glass coffin bound with
+strips of gold beneath its magnificent marble altar. In the central
+_plaza_ of the city still stands the building erected to house the
+Holy Inquisition, so well preserved that it yet serves as a dwelling.
+Adjacent to it, and lining the _plaza_, are spacious colonial
+edifices, once the homes of wealth and culture, each shaded by
+graceful palms and each enclosing its inner garden, or patio, where
+tropical plants and aromatic shrubs riot in richest color and
+fragrance throughout the year.
+
+In the halcyon days of Cartagena's greatness, when, under the
+protection of the powerful mother-country, her commerce extended to
+the confines of the known world, her streets and markets presented a
+scene of industry and activity wholly foreign to her in these latter
+days of her decadence. From her port the rich traffic which once
+centered in this thriving city moved, in constantly swelling volume,
+in every direction. In her marts were formulated those audacious plans
+which later took shape in ever-memorable expeditions up the Magdalena
+and Cauca rivers in search of gold, or to establish new colonies and
+extend the city's sphere of influence. From her gates were launched
+those projects which had for their object the discovery of the
+mysterious regions where rivers were said to flow over sands of pure
+gold and silver, or the kingdom of El Dorado, where native potentates
+sprinkled their bodies with gold dust before bathing in the streams
+sacred to their deities. From this city the bold Quesada set out on
+the exploits of discovery and conquest which opened to the world the
+rich plateau of Bogota, and ranked him among the greatest of the
+_Conquistadores_. In those days a canal had been cut through the
+swamps and dense coast lowlands to the majestic Magdalena river, some
+sixty-five miles distant, where a riverine town was founded and given
+the name of Calamar, the name Pedro de Heredia had first bestowed upon
+Cartagena. Through this _dique_ the city's merchant vessels passed to
+the great arterial stream beyond, and thence some thousand miles south
+into the heart of the rich and little known regions of upper Colombia.
+To-day, like the grass-grown streets of the ancient city, this canal,
+choked with weeds and _debris_, is but a green and turbid pool, but
+yet a reminder of the faded glory of the famous old town which played
+such a dramatic _role_ in that age of desperate courage.
+
+In the finished town of Cartagena Spain's dreams of imperial pomp and
+magnificence were externalized. In her history the tragedy of the
+New World drama has been preserved. To-day, sunk in decadence,
+surrounded by the old mediaeval flavor, and steeped in the romance of
+an age of chivalry forever past, her muniments and donjons, her
+gray, crenelated walls and time-defying structures continue to express
+that dogged tenacity of belief and stern defiance of unorthodox
+opinion which for two hundred years maintained the Inquisition
+within her gates and sacrificed her fair sons and daughters to an
+undemonstrable creed. The heavy air of ecclesiasticism still hangs
+over her. The priests and monks who accompanied every sanguinary
+expedition of the _Conquistadores_, ready at all times to absolve
+any desperado who might slay a harmless Indian in the name of Christ,
+have their successors to-day in the astute and untiring sons of
+Rome, who conserve the interests of Holy Church within these
+battered walls and guard their portals against the entrance of radical
+thought. Heredia had scarcely founded the city when King Philip sent
+it a Bishop. And less than a decade later the Cathedral, which to-day
+stands as the center of the episcopal See, was begun.
+
+The Cathedral, though less imposing than the church of San Juan de
+Dios, is a fine example of the ecclesiastical architecture of the
+colonial era. Occupying a central position in the city, its
+ever-open doors invite rich and poor alike, citizen and stranger,
+to enter and linger in the refreshing atmosphere within, where the
+subdued light and cool shadows of the great nave and chapels afford a
+grateful respite from the glare and heat of the streets without.
+Massive in exterior appearance, and not beautiful within, the
+Cathedral nevertheless exhibits a construction which is at once
+broad, simple and harmonious. The nave is more than usually wide
+between its main piers, and its rounded arches are lofty and well
+proportioned. Excellent portraits of former Bishops adorn its white
+walls, and narrow rectangular windows at frequent intervals admit
+a dim, mellow light through their dark panes. Before one of these
+windows--apparently with no thought of incongruity in the exhibition
+of such a gruesome object attached to a Christian church--there
+has been affixed an iron grating, said to have served the Holy
+Inquisition as a gridiron on which to roast its heretical victims.
+Within, an ambulatory, supported on the first tier of arches,
+affords a walk along either side of the nave, and leads to the
+winding stairway of the bell tower. At one end of this ambulatory,
+its entrance commanding a full view of the nave and the _capilla
+mayor_, with its exquisitely carved marble altar, is located the
+Bishop's _sanctum_. It was here that the young Spanish priest, Jose de
+Rincon, stood before the Bishop of Cartagena on the certain midday
+to which reference was made in the opening chapter of this recital,
+and received with dull ears the ecclesiastical order which removed
+him still farther from the world and doomed him to a living burial
+in the crumbling town of Simiti, in the wilderness of forgotten
+Guamoco.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 13
+
+
+"At last, you come!"
+
+The querulous tones of the aged Bishop eddied the brooding silence
+within the Cathedral. Without waiting for a reply he turned again to
+his table and took up a paper containing a list of names.
+
+"You wait until midday," he continued testily; "but you give me time
+to reflect and decide. The parish of Simiti has long been vacant. I
+have assigned you to it. The Honda touches at Calamar to-morrow, going
+up-river. You will take it."
+
+"Simiti! Father--!"
+
+"_Bien_; and would you dispute this too!" quavered the ill-humored
+Bishop.
+
+"But--Simiti--you surely cannot mean--!"
+
+The Bishop turned sharply around. "I mean that after what I learn from
+Rome I will not keep you here to teach your heresies in our
+University! I mean that after what I hear this morning of your evil
+practices I will not allow you to spend another day in Cartagena!" The
+angry ecclesiastic brought his bony fist hard against the table to
+emphasize the remark.
+
+"_Madre de Dios!_" he resumed, after some moments of nursing his
+choleric feelings. "Would you debate further! The Holy Father for some
+unexplained reason inflicts a madman upon me! And I, innocent of what
+you are, obey his instructions and place you in the University--with
+what result? You have the effrontery--the madness--to lecture to your
+classes on the heresies of Rome!"
+
+"But--"
+
+"And as if that were not burden enough for these old shoulders, I must
+learn that I have taken a serpent to my bosom--but that you are still
+sane enough to propagate heresies--to plot revolution with the
+Radicals--and--shame consume you!--to wantonly ruin the fair daughters
+of our diocese! But, do you see now why I send you where you can do
+less evil than here in Cartagena?"
+
+The priest slowly petrified under the tirade.
+
+"The fault is not mine if I must act without instruction from
+Rome," the Bishop went on petulantly. "Twice have I warned you
+against your teachings--but I did not suspect then, for only
+yesterday did I learn that before coming to me you had been confined
+in a monastery--insane! But--_Hombre_! when you bring the blush of
+shame to my cheeks because of your godless practices--it is time
+to put you away without waiting for instruction!"
+
+Godless practices! Was the Bishop or the priest going mad?
+
+"Go now to your room," the Bishop added, turning again to his table.
+"You have little enough time to prepare for your journey. Wenceslas
+will give you letters to the Alcalde of Simiti."
+
+Wenceslas! The priest's thought flew back over the events of the
+morning. Marcelena--Maria--the encounter below with--! _Dios!_ Could
+it be that Wenceslas had fastened upon him the stigma of his own
+crime? The priest found his tongue.
+
+"Father!--it is untrue!--these charges are false as hell!" he
+exclaimed excitedly. "I demand to know who brings them against me!"
+
+The testy Bishop's wrath flared up anew. "You demand! Am I to sit here
+and be catechised by _you_? It is enough that I know what occurs in my
+diocese, and am well informed of your conduct!"
+
+The doorway darkened, and the priest turned to meet the object of his
+suspecting thought.
+
+Bestowing a smile of patronage upon Jose, and bowing obsequiously
+before the Bishop, Wenceslas laid some papers upon the table,
+remarking as he did so, "The letters, Your Grace, to introduce our
+Jose to his new field. Also his instructions and expense money."
+
+"Wenceslas!" The priest confronted him fiercely. "Do you accuse me
+before the Bishop?"
+
+"Accuse, _amigo_?" Wenceslas queried in a tone of assumed surprise.
+"Have I not said that your ready tongue and pen are your accusers?
+But," with a conciliatory air, "we must remember that our good Bishop
+mercifully views your conduct in the light of your recent mental
+affliction, traces of which, unfortunately, have lingered to cause him
+sorrow. And so he graciously prepares a place for you, _caro amigo_,
+where rest and relief from the strain of teaching will do you much
+good, and where life among simple and affectionate people will restore
+you, he hopes, to soundness of mind."
+
+The priest turned again to the Bishop in a complexity of appeal. The
+soft speech of Wenceslas, so full of a double _entendu_, so markedly
+in contrast with the Bishop's harsh but at least sincere tirade, left
+no doubt in his mind that he was now the victim of a plot, whose
+ramifications extended back to the confused circumstances of his early
+life, and the doubtful purposes of his uncle and his influence upon
+the sacerdotal directors in Rome. And he saw himself a helpless and
+hopelessly entangled victim.
+
+"Father!" In piteous appeal Jose held out his hands to the Bishop, who
+had turned his back upon him and was busy with the papers on his
+table.
+
+"_Amigo_, the interview is ended," said Wenceslas quietly, stepping
+between the priest and his superior.
+
+Jose pushed wildly past the large form of Wenceslas and seized the
+Bishop's hand.
+
+"_Santa Maria!_" cried the petulant churchman. "Do you obey me, or no?
+If not, then leave the Church--and spend your remaining days as a
+hounded ex-priest and unfrocked apostate," he finished significantly.
+"Go, prepare for your journey!"
+
+Wenceslas slipped the letter and a few _pesos_ into the hand of the
+smitten, bewildered Jose, and turning him to the door, gently urged
+him out and closed it after him.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Just why the monastery gates had opened to him after two years'
+deadening confinement, Jose had not been apprised. All he knew was
+that his uncle had appeared with a papal appointment for him to the
+University of Cartagena, and had urged his acceptance of it as the
+only course likely to restore him both to health and position, and to
+meet the deferred hopes of his sorrowing mother.
+
+"Accept it, _sobrino mio_," the uncle had said. "Else, pass your
+remaining days in confinement. There can be no refutation of the
+charges against you. But, if these doors open again to you, think not
+ever to sever your connection with the Church of Rome. For, if the
+Rincon honor should prove inadequate to hold you to your oath, be
+assured that Rincon justice will follow you until the grave wipes out
+the stain upon our fair name."
+
+"Then, _tio mio_, let the Church at once dismiss me, as unworthy to be
+her son!" pleaded Jose.
+
+"What, excommunication?" cried the horrified uncle. "Never! Death
+first! Are you still mad?"
+
+Jose looked into the cold, emotionless eyes of the man and shuddered.
+The ancient spirit of the Holy Inquisition lurked there, and he
+cowered before it. But at least the semblance of freedom had been
+offered him. His numbed heart already had taken hope. He were indeed
+mad not to acquiesce in his uncle's demands, and accept the proffered
+opportunity to leave forever the scenes of his suffering and disgrace.
+And so he bowed again before the inexorable.
+
+Arriving in Cartagena some months before this narrative opens, he had
+gradually yielded himself to the restorative effects of changed
+environment and the hope which his uncle's warm assurances aroused,
+that a career would open to him in the New World, unclouded by the
+climacteric episode of the publishing of his journal and his
+subsequent arrogant bearing before the Holy Father, which had provoked
+his fate. Under the beneficent influences of the soft climate and the
+new interests of this tropic land he began to feel a budding of
+something like confidence, and the suggestions of an unfamiliar
+ambition to retrieve past failure and yet gratify, even if in small
+measure, the parental hope which had first directed him as a child
+into the fold of the Church. The Bishop had assigned him at once to
+pedagogical work in the University; and in the teaching of history,
+the languages, and, especially, his beloved Greek, Jose had found an
+absorption that was slowly dimming the memory of the dark days which
+he had left behind in the Old World.
+
+But the University had not afforded him the only interest in his new
+field. He had not been many weeks on Colombian soil when his awakening
+perceptions sensed the people's oppression under the tyranny of
+ecclesiastical politicians. Nor did he fail to scent the approach of a
+tremendous conflict, in which the country would pass through violent
+throes in the struggle to shake off the galling yoke of Rome.
+Maintaining an attitude of strict neutrality, he had striven quietly
+to gauge the anticlerical movement, and had been appalled to find it
+so widespread and menacing. Only a miracle could save unhappy Colombia
+from being rent by the fiercest of religious wars in the near future.
+Oh, if he but had the will, as he had the intellectual ability, to
+throw himself into the widening breach!
+
+"There is but one remedy," he murmured aloud, as he sat one evening on
+a bench in the _plaza_ of Simon Bolivar, watching the stream of gaily
+dressed promenaders parading slowly about on the tesselated walks, but
+hearing little of their animated conversation.
+
+"And what is that, may I ask, friend?"
+
+The priest roused up with a start. He had no idea that his audible
+meditations had been overheard. Besides, he had spoken in English. But
+this question had been framed in the same tongue. He looked around. A
+tall, slender man, with thin, bronzed face and well-trimmed Van <DW18>
+beard, sat beside him. The man laughed pleasantly.
+
+"Didn't know that I should find any one here to-night who could speak
+my lingo," he said cordially. "But, I repeat, what is the remedy?"
+
+"Christianity," returned the amazed Jose, without knowing what he
+said.
+
+"And the condition to be remedied?" continued the stranger.
+
+"This country's diseased--but to whom have I the honor of speaking?"
+drawing himself up a little stiffly, and glancing about to see who
+might be observing them.
+
+"Oh, my credentials?" laughed the man, as he caught Jose's wondering
+look. "I'm quite unknown in Cartagena, unfortunately. You must pardon
+my Yankee inquisitiveness, but I've watched you out here for several
+evenings, and have wondered what weighty problems you were wrestling
+with. A quite unpardonable offense, from the Spanish viewpoint, but
+wholly forgivable in an uncouth American, I'm sure. Besides, when I
+heard you speak my language it made me a bit homesick, and I wanted to
+hear more of the rugged tongue of the Gentiles."
+
+Laughing again good-naturedly, he reached into an inner pocket and
+drew out a wallet. "My name's Hitt," he said, handing Jose his card.
+"But I didn't live up to it. That is, I failed to make a hit up north,
+and so I'm down here." He chuckled at his own facetiousness. "Amos A.
+Hitt," he went on affably. "There used to be a 'Reverend' before it.
+That was when I was exploring the Lord's throne. I've dropped it, now
+that I'm humbly exploring His footstool instead."
+
+Jose yielded to the man's friendly advances. This was not the first
+American he had met; yet it seemed a new type, and one that drew him
+strongly.
+
+"So you think this country diseased, eh?" the American continued.
+
+Jose did not answer. While there was nothing in the stranger's
+appearance and frank, open countenance to arouse suspicion, yet he
+must be careful. He was living down one frightful mistake. He could
+not risk another. But the man did not wait for a reply.
+
+"Well, I'm quite agreed with you. It has _priest-itis_." He stopped
+and looked curiously at Jose, as if awaiting the effect of his bold
+words. Then--"I take it you are not really one of 'em?"
+
+Jose stared at the man in amazement. Hitt laughed again. Then he drew
+forth a cigar and held it out. "Smoke?" he said. The priest shook his
+head. Hitt lighted the cigar himself, then settled back on the bench,
+his hands jammed into his trousers pockets, and his long legs stuck
+straight out in front, to the unconcealed annoyance of the passers-by.
+But, despite his _brusquerie_ and his thoughtlessness, there was
+something about the American that was wonderfully attractive to the
+lonely priest.
+
+"Yes, sir," Hitt went on abstractedly in corroboration of his former
+statement, "Colombia is absolutely stagnant, due to Jesuitical
+politics, the bane of all good Catholic countries. If she could shake
+off priestcraft she'd have a chance--provided she didn't fall into
+orthodox Protestantism."
+
+Jose gasped, though he strove to hide his wonder. "You--" he began
+hesitatingly, "you were in the ministry--?"
+
+"Yes. Don't be afraid to come right out with it. I was a Presbyterian
+divine some six years ago, in Cincinnati. Ever been there?"
+
+Jose assured him that he had never seen the States.
+
+"H'm," mused the ex-preacher; "great country--wonderful--none like it
+in the world! I've been all over, Europe, Asia, Africa--seen 'em all.
+America's the original Eden, and our women are the only true
+descendants of mother Eve. No question about it, that apple incident
+took place up in the States somewhere--probably in Ohio."
+
+Jose caught the man's infectious humor and laughed heartily. Surely,
+this American was a tonic, and of the sort that he most needed. "Then,
+you are--still touring--?"
+
+"I'm exploring," Hitt replied. "I'm here to study what ancient records
+I may find in your library; then I shall go on to Medellin and Bogota.
+I'm on the track of a prehistoric Inca city, located somewhere in the
+Andes--and no doubt in the most inaccessible spot imaginable.
+Tradition cites this lost city as the cradle of Inca civilization.
+Tampu Tocco, it is called in their legends, the place from which the
+Incas went out to found that marvelous empire which eventually
+included the greater part of South America. The difficulty is," he
+added, knotting his brows, "that the city was evidently unknown to the
+Spaniards. I can find no mention of it in Spanish literature, and I've
+searched all through the libraries of Spain. My only hope now is that
+I shall run across some document down here that will allude to it, or
+some one who has heard likely Indian rumors."
+
+Jose rubbed his eyes and looked hard at the man. "Well!" he
+ejaculated, "you are--if I may be permitted to say it--an original
+type."
+
+"I presume I am," admitted the American genially. "I've been all sorts
+of things in my day, preacher, teacher, editor. My father used to be a
+circuit rider in New England forty years ago or more. Pious--good
+Lord! Why, he was one of the kind who believe the good book 'from
+kiver to kiver,' you know. Used to preach interminable sermons about
+the mercy of the Lord in holding us all over the smoking pit and not
+dropping us in! Why, man! after listening to him expound the
+Scriptures at night I used to go to bed with my hair on end and my
+skin all goose-flesh. No wonder I urged him to send me to the
+Presbyterian Seminary!"
+
+"And you were ordained?" queried Jose, dark memories rising in his own
+thought.
+
+"Thoroughly so! And glad I was of it, too, for I had grown up as pious
+and orthodox as my good father. I considered the ordination a through
+ticket to paradise."
+
+"But--now--"
+
+"Oh, I found myself in time," continued the man, answering Jose's
+unspoken thought. "Then I stopped preaching beautiful legends, and
+tried to be genuinely helpful to my congregation. I had a fine church
+in Cincinnati at that time. But--well, I mixed a trifle too much
+heresy into my up-to-date sermons, I guess. Anyway, the Assembly
+didn't approve my orthodoxy, and I had as little respect for its
+heterodoxy, and the upshot of it was that I quit--cold." He laughed
+grimly as he finished the recital. "But," he went on gravely, "I now
+see that it was due simply to my desire to progress beyond the
+acceptance of tradition and allegory as truth, and to find some better
+foundation upon which to build than the undemonstrable articles of
+faith embraced in the Westminster Confession. To me, that confession
+of faith had become a confession of ignorance." He turned his shrewd
+eyes upon Jose. "I was in somewhat the same mental state that I think
+you are in now," he added.
+
+"And why, if I may ask, are you now exploring?" asked Jose,
+disregarding the implication.
+
+"Oh, as for that," replied the American easily, "I used to teach
+history and became especially interested in ancient civilizations,
+lost cities, and the like, in the Western Hemisphere. Long before I
+left the ministry oil was struck on our little Pennsylvania farm,
+and--well, I didn't have to work after that. So for some years I've
+devoted myself strictly to my particular hobby of travel. And in my
+work I find it necessary to discard ceremony, and scrape acquaintance
+with all sorts and conditions. I especially cultivate clergymen. I've
+wanted to know you ever since I first saw you out here. But I couldn't
+wait for a formal introduction. And so I broke in unceremoniously upon
+your meditations a few moments ago."
+
+"I am grateful to you for doing so," said Jose frankly, holding out a
+hand. "There is much that you can tell me--much that I want to know.
+But--" He again looked cautiously around.
+
+"Ah, I understand," said Hitt, quickly sensing the priest's
+uneasiness. "What say you, shall we meet somewhere down by the city
+wall? Say, at the old Inquisition cells?"
+
+Jose nodded his acquiescence, and they separated. A few minutes later
+the two were seated in one of the cavernous archways of the long,
+echoing corridor which leads to the deserted barracks and the gloomy,
+bat-infested cells beneath. A vagrant breeze drifted now and then
+across the grim wall above them, and the deserted road in front lay
+drenched in the yellow light of the tropic moon. There was little
+likelihood of detection here, where the dreamy plash of the sea
+drowned the low sound of their voices; and Jose breathed more freely
+than in the populous _plaza_ which they had just left.
+
+"Good Lord!" muttered the explorer, returning from a peep into the
+foul blackness of a subterranean tunnel, "imagine what took place here
+some three centuries ago!"
+
+"Yes," returned Jose sadly; "and in the reeking dungeons of San
+Fernando, out there at the harbor entrance. And, what is worse, my own
+ancestors were among the perpetrators of those black deeds committed
+in the name of Christ."
+
+"Whew! You don't say! Tell me about it." The explorer drew closer.
+Jose knew somehow that he could trust this stranger, and so he briefly
+sketched his ancestral story to his sympathetic listener. "And no one
+knows," he concluded in a depressed tone, "how many of the thousands
+of victims of the Inquisition in Cartagena were sent to their doom by
+the house of Rincon. It may be," he sighed, "that the sins of my
+fathers have been visited upon me--that I am now paying in part the
+penalty for their criminal zeal."
+
+The explorer sat for some time in silent meditation. "Perhaps," he
+said, "your family fell under the spell of old Saint Dominic. You
+know the legend? How God deliberated long whether to punish the
+wickedness of mankind by sending down war, plague, or famine, and was
+finally prevailed upon by Saint Dominic to send, instead, the Holy
+Inquisition. Another choice example of the convenient way the
+world has always had of attributing the foulest deeds of men to the
+Almighty. No wonder religion has so woefully declined!"
+
+"But is it so up in the great North?" asked Jose. "Tell me, what is
+the religious status there? My limitations have been such that I
+have--I have not kept abreast of current theological thought."
+
+"In the United States the conventional, passive submission to
+orthodox dogma is rapidly becoming a thing of the past," the explorer
+replied. "The people are beginning to think on these topics. All
+human opinion, philosophical, religious, or scientific, is in a
+state of liquefaction--not yet solidified. Just what will crystallize
+out of the magma is uncertain. The country is experiencing a
+religious crisis, and an irresistible determination to _know_ is
+abroad in the land. Everything is being turned upside-down, and one
+hardly dares longer say what he believes, for the dogma of to-day is
+the fairy-tale of to-morrow. And, through it all, as some one has
+tersely said, 'orthodoxy is hanging onto the coat-tails of progress in
+a vain attempt to stop her.' We are facing in the United States
+the momentous question, Is Christianity a failure? Although no one
+knows what Christianity really is. But one thing is certain, the
+brand of Christianity handed out by Protestant and Catholic alike is
+mighty close to the borderline of dismal failure."
+
+"But is there in the North no distinct trend in religious belief?"
+queried Jose.
+
+The explorer hesitated. "Yes," he said slowly, "there is. The man who
+holds and promulgates any belief, religious or scientific, is being
+more and more insistently forced to the point of demonstration. The
+citation of patristic authority is becoming daily more thoroughly
+obsolete."
+
+"And there is no one who demonstrates practical Christianity?"
+
+"No. Do you? Is there any one in your Church, or in the Protestant
+faith, who does the works which Christ is reported to have done? Is
+there any one who really tries to do them? Or thinks he could if he
+tried? The good church Fathers from the third century down could
+figure out that the world was created on the night before the
+twenty-third of October, four thousand and four B. C., and that Adam's
+fall occurred about noon of the day he was created. They could dilate
+_ad nauseam_ on transubstantiation, the divine essence, and the
+mystery of the Trinity; they could astonishingly allegorize the Bible
+legends, and read into every word a deep, hidden, incomprehensible
+sense; they could prove to their own satisfaction that Adam composed
+certain of the Psalms; that Moses wrote every word of the Pentateuch,
+even the story of his own death and burial; and that the entire Bible
+was delivered by God to man, word for word, just as it stands,
+including the punctuation. And yet, not one of them followed the
+simple commands of Jesus closely enough to enable him to cure a
+toothache, to say nothing of generally healing the sick and raising
+the dead! Am I not right?"
+
+"Yes--I am sorry to have to admit," murmured Jose.
+
+"Well," went on the explorer, "that's what removed me from the
+Presbyterian ministry. It is not Christianity that is a dismal
+failure, but men's interpretation of it. Of true Christianity, I
+confess I know little. Oh, I'm a fine preacher! And yet I am
+representative of thousands of others, like myself, all at sea. Only,
+the others are either ashamed or afraid to make this confession. But,
+in my case, my daily bread did not depend upon my continuance in the
+pulpit."
+
+"But supposing that it had--"
+
+"The result doubtless would have been the same. The orthodox faith was
+utterly failing to supply me with a satisfying interpretation of
+life, and it afforded me no means of escaping the discords of mundane
+existence. It could only hold out an undemonstrable promise of a life
+after death, provided I was elected, and provided I did not too
+greatly offend the Creator during the few short years that I might
+spend on earth. If I did that, then, according to the glorious
+Westminster Confession, I was doomed--for we are not so fortunate as
+you in having a purgatory from which we may escape through the
+suffrages of the faithful," he concluded with a chuckle.
+
+Jose knew, as he listened, that his own Church would hold this man a
+blasphemer. The man by his own confession was branded a Protestant
+heretic. And he, Jose, was _anathema_ for listening to these sincere,
+brutally frank confidences, and tendering them his warm sympathy. Yet
+he sat spellbound.
+
+"And so I retired from the ministry," continued the explorer. "I had
+become ashamed of tearing down other men's religious beliefs. I was
+weary of having to apologize constantly for the organization to which
+I was attached. At home I had been taught a devout faith in revealed
+religion; in the world I was thrown upon its inquiring doubts; I
+yearned for faith, yet demanded scientific proof. Why, I would have
+been satisfied with even the slight degree of proof which we are able
+to advance for our various physical sciences. But, no, it was not
+forthcoming. I must believe because the Fathers had believed. I
+struggled between emotion and reason, until--well, until I had to
+throw it all over to keep from going mad."
+
+Jose bowed in silence before this recital of a soul-experience so
+closely paralleling his own.
+
+"But, come," said the explorer cheerily, "I'm doing all the talking.
+Now--"
+
+"No! no!" interrupted the eager Jose. "I do not wish to talk. I want
+to hear you. Go on, I beg of you! Your words are like rain to a
+parched field. You will yet offer me something upon which I can build
+with new hope."
+
+"Do not be so sanguine, my friend," returned the explorer in a kindly
+tone. "I fear I shall be only the reaper, who cuts the weeds and
+stubble, and prepares the field for the sower. I have said that I am
+an explorer. But my field is not limited to this material world. I am
+an explorer of men's thoughts as well. I am in search of a religion. I
+manifest this century's earnest quest for demonstrable truth. And so I
+stop and question every one I meet, if perchance he may point me in
+the right direction. My incessant wandering about the globe is, if I
+may put it that way, but the outward manifestation of my ceaseless
+search in the realm of the soul."
+
+He paused. Then, reaching out and laying a hand upon the priest's
+knee, he said in a low, earnest voice, "My friend, _something_
+happened in that first year of our so-called Christian era. What it
+was we do not know. But out of the smoke and dust, the haze and mist
+of that great cataclysm has proceeded the character Jesus--absolutely
+unique. It is a character which has had a terrific influence upon the
+world ever since. Because of it empires have crumbled; a hundred
+million human lives have been destroyed; and the thought-processes of
+a world have been overthrown or reversed. Just what he said, just what
+he did, just how he came, and how he went, we may not know with any
+high degree of accuracy. But, beneath all the myth and legend, the
+lore and childish human speculation of the intervening centuries,
+there _must_ be a foundation of eternal truth. And it must be
+broad--very broad. I am digging for it--as I dug on the sites of
+ancient Troy and Babylon--as I have dug over the buried civilizations
+of Mexico and Yucatan--as I shall dig for the hidden Inca towns on the
+wooded heights of the Andes. And while I dig materially I am also
+digging spiritually."
+
+"And what have you found?" asked Jose hoarsely.
+
+"I am still in the overburden of _debris_ which the sedulous, tireless
+Fathers heaped mountain high upon the few recorded teachings of Jesus.
+But already I see indications of things to come that would make the
+members of the Council of Trent and the cocksure framers of the
+Westminster Confession burst from their graves by sheer force of
+astonishment! There are even now foreshadowings of such revolutionary
+changes in our concept of God, of the universe, of matter, and the
+human mind, of evil, and all the controverted points of theological
+discussion of this day, as to make me tremble when I contemplate them.
+In my first hasty judgment, after dipping into the 'Higher Criticism,'
+I concluded that Jesus was but a charlatan, who had learned
+thaumaturgy in Egypt and practiced it in Judea. Thanks to a better
+appreciation of the same 'Higher Criticism' I am reconstructing my
+concept of him now, and on a better basis. I once denounced God as the
+creator of both good and evil, and of a man who He knew must
+inevitably fall, even before the clay of which he was made had become
+fairly dry. I changed that concept later to Matthew Arnold's 'that
+something not ourselves that makes for righteousness.' But mighty few
+to-day recognize such a God! Again, in Jesus' teaching that sin
+brought death into the world, I began to see what is so dimly
+foreshadowed to-day, the _mental_ nature of all things. 'Sin' is the
+English translation of the original '_hamartio_,' which means, 'to
+miss the mark,' a term used in archery. Well, then, missing the mark
+is the mental result of nonconformity to law, is it not? And, going
+further, if death is the result of missing the mark, and that is
+itself due to mental cause, and, since death results from sickness,
+old age, or catastrophe, then these things must likewise be mental.
+Sickness, therefore, becomes wholly mental, does it not? Death becomes
+mental. Sin is mental. Spirit, the Creator, is mental. Matter is
+mental. And we live and act in a mental realm, do we not? The sick
+man, then, becomes one who misses the mark, and therefore a sinner. I
+think you will agree with me that the sick man is not at peace with
+God, if God is 'that which makes for righteousness.' Surely the maker
+of that old Icelandic sixteenth-century Bible must have been inspired
+when, translating from Luther's Bible, he wrote in the first chapter
+of Genesis, 'And God created man after His own likeness, in the
+likeness of _Mind_ shaped He him.' Cannot you see the foreshadowing to
+which I have referred?"
+
+Jose kept silence. The current of his thought seemed about to swerve
+from its wonted course.
+
+"What is coming is this," continued the explorer earnestly, "a
+tremendous broadening of our concept of God, a more exalted, a more
+worthy concept of Him as spirit--or, if you will, as mind. An
+abandonment of the puerile concept of Him as a sort of magnified man,
+susceptible to the influence of preachers, or of Virgin and Saints,
+and yielding to their petitions, to their higher sense of justice, and
+to money-bought earthly ceremonies to lift an imaginary curse from His
+own creatures. And with it will come that wonderful consciousness of
+Him which I now begin to realize that Jesus must have had, a
+consciousness of Him as omnipotent, omnipresent good. As I to-day read
+the teachings of Jesus I am constrained to believe that he was
+conscious _only_ of God and God's spiritual manifestation. And in that
+remarkable consciousness the man Jesus realized his own life--indeed,
+that consciousness _was_ his life--and it included no sense of evil.
+The great lesson which I draw from it is that evil must, therefore, be
+utterly unreal and non-existent. And heaven is but the acquisition of
+that mind or consciousness which was in Christ Jesus."
+
+"But, Mr. Hitt, such ideas are revolutionary!"
+
+"True, if immediately and generally adopted. And so you see why the
+Church strives to hold the people to its own archaic and innocuous
+religious tenets; why your Church strives so zealously to hold its
+adherents fast to the rules laid down by pagan emperors and ignorant,
+often illiterate churchmen, in their councils and synods; and why the
+Protestant church is so quick to denounce as unevangelical everything
+that does not measure to its devitalized concept of Christianity. They
+do not practice what they preach; yet they would not have you
+practice anything else. The human mind that calls itself a Christian
+is a funny thing, isn't it?"
+
+He laughed lightly; then lapsed into silence. The sea breeze rose and
+sighed among the great, incrusted arches. The restless waves moaned in
+their eternal assault upon the defiant walls. The moon clouded, and a
+warm rain began to fall. Jose rose. "I must return to the dormitory,"
+he announced briefly. "When you pass me in the _plaza_ to-morrow
+evening, come at once to this place. I will meet you here. You have--I
+must--"
+
+But he did not finish. Pressing the explorer's hand, he turned
+abruptly and hurried up the dim, narrow street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 14
+
+
+All through the following day the priest mused over the conversation
+of the preceding night. The precipitation with which this new
+friendship had been formed, and the subsequent abrupt exchange of
+confidences, had scarcely impressed him as unusual. He was wholly
+absorbed by the radical thought which the man had voiced. He mulled
+over it in his wakeful hours that night. He could not prevent it from
+coloring the lecture which he delivered to his class in ancient
+history that day. And when the sun at length dropped behind La Popa,
+he hurried eagerly to the _plaza_. A few minutes later he and the
+ex-clergyman met in the appointed rendezvous.
+
+"I dropped in to have a look at the remains of Pedro Claver to-day,"
+his new friend remarked. "The old sexton scraped and bowed with huge
+joy as he led me behind the altar and lighted up the grewsome thing. I
+suppose he believed that Pedro's soul was up in the clouds making
+intercession with the Lord for him, while he, poor devil, was toting
+tourists around to gaze at the Saint's ghastly bones in their glass
+coffin. The thing would be funny were it not for its sad side, namely,
+the dense and superstitious ignorance in which such as this poor
+sexton are held all their lives by your Church. It's a shame to feed
+them with the bones of dead Saints, instead of with the bread of life!
+But," he reflected, "I was myself just as bigoted at one time. And my
+zeal to convert the world to Protestantism was just as hot as any that
+ever animated the missionaries of your faith."
+
+He paused and looked quizzically at Jose. He seemed to be studying the
+length to which he could go in his criticism of the ancient faith of
+the house of Rincon. But Jose remained in expectant silence.
+
+"Speaking of missionaries," the man resumed, "I shall never forget an
+experience I had in China. My wealthy and ultra-aristocratic
+congregation decided that I needed rest, and so sent me on a world
+tour. It was a member of that same congregation, by the way, a stuffy
+old dame whose wealth footed up to millions, who once remarked to me
+in all confidence that she had no doubt the aristocracy of heaven was
+composed of Presbyterians. Poor, old, empty-headed prig! What could I
+do but assure her that I held the same comforting conviction! Well,
+through influential friends in Pekin I was introduced to the eminent
+Chinese statesman, Wang Fo, of delightful memory. Our conversation
+turned on religion, and then I made the most inexcusable _faux pas_
+that a blithering Yankee could make, that of expressing regret that he
+was not of our faith. Good heavens! But he was the most gracious
+gentleman in the world, and his biting rebuke was couched in tones of
+silken softness.
+
+"'What is it that you offer me?' he said mildly. 'Blind opinion?
+Undemonstrated and undemonstrable theory? Why, may I ask, do you
+come over here to convert us heathen, when your own Christian land
+is rife with evil, with sedition, with religious hatred of man for
+man, with bloodshed and greed? If your religious belief is true,
+then you can demonstrate it--prove it beyond doubt. Do you say
+that the wonderful material progress which your great country
+manifests is due to Christianity? I answer you, no. It is due to
+the unfettering of the human mind, to the laying off of much of
+the mediaeval superstition which in the past ages has blighted
+mankind. It is due largely to the abandonment of much of what you
+are still pleased to call Christianity. The liberated human mind
+has expanded to a degree never before seen in the world. We Chinese
+are still mentally fettered by our stubborn resistance to change,
+to progression. Your great inventors and your great men of finance
+are but little hampered by religious superstition. Hence the
+mental flights which they so boldly undertake, and the stupendous
+achievements they attain. Is it not so?'
+
+"What could I say? He had me. But he hadn't finished me quite.
+
+"'I once devoted much time to the study of Chemistry,' he went on
+blandly, 'and when I tell you that there is a law to the effect that
+the volume of a gas is a function of its pressure I do so with the
+full knowledge that I can furnish you indisputable proof therefor. But
+when you come to me with your religious theories, and I mildly request
+your proofs, you wish to imprison or hang me for doubting the
+absurdities which you cannot establish!'
+
+"He laughed genially, then took me kindly by the arm. 'Proof, my
+zealous friend, proof,' he said. 'Give me proof this side of the grave
+for what you believe, and then you will have converted the heathen.
+And can your Catholic friend--or, shall I say enemy?--prove his
+laughable doctrine of purgatory? The dead in purgatory dependent upon
+the living! Why, I tell him, that smacks of Shintoism, wherein the
+living feed the dead! Then he points in holy indignation to the Bible.
+Bah! Cannot I prove anything I may wish from your Bible? What will
+you have? Polygamy? Incest? Murder? Graft? Hand me your Bible, and
+I will establish its divinity. No, my good friend. When you come to
+me with proofs that you really do the works of him whom you profess
+to follow, then will I gladly listen, for I, too, seek truth. But
+in the present deplorable absence of proofs I take much more comfort
+in the adoration of my amiable ancestors than I could in your
+laughable and undemonstrable religious creeds.'
+
+"I left his presence a saddened but chastened man, and went home to do
+a little independent thinking. When I approached my Bible without the
+bias of the Westminster Confession I discovered that it did serve
+admirably as a wardrobe in which to hang any sort of religious
+prejudice. Continued study made me see that religious faith is
+generally mere human credulity. I discovered that in my pitying
+contempt for those of differing belief I much resembled the Yankee who
+ridiculed a Chinaman for wearing a pig-tail. 'True,' the Celestial
+replied, 'we still wear the badge of our former slavery. But you
+emancipated Americans, do you not wear the badge of a present and much
+worse form of slavery in your domination by Tammany Hall, by your
+corrupt politicians, and your organizers and protectors of crime?'
+
+"As time passed I gradually began to feel much more kindly toward Matthew
+Arnold, who said, 'Orthodox theology is an immense misunderstanding of
+the Bible.' And I began likewise to respect his statement that our Bible
+language is 'fluid and passing'--that much of it is the purest poetry,
+beautiful and inspiring, but symbolical."
+
+"But," broke in Jose, "you must admit that there is something awfully
+wrong with the world, with--"
+
+"Well," interrupted Hitt, "and what is it? As historical fact, that
+story about Adam and Eve eating an apple and thereby bringing down
+God's curse upon the whole innocent human race is but a figment of
+little minds, and an insult to divine intelligence. But, as
+symbolizing the dire penalty we pay for a belief in the reality of
+both good and evil--ah, that is a note just beginning to be sounded in
+the world at large. And it may account for the presence of the world's
+evil."
+
+"Yet, our experience certainly shows that evil is just as real and
+just as immanent as good! And, indeed, more powerful in this life."
+
+"If so," replied the explorer gravely, "then God created or instituted
+it. And in that case I must break with God."
+
+"Then you think it is all a question of our own individual idea of
+God?"
+
+"Entirely. And human concepts of Him have been many and varied. But
+that worst of Old Testament interpreters of the first century, Philo,
+came terribly close to the truth, I think, when, in a burst of
+inspiration, he one day wrote: 'Heaven is mind, and earth is
+sensation.' Matthew Arnold, I think, likewise came very close to the
+truth when he said that the only God we can recognize is 'that
+something not ourselves that makes for righteousness.' And, as for
+evil, up in the United States there are some who are now lumping it
+all under the head of 'mortal mind,' considering it all but the 'one
+lie' which Jesus so often referred to, and regarding it as the
+'suppositional opposite' of the mind that is God, and so, powerless.
+Not a bad idea, I think. But whether the money-loving Yankee will ever
+leave his mad chase for gold long enough to live this premise and so
+demonstrate it, is a question. I'm watching its development with
+intense interest. We in the States have wonderful, exceptional
+opportunities for study and research. We ought to uncover the truth,
+if any people should."
+
+He fell into thoughtfulness again. Jose drew a long sigh. "I wish--I
+wish," he murmured, "that I might go there--that I might live and work
+and search up there."
+
+The explorer roused up. "And why not?" he asked abruptly. "Look here,
+come with me and spend a year or so digging around for buried Inca
+towns. Then we will go back to the States. Why, man! it would make you
+over. I'll take you as interpreter. And in the States I'll find a
+place for you. Come. Will you?"
+
+For a moment the doors of imagination swung wide, and in the burst of
+light from within Jose saw the dreams of a lifetime fulfilled.
+Emancipation lay that way. Freedom, soul-expansion, truth. It was his
+God-given privilege. Who had the right to lay a detaining hand upon
+him? Was not his soul his own, and his God's?
+
+Then a dark hand stole out from the surrounding shadows and closed the
+doors. From the blackness there seemed to rise a hollow voice,
+uttering the single word, _Honor_. He thrust out an arm, as if to ward
+off the assaults of temptation. "No, no," he said aloud, "I am bound
+to the Church!"
+
+"But why remain longer in an institution with which you are quite out
+of sympathy?" the explorer urged.
+
+"First, to help the Church. Who will uplift her if we desert her? And,
+second, to help this, my ancestral country," replied Jose in deep
+earnestness.
+
+"Worthy aims, both," assented Hitt. "But, my friend, what will you
+accomplish here, unless you can educate these people to think? I have
+learned much about conditions in this country. I find that the priest
+in Colombia is even more intolerant than in Ireland, for here he has a
+monopoly, no competition. He is absolute. The Colombian is the logical
+product of the doctrines of Holy Church. It is so in Mexico. It is so
+wherever the curse of a fixed mentality is imposed upon a people. For
+that engenders determined opposition to mobility. It quenches
+responsiveness to new concepts and new ideas. It throttles a nation.
+The bane of mental progress is the _Semper Idem_ of your Church."
+
+"Christianity will remove the curse."
+
+"I have no doubt whatever of that. It probably is the future cure for
+all social ills and evils of every sort. But if so, it must be the
+Christianity which Jesus taught and demonstrated--not the theological
+chaff now disseminated in his name. Do not forget that we no longer
+know what Christianity is. It is a lost science."
+
+"It can and will be recovered!" cried Jose warmly.
+
+"I have said that is foreshadowed. But we must have the whole garment
+of the Christ, without human _addenda_. He is reported as having said,
+'The works that I do bear witness of me.' Now the works of the
+Christian Church bear ample witness that she has not the true
+understanding of the Christ. Nor has that eminent Protestant divine,
+now teaching in a theological seminary in the States, who recently
+said that, although Jesus ministered miraculously to the physical man,
+yet it was not his intention that his disciples should continue that
+sort of ministry; that the healing which Jesus did was wholly
+incidental, and was not an example to be permanently imitated. Good
+heavens! how these poor theologians hide their inability to do the
+works of the Master by taking refuge in such ridiculously unwarranted
+assertions. To them the rule seems to be that, if you can't do a thing
+you must deny the possibility of its being done. Great logic, isn't
+it?
+
+"And yet," he went on, "the Church has had nearly two thousand years
+in which to learn to do the works of the Master. Pretty dull pupil, I
+think. And we've had nearly two thousand years of theology from this
+slow pupil. Would that she would from now on give us a little real
+Christianity! Heavens! the world needs it. And yet, do you know,
+sectarian feeling is still so bitter in the so-called Church of God
+that if a Bishop of the Anglican Church should admit Presbyterians,
+Methodists, or members of other denominations to his communion table a
+scream of rage would go up all over England, and a mighty demand would
+be raised to impeach the Bishop for heresy! Think of it! God above!
+the puny human mind. Do you wonder that the dogma of the Church has
+lost force? That, despite its thunders, thinking men laugh? I freely
+admit that our great need is to find an adequate substitute for the
+authority which others would like to impose upon us. But where shall
+we find such authority, if not in those who demonstrate their ability
+to do the works of the Master? Show me your works, and I'll show you
+my faith. This is my perpetual challenge.
+
+"But, now," he said, "returning to the subject so near your heart: the
+condition of this country is that of a large part of South America,
+where the population is unsettled, even turbulent, and where a
+priesthood, fanatical, intolerant, often unscrupulous, pursue their
+devious means to extend and perpetuate unhindered the sway of your
+Church. Colombia is struggling to remove the blight which Spain laid
+upon her, namely, mediaeval religion. It is this same blighting
+religion, coupled with her remorseless greed, which has brought Spain
+to her present decrepit, empty state. And how she did strive to force
+that religion upon the world! Whole nations, like the Incas, for
+example, ruthlessly slaughtered by the papal-benisoned riffraff of
+Spain in her attempts to foist herself into world prestige and to
+bolster up the monstrous assumptions of Holy Church! The Incas were a
+grand nation, with a splendid mental viewpoint. But it withered under
+the touch of the mediaeval narrowness fastened upon it. Whole nations
+wasted in support of papal assumptions--and do you think that the end
+is yet? Far from it! War is coming here in Colombia. It may come in
+other parts of this Western Hemisphere, certainly in Mexico, certainly
+in Peru and Bolivia and Chili, rocked in the cradle of Holy Church for
+ages, but now at last awaking to a sense of their backward condition
+and its cause. If ever the Church had a chance to show what she could
+do when given a free hand, she has had it in these countries,
+particularly in Mexico. In all the nearly four centuries of her
+unmolested control in that fair land, oppressed by sword and crucifix,
+did she ever make an attempt worth the name to uplift and emancipate
+the common man? Not one. She took his few, hard-earned _pesos_ to get
+his weary soul out of an imagined purgatory--but she left him to rot
+in peonage while on earth! But, friend, I repeat, the struggle is
+coming here in Colombia. And look you well to your own escape when it
+arrives!"
+
+"And can I do nothing to help avert it?" cried the distressed Jose.
+
+"Well," returned the explorer meditatively, "such bondage is removable
+either through education or war. But in Colombia I fear the latter
+will overtake the former by many decades."
+
+"Then rest assured that I shall in the meantime do what in me lies to
+instruct my fellow-countrymen, and to avoid such a catastrophe!"
+
+"Good luck to you, friend. And--by the way, here is a little book that
+may help you in your work. I'm quite sure you've never read it. Under
+the ban, you know. Renan's _Vie de Jesus_. It can do you no harm, and
+may be useful."
+
+Jose reached out and took the little volume. It was _anathema_, he
+knew, but he could not refuse to accept it.
+
+"And there is another book that I strongly recommend to you. I'm sorry
+I haven't a copy here. It once created quite a sensation. It is
+called, 'Confessions of a Roman Catholic Priest.' Published
+anonymously, in Vienna, but unquestionably bearing the earmarks of
+authenticity. It mentions this country--"
+
+Without speaking, Jose had slowly risen and started down the musty
+corridor, his thought aflame with the single desire to get away. Down
+past the empty barracks and gaping cells he went, without stopping to
+peer into their tenebrous depths--on and on, skirting the grim walls
+that typified the mediaevalism surrounding and fettering his restless
+thought--on to the long incline which led up to the broad esplanade on
+the summit. Must he forever flee this pursuing Nemesis? Or should he
+hurl himself from the wall, once he gained the top? At the upper end
+of the incline he heard the low sound of voices. A priest and a young
+girl who sat there on the parapet rose as he approached. He stopped
+abruptly in front of them. "Wenceslas!" he exclaimed. "And Maria!"
+
+"Ah, _amigo_, a quiet stroll before retiring? It is a sultry night."
+
+"Yes," slowly replied Jose, looking at the girl, who drew back into
+the shadow cast by the body of her companion. Then, bowing, he passed
+on down the wall and disappeared in the darkness that shrouded the
+distance.
+
+A few minutes later the long form of the explorer appeared above the
+incline. Wenceslas and the girl had departed. Seeing no one, the
+American turned and descended to the ground, shaking his head in deep
+perplexity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 15
+
+
+The next day was one of the Church's innumerable feast-days, and Jose
+was free to utilize it as he might. He determined on a visit to the
+suburb of Turbaco, some eight miles from Cartagena, and once the site
+of Don Ignacio's magnificent country home. Although he had been some
+months in Cartagena, he had never before felt any desire to pass
+beyond its walls. Now it seemed to him that he must break the
+limitation which those encircling walls typified, that his restless
+thought might expand ere it formulated into definite concepts and
+plans for future work. This morning he wanted to be alone. The old
+injury done to his sensitive spirit by the publication of his journal
+had been unwittingly opened anew. The old slowness had crept again
+into his gait since the evening before. Over night his countenance had
+resumed its wonted heaviness; and his slender shoulders bent again
+beneath their former burden.
+
+When Jose arrived in Cartagena he had found it a city of vivid
+contrasts. There mediaevalism still strove with the spirit of modern
+progress; and so it suited well as an environment for the dilation of
+his shrunken soul-arteries. The lethal influence of the monastery long
+lay over him, beneath which he continued to manifest those eccentric
+habits which his prolonged state of loneliness had engendered. He
+looked askance at the amenities which his associates tentatively held
+out to him. He sank himself deep in study, and for weeks, even months,
+he shunned the world of people and things. He found no stimulus to a
+search for his ancestral palace within the city, nor for a study of
+the Rincon records which lay moldering in the ancient city's
+archives.
+
+But, as the sunlit days drifted dreamily past with peaceful, unvarying
+monotony, Jose's faculties, which had always been alert until he had
+been declared insane, gradually awakened. His violently disturbed
+balance began to right itself; his equilibrium became in a measure
+restored. The deadening thought that he had accomplished nothing in
+his vitiated life yielded to a hopeful determination to yet retrieve
+past failure. The pride and fear which had balked the thought of
+self-destruction now served to fan the flame of fresh resolve. He
+dared not do any writing, it was true. But he could delve and study.
+And a thousand avenues opened to him through which he could serve his
+fellow-men. The papal instructions which his traveling companion, the
+Apostolic Delegate, had brought to the Bishop of Cartagena, evidently
+had sufficed for his credentials; and the latter had made no occasion
+to refer to the priest's past. An order from the Vatican was law; and
+the Bishop obeyed it with no other thought than its inerrancy and
+inexorability. And with the lapse of the several months which had
+slipped rapidly away while he sought to forget and to clear from his
+mind the dark clouds of melancholia which had settled over it, Jose
+became convinced that the Bishop knew nothing of his career prior to
+his arrival in Colombia.
+
+And it is possible that the young priest's secret would have died with
+him--that he would have lived out his life amid the peaceful scenes of
+this old, romantic town, and gone to his long rest at last with the
+consciousness of having accomplished his mite in the service of his
+fellow-beings; it is possible that Rome would have forgotten him; and
+that his uncle's ambitions, to which he knew that he had been regarded
+as in some way useful, would have flagged and perished over the watery
+waste which separated the New World from the Old, but for the
+intervention of one man, who crossed Jose's path early in his new
+life, found him inimical to his own worldly projects, and removed him,
+therefore, as sincerely in the name of Christ as the ancient
+_Conquistadores_, with priestly blessing, hewed from their paths of
+conquest the simple and harmless aborigines.
+
+That man was Wenceslas Ortiz, trusted servant of Holy Church,
+who had established himself in Cartagena to keep a watchful eye on
+anticlerical proceedings. That he was able to do this, and at the
+same time turn them greatly to his own advantage, marks him as a man
+of more than usually keen and resourceful mentality. He was a
+native son, born of prosperous parents in the riverine town of
+Mompox, which, until the erratic Magdalena sought for itself a new
+channel, was the chief port between Barranquilla and the distant
+Honda. There had been neither family custom nor parental hopes
+to consider among the motives which had directed him into the
+Church. He was a born worldling, but with unmistakable talents for
+and keen appreciation of the art of politics. His love of money was
+subordinate only to his love of power. To both, his talents made
+access easy. In the contemplation of a career in his early years
+he had hesitated long between the Church and the Army; but had
+finally thrown his lot with the former, as offering not only
+equal possibilities of worldly preferment and riches, but far
+greater stability in those periodic revolutions to which his
+country was so addicted. The Army was frequently overthrown; the
+Church, never. The Government changed with every successful
+political revolution; the Church remained immovable. And so with
+the art of a trained politician he cultivated his chosen field with
+such intensity that even the Holy See felt the glow of his ardor,
+and in recognition of his marked abilities, his pious fervor and
+great influence, was constrained to place him just where he wished
+to be, at the right hand of the Bishop of Cartagena, and probable
+successor to that aged incumbent, who had grown to lean heavily
+and confidingly upon him.
+
+As coadjutor, or suffragan to the Bishop of Cartagena, Wenceslas Ortiz
+had at length gathered unto himself sufficient influence of divers
+nature as, in his opinion, to ensure him the See in case the bishopric
+should, as was contemplated, be raised eventually to the status of a
+Metropolitan. It was he, rather than the Bishop, who distributed
+parishes to ambitious pastors and emoluments to greedy politicians.
+His irons in ecclesiastical, political, social and commercial fires
+were innumerable. The doctrine of the indivisibility of Church and
+State had in him an able champion--but only because he thereby found a
+sure means of increasing his prestige and augmenting his power and
+wealth. His methods of work manifested keenness, subtlety, shrewdness
+and skill. His rewards were lavish. His punishments, terrible. The
+latter smacked of the Inquisition: he preferred torture to quick
+despatch.
+
+It had not taken Wenceslas long to estimate the character of the
+newcomer, Jose. Nor was he slow to perceive that this liberal pietist
+was cast in an unusual mold. Polity necessitated the cultivation of
+Jose, as it required the friendship--or, in any event, the thorough
+appraisement--of every one with whom Wenceslas might be associated.
+But the blandishments, artifice, diplomacy and hints of advancements
+which he poured out in profusion upon Jose he early saw would fail
+utterly to penetrate the armor of moral reserve with which the priest
+was clad, or effect in the slightest degree the impression which they
+were calculated to make.
+
+In the course of time the priest became irritating; later, annoying;
+and finally, positively dangerous to the ambitions of Wenceslas. For,
+to illustrate, Jose had once discovered him, in the absence of the
+Bishop, celebrating Mass in a state of inebriation. This irritated.
+Wenceslas had only been careless. Again, Jose had several times shown
+himself suspicious of his fast-and-loose methods with the rival
+political factions of Cartagena. This was annoying. Finally, he had
+come upon Jose in the market place a few weeks prior, in earnest
+conference with Marcelena and the girl, Maria; and subsequent
+conversation with him developed the fact that the priest had other
+dark suspicions which were but too well founded. This was dangerous.
+It was high time to prepare for possible contingencies.
+
+And so, in due time, carefully wording his hint that Padre Jose de
+Rincon might be a Radical spy in the ecclesiastical camp, Wenceslas
+found means to obtain from Rome a fairly comprehensive account of
+the priest's past history. He mused over this until an idea suddenly
+occurred to him, namely, the similarity of this account with many of
+the passages which he had found in a certain book, "The Confessions
+of a Roman Catholic Priest"--a book which had cast the shadow of
+distrust upon Wenceslas himself in relation to certain matters of
+ecclesiastical politics in Colombia nearly three years before, and
+at a most unfortunate time. Indeed, this sudden, unheralded
+exposure had forced him to a hurried recasting of certain cherished
+plans, and drawn from him a burning, unquenchable desire to lay his
+pious hands upon the writer.
+
+His influence with Rome at length revealed the secret of the wretched
+book's authorship. And from the moment that he learned it, Jose's fate
+was sealed. The crafty politician laughed aloud as he read the
+priest's history. Then he drew his plans and waited. But in the
+interim he made further investigations; and these he extended far back
+into the ancestral history of this unfortunate scion of the once
+powerful house of Rincon.
+
+Meantime, a few carefully chosen words to the Bishop aroused a dull
+interest in that quarter. Jose had been seen mingling freely with men
+of very liberal political views. It would be well to warn him. Again,
+weeks later, Wenceslas was certain, from inquiries made among the
+students, that Jose's work in the classroom bordered a trifle too
+closely on radicalism. It were well to admonish him. And, still later,
+happening to call at Jose's quarters just above his own in the
+ecclesiastical dormitory, and not finding him in, he had been struck
+by the absence of crucifix or other religious symbol in the room. Was
+the young priest becoming careless of his example?
+
+And now, on this important feast-day, where was Padre Jose? On the
+preceding evening, as Wenceslas leaned over the parapet of the wall
+after his surprise by Jose, he had noted in the dim light the salient
+features of a foreigner who, he had just learned, was registered at
+the Hotel Mariano from the United States. Moreover, Wenceslas had just
+come from Jose's room, whither he had gone in search of him, and--may
+the Saints pardon his excess of holy zeal which impelled him to
+examine the absent priest's effects!--he had returned now to the
+Bishop bearing a copy of Renan's _Vie de Jesus_, with the American's
+name on the flyleaf. It certainly were well to admonish Padre Jose
+again, and severely!
+
+The Bishop, hardly to the surprise of his crafty coadjutor, flew into
+a towering rage. He was a man of irascible temper, bitterly
+intolerant, and unreasoningly violent against all unbelievers,
+especially Americans whose affairs brought them to Colombia. In this
+respect he was the epitome of the ecclesiastical anti-foreign
+sentiment which obtained in that country. His intolerance of heretics
+was such that he would gladly have bound his own kin to the stake had
+he believed their opinions unorthodox. Yet he was thoroughly
+conscientious, a devout churchman, and saturated with the beliefs of
+papal infallibility and the divine origin of the Church. In the
+observance of church rites and ceremonies he was unremitting. In the
+soul-burning desire to witness the conversion of the world, and
+especially to see the lost children of Europe either coaxed or beaten
+back into the embrace of Holy Church, his zeal amounted to fanaticism.
+In the present case--
+
+"Your Eminence," suggested the suave Wenceslas to his exasperated
+superior, "may I propose that you defer action until I can discover
+the exact status of this American?"
+
+And the Bishop forthwith placed the whole matter in his trusted
+assistant's helpful hands.
+
+Meantime, Jose and the American explorer sat in the shade of a
+magnificent palm on a high hill in beautiful Turbaco, looking out over
+the shimmering sea beyond. For Hitt had wandered into the _Plaza de
+Coches_ just as Jose was taking a carriage, and the latter could not
+well refuse his proffered companionship for the day. Yet Jose feared
+to be seen in broad daylight with this stranger, and he involuntarily
+murmured a _Loado sea Dios_! when they reached Turbaco, as he
+believed, unobserved. He did not know that a sharp-eyed young
+novitiate, whom Wenceslas had detailed to keep the priest under
+surveillance, had hurried back to his superior with the report of
+Jose's departure with the _Americano_ on this innocent pleasure
+jaunt.
+
+"Say no more, my friend, in apology for your abrupt departure last
+evening," the explorer urged. "But tell me, rather, about your
+illustrious grandfather who had his country seat in this delightful
+spot. Why, man! this is paradise. I've a notion to come here to live
+some day."
+
+Jose cast his apprehensions upon the soft ocean breeze, and gave
+himself up to the inspiriting influence of his charming environment.
+He dwelt at length upon the Rincon greatness of mediaeval days, and
+expressed the resolve sometime to delve into the family records which
+he knew must be hidden away in the moldering old city of Cartagena.
+"But now," he concluded, after another reference to the Church, "is
+Colombia to witness again the horror of those days of carnage? And
+over the human mind's interpretation of the Christ? God forbid!"
+
+The American shook his head dubiously. "There is but one
+remedy--education. Not sectarian, partisan, worldly education--not
+instruction in relative truths and the chaff of materialistic
+speculation--but that sort of education whereby the selfish human mind
+is lifted in a measure out of itself, out of its petty jealousies and
+envyings, out of sneaking graft and touting for worldly emolument, and
+into a sense of the eternal truth that real prosperity and soundness
+of states and institutions are to be realized only when the
+Christ-principle, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself,' is made the measure
+of conduct. There is a tremendous truth which has long since been
+demonstrated, and yet which the world is most woefully slow to grasp,
+namely, that the surest, quickest means of realizing one's own
+prosperity and happiness is in that of others--not in a world to come,
+but right here and now."
+
+"But that means the inauguration of the millennium," protested Jose.
+
+"Well, and why not so?" returned the explorer calmly. "Has not that
+been the ultimate aim of Christianity, and of all serious effort for
+reform for the past two thousand years? And, do you know, the
+millennium could be ushered in to-morrow, if men only thought so?
+Within an incredibly short time evil, even to death itself, could be
+completely wiped off the earth. But this wiping-off process must take
+place in the minds and thoughts of men. Of that I am thoroughly
+convinced. But, tell me, have you ever expressed to the Bishop your
+views regarding the condition of this country?"
+
+Jose flushed. "Yes," he replied in embarrassment. "Only a week ago I
+tried again to convince him of the inevitable trend of events here
+unless drastic measures were interposed by the Church. I had even
+lectured on it in my classes."
+
+"Well, what did he say?"
+
+"The Bishop is a man of very narrow vision," replied Jose. "He rebuked
+me severely and truculantly bade me confine my attention to the
+particular work assigned me and let affairs of politics alone. Of
+course, that meant leaving them to his assistant, Wenceslas. Mr. Hitt,
+Colombia needs a Luther!"
+
+"Just so," returned the explorer gravely. "Priestcraft from the very
+earliest times has been one of the greatest curses of mankind. Its
+abuses date far back to Egyptian times, when even prostitution was
+countenanced by the priests, and when they practiced all sorts of
+impostures upon the ignorant masses. In the Middle Ages they turned
+Christianity, the richest of blessings, into a snare, a delusion, a
+rank farce. They arrogated to themselves all learning, all science. In
+Peru it was even illicit for any one not belonging to the nobility to
+attempt to acquire learning. That was the sole privilege of priests
+and kings. In all nations, from the remotest antiquity, and whether
+civilized or not, learning has been claimed by the priests as the
+unique privilege of their caste--a privilege bestowed upon them by the
+special favor of the ruling deity. That's why they always sought to
+surround their intellectual treasures with a veil of mystery. Roger
+Bacon, the English monk, once said that it was necessary to keep the
+discoveries of the philosophers from those unworthy of knowing them.
+How did he expect a realization of 'Thy kingdom come,' I wonder?"
+
+"They didn't expect it to come--on earth," said Jose.
+
+"No. They relegated that to the imagined realm which was to be entered
+through the gateway of death. It's mighty convenient to be able to
+relegate your proofs to that mysterious realm beyond the grave. That
+has always been a tremendous power in the hands of priests of all
+times and lands. By the way, did you know that the story of Abel's
+assassination was one of many handed down, in one form or another, by
+the priests of India and Egypt?"
+
+"Do you mean it?" inquired Jose eagerly.
+
+"Certainly. The story doubtless comes from the ancient Egyptian tale
+which the priests of that time used to relate regarding the murder
+of Osiris by his brother, Set. It was a deed of jealousy. The story
+later became incorporated into the sacred books of India and Egypt,
+and was afterward taken over by the Hebrews, when they were captives
+in Egypt. The Hebrews learned much of Egyptian theology, and their
+own religion was greatly tinctured by it subsequently. The legend of
+the deluge, for example, is another tradition of those primitive
+days, and credited by the nations of antiquity. But here there is the
+likelihood of a connection with the great cataclysm of antiquity,
+the disappearance of the island of Atlantis in consequence of a
+violent earthquake and volcanic action. This alleged island,
+supposed to be a portion of the strip at one time connecting South
+America with Africa, is thought to have sunk beneath the waters of
+the present Atlantic ocean some nine thousand years before Solon
+visited Egypt, and hence, some eleven thousand years ago. Anyway,
+the story of this awful catastrophe got into the Egyptian records
+in the earliest times, and was handed down to the Hebrews, who
+probably based their story of the flood upon it. You see, there is a
+foundation of some sort for all those legends in the book of Genesis.
+The difficulty has been that humanity has for centuries childishly
+accepted them as historical fact. For example, the serpent story.
+Now in very primitive times the serpent was the special emblem of
+Kneph, the creator of the world, and was regarded as a sort of
+good genius. It is still so regarded by the Chinese, who make of it
+one of their most beautiful symbols, the dragon. Later it became the
+emblem of Set, the slayer of Osiris; and after that it was looked
+upon with horror as the enemy of mankind, the destroyer, the evil
+principle. Hence, in Egypt, the Hebrew captives adopted the serpent
+as emblematical of evil, and later used it in their scriptural
+records as the evil genius that tempted Eve and brought about the
+fall of man. And so all people whose religious beliefs are founded
+upon the Hebrew Bible now look upon the serpent as the symbol of
+evil. Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans thus regard it."
+
+Jose gazed at the man with rapt interest. "Don't stop!" he urged. "Go
+on! go on!"
+
+Hitt laughed. "Well," he resumed, "the tree and the serpent were
+worshiped all through eastern countries, from Scandinavia to the
+Asiatic peninsula and down into Egypt. And, do you know, we even find
+vestiges of such worship in America? Down in Adams county, Ohio, on
+the banks of Brush creek, there is a great mound, called the serpent
+mound. It is seven hundred feet long, and greatly resembles the one in
+Glen Feechan, Argyleshire, Scotland. It also resembles the one I found
+in the ancient city of Tiahuanuco, whose ruins lie at an elevation of
+some thirteen thousand feet above the Pacific ocean, on the shores of
+Lake Titicaca, near the Bolivian frontier. This ancient city ages ago
+sent out colonists all over North and South America. These primitive
+people believed that a serpent emitted an egg from its mouth, and that
+the earth was born of that egg. Now the serpent mound in Ohio has an
+egg in its mouth. What is the logical inference?"
+
+"You don't mean it!" exclaimed Jose, his eyes wide with astonishment.
+
+Hitt laughed again in evident enjoyment of the priest's wonder. Then
+he resumed: "It has been established to my entire satisfaction that
+the ancient Egyptians and the Mayas of Central and South America used
+almost identical symbols. And from all antiquity, and by all nations,
+the symbols of the tree and serpent and their worship have been so
+closely identified as to render it certain that their origin is the
+same. What, then, are the serpent and tree of knowledge in the Hebrew
+Bible but an outgrowth of this? The tree of life, of civilization, of
+knowledge, was placed in the middle of the land, of the 'garden,' of
+the primitive country of the race, Mayax. And the empire of the Mayas
+was situated between the two great continents of North and South
+America. These people spread out in all directions. They populated the
+then existing island of Atlantis. And when the terrible earthquake
+occurred, whereby this island was sunk beneath the waves of the
+Atlantic ocean, why, to these people the world had been drowned! The
+story got to Egypt, to Chaldea, and to India. Hence the deluge record
+of Genesis."
+
+"But, these primitive people, how ancient are they?" queried Jose.
+
+"No one can form any adequate estimate," said Hitt in reply. "The
+wonderful city of Tiahuanuco was in ruins when Manco Capac laid the
+foundations of the Inca empire, which was later devastated by the
+Spaniards. And the Indians told the Spaniards that it had been
+constructed by giants before the sun shone in heaven."
+
+"Astonishing!" exclaimed Jose. "Such facts as these--if facts they
+be--relegate much of the Scriptural authority to the realm of legend
+and myth!"
+
+"Quite so," returned the explorer. "When the human mind of this
+century forces itself to approach a subject without prejudice or bias,
+and without the desire to erect or maintain a purely human institution
+at whatever cost to world-progress, then it finds that much of the
+hampering, fettering dogma of mediaevalism now laid upon it by the
+Church becomes pure fiction, without justifiable warrant or basis.
+Remember, the Hebrew people gave us the Old Testament, in which they
+had recorded for ages their tribal and national history, their poetry,
+their beliefs and hopes, as well as their legends, gathered from all
+sources. We have likewise the historical records of other nations. But
+the Hebrew possessed one characteristic which differentiated him from
+all other people. He was a monotheist, and he saw his God in every
+thing, every event, every place. His concept of God was his
+life-motif. This concept evolved slowly, painfully, throughout the
+centuries. The ancient Hebrew patriarchs saw it as a variable God,
+changeful, fickle, now violently angry, now humbly repentant, now
+making contracts with mankind, now petulantly destroying His own
+handiwork. He was a God who could order the slaughter of innocent
+babes, as in the book of Samuel; or He was a tender, merciful Father,
+as in the Psalms. He could harden hearts, wage bloody wars, walk with
+men 'in the cool of the day,' create a universe with His fist, or
+spend long days designing and devising the material utensils and
+furniture of sacrifice to be used in His own worship. In short, men
+saw in Him just what they saw in themselves. They saw but their mental
+concept. The Bible records humanity's changing, evolving concept of
+God, of that 'something not ourselves which makes for righteousness.'
+And this concept gradually changed from the magnified God-man of the
+Old Testament, a creature of human whims and passions, down to that
+held by the man of Nazareth, a new and beautiful concept of God as
+love. This new concept Jesus joyously gave to a sin-weary world that
+had utterly missed the mark. But it cost him his earthly life to do
+it. And the dark record of the so-called Christian Church, both
+Protestant and Catholic, contains the name of many a one who has paid
+the same penalty for a similar service of love.
+
+"The Chaldeans and Egyptians," he went on, after a moment's reflective
+pause, "gave the Hebrews their account of the creation of the
+universe, the fall of man, the flood, and many other bits of mythical
+lore. And into these stories the Hebrews read the activity of their
+God, and drew from them deep moral lessons. Egypt gave the Hebrews at
+least a part of the story of Joseph, as embodied in the hieroglyphics
+which may be read on the banks of the Nile to-day. They probably also
+gave the Hebrews the account of the creation found in the second
+chapter of Genesis, for to this day you can see in some of the oldest
+Egyptian temples pictures of the gods making men out of lumps of clay.
+The discovery of the remains of the 'Neanderthal man' and the 'Ape-man
+of Java' now places the dawn of human reason at a period some three to
+five hundred thousand years prior to our present century, and,
+combined with the development of the science of geology, which shows
+that the total age of the earth's stratified rocks alone cannot be
+much less than fifty-five millions of years, serves to cast additional
+ridicule upon the Church's present attitude of stubborn adherence to
+these prehistoric scriptural legends as literal, God-given fact. But,
+to make the right use of these legends--well, that is another thing."
+
+"And that?"
+
+The explorer hesitated. "I find it difficult to explain," he said at
+length. "But, remember what I have already said, there is, there
+_must_ be, a foundation beneath all these legends which admonish
+mankind to turn from evil to good. And, as I also said, that
+foundation must be very broad. I have said that I was in search of a
+religion. Why not, you may ask, accept the religious standard which
+Jesus set? That was the new concept of God as love. Very good. I am
+quite convinced that love is _the_ religion, _the_ tie which binds all
+things together and to a common source and cause. And I am equally
+convinced that Jesus is the only person recorded in history who ever
+lived a life of pure reflection of the love which he called God. And
+so you see why I am chipping and hewing away at the theological
+conception of the Christ, and trying to get at the reality buried deep
+beneath in the theological misconceptions of the centuries. I am quite
+convinced that if men loved one another, as Jesus bade them do, all
+war, strife, disease, poverty, and discord of every sort would vanish
+from human experience. But--and here is a serious question--did Jesus
+ask the impossible? Did he command us to love the sinful, erring
+mortal whom we see in our daily walk--or did he--did he have a new
+thought, namely, that by loving the real man, for which, perhaps, this
+human concept stands in the human mind, _that this very act would
+change that distorted concept and cause it to yield its place to the
+real one_? I believe Jesus to have been the wisest man who ever trod
+this earth. But I likewise believe that no man has ever been more
+deplorably misunderstood, misquoted, and misinterpreted than he. And
+so I am delving down, down beneath the mass of human conjecture and
+ridiculous hypothesis which the Church Fathers and our own theologians
+have heaped up over this unique character, if perchance I may some day
+discover just what he was, just what he really said, and just what the
+message which he sought to convey to mankind."
+
+He leaned over and laid a hand on Jose's arm. "My young friend," he
+said earnestly, "I believe there are meanings in the life and words of
+Jesus of which the Church in its astounding self-sufficiency has never
+even dreamed. Did he walk on the water? Did he feed the multitude with
+a few loaves? Did he raise Lazarus? Did he himself issue from the
+tomb? No more momentous questions were ever asked than these. For, if
+so, _then the message of Jesus has a bearing on the material universe,
+on the human mind, and the whole realm of thought that is utterly
+revolutionary_! What was that message? Did the man's own apostles and
+immediate followers understand it? Did Paul? Certain we are, however,
+that the theology which Rome gave to her barbarian conquerors was
+wholly different from that taught by Jesus and his disciples. And we
+know that the history of Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire down
+to the Franco-Prussian war is largely a recital of the development of
+the religious beliefs which Rome handed down to her conquerors, and
+their influence upon the human mind. These beliefs constitute the
+working hypothesis of that institution known to-day as the Holy Roman
+Catholic Church, and its separated offshoots, the Greek Catholic and
+the Protestant Churches, including the numberless ramifications and
+divisions of the latter. The question as to whether eternal salvation
+is a function of complete immersion of the human body, or only a
+gentle sprinkling, appears most lamentably puerile in the face of the
+tremendous revolutionary truths hinted by the deeds of Jesus, assuming
+that he has been correctly reported in the Gospels. No; Renan, in his
+_Vie de Jesus_, which I gave you last night, missed it. Before him,
+Voltaire and countless other critics of man-made theology missed it.
+The writings of these men do serve, however, to mow down the
+theological stubble in the world's field of thought. What is it, this
+gigantic truth which Jesus brought? I do not know. But he himself is
+reported to have said, 'If ye keep my commands, ye shall know of the
+doctrine.' And his chief command was, _that we love God and our
+fellow-men_. I have no doubt whatever that, when we follow this
+command, we shall know of the doctrine which he came to establish in
+the hearts of men."
+
+"But his message was the brotherhood of man," said Jose.
+
+"Nay," replied the explorer, "it was the _fatherhood_ of God,
+rather. For that includes the brotherhood of man. But, while we agree
+thus far, who can say what the fatherhood of God implies? Who,
+realizing that this was Jesus' message, knows how to make it
+practical, as he did? To him it meant--ah, what did it not mean! It
+meant a consciousness that held _not one trace of evil_. It meant a
+consciousness of God as omnipotent power, the irresistible power
+of good, which, in the form of spirit, or mind, as some will have it,
+is ever present. Is it not so? Well, then, who is there to-day,
+within the Church or without, who understands the divine message of
+the fatherhood of God sufficiently to acquire such a consciousness,
+and to make the intensely practical application of the message to
+every problem of mind, or body, or environment? Who to-day in your
+Church or mine, for example, realizes that Jesus must have seen
+something in matter far different from the solid, indestructible thing
+that we think we see, and that this was due to his understanding of
+the immanence of his Father as spirit--an understanding which enabled
+him to walk on the waves, and to treat material things as if they
+were not? No, my friend, the Christ-message of the fatherhood of God
+is hardly apprehended in the world to-day in the slightest degree by
+priest or prelate, church or sect. And yet, the influence of Jesus is
+tremendous!"
+
+Jose's brow knit in perplexity. "I--I don't believe I follow you,
+quite," he said.
+
+"I am not surprised," replied the explorer gently. "I sometimes wonder
+if I understand myself just what it is that I am trying to express. My
+belief is still in a state of transition. I am still searching. The
+field has been cleared. And now--now I am waiting for the new seed. I
+have abandoned forever the sterile, non-productive religious beliefs
+of current theology. I have abandoned such belittling views of God as
+the Presbyterian sublapsarian view of election. I have turned wearily
+from the puerile dogma of your Church as unworthy of the Father of
+Jesus. From delving into the mysteries of the Brahminism of India, of
+ancestor-worship in Japan, of Confucianism in China, of Islamism in
+the far East, I have come back to the wonderful man of Nazareth. And
+now I am trying to see what Christianity would be if purged of its
+adulterations--purged of the Greek philosophy of the early Fathers; of
+the forgeries of the Middle Ages; of the pagan ceremonialism and
+priestly rites and assumptions of power to save or damn in this
+present century. And what do I find, after all this rubbish has been
+filtered out? Love, friend--love; the unfathomable love of the Father
+of Jesus, who knows no evil, no sin, no sickness, no death, no hell,
+no material heaven, but whose kingdom is the harmonious realm of
+spirit, or mind, wherein the individual consciousness knows no discord
+of any name or nature."
+
+The afternoon haze had been long gathering when Jose roused the sleeping
+_cochero_ and prepared to return to the stifling ecclesiastical
+atmosphere from which for a brief day he had been so happily free. A
+cold chill swept over him when he took his seat in the carriage, and
+he shuddered as if with an evil presentiment.
+
+"And you still adhere to your determination to remain in the Church?"
+his friend asked, as they turned from the green hills and nodding
+palms of Turbaco, and set their course, toward the distant mediaeval
+city.
+
+"Yes," came the scarcely audible reply. But as Jose spoke, he knew
+that his mind had that day been stripped of its last remaining vestige
+of the old theology, leaving it bare, exposed--and receptive.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+A week passed. The explorer had gone, as silently and unannounced as
+he had come. The evening before his departure he and Jose had sat
+again in the thick shadows of the old wall. The next morning he was on
+the mighty river; and the priest was left with a great void in his
+heart.
+
+One noon, as Jose was returning from his classes, he pondered deeply
+the last words of the explorer, "Remember, nothing that has been
+invented by mankind or evolved by the human mind can stand, or remain.
+We might just as well accept that great fact now as later, and adjust
+ourselves to it. But the things of the spirit remain. And Paul has
+told us what they are."
+
+As he passed slowly along the winding little street toward the
+dormitory, a messenger approached him with a summons from the Bishop.
+He turned and started wonderingly toward the Cathedral. He had been
+reprimanded once, twice, for the liberal views which he had expressed
+to his classes. Was he to receive another rebuke now? He had tried to
+be more careful of late. Had he been seen with the explorer?
+
+An hour later, his eyes set and unseeing, and his thin lips trembling,
+Jose dragged himself up the stone steps to his little room and threw
+himself upon the bed. The bonds which had been slowly, imperceptibly
+tightening during these few months of precious liberty had been drawn
+suddenly taut. The Bishop, in the _role_ of _Inquisitor Natus_, had
+just revealed a full knowledge of his dismal past, and had summarily
+dismissed him from the University faculty. Jose, bewildered and
+stunned, had tried vainly to defend himself. Then, realizing his
+impotence before the uncompromising bigotry of this choleric
+ecclesiastic, he had burst suddenly into a torrent of frenzied
+declarations of his undeserved wrongs, of his resolve now to renounce
+his oath, to leave the Church, to abandon honor, family, everything
+that held or claimed him, and to flee into unknown and unknowing
+parts, where his harassed soul might find a few years of rest before
+its final flight! The Bishop became bitterly and implacably
+infuriated, and remanded the excited priest to his room to reflect
+upon his wild words, and to await the final disposition of his
+case--unless he should have determined already to try the devious
+route of apostasy.
+
+Rising the next morning at dawn from the chill floor where he had
+spent the torturing hours of an interminable night, and still clinging
+forlornly to his battered sense of honor and family pride, Jose again
+received the Bishop's summons; and, after the events of the morning
+already related, faced the angry churchman's furious tirade, and with
+it, what he could not have imagined before, a charge of hideous
+immorality. Then had been set before him a choice between apostasy and
+acceptance of the assignment to the parish of far-off Simiti.
+
+"And now, unpitying Fate," he murmured, as the door of the Bishop's
+_sanctum_ closed behind him, and he wandered down through the gloom of
+the quiet Cathedral, "receive your victim. You have chosen well your
+carnal instruments--pride--ecclesiasticism--lust! My crimes? Aye, the
+very lowest; for I have loved liberty of thought and conscience; I
+have loved virtue and honor; the pursuits of intellect; the fair; the
+noble; yea, the better things of life. I have loved my fellow-men; and
+I have sought their emancipation from the thraldom of ignorance. I
+have loved truth, and the Christ who revealed it to the dull minds of
+mortals. Enough! I stand convicted! And--I accept the sentence--I have
+no desire to resist it. For the end is now not distant!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 16
+
+
+The tropical moon shone in her fullness from an unclouded sky. Through
+the ethereal atmosphere which bathed the storied city her beams fell,
+plashing noiselessly upon the grim memorials of a stirring past. With
+a mantle of peace they gently covered the former scenes of violence
+and strife. With magic, intangible substance they filled out the rents
+in the grassy walls and smoothed away the scars of battle. The pale
+luster, streaming through narrow barbican and mildewed arch, touched
+the decaying ruin of San Felipe with the wand of enchantment, and
+restored it to pristine freshness and strength. Through the stillness
+of night the watery vapor streamed upward from garden and _patio_, and
+mingled with the scent of flushing roses and tropical buds in a
+fragrant mist suffused with the moon's yellow glow.
+
+On the low parapet bordering the eastern esplanade of the city wall
+the solitary figure of the priest cast a narrow shadow in the pale
+moonlight. The sounds which eddied the enveloping silence seemed to
+echo in his ears the tread of mediaeval warriors. In the wraith-like
+shadows he saw the armored forms of _Conquistadores_ in mortal strife
+with vulpine buccaneers. In the whirring of the bats which flouted his
+face he heard the singing of arrows and the hiss of hurled rocks. In
+the moan of the ocean as it broke on the coral reef below sounded the
+boom of cannon, the curses of combatants, and the groans of the dying.
+Here and there moved tonsured monks, now absolving in the name of the
+peaceful Christ the frenzied defenders of the Heroic City, now turning
+to hurl curses at the swarming enemy and consign their blackened souls
+to deepest hell, while holding images of the crucified Saviour to the
+quivering lips of stricken warriors.
+
+In the fancied combat raging in the moonlight before him he saw the
+sons of the house of Rincon manifesting their devotion to Sovereign
+and Pope, their unshaken faith in Holy Church, their hot zeal which
+made them her valiant defenders, her support, her humble and devoted
+slaves for more than three centuries.
+
+What was the charm by which she had held them? And why had its potency
+failed utterly when directed to him? But they were men of physical
+action, not thought--men of deeds which called only for brave hearts
+and stout bodies. It is true, there had been thinkers in those days,
+when the valiant sons of Rincon hurled the enemy from Cartagena's
+walls--but they lay rotting in dungeons--they lay broken on the rack,
+or hung breathing out their souls to God amid the hot flames which His
+self-appointed vicars kindled about them. The Rincons of that day had
+not been thinkers. But the centuries had finally evolved from their
+number a man of thought. Alas! the evolution had developed intellect,
+it is true--but the process had refined away the rugged qualities of
+animal strength which, without a deeper hold on Truth and the way to
+demonstrate it than Jose possessed, must leave him the plaything of
+Fate.
+
+Young in years, but old in sorrow; held by oaths which his ever-accusing
+sense of honor would not let him break; trembling for his mother's
+sake, and for the sake of Rincon pride, lest the ban of excommunication
+fall upon him; yet little dreaming that Rome had no thought of this
+while his own peculiar elements of character bound him as they did
+to her; the man had at last yielded his life to the system which had
+wrecked it in the name of Christ, and was now awaiting the morrow, when
+the boat should bear him to far-off Simiti. He went resignedly--even
+with a dull sense of gladness--for he went to die. Life had yielded
+him nothing--and constituted as he was, it could hold nothing for him
+in the future.
+
+The glorious moon poured its full splendor upon the quiet city.
+Through the haze the convent on La Popa sparkled like an enchanted
+castle, with a pavement of soft moonbeams leading up to its doors. The
+trill of a distant nightingale rippled the scented air; and from the
+_llanos_ were borne on the warm land breeze low feral sounds, broken
+now and then by the plaintive piping of a lonely toucan. The cocoa
+palms throughout the city stirred dreamily in the tempered moonlight;
+and the banana trees, bending with their luscious burden, cast great,
+mysterious shadows, wherein insect life rustled and scampered in
+nocturnal activity.
+
+"Padre Jose!"
+
+A woman's voice called from below. The priest leaned over the wall.
+
+"It is Catalina. I have been hunting everywhere. Maria is calling for
+you. She cannot live long. You will come?"
+
+Come? Yes--ah, why did he let his own misery blind him to the sorrow
+of others even more unfortunate! Why had he forgotten the little
+Maria! Descending the broad incline to the road below, Jose hurried
+with the woman to the bedside of the dying girl. On the way the
+warm-hearted, garrulous Catalina relieved her troubled and angered
+soul.
+
+"Padre Lorenzo came this morning. He would not shrive her unless we
+would pay him first. He said he would do it for ten _pesos_--then
+five--and then three. And when we kept telling him that we had no
+money he told us to go out and borrow it, or he would leave the little
+Maria to die as she was. He said she was a vile sinner anyway--that
+she had not made her Easter duty--that she could not have the
+Sacrament--and her soul would go straight to hell--and there was no
+redemption! Then he came again this afternoon and said she must die;
+but he would shrive her for two _pesos_. And when we told him we could
+not borrow the money he was terribly angry, and cursed--and Marcelena
+was frightened--and the little Maria almost died. But I told him to
+go--that her little soul was whiter than his--and if he went to heaven
+I didn't want Maria to go there too--and--!"
+
+The woman's words burned through the priest's ears and into his
+sickened soul. Recovering her breath, Catalina went on:
+
+"It is only a few days ago that the little Maria meets Sister Isabel
+in the _plaza_. 'Ah,' says Sister Isabel, 'you are going to be a
+mother.'
+
+"'Yes, Sister,' answers the little Maria, much confused; and she tries
+to hide behind Marcelena.
+
+"'It is very dangerous and you will suffer much unless you have a
+sacred cord of Saint Frances,' says the Sister. 'I will bring you
+one.'
+
+"And then she asks where the little Maria lives; and that very day she
+brings a piece of rope, with knots in it, which she says the priest
+has blessed, and it is a sacred cord of Saint Frances, and if the
+little Maria will wear it around her waist she will not suffer at the
+parturition; and the little Maria must pay a _peso oro_ for it--and
+the scared little lamb paid it, for she had saved a little money which
+Don Carlos Ojeda gave her for washing--and she wore it when the babe
+was born; but it didn't help her--"
+
+"_Dios!_" ejaculated the priest.
+
+"And Marcelena had paid a _peso y medio_," continued the excited
+woman, "for a candle that Sister Natalia told her had come from the
+altar of the Virgin of Santander and was very holy and would help one
+through confinement. But the candle went out; and it was only a round
+stick of wood with a little piece of candle on the end. And I--Padre,
+I could not help it, I would do anything for the poor child--I paid
+two _pesos oro_ for a new _escapulario_ for her. Sister Natalia said
+it was very holy--it had been blessed by His Grace, the Bishop, just
+for women who were to be mothers, and it would carry them through--but
+if they died, it would take them right out of purgatory--and--!"
+
+"Catalina!" interrupted the tortured priest. "Say no more!"
+
+"But, Padre, the babe," the woman persisted. "What will become of it?
+And--do you know?--Padre Lorenzo says _it is yours!_ He told Juanita
+so--she lives below us. But Maria says no. She has told only
+Marcelena--and Marcelena will never tell. Who is its father, Padre?"
+
+The priest, recognizing the inevitable, patiently resigned himself to
+the woman's talk without further reply. Presently they turned into the
+Calle Lazano, and entering the house where Marcelena had greeted him
+that morning, mounted to the chamber above where lay the little
+Maria.
+
+A single candle on a table near the head of the bed shed a flickering,
+uncertain light. But the window was open, and the moon's beams poured
+into the room in golden profusion. Aside from the girl, there were no
+other occupants than Marcelena and the new-born child.
+
+"Padre," murmured the passing girl, "you will not let me die without
+the Sacrament?"
+
+"No, child," replied the priest, bending over her, hot tears streaming
+down his cheeks as she kissed his hand.
+
+The girl had been beautiful, a type of that soft, southern beauty,
+whose graces of form, full, regular features, and rich olive tint mark
+them as truly Spanish, with but little admixture of inferior blood.
+Her features were drawn and set now; but her great, brown eyes which
+she raised to the priest were luminous with a wistful eagerness that
+in this final hour became sacred.
+
+"Marcelena," the priest hurriedly whispered to the woman. "I have
+no--but it matters not now; she need not know that I come unprepared.
+She must pass out of the world happy at last."
+
+"There is a drop of wine that the doctor left; and I will fetch a bit
+of bread," replied the woman, catching the meaning of the priest's
+words.
+
+"Bring it; and I will let her confess now."
+
+Bending over the sinking girl, the priest bade her reveal the burden
+resting on her conscience.
+
+"_Carita_," he said tenderly, when the confession was ended, "fear
+not. The blessed Saviour died for you. He went to prepare a place for
+you and for us all. He forgave the sinful woman--_carita_, he forgives
+you--yes, freely, gladly. He loves you, little one. Fear not what
+Padre Lorenzo said. He is a sinful priest. Forget all now but the good
+Saviour, who stands with open arms--with a smile on his beautiful
+face--to welcome his dear child--his little girl--you, _carita_,
+you."
+
+"Padre--my babe?"
+
+"Yes, child, it shall be cared for."
+
+"But not by the Sisters"--excitedly--"not in an asylum--Padre, promise
+me!"
+
+"There, _carita_, it shall be as you wish."
+
+"And you will care for it?"
+
+"I, child?--ah, yes, I will care for it."
+
+The girl sank back again with a smile of happiness. A deep silence
+fell upon the room. At the feet of the priest Catalina huddled and
+wept softly. Marcelena, in the shadow of the bed where she might not
+be seen, rocked silently back and forth with breaking heart.
+
+"Padre--you will--say Masses for me?" The words were scarcely
+audible.
+
+"Yes, _carita_."
+
+"I--have no money--no money. He promised to give me--money--and
+clothes--"
+
+"There, _carita_, I will say Masses for you without money--every day,
+for a year. And you shall have clothes--ah, carita, in heaven you
+shall have everything."
+
+The candle sputtered, and went out. The moon flooded the room with
+ethereal radiance.
+
+"Padre--lift me up--it grows dark--oh, Padre, you are so good to
+me--so good."
+
+"No, child, it is not I who am good to you, but the blessed Christ.
+See him, _carita_--there--there in the moonlight he stands!"
+
+The smoke from a neighboring chimney drifted slowly past the window
+and shone white in the silvery beams. The girl, supported by the arm
+of the priest, gazed at it through dimming eyes in reverent awe.
+
+"Padre," she whispered, "it is the Saviour! Pray to him for me."
+
+"Yes, child." And turning toward the window the priest extended his
+hand.
+
+"Blessed Saviour," he prayed, "this is one of thy stricken lambs,
+lured by the wolf from the fold. And we have brought her back. Dost
+thou bid her come?"
+
+The sobs of the weeping woman at his feet floated through the room.
+
+"Ah, thou tender and pitying Master--best friend of the sinning, the
+sick, and the sorrowing--we offer to thee this bruised child. We find
+no sin, no guile, in her; for after the ignorant code of men she has
+paid the last farthing for satisfying the wolf's greed. Dost thou bid
+her come?"
+
+In the presence of death he felt his own terrible impotence. Of what
+avail then was his Christianity? Or the Church's traditional words of
+comfort? The priest's tears fell fast. But something within--perhaps
+that "something not ourselves"--the voice of Israel's almost forgotten
+God--whispered a hope that blossomed in this petition of tenderest
+love and pity. He had long since ceased to pray for himself; but in
+this, the only prayer that had welled from his chilled heart in
+months, his pitying desire to humor the wishes of a dying girl had
+unconsciously formulated his own soul's appeal.
+
+"Blessed Saviour, take her to thine arms; shield her forever more
+from the carnal lust of the wolf; lift her above the deadening
+superstitions and hypocritical creeds of those who touch but to
+stain; take her, Saviour, for we find her pure, innocent, clean;
+suffering and sorrow have purged away the sin. Dost thou bid her
+come?"
+
+The scent of roses and orange blossoms from the garden below drifted
+into the room on the warm breeze. A bird, awakened by the swaying of
+its nest, peeped a few sweet notes of contentment, and slept again.
+
+"We would save her--we would cure her--but we, too, have strayed from
+thee and forgotten thy commands--and the precious gift of healing
+which thou didst leave with men has long been lost. But thou art
+here--thy compassionate touch still heals and saves. Jesus, unique son
+of God, behold thy child. Wilt thou bid her come?"
+
+"What says he, Padre?" murmured the sinking girl.
+
+The priest bent close to her.
+
+"He says come, _carita_--come!"
+
+With a fluttering sigh the tired child sank back into the priest's
+arms and dropped softly into her long sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 17
+
+
+The twisted, turbid "Danube of New Granada," under the gentle guidance
+of its patron, Saint Mary Magdalene, threads the greater part of its
+sinuous way through the heart of Colombia like an immense, slow-moving
+morass. Born of the arduous tropic sun and chill snows, and imbued by
+the river god with the nomadic instinct, it leaps from its pinnacled
+cradle and rushes, sparkling with youthful vigor, down precipice and
+perpendicular cliff; down rocky steeps and jagged ridges; whirling in
+merry, momentary dance in shaded basins; singing in swirling eddies;
+roaring in boisterous cataracts, to its mad plunge over the lofty wall
+of Tequendama, whence it subsides into the dignity of broad maturity,
+and begins its long, wandering, adult life, which slowly draws to a
+sluggish old age and final oblivion in the infinite sea. Toward the
+close of its meandering course, long after the follies and excesses of
+early life, it takes unto itself a consort, the beautiful Cauca; and
+together they flow, broadening and deepening as life nears its end;
+merging their destinies; sharing their burdens; until at last, with
+labors ended, they sink their identities in the sunlit Caribbean.
+
+When the simple-minded _Conquistadores_ first pushed their frail
+cockleshells out into the gigantic embouchure of this tawny stream and
+looked vainly for the opposite shore, veiled by the dewy mists of a
+glittering morn, they unconsciously crossed themselves and, forgetful
+for the moment of greed and rapine and the lust of gold, stood in
+reverent awe before the handiwork of their Creator. Ere the Spaniard
+had laid his fell curse upon this ancient kingdom of the Chibchas, the
+flowering banks of the Magdalena, to-day so mournfully characterized
+by their frightful solitudes, were an almost unbroken village from the
+present coast city of Barranquilla to Honda, the limit of navigation,
+some nine hundred miles to the south. The cupidity of the heartless,
+bigoted rabble from mediaeval slums which poured into this wonderland
+late in the sixteenth century laid waste this luxuriant vale and
+exterminated its trustful inhabitants. Now the warm airs that sigh at
+night along the great river's uncultivated borders seem still to echo
+the gentle laments of the once happy dwellers in this primitive
+paradise.
+
+Sitting in the rounded bow of the wretched riverine steamer Honda,
+Padre Jose de Rincon gazed with vacant eyes upon the scenery on either
+hand. The boat had arrived from Barranquilla that morning, and was now
+experiencing the usual exasperating delay in embarking from Calamar.
+He had just returned to it, after wandering for hours through the
+forlorn little town, tormented physically by the myriad mosquitoes,
+and mentally by a surprising eagerness to reach his destination. He
+could account for the latter only on the ground of complete
+resignation--a feeling experienced by those unfortunate souls who have
+lost their way in life, and, after vain resistance to molding
+circumstances, after the thwarting of ambitions, the quenching of
+ideals, admit defeat, and await, with something of feverish
+anticipation, the end. He had left Cartagena early that morning on the
+ramshackle little train which, after hours of jolting over an
+undulating roadbed, set him down in Calamar, exhausted with the heat
+and dust-begrimed. He had not seen the Bishop nor Wenceslas since the
+interview of the preceding day. Before his departure, however, he had
+made provision for the burial of the girl, Maria, and the disposal of
+her child. This he did at his own expense; and when the demands of
+doctor and sexton had been met, and he had provided Marcelena with
+funds for the care of herself and the child for at least a few weeks,
+his purse was pitiably light.
+
+Late in the afternoon the straggling remnant of a sea breeze drifted
+up the river and tempered the scorching heat. Then the captain of the
+Honda drained his last glass of red rum in the _posada_, reiterated to
+his political affiliates with spiritous bombast his condensed opinion
+anent the Government, and dramatically signaled the pilot to get under
+way.
+
+Beyond the fact that Simiti lay somewhere behind the liana-veiled
+banks of the great river, perhaps three hundred miles from Cartagena,
+the priest knew nothing of his destination. There were no passengers
+bound for the place, the captain had told him; nor had the captain
+himself ever been there, although he knew that one must leave the boat
+at a point called Badillo, and thence go by canoe to the town in
+question.
+
+But Jose's interest in Simiti was only such as one might manifest in a
+prison to which he was being conveyed. And, as a prisoner of the
+Church, he inwardly prayed that his remaining days might be few. The
+blows which had fallen, one after another, upon his keen, raw nerves
+had left him benumbed. The cruel bruises which his faith in man had
+received in Rome and Cartagena had left him listless, and without
+pain. He was accepting the Bishop's final judgment mutely, for he had
+already borne all that human nature could endure. His severance from a
+life of faith and love was complete.
+
+Nor could Jose learn when he might hope to reach Badillo, though he
+made listless inquiry.
+
+"_Na, Senor Padre_," the captain had said, "we never know where to
+find the water. It is on the right to-day; on the left to-morrow.
+There is low tide to-night; the morning may see it ten feet higher.
+And Badillo--_quien sabe_? It might be washed away when we arrive."
+And he shrugged his shoulders in complete disclaimer of any
+responsibility therefor.
+
+The captain's words were not idle, for the channel of the mighty river
+changes with the caprice of a maiden's heart. With irresistible
+momentum the tawny flood rolls over the continent, now impatiently
+ploughing its way across a great bend, destroying plantations and
+abruptly leaving towns and villages many miles inland; now savagely
+filching away the soft loam banks beneath little settlements and
+greedily adding broad acres to the burden of its surcharged waters.
+Mighty giants of the forest, wrested from their footholds of
+centuries, plunge with terrifying noise into the relentless stream;
+great masses of earth, still cohering, break from their moorings and
+glide into the whirling waters, where, like immense islands, they
+journey bobbing and tumbling toward the distant sea.
+
+Against the strong current, whose quartzose sediment tinkled
+metallically about her iron prow, the clumsy Honda made slow headway.
+She was a craft of some two hundred tons burden, with iron hull,
+stern paddle wheel, and corrugated metal passenger deck and roof.
+Below the passenger deck, and well forward on the hull, stood the
+huge, wood-burning boiler, whose incandescent stack pierced the open
+space where the gasping travelers were forced to congregate to get
+what air they might. Midway on this deck she carried a few cabins at
+either side. These, bare of furnishings, might accommodate a dozen
+passengers, if the insufferable heat would permit them to be
+occupied. Each traveler was obliged to supply his own bedding, and
+likewise hammock, unless not too discriminating to use the soiled
+cot provided. Many of those whose affairs necessitated river
+travel--and there was no other mode of reaching the interior--were
+content at night to wrap a light blanket about them and lie down
+under their mosquito nets on the straw mats--_petates_--with which
+every _peon_ goes provided. Of service, there was none that might be
+so designated. A few dirty, half-dressed <DW64> boys from the streets
+of Barranquilla performed the functions of steward, waiting on table
+with unwashed hands, helping to sling hammocks, or assisting with the
+carving of the freshly killed beef on the slippery deck below.
+Accustomed as he had been to the comforts of Rome, and to the less
+elaborate though still adequate accommodations which Cartagena
+afforded, Jose viewed his prison boat with sinking heart. Iron hull,
+and above it the glowing boiler; over this the metal passenger deck;
+and above that the iron roof, upon which the fierce tropical sun
+poured its flaming heat all day; clouds of steam and vapor from
+the hot river enveloping the boat--had the Holy Inquisition itself
+sought to devise the most refined torture for a man of delicate
+sensibilities like Jose de Rincon, it could not have done better than
+send him up the great river at this season and on that miserable
+craft, in company with his own morbid and soul-corroding thoughts.
+
+The day wore on; and late in the evening the Honda docked at the
+pretentious town of Maganguey, the point of transfer for the river
+Cauca. Like the other passengers, from whom he had held himself
+reservedly aloof, Jose gladly seized the opportunity to divert his
+thoughts for a few moments by going ashore. But the moments stretched
+into hours; and when he finally learned that the boat would not leave
+until daybreak, he lapsed into a state of sullen desperation which,
+but for the Rincon stubbornness, would have precipitated him into the
+dark stream. Aimlessly he wandered about the town, avoiding any
+possible _rencontre_ with priests, or with his fellow-passengers, many
+of whom, together with the bacchanalian captain, he saw in the various
+_cantinas_, making merry over rum and the native _anisado_.
+
+The moon rose late, bathing the whitewashed town in a soft sheen and
+covering with its yellow veil the filth and squalor which met the
+priest at every turn as he wandered through its ill-lighted streets.
+Maganguey in plan did not depart from the time-honored custom of the
+Spaniards, who erected their cities by first locating the church, and
+then building the town around it. So long as the church had a good
+location, the rest of the town might shift for itself. Some of the
+better buildings dated from the old colonial period, and had tile
+roofs and red brick floors. Many bore scars received in the
+internecine warfare which has raged in the unhappy country with but
+brief intervals of peace since the days of Spanish occupation. But
+most of the houses were of the typical mud-plastered, palm-thatched
+variety, with dirt floors and scant furniture. Yet even in many of
+these Jose noted pianos and sewing machines, generally of German make,
+at which the housewife was occupied, while naked babes and squealing
+pigs--the latter of scarcely less value than the former--fought for
+places of preferment on the damp and grimy floors.
+
+Wandering, blindly absorbed in thought, into a deserted road which
+branched off from one of the narrow streets on the outskirts of the
+town, Jose stumbled upon a figure crouching in the moonlight. Almost
+before he realized that it was a human being a hand had reached up and
+caught his.
+
+"_Buen Padre!_" came a thick voice from the mass, "for the love of the
+good Virgin, a few _pesos_!"
+
+A beggar--perhaps a bandit! Ah, well; Jose's purse was light--and his
+life of no value. So, recovering from his start, he sought in his
+pockets for some _billetes_. But--yes, he remembered that after
+purchasing his river transportation in Calamar he had carefully put
+his few remaining bills in his trunk.
+
+"_Amigo_, I am sorry, but I have no money with me," he said
+regretfully. "But if you will come to the boat I will gladly give you
+something there."
+
+At this the figure emitted a scream of rage, and broke into a torrent
+of sulphurous oaths. "_Na_, the Saints curse you beggarly priests! You
+have no money, but you rob us poor devils with your lies, and then
+leave us to rot to death!"
+
+"But, _amigo_, did I not say--" began Jose soothingly.
+
+"_Maldito!_" shrilled the figure; "may Joseph and Mary and Jesus curse
+you! A million curses on you, _maldito_!" Pulling itself upward, the
+shapeless thing sank its teeth deep into the priest's hand.
+
+With a cry of pain the startled Jose tore himself loose, his hand
+dripping with blood. At the same time the figure fell over into the
+road and its enveloping rags slipped off, disclosing in the bright
+moonlight a loathsome, distorted face and elephantine limbs, covered
+with festering sores.
+
+"Good God!" cried Jose, recoiling. "A leper!"
+
+Turning swiftly from the hideous object, his brain awhirl with the
+horrible nightmare, the priest fled blindly from the scene. Nauseated,
+quivering with horror, with the obscene ravings of the leper still
+ringing in his ears, he stumbled about the town until daybreak, when
+the boat's shrieking whistle summoned him to embark.
+
+The second day on the river seemed to Jose intolerable, as he shifted
+about the creaking, straining tub to avoid the sun's piercing rays and
+the heat which, drifting back from the hot stack forward, enveloped
+the entire craft. There were but few passengers, some half dozen men
+and two slatternly attired women. Whither they were bound, he knew
+not, nor cared; and, though they saluted him courteously, he
+studiously avoided being drawn into their conversations. The emotional
+appeal of the great river and its forest-lined banks did not at first
+affect him. Yet he sought forgetfulness of self by concentrating his
+thought upon them.
+
+The massed foliage constituted an impenetrable wall on either side.
+Everywhere his eyes met a maze of _lianas_, creeping plants, begonias,
+and bizarre vegetable forms, shapes and hues of which he had never
+before had any adequate conception. Often he caught the glint of
+great, rare butterflies hovering in the early sunlight which filtered
+through the interlaced fronds and branches. Often when the boat hugged
+the bank he saw indescribable buds and blossoms, and multicolored
+orchids clinging to the drooping _bejucos_ which festooned the
+enormous trees. As the afternoon waned and the sun hung low, the magic
+stillness of the solitude began to cast its spell about him, and he
+could imagine that he was penetrating a fairy-land. The vast stream,
+winding, broadening, ramifying round wooded islets, throwing out long,
+dusky lagoons and swampy arms, incessantly plying its numberless
+activities, at length held him enraptured. As he brooded over it all,
+his thought wandered back to the exploits of the intrepid Quesada and
+his stalwart band who, centuries before, had forced their perilous way
+along this same river, amid showers of poisoned arrows from hostile
+natives, amid the assaults of tropical storms and malarial fevers, to
+the plateau of Cundinamarca, the home of the primitive Muiscas; and
+there gathering fresh strength and inspiration, had pushed on to the
+site of Santa Fe de Bogota.
+
+A cry suddenly rang through the boat. "Man overboard!"
+
+The clang of the pilot's bell stopped the clumsy craft; but not before
+the ragged little <DW64> boy who had served at Jose's table as steward
+had been swept far away by the rapid current.
+
+The utmost confusion immediately prevailed. Every one of the rabble
+rout of stokers, stewards, and stevedores lost his wits and set up a
+frenzied yell. Some who remembered that there was such a thing, tore
+at the ropes which held the single lifeboat. But the boat had been put
+on for appearance's sake, not for service, and successfully resisted
+all efforts at removal. No one dared risk his life in attempted
+rescue, for the river swarmed with crocodiles. There was vain racing,
+counseling and gesticulating; but at length, the first wave of
+excitement over, passengers and crew settled down to watch the outcome
+of the boy's struggle for life, while the pilot endeavored to turn the
+unwieldy steamer about.
+
+"Now is the time to put up a prayer for the youngster, Padre," said a
+voice behind Jose.
+
+The priest turned. The speaker was evidently a native Colombian. Jose
+had noticed him on the boat when he embarked at Calamar, and surmised
+that he had probably come up from Barranquilla.
+
+"An excellent opportunity to try the merits of a prayer to the Virgin,
+no? If she can fish us out of purgatory she ought to pull this boy out
+of the river, eh?" continued the speaker with a cynical smile.
+
+"I would rather trust to a canoe and a pair of stout arms than a
+prayer at present," returned Jose with candor.
+
+"_Corriente!_" replied the man; "my way of thinking, exactly! But if I
+had a good rifle now I'd put that little fellow out of his misery, for
+he's going down, sure!"
+
+It was not unkindly said; and Jose appreciated the man's rude
+sentiment. Minutes passed in strained silence.
+
+"_Hombre!_" cried the man. "He's going!"
+
+The lad was evidently weakening. The rapid, swirling current
+continually frustrated his efforts to reach the shore. Again the head
+went under.
+
+"_Dios!_" Jose exclaimed. "Is there no help?"
+
+Jesus had walked the waves. Yet here his earthly representative,
+trained in all the learning and culture of Holy Church to be an _Alter
+Christus_, stood helplessly by and watched a child drown! God above!
+what avail religious creed and churchly dogma? How impotent the
+beliefs of men in such an hour! Could the Holy Father himself, with
+all his assumptions, spiritual and temporal--with all his power to
+loose from sin and from the imaginary torments of purgatory--save this
+drowning boy?
+
+Jose turned away in bitterness of heart. As he did so a murmur of awe
+arose from the spectators. The priest looked again down the river.
+Impelled from below, the body of the boy was hurled out of the water.
+Then, as it fell, it disappeared.
+
+"_Cayman!_" gasped the horrified crew.
+
+Jose stood spellbound, as the ghastly truth dawned upon him. A
+crocodile, gliding beneath the struggling lad, had tossed him upward,
+and caught him in its loathsome jaws when he fell. Then it had dragged
+him beneath the yellow waters, where he was seen no more.
+
+Life is held cheaply by the Magdalena <DW64>--excepting his own.
+Shiftless and improvident child of the tropics, his animal wants
+are readily satisfied by the fruits and fish which nature provides
+for him so bountifully. Spiritual wants he has none--until calamity
+touches him and he thinks he is about to die. Then witchcraft, charm,
+incantation, the priest--anything that promises help is hurriedly
+pressed into requisition to prolong his useless existence. If he
+recovers, he forgets it all as hurriedly. The tragedy which had
+just been enacted before the Honda's crew produced a ripple of
+excitement--a momentary stirring of emotion--and was then speedily
+forgotten, while the boat turned and drove its way up-stream against
+the muddy waters.
+
+But Jose could not forget. Nature had endowed him with a memory which
+recorded as minutely and as lastingly as the phonographic cylinder.
+The violent death of the boy haunted him, and mingled with the
+recurrent memories of the sad passing of the little Maria, and his own
+bitter life experience. Oh, the mystery of it all! The tragedy of
+life! The sudden blighting of hopes! The ruthless crushing of hearts!
+What did it mean? Did this infinite variety of good and evil which we
+call life unite to manifest an infinite Creator? Nay, for then were
+God more wicked than the lowest sinner! Was evil as real as good, and
+more powerful? Yes. Did love and the soul's desire to be and do good
+count for nothing in the end? No; for the end is death--always death!
+And after that--who knows?
+
+"We are coming to Banco, Padre," said the man who had addressed Jose
+before, rousing him from his doleful meditations and pointing to the
+lights of the distant town, now shimmering through the gathering
+dusk.
+
+As the boat with shrilly shrieking whistle drew near the landing, a
+crowd hurriedly gathered on the bank to receive it. Venders of guava
+jelly, rude pottery, and straw mats hastily spread out their
+merchandise on the muddy ground and began to dilate loudly on their
+merits. A scantily clad man held aloft a rare leopard skin, which he
+vigorously offered for two _pesos_ gold. Slatternly women, peddling
+queer delectables of uncertain composition, waved their thin, bare
+arms and shrilly advertised their wares. Black, naked children bobbed
+excitedly about; and gaunt dogs and shrieking pigs scampered
+recklessly through the crowd and added to the general confusion. Here
+and there Jose could see dignified looking men, dressed in white
+cotton, and wearing straw--_jipijapa_--hats. These were merchants,
+patiently awaiting consignments which they had perhaps ordered months
+before. Crazy, ramshackle dwellings, perched unsteadily upon long,
+slender stilts, rose from the water's edge; but substantial brick
+buildings of fair size, with red-tile roofs and whitewashed walls,
+mingled at intervals with the thatched mud huts and rude hovels
+farther within the town. In a distant doorway he descried a woman
+nursing a babe at one breast and a suckling pig at the other.
+Convention is rigid in these Colombian river towns; but it is widely
+inclusive.
+
+"Come ashore with me, Padre, and forget what is worrying you," said
+Jose's new acquaintance, taking him by the arm. "I have friends
+here--_Hola!_ Padre Diego Guillermo!" he suddenly called, catching
+sight of a black-frocked priest standing in the crowd on the shore.
+
+The priest addressed, a short, stout, coarse-featured man of perhaps
+forty, waved back a vigorous salutation.
+
+"_Hombre!_" the man ejaculated, holding Jose's arm and starting down
+the gangplank. "What new deviltry is the rogue up to now!"
+
+The man and the priest addressed as Diego embraced warmly.
+
+"Padre Diego Guillermo Polo, I have the extreme honor to present my
+friend, the eminent Padre--" ceremoniously waving a hand toward Jose.
+
+"Jose de Rincon," supplied the latter, bowing.
+
+"Rincon!" murmured the priest Diego. Then, abruptly, "Of Cartagena?"
+
+"Yes," returned Jose, with awakened interest.
+
+"Not of Don Ignacio--?"
+
+"My grandfather," Jose replied promptly, and with a touch of pride.
+
+"Ha! he owned much property--many _fincas_--about here; and farther
+west, in the Guamoco country, many mines, eh, Don Jorge?" exchanging a
+significant look with the latter.
+
+"But," he added, glancing at the perspiring Honda, "this old tub is
+going to hang up here for the night. So do me the honor, senores, to
+visit my little cell, and we will fight the cursed mosquitoes over a
+sip of red rum. I have some of very excellent quality."
+
+Jose and Don Jorge bowed their acquiescence and followed him up the
+muddy road. The cell referred to consisted of a suite of several
+rooms, commodiously furnished, and looking out from the second story
+of one of the better colonial houses of the town upon a richly
+blooming interior _patio_. As the visitors entered, a comely young
+woman who had just lighted an oil-burning "student" lamp and placed it
+upon the center table, disappeared into one of the more remote rooms.
+
+"My niece," said the priest Diego, winking at Don Jorge as he set out
+cigars and a _garrafon_ of Jamaica rum. "I have ordered a case of
+American beer," he continued, lighting a cigar. "But that was two
+months ago, and it hasn't arrived yet. _Diablo!_ but the good _medico_
+tells me I drink too much rum for this very Christian climate."
+
+Don Jorge swept the place with an appraising glance. "H'm," he
+commented, as he poured himself a liberal libation from the
+_garrafon_. "The Lord surely provides for His faithful children."
+
+"Yes, the Lord, that's right," laughed Padre Diego; "still I am daily
+rendering no small thanks to His Grace, Don Wenceslas, future Bishop
+of Cartagena."
+
+"And eminent services into the bargain, I'll venture," added Don
+Jorge.
+
+Padre Diego's eyes twinkled merrily. Jose started. Then even in this
+remote town the artful Wenceslas maintained his agent!
+
+"But our friend is neither drinking nor smoking," said Padre Diego,
+turning inquiringly to Jose, who had left his glass untouched.
+
+"With your permission," replied the latter; "I do not use liquor or
+tobacco."
+
+"Nor women either, eh?" laughed Padre Diego. "_Por Dios!_ what is it
+the Dutchman says?
+
+               'Wer nicht liebt Wein, Weib und Gesang,
+               Der bleibt ein Narr sein Lebenlang.'
+
+"_Caramba!_ but my German has all slipped from me."
+
+"Don't worry," commented Don Jorge cynically; "for I'll wager it took
+nothing good with it."
+
+"_Hombre!_ but you are hard on a loyal servant of the Lord," exclaimed
+Padre Diego in a tone of mock injury, as he drained another glass of
+the fiery liquor.
+
+"Servant of the Lord!" guffawed Don Jorge. "Of the Lord Pope, Lord
+Wenceslas, or the Lord God, may we ask?"
+
+"_Que chiste!_ Why, stupid, all three. I do not put all my eggs into
+one basket, however large. But tell me, now," he inquired, turning the
+conversation from himself, "what is it brings you into this region
+forsaken of the gods?"
+
+"_Sepulcros_," Don Jorge briefly announced.
+
+"Ha! Indian graves again! But have you abandoned your quest of _La
+Tumba del Diablo_, in the Sinu valley?"
+
+"Naturally, since the records show that it was opened centuries ago.
+And I spent a good year's search on it, too! _Dios!_ They say it
+yielded above thirty thousand _pesos_ gold."
+
+"_Diablo!_"
+
+"But I am on the track of others. I go now to Medellin; then to
+Remedios; and there outfit for a trip of grave hunting through the old
+Guamoco district."
+
+"Guamoco! Then you will naturally come down the Simiti trail, which
+brings you out to the Magdalena."
+
+"Simiti?" interrupted Jose eagerly, turning to the speaker. "Do you
+know the place?"
+
+"Somewhat!" replied Padre Diego, laughing. "I had charge of that
+parish for a few months--"
+
+"But found it highly convenient to leave, no?" finished the merciless
+Don Jorge.
+
+"_Caramba!_ Would you have me die of _ennui_ in such a hell-hole?"
+cried Diego with some aspersion.
+
+"Hell-hole!" echoed Jose. "Is it so bad as that?"
+
+"_Hombre!_ Yes--worse! They say that after the good Lord created
+heaven and earth He had a few handfuls of dirt left, and these He
+threw away. But crafty Satan, always with an eye single to going the
+Lord one better, slyly gathered this dirt together again and made
+Simiti." Diego quickly finished another glass of rum, as if he would
+drown the memory of the town.
+
+Jose's heart slowly sank under the words.
+
+"But why do you ask? You are not going there?" Padre Diego inquired.
+Jose nodded an affirmative.
+
+"_Diablo!_ Assigned?"
+
+"Yes," in a voice scarcely audible.
+
+The Padre whistled softly. "Then in that case," he said, brightening,
+"we are brother sinners. So let us exchange confidences. What was your
+crime, if one may ask?"
+
+"Crime!" exclaimed Jose in amazement.
+
+"Aye; who was she? Rich? Beautiful? Native? Or foreign? Come, the
+story. We have a long night before us." And the coarse fellow settled
+back expectantly in his chair.
+
+Jose paled. "What do you mean?" he asked in a trembling voice.
+
+"_Caramba!_" returned the Padre impatiently. "You surely know that no
+respectable priest is ever sent to Simiti! That it is the good
+Bishop's penal colony for fallen clergy--and, I may add, the refuge of
+political offenders of this and adjacent countries. Why, the present
+schoolmaster there is a political outcast from Salvador!"
+
+"No, I did not know it," replied Jose.
+
+"_Por Dios!_ Then you are being jobbed, _amigo_! Did Don Wenceslas
+give you letters to the Alcalde?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And--by the way, has Wenceslas been misbehaving of late?--for when he
+does, somebody other than himself has to settle the score."
+
+Jose remained silent.
+
+"Ah," mused Diego, "but Don Wenceslas is artful. And yet, I think I
+see the direction of his trained hand in this." Then he burst into a
+rude laugh. "Come, _amigo_," he said, noting Jose's dejected mien;
+"let us have your story. We may be able to advise. And we've had
+experience--eh, Don Jorge?"
+
+But Jose slowly shook his head. What mattered it now? Simiti would
+serve as well to bury him as any other tomb. He knew he was sent as a
+lamb to the slaughter. But it was his affair--and his God's. Honor and
+conscience had presented the score; and he was paying in full. His was
+not a story to be bandied about by lewd priests like Padre Diego.
+
+"No," he replied to the Padre's insistent solicitations; "with your
+permission, we will talk of it no more."
+
+"But--_Hombre_!" cried the Padre at last, in his coarse way stirred by
+Jose's evident truthfulness. "Well--as you wish--I will not pry into
+your secrets. But, take a bit of counsel from one who knows: when you
+reach Simiti, inquire for a man who hates me, one Rosendo Ariza--"
+
+At this juncture the Honda's diabolical whistle pierced the murky
+night air.
+
+"_Caramba!_" cried Don Jorge, starting up. "Are they going to try the
+river to-night?" And the men hurried back to the landing.
+
+The moon was up, and the boat was getting under way. Padre Diego went
+aboard to take leave of his friends.
+
+"_Bien, amigo_," he said to Don Jorge; "I am sorry your stay is so
+short. I had much to tell you. Interesting developments are forward,
+and I hope you are well out of Guamoco when the trouble starts. For
+the rivals of Antioquia and Simiti will pay off a few scores in the
+next revolution--a few left over from the last; and it would be well
+not to get caught between them when they come together."
+
+"And so it is coming?" said Don Jorge thoughtfully.
+
+"Coming! _Hombre!_ It is all but here! The Hercules went up-river
+yesterday. You will pass her. She has gone to keep a look-out in the
+vicinity of Puerto Berrio. I am sorry for our friend," nodding toward
+Jose, who was leaning over the boat's rail at some distance; "but
+there is a job there. He doesn't belong in this country. And Simiti
+will finish him."
+
+"Bah! only another priest less--and a weak-kneed one at that," said
+Don Jorge with contempt; "and we have too many of them now, Lord
+knows!"
+
+"You forget that I am a priest," chuckled Diego.
+
+"You! Yes, so you are," laughed Don Jorge; "but of the diocese of
+hell! Well, we're off. I'll send a runner down the trail when I reach
+the Tigui river; and if you will have a letter in Simiti informing me
+of the status of things political, he can bring it up. _Conque_,
+_adios_, my consummate villain."
+
+The Honda, whistling prodigiously, swung out into mid-stream and set
+her course up-river, warily feeling through the velvety darkness for
+the uncertain channel. Once she grated over a hidden bar and hung for
+a few moments, while her stack vomited torrents of sparks and her
+great wheel angrily churned the water into creamy foam in the clear
+moonlight. Once, rounding a sharp bend, she collided squarely with a
+huge mahogany tree, rolling and plunging menacingly in the seaward
+rushing waters.
+
+"_Diablo!_" muttered Don Jorge, as he helped Jose swing his hammock
+and adjust the mosquito netting. "I shall offer a candle a foot thick
+to the blessed Virgin if I reach Puerto Berrio safely! _Santo Dios!_"
+as the boat grazed another sand bar. "I've heard tell of steamers
+hanging up on bars in this river for six weeks! And look!" pointing to
+the projecting smoke-stack of a sunken steamer. "_Caramba!_ That is
+what we just escaped!"
+
+But Jose manifested slight interest in the dangers of river
+navigation. His thoughts were revolving about the incidents of the
+past few days, and, more especially, about Padre Diego and his
+significant words. Don Jorge had volunteered no further explanation of
+the man or his conversation; and Jose's reticence would not permit him
+to make other inquiry. But, after all, his thought-processes always
+evolved the same conclusion: What mattered it now? His interest in
+life was at an end. He had not told Don Jorge of his experience with
+the leper in Maganguey. He was trying to forget it. But his hand ached
+cruelly; and the pain was always associated with loathsome and
+repellant thoughts of the event.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+The eastern sky was blushing at the approach of the amorous sun when
+Jose left his hammock and prepared to endure another day on the river.
+To the south the deep blue vault of heaven was dotted with downy
+clouds. Behind the laboring steamer the river glittered through a
+dazzling white haze. Ahead, its course was traceable for miles by the
+thin vapor always rising from it. The jungle on either side was
+brilliant with color and resonant with the songs of forest lyrists. In
+the lofty fronds of venerable palms and cedars noisy macaws gossiped
+and squabbled, and excited monkeys discussed the passing boat and
+commented volubly on its character. In the shallow water at the margin
+of the river blue herons and spindle-legged cranes were searching out
+their morning meal. Crocodiles lay dozing on the _playas_, with mouths
+opened invitingly to the stupid birds which were sure to yield to the
+mesmerism. Far in the distance up-stream a young deer was drinking at
+the water's edge.
+
+The charm of the rare scene held the priest spellbound. As he gazed
+upon it a king vulture--called by the natives the Vulture Papa, or
+Pope Vulture--suddenly swooped down from the depths of heaven and,
+lighting upon the carcass of a monster crocodile floating down the
+river, began to feast upon the choicest morsels, while the buzzards
+which had been circling about the carrion and feeding at will
+respectfully withdrew until the royal appetite should be satiated.
+
+"Holy graft, eh, Padre?" commented Don Jorge, coming up. "Those
+brainless buzzards, if they only knew it and had sense enough to
+unite, could strip every feather off that swaggering vulture and send
+him packing. Fools! And we poor Colombians, if we had the courage,
+could as easily throw the Church into the sea, holy candles, holy
+oils, holy incense and all! _Diablo!_ But we are fleeced like sheep!"
+
+To Jose it did not seem strange that this man should speak so frankly
+to him, a priest. He felt that Don Jorge was not so much lacking in
+courtesy and delicate respect for the feelings and opinions of others
+as he was ruggedly honest and fearlessly sincere in his hatred of the
+dissimulation and graft practiced upon the ignorant and unsuspecting.
+For the rest of the day Don Jorge was busy with his maps and papers,
+and Jose was left to himself.
+
+The character of the landscape had altered with the narrowing of the
+stream, and the river-plain now lay in a great volcanic basin flanked
+by distant verdure-clad hills. Far to the southwest Jose could see the
+faint outlines of the lofty _Cordilleras_. Somewhere in that direction
+lay Simiti. And back of it lay the ancient treasure house of Spain,
+where countless thousands of sweating slaves had worn out their
+straining bodies under the goad and lash, that the monarchs of Castile
+might carry on their foolish religious wars and attempt their vain
+projects of self-aggrandizement.
+
+The day wore on without interest, and darkness closed in quickly when
+the sun dropped behind the _Sierras_. It was to be Jose's last night
+on the Magdalena, for the captain had told him that, barring disaster,
+the next afternoon should find them at Badillo. After the evening meal
+the priest took his chair to the bow of the steamer and gave himself
+over to the gentle influences of the rare and soothing environment.
+The churning of the boat was softly echoed by the sleeping forest. The
+late moon shimmered through clouds of murky vapor, and cast ghostly
+reflections along the broad river. The balmy air, trembling with the
+radiating heat, was impregnated with sweetest odors from the myriad
+buds and balsamic plants of the dark jungle wilderness on either hand,
+where impervious walls rose in majestic, deterrant, awesome silence
+from the low shore line, and tangled shrubs and bushes, rioting in
+wild profusion, jealously hung to the water's edge that they might
+hide every trace of the muddy banks. What shapes and forms the black
+depths of that untrodden bush hid from his eyes, Jose might only
+imagine. But he felt their presence--crawling, creeping things that
+lay in patient ambush for their unwitting prey--slimy lizards,
+gorgeously caparisoned--dank, twisting serpents--elephantine
+tapirs--dull-witted sloths--sleek, wary jaguars--fierce formicidae,
+poisonous and carnivorous. He might not see them, but he felt that he
+was the cynosure of hundreds of keen eyes that followed him as the
+boat glided close to the shore and silently crept through the shadows
+which lay thick upon the river's edge. And the matted jungle, with its
+colossal vegetation, he felt was peopled with other things--influences
+intangible, and perhaps still unreal, but mightily potent with the
+symbolized presence of the great Unknown, which stands back of all
+phenomena and eagerly watches the movements of its children. These
+influences had already cast their spell upon him. He was yielding,
+slowly, to the "lure of the tropics," which few who come under its
+attachment ever find the strength to dispel.
+
+No habitations were visible on the dark shores. Only here and there in
+the yellow glow of the boat's lanterns appeared the customary piles
+of wood which the natives sell to the passing steamers for boiler
+fuel, and which are found at frequent intervals along the river. At
+one of these the Honda halted to replenish its supply. The usual
+bickering between the <DW64> owner and the boat captain resulted in a
+bargain, and the half-naked stevedores began to transfer the wood to
+the vessel, carrying it on their shoulders in the most primitive
+manner, held in a strip of burlap. The rising moon had at last thrown
+off its veil of murky clouds, and was shining in undimmed splendor in
+a starry sky. Jose went ashore with the passengers; for the boat might
+remain there for hours while her crew labored leisurely, with much
+bantering and singing, and no anxious thought for the morrow.
+
+The strumming of a _tiple_ in the distance attracted him. Following
+it, he found a small settlement of bamboo huts hidden away in a
+beautiful grove of moriche palms, through which the moonbeams filtered
+in silvery stringers. Little gardens lay back of the dwellings, and
+the usual number of goats and pigs were dozing in the heavy shadows of
+the scarcely stirring trees. Reserved matrons and shy _doncellas_
+appeared in the doorways; and curious children, naked and chubby, hid
+in their mothers' scant skirts and peeped cautiously out at the
+newcomers. The tranquil night was sweet with delicate odors wafted
+from numberless plants and blossoms in the adjacent forest, and with
+the fragrance breathed from the roses, gardenias and dahlias with
+which these unpretentious dwellings were fairly embowered. A spirit of
+calm and peaceful contentment hovered over the spot, and the round,
+white moon smiled down in holy benediction upon the gentle folk who
+passed their simple lives in this bower of delight, free from the goad
+of human ambition, untrammeled by the false sense of wealth and its
+entailments, and unspoiled by the artificialities of civilization.
+
+One of the passengers suggested a dance, while waiting for the boat to
+take on its fuel. The owner of the wood, apparently the chief
+authority of the little settlement, immediately procured a _tom-tom_,
+and gave orders for the _baile_. At his direction men, women and
+children gathered in the moonlit clearing on the river bank and, while
+the musician beat a monotonous tattoo on the crude drum, circled about
+in the stately and dignified movements of their native dance.
+
+It was a picture that Jose would not forget. The balmy air, soft as
+velvet, and laden with delicious fragrance; the vast solitude,
+stretching in trackless wilderness to unknown reaches on either hand;
+the magic stillness of the tropic night; the figures of the dancers
+weirdly silhouetted in the gorgeous moonlight; with the low, unvaried
+beat of the _tom-tom_ rising dully through the warm air--all merged
+into a scene of exquisite beauty and delight, which made an indelible
+impression upon the priest's receptive mind.
+
+And when the sounds of simple happiness had again died into silence,
+and he lay in his hammock, listening to the spirit of the jungle
+sighing through the night-blown palms, as the boat glided gently
+through the lights and shadows of the quiet river, his soul voiced a
+nameless yearning, a vague, unformed longing for an approach to the
+life of simple content and child-like happiness of the kind and gentle
+folk with whom he had been privileged to make this brief sojourn.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+The crimson flush of the dawn-sky heralded another day of implacable
+heat. The emerald coronals of palms and towering _caobas_ burned in
+the early beams of the torrid sun. Light fogs rose reluctantly from
+the river's bosom and dispersed in delicate vapors of opal and violet.
+The tangled banks of dripping bush shone freshly green in the misty
+light. The wilderness, grim and trenchant, reigned in unchallenged
+despotism. Solitude, soul-oppressing, unbroken but for the calls of
+feathered life, brooded over the birth of Jose's last day on the
+Magdalena. About midday the steamer touched at the little village of
+Bodega Central; but the iron-covered warehouse and the whitewashed mud
+hovels glittered garishly in the fierce heat and stifled all desire to
+go ashore. The call was brief, and the boat soon resumed its course
+through the solitude and heat of the mighty river.
+
+Immediately after leaving Bodega Central, Don Jorge approached Jose
+and beckoned him to an unoccupied corner of the boat.
+
+"_Amigo_," he began, after assuring himself that his words would not
+carry to the other passengers, "the captain tells me the next stop is
+Badillo, where you leave us. If all goes well you will be in Simiti
+to-night. No doubt a report of our meeting with Padre Diego has
+already reached Don Wenceslas, who, you may be sure, has no thought of
+forgetting you. I have no reason to tell you this other than the fact
+that I think, as Padre Diego put it, you are being jobbed--not by the
+Church, but by Wenceslas. I want to warn you, that is all. I hate
+priests! They got me early--got my wife and girl, too! I hate the
+Church, and the whole ghastly farce which it puts over on the ignorant
+people of this country! But--," eying him sharply, "I would hardly
+class you as a _real_ priest. There, never mind!" as Jose was about to
+interrupt. "I think I understand. You simply went wrong. You meant
+well, but something happened--as always does when one means well in
+this world. But now to the point."
+
+Shifting his chair closer to Jose, the man resumed earnestly.
+
+"Your grandfather, Don Ignacio, was a very rich man. The war stripped
+him. He got just what he deserved. His _fincas_ and herds and mines
+melted away from him like grease from a holy candle. And nobody
+cared--any more than the Lord cares about candle grease. Most of his
+property fell into the hands of his former slaves--and he had hundreds
+of them hereabouts. But his most valuable possession, the great mine
+of La Libertad, disappeared as completely as if blotted from the face
+of the earth.
+
+"That mine--no, not a mine, but a mountain of free gold--was located
+somewhere in the Guamoco district. After the war this whole country
+slipped back into the jungle, and had to be rediscovered. The Guamoco
+region is to-day as unknown as it was before the Spaniards came.
+Somewhere in the district, but covered deep beneath brush and forest
+growth, is that mine, the richest in Colombia.
+
+"Now, as you know, Don Ignacio left this country in considerable of a
+hurry. But I think he always intended to come back again. Death killed
+that ambition. I don't know about his sons. But the fact remains that
+La Libertad has never been rediscovered since Don Ignacio's day. The
+old records in Cartagena show the existence of such a mine in Spanish
+times, and give a more or less accurate statement of its production.
+_Diablo_! I hesitate to say how much! The old fellow had _arrastras_,
+mills, and so on, in which slaves crushed the ore. The bullion was
+melted into bars and brought down the trail to Simiti, where he had
+agents and warehouses and a store or two. From there it was shipped
+down the river to Cartagena. But the war lasted thirteen years. And
+during that time everything was in a state of terrible confusion. The
+existence of mines was forgotten. The plantations were left unworked.
+The male population was all but killed off. And the country sank back
+into wilderness.
+
+"_Bueno_; so much for history. Now to your friends on the coast--and
+elsewhere. Don Wenceslas is quietly searching for that mine--has been
+for years. He put his agent, Padre Diego, in Simiti to learn what he
+might there. But the fool priest was run out after he had ruined a
+woman or two. However, Padre Diego is still in close touch with the
+town, and is on the keen search for La Libertad. Wenceslas thinks
+there may be descendants of some of Don Ignacio's old slaves still
+living in Simiti, or near there, and that they know the location of
+the lost mine. And, if I mistake not, he figures that you will learn
+the secret from them in some way, and that the mine will again come to
+light. Now, if you get wind of that mine and attempt to locate it, or
+purchase it from the natives, you will be beaten out of it in a hurry.
+And you may be sure Don Wenceslas will be the one who will eventually
+have it, for there is no craftier, smoother, brighter rascal in
+Colombia than he. And so, take it from me, if you ever get wind of the
+location of that famous property--which by rights is yours, having
+belonged to your grandfather--_keep the information strictly to
+yourself_!
+
+"I do not know Simiti. But I shall be working in the Guamoco district
+for many months to come, hunting Indian graves. I shall have my
+runners up and down the Simiti trail frequently, and may get in touch
+with you. It may be that you will need a friend. There! The boat is
+whistling for Badillo. A last word: Keep out of the way of both
+Wenceslas and Diego--cultivate the people of Simiti--and keep your
+mouth closed."
+
+A few minutes later Jose stood on the river bank beside his little
+haircloth trunk and traveling bag, sadly watching the steamer draw
+away and resume her course up-stream. He watched it until it
+disappeared around a bend. And then he stood watching the smoke rise
+above the treetops, until that, too, faded in the distance. No one had
+waved him a farewell from the boat. No one met him with a greeting of
+welcome on the shore. He was a stranger among strangers.
+
+He turned, with a heavy heart, to note his environment. It was a
+typical riverine point. A single street, if it might be so called; a
+half dozen bamboo dwellings, palm-thatched; and a score of natives,
+with their innumerable gaunt dogs and porcine companions--this was
+Badillo.
+
+"_Senor Padre._" A tall, finely built native, clad in soiled white
+cotton shirt and trousers, approached and addressed him in a kindly
+tone. "Where do you go?"
+
+"To Simiti," replied the priest, turning eagerly to the man. "But," in
+bewilderment, "where is it?"
+
+"Over there," answered the native, pointing to the jungle on the far
+side of the river. "Many leagues."
+
+The wearied priest sat down on his trunk and buried his face in his
+hands. Faintness and nausea seized him. It was the after-effect of his
+long and difficult river experience. Or, perhaps, the deadly malaria
+was beginning its insidious poisoning. The man approached and laid a
+hand on his shoulder.
+
+"Padre, why do you go to Simiti?"
+
+Jose raised his head and looked more closely at his interlocutor. The
+native was a man of perhaps sixty years. His figure was that of an
+athlete. He stood well over six feet high, with massive shoulders, and
+a waist as slender as a woman's. His face was almost black in color,
+and mottled with patches of white, so common to the natives of the hot
+inlands. But there was that in its expression, a something that
+looked out through those kindly black eyes, that assured Jose and
+bespoke his confidence.
+
+The man gravely repeated his question.
+
+"I have been sent there by the Bishop of Cartagena. I am to have
+charge of the parish," Jose replied.
+
+The man slowly shook his finely shaped head.
+
+"We want no priest in Simiti," he said with quiet firmness. His manner
+of speaking was abrupt, yet not ungracious.
+
+"But--do you live there?" inquired Jose anxiously.
+
+"Yes, Padre."
+
+"Then you must know a man--Rosendo, I think his name--"
+
+"I am Rosendo Ariza."
+
+Jose looked eagerly at the man. Then he wearily stretched out a hand.
+
+"Rosendo--I am sick--I think. And--I have--no friends--"
+
+Rosendo quickly grasped his hand and slipped an arm about his
+shoulders.
+
+"I am your friend, Padre--" He stopped and appeared to reflect for a
+moment. Then he added quickly, "My canoe is ready; and we must hurry,
+or night will overtake us."
+
+The priest essayed to rise, but stumbled. Then, as if he had been a
+child, the man Rosendo picked him up and carried him down the bank to
+a rude canoe, where he deposited him on a pile of empty bags in the
+keel.
+
+"Escolastico!" he called back to a young man who seemed to be the
+chief character of the village. "Sell the _panela_ and yuccas _a buen
+precio_; and remind Captain Julio not to forget on the next trip to
+bring the little Carmen a doll from Barranquilla. I will be over again
+next month. And Juan," addressing the sturdy youth who was preparing
+to accompany him, "set in the Padre's baggage; and do you take the
+paddle, and I will pole. _Conque, adioscito!_" waving his battered
+straw hat to the natives congregated on the bank, while Juan pushed
+the canoe from the shore and paddled vigorously out into the river.
+
+"_Adioscito! adioscito! Don Rosendo y Juan!_" The hearty farewells of
+the natives followed the canoe far out into the broad stream.
+
+Across the open river in the livid heat of the early afternoon the
+canoe slowly made its way. The sun from a cloudless sky viciously
+poured down its glowing rays like molten metal. The boat burned; the
+river steamed; the water was hot to his touch, when the priest feebly
+dipped his hands into it and bathed his throbbing brow. Badillo faded
+from view as they rounded a densely wooded island and entered a long
+lagoon. Here they lost the slight breeze which they had had on the
+main stream. In this narrow channel, hemmed in between lofty forest
+walls of closely woven vines and foliage, it seemed to Jose that they
+had entered a flaming inferno. The two boatmen sat silent and
+inscrutable, plying their paddles without speaking.
+
+Down the long lagoon the canoe drifted, keeping within what scant
+shade the banks afforded, for the sun stood now directly overhead. The
+heat was everywhere, insistent, unpitying. It burned, scalded, warped.
+The foliage on either side of the channel merged into the hot waves
+that rose trembling about them. The thin, burning air enveloped the
+little craft with fire. Jose gasped for breath. His tongue swelled.
+His pulse throbbed violently. His skin cracked. The quivering
+appearance of the atmosphere robbed him of confidence in his own
+vision. A cloud of insects hung always before his sight. Dead silence
+lay upon the scene. Not a sound issued from the jungle. Not a bird or
+animal betrayed its presence. The canoe was edging the Colombian
+"hells," where even the denizens of the forest dare not venture forth
+on the low, open _savannas_ in the killing heat of midday.
+
+Jose sank down in the boat, wilting and semi-delirious. Through his
+dimmed eyes the boatman looked like glowing inhuman things set in
+flames. Rosendo came to him and placed his straw hat over his face.
+Hours, interminable and torturing, seemed to pass on leaden wings.
+Then Juan, deftly swerving his paddle, shot the canoe into a narrow
+arm, and the garish sunlight was suddenly lost in the densely
+intertwined branches overhanging the little stream.
+
+"The outlet of _La Cienaga_, Padre," Rosendo offered, laying aside his
+paddle and taking his long boat pole. "Lake Simiti flows through this
+and into the Magdalena." For a few moments he held the canoe steady,
+while from his wallet he drew a few leaves of tobacco and deftly
+rolled a long, thick cigar.
+
+The real work of the _boga_ now began, and Rosendo with his long
+punter settled down to the several hours' strenuous grind which was
+necessary to force the heavy canoe up the little outlet and into the
+distant lake beyond. Back and forth he traveled through the
+half-length of the boat, setting the pole well forward in the soft
+bank, or out into the stream itself, and then, with its end against
+his shoulder, urging and teasing the craft a few feet at a time
+against the strong current. Jose imagined, as he dully watched him,
+that he could see death in the pestiferous effluvia which emanated
+from the black, slimy mud which every plunge of the long pole brought
+to the surface of the narrow stream.
+
+The afternoon slowly waned, and the temperature lowered a few degrees.
+A warm, animal-like breath drifted languidly out from the moist
+jungle. The outlet, or _cano_, was heavily shaded throughout its
+length. Crocodiles lay along its muddy banks, and slid into the water
+at the approach of the canoe. Huge _iguanas_, the gorgeously 
+lizards of tropical America, scurried noisily through the overarching
+branches. Here and there monkeys peeped curiously at the intruders and
+chattered excitedly as they swung among the lofty treetops. But for
+his exhaustion, Jose, as he lay propped up against his trunk, gazing
+vacantly upon the slowly unrolling panorama of marvelous plant and
+animal life on either hand, might have imagined himself in a realm of
+enchantment.
+
+At length the vegetation abruptly ceased; the stream widened; and the
+canoe entered a broad lake, at the far end of which, three miles
+distant, its two whitewashed churches and its plastered houses
+reflecting the red glow of the setting sun, lay the ancient and
+decayed town of Simiti, the northern outlet of Spain's mediaeval
+treasure house, at the edge of the forgotten district of Guamoco.
+
+Paddling gently across the unruffled surface of the tepid waters,
+Rosendo and Juan silently urged the canoe through the fast gathering
+dusk, and at length drew up on the shaly beach of the old town. As
+they did so, a little girl, bare of feet and with clustering brown
+curls, came running out of the darkness.
+
+"Oh, padre Rosendo," she called, "what have you brought me?"
+
+Then, as she saw Rosendo and Juan assisting the priest from the boat,
+she drew back abashed.
+
+"Look, Carmencita," whispered Juan to the little maid; "we've brought
+you a _big_ doll, haven't we?"
+
+Night fell as the priest stepped upon the shore of his new home.
+
+
+
+
+CARMEN ARIZA
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 2
+
+
+  Ay, to save and redeem and restore, snatch Saul, the mistake,
+  Saul, the failure, the ruin he seems now,--and bid him awake from
+  the dream, the probation, the prelude, to find himself set clear
+  and safe in new light and new life,--a new harmony yet to be run
+  and continued and ended.
+
+                                                       --_Browning._
+
+
+
+
+CARMEN ARIZA
+
+CHAPTER 1
+
+
+Jose de Rincon opened his eyes and turned painfully on his hard bed.
+The early sun streamed through the wooden grating before the unglazed
+window. A slight, tepid breeze stirred the mosquito netting over him.
+He was in the single sleeping room of the house. It contained another
+bed like his own, of rough _macana_ palm strips, over which lay a
+straw mat and a thin red blanket. Bed springs were unknown in Simiti.
+On the rude door, cobwebbed and dusty, a scorpion clung torpidly. From
+the room beyond he heard subdued voices. His head and limbs ached
+dully; and frightful memories of the river trip and the awful journey
+from Badillo sickened him. With painful exertion he stood upon the
+moist dirt floor and drew on his damp clothes. He had only a vague
+recollection of the preceding night, but he knew that Rosendo had half
+led, half dragged him past rows of dimly lighted, ghostly white houses
+to his own abode, and there had put him to bed.
+
+"_Muy buenos dias, Senor Padre_," Rosendo greeted him, as the priest
+dragged himself out into the living room. "You have slept long. But
+the senora will soon have your breakfast. Sit here--not in the sun!"
+
+Rosendo placed one of the rough wooden chairs, with straight cowhide
+back and seat, near the table.
+
+"Carmencita has gone to the boat for fresh water. But--here she comes.
+Pour the _Senor Padre_ a cup, _carita_," addressing a little girl who
+at that moment entered the doorway, carrying a large earthen bottle on
+her shoulder. It was the child who had met the boat when the priest
+arrived the night, before.
+
+"Fill the basin, too, _chiquita_, that the Padre may wash his hands,"
+added Rosendo.
+
+The child approached Jose, and with a dignified little courtesy and a
+frank smile offered him a cup of the lukewarm water. The priest
+accepted it languidly. But, glancing into her face, his eyes suddenly
+widened, and the hand that was carrying the tin cup to his lips
+stopped.
+
+The barefoot girl, clad only in a short, sleeveless calico gown, stood
+before him like a portrait from an old master. Her skin was almost
+white, with but a tinge of olive. Her dark brown hair hung in curls to
+her shoulders and framed a face of rarest beauty. Innocence, purity,
+and love radiated from her fair features, from her beautifully rounded
+limbs, from her soft, dark eyes that looked so fearlessly into his
+own.
+
+Jose felt himself strangely moved. Somewhere deep within his soul a
+chord had been suddenly struck by the little presence; and the sound
+was unfamiliar to him. Yet it awakened memories of distant scenes, of
+old dreams, and forgotten longings. It seemed to echo from realms of
+his soul that had never been penetrated. The tumult within died away.
+The raging thought sank into calm. The man forgot himself, forgot that
+he had come to Simiti to die. His sorrow vanished. His sufferings
+faded. He remained conscious only of something that he could not
+outline, something in the soul of the child, a thing that perhaps he
+once possessed, and that he knew he yet prized above all else on
+earth.
+
+He heard Rosendo's voice through an immeasurable distance--
+
+"Leave us now, _chiquita_; the Padre wishes to have his breakfast."
+
+The child without speaking turned obediently; and the priest's eyes
+followed her until she disappeared into the kitchen.
+
+"We call her 'the smile of God,'" said Rosendo, noting the priest's
+absorption, "because she is always happy."
+
+Jose remained sunk in thought. Then--
+
+"A beautiful child!" he murmured. "A wonderfully beautiful child! I
+had no idea--!"
+
+"Yes, Padre, she is heaven's gift to us poor folk. I sometimes think
+the angels themselves left her on the river bank."
+
+"On the river bank!" Jose was awake now. "Why--she was not born
+here?"
+
+"Oh, no, Padre, but in Badillo."
+
+"Ah, then you once lived in Badillo?"
+
+"_Na, Senor Padre_, she is not my child--except that the good God has
+given her to me to protect."
+
+"Not your child! Then whose is she?" The priest's voice was unwontedly
+eager and his manner animated.
+
+But Rosendo fell suddenly quiet and embarrassed, as if he realized
+that already he had said too much to a stranger. A shade of suspicion
+seemed to cross his face, and he rose hurriedly and went out into the
+kitchen. A moment later he returned with the priest's breakfast--two
+fried eggs, a hot corn _arepa_, fried _platanos_, dried fish, and
+coffee sweetened with _panela_.
+
+"When you have finished, Padre, we will visit the Alcalde," he said
+quietly. "I must go down to the lake now to speak with Juan before he
+goes out to fish."
+
+Jose finished his meal alone. The interest which had been aroused by
+the child continued to increase without reaction. His torpid soul had
+been profoundly stirred. For the moment, though he knew not why, life
+seemed to hold a vague, unshaped interest for him. He began to notice
+his environment; he even thought he relished the coarse food set
+before him.
+
+The house he was in was a typical native three-room dwelling, built of
+strips of _macana_ palm, set upright and tied together with pieces of
+slender, tough _bejuco_ vine. The interstices between the strips were
+filled with mud, and the whole whitewashed. The floors were dirt,
+trodden hard; the steep-pitched roof was thatched with palm. A few
+chairs like the one he occupied, the rude, uncovered table, some cheap
+prints and a battered crucifix on the wall, were the only furnishings
+of the living room.
+
+While he was eating, the people of the town congregated quietly
+about the open door. Friendly curiosity to see the new Padre, and
+sincere desire to welcome him animated their simple minds. Naked
+babes crawled to the threshold and peeped timidly in. Coarsely
+clad women and young girls, many of the latter bedizened with bits
+of bright ribbon or cheap trinkets, smiled their gentle greetings.
+Black, dignified men, bare of feet, and wearing white cotton trousers
+and black _ruanas_--the cape affected by the poor males of the
+inlands--respectfully doffed their straw hats and bowed to him.
+Rosendo's wife appeared from the kitchen and extended her hand to
+him in unfeigned hospitality. Attired in a fresh calico gown, her
+black hair plastered back over her head and tied with a clean black
+ribbon, her bare feet encased in hemp sandals, she bore herself
+with that grace and matronly dignity so indicative of her Spanish
+forbears, and so particularly characteristic of the inhabitants of
+this "valley of the pleasant 'yes.'"
+
+Breakfast finished, the priest stepped to the doorway and raised his
+hand in the invocation that was evidently expected from him.
+
+"_Dominus vobiscum_," he repeated, not mechanically, not insincerely,
+but in a spirit of benevolence, of genuine well-wishing, which his
+contact with the child a few minutes before seemed to have aroused.
+
+The people bent their heads piously and murmured, "_Et cum spiritu
+tuo._"
+
+The open door looked out upon the central _plaza_, where stood a large
+church of typical colonial design and construction, and with a single
+lateral bell tower. The building was set well up on a platform of
+shale, with broad shale steps, much broken and worn, leading up to it
+on all sides. Jose stepped out and mingled with the crowd, first
+regarding the old church curiously, and then looking vainly for the
+little girl, and sighing his disappointment when he did not see her.
+
+In the _plaza_ he was joined by Rosendo; and together they went to
+the house of the Alcalde. On the way the priest gazed about him with
+growing curiosity. To the north of the town stretched the lake, known
+to the residents only by the name of _La Cienaga_. It was a body of
+water of fair size, in a setting of exquisite tropical beauty. In
+a temperate climate, and a region more densely populated, this
+lake would have been priceless. Here in forgotten Guamoco it lay like
+an undiscovered gem, known only to those few inert and passive folk,
+who enjoyed it with an inadequate sense of its rare beauty and
+immeasurable worth. Several small and densely wooded isles rose
+from its unrippled bosom; and tropical birds of brilliant color
+hovered over it in the morning sun. Near one of its margins Jose
+distinguished countless white _garzas_, the graceful herons whose
+plumes yield the coveted aigrette of northern climes. They fed
+undisturbed, for this region sleeps unmolested, far from the beaten
+paths of tourist or vandal huntsman. To the west and south lay the
+hills of Guamoco, and the lofty _Cordilleras_, purpling in the
+light mist. Over the entire scene spread a damp warmth, like the
+atmosphere of a hot-house. By midday Jose knew that the heat would
+be insufferable.
+
+The Alcalde, Don Mario Arvila, conducted his visitors through his
+shabby little store and into the _patio_ in the rear, exclaiming
+repeatedly, "Ah, _Senor Padre_, we welcome you! All Simiti welcomes
+you and kisses your hand!" In the shade of his arbor he sat down to
+examine Jose's letters from Cartagena.
+
+Don Mario was a large, florid man, huge of girth, with brown skin,
+heavy jowls, puffed eyes, and bald head. As he read, his eyes snapped,
+and at times he paused and looked up curiously at the priest. Then,
+without comment, he folded the letters and put them into a pocket of
+his crash coat.
+
+"_Bien_," he said politely, "we must have the Padre meet Don Felipe
+Alcozer as soon as he returns. Some repairs are needed on the
+church; a few of the roof tiles have slipped, and the rain enters.
+Perhaps, _Senor Padre_, you may say the Mass there next Sunday. We
+will see. A--a--you had illustrious ancestors, Padre," he added with
+hesitation.
+
+"Do the letters mention my ancestry?" asked Jose with something of
+mingled surprise and pride.
+
+"They speak of your family, which was, as we all know, quite
+renowned," replied the Alcalde courteously.
+
+"Very," agreed Jose, wondering how much the Alcalde knew of his
+family.
+
+"Don Ignacio was not unknown in this _pueblo_," affably continued the
+Alcalde.
+
+At these words Rosendo started visibly and looked fixedly at the
+priest.
+
+"The family name of Rincon," the Alcalde went on, "appears on the old
+records of Simiti in many places, and it is said that Don Ignacio
+himself came here more than once. Perhaps you know, _Senor Padre_,
+that the Rincon family erected the church which stands in the _plaza_?
+And so it is quite appropriate that their son should officiate in it
+after all these centuries, is it not?"
+
+No, Jose had not known it. He could not have imagined such a thing. He
+knew little of his family's history. Of their former vast wealth he
+had a vague notion. But here in this land of romance and tragedy he
+seemed to be running upon their reliques everywhere.
+
+The conversation drifted to parish matters; and soon Rosendo urged
+their departure, as the sun was mounting high.
+
+Seated at the table for the midday lunch, Jose again became lost in
+contemplation of the child before him. Her fair face flushed under his
+searching gaze; but she returned a smile of confidence and sweet
+innocence that held him spellbound. Her great brown eyes were of
+infinite depth. They expressed a something that he had never seen
+before in human eyes. What manner of soul lay behind them? What was it
+that through them looked out into this world of evil? Childish
+innocence and purity, yes; but vastly more. Was it--God Himself? Jose
+started at his own thought. Through his meditations he heard Rosendo's
+voice.
+
+"Simiti is very old, Padre. In the days of the Spaniards it was a
+large town, with many rich people. The Indians were all slaves then,
+and they worked in the mines up there," indicating the distant
+mountains. "Much gold was brought down here and shipped down the
+Magdalena, for the _cano_ was wider in those days, and it was not so
+hard to reach the river. This is the end of the Guamoco trail, which
+was called in those days the _Camino Real_."
+
+"You say the mines were very rich?" interrogated Jose; not that the
+question expressed a more than casual interest, but rather to keep
+Rosendo talking while he studied the child.
+
+But at this question Rosendo suddenly became less loquacious. Jose
+then felt that he was suspected of prying into matters which Rosendo
+did not wish to discuss with him, and so he pressed the topic no
+further.
+
+"How many people did Don Mario say the parish contained?" he asked by
+way of diverting the conversation.
+
+"About two hundred, Padre."
+
+"And it has been vacant long?"
+
+"Four years."
+
+"Four years since Padre Diego was here," commented Jose casually.
+
+It was an unfortunate remark. At the mention of the former priest's
+name Dona Maria hurriedly left the table. Rosendo's black face grew
+even darker, and took on a look of ineffable contempt. He did not
+reply. And the meal ended in silence.
+
+It was now plain to Jose that Rosendo distrusted him. But it mattered
+little to the priest, beyond the fact that he had no wish to offend
+any one. What interest had he in boorish Simiti, or Guamoco? The place
+was become his tomb--he had entered it to die. The child--the girl!
+Ah, yes, she had touched a strange chord within him; and for a time he
+had seemed to live again. But as the day waned, and pitiless heat and
+deadly silence brooded over the decayed town, his starving soul sank
+again into its former depression, and revived hope and interest died
+within him.
+
+The implacable heat burned through the noon hour; the dusty streets
+were like the floor of a stone oven; the shale beds upon which the old
+town rested sent up fiery, quivering waves; the houses seethed; earth
+and sky were ablaze. How long could he endure it?
+
+And the terrible _ennui_, the isolation, the utter lack of every trace
+of culture, of the varied interests that feed the educated, trained
+mind and minister to its comfort and growth--could he support it
+patiently while awaiting the end? Would he go mad before the final
+release came? He did not fear death; but he was horror-stricken at the
+thought of madness! Of losing that rational sense of the Ego which
+constituted his normal individuality!
+
+Rosendo advised him to retire for the midday _siesta_. Through the
+seemingly interminable afternoon he lay upon his hard bed with his
+brain afire, while the events of his warped life moved before him in
+spectral review. The week which had passed since he left Cartagena
+seemed an age. When he might hope to receive word from the outside
+world, he could not imagine. His isolation was now complete. Even
+should letters succeed in reaching Simiti for him, they must first
+pass through the hands of the Alcalde.
+
+And what did the Alcalde know of him? And then, again, what did it
+matter? He must not lose sight of the fact that his interest in the
+outside world--nay, his interest in all things had ceased. This was
+the end. He had yielded, after years of struggle, to pride, fear,
+doubt. He had bowed before his morbid sense of honor--a perverted
+sense, he now admitted, but still one which bound him in fetters of
+steel. His life had been one of grossest inconsistency. He was utterly
+out of tune with the universe. His incessant clash with the world of
+people and events had sounded nothing but agonizing discord. And his
+confusion of thought had become such that, were he asked why he was in
+Simiti, he could scarcely have told. At length he dropped into a
+feverish sleep.
+
+The day drew to a close, and the flaming sun rested for a brief moment
+on the lofty tip of Tolima. Jose awoke, dripping with perspiration,
+his steaming blood rushing wildly through its throbbing channels.
+Blindly he rose from his rough bed and stumbled out of the stifling
+chamber. The living room was deserted. Who might be in the kitchen, he
+did not stop to see. Dazed by the garish light and fierce heat, he
+rushed from the house and over the burning shales toward the lake.
+
+What he intended to do, he knew not. His weltering thought held but a
+single concept--water! The lake would cool his burning skin--he would
+wade out into it until it rose to his cracking lips--he would lie down
+in it, till it quenched the fire in his head--he would sleep in it--he
+would never leave it--it was cool--perhaps cold! What did the word
+mean? Was there aught in the world but fire--flames--fierce,
+withering, smothering, consuming heat? He thought the shales crackled
+as they melted beneath him! He thought his feet sank to the ankles in
+molten lava, and were so heavy he scarce could drag them! He thought
+the blazing sun shot out great tongues of flame, like the arms of a
+monster devilfish, which twined about him, transforming his blood to
+vapor and sucking it out through his gaping pores!
+
+A blinding light flashed before him as he reached the margin of the
+lake. The universe burst into a ball of fire. He clasped his head in
+his hands--stumbled--and fell, face down, in the tepid waters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2
+
+
+"It was the little Carmen, Padre, who saw you run to the lake. She was
+sitting at the kitchen door, studying her writing lesson."
+
+The priest essayed to rise from his bed. Night had fallen, and the
+feeble light of the candle cast heavy shadows over the room, and made
+grotesque pictures of the black, anxious faces looking in at the
+grated window.
+
+"But, Rosendo, it--was--a dream--a terrible dream!"
+
+"_Na_, Padre, it was true, for I myself took you from the lake,"
+replied Rosendo tenderly.
+
+Jose struggled to a sitting posture, but would have fallen back again
+had not Rosendo's strong arm supported him. He passed his hand slowly
+across his forehead, as if to brush the mental cobwebs from his
+awakening brain. Then he inquired feebly:
+
+"What does the doctor say?"
+
+"Padre, there is no doctor in Simiti," Rosendo answered quietly.
+
+"No doctor!"
+
+Jose kept silence for a few moments. Then--
+
+"But perhaps I do not need one. What time did it occur?"
+
+"It did not happen to-day, Padre," said Rosendo with pitying
+compassion. "It was nearly a week ago."
+
+"Nearly a week! And have I lain here so long?"
+
+"Yes, Padre."
+
+The priest stared at him uncomprehendingly. Then--
+
+"The dreams were frightful! I must have talked--raved! Rosendo--you
+heard me--?" His voice betrayed anxiety.
+
+"There, Padre, think no more about it. You were wild--I fought to keep
+you in bed--we thought you must die--all but Carmen--but you have your
+senses now--and you must forget the past."
+
+Forget the past! Then his wild delirium had laid bare his soul! And
+the man who had so faithfully nursed him through the crisis now
+possessed the sordid details of this wretched life!
+
+Jose struggled to orient his undirected mind. A hot wave of anger
+swept over him at the thought that he was still living, that his
+battered soul had not torn itself from earth during his delirium and
+taken flight. Was he fated to live forever, to drag out an endless
+existence, with his heart written upon his sleeve for the world to
+read and turn to its own advantage? Rosendo had stood between him and
+death--but to what end? Had he not yet paid the score in full--good
+measure, pressed down and running over? His thoughts ran rapidly from
+one topic to another. Again they reverted to the little girl. He had
+dreamed of her in that week of black night. He wondered if he had also
+talked of her. He had lain at death's door--Rosendo had said so--but
+he had had no physician. Perhaps these simple folk brewed their own
+homely remedies--he wondered what they had employed in his case. Above
+the welter of his thoughts this question pressed for answer.
+
+"What medicine did you give me, Rosendo?" he feebly queried.
+
+"None, Padre."
+
+Jose's voice rose querulously in a little excess of excitement. "What!
+You left me here without medical aid, to live or die, as might be?"
+
+The gentle Rosendo laid a soothing hand upon the priest's feverish
+brow. "_Na_, Padre,"--there was a hurt tone in the soft answer--"we
+did all we could for you. We have neither doctors nor medicines. But
+we cared for you--and we prayed daily for your recovery. The little
+Carmen said our prayers would be answered--and, you see, they were."
+
+Again the child!
+
+"And what had she to do with my recovery?" Jose demanded fretfully.
+
+"_Quien sabe?_ It is sometimes that way when the little Carmen says
+people shall not die. And then," he added sadly, "sometimes they do
+die just the same. It is strange; we do not understand it." The gentle
+soul sighed its perplexity.
+
+Jose looked up at him keenly. "Did the child say I should not die?" he
+asked softly, almost in a whisper.
+
+"Yes, Padre; she says God's children do not die," returned Rosendo.
+
+The priest's blood stopped in its mad surge and slowly began to chill.
+God's children do not die! What uncanny influence had he met with here
+in this crumbling, forgotten town? He sought the index of his memory
+for the sensations he had felt when he looked into the girl's eyes on
+his first morning in Simiti. But memory reported back only impressions
+of goodness--beauty--love.
+
+Then a dim light--only a feeble gleam--seemed to flash before him, but
+at a great distance. Something called him--not by name, but by again
+touching that unfamiliar chord which had vibrated in his soul when the
+child had first stood before him. He felt a strange psychic
+presentiment as of things soon to be revealed. A sentiment akin to awe
+stole over him, as if he were standing in the presence of a great
+mystery--a mystery so transcendental that the groveling minds of
+mortals have never apprehended it. He turned again to the man sitting
+beside his bed.
+
+"Rosendo--where is she?"
+
+"Asleep, Padre," pointing to the other bed. "But we must not wake
+her," he admonished quickly, as the priest again sought to rise; "we
+will talk of her to-morrow. I think--"
+
+Rosendo stopped abruptly and looked at the priest as if he would
+fathom the inmost nature of the man. Then he continued uncertainly:
+
+"I--I may have some things to say to you to-morrow--if you are
+well enough to hear them. But I will think about it to-night,
+and--if--_Bien_! I will think about it."
+
+Rosendo rose slowly, as if weighted with heavy thoughts, and went out
+into the living room. Presently he returned with a rude, homemade
+broom and began to sweep a space on the dirt floor in the corner
+opposite Jose. This done, he spread out a light straw mat for his
+bed.
+
+"The senora is preparing you a bowl of chicken broth and rice, Padre,"
+he said. "The little Carmen saved a hen for you when you should awake.
+She has fed it all the week on rice and goat's milk. She said she knew
+you would wake up hungry."
+
+Jose's eyes had closely followed Rosendo's movements, although he
+seemed not to hear his words. Suddenly he broke forth in protest.
+
+"Rosendo," he cried, "have I your bed? And do you sleep there on the
+floor? I cannot permit this!"
+
+"Say nothing, Padre," replied Rosendo, gently forcing Jose back again
+upon his bed. "My house is yours."
+
+"But--the senora, your wife--where does she sleep?"
+
+"She has her _petate_ in the kitchen," was the quiet answer.
+
+Only the two poor beds, which were occupied by the priest and the
+child! And Rosendo and his good wife had slept on the hard dirt floor
+for a week! Jose's eyes dimmed when he realized the extent of their
+unselfish hospitality. And would they continue to sleep thus on the
+ground, with nothing beneath them but a thin straw mat, as long as he
+might choose to remain with them? Aye, he knew that they would,
+uncomplainingly. For these are the children of the "valley of the
+pleasant 'yes.'"
+
+Jose awoke the next morning with a song echoing in his ears. He had
+dreamed of singing; and as consciousness slowly returned, the
+dream-song became real. It floated in from the living room on a clear,
+sweet soprano. When a child he had heard such voices in the choir loft
+of the great Seville cathedral, and he had thought that angels were
+singing. As he lay now listening to it, memories of his childish
+dreams swept over him in great waves. The soft, sweet cadences rose
+and fell. His own heart swelled and pulsated with them, and his barren
+soul once more surged under the impulse of a deep, potential desire to
+manifest itself, its true self, unhampered at last by limitation and
+convention, unfettered by superstition, human creeds and false
+ambition. Then the inevitable reaction set in; a sickening sense of
+the futility of his longing settled over him, and he turned his face
+to the wall, while hot tears streamed over his sunken cheeks.
+
+Again through his wearied brain echoed the familiar admonition,
+"Occupy till I come." Always the same invariable response to his
+strained yearnings. The sweet voice in the adjoining room floated in
+through the dusty palm door. It spread over his perturbed thought like
+oil on troubled waters. Perhaps it was the child singing. At this
+thought the sense of awe seemed to settle upon him again. A child--a
+babe--had said that he should live! If a doctor had said it he would
+have believed. But a child--absurd! It was a dream! But no; Rosendo
+had said it; and there was no reason to doubt him. But what had this
+child to do with it? Nothing! And yet--was that wholly true? Then
+whence his sensations when first he saw her? Whence that feeling of
+standing in the presence of a great mystery? "Out of the mouths of
+babes and sucklings--" Foolishness! To be sure, the child may have
+said he should not die; but if he were to live--which God forbid!--his
+own recuperative powers would restore him. Rosendo's lively
+imagination certainly had exaggerated the incident.
+
+Exhausted by his mental efforts, and lulled by the low singing, the
+priest sank into fitful slumber. As he slept he dreamed. He was
+standing alone in a great desert. Darkness encompassed him, and a
+fearful loneliness froze his soul. About him lay bleaching bones.
+Neither trees nor vegetation broke the dull monotony of the cheerless
+scene. Nothing but waste, unutterably dreary waste, over which a chill
+wind tossed the tinkling sand in fitful gusts. In terror he cried
+aloud. The desert mocked his hollow cry. The darkness thickened. Again
+he called, his heart sinking with despair.
+
+Then, over the desolate waste, through the heavy gloom, a voice seemed
+borne faint on the cold air, "Occupy till I come!" He sank to his
+knees. His straining eyes caught the feeble glint of a light, but at
+an immeasurable distance. Again he called; and again the same
+response, but nearer. A glow began to suffuse the blackness about him.
+Nearer, ever nearer drew the gleam. The darkness lifted. The rocks
+began to bud. Trees and vines sprang from the waste sand. As if in a
+tremendous explosion, a dazzling light burst full upon him, shattering
+the darkness, fusing the stones about him, and blinding his sight. A
+great presence stood before him. He struggled to his feet; and as he
+did so a loud voice cried, "Behold, I come _quickly_!"
+
+"_Senor Padre_, you have been dreaming!"
+
+The priest, sitting upright and clutching at the rough sides of his
+bed, stared with wooden obliviousness into the face of the little
+Carmen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3
+
+
+"You are well now, aren't you, Padre?"
+
+It was not so much an interrogation as an affirmation, an assumption
+of fact.
+
+"Now you must come and see my garden--and Cucumbra, too. And
+Cantar-las-horas; have you heard him? I scolded him lots; and I know
+he wants to mind; but he just thinks he can't stop singing the
+Vespers--the old stupid!"
+
+While the child prattled she drew a chair to the bedside and arranged
+the bowl of broth and the two wheat rolls she had brought.
+
+"You are real hungry, and you are going to eat all of this and get
+strong again. Right away!" she added, emphatically expressing her
+confidence in the assumption.
+
+Jose made no reply. He seemed again to be trying to sound the
+unfathomable depths of the child's brown eyes. Mechanically he took
+the spoon she handed him.
+
+"See!" she exclaimed, while her eyes danced. "A silver spoon! Madre
+Ariza borrowed it from Dona Maria Alcozer. They have lots of silver.
+Now eat."
+
+From his own great egoism, his years of heart-ache, sorrows, and
+shames, the priest's heavy thought slowly lifted and centered upon the
+child's beautiful face. The animated little figure before him radiated
+such abundant life that he himself caught the infection; and with it
+his sense of weakness passed like an illusion.
+
+"And look, Padre! The broth--isn't it good?"
+
+Jose tasted, and declared it delicious.
+
+"Well, you know"--the enthusiastic little maid clambered up on the
+bed--"yesterday it was Manuela--she was my hen. I told her a week ago
+that you would need her--"
+
+"And you gave up your hen for me, little one?" he interrupted.
+
+"Why--yes, Padre. It was all right. I told her how it was. And she
+clucked so hard, I knew she was glad to help the good _Cura_. And she
+was so happy about it! I told her she really wouldn't die. You know,
+things never do--do they?"
+
+The priest hesitated. To hide his confusion and gain time he began to
+eat rapidly.
+
+"No, they don't," said the girl confidently, answering her own
+question. "Because," she added, "God is _everywhere_--isn't He?"
+
+What manner of answer could he, of all men, make to such terribly
+direct questions as these! And it was well that Carmen evidently
+expected none--that in her great innocence she assumed for him the
+same beautiful faith which she herself held.
+
+"Dona Jacinta didn't die last week. But they said she did; and so they
+took her to the cemetery and put her in a dark _boveda_. And the black
+buzzards sat on the wall and watched them. Padre Rosendo said she had
+gone to the angels--that God took her. But, Padre, God doesn't make
+people sick, does He? They get sick because they don't know who He is.
+Every day I told God I knew He would cure you. And He did, didn't
+He?"
+
+While the girl paused for breath, her eyes sparkled, and her face
+glowed with exaltation. Child-like, her active mind flew from one
+topic to another, with no thought of connecting links.
+
+"This morning, Padre, two little green parrots flew across the lake
+and perched on our roof. And they sat there and watched Cucumbra eat
+his breakfast; and they tried to steal his fish; and they scolded so
+loud! Why did they want to steal from him, when there is so much to
+eat everywhere? But they didn't know any better, did they? I don't
+think parrots love each other very much, for they scold so hard.
+Padre, it is so dark in here; come out and see the sun and the lake
+and the mountains. And my garden--Padre, it is beautiful! Esteban said
+next time he went up the trail he would bring me a monkey for a pet;
+and I am going to name it Hombrecito. And Captain Julio is going to
+bring me a doll from down the river. But," with a merry, musical
+trill, "Juan said the night you came that _you_ were my doll! Isn't he
+funny!" And throwing back her little head, the child laughed
+heartily.
+
+"Padre, you must help padre Rosendo with his arithmetic. Every night
+he puts on his big spectacles and works so hard to understand it. He
+says he knows Satan made fractions. But, Padre, that isn't so, is it?
+Not if God made everything. Padre, you know _everything_, don't you?
+Padre Rosendo said you did. There are lots of things I want you to
+tell me--such lots of things that nobody here knows anything about.
+Padre,"--the child leaned toward the priest and whispered low--"the
+people here don't know who God is; and you are going to teach them!
+There was a _Cura_ here once, when I was a baby; but I guess he didn't
+know God, either."
+
+She lapsed into silence, as if pondering this thought. Then, clapping
+her hands with unfeigned joy, she cried in a shrill little voice, "Oh,
+Padre, I am _so_ glad you have come to Simiti! I just _knew_ God would
+not forget us!"
+
+Jose had no reply to make. His thought was busy with the phenomenon
+before him: a child of man, but one who, like Israel of old, saw God
+and heard His voice at every turn of her daily walk. Untutored in the
+ways of men, without trace of sophistication or cant, unblemished as
+she moved among the soiled vessels about her, shining with celestial
+radiance in this unknown, moldering town so far from the world's
+beaten paths.
+
+The door opened softly and Rosendo entered, preceded by a cheery
+greeting.
+
+_"Hombre!_" he exclaimed, surveying the priest, "but you mend fast!
+You have eaten all the broth! But I told the good wife that the little
+Carmen would be better than medicine for you, and that you must have
+her just as soon as you should awake."
+
+Jose's eyes dilated with astonishment. Absorbed in the child, he had
+consumed almost his entire breakfast.
+
+"He is well, padre Rosendo, he is well!" cried the girl, bounding up
+and down and dancing about the tall form of her foster-father. Then,
+darting to Jose, she seized his hand and cried, "Now to see my garden!
+And Cucumbra! And--!"
+
+"Quiet, child!" commanded Rosendo, taking her by the arm. "The good
+_Cura_ is ill, and must rest for several days yet."
+
+"No, padre Rosendo, he is well--all well! Aren't you, Padre?"
+appealing to Jose, and again urging him forth.
+
+The rapidity of the conversation and the animation of the beautiful
+child caused complete forgetfulness of self, and, together with the
+restorative effect of the wholesome food, acted upon the priest like a
+magical tonic. Weak though he was, he clung to her hand and,
+struggling out of the bed, stood uncertainly upon the floor. Instantly
+Rosendo's arm was about him.
+
+"Don't try it, Padre," the latter urged anxiously. "The heat will be
+too much for you. Another day or two of rest will make you right."
+
+But the priest, heedless of the admonition, suffered himself to be led
+by the child; and together they passed slowly out into the living
+room, through the kitchen, and thence into the diminutive rose garden,
+the pride of the little Carmen.
+
+Dona Maria, wife of Rosendo, was bending over the primitive fireplace,
+busy with her matutinal duties, having just dusted the ashes from a
+corn _arepa_ which she had prepared for her consort's simple luncheon.
+She was a woman well into the autumn of life; but her form possessed
+something of the elegance of the Spanish dames of the colonial period;
+her countenance bore an expression of benevolence, which emanated
+from a gentle and affectionate heart; and her manner combined both
+dignity and suavity. She greeted the priest tenderly, and expressed
+mingled surprise and joy that he felt able to leave his bed so soon.
+But as her eyes caught Rosendo's meaning glance, and then turned to
+the child, they seemed to indicate a full comprehension of the
+situation.
+
+The rose garden consisted of a few square feet of black earth,
+bordered by bits of shale, and seemingly scarce able to furnish
+nourishment for the three or four little bushes. But, though small,
+these were blooming in profusion.
+
+"Padre Rosendo did this!" exclaimed the delighted girl. "Every night
+he brings water from _La Cienaga_ for them!"
+
+Rosendo smiled patronizingly upon the child; but Jose saw in the
+glance of his argus eyes a tenderness and depth of affection for her
+which bespoke nothing short of adoration.
+
+Carmen bent over the roses, fondling and kissing them, and addressing
+them endearing names.
+
+"She calls them God's kisses," whispered Rosendo to the priest.
+
+At that moment a low growl was heard. Jose turned quickly and
+confronted a gaunt dog, a wild breed, with eyes fixed upon the priest
+and white fangs showing menacingly beneath a curling lip.
+
+"Oh, Cucumbra!" cried the child, rushing to the beast and throwing her
+arms about its shaggy neck. "Haven't I told you to love everybody? And
+is that the way to show it? Now kiss the _Cura's_ hand, for he loves
+you."
+
+The brute sank at her feet. Then as she took the priest's hand and
+held it to the dog's mouth, he licked it with his rough tongue.
+
+The priest's brain was now awhirl. He stood gazing at the child as if
+fascinated. Through his jumbled thought there ran an insistent strain,
+"He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. The Father dwelleth in me
+and I in Him." He did not associate these words with the Nazarene now,
+but with the barefoot girl before him. Again within the farthest
+depths of his soul he heard the soft note of a vibrating chord--that
+chord which all the years of his unhappy life had hung mute, until
+here, in this moldering town, in the wilderness of forgotten Guamoco,
+the hand of Love had swept it.
+
+The sun stood at the zenith. The day was white-hot. Dona Maria
+summoned her little family to the midday repast. Rosendo brought a
+chair for Jose and placed it near the rose garden in the shade of the
+house, for, despite all protest, the priest had stubbornly refused to
+return to his bed. Left now to himself, his thought hovered about the
+child, and then drifted out across the incandescent shales to the
+beautiful lake beyond. The water lay like shimmering glass. In the
+distance the wooded <DW72>s of the San Lucas mountains rose like green
+billows. Brooding silence spread over the scene. It was Nature's hour
+of _siesta_. In his own heart there was a great peace--and a strange
+expectancy. He seemed to be awaiting a revelation of things close at
+hand. In a way he felt that he had accomplished his purpose of coming
+to Simiti to die, and that he was now awaiting the resurrection.
+
+The peaceful revery was interrupted by Rosendo. "Padre, if you will
+not return to your bed--" He regarded the priest dubiously.
+
+"No, Rosendo. I grow stronger every minute. But--where is Carmen?"
+
+"She must help her mother."
+
+A long pause ensued, while Jose impatiently waited for Rosendo to
+continue. The child was becoming his obsession. He was eager to talk
+of her, to learn her history, to see her, for her presence meant
+complete obliteration of self.
+
+"Padre," Rosendo at length emerged from his meditation. "I would like
+to speak of the little Carmen."
+
+"Yes," responded Jose with animation. Life and strength seemed to
+return to him with a bound.
+
+"But--what say you? Shall we visit the church, which is only across
+the road? There we can talk without interruption. No one will be in
+the streets during the heat. And I will carry you over."
+
+"Let us go to the church, yes; but I can walk. It is only a step."
+
+Jose leaned upon Rosendo, the latter supporting him with his great
+arm, and together they crossed the road and mounted the shale platform
+on which stood the ancient edifice. Rosendo produced a huge key of
+antique pattern; and the rusty lock, after much resistance, yielded
+with a groan, and the heavy door creaked open, emitting an odor of
+dampness and must. Doffing their hats, the men entered the long,
+barn-like room. Rosendo carefully closed and locked the door behind
+them, a precaution necessary in a drowsing town of this nature, where
+the simple folk who see day after day pass without concern or event to
+break the deadening monotony, assemble in eager, buzzing multitudes at
+the slightest prospect of extraordinary interest.
+
+The room was dimly lighted, and was open to the peak of the roof. From
+the rough-hewn rafters above hung hundreds of hideous bats. At the far
+end stood the altar. It was adorned with decrepit images, and held a
+large wooden statue of the Virgin. This latter object was veiled with
+two flimsy curtains, which were designed to be raised and lowered with
+great pomp and the ringing of a little bell during service. The image
+was attired in real clothes, covered with tawdry finery, gilt paper,
+and faded ribbons. The head bore a wig of hair; and the face was
+painted, although great sections of the paint had fallen, away,
+leaving the suggestion of pockmarks. Beneath this image was located
+the _sagrario_, the little cupboard in which the _hostia_, the sacred
+wafer, was wont to be kept exposed in the _custodia_, a cheap
+receptacle composed of two watch crystals. At either side of this
+stood half consumed wax tapers. A few rough benches were strewn about
+the floor; and dust and green mold lay thick over all.
+
+At the far right-hand corner of the building a lean-to had been
+erected to serve as the _sacristia_, or vestry. In the worm-eaten
+wardrobe within hung a few vestments, adorned with cheap finery, and
+heavily laden with dust, over which scampered vermin of many
+varieties. An air of desolation and abandon hung over the whole
+church, and to Jose seemed to symbolize the decay of a sterile faith.
+
+Rosendo carefully dusted off a bench near one of the windows and bade
+Jose be seated.
+
+"_Padre_," he began, after some moments of deep reflection, "the
+little Carmen is not an ordinary child."
+
+"I have seen that, Rosendo," interposed Jose.
+
+"We--we do not understand her," Rosendo went on, carefully weighing
+his words; "and we sometimes think she is not--not altogether like
+us--that her coming was a miracle. But you do not believe in
+miracles," he added quizzically.
+
+"Why do you say that, Rosendo?" Jose returned in surprise.
+
+Rosendo paused before replying.
+
+"You were very sick, Padre; and in the fever you--" the impeccably
+honest fellow hesitated.
+
+"Yes, I thought so," said Jose with an air of weary resignation. "And
+what else did I say, Rosendo?"
+
+The faultless courtesy of the artless Rosendo, a courtesy so genuine
+that Jose knew it came right from the heart, made conversation on this
+topic a matter of extreme difficulty to him.
+
+"Do not be uneasy, Padre," he said reassuringly. "I alone heard you.
+Whenever you began to talk I would not let others listen; and I stayed
+with you every day and night. But--it is just because of what you said
+in the _calentura_ that I am speaking to you now of the little
+Carmen."
+
+Because of what he had said in his delirium! Jose's astonishment grew
+apace.
+
+"Padre, many bad priests have been sent to Simiti. It has been our
+curse. Priests who stirred up revolution elsewhere, who committed
+murder, and ruined the lives of fair women, have been put upon us. And
+when in Badillo I learned that you had been sent to our parish, I was
+filled with fear. I--I lost a daughter, Padre--"
+
+The good man hesitated again. Then, as a look of stern resolution
+spread over his strong, dark face, he continued:
+
+"It was Padre Diego! We drove him out of Simiti four years ago. But my
+daughter, my only child, went with him." The great frame shook with
+emotion, while he hurried on disconnectedly.
+
+"Padre, the priest Diego said that the little Carmen should become a
+Sister--a nun--that she must be sent to the convent in Mompox--that
+she belonged to the Church, and the Church would some day have her.
+But, by the Holy Virgin, the Church shall _not_ have her! And I myself
+will slay her before this altar rather than let such as Padre Diego
+lay their slimy paws upon the angel child!"
+
+Rosendo leaped to his feet and began to pace the floor with great
+strides. The marvelous frame of the man, in which beat a heart too big
+for the sordid passions of the flesh, trembled as he walked. Jose
+watched him in mute admiration, mingled with astonishment and a
+heightened sense of expectancy. Presently Rosendo returned and seated
+himself again beside the priest.
+
+"Padre, I have lived in terror ever since Diego left Simiti. For
+myself I do not fear, for if ever I meet with the wretch I shall wring
+his neck with my naked hands! But--for the little Carmen--_Dios!_ they
+might steal her at any time! There are men here who would do it for a
+few _pesos_! And how could I prevent it? I pray daily to the Virgin to
+protect her. She--she is the light of my life. I watch over her
+hourly. I neglect my _hacienda_, that I may guard her--and I am a poor
+man, and cannot afford not to work."
+
+The man buried his face in his huge hands and groaned aloud. Jose
+remained pityingly silent, knowing that Rosendo's heaving heart must
+empty itself.
+
+"Padre," Rosendo at length raised his head. His features were drawn,
+but his eyes glowed fiercely. "Priests have committed dark deeds here,
+and this altar has dripped with blood. When a child, with my own eyes
+I saw a priest elevate the Host before this altar, as the people knelt
+in adoration. While their heads were bowed I saw him drive a knife
+into the neck of a man who was his enemy; and the blood spurted over
+the image of the Virgin and fell upon the Sacred Host itself! And
+what did the wicked priest say in defense? Simply that he took this
+time to assassinate his man because then the victim could die adoring
+the Host and under the most favorable circumstances for salvation!
+_Hombre!_ And did the priest pay the penalty for his crime? No! The
+Bishop of Cartagena transferred him to another parish, and told him to
+do better in future!"
+
+Jose started in horror. But Rosendo did not stop.
+
+"And I remember the story my father used to tell of the priest who
+poisoned a whole family in Simiti with the communion wafer. Their
+estates had been willed to the Church, and he was impatient to have
+the management of them. Again nothing was done about it."
+
+"But, Rosendo, if Simiti has been so afflicted by bad priests, why are
+you confiding in me?" Jose asked in wonder.
+
+"Because, Padre," Rosendo replied, "in the fever you said many things
+that made me think you were not a bad man. I did suspect you at
+first--but not after I heard you talk in your sleep. You, too, have
+suffered. And the Church has caused it. No, not God; but the men who
+say they know what He thinks and says. They make us all suffer. And
+after I heard you tell those things in your fever-sleep, I said to
+Maria that if you lived I knew you would help me protect the little
+Carmen. Then, too, you are a--" He lapsed abruptly into silence.
+
+Jose pressed Rosendo's hand. "Tell me about her. You have said she is
+not your daughter. I ask only because of sincere affection for you
+all, and because the child has aroused in me an unwonted interest."
+
+Rosendo looked steadily into the eyes of the priest for some moments.
+Jose as steadily returned the glance. From the eyes of the one there
+emanated a soul-searching scrutiny; from those of the other an
+answering bid for confidence. The bid was accepted.
+
+"Padre," began Rosendo, "I place trust in you. Something makes me
+believe that you are not like other priests I have known. And I have
+seen that you already love the little Carmen. No, she is not my child.
+One day, about eight years ago, a steamer on its way down the river
+touched at Badillo to put off a young woman, who was so sick that the
+captain feared she would die on board. He knew nothing of her, except
+that she had embarked at Honda and was bound for Barranquilla. He
+hoped that by leaving her in the care of the good people of Badillo
+something might be done. The boat went its way; and the next morning
+the woman died, shortly after her babe was born. They buried her back
+of the village, and Escolastico's woman took the child. They tried to
+learn the history of the mother; but, though the captain of the boat
+made many inquiries, he could only find that she had come from Bogota
+the day before the boat left Honda, and that she was then very sick.
+Some weeks afterward Escolastico happened to come to Simiti, and told
+me the story. He complained that his family was already large, and
+that his woman found the care of the babe a burden. I love children,
+Padre, and it seemed to me that I could find a place for the little
+one, and I told him I would fetch her. And so a few days later I
+brought her to Simiti. But before leaving Badillo I fixed a wooden
+cross over the mother's grave and wrote on it in pencil the name
+'_Dolores_,' for that was the name in the little gold locket which we
+found in her valise. There were some clothes, better than the average,
+and the locket. In the locket were two small pictures, one of a young
+man, with the name '_Guillermo_' written beneath it, and one of the
+woman, with '_Dolores_' under it. That was all. Captain Julio took the
+locket to Honda when he made inquiries there; but brought it back
+again, saying that nobody recognized the faces. I named the babe
+Carmen, and have brought her up as my own child. She--Padre, I adore
+her!"
+
+Jose listened in breathless silence.
+
+"But we sometimes think," said Rosendo, resuming his dramatic
+narrative, "that it was all a miracle, perhaps a dream; that it was
+the angels who left the babe on the river bank, for she herself is not
+of the earth."
+
+"Tell me, Rosendo, just what you mean," said Jose reverently, laying
+his hand gently upon the older man's arm.
+
+Rosendo shook his head slowly. "Talk with her, Padre, and you will
+see. I cannot explain. Only, she is not like us. She is like--"
+
+His voice dropped to a whisper.
+
+"--she is like--God. And she knows Him better than she knows me."
+
+Jose's head slowly sank upon his breast. The gloom within the musty
+church was thick; and the bats stirred restlessly among the dusty
+rafters overhead. Outside, the relentless heat poured down upon the
+deserted streets.
+
+"Padre," Rosendo resumed. "In the _calentura_ you talked of wonderful
+things. You spoke of kings and popes and foreign lands, of beautiful
+cities and great marvels of which we know nothing. It was wonderful!
+And you recited beautiful poems--but often in other tongues than ours.
+Padre, you must be very learned. I listened, and was astonished, for
+we are so ignorant here in Simiti, oh, so ignorant! We have no
+schools, and our poor little children grow up to be only _peones_ and
+fishermen. But--the little Carmen--ah, she has a mind! Padre--"
+
+Again he lapsed into silence, as if fearful to ask the boon.
+
+"Yes, Rosendo, yes," Jose eagerly reassured him. "Go on."
+
+Rosendo turned full upon the priest and spoke rapidly. "Padre, will
+you teach the little Carmen what you know? Will you make her a strong,
+learned woman, and fit her to do big things in the world--and
+then--then--"
+
+"Yes, Rosendo?"
+
+"--then get her away from Simiti? She does not belong here, Padre.
+And--?" his voice sank to a hoarse whisper--"will you help me keep her
+from the Church?"
+
+Jose sat staring at the man with dilating eyes.
+
+"Padre, she has her own Church. It is her heart."
+
+He leaned over and laid a hand upon the priest's knee. His dark eyes
+seemed to burn like glowing coals. His whispered words were fraught
+with a meaning which Jose would some day learn.
+
+"Padre, _that_ must be left alone!"
+
+A long silence fell upon the two men, the one massive of frame and
+black of face, but with a mind as simple as a child's and a heart as
+white as the snow that sprinkled his raven locks--the other a
+youth in years, but bowed with disappointment and suffering; yet now
+listening with hushed breath to the words that rolled with a mighty
+reverberation through the chambers of his soul:
+
+"I am God, and there is none else! Behold, I come quickly! Arise,
+shine, for thy light is come!"
+
+The sweet face of the child rose out of the gloom before the priest.
+The years rolled back like a curtain, and he saw himself at her tender
+age, a white, unformed soul, awaiting the sculptor's hand. God forbid
+that the hand which shaped his career should form the plastic mind of
+this girl!
+
+Of a sudden a great thought flashed out of the depths of eternity and
+into his brain, a thought which seemed to illumine his whole past
+life. In the clear light thereof he seemed instantly to read meanings
+in numberless events which to that hour had remained hidden. His
+complex, misshapen career--could it have been a preparation?--and for
+this? He had yearned to serve his fellow-men, but had miserably
+failed. For, while to will was always present with him, even as with
+Paul, yet how to perform that which was good he found not. But
+now--what an opportunity opened before him! What a beautiful offering
+of self was here made possible? God, what a privilege!
+
+Rosendo sat stolid, buried in thought. Jose reached out through the
+dim light and grasped his black hand. His eyes were lucent, his heart
+burned with the fire of an unknown enthusiasm, and speech stumbled
+across his lips.
+
+"Rosendo, I came to Simiti to die. And now I know that I _shall_
+die--to myself. But thereby shall I live. Yes, I shall live! And here
+before this altar, in the sight of that God whom she knows so well, I
+pledge my new-found life to Carmen. My mind, my thought, my strength,
+are henceforth hers. May her God direct me in their right use for His
+beautiful child!"
+
+Jose and Rosendo rose from the bench with hands still clasped. In that
+hour the priest was born again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4
+
+
+"He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."
+
+The reporters of the unique Man of Galilee, upon whose straining ears
+these words fell, noted them for future generations of footsore
+pilgrims on life's wandering highway--for the rich, satiated with
+their gorgeous gluttonies; for the proud Levite, with his feet
+enmeshed in the lifeless letter of the Law; for the loathsome and
+outcast beggar at the gates of Dives. And for Jose de Rincon, priest
+of the Holy Catholic Church and vicar of Christ, scion of aristocracy
+and worldly learning, now humbled and blinded, like Paul on the road
+to Damascus, begging that his spiritual sight might be opened to the
+glory of the One with whom he had not known how to walk.
+
+Returning in silence from the church to Rosendo's humble cottage, Jose
+had asked leave to retire. He would be alone with the great Presence
+which had come to him across the desert of his life, and now stood
+before him in the brightness of the undimmed sun. He no longer felt
+ill nor exhausted. Indeed, quite the contrary; a quickened sense of
+life, an eagerness to embrace the opportunity opening before him,
+caused his chest to heave and his shrunken veins to throb.
+
+On his bed in the darkened room he lay in a deep silence, broken only
+at intervals by the hurried scampering of lizards darting through the
+interstices of the dry walls. His uncomprehending eyes were fixed upon
+the dust-laden thatch of the roof overhead, where droning wasps toiled
+upon their frail abodes. He lay with the portals of his mind opened
+wide. Through them, in ceaseless flow, passed two streams which did
+not mingle. The one, outward bound, turbid with its burden of egoism,
+fear, perplexity, and hopelessness, which, like barnacles, had
+fastened to his soul on its chartless voyage; the other, a stream of
+hope and confidence and definite purpose, a stream which leaped and
+sang in the warm sunlight of Love as it poured into his receptive
+brain.
+
+The fresh thought which flowed into his mental chambers rapidly formed
+into orderly plans, all centering upon the child, Carmen. What could
+he teach her? The relative truths and worldly knowledge--purified,
+as far as in him lay, from the dross of speculation and human
+opinion--which lay stored in the archives of his mind? Yes; but that
+was all. History, and its interpretation of human progress; the
+languages; mathematics, and the elements of the physical sciences;
+literature; and a knowledge of people and places. With these his
+retentive mind was replete. But beyond this he must learn of her.
+And her tutor, he now knew, was the Master Mind, omniscient God.
+And he knew, more, that she possessed secrets whose potency he might
+as yet scarcely imagine. For, in an environment which for dearth of
+mental stimulus and incentive could scarcely be matched; amid
+poverty but slightly raised above actual want; untouched by the
+temperamental hopelessness which lies just beneath the surface of
+these dull, simple folk, this child lived a life of such ecstasy as
+might well excite the envy of the world's potentates.
+
+But meantime, what should be his attitude toward the parish? He fully
+realized that he and the Church were now as far apart as the poles.
+Yet this was become his parish, the first he had ever held; and these
+were his people. And he must face them and preach--what? If not the
+Catholic faith, then would he be speedily removed. And that meant
+complete disruption of his rapidly formulating plans. But might he not
+in that event flee with Carmen, renounce the Church, and--
+
+Impossible! Excommunication alone could sever the oath by which the
+Church held him. And for that he could not say that he was ready. For
+excommunication meant disgrace to his mother--perhaps the snapping of
+a heart already sorely strained. To renounce his oath was dishonor. To
+preach the Catholic faith without sincerity was scarcely less. Yet
+amid present circumstances this seemed the only course open to him.
+
+But what must he teach Carmen in regard to the Church? Could he
+maintain his position in it, yet not of it; and at the same time rear
+her without its pale, yet so as not to conflict with the people of
+Simiti, nor cause such comment as might reach the ears of the Bishop
+of Cartagena? God alone knew. It must be attempted, at any rate. There
+was no other way. And if it was God's plan, he might safely trust Him
+for the requisite strength and wisdom. For this course the isolation
+of Simiti and the childish simplicity of its people afforded a
+tremendous advantage. On the other hand, he knew that both he and
+Carmen had powerful enemies. Yet, one with God might rout a host. And
+Carmen walked with God.
+
+Thus throughout the afternoon the priest weighed and pondered the
+thoughts that sought admission to his reawakened mind. He was not
+interrupted until sundown; and then Carmen entered the room with a
+bowl of chocolate and some small wheaten loaves. Behind her, with an
+amusing show of dignity, stalked a large heron, an elegant bird, with
+long, scarlet legs, gray plumage, and a gracefully curved neck. When
+the bird reached the threshold it stopped, and without warning gave
+vent to a prolonged series of shrill, unmusical sounds. The startled
+priest sat up in his bed and exclaimed in amazement.
+
+"It is only Cantar-las-horas, Padre," laughed the little maid. "He
+follows me wherever I go, unless he is off fishing. Sometimes when I
+go out in the boat with padre Rosendo he flies clear across the lake
+to meet us. He is lots older than I, and years ago, when there were
+_Curas_ here, he learned his song. Whenever the _Angelas_ rang he
+would try to sing just like it; and now he has the habit and can't
+help it. But he is such a dear, wise old fellow," twining a chubby arm
+lovingly about the bird's slender neck; "and he always sings just at
+six o'clock, the time the _Angelas_ used to ring."
+
+The heron manifested the deepest affection for the child as she gently
+stroked its plumage and caressed its long, pointed bill.
+
+"But how do you suppose he knows when it is just six o'clock,
+_chiquita_?" asked Jose, deeply interested in the strange phenomenon.
+
+"God tells him, Padre," was the direct and simple reply.
+
+Assuredly, he should have known that! But he was fast learning of this
+unusual child, whose every movement was a demonstration of Immanuel.
+
+"Does God tell you what to do, Carmen?" he asked, seeking to draw out
+the girl's strange thought, that he might probe deeper into her
+religious convictions.
+
+"Why, yes, Padre." Her tone expressed surprise. "Doesn't He tell you,
+too?" Her great eyes searched him. He was a _Cura_; he should be very
+close to God.
+
+"Yes, _chiquita_--that is, He has told me to-day what to do."
+
+There was a shade of disappointment in her voice when she replied: "I
+guess you mean you listened to Him to-day, don't you, Padre? I think
+sometimes you don't want to hear Him. But," she finished with a little
+sigh, "there are lots of people here who don't; and that is why they
+are sick and unhappy."
+
+Jose was learning another lesson, that of guarding his speech to this
+ingenuous girl. He discreetly changed the subject.
+
+"What have you been doing this afternoon, little one?"
+
+Her eyes instantly brightened, and the dark shade that had crossed her
+face disappeared.
+
+"Well, after the _siesta_ I helped madre Maria clean the yuccas for
+supper; and then I did my writing lesson. Padre Rosendo told me to-day
+that I could write better than he. But, Padre, will you teach madre
+Maria to read and write? And there are just lots of poor people here
+who can't, too. There is a school teacher in Simiti, but he charges a
+whole _peso oro_ a month for teaching; and the people haven't the
+money, and so they can't learn."
+
+Always the child shifted his thought from herself to others. Again she
+showed him that the road to happiness wound among the needs of his
+fellow-men. The priest mentally recorded the instruction; and the girl
+continued:
+
+"Padre Rosendo told madre Maria that you said you had come to Simiti
+to die. You were not thinking of us then, were you, Padre? People who
+think only of themselves always want to die. That was why Don Luis
+died last year. He had lots of gold, and he always wanted more, and he
+was cruel and selfish, and he couldn't talk about anything but himself
+and how rich he was--and so he died. He didn't really die; but he
+thought about himself until he thought he died. And so they buried
+him. That's what always happens to people who think about themselves
+all the time--they get buried."
+
+Jose was glad of the silence that fell upon them. Wrapped so long in
+his own egoism, he had now no worldly wisdom with which to match this
+girl's sapient words. He waited. He felt that Carmen was but the
+channel through which a great Voice was speaking.
+
+"Padre," the tones were tender and soft, "you don't always think of
+good things, do you?"
+
+"I? Why, no, little girl. I guess I haven't done so. That is, not
+always. But--"
+
+"Because if you had you wouldn't have been driven into the lake that
+day. And you wouldn't be here now in Simiti."
+
+"But, child, even a _Cura_ cannot always think of good things, when he
+sees so much wickedness in the world!"
+
+"But, Padre, God is good, isn't He?"
+
+"Yes, child." The necessity to answer could not be avoided.
+
+"And He is everywhere?"
+
+"Yes." He had to say it.
+
+"Then where is the wickedness, Padre?"
+
+"Why--but, _chiquita_, you don't understand; you are too young to
+reason about such things; and--"
+
+In his heart Jose knew he spoke not the truth. He felt the great
+brown eyes of the girl penetrate his naked soul; and he knew that in
+the dark recesses of the inner man they fell upon the grinning
+skeleton of hypocrisy. Carmen might be, doubtless was, incapable of
+reasoning. Of logical processes she knew nothing. But by what crass
+assumption might he, admittedly woefully defeated in his combat with
+Fate, oppose his feeble shafts of worldly logic to this child's
+instinct, an instinct of whose inerrancy her daily walk was a living
+demonstration? In quick penitence and humility he stretched out his
+arm and drew her unresisting to him.
+
+"Dear little child of God," he murmured, as he bent over her and
+touched his lips to her rich brown curls, "I have tried my life long
+to learn what you already know. And at last I have been led to you--to
+you, little one, who shall be a lamp unto my feet. Dearest child, I
+want to know your God as you know Him. I want you to lead me to Him,
+for you know where He is."
+
+"He is _everywhere_, Padre dear," whispered the child, as she
+nestled close to the priest and stole her soft arms gently about his
+neck. "But we don't see Him nor hear Him if we have bad thoughts, and
+if we don't love everybody and everything, even Cucumbra, and
+Cantar-las-horas, and--"
+
+"Yes, _chiquita_, I know now," interrupted Jose. "I don't wonder they
+all love you."
+
+"But, Padre dear, I love them--and I love you."
+
+The priest strained her to him. His famished heart yearned for love.
+Love! first of the tender graces which adorned this beautiful child.
+Verily, only those imbued with it become the real teachers of men. The
+beloved disciple's last instruction to his dear children was the
+tender admonition to love one another. But why, oh, why are we bidden
+to love the fallen, sordid outcasts of this wicked world--the
+wretched, sinning pariahs--the greedy, grasping, self-centered mass of
+humanity that surges about us in such woeful confusion of good and
+evil? Because the wise Master did. Because he said that God was Love.
+Because he taught that he who loves not, knows not God. And because,
+oh, wonderful spiritual alchemy! because Love is the magical potion
+which, dropping like heavenly dew upon sinful humanity, dissolves the
+vice, the sorrow, the carnal passions, and transmutes the brutish
+mortal into the image and likeness of the perfect God.
+
+Far into the night, while the child slept peacefully in the bed near
+him, Jose lay thinking of her and of the sharp turn which she had
+given to the direction of his life. Through the warm night air the
+hoarse croaking of distant frogs and the mournful note of the toucan
+floated to his ears. In the street without he heard at intervals the
+pattering of bare feet in the hot, thick dust, as tardy fishermen
+returned from their labors. The hum of insects about his _toldo_
+lulled him with its low monotone. The call of a lonely jaguar drifted
+across the still lake from the brooding jungle beyond. A great peace
+lay over the ancient town; and when, in the early hours of morning, as
+the distorted moon hung low in the western sky, Jose awoke, the soft
+breathing of the child fell upon his ears like a benediction; and deep
+from his heart there welled a prayer--
+
+"My God--_her_ God--at last I thank Thee!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5
+
+
+The day following was filled to the brim with bustling activity. Jose
+plunged into his new life with an enthusiasm he had never known
+before. His first care was to relieve Rosendo and his good wife of the
+burden of housing him. Rosendo, protesting against the intimation that
+the priest could in any way inconvenience him, at last suggested that
+the house adjoining his own, a small, three-room cottage, was vacant,
+and might be had at a nominal rental. Some repairs were needed; the
+mud had fallen from the walls in several places; but he would plaster
+it up again and put it into habitable condition at once.
+
+During the discussion Don Mario, the Alcalde, called to pay his
+respects to Jose. He had just returned from a week's visit to Ocana,
+whither he had gone on matters of business with Simiti's most eminent
+citizen, Don Felipe Alcozer, who was at present sojourning there for
+reasons of health. Learning of the priest's recent severe illness, Don
+Mario had hastened at once to pay his _devoirs_. And now the Holy
+Virgin be praised that he beheld the _Cura_ again fully restored! Yes,
+the dismal little house in question belonged to him, but would the
+_Cura_ graciously accept it, rent free, and with his most sincere
+compliments? Jose glanced at Rosendo and, reading a meaning in the
+slight shake of his head, replied that, although overwhelmed by the
+Alcalde's kindness, he could take the cottage only on the condition
+that it should become the parish house, which the Church must support.
+A shade of disappointment seemed to cross the heavy face of Don Mario,
+but he graciously acquiesced in the priest's suggestion; and
+arrangements were at once concluded whereby the house became the
+dwelling place of the new _Cura_.
+
+Rosendo thereupon sent out a call for assistants, to which the entire
+unemployed male population of the town responded. Mud for the walls
+was hastily brought from the lake, and mixed with manure and dried
+grass. A half dozen young men started for the islands to cut fresh
+thatch for the roof. Others set about scraping the hard dirt floors;
+while Don Mario gave orders which secured a table, several rough
+chairs, together with iron stewpans and a variety of enameled metal
+dishes, all of which Rosendo insisted should be charged against the
+parish. The village carpenter, with his rusty tools and rough,
+undressed lumber, constructed a bed in one of the rooms; and Juan, the
+boatman, laboriously sought out stones of the proper shape and size to
+support the cooking utensils in the primitive dirt hearth.
+
+Often, as he watched the progress of these arrangements, Jose's
+thoughts reverted longingly to his father's comfortable house in
+far-off Seville; to his former simple quarters in Rome; and to the
+less pretentious, but still wholly sufficient _menage_ of Cartagena.
+Compared with this primitive dwelling and the simple husbandry which
+it would shelter, his former abodes and manner of life had been
+extravagantly luxurious. At times he felt a sudden sinking of heart as
+he reflected that perhaps he should never again know anything better
+than the lowly life of this dead town. But when his gaze rested upon
+the little Carmen, flying hither and yon with an ardent, anticipatory
+interest in every detail of the preparations, and when he realized
+that, though her feet seemed to rest in the squalid setting afforded
+by this dreary place, yet her thought dwelt ever in heaven, his heart
+welled again with a great thankfulness for the inestimable privilege
+of giving his new life, in whatever environment, to a soul so fair as
+hers.
+
+While his house was being set in order under the direction of Rosendo,
+Jose visited the church with the Alcalde to formulate plans for its
+immediate repair and renovation. As he surveyed the ancient pile and
+reflected that it stood as a monument to the inflexible religious
+convictions of his own distant progenitors, the priest's sensibilities
+were profoundly stirred. How little he knew of that long line of
+illustrious ancestry which preceded him! He had been thrust from under
+the parental wing at the tender age of twelve; but he could not recall
+that even before that event his father had ever made more than casual
+mention of the family. Indeed, in the few months since arriving on
+ancestral soil Jose had gathered up more of the threads which bound
+him to the ancient house of Rincon than in all the years which
+preceded. Had he himself only been capable of the unquestioning
+acceptance of religious dogma which those old _Conqueros_ and early
+forbears exhibited, to what position of eminence in Holy Church might
+he not already have attained, with every avenue open to still greater
+preferment! How happy were his dear mother then! How glorious their
+honored name!--
+
+With a sigh the priest roused himself and strove to thrust these
+disturbing thoughts from his mind by centering his attention upon the
+work in hand. Dona Maria came to him for permission to take the moldy
+vestments from the _sacristia_ to her house to clean them. The
+Alcalde, bustling about, panting and perspiring, was distributing
+countless orders among his willing assistants. Carmen, who throughout
+the morning had been everywhere, bubbling with enthusiasm, now
+appeared at the church door. As she entered the musty, ill-smelling
+old building she hesitated on the threshold, her childish face screwed
+into an expression of disgust.
+
+"Come in, little one; I need your inspiration," called Jose cheerily.
+
+The child approached, and slipped her hand into his. "Padre Rosendo
+says this is God's house," she commented, looking up at Jose. "He says
+you are going to talk about God here--in this dirty, smelly old place!
+Why don't you talk about Him out of doors?"
+
+Jose was becoming innured to the embarrassment which her direct
+questions occasioned. And he was learning not to dissemble in his
+replies.
+
+"It is because the people want to come here, dear one; it is their
+custom."
+
+Would the people believe that the wafer and wine could be changed into
+the flesh and blood of Jesus elsewhere--even in Nature's temple?
+
+"But _I_ don't want to come here!" she asseverated.
+
+"That was a naughty thing to say to the good _Cura_, child!"
+interposed Don Mario, who had overheard the girl's remark. "You see,
+Padre, how we need a _Cura_ here to save these children; otherwise the
+Church is going to lose them. They are running pretty wild, and
+especially this one. She is already dedicated to the Church; but she
+will have to learn to speak more reverently of holy things if she
+expects to become a good Sister."
+
+The child looked uncomprehendingly from, one to the other.
+
+"Who dedicated her to the Church?" demanded Jose sharply.
+
+"Oh, Padre Diego, at her baptism, when she was a baby," replied Don
+Mario in a matter of fact tone.
+
+Jose shuddered at the thought of that unholy man's loathsome hands
+resting upon the innocent girl. But he made no immediate reply. Of
+all things, he knew that the guarding of his own tongue was now most
+important. But his thought was busy with Rosendo's burning words of
+the preceding day, and with his own solemn vow. He reflected on his
+present paradoxical, hazardous position; on the tremendous problem
+which here confronted him; and on his desperate need of wisdom--yea,
+superhuman wisdom--to ward off from this child the net which he knew
+the subtlety and cruel cunning of shrewd, unscrupulous men would some
+day cause to be cast about her. A soul like hers, mirrored in a body
+so wondrous fair, must eventually draw the devil's most envenomed
+barbs.
+
+To Jose's great relief Don Mario turned immediately from the present
+topic to one relating to the work of renovation. Finding a pretext for
+sending Carmen back to the house, the priest gave his attention
+unreservedly to the Alcalde. But his mind ceased not to revolve the
+implications in Don Mario's words relative to the girl; and when the
+midday _siesta_ came upon him his brow was knotted and his eyes gazed
+vacantly at the manifestations of activity about him.
+
+Hurrying across the road to escape the scalding heat, Jose's ears
+again caught the sound of singing, issuing evidently from Rosendo's
+house. It was very like the clear, sweet voice which had floated into
+his room the morning after he awoke from his delirium. He approached
+the door reverently and looked in. Carmen was arranging the few poor
+dishes upon the rough table, and as she worked, her soul flowed across
+her lips in song.
+
+The man listened astonished. The words and the simple melody which
+carried them were evidently an improvisation. But the voice--did that
+issue from a human throat? Yes, for in distant Spain and far-off Rome,
+in great cathedrals and concert halls, he had sometimes listened
+entranced to voices like this--stronger, and delicately trained, but
+reared upon even less of primitive talent.
+
+The girl caught sight of him; and the song died on the warm air.
+
+The priest strode toward her and clasped her in his arms. "Carmen,
+child! Who taught you to sing like that?"
+
+The girl smiled up in his face. "God, Padre."
+
+Of course! He should have known. And in future he need never ask.
+
+"And I suppose He tells you when to sing, too, as He does
+Cantar-las-horas?" said Jose, smiling in amusement.
+
+"No, Padre," was the unaffected answer. "He just sings Himself in
+me."
+
+The man felt rebuked for his light remark; and a lump rose in his
+throat. He looked again into her fair face with a deep yearning.
+
+Oh, ye of little faith! Did you but know--could you but realize--that
+the kingdom of heaven is within you, would not celestial melody flow
+from your lips, too?
+
+Throughout the afternoon, while he labored with his willing helpers in
+the church building and his homely cottage, the child's song lingered
+in his brain, like the memory of a sweet perfume. His eyes followed
+her lithe, graceful form as she flitted about, and his mind was busy
+devising pretexts for keeping her near him. At times she would steal
+up close to him and put her little hand lovingly and confidingly into
+his own. Then as he looked down into her upturned face, wreathed with
+smiles of happiness, his breath would catch, and he would turn
+hurriedly away, that she might not see the tears which suffused his
+eyes.
+
+When night crept down, unheralded, from the _Sierras_, the priest's
+house stood ready for its occupant. Cantar-las-horas had dedicated it
+by singing the _Angelus_ at the front door, for the hour of six had
+overtaken him as he stood, with cocked head, peering curiously within.
+The dwelling, though pitifully bare, was nevertheless as clean as
+these humble folk with the primitive means at their command could
+render it. Instead of the customary hard _macana_ palm strips for the
+bed, Rosendo had thoughtfully substituted a large piece of tough white
+canvas, fastened to a rectangular frame, which rested on posts well
+above the damp floor. On this lay a white sheet and a light blanket of
+red flannel. Rosendo had insisted that, for the present, Jose should
+take his meals with him. The priest's domestic arrangements,
+therefore, would be simple in the extreme; and Dona Maria quietly
+announced that these were in her charge. The church edifice would not
+be in order for some days yet, perhaps a week. But of this Jose was
+secretly glad, for he regarded with dread the necessity of discharging
+the priestly functions. And yet, upon that hinged his stay in Simiti.
+
+"Simiti has two churches, you know, Padre," remarked Rosendo during
+the evening meal. "There is another old one near the eastern edge of
+town. If you wish, we can visit it while there is yet light."
+
+Jose expressed his pleasure; and a few minutes later the two men, with
+Carmen dancing along happily beside them, were climbing the shaly
+eminence upon the summit of which stood the second church. On the way
+they passed the town cemetery.
+
+"The Spanish cemetery never grows," commented Jose, stopping at the
+crumbling gateway and peering in. The place of sepulture was the
+epitome of utter desolation. A tumbled brick wall surrounded it, and
+there were a few broken brick vaults, in some of which whitening bones
+were visible. In a far corner was a heap of human bones and bits of
+decayed coffins.
+
+"Their rent fell due, Padre," said Rosendo with a little laugh,
+indicating the bones. "The Church rents this ground to the people--it
+is consecrated, you know. And if the payments are not made, why, the
+bones come up and are thrown over there."
+
+"Humph!" grunted Jose. "Worse than heathenish!"
+
+"But you see, Padre, the Church is only concerned with souls. And it
+is better to pay the money to get souls out of purgatory than to rent
+a bit of ground for the body, is it not?"
+
+Jose wisely vouchsafed no answer.
+
+"Come, Padre," continued Rosendo. "I would not want to have to spend
+the night here. For, you know, if a man spends a night in a cemetery
+an evil spirit settles upon him--is it not so?"
+
+Jose still kept silence before the old man's inbred superstition. A
+few minutes later they stood before the old church. It was in the
+Spanish mission style, but smaller than the one in the central
+_plaza_.
+
+"This was built in the time of your great-grandfather, Padre, the
+father of Don Ignacio," offered Rosendo. "The Rincon family had many
+powerful enemies throughout the country, and those in Simiti even
+carried their ill feeling so far as to refuse to hear Mass in the
+church which your family built. So they erected this one. No one ever
+enters it now. Strange noises are sometimes heard inside, and the
+people are afraid to go in. You see there are no houses built near it.
+They say an angel of the devil lives here and thrashes around at times
+in terrible anger. There is a story that many years ago, when I was
+but a baby, the devil's angel came and entered this church one dark
+night, when there was a terrible storm and the waves of the lake were
+so strong that they tossed the crocodiles far up on the shore. And
+when the bad angel saw the candles burning on the altar before the
+sacred wafer he roared in anger and blew them out. But there was a
+beautiful painting of the Virgin on the wall, and when the lights went
+out she came down out of her picture and lighted the candles again.
+But the devil's angel blew them out once more. And then, they say, the
+Holy Virgin left the church in darkness and went out and locked the
+wicked angel in, where he has been ever since. That was to show her
+displeasure against the enemies of the great Rincons for erecting this
+church. The _Cura_ died suddenly that night; and the church has never
+been used since The Virgin, you know, is the special guardian Saint of
+the Rincon family."
+
+"But you do not believe the story, Rosendo?" Jose asked.
+
+"_Quien sabe?_" was the noncommittal reply.
+
+"Do you really think the Virgin could or would do such a thing,
+Rosendo?"
+
+"Why not, Padre? She has the same power as God, has she not? The frame
+which held her picture"--reverting again to the story--"was found out
+in front of the church the next morning; but the picture itself was
+gone."
+
+Jose glanced down at Carmen, who had been listening with a tense, rapt
+expression on her face. What impression did this strange story make
+upon her? She looked up at the priest with a little laugh.
+
+"Let us go in, Padre," she said.
+
+"No!" commanded Rosendo, seizing her hand.
+
+"Are you afraid, Rosendo?" queried the amused Jose.
+
+"I--I would--rather not," the old man replied hesitatingly. "The
+Virgin has sealed it." Physical danger was temperamental to this noble
+son of the jungle; yet the religious superstition which Spain had
+bequeathed to this oppressed land still shackled his limbs.
+
+As they descended the hill Carmen seized an opportunity to speak to
+Jose alone. "Some day, Padre," she whispered, "you and I will open the
+door and let the bad angel out, won't we?"
+
+Jose pressed her little hand. He knew that the door of his own mind
+had swung wide at her bidding in these few days, and many a bad angel
+had gone out forever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6
+
+
+The dawn of a new day broke white and glistering upon the ancient
+_pueblo_. From their hard beds of palm, and their straw mats on the
+dirt floors, the provincial dwellers in this abandoned treasure house
+of Old Spain rose already dressed to resume the monotonous routine of
+their lowly life. The duties which confronted them were few, scarce
+extending beyond the procurement of their simple food. And for all,
+excepting the two or three families which constituted the shabby
+aristocracy of Simiti, this was limited in the extreme. Indian corn,
+_panela_, and coffee, with an occasional addition of _platanos_ or
+rice, and now and then bits of _bagre_, the coarse fish yielded by the
+adjacent lake, constituted the staple diet of the average citizen of
+this decayed hamlet. A few might purchase a bit of lard at rare
+intervals; and this they hoarded like precious jewels. Some
+occasionally had wheat flour; but the long, difficult transportation,
+and its rapid deterioration in that hot, moist climate, where swarms
+of voracious insects burrow into everything not cased in tin or iron,
+made its cost all but prohibitive. A few had goats and chickens. Some
+possessed pigs. And the latter even exceeded in value the black, naked
+babes that played in the hot dust of the streets with them.
+
+Jose was up at dawn. Standing in the warm, unadulterated sunlight in
+his doorway he watched the village awaken. At a door across the
+_plaza_ a woman appeared, smoking a cigar, with the lighted end in her
+mouth. Jose viewed with astonishment this curious custom which
+prevails in the _Tierra Caliente_. He had observed that in Simiti
+nearly everybody of both sexes was addicted to the use of tobacco, and
+it was no uncommon sight to see children of tender age smoking heavy,
+black cigars with keen enjoyment. From another door issued two
+fishermen, who, seeing the priest, approached and asked his blessing
+on their day's work. Some moments later he heard a loud tattoo, and
+soon the Alcalde of the village appeared, marching pompously through
+the streets, preceded by his tall, black secretary, who was beating
+lustily upon a small drum. At each street intersection the little
+procession halted, while the Alcalde with great impressiveness
+sonorously read a proclamation just received from the central
+Government at Bogota to the effect that thereafter no cattle might be
+killed in the country without the payment of a tax as therein set
+forth. Groups of _peones_ gathered slowly about the few little stores
+in the main street, or entered and inspected for the thousandth time
+the shabby stocks. Matrons with black, shining faces cheerily greeted
+one another from their doorways. Everywhere prevailed a gentle decorum
+of speech and manners. For, however lowly the station, however pinched
+the environment, the dwellers in this ancient town were ever gentle,
+courteous and dignified. Their conversation dealt with the simple
+affairs of their quiet life. They knew nothing of the complex
+problems, social, economic, or religious, which harassed their
+brethren of the North. No dubious aspirations or ambitions stirred
+their breasts. Nothing of the frenzied greed and lust of material
+accumulation touched their child-like minds. They dwelt upon a plane
+far, far removed, in whatever direction, from the mental state of
+their educated and civilized brothers of the great States, who from
+time to time undertake to advise them how to live, while ruthlessly
+exploiting them for material gain. And thus they have been exploited
+ever since the heavy hand of the Spaniard was laid upon them, four
+centuries ago. Thus they will continue to be, until that distant day
+when mankind shall have learned to find their own in another's good.
+
+As his eyes swept his environment, the untutored folk, the old church,
+the dismally decrepit mud houses, with an air of desolation and utter
+abandon brooding over all; and as he reflected that his own complex
+nature, rather than any special malice of fortune, had brought this to
+him, Jose's heart began to sink under the sting of a condemning
+conscience. He turned back into his house. Its pitiful emptiness smote
+him sore. No books, no pictures, no furnishings, nothing that
+ministers to the comfort of a civilized and educated man! And yet,
+amid this barrenness he had resolved to live.
+
+A song drifted to him through the pulsing heat of the morning air. It
+sifted through the mud walls of his poor dwelling, and poured into the
+open doorway, where it hovered, quivering, like the dust motes in the
+sunbeams. Instantly the man righted himself. It was Carmen, the child
+to whom his life now belonged. Resolutely he again set his wandering
+mind toward the great thing he would accomplish--the protection and
+training of this girl, even while, if might be, he found his life
+again in hers. Nothing on earth should shake him from that purpose!
+Doubt and uncertainty were powerless to dull the edge of his efforts.
+His bridges were burned behind him; and on the other side of the great
+gulf lay the dead self which he had abandoned forever.
+
+A harsh medley of loud, angry growls, interspersed with shrill yelps,
+suddenly arose before his house, and Jose hastened to the door just in
+time to see Carmen rush into the street and fearlessly throw herself
+upon two fighting dogs.
+
+"Cucumbra! Stop it instantly!" she exclaimed, dragging the angry brute
+from a thoroughly frightened puppy.
+
+"Shame! shame! And after all I've talked to you about loving that
+puppy!"
+
+The gaunt animal slunk down, with its tail between its legs.
+
+"Did you ever gain anything at all by fighting? You know you never
+did! And right down in your heart you know you love that puppy. You've
+_got_ to love him; you can't help it! And you might as well begin
+right now."
+
+The beast whimpered at her little bare feet.
+
+"Cucumbra, you let bad thoughts use you, didn't you? Yes, you did; and
+you're sorry for it now. Well, there's the puppy," pointing to the
+little dog, which stood hesitant some yards away. "Now go and play
+with him," she urged. "Play with him!" rousing the larger dog and
+pointing toward the puppy. "Play with him! You _know_ you love him!"
+
+Cucumbra hesitated, looking alternately at the small, resolute girl
+and the smaller dog. Her arm remained rigidly extended, and
+determination was written large in her set features. The puppy uttered
+a sharp bark, as if in forgiveness, and began to scamper playfully
+about. Cucumbra threw a final glance at the girl.
+
+"Play with him!" she again commanded.
+
+The large dog bounded after the puppy, and together they disappeared
+around the street corner.
+
+The child turned and saw Jose, who had regarded the scene in mute
+astonishment.
+
+"_Muy buenos dias, Senor Padre_," dropping a little courtesy. "But
+isn't Cucumbra foolish to have bad thoughts?"
+
+"Why, yes--he certainly is," replied Jose slowly, hard pressed by the
+unusual question.
+
+"He has just _got_ to love that puppy, or else he will never be happy,
+will he, Padre?"
+
+Why would this girl persist in ending her statements with an
+interrogation! How could he know whether Cucumbra's happiness would be
+imperfect if he failed in love toward the puppy?
+
+"Because, you know, Padre," the child continued, coming up to him and
+slipping her hand into his, "padre Rosendo once told me that God was
+Love; and after that I knew we just had to love everything and
+everybody, or else He can't see us--can He, Padre?"
+
+He can't see us--if we don't love everything and everybody! Well! Jose
+wondered what sort of interpretation the Vatican, with its fiery
+hatred of heretics, would put upon this remark.
+
+"Can He, Padre?" insisted the girl.
+
+"Dear child, in these matters you are teaching me; not I you," replied
+the noncommittal priest.
+
+"But, Padre, you are going to teach the people in the church," the
+girl ventured quizzically.
+
+Ah, so he was! And he had wondered what. In his hour of need the
+answer was vouchsafed him.
+
+"Yes, dearest child--and I am going to teach them what I learn from
+_you_."
+
+Carmen regarded him for a moment uncertainly. "But, padre Rosendo says
+you are to teach _me_," she averred.
+
+"And so I am, little one," the priest replied; "but not one half as
+much as I shall learn from you."
+
+Dona Maria's summons to breakfast interrupted the conversation.
+Throughout the repast Jose felt himself subjected to the closest
+scrutiny by Carmen. What was running through her thought, he could
+only vaguely surmise. But he instinctively felt that he was being
+weighed and appraised by this strange child, and that she was finding
+him wanting in her estimate of what manner of man a priest of God
+ought to be. And yet he knew that she embraced him in her great love.
+Oftentimes his quick glance at her would find her serious gaze bent
+upon him. But whenever their eyes met, her sweet face would instantly
+relax and glow with a smile of tenderest love--a love which, he felt,
+was somehow, in some way, destined to reconstruct his shattered life.
+
+Jose's plans for educating the girl had gradually evolved into
+completion during the past two days. He explained them at length to
+Rosendo after the morning meal; and the latter, with dilating eyes,
+manifested his great joy by clasping the priest in his brawny arms.
+
+"But remember, Rosendo," Jose said, "learning is not _knowing_. I can
+only teach her book-knowledge. But even now, an untutored child, she
+knows more that is real than I do."
+
+"Ah, Padre, have I not told you many times that she is not like us?
+And now you know it!" exclaimed the emotional Rosendo, his eyes
+suffused with tears of joy as he beheld his cherished ideals and his
+longing of years at last at the point of realization. What he, too,
+had instinctively seen in the child was now to be summoned forth; and
+the vague, half-understood motive which had impelled him to take the
+abandoned babe from Badillo into the shelter of his own great heart
+would at length be revealed. The man's joy was ecstatic. With a final
+clasp of the priest's hand, he rushed from the house to plunge into
+the work in progress at the church.
+
+Jose summoned Carmen into the quiet of his own dwelling. She came
+joyfully, bringing an ancient and obsolete arithmetic and a much
+tattered book, which Jose discovered to be a chronicle of the heroic
+deeds of the early _Conquistadores_.
+
+"I'm through decimals!" she exclaimed with glistening eyes; "and I've
+read some of this, but I don't like it," making a little _moue_ of
+disgust and holding aloft the battered history.
+
+"Padre Rosendo told me to show it to you," she continued. "But it is
+all about murder, you know. And yet," with a little sigh, "he has
+nothing else to read, excepting old newspapers which the steamers
+sometimes leave at Bodega Central. And they are all about murder, and
+stealing, and bad things, too. Padre, why don't people write about
+good things?"
+
+Jose gazed at her reverently, as of old the sculptor Phidias might
+have stood in awe before the vision which he saw in the unchiseled
+marble.
+
+"Padre Rosendo helped me with the fractions," went on the girl,
+flitting lightly to another topic; "but I had to learn the decimals
+myself. He couldn't understand them. And they are so easy, aren't
+they? I just love arithmetic!" hugging the old book to her little
+bosom.
+
+Both volumes, printed in Madrid, were reliques of Spanish colonial
+days.
+
+"Read to me, Carmen," said Jose, handing her the history.
+
+The child took the book and began to read, with clear enunciation, the
+narrative of Quesada's sanguinary expedition to Bogota, undertaken in
+the name of the gentle Christ. Jose wondered as he listened what
+interpretation this fresh young mind would put upon the motives of
+that renowned exploit. Suddenly she snapped the book shut.
+
+"Tell me about Jesus," she demanded.
+
+The precipitation with which the question had been propounded almost
+took his breath away. He raised his eyes to hers, and looked long and
+wonderingly into their infinite depths. And then the vastness of the
+problem enunciated by her demand loomed before him. What, after all,
+did he know about Jesus? Had he not arrived in Simiti in a state of
+agnosticism regarding religion? Had he not come there enveloped in
+confusion, baffled, beaten, hopeless? And then, after his wonderful
+talk with Rosendo, had he not agreed with him that the child's thought
+must be kept free and open--that her own instinctive religious ideas
+must be allowed to develop normally, unhampered and unfettered by the
+external warp and bias of human speculation? It was part of his plan
+that all reference to matters theological should be omitted from
+Carmen's educational scheme. Yet here was that name on her lips--the
+first time he had ever heard it voiced by her. And it smote him like a
+hammer. He made haste to divert further inquiry.
+
+"Not now, little one," he said hastily. "I want to hear you read more
+from your book."
+
+"No," she replied firmly, laying the volume upon the table. "I don't
+like it; and I shouldn't think you would, either. Besides, it isn't
+true; it never really happened."
+
+"Why, of course it is true, child! It is history, the story of how the
+brave Spaniards came into this country long ago. We will read a great
+deal more about them later."
+
+"No," with a decisive shake of her brown head; "not if it is like
+this. It isn't true; I told padre Rosendo it wasn't."
+
+"Well, what do you mean, child?" asked the uncomprehending priest.
+
+"It is only a lot of bad thoughts printed in a book," she replied
+slowly. "And it isn't true, because God is _everywhere_."
+
+Clearly the man was encountering difficulties at the outset; and a
+part, at least, of his well-ordered curriculum stood in grave danger
+of repudiation at the hands of this earnest little maid.
+
+The girl stood looking at him wistfully. Then her sober little face
+melted in smiles. With childish impulsiveness she clambered into his
+lap, and twining her arms about his neck, impressed a kiss upon his
+cheek.
+
+"I love you, Padre," she murmured; "and you love me, don't you?"
+
+He pressed her to him, startled though he was. "God knows I do, little
+one!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Of course He does," she eagerly agreed; "and He knows you don't want
+to teach me anything that isn't true, doesn't He, Padre dear?"
+
+Yea, and more; for Jose was realizing now, what he had not seen
+before, that _it was beyond his power to teach her that which was not
+true_. The magnitude and sacredness of his task impressed him as never
+before. His puzzled brain grappled feebly with the enormous problem.
+She had rebuked him for trying to teach her things which, if he
+accepted the immanence of God as fact, her logic had shown him were
+utterly false. Clearly the grooves in which this child's pure thought
+ran were not his own. And if she would not think as he did, what
+recourse was there left him but to accept the alternative and think
+with her? For he would not, even if he could, force upon her his own
+thought-processes.
+
+"Then, Carmen," he finally ventured, "you do not wish to learn about
+people and what they have done and are doing in the big world about
+you?"
+
+"Oh, yes, Padre; tell me all about the good things they did!"
+
+"But they did many wicked things too, _chiquita_. And the good and the
+bad are all mixed up together."
+
+"No," she shook her head vigorously; "there isn't any bad. There is
+only good, for God is everywhere--isn't He?"
+
+She raised up and looked squarely into the priest's eyes. Dissimulation,
+hypocrisy, quibble, cant--nothing but fearless truth could meet that
+gaze.
+
+Suddenly a light broke in upon his clouded thought. This girl--this
+tender plant of God--why, she had shown it from the very beginning!
+And he, oh, blind that he was! he could not see nor accept it. The
+secret of her power, of her ecstasy of life--what was it but
+this?--_she knew no evil!_
+
+And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the
+garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of
+good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou
+eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
+
+Oh, great God! It was the first--the very first--lesson which Thou
+didst teach Thy child, Israel, as the curtain rose upon the drama of
+human life! And the awful warning has rung down through the corridors
+of time from the mouths of the prophets, whom we slew lest they wake
+us from our mesmeric sleep! Israel forgot Thy words; and the world has
+forgotten them, long, long since. Daily we mix our perfumed draft of
+good and evil, and sink under its lethal influence! Hourly we eat of
+the forbidden tree, till the pangs of death encompass us!
+
+And when at last the dark angel hovered over the sin-stricken earth
+and claimed it for his own, the great Master came to sound again the
+warning--"As a man thinketh in his heart, _so is he_!" But they would
+have none of him, and nailed him to a tree!
+
+Oh, Jerusalem! Oh, ye incarnate human mind! Even the unique Son of God
+wept as he looked with yearning upon you! Why? Because of your
+stubborn clinging to false ways, false beliefs, false thoughts of God
+and man! Because ye would not be healed; ye would not be made whole!
+Ye loved evil--ye gave it life and power, and ye rolled it like a
+sweet morsel beneath your tongue--and so ye died! So came death into
+this fair world, through the heart, the brain, the mind of man, _who
+sought to know what God could not_!
+
+"Padre dear, you are so quiet." The girl nestled closer to the awed
+priest. Aye! And so the multitude on Sinai had stood in awed quiet as
+they listened to the voice of God.
+
+This child knew no evil! The man could not grasp the infinite
+import of the marvelous fact. And yet he had sought to teach her
+falsities--to teach her that evil did exist, as real and as potent
+as good, and that it was to be accepted and honored by mankind! But
+she had turned her back upon the temptation.
+
+"Padre, are you going to tell me about Jesus?"
+
+The priest roused from his deep meditation.
+
+"Yes, yes--I want to know nothing else! I will get my Bible, and we
+will read about him!"
+
+"Bible? What is that, Padre dear?"
+
+"What! You don't know what the Bible is?" cried the astonished
+priest.
+
+"No, Padre."
+
+"But have you never--has your padre Rosendo never told you that it is
+the book that tells--?"
+
+"No," the girl shook her head. "But," her face kindling, "he told me
+that Jesus was God's only son. But we are all His children, aren't
+we?"
+
+"Yes--especially you, little one! But Jesus was the greatest--"
+
+"Did Jesus write the Bible, Padre?" the girl asked earnestly.
+
+"No--we don't know who did. People used to think God wrote it; but I
+guess He didn't."
+
+"Then we will not read it, Padre."
+
+The man bent reverently over the little brown head and prayed again
+for guidance. What could he do with this child, who dwelt with
+Jehovah--who saw His reflection in every flower and hill and fleecy
+cloud--who heard His voice in the sough of the wind, and the ripple of
+the waters on the pebbly shore! And, oh, that some one had bent over
+him and prayed for guidance when he was a tender lad and his heart
+burned with yearning for truth!
+
+"God wrote the arithmetic--I mean, He told people how to write it,
+didn't He, Padre?"
+
+Surely the priest could acquiesce in this, for mathematics is purely
+metaphysical, and without guile.
+
+"Yes, _chiquita_. And we will go right through this little book. Then,
+if I can, I will send for others that will teach you wonderful things
+about what we call mathematics."
+
+The child smiled her approval. The priest had now found the only path
+which she would tread with him, and he continued with enthusiasm.
+
+"And God taught people how to talk, little one; but they don't all
+talk as we do. There is a great land up north of us, which we call the
+United States, and there the people would not understand us, for we
+speak Spanish. I must teach you their language, _chiquita_, and I must
+teach you others, too, for you will not always live in Simiti."
+
+"I want to stay here always, Padre. I love Simiti." "No, Carmen; God
+has work for you out in His big world. You have something to tell His
+people some day, a message for them. But you and I have much work to
+do here first. And so we will begin with the arithmetic and English.
+Later we will study other languages, and we will talk them to each
+other until you speak them as fluently as your own. And meanwhile, I
+will tell you about the great countries of the world, and about the
+people that live in them. And we will study about the stars, and the
+rocks, and the animals; and we will read and work and read and work
+all day long, every day!" The priest's face was aglow with animation.
+
+"But, Padre, when shall I have time to think?"
+
+"Why, you will be thinking all the time, child!"
+
+"No, you don't understand. I have to think about other things."
+
+Jose looked at her with a puzzled expression. "What other things do
+you have to think about, _chiquita_?"
+
+"About all the people here who are sick and unhappy, and who quarrel
+and don't love one another."
+
+"Do you think about people when they are sick?" he asked with
+heightened curiosity.
+
+"Yes, always!" she replied vigorously "When they are sick I go where
+nobody can find me and then just think that it isn't so."
+
+"_Hombre!_" the priest ejaculated, his astonishment soaring Then--
+
+"But when people are sick it is really so, isn't it, _chiquita_?"
+
+"No!" emphatically. "It can't be--not if God is everywhere. Does He
+make them sick?" The child drove the heart-searching question straight
+into him.
+
+"Why--no, I can't say that He does. And yet they somehow get sick."
+
+"Because they think bad things, Padre. Because they don't think about
+God. They don't think He is here. And they don't care about Him--they
+don't love Him. And so they get sick," she explained succinctly.
+
+Jose's mind reverted to what Rosendo had told him. When he lay tossing
+in delirium Carmen had said that he would not die. And yet that was
+perfectly logical, if she refused to admit the existence of evil.
+
+"I thought lots about you last week, Padre."
+
+The soft voice was close to his ear, and every breath swept over his
+heartstrings and made them vibrate.
+
+"Every night when I went to sleep I told God I _knew_ He would cure
+you."
+
+The priest's head sank upon his breast.
+
+Verily, I have not seen such faith, no, not in Israel! And the faith
+of this child had glorified her vision until she saw "the heavens open
+and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."
+
+"Carmen"--the priest spoke reverently--"do the sick ones always get
+well when you think about them?"
+
+There was not a shade of euphemism in the unhesitating reply--
+
+"They are never really sick, Padre."
+
+"But, by that you mean--"
+
+"They only have bad thoughts."
+
+"Sick thoughts, then?" he suggested by way of drawing out her full
+meaning.
+
+"Yes, Padre--for God, you know, really _is_ everywhere."
+
+"Carmen!" cried the man. "What put such ideas into your little head?
+Who told you these things?"
+
+Her brown eyes looked full into his own. "God, Padre dear."
+
+God! Yes, of a verity she spoke truth. For nothing but her constant
+communion with Him could have filled her pure thought with a deeper,
+truer lore than man has ever quaffed at the world's great fountains of
+learning. He himself, trained by Holy Church, deeply versed in
+letters, science, and theology, grounded in all human learning, sat in
+humility at her feet, drinking in what his heart told him he had at
+length found--Truth.
+
+He had one more question to ask. "Carmen, how do you know, how are you
+sure, that He told you?"
+
+"Because it is true, Padre."
+
+"But just how do you know that it is true?" he insisted.
+
+"Why--it comes out that way; just like the answers to the problems in
+arithmetic. I used to try to see if by thinking only good thoughts
+to-day I would be better and happier to-morrow."
+
+"Yes, and--?"
+
+"Well, I always was, Padre. And so now I don't think anything but good
+thoughts."
+
+"That is, you think only about God?"
+
+"I always think about Him _first_, Padre."
+
+He had no further need to question her proofs, for he knew she was
+taught by the Master himself.
+
+"That will be all for this morning, Carmen," he said quietly, as he
+put her down. "Leave me now. I, too, have some thinking to do."
+
+When Carmen left him, Jose lapsed into profound meditation. Musing
+over his life experiences, he at last summed them all up in the vain
+attempt to evolve an acceptable concept of God, an idea of Him that
+would satisfy. He had felt that in Christianity he had hold of
+something beneficent, something real; but he had never been able to
+formulate it, nor lift it above the shadows into the clear light
+of full comprehension. And the result of his futile efforts to this
+end had been agnosticism. His inability conscientiously to accept
+the mad reasoning of theologians and the impudent claims of Rome had
+been the stumbling block to his own and his family's dearest earthly
+hopes. He knew that popular Christianity was a disfigurement of truth.
+He knew that the theological claptrap which the Church, with such
+oracular assurance, such indubitable certainty and gross assumption
+of superhuman knowledge, handed out to a suffering world, was a
+travesty of the divinely simple teachings of Jesus, and that it had
+estranged mankind from their only visible source of salvation, the
+Bible. He saw more clearly than ever before that in the actual
+achievements of popular theology there had been ridiculously little
+that a seriously-minded man could accept as supports to its claims
+to be a divinely revealed scheme of salvation. Yet there was no
+vital question on which certainty was so little demanded, and
+seemingly of so little consequence, as this, even though the
+joints of the theologians' armor flapped wide to the assaults of
+unprejudiced criticism.
+
+But if the slate were swept clean--if current theological dogma were
+overthrown, and the stage set anew--what could be reared in their
+stead? Is it true that the Bible is based upon propositions which can
+be verified by all? The explorer in Cartagena had given Jose a new
+thought in Arnold's concept of God as "the Eternal, not ourselves,
+that makes for righteousness." And it was not to be denied that, from
+first to last, the Bible is a call to righteousness.
+
+But what is righteousness? Ethical conduct? Assuredly something vastly
+more profound, for even that "misses the mark." No, righteousness was
+right conduct until the marvelous Jesus appeared. But he swept it at
+once from the material into the mental; from the outward into the
+inward; and defined it as _right-thinking_!
+
+"Righteousness!" murmured Jose, sitting with head buried in his hands.
+"Aye, the whole scheme of salvation is held in that one word! And the
+wreck of my life has been caused by my blind ignorance of its
+tremendous meaning! For righteousness is salvation. But Carmen, wise
+little soul, divined it instinctively; for, if there is one thing that
+is patent, it is that if a thing is evil it does not exist for her.
+Righteousness! Of course it means _thinking no evil_! Jesus lived his
+thorough understanding of it. And so does Carmen. And so would the
+world, but for the withering influence of priestly authority!"
+
+At that moment Carmen reappeared to summon him to lunch.
+
+"Come here, little girl," said Jose, drawing her to him. "You asked me
+to tell you about Jesus. He was the greatest and best man that ever
+lived. And it was because he never had a bad thought."
+
+"Did he know that God was everywhere?" The little face turned lovingly
+up to his.
+
+"He did, sweet child. And so do I--now; for I have found Him even in
+desolate Simiti."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7
+
+
+Carmen's studies began in earnest that afternoon. In the quiet of his
+humble cottage Jose, now "a prisoner of the Lord," opened the door of
+his mental storehouse and carefully selected those first bits of
+knowledge for the foundation stones on which to rear for her, little
+by little, a broad education.
+
+He found her a facile learner; her thorough ease in the rudiments
+of arithmetic and in the handling of her own language delighted him.
+His plan of tutelage, although the result of long contemplation, and
+involving many radical ideas regarding the training of children,
+ideas which had been slowly developing in his mind for years, he
+nevertheless felt in her case to be tentative. For he was dealing
+with no ordinary child; and so the usual methods of instruction were
+here wholly out of the question.
+
+But on several points he was already firmly resolved. First, he would
+get well below the surface of this child's mind, and he would endeavor
+to train her to live in a depth of thought far, far beneath the froth
+and superficiality of the every-day thinking of mankind. Fortunately,
+she had had no previous bad training to be counteracted now. Nature
+had been her only tutor; and Rosendo's canny wisdom had kept out all
+human interference. Her associates in Simiti were few. Her unusual and
+mature thought had set up an intellectual barrier between herself and
+the playmates she might have had. Fortunately, too, Jose had now to
+deal with a child who all her life had thought vigorously--and, he was
+forced to conclude, correctly. Habits of accurate observation and
+quick and correct interpretation would not be difficult to form in
+such a mind. Moreover, to this end he would aim to maintain her
+interest at the point of intensity in every subject undertaken; yet
+without forcing, and without sacrifice of the joys of childhood. He
+would be, not teacher only, but fellow-student. He would strive to
+learn with her to conceive the ideal without losing sight of the fact
+that it was a human world in which they dwelt. When she wished to
+play, he would play with her. But he would contrive and direct their
+amusements so as to carry instruction, to elucidate and exemplify it,
+to point morals, and steadily to contribute to her store of knowledge.
+His plan was ideal, he knew. But he could not know then that
+Nature--if we may thus call it--had anticipated him, and that the
+child, long since started upon the quest for truth, would quickly
+outstrip him in the matter of conceiving the ideal and living in this
+world of relative fact with an eye single to the truth which shines so
+dimly through it.
+
+Jose knew, as he studied Carmen and planned her training, that
+whatever instruction he offered her must be without taint of evil, so
+far as he might prevent. And yet, the thought of any attempt to
+withhold from her a knowledge of evil brought a sardonic smile to his
+lips. She had as yet everything to learn of the world about her. Could
+such learning be imparted to her free from error or hypothesis, and
+apart from the fiat of the speculative human mind? It must be; for he
+knew from experience that she would accept his teaching only as he
+presented every apparent fact, every object, every event, as a
+reflection in some degree of her immanent God, and subject to rigid
+demonstration. Where historical events externalized only the evil
+motives of the carnal mind, he must contrive to omit them entirely, or
+else present them as unreality, the result of "bad thoughts" and
+forgetfulness of God. In other words, only as he assumed to be the
+channel through which God spoke to her could he hope for success. To
+impart to her a knowledge of both good and evil was, at least at
+present, impossible. To force it upon her later would be criminal.
+Moreover, _why not try the audacious experiment of permitting and
+aiding this child to grow up without a knowledge of evil_?--that is,
+in her present conviction that only good is real, potent and
+permanent, while evil is impotent illusion and to be met and overcome
+on that basis. Would the resultant training make of her a tower of
+strength--or would it render her incapable of resisting the onslaughts
+of evil when at length she faced the world? His own heart sanctioned
+the plan; and--well, the final judgment should be left to Carmen
+herself.
+
+The work proceeded joyously. At times Cucumbra interrupted by bounding
+in, as if impatient of the attention his little mistress was giving
+her tutor. Frequently the inquisitive Cantar-las-horas stalked through
+the room, displaying a most dignified and laudable interest in the
+proceedings. Late in the afternoon, when the sun was low, Bosendo
+appeared at the door. As he stood listening to Jose's narrative of men
+and places in the outside world, his eyes bulged. At length his
+untutored mind became strained to its elastic limit.
+
+"Is that true, Padre?" he could not refrain from interrupting, when
+Jose had spoken of the fast trains of England. "Why, the Simiti trail
+to Tachi is one hundred and fifty miles long; and it always took me
+six days to walk it. And do you say there are trains that travel that
+distance in as many hours?"
+
+"There are trains, Rosendo, that traverse the distance in three
+hours."
+
+"_Na_, Padre, it can't be done!" cried the incredulous Rosendo,
+shaking his head.
+
+"Leave us, unbeliever!" laughed Jose, motioning him away. "I have more
+pliable material here to handle than you."
+
+But Rosendo remained; and it was evident to the priest that he had
+come on an errand of importance. Moreover, the supper hour was at
+hand, and perhaps Dona Maria needed Carmen's help. So, dismissing the
+child, Jose turned to Rosendo.
+
+"You were right," he began, as if taking up the thread of a broken
+discourse. "Carmen _was_ left on the river bank by the angels."
+
+"Then you do think it was a miracle!" said Rosendo in a voice of awe,
+as he sank into a chair.
+
+The priest smiled. "Everything is a miracle, friend; for a miracle is
+simply a sign of God's presence. And finding Carmen in this musty,
+forgotten place is one of the greatest. For where she is, He is."
+
+"Yes, Padre, that is true," assented Rosendo gravely.
+
+"I was led here," continued Jose; "I see it now. Rosendo, all my life
+I have regarded evil as just as real and powerful as good. And my life
+has been one of bitterness and woe. Carmen sees only the good God
+everywhere. And she dwells in heaven. What is the logical inference?
+Simply that my mental attitude has been all wrong, my views erroneous,
+my thinking bad. I have tried to know both good and evil, to eat of
+the forbidden tree. And for so doing I was banished from paradise. Do
+you understand me?"
+
+"Why--well, no, Padre--that is, I--" The honest fellow was becoming
+confused.
+
+"Well, just this, then," explained the priest with animation. "I
+haven't gotten anywhere in life, and neither have you, because we have
+limited ourselves and crippled our efforts by yielding to fear, pride,
+ignorance, and the belief in evil as a real power opposed to good."
+
+"I have often wondered myself, Padre, how there could be a devil if
+God is almighty. For in that case He would have had to make the devil,
+wouldn't He?"
+
+"Just so!" cried Jose enthusiastically. "And as He did make
+everything, then either He made the devil, or else there isn't any."
+
+"But that is pretty hard to see, Padre," replied the puzzled Rosendo.
+"Something makes us do wicked things."
+
+"Simply the belief that there is a power apart from God."
+
+"But doesn't that belief come from the devil?"
+
+"Surely--the devil of imagination! Listen, Rosendo: Carmen is daily
+putting into practice her instinctive knowledge of a mighty fact. She
+will reveal it all to us in due time. Let us patiently watch her, and
+try to see and understand and believe as she does. But in the
+meantime, let us guard our minds as we would a treasure house, and
+strive never to let a thought of evil get inside! My past life should
+serve as a perpetual warning."
+
+Rosendo did not reply at once, but sat staring vacantly at the ground.
+Jose knew that his thoughts were with his wayward daughter. Then, as
+if suddenly remembering the object of his call, he took from his
+wallet two letters, which he handed to Jose with the comment: "Juan
+brought them up from Bodega Central this morning."
+
+Jose took them with quickening pulse. One was from Spain, from his
+uncle. He devoured it eagerly. It was six weeks old when it arrived in
+Simiti, and had been written before the news of his removal from
+Cartagena had reached Seville. His mother was well; and her hopes for
+her son's preferment were steadily reviving, after the cruel blow
+which his disgrace in Rome had given them. For his uncle's part, he
+hoped that Jose had now seen the futility of opposition to Holy
+Church, and that, yielding humbly to her gentle chastisement for the
+great injury he had inflicted upon her, he would now make amends and
+merit the favors which she was sure to bestow upon him in due season.
+To this end the uncle would bring to bear his own influence and that
+of His Eminence, the Archbishop of Seville. The letter closed with an
+invocation to the Saints and the ever-blessed Virgin.
+
+Jose opened the second letter. It was nominally from the Bishop of
+Cartagena, although written, he well knew, by Wenceslas. His Reverence
+regretted that Jose had not come to him again before leaving
+Cartagena. He deplored exceedingly the necessity of assigning him to
+so lowly a parish; but it was discipline. His tenure of the parish
+would be a matter of probation. Assuming a penitent desire on the part
+of the priest to make reparation for past indiscretions, His Grace
+extended assurances of his support and tender consideration. And,
+regarding him still as a faithful son, he was setting forth herewith
+certain instructions which Jose would zealously carry out, to the
+glory of the sacred Mother Church and the blessed Virgin, and to his
+own edification, to wit: In the matter of the confessional he must be
+unremittingly zealous, not failing to put such questions to the people
+of Simiti as would draw out their most secret thoughts. In the present
+crisis it was especially necessary to learn their political views.
+Likewise, he must not fail to impress upon them the sin of concealing
+wealth, and of withholding contributions to the support of the
+glorious Mother. He, as priest of the parish, would be held personally
+responsible for the collection of an adequate "Peter's Pence," which
+must be sent to Cartagena at frequent intervals for subsequent
+shipment to Rome. For all contributions he was to allow liberal
+plenary indulgences. In the matter of inciting zeal for the salvation
+of those unfortunate souls lingering in the torments of purgatory,
+Jose must be unflagging. Each family in the parish should be
+constantly admonished and threatened, if necessary, to have Masses
+said for their deceased members; and he must forward the proceeds from
+such Masses at once to Cartagena. No less important, he must keep
+constantly before him the great fact that the hope of the blessed
+Mother lay in her young. To this end he must see that all children in
+his parish were in due time confirmed, and every effort made to have
+the females sent to the convent of Mompox. To encourage his
+parishioners, he might assure them of His Reverence's tender regard
+for them as his beloved children, and that he had certain special
+favors to grant to them in due time. Also, that a statue of the
+Virgin, which had arrived from Rome, and which carried the most potent
+blessing of the Holy Father, was to be bestowed upon that church in
+the diocese which within the next twelve months should contribute the
+largest amount of Peter's Pence in proportion to population. This plan
+should be especially attractive to the people of Simiti, as the town
+lay on the confines of a district renowned in the ancient annals for
+its mineral wealth. Herein, too, lay a great opportunity for the
+priest; and His Reverence rejoiced in the certain knowledge that he
+would embrace it. Invoking the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the
+Ever-Blessed Virgin and Saint Joseph, His Grace awaited with interest
+the priest's first report from the parish of Simiti.
+
+The letter fell like a wet blanket upon Jose, chilling him to the
+marrow, for it revived with cruel poignancy the fact that he was still
+a servant of Rome. In the past few happy days he had dwelt apart from
+the world in the consciousness of a new heaven and a new earth,
+revealed by Carmen. This sudden call to duty was like a summons from
+Mephistopheles to the fulfillment of a forgotten pact.
+
+He carefully read the letter again. Beneath the specious kindliness of
+Wenceslas lay sinister motives, he knew. Among them, greed, of course.
+But--a darker thought--did Wenceslas know of Carmen's existence? Could
+Cartagena have received any intimation of his plans for her? Refusal
+to comply with these instructions meant--he dared not think what! On
+the other hand, strict compliance with them certainly was out of the
+question.
+
+As for Peter's Pence, what could the impoverished folk of this
+decrepit town furnish! And yet, if a reasonable sum could only be
+contributed at frequent intervals, would not the vampire Wenceslas
+rest content, at least for a while? Oh, for a fortune of his own, that
+he might dump it all into the yawning maw of Holy Church, and thus
+gain a few years' respite for himself and Carmen!
+
+"Bad news, Padre?" Rosendo inquired, anxiously regarding the priest's
+strained features.
+
+What could the man do or say, limited, hounded, and without resources?
+Could he force these simple people to buy Masses? Could he take their
+money on a pretext which he felt to be utterly false? Yet Cartagena
+_must_ be kept quiet at any hazard!
+
+"Rosendo," he asked earnestly, "when you had a priest in Simiti, did
+the people have Masses offered for their dead?"
+
+"_Na_, Padre, we have little money for Masses," replied Rosendo
+sadly.
+
+"But you have bought them?"
+
+"At times--long ago--for my first wife, when she died without a
+priest, up in the Tigui country. But not when Padre Diego was here. I
+couldn't see how Masses said by that drunken priest could please God,
+or make Him release souls from purgatory--and Padre Diego was drunk
+most of the time."
+
+Jose became desperate. "Rosendo, we _must_ send money to the Bishop in
+Cartagena. I _must_ stay here--I _must_! And I can stay only by
+satisfying Wenceslas! If I can send him money he will think me too
+valuable to remove. It is not the Church, Rosendo, but Wenceslas who
+is persecuting me. It is he who has placed me here. He is using the
+Church for his own evil ends. It is he who must be placated. But I--I
+can't make these poor people buy Masses! And--but here, read his
+letter," thrusting it into Rosendo's hand.
+
+Rosendo shook his head thoughtfully, and a cloud had gathered over his
+strong face when he returned the Bishop's letter to Jose.
+
+"Padre, we will be hard pressed to support the church and you, without
+buying Masses. There are about two hundred people here, perhaps fifty
+families. But they are very, very poor. Only a few can afford to pay
+even a _peso oro_ a month to the schoolmaster to have their children
+taught. They may be able to give twenty _pesos_ a month to support you
+and the church. But hardly more."
+
+It seemed to Jose that his soul must burst under its limitations.
+
+"Rosendo, let us take Carmen and flee!" he cried wildly.
+
+"How far would we get, Padre? Have you money?"
+
+No, Jose had nothing. He lapsed into silence-shrouded despair.
+
+The sun dropped below the wooded hills, and Cantar-las-horas had sung
+his weird vesper song. Dusk was thickening into night, though upon the
+distant _Sierras_ a mellow glow still illumined the frosted peaks.
+Moments crept slowly through the enveloping silence.
+
+Then the mental gloom parted, and through it arose the great soul of
+the black-faced man sitting beside the despairing priest.
+
+"Padre"--Rosendo spoke slowly and with deep emotion. Tears trickled
+down his swart cheeks--"I am no longer young. More than sixty years of
+hardship and heavy toil rest upon me. My parents--I have not told you
+this--were slaves. They worked in the mines of Guamoco, under hard
+masters. They lived in bamboo huts, and slept on the damp ground. At
+four each morning, year after year, they were driven from their hard
+beds and sent out to toil under the lash fourteen hours a day, washing
+gold from the streams. The gold went to the building of Cartagena's
+walls, and to her Bishop, to buy idleness and luxury for him and his
+fat priests. When the war came it lasted thirteen years; but we drove
+the Christian Spaniards into the sea! Then my father and mother went
+back to Guamoco; and there I was born. When I was old enough to use a
+_batea_ I, too, washed gold in the Tigui, and in the little streams so
+numerous in that region. But they had been pretty well washed out
+under the Spaniards; and so my father came down here and made a little
+_hacienda_ on the hills across the lake from Simiti. Then he and my
+poor mother lay down and died, worn out with their long years of toil
+for their cruel masters."
+
+He brushed the tears from his eyes; then resumed: "The district of
+Guamoco gradually became deserted. Revolution after revolution broke
+out in this unhappy country, sometimes stirred up by the priests,
+sometimes by political agitators who tried to get control of the
+Government. The men and boys went to the wars, and were killed off.
+Guamoco was again swallowed up by the forest--"
+
+He stopped abruptly, and sat some moments silent.
+
+"I have been back there many times since, and often I have washed gold
+again along the beautiful Tigui," he continued. "But the awful
+loneliness of the jungle, and the memories of those gloomy days when I
+toiled there as a boy, and the thoughts of my poor parents' sufferings
+under the Spaniards, made me so sad that I could not stay. And then I
+got too old for that kind of work, standing bent over in the cold
+mountain water all day long, swinging a _batea_ heavy with gravel."
+
+He paused again, and seemed to lose himself in the memory of those
+dark days.
+
+"But there is still gold in the Tigui. I can find it. It means hard
+work--but I can do it. Padre, I will go back there and wash out gold
+for you to send to the Bishop of Cartagena, that you may stay here and
+protect and teach the little Carmen. Perhaps in time I can wash enough
+to get you both out of the country; but it will take many months, it
+may be, years."
+
+O, you, whose path in life winds among pleasant places, where roses
+nod in the scented breeze and fountains play, picture to yourself, if
+you may, the self-immolation of this sweet-souled man, who, in the
+winter of life, the shadows of eternity fast gathering about him,
+bends his black shoulders again to the burden which Love would lay
+upon them. Aye, Love, into which all else merged--Love for the unknown
+babe, left helpless and alone on the great river's bank--Love for the
+radiant child, whose white soul the agents of carnal greed and lust
+would prostitute to their iniquitous system.
+
+Night fell. By the light of their single candle the priest and Rosendo
+ate their simple fare in silence. Carmen was asleep, and the angels
+watched over her lowly bed.
+
+The meal ended, Rosendo took up the candle, and Jose followed him into
+the bedroom. Reverently the two men approached the sleeping child and
+looked down upon her. The priest's hand again sought Rosendo's in a
+grasp which sealed anew the pact between them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8
+
+
+Like the great Exemplar in the days of his preparation, Jose was
+early driven by the spirit into the wilderness, where temptation
+smote him sore. But his soul had been saved--"yet so as by fire."
+Slowly old beliefs and faiths crumbled into dust, while the new
+remained still unrevealed. The drift toward atheism which had set in
+during his long incarceration in the convent of Palazzola had not
+made him yield to the temptation to raise the mask of hypocrisy and
+plunge into the pleasures of the world, nor accept the specious
+proffer of ecclesiastical preferment in exchange for his honest
+convictions. Honor, however bigoted the sense, bound him to his
+oath, or at least to a compromising observance of it harmless to the
+Church. Pride contributed to hold him from the degradation of a
+renegade and apostate priest. And both rested primarily on an
+unshaken basis of maternal affection, which fell little short of
+obsession, leaving him without the strength to say, "Woman, what
+have I to do with thee?"
+
+But, though atheism in belief leads almost inevitably to disintegration
+of morals, Jose had kept himself untainted. For his vital problems he
+had now, after many days, found "grace sufficient." In what he had
+regarded as the contemptible tricks of fate, he was beginning to
+discern the guiding hand of a wisdom greater than the world's. The
+danger threatened by Cartagena was, temporarily, at least, averted
+by Rosendo's magnificent spirit. Under the spur of that sacrifice his
+own courage rose mightily to second it.
+
+Rosendo spent the day in preparation for his journey into the Guamoco
+country. He had discussed with Jose, long and earnestly, its probable
+effect upon the people of Simiti, and especially upon Don Mario, the
+Alcalde; but it was decided that no further explanation should be made
+than that he was again going to prospect in the mineral districts
+already so familiar to him. As Rosendo had said, this venture,
+together with the unannounced and unsolicited presence of the priest
+in the town, could not but excite extreme curiosity and raise the most
+lively conjectures, which might, in time, reach Wenceslas. On the
+other hand, if success attended his efforts, it was more than probable
+that Cartagena would remain quiet, as long as her itching palm was
+brightened with the yellow metal which he hoped to wrest from the
+sands of Guamoco. "It is only a chance, Padre," Rosendo said
+dubiously. "In the days of the Spaniards the river sands of Guamoco
+produced from two to ten _reales_ a day to each slave. But the rivers
+have been almost washed out."
+
+Jose made a quick mental calculation. A Spanish _real_ was equivalent
+to half a franc. Then ten _reales_ would amount to five francs, the
+very best he could hope for as a day's yield.
+
+"And my supplies and the support of the senora and Carmen must come
+out of that," Rosendo added. "Besides, I must pay Juan for working the
+_hacienda_ across the lake for me while I am away."
+
+Possibly ten _pesos oro_, or forty francs, might remain at the end of
+each month for them to send to Cartagena. Jose sighed heavily as he
+busied himself with the preparations.
+
+"I got these supplies from Don Mario on credit, Padre," explained
+Rosendo. "I thought best to buy from him to prevent making him angry.
+I have coffee, _panela_, rice, beans, and tobacco for a month. He was
+very willing to let me have them--but do you know why? He wants me to
+go up there and fail. Then he will have me in his debt, and I become
+his _peon_--and I would never be anything after that but his slave,
+for never again would he let me get out of debt to him."
+
+Jose shuddered at the thought of the awful system of peonage prevalent
+in these Latin countries, an inhuman custom only a degree removed from
+the slavery of colonial times. This venture was, without doubt, a
+desperate risk. But it was for Carmen--and its expediency could not be
+questioned.
+
+Jose penned a letter to the Bishop of Cartagena that morning, and
+sent it by Juan to Bodega Central to await the next down-river
+steamer. He did not know that Juan carried another letter for the
+Bishop, and addressed in the flowing hand of the Alcalde. Jose
+briefly acknowledged the Bishop's communication, and replied that he
+would labor unflaggingly to uplift his people and further their
+spiritual development. As to the Bishop's instructions, he would
+endeavor to make Simiti's contribution to the support of Holy
+Church, both material and spiritual, fully commensurate with the
+population. He did not touch on the other instructions, but closed
+with fervent assurances of his intention to serve his little flock
+with an undivided heart. Carmen received no lesson that day, and
+her rapidly flowing questions anent the unusual activity in the
+household were met with the single explanation that her padre
+Rosendo had found it necessary to go up to the Tigui river, a
+journey which some day she might perhaps take with him.
+
+During the afternoon Jose wrote two more letters, one to his uncle,
+briefly announcing his appointment to the parish of Simiti, and his
+already lively interest in his new field; the other to his beloved
+mother, in which he only hinted at the new-found hope which served as
+his pillow at night. He did not mention Carmen, for fear that his
+letter might be opened ere it left Cartagena. But in tenderest
+expressions of affection, and regret that he had been the unwitting
+cause of his mother's sorrow, he begged her to believe that his life
+had received a stimulus which could not but result in great happiness
+for them both, for he was convinced that he had at last found his
+_metier_, even though among a lowly people and in a sequestered part
+of the world. He hoped again to be reunited to her--possibly she might
+some day meet him in Cartagena. And until then he would always hold
+her in tenderest love and the brightest and purest thought.
+
+He brushed aside the tears as he folded this letter; and, lest regret
+and self-condemnation seize him again, hurried forth in search of
+Carmen, whose radiance always dispelled his gloom as the rushing dawn
+shatters the night.
+
+She was not in Rosendo's house, and Dona Maria said she had seen the
+child some time before going in the direction of the "shales." These
+were broad beds of rock to the south of town, much broken and deeply
+fissured, and so glaringly hot during most of the day as to be
+impassable. Thither Jose bent his steps, and at length came upon the
+girl sitting in the shade of a stunted _algarroba_ tree some distance
+from the usual trail.
+
+"Well, what are you doing here, little one?" he inquired in surprise.
+
+The child looked up visibly embarrassed. "I was thinking, Padre," she
+made slow reply.
+
+"But do you have to go away from home to think?" he queried.
+
+"I wanted to be alone; and there was so much going on in the house
+that I came out here."
+
+"And what have you been thinking about, Carmen?" pursued Jose,
+suspecting that her presence in the hot shale beds held some deeper
+significance than she had as yet revealed.
+
+"I--I was just thinking that God is everywhere," she faltered.
+
+"Yes, _chiquita_. And--?"
+
+"That He is where padre Rosendo is going, and that He will take care
+of him up there, and bring him back to Simiti again."
+
+"And were you asking Him to do it, little one?"
+
+"No, Padre; I was just _knowing_ that He would."
+
+The little lip quivered, and the brown eyes were wet with tears. But
+Jose could see that faith had conquered, whatever the struggle might
+have been. The child evidently had sought solitude, that she might
+most forcibly bring her trust in God to bear upon the little problem
+confronting her--that she might make the certainty of His immanence
+and goodness destroy in her thought every dark suggestion of fear or
+doubt.
+
+"God will take care of him, won't He, Padre?"
+
+Jose had taken her hand and was leading her back to the house.
+
+"You have said it, child; and I believe you are a law unto yourself,"
+was the priest's low, earnest reply. The child smiled up at him; and
+Jose knew he had spoken truth.
+
+That evening, the preparations for departure completed, Rosendo and
+Jose took their chairs out before the house, where they sat late, each
+loath to separate lest some final word be left unsaid. The tepid
+evening melted into night, which died away in a deep silence that hung
+wraith-like over the old town. Myriad stars rained their shimmering
+lustre out of the unfathomable vault above.
+
+"_Un canasto de flores_," mused Rosendo, looking off into the infinite
+blue.
+
+"A basket of flowers, indeed," responded Jose reverently.
+
+"Padre--" Rosendo's brain seemed to struggle with a tremendous
+thought--"I often try to think of what is beyond the stars; and I
+cannot. Where is the end?"
+
+"There is none, Rosendo."
+
+"But, if we could get out to the last star--what then?"
+
+"Still no end, no limit," replied Jose.
+
+"And they are very far away--how far, Padre?"
+
+"You would not comprehend, even if I could tell you, Rosendo. But--how
+shall I say it? Some are millions of miles from us. Others so far that
+their light reaches us only after the lapse of centuries."
+
+"Their light!" returned Rosendo quizzically.
+
+"Yes. Light from those stars above us travels nearly two hundred
+thousand miles a second--"
+
+"_Hombre!_" ejaculated the uncomprehending Rosendo.
+
+"And yet, even at that awful rate of speed, it is probable that there
+are many stars whose light has not yet reached the earth since it
+became inhabited by men."
+
+"_Caramba!_"
+
+"You may well say so, friend."
+
+"But, Padre--does the light never stop? When does it reach an end--a
+stopping-place?"
+
+"There is no stopping-place, Rosendo. There is no solid sky above us.
+Go whichever way you will, you can never reach an end."
+
+Rosendo's brow knotted with puzzled wonder: Even Jose's own mind
+staggered anew at its concept of the immeasurable depths of space.
+
+"But, Padre, if we could go far enough up we would get to heaven,
+wouldn't we?" pursued Rosendo. "And if we went far enough down we
+would reach purgatory, and then hell, is it not so?"
+
+Restraint fell upon the priest. He dared not answer lest he reveal his
+own paucity of ideas regarding these things. Happily the loquacious
+Rosendo continued without waiting for reply.
+
+"Padre Simon used to say when I was a child that the red we saw in the
+sky at sunset was the reflection of the flames of hell; so I have
+always thought that hell was below us--perhaps in the center of the
+earth."
+
+For a time his simple mind mused over this puerile idea. Then--
+
+"What do you suppose God looks like, Padre?"
+
+Jose's thought flew back to the galleries and chapels of Europe, where
+the masters have so often portrayed their ideas of God in the shape of
+an old, gray-haired man, partly bald, and with long, flowing beard.
+Alas! how pitifully crude, how lamentably impotent such childish
+concepts. For they saw in God only their own frailties infinitely
+magnified. Small wonder that they lived and died in spiritual gloom!
+
+"Padre," Rosendo went on, "if there is no limit to the universe, then
+it is--"
+
+"Infinite in extent, Rosendo," finished Jose.
+
+"Then whoever made it is infinite, too," Rosendo added hypothetically.
+
+"An infinite effect implies an infinite cause--yes, certainly," Jose
+answered.
+
+"So, if God made the universe, He is infinite, is He not, Padre?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then He can't be at all like us," was the logical conclusion.
+
+Jose was thinking hard. The universe stands as something created. And
+scientists agree that it is infinite in extent. Its creator therefore
+must be infinite in extent. And as the universe continues to exist,
+that which called it into being, and still maintains it, must likewise
+continue to exist. Hence, God _is_.
+
+"Padre, what holds the stars in place?" Rosendo's questions were as
+persistent as a child's.
+
+"They are held in place by laws, Rosendo," the priest replied
+evasively. But as he made answer he revolved in his own mind that the
+laws by which an infinite universe is created and maintained must
+themselves be infinite.
+
+"And God made those laws?"
+
+"Yes, Rosendo."
+
+But, the priest mused, a power great enough to frame infinite laws
+must be itself all-powerful. And if it has ever been all-powerful, it
+could never cease to be so, for there could be nothing to deprive it
+of its power. Omnipotence excludes everything else. Or, what is the
+same thing, is all-inclusive.
+
+But laws originate, even as among human beings, in mind, for a law is
+a mental thing. So the infinite laws which bind the stars together,
+and by which the universe was designed and is still maintained, could
+have originated only in a mind, and that one infinite.
+
+"Then God surely must know everything," commented Rosendo, by way of
+simple and satisfying conclusion.
+
+Certainly the creator of an infinite universe--a universe, moreover,
+which reveals intelligence and knowledge on the part of its cause--the
+originator of infinite laws, which reveal omnipotence in their
+maker--must have all knowledge, all wisdom, at his command. But, on
+the other hand, intelligence, knowledge, wisdom, are ever mental
+things. What could embrace these things, and by them create an
+infinite universe, but an infinite _mind_?
+
+Jose's thought reverted to Cardinal Newman's reference to God as "an
+initial principle." Surely the history of the universe reveals the
+patent fact that, despite the mutations of time, despite growth,
+maturity, and decay, despite "the wreck of matter and the crash of
+worlds," _something_ endures. What is it--law? Yes, but more. Ideas?
+Still more. Mind? Yes, the mind which is the _anima mundi_, the
+principle, of all things.
+
+"But if He is so great, Padre, and knows everything, I don't see why
+He made the devil," continued Rosendo; "for the devil fights against
+Him all the time."
+
+Ah, simple-hearted child of nature! A mind so pure as yours should
+give no heed to thoughts of Satan. And the man at your side is now too
+deeply buried in the channels which run below the superficiality of
+the world's thought to hear your childish question. Wait. The cause of
+an infinite effect must itself be infinite. The framer of infinite
+laws must be an infinite mind. And an infinite mind must contain all
+knowledge, and have all power. But were it to contain any seeds or
+germs of decay, or any elements of discord--in a word, any evil--it
+must disintegrate. Then it would cease to be omnipotent. Verily, to be
+eternal and perfect _it must be wholly good_! "And so," the priest
+mused aloud, "we call it God."
+
+But, he continued to reflect, when we accept the conclusion that the
+universe is the product of an infinite mind, we are driven to certain
+other inevitable conclusions, if we would be logical. The minds of men
+manifest themselves continually, and the manifestation is in mental
+processes and things. Mental activity results in the unfolding of
+ideas. Does the activity of an infinite mind differ in this respect?
+And, if not, can the universe be other than a mental thing? For, if an
+infinite mind created a universe, it must have done so _by the
+unfolding of its own ideas_! And, remaining infinite, filling all
+space, this mind must ever continue to contain those ideas. And the
+universe--the creation--is mental.
+
+The burden of thought oppressed the priest, and he got up from his
+chair and paced back and forth before the house. But still his
+searching mind burrowed incessantly, as if it would unearth a living
+thing that had been buried since the beginning.
+
+In order to fully express itself, an infinite mind would have to
+unfold an infinite number and variety of ideas. And this unfolding
+would go on forever, since an infinite number is never reached. This
+is "creation," and it could never terminate.
+
+"Rosendo," said Jose, returning to his chair, "you have asked what
+God looks like. I cannot say, for God must be mind, unlimited mind. He
+has all knowledge and wisdom, as well as all power. He is necessarily
+eternal--has always existed, and always will, for He is entirely
+perfect and harmonious, without the slightest trace or taint of
+discord or evil."
+
+"Then you think He does not look like us?" queried the simple
+Rosendo.
+
+"Mind does not look like a human body, Rosendo. And an infinite cause
+can be infinite only by being mind, not body. Moreover, He is
+unchanging--for He could not change and remain eternal. Carmen insists
+that He is everywhere. To be always present He must be what the Bible
+says He is spirit. Or, what is the same thing, mind. Rosendo, He
+manifests Himself everywhere and in everything--there is no other
+conclusion admissible. And to be eternal He has got to be _absolutely
+good_!"
+
+"But, Padre," persisted Rosendo, "who made the devil?"
+
+"There is no devil!"
+
+"But there is wickedness--"
+
+"No!" interrupted Jose emphatically. "God is infinite good, and there
+can be no real evil."
+
+"But how do you know that, Padre?"
+
+"I can't say how I know it--it reasons out that way logically. I think
+I begin to see the light. Can you not see that for some reason Carmen
+doesn't admit the existence of evil? And you know, and I know, that
+she is on the right track. I have followed the opposite path all my
+life; and it led right into the slough of despond. Now I have turned,
+and am trying to follow her. And do you put the thought of Satan out
+of your mentality and do likewise."
+
+"But, the Virgin Mary--she has power with God?" Rosendo's primitive
+ideas were in a hopeless tangle.
+
+"Good friend, forget the Virgin Mary," said Jose gently, laying his
+hand on Rosendo's arm.
+
+"Forget her! _Hombre!_ Why--she has all power--she works miracles
+every hour--she directs the angels--gives commands to God himself!
+Padre Simon said she was the absolute mistress of heaven and earth,
+and that men and animals, the plants, the winds, all health, sickness,
+life and death, depended upon her will! He said she did not die as we
+must, but that she was taken up into heaven, and that her body was not
+allowed to decay and return to dust, as ours will. _Hombre!_ She is in
+heaven now, praying for us. What would become of us but for her?--for
+she prays to God for us--she--!"
+
+"No, Rosendo, she does nothing of the kind. God is infinite,
+unchanging. He could not be moved or influenced by the Virgin Mary or
+any one else. He is unlimited _good_. He is not angry with us--He
+couldn't be, for He could not know anger. Did not Jesus say that God
+was Love? Love does not afflict--Love does not need to be importuned
+or prayed to. I see it now. I see something of what Carmen sees. We
+suffer when we sin, because we 'miss the mark.' But the punishment
+lasts only as long as the sin continues. And we suffer only until we
+know that God is infinite good, and that there is no evil. That is the
+truth, I feel sure, which Jesus came to teach, and which he said would
+make us free. Free from what? From the awful beliefs that use us, and
+to which we are now subject, until we learn the facts about God and
+His creation. Don't you see that infinite good could never create
+evil, nor ever permit evil to be created, nor allow it to really
+exist?"
+
+"Well, then, what is evil? And where did it come from?"
+
+"That we must wait to learn, Rosendo, little by little. You know, the
+Spanish proverb says, 'Step by step goes a great way.' But meantime,
+let us go forward, clinging to this great truth: God is infinite
+good--He is love--we are His dear children--and evil was _not_ made by
+Him, and does not have His sanction. It therefore cannot be real. It
+must be illusion. And, being such, it can be overcome, as Jesus said
+it could."
+
+"_Na_, Padre--"
+
+"Wait, Rosendo!" Jose held up his hand. "Carmen is doing just what I
+am advising you to do--is she not?"
+
+"Yes, Padre."
+
+"Do you think she is mistaken?"
+
+"Padre, she knows God better than she knows me," the man whispered.
+
+"It was you who first told her that God was everywhere, was it not?"
+
+"Yes, Padre."
+
+And the mind of the child, keenly sensitive and receptive to truth,
+had eagerly grasped this dictum and made it the motif of her life. She
+knew nothing of Jesus, nothing of current theology. Divine Wisdom had
+used Rosendo, credulous and superstitious though he himself was, to
+guard this girl's mind against the entrance of errors which were
+taught him as a child, and which in manhood held him shackled in
+chains which he might not break.
+
+"Rosendo," Jose spoke low and reverently, "I believe now that you and
+I have both been guided by that great mind which I am calling God. I
+believe we are being used for some beneficent purpose, and that it has
+to do with Carmen. That purpose will be unfolded to us as we bow to
+His will. Every way closed against me, excepting the one that led to
+Simiti. Here I found her. And now there seems to be but one way open
+to you--to go back to Guamoco. And you go, forgetful of self, thinking
+only that you serve her. Ah, friend, you are serving Him whom you
+reflect in love to His beautiful child."
+
+"Yes, Padre."
+
+"But, while we accept our tasks gratefully, I feel that we shall be
+tried--and we may not live to see the results of our labors. There are
+influences abroad which threaten danger to Carmen and to us. Perhaps
+we shall not avert them. But we have given ourselves to her, and
+through her to the great purpose with which I feel she is concerned."
+
+Rosendo slowly rose, and his great height and magnificent physique
+cast the shadow of a Brobdignan in the light as he stood in the
+doorway.
+
+"Padre," he replied, "I am an old man, and I have but few years left.
+But however many they be, they are hers. And had I a thousand, I would
+drag them all through the fires of hell for the child! I cannot follow
+you when you talk about God. My mind gets weary. But this I know, the
+One who brought me here and then went away will some day call for
+me--and I am always ready."
+
+He turned into the house and sought his hard bed. The great soul knew
+not that he reflected the light of divine Love with a radiance unknown
+to many a boasting "vicar of Christ."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9
+
+
+At the first faint flush of morn Rosendo departed for the hills. The
+emerald coronels of the giant _ceibas_ on the far lake verge burned
+softly with a ruddy glow. From the water's dimpling surface downy
+vapors rose languidly in delicate tints and drew slowly out in
+nebulous bands across the dawn sky. The smiling softness of the
+velvety hills beckoned him, and the pungent odor of moist earth
+dilated his nostrils. He laughed aloud as the joyousness of youth
+surged again through his veins. The village still slumbered, and no
+one saw him as he smote his great chest and strode to the boat, where
+Juan had disposed his outfit and was waiting to pole him across. Only
+the faithful Dona Maria had softly called a final "_adioscito_" to him
+when he left his house. A half hour later, when the dugout poked its
+blunt nose into the ooze of the opposite shore, he leaped out and
+hurriedly divested himself of his clothing. Then he lifted his chair
+with its supplies to his shoulders, and Juan strapped it securely to
+his back, drawing the heavy band tightly across his forehead. With a
+farewell wave of his hand to the lad, the man turned and plunged into
+the Guamoco trail, and was quickly lost in the dense thicket. Six days
+later, if no accident befell, he would reach his destination, the
+singing waters of the crystal Tigui.
+
+His heart leaped as he strode, though none knew better than he what
+hardships those six days held for him--days of plunging through
+fever-laden bogs; staggering in withering heat across open savannas;
+now scaling the slippery <DW72>s of great mountains; now swimming the
+chill waters of rushing streams; making his bed where night overtook
+him, among the softly pattering forest denizens and the swarming
+insect life of the dripping woods. His black skin glistened with
+perspiration and the heavy dew wiped from the close-growing bush. With
+one hand he leaned upon a young sapling cut for a staff. With the
+other he incessantly swung his _machete_ to clear the dim trail. His
+eyes were held fixed to the ground, to escape tripping over low vines,
+and to avoid contact with crawling creatures of the jungle, whose
+sting, inflicted without provocation, might so easily prove fatal. His
+active mind sported the while among the fresh thoughts stimulated by.
+his journey, though back of all, as through a veil, the vision of
+Carmen rose like the pillar of cloud which guided the wandering
+Israel. Toil and danger fled its presence; and from it radiated a warm
+glow which suffused his soul with light.
+
+When Jose arose that morning he was still puzzling over the logical
+conclusions drawn from his premise of the evening before, and trying
+to reconcile them with common sense and prevalent belief. In a way, he
+seemed to be an explorer, carving a path to hidden wonders. Dona Maria
+greeted him at the breakfast table with the simple announcement of
+Rosendo's early departure. No sign of sorrow ruffled her quiet and
+dignified demeanor. Nor did Carmen, who bounded into his arms, fresh
+as a new-blown rose, manifest the slightest indication of anxiety
+regarding Rosendo's welfare. Jose might not divine the thoughts which
+the woman's placid exterior concealed. But for the child, he well knew
+that her problem had been met and solved, and that she had laid it
+aside with a trust in immanent good which he did not believe all the
+worldly argument of pedant or philosopher could shake.
+
+"Now to business once more!" cried Jose joyously, the meal finished.
+"Just a look-in at the church, to get the boys started; and then
+to devote the day to you, senorita!" The child laughed at the
+appellation.
+
+Returning from the church some moments later, Jose found Carmen
+bending over the fireplace, struggling to remove a heavy kettle from
+the hot stones.
+
+"Careful, child!" he cried in apprehension, hurrying to her
+assistance. "You will burn your fingers, or hurt yourself!"
+
+"Not unless you make me, Padre," Carmen quickly replied, rising and
+confronting the priest with a demeanor whose every element spelled
+rebuke.
+
+"Well, I certainly shall not _make_ you!" the man exclaimed in
+surprise.
+
+"No, Padre. God will not let you. He does not burn or hurt people."
+
+"Certainly not! But--"
+
+"And nothing else can, for He is everywhere--isn't He?"
+
+"Well--perhaps so," the priest retorted impatiently. "But somehow
+people get burnt and hurt just the same, and it is well to be
+careful."
+
+The child studied him for a moment. Then she said quietly--
+
+"I guess people burn and hurt themselves because they are afraid--don't
+they? And I am not afraid."
+
+She tossed her brown curls as if in defiance of the thought of fear.
+Yet Jose somehow felt that she never really defied evil, but rather
+met its suggestions with a firm conviction of its impotence in the
+presence of immanent good. He checked the impulse to further
+conversation. Bidding the child come to him as soon as possible to
+begin the day's work, he went back to his own abode to reflect.
+
+He had previously said that this child should be brought up to know no
+evil. And yet, was he not suggesting evil to her at every turn? Did
+not his insistence upon the likelihood of hurting or burning herself
+emphasize his own stalwart belief in evil as an immanent power and
+contingency? Was he thus always to maintain a house divided against
+itself? But some day she _must_ know, whether by instruction or dire
+experience, that evil is a fact to be reckoned with! And as her
+protector, it was his duty to--But he had not the heart to shatter
+such beautiful confidence!
+
+Then he fell to wondering how long that pure faith could endure.
+Certainly not long if she were subjected to the sort of instruction
+which the children of this world receive. But was it not his duty with
+proper tutelage to make it last as long as possible? Was it not even
+now so firmly grounded that it never could be shaken?
+
+He dwelt on the fact that nearly all children at some period early in
+life commune with their concept of God. He had, himself. As a very
+young child he had even felt himself on such terms of familiarity with
+God that he could not sleep without first bidding Him good night. As a
+young child, too, he had known no evil. Nor do any children, until
+their perfect confidence in good is chilled by the false instruction
+of parents and teachers, who parade evil before them in all its
+hideous garb.
+
+Alas! for the baneful belief that years bring wisdom. How pitiable,
+and how cruelly detrimental to the child are an ignorant parent's
+assumptions of superiority! How tremendous the responsibility that now
+lay at his own door! Yet no greater than that which lies at the door
+of every parent throughout the world.
+
+It is sadly true, he reflected, that children are educated almost
+entirely along material lines. Even in the imparting of religious
+instruction, the spiritual is so tainted with materialism, and its
+concomitants of fear and limitation, that the preponderance of faith
+is always on the material side. Jose had believed that as he had grown
+older in years he had lost faith. Far from it! The quantity of his
+faith remained fixed; but the quality had changed, through education,
+from faith in good to faith in evil. And though trained as a priest of
+God, in reality he had been taught wholly to distrust spiritual
+power.
+
+But how could a parent rely on spiritual power to save a child about
+to fall into the fire? Must not children be warned, and taught to
+protect themselves from accident and disaster, as far as may be?
+True--yet, what causes accident and disaster? Has the parent's thought
+aught to do with it? Has the world's thought? Can it be traced to the
+universal acceptance of evil as a power, real and operative? Does
+mankind's woeful lack of faith in good manifest itself in accident,
+sickness, and death?
+
+A cry roused Jose from his revery. It came from back of the house.
+Hastening to the rear door he saw Dona Maria standing petrified,
+looking in wide-eyed horror toward the lake. Jose followed her gaze,
+and his blood froze. Carmen had been sent to meet the canoe that daily
+supplied fresh water to the village from the Juncal river, which
+flowed into the lake at the far north end. It had not yet arrived, and
+she had sat down beside her jar at the water's edge, and was lost in
+dreams as she looked out over the shimmering expanse. A huge crocodile
+which had been lying in the shadow of a shale ledge had marked the
+child, and was steadily creeping up behind her. The reptile was but a
+few feet from her when Dona Maria, wondering at her delay, had gone to
+the rear door and witnessed her peril.
+
+In a flash Jose recalled the tale related to him but a few days before
+by Fidel Avila, who was working in the church.
+
+"Padre," Fidel had said, "as soon as the church is ready I shall
+offer a candle to good _Santa Catalina_ for protecting my sister."
+
+"How was that, my son?" inquired Jose.
+
+"She protected her from a crocodile a year ago, Padre. The girl had
+gone to the lake to get water to wash our clothes, and as she sat in
+the stern of the boat dipping the water, a great crocodile rose and
+seized her arm. I heard her scream, and I was saying the rosary at the
+time. And so I prayed to _Santa Catalina_ not to let the crocodile eat
+her, and she didn't."
+
+"Then your sister was saved?"
+
+"The crocodile pulled her under the water, Padre, and she was drowned.
+But he did not eat her; and we got her body and buried her here in the
+cemetery. We were very grateful."
+
+_Sancta simplicitas!_ That such childish credulity might be turned
+into proper channels!
+
+But there were times when fish were scarce in the lake. Then the
+crocodiles became bold; and many babes had been seized and dragged off
+by them, never to return. The fishing this season had been very poor.
+And more than one fisherman had asked Jose to invoke the Virgin in his
+behalf.
+
+Nearer crept the monster toward the unsuspecting girl. Suddenly she
+turned and looked squarely at it. She might almost have touched it
+with her hand. For Jose it was one of those crises that "crowd
+eternity into an hour." The child and the reptile might have been
+painted against that wondrous tropic background. The great brute stood
+bolt upright on its squat legs, its hideous jaws partly open. The girl
+made no motion, but seemed to hold it with her steady gaze. Then--the
+creature dropped; its jaws snapped shut; and it scampered into the
+water.
+
+"God above!" cried Jose, as he rushed to the girl and clasped her in
+his arms. "Forgive me if I ever doubted the miracles of Jesus!"
+
+Dona Maria turned and quietly resumed her work; but the man was
+completely unstrung.
+
+"What is it, Padre?" Carmen asked in unfeigned surprise. "I am not
+afraid of crocodiles--are you? You couldn't be, if you knew that God
+is everywhere."
+
+"But don't you know, child, that crocodiles have carried off--"
+
+He checked himself. No--he would not say it. He had had his lesson.
+
+"What, Padre?"
+
+"Nothing--nothing--I forgot--that's all. A--a--come, let us begin our
+lessons now."
+
+But his mind refused to be held to the work. Finally he had to ask--he
+could not help it.
+
+"Carmen, what did you do? Did you talk to the crocodile?"
+
+"Why, no, Padre--crocodiles don't talk!" And throwing her little head
+back she laughed heartily at the absurd idea.
+
+"But--you did something! What was it? Tell me."
+
+"No, Padre, I did nothing," the child persisted.
+
+He saw he must reach her thought in another way. "Why did the
+crocodile come up to you, Carmen?" he asked.
+
+"Why--I guess because it loved me--I don't know."
+
+"And did you love it as you sat looking at it?"
+
+"Of course, Padre. We have just got to love _everything_. Don't you
+know that?"
+
+"Y--yes--that is so, _chiquita_. I--I just thought I would ask you.
+Now let us begin the arithmetic lesson."
+
+The child loved the hideous saurian! And "perfect love casteth out
+fear." What turned the monster from the girl and drove it into the
+lake? Love, again, before which evil falls in sheer impotence? Had she
+worked a miracle? Certainly not! Had God interposed in her behalf?
+Again, no. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High
+shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." And would divine Love
+always protect her? There could be no question about it, _as long as
+she knew no evil_.
+
+The morning hours sped past. From arithmetic, they turned to the
+English lesson. Next to perfection in her own Castilian, Jose felt
+that this language was most important for her. And she delighted in
+it, although her odd little pronunciations, and her vain attempts to
+manipulate words to conform to her own ideas of enunciation brought
+many a hearty laugh, in which she joined with enthusiasm. The
+afternoon, as was his plan for future work, was devoted to narratives
+of men and events, and to descriptions of places. It was a ceaseless
+wonder to Jose how her mind absorbed his instruction.
+
+"How readily you see these things, Carmen," he said, as he concluded
+the work for the day.
+
+"See them, Padre? But not with my outside eyes."
+
+The remark seemed to start a train of thought within her mentality.
+"Padre," she at length asked, "how do we see with our eyes?"
+
+"It is very simple, _chiquita_," Jose replied. "Here, let me draw a
+picture of an eye."
+
+He quickly sketched a rough outline of the human organ of sight.
+"Now," he began, "you know you cannot see in the dark, don't you?"
+
+"Yes, Padre?"
+
+"In order to see, we must have light."
+
+"What is light, Padre dear?"
+
+"Well--light is--is vibrations. That is, rapid movement."
+
+"What moves?"
+
+"A--a--a--well, nothing--that is, light is just vibrations. The
+pendulum of the old clock in Don Mario's store vibrates, you
+know--moves back and forth."
+
+"And light does that?"
+
+"Yes; light _is_ that. Now that chair there, for example, reflects
+light, just as a mirror does. It reflects vibrations. And these are
+all of just a certain length, for vibrations of just that length and
+moving up and down just so fast make light. The light enters the eye,
+like this," tracing the rays on his sketch. "It makes a little picture
+of the chair on the back of the eye, where the optic nerve is
+fastened. Now the light makes the little ends of this nerve vibrate,
+too--move very rapidly. And that movement is carried along the nerve
+to some place in the brain--to what we call the center of sight. And
+there we see the chair."
+
+The child studied the sketch long and seriously.
+
+"But, Padre, is the picture of the chair carried on the nerve to the
+brain?"
+
+"Oh, no, _chiquita_, only vibrations. It is as if the nerve moved just
+a little distance, but very, very fast, back and forth, or up and
+down."
+
+"And no picture is carried to the brain?"
+
+"No, there is just a vibration in the brain."
+
+"And that vibration makes us see the chair?"
+
+"Yes, little one."
+
+A moment of silence. Then--
+
+"Padre dear, I don't believe it."
+
+"Why, _chiquita_!"
+
+"Well, Padre, what is it that sees the chair, anyway?"
+
+"The mind, dear."
+
+"Is the mind up there in the brain?"
+
+"Well--no, we can't say that it is."
+
+"Where is it, then?"
+
+"A--a--well, no place in particular--that is, it is right here all the
+time."
+
+"Well, then, when the mind wants to see the chair does it have to
+climb up into the brain and watch that little nerve wiggle?"
+
+The man was at a loss for an answer. Carmen suddenly crumpled the
+sketch in her small hand and smiled up at him.
+
+"Padre dear, I don't believe our outside eyes see anything. We just
+think they do, don't we?"
+
+Jose looked out through the open door. Carmen's weird heron was
+stalking in immense dignity past the house.
+
+"I think Cantar-las-horas is getting ready to sing the Vespers,
+_chiquita_. And so Dona Maria probably needs you now. We will talk
+more about the eye to-morrow."
+
+By the light of his sputtering candle that night Jose sat with elbows
+propped on the table, his head clasped in his hands, and a sketch of
+the human eye before him. In his confident attempt to explain to
+Carmen the process of cognition he had been completely baffled.
+Certainly, light coming from an object enters the eye and casts a
+picture upon the retina. He had often seen the photographic camera
+exhibit the same phenomenon. The law of the impenetrability of matter
+had to be set aside, of course--or else light must be pure vibration,
+without a material vibrating concomitant. Then, too, it was plain that
+the light in some way communicated its vibration to the little
+projecting ends of the optic nerve, which lie spread out over the rear
+inner surface of the eye. And equally patent that this vibration is in
+some way taken up by the optic nerve and transmitted to the center of
+sight in the brain. But after that--what? He laughed again at Carmen's
+pertinent question about the mind climbing up into the brain to see
+the vibrating nerve. But was it so silly a presumption, after all? Is
+the mind within the brain, awaiting in Stygian darkness the advent of
+the vibrations which shall give it pictures of the outside world? Or
+is the mind outside of the brain, but still slavishly forced to look
+at these vibrations of the optic nerve and then translate them into
+terms of things without? What could a vibrating nerve suggest to a
+well-ordered mind, anyway? He might as logically wave a piece of meat
+and expect thereby to see a world! He laughed aloud at the thought.
+Why does not the foolish mind leave the brain and look at the picture
+on the retina? Or why does it not throw off its shackles and look
+directly at the object to be cognized, instead of submitting to
+dependence upon so frail a thing as fleshly eyes and nerves?
+
+As he mused and sketched, unmindful of the voracious mosquitoes or the
+blundering moths that momentarily threatened his light, it dawned
+slowly upon him that the mind's awareness of material objects could
+not possibly depend upon the vibrations of pieces of nerve tissue, so
+minute as to be almost invisible to the unaided sight. Still more
+absurd did it appear to him that his own mind, of which he might
+justly boast tremendous powers, could be prostituted to such a degree
+that its knowledge of things must be served to it on waving pieces of
+flesh.
+
+And how about the other senses--touch, hearing? Did the ear hear, or
+the hand feel? He had always accepted the general belief that man is
+dependent absolutely upon the five physical senses for his knowledge
+of an outside world. And now a little thought showed that from these
+five senses man could not possibly receive anything more than a series
+of disconnected vibrations! And, going a step further, anything that
+the mind infers from these vibrations is unquestionably inferred
+_without a particle of outside authority_!
+
+He rose and paced the floor. A tremendous idea seemed to be knocking
+at the portal of his mentality.
+
+What can the mind know? Assuredly nothing but the contents of itself.
+But the contents of mind are thoughts, ideas, mental things. Do solid
+material objects enter the mind? Certainly not! Then the mind knows
+not things, but its _thoughts of things_. And instead of seeing,
+hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling solid material objects, the
+mind sees, hears, smells, tastes, and feels--what? The contents of
+itself! Its own thoughts and ideas! And the outer world? Is only what
+the mind _believes_ it to be. But surely his mind saw an outer world
+through the medium of his eye! No. His mind saw only its own concepts
+of an outer world--and these concepts, being mental, might take on
+whatever hue and tinge his mind decreed. In other words, instead of
+seeing a world of matter, he was seeing only a mental picture of a
+world. And that picture was in his own mind, _and formed by that
+mind_!
+
+The man seized his hat and hurried out into the night. He walked
+rapidly the full length of the town. His mind was wrestling with
+stupendous thoughts.
+
+An hour later he returned to his house, and seizing a pencil, wrote
+rapidly: Matter is mental. We do not see or feel matter, but we
+_think_ it. It is formed and held as a mental concept in every human
+mind. The material universe is but the human mind's concept of a
+universe, and can only be this mentality's translation to itself of
+infinite Mind's purely mental Creation.
+
+"And so," he commented aloud, sitting back and regarding his writing,
+"all my miserable life I have been seeing only my own thoughts! And I
+have let them use me and color my whole outlook!"
+
+He extinguished the candle and threw himself, fully dressed, upon his
+bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10
+
+
+Momentous changes, of far-reaching effect, had come swiftly upon Jose
+de Rincon during the last few days, changes which were destined after
+much vacillation and great mental struggle to leave a reversed
+outlook. But let no one think these changes fortuitous or casual, the
+chance result of a new throw of Fate's dice. Jose, seeing them dimly
+outlined, did not so regard them, but rather looked upon them as the
+working of great mental laws, still unknown, whose cumulative effect
+had begun a transformation in his soul. How often in his seminary days
+he had pondered the scripture, "He left not Himself without witness."
+How often he had tried to see the hopeless confusion of good and evil
+in the world about him as a witness to the One who is of purer eyes
+than to behold evil. And he had at last abandoned his efforts in
+despair. Yet that there must be something behind the complex phenomena
+which men call life, he knew. Call it what he would--law, force, mind,
+God, or even X, the great unknown quantity for which life's intricate
+equations must be solved--yet _something_ there was in it all which
+endured in an eternal manifestation. But could that something endure
+in an expression both good and evil?
+
+He had long since abandoned all study of the Bible. But in these last
+days there had begun to dawn upon him the conviction that within that
+strange book were locked mysteries which far transcended the wildest
+imaginings of the human mind. With it came also the certainty that
+Jesus had been in complete possession of those sacred mysteries. There
+could be no question now that his mission had been woefully
+misunderstood, often deliberately misinterpreted, and too frequently
+maliciously misused by mankind. His greatest sayings, teachings so
+pregnant with truth that, had they been rightfully appropriated by
+men, ere this would have dematerialized the universe and revealed the
+spiritual kingdom of God, had been warped by cunning minds into crude
+systems of theology and righteous shams, behind which the world's
+money-changers and sellers of doves still drove their wicked traffic
+and offered insults to Truth in the temple of the Most High.
+
+Oh, how he now lamented the narrowness and the intellectual
+limitations with which his seminary training had been hedged about!
+The world's thought had been a closed book to him. Because of his
+morbid honesty, only such pages reached his eye as had passed the
+bigoted censorship of Holy Church. His religious instruction had been
+served to him with the seal of infallible authority. Of other systems
+of theology he had been permitted only the Vatican's biased
+interpretation, for the curse of Holy Church rested upon them. Of
+current philosophical thought, of Bible criticism and the results of
+independent scriptural research, he knew practically nothing--little
+beyond what the explorer had told him in their memorable talks a few
+weeks before in Cartagena. But, had he known it, these had unbarred
+the portals of his mind to the reception of the new ideas which, under
+a most powerful stimulus, were now flowing so steadily through them.
+That stimulus was Carmen.
+
+To meet with a child of tender years who knows no evil is, after all,
+a not uncommon thing. For, did we but realize it, the world abounds in
+them. They are its glory, its radiance--until they are taught to heed
+the hiss of the serpent. Their pure knowledge of immanent good would
+endure--ah, who may say how long?--did not we who measure our wisdom
+by years forbid them with the fear-born mandate: "Thus far!" What
+manner of being was he who said, "Suffer little children to come unto
+me, and forbid them not?" Oh, ye parents, who forbid your little ones
+to come to the Christ by hourly heaping up before them the limitations
+of fear and doubt, of faith in the power and reality of sin and evil,
+of false instruction, and withering material beliefs! Would not the
+Christ pray for you to-day, "Father, forgive them, for they know not
+what they do"?
+
+When Jose met Carmen she was holding steadfastly to her vision--the
+immanence and allness of God. Each day she created the morrow; and she
+knew to a certainty that it would be happy. Would he, clanking his
+fetters of worldly beliefs, be the one to shatter her illusion, if
+illusion it be? Nay, rather should he seek to learn of her, if; haply
+she be in possession of that jewel for which he had searched a vain
+lifetime. Already from the stimulus which his intercourse with the
+child had given his mental processes there had come a sudden
+liberation of thought. Into his freer mentality the Christ-idea now
+flowed.
+
+Mankind complain that they cannot "prove" God. But Paul long since
+declared emphatically that to prove Him the human mind must be
+transformed. In the light of the great ideas which had dawned upon him
+in the past few days--the nature of God as mind, unlimited, immanent,
+eternal, and good; and the specious character of the five physical
+senses, which from the beginning have deluded mankind into the false
+belief that through them comes a true knowledge of the cosmos--Jose's
+mentality was being formed anew.
+
+Hegel, delving for truth in a world of illusion, summed up a lifetime
+of patient research in the pregnant statement, "The true knowledge of
+God begins when we know that things as they are have no truth in
+them." The testimony of the five physical senses constitutes "things
+as they are." But--if Jose's reasoning be not illogical--the human
+mind receives no testimony from these senses, which, at most, can
+offer but insensate and meaningless vibrations in a pulpy mass called
+the brain. The true knowledge of God, for which Jose had yearned and
+striven, begins only when men turn from the mesmeric deception of the
+physical senses, and learn that there is something, knowable and
+usable, behind them, and of whose existence they give not the
+slightest intimation.
+
+It was Saturday. The church edifice was so far put in order that Jose
+found no reason for not holding service on the morrow. He therefore
+announced the fact, and told Carmen that he must devote the day to
+preparation. Their lessons must go over to Monday. Seeking the
+solitude of his house, Jose returned to his Bible.
+
+He began with Genesis. "In the beginning--God." Not, as in the codes
+of men, God last, and after every material expedient has been
+exhausted--but "to begin with." Jose could not deny that for all that
+exists there is a cause. Nor can the human mind object to the
+implication that the cause of an existing universe must itself
+continue to exist. Even less can it deny that the framer of the
+worlds, bound together in infinite space by the unbreakable cables of
+infinite laws, must be omnipotent. And to retain its omnipotence, that
+cause must be perfect--absolutely good--every whit pure, sound, and
+harmonious; for evil is demonstrably self-destructive. And, lastly,
+what power could operate thus but an infinite intelligence, an
+all-inclusive mind?
+
+Now let the human mentality continue its own reasoning, if so be that
+it hold fast to fact and employ logical processes. If "like
+produces like"--and from thistles figs do not grow--that which mind
+creates must be mental. And a good cause can produce only a good
+effect. So the ancient writer, "And God saw every thing that He had
+made, and, behold, it was very good." The inspired scribe--inspired?
+Yes, mused Jose, for inspiration is but the flow of truth into one's
+mentality--stopped not until he had said, "So God created man in
+His own image"--
+
+Wait! He will drive that home.
+
+--"in the image of God"--not in the image of matter, not in the
+likeness of evil--"created He him." But what had now become of that
+man?
+
+So Jesus, centuries later, "God is spirit," and, "That which is born
+of the Spirit is spirit." Or, man--true man--expresses mind, God, and
+is His eternal and spiritual likeness and reflection. But, to make
+this still clearer to torpid minds, Paul wrote, "For in Him we live,
+and move, and have our being." Then he added, "To be spiritually
+minded is life." As if he would say, True life is the _consciousness_
+of spiritual things only.
+
+Is human life aught but a series of states of consciousness? And is
+consciousness aught but mental activity?--for when the mind's activity
+ceases, the man dies. But mental activity is the activity of thought.
+
+"It is the activity of thought," said Jose aloud, "that makes us
+believe that fleshly eyes see and ears hear. We see only our thoughts;
+and in some way they become externalized as our environment."
+
+His reasoning faculty went busily on. Thought builds images, or mental
+concepts, within the mind. These are the thought-objects which mankind
+believe they see as material things in an outer world. And so the
+world is within, not without. Jesus must have known this when he said,
+"The kingdom of heaven is within you." Did he not know the tremendous
+effects of thought when he said, "For as a man thinketh, so is he"? In
+other words, a man builds his own mental image of himself, and conveys
+it to the fellow-minds about him.
+
+Jose again opened his Bible at random. His eye fell upon the
+warning of Jeremiah, "Hear, O earth, behold I will bring evil
+upon this people, _even the fruit of their thoughts_!" Alas! he
+needed no warning to show him now the dire results of his own past
+wrong thinking. Evil is but wrong thinking wrought out in life
+experience. And so the chief of sins is the breaking of the very
+first Commandment, the belief in other powers than God, the
+infinite mind that framed the spiritual universe.
+
+"But we simply can't help breaking the Commandment," cried Jose, "when
+we see nothing but evil about us! And yet--we are seeing only the
+thoughts in our own minds. True--but how came they there? And whence?
+From God?"
+
+Jose was quite ready to concede a mental basis for everything; to
+believe that even sin is but the thought of sin, false thought
+regarding God and His Creation. But, if God is all-inclusive mind, He
+must be _the only thinker_. And so all thought must proceed from Him.
+All thought, both good and evil? No, for then were God maintaining a
+house divided against itself. And that would mean His ultimate
+dissolution.
+
+Infinite, omnipotent mind is by very logic _compelled_ to be perfect.
+Then the thoughts issuing from that mind must be good. So it must
+follow that evil thoughts come from another source. But if God is
+infinite, there is no other source, no other cause. Then there is but
+the single alternative left--_evil thoughts must be unreal_.
+
+What was it that the explorer had said to him in regard to Spencer's
+definition of reality? "That which endures." But, for that matter,
+evil seems to be just as enduring as good, and to run its course as
+undeviatingly. After all, what is it that says there is evil? The five
+physical senses. But that again reduces to the thought of evil, for
+men see only their thoughts. These so-called senses say that the world
+is flat--that the sun circles the earth--that objects diminish in size
+with distance. They testify not to truth. Jesus said that evil, or the
+"devil," was "a liar and the father of lies." Then the testimony of
+the physical senses to evil--and there is no other testimony to its
+existence and power--is a lie. A lie is--what? Nothing. Reason has had
+to correct sense-testimony in the field of astronomy and show that the
+earth is not flat. Where, indeed, has reason not had to correct
+sense-testimony? For Jose could now see that all such testimony was
+essentially false. "Things as they are have no truth in them." In
+other words, sense-testimony is false belief. Again, a lie. And the
+habitat of a lie is--nowhere. Did the world by clinging to evil and
+trying to make something of it, to classify it and reduce it to
+definite rules and terms, thus tend to make it real? Assuredly so. And
+as long as the world held evil to be real, could evil be overcome?
+Again, no. A reality endures forever.
+
+Jose arose from his study. He believed he was close to the discovery
+of that solid basis of truth on which to stand while teaching Carmen.
+At any rate, her faith, which he could no longer believe to be
+baseless illusion, would not be shattered by him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11
+
+
+Two weeks after his arrival in Simiti Jose conducted his first
+services in the ancient church. After four years of silence, the rusty
+bell sent out its raucous call from the old tower that still morning
+and announced the revival of public worship.
+
+As the priest stepped from the sacristy and approached the altar his
+heart experienced a sudden sinking. Before him his little flock bowed
+reverently and expectantly. Looking out at them, a lump rose in his
+throat. He was their pastor, and daily his love had grown for these
+kindly, simple folk. And now, what would he not have given could he
+have stretched forth his hands, as did the Master, to heal them of
+their ills and lift them out of the shadows of ignorance! Ah, if he
+could have thrown aside the mummery and pagan ceremonialism which he
+was there to conduct, and have sat down among them, as Jesus was wont
+to do on those still mornings in Galilee! Instead, he stood before
+them an apostate vassal of Rome, hypocritically using the Church to
+shield and maintain himself in Simiti while he reared away from her
+the child Carmen.
+
+Yet, what could he do? He had heard the call; and he had answered,
+"Master, here am I." And now he was occupying, while waiting to be
+led, step by step, out of his cruelly anomalous position and into his
+rightful domain. A traitor to Holy Church? Nay, he thought he would
+have been a traitor to all that was best and holiest within himself
+had he done otherwise. In the name of the Church he would serve these
+humble people. Serving them, he honored the Master. And honoring
+Christ, he could not dishonor the Church.
+
+Jose's conduct of the Mass was perfunctory. Vainly he strove to hold
+in thought the symbolism of the service, the offering of Christ as a
+propitiation for the world's sins. But gradually the folly of Milton's
+extravagant, wild dream, which the poet clothed in such imperishable
+beauty, stole over him and blinded this vision. He saw the Holy
+Trinity sitting in solemn council in the courts of heaven. He heard
+their perplexed discussion of the ravages of Satan in the terrestrial
+paradise below. He heard the Father pronounce His awful curse upon
+mankind. And he beheld the Son rise and with celestial magnanimity
+offer himself as the sacrificial lamb, whose blood should wash away
+the serpent-stain of sin. How inept the whole drama!
+
+And then he thought of Carmen. He had seen her, as he looked out over
+his people, sitting with Dona Maria, arrayed in a clean white frock,
+and swinging her plump bare legs beneath the bench, while wonder and
+amazement peered out from her big brown eyes as she followed his every
+move. What would such things mean to her, whose God was ever-present
+good? What did they mean to the priest himself, who was beginning to
+see Him as infinite, divine mind, knowing no evil--the One whose
+thoughts are not as ours?
+
+He took up the holy water and sprinkled the assemblage. "Purge me with
+hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than
+snow." But how is the human mind purged of error? By giving it truth.
+And does the infinite mind purge the thought of men in any other way?
+His mind was full as he took up the Missal. "_Kyrie Eleison_, _Christe
+Eleison_."
+
+He hesitated. With a tug he pulled his mind back to the work before
+him. But why was he invoking clemency from One who knows no evil?
+Heretofore he had always thought that God knew evil, that He must
+recognize it, and that He strove Himself to overcome it. But if God
+knew evil, then evil were real and eternal! Dreamily he began to
+intone the _Gloria in Excelsis Deo_. All hail, thou infinite mind,
+whose measureless depths mortal man has not even begun to sound! His
+soul could echo that strain forever.
+
+He turned to the Lesson and read: "But there went up a mist from the
+earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God
+formed man of the dust of the ground." He stopped a moment for
+thought. The _Lord_ God! The mist of error watered the false
+thought--the one lie about God--and out of it formed the man of flesh,
+the false concept which is held in the minds of mortals. Aye, it was
+the lie, posing as the Lord of creation, which had formed its false
+man out of the dust of the ground, and had forced it upon the
+acceptance of mankind! Jose turned back and read the whole of the
+first chapter of Genesis, where he felt that he stood upon truth.
+
+The tapers on the altar flickered fitfully. The disturbed bats
+blundered among the rafters overhead. Outside, the dusty roads burned
+with a white glare. Within, he and the people were worshiping God.
+Worship? This? "God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must
+worship Him in spirit and in truth." In _Truth_!
+
+Jose recited the Nicene creed, with the thought that its man-made
+fetters had bound the Christian world for dreary centuries. Then, the
+Preface and Canon concluded, he pronounced the solemn words of
+consecration which turned the bread and wine before him into the flesh
+and blood of Christ Jesus. He looked at the wafer and the chalice long
+and earnestly. He--Jose de Rincon--mortal, human, a weakling among
+weaklings--could he command God by his "_Hoc est enim corpus meum_" to
+descend from heaven to this altar? Could he so invoke the power of the
+Christ as to change bread and wine into actual flesh and blood? And
+yet, with all the priestly powers which Holy Church had conferred upon
+him, he could not heal a single bodily ill, nor avert one human
+misfortune!
+
+Ah, pagan Rome! Well have you avenged yourself upon those who wrought
+your fall, for in the death conflict you left the taint of your
+paganism upon them, and it endures in their sons even to this fair
+day!
+
+Jose deferred his sermon until the close of the service. He wanted
+time to think over again what he could say to these simple people.
+They sat before him, dull, inert, yet impressionable--bare of feet, or
+wearing hempen sandals, and clad in cheap cottons and calicos, with
+here and there a flash of bright ribbon among the women, and
+occasionally a parasol of brilliant hue, which the owner fondly
+clasped, while impatiently awaiting the close of the service that she
+might proudly parade it. A few of the men wore starched linen shirts,
+but without collars. The Alcalde, with his numerous family, and the
+family of Don Felipe Alcozer, sat well in front. The former regarded
+Jose expectantly, as the priest turned to deliver his simple sermon.
+
+"My children," Jose began, "when the good man whom we call the Saviour
+sent his disciples out into the world he told them to preach the
+gospel and heal the sick. We have no record that he asked them to do
+more, for that included his whole mission. I am here to do his work.
+And, as I believe myself to have been led to you, so I shall preach
+what I believe to be given me by the great Father of us all. I shall
+teach you the Christ as I comprehend him. I would I could heal the
+sick as well. But the gift of healing which Jesus bestowed has been
+lost to mankind." He paused and seemed to think deeply. Then he
+continued:
+
+"I am your servant, and your friend. I want you to believe that
+whatever I do in your midst and whatever I say to you follows only
+after I have prayerfully considered your welfare. As time has passed I
+have seemed to see things in a clearer light than before. What I may
+see in the future I shall point out to you as you are able to
+understand me. To that end we must suffer many things to be as they
+are for the present, for I am learning with you. I shall give you a
+single thought to take with you to-day. Jesus once said, 'As a man
+thinketh, so is he.' I want you to remember that, if you would be well
+and happy and prosperous, you must think only about good things. Some
+day you will see why this is so. But go back now to your _fincas_ and
+your fishing, to your little stores and your humble homes, firmly
+resolving never to think a bad thought, whether about yourself or your
+neighbor. And pray for yourselves and me--"
+
+He looked off into the gloom overhead. Again he seemed to hear the Man
+of Galilee: "Ask and ye shall receive."
+
+"And, my children--"
+
+He thought suddenly of Carmen and her visits to the shales. His face
+shone for a moment with a new light.
+
+"--let your prayers be no mere requests that God will bless us, but
+rather let them be statements that He is infinite good, and that He
+cannot do otherwise than give us all we need. No, I ask not that you
+intercede for me; nor shall I do so for you. But I do ask that you
+join with me in trying to realize that God is good; that He loves us
+as His dear children; and that He is daily, hourly pouring out His
+inexhaustible goodness upon us. We shall all see that goodness when we
+learn to think no evil."
+
+His eyes rested upon Carmen as he spoke these last words. Then with a
+simple invocation he dismissed the congregation.
+
+The Alcalde carried Jose off to dinner with him, much against the
+inclination of the priest, who preferred to be alone. But the Alcalde
+was the chief influence in the town, and it was policy to cultivate
+him.
+
+"The blessed Virgin shows that she has not forgotten Simiti, Padre, by
+sending you here," said Don Mario, when they were seated in the shade
+of the ample _patio_.
+
+Jose knew the Alcalde was sounding him. "Yes, friend," with just a
+trace of amusement in his voice. "It was doubtless because of the
+Virgin that I was directed here," he replied, thinking of Carmen.
+
+"Excellent advice that you gave the people, Padre; but it is not
+likely they understood you, poor fools! Now if Padre Diego had been
+preaching he would have ranted like a windstorm; but he would have
+made an impression. I am afraid soft words will not sink into their
+thick skulls."
+
+Dinner was served in the open, during which the Alcalde chattered
+volubly.
+
+"Don Rosendo returns soon?" he finally ventured. Jose knew that for
+some time he had been edging toward the question.
+
+"_Quien sabe, senor!_" replied the priest, with a careless shrug of
+his shoulders.
+
+"But--_Caramba_! he is old to prospect for gold--and alone, too!" Don
+Mario eyed Jose sharply.
+
+"Ah, you priests!" he burst out laughing. "You are all alike when it
+comes to money. Padre Diego was up to the same schemes; and before he
+left he had a hat full of titles to mines."
+
+"But I am not seeking to acquire mineral property!" exclaimed Jose
+with some aspersion.
+
+"No? Then you had nothing to do with Rosendo's trip?"
+
+Jose kept silence.
+
+"_Na_, Padre, let us be confidential," said the Alcalde, hitching his
+chair closer to the priest. "Look, I understand why Rosendo went into
+the Guamoco country--but you can trust me to say nothing about it.
+Only, Padre, if he should find the mine he will have trouble enough
+to hold it. But I can help you both. You know the denouncement
+papers must go through my hands, and I send them to Cartagena for
+registration."
+
+He sat back in his chair with a knowing look.
+
+"There is only one man here to be afraid of," he resumed; "and that is
+Don Felipe Alcozer; although he may never return to Simiti." He
+reflected a few moments. Then:
+
+"Now, Padre, let us have some understanding about interests in the
+mine, should Rosendo find it. The mine will be useless to us unless we
+work it, for there is no one to buy it from us. To work it, we must
+have a stamp-mill, or _arrastras_. The Antioquanians are skilled in
+the making of wooden stamp-mills; but one would cost perhaps two
+thousand _pesos oro_. Nobody here can furnish so much money but Don
+Felipe. I will arrange with him for a suitable interest. And I will
+fix all the papers so that the title will be held by us three. Rosendo
+is only a _peon_. You can pay him for his trouble, and he need not
+have an interest."
+
+Jose breathed easier while this recital was in progress. So Don Mario
+believed Rosendo to have gone in search of the lost mine, La Libertad!
+Good; for Cartagena would soon get the report, and his own tenure of
+the parish would be rendered doubly sure thereby. The monthly greasing
+of Wenceslas' palm with what Rosendo might extract from the Guamoco
+sands, coupled with the belief that Jose was maintaining a man in the
+field in search of Don Ignacio's lost mine, rendered Cartagena's
+interference a very remote contingency. He almost laughed as he
+replied:
+
+"Rosendo will doubtless prospect for some months, Don Mario, and I am
+sure we shall have plenty of time to discuss any arrangement of
+interests later, should occasion arise. But this is the Sabbath day.
+So let us not talk business any further."
+
+When the afternoon heat began to wane, Jose left the Alcalde and
+returned to his cottage. Since the service of the morning he had been
+fighting a constantly deepening sense of depression. An awful
+loneliness now gripped his heart, and dank gloom was again sweeping
+through the corridors of his soul. God, what a sacrifice, to remain
+buried in that dismal town! His continuance in the priesthood of an
+abjured faith was violative of every principle of honesty! The time
+would come when the mask of hypocrisy would have to be raised, and the
+resultant exposure would be worse then than open apostasy now!
+
+He entered his dreary little abode and threw himself upon a chair.
+There had been no reaction like this for days. He looked out into the
+deserted street. Mud hovels; ragged, thatched roofs; lowly _peones_
+drowsing away life's little hour within! There was scarcely a book in
+the town. Few of its inhabitants could even read or write. Culture,
+education, refinement--all wanting. Nothing but primal existence--the
+barest necessities of real life. He could not stand it! He had been a
+fool all his years! He would throw everything to the winds and go out
+into the world to live his life as it had been intended he should live
+it. He would send his resignation to the Bishop to-morrow. Then he
+would hire Juan to take him to Bodega Central; and the few _pesos_ he
+had left would get him to Barranquilla. There he would work until he
+had earned enough for his passage to the great States up north, of
+which the explorer had told such wonderful tales. Once there, he could
+teach, or--
+
+His thought turned to Rosendo. He saw him, bent with age, and wearied
+with toil, alone in the awful solitude of the jungle, standing knee
+deep in the cold mountain water, while from early dawn till sunset he
+incessantly swung the heavy _batea_ to concentrate the few flakes of
+precious gold it might contain. And the old man was facing years of
+just such loneliness and heavy toil--facing them gladly.
+
+He thought of Carmen. Was she worth such sacrifice as he and Rosendo
+were making? God forgive him! Yes--a thousand times yes! If he
+betrayed Rosendo's confidence and fled like a coward now, leaving her
+to fall into the sooty hands of men like Padre Diego, to be crushed,
+warped, and squeezed into the molds of Holy Church, could he ever
+again face his fellow-men?
+
+He jumped to his feet. "Get thee behind me, Satan!" he cried in a
+voice that echoed through the barren rooms. He smote his chest and
+paced the floor. Then he stopped still. He heard Carmen's voice again.
+It was the same simple melody she had sung the day he awoke from his
+fever. He stood listening. His eyes filled. Then--
+
+  "Love took up the harp of life, and smote on all the chords with
+        might,
+  Smote the chord of self, that, trembling, passed in music out of
+        sight."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 12
+
+
+In the days that followed, while at times Jose still struggled
+desperately against the depression of his primal environment, and
+against its insidious suggestions of license, Carmen moved before him
+like the shechinah of Israel, symbolizing the divine presence. When
+the dark hours came and his pronounced egoism bade fair to overwhelm
+him; when his self-centered thought clung with the tenacity of a
+limpet to his dreary surroundings and his unfilled longings; when
+self-condemnation and self-pity rived his soul, and despair of solving
+life's intricate problems settled again like a pall upon him, he
+turned to her. Under the soft influence of her instinct for primitive
+good, he was learning, even if slowly, to jettison his heavily laden
+soul, and day by day to ride the tossing waves of his stormy thought
+with a lighter cargo. Her simple faith in immanent good was working
+upon his mind like a spiritual catharsis, to purge it of its clogging
+beliefs. Her unselfed love flowed over him like heavenly balm, salving
+the bleeding wounds of the spiritual mayhem which he had suffered at
+the violent hands of Holy Church's worldly agents.
+
+Carmen's days were filled to the brim with a measure of joy that
+constantly overflowed upon all among whom she moved. Her slight
+dependence upon her impoverished material environment, her contempt
+of its _ennui_, were constant reminders to Jose that heaven is but
+a state of mind. Even in desolate Simiti, life to her was an
+endless series of delightful experiences, of wonderful surprises
+in the discovery of God's presence everywhere. Her enthusiasms were
+always ardent and inexhaustible. Sparkling animation and abounding
+vitality characterized her every movement. Her thought was free,
+unstrained, natural, and untrammeled by those inherited and educated
+beliefs in evil in which Jose had early been so completely swamped.
+In worldly knowledge she was the purest novice; and the engaging
+_naivete_ with which she met the priest's explanations of historical
+events and the motives from which they sprang charmed him beyond
+measure, and made his work with her a constant delight. Her sense of
+humor was keen, and her merriment when his recitals touched her
+risibility was extravagant. She laughed at danger, laughed at the
+weaknesses and foibles of men, when he told of the political and
+social ambitions which stirred mankind in the outside world. But he
+knew that her merriment proceeded not from an ephemeral sense of
+the ludicrous, but from a righteous appraisal of the folly and
+littleness of those things for which the world so sorely strives.
+
+And daily the little maid wrapped herself about his heart. Daily her
+wondrous love coiled its soft folds tighter around him, squeezing from
+his atrabilious soul, drop by drop, its sad taciturnity and inherent
+morbidness, that it might later fill his empty life with a spiritual
+richness which he had never known before.
+
+On the day following the opening of the church Carmen had asked
+many questions. It was the first religious service she had ever
+voluntarily attended. To her former queries regarding the function
+of the church edifice, Rosendo had vouchsafed but one reply: it was
+the house of God, and in it the people used to gather to learn of Him.
+But she protested that she had no need of the musty, ramshackle,
+barn-like old building as a locus in which to center her thought upon
+God. She walked with Him, and she much preferred the bright, sunlit
+out-of-doors in which to commune with Him. Jose explained the need
+of a central gathering place as a shelter from the hot sun. But the
+images--the pictures of Saints and Virgin--and the Mass itself?
+
+"They are what the people are accustomed to, dear child, to direct
+their thought toward God," he explained. "And we will use them until
+we can teach them something better." He had omitted from the church
+service as far as possible the collects and all invocations addressed
+to the Virgin and the Saints, and had rendered it short and extremely
+simple. Carmen seemed satisfied with his explanation, and with his
+insistence that, for the sake of appearance, she attend the Sunday
+services. He would trust her God to guide them both.
+
+The days sped by silently and swiftly. Jose and the child dwelt
+together apart from the world, in a universe purely mental. As he
+taught her, she hung upon his every word, and seized the proffered
+tutelage with avidity. Often, after the day's work, Jose, in his
+customary strolls about the little town, would come across the girl in
+the doorway of a neighboring house, with a group of wide-eyed
+youngsters about her, relating again the wonder-tales which she had
+gathered from him. Marvelous tales they were, too, of knight and
+_hidalgo_, of court and camp, of fairies, pyxies, gnomes and sprites,
+of mossy legend and historic fact, bubbling from the girl's childish
+lips with an engaging _naivete_ of interpretation that held the man
+enchanted. Even the schoolmaster, who had besought Jose in vain to
+turn Carmen over to him, was often a spellbound listener at these
+little gatherings.
+
+The result was that in a short time a delegation, headed by the
+Alcalde himself, waited upon Jose and begged him to lecture to the
+people of Simiti in the church building at least two or three evenings
+a week upon places and people he had seen in the great world of which
+they knew nothing. Jose's eyes were moist as he looked at the great,
+brawny men, stout of heart, but simple as children. He grieved to give
+up his evenings, for he had formed the habit of late of devoting them
+to the study of his Bible, and to meditation on those ideas which had
+so recently come to him. But the appeal from these innocent, untutored
+people again quenched the thought of self, and he bade them be assured
+that their request was granted.
+
+The new ideas which had found entrance into Jose's liberated mentality
+in the past few days had formed a basis on which he was not afraid to
+stand while teaching Carmen; and his entire instruction was
+thenceforth  by them. He knew not why, in all the preceding
+years, such ideas had not come to him before. But he was to learn,
+some day, that his previous tenacious clinging to evil as a reality,
+together with his material beliefs and his worldly intellectuality,
+had stood as barriers at the portals of his thought, and kept the
+truth from entering. His mind had been already full--but its contents
+were unbelief, fear, the conviction of evil as real and operative, and
+the failure to know God as immanent, omnipotent and perfect mind, to
+whom evil is forever unknown and unreal. Pride, egoism, and his morbid
+sense of honesty had added their portion to the already impassable
+obstruction at the gateway of his thought. And so the error had been
+kept within, the good without. The "power of the Lord" had not been
+absent; but it had remained unapplied. Thus he had wandered through
+the desolate wilderness; but yet sustained and kept alive, that he
+should not go down to the pit.
+
+Jose's days were now so crowded that he was forced to borrow heavily
+from the night. The Alcalde continued his unctuous flattery, and the
+priest, in turn, cultivated him assiduously. To that official's query
+as to the restitution of the confessional in the church, the priest
+replied that he could spare time to hear only such confessions from
+his flock as might be necessary to elicit from him the advice or
+assistance requisite for their needs. He was there to help them solve
+their life problems, not to pry into their sacred secrets; and their
+confessions must relate only to their necessities.
+
+The Alcalde went away with a puzzled look. Of a truth a new sort of
+priest had now to be reckoned with in Simiti--a very different sort
+from Padre Diego.
+
+In the first days of Jose's incumbency he found many serious matters
+to adjust. He had learned from Rosendo that not half the residents of
+Simiti were married to the consorts with whom they lived, and that
+many of the children who played in the streets did not know who their
+fathers were. So prevalent was this evil condition that the custom
+among the men of having their initials embroidered upon the bosoms of
+their shirts was extended to include the initial of the mother's
+family name. Jose had questioned Rosendo as to the meaning of the
+letters R. A. S. upon his shirt.
+
+"The S, Padre, is the initial of my mother's family name. I am Rosendo
+Ariza, son of the daughter of Saurez. My parents were married by a
+priest. But half the people of Simiti have never been really
+married."
+
+Jose sought the cause of this dereliction. Fidel Avila was living with
+a woman, by whom he had three children. The priest summoned him to the
+parish house.
+
+"Fidel," he questioned sternly, "Jacinta, the woman you live with, is
+your wife?"
+
+"Yes, _Senor Padre_."
+
+"And you were married by the Church?"
+
+"No, Padre."
+
+"But was there a priest here when you began to live with Jacinta?"
+
+"Yes, Padre. The _Cura_, Don Diego Polo, was here."
+
+"Then why were you not married by him? Do you not know how wicked it
+is to live as you are doing? Think of your children!"
+
+"Yes, Padre, and I asked the _Cura_, Don Diego, to marry us. But he
+charged twenty _pesos oro_ for doing it; and I could not afford it. I
+loved Jacinta. And so we decided to live together without the
+marriage."
+
+"But--!" Jose stopped. He knew that the Church recognized no marriage
+unless it were performed by a priest. The civil magistrate had no
+jurisdiction in such a case. And a former priest's rapacity had
+resulted in forcing illegitimacy upon half the children of this
+benighted hamlet, because of their parents' inability to afford the
+luxury of a canonical marriage.
+
+"Fidel, were your father and mother married?" he asked in kinder
+tones.
+
+"I do not know, Padre. Only a few people in Guamoco can afford to pay
+to be married. The men and women live together, perhaps for all time,
+perhaps for only a few months. If a man wishes to leave his woman and
+live with another, he does so. If there are children, the woman always
+has to keep and care for them."
+
+"And could you leave Jacinta if you wished, and live with another
+woman?"
+
+"Yes, Padre."
+
+"And she would have to lake care of your children?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And all because you are not married?"
+
+"I think so, Padre."
+
+"_Hombre!_ But that will do, Fidel."
+
+Oh, the sordid greed of those who abuse their sacred commission! What
+punishment is mete for such as exploit these lowly folk in the name of
+religion! Jose strode off to consult the Alcalde.
+
+"Don Mario, the men in Simiti who are living with women have _got_ to
+be married to them! It is shameful! I shall make a canvass of the town
+at once!"
+
+The Alcalde laughed. "_Costumbre_, Padre. You can't change it."
+
+_Costumbre del pais!_ It is a final answer all through South America.
+No matter how unreasonable a thing may be, if it is the custom of the
+country it is a Medean law.
+
+"But you know this is subversive of Church discipline!" Jose retorted
+warmly. "Look you, Don Mario," he added suggestively, "you and I are
+to work together, are we not?"
+
+The Alcalde blinked his pig eyes, but thought hard about La Libertad.
+_"Cierto, Senor Padre!"_ he hastened to exclaim.
+
+"Then I demand that you summon before me every man and woman who are
+living together unmarried."
+
+With a thought single to his own future advantage, the wary Alcalde
+complied. Within the week following this interview Jose married twenty
+couples, and without charge. Some offered him a few _pesos_. These he
+took and immediately turned over to Don Mario as treasurer of the
+parish. Those couples who refused to be married were forced by the
+Alcalde to separate. But of these there were few. Among them was one
+Julio Gomez. Packing his few household effects upon his back, and
+muttering imprecations against the priest, Gomez set out for the
+hills, still followed by his woman, with a babe slung over her
+shoulders and two naked children toddling at her bare heels.
+
+Verily, the ancient town was being profoundly stirred by the man who
+had sought to find his tomb there. Gradually the people lost their
+suspicions and distrust, bred of former bitter experience with
+priests, and joined heartily with Jose to ameliorate the social status
+of the place. His sincere love for them, and his utter selflessness,
+secured their confidence, and ere his first month among them closed,
+he had won them, almost to a man.
+
+Meantime, six weeks had passed since Rosendo had departed to take up
+his lonely task of self-renouncing love. Then one day he returned,
+worn and emaciated, his great frame shaking like a withered leaf in a
+chill blast.
+
+"It is the _terciana_, Padre," he said, as he sank shuddering upon
+his bed. "It comes every third day. I went as far as Tachi--fifty
+leagues from Simiti--and there the fever overtook me. I have been
+eight days coming back; and day before yesterday I ran out of
+food. Last evening I found a wild melon at the side of the trail. A
+coral snake struck at me when I reached for it, but he hit my
+_machete_ instead. _Caramba!_"
+
+Jose pressed his wet hand, while Dona Maria laid damp cloths upon his
+burning forehead.
+
+"The streams are washed out, Padre," Rosendo continued sadly. "I
+worked at Colorado, Popales, and Tambora. But I got no more than five
+_pesos_ worth. And that will not pay for half of my supplies. It is
+there in a little bag," pointing to his soaked and muddy kit.
+
+Jose's heart was wrung by the suffering and disappointment of the old
+man. Sadly he carried the little handful of gold flakes to Don Mario,
+and then returned to the exhausted Rosendo.
+
+All through the night the sick man tossed and moaned. By morning he
+was delirious. Then Jose and Dona Maria became genuinely alarmed. The
+toil and exposure had been too much for Rosendo at his advanced age.
+In his delirium he talked brokenly of the swamps through which he had
+floundered, for he had taken the trail in the wet season, and fully
+half of its one hundred and fifty miles of length was oozy and all but
+impassable bog.
+
+By afternoon the fever had greatly increased. Don Mario shook his head
+as he stood over him.
+
+"I have seen many in that condition, Padre, and they didn't wake up!
+If we had quinine, perhaps he might be saved. But there isn't a flake
+in the town."
+
+"Then send Juan to Bodega Central at once for it!" cried Jose, wild
+with apprehension.
+
+"I doubt if he would find it there either, Padre. But we can try.
+However, Juan cannot make the trip in less than two days. And I fear
+Rosendo will not last that long."
+
+Dona Maria sat by the bedside, dumb with grief. Jose wrung his hands
+in despair. The day drew slowly to a close. The Alcalde had dispatched
+Juan down to the river to signal any steamer that he should meet, if
+perchance he might purchase a few grains of the only drug that could
+save the sick man. Carmen had absented herself during the day; but
+she returned in time to assist Dona Maria with the evening meal,
+after which she went at once to her bed.
+
+Late at night, when the sympathizing townsmen had sorrowfully departed
+and Jose had induced Dona Maria to seek a few moments rest on her
+_petate_ in the living room, Carmen climbed quietly out of her bed and
+came to where the priest sat alone with the unconscious Rosendo.
+
+Jose was bending over the delirious man. "Oh, if Jesus were only here
+now!" he murmured.
+
+"Padre dear."
+
+Jose looked down into the little face beside him.
+
+"People don't die, you know. They don't really die." The little head
+shook as if to emphasize the words.
+
+Jose was startled. But he put his arm about the child and drew her to
+him. "_Chiquita_, why do you say that?" he asked sorrowfully.
+
+"Because God doesn't die, you know," she quickly replied. "And we are
+like Him, Padre, aren't we?"
+
+"But He calls us to Him, _chiquita_. And--I guess--He is--is calling
+your padre Rosendo now."
+
+Does God kill mankind in order to give them life? Is that His way?
+Death denies God, eternal Life. And--
+
+"Why, no, Padre," returned the innocent child. "He is always here; and
+we are always with Him, you know. He can not call people away from
+where He is, can He?"
+
+_Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world._ The
+Christ-principle, the saving truth about God and man, is ever present
+in an uncomprehending world.
+
+Jose knew that there was no material dependence now. Something told
+him that Rosendo lay dying. There was no physician, no drug, in the
+isolated little town. There was none but God to save. And He--
+
+But only sinners are taught by priests and preachers to look to God
+for help. The sick are not so taught. How much more deplorable, then,
+is their condition than that of the wicked!
+
+"I told God out on the shales this afternoon that I just knew padre
+Rosendo wouldn't die!" The soft, sweet voice hovered on the silence
+like celestial melody.
+
+_If ye ask anything in my name_--in my character--_it shall be given
+you_. Carmen asked in the character of the sinless Christ, for her
+asking was an assertion of what she instinctively knew to be truth,
+despite the evidence of the physical senses. Her petitions were
+affirmations of Immanuel--God with us.
+
+"Carmen," whispered the priest hoarsely, "go back to your bed, and
+know, just _know_ that God is here! Know that He did not make padre
+Rosendo sick, and that He will not let him die! Know it for him--and
+for me!"
+
+"Why, Padre, I know that now!" The child looked up into the priest's
+face with her luminous eyes radiating unshaken trust--a trust that
+seemed born of understanding. Yea, she knew that all good was there,
+for God is omnipotent. They had but to stretch forth their hands to
+touch the robe of His Christ. The healing principle which cleansed the
+lepers and raised the dead was even with them there in that quiet
+room. Jose had only to realize it, nothing doubting. Carmen had done
+her work, and her mind now was stayed on Him. Infinite Intelligence
+did not know Rosendo as Jose was trying to know him, sick and dying.
+God is Life--and there is no death!
+
+Carmen was again asleep. Jose sat alone, his open Bible before him and
+his thought with his God.
+
+Oh, for even a slight conception of Him who is Life! Moses worked "as
+seeing Him who is invisible." Carmen lived with her eyes on Him,
+despite her dreary mundane encompassment. And Jose, as he sat there
+throughout the watches of the night, facing the black terror, was
+striving to pierce the mist which had gone up from the face of the
+ground and was separating him from his God. Through the long, dark
+hours, with the quiet of death upon the desolate chamber, he sat mute
+before the veil that was "still untaken away."
+
+What was it that kept telling him that Rosendo lay dying before him?
+Does matter talk? Did the serpent talk to Eve? Do fleshly nerves and
+frail bodily organs converse with men? Can the externalization of
+thought report back to the thought itself? Nay, the report came to him
+from the physical senses--naught else. And they reported--nothing! He
+was seeing but his own thoughts of mixed good and evil. And they were
+false, because they testified against God.
+
+Surely God knew Rosendo. But not as the physical senses were trying to
+make Jose know him, sick and dying. Surely the subjective determines
+the objective; for as we think, so are we--the Christ said that. From
+his human standpoint Jose was seeing his thoughts of a dying mortal.
+And now he was trying to know that those thoughts did not come from
+God--that they had no authority back of them--that they were children
+of the "one lie" about God--that they were false, false as hell, and
+therefore impotent and unreal.
+
+What, then, had he to fear? Nothing, for truth is beyond the reach of
+personal sense. So God and His ideas, reflected by the real Rosendo,
+were beyond the reach of evil.
+
+If this were true, then he must clear his own mentality--even as he
+now knew Carmen had done out on the shales that afternoon. He was no
+longer dealing with a material Rosendo, but with false beliefs about a
+son of God. He was handling mental concepts. And to the serpent,
+error, he was trying to say: "What is your authority?"
+
+If man lives, he never dies. If man is, then he always has been. And
+he was never born--and never passes into oblivion. A fact never
+changes. If two and two make four to-day, they always have done so,
+and always will.
+
+Can good produce evil? Then evil can have no creator. Rosendo, when
+moved by good, had gone into the wilds of Guamoco on a mission of
+love. Did evil have power to smite him for his noble sacrifice?
+
+What is this human life of ours? Real existence? No, but a sense of
+existence--and a false sense, for it postulates a god of evil opposed
+to the one supreme Creator of all that really is. Then the testimony
+that said Rosendo must die was cruelly false. And, more, it was
+powerless--unless Jose himself gave it power.
+
+Did Carmen know that? Had she so reasoned? Assuredly no! But she knew
+God as Jose had never known Him. And, despite the testimony of the
+fleshly eyes, she had turned from physical sense to Him.
+
+"It is not practicable!" the world cries in startled protest.
+
+But, behold her life!
+
+Jose had begun to see that discord was the result of unrighteousness,
+false thought. He began to understand why it was that Jesus always
+linked disease with sin. His own paradoxical career had furnished
+ample proof of that. Yet his numberless tribulations were not due
+solely to his own wrong thinking, but likewise to the wrong thought of
+others with respect to him, thought which he knew not how to
+neutralize. And the channels for this false, malicious, carnal thought
+had been his beloved parents, his uncle, the Archbishop, his tutors,
+and, in fact, all with whom he had been associated until he came to
+Simiti. There he had found Carmen. And there the false thought had met
+a check, a reversal. The evil had begun to destroy itself. And he was
+slowly awaking to find nothing but good.
+
+The night hours flitted through the heavy gloom like spectral
+acolytes. Rosendo sank into a deep sleep. The steady roll of the frogs
+in the lake at length died away. A flush stole timidly across the
+eastern sky.
+
+"Padre dear, he will not die."
+
+It was Carmen's voice that awoke the slumbering priest. The child
+stood at his side, and her little hand clasped his. Rosendo slept.
+His chest rose and fell with the rhythmic breathing. Jose looked down
+upon him. A great lump came into his throat, and his voice trembled as
+he spoke.
+
+"You are right, _chiquita_. Go, call your madre Maria now, and I will
+go home to rest."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 13
+
+
+That day Rosendo left his bed. Two days later he again set out for
+Guamoco.
+
+"There _is_ gold there, and I must, I _will_ find it!" he repeatedly
+exclaimed as he pushed his preparations.
+
+The courage of the man was magnificent. On its rebound it carried him
+over the protest of Dona Maria and the gloomy forebodings of his
+fellow-townsmen, and launched him again on the desolate trail.
+
+But Jose had uttered no protest. He moved about wrapped in undefinable
+awe. For he believed he had seen Rosendo lifted from the bed of death.
+And no one might tell him that it was not by the same power that long
+ago had raised the dead man of Nain. Carmen had not spoken of the
+incident again; and something laid a restraint upon Jose's lips.
+
+The eyes of the Alcalde bulged with astonishment when Rosendo entered
+his store that morning in quest of further supplies.
+
+"_Caramba!_ Go back to your bed, _compadre_!" he exclaimed, bounding
+from his chair. "You are walking in your delirium!"
+
+"_Na, amigo_," replied Rosendo with a smile, "the fever has left me.
+And now I must have another month's supplies, for I go back to Guamoco
+as soon as my legs tremble less."
+
+_"Caramba! caramba!"_
+
+The Alcalde acted as if he were in the presence of a ghost. But at
+length becoming convinced that Rosendo was there on matters of
+business, and in his right mind, he checked further expression of
+wonder and, with a shrug of his fat shoulders, assumed his wonted air
+of a man of large affairs.
+
+"I can allow you five _pesos oro_ on account of the gold which the
+_Cura_ brought me yesterday," he said severely. "But that leaves you
+still owing ten _pesos_ for your first supplies; and thirty if I give
+you what you ask for now. If you cannot pay this amount when you
+return, you will have to work it out for me."
+
+His little eyes grew steely and cold. Rosendo well knew what the
+threat implied. But he did not falter.
+
+"_Bien, compadre_," he quietly replied, "it will be as you say."
+
+Late that afternoon Juan returned from Bodega Central with a half
+ounce of quinine. He had made the trip with astonishing celerity, and
+had arrived at the riverine town just as a large steamer was docking.
+The purser supplied him with the drug, and he immediately started on
+his return.
+
+The Alcalde set out to deliver the drug to Rosendo; but not finding
+him at home, looked in at the parish house. Jose and Carmen were deep
+in their studies.
+
+"A thousand pardons, _Senor Padre_, but I have the medicine you
+ordered for Rosendo," placing the small package upon the table.
+
+"You may set it down against me, Don Mario," said Jose.
+
+"No!" exclaimed the Alcalde, "this must not be charged to the
+parish!"
+
+"I said to me, _amigo_," replied the priest firmly.
+
+"It is the same thing, Padre!" blurted the petty merchant.
+
+The priest's anger began to rise, but he restrained it. "Padre Diego
+is no longer here, you must remember," he said quietly.
+
+"But the parish pays your debts; and it would not pay the full value
+of this and Juan's trip," was the coarse retort.
+
+"Very well, then, Don Mario," answered Jose. "You may charge it to
+Rosendo. But tell me first how much you will place against him for
+it."
+
+The Alcalde reflected a moment. "The quinine will be five _pesos oro_,
+and Juan's trip three additional. Is it not worth it?" he demanded,
+blustering before Jose's steady gaze. "If Rosendo had been really sick
+it would have saved his life!"
+
+"Then you do not believe he was dangerously ill?" asked Jose with some
+curiosity.
+
+"He couldn't have been really sick and be around to-day--could he?"
+the Alcalde demanded.
+
+The priest glanced at Carmen. She met the look with a smile.
+
+"No," he said slowly, "not _really_ sick." Then he quickly added:
+
+"If you charge Rosendo eight _pesos_ for that bit of quinine, Don
+Mario, you and I are no longer working together, for I do not take
+base advantage of any man's necessities."
+
+The Alcalde became confused. He was going too far. "_Na, Senor
+Padre_," he said hastily, with a sheepish grin. "I will leave the
+quinine with you, and do you settle the account with Juan." With which
+he beat a disordered retreat.
+
+Jose was thankful that, for a few months, at least, he would have a
+powerful hold on this man through his rapacity. What would happen
+when the Alcalde at length learned that Rosendo was not searching for
+Don Ignacio's lost mine, he did not care to conjecture. That matter
+was in other hands than his, and he was glad to leave it there. He
+asked now only to see each single step as he progressed.
+
+"Did Don Mario say that stuff would cure padre Rosendo?" asked Carmen,
+pointing to the quinine.
+
+"Yes, _chiquita_."
+
+"Why did he say so, Padre?"
+
+"Because he really believed it, _carita_."
+
+"But what is it, Padre--and how can it cure sick people?"
+
+"It is the bark of a certain tree, little one, that people take as
+medicine. It is a sort of poison which people take to counteract
+another poison. A great school of medicine is founded upon that
+principle, Carmen," he added. And then he fell to wondering if it
+really was a principle, after all. If so, it was evil overcoming evil.
+But would the world believe that both he and Rosendo had been cured
+by--what? Faith? True prayer? By the operation of a great, almost
+unknown principle? Or would it scoff at such an idea?
+
+But what cared he for that? He saw himself and Rosendo restored, and
+that was enough. He turned to the child. "They think the quinine cures
+fever, little one," he resumed.
+
+"And does it?" The little face wore an anxious look as she put the
+question.
+
+"They think it does, _chiquita_," replied the priest, wondering what
+he should say.
+
+"But it is just because they think so that they get well, isn't it?"
+the girl continued.
+
+"I guess it is, child."
+
+"And if they thought right they would be cured without this--is it not
+so, Padre dear?"
+
+"I am sure of it--now," replied the priest. "In fact, if they always
+kept their thoughts right I am sure they would never be sick."
+
+"You mean, if they always thought about God," the child amended.
+
+"Yes--I mean just that. If they knew, _really knew_, that God is
+everywhere, that He is good, and that He never makes people sick, they
+would always be well."
+
+"Of course, Padre. It is only their bad thoughts that make them sick.
+And even then they are not really sick," the child concluded. "They
+think they are, and they think they die--and then they wake up and
+find it isn't so at all."
+
+Had the child made this remark to him a few weeks before, he had
+crushed it with the dull, lifeless, conventional formulae of human
+belief. To-day in penitent humility he was trying to walk hand in hand
+with her the path she trod. For he was learning from her that
+righteousness is salvation. A few weeks ago he had lain at death's
+door, yearning to pass the portal. Yesterday he believed he had again
+seen the dark angel, hovering over the stricken Rosendo. But in each
+case _something_ had intervened. Perhaps that "something not ourselves
+that makes for righteousness," the unknown, almost unacknowledged
+force that ceases not to combat evil in the human consciousness.
+Clinging to his petty egoisms; hugging close his shabby convictions of
+an evil power opposed to God; stuffed with worldly learning and pride
+of race and intellect, in due season, as he sank under the burden of
+his imaginings, the veil had been drawn aside for a fleeting
+moment--and his soul had frozen with awe at what it beheld!
+
+For, back of the density of the human concept, the fleeting,
+inexplicable medley of good and evil which constitutes the phenomenon
+of mortal existence, _he had seen God_! He had seen Him as all-inclusive
+mind, omnipotent, immanent, perfect, eternal. He had caught a moment's
+glimpse of the tremendous Presence which holds all wisdom, all
+knowledge, yet knows no evil. He had seen a blinding flash of that
+"something" toward which his life had strained and yearned. With it had
+come a dim perception of the falsity of the testimony of physical
+sense, and the human life that is reared upon it. And though he
+counted not himself to have apprehended as yet, he was struggling,
+even with thanksgiving, up out of his bondage, toward the gleam. The
+shafts of error hissed about him, and black doubt and chill despair
+still felled him with their awful blows. But he walked with Carmen. With
+his hand in hers, he knew he was journeying toward God.
+
+On the afternoon before his departure Rosendo entered the parish house
+in apprehension. "I have lost my _escapulario_, Padre!" he exclaimed.
+"The string caught in the brush, and the whole thing was torn from my
+neck. I--I don't like to go back without one," he added dubiously.
+
+"Ah, then you have nothing left but Christ," replied Jose with fine
+irony. "Well, it is of no consequence."
+
+"But, Padre, it had been blessed by the Bishop!"
+
+"Well, don't worry. Why, the Holy Father himself once blessed this
+republic of ours, and now it is about the most unfortunate country in
+the whole world! But you are a good Catholic, Rosendo, so you need not
+fear."
+
+Rosendo was, indeed, a good Catholic. He accepted the faith of his
+fathers without reserve. He had never known any other. Simple,
+superstitious, and great of heart, he held with rigid credulity to
+all that had been taught him in the name of religion. But until Jose's
+advent he had feared and hated priests. Nevertheless, his faith in
+signs and miracles and the healing power of blessed images was
+child-like. Once when he saw in the store of Don Mario a 
+chromo of Venus and Cupid, a cheap print that had come with goods
+imported from abroad, he had devoutly crossed himself, believing it to
+be the Virgin Mary with the Christ-child.
+
+"But I will fix you up, Rosendo," said Jose, noting the man's genuine
+anxiety. "Have Dona Maria cut out a cloth heart and fasten it to a
+stout cord. I will take it to the church altar and bless it before the
+image of the Virgin. You told me once that the Virgin was the Rincon
+family's patron, you know."
+
+"_Bueno!_" ejaculated the pleased Rosendo, as he hastened off to
+execute the commission.
+
+Several times before Rosendo went back to Guamoco Jose had sought to
+draw him into conversation about his illness, and to get his view of
+the probable cause of his rapid recovery. But the old man seemed loath
+to dwell on the topic, and Jose could get little from him. At any
+mention of the episode a troubled look would come over his face, and
+he would fall silent, or would find an excuse to leave the presence of
+the priest.
+
+"Rosendo," Jose abruptly remarked to him as he was busy with his pack
+late the night before his departure, "will you take with you the
+quinine that Juan brought?"
+
+Rosendo looked up quickly. "I can not, Padre."
+
+"And why?"
+
+"On account of Carmen."
+
+"But what has she to do with it, _amigo_?" Jose asked in surprise.
+
+Rosendo looked embarrassed. "I--_Bien_, Padre, I promised her I would
+not."
+
+"When?"
+
+"To-day, Padre."
+
+Jose reflected on the child's unusual request. Then:
+
+"But if you fell sick up in Guamoco, Rosendo, what could you do?"
+
+"_Quien sabe_, Padre! Perhaps I could gather herbs and make a tea--I
+don't know. She didn't say anything about that." He looked at Jose and
+laughed. Then, in an anxious tone:
+
+"Padre, what can I do? The little Carmen asks me not to take the
+quinine, and I can not refuse her. But I may get sick. I--I have
+always taken medicine when I needed it and could get it. But the only
+medicine we have in Simiti is the stuff that some of the women
+make--teas and drinks brewed from roots and bark. I have never seen a
+doctor here, nor any real medicines but quinine. And even that is hard
+to get, as you know. I used to make a salve out of the livers of
+_mapina_ snakes--it was for the rheumatism--I suffered terribly when I
+worked in the cold waters in Guamoco. I think the salve helped me. But
+if I should get the disease now, would Carmen let me make the salve
+again?"
+
+He bent over his outfit for some moments. "She says if I trust God I
+will not get sick," he at length resumed. "She says I must not think
+about it. _Caramba!_ What has that to do with it? People get sick
+whether they think about it or not. Do you believe, Padre, this new
+_escapulario_ will protect me?"
+
+The man's words reflected the strange mixture of mature and childish
+thought typical of these untutored jungle folk, in which longing for
+the good is so heavily overshadowed by an educated belief in the power
+of evil.
+
+"Rosendo," said Jose, finding at last his opportunity, "tell me, do
+you think you were seriously ill day before yesterday?"
+
+"_Quien sabe_, Padre! Perhaps it was only the _terciana_, after all."
+
+"Well, then," pursuing another tack, "do you think I was very sick
+that day when I rushed to the lake--?"
+
+"_Caramba_, Padre! But you were turning cold--you hardly breathed--we
+all thought you must die--all but Carmen!"
+
+"And what cured me, Rosendo?" the priest asked in a low, steady
+voice.
+
+"Why--Padre, I can not say."
+
+"Nor can I, positively, my friend. But I do know that the little
+Carmen said I should not die. And she said the same of you when, as I
+would swear, you were in the fell clutches of the death angel
+himself."
+
+"Padre--" Rosendo's eyes were large, and his voice trembled in awesome
+whisper--"is she--the little Carmen--is she--an _hada_?"
+
+"A witch? _Hombre!_ No!" cried Jose, bursting into a laugh at the
+perturbed features of the older man. "No, _amigo_, she is not an
+_hada_! Let us say, rather, as you first expressed it to me, she is an
+angel--and let us appreciate her as such.
+
+"But," he continued, "I tell you in all seriousness, there are things
+that such as you and I, with our limited outlook, have never dreamed
+of; and that child seems to have penetrated the veil that hides
+spiritual things from the material vision of men like us. Let us wait,
+and if we value that '_something_' which she seems to possess and know
+how to use, let us cut off our right hands before we yield to the
+temptation to place any obstacle in the way of her development along
+the lines which she has chosen, or which some unseen Power has chosen
+for her. It is for you and me, Rosendo, to stand aside and watch,
+while we protect her, if haply we may be privileged some day to learn
+her secret in full. You and I are the unlearned, while she is filled
+with wisdom. The world would say otherwise, and would condemn us as
+fools. Thank God we are out of the world here in Simiti!"
+
+He choked back the inrush of memories and brushed away a tear.
+
+"Rosendo," he concluded, "be advised. If Carmen told you not to think
+of sickness while in Guamoco, then follow her instructions. It is not
+the child, but a mighty Power that is speaking through her. Of that I
+have long been thoroughly convinced. And I am as thoroughly convinced
+that that same Power has appointed you and me her protectors and her
+followers. You and I have a mighty compact--"
+
+"_Hombre!_" interrupted Rosendo, clasping the priest's hand, "my life
+is hers--you know it--she has only to speak, and I obey! Is it not
+so?"
+
+"Assuredly, Rosendo," returned Jose. "And now a final word. Let us
+keep solely to ourselves what we have learned of her. Our plans are
+well formulated. Let us adhere to them in strict silence. I know not
+whither we are being led. But we are in the hands of that 'something'
+that speaks and works through her--and we are satisfied. Are we not?"
+
+They clasped hands again. The next morning Rosendo set his face once
+more toward the emerald hills of Guamoco.
+
+As the days passed, Jose became more silent and thoughtful. But it was
+a silence bred of wonder and reverence, as he dwelt upon the things
+that had been revealed to him. Who and what was this unusual child, so
+human, and yet so strangely removed from the world's plane of thought?
+A child who understood the language of the birds, and heard the grass
+grow--a child whom Torquemada would have burnt as a witch, and yet
+with whom he could not doubt the Christ dwelt.
+
+Jose often studied her features while she bent over her work. He spent
+hours, too, poring over the little locket which had been found among
+her mother's few effects. The portrait of the man was dim and soiled.
+Jose wondered if the poor woman's kisses and tears had blurred it. The
+people of Badillo said she had died with it pressed to her lips. But
+its condition rendered futile all speculation in regard to its
+original. That of the mother, however, was still fresh and clear. Jose
+conjectured that she must have been either wholly Spanish, or one of
+the more refined and cultured women of Colombia. And she had
+doubtless been very young and beautiful when the portrait was made.
+With what dark tragedy was that little locket associated? Would it
+ever yield its secret?
+
+But Carmen's brown curls and light skin--whence came they? Were they
+wholly Latin? Jose had grave doubts. And her keen mind, and deep
+religious instinct? Who knew? He could only be sure that they had come
+from a source far, far above her present lowly environment. With that
+much he must for the present be content.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another month unfolded its length in quiet days, and Rosendo again
+returned. Not ill this time, nor even much exhausted. Nor did the
+little leathern pouch contain more than a few _pesos_ in gold dust.
+But determination was written grim and trenchant upon his black face
+as he strode into the parish house and extended his great hand to the
+priest.
+
+"I have only come for more supplies, Padre," he said. "I have some
+three _pesos_ worth of gold. Most of this I got around Culata, near
+Don Felipe's quartz vein, the Andandodias. _Caramba_, what veins in
+those hills! If we had money to build a mill, and knew how to catch
+the gold, we would not need to wash the river sands that have been
+gone over again and again for hundreds of years!"
+
+But Jose's thoughts were of the Alcalde. He determined to send for him
+at once, while Rosendo was removing the soil of travel.
+
+Don Mario came and estimated the weight of the gold by his hand. Then
+he coolly remarked: "_Bien, Senor Padre_, I will send Rosendo to my
+_hacienda_ to-morrow to cut cane and make _panela_."
+
+"And how is that, Don Mario?" inquired Jose.
+
+The Alcalde began to bluster. "He owes me thirty _pesos oro_, less
+this, if you wish me to keep it. I see no likelihood that he can ever
+repay me. And so he must now work out his debt."
+
+"How long will that take him, _amigo_?"
+
+"_Quien sabe?_ _Senor Padre_," the Alcalde replied, his eyes
+narrowing.
+
+The priest braced himself, and his face assumed an expression that it
+had not worn before he came to Simiti. "Look you now, my friend," he
+began in tones pregnant with meaning. "I have made some inquiries
+regarding your system of peonage. I find that you pay your _peones_
+from twenty to thirty cents a day for their hard labor, and at the
+same time charge them as much a day for food. Or you force them to buy
+from you tobacco and rum at prices which keep them always in your
+debt. Is it not so?"
+
+"_Na_, Padre, you have been misinformed," the Alcalde demurred, with a
+deprecating gesture.
+
+"I have not. Lazaro Ortiz is now working for you on that system. And
+daily he becomes more deeply indebted to you, is it not so?"
+
+"But, Padre--"
+
+"It is useless for you to deny it, Don Mario, for I have facts. Now
+listen to me. Let us understand each other clearly, nor attempt to
+dissimulate. That iniquitous system of peonage has got to cease in my
+parish!"
+
+"_Caramba_, but Padre Diego had _peones_!" the Alcalde exploded.
+
+"And he was a wicked man," added Jose. Then he continued:
+
+"I know not what information you may have from the Bishop regarding
+me, yet this I tell you: I shall report you to Bogota, and I will band
+the citizens of Simiti together to drive you out of town, if you do
+not at once release Lazaro, and put an end to this wicked practice.
+The people will follow if I lead!"
+
+It was a bold stroke, and the priest knew that he was standing upon
+shaky ground. But the man before him was superstitious, untutored and
+child-like. A show of courage, backed by an assertion of authority,
+might produce the desired effect. Moreover, Jose knew that he was in
+the right. And right must prevail!
+
+Don Mario glared at him, while an ugly look spread over his coarse
+features. The priest went on:
+
+"Lazaro has long since worked out his debt, and you shall release him
+at once. As to Rosendo, he must have the supplies he needs to return
+to Guamoco. You understand?"
+
+"_Caramba!_" Don Mario's face was purple with rage. "You think you can
+tell me what to do--me, the Alcalde!" he volleyed. "You think you can
+make us change our customs! _Caramba!_ You are no better than the
+priest Diego, whom you try to make me believe so wicked! _Hombre_, you
+were driven out of Cartagena yourself! A nice sort to be teaching a
+little girl--!"
+
+"Stop, man!" thundered Jose, striding toward him with upraised arm.
+
+Don Mario fell back in his chair and quailed before the mountainous
+wrath of the priest.
+
+A shadow fell across the open doorway. Glancing up, Jose saw Carmen.
+For a moment the girl stood looking in wonder at the angry men. Then
+she went quickly to the priest and slipped a hand into his. A feeling
+of shame swept over him, and he went back to his chair. Carmen leaned
+against him, but she appeared to be confused. Silence fell upon them
+all.
+
+"Cucumbra doesn't fight any more, Padre," the girl at length began in
+hesitation. "He and the puppy play together all the time now. He has
+learned a lot, and now he loves the puppy."
+
+So had the priest learned much. He recalled the lesson. "_Bien_," he
+said in soft tones, "I think we became a bit too earnest, Don Mario.
+We are good friends, is it not so? And we are working together for the
+good of Simiti. But to have good come to us, we must do good to
+others."
+
+He went to his trunk and took out a wallet. "Here are twenty _pesos_,
+Don Mario." It was all he had in the world, but he did not tell the
+Alcalde so. "Take them on Rosendo's account. Let him have the new
+supplies he needs, and I will be his surety. And, friend, you are
+going to let me prove to you with time that the report you have from
+Cartagena regarding me is false."
+
+Don Mario's features relaxed somewhat when his hand closed over the
+grimy bills.
+
+"Do not forget, _amigo_," added Jose, assuming an air of mystery as he
+pursued the advantage, "that you and I are associated in various
+business matters, is it not so?"
+
+The Alcalde's mouth twitched, but finally extended in an unctuous
+grin. After all, the priest was a descendant of the famous Don
+Ignacio, and--who knew?--he might have resources of which the Alcalde
+little dreamed.
+
+"_Cierto, Padre!_" he cried, rising to depart. "And we will yet
+uncover La Libertad! You guarantee Rosendo's debt? _Bien_, he shall
+have the supplies. But I think he should take another man with him.
+Lazaro might do, no?"
+
+It was a gracious and unlooked for condescension.
+
+"Send Lazaro to me, Don Mario," said Jose. "We will find use for him,
+I think."
+
+And thus Rosendo was enabled to depart a third time to the solitudes
+of Guamoco.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 14
+
+
+With Rosendo again on the trail, Jose and Carmen bent once more to
+their work. Within a few days the grateful Lazaro was sent to
+Rosendo's _hacienda_, biding the time when the priest should have a
+larger commission to bestow upon him. With the advent of the dry
+season, peace settled over the sequestered town, while its artless
+folk drowsed away the long, hot days and danced at night in the
+silvery moonlight to the twang of the guitar and the drone of the
+amorous canzonet. Jose was deeply grateful for these days of unbroken
+quiet, and for the opportunity they afforded him to probe the child's
+thought and develop his own. Day after day he taught her. Night after
+night he visited the members of his little parish, getting better
+acquainted with them, administering to their simple needs, talking to
+them in the church edifice on the marvels of the outside world, and
+then returning to his little cottage to prepare by the feeble rays of
+his flickering candle Carmen's lessons for the following day. He had
+no texts, save the battered little arithmetic; and even that was
+abandoned as soon as Carmen had mastered the decimal system.
+Thereafter he wrote out each lesson for her, carefully wording it that
+it might contain nothing to shock her acute sense of the allness of
+God, and omitting from the vocabulary every reference to evil, to
+failure, disaster, sin and death. In mathematics he was sure of his
+ground, for there he dealt wholly with the metaphysical. But history
+caused him many an hour of perplexity in his efforts to purge it of
+the dross of human thought. If Carmen were some day to go out into the
+world she _must_ know the story of its past. And yet, as Jose faced
+her in the classroom and looked down into her unfathomable eyes, in
+whose liquid depths there seemed to dwell a soul of unexampled purity,
+he could not bring himself even to mention the sordid events in the
+development of the human race which manifested the darker elements of
+the carnal mind. Perhaps, after all, she might never go out into the
+world. He had not the faintest idea how such a thing could be
+accomplished. And so under his tutelage the child grew to know a world
+of naught but brightness and beauty, where love and happiness dwelt
+ever with men, and wicked thoughts were seen as powerless and
+transient, harmless to the one who knew God to be "everywhere." The
+man taught the child with the sad remembrance of his own seminary
+training always before him, and with a desire, amounting almost to
+frenzy, to keep from her every limiting influence and benumbing belief
+of the carnal mind.
+
+The decimal system mastered, Carmen was inducted into the elements of
+algebra.
+
+"How funny," she exclaimed, laughing, "to use letters for numbers!"
+
+"They are only general symbols, little one," he explained. "Symbols
+are signs, or things that stand for other things."
+
+Then came suddenly into his mind how the great Apostle Paul taught
+that the things we see, or think we see, are themselves but symbols,
+reflections as from a mirror, and how we must make them out as best
+we can for the present, knowing that, in due season, we shall see the
+realities for which these things stand to the human mind. He knew that
+back of the mathematical symbols stood the eternal, unvarying,
+indestructible principles which govern their use. And he had begun to
+see that back of the symbols, the phenomena, of human existence stands
+the great principle--infinite God--the eternal mind. In the realm of
+mathematics the principles are omnipotent for the solution of
+problems--omnipotent in the hands of the one who understands and uses
+them aright. And is not God the omnipotent principle to the one who
+understands and uses Him aright in the solving of life's intricate
+problems?
+
+"They are so easy when you know how, Padre dear," said Carmen,
+referring to her tasks.
+
+"But there will be harder ones, _chiquita_."
+
+"Yes, Padre. But then I shall know more about the rules that you call
+principles."
+
+She took up each problem with confidence. Jose watched her eagerly.
+"You do not know what the answer will be, _chiquita_," he ventured.
+
+"No, Padre dear. But I don't care. If I use the rule in the right way
+I shall get the correct answer, shall I not? Look!" she cried
+joyfully, as she held up her paper with the completed solution of a
+problem.
+
+"But how do you know that it is correct?" he queried.
+
+"Why--well, we can prove it--can't we?" She looked up at him
+questioningly. Then she bent again over her task and worked
+assiduously for some moments in silence.
+
+"There! I worked it back again to the starting point. And it is
+right."
+
+"And in proving it, little one, you have proved the principle and
+established its correctness. Is it not so, _chiquita_?"
+
+"Yes, Padre, it shows that the rule is right."
+
+The child lapsed into silence, while Jose, as was becoming his wont,
+awaited the result of her meditation. Then:
+
+"Padre dear, there are rules for arithmetic, and algebra, and--and for
+everything, are there not?"
+
+"Yes, child, for music, for art, for everything. We can do nothing
+correctly without using principles."
+
+"And, Padre, there are principles that tell us how to live?" she
+queried.
+
+"What is your opinion on that point, _queridita_?"
+
+"Just _one_ principle, I guess, Padre dear," she finally ventured,
+after a pause.
+
+"And that, little one?"
+
+"Just God."
+
+"And God is--?" Jose began, then hesitated. The Apostle John had dwelt
+with the Master. What had he urged so often upon the dull ears of his
+timid followers?
+
+The child looked up at the priest with a smile whose tenderness
+dissolved the rising clouds of doubt.
+
+"And God is--love," he finished softly.
+
+"That's it, Padre!" The child clapped her little hands and laughed
+aloud.
+
+Love! Jesus had said, "I and my Father are one." Having seen him, the
+world has seen the Father. But Jesus was the highest manifestation of
+love that tired humanity has ever known. "Love God!" he had cried in
+tones that have echoed through the centuries. "Love thy neighbor!"
+Aye, love everything, everybody! Apply the Principle of principles,
+Love, to every task, every problem, every situation, every condition!
+For what is the Christ-principle but Love? All things are possible to
+him who loves, for Love casteth out fear, the root of every discord.
+Men ask why God remains hidden from them, why their understanding of
+Him is dim. They forget that God is Love. They forget that to know Him
+they must first love their fellow-men. And so the world goes
+sorrowfully on, hating, cheating, grasping, abusing; still wondering
+dully why men droop and stumble, why they consume with disease, and,
+with the despairing conviction that God is unknowable, sinking at last
+into oblivion.
+
+Jose, if he knew aught, knew that Carmen greatly loved--loved all
+things deeply and tenderly as reflections of her immanent God. She had
+loved the hideous monster that had crept toward her as she sat
+unguarded on the lake's rim. Unguarded? Not so, for the arms of Love
+were there about her. She had loved God--good--with unshaken fealty
+when Rosendo lay stricken. She had known that Love could not manifest
+in death when he himself had been dragged from the lake that burning
+afternoon a few weeks before.
+
+"God is the rule, isn't He, Padre dear?" The child's unexampled eyes
+glowed like burning coals. "And we can prove Him, too," she continued
+confidently.
+
+_Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open
+you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there
+shall not be room enough to receive it._
+
+Prove Him, O man, that He is Love, and that Love, casting out hate and
+fear, solves life's every problem! But first--_Bring ye all the tithes
+into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house._ Bring your
+whole confidence, your trust, your knowledge of the allness of good,
+and the nothingness of evil. Bring, too, your every earthly hope,
+every mad ambition, every corroding fear, and carnal belief; lay them
+down at the doorway of mine storehouse, and behold their nothingness!
+
+As Carmen approached her simple algebraic problems Jose saw the
+working of a rule infinite in its adaptation. She knew not what the
+answers should be, yet she took up each problem with supreme
+confidence, knowing that she possessed and rightly understood the rule
+for correctly solving it. She knew that speculation regarding the
+probable results was an idle waste of time. And she likewise knew
+instinctively that fear of inability to solve them would paralyze her
+efforts and insure defeat at the outset.
+
+Nor could she force solutions to correspond to what she might think
+they ought to be--as mankind attempt to force the solving of their
+life problems to correspond to human views. She was glad to work out
+her problems in the only way they could be solved. Love, humility,
+obedience, enabled her to understand and correctly apply the principle
+to her tasks. The results were invariable--harmony and exceeding joy.
+
+Jose had learned another lesson. Again that little hand had softly
+swept his harp of life. And again he breathed in unison with its
+vibrating chords a deep "Thank God!"
+
+"Padre dear." Carmen looked up from a brown study. "What does zero
+really mean?"
+
+"It stands for nothing, child," the priest made reply, wondering what
+was to follow this introduction.
+
+"And the minus sign in algebra is different from the one in
+arithmetic. What does it mean?"
+
+"Less than nothing."
+
+"But, Padre, if God is all, how can you say there is nothing, or less
+than nothing?"
+
+The priest had his answer ready. "They are only human ways of
+thinking, _chiquita_. The plus sign always represents something
+positive; the minus, something negative. The one is the opposite of
+the other."
+
+"Is there an opposite to everything, Padre?"
+
+The priest hesitated. Then:
+
+"No, _chiquita_--not a _real_ opposite. But," he added hastily, "we
+may suppose an opposite to everything."
+
+A moment's pause ensued. "That is what makes people sick and unhappy,
+isn't it, Padre?"
+
+"What, child?" in unfeigned surprise.
+
+"Supposing an opposite to God. Supposing that there can be nothing,
+when He is everywhere. Doesn't all trouble come from just supposing
+things that are not so?"
+
+Whence came such questions to the mind of this child? And why did they
+invariably lead to astonishing deductions in his own? Why did he
+often give a great start as it dawned again upon him that he was not
+talking to one of mature age, but to a babe?
+
+He tore a strip from the paper in his hand. Relatively the paper had
+lost in size and quantity, and there was a distinct separation.
+Absolutely, such a thing was an impossibility. The plus was always
+positive and real; the minus was always relative, and stood for
+unreality. And so it was throughout the entire realm of thought.
+_Every real thing has its suppositional opposite._ The difficulty is
+that the human mind, through long ages of usage, has come to regard
+the opposite as just as real as the thing itself. The opposite of love
+is hate; of health, disease; of good, evil; of the real, the
+counterfeit. God is positive--Truth. His opposite, the negative, is
+supposition. Oh, stupid, blundering, dull-eared humanity, not to have
+realized that this was just what Jesus said when he defined evil as
+the lie about God! No wonder the prophet proclaimed salvation to be
+righteousness, right thinking! But would gross humanity have
+understood the Master better if he had defined it this way? No, they
+would have stoned him on the spot!
+
+Jose knew that when both he and Rosendo lay sick unto death Carmen's
+thought had been positive, while theirs had been of the opposite sign.
+Was her pure thought stronger than their disbelief? Evidently so. Was
+this the case with Jesus? And with the prophets before him, whom the
+world laughed to scorn? The inference from Scripture is plain. What,
+then, is the overcoming of evil but the driving out of entrenched
+human beliefs?
+
+Again Jose came back to the thought of Principle. Confucius had said
+that heaven was principle. And heaven is harmony. But had evil any
+principle? Mankind are accustomed to speak lightly and knowingly of
+their "principles." But in their search for the Philosopher's Stone
+they have overlooked the Principle which the Master used to effect his
+mighty works--"that Mind which was in Christ Jesus." The Principle of
+Jesus was God. And, again, God is Love.
+
+The word evil is a comprehensive term, including errors of every sort.
+And yet, in the world's huge category of evils is there a single one
+that stands upon a definite principle? Jose had to admit to himself
+that there was not. Errors in mathematics result from ignorance of
+principles, or from their misapplication. But are the errors real and
+permanent?
+
+"Padre, when I make a mistake, and then go back and do the problem
+over and get it right, what becomes of the mistake?"
+
+Jose burst out laughing at the tremendous question. Carmen joined in
+heartily.
+
+"But, Padre," she pursued, "there are rules for solving problems; but
+there isn't any rule or principle for making mistakes, is there?"
+
+"Surely not, child!" Jose replied.
+
+"And if I always knew the truth about things, I couldn't make
+mistakes, could I?"
+
+"No."
+
+Jose waited for her further comments. They came after a brief
+meditation.
+
+"Well, then, God doesn't know anything about mistakes--does He?"
+
+"No, _chiquita_."
+
+"And He knows everything."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then, Padre dear, nobody can know anything about mistakes. People
+just think they can--don't they?"
+
+Jose thought hard for a few moments. "_Chiquita_, can you know that
+two and two are seven?"
+
+"Why, Padre dear, how funny!"
+
+"Yes--it does seem strange--now. And yet, I used to think I could know
+things just as absurd."
+
+"Why, what was that, Padre?"
+
+"I thought, _chiquita_, that I could know evil--something that God
+does not and can not know."
+
+"But--could you, Padre?"
+
+"No, child. It is absolutely impossible to know--to really _know_--error
+of any sort."
+
+"If we knew it, Padre, it would have a rule; or as you say, a
+principle, no?"
+
+"Exactly, child."
+
+"And, since God is everywhere, He would have to be its principle."
+
+"Just the point. Now take another of the problems, _chiquita_, and
+work on it while I think about these things," he said, assigning
+another of the simple tasks to the child.
+
+For an idea was running through the man's thought, and he had traced
+it back to the explorer in Cartagena. Reason and logic supported the
+thought of God as mind; of the creation as the unfolding of this
+mind's ideas; and of man as the greatest idea of God. It also seemed
+to show that the physical senses afforded no testimony at all, and
+that human beings saw, heard and felt only in thought, in belief. On
+this basis everything reduced to a mental plane, and man became a
+mentality. But what sort of mentality was that which Jose saw all
+about him in sinful, sick and dying humanity? The human man is
+demonstrably mortal--and he is a sort of mind--ah, yes, that was it!
+The explorer had said that up in that great country north there were
+those who referred to this sort of mentality as "mortal mind." Jose
+thought it an excellent term. For, if the mortal man is a mind at all,
+he assuredly is a _mortal_ mind.
+
+And the mortal mind is the opposite of that mind which is the eternal
+God. But God can have no real opposite. Any so-called opposite to Him
+must be a supposition--or, as Jesus defined it, the lie about Him.
+This lie seems to counterfeit the eternal mind that is God. It seems
+to pose as a creative principle, and to simulate the powers and
+attributes of God himself. It assumes to create its universe of
+matter, the direct opposite of the spiritual universe. And, likewise,
+it assumes to create its man, its own idea of itself, and hence the
+direct opposite of the real man, the divine idea of God, made in His
+own image and likeness.
+
+Jose rose and went to the doorway. "Surely," he murmured low, "the
+material personality, called man, which sins, suffers and dies, is not
+real man, but his counterfeit, a creation of God's opposite, the
+so-called mortal mind. It must be a part of the lie about God, the
+'mist' that went up from the ground and watered the whole face of the
+earth, leaving the veil of supposition which obscures God from human
+sight. It is this sort of man and this sort of universe that I have
+always seen about me, and that the world refers to as human beings, or
+mortals, and the physical universe. And yet I have been looking only
+at my false thoughts of man."
+
+At that moment he caught sight of Juan running toward him from the
+lake. The lad had just returned from Bodega Central.
+
+"Padre," he exclaimed breathlessly, "there is war in the country
+again! The revolution has broken out, and they are fighting all along
+the river!"
+
+Jose turned into the house and clasped Carmen in his arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 15
+
+
+Juan's startling announcement linked Jose again with a fading past.
+Standing with his arm about Carmen, while the child looked up
+wonderingly at her grimly silent protector, the priest seemed to have
+fallen with dizzy precipitation from some spiritual height into a
+familiar material world of men and events. Into his chastened
+mentality there now rushed a rabble rout of suggestions, throwing into
+wild confusion the orderly forces of mind which he was striving to
+marshal to meet the situation. He recalled, for the first time in his
+new environment, the significant conversation of Don Jorge and the
+priest Diego, in Banco. He saw again the dark clouds that were
+lowering above the unhappy country when he left Cartagena. Had they at
+last broken? And would carnal lust and rapine again drench fair
+Colombia with the blood of her misguided sons? Were the disturbance
+only a local uprising, headed by a coterie of selfish politicians, it
+would produce but a passing ripple. Colombia had witnessed many such,
+and had, by a judicious redistribution of public offices, generally
+met the crises with little difficulty. On the other hand, if the
+disorder drew its stimulus from the deep-seated, swelling sentiment of
+protest against the continued affiliation of Church and State, then
+what might not ensue before reason would again lay her restraining
+hand upon the rent nation! For--strange anomaly--no strife is so
+venomous, no wars so bloody, no issues so steeped in deadliest hatred,
+as those which break forth in the name of the humble Christ.
+
+A buzzing concourse was gathering in the _plaza_ before the church.
+Leaving Carmen in charge of Dona Maria, Jose mingled with the excited
+people. Juan had brought no definite information, other than that
+already imparted to Jose, but his elastic Latin imagination had
+supplied all lacking essentials, and now, with much gesticulation and
+rolling of eyes, with frequent alternations of shrill chatter and
+dignified pomp of phrase, he was portraying in a _melange_ of
+picturesque and poetic Spanish the supposed happenings along the great
+river.
+
+Jose forced the lad gently aside and addressed the thoroughly excited
+people himself, assuring them that no reliable news was as yet at
+hand, and bidding them assemble in the church after the evening meal,
+where he would advise with them regarding their future course. He then
+sought the Alcalde, and drew him into his store, first closing the
+door against the excited multitude.
+
+"_Bien, Senor Padre_, what are you going to do?" The Alcalde was
+atremble with insuppressible excitement.
+
+"Don Mario, we must protect Simiti," replied the priest, with a show
+of calm which he did not possess.
+
+"_Caramba_, but not a man will stay! They will run to the hills! The
+_guerrillas_ will come, and Simiti will be burned to the ground!"
+
+"Will you stay--with me?"
+
+"_Na_, and be hacked by the _machetes_ of the _guerrillas_, or lassoed
+by government soldiers and dragged off to the war?" The official
+mopped the damp from his purple brow.
+
+"_Caramba!_" he went on. "But the Antioquanians will come down the
+Simiti trail from Remedios and butcher every one they meet! They
+hate us Simitanians, since we whipped them in the revolution of
+seventy-six! And--_Diablo_! if we stay here and beat them back,
+then the federal troops will come with their ropes and chains and
+force us away to fight on their side! _Nombre de Dios!_ I am for the
+mountains--_pronto_!"
+
+Jose's own fear mounted by leaps. And yet, in the welter of
+conflicting thought two objects stood out above the rest--Carmen and
+Rosendo. The latter was on the trail, somewhere. Would he fall afoul
+of the bandits who find in these revolutions their opportunities for
+plunder and bloodshed? As for Carmen--the priest's apprehensions were
+piling mountain-high. He had quickly forgotten his recent theories
+regarding the nature of God and man. He had been swept by the force of
+ill tidings clean off the lofty spiritual plane up to which he had
+struggled during the past weeks. Again he was befouled in the mire of
+material fears and corroding speculations as to the probable
+manifestations of evil, real and immanent. Don Mario was right. He
+must take the child and fly at once. He would go to Dona Maria
+immediately and bid her prepare for the journey.
+
+"You had best go to Don Nicolas," replied Dona Maria, when the priest
+had voiced his fears to her. "He lives in Boque, and has a _hacienda_
+somewhere up that river. He will send you there in his canoe."
+
+"And Boque is--?"
+
+"Three hours from Simiti, across the shales. You must start with the
+dawn, or the heat will overtake you before you arrive."
+
+"Then make yourself ready, Dona Maria," said Jose in relief, "and we
+will set out in the morning."
+
+"Padre, I will stay here," the woman quietly replied.
+
+"Stay here!" ejaculated the priest. "Impossible! But why?"
+
+"There will be many women too old to leave the town, Padre. I will
+stay to help them if trouble comes. And I would not go without
+Rosendo."
+
+Shame fell upon the priest like a blanket. He, the _Cura_, was
+deserting his charge! And this quiet, dignified woman had shown
+herself stronger than the man of God! He turned to the door. Carmen
+was just entering. He took the child by the hand and led her to his
+own cottage.
+
+"Carmen," he said, as she stood expectantly before him, "we--there is
+trouble in the country--that is, men are fighting and killing down on
+the river--and they may come here. We must--I mean, I think it best
+for us to go away from Simiti for a while." The priest's eyes fell
+before the perplexed gaze of the girl.
+
+"Go away?" she repeated slowly. "But, Padre--why?"
+
+"The soldiers might come--wicked men might come and harm you,
+_chiquita_!"
+
+The child seemed not to comprehend. "Is it that you think they will,
+Padre?" she at length spoke.
+
+"I fear so, little one," he made reply.
+
+"But--why should they?"
+
+"Because they want to steal and kill," he returned sadly.
+
+"They can't, Padre--they can't!" the girl said quickly. "You told me
+that people see only their thoughts, you know. They only think they
+want to steal--and they don't think right--"
+
+"But," he interrupted bitterly, "that doesn't keep them from coming
+here just the same and--and--" He checked his words, as a faint memory
+of his recent talks with the girl glowed momentarily in his seething
+brain.
+
+"But we can keep them from coming here, Padre--can't we?"
+
+"How, child?"
+
+"By thinking right ourselves, Padre--you said so, days ago--don't you
+remember?" The girl came to the frightened man and put her little arm
+about his neck. It was an action that had become habitual with her.
+"Padre dear, you read me something from your Bible just yesterday. It
+was about God, and He said, 'I am that which was, and is, and is to
+come.' Don't you remember? But, Padre dear, if He is that which is to
+come, how can anything bad come?"
+
+O, ye of little faith! Could ye not watch one hour with me--the
+Christ-principle? Must ye ever flee when the ghost of evil stalks
+before you with his gross assumptions?
+
+Yes, Jose remembered. But he had said those things to her and evolved
+those beautiful theories in a time of peace. Now his feeble faith was
+flying in panic before the demon of unbelief, which had been aroused
+by sudden fear.
+
+The villagers were gathering before his door like frightened sheep.
+They sought counsel, protection, from him, the unfaithful shepherd.
+Could he not, for their sakes, tear himself loose from bondage to his
+own deeply rooted beliefs, and launch out into his true orbit about
+God? Was life, happiness, all, at the disposal of physical sense? Did
+he not love these people? And could not his love for them cast out his
+fear? If the test had come, would he meet it, calmly, even alone with
+his God, if need be?--or would he basely flee? He was not alone.
+Carmen stood by him. She had no part in his cowardice. But Carmen--she
+was only a child, immature, inexperienced in the ways of the world!
+True. Yet the great God himself had caused His prophets to see that "a
+little child shall lead them." And surely Carmen was now leading in
+fearlessness and calm trust, in the face of impending evil.
+
+Jose rose from his chair and threw back his shoulders. He stepped
+quickly to the door. "My children," he said gently, holding out his
+arms over them. "Be not afraid. I shall not leave Simiti, but
+remain here to help and protect all who will stay with me. If the
+_guerrillas_ or soldiers come we will meet them here, where we shall
+be protecting our loved ones and our homes. Come to the church
+to-night, and there we will discuss plans. Go now, and remember
+that your _Cura_ has said that there shall no harm befall you."
+
+Did he believe his own words? He wondered.
+
+The people dispersed; Carmen was called by Dona Maria; and Jose
+dropped down upon his bed to strive again to clear his mind of the
+foul brood which had swept so suddenly into it, and to prepare for the
+evening meeting.
+
+Late that night, as he crossed the road from the church to his
+little home, his pulse beat rapidly under the stimulus of real joy. He
+had conquered his own and the fears of the Alcalde, and that
+official had at length promised to stay and support him. The
+people's fears of impressment into military service had been calmly
+met and assuaged, though Jose had yielded to their wish to form a
+company of militia; and had even agreed to drill them, as he had
+seen the troops of Europe drilled and prepared for conflict. There
+were neither guns nor ammunition in the town, but they could drill
+with their _machetes_--for, he repeated to himself, this was but a
+concession, an expedient, to keep the men occupied and their minds
+stimulated by his own show of courage and preparedness. It was
+decided to send Lazaro Ortiz at once into the Guamoco district, to
+find and warn Rosendo; while Juan was to go to Bodega Central for
+whatever news he might gather, and to return with immediate warning,
+should danger threaten their town. Similar instruction was to be
+sent to Escolastico, at Badillo. Within a few days a runner should be
+despatched over the Guamoco trail, to spread the information as
+judiciously as possible that the people of Simiti were armed and
+on the alert to meet any incursion from _guerrilla_ bands. The ripple
+of excitement quickly died away. The priest would now strive
+mightily to keep his own thought clear and his courage alive, to
+sustain his people in whatever experience might befall them.
+
+Quiet reigned in the little village the next morning, and its people
+went about their familiar duties with but a passing thought of the
+events of the preceding day. The Alcalde called at the parish house
+early for further instructions in regard to the proposed company of
+militia. The priest decided to drill his men twice a day, at the
+rising and setting of the sun. Carmen's lessons were then resumed, and
+soon Jose was again laboring conscientiously to imbibe the spirit of
+calm trust which dwelt in this young girl.
+
+The Master's keynote before every threatening evil was, "Be not
+afraid." Carmen's life-motif was, "_God is everywhere._" Jose strove
+to see that the Christ-principle was eternal, and as available to
+mankind now as when the great Exemplar propounded it to the dull ears
+of his followers. But men must learn how to use it. When they have
+done this, Christianity will be as scientific and demonstrable to
+mankind as is now the science of mathematics. A rule, though
+understood, is utterly ineffective if not applied. Yet, how to apply
+the Christ-principle? is the question convulsing a world to-day.
+
+God, the infinite creative mind, is that principle. Jesus showed
+clearly--so clearly that the wonder is men could have missed the mark
+so completely--that the great principle becomes available only when
+men empty their minds of pride, selfishness, ignorance, and human
+will, and put in their place love, humility and truth. This step
+taken, there will flow into the human consciousness the qualities of
+God himself, giving powers that mortals believe utterly impossible to
+them. But hatred must go; self-love, too; carnal ambition must go; and
+fear--the cornerstone of every towering structure of mortal
+misery--must be utterly cast out by an understanding of the allness of
+the Mind that framed the spiritual universe.
+
+Jose, looking at Carmen as she sat before him, tried to know that love
+was the salvation, the righteousness, right-thinking, by which alone
+the sons of men could be redeemed. The world would give such utterance
+the lie, he knew. To love an enemy is weakness! The sons of earth must
+be warriors, and valiantly fight! Alas! the tired old world has fought
+for ages untold, and gained--nothing. Did Jesus fight? Not as the
+world. He had a better way. He loved his enemies with a love that
+understood the allness of God, and the consequent nothingness of the
+human concept. Knowing the concept of man as mortal to be an illusion,
+Jesus then knew that he had no enemies.
+
+The work-day closed, and Carmen was about to leave. A shadow fell
+across the open doorway. Jose looked up. A man, dressed in clerical
+garb, stood looking in, his eyes fixed upon Carmen. Jose's heart
+stopped, and he sat as one stunned. The man was Padre Diego Polo.
+
+"Ah, brother in Christ!" the newcomer cried, advancing with
+outstretched hands. "Well met, indeed! I ached to think I might not
+find you here! But--_Caramba_! can this be my little Carmen, from
+whom I tore myself in tears four years ago and more? _Diablo!_ but she
+has grown to be a charming _senorita_ already." He bent over and
+kissed the child loudly upon each cheek.
+
+Jose with difficulty restrained himself from pouncing upon the man as
+he watched him pass his fat hands over the girl's bare arms and feast
+his lecherous eyes upon her round figure and plump limbs. The child
+shrank under the withering touch. Freeing herself, she ran from the
+room, followed by a taunting laugh from Diego.
+
+"_Caramba!_" he exclaimed, sinking into the chair vacated by the girl.
+"But I had the devil's own trouble getting here! And I find everything
+quiet as a funeral in this sink of a town, just as if hell were not
+spewing fire down on the river! _Dios!_ But give me a bit of rum,
+_amigo_. My spirits droop like the torn wing of a heron."
+
+Jose slowly found his voice. "I have no rum. I regret exceedingly,
+friend. But doubtless the Alcalde can supply you. Have you seen him?"
+
+"_Hombre!_ With what do you quench your thirst?" ejaculated the
+disappointed priest. "Lake water?" Then he added with a fatuous grin:
+
+"No, I have not yet honored the Alcalde with a call. Anxious care
+drove me straight from the boat to you; for with you, a brother
+priest, I knew I would find hospitality and protection."
+
+Jose sat speechless. After a few moments, during which he fanned
+himself vigorously with his black felt hat, Diego continued volubly:
+
+"You are consumed to know what brings me here, eh? _Bien_, I will
+anticipate your questions. The country is on fire around Banco.
+And--you know they do not love priests down that way--well, I saw that
+it had come around to my move. I therefore got out--quickly. H'm!
+
+"But," he continued, "luckily I had screwed plenty of Masses out of
+the Banco sheep this past year, and my treasure box was comfortably
+full. _Bueno_, I hired a canoe and a couple of strapping _peones_, who
+brought me by night, and by damnably slow degrees, up the river to
+Bodega Central. As luck would have it, I chanced to be there the day
+Juan arrived from Simiti. So I straightway caused inquiry to be made
+of him respecting the present whereabouts of our esteemed friend, Don
+Rosendo. Learning that my worthy brother was prospecting for La
+Libertad, it occurred to me that this decaying town might afford me
+the asylum I needed until I could make the necessary preparations to
+get up into the mountains. _Caramba!_ but I shall not stay where a
+stray bullet or a badly directed _machete_ may terminate my noble
+life-aspirations!"
+
+Jose groaned inwardly. "But, how dared you come to Simiti?" he
+exclaimed. "You were once forced to leave this town--!"
+
+"Assuredly, _amigo_," Diego replied with great coolness. "And I would
+not risk my tender skin again had I not believed that you were here to
+shield me. My only safety lies in making the mountains. Their most
+accessible point is by way of Simiti. From here I can go to the San
+Lucas country; eventually get back to the Guamoco trail; and
+ultimately land in Remedios, or some other town farther south, where
+the anticlerical sentiment is not so cursedly strong. I have money and
+two <DW64> boys. The boat I shall have to leave here in your care.
+_Bien_, learning that Rosendo, my principal annoyance and obstruction,
+was absent, and that you, my friend, were here, I decided to brave the
+wrath of the simple denizens of this hole, and spend a day or two as
+guest of yourself and my good friend, the Alcalde, before journeying
+farther. Thus you have it all, in _parvo_. But, _Dios y diablo_! that
+trip up the river has nearly done for me! We traveled by night and hid
+in the brush by day, where millions of gnats and mosquitoes literally
+devoured me! _Caramba!_ and you so inhospitable as to have no rum!"
+
+The garrulous priest paused for breath. Then he resumed:
+
+"A voluptuous little wench, that Carmen! Keeping her for yourself, eh?
+But you will have to give her up. Belongs to the Church, you know. But
+don't let our worthy Don Wenceslas hear of her good looks, for he'd
+pop her into a convent _presto_! And later he--_Bien_, you had better
+get rid of her before she makes you trouble. I'll take her off your
+hands myself, even though I shall be traveling for the next few
+months. But, say," changing the subject abruptly, "Don Wenceslas
+sprung his trap too soon, eh?"
+
+"I don't follow you," said Jose, consuming with indignation over the
+priest's coarse talk.
+
+"_Diablo!_ he pulls a revolution before it is ripe. Is anything more
+absurd! It begins as he intended, anticlerical; and so it will run for
+a while. But after that--_Bien_, you will see it reverse itself and
+turn solely political, with the present Government on top at the last,
+and the end a matter of less than six weeks."
+
+"Do you think so?" asked Jose, eagerly grasping at a new hope.
+
+"I know it!" ejaculated Diego. "_Hombre!_ But I have been too close to
+matters religious and political in this country all my life not to
+know that Don Wenceslas has this time committed the blunder of being
+a bit too eager. Had he waited a few months longer, and then pulled
+the string--_Dios y diablo_! there would have been such a fracas as to
+turn the Cordilleras bottom up! Now all that is set back for
+years--_Quien sabe_?"
+
+"But," queried the puzzled Jose, "how could Wenceslas, a priest,
+profit by an anticlerical war?"
+
+"_Caramba, amigo!_ But the good Wenceslas is priest only in name! He
+is a politician, bred to the game. He lays his plans with the
+anticlericals, knowing full well that Church and State can not be
+separated in this land of mutton-headed _peones_. _Bueno_, the clever
+man precipitates a revolution that can have but one result, the closer
+union of Rome and the Colombian Government. And for this he receives
+the direction of the See of Cartagena and the disposition of the rich
+revenues from the mines and _fincas_ of his diocese. Do you get me?"
+
+"And, _amigo_, how long will this disturbance continue?" said Jose,
+speaking earnestly.
+
+"I have told you, a few weeks at the most," replied Diego with a show
+of petulance. "But, just the same, as agent of your friend Wenceslas,
+I have been a mite too active along the river, especially in the town
+of Banco, to find safety anywhere within the pale of civilization
+until this little fracas blows over. This one being an abortion, the
+next revolution can come only after several years of most painstaking
+preparation. But, mark me, _amigo_, that one will not miscarry, nor
+will it be less than a scourge of the Lord!"
+
+Despite the sordidness of the man, Jose was profoundly grateful to him
+for this information. And there could be no doubt of its authenticity,
+coming as it did from a tool of Wenceslas himself. Jose became
+cheerful, even animated.
+
+"Good, then! Now when do you expect to set out for San Lucas?" he
+asked. "Rosendo may return any day."
+
+"_Diablo!_ Then I must be off at once!"
+
+"To-morrow?" suggested Jose eagerly.
+
+"_Caramba, hermano!_ Why so desirous of my departure? To be sure,
+to-morrow, if possible. But I must have a chat with our good friend,
+the Alcalde. So do me the inexpressible favor to accompany me to his
+door, and there leave me. My _peones_ are down at the boat, and I
+would rather not face the people of Simiti alone."
+
+"Gladly," assented Jose.
+
+The man rose to depart. At that moment Dona Maria appeared at the door
+bearing a tray with Jose's supper. She stopped short as she recognized
+Diego.
+
+"Ah, _Senora Dona Maria_!" exclaimed Diego, bowing low. "I kiss your
+hand."
+
+The woman looked inquiringly from Diego to Jose. Without a word she
+set the tray on the table and quickly departed.
+
+"H'm, _amigo_, I think it well to visit the Alcalde at once," murmured
+Diego. "I regret that I bring the amiable senora no greeting from her
+charming daughter. _Ay de mi!_" he sighed, picking up his hat. "The
+conventions of this world are so narrow!"
+
+Don Mario exclaimed loudly when he beheld the familiar figure of Padre
+Diego. Recovering from his astonishment he broke into a loud guffaw
+and clapped the grinning priest heartily upon the back.
+
+"_Caramba_, man! But I admire you at last! I can forgive all your
+wickedness at sight of such nerve! Ramona!" calling to his daughter in
+the _patio_. "That last _garrafon_ and some glasses! But enter, enter,
+senores! Why stand you there? My poor hovel is yours!" stepping aside
+and ceremoniously waving them in.
+
+"Our friend finds that his supper awaits him," said Diego, laying a
+hand patronizingly upon Jose's arm. "But I will eat with you, my good
+Don Mario, and occupy a _petate_ on your floor to-night. _Conque_,
+until later, Don Jose," waving a polite dismissal to the latter. "If
+not to-night, then in the morning _temprano_."
+
+The audacity of the man nettled Jose. He would have liked to be
+present during the interview between the Alcalde and this cunning
+religio-political agent, for he knew that the weak-kneed Don Mario
+would be putty in his oily hands. However, Diego had shown him that he
+was not wanted. And there was nothing to do but nurse his temper and
+await events.
+
+But, whatever deplorable results the visit of Diego might entail, he
+had at least brought present comfort to Jose in his report of the
+militant uprising now in progress, and the latter would sleep this
+night without the torment of dread apprehension.
+
+The next morning Diego entered the parish house just as master and
+pupil were beginning their day's work.
+
+"Ha!" he exclaimed, "our parochial school is quite discriminating! No?
+One pupil! _Bien_, are there not enough children in the town to
+warrant a larger school, and with a Sister in charge? I will report
+the matter to the good Bishop."
+
+Jose's wrath leaped into flame. "There is a school here, as you know,
+_amigo_, with a competent master," he replied with what calmness he
+could muster.
+
+It was perhaps a hasty and unfortunate remark, for Jose knew he had
+been jealously selfish with Carmen.
+
+"_Caramba_, yes!" retorted Diego. "A private school, to which the
+stubborn beasts that live in this sink will not send their brats!
+There must be a parochial school in Simiti, supported by the people!
+Oh, don't worry; there is gold enough here, buried in _patios_ and
+under these innocent-looking mud walls, to support the Pope for a
+decade--and that," he chuckled, "is no small sum!"
+
+His eyes roved over Carmen and he began a mental appraisement of the
+girl. "_Caramba!_" muttering half to himself, after he had feasted his
+sight upon her for some moments, "but she is large for her age--and,
+_Dios y diablo!_ a ravishing beauty!"
+
+He stood for a while wrapped in thought. Then an idea seemed to filter
+through his cunning brain. His coarse, unmoral face brightened, and
+his thick lips parted in an evil smile.
+
+"Come here, little one," he said patronizingly, extending his arms to
+the child. "Come, give your good _Padre_ his morning kiss."
+
+The girl shrank back in her chair and looked appealingly at Jose.
+
+"No? Then I must come and steal it; and when you confess to good Padre
+Jose you may tell him it was all my fault."
+
+He started toward her. A look of horror came into the child's face and
+she sprang from her seat. Jose swiftly rose. He seized Diego by the
+shoulder and whirled him quickly about. His face was menacing and his
+frame trembled.
+
+"One moment, friend!" The voice was low, tense, and deliberate. "If
+you lay a hand on that child I will strike you dead at my feet!"
+
+Diego recoiled. _Cielo!_ was this the timid sheep that had stopped for
+a moment in Banco on its way to the slaughter? But there was no
+mistaking the spirit manifested now in that voice and attitude.
+
+"Why, _amigo_!" he exclaimed, a foolish grin splitting his ugly
+features. "Your little joke startled me!"
+
+Jose motioned Carmen to leave.
+
+"Be seated, Don Diego. It would be well to understand each other more
+thoroughly."
+
+Had Jose gone too far? He wondered. Heaven knew, he could not afford
+to make enemies, especially at this juncture! But he had not misread
+the thought coursing through the foul mind of Diego. And yet, violence
+now might ruin both the child and himself. He must be wiser.
+
+"I--I was perhaps a little hasty, _amigo_," he began in gentler tones.
+"But, as you see, I have been quite wrought up of late--the news of
+the revolution, and--in these past months there have been many things
+to cause me worry. I--"
+
+"Say no more, good friend," interrupted the oily Diego, his beady eyes
+twinkling. "But you will not wonder it struck me odd that a father
+should not be permitted to embrace his own daughter."
+
+Dead silence, heavy and stifling, fell upon Jose. Slowly his throat
+filled, and his ears began to throb. Diego sat before him, smiling and
+twirling his fat thumbs. He looked like the images of Chinese gods
+Jose had seen in foreign lands.
+
+Then the tortured man forced a laugh. Of course, the strain of
+yesterday had been too much for him! His overwrought mind had read
+into words and events meanings which they had not been meant to
+convey.
+
+"True, _amigo_," he managed to say, striving to steady his voice. "But
+we spiritual Fathers should not forget--"
+
+Diego laughed egregiously. "_Caramba_, man! Let us get to the meat in
+the nut. Why do you think I am in Simiti, braving the wrath of Rosendo
+and others? Why have I left my comfortable quarters in Banco, to
+undertake a journey, long and hazardous, to this godless hole?"
+
+He paused, apparently enjoying the suffering he saw depicted upon
+Jose's countenance.
+
+"I will tell you," he resumed. "But you will keep my confidence, no?
+We are brother priests, and must hold together. You protect me in
+this, and I return the favor in a like indiscretion. _Bien_, I
+explain: I am here partly because of the revolution, as I told you
+yesterday, and partly, as I did not tell you, to see my little girl,
+my daughter, Carmen--
+
+"_Caramba_, man!" he cried, bounding to his feet, as he saw Jose
+slowly rise before him. "Listen! It is God's truth! Sit down! Sit
+down!"
+
+Jose dropped back into his chair like a withered leaf in the lull of a
+winter's wind.
+
+"_Dios y diablo_, but it rends me to make this confession, _amigo_!
+And yet, I look to you for support! The girl, Carmen--_I am her
+father!_"
+
+Diego paced dramatically up and down before the scarce hearing Jose
+and unfolded his story in a quick, jerky voice, with many a gesture
+and much rolling of his bright eyes.
+
+"Her mother was a Spanish woman of high degree. We met in Bogota. My
+vows prevented me from marrying her, else I should have done so.
+_Caramba_, but I loved her! _Bien_, I was called to Cartagena. She
+feared, in her delicate state, that I was deserting her. She tried to
+follow me, and at Badillo was put off the boat. There, poor child, she
+passed away in grief, leaving her babe. May she rest forever on the
+bosom of the blessed Virgin!" Diego bowed reverently and crossed
+himself.
+
+"Then I lost all trace of her. My diligent inquiries revealed nothing.
+Two years later I was assigned to the parish of Simiti. Here I saw the
+little locket which I had given her, and knew that Carmen was my
+child. Ah, _Dios!_ what a revelation to a breaking heart! But I could
+not openly acknowledge her, for I was already in disgrace, as you
+know. And, once down, it is easy to sink still further. I confess, I
+was indiscreet here. I was forced to fly. Rosendo's daughter followed
+me, despite my protests. I was assigned to Banco. _Bien_, time passed,
+and you came. I had hoped you would take the little Carmen under your
+protection. God, how I grieved for the child! At last I determined,
+come what might, to see her. The revolution drove me to the mountains;
+and love for my girl brought me by way of Simiti. And now, _amigo_,
+you have my confession--and you will not be hard on me? _Caramba_, I
+need a friend!" He sat down, and mopped his wet brow. His talk had
+shaken him visibly.
+
+Again oppressive silence. Jose was staring with unseeing eyes out
+through the open doorway. A stream of sunlight poured over the dusty
+threshold, and myriad motes danced in the golden flood.
+
+"_Bien, amigo_," Diego resumed, with more confidence. "I had not
+thought to reveal this, my secret, to you--nor to any one, for that
+matter--but just to get a peep at my little daughter, and assure my
+anxious heart of her welfare. But since coming here and seeing how
+mature she is my plans have taken more definite shape. I shall leave
+at daybreak to-morrow, if Don Mario can have my supplies ready on this
+short notice, and--will take Carmen with me."
+
+Jose struggled wearily to his feet. The color had left his face, and
+ages seemed to bestride his bent shoulders. His voice quavered as he
+slowly spoke.
+
+"Leave me now, Don Diego. It were better that we should not meet again
+until you depart."
+
+"But, _amigo_--ah, I feel for you, believe me! You are attached to the
+child--who would not be? _Caramba_, what is this world but a cemetery
+of bleaching hopes! But--how can I ask it? _Amigo_, send the child to
+me at the house of the Alcalde. I would hold her in my arms and feel a
+father's joy. And bid the good Dona Maria make her ready for
+to-morrow's journey."
+
+Jose turned to the man. An ominous calm now possessed him. "You
+said--the San Lucas district?"
+
+"_Quien sabe?_ good friend," Diego made hasty reply. "My plans seem
+quite altered since coming here. _Bien_, we must see. But I will leave
+you now. And you will send Carmen to me at once? And bid her bring
+her mother's locket. _Conque, hasta luego, amigo._"
+
+He went to the door, and seeing his two <DW64> _peones_ loitering near,
+walked confidently and briskly to the house of Don Mario.
+
+Jose, bewildered and benumbed, staggered into his sleeping room and
+sank upon the bed.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Padre--Padre dear."
+
+Carmen stood beside the stricken priest, and her little hand crept
+into his.
+
+"I watched until I saw him go, and then I came in. He has bad
+thoughts, hasn't he? But--Padre dear, what is it? Did he make you
+think bad thoughts, too? He can't, you know, if you don't want to."
+
+She bent over him and laid her cheek against his. Jose stared unseeing
+up at the thatch roof.
+
+"Padre dear, everything has a rule, a principle, you told me. Don't
+you remember? But his thoughts haven't any principle, have they? Any
+more than the mistakes I make in algebra. Aren't we glad we know
+that!"
+
+The child kissed the suffering man and wound her arms about his neck.
+
+"Padre dear, he couldn't say anything that could make you unhappy--he
+just couldn't! God is _everywhere_, and you are His child--and I am,
+too--and--and there just isn't anything here but God, and we are in
+Him. Why, Padre, we are in Him, just like the little fish in the lake!
+Isn't it nice to know that--to really _know_ it?"
+
+Aye, if he had really known it he would not now be stretched upon a
+bed of torment. Yet, Carmen knew it. And his suffering was for her.
+Was he not really yielding to the mesmerism of human events? Why, oh,
+why could he not remain superior to them? Why continually rise and
+fall, tossed through his brief years like a dry weed in the blast?
+
+It was because he _would_ know evil, and yield to its mesmerism. His
+enemies were not without, but within. How could he hope to be free
+until he had passed from self-consciousness to the sole consciousness
+of infinite good?
+
+"Padre dear, his bad thoughts have only the minus sign, haven't
+they?"
+
+Yes, and Jose's now carried the same symbol of nothingness. Carmen was
+linked to the omnipresent mind that is God; and no power, be it Diego
+or his superior, Wenceslas, could effect a separation.
+
+But if Carmen was Diego's child, she must go with him. Jose could no
+longer endure this torturing thought. He rose from the bed and sought
+Dona Maria.
+
+"Senora," he pleaded, "tell me again what you know of Carmen's
+parents."
+
+The good woman was surprised at the question, but could add nothing to
+what Rosendo had already told him. He asked to see again the locket.
+Alas! study it as he might, the portrait of the man was wholly
+indistinguishable. The sweet, sad face of the young mother looked out
+from its frame like a suffering. Magdalen. In it he thought he saw a
+resemblance to Carmen. As for Diego, the child certainly did not
+resemble him in the least. But years of dissipation and evil doubtless
+had wrought their changes in his features.
+
+He looked around for Carmen. She had disappeared. He rose and searched
+through the house for her. Dona Maria, busy in the kitchen, had not
+seen her leave. His search futile, he returned with heavy heart to his
+own house and sat down to think. Mechanically he opened his Bible.
+
+_When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee._ Not "if,"
+but "when." The sharp experiences of human existence are not to be
+avoided. But in their very midst the Christ-principle is available to
+the faithful searcher and worker.
+
+Dona Maria came with the midday meal. Carmen had not returned. Jose,
+alarmed beyond measure, prepared to set out in search of her. But at
+that moment one of Diego's _peones_ appeared at the door with his
+master's request that the child be sent at once to him. At least,
+then, she was not in his hands; and Jose breathed more freely. It
+seemed to him that, should he see her in Diego's arms, he must
+certainly strangle him. He shuddered at the thought. Only a few
+minutes before he had threatened to kill him!
+
+He left his food untasted. Unspeakably wearied with his incessant
+mental battle, he threw himself again upon his bed, and at length sank
+into a deep sleep.
+
+The shadows were gathering when he awoke with a start. He heard a call
+from the street. Leaping from the bed, he hastened to the door, just
+as Rosendo, swaying beneath his pack, and accompanied by Lazaro Ortiz,
+rounded the corner and made toward him.
+
+_"Hola, amigo Cura!"_ Rosendo shouted, his face radiant. "Come and bid
+me welcome, and receive good news!"
+
+At the same moment Carmen came flying toward them from the direction
+of the shales. Jose instantly divined the motive which had sent her
+out there. He turned his face to hide the tears which sprang to his
+eyes.
+
+"Thank God!" he murmured in a choking voice. Then he hastened to his
+faithful ally and clasped him in his arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 16
+
+
+Struggling vainly with his agitation, while the good tidings which he
+could no longer hold fairly bubbled from his lips, Rosendo dragged the
+priest into the parish house and made fast the doors. Swinging his
+chair to the floor, he hastily unstrapped his kit and extracted a
+canvas bag, which he handed to Jose.
+
+"Padre," he exclaimed in a loud whisper, "we have found it!"
+
+"Found what?" the bewildered Jose managed to ask.
+
+"Gold, Padre--gold! Look, the bag is full! _Hombre!_ not less
+than forty _pesos oro_--and more up there--quien sabe how much!
+_Caramba!_"
+
+Rosendo fell into a chair, panting with excitement. Jose sat down with
+quickening pulse and waited for the full story. It was not long
+coming.
+
+"Padre--I knew we would find it--but not this way! _Hombre!_ It was
+back of Popales. I had been washing the sands there for two days after
+my return. There was a town at that place, years ago. The stone
+foundations of the houses can still be seen. The Tigui was rich at
+that point then; but it is washed out now. _Bien_, one morning I
+started out at daybreak to prospect Popales creek, the little stream
+cutting back into the hills behind the old settlement. There was a
+heavy mist over the whole valley, and I could not see ten feet before
+my face. _Bien_, I had gone up-stream a long distance, perhaps several
+miles, without finding more than a few colors, when suddenly the mist
+began to clear, and there before me, only a few feet away, stood a
+young deer, just as dumfounded as I was."
+
+He paused a moment for breath, laughing meanwhile at the memory of his
+surprise. Then he resumed.
+
+"_Bueno_, fresh venison looked good to me, Padre, living on salt
+_bagre_ and beans. But I had no weapon, save my _machete_. So I let
+drive with that, and with all my strength. The big knife struck the
+deer on a leg. The animal turned and started swiftly up the mountain
+side, with myself in pursuit. _Caramba_, that was a climb! But with
+his belly chasing him, a hungry man will climb anything! Through palms
+and ferns and high weeds, falling over rocks and tripping on ground
+vines we went, clear to the top of the hill. Then the animal turned
+and plunged down a glen. On the descent it traveled faster, and in a
+few minutes had passed clean from my sight. _Caramba_, I was angry!"
+
+He stopped to laugh again at the incident.
+
+"The glen," he continued, "ran down for perhaps a hundred yards, and
+then widened into a clearing. I have been in the Popales country many
+times, Padre, but I had never been to the top of this mountain, nor
+had I ever seen this glen, which seemed to be an ancient trail. So I
+went on down toward the clearing. As I approached it I crossed what
+apparently was the bed of an ancient stream, dry now, but with many
+pools of water from the recent rains, which are very heavy in that
+region. _Bien_, I turned and followed this dry bed for a long
+distance, and at last came out into the open. I found myself in a
+circular space, surrounded by high hills, with no opening but the
+stream bed along which I had come. At the far end of the basin-shaped
+clearing the creek bed stopped abruptly; and I then knew that the
+water had formerly come over the cliff above in a high waterfall, but
+had flowed in a direction opposite to that of Popales creek, this
+mountain being the divide.
+
+"_Bueno_; now for my discovery! I several times filled my _batea_ with
+gravel from the dry bed and washed it in one of the pools. I got only
+a few scattered colors. But as I dug along the margin of the bed I
+noticed what seemed to be pieces of adobe bricks. I went on up one
+side of the bowl-shaped glen, and found many such pieces, and in some
+places stones that had served as foundations for houses at one time.
+So I knew that there had been a town there, long, long ago. But it
+must have been an Indian village, for had it been known to the
+Spaniards I surely would have learned of it from my parents. The
+ground higher up was strewn with the broken bricks. I picked up many
+of the pieces and examined them. Almost every one showed a color or
+two of gold; but not enough to pay washing the clay from which they
+had been made. But--and here is the end of my story--I have said that
+this open space was shaped like a bowl, with all sides dipping sharply
+to the center. It occurred to me that in the years--who knows how
+many?--that have passed since this town was abandoned, the heavy rains
+that had dissolved the mud bricks also must have washed the mud and
+the gold it carried down into the center of this basin, where, with
+great quantities of water sweeping over it every rainy season, the
+clay and sand would gradually wash out, leaving the gold concentrated
+in the center."
+
+The old man stopped to light the thick cigar which he had rolled
+during his recital.
+
+"_Caramba!_ Padre, it was a lucky thought! I located the center of the
+big bowl as nearly as possible, and began to dig. I washed some of the
+dirt taken a foot or two below the surface. Hombre! it left a string
+of gold clear around the _batea_! I became so excited I could scarcely
+dig. Every batea, as I got deeper and deeper, yielded more and more
+gold! I hurried back to the Tigui for my supplies; and then camped up
+there and washed the sand and clay for two weeks, until I had to come
+back to Simiti for food. Forty _pesos oro_ in fifteen days! _Caramba!_
+And there is more. And all concentrated from the mud bricks of that
+old, forgotten town in the mountains, miles back of Popales! May the
+Virgin bless that deer and mend its hurt leg!"
+
+One hundred and sixty francs in shining gold flakes! And who knew how
+much more to be had for the digging!
+
+"Ah, Padre," mused Rosendo, "it is wonderful how things turn out--that
+is, when, as the little Carmen says, you think right! I thought I'd
+find it--I knew it was right! And here it is! _Caramba!_"
+
+At the mention of Carmen's name Jose again became troubled. Rosendo as
+yet did not know of Diego's presence in Simiti. Should he tell him? It
+might lead to murder. Rosendo would learn of it soon enough; and Jose
+dared not cast a blight upon the happiness of this rare moment. He
+would wait.
+
+As they sat reunited at the supper table in Rosendo's house, a
+constant stream of townspeople passed and repassed the door, some
+stopping to greet the returned prospector, others lingering to witness
+Rosendo's conduct when he should learn of Diego's presence in the
+town, although no one would tell him of it. The atmosphere was tense
+with suppressed excitement, and Jose trembled with dread. Dona Maria
+moved quietly about, giving no hint of the secret she carried. Carmen
+laughed and chatted, but did not again mention the man from whose
+presence she had fled to the shales that morning. Who could doubt that
+in the midst of the prevalent mental confusion she had gone out there
+"_to think_"? And having performed that duty, she had, as usual, left
+her problem with her immanent God.
+
+"I will go up and settle with Don Mario this very night," Rosendo
+abruptly announced, as they rose from the table.
+
+"Not yet, friend!" cried Jose quickly. "Lazaro has told you of the
+revolution; and we have many plans to consider, now that we have found
+gold. Come with me to the shales. We will not be interrupted there. We
+can slip out through the rear door, and so avoid these curious people.
+I have much to discuss with you."
+
+Rosendo chuckled. "My honest debts first, _buen Cura_," he said
+sturdily. And throwing back his shoulders he strutted about the room
+with the air of a plutocrat. With his bare feet, his soiled, flapping
+attire, and his swelling sense of self-importance he cut a comical
+figure.
+
+"But, Rosendo--" Jose was at his wits' end. Then a happy thought
+struck him. "Why, man! I want to make you captain of the militia we
+are forming, and I must talk with you alone first!"
+
+The childish egotism of the old man was instantly touched.
+
+_"Capitan! el capitan!"_ he cried in glee. He slapped his chest and
+strode proudly around the room. "_Caramba! Capitan Don Rosendo Ariza,
+S!_ Ha! Shall I carry a sword and wear gold braid?--But these fellows
+are mighty curious," he muttered, looking out through the door at the
+loitering townsfolk. "The shales, then, Padre! Close the front door,
+Carmencita."
+
+Jose scarcely breathed until, skirting the shore of the lake and
+making a detour of the town, he and Rosendo at length reached the
+shale beds unnoticed.
+
+"Rosendo, the gold deposit that you have discovered--is it safe? Could
+others find it?" queried Jose at length.
+
+"Never, Padre! No trail leads to it. And no one would think of looking
+there for gold. I discovered it by the merest chance, and I left no
+trace of my presence. Besides, there are no gold hunters in that
+country, and very few people in the entire district of Guamoco."
+
+"And how long will it take you to wash out the deposit, do you
+think?"
+
+"_Quien sabe?_ Padre. A year--two years--perhaps longer."
+
+"But you cannot return to Guamoco until the revolution is over."
+
+"_Bien_, Padre, I will remain in Simiti a week or two. We may then
+know what to expect of the revolution."
+
+"You are not afraid?"
+
+"Of what? _Caramba_, no!"
+
+Jose sighed. No one seemed to fear but himself.
+
+"Rosendo, about the gold for Cartagena: how can we send it, even when
+peace is restored?"
+
+"Juan might go down each month," Rosendo suggested.
+
+"Impossible! The expense would be greater than the amount shipped. And
+it would not be safe. Besides, our work must be done with the utmost
+secrecy. No one but ourselves must know of your discovery. And no one
+else in Simiti must know where we are sending the gold. Rosendo, it is
+a great problem."
+
+"_Caramba_, yes!"
+
+The men lapsed into profound meditation. Then:
+
+"Rosendo, the little Carmen makes great progress."
+
+"_Por supuesto!_ I knew she would. She has a mind!"
+
+"Have you no idea, Rosendo, who her parents might have been?"
+
+"None whatever, Padre."
+
+"Has it ever occurred to you, Rosendo, that, because of her deeply
+religious nature, possibly her father was a priest?"
+
+"_Caramba, no!_" ejaculated Rosendo, turning upon Jose. "What puts
+that into your head, _amigo_?"
+
+"As I have said, Rosendo," Jose answered, "her religious instinct."
+
+"_Bien, Senor Padre_, you forget that priests are not religious."
+
+"But some are, Rosendo," persisted Jose in a tone of protest.
+
+"Perhaps. But those who are do not have children," was Rosendo's
+simple manner of settling the argument.
+
+Its force appealed to Jose, and he felt a shade of relief. But, if
+Diego were not the father of Carmen, what motive had he for wishing to
+take her with him, other than to train her eventually to become his
+concubine? The thought maddened him. He almost decided to tell
+Rosendo.
+
+"But, Padre, we came out here to talk about the militia of which I am
+to be captain. _Bien_, we must begin work to-morrow. _Hombre_, but the
+senora's eyes will stand out when she sees me marching at the head of
+the company!" He laughed like a pleased child.
+
+"And now that we have gold, Padre, I must send to Cartagena for a gun.
+What would one cost?"
+
+"You probably could not obtain one, Rosendo. The Government is so
+afraid of revolutions that it prohibits the importation of arms. But
+even if you could, it would cost not less than fifty _pesos oro_."
+
+"Fifty _pesos_! _Caramba!_" exclaimed the artless fellow. "Then I get
+no gun! But now let us name those who will form the company."
+
+By dwelling on the pleasing theme, Jose managed to keep Rosendo
+engaged until fatigue at length drove the old man to seek his bed. The
+town was wrapped in darkness as they passed through its quiet streets,
+and the ancient Spanish lantern, hanging crazily from its moldering
+sconce on the corner of Don Felipe's house, threw the only light into
+the black mantle that lay upon the main thoroughfare.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+At sunrise, Jose was awakened by Rosendo noisily entering his house.
+A glance at the old man showed that he was laboring under strong
+emotion.
+
+"What sort of friendship is this," he demanded curtly, "that you keep
+me from learning of Diego's presence in Simiti? It was a trick you
+served me--and friends do not so to one another!" He stood looking
+darkly at the priest.
+
+"Have you seen him, then? Good heavens, Rosendo! what have you done to
+him?" cried Jose, hastily leaving his bed.
+
+"There, comfort yourself, Padre," replied Rosendo, a sneer curling his
+lips. "Your friend is safe--for the present. He and his <DW64> rascals
+fled before sunrise."
+
+"And which direction did they take?"
+
+"Why do you ask? Would you go to them? _Bueno_, then across the lake,
+toward the Juncal. Don Mario stocked their boat last night, while you
+kept me out on the shales. _Buen arreglo, no?_"
+
+"Yes, Rosendo," replied Jose gladly, "an excellent arrangement to keep
+you from dipping your hands in his foul blood. Why, man! is your
+vision so short? Have you no thought of Carmen and her future?"
+
+"But--_Dios_! he has spread the report that he is her father!
+_Caramba!_ For that I would tear him apart! He robbed me of one child;
+and now--_Caramba_! Why did you let him go?--why did you, Padre?"
+
+Rosendo paced the floor like a caged lion, while great tears rolled
+down his black cheeks.
+
+"But, Rosendo, if you had killed him--what then? Imprisonment for you,
+suffering for us all, and the complete wreck of our hopes. Is it worth
+it?"
+
+"_Na_, Padre, but I would have escaped to Guamoco, to the gold I have
+discovered. There no one would have found me. And you would have kept
+me supplied; and I would have given you the gold I washed to care for
+her--"
+
+The man sank into a chair and buried his head in his hands.
+"_Caramba!_" he moaned. "But he will return when I am gone--and the
+Church is back of him, and they will come and steal her away--"
+
+How childish, and yet how great he was in his wonderful love, thought
+Jose. He pitied him from the bottom of his heart; he loved him
+immeasurably; yet he knew the old man's judgment was unsound in this
+case.
+
+"Come, Rosendo," he said gently, laying a hand upon the bent head.
+"This is a time when expediency bids us suffer an evil to remain for a
+little while, that a much greater good may follow."
+
+He hesitated. Then--"You do not think Diego is her father?"
+
+"A thousand devils, no!" shouted Rosendo, springing up. "He the father
+of that angel-child? _Cielo!_ His brats would be serpents! But I am
+losing time--" He turned to the door.
+
+"Rosendo!" cried the priest in fresh alarm. "Where are you going? What
+are you--"
+
+"I am going after Diego! Juan and Lazaro go with me! Before sundown
+that devil's carcass will be buzzard meat!"
+
+Jose threw himself in front of Rosendo.
+
+"Rosendo, think of Carmen! Would you kill her, too? If you kill Diego
+nothing can save her from Wenceslas! Rosendo, for God's sake,
+listen!"
+
+But the old man, with his huge strength, tossed the frail priest
+lightly aside and rushed into the street. Blind with rage, he did not
+see Carmen standing a short distance from the door. The child had been
+sent to summon him to breakfast. Unable to check his momentum, the big
+man crashed full into her and bore her to the ground beneath him. As
+she fell her head struck the sharp edge of an ancient paving stone,
+and she lay quite still, while the warm blood slowly trickled through
+her long curls.
+
+Uttering a frightened cry, Jose rushed to the dazed Rosendo and got
+him to his feet. Then he picked up the child, and, his heart numb with
+fear, bore her into the house.
+
+Clasping Carmen fiercely in his arms, Jose tried to aid Dona Maria in
+staunching the freely flowing blood. Rosendo, crazed with grief, bent
+over them, giving vent to moans which, despite his own fears, wrung
+the priest's heart with pity for the suffering old man. At length the
+child opened her eyes.
+
+"Praise God!" cried Rosendo, kneeling and showering kisses upon her
+hands. _"Loado sea el buen Dios! Caramba! Caramba!"_
+
+"Padre Rosendo," the girl murmured, smiling down at him, "your
+thoughts were driving you, just like Benjamin drives his oxen. And
+they were bad, or you wouldn't have knocked me over."
+
+"Bad!" Rosendo went to the doorway and squatted down upon the dirt
+floor in the sunlight. "Bad!" he repeated. "_Caramba_, but they were
+murder-thoughts!"
+
+"And they tried to make you murder me, didn't they, padre dear?" She
+laughed. "But it didn't really happen, anyway," she added.
+
+Rosendo buried his head in his hands and groaned aloud. Carmen slipped
+down from Jose's lap and went unsteadily to the old man.
+
+"They were not yours, those thoughts, padre dear," putting her arms
+around his neck. "But they were whipping you hard, just as if you
+belonged to them. And see, it just shows that bad thoughts can't do
+anything. Look, I'm all right!" She stood off and smiled at him.
+
+Rosendo reached out and clasped her in his long arms. "_Chiquita_," he
+cried, "if you were not, your old padre Rosendo would throw himself
+into the lake!"
+
+"More bad thoughts, padre dear!" She laughed and held up a warning
+finger. "But I was to tell you the _desayuno_ was ready; and see, we
+have forgotten all about it!" Her merry laugh rang through the room
+like a silver bell.
+
+After breakfast Jose took Rosendo, still shaking, into the parish
+house. "I think," he said gravely, "that we have learned another
+lesson, have we not, _amigo_?"
+
+Rosendo's head sank upon his great chest.
+
+"And, if we are wise, we will profit by it--will we not, _compadre_?"
+He waited a moment, then continued:
+
+"I have been seeing in a dim way, _amigo_, that our thought is always
+the vital thing to be reckoned with, more than we have even suspected
+before. I believe there is a mental law, though I cannot formulate it,
+that in some way the thoughts we hold use us, and become externalized
+in actions. You were wild with fear for Carmen, and your thoughts of
+Diego were murderous. Bien, they almost drove you to murder, and they
+reacted upon the very one you most love. Can you not see it,
+_amigo_?"
+
+Rosendo looked up. His face was drawn. "Padre--I am almost afraid to
+think of anything--now."
+
+"Ah, _amigo_," said Jose with deep compassion, "I, too, have had a
+deep lesson in thinking these past two days. I had evolved many
+beautiful theories, and worked out wonderful plans during these weeks
+of peace. Then suddenly came the news of the revolution, and, presto!
+they all flew to pieces! But Carmen--nothing disturbs her. Is it
+because she is too young to fear? I think not, _amigo_, I think not. I
+think, rather, that it is because she is too wise."
+
+"But--she is not of the earth, Padre." The old man shook his head
+dubiously.
+
+"Rosendo, she is! She is human, just as we are. But in some way she
+has learned a great truth, and that is that wrong thinking brings all
+the discord and woe that afflict the human race. We know this is true,
+you and I. In a way we have known it all our lives. But why, _why_ do
+we not practice it? Why do I yield so readily to fear; and you to
+revenge? I rather think if we loved our enemies we would have none,
+for our only enemies are the thoughts that become externalized in
+wrong thought-concepts. And even this externalization is only in our
+own consciousness. It is there, and only there, that we see evil."
+
+"_Quien sabe?_ Padre," replied Rosendo, slowly shaking his head. "We
+know so little--so little!"
+
+"But, Rosendo, we know enough to try to be like Carmen--"
+
+"_Caramba_, yes! And I try to be like her. But whenever danger
+threatens her, the very devils seize me, and I am no longer myself."
+
+"Yes, yes; I know. But will not her God protect her? Can not we trust
+her to Him?" Jose spoke with the conviction of right, however
+inconsistent his past conduct might have been.
+
+"True, Padre--and I must try to love Diego--I know--though I hate him
+as the devil hates the cross! Carmen would say that he was used by bad
+thoughts, wouldn't she?"
+
+"Just so. She would not see the man, but the impersonal thought that
+seems to use him. And I believe she knows how to meet that kind of
+thought."
+
+"I know it, Padre. _Bien_, I must try to love him. I _will_ try.
+And--Padre, whenever he comes into my mind I will try to think of him
+as God's child--though I know he isn't!"
+
+Jose laughed loudly at this. "_Hombre!_" he exclaimed. "You must not
+think of the human Diego as God's child! You must always think of the
+_real_ child of God for which this human concept, Diego, stands in
+your consciousness. Do you understand me?"
+
+"No, Padre. But perhaps I can learn. I will try. But Diego shall live.
+And--_Bien_, now let us talk about the company of militia. But here
+comes the Alcalde. _Caramba!_ what does he want?"
+
+With much oily ceremony and show of affection, Don Mario greeted the
+pair.
+
+"I bring a message from Padre Diego," he announced pompously, after
+the exchange of courtesies. "Bien, it is quite unfortunate that our
+friend Rosendo feels so hard toward him, especially as Don Diego has
+so long entrusted Carmen to Rosendo's care. But--his letter, _Senor
+Padre_," placing a folded paper in Jose's hand.
+
+Silently, but with swelling indignation, Jose read:
+
+  "Dear Brother in Christ: It is, as you must know, because of
+  our good Rosendo's foolish anger that I relieve him of the
+  embarrassment of my presence in Simiti. Not that I fear bodily
+  harm, but lest his thoughtlessness urge him to attempt injury
+  upon me; in which case nothing but unhappiness could result, as my
+  two <DW64> servants would protect me with their own lives. I
+  rather choose peace, and to that end quietly depart. But I
+  leave behind my bleeding heart in the little Carmen; and I beg
+  that you will at once hand her over to the excellent Don Mario,
+  with whom I have made arrangements to have her sent to me in
+  due season, whether in Banco or Remedios, I can not at present
+  say. I am minded to make an excellent report of your parish to
+  Don Wenceslas, and I am sure he will lend you support in your
+  labors for the welfare of the good folk of Simiti. Do not forget
+  to include the little locket with Carmen's effects when you
+  deliver her to Don Mario. I assure you of my warm affection for
+  you, and for Rosendo, who mistakes in his zeal to persecute
+  me, as he will some day learn; and I commend you both to the
+  protecting care of our blessed Mother Mary.
+
+               "I kiss your hand, as your servant in Christ,
+                                           "DIEGO GUILLERMO POLO."
+
+Jose looked long and fixedly at the Alcalde. "Don Mario," he finally
+said, "do you believe Diego to be the father of Carmen?"
+
+"_Cierto_, Padre, I know it!" replied the official with fervor. "He
+has the proofs!"
+
+"And what are they, may I ask?"
+
+"I do not know, Padre; only that he has them. Surely the child is his,
+and must be sent to him when he commands. Meantime, you see, he gives
+the order to deliver her to me. He has kindly arranged to relieve you
+and Rosendo of further care of the girl."
+
+"Don Mario," said Jose with terrible earnestness, "I will give you the
+benefit of the doubt, and say that Diego has basely deceived you. But
+as for him--he lies."
+
+"_Hombre!_ But I can not help if you disbelieve him. Still, you must
+comply with his request; otherwise, the Bishop may compel you to do
+so."
+
+Jose realized the terrible possibility of truth in this statement. For
+an instant all his old despair rushed upon him. Then he braced
+himself. Rosendo was holding his wrath in splendid check.
+
+"_Bien_, Don Mario," resumed Jose, after a long meditation. "Let us
+ask our good Rosendo to leave us for a little moment that we may with
+greater freedom discuss the necessary arrangements. _Bien, amigo!_"
+holding up a hand to check Rosendo, who was rising menacingly before
+the Alcalde. "You will leave it to me." He threw Rosendo a significant
+look; and the latter, after a momentary hesitation, bowed and passed
+out of the room.
+
+"_A proposito, amigo_," resumed Jose, turning to the Alcalde and
+assuming utter indifference with regard to Carmen. "As you will
+recall, I stood security for Rosendo's debts. The thirty _pesos_ which
+he owes you will be ready this evening."
+
+The Alcalde smiled genially and rubbed his fat palms together. "_Muy
+bien_," he murmured.
+
+Jose reflected. Then:
+
+"But, Don Mario, with regard to Carmen, justice must be done, is it
+not so?"
+
+"_Cierto_, Padre; and Padre Diego has the proofs--"
+
+"Certainly; I accept your word for your conviction in the matter. But
+you will agree that there is something to be said for Rosendo. He has
+fed, clothed, and sheltered the girl for some eight years. Let us see,
+at the rate you charge your _peones_, say, fifty pesos a day, that
+would amount to--"
+
+He took paper and pencil from the table and made a few figures.
+
+"--to just fourteen hundred and sixty _pesos oro_," he concluded.
+"This, then, is the amount now due Rosendo for the care of Diego's
+child. You say he has made arrangements with you to care for her until
+he can send for her. _Bien_, we will deliver her to you for Diego,
+but only upon payment of the sum which I have just mentioned.
+Otherwise, how will Rosendo be reimbursed for the expense of her
+long maintenance?"
+
+"_Ca--ram--ba!_ Fourteen hundred and sixty _pesos oro_! Why--it is a
+fortune!" ejaculated the outwitted Alcalde, his eyes bulging over his
+puffy cheeks.
+
+"And," continued Jose calmly, "if we deliver the girl to you to-day, I
+will retain the thirty _pesos oro_ which Rosendo owes you, and you
+will stand surety for the balance of the debt, fourteen hundred and
+thirty, in that case."
+
+"_Diablo!_ but I will do nothing of the kind!" exploded the Alcalde.
+"_Caramba!_ let Diego come and look after his own brat!"
+
+"Then we shall consider the interview at an end, no?"
+
+"But my thirty _pesos oro_?"
+
+"To-night. And as much more for additional supplies. We are still
+working together, are we not, Don Mario?" he added suggestively.
+
+Jose in Simiti with money discounted a million Diegos fleeing through
+the jungle. The Alcalde's heavy face melted in a foolish grin.
+
+"_Cierto, buen Padre!_ and--La Libertad?"
+
+"I have strong hopes," replied Jose with bland assurance, while a
+significant look came into his face. Then he rose and bowed the
+Alcalde out. "And, Don Mario--"
+
+He put a finger on his lips.
+
+"--we remain very silent, no?"
+
+"_Cierto, Padre, cierto!_ I am the grave itself!"
+
+As the bulky official waddled off to his little shop, Jose turned back
+into his house with a great sigh of relief. Another problem had been
+met--temporarily.
+
+He summoned Carmen to the day's lessons.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 17
+
+
+Within the month Juan brought from Bodega Central the glad news of the
+revolution's utter collapse. The anticlerical element, scenting
+treachery in their own ranks, and realizing almost from the outset
+that the end was a matter of only a few weeks, offered to capitulate
+on terms which they felt would be less distressing to their pride than
+those which their victors might dictate after inflicting a crushing
+defeat. The conservatives did not take advantage of the _fiasco_, but
+offered conciliation in the way of reapportioning certain minor public
+offices, and a show of somewhat lessened clerical influence. Peace
+followed rapidly. The fires of Jacobinism and popery were again
+banked, while priest and politician, statesman and orator set up the
+board and rearranged the pawns for the next play.
+
+Nothing further had been heard of Padre Diego during the month,
+excepting that he had arrived at the settlement of Juncal in a state
+of extreme agitation, and had hurriedly set out that same day along
+the trail to the San Lucas district. Rosendo, meanwhile, assured that
+Diego would not return in the immediate future, yielded to Jose's
+persuasion and departed at once for Guamoco on the news of the
+revolution's close. Simiti had remained unmolested; and now, with the
+assurance of indefinite peace, the old town dropped quickly back into
+her wonted state of listless repose, and yielded to the drowsy, dreamy
+influences that hover always about this scene of mediaeval romance.
+
+Jose had recovered his equipoise; and even when Juan, returning from
+his next trip down to the river, brought the priest another sharp
+letter from Wenceslas, written in the Bishop's name, he read it
+without a tremor. The letter complained of Jose's silence, and
+especially of his failure to assist the Catholic cause in this crisal
+hour by contributions of Peter's Pence. Nor had any report been
+received in Cartagena relative to the state of the parish of Simiti,
+its resources and communicants; and not a _peso_ had been offered to
+the support of their so dear citadel at a time when its enemies
+threatened its gates. Jose smiled happily as he penned his reply, for
+he knew that with Rosendo's next return their contributions to
+Cartagena would begin. That meant the quieting of Wenceslas,
+regardless of whatever report Diego might make. And it was evident
+from this letter that neither Diego nor the Alcalde had as yet
+communicated anything of a startling nature to Wenceslas regarding
+those things to which the priest had consecrated himself in Simiti.
+
+Jose's life was never before so full. And never so sweet. To his
+little flock he was now preaching the Word of God only as he could
+interpret it to meet their simple needs. Gradually, as he got closer
+to them, he sought to enlighten them and to draw them at least a
+little way out of the dense materialism of their present religious
+beliefs. He also strove to give them the best of his own worldly
+knowledge, and to this end was talking to them three nights a week in
+the church building, where the simple people hung upon his words like
+children enwrapped in fairy lore. He was holding regular Sunday
+services, and offering Masses during the week for those of his
+parishioners who requested them, and who would have been shocked,
+puzzled, and unhappy had he refused to do so, or attempted to prove
+their uselessness. He was likewise saying diurnal Masses for the
+little Maria, to whom, as she lay breathing her last in his arms in
+Cartagena, he had given the promise to offer them daily in her behalf
+for, a year.
+
+Nor was this the extent of his loving sacrifice for the girl. He had
+already sent a small sum of money to Catalina by Captain Julio, who
+promised to arrange at Calamar for its transmission, and for the safe
+convoy of a similar small packet monthly to Cartagena and into the
+hands of the two women who were caring for the infant son of Wenceslas
+and the ill-fated Maria. He had promised her that night that he would
+care for her babe. And his life had long since shown what a promise
+meant to him. He knew he would be unable to learn of the child's
+progress directly from these women, for they were both illiterate. But
+Captain Julio brought an encouraging message from them, and assured
+Jose that he would always make inquiry for the babe on his trips down
+the river. Jose's long-distance dealings with the genial captain had
+been conducted through Juan, who had constituted himself the priest's
+faithful servant and the distant worshiper of the child Carmen.
+
+"Padre Jose," Juan had said one day, striving vainly to hide his
+embarrassment, "the little Carmen grows very beautiful. She is like
+the Pascua-flower, that shines through the ferns in the _cano_. She is
+like the great blue butterfly, that floats on the sunbeams that sift
+through the forest trees."
+
+"Yes, Juan, she is very beautiful."
+
+"Padre, you love her much, is it not so?"
+
+"Very much, indeed, Juan."
+
+"And I, Padre, I, too, love her." He paused and dug the hard ground
+with his bare toes.
+
+"Padre," he resumed, "the little Carmen will marry--some day, will she
+not?"
+
+Jose started. The thought had never occurred to him! Carmen marry?
+After all, she was human, and-- But, no, he could not, he would not,
+think of it!
+
+"Why, Juan--I--cannot say--"
+
+"But, Padre, she will." Juan was growing bolder. "And--and, Padre,
+I--I should like it if she would marry me. Ah, _Senor Padre_, already
+I adore her!"
+
+Jose could not be angry. The faithful lad was deeply sincere. And the
+girl would reach the marriageable age of that country in all too short
+a time.
+
+"But, Juan," he remonstrated, "you are too young! And Carmen--why, she
+is but a child!"
+
+"True, Padre. But I am seventeen--and I will wait for her. Only say
+now that she shall be mine when the time comes. Padre, say it now!"
+
+Jose was deeply touched by the boy's earnest pleading. He put his arm
+affectionately about the strong young shoulders.
+
+"Wait, Juan, and see what develops. She is very, very young. We must
+all wait. And, meanwhile, do you serve her, faithfully, as you see
+Rosendo and me doing."
+
+The boy's face brightened with hope. "Padre," he exclaimed, "I am her
+slave!"
+
+Jose went back to his work with Carmen with his thought full of
+mingled conjecture and resolve. He had thus far outlined nothing for
+the girl's future. Nor had he the faintest idea what the years might
+bring forth. But he knew that, in a way, he was aiding in the
+preparation of the child for something different from the dull, animal
+existence with which she was at present surrounded, and that her path
+in life must eventually lead far, far away from the shabby, crumbling
+town which now constituted her material world. His task he felt to be
+tremendous in the responsibility which it laid upon him. What had he
+ever known of the manner of rearing children! He had previously given
+the question of child-education but scant consideration, although he
+had always held certain radical ideas regarding it; and some of these
+he was putting to the test. But had his present work been forecast
+while he lay sunken in despair on the river steamer, he would have
+repudiated the prediction as a figment of the imagination. Yet the
+gleam which flashed through his paralyzed brain that memorable day in
+the old church, when Rosendo opened his full heart to him, had roused
+him suddenly from his long and despondent lethargy, and worked a quick
+and marvelous renovation in his wasted life. Following the lead of
+this unusual child, he was now, though with many vicissitudes, slowly
+passing out of his prison of egoism, and into the full, clear sunlight
+of a world which he knew to be far less material than spiritual.
+
+With the awakening had come the almost frenzied desire to realize in
+Carmen what he had failed to develop within himself; a vague hope that
+she might fill the void which a lifetime of longing had expressed. A
+tremendous opportunity now presented. Already the foundation had been
+well laid--but not by earthly hands. His task was to build upon it;
+and, as he did so, to learn himself. He had never before realized more
+than faintly the awful power for good or evil which a parent wields
+over a child. He had no more than the slightest conception of the
+mighty problem of child-education. And now Carmen herself had shown
+him that real education must be reared upon a foundation _wholly
+spiritual_. Yet this, he knew, was just what the world's educators did
+not do. He could see now how in the world the religious instinct of
+the child is early quenched, smothered into complete or partial
+extinction beneath the false tutelage of parents and teachers, to whom
+years and adult stature are synonymous with wisdom, and who themselves
+have learned to see the universe only through the opaque lenses of
+matter and chance.
+
+"If children were not falsely educated to know all manner of evil," he
+mused, "what spiritual powers might they not develop in adult life,
+powers that are as yet not even imagined! But their primitive
+religious instinct is regarded by the worldly-wise parent as but a
+part of the infant existence, which must soon give place to the more
+solid and real beliefs and opinions which the world in general regards
+as established and conventional, even though their end is death. And
+so they teach their children to make evil real, even while admonishing
+them to protect themselves against it and eventually so to rise as to
+overcome it, little realizing that the carnal belief of the reality of
+evil which a child is taught to accept permeates its pure thought like
+an insidious poison, and becomes externalized in the conventional
+routine existence of mind in matter, soul in body, a few brief years
+of mingled good and evil, and then darkness--the end here certain; the
+future life a vague, impossible conjecture."
+
+Jose determined that Carmen's education should be spiritual, largely
+because he knew, constituted as she was, it could not well be
+otherwise. And he resolved that from his teachings she should glean
+nothing but happiness, naught but good. With his own past as a
+continual warning, he vowed first that never should the mental germ of
+fear be planted within this child's mind. He himself had cringed like
+a coward before it all his desolate life. And so his conduct had been
+consistently slavish, specious, and his thought stamped with the brand
+of the counterfeit. He knew not how much longer he must struggle with
+it. But he knew that, if he would progress, the warfare must go on,
+until at length he should put it under his feet. His mind still bore
+the almost ineradicable mold of the fear deeply graven into it by the
+ignorant opinions, the worldly, material, unspiritual beliefs of his
+dear but unwise parents. His life had been hedged with baleful shadows
+because of it; and over every bright picture there hung its black
+draping. As he looked back over the path along which he had come, he
+could see every untoward event, every unhappiness and bitter
+disappointment, as the externalization of fear in some form, the germ
+of which had been early planted in the fertile soil of his plastic
+brain. Without it he might have risen to towering heights. Under its
+domination he had sunk until the swirling stream of life had eddied
+him upon the desolate shores of Simiti. In the hands of the less
+fearful he had been a puppet. In his own eyes he was a fear-shaped
+manikin, the shadow of God's real man. The fear germ had multiplied
+within him a billionfold, and in the abundant crop had yielded a
+mental depression and deep-seated melancholy that had utterly stifled
+his spirit and dried the marrow of his bones.
+
+They were not pleasant, these thoughts. But now Jose could draw from
+them something salutary, something definite to shape and guide his
+work with Carmen. She, at least, should not grow up the slave of
+fearsome opinions and beliefs born of dense ignorance. Nor should the
+baseless figments of puerile religious systems find lodgment within
+her clear thought. The fear element, upon which so much of so-called
+Christian belief has been reared, and the damnable suggestions of hell
+and purgatory, of unpardonable sin and endless suffering, the
+stock-in-trade of poet, priest and prelate up to and overlapping our
+present brighter day, should remain forever a closed volume to this
+child, a book as wildly imaginative and as unacceptable as the fabled
+travels of Maundeville.
+
+"I believe," he would murmur to himself, as he strolled alone in the
+dusk beside the limpid lake, "that if I could plant myself firmly on
+the Scriptural statement that God is love, that He is good; and if I
+could regard Him as infinite mind, while at the same time striving to
+recognize no reality, no intelligence or life in things material, I
+could eventually triumph over the whole false concept, and rise out of
+beliefs of sickness, discord, and death, into an unalterable
+consciousness of good only."
+
+He had made a beginning when he strove to realize that man is not
+separated from God; that God is not a far-off abstraction; and that
+infinite mind is, as Carmen insisted, "everywhere."
+
+"It is only the five physical senses that tell us evil is real," he
+reflected. "Indeed, without their testimony we would be utterly
+unconscious of evil! And I am convinced that their testimony is
+specious, and that we see, hear, and feel only in thought, or in
+belief. We think the sensations of seeing, hearing, and feeling come
+to us through the medium of these senses as outward, fleshly
+contrivances, which in some way communicate with the mind and bridge
+the gulf between the material and the mental. In reality, we do but
+see, hear and feel _our own thoughts_! The philosophers, many of them,
+said as much centuries ago. So did Jesus. But--the human mind has been
+mesmerized, simply mesmerized!"
+
+These things he pondered day by day, and watched to see them wrought
+out in the life of Carmen. "Ah, yes," he would sometimes say, as
+spiritual ideas unfolded to him, "you evolve beautiful theories, my
+good Jose, and you say many brave things. But, when the day of
+judgment comes, as it did when Juan brought you the news of the
+revolution, then, alas! your theories fly to pieces, and you find
+yourself very human, very material, and your God hidden behind the
+distant clouds. When the test comes, you find you cannot prove your
+beliefs."
+
+Yet the man did not often indulge in self-condemnation, for somehow he
+knew his ideas were right. When he realized the character and specious
+nature of evil, and realized, too, that "by thy words thou shalt be
+justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned," he knew that the
+stirring up of evil by good, and the shaking of the ancient
+foundations of carnal belief within his mentality, might mean fiery
+trials, still awaiting him. And yet, the crown was for him who should
+overcome. Overcome what? The false opinions of mankind, the ignorant
+beliefs in matter and evil. For what, after all, is responsible for
+all the evil in this world of ours? What but a false concept of God?
+"And if I keep my nose buried forever in matter, how can I hope to see
+God, who is Spirit? And how can I follow the Christ unless I think as
+he thought?" he said.
+
+But it was in the classroom with Carmen that he always received his
+greatest stimulus.
+
+"See, Padre dear," she said one day, "if I erase a wrong figure and
+then set down the right one instead, I get the right answer. And it is
+just like that when we think. If we always put good thoughts in the
+place of the bad ones, why, everything comes out right, doesn't it?"
+
+Jose smiled at the apt comparison. "Of course, _chiquita_," he
+replied. "Only in your algebra you know which are the right figures to
+put down. But how do you know which thoughts are right?"
+
+"I always know, Padre. I can't make even the least mistake about the
+thoughts. Why, it is easier to mistake with figures than it is with
+thoughts."
+
+"How is that, little one?"
+
+"Because, if you always think God _first_, you can never think wrong.
+Now can you? And if you think of other things first you are almost
+sure to think of the wrong thing, is it not so, Padre?"
+
+The priest had to admit the force of her statement.
+
+"And, you know, Padre dear," the girl went on, "when I understand the
+right rule in algebra, the answer just comes of itself. Well, it is so
+with everything when we understand that God is the right rule--you
+call Him principle, don't you?--well, when we know that He is the only
+rule for everything, then the answers to all our problems just come of
+themselves."
+
+Aye, thought Jose, the healing works of the great Master were only the
+"signs following," the "answers" to the people's problems, the sure
+evidence that Jesus understood the Christ-principle.
+
+"And when you say that God is the right rule for everything, just what
+do you mean, _chiquita_?"
+
+"That He is everywhere," the girl replied.
+
+"That He is infinite and omnipresent good, then?" the priest
+amplified.
+
+"He is good--and everywhere," the child repeated firmly.
+
+"And the necessary corollary of that is, that there is no evil," Jose
+added.
+
+"I don't know what you mean by corollary, Padre dear. It's a big word,
+isn't it?"
+
+"I mean--I think I know how you would put it, little one--if God is
+everywhere, then there is nothing bad. Is that right?"
+
+"Yes, Padre. Don't you see?"
+
+Assuredly he saw. He saw that a fact can have no real opposite; that
+any predicated opposite must be supposition. And evil is the
+supposition; whereas good is the fact. The latter is "plus," and the
+former "minus." No wonder the origin of evil has never been found,
+although humanity has struggled with the problem for untold ages!
+Jesus diagnosed evil as a lie. He gave it the minus sign, the sign of
+nothingness. The world has tried to make it positive, something. From
+the false sense of evil as a reality has come the equally false sense
+of man's estrangement from God, through some fictitious "fall"--a
+curse, truly, upon the human intellect, but not of God's infliction.
+For false belief always curses with a reign of discord, which endures
+until the belief becomes corrected by truth. From the beginning, the
+human race has vainly sought to postulate an equal and opposite to
+everything in the realm of both the spiritual and material. It has
+been hypnotized, obsessed, blinded, by this false zeal. The resultant
+belief in "dualism" has rendered hate the equal and opposite of Love,
+evil the equal and opposite of Good, and discord the eternal opponent
+of Harmony. To cope with evil as a reality is to render it immortal in
+our consciousness. To know its unreality is to master it.
+
+"Throughout life," Jose mused, "every positive has its negative, every
+affirmation its denial. But the opposites never mingle. And, moreover,
+the positive always dispels the negative, thus proving the specious
+nature of the latter. Darkness flees before the light, and ignorance
+dissolves in the morning rays of knowledge. Both cannot be real. The
+positive alone bears the stamp of immortality. Carmen has but one
+fundamental rule: _God is everywhere_. This gives her a sense of
+immanent power, with which all things are possible."
+
+Thus with study and meditation the days flowed past, with scarcely a
+ripple to break their quiet monotony. Rosendo came, and went again. He
+brought back at the end of his first month's labors on the newly
+discovered deposit some ninety _pesos_ in gold. He had reached the
+bedrock, and the deposit was yielding its maximum; but the yield would
+continue for many months, he said. His exultation overleaped all
+bounds, and it was with difficulty that Jose could bring him to a
+consideration of the problems still confronting them.
+
+"I think, Rosendo," said the priest, "that we will send, say, thirty
+_pesos_ this month to Cartagena; the same next month; and then
+increase the amount slightly. This method is sure to have a beneficial
+effect upon the ecclesiastical authorities there."
+
+"Fine!" ejaculated Rosendo. "And how will you send it, Padre?"
+
+Jose pondered the situation. "We cannot send the gold direct to the
+Bishop, for that would excite suspicion. Masses, you know, are not
+paid for in gold dust and nuggets. And we have no money. Nor could we
+get the gold exchanged for bills here in Simiti, even if we dared run
+the risk of our discovery becoming known."
+
+For the Alcalde was already nosing about in an effort to ascertain the
+source of the gold with which Rosendo had just cancelled his debt and
+purchased further supplies. Jose now saw that, under existing
+conditions, it would be utterly impossible for Rosendo to obtain
+titles to mineral properties through Don Mario. He spent hours seeking
+a solution of the involved problem. Then, just before Rosendo departed
+again for the mountains, Jose called him into the parish house.
+
+"Rosendo, I think I see a way. Bring me one of the paper boxes of
+candles which you have just purchased from Don Mario."
+
+"Carumba! Padre," queried the surprised Rosendo, as he returned with
+the box, "and what is this for?"
+
+"I merely want to get the name of the firm which sold the candles. The
+Empresa Alemania, Barranquilla. Good! Now listen. I have a method that
+is roundabout, but certainly promises much. I will write to the firm,
+appointing them my agents while I pose as Jose Rincon, miner. The
+agency established, I will send them our gold each month, asking them
+to return to me its equivalent in bills, deducting, of course, their
+commission. Then I will send these bills, or such part as we deem
+wise, to Wenceslas. Each month Juan, who will be sworn to secrecy,
+will convey the gold to Bodega Central in time to meet Captain Julio's
+boat. The captain will both deliver the gold to the Empresa Alemania,
+and bring back the bills in exchange. Then, from Simiti, and in the
+regular manner, I will send the small packet of bills to Wenceslas as
+contributions from the parish. We thus throw Don Mario off the scent,
+and arouse no suspicion in any quarter. As I receive mail matter at
+various times, the Alcalde will not know but what I also receive
+consignments of money from my own sources. I think the plan will work
+out. Juan already belongs to us. What, then, is there to fear?"
+
+And so, as it was arranged, it worked out. Juan reveled in the honor
+of such intimate relations with the priest and Rosendo, and especially
+in the thought that he was working in secret for the girl he adored.
+By the time Rosendo returned again from Guamoco, Jose had sent his
+first consignment of money to the Bishop, carefully directing it to
+Wenceslas, personally, and had received an acknowledgment in a letter
+which caused him deep thought.
+
+  "To further stimulate the piety of your communicants," it read,
+  "and arouse them to more generous contributions to our glorious
+  cause, you will inform them that, if their monetary contributions
+  do not diminish in amount for the coming year, they will be made
+  participants in the four solemn Novenas which will be offered
+  by His Grace, the Bishop of Cartagena. Moreover, if their
+  contributions increase, the names of the various contributors will
+  be included in the one hundred Masses which are to be offered
+  in December at the Shrine of Our Lady of Chiquinquia for their
+  spiritual and temporal welfare. Contributors will also have a High
+  Mass after death, offered by one of His Grace's assistants, as
+  soon as the notification of death is received here. In addition
+  to these, His Grace, always mindful of the former importance of
+  the parish of Simiti, and acknowledging as its special patron
+  the ever blessed Virgin, has arranged to bestow the episcopal
+  blessing upon an image of the Sacred Heart, which will be shipped
+  to his faithful children in Simiti when the amount of their
+  contributions shall have met the expense thereof. Let us keep ever
+  in mind the pious words of the Bl. Margaret Mary, who has
+  conveyed to us the assurance which she received directly from Our
+  Blessed Lord that He finds great joy in beholding His Sacred
+  Heart visibly represented, that it may touch the hard hearts
+  of mankind. Our blessed Saviour promised the gracious Margaret
+  Mary that He would pour out abundantly of His rich treasure upon
+  all who honor this image, and that it shall draw down from heaven
+  every blessing upon those who adore and reverence it. Inform your
+  parishioners that the recital of the offering, 'O, Sacred Heart
+  of Jesus, may it be everywhere adored!' carries a hundred days'
+  indulgence each time.
+
+  "You will bear in mind that the General Intention for this month
+  is The Conversion of America. Though our Church is founded on the
+  Rock, and is to last forever, so that the gates of hell shall
+  never prevail against her, nevertheless she has been called upon
+  to withstand many assaults from her enemies, the advocates of
+  _modernism_, in the land of liberal thought to our north. These
+  assaults, though painful to her, can never be fatal to her
+  spiritual life, although they unfortunately are so to many of her
+  dear children, who yield to the insidious persuasions of the
+  heretics who do the work of Satan among the Lord's sheep. New and
+  fantastic religions are springing up like noxious weeds in America
+  of the north, and increasing infidelity is apparent on every hand.
+  The Christ prayed that there might be one fold and one shepherd.
+  It is for us this month to pray for the great day when they will
+  be accomplished. But we must be united over the interests of the
+  Sacred Heart. Therefore, liberal plenary indulgences will be
+  granted to those of the faithful who contribute to this glorious
+  cause, so dear to the heart of the blessed Saviour. We enclose
+  leaflets indicating the three degrees, consisting of the Morning
+  Offering, Our Father and ten Hail Marys daily, for the Pope and
+  his interests, and the degree of reparation, by which a plenary
+  indulgence may be gained.
+
+  "Stimulate your parishioners to compete joyfully for the statue of
+  the Blessed Virgin, which we mentioned to you in our former
+  communication. Teach them, especially, their entire dependence on
+  Mary, on her prayers to God for their deliverance and welfare.
+  Reveal to them her singularly powerful influence in the shaping of
+  all great historical events of the world; how never has she
+  refused our prayers to exert her mighty influence with her
+  all-potent Son, when she has been appealed to in sincerity, for it
+  rejoices the Sacred Heart of Jesus to yield to the requests of His
+  Blessed Mother. Mary is omnipotent, for she can ask no favor of
+  her Son that He will not grant. Competition for possession of this
+  sacred image, which carries the potent blessing of His Holiness,
+  should be regarded a privilege, and you will so impress it upon
+  the minds of your parishioners.
+
+  "Finally, His Grace requests that you will immediately procure
+  whatever information you may regarding the mineral resources of
+  the district of Guamoco, and indicate upon a sketch the location
+  of its various mines, old or new, as known to its inhabitants.
+  Diligent and careful inquiry made by yourself among the people of
+  the district will reveal many hidden facts regarding its
+  resources, which should be made known to His Grace at the earliest
+  possible moment, in view of the active preparations now in
+  progress to forestall the precipitation of another political
+  uprising with its consequent strain upon our Holy Church."
+
+"Money! money! money!" cried Jose. "One would think the Christ had
+established his Church solely for gold!"
+
+He folded the letter and looked out through the rear door to where
+Carmen sat, teaching Cucumbra a new trick. He realized then that never
+before had he been so far from the Holy Catholic faith as at that
+moment. And Carmen--
+
+"Good God!" he muttered, as his eyes rested upon the child. "If the
+Church should get possession of Carmen, what would it do with her?
+Would it not set its forces to work to teach her that evil is a
+reality--that it is as powerful as good--that God formed man and the
+universe out of dust--that Jesus came down from a starry heaven that
+he might die to appease the wrath of a man-like Father--that Mary
+pleads with the Lord and Jesus, and by her powerful logic induces them
+to spare mankind and grant their foolish desires--all the dribble and
+rubbish of outlandish theology that has accumulated around the nucleus
+of pure Christianity like a gathering snowball throughout the ages! To
+make the great States up north dominantly Catholic, Rome must--simply
+_must_--have the children to educate, that she may saturate their
+absorbent minds with these puerile, undemonstrable, pagan beliefs
+before the child has developed its own independent thought. How wise
+is she--God, how worldly wise and cunning! And I still her priest--"
+
+Carmen came bounding in, followed pellmell by Cucumbra. Cantar-las-horas
+stalked dignifiedly after her, and stopped at the threshold, where he
+stood with cocked head and blinking eyes, wondering what move his
+animated young mistress would make next.
+
+"Padre!" she exclaimed, "the sun is down, and it is time for our
+walk!"
+
+She seized his hand and drew him out into the road. The play of her
+expression as she looked up and laughed into his face was like the
+dance of sunbeams on moving water. They turned down the narrow street
+which led to the lake. As was her wont, in every object about her, in
+every trifling event, the child discovered rich treasures of
+happiness. The pebbles which she tossed with her bare toes were mines
+of delight. The pigs, which turned up their snouts expectantly as she
+stooped to scratch their dusty backs--the matronly hens that followed
+clucking after her--the black babies that toddled out to greet the
+_Cura_--all yielded a wealth of delight and interest. She seemed to
+Jose to uncover joy by a means not unlike the divining rod, which
+points to hidden gold where to the eye there is naught but barren
+ground.
+
+Near the margin of the lake they stopped at the door of a cottage,
+where they were awaited by the matron who displayed a finger wrapped
+in a bit of cloth. She greeted the priest courteously.
+
+"_Senor Padre_," she said, "this morning I had the misfortune to cut
+my finger while peeling yuccas, and I am not sure whether a piece of
+the skin went into the pot or not. _Bueno_, the yuccas are all cooked;
+and now my man says he will not eat them, for this is Friday, and
+there may be meat with the yuccas. What shall I do? Was it wicked to
+cook the yuccas, not knowing if a bit of the skin from my finger had
+fallen into the pot?"
+
+Jose stood dumfounded before such ignorant credulity. Then he shook
+his head and replied sadly, "No, senora, it was not wicked. Tell your
+man he may eat the yuccas."
+
+The woman's face brightened, and she hastened into the house to
+apprise her spouse of the _Cura's_ decision.
+
+"God help us!" muttered Jose under his breath. "Two thousand years of
+Christianity, and still the world knows not what Jesus taught!"
+
+"But you told me he had good thoughts, Padre dear," said the little
+voice at his side, as he walked slowly away with bended head. "And
+that is enough to know."
+
+"Why do you say that, Carmen?" asked Jose, somewhat petulantly.
+
+"Because, Padre, if he had good thoughts, he thought about God--didn't
+he? And if he thought about God, he always thought of something good.
+And if we always think about good--well, isn't that enough?"
+
+Jose's eyes struggled with hers. She almost invariably framed her
+replies with an interrogation, and, whether he would or not, he must
+perforce give answers which he knew in his heart were right, and yet
+which the sight of his eyes all too frequently denied.
+
+"Padre, you are not thinking about God now--are you?"
+
+"I am, indeed, child!" he answered abruptly.
+
+"Well--perhaps you are thinking _about_ Him; but you are not thinking
+_with_ Him--are you?--the way He thinks. You know, He sends us His
+thoughts, and we have to pick them out from all the others that aren't
+His, and then think them. If the senora and her man had been thinking
+God's thoughts, they wouldn't have been afraid to eat a piece of meat
+on Friday--would they?"
+
+Cucumbra, forgetting his many months of instruction, suddenly yielded
+to the goad of animal instinct and started along the beach in mad
+pursuit of a squealing pig. Carmen dashed after him. As Jose watched
+her lithe, active little body bobbing over the shales behind the
+flying animals, she seemed to him like an animated sunbeam sporting
+among the shadows.
+
+"Why should life," he murmured aloud, "beginning in radiance, proceed
+in ever deepening gloom, and end at last in black night? Why, but for
+the false education in evil which is inflicted upon us! The joys, the
+unbounded bliss of childhood, do indeed gush from its innocence--its
+innocence of the blighting belief in mixed good and evil--innocence of
+the false beliefs, the undemonstrable opinions, the mad worldly
+ambitions, the carnal lust, bloated pride, and black ignorance of men!
+It all comes from not knowing God, to know whom is life eternal! The
+struggle and mad strife of man--what does it all amount to, when 'in
+the end he shall be a fool'? Do we in this latest of the centuries,
+with all our boasted progress in knowledge, really know so much, after
+all? Alas! we know nothing--nothing!"
+
+"Come, Padre," cried Carmen, returning to him, "we are going to just
+try now to have all the nice thoughts we can. Let's just look all
+around us and see if we can't think good thoughts about everything.
+And, do you know, Padre dear, I've tried it, and when I look at things
+and something tries to make me see if there could possibly be anything
+bad about them--why, I find there can't! Try it, and see for
+yourself."
+
+Jose knew it. He knew that the minds of men are so profaned by
+constantly looking at evil that their thoughts are tinged with it. He
+was striving to look up. But in doing so he was combating a habit
+grown mighty by years of indulgence.
+
+"When you always think good about a thing," the girl went on, "you
+never can tell what it will do. But good _always_ comes from it. I
+know. I do it all the time. If things look bad, I just say, 'Why look,
+here's something trying to tell me that two and two are seven!' And
+then it goes away."
+
+"Your purity and goodness resist evil involuntarily, little one," said
+Jose, more to himself than to the child.
+
+"Why, Padre, what big words!"
+
+"No, little one, it is just the meaning of the words that is big," he
+replied.
+
+The girl was silent for some moments. Then:
+
+"Padre dear, I never thought of it before--but it is true: we don't
+see the meaning of words with the same eyes that we see trees and
+stones and people, do we?"
+
+Jose studied the question. "I don't quite understand what you mean,
+_chiquita_," he was finally forced to answer.
+
+"Well," she resumed, "the meaning of a word isn't something that we
+can pick up, like a stone; or see, as we see the lake out there."
+
+"No, Carmen, the meaning is spiritual--mental; it is not physically
+tangible. It is not seen with the fleshly eyes."
+
+"The meaning of a word is the inside of it, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, it is the inside, the soul, of the word."
+
+"And we don't see the word, either, do we?" She shook her brown curls
+in vigorous negation.
+
+"No, little one, we see only written or printed symbols; or hear only
+sounds that convey to us the words. But the words themselves are
+mental. We do not see them."
+
+"No, we think them." She meditated a while. "But, Padre dear," she
+continued, "the inside, or soul, of everything is mental. We never see
+it. We have to think it."
+
+"Yes, you are right. The things we think we see are only symbols. They
+stand for the real things."
+
+"Padre, they don't stand for anything!" she replied abruptly.
+
+Jose looked down at her in surprise. He waited.
+
+"Padre, the real things are the things we don't see. And the things we
+think we see are not real at all!"
+
+Jose had ere this learned not to deny her rugged statements, but to
+study them for their inner meaning, which the child often found too
+deep for her limited vocabulary to express.
+
+"The things we think we see," he said, though he was addressing his
+own thought, "are called the physical. The things we do not see or
+cognize with the physical senses are called mental, or spiritual.
+Well?" he queried, looking down again into the serious little face.
+
+"Padre, the very greatest things are those that we don't see at all!"
+
+"True, _chiquita_. Love, life, joy, knowledge, wisdom, health,
+harmony--all these are spiritual ideas. The physical sometimes
+manifests them--and sometimes does not. And in the end, called death,
+it ceases altogether to manifest them."
+
+"But--these things--the very greatest things there are--are the souls
+of everything--is it not so, Padre dear?"
+
+"It must be, _chiquita_."
+
+"And all these things came from God, and He is everywhere, and so He
+is the soul of everything, no?"
+
+He made the same affirmative reply.
+
+"Padre--don't you see it?--we are not seeing things all around us! We
+don't see real things that we call trees and stones and people! We see
+only what we _think_ we see. We see things that are not there at all!
+We see--"
+
+"Yes, we see only our thoughts. And we think we see them as objects
+all about us, as trees, and houses, and people. But in the final
+analysis we see only thoughts," he finished.
+
+"But these thoughts do not come from God," she insisted.
+
+"No," he replied slowly, "because they often manifest discord and
+error. I think I grasp what is struggling in your mind _chiquita_. God
+is--"
+
+"Everywhere," she interrupted.
+
+"He is everywhere, and therefore He is the soul--the inside--the heart
+and core--of everything. He is mind, and His thoughts are real, and
+are the only real thoughts there are. He is truth. The opposite of
+truth is a lie. But, in reality, truth cannot have an opposite.
+Therefore, a lie is a supposition. And so the thought that we seem to
+see externalized all about us, and that we call physical objects, is
+supposition only. And, a supposition being unreal, the whole physical
+universe, including material man, is unreal--is a supposition, a
+supposition of mixed good and evil, for it manifests both. It is the
+lie about God. And, since a lie has no real existence, this human
+concept of a universe and mankind composed of matter is utterly
+unreal, an image of thought, an illusion, existing in false thought
+only--a belief--a supposition pure and simple!"
+
+As he talked he grew more and more animated. He seemed to forget the
+presence of the child, and appeared to be addressing only his own
+insistent questionings.
+
+They walked along together in silence for some moments. Then the girl
+again took up the conversation.
+
+"Padre," she said, "you know, you taught me to prove my problems in
+arithmetic and algebra. Well, I have proved something about thinking,
+too. If I think a thing, and just keep thinking it, pretty soon I see
+it--in some way--outside of me."
+
+A light seemed to flash through Jose's mental chambers, and he
+recalled the words of the explorer in Cartagena. Yes, that was exactly
+what he had said--"every thought that comes into the mind tends to
+become _externalized_, either upon the body as a physical condition,
+or in the environment, or as an event, good or bad." It was a law,
+dimly perceived, but nevertheless sufficiently understood in its
+workings to indicate a tremendous field as yet all but unknown. The
+explorer had called it the law of the externalization of thought. "As
+a man thinketh in his heart, so is he," said the Master, twenty
+centuries before. Did he recognize the law?
+
+Jose's thought swept over his past. Had his own wrong thinking, or the
+wrong thought of others, been the cause of his unhappiness and acute
+mental suffering? But why personalize it? What difference whether it
+be called his, or the Archbishop's, or whose? Let it suffice that it
+was false thought, undirected by the Christ-principle, God, that had
+been externalized in the wreckage which he now called his past life.
+
+He again stood face to face with the most momentous question ever
+propounded by a waiting world: the question of causation. And he knew
+now that causation was wholly spiritual.
+
+"Padre dear, you said just now that God was mind. But, if that is
+true, there is only one mind, for God is everywhere."
+
+"It must be so, _chiquita_," dreamily responded the priest.
+
+"Then He is your mind and my mind, is it not so?"
+
+"Yes--"
+
+"Then, if He is my mind, there just isn't anything good that I can't
+do."
+
+Twilight does not linger in the tropics, and already the shadows that
+stole down through the valley had wrapped the man and child in their
+mystic folds. Hand in hand they turned homeward.
+
+"Padre, if God is my mind, He will do my thinking for me. And all I
+have to do is to keep the door open and let His thoughts come in."
+
+Her sweet voice lingered on the still night air. There was a pensive
+gladness in the man's heart as he tightly held her little hand and led
+her to Rosendo's door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 18
+
+
+The next morning Jose read to Rosendo portions of the communication
+from Wenceslas.
+
+"Chiquinquia," commented the latter. "I remember that Padre Diego
+collected much money from our people for Masses to be said at that
+shrine."
+
+"But where is it, Rosendo?" asked Jose.
+
+"You do not know the story?" queried Rosendo in surprise. "Why, there
+is not a shrine in the whole of Colombia that works so many cures as
+this one. Your grandfather, Don Ignacio, knew the place. And it was
+from him that my--that is, I learned the legend when I was only a boy.
+It is said that a poor, sick young girl in the little Indian village
+of Chiquinquia, north of Bogota, stood praying in her shabby little
+cottage before an old, torn picture of the blessed Virgin." He stopped
+and crossed himself devoutly. Then he resumed:
+
+"_Bueno_, while the girl prayed, the picture suddenly rose up in the
+air; the torn places all closed; the faded colors came again as fresh
+as ever; and the girl was cured of her affliction. The people of the
+village immediately built a shrine, over which they hung the picture;
+and ever since then the most wonderful miracles have been performed by
+it there."
+
+Jose laughed. "You don't believe that, do you, Rosendo?" he asked in
+banter.
+
+"_Hombre_, yes!" exclaimed the latter a bit testily. "I know it! Did
+not Don Felipe go there when the doctor in Mompox told him the little
+white spot on his hand was leprosy? And he came back cured."
+
+Leprosy! Jose started as if he had received a blow. He looked
+furtively at the scar on his own hand, the hand which the leper in
+Maganguey had lacerated that dreadful night, and which often burned
+and ached as if seared by a hot iron. He had never dared to voice the
+carking fear that tightened about his heart at times. But often in the
+depths of night, when dread anticipation sat like a spectre upon his
+bed, he had risen and gone out into the darkness to wrestle with his
+black thoughts. Leprosy! All the gladness and joy left his heart, and
+a pall of darkness settled over his thought. He turned back into his
+cottage and tried to find forgetfulness in the simple duties that lay
+at hand.
+
+"Why is it," he asked himself, as he sat wearily down at his little
+table, "that I always think of evil first; while Carmen's first
+thought is invariably of God?"
+
+He looked at the ugly scar on his hand. What thought was externalized
+in the loathsome experience which produced that? he wondered. Was it
+the summation of all the fear, the weakness, the wrong belief, that
+had filled his previous years? And now why was he finding it so
+difficult to practice what Carmen lived, even though he knew it was
+truth?
+
+"Alas!" he murmured aloud, "it was the seminary that did it. For there
+my thought was educated away from the simple teachings of Jesus. To
+Carmen there is no mystery in godliness. Though she knows utterly
+nothing about Jesus, yet she hourly uses the Christ-principle. It is
+the children who grasp the simple truths of God; while the lack of
+spirituality which results from increasing years shrinks maturer minds
+until they no longer afford entrance to it. For godliness is broad;
+and the mind that receives it must be opened wide."
+
+As he sat with his bowed head clasped in his hands, a sweet, airy
+voice greeted him.
+
+"Why, Padre dear--ah, I caught you that time!--you were thinking that
+two and two are seven, weren't you?" She shook a rebuking finger at
+him.
+
+Framed in the doorway like an old masterpiece, the sunlight bronzing
+her heavy brown curls, the olive-tinted skin of her bare arms and legs
+flushing with health, and her cheap calico gown held tightly about
+her, showing the contour of her full and shapely figure, the girl
+appeared to Jose like a vision from the realm of enchantment. And he
+knew that she did dwell in the land of spiritual enchantment, where
+happiness is not at the mercy of physical sense.
+
+"He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord
+require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk
+humbly with thy God?"
+
+"The Lord our God is a right-thinking God, and right-thinking is what
+He desires in His people."
+
+Jose thought of this as he looked at Carmen. This barefoot girl, who
+walked humbly, trustingly, with her God, had she not supplied him with
+a working formula for his every problem, even to the casting out of
+the corroding fear planted in his heart by that awful experience in
+Maganguey? Though he had suffered much, yet much had been done for
+him. The brusque logic of the explorer had swept his mind clear of its
+last vestige of theological superstition, and prepared it for the
+truth which, under the benign stimulus of this clear-minded child,
+would remake his life, if he could now yield himself utterly to it. He
+must--he would--ceaselessly strive, even though he fell daily, to make
+his life a pattern of hers, wherein there was no knowledge of evil!
+
+The girl came to the priest and leaned fondly against him. Then a
+little sigh escaped her lips, as she looked down into his face with
+pitying affection.
+
+"Padre dear," she said, in a tone that echoed a strain of sadness,
+"I--I don't believe--you love God very much."
+
+The man was startled, and resentment began to well in his heart. "What
+a thing to say, Carmen!" he answered reprovingly.
+
+The girl looked up at him with great, wondering eyes. "But, Padre,"
+she protested, "were you not thinking of things that are not true when
+I came in?"
+
+"No--I was--I was thinking of the future--of--well, _chiquita_, I was
+thinking of something that might happen some day, that is all." He
+stumbled through it with difficulty, for he knew he must not lie to
+the child. Would she ever trust him again if he did?
+
+"And, Padre, were you afraid?"
+
+"Afraid? Yes, _chiquita_, I was." He hung his head.
+
+Carmen looked at him reproachfully. "Then, Padre, I was right--for, if
+you loved God, you would trust Him--and then you couldn't be afraid of
+anything--could you? People who love Him are not afraid."
+
+He turned his head away. "Ah, child," he murmured, "you will find that
+out in the world people don't love God in this day and generation. At
+least they don't love Him that way."
+
+"They don't love Him enough to trust him?" she asked wistfully.
+
+"No." He shook his head sadly. "Nobody trusts Him, not even the
+preachers themselves. When things happen, they rush for a doctor, or
+some other human being to help them out of their difficulty. They
+don't turn to Him any more. They seldom speak His name."
+
+"Have--they--forgotten Him?" she asked slowly, her voice sinking to a
+whisper.
+
+"Absolutely!" He again buried his head in his hands.
+
+The child stood in silence for some moments. Then:
+
+"What made them forget Him, Padre?"
+
+"I guess, _chiquita_, they turned from Him because He didn't answer
+their prayers. I used to pray to Him, too. I prayed hours at a time.
+But nothing seemed to come of it. And so I stopped." He spoke
+bitterly.
+
+"You prayed! You mean--"
+
+"I asked Him for things--to help me out of trouble--I asked Him to
+give me--"
+
+"Why, Padre! Why--that's the very reason!"
+
+He looked up at her blankly. "What is the very reason? What are you
+trying to tell me, child?"
+
+"Why, He is everywhere, and He is right here all the time. And so
+there couldn't be any real trouble for Him to help you out of; and He
+couldn't give you anything, for He has already done that, long ago. We
+are in Him, don't you know? Just like the little fishes in the lake.
+And so when you asked Him for things it showed that you didn't believe
+He had already given them to you. And--you know what you said last
+night about thinking, and that when we think things, we see them?
+Well, He has given you everything; but you thought He hadn't, and so
+you saw it that way--isn't it so?"
+
+She paused for breath. She had talked rapidly and with animation. But
+before he could reply she resumed:
+
+"Padre dear, you know you told me that Jesus was the best man that
+ever lived, and that it was because he never had a bad thought--isn't
+that so?"
+
+"Yes," he murmured.
+
+"Well, did he pray--did he ask God for things?"
+
+"Of course he did, child!" the priest exclaimed. "He always asked Him
+for things. Why, he was always praying--the New Testament is full of
+it!"
+
+Acting on a sudden impulse, he rose and went into the sleeping room
+to get his Bible. The child's face took on an expression of
+disappointment as she heard his words. Her brow knotted, and a
+troubled look came into her brown eyes.
+
+Jose returned with his Bible and seated himself again at the table.
+Opening the book, his eyes fell upon a verse of Mark's Gospel. He
+stopped to read it; and then read it again. Suddenly he looked up at
+the waiting girl.
+
+"What is it, Padre? What does it say?"
+
+He hesitated. He read the verse again; then he scanned the child
+closely, as if he would read a mystery hidden within her bodily
+presence. Abruptly he turned to the book and read aloud:
+
+"'Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye
+pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.'"
+
+The girl drew a long breath, almost a sigh, as if a weight had been
+removed from her mind. "Did Jesus say that?" she asked in glad, eager
+tones.
+
+"Yes--at least it is so reported here," he answered absently.
+
+"Well--_he_ knew, didn't he?"
+
+"Knew what, child?"
+
+"Why, Padre, he told the people to know--just _know_--that they
+already had everything--that God had given them everything good--and
+that if they would _know_ it, they would see it."
+
+Externalization of thought? Yes; or rather, the externalization of
+truth. Jose fell into abstraction, his eyes glued to the page. There
+it stood--the words almost shouted it at him! And there it had stood
+for nearly two thousand years, while priest and prelate, scribe and
+commentator had gone over it again and again through the ages, without
+even guessing its true meaning--without even the remotest idea of the
+infinite riches it held for mankind!
+
+He turned reflectively to Matthew; and then to John. He remembered the
+passages well--in the past he had spent hours of mortal agony poring
+over them and wondering bitterly why God had failed to keep the
+promises they contain.
+
+"And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye
+shall receive."
+
+All things--when ye ask _believing_! But that Greek word surely held
+vastly more than the translators have drawn from it. Nay, not
+believing only, but _understanding_ the allness of God as good, and
+the consequent nothingness of evil, all that seems to oppose Him! How
+could the translators have so completely missed the mark! And
+Carmen--had never seen a Bible until he came into her life; yet she
+knew, knew instinctively, that a good God who was "everywhere" could
+not possibly withhold anything good from His children. It was the
+simplest kind of logic.
+
+But, thought Jose again, if the promises are kept, why have we fallen
+so woefully short of their realization? Then he read again, "If ye
+abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and
+it shall be done unto you." The promise carries a condition--abiding
+in his words--obeying his commands--keeping the very _first_
+Commandment, which is that "Ye shall have no other gods before me"--no
+gods of evil, sickness, chance, or death. The promises are fulfilled
+only on the condition of righteousness--right-thinking about God and
+His infinite, spiritual manifestation.
+
+He turned to Carmen. "_Chiquita_," he said tenderly, "you never ask
+God to give you things, do you?"
+
+"Why, no, Padre; why should I? He gives me everything I need, doesn't
+He?"
+
+"Yes--when you go out to the shales, you--"
+
+"I don't ask Him for things, Padre dear. I just tell Him I _know_ He
+is everywhere."
+
+"I see--yes, you told me that long ago--I understand, _chiquita_."
+His spirit bowed in humble reverence before such divine faith. This
+untutored, unlearned girl, isolated upon these burning shales, far,
+far from the haunts of men of pride and power and worldly lore--this
+barefoot child whose coffers held of material riches scarce more than
+the little calico dress upon her back--this lowly being knew that
+which all the fabled wealth of Ind could never buy! Her prayers were
+not the selfish pleadings that spring from narrow souls, the souls
+that "ask amiss"--not the frenzied yearnings wrung from suffering,
+ignorant hearts--nor were they the inflated instructions addressed
+to the Almighty by a smug, complacent clergy, the self-constituted
+press-bureau of infinite Wisdom. Her prayers, which so often drifted
+like sweetest incense about those steaming shales, were not
+petitions, but _affirmations_. They did not limit God. She did not
+plead with Him. She simply _knew_ that He had already met her needs.
+And that righteousness--right-thinking--became externalized in her
+consciousness in the good she sought. Jesus did the same thing, over
+and over again; but the poor, stupid minds of the people were so
+full of wrong beliefs about his infinite Father that they could not
+understand, no, not even when he called Lazarus from the tomb.
+
+"Ask in my name," urged the patient Jesus. But the poor fishermen
+thought he meant his human name to be a talisman, a sort of "Open
+Sesame," when he was striving all the time, by precept and deed, to
+show them that they must ask in his _character_, must be like him, to
+whom, though of himself he could do nothing, yet all things were
+possible.
+
+Jose's heart began to echo the Master's words: "Father, I thank Thee
+that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast
+revealed them unto babes." He put his arm about Carmen and drew her to
+him.
+
+"Little one," he murmured, "how much has happened in these past few
+weeks!"
+
+Carmen looked up at him with an enigmatical glance and laughed. "Well,
+Padre dear, I don't think anything ever really _happens_, do you?"
+
+"Why not?" he asked.
+
+"Mistakes happen, as in solving my algebra problems. But good things
+never happen, any more than the answers to my problems happen. You
+know, there are rules for getting the answers; but there are no rules
+for making mistakes--are there? But when anything comes out according
+to the rule, it doesn't happen. And the mistakes, which have no rules,
+are not real--the answers are real, but the mistakes are not--and so
+nothing ever really happens. Don't you see, Padre dear?"
+
+"Surely, I see," he acquiesced. Then, while he held the girl close to
+him, he reflected: Good is never fortuitous. It results from the
+application of the Principle of all things. The answer to a
+mathematical problem is a form of good, and it results from the
+application of the principle of mathematics. Mistakes, and the various
+things which "happen" when we solve mathematical problems, do not have
+rules, or principles. They result from ignorance of them, or their
+misapplication. And so in life; for chance, fate, luck, accident and
+the merely casual, come, not from the application of principles, but
+from not applying them, or from ignorance of their use. The human mind
+or consciousness, which is a mental activity, an activity of thought,
+is concerned with mixed thoughts of good and evil. But _it operates
+without any principle whatsoever_. For, if God is infinite good, then
+the beliefs of evil which the human mind holds must be false beliefs,
+illusions, suppositions. A supposition has no principle, no rule. And
+so, it is only the unreal that happens. And even that sort of
+"happening" can be prevented by knowing and using the principle of all
+good, God. A knowledge of evil is not knowledge at all. Evil has no
+rules. Has an accident a principle? He laughed aloud at the idea.
+
+"What is it, Padre?" asked Carmen.
+
+"Nothing, child--and everything! But we are neglecting our work," he
+hastily added, as he roused himself. "What are the lessons for to-day?
+Come! come! We have much to do!" And arranging his papers, and bidding
+Carmen draw up to the table, he began the morning session of his very
+select little school.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+More than six months had elapsed since Jose first set foot upon the
+hot shales of Simiti. In that time his mentality had been turned over
+like a fallow field beneath the plowshare. After peace had been
+established in the country he had often thought to consecrate himself
+to the task of collecting the fragmentary ideas which had been evolved
+in his mind during these past weeks of strange and almost weird
+experience, and trying to formulate them into definite statements of
+truth. Then he would enter upon the task of establishing them by
+actual demonstration, regardless of the years that might be required
+to do so. He realized now that the explorer had done a great work in
+clearing his mind of many of its darker shadows. But it was to
+Carmen's purer, more spiritual influence that he knew his debt was
+heaviest.
+
+Let it not seem strange that mature manhood and extensive travel had
+never before brought to this man's mind the truths, many of which have
+been current almost since the curtain first arose on the melodrama
+of mundane existence. Well nigh impassable limitations had been
+set to them by his own natal characteristics; by his acutely morbid
+sense of filial love which bound him, at whatever cost, to observe
+the bigoted, selfish wishes of his parents; and by the strictness
+with which his mind had been hedged about both in the seminary and
+in the ecclesiastical office where he subsequently labored. The
+first rays of mental freedom did not dawn upon his darkened thought
+until he was sent as an outcast to the New World. Then, when his
+greater latitude in Cartagena, and his still more expanded sense of
+freedom in Simiti, had lowered the bars, there had rushed into his
+mentality such a flood of ideas that he was all but swept away in the
+swirling current.
+
+It is not strange that he rose and fell, to-day strong in the
+conviction of the immanence of infinite good, to-morrow sunken in
+mortal despair of ever demonstrating the truth of the ideas which were
+swelling his shrunken mind. His line of progress in truth was an
+undulating curve, slowly advancing toward the distant goal to which
+Carmen seemed to move in a straight, undeviating line. What though
+Emerson had said that Mind was "the only reality of which men and all
+other natures are better or worse reflectors"? Jose was unaware of the
+sage's mighty deduction. What though Plato had said that we move as
+shadows in a world of ideas? Even if Jose had known of it, it had
+meant nothing to him. What though the Transcendentalists called the
+universe "a metaphore of the human mind"? Jose's thought was too
+firmly clutched by his self-centered, material beliefs to grasp it.
+Doubt of the reality of things material succumbed to the evidence of
+the physical senses and the ridicule of his seminary preceptors. True,
+he believed with Paul, that the "things that are seen are temporal;
+the things that are unseen, are eternal." But this pregnant utterance
+conveyed nothing more to him than a belief of a material heaven to
+follow his exit from a world of matter. It had never occurred to him
+that the world of matter might be the product of those same delusive
+physical senses, through which he believed he gained his knowledge of
+it. It is true that while in the seminary, and before, he had insisted
+upon a more spiritual interpretation of the mission of Jesus--had
+insisted that Christian priests should obey the Master's injunction,
+and heal the sick as well as preach the gospel. But with the advent of
+the troubles which filled the intervening years, these things had
+gradually faded; and the mounting sun that dawned upon him six months
+before, as he lay on the damp floor of his little cell in the
+ecclesiastical dormitory in Cartagena, awaiting the Bishop's summons,
+illumined only a shell, in which agnosticism sat enthroned upon a
+stool of black despair.
+
+Then Carmen entered his life. And her beautiful love, which enfolded
+him like a garment, and her sublime faith, which moved before him like
+the Bethlehem star to where the Christ-principle lay, were, little by
+little, dissolving the mist and revealing the majesty of the great
+God.
+
+In assuming to teach the child, Jose early found that the outer world
+meant nothing to her until he had purged it of its carnal elements.
+Often in days past, when he had launched out upon the dramatic recital
+of some important historical event, wherein crime and bloodshed had
+shaped the incident, the girl would start hastily from her chair and
+put her little hand over his mouth.
+
+"Don't, Padre dear! It is not true!" she would exclaim. "God didn't do
+it, and it isn't so!"
+
+And thereby he learned to differentiate more closely between those
+historical events which sprang from good motives, and those which
+manifested only human passion, selfish ambition, and the primitive
+question, "Who shall be greatest?" Moreover, he had found it best in
+his frequent talks to the people in the church during the week to omit
+all reference to the evil methods of mankind in their dealings one
+with another, and to pass over in silence the criminal aims and low
+motives, and their externalization, which have marked the unfolding of
+the human mind, and which the world preserves in its annals as
+historical fact. The child seemed to divine the great truth that
+history is but the record of human conduct, conduct manifesting the
+mortal mind of man, a mind utterly opposed to the mind that is God,
+and therefore unreal, supposititious, and bearing the "minus" sign.
+Carmen would have none of it that did not reflect good. She refused
+utterly to turn her mental gaze toward recorded evil.
+
+"Padre," she once protested, "when I want to see the sun rise, I don't
+look toward the west. And if you want to see the good come up, why do
+you look at these stories of bad men and their bad thoughts?"
+
+Jose admitted that they were records of the mortal mind--and the mind
+that is mortal is _no_ mind.
+
+"I am learning," he frequently said to himself, after Carmen had left
+at the close of their day's work. "But my real education did not
+commence until I began to see, even though faintly, that the Creator
+is mind and infinite good, and that there is nothing real to the
+belief in evil; that the five physical senses give us _no_ testimony
+of any nature whatsoever; and that real man never could, never did,
+fall."
+
+Thus the days glided swiftly past, and Jose completed his first year
+amid the drowsy influences of this little town, slumbering peacefully
+in its sequestered nook at the feet of the green _Cordilleras_. No
+further event ruffled its archaic civilization; and only with rare
+frequency did fugitive bits of news steal in from the outer world,
+which, to the untraveled thought of this primitive folk, remained
+always a realm vague and mysterious. Quietly the people followed the
+routine of their colorless existence. Each morn broke softly over the
+limpid lake; each evening left the blush of its roseate sunset on the
+glassy waters; each night wound its velvety arms gently about the
+nodding town, while the stars beamed like jewels through the clear,
+soft atmosphere above, or the yellow moonbeams stole noiselessly down
+the old, sunken trail to dream on the lake's invisible waves.
+
+Each month, with unvarying regularity, Rosendo came and went. At times
+Jose thought he detected traces of weariness, insidious and
+persistently lurking, in the old man's demeanor. At times his limbs
+trembled, and his step seemed heavy. Once Jose had found him, seated
+back of his cottage, rubbing the knotted muscles of his legs, and
+groaning aloud. But when he became aware of Jose presence, the groans
+ceased, and the old man sprang to his feet with a look of such grim
+determination written across his face that the priest smothered his
+apprehensions and forbore to speak. Rosendo was immolating himself
+upon his love for the child. Jose knew it; but he would not, if he
+could, prevent the sacrifice.
+
+Each month their contributions were sent to Cartagena; and as
+regularly came a message from Wenceslas, admonishing them to greater
+efforts. With the money that was sent to the Bishop went also a
+smaller packet to the two women who were caring for the unfortunate
+Maria's little babe. The sources of Jose's remittances to Cartagena
+were never questioned by Wenceslas. But Simiti slowly awakened to the
+mysterious monthly trips of Rosendo; and Don Mario's suspicion became
+conviction. He bribed men to follow Rosendo secretly. They came back,
+footsore and angry. Rosendo had thrown them completely off the scent.
+Then Don Mario outfitted and sent his paid emissary after the old man.
+He wasted two full months in vain search along the Guamoco trail. But
+the fever came upon him, and he refused to continue the hunt. The
+Alcalde counted the cost, then loudly cursed himself and Rosendo for
+the many good _pesos_ so ruthlessly squandered. Then he began to ply
+Jose and Rosendo with skillfully framed questions. He worried the
+citizens of the village with his suggestions. Finally he bethought
+himself to apprise the Bishop of his suspicions. But second
+consideration disclosed that plan as likely to yield him nothing but
+loss. He knew Rosendo was getting gold from some source. But, too, he
+was driving a good trade with the old man on supplies. He settled back
+upon his fat haunches at last, determined to keep his own counsel and
+let well-enough alone for the present, while he awaited events.
+
+Rosendo's vivid interest in Carmen's progress was almost pathetic.
+When in Simiti he hung over the child in rapt absorption as she worked
+out her problems, or recited her lessons to Jose. Often he shook his
+head in witness of his utter lack of comprehension. But Carmen
+understood, and that sufficed. His admiration for the priest's
+learning was deep and reverential. He was a silent worshiper, this
+great-hearted man, at the shrine of intellect; but, alas! he himself
+knew only the rudiments, which he had acquired by years of patient,
+struggling effort, through long days and nights filled with toil. His
+particular passion was his Castilian mother-tongue; and the precision
+with which he at times used it, his careful selection of words, and
+his wide vocabulary, occasioned Jose no little astonishment. One day,
+after returning from the hills, he approached Jose as the latter was
+hearing Carmen's lessons, and, with considerable embarrassment,
+offered him a bit of paper on which were written in his ample hand
+several verses. Jose read them, and then looked up wonderingly at the
+old man.
+
+"Why, Rosendo, these are beautiful! Where did you get them?"
+
+"I--they are mine, Padre," replied Rosendo, his face glowing with
+pleasure.
+
+"Yours! Do you mean that you wrote them?" Jose queried in astonishment.
+
+"Yes, Padre. Nights, up in Guamoco, when I had finished my work, and
+when I was so lonely, I would sometimes light my candle and try to
+write out the thoughts that came to me."
+
+Jose could not keep back the tears. He turned his head, that Rosendo
+might not see them. Of the three little poems, two were indited to the
+Virgin Mary, and one to Carmen. He lingered over one of the verses of
+the latter, for it awoke responsive echoes in his own soul:
+
+       "Without you, the world--a desert of sadness;
+           But with you, sweet child--a vale of delight;
+       You laugh, like the sunbeam--my gloom becomes gladness;
+           You sing--from my heart flee the shadows of night."
+
+"I--I have written a good deal of poetry during my life, Padre. I will
+show you some of it, if you wish," Rosendo advanced, encouraged by
+Jose's approbation.
+
+"Decidedly, I would!" returned Jose with animation. "And to think,
+without instruction, without training! What a lesson!"
+
+"Yes, Padre, when I think of the blessed Virgin or the little Carmen,
+my thoughts seem to come in poetry." He stooped over the girl and
+kissed her. The child reached up and clasped her arms about his black
+neck.
+
+"Padre Rosendo," she said sweetly, "you are a poem, a big one, a
+beautiful one."
+
+"Aye," seconded Jose, and there was a hitch in his voice, "you are an
+epic--and the world is the poorer that it cannot read you!"
+
+But, though showing such laudable curiosity regarding the elements
+which entered into their simple life in Simiti, Rosendo seldom spoke
+of matters pertaining to religion. Yet Jose knew that the old faith
+held him, and that he would never, on this plane of existence, break
+away from it. He clung to his _escapulario_; he prostrated himself
+before the statue of the Virgin; he invoked the aid of Virgin and
+Saints when in distress; and, unlike most of the male inhabitants of
+the town, he scrupulously prayed his rosary every night, whether at
+home, or on the lonely margins of the Tigui. He had once said to Jose
+that he was glad Padre Diego had baptised the little Carmen--he felt
+safer to have it so. And yet he would not have her brought up in the
+Holy Catholic faith. Let her choose or formulate her own religious
+beliefs, they should not be influenced by him or others.
+
+"You can never make me believe, Padre," he would sometimes say to the
+priest, "that the little Carmen was not left by the angels on the
+river bank."
+
+"But, Rosendo, how foolish!" remonstrated Jose. "You have Escolastico's
+account, and the boat captain's."
+
+"Well, and what then? Even the blessed Saviour was born of a woman;
+and yet he came from heaven. The angels brought him, guarded him as he
+lay in the manger, protected him all his life, and then took him back
+to heaven again. And I tell you, Padre, the angels brought Carmen, and
+they are always with her!"
+
+Jose ceased to dispute the old man's contentions. For, had he been
+pressed, he would have been forced to admit that there was in the
+child's pure presence a haunting spell of mystery--perhaps the mystery
+of godliness--but yet an undefinable _something_ that always made him
+approach her with a feeling akin to awe.
+
+And in the calm, untroubled seclusion of Simiti, in its mediaeval
+atmosphere of romance, and amid its ceaseless dreams of a stirring
+past, the child unfolded a nature that bore the stamp of divinity, a
+nature that communed incessantly with her God, and that read His name
+in every trivial incident, in every stone and flower, in the sunbeams,
+the stars, and the whispering breeze. In that ancient town, crumbling
+into the final stages of decrepitude, she dwelt in heaven. To her, the
+rude adobe huts were marble castles; the shabby rawhide chairs and
+hard wooden beds were softest down; the coarse food was richer than a
+king's spiced viands; and over it all she cast a mantle of love that
+was rich enough, great enough, to transform with the grace of fresh
+and heavenly beauty the ruins and squalor of her earthly environment.
+
+"Can a child like Carmen live a sinless life, and still be human?"
+Jose often mused, as he watched her flitting through the sunlit hours.
+"It is recorded that Jesus did. Ah, yes; but he was born of a virgin,
+spotless herself. And Carmen? Is she any less a child of God?" Jose
+often wondered, wondered deeply, as he gazed at her absorbed in her
+tasks. And yet--how was she born? Might he not, in the absence of
+definite knowledge, accept Rosendo's belief--accept it because of its
+beautiful, haunting mystery--that she, too, was miraculously born of a
+virgin, and "left by the angels on the river bank"? For, as far as he
+might judge, her life was sinless. It was true, she did at rare
+intervals display little outbursts of childish temper; she sometimes
+forgot and spoke sharply to her few playmates, and even to Dona Maria;
+and he had seen her cry for sheer vexation. And yet, these were but
+tiny shadows that were cast at rarest intervals, melting quickly when
+they came into the glorious sunlight of her radiant nature.
+
+But the mystery shrouding the child's parentage, however he might regard
+it, often roused within his mind thoughts dark and apprehensive.
+Only one communication had come from Padre Diego, and that some four
+months after his precipitous flight. He had gained the Guamoco trail,
+it said, and finally arrived at Remedios. He purposed returning to
+Banco ultimately; and, until then, must leave the little Carmen in the
+care of those in whom he had immovable confidence, and to whom he
+would some day try, however feebly, to repay in an appropriate manner
+his infinite debt of gratitude.
+
+"_Caramba!_" muttered Rosendo, on reading the note. "Does the villain
+think we are fools?"
+
+But none the less could the old man quiet the fear that haunted him,
+nor still the apprehension that some day Diego would make capital of
+his claim. What that claim might accomplish if laid before Wenceslas,
+he shuddered to think. And so he kept the girl at his side when in
+Simiti, and bound Jose and the faithful Juan to redoubled vigilance
+when he was again obliged to return to the mountains.
+
+Time passed. The care-free children of this tropic realm drowsed
+through the long, hot days and gossiped and danced in the soft airs of
+night. Rosendo held his unremitting, lonely vigil of toil in the
+ghastly solitudes of Guamoco. Jose, exiled and outcast, clung
+desperately to the child's hand, and strove to rise into the spiritual
+consciousness in which she dwelt. And thus the year fell softly into
+the yawning arms of the past and became a memory.
+
+Then one day Simiti awoke from its lethargy in terror, with the
+spectre of pestilence stalking through her narrow streets.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 19
+
+
+Feliz Gomez, who had been sent to Bodega Central for merchandise which
+Don Mario was awaiting from the coast, had collapsed as he stepped
+from his boat on his return to Simiti. When he regained consciousness
+he called wildly for the priest.
+
+"Padre!" he cried, when Jose arrived, "it is _la plaga_! Ah,
+_Santisima Virgen_--I am dying!--dying!" He writhed in agony on the
+ground.
+
+The priest bent over him, his heart throbbing with apprehension.
+
+"Padre--" The lad strove to raise his head. "The innkeeper at Bodega
+Central--he told me I might sleep in an empty house back of the
+inn. _Dios mio!_ There was an old cot there--I slept on it two
+nights--_Caramba!_ Padre, they told me then--Ah, _Bendita Virgen_!
+Don't let me die, Padre! _Carisima Virgen_, don't let me die! _Ah,
+Dios--!_"
+
+His body twisted in convulsions. Jose lifted him and dragged him to
+the nearby shed where the lad had been living alone. A terror-stricken
+concourse gathered quickly about the doorway and peered in wide-eyed
+horror through the narrow window.
+
+"Feliz, what did they tell you?" cried Jose, laying the sufferer upon
+the bed and chafing his cold hands. The boy rallied.
+
+"They told me--a Turk, bound for Zaragoza on the Nechi river--had
+taken the wrong boat--in Maganguey. He had been sick--terribly sick
+there. _Ah, Dios!_ It is coming again, Padre--the pain! _Caramba!_
+_Dios mio!_ Save me, Padre, save me!"
+
+"Jacinta! Rosa! I must have help!" cried Jose, turning to the stunned
+people. "Bring cloths--hot water--and send for Don Mario. Dona Lucia,
+prepare an _olla_ of your herb tea at once!"
+
+"Padre"--the boy had become quieter--"when the Turk learned that he
+was on the wrong boat--he asked to be put off at the next town--which
+was Bodega Central. The innkeeper put him in the empty house--and
+he--_Dios_! he died--on that bed where I slept!"
+
+"Well?" said Jose.
+
+"Padre, he died--the day before I arrived there--and--ah_, Santisima
+Virgen_! they said--he died--of--of--_la colera_!"
+
+"Cholera!" cried the priest, starting up. At the mention of the
+disease a loud murmur arose from the people, and they fell back from
+the shed.
+
+"Padre!--_ah, Dios_, how I suffer! Give me the sacrament--I cannot
+live--! Padre--let me confess--now. Ah, Padre, shall I go--to heaven?
+Tell me--!"
+
+Jose's blood froze. He stood with eyes riveted in horror upon the
+tormented lad.
+
+"Padre"--the boy's voice grew weaker--"I fell sick that day--I started
+for Simiti--I died a thousand times in the _cano_--_ah, caramba_! But,
+Padre--promise to get me out of purgatory--I have no money for Masses.
+_Caramba!_ I cannot stand it! Oh, _Dios_! Padre--quick--I have not
+been very wicked--but I stole--_Dios_, how I suffer!--I stole two
+pesos from the innkeeper at Bodega Central--he thought he lost
+them--but I took them out of the drawer--Padre, pay him for me--then I
+will not go to hell! _Dios!_"
+
+Rosendo at that moment entered the house.
+
+"Don't come in here!" cried Jose, turning upon him in wild apprehension.
+"Keep away, for God's sake, keep away!"
+
+In sullen silence Rosendo disregarded the priest's frenzied appeal.
+His eyes widened when he saw the boy torn with convulsions, but he did
+not flinch. Only when he saw Carmen approaching, attracted by the
+great crowd, he hastily bade one of the women turn her back home.
+
+Hour after hour the poor sufferer tossed and writhed. Again and again
+he lapsed into unconsciousness, from which he would emerge to
+piteously beg the priest to save him. _"Ah! Dios, Padre!"_ he pleaded,
+extending his trembling arms to Jose, "can you do nothing? Can you not
+help me? _Santisima Virgen_, how I suffer!"
+
+Then, when the evening shadows were gathering, the final convulsions
+seized him and wrenched his poor soul loose. Jose and Rosendo were
+alone with him when the end came. The people had early fled from the
+stricken lad, and were gathering in little groups before their homes
+and on the corners, discussing in low, strained tones the advent of
+the scourge. Those who had been close to the sick boy were now cold
+with fear. Women wept, and children clung whimpering to their skirts.
+The men talked excitedly in hoarse whispers, or lapsed into a state of
+terrified dullness.
+
+Jose went from the death-bed to the Alcalde. Don Mario saw him coming,
+and fled into the house, securing the door after him. "Go away,
+Padre!" he shouted through the shutters. "For the love of the Virgin
+do not come here! _Caramba!_"
+
+"But, Don Mario, the lad is dead!" cried Jose in desperation. "And
+what shall we do? We must face the situation. Come, you are the
+Alcalde. Let us talk about--"
+
+"_Caramba!_ Do what you want to! I shall get out! _Nombre de Dios!_ If
+I live through the night I shall go to the mountains to-morrow!"
+
+"But we must have a coffin to bury the lad! You must let us have
+one!"
+
+"No! You cannot enter here, Padre!" shrilled Don Mario, jumping up and
+down in his excitement. "Bury him in a blanket--anything--but keep
+away from my house!"
+
+Jose turned sadly away and passed through the deserted streets back to
+the lonely shed. Rosendo met him at the door. "_Bien, Padre_," he said
+quietly, "we are exiled."
+
+"Have you been home yet?" asked Jose.
+
+"_Hombre_, no! I cannot go home now. I might carry the disease to the
+senora and the little Carmen. I must stay here. And," he added, "you
+too, Padre."
+
+Jose's heart turned to lead. "But, the boy?" he exclaimed, pointing
+toward the bed.
+
+"When it is dark, Padre," replied Rosendo, "we will take him out
+through the back door and bury him beyond the shales. _Hombre!_ I must
+see now if I can find a shovel."
+
+Jose sank down upon the threshold, a prey to corroding despair, while
+Rosendo went out in search of the implement. The streets were dead,
+and few lights shone from the latticed windows. The pall of fear had
+settled thick upon the stricken town. Those who were standing before
+their houses as Rosendo approached hastily turned in and closed their
+doors. Jose, in the presence of death in a terrible form, sat mute. In
+an hour Rosendo returned.
+
+"No shovel, Padre," he announced. "But I crept up back of my house and
+got this bar which I had left standing there when I came back from the
+mountains. I can scrape up the loose earth with my hands. Come now."
+
+Jose wearily rose. He was but a tool in the hands of a man to whom
+physical danger was but a matter of temperament. He absently helped
+Rosendo wrap the black, distorted corpse in the frayed blanket; and
+then together they passed out into the night with their grewsome
+burden.
+
+"Why not to the cemetery, Rosendo?" asked Jose, as the old man took an
+opposite course.
+
+"_Hombre_, no!" cried Rosendo. "The cemetery is on shale, and I could
+not dig through it in time. We must get the body under ground at once.
+_Caramba!_ If we put it in one of the _bovedas_ in the cemetery the
+buzzards will eat it and scatter the plague all over the town. The
+_bovedas_ are broken, and have no longer any doors, you remember."
+
+So beyond the shales they went, stumbling through the darkness, their
+minds freighted with a burden of apprehension more terrible than the
+thing they bore in their arms. The shales crossed, Rosendo left the
+trail, cutting a way through the bush with his _machete_ a distance of
+several hundred feet. Then, by the weird yellow light of a single
+candle, he opened the moist earth and laid the hideous, twisted thing
+within. Jose watched the procedure in dull apathy.
+
+"And now, Padre," said Rosendo, at length breaking the awful silence,
+"where will you sleep to-night? I cannot let you go back to your
+house. It is too near the senora and Carmen. No man in town will let
+you stay in his house, since you have handled the plague. Will you
+sleep in the shed where the lad died? Or out on the shales with me? I
+called to the senora when I went after the bar, and she will lay two
+blankets out in the _plaza_ for us. And in the morning she will put
+food where we can get it. What say you?"
+
+Jose stood dazed. His mind had congealed with the horror of the
+situation. Rosendo took him by the arm. "Come, Padre," he said gently.
+"The hill up back of the second church is high, and no one lives near.
+I will get the blankets and we will pass the night out there."
+
+"But, Rosendo!" Jose found his voice. "What is it? Is it--_la
+colera_?"
+
+"_Quien sabe?_ Padre," returned Rosendo. "There has been plague
+here--these people, some of them, still remember it--but it was long
+ago. There have been cases along the river--and brought, I doubt not,
+by Turks, like this one."
+
+"And do you think that it is now all along the river? That Bodega
+Central is being ravaged by the scourge? That it will sweep through
+the country?"
+
+"_Quien sabe?_ Padre. All I do know is that the people of Simiti are
+terribly frightened, and the pestilence may wipe away the town before
+it leaves."
+
+"But--good God! what can we do, Rosendo?"
+
+"Nothing, Padre--but stay and meet it," the man replied quietly.
+
+They reached the hill in silence. Then Rosendo wrapped himself in one
+of the blankets which he had picked up as he passed through the
+_plaza_, and lay down upon the shale.
+
+But Jose slept not that night. The warm, sluggish air lay about him,
+mephitic in its touch. The great vampire bats that soughed through it
+symbolized the "pestilence that walketh in darkness." Lonely calls
+drifted across the warm lake waters from the dripping jungle like the
+hollow echoes of lost souls. Rosendo tossed fitfully, and now and then
+uttered deep groans. The atmosphere was prescient with horror. He
+struggled to his feet and paced gloomily back and forth along the brow
+of the hill. The second church stood near, deserted, gloomy, no longer
+a temple of God, but a charnel house of fear and black superstition.
+In the distance the ghostly white walls of the Rincon church glowed
+faintly in the feeble light that dripped from the yellow stars. There
+was now no thought of God--no thought of divine aid. Jose was riding
+again the mountainous billows of fear and unbelief; nor did he look
+for the Master to come to him through the thick night across the
+heaving waters.
+
+The tardy dawn brought Dona Maria to the foot of the hill, where she
+deposited food, and held distant converse with the exiles. Don Mario
+had just departed, taking the direction across the lake toward San
+Lucas. He had compelled his wife to remain in Simiti to watch over the
+little store, while he fled with two boatmen and abundant supplies.
+Others likewise were preparing to flee, some to the Boque river, some
+up the Guamoco trail. Dona Maria was keeping Carmen closely, nor would
+she permit her to as much as venture from the house.
+
+"Why should not the senora take Carmen and go to Boque, Rosendo?"
+asked Jose. "Then you and I could occupy our own houses until we knew
+what the future had in store for us."
+
+Rosendo agreed at once. Carmen would be safe in the protecting care of
+Don Nicolas. Dona Maria yielded only after much persuasion. From the
+hilltop Jose could descry the Alcalde's boat slowly wending its way
+across the lake toward the Juncal. Rosendo, having finished his
+morning meal, prepared to meet the day.
+
+"_Bien_, Padre," he said, "when the sun gets high we cannot stay here.
+We must seek shade--but where?" He looked about dubiously.
+
+"Why not in the old church, Rosendo?"
+
+"_Caramba_, never!" cried Rosendo. "_Hombre!_ that old church is
+haunted!"
+
+Jose could never understand the nature of this man, so brave in the
+face of physical danger, yet so permeated with superstitious dread of
+those imaginary inhabitants of the invisible realm.
+
+"Padre," suggested Rosendo at length. "We will go down there, nearer
+the lake, to the old shack where the blacksmith had his forge. He died
+two years ago, and the place has since been empty."
+
+"Go then, Rosendo, and I will follow later," assented Jose, who now
+craved solitude for the struggle for self-mastery which he saw
+impending.
+
+While Rosendo moved off toward the deserted shack, the priest
+continued his restless pacing along the crest of the hill. The morning
+was glorious--but for the blighting thoughts of men. The vivid green
+of the dewy hills shone like new-laid color. The lake lay like a
+diamond set in emeralds. The dead town glowed brilliantly white in the
+mounting sun. Jose knew that the heat would soon drive him from the
+hill. He glanced questioningly at the old church. He walked toward it;
+then mounted the broken steps. The hinges, rusted and broken, had let
+the heavy door, now bored through and through by _comejen_ ants, slip
+to one side. Through the opening thus afforded, Jose could peer into
+the cavernous blackness within. The sun shot its terrific heat at him,
+and the stone steps burned his sandaled feet. He pushed against the
+door. It yielded. Then through the opening he entered the dusty,
+ill-smelling old edifice.
+
+When his eyes had become accustomed to the dimness within, he saw that
+the interior was like that of the other church, only in a more
+dilapidated state. There were but few benches; and the brick altar,
+poorer in construction, had crumbled away at one side. Dust, mold, and
+cobwebs covered everything; but the air was gratefully cool. Jose
+brushed the thick dust from one of the benches. Then he lay down upon
+it, and was soon sunk in heavy sleep.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+The sun had just crossed the meridian. Jose awoke, conscious that he
+was not alone. The weird legend that hung about the old church
+filtered slowly through his dazed brain. Rosendo had said that an
+angel of some kind dwelt in the place. And surely a presence sat on
+the bench in the twilight before him! He roused up, rubbed his sleepy
+eyes, and peered at it. A soft laugh echoed through the stillness.
+
+"I looked all around for the bad angel that padre Rosendo said lived
+here, and I didn't find anything but you."
+
+"Carmen, child! What are you doing here? Don't come near me!" cried
+Jose, drawing away.
+
+"Why, Padre--what is it? Why must I keep away from you? First, madre
+Maria tells me I must go to Boque with her. And now you will not let
+me come near you. And I love you so--" Tears choked her voice, and she
+sat looking in mute appeal at the priest.
+
+Jose's wit seemed hopelessly scattered. He passed his hand dully
+across his brow as if to brush the mist from his befogged brain.
+
+"Padre dear." The pathetic little voice wrung his heart. "Padre dear,
+when madre Maria told me I had to go to Boque, I went to your house to
+ask you, and--and you weren't there. And I couldn't find padre Rosendo
+either--and there wasn't anybody in the streets at all--and I came up
+here. Then I saw the blanket out on the hill, and I kept hunting for
+you--I wanted to see you _so_ much. And when I saw the door of the
+church broken, I thought you might be in here--and so I came in--and,
+oh, Padre dear, I was _so_ glad to find you--but I wouldn't wake you
+up--and while you were sleeping I just _knew_ that God was taking care
+of you all the time--"
+
+Jose had sunk again upon the bench.
+
+"Padre dear!" Carmen came flying to him across the darkness and threw
+her arms about his neck. "Padre dear! I just couldn't stand it to
+leave you!" The flood-gates opened wide, and the girl sobbed upon his
+shoulder.
+
+"Carmen--child!" But his own tears were mingling freely with hers. The
+strain of the preceding night had left him weak. He strove feebly to
+loosen the tightly clasped arms of the weeping girl. Then he buried
+his drawn face in her thick curls and strained her to his heaving
+breast. What this might mean to Carmen he knew full well. But--why not
+have it so? If she preceded him into the dark vale, it would be for
+only a little while. He would not live without her.
+
+The sobs died away, and the girl looked up at the suffering man.
+
+"Padre dear, you will not send me away--will you?" she pleaded.
+
+"No! no!" he cried fiercely, "not now!"
+
+A happy little sigh escaped her lips. Then she drew herself closer to
+him and whispered softly, "Padre dear--I love you."
+
+A groan burst from the man. "God above!" he cried, "have you the heart
+to let evil attack such a one as this!"
+
+The girl looked up at him in wonder. "Why, Padre dear--what is it?
+Tell me."
+
+"Nothing, child--nothing! Did--er--did your madre Maria say why you
+must go to Boque?" he asked hesitatingly.
+
+"She said Feliz Gomez died last night of the plague, and that the
+people were afraid they would all get sick and die too. And she
+said--Padre dear, she said you were afraid I would get sick, and so
+you told her to take me away. You didn't mean that, did you? She
+didn't understand you, did she? You are not afraid, are you? You can't
+be, you know, can you? You and I are not afraid of anything. We
+_know_--don't we, Padre dear?"
+
+"What do we know, child?" he asked sadly.
+
+"Why--why, we know that God is _everywhere_!" She looked at him
+wonderingly. What could she understand of a nature so wavering?--firm
+when the sun shone bright above--tottering when the blasts of
+adversity whirled about it? He had said such beautiful things to her,
+such wonderful things about God and His children only yesterday. And
+now--why this awful change? Why again this sudden lowering of
+standards?
+
+He had sunk deep into his dark thoughts. "Death is inevitable!" he
+muttered grimly, forgetful of the child's presence.
+
+"Oh, Padre dear!" she pleaded, passing her little hand tenderly over
+his cheek. Then her face brightened. "I know what it is!" she
+exclaimed. "You are just trying to think that two and two are
+seven--and you can't prove it--and so you'd better stop trying!" She
+broke into a little forced laugh.
+
+Jose sat wrapped in black silence.
+
+"Padre dear." Her voice was full of plaintive tenderness. "You have
+talked so much about that good man Jesus. What would he say if he saw
+you trying to make two and two equal seven? And if he had been here
+last night--would he have let Feliz die?"
+
+The priest made no answer. None was required when Carmen put her
+questions.
+
+"Padre dear," she continued softly. "Why didn't _you_ cure Feliz?"
+
+His soul withered under the shock.
+
+"You have told me, often, that Jesus cured sick people. And you said
+he even made the dead ones live again--didn't you, Padre dear?"
+
+"Yes," he murmured; "they say he did."
+
+"And you read to me once from your Bible where he told the people that
+he gave them power over everything. And you said he was the great
+rule--you called him the Christ-principle--and you said he never went
+away from us. Well, Padre dear," she concluded with quick emphasis,
+"why don't you use him now?"
+
+She waited a moment. Then, when no reply came--
+
+"Feliz didn't die, Padre."
+
+"_Hombre!_ It's all the same--he's gone!" he cried in a tone of sullen
+bitterness.
+
+"You think he is gone, Padre dear. And Feliz thought he had to go. And
+so now you both see it that way--that's all. If you would see things
+the way that good man Jesus told you to--well, wouldn't they be
+different--wouldn't they, Padre dear?"
+
+"No doubt they would, child, no doubt. But--"
+
+She waited a moment for him to express the limitation which the
+conjunctive implied. Then:
+
+"Padre dear, how do you think he did it? How did he cure sick people,
+and make the dead ones live again?"
+
+"I--I don't know, child--I am not sure. That knowledge has been lost,
+long since."
+
+"You _do_ know, Padre," she insisted; "you _do_! Did he know that God
+was everywhere?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And what did he say sickness was?"
+
+"He classed it with all evil under the one heading--a lie--a lie about
+God."
+
+"But when a person tells a lie, he doesn't speak the truth, does he?"
+
+"No."
+
+"And a lie has no rule, no principle?"
+
+"No."
+
+"And so it isn't anything--doesn't come from anything true--hasn't any
+real life, has it?"
+
+"No, a lie is utterly unreal, not founded on anything but supposition,
+either ignorant or malicious."
+
+"Then Jesus said sickness was a supposition, didn't he?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And God, who made everything real, didn't make suppositions. He made
+only real things."
+
+"True, child."
+
+"Well, Padre dear, if you _know_ all that, why don't you act as if you
+did?"
+
+Act? Yes, act your knowledge! Acknowledge Him in all your ways! Then
+He shall bring it to pass! What? That which is real--life, not
+death--immortality, not oblivion--love, not hate--good, not evil!
+
+"_Chiquita_--" His voice was thick. "You--you believe all that, don't
+you?"
+
+"No, Padre dear"--she smiled up at him through the darkness--"I don't
+believe it, I _know_ it."
+
+"But--how--how do you know it?"
+
+"God tells me, Padre. I hear Him, always. And I prove it every day.
+The trouble is, you believe it, but I don't think you ever try to
+_prove_ it. If you believed my problems in algebra could be solved,
+but never tried to prove it--well, you wouldn't do very much in
+algebra, would you?" She laughed at the apt comparison.
+
+Jose's straining eyes were peering straight ahead. Through the thick
+gloom he saw the mutilated figure of the Christ hanging on its cross
+beside the crumbling altar. It reflected the broken image of the
+Christ-principle in the hearts of men. And was he not again crucifying
+the gentle Christ? Did not the world daily crucify him and nail him
+with their false beliefs to the cross of carnal error which they set
+up in the Golgotha of their own souls? And were they not daily paying
+the awful penalty therefor? Aye, paying it in agony, in torturing
+agony of soul and body, in blasted hopes, crumbling ambitions, and
+inevitable death!
+
+"Padre dear, what did the good man say sickness came from?" Carmen's
+soft voice brought him back from his reflections.
+
+"Sickness? Why, he always coupled disease with sin."
+
+"And sin?"
+
+"Sin is--is unrighteousness."
+
+"And that is--?" she pursued relentlessly.
+
+"Wrong conduct, based on wrong thinking. And wrong thinking is based
+on wrong beliefs, false thought."
+
+"But to believe that there is anything but God, and the things He
+made, is sin, isn't it, Padre dear?"
+
+"Sin is--yes, to believe in other powers than God is to break the very
+first Commandment--and that is the chief of sins!"
+
+"Well, Padre dear, can't you make yourself think right? Do you know
+what you really think about God, anyway?"
+
+Jose rose and paced up and down through the dark aisle.
+
+"I try to think," he answered, "that He is mind; that He is infinite,
+everywhere; that He is all-powerful; that He knows all things; and
+that He is perfect and good. I try not to think that He made evil, or
+anything that is or could be bad, or that could become sick, or decay,
+or die. Whatever He made must be real, and real things last forever,
+are immortal, eternal. I strive to think He did make man in His image
+and likeness--and that man has never been anything else--that man
+never 'fell.'"
+
+"What is that, Padre?"
+
+"Only an old, outworn theological belief. But, to resume: I believe
+that, since God is mind, man must be an idea of His. Since God is
+infinite, man must exist in Him. I know that any number of lies can be
+made up about true things. And any number of falsities can be assumed
+about God and what He has made. I am sure that the material universe
+and man are a part of the lie about God and the way He manifests and
+expresses Himself in and through His ideas. Everything is mental. We
+_must_ hold to that! The mental realm includes all truth, all fact.
+But there may be all sorts of supposition about this fact. And yet,
+while fact is based upon absolute and undeviating principle--and I
+believe that principle to be God--supposition is utterly without any
+rule or principle whatsoever. It is wholly subject to truth, to
+Principle, to God. Hence, bad or wrong thought is absolutely subject
+to good or real thought, and must go down before it. The mortal man is
+a product of wrong thought. He is a supposition; and so is the
+universe of matter in which he is supposed to live. We have already
+learned that the things he thinks he hears, feels, tastes, smells, and
+sees are only his own thoughts. And these turn out to be suppositions.
+Hence, they are nothing real."
+
+"Well, Padre! How fast you talk! And--such big words! I--I don't think
+I understand all you say. But, anyway, I guess it is right." She
+laughed again.
+
+"I _know_ it is right!" he exclaimed, forgetting that he was talking
+to a child. "Evil, which includes sickness and death, is only a false
+idea of good. It is a misinterpretation, made in the thought-activity
+which constitutes what we call the human consciousness. And that is
+the opposite--the suppositional opposite--of the mind that is God.
+Evil, then, becomes a supposition and a lie. Just what Jesus said it
+was!"
+
+"But, Padre--I don't see why you don't act as if you really believed
+all that!"
+
+"Fear--only fear! It has not yet been eradicated from my thought," he
+answered slowly.
+
+"But, Padre, what will drive it out?"
+
+"Love, child--love only, for 'perfect love casteth out fear.'"
+
+"Oh, then, Padre dear, I will just love it all out of you, every bit!"
+she exclaimed, clasping her arms about him again and burying her face
+in his shoulder.
+
+"Ah, little one," he said sadly, "I must love more. I must love my
+fellow-men and good more than myself and evil. If I didn't love myself
+so much, I would have no fear. If I loved God as you do, dearest
+child, I would never come under fear's heavy shadow."
+
+"You _do_ love everybody--you have got to, for you are God's child.
+And now," she added, getting down and drawing him toward the door,
+"let us go out of this smelly old church. I want you to come home.
+We've got to have our lessons, you know."
+
+"But--child, the people will not let me come near them--nor you
+either, now," he said, holding back. "They think we may give them the
+disease."
+
+She looked up at him with a tender, wistful smile. Then she shook her
+head. "Padre dear, I love you," she said, "but you make me lots of
+trouble. But--we are going to love all the fear away, and--" stamping
+her little bare foot--"we are going to get the right answer to your
+problem, too!"
+
+The priest took her hand, and together they passed out into the
+dazzling sunlight.
+
+On the brow of the hill stood Rosendo, talking excitedly, and with
+much vehement gesticulation, to Dona Maria, who remained a safe
+distance from him. The latter and her good consort exclaimed in horror
+when they saw Carmen with the priest.
+
+_"Caramba!"_ cried Rosendo, darting toward them. "I could kill you for
+this, Padre! _Hombre!_ How came the child here, and with you? _Dios
+mio!_ Have you no heart, but that, when you know you may die, you
+would take her with you?" He swung his long arms menacingly before the
+priest, and his face worked with passion.
+
+The girl ran between the two men. "Padre Rosendo!" she cried, seizing
+one of his hands in both of her own. "I came of myself. He did not
+call me. I found him asleep. And he isn't going to die--nor I,
+either!"
+
+Dona Maria approached and quietly joined the little group.
+
+_"Caramba! Go back!"_ cried the distressed Rosendo, turning upon her.
+"_Hombre! Dios y diablo!_ will you all die?" He stamped the ground and
+tore his hair in his impotent protest.
+
+"_Na_, Rosendo," said the woman placidly, "if you are in danger, I
+will be too. If you must die, so will I. I will not be left alone."
+
+A thrill of admiration swept over the priest. Then he smiled wanly.
+"_Bien_," he said, "we have all been exposed to the plague now, and we
+will stand together. Shall we return home?"
+
+Rosendo's anger soon evaporated, but his face retained traces of deep
+anxiety. "Maria tells me, Padre," he said, "that Amado Sanchez fell
+sick last night with the flux, and nobody will stay with him,
+excepting his woman."
+
+"Let us go to him, then," replied the priest. "Dona Maria, do you and
+Carmen return to your house, whilst Rosendo and I seek to be of
+service to those who may need us."
+
+Together they started down the main street of the town. Dead silence
+reigned everywhere. Many of the inhabitants had fled to the hills. But
+there were still many whose circumstances would not permit of flight.
+As they neared Rosendo's house the little party were hailed from a
+distance by Juan Mendoza and Pedro Cardenas, neighbors living on
+either side of Rosendo and the priest.
+
+"_Hola_, Padre and Don Rosendo!" they called; "you cannot return to
+your homes, for you would expose us to the plague! Go back! Go back!
+We will burn the houses over your heads if you return!"
+
+"But, _amigos_--" Jose began.
+
+"_Na_, Padre," they cried in tense excitement, "it is for the best! Go
+back to the hill! We will supply you with food and blankets--but you
+must not come here! Amado Sanchez is sick; Guillermo Hernandez is
+sick. Go back! You must not expose us!" The attitude of the
+frightened, desperate men was threatening. Jose saw that it would be
+unwise to resist them.
+
+"_Bien, compadres_, we will go," he said, his heart breaking with
+sorrow for these children of fear. Then, assembling his little family,
+he turned and retraced his steps sadly through the street that burned
+in lonely silence in the torrid heat.
+
+Carmen's eyes were big with wonder; but a happy idea soon drove all
+apprehension from her thought. "Padre!" she exclaimed, "we will live
+in the old church, and we will play house there!" She clapped her
+hands in merriment.
+
+"Never!" muttered Rosendo. "I will not enter that place! It would
+bring the plague upon me! _Na! na!_" he insisted, when they reached
+the steps, "do you go in if you wish; but I will stay outside in the
+shadow of the building." Nor would the combined entreaties of Carmen
+and Jose induce him to yield. Dona Maria calmly and silently prepared
+to remain with him.
+
+"Pull off the old door, Padre!" cried Carmen excitedly. "And open all
+the shutters. Look! Look, Padre! There goes the bad angel that padre
+Rosendo was afraid of!" A number of bats, startled at the noise and
+the sudden influx of light, were scurrying out through the open door.
+
+"Like the legion of demons which Jesus sent into the swine," said
+Jose. "I will tell you the story some day, _chiquita_," he said, in
+answer to her look of inquiry.
+
+The day passed quickly for the child, nor did she seem to cast another
+thought in the direction of the cloud which hung over the sorrowing
+town. At dusk, Mendoza and Cardenas came to the foot of the hill with
+food and blankets.
+
+"Amado Sanchez has just died," they reported.
+
+"What!" cried Jose. "So soon? Why--he fell sick only yesterday!"
+
+"No, Padre, he had been ailing for many days--but it may have been the
+plague just the same. Perhaps it was with us before Feliz brought it.
+But we have not exposed ourselves to the disease and--Padre--there is
+not a man in Simiti who will bury Amado. What shall we do?"
+
+Jose divined the man's thought. "_Bien, amigo_," he replied. "Go you
+back to your homes. To-night Rosendo and I will come and bury him."
+
+Jose had sent Carmen and Dona Maria beyond the church, that they might
+not hear the grewsome tidings. When the men had returned to their
+homes, the little band on the hilltop ate their evening meal in
+silence. Then a bench was swept clean for Carmen's bed, for she
+insisted on sleeping in the old church with Jose when she learned that
+he intended to pass the night there.
+
+Again, as the heavy shadows were gathering, Jose and Rosendo descended
+into the town and bore out the body of Amado Sanchez to a resting
+place beside the poor lad who had died the day before. To a man of
+such delicate sensibilities as Jose, whose nerves were raw from
+continual friction with a world with which he was ever at variance,
+this task was one of almost unendurable horror. He returned to the old
+church in a state bordering on collapse.
+
+"Rosendo," he murmured, as they seated themselves on the hillside in
+the still night, "I think we shall all die of the plague. And it were
+well so. I am tired, utterly tired of striving to live against such
+odds. _Bien_, let it come!"
+
+"Courage, _compadre_!" urged Rosendo, putting his great arm about the
+priest's shoulders. "We must all go some time, and perhaps now; but
+while we live let us live like men!"
+
+"You do not fear death?"
+
+"No--what is it that the old history of mine says? 'Death is not
+departing, but arriving.' I am not afraid. But the little Carmen--I
+wish that she might live. She--ah, Padre, she could do much good in
+the world. _Bien_, we are all in the hands of the One who brought us
+here--and He will take us in the way and at the time that He
+appoints--is it not so, Padre?"
+
+Jose lapsed again into meditation. No, he could not say that it was
+so. The thoughts which he had expressed to Carmen that morning still
+flitted through his mind. The child was right--Rosendo's philosophy
+was that of resignation born of ignorance. It was the despair of
+doubt. And he did not really think that Carmen would be smitten of the
+plague. Something seemed to tell him that it was impossible. But, on
+the other hand, he would himself observe every precaution in regard to
+her. No, he would not sleep in the church that night. He had handled
+the body of the plague's second victim, and he could not rest near the
+child. Perhaps exposure to the night air and the heavy dews would
+serve to cleanse him. And so he wrapped himself in the blanket which
+Dona Maria brought from within the church, and lay down beside the
+faithful pair.
+
+In the long hours of that lonely night Jose lay beneath the shimmering
+stars pondering, wondering. Down below in the smitten town the poor
+children of his flock were eating their hearts out in anxious dread
+and bitter sorrow. Was it through any fault of theirs that this thing
+had come upon them, like a bolt from a cloudless sky? No--except that
+they were human, mortal. And if the thing were real, it came from the
+mind that is God; if unreal--but it seemed real to these simple folk,
+terribly so!
+
+His heart yearned toward them as his thought penetrated the still
+reaches of the night and hovered about their lonely vigil. Yet, what
+had he to offer? What balm could he extend to those wearing out weary
+hours on beds of agony below? Religion? True religion, if they could
+but understand it; but not again the empty husks of the faith that had
+been taught them in the name of Christ! Where did scholastic theology
+stand in such an hour as this? Did it offer easement from their
+torture of mind and body? No. Strength to bear in patience their heavy
+burden? No. Hope? Not of this life--nay, naught but the thread-worn,
+undemonstrable promise of a life to come, if, indeed, they might
+happily avoid the pangs of purgatory and the horrors of the quenchless
+flames of hell! God, what had not the Church to answer for!
+
+And yet, these ignorant children were but succumbing to the
+evidence of their material senses--though small good it would do to
+tell them so! Could they but know--as did Carmen--that rejection of
+error and reception of truth meant life--ah, could they but know!
+Could he himself but know--really _know_--that God is neither the
+producer of evil, nor the powerless witness of its ravages--could
+he but understand and prove that evil is not a self-existing
+entity, warring eternally with God, what might he not accomplish!
+For Jesus had said: "These signs"--the cure of disease, the rout of
+death--"shall follow them that believe," that understand, that
+know. Why could he not go down to those beds of torture and say
+with the Christ: "Arise, for God hath made thee whole"? He knew
+why--"without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that
+cometh of God must believe"--must _know_--"that He is a rewarder of
+them that diligently seek Him." The suffering victims in the town
+below were asleep in a state of religious dullness. The task of
+independent thinking was onerous to such as they. Gladly did they
+leave it to the Church to do their thinking for them. And thus did
+they suffer for the trust betrayed!
+
+But truth is omnipotent, and "one with God is a majority." Jesus gave
+few rules, but none more fundamental than that "with God all things
+are possible." Was he, Jose, walking with God? If so, he might arise
+and go down into the stricken town and bid its frightened children be
+whole. If he fully recognized "the Father" as all-powerful,
+all-good, and if he could clearly see and retain his grasp on the
+truth that evil, the supposititious opposite of good, had neither
+place nor power, except in the minds of mortals receptive to it--ah,
+then--then----
+
+A soft patter of little feet on the shales broke in upon his thought.
+He turned and beheld Carmen coming through the night.
+
+"Padre dear," she whispered, "why didn't you come and sleep in the
+church with me?" She crept close to him. He had not the heart nor the
+courage to send her away. He put out his arm and drew her to him.
+
+"Padre dear," the child murmured, "it is nice out here under the
+stars--and I want to be with you--I love you--love you--" The whisper
+died away, and the child slept on his arm.
+
+"Perfect love casteth out fear."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 20
+
+
+Dawn brought Juan Mendoza and Pedro Cardenas again to the hill, and
+with them came others. "Mateo Gil, Pablo Polo, and Juanita Gomez are
+sick, Padre," announced Mendoza, the spokesman. "They ask for the last
+sacrament. You could come down and give it to them, and then return to
+the hill, is it not so?"
+
+"Yes," assented Jose, "I will come."
+
+"And, Padre," continued Mendoza, "we talked it over last night, after
+Amado Sanchez died, and we think it would help if you said a Mass for
+us in the church to-day."
+
+"I will do so this afternoon, after I have visited the sick," he
+replied pityingly.
+
+Mendoza hesitated. Then--
+
+"We think, too, Padre, that if we held a procession--in honor of Santa
+Barbara--perhaps she would pray for us, and might stop the sickness.
+We could march through the town this evening, while you stood here and
+prayed as we passed around the hill. What say you, Padre?"
+
+Jose was about to express a vehement protest. But the anxious faces
+directed toward him melted his heart.
+
+"Yes, children," he replied gently, "do as you wish. Keep your houses
+this afternoon while I visit the sick and offer the Mass. I will leave
+the _hostia_ on the altar. You need not fear to touch it. Carry it
+with you in your rogation to Santa Barbara this evening, and I will
+stand here and pray for you."
+
+The people departed, sorrowing, but grateful. Hope revived in the
+breasts of some. But most of them awaited in trembling the icy touch
+of the plague.
+
+"Padre," said Rosendo, when the people had gone. "I have been thinking
+about the sickness, and I remember what my father told me he learned
+from a Jesuit missionary. It was that the fat from a human body would
+cure rheumatism. And then the missionary laughed and said that the fat
+from a plump woman would cure all diseases of mind and body. If that
+is so, Padre, and Juanita Gomez dies--she is very plump, Padre--could
+we not take some of the fat from her body and rub it on the sick--"
+
+"God above, Rosendo! what are you saying!" cried Jose recoiling in
+horror.
+
+_"Caramba!"_ retorted the honest man. "Would you not try everything
+that might possibly save these people? What the missionary said may be
+true."
+
+"No, my faithful ally," replied Jose. "You did not get the sense in
+which he said it. Neither human fat nor medicine of any kind will help
+these people. Nothing will be accomplished for them until their fear
+has been removed. For, I--well, the symptoms manifested by poor Feliz
+may have been those of Asiatic cholera. But--I begin to doubt. And as
+for Sanchez--_Bien_, we do not know--not for certain." He stopped and
+pondered the question.
+
+"Padre," pursued Rosendo, "I have used the liver of a lizard for
+toothache, and it was very good."
+
+"I have no doubt of it, Rosendo," replied Jose, with a smile. "And in
+days past stranger remedies than that were used by supposedly wise
+people. When the eyesight was poor, they rubbed wax from the human ear
+upon the eyes, and I doubt not marvelous restorations of sight were
+made. So also dogs' teeth were ground into powder and taken to
+alleviate certain bodily pains. Almost everything that could be
+swallowed has been taken by mankind to cure their aches and torments.
+But they still ache to-day; and will continue to do so, I believe,
+until their present state of mind greatly changes."
+
+When the simple midday meal of corn _arepa_ and black coffee was
+finished, Jose descended into the quiet town. "It is absurd that we
+should be kept on the hill," he had said to Rosendo, "but these dull,
+simple minds believe that, having handled those dead of the plague, we
+have become agents of infection. They forget that they themselves are
+living either in the same house with it, or closely adjacent. But it
+humors them, poor children, and we will stay here for their sakes."
+
+"_Caramba!_ and they have made us their sextons!" muttered Rosendo.
+
+Jose shuddered. The clammy hand of fear again reached for his heart.
+He turned to Carmen, who was busily occupied in the shade of the old
+church.
+
+"Your lessons, _chiquita_?" he queried, going to her for a moment's
+abstraction.
+
+"No, Padre dear," she replied, smiling up at him, while she quickly
+concealed the bit of paper on which she had been writing.
+
+"Then what are you doing, little one?" he insisted.
+
+"Padre dear--don't--don't always make me tell you everything," she
+pleaded, but only half in earnest, as she cast an enigmatical glance
+at him.
+
+"But this time I insist on knowing; so you might as well tell me."
+
+"Well then, if you must know," she replied, her face beaming with a
+happiness which seemed to Jose strangely out of place in that tense
+atmosphere, "I have been writing a question to God." She held out the
+paper.
+
+"Writing a question to God! Well--!"
+
+"Why, yes, Padre dear. I have done that for a long, long time. When I
+want to know what to do, and think I don't see just what is best, I
+write my question to God on a piece of paper. Then I read it to Him,
+and tell Him I know He knows the answer and that He will tell me. And
+then I put the paper under a stone some place, and--well, that's all,
+Padre. Isn't it a good way?" She beamed at him like a glorious noonday
+sun.
+
+The priest stood before her in wonder and admiration. "And does He
+tell you the answers to your questions, _chiquita_?" he asked
+tenderly.
+
+"Always, Padre dear. Not always right away--but He never fails--never!"
+
+"Will you tell me what you are asking Him now?" he said.
+
+She handed him the paper. His eyes dimmed as he read:
+
+  "Dear, dear Father, please tell your little girl and her dear
+  Padre Jose what it is that makes the people think they have to die
+  down in the town."
+
+"And where will you put the paper, little girl?" he asked, striving to
+control his voice.
+
+"Why, I don't know, Padre. Oh, why not put it under the altar in this
+old church?" she exclaimed, pleased with the thought of such a novel
+hiding place.
+
+"Excellent!" assented Jose; and together they entered the building.
+After much stumbling over rubbish, much soiling of hands and
+disturbing of bats and lizards, while Carmen's happy laugh rang
+merrily through the gloomy old pile, they laid the paper carefully
+away behind the altar in a little pocket, and covered it with an adobe
+brick.
+
+"There!" panted the girl, the task finished. "Now we will wait for the
+answer."
+
+Jose went down into the ominous silence of the town with a lighter
+heart. The sublime faith of the child moved before him like a beacon.
+To the sick he spoke words of comfort, with the vision of Carmen
+always before him. At the altar in the empty church, where he offered
+the Mass in fulfillment of his promise to the people, her fair form
+glowed with heavenly radiance from the pedestal where before had stood
+the dilapidated image of the Virgin. He prepared the sacred wafer and
+left a part of it on the altar for the people to carry in their
+procession to Santa Barbara. The other portion he took to the sick
+ones who had asked for the sacrament.
+
+Two more had fallen ill that afternoon. Mateo Gil, he thought, could
+not live the night through. He knelt at the loathsome bedside of the
+suffering man and prayed long and earnestly for light. He tried not to
+ask, but to know. While there, he heard a call from the street,
+announcing the passing of Guillermo Hernandez. Another one! His heart
+sank again. The plague was upon them in all its cruel virulence.
+
+Sadly he returned to the hill, just as the sun tipped the highest
+peaks of the _Cordilleras_. Standing on the crest, he waited with
+heavy heart, while the mournful little procession wended its sad way
+through the streets below. An old, battered wooden image of one of the
+Saints, rescued from the oblivion of the _sacristia_, had been dressed
+to represent Santa Barbara. This, bedecked with bits of bright 
+ribbon, was carried at the head of the procession by the faithful
+Juan. Following him, Pedro Gonzales, old and tottering, bore a dinner
+plate, on which rested the _hostia_, while over the wafer a tall young
+lad held a soiled umbrella, for there was no canopy.
+
+A slow chant rose from the lips of the people like a dirge. It struck
+the heart of the priest like a chill wind. _"Ora pro nobis! Ora pro
+nobis!"_ Tears streamed from his eyes while he gazed upon his stricken
+people. Slowly, wearily, they wound around the base of the hill, some
+sullen with despair, others with eyes turned beseechingly upward to
+where the priest of God stood with outstretched hands, his full heart
+pouring forth a passionate appeal to Him to turn His light upon these
+simple-minded children. When they had gone back down the road, their
+bare feet raising a cloud of thick dust which hid them from his view,
+Jose sank down upon the rock and buried his face in his hands.
+
+"I know--I think I know, oh, God," he murmured; "but as yet I have not
+proved--not yet. But grant that I may soon--for their sakes."
+
+Rosendo touched his shoulder. "There is another body to bury to-night,
+Padre. Eat now, and we will go down."
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Standing over the new grave, in the solemn hush of night, the priest
+murmured: "I am the resurrection and the life." But the mound upon
+which Rosendo was stolidly heaping the loose earth marked only another
+victory of the mortal law of death over a human sense of life. And
+there was no one there to call forth the sleeping man.
+
+"Behold, I give you power over all things," said the marvelous Jesus.
+The wondrous, irresistible power which he exerted in behalf of
+suffering humanity, he left with the world when he went away. But
+where is it now?
+
+"Still here," sighed the sorrowing priest, "still here--lo, always
+here--but we know it not. Sunken in materiality, and enslaved to the
+false testimony of the physical senses, we lack the spirituality that
+alone would enable us to grasp and use that Christ-power, which is the
+resurrection and the life."
+
+"Padre," said Rosendo, when they turned back toward the hill,
+"Hernandez is now with the angels. You gave him the sacrament, did you
+not?"
+
+"Yes, Rosendo."
+
+"_Bien_, then you remitted his sins, and he is doubtless in paradise.
+But," he mused, "it may be that he had first to pass through
+purgatory. _Caramba!_ I like not the thought of those hot fires!"
+
+"Rosendo!" exclaimed Jose in impatience. "Your mental wanderings at
+times are puerile! You talk like the veriest child! Do not be
+deceived, Hernandez is still the same man, even though he has left his
+earthly body behind. Do not think he has been lifted at once into
+eternal bliss. The Church has taught such rubbish for ages, and has
+based its pernicious teachings upon the grossly misunderstood words of
+Jesus. The Church is a failure--a dead, dead failure, in every sense
+of the word! And that man lying there in his grave is a ghastly proof
+of it!"
+
+Rosendo looked wonderingly at the excited priest, whose bitter words
+rang out so harshly on the still night air.
+
+"The Church has failed utterly to preserve the simple gospel of the
+Christ! It has basely, wantonly betrayed its traditional trust! It has
+fought and slain and burned for centuries over trivial, vulnerable
+non-essentials, and thrown its greatest pearls to the swine! It no
+longer prophesies; it carps and reviles! It no longer heals the sick;
+but it conducts a purgatorial lottery at so much a head! It has become
+a jumble of idle words, a mumbling of silly formulae, a category of
+stupid, insensate ceremonies! Its children are taught to derive their
+faith from such legends as that of the holy Saint Francis, who, to
+convince a heretic, showed the _hostia_ to an ass, which on beholding
+the sacred dough immediately kneeled! Good God!"
+
+"_Ca-ram-ba!_ But you speak hard words, Padre!" muttered Rosendo,
+vague speculations flitting through his brain as to the priest's
+mental state.
+
+"God!" continued Jose heatedly, "the Church has fought truth
+desperately ever since the Master's day! It has fawned at the feet of
+emperor and plutocrat, and licked the bloody hand of the usurer who
+tossed her a pittance of his foul gains! In the great world-battles
+for reform, for the rights of man, for freedom from the slavery of man
+to man or to drink and drugs, she has come up only as the smoke has
+cleared away, but always in time to demand the spoils! She has filched
+from the systems of philosophy of every land and age, and after
+bedaubing them with her own gaudy colors, has foisted them upon
+unthinking mankind as divine decrees and mandates! She has foully
+insulted God and man!--"
+
+"_Caramba_, Padre! You are not well! _Hombre_, we must get back to the
+hill! You are falling sick!"
+
+"I am not, Rosendo! You voice the Church's stock complaint of every
+man who exposes her shams: 'He hath a devil!'"
+
+Rosendo whistled softly. Jose went on more excitedly:
+
+"You ask if Hernandez is in paradise or purgatory. He is in a state no
+better nor worse than our own, for both are wholly mental. We are now
+in the fires of as great a purgatory as any man can ever experience!
+Yes, there is a purgatory--right here on earth--and it follows us
+after death, and after every death that we shall die, until we learn
+to know God and see Him as infinite good, without taint or trace of
+evil! The flames of hell are eternal to us as long as we eat of 'the
+tree of the knowledge of good and evil'--as long as we believe in
+other powers than God--as long as we believe sin and disease and evil
+to be as real and as potent as good! When we know these things as
+awful human illusions, and when we recognize God as the infinite mind
+that did not create evil, and does not know or behold it, then, and
+then only, will the flames of purgatory and hell in this state of
+consciousness which we mistakenly call life, and in the states of
+consciousness still to come, begin to diminish in intensity, and
+finally die out!"
+
+He walked along in silence for some moments. Then he turned to Rosendo
+and put his hand affectionately upon the old man's shoulder. "My good
+friend," he said more calmly, "I speak with intense feeling, for I
+have suffered much through the intolerance, the unspirituality, and
+the worldly ambition of the agents of Holy Church. I suffer, because I
+see what she is, and how widely she has missed the mark. But, worse, I
+see how blindly, how cruelly, she leads and betrays her trusting
+children--and it is the thought of that which at times almost drives
+me mad! But never mind me, Rosendo. Let me rave. My full heart must
+empty itself. Do you but look to Carmen for your faith. She is not of
+the Church. She knows God, and she will lead you straight to Him. And
+as you follow her, your foolish ideas of purgatory, hell, and
+paradise, of wafers and virgins--all the tawdry beliefs which the
+Church has laid upon you, will drop off, one by one, and melt away as
+do the mists on the lake when the sun mounts high."
+
+Carmen and Dona Maria sat against the wall of the old church, waiting
+for them. The child ran through the darkness and grasped Jose's hand.
+
+"I wouldn't go to sleep until you came, Padre!" she cried happily. "I
+wanted to be sure you wouldn't sleep anywhere else than right next to
+me."
+
+"Padre," admonished Rosendo anxiously, "do you think you ought to let
+her come close to you now? The plague--"
+
+Jose turned to him and spoke low. "There is no power or influence that
+we can exert upon her, Rosendo, either for good or evil. She is
+obeying a spiritual law of which we know but little."
+
+"And that, Padre?"
+
+"Just this, Rosendo: _'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind
+is stayed on thee.'_"
+
+The late moon peeped timidly above the drowsing treetops. Its yellow
+beams stole silently across the still lake and up the hillside to the
+crumbling church. When they reached the four quiet figures, huddled
+close against the ghostly wall, they filtered like streams of liquid
+gold through the brown curls of the little head lying on the priest's
+shoulder. And there they dwelt as symbols of Love's protecting care
+over the trusting children of this world, until the full dawn of the
+glorious sun of Truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 21
+
+
+Jose rose from his hard bed stiff and weary. Depression sat heavily
+upon his soul, and he felt miserably unable to meet the day. Dona
+Maria was preparing the coffee over a little fire back of the church.
+The odor of the steaming liquid drifted to him on the warm morning air
+and gave him a feeling of nausea. A sharp pain shot through his body.
+His heart stopped. Was the plague's cold hand settling upon him?
+Giddiness seized him, and he sat down again upon the rocks.
+
+In the road below a cloud of dust was rising, and across the distance
+a murmur of voices floated up to his ears. Men were approaching. He
+wondered dully what additional trouble it portended. Rosendo came to
+him at that moment.
+
+"_Muy buenos dias, Padre._ I saw a boat come across the lake some
+minutes ago. I wonder if Don Mario has returned."
+
+The men below were ascending the hill. Jose struggled to his feet and
+went forth to meet them. A familiar voice greeted him cheerily.
+
+"_Hola, Senor Padre Jose!_ _Dios mio_, but your hill is steep!"
+
+Jose strained his eyes at the newcomer. The man quickly gained the
+summit, and hurried to grasp the bewildered priest's hand.
+
+"Love of the Virgin! don't you know me, _Senor Padre_?" he cried,
+slapping Jose roundly upon the back.
+
+The light of recognition slowly came into the priest's eyes. The man
+was Don Jorge, his erstwhile traveling companion on the Magdalena
+river.
+
+"And now a cup of that coffee, if you will do me the favor, my good
+_Cura_. And then tell me what ails you here," he added, seating
+himself. "_Caramba_, what a town! Diego was right--the devil himself
+made this place! But they say you have all taken to dying! Have you
+nothing else to do? _Caramba_, I do not wonder! Such a God-forsaken
+spot! Well, what is it? Speak, man!"
+
+Jose collected his scattered thoughts. "The cholera!" he said
+hoarsely.
+
+"Cholera! _Caramba!_ so they told me down below, and I would not
+believe them! But where did it come from?"
+
+"One of our men brought it from Bodega Central."
+
+"Bodega Central!" ejaculated Don Jorge. "Impossible! I came from there
+this morning myself. Have been there two days. There isn't a trace of
+cholera in the place, as far as I know! You have all gone crazy--but
+small wonder!" looking out over the decrepit town.
+
+The priest's head was awhirl. He felt his senses leaving him. His ears
+were reporting things basely false. "You say--" he began in
+bewilderment.
+
+"I say what I have said, _amigo_! There is no more cholera in Bodega
+Central than there is in heaven! I arrived there day before yesterday,
+and left before sunrise this morning. So I should know."
+
+Jose sank weakly down at the man's side. "But--Don Jorge--Feliz Gomez
+returned from there three nights ago, and reported that a Turk, who
+had come up from the coast, had died of the plague!"
+
+Don Jorge's brows knit in perplexity. "I recall now," he said slowly,
+after some moments of study. "The innkeeper did say that a Turk had
+died there--some sort of intestinal trouble, I believe. When I told
+him I was bound for Simiti, he laughed as if he would split, and then
+began to talk about the great fright he had given a man from here.
+Said he scared the fellow until his black face turned white. But I was
+occupied with my own affairs, and paid him little attention. But come,
+tell me all about it."
+
+With the truth slowly dawning upon his clouded thought, Jose related
+the grewsome experiences of the past three days.
+
+_"Ca-ram-ba!"_ Don Jorge whistled softly. "Who would have thought it!
+But, was Feliz Gomez sick before he went to Bodega Central?"
+
+"I do not know," replied Jose.
+
+"Yes, senor," interposed Rosendo. "He and Amado Sanchez both had bowel
+trouble. Their women told my wife so, after you and I, Padre, had come
+up here to the hill. But it was nothing. We have it here often, as you
+know."
+
+"True," assented Jose, "but we have never given it any serious
+thought."
+
+Don Jorge leaned back and broke into a roar of laughter. "_Por el amor
+del cielo!_ You are all crazy, _amigo_--you die like rats of fear! Did
+you ever put a mouse into a bottle and then scare it to death with a
+loud noise? _Hombre!_ That is what has happened to you!" The hill
+reverberated with his loud shouts.
+
+But Jose could not share in the merriment. The awful consequences of
+the innkeeper's coarse joke upon the childish minds of these poor,
+impressionable people pressed heavily upon his heart. Bitter tears
+welled to his eyes. He sprang to his feet.
+
+"Come, Rosendo!" he cried. "We must go down and tell these people the
+truth!"
+
+Don Jorge joined them, and they all hastened down into the town.
+Ramona Chaves met them in the _plaza_, her eyes streaming.
+
+"Padre," she wailed, "my man Pedro has the sickness! He is dying!"
+
+"Nothing of the kind, Ramona!" loudly cried Jose; "there is no cholera
+here!" He hastened to the bedside of the writhing Pedro.
+
+"Up, man!" he shouted, seizing his hand. "Up! You are not sick! There
+is no cholera in Simiti! There is none in Bodega Central! Feliz did
+not bring it! He and Amado had only a touch of the flux, and they died
+of fear!"
+
+The priest's ringing words acted upon the man like magic. He roused up
+from his lethargy and stared at the assemblage. Don Jorge repeated the
+priest's words, and added his own laughing and boisterous comments.
+Pedro rose from his bed, and stood staring.
+
+Together, their little band augmented at every corner by the startled
+people, they hurried to the homes of all who lay upon beds of
+sickness, spreading the glad tidings, until the little town was in a
+state of uproar. Like black shadows before the light, the plague fled
+into the realm of imagination from which it had come. By night, all
+but Mateo Gil were up and about their usual affairs. But even Mateo
+had revived wonderfully; and Jose was confident that the good news
+would be the leaven of health that would work a complete restoration
+within him in time. The exiles left the hilltop and the old church,
+and returned again to their homes. Don Jorge took up his abode with
+Jose.
+
+"_Bien_," he said, as they sat at the rear door of the priest's house,
+looking through the late afternoon haze out over the lake, "you have
+had a strange experience--_Caramba_! most strange!--and yet one from
+which you should gather an excellent lesson. You are dealing with
+children here--children who have always been rocked in the cradle of
+the Church. But--" looking archly at Jose, "do I offend? For, as I
+told you on the boat a year ago, I do not think you are a good
+priest." He laughed softly. "_Bien_," he added, "I will correct that.
+You are good--but not a priest, is it not so?"
+
+"I have some views, Don Jorge, which differ radically from those of
+the faith," Jose said cautiously.
+
+"_Caramba!_ I should hope so!" his friend ejaculated.
+
+"But," interposed Jose, anxious to direct the conversation into other
+channels, "may I ask how and where you have occupied yourself since I
+left the boat at Badillo?"
+
+"Ah, _Dios_!" said Don Jorge, shaking his head, although his eyes
+twinkled. "I have wandered ever since--and am poorer now than when I
+started. I left our boat at Puerto Nacional, to go to Medellin; and
+from there to Remedios and Guamoco. But while in the river town I met
+another _guaquero_--grave hunter, you know--who was preparing to go to
+Honda, to investigate the 'castles' at that place. There is a strange
+legend--you may have heard it--hanging over those rocks. It appears
+that a lone hermit lived in one of the many caverns in the great
+limestone deposits rising abruptly from the river near the town of
+Honda. How he came there, no one knew. Day after day, year after year,
+he labored in his cave, extending it further into the hillside. People
+laughed at him for tunneling in that barren rock, for gold has never
+been found anywhere in it. But the fellow paid them no attention; and
+gradually he was accepted as a harmless fanatic, and was left
+unmolested to dig his way into the hill as far as he would. Years
+passed. No one knew how the fellow lived, for he held no human
+intercourse. Kind people often brought food and left it at the mouth
+of his cavern, but he would have none of it. They brought clothes, but
+they rotted where they were left. What he ate, no one could discover.
+At last some good soul planted a fig tree near the cave, hoping that
+the fruit in time would prove acceptable to him. One day they found
+the tree cut down. _Bien_, time passed, and he was forgotten. One day
+some men, passing the cave, found his body, pale and thin, with long,
+white hair, lying at the entrance. But--_Caramba_! when they buried
+the body they found it was that of a woman!"
+
+He paused to draw some leaves of tobacco from his wallet and roll a
+thick cigar. The sudden turn of his story drew an expression of
+amazement from the priest.
+
+"_Bien_," he resumed, "where the woman came from, and who she was,
+never was learned. Nor how she lived. But of course some one must have
+supplied her with food and clothes all these years. Perhaps she was
+some grand dame, with a dramatic past, who had come there to escape
+the world and do penance for her sins. What sorrow, what black tragedy
+that cave concealed, no one may ever know! Nor am I at all interested
+in that. The point is, either she found gold there, or had a quantity
+of it that she brought with her--at least so I thought at the time.
+So, when the _guaquero_ at Puerto Nacional told me the story, nothing
+would do but I must go with him to search the cave. _Caramba!_ We
+wasted three full months prying around there--and had our labor for
+our pains!"
+
+He tilted his chair back and puffed savagely at his cigar.
+
+"Well, then I got on the windy side of another legend, a wild tale of
+buried treasure in the vicinity of Mompox. Of course I hurried after
+it. Spent six months pawing the hot dirt around that old town. Fell in
+with your estimable citizen, Don Felipe, who swindled me out of a
+hundred good _pesos oro_ on a fraudulent location and a forged map.
+Then I cursed him and the place and went up to Banco."
+
+"Banco!" Jose's heart began beating rapidly. Don Jorge went on:
+
+"Your genial friend Diego is back there. Told me about his trip to
+Simiti to see his little daughter."
+
+"What did he say about her, _amigo_?" asked Jose in a controlled
+voice.
+
+"Not much--only that he expected to send for her soon. You know,
+Rosendo's daughter is living with him. Fine looking wench, too!"
+
+"But, Don Jorge," pursued Jose anxiously, "what think you, is the
+little Carmen Diego's child?"
+
+"_Hombre!_ How should I know? He no doubt has many."
+
+"She does not look like him," asserted Jose, clinging to his note of
+optimism.
+
+"No. And fortunate she is in that! _Caramba_, but he looks like an imp
+from sheol!"
+
+Jose saw that little consolation was to be derived from Don Jorge as
+far as Carmen was concerned. So he allowed the subject to lapse.
+
+"_Bien_," continued Don Jorge, whose present volubility was in
+striking contrast to his reticence on the boat the year before, "I had
+occasion to come up to Bodega Central--another legend, if I must
+confess it. And there Don Carlos Norosi directed me here."
+
+"What a life!" exclaimed Jose.
+
+"Yes, no doubt it appears so to you, _Senor Padre_," replied Don
+Jorge. "And yet my business, that of treasure hunting, has in times
+past proved very lucrative. The Indian graves of Colombia have yielded
+enormous quantities of gold. The Spaniards opened many of them; and in
+one, that of a famous chieftain, discovered down below us, near
+Zaragoza, they found a solid gold pineapple, a marvelous piece of
+workmanship, and of immense value. They sent it to the king of Spain.
+_Caramba_! it never would have reached him if I had been there!
+
+"But," he resumed, "we have no idea of the amount of treasure that has
+been buried in various parts of Colombia. This country has been, and
+still is, enormously rich in minerals--a veritable gold mine of
+itself. And since the time of the Spanish conquest it has been in a
+state of almost constant turmoil. Nothing and nobody has been safe.
+And, up to very recent times, whenever the people collected a bit of
+gold above their daily needs, they promptly banked it with good Mother
+Earth. Then, like as not, they got themselves killed in the wars, and
+the treasure was left for some curious and greedy hunter like myself
+to dig up years after. The Royalists and Tories buried huge sums all
+over the country during the War of Independence. Why, it was only a
+year or so ago that two men came over from Spain and went up the
+Magdalena river to Bucaramanga. They were close-mouthed fellows,
+well-dressed, and evidently well-to-do. But they had nothing to say to
+anybody. The innkeeper pried around until he discovered that they
+spent much time in their room poring over maps and papers. Then they
+set off alone, with an outfit of mules and supplies to last several
+weeks. _Bueno_, they came back at last with a box of good size, made
+of mahogany, and bound around with iron bands. _Caramba!_ They did not
+tarry long, you may be sure. And I learned afterward that they sailed
+away safely from Cartagena, box and all, for sunny Spain, where, I
+doubt not, they are now living in idleness and gentlemanly ease on
+what they found in the big coffer they dug up near that old Spanish
+city."
+
+Jose listened eagerly. To him, cooped up for a year and more in the
+narrow confines of Simiti, the ready flow of this man's conversation
+was like a fountain of sparkling water to a thirsty traveler. He urged
+him to go on, plying him with questions about his strange avocation.
+
+"_Caramba_, but the old Indian chiefs were wise fellows!" Don Jorge
+pursued. "They seemed to know that greedy vandals like myself would
+some day poke around in their last resting places for the gold that
+was always buried with them--possibly to pay their freight across the
+dark river. And so they dug their graves in the form of an L, in the
+extreme tip of which the royal carcasses were laid. In this way they
+have deceived many a grave-hunter, who dug straight down without
+finding the body, which was safely tucked away in the toe of the L. I
+have gone back and reopened many a grave that I had abandoned as
+empty, and found His Royal Highness five or six feet to one side of
+the straight shaft I had previously sunk."
+
+"I suppose," mused Jose, "that you now follow this work because of its
+fascination--for you must have found and laid aside much treasure in
+the years that you have pursued it."
+
+_"Caramba!"_ ejaculated the _guaquero_. "I have been rich and poor,
+like the rising and setting of the sun! What I find, I spend again
+hunting more. It is the way of the world. The man who has enough money
+never knows it. And his greed for more--more that he needs not, and
+cannot possibly spend on himself--generally results, as in my case, in
+the loss of what he already has. But there are reasons aside from the
+excitement of the chase that keep me at it."
+
+He fell strangely silent, and Jose knew that there were aroused within
+him memories that seared the tissues of the brain as they entered.
+
+"_Amigo_," Don Jorge resumed. His voice was low, tense and cold.
+"There are some things which I am trying to forget. This exciting and
+dangerous business of mine keeps my thought occupied. I care nothing
+now for the treasure I may discover. But I crave forgetfulness. Do you
+understand?"
+
+"Surely, good friend," replied Jose quickly; "and I ask pardon for
+recalling those things to you."
+
+_"De nada, amigo!"_ said Don Jorge, with a gesture of deprecation.
+Then: "I told you on the boat that I had lost a wife and girl. The
+Church got them both. I tell you this because I know you, too, have
+grievances against her. _Caramba!_ Yet I will tell you only a part. I
+lived in Maganguey, where my wife's brother kept a store and did an
+excellent commission business. I was mining and hunting graves in the
+Cauca region, sometimes going up the Magdalena, too, and working on
+both sides of the river. Maganguey was a convenient place for me to
+live, as it stands at the junction of the two great rivers. Besides,
+my wife wished to remain near her own people. _Bien_, we had a
+daughter. She grew up fair and good. And then, one day, the priest
+told my wife that the girl was destined to a great future, and must
+enter a convent and consecrate herself to the Church. _Caramba!_ I am
+not a Catholic--was never one! My parents were patriots, and both took
+part in the great war that gave liberty to this country. But they were
+liberal in thought; and I was never confirmed to the Church. _Bien_,
+the priest made my life a hell--my wife became estranged from me--and
+one day, returning from the Cauca, I found my house deserted. Wife and
+girl and the child's nurse had gone down the river!"
+
+The man's face darkened, and hard lines drew around his mouth.
+
+"They had taken my money chest, some thousands of pesos. I sought the
+priest. He laughed at me, and--_Caramba_! I struck him such a blow
+between his pig eyes that he lay senseless for hours!"
+
+Jose glanced at the broad shoulders and the great knots of muscle on
+the man's arms. He was of medium height, but with a frame of iron.
+
+"_Bien, Senor Padre_, I, too, fled wild and raving from Maganguey that
+night, and plunged into the jungle. Months later I drifted down the
+river, as far as Mompox. And there one day I chanced upon old
+Marcelena, the child's nurse. Like a _cayman_ I seized her and dragged
+her into an alley. She confessed that my wife and girl were living
+there--the wife had become housekeeper for a young priest--the girl
+was in the convent. _Caramba!_ I hurled the woman to the ground and
+turned my back upon the city!"
+
+Jose's interest in the all too common recital received a sudden
+stimulus.
+
+"Your daughter's name, Don Jorge, was--"
+
+"Maria, _Senor Padre_."
+
+"And--she would now be, how old, perhaps?"
+
+"About twenty-two, I think."
+
+"Her appearance?"
+
+"Fair--complexion light, like her mother's. Maria was a beautiful
+child--and good as she was beautiful."
+
+"But--the child's nurse remained with her?"
+
+"Marcelena? Yes. She was devoted to the little Maria. The woman was
+old and ugly--but she loved the child."
+
+"Did you not inquire for them when you were in Mompox a few months
+ago?" pursued Jose eagerly.
+
+"I made slight inquiry through the clerk in the office of the
+Alcalde. I did not intend to--but I could not help it. _Caramba!_ He
+made further inquiry, but said only that he was told they had long
+since gone down to Cartagena, and nothing had been heard from them."
+
+The gates of memory's great reservoir opened at the touch of this
+man's story, and Jose again lived through that moonlit night in
+Cartagena, when the little victim of Wenceslas breathed out her life
+of sorrow and shame in his arms. He heard again the sobs of Marcelena
+and the simple-minded Catalina. He saw again the figure of the
+compassionate Christ in the smoke that drifted past the window. And
+now the father of that wronged girl sat before him, wrapped in the
+tatters of a shredded happiness! Should he tell him? Should he say
+that he had cared for this man's little grandson since his advent into
+this sense of existence that mortals call life? For there could be no
+doubt now that the little Maria was his daughter.
+
+"Don Jorge," he said, "you have suffered much. My heart bleeds for
+you. And yet--"
+
+"_Na_, Padre, there is nothing to do. Were I to find my family I could
+only slay them and the priests who came between us!"
+
+"But, Don Jorge," cried Jose in horror, "you surely meditate no such
+vengeance as that!"
+
+The man smiled grimly. "_Senor Padre_," he returned coldly, "I am
+Spanish. The blood of the old cavaliers flows in my veins. I have been
+betrayed, trapped, fooled, and my honored name has been foully soiled.
+What will remove the stain, think you? Blood--nothing else! _Caramba!_
+The priest of Maganguey who poured the first drop of poison into my
+wife's too willing ears--_Bien_, I have said enough!"
+
+"_Hombre!_ You don't mean--"
+
+"I mean, _Senor Padre_, that I drifted down the river, unseen, to
+Maganguey one night. I entered that priest's house. He did not awake
+the next morning."
+
+"God!" exclaimed Jose, starting up.
+
+"_Na_, Padre, not God, but Satan! He rules this world."
+
+Jose sank back in his chair. Don Jorge leaned forward and laid a hand
+upon his knee. "My friend," he said evenly, "you are young--how old,
+may I ask?"
+
+"Twenty-seven," murmured Jose.
+
+"_Caramba!_ A child! _Bien_, you have much to learn. I took to you on
+the boat because I knew you had made a mess of things, and it was not
+entirely your fault. I have seen others like you. You are no more in
+the Church than I am. Now why do you stay here? Do I offend in
+asking?"
+
+Jose hesitated. "I--I have--work here, senor," he replied.
+
+"True," said Don Jorge, "a chance to do much for these poor people--if
+the odds are not too strong against you. But--are you working for them
+alone? Or--does Diego's child figure in the case? No offense, I assure
+you--I have reason to ask."
+
+Jose sought to read his eyes. The man looked squarely into his own,
+and the priest found no deception in their black depths.
+
+"I--senor, she cannot be Diego's child--and I--I would save her!"
+
+Don Jorge nodded his head. "_Bien_," he said, "to-morrow I leave for
+San Lucas. I will return this way."
+
+After the evening meal the _guaquero_ spread his _petate_ upon the
+floor and disposed himself for the night. He stubbornly refused to
+accept the priest's bed. _"Caramba!"_ he muttered, after he had lain
+quiet for some time, "why does not the Church permit its clergy to
+marry, like civilized beings! Do you know, _Senor Padre_, I once met a
+woman in Bogota and held some discussion with her on this topic. She
+said, as between a priest who had children, and a married minister,
+she would infinitely prefer the priest, because, as she put it, no
+matter how dissolute the priest, the sacraments from his hands would
+still retain their validity--but never from those of a married
+minister! _Caramba!_ what can you do against such bigotry and awful
+narrowness, such dense ignorance! Cielo!"
+
+The following morning, before sunrise, Don Jorge and his boatmen were
+on the lake, leaving Jose to meditate on the vivid experiences of the
+past few days, their strange mental origin, and the lesson which they
+brought.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 22
+
+
+"Padre dear," said Carmen, "you know the question that we put under
+the altar of the old church? Well, God answered it, didn't He?"
+
+"I--why, I had forgotten it, child. What was it? You asked Him to tell
+us why the people thought they had to die, did you not? Well--and what
+was His answer?"
+
+"Why, He told us that they were frightened to death, you know."
+
+"True, _chiquita_. Fear killed them--nothing else! They paid the
+penalty of death for believing that Feliz Gomez had slept on a bed
+where a man had died of the plague. They died because they--"
+
+"Because they didn't know that God was everywhere, Padre dear,"
+interrupted Carmen.
+
+"Just so, _chiquita_. And that is why all people die. And yet," he
+added sadly, "how are we going to make them know that He is
+everywhere?"
+
+"Why, Padre dear, by showing them in our talk and our actions that we
+know it--by proving it, you know, just as we prove our problems in
+algebra."
+
+"Yes, poor Feliz, and Amado, and Guillermo died because they sinned,"
+he mused. "They broke the first Commandment by believing that there
+was another power than God. And that sin brought its inevitable wage,
+death. They 'missed the mark,' and sank into the oblivion of their
+false beliefs. God above! that I could keep my own mentality free from
+these same carnal beliefs, and so be a true missionary to suffering
+humanity! But you, Carmen, you are going to be such a missionary. And
+I believe," he muttered through his set teeth, "that I am appointed to
+shield the girl until God is ready to send her forth! But what, oh,
+what will she do when she meets that world which lies beyond her
+little Simiti?"
+
+Rosendo had returned to Guamoco. "The deposit will not last much
+longer," he said to Jose, shaking his head dubiously. "And then--"
+
+"Why, then we will find another, Rosendo," replied the priest
+optimistically.
+
+_"Ojala!"_ exclaimed the old man, starting for the trail.
+
+The day after Don Jorge's departure the Alcalde returned. He stole
+shamefacedly through the streets and barricaded himself in his house.
+There he gave vent to his monumental wrath. He cruelly abused his
+long-suffering spouse, and ended by striking her across the face.
+After which he sat down and laboriously penned a long letter to Padre
+Diego, in which the names of Jose and Carmen figured plentifully.
+
+For Don Jorge had met the Alcalde in Juncal, and had roundly jeered
+him for his cowardly flight. He cited Jose and Rosendo as examples of
+valor, and pointed out that the Alcalde greatly resembled a captain
+who fled at the smell of gunpowder. Don Mario swelled with indignation
+and shame. His spleen worked particularly against Rosendo and the
+priest. Come what might, it was time Diego and his superiors in
+Cartagena knew what was going on in the parish of Simiti!
+
+A few days later an unctuous letter came to Jose from Diego,
+requesting that Carmen be sent to him at once, as he now desired to
+place her in a convent and thus supplement the religious education
+which he was sure Jose had so well begun in her. The priest had
+scarcely read the letter when Don Mario appeared at the parish house.
+
+"_Bien, Padre_," he began smoothly, but without concealing the malice
+which lurked beneath his oily words, "Padre Diego sends for the little
+Carmen, and bids me arrange to have her conveyed at once to Banco. I
+think Juan will take her down, is it not so?"
+
+Jose looked him squarely in the eyes. "No, senor," he said in a voice
+that trembled with agitation, "it is not so!"
+
+_"Hombre!"_ exclaimed Don Mario, swelling with suppressed rage. "You
+refuse to give Diego his own child?"
+
+"No, _senor_, but I refuse to give him a child that is not his."
+
+"_Caramba!_ but she is--he has the proofs! And I shall send her to him
+this day!"
+
+The Alcalde shrilled forth his rage like a ruffled parrot. Jose seized
+him by the shoulders and, turning him swiftly about, pushed him out
+into the road. He then entered the rear door of Rosendo's house and
+bade Dona Maria keep the child close to her.
+
+A few minutes later Fernando Perez appeared at Jose's door. He was
+municipal clerk, secretary, and constable of Simiti, all in one. He
+saluted the priest gravely, and demanded the body of the child Carmen,
+to be returned to her proper father.
+
+Jose groaned inwardly. What could he do against the established
+authority?
+
+"_Bien, Padre_," said Fernando, after delivering his message, "the
+hour is too late to send her down the river to-day. But deliver her to
+me, and she shall go down at daybreak."
+
+"Listen," Jose pleaded desperately, "Fernando, leave her here
+to-night--this is sudden, you must acknowledge--she must have time to
+take leave of Dona Maria--and--"
+
+"_Senor Padre_, the Alcalde's order is that she go with me now. I must
+obey."
+
+Jose felt his control oozing fast. Scarce knowing what he did, he
+quickly stepped back through the rear door, and going to Rosendo's
+house, seized a large _machete_, with which he returned to face the
+constable.
+
+"Look you, Fernando," he cried, holding the weapon menacingly aloft,
+"if you lay a hand on that girl, I will scatter your brains through
+yonder _plaza_!"
+
+_"Caramba!"_ muttered the constable, falling back. "_Bien_," he
+hastily added, "I will make this report to the Alcalde!" With which he
+beat an abrupt retreat.
+
+Jose sank into a chair. But he hastily arose and went into Rosendo's
+house. "Dona Maria!" he cried excitedly, "leave Carmen with me, and do
+you hurry through the town and see if Juan is here, and if Lazaro
+Ortiz has returned from the _hacienda_. Bid them come to me at once,
+and bring their _machetes_!"
+
+The woman set out on her errand. Jose seized his _machete_ firmly in
+one hand, and with the other drew Carmen to him.
+
+"What is it, Padre dear?" the child asked, her eyes big with wonder.
+"Why do you tremble? I wish you wouldn't always go around thinking
+that two and two are seven!"
+
+"Carmen, child--you do not understand--you are too young, and as yet
+you have had no experience with--with the world! You must trust me
+now!"
+
+"I do _not_ trust you, Padre," she said sadly. "I can't trust anybody
+who always sees things that are not so."
+
+"Carmen--you are in danger--and you do not comprehend--" cried the
+desperate man.
+
+"I am _not_ in danger--and I _do_ understand--a great deal better than
+you do, Padre. Now let me go--you are afraid! People who are afraid
+die of the plague!" The irony of her words sank into his soul.
+
+Juan looked in at the door. Jose rose hastily. "Did you meet Dona
+Maria?" he asked.
+
+"No, senor," the lad replied.
+
+"She is searching for you--have you your _machete_?"
+
+"Yes, Padre, I have just come back from the island, where I was
+cutting wood."
+
+"Good, then! Remain here with me. I need you--or may."
+
+He went to the door and looked eagerly down the street. "Ah!" he
+exclaimed with relief, "here come Dona Maria and Lazaro! Now,
+friends," he began, when they were assembled before him, "grave danger
+threatens--"
+
+"Padre!" It was Dona Maria's voice. "Where is Carmen?"
+
+Jose turned. The child had disappeared.
+
+"Lazaro!" he cried, "go at once to the Boque trail! Let no one pass
+that way with Carmen, if your life be the penalty! Juan, hurry to the
+lake! If either of you see her, call loudly, and I will come! Dona
+Maria, start through the town! We must find her! God above, help us!"
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+The afternoon dragged its interminable length across the valley. Jose
+wearily entered his house and threw himself upon a chair. He had not
+dared call at the Alcalde's house, for fear he might do that official
+violence. But he had seen Fernando in the street, and had avoided him.
+Then, of a sudden, a thought came to him from out the darkness. He
+sprang to his feet and hurried off toward the shales. There, beneath
+the stunted _algarroba_ tree, sat the child.
+
+"Carmen!" He rushed to her and clasped her in his arms. "Why did you
+do this--?"
+
+"Padre," she replied, when she could get her breath, "I had to come
+out here and try to know for you the things you ought to know for
+yourself."
+
+He said nothing; but, holding her hand tightly, he led her back to the
+house.
+
+That evening Jose sent for Don Mario, the constable, and Juan and
+Lazaro. Assembling them before him in his living room, he talked with
+them long and earnestly.
+
+"_Compadres_," he said, "this week we have passed through a sad
+experience, and the dark angel has robbed us of three of our beloved
+friends. Is it your wish that death again visit us?"
+
+They looked at one another in wonder. The Alcalde scowled darkly at
+the priest beneath his heavy brows. Jose continued:
+
+"_Bien_, it is planned to seize the little Carmen by force, and send
+her down the river to Padre Diego--"
+
+_"Dios y diablo!"_ Juan had sprung to his feet. "Who says that,
+Padre?" he demanded savagely. The Alcalde shrank back in his chair.
+
+"Be calm, Juan!" Jose replied. "Padre Diego sends for her by
+letter--is it not so, Don Mario?"
+
+The latter grunted. Juan wheeled about and stared menacingly at the
+bulky official.
+
+"Now, friends," Jose pursued, "it has not been shown that Carmen
+belongs to Diego--in fact, all things point to the conclusion that she
+is not his child. My wish is to be just to all concerned. But shall we
+let the child go to him, knowing what manner of man he is, until it is
+proven beyond all doubt that he is her father?"
+
+"_Caramba!_ No!" exclaimed Juan and Lazaro in unison.
+
+"And I am of the opinion that the majority of our citizens would
+support us in the contention. What think you, friends?"
+
+"Every man in Simiti, Padre," replied Lazaro earnestly.
+
+"Don Mario," said Jose, turning to the Alcalde, "until it is
+established that Diego has a parent's claim to the girl, Juan and
+Lazaro and I will protect her with our lives. Is it not so, _amigos_?"
+addressing the two men.
+
+"_Hombre!_ Let me see a hand laid upon her!" cried Juan rising.
+
+Lazaro spoke more deliberately. "Padre," he said. "I owe you much. I
+know you to be q good man--not like Padre Diego. I know not what claim
+he may have on the girl, but this I say: I will follow and support you
+until it is shown me that you are in the wrong."
+
+Jose went over and clasped his hand. Then, to the town officials:
+
+"_Bien, amigos_, we will let the matter rest thus, shall we not? We
+now understand one another. If harm comes to the child, the death
+angel will again stalk through this town, and--" he looked hard at Don
+Mario, whilst that official visibly shrank in size--"_Bien_," he
+concluded, "a sharp watch will be kept over the child. We will submit
+to proofs--but to nothing less. And violence will bring bloodshed and
+death."
+
+"But--_Caramba_!" cried Don Mario, at last finding his voice. "If
+Diego has the Bishop back of him, he will force us to deliver the
+girl--or the Bishop will have the government soldiers sent here! I can
+ask for them--and if necessary I will!"
+
+Jose paled slightly. He knew the Alcalde spoke truth. Don Mario,
+seeing that his words had taken effect, quickly followed up the
+advantage. "Now you, Juan and Lazaro, do you think the little whelp
+worth that?"
+
+The words were scarcely out of his mouth when Juan leaped across the
+floor and fell upon him. Jose seized the lad and, with Fernando's
+help, tore him loose. Lazaro held his _machete_ aloft, ready to
+strike. Jose's voice rang out sharply:
+
+"Hold, men! Stop! Go you to your homes now! Juan, do you stay here
+with me!"
+
+The lad faced the Alcalde and shook his fist. "_Bien_," he sputtered,
+"send for the soldiers, fat dog that you are! But when I see them
+crossing the lake, I will come first to your house and cut open that
+big belly!"
+
+"Arrest him, Fernando!" shrilled the Alcalde, shaking with rage.
+
+"I will cut off the hand that is laid on Juan!" cried Lazaro,
+advancing.
+
+"Men! Men! Don Mario and Fernando, go now! Enough of this! And for
+God's sake think twice before you make any further move!"
+
+Don Mario and his constable departed in sullen silence. Jose let
+Lazaro out through the rear door, while he bade Juan pass the night in
+the parish house. A consultation was held with Dona Maria, and it was
+arranged that Carmen should sleep in the room with Jose, with Juan
+lying before the door, until Rosendo should return from the mountains.
+Then Jose sat down and wrote to the Bishop.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+No reply came from Cartagena until Rosendo returned at the end of the
+month. Meanwhile, Jose had never for a moment permitted Carmen to
+leave his side. The child chafed under the limitation; but Jose and
+Dona Maria were firm. Juan lived with the priest; and Lazaro lurked
+about the parish house like a shadow. The Alcalde and his constable
+remained discreetly aloof.
+
+But with Rosendo's return came letters from both Wenceslas and Diego.
+The latter had laid aside his unction, and now made a curt and
+peremptory demand upon Jose for the child. The letter from Wenceslas
+was noncommittal, stating only that he was quite uninformed of Diego's
+claim, but that an investigation should be made. Jose wondered if he
+had blundered in laying the case before him.
+
+_"Hombre!"_ ejaculated Rosendo, when he heard Jose's story. "It is as
+I feared! And now the Bishop has the matter in hand! _Caramba!_ We
+shall lose her yet!
+
+"And, Padre," he added, "the deposit is played out. There is no more
+gold there. And, now that we shall have none to send to the Bishop
+each month, Carmen's fate is settled--unless we go away. And where
+shall we go? We could not get out of the country." He hung his head
+and sat in gloomy dejection.
+
+For more than a year Rosendo had panned the isolated alluvial deposit,
+and on his regular monthly returns to Simiti he and the priest had
+sent from thirty to ninety _pesos_ gold to Wenceslas. To this Jose
+sometimes added small amounts collected from the people of Simiti,
+which they had gratuitously given him for Masses and for the support
+of the parish. Wenceslas, knowing the feeble strength of the parish,
+was surprised, but discreet; and though he continually urged Jose to
+greater efforts, and held out the allurements of "indulgences and
+special dispensations," he made no inquiries regarding the source of
+the monthly contributions.
+
+For many days following, Rosendo and the priest went about as in a
+thick, black cloud. "Rosendo," said Jose at length, "go back to the
+mountains and search again. God was with us before. Have we any reason
+to doubt Him now?"
+
+"And leave Carmen here, exposed to the danger that always hangs over
+her? _Caramba_, no! I would not go back now even if the deposit were
+not worked out! No!" Jose knew it would be futile to urge him.
+
+Carmen came to the priest that same day. "Padre, I heard you and padre
+Rosendo talking this morning. Have you no money, no gold?"
+
+"Why, child--there seems to be a need just at present," he replied
+lightly. "But we might--well, we might send another of your questions
+to God. What say you?"
+
+"Of course!" she cried delightedly, turning at once and hurrying away
+for pencil and paper.
+
+"Now," she panted, seating herself at the table. "Let us see; we want
+Him to give us _pesos_, don't we?"
+
+"Yes--many--a large sum. Make it big," he said facetiously.
+
+"Well, you know, Padre dear," she replied seriously, "we can't ask for
+too much--for we already have everything, haven't we? After all, we
+can only ask to see what we really already have.
+
+"Say 'yes,' Padre dear," she pleaded, looking up appealingly at him
+staring silently at her. Oh, if she could only impart to him even a
+little of her abundant faith! She had enough, and to spare!
+
+"Well, here it is," she said, holding out the paper.
+
+He took it and read--"Dear, dear God: Padre Jose needs _pesos_--lots
+of them. What shall he do?"
+
+"And now," she continued, "shall we put it under the altar of the old
+church?"
+
+He smiled; but immediately assumed an expression of great seriousness.
+"Why not in the church here, the one we are using? The other is so far
+away?" he suggested. "And it is getting dark now."
+
+"But--no, we will go where we went before," she concluded firmly.
+
+Again he yielded. Taking matches and a piece of candle, he set off
+with the girl in a circuitous route for the hill, which they gained
+unobserved. Within the musty old church he struck a light, and they
+climbed over the _debris_ and to the rear of the crumbling altar.
+
+"See!" she cried joyously. "Here is my other question that He
+answered! Doesn't He answer them quick though! Why, it took only a
+day!"
+
+She drew the old paper from beneath the adobe brick. Then she
+hesitated. "Let us put this question in a new place," she said. "Look,
+up there, where the bricks have fallen out," pointing to the part of
+the altar that had crumbled away.
+
+Jose rose obediently to execute the commission. His thought was far
+off, even in Cartagena, where sat the powers that must be held quiet
+if his cherished plans were not to fail. He reached out and grasped
+one of the projecting bricks to steady himself. As he did so, the
+brick, which was loose, gave way with him, and he fell, almost across
+Carmen, followed by a shower of rubbish, as another portion of the old
+altar fell out.
+
+_"Hombre!"_ he ejaculated, picking himself up. "What good luck that
+the candle was not extinguished! And now, senorita, are you willing
+that we should bury this important question here on the floor; or must
+I again try to put it in the altar itself?"
+
+"Up there," insisted the child, laughing and still pointing above.
+
+He rose and looked about, searching for a convenient place to deposit
+the paper. Then something attracted his attention, something buried in
+the altar, but now exposed by the falling out of the fresh portion. It
+was metal, and it glittered in the feeble candle light. He reached in
+and hastily scraped away more of the hard mud. Then, trembling with
+suppressed excitement, he pulled out another brick. Clearly, it was a
+box that had been buried in there--who knows when? He gave the candle
+to Carmen and bade her stand up close. Then with both hands he
+carefully removed the adjacent bricks until the entire box was in
+view.
+
+_"Hombre!"_ he muttered. "What do you suppose this is? A box--"
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed the girl in delight. "A box to put our question in,
+Padre!"
+
+"More likely the answer itself, child!" muttered the excited priest,
+straining and tugging away at it. "Carmen! Stand aside!" he suddenly
+commanded. "Now--" He gave a final pull. A crash of falling bricks
+followed; the candle was extinguished; and both he and the child were
+precipitated to the floor.
+
+"Carmen!" called the priest, choking with dust, "are you hurt?"
+
+"No, Padre dear," came the laughing answer through the darkness. "But
+I'm pretty full of dust. And the candle is buried."
+
+Jose groped about for the box. It lay near, a small, wooden coffer,
+bound about with two narrow bands of steel. He dragged it out and bore
+it down the aisle to the door, followed by Carmen.
+
+"Padre!" she exclaimed eagerly. "What is it?"
+
+He dusted it off and examined it carefully in the fast fading light.
+It was some twelve inches square by three deep, well made of mahogany,
+and secured by a small, iron padlock. On the top there was a crest of
+arms and the letters, "I de R," burned into the wood.
+
+Night had closed in, and the priest and girl made their way hurriedly
+back home by way of the lake, to avoid being seen. Under his cassock
+Jose carried the box, so heavy that it chafed the skin from his hip as
+they stumbled along.
+
+"Carmen, say nothing--but tell your padre Rosendo to come to me at
+once!"
+
+With the doors secured, and Carmen and Dona Maria standing guard
+outside to apprise them of danger, Jose and Rosendo covertly examined
+the discovery.
+
+"I de R!" pondered Rosendo, studying the box. Then--"_Caramba!_
+Padre--_Caramba!_ It is _Ignacio de Rincon!_ _Hombre!_ And the
+crest--it is his! I have seen it before--years and years ago!
+_Caramba!_ _Caramba!_" The old man danced about like a child.
+
+"Ignacio de Rincon! Your grandfather!" he kept exclaiming, his eyes
+big as saucers. Then, hastening out to get his iron bar, he returned
+and with a blow broke the rusty padlock. Tearing open the hinged
+cover, he fell back with a loud cry.
+
+Before their strained gaze, packed carefully in sawdust, lay several
+bars of yellow metal. Rosendo took them out with trembling hands and
+laid them upon the floor. "Gold, Padre, gold!" he muttered hoarsely.
+"Gold, buried by your grandfather! _Caramba!--_
+
+"Hold these, Padre!" hurrying out and returning with a pair of
+homemade wooden balances. Again and again he carefully weighed the
+bars. Then he began to calculate. It seemed to Jose that the old man
+wasted hours arriving at a satisfactory result.
+
+"Padre," he finally announced in tones which he strove vainly to
+control, "there cannot be less than six thousand _pesos oro_ here!"
+
+Jose drew a long breath. "Six thousand _pesos_--twenty-four thousand
+francs! It is a fortune! Rosendo, we are rich!"
+
+The trembling old man replaced the bars and carried them to Jose's
+bed. The priest opened the door and called to Carmen.
+
+"What was in the old box, Padre?" she asked happily, bounding into the
+room.
+
+He stooped and picked her up, almost crushing her in his arms. "The
+answer to your question, _chiquita_. 'Before they call I will answer:
+and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 23
+
+
+When Jose awoke the next morning he quickly put his hand under his
+pillow. Yes, the little coffer was there! It had not been a dream. He
+drew it forth and raised the cover. The yellow bars glittered in the
+morning rays sifting through the overhanging thatch at the window. He
+passed his hand gently across them. What a fortunate discovery! And
+how strangely brought about. They were rich! Now he could take Carmen
+and flee! His heart leaped within him as he hastily threw on his scant
+attire and went out into the balsamic air of the tropical morning.
+Rosendo had gone to the village of Boque, starting before sun-up, so
+Dona Maria announced. Some sudden impulse had seized him, and he had
+set out forthwith, not stopping to discuss the motive with his
+faithful consort. Jose concluded his _desayuno_, and then summoned
+Carmen to the parish house for the day's lessons. She came with a song
+on her lips.
+
+"Don't stop, _chiquita_! Sing it again--it is beautiful; and my soul
+drinks it in like heavenly dew!" he cried, as the child danced up to
+him and threw her plump arms about his neck.
+
+She turned about and sat down on the dusty threshold and repeated the
+little song. The glittering sunlight streamed through her rich curls
+like stringers of wire gold. Cucumbra came fawning to her and nestled
+at her little bare feet, caressing them at frequent intervals with his
+rough tongue. Cantar-las-horas approached with dignified tread, and,
+stopping before his adored little mistress, cocked his head to one
+side and listened attentively, his beady eyes blinking in the dazzling
+light.
+
+Jose marveled anew as he listened. Where had that voice come from? Had
+either of her parents been so gifted? he wondered. And yet, it was
+only the voicing of a soul of stainless purity--a conscience clear as
+the light that gilded her curls--a trust, a faith, a knowledge of
+immanent good, that manifested daily, hourly, in a tide of happiness
+whose far verge melted into the shore of eternity. As he sat with
+closed eyes the adobe hut, with its dirt floor and shabby furnishings,
+expanded into a castle, hung with richest tapestries, rarest pictures,
+and glittering with plate of gold. The familiar odors of garlic and
+saffron, which penetrated from the primitive kitchen of Dona Maria,
+were transmuted into delicate perfumes. The sun drew nearer, and
+suffused him with its glittering flood. The girl became a white-robed
+vision, and her song a benediction, voicing "Glory to God in the
+highest, and on earth peace among men of good will."
+
+The song ended, and left the thought with him: "To men of good will?"
+Yes, to men of God's will--the will that is good--to men of sound
+mind--that mind which was in Christ Jesus--the mind that knows no
+evil! To such is eternal peace.
+
+"_Chiquita_," the priest said gently, when the girl returned to him.
+"Your question was quickly answered yesterday, was it not?"
+
+She laughed up into his face. "It was answered, Padre, before we asked
+it. God has the answers to all questions that could ever be asked. We
+would always know the answers if we thought the way He does."
+
+"But--tell me, _chiquita_, do you think He put that little box up
+there in the altar purposely for us?"
+
+"No, Padre--I guess it was hidden there by some man, long ago, who was
+afraid he would lose it. And since he was afraid he would lose it,
+why--he did, for now we have it."
+
+"Yes, the thing that he greatly feared came upon him. But what is your
+idea regarding the way we happened to find it? Did God lead us to
+it?"
+
+"God leads to everything good, Padre dear," was the simple response.
+
+"Of course. But, in this particular case--would we have been led to
+the little box if you had not asked your question of God?"
+
+"Why not, Padre? People are always led right when they think right."
+
+"And so thinking right was the cause of this discovery, was it?" he
+pursued, relentlessly probing her thought to its depths.
+
+"Why--yes, Padre--of course. We had to have money--you said so, you
+know. And you told me to ask for lots of _pesos_. Well, we both knew
+that God had already given us more _pesos_ than we could ever know
+what to do with--He always does. He just can't help giving Himself to
+everybody. And He gave Himself to us--why, we have always had Him! We
+are _in_ Him, you know. And when anybody just knows that--why, he sees
+nothing but good everywhere, and he always has all that he needs."
+
+"All that he wants, you mean, _chiquita_?"
+
+"No, Padre, not all that he wants. Just all that he needs. You might
+want all the gold in the world--but you wouldn't need it."
+
+"No, that would be only a selfish, human want. It would be covetousness.
+But--you still think we were led right to the little box, do you?"
+
+"I know it, Padre dear," she replied emphatically. "When we think
+good, we see good. It always comes out that way. It is just as sure as
+getting the right answers to my problems in algebra when I think right
+about them."
+
+"And thinking right about them means using the right rule, does it
+not?"
+
+"Yes--of course. If I didn't use the right rule--why, what sort of
+answers would I get? All jumbled up!"
+
+"Surely--perfect chaos. But still," vigorously pursuing the subject,
+"you don't think we happened upon the little box just by good luck?"
+
+"Padre," she shook her curls insistently, "things never happen,
+_never_! We see only what we think--always!"
+
+"Yes, there surely does seem to be a definite law of cause and effect.
+But you did not think gold yesterday, _chiquita_."
+
+"Oh, Padre dear, what a bother you are! No, I didn't think gold
+yesterday. I never think gold. But I always think _good_. And that is
+gold and everything else that we need. Can't you see? And it wasn't
+just because I thought good yesterday, but because I think good every
+day, that I saw the gold. It was because we needed it, and God had
+already given us all that we needed. And I knew that it just _had_ to
+come. And so did you. Then, because we really needed it, and knew that
+it was right and that it must come--well, it did. Can't you see?" Her
+little face was very serious as she looked up appealingly into his.
+
+"Yes, _chiquita_, yes, I see. I just wanted to know how you would
+explain it. It becomes clearer to me every day that there are no such
+things as miracles--never were! Christ Jesus _never_ performed
+miracles, if by that we mean that he set aside God's laws for the
+benefit of mankind. But he acted in perfect accord with those
+laws--and no wonder the results seemed miraculous to dull-witted human
+minds, who had always seen only their coarse, material thought
+externalized in material laws and objects, in chance, mixed good and
+evil, and a God of human characteristics!"
+
+"Yes--I--guess so, Padre dear--only, I don't understand your big
+words."
+
+"Ah, _chiquita_, you understand far, far better than I do! Why, I am
+learning it all from you! But come, now for the lessons."
+
+And Jose had learned by this time, too, that between merely
+recognizing righteousness as right-thinking, and actually practicing
+it--putting it to the test so as to "prove" God--there is a vast
+difference. Things cannot be "thought" into existence, nor evils
+"thought" away--the stumbling block of the mere tyro in the study of
+mental cause and effect. A vast development in spirituality must
+precede those "signs following" before mankind shall again do the
+works of the Master. Jose knew this; and he bowed in humble
+submission, praying for daily light.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+At dusk Rosendo returned. "_Bien_, Padre, I have it now, I think!" he
+cried excitedly, pacing back and forth in the little room.
+
+"What, Rosendo?" asked the wondering priest.
+
+"The secret of the little box! Come, while we eat I will tell you!"
+
+The little group gathered about the table, while Rosendo unfolded his
+theory.
+
+"I went to Boque this morning to talk with Dona Lucia. She is very
+aged, the oldest inhabitant in these parts. _Bien_, I knew that she
+had known Don Ignacio, although she was not his slave. Her story
+brought back to me also the things my father had often told me about
+Don Ignacio's last trip to Simiti. Putting all these things together,
+I think I now know how the little box came to be hidden in the altar
+of the old church."
+
+The old man's eyes sparkled with happiness, while his auditors drew
+closer about him to drink in his dramatic recital. For Rosendo, like a
+true Latin, reveled in a wonder-tale. And his recitals were always
+accompanied by profuse gesticulation and wonderful facial expressions
+and much rolling of the eyes.
+
+"_Bien_," he continued, "it was this way. Don Ignacio's possessions in
+Guamoco were enormous, and in the then prosperous city of Simiti he
+had stores and warehouses and much property. When the War of
+Independence neared its end, and he saw that the Royalist cause was
+lost, he made a last and flying trip to Simiti, going up the Magdalena
+river from Cartagena in his own _champan_, propelled by some of his
+still faithful slaves.
+
+"_Bien_, he found that one of his foremen had just returned from the
+mountains with the final clean-up from La Libertad _arrastras_. These
+had been abandoned, for most of the slaves had deserted, or gone to
+fight the Spaniards. But the foreman, who was not a slave, but a
+faithful employe, had cleaned up the _arrastras_ and hidden the
+amalgam until he could find a favorable opportunity to come down to
+Simiti with it.
+
+"Now, when Don Ignacio arrived here, he found the town practically
+deserted. So he and the foreman retorted the amalgam and melted the
+gold into bars. But, just as they had completed their task, a
+messenger came flying to town and reported that a body of Royalist
+soldiers were at Badillo, and that they had learned that Simiti was
+the _bodega_ of the rich Guamoco district, and were preparing to come
+over and sack the town. They were fleeing down the river to the coast,
+to get away to Spain as soon as possible, but had put off at Badillo
+to come over here. Fortunately, they had become very intoxicated, and
+their expedition was for that reason delayed.
+
+"_Bueno_, at the news the foreman dropped everything and fled for his
+life. A few people gathered with the priest in the Rincon church, the
+one you are using now, Padre. The priest of the other old church on
+the hill fled. _Caramba_, but he was a coward--and he got well paid
+for it, too! But of that later.
+
+"Don Ignacio's _champan_ was at Badillo, and he had come across to
+Simiti by canoe. _Bien_, he dared not take this gold back with him;
+and so he thought of hiding it in one of the churches, for that is
+always a sacred place. There were people in his own church, and so he
+hurried to the one on the hill. Evidently, as he looked about in the
+deserted building for a place to hide the bars, he saw that some of
+the bricks could easily be removed from the rear of the altar. A
+couple of hours sufficed to do the work of secreting the box. Then he
+fled across the shales to the town of Boque, where he got a canoe to
+take him down to the Magdalena; and there he waited until he saw the
+soldiers come across and enter the _cano_. Then he fled to Badillo.
+Don Nicolas, son of Dona Lucia, was his boatman, and he says that he
+remained with your grandfather at that place over night, and that
+there they received the report that the Royalists had been terribly
+whipped in the battle--the battle of--_Caramba_! I forget--"
+
+"Of Ayacucho," suggested Jose.
+
+"Just so," resumed Rosendo. "_Bien_, there was nothing for the poor
+man to do but hasten down the river to Cartagena as fast as possible,
+for he knew not what might have befallen his family. He did not dare
+go back to Simiti then for the box. And so the gold was left in the
+altar."
+
+_"Hombre!"_ exclaimed Jose. "Now I understand what he meant by that
+note in his old diary, which we had in my father's house, in Spain! Of
+course! Arriving in Cartagena he went at once to the Department of
+Mines and tore out all the pages of the register that contained
+descriptions of his mineral properties. He intended some day to return
+to Guamoco and again locate them. And meantime, he protected himself
+by destroying all the registered locations. It was easy for him to do
+this, influential as he was in Cartagena. And doubtless at that stormy
+time the office of the Department of Mines was deserted. This note,
+Rosendo, I have read in his old diary, many times, but never knew to
+what it referred."
+
+_"Hombre!"_ ejaculated Rosendo. "_Bueno_, the soldiers sacked Simiti
+and slaughtered all the people they could find. Then they set fire to
+the town, and left. My parents had fled to Guamoco.
+
+"But now for the old church and the picture of the Virgin that was
+lost during the terrible storm when the priest fell dead. We will have
+to guess that later, when peace had been restored, the priest of the
+old church in prying around the altar discovered the loose bricks and
+the box behind them. _Bueno_, the night of the awful storm he had gone
+secretly to the church to remove the box. I remember that my father
+said the priest had arranged for my father to take him down to Bodega
+Central the very next day. You see, he was going to flee with the
+gold, the rogue! _Bien_, while he was in the church taking out the
+loose bricks, that storm broke--and, from what I remember, it was
+terrible! The heavens were ablaze with lightning; the thunder roared
+like cannon; and the lake rose right out of its bed! _Caramba!_ The
+door of the church crashed open, and the wind whistled in and blew out
+the candles on the altar. The wind also tore loose a beautiful picture
+of the Virgin that was hanging near the altar. The picture was blown
+out of its frame and swept off to the hills, or into the lake. It was
+never seen again, although the frame was found just outside the door.
+Perhaps it was the extinguishing of the candles and the falling of the
+picture that frightened the old priest so terribly. At any rate he ran
+from the church to his house, and when he reached his door he fell
+dead of apoplexy.
+
+"_Bueno_, after that you could never get any of the Simiti people to
+enter the church again. They closed the doors and left it, just as it
+was, for they thought the curse of God had fallen upon it because it
+had been erected by the enemies of the Rincon family, whose patron
+saint was the blessed Virgin herself. Well, the old altar began to
+crumble, and parts of it fell away from time to time. And when the
+people heard the bricks falling they said it was the bad angel that
+the Virgin had locked in there--the angel of Satan that had
+extinguished the candles on the altar that night of the storm.
+_Caramba!_ And I believed it, too! I am a fool, Padre, a fool!"
+
+"We are all fools, Rosendo, when we yield ourselves to superstition
+and false belief," said Jose solemnly. "But you have worked out a very
+ingenious story, and I doubt not you have come very near to accounting
+in the right way for the presence of the little box in the altar. But
+now, _amigo_, come with me to my house. I would discuss a plan with
+you.
+
+"It is this, Rosendo," he said, when they were alone. "We now have
+gold, and the way has been providentially opened. Carmen is in great
+danger here. What say you, shall we take her and leave Simiti?"
+
+Rosendo's face became grave. He did not reply for some moments.
+
+"Padre," he said at length, "you are right. It would be best for her
+if we could get her away. But--you would have to leave the country. I
+see now that neither she nor you would be safe anywhere in Colombia if
+you left Simiti."
+
+"True, Rosendo," replied Jose. "And I am sure that no country
+offers the asylum that America does--the America of the north. I
+have never been there, _amigo_; but of all countries I learn that it
+is the most tolerant in matters religious. And it offers the
+greatest opportunities to one, like Carmen, just entering upon life.
+We will go there. And, Rosendo, prepare yourself and Dona Maria at
+once, for we had best start without delay."
+
+But Rosendo shook his head. "No, Padre," he said slowly. "No. I could
+not go to the North with you; nor could Maria."
+
+"But, Rosendo!" exclaimed the priest impatiently, "why?"
+
+"_Bien_, Padre, we are old. And we know not the language of those up
+there. Nor the customs. We could not adapt ourselves to their ways of
+life--no, not at our age. Nor could we endure the change of climate.
+You tell me they have cold, ice, snow, up there. What could we do? We
+would die. No, we must remain here. But--" his voice choked.
+
+"_Bien_, Padre, do you go, and take the girl. Bring her up to be a
+power for good in that great land. We--Maria and I--will remain in
+Simiti. It is not permitted that we should ever leave. This has always
+been our home, and here we will die."
+
+Jose exclaimed again in impatience. But the old man was immovable.
+
+"No, Padre, we could not make so great a change. Anywhere in Colombia
+would be but little different from Simiti. But up north--in that great
+country where they do those wonderful things you have told me
+about--no, Padre, Maria and I could not make so great a change.
+
+"But, Padre," he continued, "what will you do--leave the Church? Or
+will you still be a priest up there?"
+
+The question startled Jose rudely. In the great joy which the
+discovery of the gold had stimulated, and in the thought of the
+possibilities opened by it, he had given no heed to his status
+respecting the Church. Yet, if he remained in the Church, he could not
+make this transfer without the approval of the Vatican. And that, he
+well knew, could not be obtained. No, if he went, he must leave behind
+all ecclesiastical ties. And with them, doubtless, the ties which
+still bound him to his distant mother and the family whose honored
+name he bore. It was not so easy a matter to take the girl and leave
+Simiti, now that he gave the project further consideration.
+
+And yet he could not abandon the idea, however great his present sense
+of disappointment. He would cling to it as an ideal, some day to be
+realized, and to be worked up to as rapidly as might be, without
+exciting suspicion, and without abruptly severing the ties which, on
+serious reflection, he found he was not morally strong enough as yet
+to break.
+
+"_Bien_, Rosendo," he concluded in chastened tones. "We will think it
+over, and try to devise ways to accomplish the greatest good for the
+child. I shall remain here for the present."
+
+Rosendo's face beamed with joy. "The way will be shown us some time,
+Padre!" he exclaimed. "And while we wait, we will keep our eyes open,
+no?"
+
+Yes, Jose would keep his eyes open and his heart receptive. After
+all, as he meditated the situation in the quiet of his little cottage
+that evening, he was not sorry that circumstances kept him longer in
+Simiti. For he had long been meditating a plan, and the distraction
+incident upon a complete change of environment certainly would delay,
+if not entirely defeat, its consummation. He had planned to
+translate his Testament anew, in the light of various works on
+Bible criticism which the explorer had mentioned, and which the
+possession of the newly discovered gold now made attainable. He had
+with him his Greek lexicon. He would now, in the freedom from
+interruption which Simiti could and probably would afford for the
+ensuing few months, give himself up to his consecrated desire to
+extract from the sacred writings the spiritual meaning crystallized
+within them. The vivid experiences which had fallen to him in
+Simiti had resulted in the evolution of ideas--radically at variance
+with the world's materialistic thought, it is true--which he was
+learning to look upon as demonstrable truths. The Bible had slowly
+taken on a new meaning to him, a meaning far different from that
+set forth in the clumsy, awkward phrases and expressions into which
+the translators so frequently poured the wine of the spirit, and
+which, literally interpreted, have resulted in such violent
+controversies, such puerile ideas of God and His thought toward man,
+and such religious hatred and bigotry, bloodshed, suffering, and
+material stagnation throughout the so-called Christian era. He would
+approach the Gospels, not as books of almost undecipherable
+mystery, not as the biography of the blessed Virgin, but as
+containing the highest human interpretation of truth and its relation
+to mankind.
+
+"I seek knowledge," he repeated aloud, as he paced back and forth
+through his little living room at night; "but it is not a knowledge
+of Goethe, of Kant, or Shakespeare; it is not a knowledge of the
+poets, the scientists, the philosophers, all whom the world holds
+greatest in the realm of thought; it is a knowledge of Thee, my
+God, to know whom is life eternal! Men think they can know Homer,
+Plato, Confucius--and so they can. But they think they can _not_
+know Thee! And yet Thou art nearer to us than the air we breathe, for
+Thou art Life! What is there out in the world among the multifold
+interests of mankind that can equal in importance a demonstrable
+knowledge of Thee? Not the unproven theories and opinions, the
+so-called 'authority' of the ancient Fathers, good men though they
+may have been; not modern pseudo-science, half-truths and relative
+facts, saturated with materialism and founded on speculation and
+hypothesis; but real knowledge, a knowledge of Thee that is as
+demonstrable as the simplest rule in mathematics! Alas! that men
+should be so mesmerized by their own beliefs as to say Thou canst
+not be known. Alas! for the burden which such thinkers as Spencer
+have laid upon the shoulders of stumbling mankind. For God _can_ be
+known, and proven--else is Jesus responsible for the most cruel lie
+ever perpetrated upon the ignorant, suffering world!"
+
+And so, putting aside a portion of his gold--his by right of
+inheritance as well as discovery--for the future purchase of such
+books and aids as he might require, Jose set his house in order and
+then plunged into such a search of the Scriptures as rendered him
+oblivious to all but the immediate interests of Carmen and her
+foster-parents. The great world again narrowed into the rock-bound
+confines of little Simiti. Each rushing morn that shot its fiery glow
+through the lofty treetops sank quickly into the hush of noon, while
+the dust lay thick, white, and hot on the slumbering streets of the
+ancient town; each setting sun burned with dreamy radiance through the
+afternoon haze that drew its filmy veil across the seething valley;
+each night died into a stillness, lonely and awful. Nature changed her
+garb with monotonous regularity; the drowsing children of this tropic
+region passed their days in dull torpidity; Jose saw nothing of it
+all. At times a villager would bring a tale of grievance to pour into
+his ears--perhaps a jaguar had pounced upon his dog on his little
+_finca_ across the lake, or a huge snake had lured a suckling pig into
+its cavernous maw. At times a credulous woman would stop before his
+open door to dilate upon the thick worms that hung upon the leaves of
+the _algarrobas_ and dropped their wool-like fibers upon the natives
+as they passed below, causing intermittent fevers. Perhaps an anxious
+mother would seek him for advice regarding her little son, who had
+eaten too much dirt, and was suffering from the common "_jipitera_,"
+that made his poor little abdomen protrude so uncomfortably. Again,
+Rosendo might steal in for a few moments' mysterious, whispered talk
+about buried treasure, or the fables of El Dorado and Parime. Jose had
+time for them all, though as he listened his thought hovered ever
+about the green verge of Galilee.
+
+By his side worked Carmen, delving assiduously into the mysteries
+of mathematics and the modern languages. When the day's work closed
+for them both, he often asked her to sing to him. And then, leaning
+back with closed eyes, he would yield himself to the soft dreams
+which her sweet voice called up from his soul's unfathomed depths.
+Often they walked together by the lake on a clear night; and on
+these little excursions, during which they were never beyond
+Rosendo's watchful eye, Jose reveled in the girl's airy gaiety and
+the spontaneous flow of her sparkling thought. He called her his
+domestic sunbeam; but in his serious moments--and they were
+many--he studied her with a wistful earnestness, while he sought to
+imbibe her great trust, her fearlessness, her unswerving loyalty to
+the Christ-principle of immanent Good. He would never permit
+restraint to be imposed upon her, even by Rosendo or his good wife.
+She knew not what it was to be checked in the freest manifestation
+of her natural character. But there was little occasion for
+restraint, for Carmen dwelt ever in the consciousness of a spiritual
+universe, and to it paid faithful tribute. She saw and knew only
+from a spiritual basis; and she reaped the rewards incident thereto.
+His life and hers were such as fools might label madness, a
+colorless, vegetative existence, devoid of even the elemental
+things that make mundane existence worth the while. But the
+appraisal of fools is their own folly. Jose knew that the torrid
+days which drew their monotonous length over the little town were
+witnessing a development in both himself and the child that some day
+would bear richest fruit. So far from being educated to distrust
+spiritual power, as are the children of this world, Carmen was
+growing up to know no other. Instead of the preponderance of her
+belief and confidence being directed to the material, she was
+developing the consciousness that the so-called evidence of the
+physical senses is but mortal thought, the suppositional opposite of
+the thought of the infinite God who says to mankind: "For I know the
+thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of
+evil, to give you an expected end." Jose knew that his method of
+education was revolutionary. But he also knew that it was not
+wholly his; that the child had really taken this course herself,
+as if led thereto by a power beyond them both.
+
+And so he watched her, and sought to learn from her as from Christ's
+own loving and obedient disciple. It was because of his obedience to
+God that Jesus was able to "prove" Him in the mighty works which we
+call miracles. He said, "If any man will do His will, he shall know of
+the doctrine, whether it be of God." Plain enough, indeed! And Carmen
+did do His will; she kept the very first Commandment; she walked by
+faith, and not by the sight of the human senses. She had been called
+an "_hada_," a witch, by the dull-witted folk of Simiti; and some day
+it would be told that she had a devil. But the Master had borne the
+same ignominy. And so has every pioneer in Truth, who has dared to lay
+the axe at the roots of undemonstrable orthodox belief and entrenched
+human error.
+
+Jose often trembled for the child when he thought of the probable
+reception that awaited her in the world without, in case she ever
+left Simiti. Would her supreme confidence in good ever be weakened by
+an opposite belief in evil? Would her glorious faith ever be
+neutralized or counterbalanced by faith in a power opposed to God? He
+wondered. And sometimes in the fits of abstraction resulting from
+these thoughts, the girl would steal up to him and softly whisper,
+"Why, Padre, are you trying to make two and two equal seven?" Then he
+would laugh with her, and remember how from her algebraic work she had
+looked up one day and exclaimed, "Padre--why, all evil can be reduced
+to a common denominator, too--_and it is zero_!"
+
+As recreation from the task of retranslating his Greek Testament, Jose
+often read to Carmen portions from the various books of the Bible, or
+told her the old sacred stories that children so love to hear. But
+Carmen's incisive thought cut deep into them, and Jose generally found
+himself hanging upon the naive interpretations of this young girl.
+When, after reading aloud the two opposing accounts of the Creation,
+as given in the first and second chapters of Genesis, she asked, "But,
+Padre, why did God change His mind after He made people and gave them
+dominion over everything?" Jose was obliged to say that God had not
+made a mistake, and then gone back afterward to rectify it; that the
+account of the Creation, as given in Genesis, was not His, but was a
+record of the dawning upon the human thought of the idea of the
+spiritual Creation; that the "mist" which went up from the earth was
+suppositional error; and that the record of the Creation which follows
+after this was only the human mind's interpretation of the real,
+spiritual Creation, that Creation which is the ever unfolding of
+infinite Mind's numberless, perfect ideas. The book of Genesis has
+been a fetish to human minds; and not until the limitations imposed by
+its literal interpretation were in a measure removed did the human
+mentality begin to rise and expand. And when, reading from Isaiah, the
+grandest of the ancient prophets, the ringing words, "Cease ye from
+man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be
+accounted of?" the child asked him if that did not refer to the very
+kind of people with whom they had daily intercourse, he had been
+obliged to say that it did, and that that sort of man was far, very
+far, from being the man of God's own creating.
+
+"The mist, child, which is mentioned in the second chapter of Genesis,
+is said to have gone up from the ground. That is, it went up from
+matter. And so it is typical of materialism, from which all evil
+comes. The material is the direct opposite of the spiritual. Every bit
+of evil that men think they can see, or know, or do, comes as
+testimony of the five material senses. These might well be called the
+'ground' senses. In the book of Genesis, you will notice that the
+account of the real comes first; then follows the account of its
+opposite, the unreal man of dust."
+
+"Surely, Padre!" she exclaimed. "The plus sign is followed by a minus
+sign, isn't it? And the man made of dust is the real man with a minus
+sign before him."
+
+"The man of dust is the human mind's interpretation of the spiritual
+man, dear child," returned Jose. "All human beings are interpretations
+by the mortal, or human, mind of infinite Mind, God, and His spiritual
+Creation. The interpretation is made in the human mind, and remains
+there. The human mind does not see these interpretations outside of
+itself--it does not see real men, and houses, and trees, outside of
+itself--but it sees its mental interpretations of God, which it calls
+men, and houses, and trees, and so on. These things are what we might
+call _mental concepts_. They are the man and the creation spoken of in
+the second chapter of Genesis after the mist went up from matter, from
+the ground, from materialism, resulting in the testimony of the
+physical senses."
+
+"But, Padre, they are not real--these mental concepts?"
+
+"No. They are illusions. They are formed in mentalities that are
+themselves wrong interpretations of the infinite Mentality, called
+God. They are formed without any rule or principle. They are made up
+of false thoughts, false opinions, beliefs of power opposed to God,
+beliefs in evil, in sickness, disaster, loss, and death. They are the
+results of educated and inherited and attached beliefs. They are
+largely made up of fear-beliefs. The human mentalities see these
+various beliefs combined in what it calls men and women, houses,
+animals, trees, and so on, all through the material so-called
+creation. It is this wrong interpretation that has caused all the
+suffering and sorrow in the world. And it is this false stuff that the
+good man Jesus finally said he had overcome."
+
+"How did he do it, Padre?"
+
+"By knowing its nothingness, and by knowing the Allness of his Father,
+infinite Mind. He called this false stuff a lie about God. And he
+overcame that lie by knowing the truth--just as you overcome the
+thought that you cannot solve your algebraic problems by knowing the
+truth that will and does solve them."
+
+"But, Padre, you said once that Jesus was the best man that ever
+lived. Was he just a man?"
+
+"Yes, _chiquita_. That is, the human minds all about him saw their
+mental concepts of him as a man. But he was a human concept that most
+clearly represented God's idea of Himself. Mortal, human minds are
+like window-panes, _chiquita_. When a window-pane is very dirty, very
+much covered with matter, only a little light can get through it. Some
+human minds are cleaner, less material, than others, and they let more
+light through. Jesus was the cleanest mind that was ever with us. He
+kept letting more and more light--Truth--through himself, until at
+last all the matter, even the matter composing the material concept
+that people called his earthly body, dissolved in the strong light,
+and the people saw him no more. That is called the Ascension."
+
+"And--Padre, don't we have to do that way, too?" she asked earnestly.
+
+"Just so, _chiquita_. We must, every one of us, do exactly as Jesus
+did. We must wash ourselves clean--wash off the dirty beliefs of power
+apart from God; we must wash off the beliefs of evil as a power,
+created in opposition to Him, or permitted by Him to exist and to use
+His children; we must wash off beliefs of matter as real and created
+by Him. We must know that matter and all evil, all that decays and
+passes away, all discord and disease, everything that comes as
+testimony of the five physical senses, is but a part of the lie about
+Him, the stuff that has the minus sign before it, making it less than
+nothing. We must know that it is the suppositional opposite of the
+real--it is an illusion, seeming to exist, yet evaporating when we try
+to define it or put a finger on it, for it has no rule or principle by
+which it was created and by which it continues to exist. Its existence
+is only in human thought."
+
+No, Jose assured himself, the Gospels are not "loose, exaggerated,
+inaccurate, credulous narratives." They are the story of the clearest
+transparency to truth that was ever known to mortals as a human being.
+They preserve the life-giving words of him whose mission it was to
+show mankind the way out of error by giving them truth. They contain
+the rule given by the great Mathematician, who taught mankind how to
+solve their life-problems. They tell the world plainly that there
+seems to exist a lie about God; that every real idea of the infinite
+Mind seems to have its suppositional opposite in a material illusion.
+They tell us plainly that resisting these illusions with truth renders
+them nugatory. They tell us clearly that the man Jesus was so filled
+with truth that he proved the nothingness of the lie about God by
+doing those deeds that seemed marvelous in the eyes of men, and yet
+which he said we could and should do ourselves. And we must do them,
+if we would throw off the mesmerism of the lie. The human concept of
+man and the universe must dissolve in the light of the truth that
+comes through us as transparencies. And it were well if we set about
+washing away the dirt of materialism, that the light may shine through
+more abundantly.
+
+Jesus did not say that his great deeds were accomplished contrary to
+law, but that they fulfilled the law of God. The law is spiritual,
+never material. Material law is but human limitation. Ignorance of
+spiritual law permits the belief in its opposite, material law, or
+laws of matter. False, human beliefs, opinions, and theories, material
+speculations and superstitions, parade before the human mind as laws.
+Jesus swept them all aside by knowing that their supposed power lay
+only in human acceptance. The human mind is mesmerized by its own
+false thought. Even Paul at times felt its mesmerism and exclaimed:
+"I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with
+me." The very idea of good stirs up its opposite in the human
+consciousness. But Paul rose above it and saw its nothingness. Then
+he cried: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made
+me free from the law of sin and death." He recognized the spiritual
+law that Jesus employed; and with it he overcame the mesmerism of
+the lie.
+
+"To be a Christian, then," said Jose, "means not merely taking the
+name of Christ, and, while morally opposing sin, succumbing to every
+form of mesmerism that the lie about God exerts. No, it is infinitely
+more! It means recognizing the nature of God and His Creation,
+including Man, to be wholly spiritual--and the nature of the material
+creation and mankind as their opposite, as mental concepts, existing
+as false interpretations of the spiritual Universe and Man, and as
+having their place only in the false human consciousness, which itself
+is a mental activity concerned only with false thought, the
+suppositional opposite of God's thought. It means taking this Truth,
+this spiritual law, as we would take a mathematical rule or principle,
+and with it overcoming sin, sickness, discord of every name and
+nature, even to death itself. What, oh, what have so-called Christians
+been doing these nearly two thousand years, that they have not ere
+this worked out their salvation as Jesus directed them to do? Alas!
+they have been mesmerized--simply mesmerized by the lie. The
+millennium should have come long, long ago. It would come to-day if
+the world would obey Jesus. But it will not come until it does obey
+him."
+
+Day after day, week after week, month after month, Jose delved and
+toiled, studied and pondered. The books which he ordered through the
+Empresa Alemania, and for which for some two months he waited in
+trembling anticipation and fear lest they be lost in transit, finally
+arrived. When Juan brought them up from Bodega Central, Jose could
+have wept for joy. Except for the very few letters he had received at
+rare intervals, these were the only messages that had penetrated the
+isolation of Simiti from the outside world in the two long years of
+his exile. His starving mind ravenously devoured them. They afforded
+his first introduction to that fearlessly critical thought regarding
+things religious which has swept across the world like a tidal wave,
+and washed away so many of the bulwarks of superstition and ignorance
+bred of fear of the unknown and supposedly unknowable.
+
+And yet they were not really his first introduction to that
+thought, for, as he pored over these books, his heart expanded
+with gratitude to the brusque explorer whom he had met in Cartagena,
+that genial, odd medley of blunt honesty, unquibbling candor, and
+hatred of dissimulation, whose ridicule of the religious fetishism
+of the human mentality tore up the last root of educated orthodox
+belief that remained struggling for life in the altered soil of his
+mind.
+
+But, though they tore down with ruthless hand, _these books did not
+reconstruct_. Jose turned from them with something of disappointment.
+He could understand why the trembling heart, searching wearily for
+truth, turned always from such as they with sinking hope. They were
+violently iconoclastic--they up-rooted--they overthrew--they swept
+aside with unsparing hand--but they robbed the starving mortal of his
+once cherished beliefs--they snatched the stale and feebly nourishing
+bread from his mouth, and gave nothing in return. They emptied his
+heart, and left it starving. What did it boot to tell a man that the
+orthodox dream of eternal bliss beyond the gates of death was but a
+hoax, if no substitute be offered? Why point out the fallacies, the
+puerile conceptions, the worse than childish thought expressed in the
+religious creeds of men, if they were not to be replaced by
+life-sustaining truth? If the demolition of cherished beliefs be not
+followed by reconstruction upon a sure foundation of demonstrable
+truth, then is the resulting state of mind worse than before, for the
+trusting, though deceived, soul has no recourse but to fall into the
+agnosticism of despair, or the black atheism of positive negation.
+
+"Happily for me," he sighed, as he closed his books at length, "that
+Carmen entered my empty life in time with the truth that she hourly
+demonstrates!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 24
+
+
+Days melted into weeks, and these in turn into months. Simiti, drab
+and shabby, a crumbling and abandoned relique of ancient Spanish pride
+and arrogance, drowsed undisturbed in the ardent embrace of the
+tropical sun. Don Jorge returned, unsuccessful, from his long quest in
+the San Lucas mountains, and departed again down the Magdalena river.
+
+"It is a marvelous country up there," he told Jose. "I do not wonder
+that it has given rise to legends. I felt myself in a land of
+enchantment while I was roaming those quiet mountains. When, after
+days of steady traveling, I would chance upon a little group of
+natives hidden away in some dense thicket, it seemed to me that they
+must be fairies, not real. I came upon the old trail, Padre, the
+_Camino Real_, now sunken and overgrown, which the Spaniards used.
+They called it the Panama trail. It used to lead down to Cartagena.
+_Hombre_! in places it is now twenty feet deep!"
+
+"But, gold, Don Jorge?"
+
+"Ah, Padre, what quartz veins I saw in that country! _Hombre_! Gold
+will be discovered there without measure some day! But--_Caramba_!
+This map which Don Carlos gave me is much in error. I must consult
+again with him. Then I shall return to Simiti." Jose regretfully saw
+him depart, for he had grown to love this ruggedly honest soul.
+
+Meantime, Don Mario sulked in his house; nor during the intervening
+year would he hold anything more than the most formal intercourse with
+the priest. Jose ignored him as far as possible. Events move with
+terrible deliberation in these tropic lands, and men's minds are heavy
+and lethargic. Jose assumed that Don Mario had failed in the support
+upon which he had counted; or else Diego's interest in Carmen was
+dormant, perhaps utterly passed. Each succeeding day of quiet
+increased his confidence, while he rounded out month after month in
+this sequestered vale on the far confines of civilization, and the
+girl attained her twelfth year. Moreover, as he noted with marveling,
+often incredulous, mental gaze her swift, unhindered progress, the
+rapid unfolding of her rich nature, and the increasing development of
+a spirituality which seemed to raise her daily farther above the plane
+on which he dwelt, he began to regard the uninterrupted culmination of
+his plans for her as reasonably assured, if not altogether certain.
+
+Juan continued his frequent trips down to Bodega Central as general
+messenger and transportation agent for his fellow-townsmen, meanwhile
+adoring Carmen from a distance of respectful decorum. Rosendo and
+Lazaro, relaxing somewhat their vigilance over the girl, labored
+daily on the little _hacienda_ across the lake. The dull-witted
+folk, keeping to their dismally pretentious mud houses during the
+pulsing heat of day, and singing their weird, moaning laments in the
+quiet which reigned over this maculate hollow at night, followed
+undeviatingly the monotonous routine of an existence which had no
+other aim than the indulgence of the most primitive material wants.
+
+"Ah, Padre," Rosendo would say of them, "they are so easy! They love
+idleness; they like not labor. They fish, they play the guitar, they
+gather fruits. They sing and dance--and then die. Padre, it is sad, is
+it not?"
+
+Aye, thought the priest, doubly sad in its mute answer to the
+heartlessly selfish query of Cain. No one, not even the Church, was
+the keeper of these benighted brothers. He alone had constituted
+himself their shepherd. And as they learned to love him, to confide
+their simple wants and childish hopes to him, he came to realize the
+immense ascendency which the priests of Colombia possess over the
+simple understanding of the people. An ascendency hereditary and
+dominant, capable of utmost good, but expressed in the fettering of
+initiative and action, in the suppression of ambition, and the
+quenching of every impulse toward independence of thought. How he
+longed to lift them up from the drag of their mental encompassment!
+Yet how helpless he was to afford them the needed lustration of soul
+which alone could accomplish it!
+
+"I can do little more than try to set them a standard of thought,"
+he would muse, as he looked out from the altar over the camellia-like
+faces of his adult children when he conducted his simple Sunday
+services. "I can only strive to point out the better things of
+this life--to tell them of the wonders of invention, of art, of
+civilization--I can only relate to them tales of romance and
+achievement, and beautiful stories--and try to omit in the recital all
+reference to the evil methods, aims, and motives which have manifested
+in those dark crimes staining the records of history. The world
+calls them historical incident and fact. I must call them 'the mist
+that went up from the ground and watered the face of the earth.'"
+
+But Jose had progressed during his years in Simiti. It had been
+hard--only he could know how hard!--to adapt himself to the narrow
+environment in which he dwelt. It had been hard to conform to these
+odd ways and strange usages. But he now knew that the people's
+reserve and shyness at first was due to their natural suspicion of
+him. For days, even weeks, he had known that he was being weighed and
+watched. And then love triumphed.
+
+It is true, the dull staring of the natives of this unkempt town had
+long continued to throw him into fits of prolonged nervousness. They
+had not meant to offend, of course. Their curiosity was far from
+malicious. But at hardly any hour of the day or night could he look up
+from his work without seeing dark, inquisitive faces peering in
+through the latticed window or the open door at him, watchful of the
+minutest detail of his activity. He had now grown used to that. And he
+had grown used to their thoughtless intrusion upon him at any hour. He
+had learned, too, not to pale with nausea when, as was their wont of
+many centuries, the dwellers in this uncouth town relentlessly pursued
+their custom of expectorating upon his floor immediately they entered
+and stood before him. He had accustomed himself to the hourly
+intrusion of the scavenger pigs and starving dogs in his house. And he
+could now endure without aching nerves the awful singing, the maudlin
+wails, the thin, piercing, falsetto howls which rose almost nightly
+about him in the sacred name of music. For these were children with
+whom he dwelt. And he was trying to show them that they were children
+of God.
+
+The girl's education was progressing marvelously. Already Jose had
+been obliged to supplement his oral instruction with texts purchased
+for her from abroad. Her grasp of the English language was his daily
+wonder. After two years of study she spoke it readily. She loved it,
+and insisted that her conversations with him should be conducted
+wholly in it. French and German likewise had been taken up; and her
+knowledge of her own Castilian tongue had been enriched by the few
+books which he had been able to secure for her from Spain.
+
+Jose's anomalous position in Simiti had ceased to cause him worry.
+What mattered it, now that he had endeared himself to its people, and
+was progressing undisturbed in the training of Carmen? He performed
+his religious duties faithfully. His people wanted them. And he, in
+turn, knew that upon his observance of them depended his tenure of the
+parish.
+
+And he wanted to remain among them, to lead them, if possible, at
+least a little way along what he was daily seeing to be the only path
+out of the corroding beliefs of the human mind. He knew that his
+people's growth would be slow--how slow might not his own be, too! Who
+could say how unutterably slow would be their united march heavenward!
+And yet, the human mind was expanding with wonderful rapidity in
+these last days. What acceleration had it not acquired since that
+distant era of the Old Stone Man, when through a hundred thousand
+years of darkness the only observable progress was a little greater
+skill in the shaping of his crude flint weapons!
+
+To Padre Diego's one or two subsequent curt demands that Carmen be
+sent to him, Jose had given no heed. And perhaps Diego, absorbed in
+his political activities as the confidential agent of Wenceslas, would
+have been content to let his claim upon the child lapse, after many
+months of quiet, had not Don Jorge inadvertently set the current of
+the man's thought again in her direction.
+
+For Don Jorge was making frequent trips along the Magdalena river. It
+was essential to his business to visit the various riverine towns and
+to mingle freely with all grades of people, that he might run down
+rumors or draw from the inhabitants information which might result in
+valuable clues anent buried treasure. Returning one day to Simiti from
+such a trip, he regaled Jose with the spirited recital of his
+experience on a steamboat which had become stranded on a river bar.
+
+"_Bien_," he concluded, "the old tub at last broke loose. Then we saw
+that its engines were out of commission; and so the captain let her
+drift down to Banco, where we docked. I was forced, not altogether
+against my will, to put up with Padre Diego. _Caramba_! The old fox!
+But I had much amusement at his expense when I twitted him about his
+daughter Carmen, and his silly efforts to get possession of her!"
+
+Jose shook with indignation. "Good heaven, friend!" he cried, "why can
+you not let sleeping dogs alone? Diego is not the man to be bearded
+like that! Would that you had kept away from the subject! And what did
+you say to him about the girl?"
+
+"_Caramba_, man! I only told him how beautiful she was, and how large
+for her few years. _Bien_, I think I said she was the most beautiful
+and well-formed girl I had ever seen. But was there anything wrong in
+telling the truth, _amigo_?"
+
+"No," replied Jose bitterly, as he turned away; "you meant no harm.
+But, knowing the man's brutal nature, and his assumed claim on the
+girl, why could you not have foreseen possible misfortune to her in
+dwelling thus on her physical beauty? _Hombre_, it is too bad!"
+
+"_Na_, _amigo_," said Don Jorge soothingly, "nothing can come of it.
+Bien, you take things so hard!" But when Don Jorge again set out for
+the mountains he left the priest's heart filled with apprehension.
+
+A few weeks later came what Jose had been awaiting, another demand
+upon him for the girl. Failure to comply with it, said Diego's letter,
+meant the placing of the case in the hands of the civil and
+ecclesiastical authorities for action.
+
+Rosendo's face grew hard when he read the note. "There is a way,
+Padre. Let my woman take the girl and go up the Boque river to Rosa
+Maria, the clearing of Don Nicolas. It is a wild region, where tapirs
+and deer roam, and where hardly a man has set foot for centuries. The
+people of Boque will keep our secret, and she can remain hidden there
+until--"
+
+"No, Rosendo, that will not do," replied Jose, shaking his head in
+perplexity. "The girl is developing rapidly, and such a course would
+result in a mental check that might spell infinite harm. She and Dona
+Maria would die to live by themselves up there in that lonely region.
+What about her studies? And--what would I do?"
+
+"Then do you go too, Padre," suggested Rosendo.
+
+"No, _amigo_, for that would cause search to be instituted by the
+Bishop, and we certainly would be discovered. But, to take her
+and flee the country--and the Church--how can I yet? No, it is
+impossible!" He shook his head dolefully, while his thoughts flew
+back to Seville and the proud mother there.
+
+"_Bien_, Padre, let us increase our contributions to Don Wenceslas.
+Let us send him from now on not less than one hundred _pesos oro_ each
+month. Will not that keep him quiet, no matter what Diego says?"
+
+"Possibly," assented Jose. "At any rate, we will try it." They still
+had some three thousand _pesos_ gold left.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Padre," said Rosendo, some days later, as they sat together in the
+parish house, "what do you think Diego wants of the girl?"
+
+Jose hesitated. "I think, Rosendo--" he began. But could even a human
+mind touch such depths of depravity? And yet--"I think," he continued
+slowly, "that Diego, having seen her, and now speculating on her
+future beauty of face and form--I think he means to place her in a
+convent, with the view of holding her as a ready substitute for the
+woman who now lives with him--"
+
+"_Dios_! And that is my own daughter!" cried Rosendo, springing up.
+
+"Yes--true, Rosendo. And, if I mistake not, Diego also would like to
+repay the score he has against you, for driving him from Simiti and
+holding the threat of death over him these many years. He can most
+readily do this by getting Carmen away from you--as he did the other
+daughter, is it not so?"
+
+Rosendo came and stood before the priest. His face was strained with
+fearful anxiety. "Padre," he said in a low voice, "I shall end this
+matter at once. I go to Banco to-morrow to kill Diego."
+
+"You shall do nothing of the kind!" cried Jose, seizing his
+hand. "Why--Rosendo, it would mean your own death, or lifelong
+imprisonment!"
+
+"And what of that, Padre?" said the old man with awful calmness. "I
+have nothing that is not hers, even to my life. Gladly would I give it
+for her. Let me die, or spend my remaining days in the prison, if that
+will save her. Such a price for her safety would be low."
+
+While he was speaking, Fernando, the town constable, entered. He
+saluted the men gravely, and drew from his pocket a document to which
+was attached the Alcalde's official seal.
+
+"Senores," he said with much dignity, as if the majesty of his little
+office weighed upon him, "I am commanded by Senor, the Alcalde, to
+exercise the authority reposing in him and place Don Rosendo Ariza
+under arrest. You will at once accompany me to the _carcel_," he
+added, going up to the astonished Rosendo and laying a hand upon his
+shoulder.
+
+"Arrest! Me! _Hombre_! what have I done?" cried the old man, stepping
+back.
+
+"_Bien_, _amigo_, I do not find it my duty to tell you. The Senor
+Alcalde hands me the document and commands me to execute it. As for
+the cause--_Bien_, you must ask him."
+
+"Come," said Jose, the first to recover from his astonishment, "let us
+go to him at once." He at any rate had now an opportunity to confront
+Don Mario and learn what plans the man had been devising these many
+months.
+
+The Alcalde received the men in his little _patio_, scowling and
+menacing. He offered them no greeting when they confronted him.
+
+"Don Mario," asked Jose in a trembling voice, "why have you put this
+indignity upon our friend, Rosendo? Who orders his arrest?"
+
+"Ask, rather, _Senor Padre_," replied the Alcalde, full of wrath,
+"what alone saves you from the same indignity. Only that you are a
+priest, _Senor Padre_, _nada mas_! His arrest is ordered by Padre
+Diego."
+
+"And why, if I may beg the favor?" pursued Jose, though he well knew
+the sordid motive.
+
+"Why? _Caramba_! Why lay the hands of the law upon those who deprive a
+suffering father of his child! _Bien_, _Fernando_," turning to the
+constable, "you have done well. Take your prisoner to the _carcel_."
+
+"No!" cried Rosendo, drawing back. "No, Don Mario, I will not go to
+the jail! I will--"
+
+"_Caramba!_" shouted the Alcalde, his face purple. "I set your trial
+for to-morrow, in the early morning. But this night you will spend in
+the jail! _Hombre!_ I will see if I am not Alcalde here! And look you,
+_Senor Padre_, if there is any disturbance, I will send for the
+government soldiers! Then they will take Rosendo to the prison in
+Cartagena! And that finishes him!"
+
+Jose knew that, if Diego had the support of the Bishop, this was no
+idle threat. Rosendo turned to him in helpless appeal. "What shall I
+do, Padre?" he asked.
+
+"It is best that you go to the jail to-night, Rosendo," said Jose with
+sinking heart. "But, Don Mario," turning menacingly to the Alcalde,
+"mark you, his trial takes place in the morning, and he shall be
+judged, not by you alone, but by his fellow-townsmen!"
+
+"Have I not said so, senor?" returned Don Mario curtly, with a note of
+deep contempt in his voice.
+
+As in most small Spanish towns, the jail was a rude adobe hut, with no
+furnishings, save the wooden stocks into which the feet of the hapless
+prisoners were secured. Thus confined, the luckless wight who chanced
+to feel the law's heavy hand might sit in a torturing position for
+days, cruelly tormented at night by ravenous mosquitoes, and wholly
+dependent upon the charity of the townsfolk for his daily rations,
+unless he have friends or family to supply his needs. In the present
+instance Don Mario took the extra precaution of setting a guard over
+his important prisoner.
+
+Jose, benumbed by the shock and bewildered by the sudden precipitation
+of events, accompanied Rosendo to the jail and mutely watched the
+procedure as Fernando secured the old man's bare feet in the rude
+stocks. And yet, despite the situation, he could not repress a sense
+of the ridiculous, as his thought dwelt momentarily on the little
+_opera bouffe_ which these child-like people were so continually
+enacting in their attempts at self-government. But it was a play that
+at times approached dangerously near to the tragic. The passions of
+this Latin offshoot were strong, if their minds were dull and
+lethargic, and when aroused were capable of the most despicable, as
+well as the most grandly heroic deeds. And in the present instance,
+when the fleeting sense of the absurd passed, Jose knew that he was
+facing a crisis. Something told him that resistance now would be
+useless. True, Rosendo might have opposed arrest with violence, and
+perhaps have escaped. But that would have accomplished nothing for
+Carmen, the pivot upon which events were turning. Jose had reasoned
+that it were better to let the Alcalde play his hand first, in the
+small hope that as the cards fell he might more than match his
+opponent's strength with his own.
+
+"_Na_, Padre, do not worry," said Rosendo reassuringly. "It is for her
+sake; and we shall have to know, as she does, that everything will
+come out right. My friends will set me free to-morrow, when the trial
+takes place. And then"--he drew the priest down to him and whispered
+low--"we will leave Simiti and take to the mountains."
+
+Jose bent his heavy steps homeward. Arriving at Rosendo's house, he
+saw the little living room crowded with sympathetic friends who had
+come to condole with Dona Maria. That placid woman, however, had not
+lost in any degree her wonted calm, even though her companions held
+forth with much impassioned declamation against the indignity which
+had been heaped upon her worthy consort. He looked about for Carmen.
+She was not with her foster-mother, nor did his inquiry reveal her
+whereabouts. He smiled sadly, as he thought of her out on the shales,
+her customary refuge when storms broke. He started in search of her;
+but as he passed through the _plaza_ Manuela Cortez met him. "Padre,"
+she exclaimed, "is the little Carmen to go to jail, too?"
+
+Jose stopped short. "Manuela--why do you say that?" he asked
+hurriedly, his heart starting to beat like a trip-hammer.
+
+"Because, Padre, I saw the constable, Fernando, take her into Don
+Mario's house some time ago."
+
+Jose uttered an exclamation and started for the house of the Alcalde.
+Don Mario stood at the door, his huge bulk denying the priest
+admission.
+
+"Don Mario!" panted Jose. "Carmen--you have her here?"
+
+Fernando, who had been sitting just within the door, rose and came to
+his chief's side. Jose felt his brain whirling. Fernando stepped
+outside and took his arm. The Alcalde's unlovely face expanded in a
+sinister leer. "It is permissible to place even a priest in the
+stocks, if he becomes _loco_," he said significantly.
+
+Jose tightened his grip upon himself. Fernando spoke quickly:
+
+"It was necessary to take the girl in custody, too, Padre. But do not
+worry; she is safe."
+
+"But--you have no right to take her--"
+
+"There, _Senor Padre_, calm yourself. What right had you to separate
+her from her father?"
+
+"Diego is not her father! He lies! And, Don Mario, you have no
+authority but his--"
+
+"You mistake, _Senor Padre_," calmly interrupted the Alcalde. "I have
+a much higher authority."
+
+Jose stared dully at him. "Whose, then?" he muttered, scarce hearing
+his own words.
+
+"The Bishop's, _Senor Padre_," answered Don Mario, with a cruel grin.
+
+"The Bishop! But--the old man--"
+
+"_Na_, _Senor Padre_, but the Bishop is fairly young, you know. That
+is, the new one--"
+
+"The new one!" cried the uncomprehending Jose.
+
+"To be sure, _Senor Padre_, the new Bishop--formerly Senor Don
+Wenceslas Ortiz."
+
+Jose beat the air feebly as his hand sought his damp brow. His
+confused brain became suddenly stagnant.
+
+"_Bien_, _Senor Padre_," put in Fernando gently, pitying the priest's
+agony. "You had not heard the news. Don Mario received letters to-day.
+The old Bishop of Cartagena died suddenly some days ago, and Don
+Wenceslas at once received the temporary appointment, until the
+vacancy can be permanently filled. There is talk of making Cartagena
+an archbishopric, and so a new bishop will not be appointed until that
+question is settled. Meanwhile, Don Wenceslas administers the affairs
+of the Church there."
+
+"And he--he--" stammered the stunned priest.
+
+"To be sure, _Senor Padre_," interrupted Don Mario, laughing aloud;
+"the good Don Wenceslas no doubt has learned of the beautiful Carmen,
+and he cannot permit her to waste her loveliness in so dreary a place
+as Simiti. And so he summons her to Cartagena, in care of his agent,
+Padre Diego, who awaits the girl now in Banco to conduct her safely
+down the river. At least, this is what Padre Diego writes me. _Bien_,
+it is the making of the girl, to be so favored by His Grace!"
+
+Jose staggered and would have fallen, had not Fernando supported him.
+Don Mario turned into his house. But as he went he spitefully hurled
+back:
+
+"_Bien_, _Senor Padre_, whom have you to blame but yourself? You keep
+a child from her suffering father--you give all your time to her,
+neglecting the other poor children of your parish--you send Rosendo
+into the mountains to search for La Libertad--you break your
+agreement with me, for you long ago said that we should work
+together--is it not so? You find gold in the mountains, but you do
+not tell me. _Na_, you work against me--you oppose my authority as
+Alcalde--_Bien_, you opposed even the authority of the good
+Bishop--may he rest with the Saints! You have not made a good priest
+for Simiti, _Senor Padre_--_na_, you have made a very bad one! And
+now you wonder that the good Don Wenceslas takes the girl from you,
+to bring her up in the right way. _Caramba_! if it is not already too
+late to save her from your bad teachings!" His voice steadily rose
+while he talked, and ended in a shrill pipe.
+
+Jose made as if to reach him; but Fernando held him back. The Alcalde
+got quickly within the house and secured the door. "Go now to your
+home, Padre," urged Fernando; "else I shall call help and put you in
+the stocks, too!"
+
+"But I will enter that house! I will take the child from him!" shouted
+Jose desperately, struggling to gain the Alcalde's door.
+
+"Listen to me, Padre!" cried Fernando, holding to the frenzied man.
+"The little Carmen--she is not in there!"
+
+"Not--in--there! Then where is she, Fernando?--for God's sake tell
+me!" appealed the stricken priest. Great beads of perspiration stood
+upon his face, and tears rolled down his drawn cheeks.
+
+Fernando could not but pity him. "_Bien_, Padre," he said gently;
+"come away. I give you my word that the girl is not in the house of
+the Alcalde. But I am not permitted to say where she is."
+
+"Then I will search every house in Simiti!" cried the priest wildly.
+
+"_Na_, Padre, you would not find her. Come, I will go home with you."
+He took Jose's arm again and led him, blindly stumbling, to the parish
+house.
+
+By this time the little town was agog with excitement. People ran from
+house to house, or gathered on the street corners, discussing the
+event.
+
+"_Caramba!_" shrilled one wrinkled beldame, "but Simiti was very quiet
+until the _Cura_ came!"
+
+"_Na_, senora," cried another, "say, rather, until that wicked little
+hada was brought here by Rosendo!"
+
+"_Cierto_, she is an _hada_!" put in a third; "she cured Juanita of
+goitre by her charms! I saw it!"
+
+"_Caramba_! she works with the evil one. I myself saw her come from
+the old church on the hill one day! _Bien_, what was she doing? I say,
+she was talking with the bad angel which the blessed Virgin has locked
+in there!"
+
+"Yes, and I have seen her coming from the cemetery. She talks with the
+buzzards that roost on the old wall, and they are full of evil
+spirits!"
+
+"And she brought the plague two years ago--who knows?" piped another
+excitedly.
+
+"_Quien sabe_? But it was not the real plague, anyway."
+
+"_Bueno_, and that proves that she caused it, no?"
+
+"_Cierto_, _senora_, she cast a spell on the town!"
+
+Jose sat in his little house like one in a dream. Fernando remained
+with him. Dona Maria had gone to the jail to see Rosendo. Juan had
+returned that morning to Bodega Central, and Lazaro was at work on the
+plantation across the lake. Jose thought bitterly that the time had
+been singularly well chosen for the _coup_. Don Mario's last words
+burned through his tired brain like live coals. In a sense the Alcalde
+was right. He had been selfishly absorbed in the girl. But he alone,
+excepting Rosendo, had any adequate appreciation of the girl's real
+nature. To the stagnant wits of Simiti she was one of them, but with
+singular characteristics which caused the more superstitious and less
+intelligent to look upon her as an uncanny creature, possessed of
+occult powers.
+
+Moreover, Jose had duped Don Mario with assurances of cooeperation. He
+had allowed him to believe that Rosendo was searching for La Libertad,
+and that he should participate in the discovery, if made. Had his
+course been wholly wise, after all? He could not say that it had.
+
+But--God above! it was all to save an innocent child from the blackest
+of fates! If he had been stronger himself, this never could have
+happened. Or, perhaps, if he had not allowed himself to be lulled to
+sleep by a fancied security bred of those long months of quiet, he
+might have been awake and alert to meet the enemy when he returned to
+the attack. Alas! the devil had left him for a season, and Jose had
+laid down "the shield of faith," while he lost himself in the
+intellectual content which the study of the new books purchased with
+his ancestral gold had afforded. But evil sleeps not; and with a
+persistency that were admirable in a better cause, it returned with
+unbated vigor at the moment the priest was off his guard.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Dawn broke upon a sleepless night for Jose. The Alcalde had sent word
+that Fernando must remain with the priest, and that no visits would be
+permitted to Rosendo in the jail. Jose had heard nothing from Carmen,
+and, though often during the long night he sought to know, as she
+would, that God's protection rested upon her; and though he sought
+feebly to prove the immanence of good by knowing no evil, the morning
+found him drawn and haggard, with corroding fear gnawing his desolate
+heart. Fernando remained mute; and Dona Maria could only learn that
+the constable had been seen leading the girl into Don Mario's house
+shortly after Rosendo's arrest.
+
+At an early hour the people, buzzing with excitement, assembled for
+the trial, which was held in the town hall, a long, empty adobe house
+of but a single room, with dirt floor, and a few rough benches. The
+Alcalde occupied a broken chair at one end of the room. The trial
+itself was of the simplest order: any person might voice his opinion;
+and the final verdict was left to the people.
+
+In a shaking voice, his frame tremulous with nervous agitation,
+Rosendo recounted the birth of the child at Badillo, and the manner of
+her coming into his family. He told of Diego's appointment to Simiti,
+and of the loss of his own daughter. Waxing more and more energetic as
+his recital drew out, he denounced Diego as the prince of liars, and
+as worthy of the violent end which he was certain to meet if ever that
+renegade priest should venture near enough for him to lay his hands
+upon him. The little locket was produced, and all present commented on
+the probable identity of the girl's parents. Many affected to detect a
+resemblance to Diego in the blurred photograph of the man. Others
+scouted the idea. Don Mario swore loudly that it could be no other.
+Diego had often talked to him, sorrowfully, and in terms of deepest
+affection, about the beautiful woman whose love he had won, but whom
+his vows of celibacy prevented from making his lawful wife. The
+Alcalde's recital was dramatic to a degree, and at its close several
+excitedly attempted to address the multitude at the same time.
+
+Oratory flowed on an ever rising tide, accompanied by much violent
+gesticulation and expectoration by way of emphasis. At length it was
+agreed that Diego had been, in times past, a bad man, but that the
+verbal proofs which he had given the Alcalde were undoubtedly valid,
+inasmuch as the Bishop stood behind them--and Don Mario assured the
+people that they were most certainly vouched for by His Grace. The day
+was almost carried when the eloquent Alcalde, in glowing rhetoric,
+painted the splendid future awaiting the girl, under the patronage of
+the Bishop. How cruel to retain her in dreary little Simiti, even
+though Diego's claim still remained somewhat obscure, when His Grace,
+learning of her talents, had summoned her to Cartagena to be educated
+in the convent for a glorious future of service to God! Ah, that a
+like beautiful career awaited all the children of Simiti!
+
+Jose at length forced himself before the people and begged them to
+listen to him. But, when he opened his mouth, the words stumbled and
+halted. For what had he to say? To tell these people that he was
+striving to educate the girl away from them was impossible. To say
+that he was trying to save her from the Church would be fatal. And to
+reiterate that Diego's claim was a fabrication, added nothing of value
+to the evidence, for what did he know of the child's parentage? He
+feebly begged them to wait until Diego's claim had been either
+corroborated or annulled. But no; they had the Bishop's corroboration,
+and that sufficed. "And, _Caramba_!" cried Don Mario, interrupting the
+priest in a loud voice, "if we oppose the Bishop, then will he send
+the government soldiers to us--and you know what--"
+
+"_Cielo_, yes!" came from the multitude in one voice.
+
+Jose sank down thoroughly beaten. His hands were tied. The case now
+rested with her God.
+
+The people drew apart in little groups to discuss the matter. Don
+Mario's beady eyes searched them, until he was certain of the way the
+tide was flowing. Then he rose and called for order.
+
+"_Bueno_, _amigos y amigas_," he began with immense dignity; "what say
+you if we sum up the case as follows: The proofs have the support of
+the Bishop, and show that the girl is the daughter of Padre Diego.
+Rosendo is guilty of having kept her from her own father, and for that
+he should be severely punished. Let him be confined in the jail for
+six months, and be forced to pay to us a fine of one thousand _pesos
+oro_--"
+
+"_Caramba_! but he has no such sum," cried the people with mouths
+agape.
+
+"_Bien_, I say he can get it!" retorted the Alcalde, looking meaningly
+at Jose. "And he should pay it for depriving the child of a father's
+love and the religious instruction which he would have given her!"
+
+Jose jumped to his feet. "Friends!" he cried, playing his last card.
+"Will you not remember that more than that amount is due Rosendo for
+the care of the child? Who will repay him?"
+
+The whimsical, fickle people broke into excited exclamations.
+
+"_Cierto!_"
+
+"The _Cura_ is right!"
+
+"Let Rosendo pay no fine--he has no gold, anyway!"
+
+"Cut down the sentence, Don Mario. We do not like this!"
+
+The Alcalde saw that he had gone a bit too far. "_Bueno_, then," he
+amended. "We will cancel both the fine and Padre Diego's debt to
+Rosendo, and the sentence shall be reduced to--what say you all?"
+
+"A month in the jail, Don Mario, no more," suggested one.
+
+An exclamation of approval from the crowd drowned the protest which
+Jose sought vainly to voice. Rosendo rose quickly; but Fernando and
+others seized him.
+
+"_Bien_, it is approved," bawled the Alcalde, waving his thick arms.
+"Take the prisoner to the _carcel_, _Senor Policia_," turning to the
+constable.
+
+"And the girl, Senor the Alcalde--when will you send her to her
+father?" called some one.
+
+"Yes, Don Mario, she must be taken to Padre Diego at once," piped a
+woman's shrill voice.
+
+"_Bien_," shouted the Alcalde, following his words with a long, coarse
+laugh, "I was wise enough to know what you would decide, and sent the
+girl down the river last night!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 25
+
+
+The candles and smoky oil lamps of Banco threw a fitful shimmer out
+upon the great river, casting huge, spectral shadows across its muddy,
+swirling waters, and seeming rather to intensify the blackness that
+lay thick and menacing upon its restless bosom. Rivermen who follow
+their hazardous calling along the Magdalena do not lightly risk the
+dangers of travel by night in their native canoes, when at any moment
+a false stroke, a sudden crash against a tossing forest tree, and a
+cry through the inky blackness, might sound to the straining ears of
+hushed listeners on the distant banks the elements of another of the
+mighty river's grim nocturnal tragedies.
+
+But on the night following the trial of Rosendo in distant Simiti a
+canoe stole like a thing ashamed through the heavy shadows along the
+river's margin, and poked its blunt nose into the ooze at the upper
+edge of the town. Its two scantily clad _bogas_, steaming with
+perspiration and flecked with mud from the charged waters, sprang
+lightly from the frail craft and quickly made it fast to one of the
+long stilts upon which a ramshackle frame house rested. Then they
+assisted the third occupant of the canoe, a girl, to alight; and
+together they wended their way up the slippery bank and toward the
+town above.
+
+"_Caramba_, _compadre_!" ejaculated one of the men, stumbling into a
+deep rut, "it is well you know where we go. _Hombre_! but I travel no
+more on the river by night. And, _compadre_, we had best ask Padre
+Diego to offer a candle to the Virgin for our safe arrival, no?"
+
+The other man chuckled. "To be sure, friend Julio. Don Diego has much
+influence with virgins."
+
+"_Hombre_! I like not his dirty work."
+
+"_Bien, amigo_, what would you? You are well paid; and besides, you
+score against that baby-faced priest, Jose, who drove you out of
+Simiti because you were not married to your woman. You cannot
+complain, _compadre_."
+
+"_Caramba!_ I have yet to see the color of the _pesos_. I do not much
+trust your Padre Diego."
+
+"_Na, amigo_, a bit of rum will put new life into your soaked gizzard.
+_Cierto_, this trip down the river was a taste of purgatory; but you
+know we may as well get used to it here, for when we _pobres_ are dead
+who will buy Masses to get us out?"
+
+"_Caramba!_" muttered the other sullenly, as he stumbled on through
+the darkness, "but if we have no money the priests will let us burn
+forever!"
+
+The girl went along with the men silently and without complaint, even
+when her bare feet slipped into the deep ruts in the trail, or were
+painfully bruised and cut by the sharp stones and bits of wood that
+lay in the narrow path. Once she fell. The man addressed as Julio
+assisted her to her feet. The other broke into a torrent of profane
+abuse.
+
+"_Na, Ricardo,_" interrupted Julio, "hold your foolish tongue and let
+the girl alone! You and I have cursed all the way from Simiti, but she
+has made no complaint. She shames me. _Caramba_, I wish I were well
+out of this business!"
+
+A few minutes later they struck one of the main thoroughfares. Then
+the men stopped to draw on their cotton shirts and trousers before
+entering the town. The road was better here, and they made rapid
+progress. The night was far spent, and the streets were deserted. In
+the main portion of the town ancient Spanish lamps, hanging
+uncertainly in their sconces against old colonial houses, threw a
+feeble light into the darkness. Before one of the better of these
+houses Julio and the girl were halted by their companion.
+
+"_Bien_," he said, "it is here that the holy servant of God lives.
+_Caramba_, but may his _garrafon_ be full!"
+
+They entered the open door and mounted the stone steps. On the floor
+above they paused in the rotunda, and Ricardo called loudly. A side
+door opened and a young woman appeared, holding a lighted candle
+aloft. Ricardo greeted her courteously. "_El Senor Padre, senorita
+Ana?_" he said, bowing low. "You will do us the favor to announce our
+arrival, no?"
+
+The woman stared uncomprehendingly at the odd trio. "The Padre is not
+here," she finally said.
+
+"_Dios y diablo!_" cried Ricardo, forgetting his courtesy. "But we
+have risked our skins to bring him the brat, and he not here to
+receive and reward us! _Caramba!_"
+
+"But--Ricardo, he is out with friends to-night--he may return at any
+moment. Who is the girl? And why do you bring her here?" She stepped
+forward, holding the candle so that its light fell full upon her face.
+As she did this the girl darted toward her and threw herself into the
+woman's arms.
+
+"Anita!" she cried, her voice breaking with emotion, "Anita--I am
+Carmen! Do you not know me?"
+
+The woman fell back in astonishment. "Carmen! What! The little Carmen,
+my father's--"
+
+"Yes, Anita, I am padre Rosendo's Carmen--and yours!"
+
+Ana clasped the girl in her arms. "_Santa Maria_, child! What brings
+you here, of all places?"
+
+Ricardo stepped forward to explain. "As you may see, senorita, it is
+we who have brought her here, at the command of her father, Padre
+Diego."
+
+"Her father!"
+
+"Yes, senorita. And, since you say he is not in, we must wait until he
+returns."
+
+The woman stood speechless with amazement. Carmen clung to her, while
+Ricardo stood looking at them, with a foolish leer on his face. Julio
+drew back into the shadow of the wall.
+
+"_Bien, senorita_," said Ricardo, stepping up to the child and
+attempting to take her arm, "we will be held to account for the girl,
+and we must not lose her. _Caramba!_ For then would the good Padre
+damn us forever!"
+
+Carmen shrank away from him. Julio emerged swiftly from the shadow and
+laid a restraining hand on Ricardo. The woman tore Carmen from his
+grasp and thrust the girl behind herself. "_Cierto_, friend Ricardo,
+we are all responsible for her," she said quickly. "But you are tired
+and hungry--is it not so? Let me take you to the _cocina_, where you
+will find roast pig and a bit of red rum."
+
+"Rum!" The man's eyes dilated. "_Caramba!_ my throat is like the ashes
+of purgatory!"
+
+"Come, then," said the woman, holding Carmen tightly by the hand and
+leading the way down the steps to the kitchen below. Arriving there,
+she lighted an oil lamp and hurriedly set out food and a large
+_garrafon_ of Jamaica rum.
+
+"There, _compadre_, is a part of your reward. And we will now wait
+until Padre Diego arrives, is it not so?"
+
+While the men ate and drank voraciously, interpolating their actions
+at frequent intervals with bits of vivid comment on their river trip,
+the woman cast many anxious glances toward the steps leading to the
+floor above. From time to time she replenished Ricardo's glass, and
+urged him to drink. The man needed no invitation. Physical exhaustion
+and short rations while on the river had prepared him for just what
+the woman most desired to accomplish, and as glass after glass of the
+fiery liquor burned its way down his throat, she saw his scant wit
+fading, until at last it deserted him completely, and he sank into a
+drunken torpor. Then, motioning to Julio, who had consumed less of the
+rum, she seized the senseless Ricardo by the feet, and together they
+dragged him out into the _patio_ and threw him under a _platano_
+tree.
+
+"But, senorita--" began Julio in remonstrance, as thoughts of Diego's
+wrath filtered through his befuddled brain.
+
+"Not a word, _hombre_!" she commanded, turning upon him. "If you lay a
+hand upon this child my knife shall find your heart!"
+
+"But--my pay?"
+
+"How much did Padre Diego say he would give you?" she demanded.
+
+"Three _pesos oro_--and rations," replied the man thickly.
+
+"Wait here, then, and I will bring you the money."
+
+Still retaining Carmen's hand, she mounted the steps, listening
+cautiously for the tread of her master. Reaching the rotunda above,
+she drew Carmen into the room from which she had emerged before, and,
+bidding her conceal herself if Diego should arrive, took her wallet
+and hastily descended to where the weaving Julio waited.
+
+"There, _amigo_," she said hurriedly, handing him the money. "Now do
+you go--at once! And do not remain in Banco, or Padre Diego will
+surely make you trouble. Your life is not safe here now. Go!" She
+pointed to the door; and Julio, impressed with a sense of his danger,
+lost no time in making his exit.
+
+Returning to Carmen, the woman seated herself and drew the girl to
+her. "Carmen, child!" she cried, trembling, as her eyes searched the
+girl. "Tell me why you are here!"
+
+"I do not know, Anita dear," murmured the girl, nestling close to the
+woman and twining an arm about her neck; "except that day before
+yesterday the Alcalde put padre Rosendo into the jail--"
+
+"Into the jail!"
+
+"Yes, Anita dear. And then, when I was going to see him, Fernando ran
+out of Don Mario's house and told me I must go in and see the Alcalde.
+Julio Gomez and this man Ricardo were there talking with Don Mario in
+the _patio_. Then they threw a _ruana_ over me and carried me out
+through the _patio_ and around by the old church to the Boque trail.
+When we got to the trail they made me walk with them to the Inanea
+river, where they put me into a canoe. They paddled fast, down to the
+Boque river; then to the Magdalena; and down here to Banco. They did
+not stop at all, except when steamboats went by--oh, Anita, I never
+saw a steamboat before! What big, noisy things they are! But Padre
+Jose had often told me about them. And when the big boats passed us
+they made me lie down in the canoe, and they put the _ruana_ over me
+and told me if I made any noise they would throw me into the river.
+But I knew if I just kept still and knew--really _knew_--that God
+would take care of me, why, He would. And, you see, He did, for He
+brought me to you." A tired sigh escaped her lips as she laid her head
+on the woman's shoulder.
+
+"But--oh, _Santa Maria_!" moaned the woman, "you are not safe here!
+What can I do?--what can I do?"
+
+"Well, Anita dear, you can know that God is here, can't you? I knew
+that all the way down the river. And, oh, I am so glad to see you!
+Why, just think, it is eight years since you used to play with me! And
+now we will go back to Simiti, will we not, Anita?"
+
+"Pray to the Virgin to help us, child! You may have influence with
+her--I have none, for my soul is lost!"
+
+"Why, Anita dear, that is not true! You and I are both God's children,
+and He is right here with us. All we have to do is to know it--just
+really _know_ it."
+
+"But, tell me, quick--Diego may be here any moment--why did he send
+Ricardo for you?"
+
+The girl became very serious. "Anita dear, Padre Diego says I am his
+child."
+
+"What!"
+
+"Yes--his daughter--that he is my father. But--is it really so,
+Anita?"
+
+"_Madre de Dios!_" cried the woman. "What a beast!--what a beast! He
+saw you in Simiti when he was last there--and you are now a
+beautiful--No, child, you are not his daughter! The wretch lies--he is
+a sink of lies! He is rotten with sin! Oh, _Dios_!"
+
+"Why, no, Anita dear, he is not a beast--we must love him, for he is
+God's child, too," said Carmen, patting the woman's wet cheek with her
+soft hand.
+
+"He!--God's child!" She broke into a shrill of laughter. "_Carita_, he
+is Satan himself! You do not know him!"
+
+"I don't mean that what you think you see is God's child, Anita dear;
+but that what you think you see stands for God's child, and isn't
+real. And if we know that, why, we will see the real child of God--the
+real man--and not what you call a beast."
+
+Ana apparently did not hear. Her thought was with the future. Carmen
+looked about the room. "Oh, Anita," she exclaimed, "what a beautiful
+place, and what beautiful things you have!" She rubbed the tile floor
+with her bare foot. "Why, Anita dear, it is just like the palaces
+Padre Jose has told me about!" She walked around the room, touching
+the various toilet articles on the dresser, passing her hands
+carefully over the upholstered chairs, and uttering exclamations of
+wonder and delight. "Anita--Anita dear! Why, it is a palace! Oh! oh!
+oh!"
+
+The woman looked up with a wan smile. "_Chiquita_, they are nothing.
+They are all cheap trinkets--nothing compared with what there is in
+the big world beyond us. You poor dear, you have lived all your life
+in miserable little Simiti, and you haven't the slightest idea of what
+there is in the world!"
+
+"But, Anita dear, Simiti is beautiful," the girl protested.
+
+"Beautiful!" The woman laughed aloud. "My dear, simple little girl!
+You have seen only this poor room, and you think it wonderful. I have
+been to Barranquilla and Cartagena with Padre Diego, and have seen
+houses a thousand times more beautiful than this. And yet, even those
+are nothing to what there is in the world outside."
+
+Carmen went to the bed and passed her hand over the white counterpane.
+"Anita--why, is this--is this your--"
+
+"Yes, _chiquita_, it is my bed. You have never seen a real bed, poor
+little thing."
+
+"But--" the child's eyes were wide with wonder--"it is so soft--you
+sink way into it--oh, so soft--like the heron's feathers! I didn't
+sleep at all in the canoe--and I am so tired."
+
+"You blessed lamb!" cried the woman, springing up and clasping the
+girl in her arms. "But--what can I do? When he returns, he may come
+right up here! _Santa Maria_, help me!--what shall I do?"
+
+"Anita--let me sleep in your bed--it is so soft--but--" looking down
+dubiously at her muddy feet.
+
+"Never mind them, child." The woman's face had set in grim determination.
+She went to the dresser and took out a small stiletto, which she
+quickly concealed in the bosom of her dress. "Get right in, just as you
+are! I will take care of Diego, if he comes! _Santa Maria_, I will--"
+
+"Anita dear," murmured the girl, sinking down between the white
+sheets, "you and I will just _know_ that God is everywhere, and
+that He will take care of us, and of Padre Diego too." With a sigh
+of contentment the child closed her eyes. "Anita dear," she
+whispered softly, "wasn't He good to bring me right to you? And
+to-morrow we will go back to Simiti--and to padre Rosendo--and Padre
+Jose--and--and Cantar-las-horas--you haven't seen him for such a long
+time--such a long--long--Anita dear, I--love--you--"
+
+The child dropped asleep, just as a heavy step fell outside the door.
+Ana sprang up and extinguished the lamp, then went quickly out into
+the rotunda. Padre Diego was standing on the top step, puffing and
+weaving unsteadily. The woman hurried to him and passed an arm about
+his waist.
+
+"Oh!" she exclaimed in a tone of feigned solicitation. "I feared you
+had met with an accident! My heart beats like the patter of rain! Why
+do you stay out so late and cause me worry?"
+
+The bloated face of the man leered like a Jack-o'-lantern. "Spiritual
+retreat, my love--spiritual retreat," he muttered thickly. "Imbibing
+the spirits, you know." He laughed heavily at his coarse joke.
+
+The woman gave him a look of inexpressible disgust. "But you are home
+safe, at any rate," she said in a fawning voice; "and my fear is
+quieted. Come now, and I will help you into bed. Not in there!" she
+cried, as he lurched toward the door of the room where Carmen lay; "in
+your own room to-night!"
+
+He swayed to and fro before her, as she stood with her back against
+the door.
+
+"_Nombre de Dios_!" he muttered, "but you grow daily more unkind to
+your good Padre! _Bien_, it is well that I have a fresh little
+housekeeper coming!" He made again as if to enter the room. The woman
+threw her arms about his neck.
+
+"Padre dear," she appealed, "have you ceased to love your Anita? She
+would spend this night alone; and can you not favor her this once?"
+
+"_Caramba_!" he croaked in peevish suspicion, "but I think you have a
+paramour in there. _Bien_, I will go in and shrive his wicked soul!"
+
+"Oh, I forgot to tell you!" cried the desperate woman, her hand
+stealing to the weapon concealed in her dress. "Pepito came this
+evening with the case of _Oporto_ which you ordered long ago from
+Spain. I put it in your study, for I knew you would want to sample it
+the moment you returned."
+
+"_Caramba_!" he cried, turning upon her, "why do you not tell me
+important things as soon as I arrive? I marvel that you did not wait
+until morning to break this piece of heavenly news! _Bien_, come to
+the study, and you shall open a bottle for me. _Dios_! but my throat
+is seared with Don Antonio's vile rum! My parched soul panteth for the
+wine of the gods that flows from sunny Spain! _Caramba_, woman, give
+yourself haste!"
+
+Suffering himself to be led by her, he staggered across the rotunda
+and into the room where long before he had entertained for a brief
+hour Don Jorge and the priest Jose. Ana quickly broke the neck of a
+bottle of the newly arrived wine and gave him a generous measure.
+
+"Ah, God in heaven!" murmured the besotted priest, sinking into a
+chair and sipping the beverage; "it is the nectar of Olympus--triple
+distilled through tubes of sunlight and perfumed with sweet airs and
+the smiles of voluptuous _houris_! Ah, Lord above, you are good to
+your little Diego! Another sip, my lovely Ana--and bring me the
+cigarettes. And come, fat lass, do you sit beside me and twine your
+graceful arms about my neck, while your soft breath kisses my old
+cheek! Ah, _Dios_, who would not be human! _Caramba_! the good God may
+keep His heaven, if He will but give me the earth!"
+
+Ana drew his head against her bosom and murmured hypocritical words of
+endearment in his ear, while she kept his glass full. Diego babbled
+like a child. He nodded; struggled to keep awake; and at length fell
+asleep with his head on her shoulder. Then she arose, and, assured
+that he would be long in his stupor, extinguished the light and
+hurried to her own room.
+
+Carmen was sleeping peacefully. The woman bent over her with the
+lighted candle and looked long and wistfully. "Ah, _Santa Maria_!" she
+prayed, "if you will but save her, you may do what you will with me!"
+
+Tears flowed freely down her cheeks as she turned to the door and
+threw the bolt. Coming back to the bed, she again bent over the
+sleeping girl. "_Santa Virgen_!" she murmured, "how beautiful! Like an
+angel! _Dios mio_--and that beast, he has seen her, and he would--ah,
+_Dios_!"
+
+Going again to the dresser, she took from a drawer a sandalwood
+rosary. Then she returned to the bed and knelt beside the child.
+"Blessed Virgin," she prayed, while her hot tears fell upon the beads,
+"I am lost--lost! Ah, I have not told my beads for many years--I
+cannot say them now! _Santa Virgen_, pray for me--pray for me--and if
+I kill him to-morrow, tell the blessed Saviour that I did it for the
+child! Ah, _Santa Virgen_, how beautiful she is--how pure--what
+hair--she is from heaven--_Santa Virgen_, you will protect her?" She
+kissed the cross repeatedly. "_Madre de Dios_--she is so beautiful, so
+pure--"
+
+Carmen moved slightly, and the woman rose hastily from her knees.
+"Anita dear," murmured the child, "Jesus waked Lazarus--out of
+his--sleep. Anita, why do you not come? I am waiting for you."
+
+"Yes, child, yes! But--_Dios mio_!" she murmured when Carmen again
+slept, "I am too wicked to sleep with so pure an angel!--no, I can
+not! I must not!"
+
+She spread a light shawl upon the tile floor near the window and lay
+down upon it, drawing a lace _mantilla_ over her face to protect it
+from the mosquitoes. "_Santa Virgen_", she murmured repeatedly, "pray
+the blessed Saviour to protect her to-morrow--pray for her, _Madre de
+Dios_--pray for her!"
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+The piercing shriek of a steamboat whistle roused the woman just as
+the first harbingers of dawn spread over the river a crimson flush
+that turned it into a stream of blood. The child was asleep. Ana bent
+over her and left a kiss on her forehead. Then she stole out of the
+room and into the study. Padre Diego lay sunk in his chair like a
+monster toad. The woman threw him a look of utter loathing, and then
+hastily descended into the _patio_. Ricardo lay under the _platano_
+tree, sleeping heavily. She roused him with a kick.
+
+"Up, man!" she cried, shaking him by the shoulder. "Padre Diego sends
+you this money, and bids you go. He is well satisfied with your work."
+She held out a roll of _pesos_.
+
+The man, after much vigorous persuasion, got heavily to his feet.
+"_Caramba, senorita_!" he muttered in a dazed voice. "That last
+_tragito_--it was a bit too much, no? But--_Bien_, I would see the
+good Padre. _Caramba_, my poor head! What rum! But, senorita, do me
+the great favor to ask the good Padre to see me one little moment. I
+must deliver this letter to him." He fumbled in his wallet and drew
+out an envelope.
+
+"He will not see you, Ricardo. He--"
+
+"_Caramba_!" ejaculated the man loudly, as his senses returned. "But I
+believe there is something wrong here! _Bien_, now I shall see the
+Padre! I am responsible to him!" He pushed the woman aside and entered
+the house.
+
+Ana started after him, and seized his arm. A scuffle ensued, and
+Ricardo's voice was loud and shrill as they reached the stairs. The
+woman clung to him desperately. "Ricardo--anything you ask--double the
+amount, if you will go! Leave the house--I will tell the Padre--I will
+give him the letter--"
+
+"_Caramba_, but I will see him myself!" shouted the lightheaded
+Ricardo.
+
+"_Dios y diablo_!" A heavy voice rolled down from above. "_Bien,
+enamorada_, is this the paramour whom you hid in your room last night?
+_Caramba_, you might have chosen a handsomer one!"
+
+Ana sank down with a moan and buried her face in her hands. Diego
+heavily descended the stairs. "Ha, Ricardo!" he exclaimed,
+recognizing the man. "_Bien_, so it is you! And the girl?"
+
+"I do not know, Padre," cried the man excitedly. "Senorita Ana, she
+made me drunk last night. I brought the girl--I waited for you, but
+the senorita--"
+
+"_Caramba_, I understand!" replied Diego, turning to the woman.
+
+Ana had risen and was making for the stairs. Diego sprang to her and
+seized her by the wrist. With her free hand she drew the stiletto from
+her bosom and raised it to strike. Ricardo saw the movement, and threw
+himself upon her.
+
+"_Dios_!" cried Diego, as Ricardo felled the woman and wrenched the
+weapon from her grasp. "My pretty angel, you have the venom of a
+serpent! Sly wench! did you think to deceive your doting Padre?
+But--_Dios nos guarde_!"
+
+Carmen, awakened by the noise, had left her bed, and now stood at the
+head of the stairs, looking with dilated eyes at the strange scene
+being enacted below.
+
+Silence fell upon the group. Ana lay on the ground, her eyes strained
+toward the girl. Ricardo bent over her, awaiting his master's command.
+He knew now that she had forever lost her power over the priest. Diego
+stood like a statue, his eyes riveted upon Carmen. The girl looked
+down upon them from the floor above with an expression of wonder, yet
+without fear.
+
+Diego was the first to find his voice. "Ah, my pretty one!" he
+wheedled. "My lovely daughter! At last you come to your lonely padre!
+Wait for me, _hermosissima_!" He puffed painfully up the steps.
+
+"Carmen!--run!--run! Don't let him come near you--!" screamed Ana in a
+voice of horror. Ricardo clapped his hand heavily over her mouth.
+
+But the child did not move. Diego reached her and seized her hand.
+
+"_Carissima_!" he panted, feasting his eyes upon her, while a thrill
+passed through his coarse frame. "_Madre de Dios_, but you have grown
+beautiful! Don Mario was right--you are surely the most voluptuous
+object in human form that has ever crossed my path. _Bien_, the
+blessed God is still good to his little Diego!"
+
+He started away with her, but was detained by the loud voice of
+Ricardo.
+
+"_Bien_, Padre, my pay!"
+
+"_Cierto, hombre_!" exclaimed Diego. "I was about to forget. But--a
+father's joy--ah! _Bien_, come to me to-morrow--"
+
+"_Na, Senor Padre_, but to-day--now! I have risked my life--and I have
+a wife and babes! You will pay me this minute!"
+
+"_Caramba_, ugly beast, but I will consign you to hell! _Maldito_! get
+you gone! There are more convenient seasons than this for your
+business!" And, still holding tightly to the girl's hand, he led her
+into the study.
+
+The woman turned upon Ricardo with the fury of a tiger. "See now what
+you have done!" she screamed. "This will cost your life, for you have
+put into his dirty hands the soul of an angel, and he will damn it!
+_Santa Virgen_! If you had only taken the money I brought you--"
+
+"Demon-tongue, I will take it now!" He snatched the roll of bills from
+her hand and bolted through the door. With a low moan the woman sank
+to the ground, while oblivion drew its sable veil across her mind.
+
+Reaching the study, Diego pushed Carmen into the room and then
+followed, closing the door after him and throwing the iron bolt.
+Turning about, he stood with arms akimbo upon his bulging hips and
+gazed long and admiringly at the girl as she waited in expectant
+wonder before him. A smile of satisfaction and triumph slowly spread
+over his coarse features. Then it faded, and his heavy jowls and deep
+furrows formed into an expression, sinister and ominous, through which
+lewdness, debauchery, and utter corruption looked out brazenly,
+defiantly, into the fair, open countenance of the young girl before
+him. A sense of weariness and dull pain then seemed to follow. He
+shook his heavy head and passed a hand across his brow, as if to brush
+aside the confusion left by the previous night's potations.
+
+"_Madre de Dios_!" he muttered, falling heavily into a chair, "but had
+I known you were here, little rosebud, I should have tried to keep
+sober." He reached out to grasp her; but she eluded him and went
+quickly to the open window, where she stood looking down into the
+street below. The morning sunlight, streaming into the room, engulfed
+her in its golden flood and transmuted the child of earth into a
+creature divinely radiant, despite the torn gown and stains of river
+travel.
+
+"_Bien, carisima_," the man wheedled in a small, caressing voice,
+"where is your greeting to your glad padre? _Dios mio_!" he muttered,
+his eyes roving over her full figure, "but the Virgin herself was
+never more lovely! Come, daughter," he purred, extending his arms;
+"come to a father's heart that now, praise the Saints! shall ache no
+more for its lost darling."
+
+The girl faced about and looked at him for a few moments. What her
+glance conveyed, the man was utterly incapable of understanding. Then
+she drew up a chair that stood near the window, and sinking into it,
+buried her face in her hands.
+
+"_Caramba_, my smile of heaven! but why weep?" chirped Diego,
+affecting surprise. "Is it thus you celebrate your homecoming? Or are
+these, perchance, fitting tears of joy? _Bien_, your padre's doting
+heart itself weeps that its years of loneliness are at last ended." He
+held the sleeve of his gown to his eyes and sniffed affectedly.
+
+The girl looked up quickly. "I am not weeping," she said.
+
+"_Bien_, and what then?" he pursued.
+
+"I was just knowing," she answered slowly, "that I was not afraid--that
+God was everywhere, even right here--and that He would not let any
+harm come to me."
+
+Diego's eyes widened. Then he burst into a coarse laugh. "_Hombre_!
+and you ask Him to protect you from your adoring father! Come here,
+little wench. You are in your own home. Why be afraid?" He again held
+out his arms to her.
+
+"I am not afraid--now," she answered softly. "But--I do not think God
+will let me come to you. If you were really my father, He would."
+
+The man's mouth gaped in astonishment. A fleeting sense of shame
+swept through his festering mind. Then the lustful meanness of his
+corrupted soul welled up anew, and he laughed brutally. The idea
+was delightfully novel; the girl beautifully audacious; the situation
+piquantly amusing. He would draw her out to his further enjoyment.
+"So," he observed parenthetically, "I judge you are on quite familiar
+terms with God, eh?"
+
+"Very," she replied, profoundly serious.
+
+The joke was excellent, and he roared with mirth. "_Bueno, pues_!" he
+commented, reaching over and uncorking with shaking hand the bottle
+that stood on the table. Then, filling a glass, "Suppose you thank Him
+for sending his little Diego this estimable wine and your own charming
+self, eh? Then tell me what He says." Whereat he guffawed loudly and
+slapped his bulging sides.
+
+The girl had already bowed her head again in her hands. A long pause
+ensued. Diego's beady eyes devoured the beautiful creature before him.
+Then he waxed impatient. "_Bien_, little Passion flower," he
+interrupted, "if you have conveyed to Him my infinite gratitude,
+perhaps He will now let you come to me, eh?"
+
+Carmen looked up. A faint smile hovered upon her lips. "I have thanked
+Him, Padre--for you and for me," she said; "for you, that you really
+are His child, even if you don't know it; and for me that I know He
+always hears me. That was what the good man Jesus said, you know, when
+he waked Lazarus out of the death-sleep. Don't you remember? And so I
+kept thanking Him all the way down the river."
+
+Diego's eyes bulged as if they would pop from his head, and his mouth
+fell open wide, but no sound issued therefrom. The girl went on
+quietly:
+
+"I was not afraid on the river, Padre. And I was not afraid to come in
+here with you. I knew, just as the good man Jesus did at the tomb of
+Lazarus, that God had heard me--He just couldn't be God if He hadn't,
+you know. And then I remembered what the good man said about not
+resisting evil; for, you know, if we resist evil we make it real--and
+we never, _never_ can overcome anything real, can we? So I resisted
+evil with good, just as Jesus told us to do. I just _knew_ that God
+was everywhere, and that evil was unreal, and had no power at all. And
+so the _bogas_ didn't hurt me coming down the river. And you--you will
+not either, Padre."
+
+She stopped and smiled sweetly at him. Then, very seriously:
+
+"Padre, one reason why I was not afraid to come in here with you was
+that I thought God might want to talk to you through me, and I could
+help you. You need help, you know."
+
+The man settled back in his chair and stared stupidly at her. His face
+expressed utter consternation, confusion, and total lack of
+comprehension. Once he muttered under his breath, "_Caramba_! she is
+surely an _hada_!" But Carmen did not hear him. Absorbed in her
+mission, she went on earnestly:
+
+"You know, Padre, we are all channels through which God talks to
+people--just like the _asequia_ out there in the street through which
+the water flows. We are all channels for divine love--so Padre Jose
+says."
+
+The priest sat before her like a huge pig, his little eyes blinking
+dully, and his great mouth still agape.
+
+"We are never afraid of real things, Padre, you know; and so I
+couldn't be afraid of the real 'you,' for that is a child of God. And
+the other 'you' isn't real. We are only afraid of our wrong thoughts.
+But such thoughts are not really ours, you know, for they don't come
+from God. But," she laughed softly, "when I saw you coming up the
+steps after me this morning--well, lots of fear-thoughts came to
+me--why, they just seemed to come pelting down on me like the rain.
+But I wouldn't listen to them. I turned right on them, just as I've
+seen Cucumbra turn on a puppy that was nagging him, and I said, 'Here,
+now, I know what you are; I know you don't come from God; and anything
+that doesn't come from God isn't really anything at all!' And so they
+stopped pelting me. The good man Jesus knew, didn't he? That's why he
+said so often, 'Be not afraid.'"
+
+She paused again and beamed at him. Her big eyes sparkled, and her
+face glowed with celestial light. Diego raised a heavy arm and,
+groping for the bottle, eagerly drained another glass of wine.
+
+"You think that wine makes you happy, don't you, Padre?" she observed,
+watching him gulp down the heavy liquor. "But it doesn't. It just
+gives you what Padre Jose calls a false sense of happiness. And when
+that false sense passes away--for everything unreal has just _got_ to
+pass away--why, then you are more unhappy than you were before. Isn't
+it so?"
+
+The astonished Diego now regained his voice. "_Caramba_, girl!" he
+ejaculated, "will you rein that runaway tongue!"
+
+"No, Padre," she replied evenly, "for it is God who is talking to you.
+Don't you hear Him? You ought to, for you are a priest. You ought to
+know Him as well as the good man Jesus did. Padre, can you lay your
+hands on the sick babies and cure them?"
+
+The man squirmed uncomfortably for a moment, and then broke into
+another brutal laugh. "Sick babies! _Caramba_! but we find it easier
+to raise new babies than to cure sick ones! But--little _hada_!
+_Hombre_! do _hadas_ have such voluptuous bodies, such plump legs!
+_Madre de Dios_, girl, enough of your preaching! Come to me quick! I
+hunger for you! Come!"
+
+"No, Padre," she answered quietly, "I do not want to come to you. But
+I want to talk to you--"
+
+"_Dios y diablo_! enough of your gab! _Caramba_! with a Venus before
+me do you think I yearn for a sermon? _Hombre_! delay it, delay it--"
+
+"Padre," she interrupted, "you do not see _me._ You are looking only
+at your bad thoughts of me."
+
+"Ha! my thoughts, eh?" His laugh resembled the snort of an animal.
+
+"Yes, Padre--and they are _very_ bad thoughts, too--they don't come
+from God, and you are _so_ foolish to let them use you the way you do.
+Why do you, Padre? for you don't have to. And you know you see around
+you only the thoughts that you have been thinking. Why don't you think
+good thoughts, and so see only good things?"
+
+"Now Mary bless my soul!" he exclaimed in mock surprise. "Can it be
+that I don't see a plump little witch before me, but only my bad
+thoughts, eh? Ha! ha! _Caramba_! that is good! _Bien_, then," he
+coaxed, "come to your poor, deluded padre and let him learn that you
+are only a thing of thought, and not the most enchanting little piece
+of flesh that ever caused a Saint to fall!"
+
+The girl sat silent before him. Her smile had fled, and in its place
+sadness and pity were written large upon her wistful face.
+
+"Come, my little bundle of thought," he coaxed, holding out his fat,
+hairy arms.
+
+"No, Padre," the girl answered firmly.
+
+"_Na_, then, still afraid, eh?" he taunted, with rising anger.
+
+"No, Padre; to be afraid would mean that I didn't understand God."
+
+"Ha! Then come to me and prove that you do understand Him, eh?" he
+suggested eagerly. "_Caramba_! why do you sit there like a mummy? Are
+you invoking curses on the bald pate of your desolate father?"
+
+"No, Padre; I am thanking God all the time that He is here, and that
+He will not let you hurt me."
+
+The man's lust-inflamed eyes narrowed and the expression on his evil
+face became more sinister. "_Maldita_!" he growled, "will you come
+hither, or must I--"
+
+"No." She shook her head slowly, and her heavy curls glistened in the
+sunlight. "No, Padre, God will not let me come to you."
+
+Panting and cursing softly, the man got slowly to his feet. "_Madre de
+Dios_!" he muttered; "then we will see if your God will let me come to
+you!"
+
+Carmen rose and stood hesitant. Her lips moved rapidly, though no
+sound came from them. They were forming the words of the psalmist, "In
+God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto
+me." It was a verse Jose had taught her long since, when his own heart
+was bursting with apprehension.
+
+Diego stumbled heavily toward the child. She turned quickly as if to
+flee. He thrust out his hand and clutched her dress. The flimsy
+calico, frayed and worn, tore its full length, and the gown fell to
+the floor. She stopped and turned to face the man. Her white body
+glistened in the clear sunlight like a marble statue.
+
+_"Por el amor de Dios_!" ejaculated the priest, straightening up and
+regarding her with dull, blinking eyes. Then, like a tiger pouncing
+upon a fawn, he seized the unresisting girl in his arms and staggered
+back to his chair.
+
+"_Caramba! Caramba_!" he exclaimed, holding her with one arm about her
+waist, and with his free hand clumsily pouring another glass of wine.
+"Only a thing of thought, eh? _Madre de Dios! Bien_, pretty thought,
+drink with me this thought of wine!" He laughed boisterously at his
+crude wit, and forced the glass between her lips.
+
+"I--am not afraid--I am not afraid," she whispered, drinking. "It
+cannot hurt me--nor can you. God _is_ here!"
+
+"Hurt you!" he panted, setting down the glass and mopping his hot
+brow, as he settled back into the chair again. "_Caramba_! who hurts
+when he loves?"
+
+"You--do--not--love--me, Padre!" she gasped under his tight clutch.
+"You have--only a wrong thought--of me--of love--of everything!"
+
+"_Bien_--but you love me, pretty creature, is it not so?" he mocked,
+holding up her head and kissing her full on the mouth.
+
+"I--I love the _real_ 'you'--for that is God's image," she murmured,
+struggling to hold her face away from his fetid breath. "But--I do
+not--love the way that image is--is translated--in your human mind!"
+
+"_Caramba_!" he threw himself back and gave noisy vent to his
+risibility. "_Chiquita mia_! What grand language! Where did you learn
+it?"
+
+For the moment the girl seemed to forget that she was in the fell
+clutches of a demon incarnate. Her thought strayed back to little
+Simiti, to Cucumbra, to Cantar-las-horas, to--ah, was _he_ searching
+for her now? And would he come?--
+
+"It was Padre Jose; he taught me," she whispered sadly.
+
+"Padre Jose! _Maldito_! The curse of God blast him, the monkey-faced
+_mozo! Caramba_! but he will teach you no more! You have a new master
+now to give you a few needed lessons, _senorita mia_, and--"
+
+"Padre Diego!" her tense voice checked further expression of his low
+thought. "You have no power to curse anything! You have no power to
+harm me, or to teach me anything! God _is_ here! He _will_ protect me!
+He keeps all them that love Him!" She gasped again as his clutch
+tightened about her.
+
+"Doubtless, my lily. _Caramba_! your skin is like the velvet!" He
+roughly drew the girl up on his knees. "To be sure He will protect
+you, my _mariposa._ And He is using me as the channel, you see--just
+as you said a few moments ago, eh?" His rude laugh again echoed
+through the room.
+
+"He is not--using you--at all!" she panted. "Evil thoughts are--are
+using you. And all--they can do--is to kill themselves--and you!"
+
+"_Madre Maria_! Is such a sad fate in store for me, my beautiful
+_hada_?" He chuckled and reached out again for the bottle. "Another
+little thought of wine, my love. It's only a thought, you know. Ha!
+ha! I must remember to tell Don Antonio of this!--_Maldita_!"
+
+His clumsy movement had upset the bottle. Struggling to save its
+contents, he relaxed his hold on Carmen. Like a flash she wormed her
+supple body out under his arm, slid to the floor, and gained the
+window.
+
+"_Dios y diablo! Maldita! Maldita_!" shrilled Diego, aflame with
+wrath. "Cursed wench! when I lay these hands again on you--!"
+
+Struggling to his feet, he made for the girl. But at the first step
+the light rug slid along the smooth tiles beneath his uncertain tread.
+He threw out an arm and sought to grasp the table. But as he did so,
+his foot turned under him. There was a sharp, snapping sound. With a
+groan the heavy man sank to the floor.
+
+For a moment Carmen stood as if dazed. Diego lay very still. Then the
+girl picked up her torn dress and approached him carefully. "It was
+his bad thoughts," she whispered; "he slipped on them; they threw him!
+I knew it--I just _knew_ it!"
+
+Passing to one side, she gained the door, threw back the bolt, and
+hurried out into the rotunda. Crouched on the floor, the stiletto
+clasped in her hand, sat Ana, her face drenched with tears, and her
+chest heaving. When she saw the girl she sprang to her feet.
+
+"Carmen! Ah, _Dios_! your dress!--_Madre Maria_! I could not save you;
+I could not break through the heavy door; but I can punish him!" She
+burst into a flood of tears and started into the room.
+
+"No, Anita!" cried the girl, throwing herself into the woman's arms.
+"He is punished! He did not hurt me--God would not let him! Look!
+Anita, look!" pointing to the body on the floor.
+
+The woman stopped abruptly. "Carmen!" she whispered in awed tones,
+"did God strike him dead?"
+
+"I don't know, Anita--but come! No!" clinging to the woman's skirt;
+"Anita dear, do not go in there! Leave him! Come away with me!"
+
+The woman's eyes were wild, her hair loose and disheveled. "_Caramba_!"
+she cried, "but we will make sure that the beast is dead before we
+go! And if we leave this blade in his heart, it may be a warning to
+others of his kind!"
+
+"No, Anita--no! God will not let you kill him! You must not! Your
+murder-thoughts will kill you if you do! Come! Listen--it is a
+steamboat whistle! Oh, Anita--if it is going up the river--we can take
+it--"
+
+Ana hesitated. "But--leave him? He may--"
+
+"Yes, Anita, yes; leave him with God!" pleaded the girl excitedly.
+"Come away, Anita--"
+
+"But where, child?" asked the bewildered woman.
+
+"To Simiti!"
+
+"Simiti! Never! Why--why, my father would kill me!"
+
+"No, Anita dear; he loves you; he prays for you; he wants you! Oh,
+Anita, come! It is right--it is just what God has planned, I know! Pin
+my dress together, and then hurry!"
+
+The woman moved as if in a cloud. Mechanically she descended the
+stairs and left the house, her hand tightly clasped by Carmen. Dully
+she suffered herself to be led hurriedly to the river. A boat,
+up-bound, was just docking. The captain stood leaning over the rail
+and shouting his commands. Ana recognized him. It was Captain Julio.
+
+"_Loado sea Dios_!" murmured the weeping woman, hurrying up the gang
+plank with the child. She hastened past the astonished passengers to
+the captain and drew him to one side.
+
+"The child--" she gasped, "Rosendo Ariza's--of Simiti--leave her at
+Badillo--they will take her over--"
+
+"Wait, senora," interrupted the captain tenderly. "Is it not time for
+you to go home, too?" He laid a hand on her shoulder and looked down
+into her streaming eyes. "Come," he said quietly. And, leading them
+down the deck, he opened the door of a vacant cabin and bade them
+enter. "You can tell me your story when we are under way," he said,
+smiling as he closed the door. "_Bien_," he muttered, his brow
+clouding as he strode off. "I have been looking for this for some
+time. But--the child--Ariza's--ah, the priest Diego! I think I
+see--_Caramba_! But we will not tarry long here!"
+
+A few minutes later the big boat, her two long funnels vomiting
+torrents of smoke and sparks, thrust her huge wheel into the thick
+waters and, swinging slowly out into mid-stream, turned her flat nose
+toward the distant falls of Tequendama. In one of her aft cabins a
+woman lay on a cot, weeping hysterically. Over her bent a girl, with a
+face such as the masters have sought in vain. The tenderly whispered
+words might have been the lingering echo of those voiced in the little
+moonlit death-chamber of Cartagena long agone.
+
+"Anita dear, He is with us, right here. And His arms are wide open.
+And He says, 'Anita, come!'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 26
+
+
+"But, Padre dear, why are you so surprised that Padre Diego did not
+hurt me? I would have been much more surprised if he had. You are
+always so astonished when evil doesn't happen--don't you ever look for
+good? Why, I don't ever look for anything else! How could I when I
+know that God is everywhere?"
+
+Jose strained her closer to himself. "The sense of evil--it overwhelms
+me at times, _carita_--"
+
+"But, Padre dear, why don't you know right then that it is nothing? If
+you did, it would fade away, and only good would overwhelm you." She
+nestled closer to the man and clasped her arms more tightly about his
+neck. "Why, Padre," she resumed, "I was not a bit surprised when
+Captain Julio came and told us we were near Bodega Central, and that
+he could see you and Juan and Lazaro sitting on the steps of the
+inn."
+
+"Yes, _chiquita_, we were resting for a moment. If a down-river boat
+came by we were going to take it. If not, we expected to go in the
+canoe."
+
+"Padre dear, what did you intend to do in Banco?"
+
+The man hesitated. "Don't speak of it, child--we--"
+
+"Juan and Lazaro have knives. I saw them. Padre--have you one, too?"
+
+"I?--_chiquita_--"
+
+"Padre dear, God never fights with knives. Anita had a knife; but God
+wouldn't let her use it. He always has better ways than that. I don't
+know what happened to Padre Diego, except that he fell over his wicked
+thoughts. You know, Padre dear, somewhere in the Bible you read to me
+that 'With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to
+help us, and to fight our battles.' I thought of that when Padre Diego
+had his arm around me and held me so tight that I could hardly
+breathe. It was only an arm of flesh, after, all, and it couldn't hold
+me."
+
+"_Bien_, Padre," interrupted Juan, coming up from the boat, "if we are
+to reach Simiti to-night we must start at once."
+
+"_Bueno_, then let us set out," returned Jose, rising. A muffled sob
+reached his ears. He turned to the woman huddled in the shadow of the
+door.
+
+"Come, Ana," he said cheerily; "to-night you will again be home."
+
+"No, Padre--I do not go with you. I--"
+
+"Anita!" In an instant Carmen's arms were around her. "When padre
+Rosendo sees us, you and me, why--"
+
+"_Carisima_!" The woman's tears flowed fast while she hugged the girl
+to her bosom. "No--no--he would drive me from his house! No--let me
+stay here. I will get work in the _posada_, perhaps. Or Captain Julio
+will take me to Honda on his next trip, and get me a place--"
+
+"Then we must ask him to get a place for us both," interrupted Carmen,
+sitting calmly down beside her. "And think, Anita, how sad padre
+Rosendo will be when he sees the men come back without us!"
+
+"Carmen! I shall throw myself into the river!" cried the sorrowing
+woman, rising. "You don't know what it is--"
+
+"Yes, I do, Anita," returned the girl quickly; "it is nothing--just
+zero--and you can't drown it! If it would do any good we would both
+jump into the river--that is, if God told us to--wouldn't we? But it
+doesn't help any to die, you know, for then we would have it all to do
+over again."
+
+"Ana," said Jose, laying a hand on the woman's shoulder, "you do not
+understand her--neither do I, wholly. But if she tells you to go with
+us to Simiti, why, I think I would go. I would leave it all with her.
+You may trust her influence with Rosendo. Come."
+
+He took her hand and led her, weeping, but no longer resisting, down
+to the canoe. Carmen followed, dancing like an animated sunbeam. "What
+fun, oh, what fun!" she chirped, clapping her hands. "And just as soon
+as we get home we will go right up to the _carcel_ and let padre
+Rosendo out!"
+
+"_Na, chiquita_," said Jose, shaking his head mournfully; "we have no
+power to do that."
+
+"Well, then, God has," returned the girl, nothing daunted.
+
+Juan pushed the heavily laden canoe from its mooring, and set its
+direction toward Simiti. Silence drew over the little group, and the
+hours dragged while the boat crept slowly along the margin of the
+great river. The sun had passed its meridian when the little craft
+turned into the _cano._ To Jose the change brought a most grateful
+relief. For, though his long residence in Simiti had somewhat inured
+him to the intense heat of this low region, he had not yet learned to
+endure it with the careless indifference of the natives. Besides, his
+mind was filled with vivid memories of the horrors of his first river
+trip. And he knew that every future experience on the water would be
+tinged by them.
+
+In the shaded _cano_ the sunlight, sifting through the interlocking
+branches of ancient palms and _caobas_, mellowed and softened into a
+veil of yellow radiance that flecked the little stream with splashes
+of gold. Juan in the prow with the pole labored in silence. At times
+he stopped just long enough to roll a huge cigar, and to feast his
+bright eyes upon the fair girl whom he silently adored. Lazaro, as
+_patron_, sat in the stern, saturnine and unimpassioned. The woman,
+exhausted by the recent mental strain, dozed throughout the journey.
+Carmen alone seemed alive to her environment. Every foot of advance
+unfolded to her new delights. She sang; she chirped; she mimicked the
+parrots; she chattered at the excited monkeys. It was with difficulty
+that Jose could restrain her when her sharp eyes caught the glint of
+brilliant Passion flowers and orchids of gorgeous hue clinging to the
+dripping trees.
+
+"Padre!" she exclaimed, "they are in us, you know. They are not out
+there at all! We see our thoughts of them--and lots of people wouldn't
+see anything beautiful about them at all, just because their thoughts
+are not beautiful. Padre, we see--what you said to me once--we see our
+interpretations of God's ideas, don't we? That is what I told Padre
+Diego. But--well, he will just _have_ to see some day, won't he, Padre
+dear? But now let us talk in English; you know, I haven't spoken it
+for such a long time."
+
+Jose gazed at her in rapt silence. What a rare interpretation of the
+mind divine was this child! But he wondered why one so pure and
+beautiful should attract a mind so carnal as that of Diego. And yet--
+
+"Ah!" he mused, "it is again that law. Good always stirs up its
+suppositional opposite. And the most abundant good and the greatest
+purity stir up the most carnal elements of the human mind. All history
+shows it. The greater the degree of good, the greater the seeming
+degree of evil aroused. The perfect Christ stirred the hatred of a
+world. Carmen arouses Diego simply because of her purity. Yet she
+knows that he can not harm her."
+
+His eyes met the girl's, and she answered his unspoken thought in the
+tongue which she was fast adopting. "We _have_ to love him, you know,
+Padre dear."
+
+"Love whom? Diego?"
+
+"Why, yes, of course. We can't help loving him. Oh, not the 'him' that
+the human mind looks at, but the real 'him,' you know--the 'him' that
+is God's image. And you know there just isn't any other 'him,' now is
+there?"
+
+"God above!" murmured Jose, "if I could but keep my thought as
+straight as she does!"
+
+"But, Padre dear, your thought _is_ straight. You know, God's thought
+is the only thought there really is. Any other thought has the minus
+sign, and so it is zero. If we will always think of the real Padre
+Diego, and love that, why, the unreal one will fade away from our
+thought."
+
+"Do you suppose, _chiquita_, that if we love him we will make him
+repent?"
+
+The child pondered the question for a moment. Then:
+
+"Padre, what did you tell me once about the word 'repent'?"
+
+"It comes from the Greek word '_metanoia_.'"
+
+"Yes," she reflected; "but what did you say that--"
+
+"Oh, yes, I told you it meant a complete and radical change of
+thought."
+
+"Well!" she exclaimed, her eyes brightening.
+
+Jose waited expectantly. It was heaven to have this girl before him
+and to drink in the naive expressions of her active mind.
+
+"Padre dear, when John the baptiser said, 'Repent, for the kingdom of
+heaven is at hand,' did he mean to tell the people that they must have
+a complete change of thought?"
+
+Jose laughed. And then he grew serious. "_Chiquita_," he answered, "I
+have no doubt he meant just that. For you have taught me that there
+can be no salvation without such a complete and radical change."
+
+"No," she said with quick emphasis; "for God is mind, you know. And
+His thought is the only real thought there is or can be. The thoughts
+of mortals are the opposites of His thoughts, and so they are
+illusions, and, like all lies, must pass away. If people want to be
+immortal, they must think as God thinks, for He is immortal. They must
+stop thinking that there is any power but God. They must stop letting
+in thoughts of sickness, of sin, of wickedness, and all those things
+that in English you call 'discord.' God says in the Bible, 'As the
+heavens are higher than the earth, so are my thoughts higher than your
+thoughts.' Well, God is immortal and perfect. And if we want to be
+like Him we must think His thoughts. For our thoughts become--things.
+Don't you see?"
+
+Jose's face clouded. "I see, _chiquita_--sometimes very clearly--and
+then again I don't see," he said slowly.
+
+"You _do_ see!" she insisted, getting up on her knees and facing him.
+"And you see as God sees! And if you hold this thought always, why, it
+will--it will be--"
+
+"Externalized; is that what you are trying to say?" he suggested.
+
+"Yes, just that. Jesus said, 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so is
+he.'"
+
+"But, Carmen--I-- What you say is doubtless true in essence--but I
+think you have not grasped it all--there are so many gaps that your
+simple little system of religion does not fill in--so many great
+questions that you do not answer. I see, in part--and then, again, I
+don't see at all. And when you were stolen away from Simiti I saw
+nothing but the evil--and it nearly killed me!"
+
+The girl studied him for a few moments. The man had always been an
+enigma to her. She could not understand a nature that soared into the
+spiritual empyrean one moment, and in the next fell floundering into
+the bottomless pit of materialism. The undulating curve which
+marked the development of the Rincon mind was to her a thing
+incomprehensible.
+
+"Padre dear," she said at length, a little sadly. "When you look at
+the first chapter in the Bible and read there how God made everything,
+and man in His image, in the image of Mind, you see, and are very
+happy. But when you go on to the second chapter and read how the Lord
+God--not God, but the _Lord_ God--made a man of dirt, and how this
+dirt man listened to his false thoughts and fell, why, then you are
+unhappy. Don't you see any difference between them? Can't you see that
+one is a story of the real creation; and the other is the human mind's
+interpretation of the creation--an interpretation made according to
+the way the human mind thinks the creating _ought_ to have been in
+matter? You told me this yourself. And the second chapter shows how
+far the human mind can go--it shows how limited it is. The human mind
+couldn't get any farther than that--couldn't make a man out of
+anything but dirt. It couldn't understand the spiritual creation. And
+so it made a creation of its own. It couldn't understand God; and so
+it made a Lord God, just like itself. Can't you see? Padre dear, can't
+you? And if you see, can't you _stick_ to it and _live_ it, until all
+the unreal passes away?"
+
+Jose smiled into her earnest little face. "I will never cease to try,
+_chiquita_," he said. "But we were talking about loving Diego, weren't
+we? Yes, you are right, we must try to love him, for the good Jesus
+said we must love our enemies."
+
+"But, if we love everybody, then we haven't any enemies. You can't
+love a real enemy--and so there aren't any real ones. We see in other
+people only what is in our own thought. If we see evil as real, why,
+then we will see bad men and women all around us, for we only look at
+our thoughts. But, if we look only at God's thoughts--Padre dear, I
+didn't see anything but God's thought when Padre Diego had me in his
+arms. I knew it wasn't real, but was just the human way of looking at
+things. And I knew that love was the great principle of everything,
+and that it just couldn't fail, any more than the principle of algebra
+could fail to solve my problems. Well," she concluded with a little
+sigh, "it didn't."
+
+"Dear little girl, you must be patient, very patient, with your
+blundering old Padre Jose. He is groping for the light--"
+
+In an instant, throwing the canoe into imminent danger of upsetting,
+the impulsive girl had hurled herself into his lap and clasped her
+arms about his neck. Juan and Lazaro by a quick and skillful effort
+kept the craft upright.
+
+"Oh, Padre dear!" she cried, "I didn't mean to say a word that would
+make you unhappy--Padre dear, I love you so! Padre, look at your
+little girl, and tell her that you love her!"
+
+He clasped her fiercely. "No--no!" he murmured, "I--I must
+not--and--yet--_chiquita_--I adore you!" He buried his face in her
+shoulder.
+
+Juan made a wry mouth as he looked at the girl in the priest's arms.
+Then he suggested that a separation would more evenly balance the
+boat. Carmen laughed up at him, but slipped down into the keel and sat
+with her head propped against Jose's knees.
+
+"Padre dear," she said, looking up at him with twinkling eyes, "I
+heard Lazaro say a little while before we started that he had lived
+many years in Simiti, and that it had always been very quiet until you
+came."
+
+"_Ay de mi!_" sighed Jose. "I can readily believe that the whole world
+was quiet until I entered it."
+
+"But, Padre, perhaps you had to come into it to shake it up."
+
+He laughed. "_Chiquita_," he said, "if ever you go out into it, with
+your radical views regarding God and man; and if the stupid old world
+will give ear to you, there will be such a shaking up as it has never
+experienced since--"
+
+"Padre dear," she interrupted, "I am not going out into the world. I
+shall stay in Simiti--with you."
+
+He looked down at her, tenderly, wistfully. And then, while her words
+still echoed through his mind, a great sigh escaped him.
+
+Dusk had closed in upon them when the canoe emerged into the quiet
+lake. Huge vampire bats, like demons incarnate, flouted their faces as
+they paddled swiftly toward the distant town. Soft evening calls
+drifted across the placid waters from the slumbering jungle. Carmen's
+rich voice mingled with them; and Juan and Lazaro, catching the
+inspiration, broke into a weird, uncanny boating song, such as is
+heard only among these simple folk. As they neared the town the song
+of the _bogas_ changed into a series of loud, yodelling halloos; and
+when the canoe grated upon the shaly beach, Dona Maria and a score of
+others were there to welcome the returned travelers.
+
+At the sight of Ana, a murmur ran through the crowd. Dona Maria turned
+to the woman.
+
+"It is Anita, madre dear," Carmen quickly announced, as she struggled
+out of Dona Maria's arms and took the confused Ana by the hand.
+
+The light of recognition came into Dona Maria's eyes. Quietly, and
+without demonstration, she went to the shrinking woman and, taking the
+tear-stained face in her hands, impressed a kiss upon each cheek.
+"_Bien_," she said in a low, tender voice, "we have waited long for
+you, daughter. And now let us go home."
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+The glow of dawn had scarce begun to creep timidly across the arch of
+heaven when Fernando knocked at the portal of Rosendo's house and
+demanded the custody of Carmen. Jose was already abroad.
+
+"And now, Fernando," demanded the priest, "what new outrage is this?"
+
+The constable flushed with embarrassment. "_Na_, Padre, a thousand
+pardons--but it is the order of the Alcalde, and I only obey. But--you
+may knock me down," he added eagerly, "and then I can return to him
+and say that I could not take the girl, even by force!" The honest
+fellow, ashamed of his mission, hung his head. Jose seized his hand.
+
+"Fernando!" he cried, "what say the people of Simiti?"
+
+"They are with you, Padre. They would demand Rosendo's release, if
+there were proof that the girl--"
+
+"Good, then! we have the proof," broke in Jose. "Rosendo knows of our
+return?"
+
+"Yes, the guard informed him this morning. The Alcalde, you know,
+permits no one to approach the prisoner."
+
+"And does he know that Ana is here?"
+
+"The guard did not tell him, for fear of exciting the old man.
+_Hombre!_ I think there is no one in town who would venture to tell
+Rosendo that."
+
+"_Bien pues_, Fernando, I think the time has come! Go quietly back and
+summon every one to a meeting in the town hall at once. Tell them--"
+
+"_Bien_, Padre, I shall know what to tell them. But," anxiously, "Don
+Mario has the power to--"
+
+"And we have a greater power," quickly replied the priest, his thought
+dwelling on Carmen.
+
+An hour later the town hall was a babel of clacking tongues. Men,
+women and children hurried, chattering, to and fro, exchanging diverse
+views and speculating eagerly on the probable outcome of the meeting.
+Jose stood before them, with Carmen's hand clasped tightly in his. Don
+Mario, purple and trembling with rage, was perched upon a chair,
+vainly trying to get the ear of the people.
+
+In the midst of the hubbub a hush fell suddenly over the concourse.
+All heads turned, and all eyes fastened upon Ana, as she entered the
+room and moved timidly toward Jose. The people fell back to make a
+passage for her. Her shoulders were bent, and her face was covered
+with a black _mantilla_.
+
+Don Mario, as his glance fell upon her, again attempted to address the
+multitude. A dozen voices bade him cease. A strong arm from behind
+pushed him from the chair. His craven heart began to quake, and he
+cast anxious glances toward the single exit.
+
+Gently removing the _mantilla_ from the face of the woman, Jose turned
+her toward the people. "Friends!" he said in a loud, penetrating
+voice, "behold the work of Diego!"
+
+He paused for the effect which he knew would be made upon this
+impressionable people. Then, when the loud murmur had passed, he drew
+Carmen out before him and, pointing to her, said dramatically, "And
+shall we also throw this innocent child to the wolf?"
+
+The assembly broke into a roar. Fists were shaken under the Alcalde's
+nose, and imprecations were hurled at him from all sides. Don Mario
+drew his soiled handkerchief and mopped his steaming brow. Then his
+voice broke out in a shriek: "The soldiers--this day I shall summon
+them--it is a riot!"
+
+"_Caramba!_ He speaks truth!" cried a voice from the crowd. The babel
+commenced anew.
+
+"The soldiers! _Caramba!_ Let Diego have his child!"
+
+_"Maldita!"_
+
+"Who says it is not his?"
+
+"I do!"
+
+It was Ana. Clasping Jose's arm to steady herself, she had turned to
+confront the excited assembly.
+
+Silence descended upon them all. Jose held up his hand. A sob escaped
+the woman. Then:
+
+"The priest Diego had a child--a girl. Her name--it was--Carmen. The
+child is--dead."
+
+"_Caramba!_ girl, how know you that?" shrilled a woman's excited
+voice.
+
+"I know, because I--was--its--mother!"
+
+Pandemonium burst upon the room at the woman's words. Don Mario
+started for the door, but found his way blocked. "Diego had other
+children!" he shouted; "and this girl is one of them!"
+
+"It is false!" cried Ana in a loud voice. "I have lived with him eight
+years! I know from his own lips that I speak the truth! See what he
+has done to me! Would I lie?"
+
+"To the _carcel_! Release Rosendo!"
+
+"We will write to the President at Bogota! Don Mario must be
+removed!"
+
+"_Caramba!_ Such an Alcalde!"
+
+"Let him send for the soldiers, if he wishes to die!"
+
+"To the _carcel_!"
+
+As a unit the fickle people streamed from the room and started for the
+jail. Don Mario was borne along on the heaving tide. Jose and Carmen
+followed; but Ana fell back and returned to the house of Rosendo.
+
+The guard at the jail, seeing the concourse approaching, threw down
+his _machete_ and fled. Rosendo's eyes were big with speculation,
+though his heart beat apprehensively. The people jammed into the small
+hut until it swayed and threatened to collapse.
+
+"The key to the lock--_Caramba_! the guard has it!"
+
+"Catch him!"
+
+"No! bring a _barra_!"
+
+Juan quickly produced a long iron bar, and with a few lusty efforts
+sprung the stocks. A dozen hands lifted the cramped Rosendo out and
+stood him upon his feet. Carmen squirmed through the crowd and threw
+herself into his arms.
+
+Then, with shouts and gesticulations, a triumphal procession quickly
+formed, and the bewildered and limping Rosendo was escorted down the
+main street of the town and across the _plaza_ to his home. At the
+door of the house Jose turned and, holding up a hand, bade the people
+quietly disperse and leave the liberated man to enjoy undisturbed the
+sacred reunion with his family. With a parting shout, the people
+melted quickly away, and quiet soon reigned again over the ancient
+town.
+
+"_Bien_, Padre," said Rosendo, pausing before his door to clasp anew
+the priest's hand, "you have not told me what has caused this. Was it
+the little Carmen--"
+
+He stopped short. Glancing in at the door, his eyes had fallen upon
+Ana. To Jose, hours seemed suddenly compressed into that tense
+moment.
+
+Slowly Rosendo entered the house and advanced to the shrinking woman.
+Terror spread over her face, and she clutched her throat as the big
+man stalked toward her. Then, like a flash, Carmen darted in front of
+her and faced Rosendo.
+
+"It is Anita, padre dear," she said, looking up into his set face, and
+clasping his hand in both of hers. "She has come home again. Aren't we
+glad!"
+
+Rosendo seemed not to see the child. His voice came cold and harsh.
+"_Bien_, outcast, is your lover with you, that I may strangle him,
+too?" He choked and swallowed hard.
+
+"Padre!" cried Carmen, putting both her hands against him. "See! Those
+bad thoughts nearly strangled you! Don't let them get in! Don't!"
+
+"_Bien_, girl!" snarled the angry man, still addressing the cowering
+woman. "Did you tire of him, that you now sneak home? Or--_Caramba_!"
+as Ana rose and stood before him, "you come here that your illegal
+brat may be born! Not under my roof! _Santa Maria!_ Never! Take it
+back to him! Take it back, I say!" he shouted, raising his clenched
+fist as if to strike her.
+
+Carmen turned swiftly and threw herself upon the woman. Looking over
+her shoulder, she addressed the raging man:
+
+"Padre Rosendo! this is not your house! It is God's! He only lets you
+have it, because He is good to you! Shame on you, for daring to drive
+Anita away--your own little girl!" Her voice rose shrill, and her
+words cut deep into the old man's embittered heart.
+
+"Shame on you, padre Rosendo!" quickly flowed the scorching words. "If
+God were like you He would drive you from the house, too! Are you so
+much better than the good Jesus that you can drive away a woman who
+sins? Shame on you, padre! Are you better than the good father who was
+so glad to see his prodigal son? If God were to punish you for your
+sins, would He even let you live? Did He not set you free this very
+morning? And do you now thank Him by driving your little girl from her
+own home? Do you know that it was Anita who made you free, and who
+brought me here? God used her to do that. And is this the way you
+thank Him? Then you will lose us both, for we will not stay with
+you!"
+
+Jose stepped up and took Rosendo's arm. Carmen turned about and
+continued her scoriation:
+
+"Padre Rosendo, if the good, pure God was willing to use Anita to save
+me from Padre Diego and bring me back to you, are you so wicked and so
+ungrateful that you throw His love back in His face? Shame on you,
+padre! Shame! Shame!"
+
+"_Caramba!_" cried Rosendo, tears bursting from his eyes. "She has
+fouled my name--it was a good name, though my parents were slaves--it
+was a good name--and she blackened it--she--"
+
+"Padre Rosendo, there are only two names that have never been
+blackened! Your human name is nothing--it is zero--it counts for
+foolishness with God! You yourself are making your name blacker now
+than Anita ever did! She repents, and comes to her father; and he is
+so much more wicked than she that he drives her out!--"
+
+"Enough, Carmen, child!" interrupted Jose. "Come, Rosendo; go into the
+parish house! Carmen, go with him!"
+
+Carmen hesitated. Then a smile lighted up her face, and she reached up
+and took Rosendo's hand. Together they passed silently out and into
+the priest's house.
+
+Ana sank to the floor, where she buried her face in her hands and wept
+violently.
+
+"Wait, Ana," said Jose, tenderly stroking the unhappy woman's hair.
+"Wait. They will soon return. And you shall remain here, where you
+belong."
+
+A half hour passed. Then Jose, wondering, went quietly to the door of
+his house and looked in. Rosendo sat at the table, with Carmen on his
+knees.
+
+"And, padre," the child was saying, "the good Jesus told the woman not
+to sin any more; and she went away happy. Padre, God has told Anita
+not to sin any more--and she has come to us to be happy. We are going
+to make her so, aren't we? Padre Diego couldn't hurt me, you know, for
+God wouldn't let him. And he hasn't hurt Anita--God wouldn't let him
+keep her--wouldn't let her stay with him. Don't you see, padre? And we
+have got to be like Him--we _are_ like Him, really. But now we have
+got to show it, to prove it, you know."
+
+Rosendo's head was bent over the girl. Neither of them saw Jose. The
+child went on with increased animation:
+
+"And, padre dear, God sends us Anita's little baby for us to love and
+protect. Oh, padre, if the little one is a boy, can't we call it
+Jose?"
+
+"Yes, _chiquita_," Jose heard the old man murmur brokenly.
+
+"And--padre, if it is a girl--what shall we call it?"
+
+The man's arm tightened about her. "We--we will call it--Carmencita,"
+he whispered.
+
+The girl clapped her hands. "Can't you see, padre, that God sends us
+Anita's baby so that Padre Diego shall not have it? And now let's go
+and tell her so, right away!" she cried, jumping down.
+
+Jose slipped quickly back and stood beside the woman when Carmen and
+Rosendo entered the room. The old man went directly to his daughter,
+and, taking her in his brawny arms, raised her from the floor and
+strained her to his breast. Tears streamed down his swart cheeks, and
+the words he would utter choked and hung in his throat.
+
+"Padre," whispered the delighted child, "shall I tell her our names
+for the baby?"
+
+Jose turned and stole softly from the room. Divine Love was there, and
+its dazzling effulgence blinded him. In the quiet of his own chamber
+he sought to understand the marvelous goodness of God to them that
+serve Him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 27
+
+
+The reversal of a life-current is not always effected suddenly, nor
+amid the din of stirring events, nor yet in an environment that we
+ourselves might choose as an appropriate setting. It comes in the
+fullness of time, and amid such scenes as the human mind which
+undergoes the transformation may see externalized within its own
+consciousness by the working of the as yet dimly perceived laws of
+thought.
+
+Perhaps some one, skilled in the discernment of mental laws and their
+subtle, irresistible working, might have predicted the fate which
+overtook the man Jose, the fulsome details of which are herein being
+recounted. Perhaps such a one might say in retrospect that the
+culmination of years of wrong thinking, of false beliefs closely
+cherished, of attachment to fear, to doubt, and to wrong concepts of
+God, had been externalized at length in eddying the man upon this far
+verge of civilization, still clinging feebly to the tattered fragments
+of a blasted life. But it would have been a skilled prognostician,
+indeed, who could have foreseen the renewal of this wasted life in
+that of the young girl, to whom during the past four years Jose de
+Rincon had been transferring his own unrealized hopes and his vast
+learning, but without the dross of inherited or attached beliefs, and
+without taint of his native vacillation and indecision of mind.
+
+For what he had been striving to fit her, he knew not. But in a
+vaguely outlined way he knew that he was being used as a tool to shape
+in some degree the mental development of this strange girl. Nor,
+indeed, as the years passed, did she continue to seem so strange to
+him. On the contrary, he now thought it more marvelous by far that the
+world, after nineteen centuries of Christianity, did not think and act
+more as did this girl, whose religious instruction he knew to have
+been garnered at the invisible hand of God. That she must some day
+leave him, despite her present earnest protestations, he felt to be
+inevitable. And the thought pierced his soul like a lance. But he
+could not be certain that with maturity she would wish to remain
+always in the primitive environment in which she had been nurtured.
+Nor could he, even if she were willing, immolate her upon the barb of
+his own selfishness.
+
+As for himself, the years had but seemed to increase the conviction
+that he could never leave the Church, despite his anomalous position
+and despite his renewed life--unless, indeed, she herself cast him
+forth. Each tenderly hopeful letter from his proud, doting mother only
+added to this conviction by emphasizing the obstacles opposing such a
+course. Her declining years were now spent among the mental pictures
+which she hourly drew upon the canvas of her imagination, pictures in
+which her beloved son, chastened and purified, had at length come into
+the preferment which had always awaited loyal scions of the house of
+Rincon. Hourly she saw the day draw nearer when he should be restored
+to her yearning arms. Each dawn threw its first rays upon his
+portrait, which hung where her waking eyes might open upon it. Each
+night the shadow cast by the candle which always burned beneath it
+seemed to her eager sight to crown that fair head with a bishop's
+mitre--a cardinal's hat--aye, at times she even saw the triple crown
+of the Vicar of Christ resting upon those raven locks. Jose knew this.
+If her own pen did not always correctly delineate her towering hopes,
+his astute uncle did not fail to fill in whatever hiatus remained. And
+the pressure of filial devotion and pride of race at times completely
+smothered within him the voice of Truth which Carmen continually
+sounded, and made him resolve often that on the day when she should
+leave him he would bury his head in the lap of Mother Church and
+submit without further resistance to the sable veil of assumed
+authority which he knew she would draw across his mind. Convincing as
+were the proofs which had come to him of the existence of a great
+demonstrable principle which the Christ had sought to make a dull
+world recognize, nevertheless he had as yet failed to rise permanently
+above the mesmerism of human belief, which whispered into his
+straining ears that he must not strive to progress beyond his
+understanding, lest, in the attempt to gain too rapidly, he lose all.
+To sink into the arms of Mother Church and await the orderly
+revelation of Truth were less dangerous now than a precipitate
+severance of all ties and a launching forth into strange seas with an
+untried compass.
+
+The arguments to which he listened were insidious. True, they
+reasoned, he had seemed to see the working of mental law in his own
+restoration to health when he had first come to Simiti. He had seemed
+to see Rosendo likewise restored. But these instances, after all,
+might have been casual. That Carmen had had aught to do with them, no
+one could positively affirm. True, he had seen her protected in
+certain unmistakable ways. But--others were likewise protected, even
+where there had been no thought of an immanent, sheltering God. True,
+the incident of the epidemic in Simiti two years before had impressed
+upon him the serious consequences of fear, and the blighting results
+of false belief. He had profited by that lesson. But he could not hope
+suddenly to empty his mentality of its content of human thought; nor
+did wisdom advise the attempt. He had at first tried to rise too
+rapidly. His frequent backsliding frightened and warned him.
+
+Thus, while the days sped by, did the priest's thought ebb and flow.
+As morn broke, and the gallant sun drove the cowardly shadows of night
+across the hills, his own courage rose, and he saw in Carmen the pure
+reflection of the Mind which was in Christ Jesus. As night fell, and
+darkness slunk back again and held the field, so returned the legion
+of fears and doubts that battled for his soul. Back and forth in the
+arena of his consciousness strove the combatants, while he rushed
+irresolutely to and fro, now bearing the banner of the powers of
+light, now waving aloft, though with sinking heart, the black flag of
+the carnal host. For a while after his arrival in Simiti he had seemed
+to rise rapidly into the consciousness of good as all-in-all. But the
+strain which had been constantly upon him had prevented the full
+recognition of all that Carmen saw, and each rise was followed by a
+fall that left him for long periods immersed in despair.
+
+Following the return of Carmen and the ripple of excitement which her
+abduction had spread over the wonted calm of Simiti, the old town
+settled back again into its accustomed lethargy, and Jose and the girl
+resumed their interrupted work. From Ana it was learned that Diego had
+not voiced the command of Wenceslas in demanding the girl; and when
+this became known the people rose in a body to her support. Don Mario,
+though he threatened loudly, knew in his heart he was beaten. He knew,
+likewise, that any further hostile move on his part would result in a
+demand by the people for his removal from office. He therefore retired
+sulking to the seclusion of his _patio_, where he sat down patiently
+to await the turn of events.
+
+Rosendo, his great heart softened toward his erring daughter, again
+rejoiced in the reunion of his broken family circle. But his soul
+burned within him as, day after day, he saw Ana move silently about
+like a sorrow incarnate. At times, when perchance he would come upon
+her huddled in a corner and weeping quietly, he would turn away,
+cursing deeply and swearing fulsome vengeance upon the lecherous beast
+who had wrought her ruin.
+
+"Padre," he one day said to Jose, "I shall kill him--I know it. The
+girl's suffering is breaking my heart. He is like an evil cloud
+hanging always over my family. I hate him! I hate him, as the devil
+hates the light! And I shall kill him. Be prepared." And Jose offered
+no remonstrance, for the case lay not in his hands.
+
+Carmen again entered upon her interrupted studies with ardent
+enthusiasm. And her first demand was that she be allowed to plunge
+into a searching study of the Bible. "Padre," she exclaimed, "it is a
+wonderful book! Why--do the people in the world know what a book this
+is? For if they did, they would never be sick or unhappy again!"
+
+He knew not how to answer her. And there was no need that he should.
+
+"Padre!" Her eyes were aflame with holy light. "See! Here it is--the
+whole thing! 'Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man
+his _thoughts_.' But--don't the people know what that means?"
+
+"Well, _chiquita_, and what does it mean?" he asked indulgently.
+
+"Why--the unrighteous man is the man who thinks wrong thoughts--thoughts
+of power opposed to God--thoughts of sin, of sickness, of accidents,
+and all sorts of evil things--beliefs that these things are real, and
+that God made or caused them!"
+
+"_Bien_, and you think the Bible speaks truth?"
+
+"Padre! how can you ask that? Why, it says right here that it is given
+by inspiration! That means that the men or women who wrote it thought
+God's thoughts!"
+
+"That He wrote it, you mean?"
+
+"No, but that those who wrote it were--well, were cleaner window-panes
+than other people--that they were so clean that the light shone
+through them better than it did through others."
+
+"And what do you think now about Jesus?" he inquired.
+
+"Why, as you once said, that he was the very cleanest window-pane of
+all!" she quickly replied.
+
+From that hour the Bible was the girl's constant companion. Daily she
+pored over it, delighted, enraptured. Jose marveled at her immediate
+spiritual grasp. Instead of the world's manner of looking upon it as
+only a collection of beautiful promises and admonitions, she saw
+within it the statement of a principle that offered itself as a mighty
+tool with which to work out humanity's every-day problems here and
+now. From the first she began to make out little lists of collated
+scriptural verses, so arranging them that she could read in them a
+complete expression of an idea of God. These she would bring to Jose
+and, perching herself upon his lap, would expound them, to her own
+great delight and the wonder of the man who listened.
+
+"See, Padre," she said, holding up one of these lists, "it says that
+'in that day' whatever we ask of him will be given to us. Well, 'that
+day' means when we have washed our window-panes clean, and the light
+shines through so clear that we can ask in His name. It means when we
+have stopped saying that two and two are seven."
+
+"Which means," Jose interpolated, "asking in his character."
+
+"Yes," she replied, "for then we will be just like him. And then
+whatever we ask 'believing' will be given to us, for believing'
+will then be 'understanding,' will it not? When we know--really
+_know_--that we have things, why--why, we have them, that's all!"
+
+She did not wait for his reply, but went on enthusiastically:
+
+"You know, Padre, in order to be like him we have got to 'seek first
+the kingdom of God and His righteousness'--His right-thinking. Well,
+Jesus said the kingdom of God was within us. Of course it is, for it
+is all a question of right-thinking. When we think right, then our
+right thoughts will be--what you said--"
+
+"Externalized," he supplied.
+
+"Yes. We will see them all around us, instead of seeing, as we do now,
+a lot of jumbled-up thoughts of good and evil which we call people and
+things. They will all be good then. And then will be the time when
+'God shall wipe away all tears.' It is, as you say in English, 'up to
+us' to bring this about. It is not for God to do it at all. Don't you
+see that He has already done His part? He has made everything, and
+'behold it was very good.' Well, He doesn't have to do it all over
+again, does He? No. But we have got to wash our windows clean and let
+in the light that comes from Him. That light comes from Him all the
+time, just as the beams come from the sun, without ever stopping. We
+never have to ask the sun to shine, do we? And neither do we have to
+ask God to be good to us, nor tell Him what we think He ought to do
+for us. We only have to _know_ that He is good, to us and to
+everything, all the time."
+
+"Yes, _chiquita_, we must be truly baptised."
+
+"That is what it means to be baptised, Padre--just washing our
+window-panes so clean that the light will come in."
+
+"And that light, little one, is truth. It certainly is a new way of
+looking at it, at least, _chiquita_."
+
+"But, Padre, it is the _only_ way," she persisted.
+
+"_Bien_, I would not say that you were mistaken, Carmen."
+
+"No, Padre, for we can prove it. And, look here," she continued,
+referring to her list. "If the kingdom of heaven is within us, then
+everything that comes to us in life comes from within, and not from
+without. And so, things never happen, do they? Don't you see?"
+
+"I see," he replied seriously, "that from the mouths of babes and
+sucklings comes infinite wisdom."
+
+"Well, Padre dear, wisdom is God's light, and it comes through any one
+who is clean. It doesn't make any difference how old or young that
+person is. Years mean nothing but--but zero."
+
+"How can you say that, _chiquita_?"
+
+"Why, Padre, is God old?"
+
+"No. He is always the same."
+
+"And we are really like Him?"
+
+"The real 'we'--yes."
+
+"Well, the unreal 'we' is already zero. Didn't you yourself say that
+the human, mortal man was a product of false thought, thought that was
+the opposite of God's thought, and so no thought at all? Didn't you
+say that such thought was illusion--the lie about God and what He has
+made? Then isn't the human 'we' zero?"
+
+"Well--but--_chiquita_, it is often hard for me to see anything but
+this sort of 'we,'" returned the man dejectedly.
+
+"Oh, Padre!" she entreated, "why will you not try to look at something
+else than the human man? Look at God's man, the image of infinite
+mind. You have _got_ to do it, you know, some time. Jesus said so. He
+said that every man would have to overcome. That means turning away
+from the thoughts that are externalized as sin and sickness and evil,
+and looking only at God's thoughts--and, what is more, _sticking to
+them_!"
+
+"Yes," dubiously, "I suppose we must some time overcome every belief
+in anything opposed to God."
+
+"Well, but need that make you unhappy? It is just because you still
+cling to the belief that there is other power than God that you get so
+discouraged and mixed up. Can't you let go? Try it! Why, I would try
+it even if a whole mountain fell on me!"
+
+And Jose could but clasp the earnest girl in his arms and vow that he
+would try again as never before.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meantime, while Jose and his little student-teacher were delving into
+the inexhaustible treasury of the Word; while the peaceful days came
+into their lives and went out again almost unperceived, the priest
+Diego left the bed upon which he had been stretched for many weeks,
+and hobbled painfully about upon his scarcely mended ankle. While a
+prisoner upon his couch his days had been filled with torture. Try as
+he might, he could not beat down the vision which constantly rose
+before him, that of the beautiful girl who had been all but his. He
+cursed; he raved; he vowed the foulest vengeance. And then he cried
+piteously, as he lay chained to his bed--cried for something that
+seemed to take human shape in her. He protested that he loved her;
+that he adored her; that without her he was but a blasted cedar. His
+nurses fled his bedside. His physician stopped his ears. Only Don
+Antonio was found low enough in thought to withstand the flow of foul
+language which issued from the baffled Diego's thick lips while he
+moved about in attendance upon the unhappy priest's needs.
+
+Then came from the acting-Bishop, Wenceslas, a mandate commissioning
+Diego upon a religio-political mission to the interior city of
+Medellin. The now recovered priest smiled grimly when he read it. Then
+he summoned Ricardo.
+
+"Prepare yourself, _amigo_," he said, "for a work of the Lord. I go
+into the interior. You accompany me as far as Badillo, where we
+disembark for stinking Simiti. And, _amigo_, do you secure a
+trustworthy companion. The work may be heavy. Meantime, my blessing
+and absolution."
+
+Then he sat down and despatched a long letter to Don Mario.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 28
+
+
+"Rosendo," said Jose one morning shortly thereafter, as the old man
+entered the parish house for a little chat, "a Decree has been issued
+recently by the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office whereby,
+instead of the cloth scapulary which you are wearing, a medal may be
+substituted. I have received several from Cartagena. Will you exchange
+yours?"
+
+"_Cierto_, Padre--but," he hesitated, "is the new one just as--"
+
+"To be sure, _amigo_. It carries the same indulgences. See,"
+exhibiting the medal. "The Sacred Heart and the blessed Virgin. But I
+have arranged it to wear about the neck."
+
+Rosendo knelt reverently and crossed himself while Jose hung the new
+scapulary over his head. The old man beamed his joy. "_Caramba!_" he
+exclaimed, rising, "but I believe this one will keep off more devils
+than that old cloth thing you made for me!"
+
+"Why, Rosendo!" admonished Jose, repressing a smile, "did I not bless
+that one before the altar?"
+
+"_Cierto_, Padre, and I beg a thousand pardons. It was the blessing,
+wasn't it? Not the cloth. But this one," regarding it reverently,
+"this one--"
+
+"Oh, yes, this one," put in Jose, "carries the blessing of His Grace,
+acting-Bishop Wenceslas."
+
+"And a Bishop is always very holy, is he not, Padre?" queried Rosendo.
+"It makes no difference who he is, for the office makes him holy, is
+it not so, Padre?"
+
+"Oh, without doubt," returned Jose, his thought reverting to the
+little Maria and the babe which for four years he had been supporting
+in distant Cartagena.
+
+"_Na_, Padre," remonstrated Rosendo, catching the insinuation, "we
+must not speak ill of the Bishop, lest he be a Saint to-morrow! But,
+Padre," he went on, changing the topic, "I came to tell you that Don
+Luis has given me a contract to cut wood for him on the island. A
+quantity, too. _Hombre!_ I shall earn much money by its terms. I set
+out to-morrow morning before daybreak."
+
+Jose reflected. The man's words aroused within him a faint suspicion.
+Don Luis and the Alcalde were boon companions. Jose wondered if in
+this commission he could see the gloved hand of Don Mario. But he gave
+no hint of his thought to Rosendo.
+
+The next morning, long before sun-up, a mist lay thick over the
+valley, so thick that Rosendo, as he made his way down to the lake,
+scarce could distinguish the road ahead of him. The dry season had
+passed, and the rains were now setting in. As he hurried along, the
+old man mused dubiously on the contract which Don Luis had made with
+him. To cut wood in the rainy season!--but, after all, that was no
+concern of his. And yet--why had Padre Jose grown suddenly quiet when
+he learned of the contract yesterday? His bare feet fell softly upon
+the shales, and he proceeded more cautiously as he neared the water's
+edge.
+
+"_Hombre!_" he muttered, striving to penetrate the mist; "only a
+_loco_ ventures out on the lake in such weather!"
+
+He reached the boat, and placed in it the rope and axe which he had
+brought. Then, still troubled in thought, he sat down on the edge of
+the canoe and dropped into a puzzled meditation.
+
+Suddenly through the fog he heard a sound. Somebody was approaching. A
+fisherman, perhaps. But fishermen do not go out on the lake in dense
+fogs, he remembered. The tread sounded nearer. He waited, speculating.
+Then through the mist loomed the thick body of a man. Straining his
+eyes, Rosendo recognized Padre Diego.
+
+With a bound the old man was upon his feet. His thick arm shot out
+like a catapult; and his great fist, meeting Diego squarely upon the
+temple, felled him like an ox.
+
+For a moment Rosendo stood over the prostrate priest, like a lion
+above its prey. Then he reached into the canoe and drew out the axe.
+Holding it aloft, he stood an instant poised above the senseless man;
+then with a mighty swing he whirled about and hurled it far out into
+the lake. He seemed suddenly bereft of his senses. Incoherent
+muttering issued from his trembling lips. He looked about in
+bewilderment. A thought seemed to impress him. He took the rope from
+the boat and quickly bound Diego hand and foot. This done, he picked
+up the unconscious priest and tossed him into the canoe as if he had
+been a billet of wood. Jumping in after him, he hastily pushed off
+from the shore and paddled vigorously in the direction of the island.
+Why he was doing this he had not the faintest idea.
+
+It was all the work of a few seconds; yet when his reason came again
+Rosendo found himself far out in the thick fog, and his prisoner
+moaning softly as consciousness slowly returned. The sense of
+direction which these sons of the jungle possess is almost infallible,
+and despite the watery cloud which enveloped him, the old man held his
+course undeviatingly toward the distant isle, into the low, muddy
+shore of which his boat at length forced its way under the impulse of
+his great arms.
+
+The island, a low patch a few acres in extent, lay far out in the lake
+like a splotch of green paint on a plate of glass. Its densely wooded
+surface, rising soft and oozy only a few feet above the water, was
+destitute of human habitation, but afforded a paradise for swarms of
+crawling and flying creatures, which now scattered in alarm at the
+approach of these early visitors coming so unexpectedly out of the
+heavy fog.
+
+When the canoe grounded, Rosendo sprang out and pulled it well up into
+the mud. Then he lifted the priest out and staggered into the thick
+brush, where he threw his burden heavily upon the ground. Leaving his
+prisoner for a moment, he seized his _machete_ and began to cut back
+into the brush. A grunt of satisfaction came from his lips. Returning
+to the now conscious Diego, he grasped the rope which bound him and
+dragged him along the newly opened trail into a little clearing which
+lay beyond. There he propped him up against a huge cedar. As he did
+this, Diego's mouth opened wide and a piercing scream issued.
+"Ricardo--help!" he called.
+
+The cry echoed dismally across the desolate island. In an instant
+Rosendo was upon him, with his knife clutched in his fist. "Repeat
+that, _cayman_," he cried furiously, "and this finds your wicked
+heart!"
+
+The craven Diego shook with fear; but he fell silent before the threat
+of the desperate man into whose hands he had so unwittingly fallen.
+
+Rosendo stepped back and stood before his captive, regarding him
+uncertainly. Diego's quick intuition did not fail to read the old
+man's perplexity; and his own hope revived accordingly. It was a
+pretty trick, this of Rosendo's--but, after all, he would not dare too
+much. Diego gradually became easier in mind. He even smiled unctuously
+at his captor.
+
+"_Bien, amigo_," he said at length, "is this your customary reception
+to visitors in your village? _Caramba!_ but what will the good Bishop
+say when he learns that you have thus mistreated his trusted agent?"
+
+Rosendo stood before him like a statue. His thought was confused, and
+it moved slowly. In the cries of the disturbed birds he seemed now to
+hear the warning voice of Carmen. In the watery vapor that rolled over
+him he seemed to feel the touch of her soft, restraining hand.
+
+"_Bien, compadre_," purred Diego, "would it not be well for you to
+loosen this bit of thread, that we may make our way back to the
+village? _Caramba!_ but it cuts sore--and I am soft, my friend, for I
+have been ill."
+
+Rosendo's wrath flared up anew. "What made you ill, _cayman_?" he
+shouted, drawing nearer to the shrinking Diego and shaking a great
+fist in his face. "What made you ill, buzzard? _Caramba!_ I would that
+your illness had carried you off and saved me the task of sending you
+down to purgatory!"
+
+Diego became thoroughly alarmed again. "But--Rosendo--_caro amigo_,
+let us reason together! Ah, _compadre_--loosen but a little this rope
+which cuts into my tender skin as your bitter words do into my soul!"
+
+"_Na_, vulture, but you will drown more quickly thus!" retorted
+Rosendo, his huge frame trembling with agitation.
+
+Diego's heart stopped. Then he sought to collect himself. He was
+in a desperate plight. But the man before him was an ignorant _peon_.
+It was not the first time that he had set his own wit against
+another's brute strength. The ever-present memory of the girl
+became more vivid. It glowed before him. What was it she had said?
+"You see only your thoughts of me--and they are very bad!" Was he
+seeing now only his own bad thoughts? But she had said they were
+unreal. And this episode--_Hombre!_ he would not be afraid. His
+thought was vastly more powerful than that of a simple _peon_! He
+smiled again at his fear.
+
+"But, _amigo_," he resumed gently, "if you had wished to drown me, why
+did you bring me here? But--ah, well, I have long been prepared to go.
+I have been sadly misunderstood--disbelieved--persecuted! Ah, friend
+Rosendo, if you could know what I do--but--_Bien_, it is of no
+consequence now. Come, then, good fellow, despatch me quickly! I have
+made my peace with God." Diego ceased talking and began to murmur
+prayers.
+
+Rosendo stared at him in amazement. The wind was being taken from his
+sails. Diego noted the effect, and resumed his speech. His voice was
+low and soft, and at times great tears rolled down his cheeks.
+
+"Rosendo, friend, I wish to go. I weary of life. There is no stain
+upon my soul. And yet, I grieve that you must tarnish yours with my
+blood. But," his eyes brightening and his tone becoming more
+animated, "Rosendo, I will pray the blessed Virgin for you. When I am
+with her in paradise I will ask her to beg the gentle Saviour to
+forgive you. _Bien_, good friend, we shall all be together in heaven
+some day." He started his orisons again, and soon was praying like a
+locomotive: "_Ora pro nobis! Santa Maria, ora pro nobis!_"
+
+He stopped and sighed gently. Rosendo stood stupidly before him.
+
+"Rosendo--I must say this before I die--I came to Simiti to see you. I
+was approaching the boat to hold converse with you. But, you struck
+me--there, _que importa_! And yet--it was about the gentle Ana, your
+beautiful daughter--But, wait, Rosendo--God above! hear me through--"
+
+Rosendo had started again toward him.
+
+"Good friend, hear me first, then kill me quickly, for I much desire
+to go to my home above!" Diego spoke rapidly. The impression must be
+made upon Rosendo at once, or all was lost. The wily priest knew the
+_peon_ mind.
+
+"_Bien_, good friend, you have misunderstood me. But I forgive you.
+I--Rosendo--I--you will keep my secret, will you not? Bien, I have
+left the Church. I am no longer a priest. It was for good reasons that
+God took me from the priesthood for other work in His field. _Bien_,
+the bonds of celibacy removed, behold! my first thought is for my
+beautiful Ana. I came to ask you for her hand. I would render
+legitimate her unborn child. I would return to her the peace which she
+lost when we became so deeply enamored of each other. Rosendo, I have
+come to Simiti to lay my life before you--to yield it to the mother of
+my child--to offer it in future service as a recompense for the
+unhappiness which, the Virgin knows, I did not willingly bring upon
+her, or you!"
+
+Rosendo's head was now in a whirl. His eyes protruded, and his mouth
+was agape. "But--the little Carmen--" he muttered.
+
+"Alas! friend," said Diego sadly, shaking his head, while he quickly
+grasped the cue, "I have ceased my endeavors to make you believe that
+she is my child. _Caramba!_ I can only leave it to the blessed Virgin
+to restore her to me when we have both passed the portals of death."
+
+"You still claim to be her father? You--!"
+
+"_Caro amigo_," returned Diego gently, "in these last moments I see in
+her the beautiful image of her blessed mother, who was taken from me
+long before I met and loved your Ana. But I despair of enforcing my
+claim. I await now the reunion which death alone can effect. And so,
+friend, be quick! But do not make me suffer. Drown me not, I pray you,
+but rather open an artery and let me fall gently asleep here beneath
+this noble tree."
+
+A light came into Rosendo's troubled eyes. A cunning smile lurked
+about his mouth.
+
+"_Bien pues_, it shall be as you wish, vulture," he replied in a tone
+which again struck terror to Diego's heart. He drew his knife and
+approached the horrified priest.
+
+"_Caramba!_" shrieked Diego, shrinking back against the tree.
+"_Hombre!_ you do not intend--"
+
+"Why not, vampire?" returned Rosendo, the sardonic smile spreading
+across his grim features. "Did you not ask it?"
+
+"But--_Hombre_! Back!--_Caramba_! Back!--Rosendo--God above! But would
+you go down to hell with murder on your soul?"
+
+"_Cierto_, carrion! I kill the body. But you go down with a load of
+murdered souls!"
+
+"Rosendo--God!--it means hell for eternity to you!"
+
+"To be sure, dog-meat," calmly replied Rosendo. "But hell will be
+heaven to me as I sit forever and hourly remind you of the suffering
+Ana and the beautiful Carmen, whom you tried to ruin! Is it not so?"
+
+"Ah, God!" Diego saw that he had lost. Wild thoughts flashed through
+his mind with lightning speed. Desperation lent them wings. A last
+expedient came to him. He fixed his beady eyes upon Rosendo and
+muttered: "Coward! coward! you bind a sick man and stick him like a
+pig!"
+
+Rosendo hesitated. Diego quickly followed up his slight advantage.
+
+"We give a deer, a tapir, a jaguar, a chance for its life. We fear
+them not. But you--coward, you are afraid of a sick man! And a
+priest!"
+
+Rosendo could bear the taunt no longer. "_Caramba!_" he cried, "what
+would you?" He leaped to the sitting man and at a stroke severed his
+bonds. Diego got slowly to his feet.
+
+"_Bien_, spew of the vampire! you have now a chance!"
+
+Diego extended his empty hands, palms up. He smiled significantly.
+Rosendo caught the insinuation.
+
+"_Caramba!_ take the knife! _Hombre!_ but I will kill you with my bare
+hands!" He threw the long knife to Diego, who stooped and picked it
+up.
+
+Stepping quickly back, holding the weapon firmly clenched before him,
+the priest slowly circled Rosendo, as if looking for an opening. An
+evil smile played constantly over his heavy face, and his little eyes
+glittered like diamonds. Rosendo stood like a rock, his long arms
+hanging at his side.
+
+Then, with a shrill, taunting laugh, Diego turned suddenly and
+plunged into the newly-cut trail toward the lake. In an instant he was
+lost in the fog.
+
+For a moment Rosendo stood dumb with amazement. Then he sprang after
+the priest. But it was too late. Diego had reached the canoe, leaped
+quickly in, and pushed off. Rosendo saw the mist swallow him. He was
+left a prisoner, without a boat, and with two miles of shrouded water
+stretching between him and the town!
+
+A low moan burst from him. He had been tricked, outwitted; and the
+evil genius which for years had menaced his happiness was heading
+straight toward the town, where his accomplice, Ricardo, awaited. What
+would they do, now that he was out of the way? The thought seared his
+brain. Great beads of water, distilled from his agony, burst through
+his pores. The Juncal river lay off to the west, and at a much less
+distance than Simiti. He might swim to it and secure a canoe at the
+village. But--the lake was alive with crocodiles!
+
+Chagrin and apprehension overwhelmed him, and he burst into a flood of
+bitter tears. He threw himself upon the ground, and tossed and moaned
+in despair. The fog thickened. A twilight darkness settled over the
+waters. Nature--God himself--seemed to conspire with Diego.
+
+Rosendo suddenly rose to his feet. He drew the new medal scapulary
+around in front of him and kissed it, reverently crossing himself.
+"_Santa Virgen_," he prayed, "help me--it is for the child!" Then,
+taking between his teeth the knife which Diego had dropped, he rushed
+into the water and struck out for the distant village of Juncal.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Late that afternoon, while the tropical rain was descending in
+torrents, Rosendo staggered into the parish house, where Carmen and
+Jose were absorbed in their work. "Padre!" he gasped, "_Loado sea
+Dios!_" as his eyes fell upon the girl. Then he sank to the floor in
+utter exhaustion.
+
+"Rosendo! what is it?" cried Jose, bending over him in apprehension,
+while Carmen stood lost in wonder.
+
+"Padre Diego--!" cried Rosendo, raising himself up on his elbow. "Has
+he been here?"
+
+"Padre Diego!" cried both Jose and the girl in astonishment.
+Instinctively Jose's arm went about the child. Rosendo dragged himself
+to a chair and sank limply into it.
+
+"Then, Padre, he will come. He is in Simiti. He is no longer a
+priest!"
+
+Slowly the story came out, bit by bit. Jose listened in horror.
+Carmen's face was deeply serious.
+
+"_Bien_, Padre," said Rosendo, concluding his dramatic and
+disconnected recital, "I plowed through the water--_Caramba!_ I knew
+not at what moment I should feel the jaws of a cayman seize upon me!
+But the Virgin had heard my prayer. I must offer a candle this night.
+But I did not land at Juncal. It was some half league farther west.
+_Bien_, I was then glad, for had I appeared in the village, all would
+have said that I had murdered Diego! And so I struck out along the
+trail that skirts the lake, and followed it around until I came here.
+_Caramba_! but see how my feet are cut! And the rain--H_ombre_! it
+beat me down--I fell again and again! And then, the fear that I was
+too late--_Ah, Dios_! But she is safe--_Caramba_! the Virgin be
+praised!"
+
+"But, Rosendo," said Jose anxiously, "where can Diego--"
+
+"He is here, _Caramba_! in Simiti! _Hombre_! but I shall set out at
+once and search every house! And he shall do well if he escape this
+time!"
+
+But dusk was falling; and the old man, his strength sapped, listened
+not unwillingly to Jose's better counsel. With the coming of night the
+rain ceased, and the clouds rolled up and slipped down behind the
+mountains, leaving the moon riding in splendor across the infinite
+blue. Then Jose, leaving Carmen with Rosendo, walked to and fro
+through the streets of the old town, listening and watching. He
+wandered down to the lake. He climbed the hill where stood the second
+church. He thought he caught the gleam of a light within the old
+edifice. He crept nearer. There were men inside. Their voices sounded
+ghostly to his straining ears.
+
+"But, friend Ricardo, he set out before dawn, and is not yet returned.
+I fear he has either abandoned us, or has walked into our good
+Rosendo's jaws."
+
+"Hold your tongue, bleating calf!" cried the other petulantly. "It is
+more likely that he and Don Mario lie pickled in rum under the palms
+of the Alcalde's _patio_!"
+
+Jose waited to hear no more. He hurried down through the main street
+and past the house of Don Mario. The door stood open, and he could see
+the portly figure of the official outlined against the back wall. It
+was evident that Diego was not there. He returned in perplexity to his
+house and sat far into the night, musing on the strange incident.
+
+With the coming of the new day Rosendo appeared with fresh suggestions.
+"_Bien_, Padre," he said, "there is nothing to do now but take the girl
+and flee to the Boque river and to the _hacienda_ of Don Nicolas."
+
+Jose related his experience of the previous night. Rosendo whistled
+softly. "_Caramba!_" he muttered, "but this is a mystery! And--but
+here comes Juan."
+
+The lad entered excitedly. "Your canoe, Don Rosendo--as I started out
+on the lake to fish I saw it, far in the distance. I brought it in.
+There was neither pole nor paddle in it. And it was half full of
+water. It must have drifted all night. Did it break away from its
+mooring, think you?"
+
+Rosendo looked at Jose. The latter replied quickly: "That is the most
+reasonable supposition, Juan. But Rosendo is very grateful to you for
+securing it again."
+
+When the lad had gone, Rosendo sat with bowed head, deeply perplexed.
+
+"The pole and paddle, Padre, were left on the island. I took them out
+when we landed. Diego pushed off without them. He--the boat--it must
+have drifted long. But--did he land? Or--"
+
+He stopped and scratched his head. "Padre," he said, looking up
+suddenly with an expression of awe upon his face, "do you suppose--do
+you think that the Virgin--that she--made him fall from the canoe into
+the lake--and that a _cayman_ ate him? _Ca-ram-ba!_"
+
+Jose did not vouchsafe a reply. But his heart leaped with a great
+hope. Rosendo, wrapped in profound meditation, wandered back to his
+house, his head bent, and his hands clasped tightly behind his back.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 29
+
+
+The rainy season dragged its reeking length through the Simiti valley
+with fearful deliberation. Jose thought that he should never again see
+the sun. The lake steamed like a cauldron. Great clouds of heavy vapor
+rolled incessantly upward from the dripping jungle. The rain fell in
+cloud-bursts, and the narrow streets of the old town ran like streams
+in a freshet.
+
+Then, one day, Rosendo abruptly announced, "Padre, the rains are
+breaking. The dry season is at hand. And the little Carmen is fourteen
+years old to-day."
+
+It gave the priest a shock. He had been six years in Simiti! And
+Carmen was no longer a child. Youth ripens quickly into maturity in
+these tropic lands. The past year had sped like a meteor across an
+evening sky, leaving a train of mingled light and darkness. Of Diego's
+fate Jose had learned nothing. Ricardo and his companion had
+disappeared without causing even a ripple of comment in Simiti. Don
+Mario remained quiet for many weeks. But he often eyed Jose and
+Rosendo malignantly through the wooden grill at his window, and once
+he ordered Fernando to stop Rosendo and ply him with many and pointed
+questions. The old man was noncommittal, but he left a dark suspicion,
+which was transmitted to the receptive mind of the Alcalde.
+Acting-Bishop Wenceslas likewise was growing apprehensive as the weeks
+went by, and both Jose and Don Mario were the recipients of letters of
+inquiry from him regarding the whereabouts of the priest Diego. In the
+course of time came other letters from Cartagena, and at length an
+order for a most scrutinizing search to be made for the Bishop's
+confidential agent.
+
+It was of no avail. Rosendo's oft-repeated testimony revealed nothing.
+The citizens of Simiti had not seen the man. The Alcalde had nothing
+but his suspicions to offer. And these might have fallen harmlessly
+upon the acting-Bishop's well occupied thought, had it not been for
+the complicating influence of certain other events. The first of these
+was the exhaustion of the gold which Jose and Carmen had discovered in
+the old church. The other was the outbreak of the religio-political
+revolution which Diego had predicted some six years before, and which,
+in these latter days, Don Jorge, on his infrequent journeys through
+Simiti had repeatedly announced as inevitable and imminent. Their
+combined effect was such as to wrest Carmen away from Jose, and to set
+in a new direction the currents of their lives.
+
+For some time past Jose had patched with growing anxiety the
+shrinking of his gold supply, and had striven to lessen the monthly
+contributions to Cartagena, meanwhile trying to know that the need
+now looming daily larger before him would be met. He had not voiced
+his apprehension to Carmen. But he and Rosendo had discussed the
+situation long and earnestly, and had at length resolved that the
+latter should again return to Guamoco to wash the Tigui sands.
+
+The old man sighed, but he uttered no protest. Yet each day Jose
+thought he grew quieter. And each day, too, he seemed to become more
+tender of his sad-faced daughter, Ana, and of the little grandson who
+had come into his humble home only a few weeks before. He delayed his
+preparations for specious reasons which Jose knew cost him much effort
+to invent. He clung to Carmen. He told his rosary often before the
+church altar, and with tears in his eyes. And at night he would come
+to Jose and beg him to read from the Bible and explain what he thought
+the Saviour had really meant to convey to the humble fishermen of
+Galilee.
+
+Jose's heart was wrung. But at last the day arrived when he had
+nothing to send to Cartagena beyond the mere pittance which the poor
+members of his little parish contributed. But this he sent as usual.
+The next month he did the same. Then came a letter from Wenceslas,
+requesting an explanation. And then it was that Jose realized that in
+his excess of zeal he had fallen into his own trap. For, having
+established the custom of remitting a certain amount to the Bishop
+each month, he must not resent now the implication of dishonesty when
+the remittances fell off, or ceased altogether. He took the letter to
+Rosendo. "_Bien_, Padre," said the latter slowly, "the time has come.
+I set out for Guamoco at dawn."
+
+In the days that followed, Jose could frame no satisfactory reply to
+Wenceslas, and so the latter wrote to the Alcalde. Don Mario eagerly
+seized the proffered opportunity to ingratiate himself into
+ecclesiastical favor. Rosendo was again in the hills, he wrote, and
+with supplies not purchased from him. Nor had he been given even a
+hint of Rosendo's mission, whether it be to search again for La
+Libertad, or not. There could be no doubt, he explained in great
+detail, of Jose's connivance with Rosendo, and of his unauthorized
+conduct in the matter of educating the girl, Carmen, who, he made no
+doubt, was the daughter of Padre Diego--now, alas! probably cold in
+death at the violent hands of the girl's foster-father, and with the
+priest Jose's full approbation. The letter cost the portly Don Mario
+many a day of arduous labor; but it brought its reward in another
+inquiry from Cartagena, and this time a request for specific details
+regarding Carmen.
+
+Don Mario bestrode the clouds. He dropped his customary well-oiled
+manner, and carried his head with the air of a conqueror. His thick
+lips became regnant, imperious. He treated his compatriots with
+supercilious disdain. And to Jose he would scarce vouchsafe even a
+cold nod as they passed in the street. Again he penned a long missive
+to Cartagena, in which he dilated at wearisome length upon the
+extraordinary beauty of the girl, as well as her unusual mental
+qualities. He urged immediate action, and suggested that Carmen be
+sent to the convent in Mompox.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Wenceslas mused long over the Alcalde's letters. Many times he smiled
+as he read. Then he sent for a young clerical agent of the See, who
+was starting on a mission to Bogota, and requested that he stop off a
+day at Badillo and go to Simiti to report on conditions in that
+parish. Incidentally, also, to gather what data he might as to the
+family of one Rosendo Ariza.
+
+In due course of time the agent made his report. The parish of Simiti
+stood in need of a new _Cura_, he said. And the girl--he found no
+words to describe or explain her. She must be seen. The Church had
+need of prompt action, however, to secure her. To that end, he advised
+her immediate removal to Cartagena.
+
+Again Wenceslas deliberated. Aside from the girl, to whom he found his
+thought reverting oftener than he could wish in that particular hour
+of stress, his interest in Simiti did not extend beyond its
+possibilities as a further contributor to the funds he was so greatly
+needing for the furtherance of his complex political plans. As to the
+Alcalde--here was a possibility of another sort. That fellow might
+become useful. He should be cultivated. And at the same time warned
+against precipitate action, lest he scatter Rosendo's family into
+flight, and the graceful bird now dwelling in the rude nest escape the
+sharp talons awaiting her.
+
+He called for his secretary. "Send a message to Francisco, our Legate,
+who is now in Bogota. Bid him on his return journey stop again at
+Simiti. We require a full report on the character of the Alcalde of
+that town."
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meantime, Jose did not permit his mental torture to interfere
+with Carmen's education. For six years now that had progressed
+steadily. And the results? Wonderful, he thought--and yet not
+wholly attributable to his peculiar mode of tutelage. For, after
+all, his work had been little more than the holding of her mind
+unwarped, that her instinctive sense of logic might reach those
+truthful conclusions which it was bound to attain if guided safely
+past the tortuous shifts of human speculation and undemonstrable
+theory. To his great joy, these six years had confirmed a belief
+which he had held ever since the troublous days of his youth,
+namely, that, as a recent writer has said, "adolescent understanding
+is along straight lines, and leaps where the adult can only
+laboriously creep." There had been no awful hold of early teaching
+to loosen and throw off; there were no old landmarks in her mind
+to remove; no tenacious, clinging effect of early associations to
+neutralize. And, perhaps most important of all, the child had seemed
+to enter the world utterly devoid of fear, and with a congenital
+faith, amounting to absolute knowledge, in the immanence of an
+omnipotent God of love. This, added to her eagerness and mental
+receptivity, had made his task one of constant rejoicing in the
+realization of his most extravagant dreams for her.
+
+As a linguist, Carmen had become accomplished. She spoke English
+fluently. And it was only a matter of practice to give her a similar
+grasp of French, Italian, and German. As for other instruction,
+such knowledge of the outside world as he had deemed wise to give her
+in these six years had been seized upon with avidity and as
+quickly assimilated. But he often speculated curiously--sometimes
+dubiously--upon the great surprises in store for her should she ever
+leave her native village. And yet, as often as such thought recurred
+to him he would try to choke it back, to bar his mind against it, lest
+the pull at his heartstrings snap them asunder.
+
+Often as he watched her expanding so rapidly into womanhood and
+exhibiting such graces of manner, such amiability of disposition,
+such selfless regard for others, combined with a physical beauty
+such as he thought he had never before gazed upon, a great yearning
+would clutch his soul, and a lump would rise in his throat. And
+when, as was so often the case, her arms flew impulsively about his
+neck and she whispered words of tender endearment in his ear, a
+fierce determination would seize him, and he would clutch her to
+himself with such vehemence as to make her gasp for breath. That she
+might marry he knew to be a possibility. But the idea pierced his
+soul as with a sword, and he thought that to see her in the arms of
+another, even the man of her choice, must excite him to murder. One
+day, shortly after her fourteenth birthday, she came to him and,
+perching herself as was her wont upon his knees, and twining her arms
+about his neck, said, with traces of embarrassment, "Padre dear,
+Juan--he asked me to-day to marry him."
+
+Jose caught his breath. His ears rang. She--marry a peon of Simiti! To
+be sure, Juan had often reminded him of the request he had made for
+her hand long ago. But Jose had not considered the likelihood of the
+lad's taking his question directly to her. And the girl--
+
+"And what did you reply?" he asked thickly.
+
+"Padre dear--I told him that--" She stopped abruptly.
+
+"Well, _chiquita_; you told him--what?" His voice trembled.
+
+She flushed, still hesitating. He held her back from him and looked
+squarely into her wide eyes.
+
+"You told him, _chiquita_--"
+
+"That--well, Padre dear, I told him that--that I might never marry."
+
+Jose sighed. "And do you think, little girl, that you will always hold
+to that resolution?"
+
+"Yes, Padre, unless--"
+
+"Well, _chiquita_, unless--"
+
+"Unless you marry, too, Padre," she said, dropping her eyes.
+
+"Unless I marry! I--a priest! But--what has that to do with it,
+girl?"
+
+"Well--oh, Padre dear--can't you see? For then I would marry--" She
+buried her face in his shoulder.
+
+"Yes, _chiquita_," he said, dully wondering.
+
+Her arms tightened about his neck. "You," she murmured.
+
+It was the first expression of the kind that had ever come from her
+lips. Jose's heart thumped violently. The Goddess of Fortune had
+suddenly thrown her most precious jewel into his lap. Joy welled up in
+flood tides from unknown depths within. His eyes swam. Then--he
+remembered. And thick night fell upon his soul.
+
+Minutes passed, and the two sat very quiet. Then Carmen raised her
+head. "Padre," she whispered, "you don't say anything. I know you love
+me. And you will not always be a priest--not always," shaking her
+beautiful curls with suggestive emphasis.
+
+Why did she say that? He wondered vaguely. The people called her an
+_hada_. He sometimes thought they had reason to. And then he knew that
+she never moved except in response to a beckoning hand that still,
+after all these years, remained invisible to him.
+
+"_Chiquita_," he said in low response, "I fear--I fear that can never
+be. And even if--ah, _chiquita_, I am so much older than you, little
+girl--almost seventeen years!"
+
+"You do not want to marry me, even if you could, Padre?" she queried,
+looking wistfully into his eyes, while her own grew moist.
+
+He clutched her to him again. "Carmen!" he cried wildly, "you little
+know--you little know! But--child, we must not talk of these things!
+Wait--wait!"
+
+"But, Padre dear," she pleaded, "just say that you _do_ love me that
+way--just say it--your little girl wants to hear it."
+
+God above! She, pleading that he would say he loved her! His head sank
+upon his breast. He silently prayed that his tortured soul might burst
+and let his wasted life ebb into oblivion while his pent-up misery
+poured out.
+
+"Carmen!" he cried with the despair of the lost. "I love you--love
+you--love you! Nay, child, I adore you! God! That I might hold you
+thus forever!"
+
+She reached up quickly and kissed him. "Some day, Padre dear," she
+murmured softly, "you will stop thinking that two and two are seven.
+Then everything good will come to you."
+
+She sank back in his arms and nestled close to him, as if she longed
+to enter his empty heart and fill the great void with her measureless
+love.
+
+"And, Padre dear," she whispered, "your little girl will wait for
+you--yes, she will wait."
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was some days later that Rosendo, after returning almost empty
+handed from the hills, came to Jose and said, "Padre, I have sold my
+_hacienda_ to Don Luis. I need the money to purchase supplies and to
+get the papers through for some denouncements which I have made in
+Guamoco. I knew that Don Mario would put through no papers for me, and
+so I have asked Lazaro to make the transaction and to deliver the
+titles to me when the final papers arrive. I have a blank here to be
+filled out with the name and description of a mineral property.
+I--what would be a good name for a mine, Padre?"
+
+"Why do you ask that, Rosendo?" queried Jose in surprise.
+
+"Because, Padre, I want a foreign name--one not known, here. Give me
+an American one. Think hard."
+
+Jose reflected. "There is a city, a great city, that I have often
+heard about, up in the States," he said finally.
+
+He took up the little atlas which he had received long since with
+other books from abroad. "Look," he said, "it is called Chicago. Call
+your property the Chicago mine, Rosendo. It is a name unknown down
+here, and there can no confusion arise because of it."
+
+"_Caramba!_" Rosendo muttered, trying to twist his tongue around the
+word, "it is certain that no one else will use that name in Guamoco!
+But that makes my title still more secure, no?"
+
+"But, Rosendo," said Jose, when the full significance of the old man's
+announcement had finally penetrated, "you have sold your _finca_! And
+to acquire title to property that you can never sell or work! Why,
+man! do you realize what you have done? You are impoverished! What
+will you do now? And what about Carmen? for we have nothing. And the
+sword that hangs above us may fall any day!"
+
+"_Bien_, Padre, it is for her sake that I have done it. Say no more.
+It will work out in some way. I go back to-morrow. But, if the titles
+should come from Cartagena during my absence--and, Padre, if anything
+should happen to me--for the love of the Virgin do not let them out of
+your hands! They are for her."
+
+Yet Rosendo departed not on the morrow. He remained to mingle his
+tears with those of the sorrowing Ana. For the woman, whose heart had
+been lighter since the arrival of her babe, had come to the priest
+that day to have the child christened. And so, before the sun might
+fill the _plaza_ with its ardent midday heat, Rosendo and his family
+repaired to the church. There before the altar Jose baptised the
+little one and gave it his own name, thus triumphantly ushering the
+pagan babe into the Christian Catholic world. The child cried at the
+touch of the baptismal water.
+
+"Now," commented Rosendo, "the devil has gone out of him, driven out
+by the holy water."
+
+But, as Jose leaned over the babe and looked into its dark eyes, his
+hand stopped, and his heart stood still. He raised his head and bent a
+look of inquiry upon the mother. She returned the look with one that
+mutely voiced a stifled fear and confirmed his own. "Padre!" she
+whispered hoarsely. "What is it? Quick!"
+
+He took a candle from the altar and passed it before the child's
+eyes.
+
+"Padre! He sees! _Santa Virgen!_ Do not tell me--_Dios mio_!" The
+mother's voice rose to a wail, as she snatched her babe away.
+
+A loud exclamation escaped Rosendo. Dona Maria stood mute; but Jose as
+he looked at her divined her thought and read therein a full knowledge
+of the awful fact that she had never voiced to the heart-broken
+mother.
+
+"Padre!" cried the perplexed Rosendo. "Maria!" turning in appeal to
+his wife. "Speak, some one! _Santa Virgen_, speak! Ana, what ails the
+child?"
+
+Jose turned his head aside. Carmen crowded close to the weeping Ana.
+Dona Maria took Rosendo's arm.
+
+"The babe, Rosendo," she said quietly, "was born--blind."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 30
+
+
+The "revolutionist" of Latin America is generally only the disgruntled
+politician. His revolution is seldom more than a violent squabble
+among greedy spoilsmen for control of the loose-jointed administration.
+But the great Mosquera Revolution which burst into flame in New
+Granada in 1861 was fed with fuel of a different nature. It
+demonstrated, if demonstration were necessary, that the Treaty of
+Westphalia did not write _finis_ to the history of bloodshed in the
+name of Christ; that it had but banked the fires of religious
+animosity, until the furnace should be transferred from the Old World to
+the New, where the breath of liberty would again fan them into
+vigorous activity.
+
+The Mosquera War tore asunder Church and State; but left unhappy
+Colombia prone and bleeding. It externalized a mighty protest of
+enlightenment against Rome's dictates in temporal affairs. And, as has
+before happened when that irresistible potentiality, the people, has
+been stirred into action, the Church was disestablished, its property
+confiscated, and its meddling, parasitical clergy disenfranchised.
+
+But then, too, as almost invariably occurs when the masses find that
+they have parted with cherished prejudices and effete customs, and
+have adopted ideas so radical as to lift them a degree higher in the
+scale of progress, they wavered. The Church was being humiliated.
+Their religion was under contempt. The holy sacrament of marriage was
+debased to a civil ceremony. Education was endangered by taking it out
+of the hands of the pious clergy. Texts unauthorized by Holy Church
+were being adopted. Where would this radical modernism end? The alarm
+spread, fanned by the watchful agents of Rome. Revolt after revolt
+occurred. And twenty years of incessant internecine warfare followed.
+
+Fear and prejudice triumphed. A new Constitution was framed. And when
+it was seen that Roman Catholicism was therein again declared to be
+the national religion of the Republic of Colombia; when it was noted
+that the clergy, obedient to a foreign master, were to be readmitted
+to participation in government affairs; when it was understood that a
+national press-censorship was to be established, dominated by Holy
+Church; and when, in view of this, the great religio-political
+opponent was seen laying down her weapons and extending her arms in
+dubious benediction over the exhausted people, the masses yielded--and
+there was great rejoicing on the banks of the Tiber over the
+prodigal's return.
+
+When Wenceslas Ortiz was placed in temporary control of the See of
+Cartagena he shrewdly urged the Church party to make at least a
+pretense of disbanding as a political organization. The provinces
+of Cundinamarca and Panama were again in a state of ferment.
+Congress, sitting in Bogota, had before it for consideration a
+measure vesting in the President the power to interfere in certain
+states or provinces whenever, in his opinion, the conservation of
+public order necessitated such action. That this measure would be
+passed, Wenceslas could not be sure. But that, once adopted, it would
+precipitate the unhappy country again into a sanguinary war, he
+thought he knew to a certainty. He had faced this same question six
+years before, when a similar measure was before Congress. But then,
+with a strong Church party, and believing the passage of the law to be
+certain, he had yielded to the counsel of hot-headed leaders in
+Cartagena, and approved the inauguration of hostilities.
+
+The result had been a _fiasco_. Congress dropped the measure like a
+hot plate. The demands of the "revolutionists" were quickly met by the
+federal government. The _causae belli_ evaporated. And Wenceslas
+retired in chagrin to the solitude of his study, to bite his nails and
+wonder dubiously if his party were strong enough to insure his
+appointment to the See of Cartagena in the event of the then aged
+occupant's demise.
+
+It was this hasty judgment of Wenceslas and his political associates
+which had delayed further consideration of the objectionable measure
+for six years. But the interim had seen his party enormously
+strengthened, himself in control of the See, and his preparations
+completed for turning the revolt, whenever it should come, to his own
+great advantage. He had succeeded in holding the Church party aloof
+from actual participation in politics during the present crisis. And
+he was now keeping it in constant readiness to throw its tremendous
+influence to whichever side should offer the greatest inducements.
+
+Time passed. The measure dragged. Congress dallied; and then prepared
+to adjourn. Wenceslas received a code message from his agent in Bogota
+that the measure would be laid on the table. At the same time came a
+sharp <DW8> from New York. The funds had been provided to finance the
+impending revolution. The concessions to be granted were satisfactory.
+Why the delay? Had the Church party exaggerated its influence upon
+Congress?
+
+Wenceslas stormed aloud. "_Santa Virgen!_" he muttered, as he paced
+angrily back and forth in his study. "A curse upon Congress! A
+curse--"
+
+He stopped still. In the midst of his imprecations an idea occurred to
+him. He went to his _escritorio_ and drew out the Legate's recent
+report. "Ah," he mused, "that pig-headed Alcalde. And the good little
+Jose. They may serve. _Bien_, we shall see."
+
+Then he summoned his secretary and dictated telegrams to Bogota and
+New York, and a long letter to the Alcalde of Simiti. These finished,
+he called a young acolyte in waiting.
+
+"Take a message to the Governor," he commanded. "Say to His Excellency
+that I shall, call upon him at three this afternoon, to discuss
+matters of gravest import." Dismissing his secretary, he leaned back
+in his chair and dropped into a profound revery.
+
+Shortly before the hour which he had set for conference with the
+Departmental Governor, Wenceslas rose and went to his _escritorio_,
+from which he took a paper-bound book.
+
+"H'm," he commented aloud. "'Confessions of a Roman Catholic Priest.'
+_Bien_, I was correct in my surmise that I should some day have use
+for this little volume. Poor, misguided Rincon! But--_Bien_, I think
+it will do--I think it will do."
+
+A smile played over his handsome, imperious face. Then he snapped the
+book shut and took up his hat. At the door he hesitated a moment, with
+his hand on the knob.
+
+"If the Alcalde were not such a fool, it would be impossible," he
+mused. "But--the combination--the isolation of Simiti--the imbecility
+of Don Mario--the predicament of our little Jose--_Hombre_! it is a
+rare situation, and it will work. It _must_ work--_cielo_! With the
+pig-headed Alcalde seizing government arms to suppress the Church
+party as represented by the foolish Jose, and with the President
+sending federal troops to quell the disturbance, the anticlericals
+will rise in a body throughout the country. Then Congress will hastily
+pass the measure to support the President, the Church party will swing
+into line with the Government--and the revolution will be on. Simiti
+provides the setting and the fuel; I, the torch. I will cable again to
+Ames when I leave the Governor." He swung the door open and went
+briskly out.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Padre, I am crushed."
+
+It was Rosendo who spoke. He and Jose were sitting out in the
+gathering dusk before the parish house on the evening of the day that
+Ana's babe had been christened. The old man's head was sunk upon his
+breast, and he rocked back and forth groaning aloud.
+
+"We must be brave, Rosendo," returned Jose tenderly. "We have gone
+through much, you and I, since I came to Simiti. But--we have believed
+it to be in a good cause. Shall we surrender now?"
+
+"But, Padre, after it all, to have her babe come into the world blind!
+God above! The poor child--the poor child! Padre, it is the last thing
+that I can endure. My ambition is gone. I cannot return now to
+Guamoco. Let come what may, I am done."
+
+"Rosendo," said Jose, drawing his chair closer to the old man, and
+laying a hand on his, "we have fought long and hard. But, if I mistake
+not, the greatest struggle is yet to come. The greatest demand upon
+your strength and mine is still to be made."
+
+Rosendo raised his head. "What mean you, Padre?"
+
+Jose spoke low and earnestly. "This: Juan returned from Bodega Central
+this evening. He reports that several large boxes are there, consigned
+to Don Mario, and bearing the government stamp. He found one of them
+slightly broken, and he peered within. What think you it contained?
+Rifles!"
+
+Rosendo stared at the priest dumbly. Jose went on:
+
+"I did not intend to tell you this until morning. But it is right that
+you should hear it now, that your courage may rise in the face of
+danger. What think you? The federal government is sending arms to
+Simiti to establish a base here at the outlet of the Guamoco region,
+and well hidden from the Magdalena river. This town is to become a
+military depot, unless I mistake the signs. And danger no longer
+threatens, but is at our door."
+
+"_Ca-ram-ba_!" Rosendo rose slowly and drew himself up to his full
+height. "War!" he exclaimed in a hoarse whisper.
+
+"There is no question about it, Rosendo," replied Jose gravely. "And I
+have no reason to doubt the truth of Diego's prophecy, that this time
+it will be one to be reckoned with."
+
+"_Hombre_! And Carmen?"
+
+"Take her into the hills, Rosendo. Start to-morrow."
+
+"But you?"
+
+Jose's thought was dwelling on his last talk with the girl. Again he
+felt her soft arms about his neck, and her warm breath against his
+cheek. He felt her kiss, and heard again her words, the sweetest, he
+thought, that had ever echoed in mortal ears. And then he thought of
+his mother, of his office, of the thousand obstacles that loomed huge
+and insurmountable between him and Carmen. He passed a hand across his
+brow and sighed heavily.
+
+"I remain here, Rosendo. I am weary, unutterably weary. I welcome, not
+only the opportunity for service which this war may bring, but
+likewise the hope of--death. If I could but know that she were
+safe--"
+
+"_Caramba_! Think you she would leave you here, Padre? No!" Did
+Rosendo's words convey aught to the priest that he did not already
+know?
+
+"But--Rosendo, I shall not go," he returned bitterly.
+
+"Then neither do we, Padre," replied Rosendo, sitting again. "The
+child, Carmen--she--Padre, she loves you with a love that is not of
+the earth."
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Morning found the old man's conviction still unshaken. Jose sought the
+quiet of his cottage to reflect. But his meditations were interrupted
+by Carmen.
+
+"Padre," she began, sparkling like a mountain rill in the sunlight as
+she seated herself before him. "Pepito--Anita's babe--he is not blind,
+you know." Her head bobbed vigorously, as was her wont when she sought
+to give emphasis to her dramatic statements.
+
+Jose smiled, and resigned himself to the inevitable. He had been
+expecting this.
+
+"And, Padre, have you been thankful that he isn't?"
+
+"Isn't what, child?"
+
+"Blind. You know, Padre Diego thought he couldn't see the reality. He
+looked always at his bad thoughts. And so the not seeing, and the
+seeing of only bad things, were both--externalized, and the babe came
+to us without sight. That is, without what the human mind calls sight.
+And now," she went on excitedly, "you and I have just _got_ to know
+that it isn't so! The babe sees. God's children all see. And I have
+thanked Him all morning that this is so, and that you and I see it.
+Don't we, Padre dear? Yes, we do."
+
+"Well--I suppose so," replied Jose abstractedly, his thought still
+occupied with the danger that hung over the little town.
+
+"Suppose so! You _know_ so, Padre! There isn't any 'suppose' about it!
+Now look: what makes sight? The eye? No. The eye is made _by_ the
+sight. The human mind just gets it twisted about. It thinks that sight
+depends upon the optic nerve, and upon the fleshly eye. But it isn't
+so. It is the sight that externalizes the 'meaty' eye. You see, the
+sight is within, not without. It is mental. God is all-seeing; and so,
+sight is eternal. Don't you see? Of course you do!"
+
+Jose did not reply. Yes, he did see. But what he saw was the
+beautiful, animated girl before him. And the thought that he must some
+day be separated from her was eating his heart like a canker.
+
+"Well, then," went on the girl, without waiting for his reply, "if a
+mortal's mental concept of sight is poor, why, he will manifest poor
+eyes. If the thought-concept were right, the manifestation would be
+right. Wouldn't it?"
+
+Jose suddenly returned to the subject under discussion. "By that I
+suppose you mean, _chiquita_, that the babe's thought, or concept, of
+sight was all wrong, and so he came into the world blind."
+
+"Not at all, Padre," she quickly replied. "The babe had nothing to do
+with it, except to seem to manifest the wrong thoughts of its father,
+or mother, or both. Or perhaps it manifests just simply bad thoughts,
+without the bad thoughts belonging to anybody. For, you know, we none
+of us really _have_ such thoughts. And such thoughts don't really
+exist. They are just a part of the one big lie about God."
+
+"Then the babe sees?"
+
+"Surely; the real babe is a child of God, and sees."
+
+"But the human babe doesn't see," he retorted.
+
+"But," she replied, "what you call the human babe is only your mental
+concept of the babe. And you see that mental concept as a blind one.
+Now _un-see_ it. Look at it in the right way. See only God's child,
+with perfect sight. And, Padre, after a while _you will see that babe
+seeing things, just as we do_!
+
+"Don't you understand?" she exclaimed, as he sat looking fixedly at
+her. "Don't you see that if you have the right thought about the babe,
+and hold to it, and put out every thought that says it is blind, why,
+your right thought will be externalized in a mental concept of a babe
+that sees? Don't you know that that is exactly what Jesus did? He
+didn't affect the real man at all. But he did change the mental
+concepts which we call human beings. And we can do the same, if we
+only know it, and follow him, and spiritualize our thought, as he did,
+by putting out and keeping out every thought that we know does not
+come from God, and that is, therefore, only a part of the lie about
+Him. Here is a case where we have got to quit thinking that two and
+two are seven. And I have done it. It is God's business to make our
+concepts right. And He has done so--long since. And we will see these,
+right concepts if we will put out the wrong ones!"
+
+"Well?" he queried lamely, wholly at a loss for any other answer.
+
+"Well, Padre, I am not a bit afraid. I don't see a blind babe at all,
+because there just can't be any. And neither do you. The babe sees
+because God sees."
+
+"In other words, you don't intend to allow yourself to be deceived by
+appearances?" he suggested.
+
+"That is just it, Padre!" she exclaimed. "Blindness is only an
+appearance. But it doesn't appear to God, It appears only to the human
+mind--which isn't any mind at all! And the appearance can be made to
+disappear, if we know the truth and stick to it. For any appearance of
+a human body is a mental concept, that's all."
+
+"A thing of thought, then?" he said.
+
+"Yes, a thing of _wrong_ thought. But all wrong thought is subject
+to God's right thought. We've proved that, haven't we, lots of
+times? Well, this wrong thought about a babe that is blind can be
+changed--made to disappear--just as any lie can be made to disappear
+when we know the truth. And so you and I are not going to be afraid,
+are we? I told Anita this morning not to worry, but to just _know_
+all the time that her babe did see, no matter what the appearance
+was. And she smiled at me, Padre, she smiled. And I know that she
+trusts, and is going to work with you and me."
+
+Work with her! Heavens! had he done aught of late but work against her
+by his constant harboring of fears, of doubts, and his distrust of
+spiritual power?
+
+"Padre," she resumed, "I want you to promise me that every day you
+will thank God that the babe really sees. And that you will turn right
+on every thought of blindness and know that it is a part of the lie
+about God, and put it right out of your mind. Will you?"
+
+"But--child--if my mind tells me that the babe is blind, how can I--"
+
+"I don't care what your mind tells you about the babe! You are to
+listen to what God tells you, not your human mind! Does God tell you
+that the babe is blind? Does He?" she repeated, as the man hesitated.
+
+"Why, no, _chiquita_, He--"
+
+"Listen, Padre," she interrupted again, drawing closer to him. "Is God
+good, or bad, or both?"
+
+"He is good, _chiquita_, all good."
+
+"Infinite good, then, no?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And we have long since proved by actual reasoning and demonstration
+that He is mind, and so infinite mind, no?"
+
+"It must be conceded, Carmen."
+
+"Well, an infinite mind has all power. And an infinite, all-powerful
+mind that is all good could not possibly create anything bad, or sick,
+or discordant--now could He?"
+
+"Utterly impossible, little girl."
+
+"The Bible says so. Our reasoning tells us so. But--the five physical
+senses tell us differently. Don't they?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And yet, we know that the five physical senses _do not tell us
+truth_! We know that when the human mind thinks it is receiving
+reports about things through the five physical senses it is doing
+nothing more than looking at its own thoughts. Now isn't that so?"
+
+"It certainly seems so, little one."
+
+"The thoughts of an infinite and good mind must be like that mind, all
+good, no? Well, then, thoughts of discord, disease, blindness, and
+death--do they come from the infinite, good mind? No!"
+
+"Well, _chiquita mia_, that is just the sticking point. I can see all
+the rest. But the mighty question is, where _do_ those thoughts come
+from? I am quite as ready as you to admit that discord, sin, evil,
+death, and all the whole list of human ills and woes come from these
+bad thoughts held in the human mind and so externalized. I believe
+that the human man really sees, feels, hears, smells, and tastes these
+thoughts--that the functioning of the physical senses is wholly
+mental--takes place in mind, in thought only. That is, that the human
+mind thinks it sees, feels, hears; but that the whole process is
+mental, and that it is but regarding its thoughts, instead of actually
+regarding and cognizing objects outside of itself. Do you follow me?"
+
+"Of course," she replied with animation. "Isn't that just what I am
+trying to tell you?"
+
+"But--and here is the great obstacle--we differentiate between good
+and bad thoughts. We agree that a fountain can not send forth sweet
+and bitter waters at the same time. And so, good and bad thoughts do
+not come from the infinite mind that we call God. But where do the
+others originate? Answer that, _chiquita_, and my problems will all be
+solved."
+
+She looked at him in perplexity for some time. It seemed to her
+that she never would understand him. But, with a little sigh of
+resignation, she replied:
+
+"Padre, you answered that question yourself, long ago. You worked it
+all out three or four years ago. But--you haven't stuck to it. You let
+the false testimony of the physical senses mesmerize you again.
+Instead of sticking to the thoughts that you knew to be good, and
+holding to them, in spite of the pelting you got from the others, you
+have looked first at the good, and then at the bad, and then believed
+them all to be real, and all to be powerful. And so you got miserably
+mixed up. And the result is that you don't know where you stand. Do
+you? Or, you think you don't; for that thought, too, is a bad one, and
+has no power at all, excepting the power that you seem willing--and
+glad--to give it."
+
+He winced under the poignant rebuke. He knew in his heart that she was
+right. He had not clung to the good, despite the roars of Satan. He
+had not "resisted unto blood." Far from it; he had fallen, almost
+invariably, at the first shower of the adversary's darts. And now, was
+he not trying, desperately, to show her that Ana's babe was blind,
+hopelessly so? Was he not fighting on evil's side, and vigorously,
+though with shame suffusing his face, waving aloft the banner of
+error?
+
+"The trouble with you, Padre," the girl resumed, after some moments of
+reflection, "is that you--you see everything--well, you see everything
+as a person, or a thing."
+
+"You mean that I always associate thought with personality?" he
+suggested.
+
+"That's it! But you have got to learn to deal with thoughts and ideas
+by themselves, apart from any person or thing. You have got to learn
+to deal with facts and their opposites entirely apart from places, or
+things, or people. Now if I say that Life is eternal, I have stated a
+mental thing. That is the fact. Its opposite, that is, the opposite of
+Life, is death. One opposes the other. But God is Life. Is God also
+death? He can't be. Life is the fact. Then death must be the illusion.
+That being so, Life is the reality, and death is the unreality. Very
+well, what makes death seem real? It is just because the false thought
+of death comes into the human mind, and is held there as a reality, as
+something that has _got_ to happen. And that strong belief becomes
+externalized in what mortals call death. Don't you see? Is there a
+person in the whole world who doesn't think that some time he has got
+to die? No, not one! But now suppose every person held the belief that
+death was an illusion, a part of the big lie about God, just as Jesus
+said it was. Well, wouldn't we get rid of death in a hurry? I should
+think so! And is there a person in the whole world who wouldn't say
+that Anita's babe was blind? No, not one! They would look at the human
+thought of blindness, instead of God's real idea of sight, and so they
+would make and keep the babe blind. Don't you understand me, Padre
+dear? Don't you? I know you do, for you really see as God sees!"
+
+She stopped for breath. Her eyes glistened, and her whole body seemed
+to radiate the light of knowledge divine. Then she went hurriedly on:
+
+"Padre, everything is mental. You know that, for you told me so, long
+since. Well, that being so, we have got to face the truth that every
+mental fact seems to have an opposite, or a lot of opposites, also
+seemingly mental. The opposite of a fact is an illusion. The opposite
+of truth is a lie. Well, God is the great fact. Infinite mind is the
+infinite fact. The so-called opposite of this infinite fact is the
+human mind, the many so-called minds of mankind--_a kind of man._ But
+everything is still mental. Now, an illusion, or a lie, does not
+_really_ exist. If I tell you that two and two are seven, that lie
+does not exist. Is it in what we call my mind, or yours? No. Even if
+you say you believe it, that doesn't make it real. Nor does it show
+that it has real existence in your mind. Not a bit of it! But--if you
+hold it, and cling to it--allow it to stay with you and influence
+you--why, Padre dear, everything in your whole life will be changed!
+
+"Let me take your pencil--and a piece of paper. Look now," drawing a
+line down through the paper. "On one side, Padre, is the infinite
+mind, God, and all His thoughts and ideas, all good, perfect and
+eternal. On the other side is the lie about it all. That is still
+mental; but it is illusion, falsity. It includes all sin, all
+sickness, all murder, all evil, accidents, loss, failure, bad
+ambitions, and death. These are all parts of the big lie about
+God--His unreal opposite. These are the so-called thoughts that come
+to the human mind. Where do they come from? From nowhere. The human
+mind looks at them, tastes them, feels them, holds them; and then they
+become its beliefs. After a while the human mind looks at nothing but
+these beliefs. It believes them to be real. And, finally, it comes to
+believe that God made them and sent them to His children. Isn't it
+awful, Padre! And aren't you glad that you know about it? And aren't
+you going to learn how to keep the good on one side of that line and
+the illusion on the other?"
+
+It seemed to Jose a thing incredible that these words were coming from
+a girl of fifteen. And yet he knew that at the same tender age he was
+as deeply serious as she--but with this difference: he was then
+tenaciously clinging to the thoughts that she was now utterly
+repudiating as unreal and non-existent.
+
+"Padre dear," the girl resumed, "everything is mental. The whole
+universe is mental."
+
+"Well," he replied reflectively, "at least our comprehension of it is
+wholly mental."
+
+"Why--it is all inside--it is all in our thought! Padre, when Hernando
+plays on that old pipe of his, where is the music? Is it in the pipe?
+Or is it in our thoughts?"
+
+"But, _chiquita_, we don't seem to have it in our thought until we
+seem to see him playing on the pipe, do we?"
+
+"No, we don't," she replied. "And do you know why? It is just because
+the human mind believes that everything, even music, must come from
+matter--must have a--"
+
+"Must have a material origin? Is that what you mean?"
+
+"Yes. And men even believe that life itself has a material origin; and
+so they have wasted centuries trying to find it in the body. They
+don't seem to want to know that God is life."
+
+"Then, _chiquita_, you do not believe that matter is real?"
+
+"There is no matter outside of us, or around us, Padre," she said in
+reply. "The human mind looks at its thoughts and seems to see them out
+around it as things made of matter. But, after all, it only sees its
+thoughts."
+
+"Then I suppose that the externalization of our thought in our
+consciousness constitutes what we call space, does it not?"
+
+"It must, Padre," she answered.
+
+He studied a moment. Then:
+
+"_Chiquita_, how do you know me? What do you see that you call 'me'?"
+
+"Why, Padre, I see you as God does--at least, I try always to see you
+that way?" she answered earnestly. "And that is the way Jesus always
+saw people."
+
+"God sees me, of course. But, does He see me as I see myself?" he
+mused aloud.
+
+"You do not see yourself, Padre," was her reply. "You see only the
+thoughts that you call yourself. Thoughts of mind and body and all
+those things that go to form a human being."
+
+"Well--yes, I must agree with you there; for, though God certainly
+knows me, He cannot know me as I think I know myself, sinful and
+discordant."
+
+"He knows the real 'you,' Padre dear. And that is just as He is. He
+knows that the unreal 'you,' the 'you' that you think you know, is
+illusion. If He knew the human, mortal 'you' as real, He would have to
+know evil. And that can not be."
+
+"No, for the Bible says He is of eyes too pure to behold evil."
+
+"Well, Padre, why don't you try to be like Him?"
+
+But the girl needed not that he should answer her question. She knew
+why he had failed, for "without faith it is impossible to please him:
+for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a
+rewarder of them that diligently seek him." She knew that Jose's
+struggle to overcome evil had been futile, because he had first
+made evil real. She knew that the difficulty he had experienced in
+keeping his thought straight was because he persisted in looking at
+both the good and the evil. Lot's wife, in the Bible allegory, had
+turned back to look at things material and had been transformed into
+a pillar of salt. Jose had turned again and again to his materialistic
+thoughts; and had been turned each time to salt tears. She knew that
+he gave up readily, that he yielded easily to evil's strongest
+tool, discouragement, and fell back into self-condemnation, whereby he
+only rendered still more real to himself the evil which he was
+striving to overcome. She knew that the only obstacle that he was
+wrestling with in his upward progress was the universal belief in a
+power other than God, good, which is so firmly fixed in the human
+consciousness. But she likewise knew that this hindrance was but a
+false conviction, and that it could and would be overcome.
+
+"Padre," she reflected, looking up at him in great seriousness, "if a
+lie had an origin, it would be true, wouldn't it?"
+
+He regarded her attentively, but without replying.
+
+"But Jesus said that Satan was the father of lies. And Satan, since he
+is the father of lies, must himself be a lie. You see, Padre, we can
+go right back to the very first chapter in the Bible. First comes the
+account of the real creation. Then comes the account as the human
+mind looks at it. But that comes after the 'mist' had gone up from
+the ground, from dirt, from matter. Don't you see? That mist was
+error, the opposite of Good. It was evil, the opposite of God. It was
+the human mind and all human thought, the opposite of the infinite
+Mind, God, and His thought. The mist went up from matter. So every bit
+of evil that you can possibly think of comes from the material,
+physical senses. Evil is always a mist, hiding the good. Isn't it
+so? The physical universe, the universe of matter, is the way the
+human mind sees its thoughts of the spiritual universe that was
+created by God. The human mind is just a bundle of these false
+thoughts; and you yourself have said that the human consciousness
+was a 'thought-activity, concerned with the activity of false
+thought.' The human mind is the lie about the infinite mind. It is
+the mistake, the illusion. It is like a mistake in mathematics. It
+has no principle, and nothing to stand on. The minute you turn the
+truth upon it, why, it vanishes."
+
+"Well, then, _chiquita_, why don't people turn the truth upon it
+everywhere?"
+
+"Because they are mesmerized by the error, Padre. They sit looking at
+these false thoughts and believing them true. Padre, all disease, all
+evil, comes from the false thought in the human mind. It is that
+thought externalized in the human consciousness. And when the human
+mind turns from them, and puts them out, and lets the true thoughts
+in, why--why, _then we will raise the dead_!"
+
+"But, _chiquita_, the human body--if it has died--"
+
+"Padre," she interrupted, "the human body and human mind are one and
+the same. The body is in the mind. The body that you think you see is
+but your thought of a body, and _is in your so-called human mind_!"
+
+"Do you really understand that, child?"
+
+"I _know_ it!" she exclaimed. "And so would you if you read your Bible
+in the right way. Why--I had never seen a Bible until you gave me
+yours. I didn't know what a book it was! And to think that it has been
+in the world for thousands of years, and yet people still kill one
+another, still get sick, and still die! I don't see how they can!"
+
+"But, _chiquita_, people are too busy to devote time to demonstrating
+the truths of the Bible," he offered.
+
+"Too busy!" she ejaculated. "Busy with what?"
+
+"Why--busy making money--busy socially--busy having a good time--busy
+accumulating things that--that they must go away and leave to somebody
+else!"
+
+"Yes," she said sadly. "They are like the people Jesus spoke of, too
+busy with things that are of no account to see the things that
+are--that are--"
+
+"That are priceless, _chiquita_--that are the most vital of all things
+to sinful, suffering mankind," he supplied.
+
+Rosendo looked in at the door. Jose motioned him away. These hours
+with Carmen had become doubly precious to him of late. Perhaps he felt
+a presentiment that the net about him and his loved ones was drawing
+rapidly tighter. Perhaps he saw the hour swiftly approaching, even at
+hand, when these moments of spiritual intercourse would be rudely
+terminated. And perhaps he saw the clouds lowering ever darker above
+them, and knew that in the blackness which was soon to fall the girl
+would leave him and be swept out into the great world of human
+thoughts and events, to meet, alone with her God, the fiercest
+elements, the subtlest wiles, of the carnal mind. As for himself--he
+was in the hands of that same God.
+
+He turned again to the girl. "_Chiquita_," he said, "you do not
+find mistakes in the Bible? For, out in the big world where I came
+from, there are many, very many, who say that it is a book of
+inconsistencies, of gross inaccuracies, and that its statements are
+directly opposed to the so-called natural sciences. They say that it
+doesn't even relate historical events accurately. But, after all,
+the Bible is just the record of the unfoldment in the human
+consciousness of the concept of God. Why cavil at it when it
+contains, as we must see, a revelation of the full formula for
+salvation, which, as you say, is right-thinking."
+
+"Yes, Padre. And it even tells us what to think about. Paul said, you
+know, that we should think about whatsoever things are true, honest,
+just, pure, lovely, and of good report. Well, he told us that there
+was no law--not even any human law--against those things. And don't
+you know, he wrote about bringing into captivity every thought to
+Christ? What did he mean by that?"
+
+"Just what you have been telling me, I guess, _chiquita_: that every
+thought must be measured by the Christ-principle. And if it doesn't
+conform to that standard, it must be rejected."
+
+"Yes. And then he said that he died daily. He did die daily to evil,
+to all evil thought--"
+
+"And to the testimony of the physical senses, think you?"
+
+"He must have! For, in proving God to be real, he had to prove the
+reports of the five physical senses to be only human beliefs."
+
+"You are right, _chiquita_. He must have known that the corporeal
+senses were the only source from which evil came. He must have known
+that unless God testified in regard to things, any other testimony was
+but carnal belief. This must be so, for God, being infinite mind, is
+also infinite intelligence. He knows all things, and knows them
+aright--not as the human mind thinks it knows them, twisted and
+deformed, but right."
+
+"Of course, Padre. You know now that you see it right. And can't you
+_stick_ to it, and prove it?"
+
+"_Chiquita_," he answered, shaking his head again, his words still
+voicing a lingering note of doubt, "it may be--the 'I' that I call
+myself may be entirely human, unreal, mortal. I make no doubt it is,
+for it seems filled to the brim with discordant thoughts. And it will
+pass away. And then--then what will be left?"
+
+"Oh, Padre!" she cried, with a trace of exasperation. "Empty yourself
+of the wrong thoughts--shut the door against them--don't let them in
+any more! Then fill yourself with God's thoughts. Then when the
+mortal part fades away, why, the good will be left. And it will be the
+right 'you.'"
+
+"But how shall I empty myself, and then fill myself again?"
+
+"Padre!" cried the girl, springing from her chair and stamping her
+foot with each word to give it emphasis. "It is love, love, love,
+nothing but love! Forget yourself, and love everything and everybody,
+the real things and the real bodies! Love God, and good, and good
+thoughts! Turn from the bad and the unreal--forget it! Why--"
+
+"Wait, _chiquita_," he interrupted. "A great war is threatening our
+country at this very minute. Shall I turn from it and let come what
+may?"
+
+She hesitated not. "No! But you can know that war comes only from the
+human mind; that it is bad thought externalized; and that God is
+peace, and is infinitely greater than such bad thought; and He will
+take care of you--if you will let Him!"
+
+"And how do I let Him? By sitting back and folding my hands and
+saying, Here am I, Lord, protect me--"
+
+"Oh, Padre dear, you make me ashamed of your foolish thought--which
+isn't your thought at all, but just thought that seems to be calling
+itself 'you.' Jesus said, He that believeth on me, the works that I do
+shall he do likewise. But that did not mean sitting back with folded
+hands. It meant _understanding_ him; and knowing that there is no
+power apart from the Christ-principle; and using that principle, using
+it every moment, _hard_; and with it overcoming every thought that
+doesn't come from God, every thought of the human mind, whether it is
+called war, or sickness, or death!"
+
+"Then evil can be thought away, _chiquita_?" He knew not why he
+pursued her so relentlessly.
+
+"No, Padre," she replied with a gentle patience that smote him. "No,
+Padre. But it can be destroyed in the human mind. And when you have
+overcome the habit of thinking the wrong way, evil will disappear.
+That is the whole thing. That is what Jesus tried to make the people
+see."
+
+But Jose knew it. Yet he had not put it to the proof. He had gone
+through life, worrying himself loose from one human belief, only to
+become enslaved to another equally insidious. He knew that the cause
+of whatever came to him was within his own mentality. And yet he knew,
+likewise, that he would have to demonstrate this--that he would be
+called upon to "prove" God. His faith without the works following was
+dead. He felt that he did not really believe in power opposed to God;
+and yet he did constantly yield to such belief. And such yielding was
+the chief of sins. The unique Son of God had said so. He knew that
+when the Master had said, "Behold, I give you power over all the
+enemy," he meant that the Christ-principle would overcome every false
+claim of the human mentality, whether that claim be one of physical
+condition or action, or a claim of environment and event. He knew that
+all things were possible to God, and likewise to the one who
+understood and faithfully applied the Christ-principle. Carmen
+believed that good alone was real and present. She applied this
+knowledge to every-day affairs. And in so doing she denied reality to
+evil. He must let go. He must turn upon the claims of evil to life and
+intelligence. His false sense of righteousness _must_ give place to
+the spiritual sense of God as immanent good. He knew that Carmen's
+great love was an impervious armor, which turned aside the darts of
+the evil one, the one lie. He knew that his reasoning from the premise
+of mixed good and evil was false, and the results chaotic. And knowing
+all this, he knew that he had touched the hem of the garment of the
+Christ-understanding. There remained, then, the test of fire. And it
+had come. Would he stand?
+
+"Padre," said Carmen, going to him and putting her arms about his
+neck, "you say that you think a great war is coming. But you
+needn't be afraid. Don't you remember what it says in the book of
+Isaiah? 'No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and
+every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt
+condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their
+righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.' No weapon of evil can
+touch you, if you understand God. Every tongue of the human mind that
+rises to judge you, to sentence you, shall be condemned. You will
+condemn it--you _must_! This is your heritage, given you by God. And
+your righteousness, your right-thinking, must come from God. Your
+thoughts must be His. Then--"
+
+"Yes, yes, _chiquita_," he said, drawing her to him.
+
+"And now, Padre, you will promise me that you will know every day that
+Anita's babe is not blind--that it sees, because God sees?"
+
+"Yes, _chiquita_, I promise."
+
+"Padre dear," she murmured, nestling close to him, "I love you so
+much, so much!"
+
+He answered not, except in the tightening of the arm that was about
+her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 31
+
+
+In the weeks that followed there were days when the very air seemed
+pregnant with potential destruction, awaiting only the daring hand
+that would render it kinetic. Jose dwelt in a state of incessant,
+heart-shaking agitation. The sudden precipitation of the revolt six
+years before had caught him wholly unprepared, unaware even of the
+events which had led to it. In the intervening years, however, he had
+had some opportunity, even in his isolation, to study political
+conditions in that unhappy country, and to form some estimate of the
+mental forces at work in both Church and State which, he knew, must
+ultimately bring them again into conflict for supremacy. His knowledge
+of the workings of the human mind convinced him that Diego's dire
+prophecy had not been empty; that the Church, though ostensibly
+assuming only spiritual leadership, would nevertheless rest not until
+the question "Who shall be greatest?" even in the petty, sordid
+affairs of mortals, should be answered, and answered--though by force
+of arms--in her favor. And his estimate of the strength of the
+opposing parties had led him to believe that the impending struggle
+would drench the land in blood.
+
+As to the _role_ which Wenceslas would play, he could form no
+satisfactory estimate. He knew him to be astute, wary, and the
+shrewdest of politicians. He knew, likewise, that he was acting in
+conjunction with powerful financial interests in both North America
+and Europe. He knew him to be a man who would stop at no scruple,
+hesitate at no dictate of conscience, yield to no moral or ethical
+code; one who would play Rome against Wall Street, with his own
+unfortunate country as the stake; one who would hurl the fairest sons
+of Colombia at one another's throats to bulge his own coffers; and
+then wring from the wailing widows their poor substance for Masses to
+move their beloved dead through an imagined purgatory.
+
+But he could not know that, in casting about impatiently for an
+immediate _causus belli_, Wenceslas had hit upon poor, isolated,
+little Simiti as the point of ignition, and the pitting of its
+struggling priest against Don Mario as the method of exciting the
+necessary spark. He could not know that Wenceslas had represented
+to the Departmental Governor in Cartagena that an obscure _Cura_ in
+far-off Simiti, an exile from the Vatican, and the author of a
+violent diatribe against papal authority, was the nucleus about
+which anticlerical sentiment was crystallizing in the Department
+of Bolivar. He did not know that the Governor had been induced by the
+acting-Bishop's specious representations to send arms to Simiti, to
+be followed by federal troops only when the crafty Wenceslas saw
+that the time was ripe. He did not even suspect that Don Mario was
+to be the puppet whom Wenceslas would sacrifice on the altar of
+rapacity when he had finished with him, and that the simple-minded
+Alcalde in his blind zeal to protect the Church would thereby
+proclaim himself an enemy of both Church and State, and afford the
+smiling Wenceslas the most fortuitous of opportunities to reveal the
+Church's unexampled magnanimity by throwing her influence in with
+that of the Government against their common enemy.
+
+His own intercourse with Wenceslas during the years of his exile in
+Simiti had been wholly formal, and not altogether disagreeable as long
+as the contributions of gold to the Bishop's leaking coffers
+continued. He had received almost monthly communications from
+Cartagena, relating to the Church at large, and, at infrequent
+intervals, to the parish of Simiti. But he knew that Cartagena's
+interest in Simiti was merely casual--nay, rather, financial--and he
+strove to maintain it so, lest the stimulation of a deeper interest
+thwart his own plans. His conflict with Diego in regard to Carmen had
+seemed for the moment to evoke the Bishop's interference; and the
+sudden and unaccountable disappearance of that priest had threatened
+to expose both Jose and Carmen to the full scrutiny of Wenceslas. But,
+fortunately, the insistence of those matters which were rapidly
+culminating in a political outbreak left Wenceslas little time for
+interference in affairs which did not pertain exclusively to the
+momentous questions with which he was now concerned, and Jose and
+Carmen were still left unmolested. It was only when, desperate lest
+Congress adjourn without passing the measure which he knew would
+precipitate the conflict, and when, well nigh panic-stricken lest his
+collusion with Ames and his powerful clique of Wall Street become
+known through the exasperation of the latter over the long delay, he
+had resolved to pit Don Mario against Jose in distant Simiti, and, in
+that unknown, isolated spot, where close investigation would never be
+made, apply the torch to the waiting combustibles, that Jose saw the
+danger which had always hung over him and the girl suddenly descending
+upon them and threatening anew the separation which he had ever
+regarded as inevitable, and yet which he had hoped against hope to
+avoid.
+
+With the deposition of arms in Simiti, and the establishment of
+federal authority in Don Mario, that always pompous official rose in
+his own esteem and in the eyes of a few parasitical attaches to an
+eminence never before dreamed of by the humble denizens of this
+moss-encrusted town. From egotistical, Don Mario became insolent. From
+sluggishness and torpidity of thought and action, he rose suddenly
+into tremendous activity. He was more than once observed by Jose or
+Rosendo emerging hastily from his door and button-holing some one of
+the more influential citizens of the town and excitedly reading to him
+excerpts from letters which he had just received from Cartagena. He
+might be seen at any hour of the day in the little _patio_ back of his
+store, busily engaged with certain of the men of the place in
+examining papers and documents, talking volubly and with much excited
+gesticulation and wild rolling of the eyes. A party seemed to be
+crystallizing about him. His hitherto uncertain prestige appeared to
+be soaring greatly. Men who before made slighting remarks about him,
+or opposed his administrative acts, were now often seen in earnest
+converse with him. His manner toward Jose and Rosendo became that of
+utter contempt. He often refused to notice the priest as they passed
+in the streets.
+
+Jose's apprehension waxed great. It attained its climax when Rosendo
+came to him one day to discuss the Alcalde's conduct and the change of
+sentiment which seemed to be stealing rapidly over the hearts of the
+people of Simiti.
+
+"Padre," said the old man in perplexity, "I cannot say what it is, but
+Don Mario has some scheme in hand, and--and I do not think it is for
+our good. I cannot get anything out of those with whom he talks so
+continually, but Lazaro tells me that--_Bien_, that he learns that Don
+Mario suspects you of--of not belonging to the Church party."
+
+Jose smiled. Don Mario's suspicions about him had been many and
+varied, especially as La Libertad mine had not been discovered. He
+said as much to Rosendo in reply; and as he did so, he thought the old
+man's face took on a queer and unwonted expression.
+
+"But, Padre," continued Rosendo at length, "they say that Don Mario
+has word from the Bishop that you once wrote a book against the Holy
+Father--"
+
+"Good God!" The words burst from the priest's lips like the sudden
+issuance of pent steam. Rosendo stared at him in bewilderment.
+
+"Rosendo!" gasped Jose. "How know you that?"
+
+"_Caramba_, Padre! it is what Lazaro tells me," replied the old man,
+his own suspicion verging upon conviction.
+
+Jose's dark face became almost white, and his breath sobbed out in
+gasps. A vague idea of the game Wenceslas was playing now stole
+through his throbbing brain. That book, his Nemesis, his pursuing
+Fate, had tracked him to this secluded corner of the earth, and in the
+hands of the most unscrupulous politician of South America was being
+used as a tool. But, precisely to what end, his wild thought did not
+as yet disclose. Still, above the welter of it all, he saw clearly
+that there must be no further delay on his part. Before he could
+speak, however, Rosendo had resumed the conversation.
+
+"Padre," he said, "had it occurred to you that you were watched, day
+and night?"
+
+"No--heavens!" Jose had not suspected such a thing.
+
+"It is so, Padre. Don Mario's men keep you in sight during the day;
+and at night there is always some one hovering near your house. You
+could not escape now even if you would."
+
+Jose sank back in his chair limp and cold. His frenzied brain held but
+one thought: he had delayed until too late--and the end was at hand!
+
+"Padre," said Rosendo earnestly, "tell me about that book. You did
+write it? And against the Holy Father? But--you still say the Mass.
+You have not brought Carmen up in the Church. But it was I who told
+you not to--that her heart was her church, and it must not be
+disturbed. But--is it true, as the people say, that you really belong
+to the party that would destroy the Church?"
+
+Then Jose collected himself. While his heart burned within his breast,
+he opened its portals and revealed to Rosendo all that lay within.
+Beginning with his boyhood, he drew his career out before the
+wondering eyes of the old man down to the day when the culmination of
+carnal ambition, false thought, perverted concepts of filial devotion
+and sacredness of oath, of family honor and pride of race, had washed
+him up against the dreary shores of Simiti. With no thought of
+concealment, he exposed his ambition in regard to Carmen--even the
+love for her that he knew must die of inanition--and ended by throwing
+himself without reserve upon Rosendo's judgment. When the tense
+recital was ended, Rosendo leaned over and clasped the priest's
+trembling hand.
+
+"I understand, Padre," he said gently. "I am dull of wit, I know. And
+you have often laughed at my superstitions and old family beliefs,
+whether religious or otherwise. They are strange--I admit that. And I
+shall die in the Church, and take my chances on the future, for I have
+tried to live a good life. But--with a man like you--I understand. And
+now, Padre, we have no time to be sorrowful. We must be up and doing.
+We are like fish in a net. But--my life is yours. And both are
+Carmen's, is it not so? Thanks be to the good Virgin," he muttered,
+as he walked slowly away, "that Lazaro got those titles from Don Mario
+to-day!"
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nightfall brought an unexpected visitor in the person of Don Jorge,
+who had returned from the remoter parts of the Guamoco region.
+
+"_Bien_, and what news?" he called cheerily, as he strode into the
+parish house, where Rosendo and Jose were in earnest conversation.
+
+Jose embraced him as a brother, while a great sense of relief stole
+over him. Then he quickly made known to him the situation.
+
+Don Jorge whistled softly. He ceased his task of scraping the caked
+mud from his bare limbs, and drew up a chair near Jose.
+
+"So you wrote a book, no? And rapped the sacred priesthood? _Hombre_!
+That is good! I never did think you a real priest. But, _amigo_, lend
+me a copy, for I doubt not it is most excellent reading, and will
+serve to while away many a weary hour in the jungle." His eyes snapped
+merrily, and he slapped Jose roundly upon the back when he finished
+speaking.
+
+"But," he continued more seriously, "things seem to be setting against
+you, friend. However, let me but canvass the town to-morrow, and by
+evening I can advise. _Caramba_! this old hole a military depot! Who
+would have thought it! And yet--and yet--I wonder why the Governor
+sends arms here. _Bien_, we shall see."
+
+Don Jorge needed not a full day to correctly estimate the situation in
+Simiti. His bluff, hearty manner and genial good-nature constituted a
+passport to every house, and by midday he had talked with nearly every
+man in the _pueblo_. He called Jose and Rosendo for consultation
+during the _siesta_.
+
+"_Bien_," he said, when they were seated in the parish house, "Don
+Mario without doubt descends from the very serpent that tempted our
+mother Eve! He has become a person of considerable importance since
+the Governor and Don Wenceslas strive with each other to rest their
+authority and confidence in him. And, unless I mistake much, they have
+him slated for important work. However that may be, the man already
+has a large following. Moreover, he has them well poisoned against
+you, _amigo_ Jose. They know more details about your book and your
+life before coming to Simiti than do you. _Bien_, you must counteract
+the Alcalde's influence by a public statement. It must be to-night--in
+the church! You will have to act quickly, for the old fox has you
+picked for trouble! Diego's disappearance, you know; the girl, Carmen;
+your rather foolish course here--it is all laid up against you,
+friend, and you must meet it!"
+
+Jose assented. Don Jorge went out and summoned the town to a meeting
+in the church that evening. Immediately Don Mario issued a mandate
+forbidding a public gathering at a time of such stress. The people
+began to assemble on the street corners and in front of their houses
+to discuss the situation. Their talk became loud and animated. Threats
+were heard. The people were becoming divided. Don Jorge was
+everywhere, and none could talk so volubly nor gesticulate and
+expectorate so vehemently as he.
+
+At sundown the people moved toward the _plaza_. Then the concourse
+drifted slowly into the church. Don Jorge dragged Jose from the parish
+house and up to the altar. "You have got to divide them, Padre!" he
+whispered excitedly. "Your only hope now lies in the formation of your
+own party to oppose the Alcalde! Talk to them as you never talked
+before! Say all that you had stored up to say on Judgment Day!"
+
+Again, as Jose faced his little flock and saw them, bare of feet,
+scantily clad in their simple cotton and calico, their faces set in
+deep seriousness, the ludicrous side of the whole situation flashed
+before him, and he almost laughed aloud at the spectacle which the
+ancient, decayed town at that moment presented. These primitive
+folk--they were but children, with all a child's simplicity of nature,
+its petulance, its immaturity of view, and its sudden and unreasoning
+acceptance of authority! He turned to the altar and took up a tall
+brass crucifix. He held it out before him for a moment. Then he called
+upon the Christ to witness to the truth of what he was about to say.
+
+A hush fell over the assembly. Even Don Mario seemed to become calm
+after that dramatic spectacle. Then Jose spoke. He talked long and
+earnestly. He knew not that such eloquence abode within him. His
+declamation became more and more impassioned. He opened wide his heart
+and called upon all present to look fearlessly within. Yes, he had
+written the book in question. But its publication was unfortunate.
+Yes, it had expressed his views at that time. But now--ah, now!
+
+He stopped and looked about the church. The shadows were gathering
+thick, and the smoking kerosene lamps battled vainly with the heavy
+blackness. In a far corner of the room he saw Carmen and Ana. Rosendo
+sat stolidly beside them. The sightless babe waved its tiny hands in
+mute helplessness, while Dona Maria held it closely to her bosom.
+Carmen's last admonition sang in his ears. He must know--really
+_know_--that the babe could see! He must know that God was omnipotent!
+His appeal to the people was not for himself. He cared not what
+became of him. But Carmen--and now Ana and the blind babe--and the
+calm, unimpassioned Dona Maria, the embodiment of all that was
+greatest in feminine character--and Rosendo, waiting to lay down his
+life for those he loved! And then, this people, soon, he felt, to be
+shattered by the shock of war--ah, God above! what could he say that
+might save them? If they could know, as Carmen did, if they could love
+and trust as she did, would the hideous spectre of war ever stalk
+among them? Could the world know, and love, and trust as did this fair
+child, would it waste itself in useless wars, sink with famine and
+pestilence, consume with the anguish of fear, and in the end bury its
+blasted hopes in the dank, reeking tomb? The thought gave wings to his
+voice, soul to his words. For hours the people sat spellbound.
+
+Then he finished. He raised his hands in benediction. And, while the
+holy hush remained upon the people, he descended the altar steps, his
+frame still tremulous with the vehemence of his appeal, and went alone
+to his house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 32
+
+
+Dawn had scarcely reddened in the east when a number of men assembled
+at Jose's door.
+
+"You have turned the trick, _amigo_," said Don Jorge, rousing up from
+his _petate_ on the floor beside the priest's bed. "You have won over
+a few of them, at least."
+
+Jose went out to meet the early callers.
+
+"We come to say, Padre," announced Andres Arellano, the dignified
+spokesman, "that we have confidence in your words of last night. We
+suspect Don Mario, even though he has letters from the Bishop. We are
+your men, and we would keep the war away from Simiti."
+
+There were five of them, strong of heart and brawny of arm. "And there
+will be more, Padre," added Andres, reading the priest's question in
+his appraising glance.
+
+Thus was the town divided; and while many clung to the Alcalde, partly
+through fear of offending the higher ecclesiastical authority, and
+partly because of imagined benefits to be gained, others, and a goodly
+number, assembled at Jose's side, and looked to him to lead them in
+the crisis which all felt to be at hand. As the days passed, the
+priest's following grew more numerous, until, after the lapse of a
+week, the town stood fairly divided. Don Jorge announced his intention
+of remaining in Simiti for the present.
+
+From the night of the meeting in the church excitement ran continuously
+higher. Business was at length suspended; the fishermen forgot their
+nets; and the limber tongues of the town gossips steadily increased
+their clatter. Don Mario's store and _patio_ assumed the functions of
+a departmental office. Daily he might be seen laboriously drafting
+letters of incredible length and wearisome prolixity to acting-Bishop
+Wenceslas; and nightly he was engaged in long colloquies and whispered
+conferences with Don Luis and others of his followers and hangers-on.
+The government arms had been brought up from Bodega Central and stored
+in an empty warehouse belonging to Don Felipe Alcozer to await further
+disposition.
+
+But with the arrival of the arms, and of certain letters which Don
+Mario received from Cartagena, the old town lost its calm of
+centuries, not to recover it again for many a dreary day. By the time
+its peace was finally restored, it had received a blow from which it
+never recovered. And many a familiar face, too, had disappeared
+forever from its narrow streets.
+
+Meanwhile, Jose and his followers anxiously awaited the turn of
+events. It came at length, and in a manner not wholly unexpected. The
+Alcalde in his voluminous correspondence with Wenceslas had not
+failed to bring against Jose every charge which his unduly stimulated
+brain could imagine. But in particular did he dwell upon the
+priest's malign influence upon Carmen, whose physical beauty and
+powers of mind were the marvel of Simiti. He hammered upon this
+with an insistence that could not but at length again attract the
+thought of the acting-Bishop, who wrote finally to Don Mario,
+expressing the mildly couched opinion that, now that his attention
+had been called again to the matter, Carmen should have the benefits
+of the education and liberal training which a convent would afford.
+
+Don Mario's egotism soared to the sky. The great Bishop was actually
+being advised by him! _Hombre_! Where would it not end! He would yet
+remove to a larger town, perhaps Mompox, and, with the support of the
+great ecclesiastic, stand for election to Congress! He would show the
+Bishop what mettle he had in him. _Hombre_! And first he would show
+His Grace how a loyal servant could anticipate his master's wishes. He
+summoned Fernando, and imperiously bade him bring the girl Carmen at
+once.
+
+But Fernando returned, saying that Rosendo refused to give up the
+child. Don Mario then ordered Rosendo's arrest. But Fernando found it
+impossible to execute the commission. Jose and Don Jorge stood with
+Rosendo, and threatened to deal harshly with the constable should he
+attempt to take Carmen by force. Fernando then sought to impress upon
+the Alcalde the danger of arousing public opinion again over the
+girl.
+
+Don Mario's wrath burst forth like an exploding bomb. He seized his
+straw hat and his cane, the emblem of his office, and strode to the
+house of Rosendo. His face grew more deeply purple as he went. At the
+door of the house he encountered Jose and Don Jorge.
+
+"Don Mario," began Jose, before the Alcalde could get his words
+shaped, "it is useless. Carmen remains with us. We will defend her
+with our lives. Be advised, Don Mario, for the consequences of
+thoughtless action may be incalculable!"
+
+"_Caramba_!" bellowed the irate official, "but, cow-face! do you know
+that His Grace supports me? That I but execute his orders? _Dios
+arriba_! if you do not at once deliver to me your paramour--"
+
+He got no further. Rosendo, who had been standing just within the
+door, suddenly pushed Jose and Don Jorge aside and, stalking out, a
+tower of flesh, confronted the raging Alcalde. For a moment he gazed
+down into the pig-eyes of the man. Then, with a quick thrust of his
+thick arm, he projected his huge fist squarely into Don Mario's
+bloated face. The Alcalde went down like a shot.
+
+Neither Jose nor Don Jorge, as they rushed in between Rosendo and his
+fallen adversary, had any adequate idea of the consequences of the old
+man's precipitate action. As they assisted the prostrate official to
+his unsteady feet they knew not that to Rosendo, simple, peace-loving,
+and great of heart, had fallen the lot to inaugurate hostilities in
+the terrible anticlerical war which now for four dismal years was to
+tear Colombia from end to end, and leave her prostrate and exhausted
+at last, her sons decimated, her farms and industries ruined, and her
+neck beneath the heavy heel of a military despot at Bogota, whose
+pliant hand would still be guided by the astute brain of Rome.
+
+By the time the startled Alcalde had been set again upon his feet a
+considerable concourse had gathered at the scene. Many stood in
+wide-eyed horror at what had just occurred. Others broke into loud and
+wild talk. The crowd rapidly grew, and in a few minutes the _plaza_
+was full. Supporters of both sides declaimed and gesticulated
+vehemently. In the heat of the arguments a blow was struck. Then
+another. The Alcalde, when he found his tongue, shrilly demanded the
+arrest of Rosendo and his family, including the priest and Don Jorge.
+A dozen of his party rushed forward to execute the order. Rosendo had
+slipped between Jose and Don Jorge and into his house. In a trice he
+emerged with a great _machete_. The people about him fell back. His
+eyes blazed like live coals, and his breath seemed to issue from his
+dilating nostrils like clouds of steam. To approach him meant instant
+death. Don Jorge crept behind him and, gaining the house, collected
+the terrified women and held them in readiness for flight. Juan,
+Lazaro, and a number of others surrounded Jose and faced the angry
+multitude.
+
+The strain was broken by the frenzied Alcalde, who rushed toward
+Rosendo. The old man swung his enormous _machete_ with a swirl that,
+had it met the official, would have clean decapitated him. But,
+fortunately, one of the priest's supporters threw out his foot, and
+the corpulent Alcalde fell heavily over it and bit the dust. Jose
+threw himself upon Rosendo. The old man staggered with the shock and
+gave way. The priest turned to the excited crowd. Holding up both
+hands high above his head, he sent out his voice clear and loud.
+
+"Children! In the name of the Church! In the name of the Christ! The
+blessed Virgin--"
+
+"What know you of the blessed Virgin, priest of Satan?" shouted a
+rough follower of the Alcalde.
+
+"Aye!" yelled another. "Writer of foul books! Seducer of young
+girls!"
+
+Julio Gomez stooped and took up a large piece of shale. He threw it
+with all his force, just as the priest again strove to make his voice
+heard above the din. It struck Jose full on the forehead. The jagged
+stone cut deeply, and the red blood spurted. Jose fell into the arms
+of Lazaro and was dragged into the house.
+
+Then Rosendo, with a mad yell, plunged wildly into the crowd. A dozen
+arms sought to hold him, but in vain. Julio saw the terrifying
+apparition hurtling down upon him. He turned and fled, but not before
+the great knife had caught him on its point as it swung down and
+ripped a deep gash the full length of his naked back.
+
+Then the last vestige of reason fled from the mob, and chaos took the
+reins. Back and forth through the _plaza_, in front of the church
+where hung the image of the Prince of Peace, the maddened people
+surged, fighting like demons, raining blows with clubs, fists, and
+_machetes_, stabbing with their long, wicked knives, hurling sharp
+stones, gouging, ripping, yelling, shrieking, calling upon Saints and
+Virgin to curse their enemies and bless their blows. Over the heads of
+them all towered the mighty frame of Rosendo. Back before his
+murderous _machete_ fell the terrified combatants. His course among
+them was that of a cannon ball. Dozens hung upon his arms, his
+shoulders, or flung themselves about his great legs. His huge body,
+slippery and reeking, was galvanized into energy incarnate. Sparks
+seemed to flash from his eyes. His breath turned to livid flame.
+Behind him, following in the swath which he cut, his supporters
+crowded, fought and yelled. Don Mario's forces gave way. They cursed,
+broke, and fled. Then Don Jorge, a man whose mortal strength was more
+than common, threw himself upon the steaming, frenzied Rosendo and
+stopped his mad progress.
+
+"Rosendo--_amigo! Caramba!_ Listen! They are fleeing to the _bodega_
+to get the rifles and ammunition! Come--_Dios arriba_! Come!"
+
+Cut, bruised, and dripping blood from a dozen wounds, Rosendo stood
+for a moment blinking in confusion. A score lay on the ground about
+him. Whether dead or wounded, he knew not, nor cared. The sight of Don
+Mario's supporters in full flight fascinated him. He broke into a
+chuckle. It sounded like the gloating of an imp of Satan. Then the
+force of Don Jorge's words smote him.
+
+"_Caramba_! They will return with the rifles!" he panted. "What shall
+we do?"
+
+"Come! We must lose no time!" cried Don Jorge, pulling him toward the
+house. Those of the priest's other followers who were still whole
+scattered wildly to their homes and barred their doors. There they
+searched for knives, _machetes_, razors, any tool or instrument that
+might be pressed into service as a weapon, and stood guard. One
+frenzied fellow, the sole possessor of an antiquated shotgun,
+projected the rusty arm from a hole in the wall of his mud hut and
+blazed away down the deserted street indiscriminately and without
+aim.
+
+Within the house Juan and Lazaro were supporting the dazed Jose, while
+Dona Maria bathed and bound his wound. Carmen stood gazing upon the
+scene in bewilderment. The precipitousness of the affair had taken her
+breath away and driven all thought in mad rout from her mind.
+
+"_Amigos_!" panted Don Jorge, "the church--it is the only place now
+that is even fairly safe! Dona Maria, do you collect all the food in
+the house! We know not how long we may be prisoners--"
+
+"But--Don Jorge," interrupted Jose feebly, "they will attack us even
+there! Let us flee--"
+
+"Where, _amigo_? To the Guamoco trail? Caramba! they would shoot us
+down in cold blood! _Hombre_! There is no place but the church! That
+will hold some of them back, at any rate! And none of them, if they
+get crazed with _anisado_! But it is the only place now! Come!"
+
+"_Hombre_!" cried Rosendo, starting for the door, "but do you, Juan
+and Lazaro, follow me with your _machetes_, and we will drive the
+cowards from the _bodega_ and get the rifles ourselves!"
+
+"No, _amigo_! Impossible! By this time they have broken open the boxes
+and loaded the guns. A shot--and it would be all over with you! But in
+the church--you have a chance there!"
+
+Don Jorge seized his arm and dragged him out of the house and across
+the deserted _plaza_. Juan and Lazaro helped Dona Maria gather what
+food and water remained in the house; and together they hurried out
+and over to the church. Swinging open the heavy wooden doors, they
+entered and made them fast again. Then they sank upon the benches and
+strove to realize their situation.
+
+But Don Jorge suddenly sprang to his feet. "The windows!" he cried.
+
+Juan and Lazaro hurried to them and swung the wooden shutters.
+
+"There is no way of holding them!" cried Juan in dismay.
+
+"_Caramba_!" muttered Rosendo, seizing a bench and with one blow of
+his _machete_ splitting it clean through, "these will make props to
+hold them!"
+
+It was the work of but a few minutes to place benches across the thick
+shutters and secure them with others placed diagonally against them
+and let into the hard dirt floor. The same was done with the doors.
+Then the little group huddled together and waited. Jose heard a sob
+beside him, and a hand clutched his in the gloom. It was Carmen. In
+the excitement of the hour he had all but forgotten her. Through his
+present confusion of thought a great fact loomed: as the girl clung to
+him she was weeping!
+
+A low rumble drifted to them; a confusion of voices, growing louder;
+and then a sharp report.
+
+"They are coming, Padre," muttered Rosendo. "And some one has tried
+his rifle!"
+
+A moment later the ruck poured into the _plaza_ and made for Rosendo's
+house. Don Mario, holding his cane aloft like a sword, was at their
+head. Raging with disappointment at not finding the fugitives in the
+house, they threw the furniture and kitchen utensils madly about,
+punched great holes through the walls, and then rushed pellmell to the
+parish house next door. A groan escaped Jose as he watched them
+through a chink in the shutters. His books and papers! His notes and
+writings!
+
+But as the howling mob streamed toward the parish house a wrinkled
+old crone shrilled at them from across the way and pointed toward the
+church.
+
+"In there, _amigos_!" she screamed. "I saw them enter! Shoot
+them--they have hurt my Pedro!"
+
+Back like a huge wave the crowd flowed, and up against the church
+doors. Don Mario, at the head of his valiant followers, held up his
+hand for silence. Then, planting himself before the main doors of the
+church, he loudly voiced his authority.
+
+"In the name of the Government at Bogota!" he cried pompously, tapping
+the doors with his light cane. Then he turned quickly. "Fernando," he
+called, "run to my house and fetch the drum!"
+
+Despite the seriousness of their situation, Jose smiled at the
+puppet-show being enacted without.
+
+The Alcalde reiterated his demands with truculent vanity. "Open! In
+the name of the Government! I am the law!"
+
+Don Jorge groaned aloud. "_Caramba!_ if I but had him in here alone!"
+
+Don Mario waited a few moments. Then, as no response came from within,
+his anger began to soar. "_Caramba!_" he cried, "but you defy the
+law?"
+
+Angry mutterings rose from the crowd. Some one suggested burning the
+building. Another advised battering in the doors. A third intimated
+that shooting them full of holes were better. This idea, once voiced,
+spread like an infection. The childish people were eager to try the
+rifles.
+
+"Shoot the doors down! Shoot them down, Don Mario!" yelled the mob.
+
+The Alcalde threw himself heavily up against the doors. "_Caramba!_"
+he shrilled. "Fools! Demons! Open!--or it will be the worse for you!"
+
+Jose decided that their silence should no longer exasperate the angry
+man. He put his mouth to the crevice between the doors.
+
+"Don Mario," he cried, "this is sacred ground! The Host is exposed on
+the altar. Take your mob away. Disperse, and we will come out. We may
+settle this trouble amicably, if you will but listen to reason."
+
+The Alcalde jumped up and down in his towering wrath. "Puppy-face!" he
+screamed, "but I am the law--I am the Government! A curse upon you,
+priest of Satan! Will you unbar these doors?"
+
+"No!" replied Jose. "And if you attack us you attack the Church!"
+
+"A curse on the Church! _Amigos!_ _Muchachos!_" he bawled, turning to
+the mob, "we will batter down the doors!"
+
+The crowd surged forward again. But the props held firm. Again and
+again the mob hurled itself upon the thick doors. They bent, they
+sagged, but they held. Don Mario became apoplectic. A torrent of
+anathemas streamed from his thick lips.
+
+"The side door!" some one shouted, recovering a portion of his scant
+wit.
+
+"Aye--and the door of the _sacristia_!"
+
+"Try the windows!"
+
+Round the building streamed the crazed mob, without head, without
+reason, lusting only for the lives of the frightened little band
+huddled together in the gloom within. Jose kept an arm about Carmen.
+Ana bent sobbing over her tiny babe. Don Jorge and Rosendo remained
+mute and grim. Jose knew that those two would cast a long reckoning
+before they died. Juan and Lazaro went from door to window, steadying
+the props and making sure that they were holding. The tough, hard,
+tropical wood, though pierced in places by _comjejen_ ants, was
+resisting.
+
+The sun was already high, and the _plaza_ had become a furnace. The
+patience of the mob quickly evaporated in the ardent heat. Don Mario's
+wits had gone completely. Revenge, mingled with insensate zeal to
+manifest the authority which he believed his intercourse with
+Wenceslas had greatly augmented, had driven all rationality from his
+motives. Flaming anger had unseated his reason. Descending from the
+platform on which stood the church, he blindly drew up his armed
+followers and bade them fire upon the church doors.
+
+If Wenceslas, acting-Bishop by the grace of political machination,
+could have witnessed the stirring drama then in progress in ancient
+Simiti, he would have laughed aloud at the complete fulfillment of his
+carefully wrought plans. The cunning of the shrewd, experienced
+politician had never been more clearly manifested than in the carrying
+out of the little program which he had set for the unwise Alcalde of
+this almost unknown little town, whereby the hand of Congress should
+be forced and the inevitable revolt inaugurated. Don Mario had seized
+the government arms, the deposition of which in Simiti in his care had
+constituted him more than ever the representative of federal
+authority. But, in his wild zeal, he had fallen into the trap which
+Wenceslas had carefully arranged for him, and now was engaged in a mad
+attack upon the Church itself, upon ecclesiastical authority as vested
+in the priest Jose. How could Wenceslas interpret this but as an
+anticlerical uprising? There remained but the final scene. And while
+the soft-headed dupes and maniacal supporters of Don Mario were
+hurling bullets into the thick doors of the old church in Simiti,
+Wenceslas sat musing in his comfortable study in the cathedral of
+Cartagena, waiting with what patience he could command for further
+reports from Don Mario, whose last letter had informed him that the
+arrest of the priest Jose and his unfortunate victim, Carmen, was only
+a few hours off.
+
+When the first shots rang out, and the bullets ploughed into the hard
+wood of the heavy doors, Jose's heart sank, and he gave himself up as
+lost. Lazaro and Juan cowered upon the floor. Carmen crept close to
+Jose, as he sat limply upon a bench, and put her arms about him.
+
+"Padre dear," she whispered, "it isn't true--it isn't true! They don't
+really want to kill us! They don't--really! Their thoughts have only
+the minus sign!"
+
+The priest clasped her to his breast. The recriminating thought
+flashed over him that he alone was the cause of this. He had
+sacrificed them all--none but he was to blame. Ah, God above! if he
+could only offer himself to satiate the mob's lust, and save these
+innocent ones! Lurid, condemnatory thoughts burned through his brain
+like molten iron. He rose hastily and rushed to the door. Rosendo and
+Don Jorge seized him as he was about to lift a prop.
+
+"What do you mean, Padre?" they exclaimed.
+
+"I am going out, friends--I shall give myself to them for you all. It
+is the only way. I am the one they seek. Let them have me, if they
+will spare you!"
+
+But the firing had ceased, and Don Mario was approaching the door.
+Jose bent down and called to him. "Myself for the others, Don Mario!"
+he cried. "But promise to spare them--but give me your word--and I
+will yield myself to arrest!"
+
+"_Caramba_, fool priest!" shouted the Alcalde in derision. "It is not
+you that the good Bishop wants, but the girl! I have his letters
+demanding that I send her to him! If you will come out, you shall not
+be hurt. Only, Rosendo must stand trial for the harm he did in the
+fight this morning; and the girl must go to Cartagena. As for the rest
+of you, you will be free. Are the terms not reasonable? Give me your
+answer in five minutes."
+
+Jose turned to the little band. There was awful determination in his
+voice. "Juan and Lazaro," he said, "we will open a window quickly in
+the rear of the church and let you out. It is not right that you
+should die with us. And Don Jorge, too--"
+
+"Stop there, _amigo!_" interrupted the latter in a voice as cold as
+steel. "My life has not the value of a white heron. Can I do better
+than give it for a cause that I know to be right? Nay, man, I remain
+with you. Let the lads go, if they will--"
+
+Lazaro forced himself between Don Jorge and the priest. "Padre," he
+said quietly, "to you I owe what I am. I remain here."
+
+Jose looked through the gloom at Juan. The boy's eyes were fixed on
+Carmen. He turned and gazed for a moment at a window, as if hesitating
+between two decisions. Then he shook his head slowly. "Padre," he
+said, though his voice trembled, "I, too, remain."
+
+The Alcalde received his answer with a burst of inarticulate rage. He
+rushed back to his followers with his arms waving wildly. "Shoot!" he
+screamed. "Shoot! Pierce the doors! Batter them down! _Compadres_, get
+the poles and burst in the shutters. _Caramba!_ it is the Government
+they are defying!"
+
+A volley from the rifles followed his words. The thick doors shook
+under the blast. A bullet pierced the wall and whizzed past Carmen.
+Jose seized the girl and drew her down under a bench. The startled
+bats among the roof beams fluttered wildly about through the heavy
+gloom. Frightened rats scurried around the altar. The rusty bell in
+the tower cried out as if in protest against the sacrilege. Juan burst
+into tears and crept beneath a bench.
+
+"Padre," said Rosendo, "it is only a question of time when the doors
+will fall. See--that bullet went clean through! _Bien_, let us place
+the women back of the altar, while we men stand here at one side of
+the doors, so that when they fall we may dash out and cut our way
+through the crowd. If we throw ourselves suddenly upon them, we may
+snatch away a rifle or two. Then Don Jorge and I, with the lads here,
+may drive them back--perhaps beat them! But my first blow shall be for
+Don Mario! I vow here that, if I escape this place, he shall not live
+another hour!"
+
+"Better so, Rosendo, than that they should take us alive. But--Carmen?
+Do we leave her to fall into Don Mario's hands?"
+
+Rosendo's voice, low and cold, froze the marrow in the priest's bones.
+"Padre, she will not fall into the Alcalde's hands."
+
+"God above! Rosendo, do you--"
+
+A piercing cry checked him. "_Santa Virgen! Padre--!_" Lazaro had
+collapsed upon the floor. Rosendo and Jose hurried to him.
+
+"Padre!" The man's breath came in gasps. "Padre--I confess--pray for
+me. It struck me--here!" He struggled to lay a hand upon his bleeding
+breast.
+
+"To the altar, _amigos_!" cried Don Jorge, ducking his head as a
+bullet sang close to it.
+
+Seizing the expiring Lazaro, they hurriedly dragged him down the aisle
+and took refuge back of the brick altar. The bullets, now piercing the
+walls of the church with ease, whizzed about them. One struck the
+pendant figure of the Christ, and it fell crashing to the floor.
+Rosendo stood in horror, as if he expected a miracle to follow this
+act of sacrilege.
+
+"Oh, God!" prayed Jose, "only Thy hand can save us!"
+
+"He will save us, Padre--He will!" cried Carmen, creeping closer to
+him through the darkness. "God is everywhere, and right here!"
+
+"Padre," said Don Jorge hurriedly, "the Host--is it on the altar?"
+
+"Yes--why?" replied the priest.
+
+"Then, when the doors fall, do you stand in front of the altar,
+holding it aloft and calling on the people to stand back, lest the
+hand of God strike them!"
+
+Jose hesitated not. "It is a chance--yes, a bare chance. They will
+stop before it--or they will kill me! But I will do it!"
+
+"Padre! You shall not--Padre! Then I shall stand with you!" Carmen's
+voice broke clear and piercing through the din. Jose struggled to free
+himself from her.
+
+"_Na_, Padre," interposed Rosendo, "it may be better so! Let her stand
+with you! But--_Caramba_! Make haste!"
+
+The clamor without increased. Heavy poles and billets of wood had been
+fetched, and blow after blow now fell upon every shutter and door. The
+sharp spitting of the rifles tore the air, and bullets crashed through
+the walls and windows. In the heavy shadows back of the altar Rosendo
+and Don Jorge crouched over the sobbing women. Lazaro lay very still.
+Jose knew as he stretched out a hand through the darkness and touched
+the cold face that the faithful spirit had fled. How soon his own
+would follow he knew not, nor cared. Keeping close to the floor, he
+crept out and around to the front of the altar. Reaching up, he
+grasped the Sacred Host, and then stood upright, holding it out before
+him. Carmen rose by his side and took his hand. Together in the gloom
+they waited.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 33
+
+
+"Padre! Padre! are you alive?"
+
+Rosendo's hoarse whisper drifted across the silence like a wraith. He
+crept out and along the floor, scarce daring to look up. Through the
+darkness his straining eyes caught the outlines of the two figures
+standing like statues before the altar.
+
+"_Loado sea Dios!_" he cried, and his voice broke with a sob. "But,
+Padre, they have stopped--what has happened?"
+
+"I know not, _amigo_. Be patient. We are in the hands of God--"
+
+"Padre--listen!" Carmen darted from the altar and ran to the door.
+"Padre!" she called back. "Come! Some one is speaking English!"
+
+Jose and Rosendo hurried to the door. All was quiet without, but for
+an animated conversation between Don Mario and some strangers who had
+evidently just arrived upon the scene. One of the latter was speaking
+with the Alcalde in excellent Spanish. Another, evidently unacquainted
+with the language, made frequent interruptions in the English tongue.
+Jose's heart beat wildly.
+
+"Say, Reed," said the voice in English, "tell the parchment-faced old
+buzzard that we appreciate the little comedy he has staged for us.
+Tell him it is bully-bueno, but he must not overdo it. We are plum
+done up, and want a few days of rest."
+
+"What says the senor, _amigo_?" asked Don Mario, with his utmost
+suavity and unction of manner.
+
+"He says," returned the other in Spanish, "that he is delighted with
+the firmness which you display in the administration of your office,
+and that he trusts the bandits within the church may be speedily
+executed."
+
+"Bandits!" ejaculated Don Mario. "Just so, _amigo_! They are those who
+defy the Government as represented by myself!" He straightened up and
+threw out his chest with such an exhibition of importance that the
+strangers with difficulty kept their faces straight.
+
+Carmen and Jose looked at each other in amazement during this
+colloquy.
+
+"Padre!" exclaimed the girl. "Do all who speak English tell such
+lies?"
+
+"Ah!" murmured the one addressed as Reed, directing himself to the
+Alcalde, "how dared they! But, senor, my friend and I have come to
+your beautiful city on business of the utmost importance, in which
+you doubtless will share largely. I would suggest," looking with
+amusement at the array of armed men about him, "that your prisoners
+are in no immediate likelihood of escaping, and you might leave them
+under close guard while we discuss our business. A--a--we hear
+reports, senor, that there is likely to be trouble in the country, and
+we are desirous of getting out as soon as possible."
+
+"_Cierto! Cierto, senores!_" exclaimed Don Mario, bowing low. "It
+shall be as you say." Turning to the gaping people, he selected
+several to do guard duty, dismissed the others, and then bade the
+strangers follow him to his house, which, he declared vehemently, was
+theirs as long as they might honor him with their distinguished
+presence.
+
+The sudden turn of events left the little group within the church in a
+maze of bewilderment. They drew together in the center of the room and
+talked in low whispers until the sun dropped behind the hills and
+night drifted through the quiet streets. Late that evening came a
+tapping at the rear door of the church, and a voice called softly to
+the priest. Jose roused out of his gloomy revery and hastened to
+answer it.
+
+"It is Fernando, Padre. I am on guard; but no one must know that I
+talk with you. But--Padre, if you open the door and escape, I will not
+see you. I am sorry, Padre, but it could not be helped. Don Mario has
+us all frightened, for the Bishop--"
+
+"True, _amigo_," returned Jose; "but the strangers who arrived this
+afternoon--who are they, and whence?"
+
+"Two _Americanos_, Padre, and miners."
+
+Jose studied a moment. "Fernando--you would aid me? _Bien_, get word
+to the stranger who speaks both English and Spanish. Bring him here,
+secretly, and stand guard yourself while I talk with him."
+
+"Gladly, Padre," returned the penitent fellow, as he hastened quietly
+away.
+
+An hour later Jose was again roused by Fernando tapping on the door.
+
+"Open, Padre. Fear not; only the _Americano_ will enter. Don Mario
+does not know."
+
+Jose lifted the prop and swung the door open. Rosendo stood with
+uplifted _machete_. A man entered from the blackness without. Jose
+quickly closed the door, and then addressed him in English.
+
+"Great Scott!" exclaimed the stranger in a mellow voice. "I had no
+idea I should find any one in this God-forsaken town who could speak
+real United States!"
+
+Jose drew him into the _sacristia_. Neither man could see the other in
+the dense blackness.
+
+"Tell me, friend," began Jose, "who you are, and where you come
+from."
+
+"Reed--Charles Reed--New York--mining engineer--down here to examine
+the so-called mines of the Molino Company, now gasping its last while
+awaiting our report. Arrived this afternoon from Badillo with my
+partner, fellow named Harris. But--great heavens, man! you certainly
+were in a stew when we appeared! And why don't you escape now?"
+
+"Escape, friend? Where? Even if we passed the guard, where would we
+go? There are two women, a girl, and a babe with us. We have little
+food and no money. Should we gain the Boque or Guamoco trail, we would
+be pursued and shot down. There is a chance here--none in flight!
+
+"But now, Mr. Reed," continued Jose earnestly, "will you get word from
+me to the Bishop in Cartagena that our church has been attacked--that
+its priest is besieged by the Alcalde, and his life in jeopardy?"
+
+"Assuredly--but how?"
+
+"You have money?" said Jose, speaking rapidly. "Good. Your _bogas_
+have not returned to Badillo?"
+
+"No, they are staying here for the big show. Execution of the
+traitors, you know."
+
+"Then, friend, send them at dawn to Bodega Central. Let them take a
+message to be sent by the telegraph from that place. Tell the
+Bishop--"
+
+"Sure!" interrupted the other. "Leave it to me. I'll fix up a message
+that will bring him by return boat! I've been talking with the
+Honorable Alcalde and I've got his exact number. Say, he certainly is
+the biggest damn--beg pardon; I mean, the biggest numbskull I have
+ever run across--and that's saying considerable for a mining man!"
+
+"Go, friend!" said Jose, making no other reply to the man's words. "Go
+quickly--and use what influence you have with the Alcalde to save us.
+We have women here--and a young girl!" He found the American's hand
+and led him out into the night.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Wenceslas Ortiz stood before the Departmental Governor. His face was
+deeply serious, and his demeanor expressed the utmost gravity. In his
+hand he held a despatch. The Governor sat at his desk, nervously
+fumbling a pen.
+
+"_Bien, Senor_," said Wenceslas quietly, "do you act--or shall I take
+it to His Excellency, the President?"
+
+The Governor moved uneasily in his chair. "_Caramba!_" he blurted out.
+"The report is too meager! And yet, I cannot see but that the Alcalde
+acted wholly within his rights!"
+
+"Your Excellency, he seizes government arms--he attacks the church--he
+attempts to destroy the life of its priest. Nominally acting for the
+Government; at heart, anticlerical. Is it not evident? Will the
+Government clear itself now of the suspicion which this has aroused?"
+
+"But the priest--did you not say only last week that he himself had
+published a book violently anticlerical in tone?"
+
+"Senor, we will not discuss the matter further," said Wenceslas,
+moving toward the door. "Your final decision--you will send troops to
+Simiti, or no?"
+
+"Certainly not! The evidence warrants no interference from me!"
+
+Wenceslas courteously bowed himself out. Once beyond the door, he
+breathed a great sigh of relief. "_Santa Virgen!_" he muttered, "but I
+took a chance! Had he yielded and sent troops, all would have been
+spoiled. Now for Bogota!"
+
+He entered his carriage and was driven hurriedly to his _sanctum_.
+There he despatched a long message to the President of the Republic.
+At noon he had a reply. He mused over it for the space of an hour.
+Then he framed another despatch. "Your Excellency," it read, "the
+Church supports the Administration."
+
+Late that evening a second message from Bogota was put into his hand.
+He tore it open and read, "The Hercules ordered to Simiti."
+
+"Ah," he sighed, sinking into his chair. "At last! The President
+interferes! And now a wire to Ames. And--_Caramba_, yes! A message to
+the captain of the Hercules to bring me that girl!"
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Well, old man, I've done all I could to stave off the blundering
+idiot; but I guess you are in for it! The jig is up, I'm thinking!"
+
+It was Reed talking. Simiti again slept, while the American and Jose
+in the _sacristia_ talked long and earnestly. Fernando kept guard at
+the door. The other prisoners lay wrapped in slumber.
+
+"Your message went down the river two days ago," continued Reed. "And,
+believe me! since then I've racked my dusty brain for topics to keep
+the Alcalde occupied and forgetful of you. But I'm dryer than a desert
+now; and he vows that to-morrow you and your friends will be dragged
+out of this old shack by your necks, and then shot."
+
+The two days had been filled with exquisite torture for Jose. Only the
+presence of Carmen restrained him from rushing out and ending it all.
+Her faith had been his constant marvel. Every hour, every moment, she
+knew only the immanence of her God; whereas he, obedient to the
+undulating Rincon character-curve, expressed the mutability of his
+faith in hourly alternations of optimism and black despair. After
+periods of exalted hope, stimulated by the girl's sublime confidence,
+there would come the inevitable backward rush of all the chilling
+fear, despondency, and false thought which he had just expelled in
+vain, and he would be left again floundering helplessly in the dismal
+labyrinth of terrifying doubts.
+
+The quiet which enwrapped them during these days of imprisonment; the
+gloom-shrouded church; the awed hush that lay upon them in the
+presence of the dead Lazaro, stimulated the feeble and sensitive
+spirit of the priest to an unwonted degree of introspection, and he
+sat for hours gazing blankly into the ghastly emptiness of his past.
+
+He saw how at the first, when Carmen entered his life with the
+stimulus of her buoyant faith, there had seemed to follow an emptying
+of self, a quick clearing of his mentality, and a replacement of much
+of the morbid thought, which clung limpet-like to his mentality, by
+new and wonderfully illuminating ideas. For a while he had seemed to
+be on the road to salvation; he felt that he had touched the robe of
+the Christ, and heavenly virtue had entered into his being.
+
+But then the shadows began to gather once more. He did not cling to
+the new truths and spiritual ideas tenaciously enough to work them out
+in demonstration. He had proved shallow soil, whereon the seed had
+fallen, only to be choked by the weeds which grew apace therein. The
+troubles which clustered thick about him after his first few months in
+Simiti had seemed to hamper his freer limbs, and check his upward
+progress. Constant conflict with Diego, with Don Mario, and Wenceslas;
+the pressure from his mother and his uncle, had kept him looking, now
+at evil, now at good, giving life and power to each in turn, and
+wrestling incessantly with the false concepts which his own mentality
+kept ever alive. Worrying himself free from one set of human beliefs,
+he fell again into the meshes of others. Though he thought he knew the
+truth--though he saw it lived and demonstrated by Carmen--he had yet
+been afraid to throw himself unreservedly upon his convictions. And so
+he daily paid the dire penalty which error failed not to exact.
+
+But Carmen, the object of by far the greater part of all his anxious
+thought, had moved as if in response to a beckoning hand that remained
+invisible to him. Each day she had grown more beautiful. And each
+day, too, she had seemed to draw farther away from him, as she
+rose steadily out of the limited encompassment in which they
+dwelt. Not by conscious design did she appear to separate from him,
+but inevitably, because of his own narrow capacity for true
+spiritual intercourse with such a soul as hers. He shared her
+ideals; he had sought in his way to attain them; he had striven,
+too, to comprehend her spirit, which in his heart he knew to be a
+bright reflection of the infinite Spirit which is God. But as the
+years passed he had found his efforts to be like her more and more
+clumsy and blundering, and his responses to her spiritual demands less
+and less vigorous. At times he seemed to catch glimpses of her
+soul that awed him. At others he would feel himself half inclined
+to share the people's belief that she was possessed of powers
+occult. And then he would sink into despair of ever understanding the
+girl--for he knew that to do so he must be like her, even as to
+understand God we must become like Him.
+
+After her fourteenth birthday Jose found himself rapidly ceasing to
+regard Carmen as a mere child. Not that she did not still often
+seem delightfully immature, when her spirits would flow wildly, and
+she would draw him into the frolics which had yielded her such
+extravagant joy in former days; but that the growth of knowledge and
+the rapid development of her thought had seemed to bring to her a
+deepening sense of responsibility, a growing impression of maturity,
+and an increasing regard for the meaning of life and her part in
+it. She had ceased to insist that she would never leave Simiti. And
+Jose often thought of late, as he watched her, that he detected
+signs of irksomeness at the limitations which her environment
+imposed upon her. But, if so, these were never openly expressed; nor
+did her manner ever change toward her foster-parents, or toward the
+simple and uncomprehending folk of her native town.
+
+From the first, Jose had constituted himself her teacher, guide, and
+protector. And she had joyously accepted him. His soured and
+rebellious nature had been no barrier to her great love, which had
+twined about his heart like ivy around a crumbling tower. And his love
+for the child had swelled like a torrent, fed hourly by countless
+uncharted streams. He had watched over her like a father; he had
+rejoiced to see her bloom into a beauty as rich and luxuriant as the
+tropical foliage; he had gazed for hours into the unsearchable abyss
+of her black eyes and read there, in ecstasy, a wondrous response to
+his love; and when, but a few short days ago, she had again intimated
+a future union, a union upon which, even as a child, she had insisted,
+yet one which he knew--had always known--utterly, extravagantly
+impossible--he had, nevertheless, seized upon the thought with a joy
+that was passionate, desperate--and had then flung it from him with a
+cry of agony. It was not the disparity of ages; it was not the girl's
+present immaturity. In less than a year she would have attained the
+marriageable age of these Latin countries. But he could wait two,
+three, aye, ten years for such a divine gift! No; the shadow which lay
+upon his life was cast by the huge presence of the master whose chains
+he wore, the iron links of which, galling his soul, he knew to be
+unbreakable. And, as he sat in the gloom of the decayed old church
+where he was now a prisoner, the thought that his situation but
+symbolized an imprisonment in bonds eternal roused him to a
+half-frenzied resolve to destroy himself.
+
+"Padre dear," the girl had whispered to him that night, just before
+the American came again with his disquieting report, "Love will open
+the door--Love will set us free. We are not afraid. Remember, Paul
+thanked God for freedom even while he sat in chains. And I am just as
+thankful as he."
+
+Jose knew as he kissed her tenderly and bade her go to her place of
+rest on the bench beside Dona Maria that death stood between her and
+the stained hand of Wenceslas Ortiz.
+
+As morning reddened in the eastern sky Don Mario, surrounded by an
+armed guard and preceded by his secretary, who beat lustily upon a
+small drum, marched pompously down the main street and across the
+_plaza_ to the church. Holding his cane aloft he ascended the steps of
+the platform and again loudly demanded the surrender of the prisoners
+within.
+
+"On what terms, Don Mario?" asked Jose.
+
+"The same," reiterated the Alcalde vigorously.
+
+Jose sighed. "Then we will die, Don Mario," he replied sadly, moving
+away from the door and leading his little band of harried followers to
+the rear of the altar.
+
+The Alcalde quickly descended the steps and shouted numerous orders.
+Several of his men hurried off in various directions, while those
+remaining at once opened fire upon the church. In a few moments the
+firing was increased, and the entire attack was concentrated upon the
+front doors.
+
+The din without became horrible. Shouts and curses filled the morning
+air. But it was evident to Jose that his besiegers were meeting with
+no opposition from his own supporters in the fight of two days before.
+The sight of the deadly rifles in the hands of Don Mario's party had
+quickly quenched their loyalty to Jose, and led them basely to abandon
+him and his companions to their fate.
+
+After a few minutes of vigorous assault the attack abruptly ceased,
+and Jose was called again to the door.
+
+"It's Reed," came the American's voice. He spoke in English. "I've
+persuaded the old carrion to let me have a moment's pow-wow with you.
+Say, give the old buzzard what he wants. Otherwise it's sure death for
+you all. I've argued myself sick with him, but he's as set as
+concrete. I'll do what I can for you if you come out; but he's going
+to have the girl, whether or no. Seems that the Bishop of Cartagena
+wants her; and the old crow here is playing politics with him."
+
+"Yes, old man," chimed in another voice, which Jose knew to be that of
+Harris. "You know these fellows are hell on politics."
+
+"Shut up, Harris!" growled Reed. Then to Jose, "What'll I tell the old
+duffer?"
+
+"Lord Harry!" ejaculated Harris, "if I had a couple of Mausers I could
+put these ancient Springfields on the bum in a hurry!"
+
+"Tell him, friend, that we are prepared to die," replied Jose
+drearily, as he turned back into the gloom and took Carmen's hand.
+
+The final assault began, and Jose knew that it was only a question of
+minutes when the trembling doors would fall. He crouched with his
+companions behind the altar, awaiting the inevitable. Carmen held his
+hand tightly.
+
+"Love will save us, Padre," she whispered. "Love them! Love them,
+Padre! They don't know what is using them--and it has no power! God is
+here--is everywhere! Love will save us!"
+
+Rosendo bent over and whispered to Don Jorge, "When the doors fall and
+the men rush in, stand you here with me! When they reach the altar we
+will throw ourselves upon them, I first, you following, while Juan
+will bring Carmen and try to protect her. With our _machetes_ we will
+cut our way out. If we find that it is hopeless--then give me
+Carmen!"
+
+A moment later, as with a loud wail, the two front doors burst asunder
+and fell crashing to the floor. A flood of golden sunlight poured into
+the dark room. In its yellow wake rushed the mob, with exultant yells.
+Rosendo rose quickly and placed himself at the head of his little
+band.
+
+But, ere the first of the frenzied besiegers had crossed the threshold
+of the church, a loud cry arose in the _plaza_.
+
+"The soldiers! _Dios arriba_! The soldiers!"
+
+Down the main thoroughfare came a volley of shots. Don Mario, half way
+through the church door, froze in his tracks. Those of his followers
+who had entered, turned quickly and made pellmell for the exit. Their
+startled gaze met a company of federal troops rushing down the street,
+firing as they came. Don Mario strained after his flying wits.
+
+"Close the doors!" he yelled. But the doors were prone upon the floor,
+and could not be replaced. Then he and his men scrambled out and
+rushed around to one side of the building. As the soldiers came
+running up, the Alcalde's followers fired point blank into their
+faces, then dropped their guns and fled precipitately.
+
+It was all over in a trice. Within an hour staid old Simiti lay in the
+grip of martial law, with its once overweening Alcalde, now a meek and
+frightened prisoner, arraigned before Captain Morales, holding court
+in the shabby town hall.
+
+But the court-martial was wholly perfunctory. Though none there but
+himself knew it, the captain had come with the disposal of the
+unfortunate Don Mario prearranged. A perfunctory hearing of witnesses,
+which but increased his approval of his orders, and he pronounced
+sentence upon the former Alcalde, and closed the case.
+
+"Attack upon the church--Assassination of the man Lazaro--Firing upon
+federal soldiers--To be shot at sunset, senor," he concluded
+solemnly.
+
+Don Mario sank to the floor in terror. "_Caramba! caramba_!" he
+howled. "But I had letters from the Bishop! I was ordered by him to do
+it!"
+
+"_Bien_, senor," replied the captain, whose heart was not wholly
+devoid of pity, "produce your letters."
+
+"_Dios arriba_! I burned them! He said I should! I obeyed him!
+_Caramba_! I am lost--lost!"
+
+"_Senor Capitan_," interposed Jose, "may I plead for the man? He
+is--"
+
+"There, Padre," returned the captain, holding up a hand, "it is
+useless. Doubtless this has been brought about by motives which you do
+not understand. It is unfortunate--but inevitable. You have a _carcel_
+here? _Bien_," addressing his lieutenant, "remove the prisoner to it,
+and at sunset let the sentence be carried out."
+
+Don Mario, screaming with fear, was dragged from the room.
+
+"And now, senores," continued the captain calmly, as if nothing out of
+the ordinary had occurred, "I appoint Don Fernando, former secretary,
+as temporary Alcalde, until such time as the Governor may fill the
+office permanently. And," he continued, looking about the room with a
+heavy scowl, while the timid people shrank against the wall, "as for
+those misguided ones who took part with Don Mario in this anticlerical
+uprising--his fate will serve, I think, as a warning!"
+
+A hush of horror lay upon the stunned people as they filed slowly out
+of the room.
+
+"_Bien_," added the captain, addressing Fernando, "quarters for my
+men, and rations. We return to the Hercules at daybreak. And let all
+arms and ammunition be collected. Every house must be searched. And we
+shall want _peones_ to carry it to the river."
+
+Jose turned away, sick with the horror of it all. A soldier approached
+him with a message from Don Mario. The condemned man was asking for
+the last rites. Faint and trembling, the priest accompanied the
+messenger to the jail.
+
+"Padre! _Dios arriba_!" wailed the terrified and bewildered Don Mario.
+"It was a mistake! Don Wenceslas--"
+
+"Yes, I understand, Don Mario," interrupted Jose, tenderly taking the
+man's hand. "He told you to do it."
+
+"Yes, Padre," sobbed the unfortunate victim. "He said that I would be
+rich--that I would be elected to Congress--ah, the traitor! And,
+Padre--I burned his letters because it was his wish! Ah, _Santa
+Virgen_!" He put his head on the priest's shoulder and wept
+violently.
+
+Jose's heart was wrung; but he was powerless to aid the man. And yet,
+as he dwelt momentarily on his own sorrows, he almost envied the fate
+which had overtaken the misguided Don Mario.
+
+The lieutenant entered. "_Senor Padre_," he said, "the sun is low. In
+a quarter of an hour--"
+
+Don Mario sank to the ground and clasped the priest's knees. Jose held
+up his hand, and the lieutenant, bowing courteously, withdrew. The
+priest knelt beside the cowering prisoner.
+
+"Don Mario," he said gently, holding the man's hand, "confess all to
+me. It may be the means of saving other lives--and then you will have
+expiated your own crimes."
+
+"Padre," moaned the stricken man, rocking back and forth, his head
+buried in his hands and tears streaming through his fingers, "Padre,
+you will forgive--?"
+
+"Aye, Don Mario, everything. And the Christ forgives. Your sins are
+remitted. But remove now the last burden from your soul--the guilty
+knowledge of the part Don Wenceslas has had in the disaster which has
+come upon Simiti. Tell it all, friend, for you may save many precious
+lives thereby."
+
+The fallen Alcalde roused himself by a mighty effort. Forgetting for
+the moment his own dire predicament, he opened his heart. Jose sat
+before him in wide-mouthed astonishment. Don Mario's confession
+brought a revelation that left him cold. The lieutenant entered
+again.
+
+"One moment," said Jose. Then, to Don Mario: "And Carmen?"
+
+Don Mario leaned close to the priest and whispered low. "No, she is
+not Diego's child! And, Padre, take her away, at once! But out of the
+country! There is not an inch of ground in all Colombia now where she
+would be safe from Don Wenceslas!"
+
+Jose's head sank upon his breast. Then he again took Don Mario's
+hand.
+
+"Friend," he said gravely, "rest assured, what you have told me saves
+at least one life, and removes the sin with which your own was
+stained. And now," rising and turning to the waiting lieutenant, "we
+are ready."
+
+_Ora pro nobis! Ora pro nobis! Santa Virgen, San Salvador, ora pro
+nobis!_
+
+A few minutes later a sharp report echoed through the Simiti valley
+and startled the herons that were seeking their night's rest on the
+wooded isle. Then Jose de Rincon, alone, and with a heart of lead,
+moved slowly down through the dreary village and crossed the deserted
+_plaza_ to his lowly abode.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 34
+
+
+The low-hung moon, shrouded in heavy vapor, threw an eldritch shimmer
+upon the little group that silently bore the body of the martyred
+Lazaro from the old church late that night to the dreary cemetery on
+the hill. Jose took but a reluctant part in the proceedings. He would
+even have avoided this last service to his faithful friend if he
+could. It seemed to him as he stumbled along the stony road behind the
+body which Rosendo and Don Jorge carried that his human endurance had
+been strained so far beyond the elastic limit that there could now be
+no rebound. Every thought that touched his sore mind made it bleed
+anew, for every thought that he accepted was acrid, rasping,
+oppressive. The sheer weight of foreboding, of wild apprehension, of
+paralyzing fear, crushed him, until his shoulders bent low as he
+walked. How, lest he perform a miracle, could he hope to extricate
+himself and his loved ones from the meshes of the net, far-cast, but
+with unerring aim, which had fallen upon them?
+
+As he passed the town hall he saw through the open door the captain's
+cot, and a guard standing motionless beside it. The captain had
+elected to remain there for the night, while his men found a prickly
+hospitality among the cowering townsfolk. Jose knew now that the hand
+which Don Mario had dealt himself in the game inaugurated by Wenceslas
+had been from a stacked deck. He knew that the President of the
+Republic had ordered Morales to this inoffensive little town to quell
+an alleged anticlerical uprising, and that the execution of the
+misguided Alcalde had been determined long before the Hercules had got
+under way. He could see that it was necessary for the Government to
+sacrifice its agent in the person of the Alcalde, in order to prove
+its own loyalty to the Church. And in return therefor he knew it would
+expect, not without reason, the cooeperation of the Church in case the
+President's interference in the province of Bolivar should precipitate
+a general revolt.
+
+But what had been determined upon as his own fate? He had not the
+semblance of an idea. From the confession of the ruined Alcalde he now
+knew that Don Mario had been poisoned against him from the beginning;
+that even the letters of introduction which Wenceslas had given him to
+the Alcalde contained the charge of his having accomplished the ruin
+of the girl Maria in Cartagena, and of his previous incarceration in
+the monastery of Palazzola. And Don Mario had confessed in his last
+moments that Wenceslas had sought to work through him and Jose in the
+hope that the location of the famous mine, La Libertad, might be
+revealed. Don Mario had been instructed to get what he could out of
+this scion of Rincon; and only his own greed and cupidity had caused
+him to play fast and loose with both sides until, falling before the
+allurements which Wenceslas held out, he had rushed madly into his own
+destruction. Jose realized that so far he himself had proved extremely
+useful to Wenceslas--but had his usefulness ended? At these thoughts
+his soul momentarily suffused with the pride of the old and hectoring
+Rincon stock and rose, instinct with revolt--but only to sink again in
+helpless resignation, while the shadow of despair rolled in and
+quenched his feeble determination.
+
+Rosendo and Don Jorge placed the body in one of the vacant vaults and
+filled the entrance with some loose bricks. Then they stood back
+expectantly. It was now the priest's turn. He had a part to perform,
+out there on the bleak hilltop in the ghostly light. But Jose remained
+motionless and silent, his head sunk upon his breast.
+
+Then Rosendo, waxing troubled, spoke in gentle admonition. "He would
+expect it, you know, Padre."
+
+Jose turned away from the lonely vault. Bitter tears coursed down his
+cheeks, and his voice broke. He laid his head on Rosendo's stalwart
+shoulder and wept aloud.
+
+The sickly, greenish cast of the moonlight silhouetted the figures of
+the three men in grotesque shapes against the cemetery wall and the
+crumbling tombs. The morose call of a toucan floated weirdly upon the
+heavy air. The faint wail of the frogs in the shallow waters below
+rose like the despairing sighs of lost souls.
+
+Rosendo wound his long arm about the sorrowing priest. Don Jorge's
+muscles knotted, and a muttered imprecation rose from his tight lips.
+Strangely had the shift and coil of the human mind thrown together
+these three men, so different in character, yet standing now in united
+protest against the misery which men heap upon their fellow-men in the
+name of Christ. Jose, the apostate agent of Holy Church, his hands
+bound, and his heart bursting with yearning toward his fellow-men;
+Rosendo, simple-minded and faithful, chained to the Church by heredity
+and association, yet ashamed of its abuses and lusts; Don Jorge,
+fierce in his denunciation of the political and religious sham and
+hypocrisy which he saw masking behind the cloak of imperial religion.
+
+"I have nothing to say, friends," moaned Jose, raising his head;
+"nothing that would not still further reveal my own miserable weakness
+and the despicable falsity of the Church. If the Church had followed
+the Christ, it would have taught me to do likewise; and I should now
+call to Lazaro and bid him come forth, instead of shamefully
+confessing my impotency and utter lack of spirituality, even while I
+pose as an _Alter Christus_."
+
+"You--you will leave a blessing with him before we go, Padre?" queried
+the anxious Rosendo, clinging still to the frayed edge of his fathers'
+faith.
+
+"My blessing, Rosendo," replied Jose sadly, "would do no good. He lies
+there because we have utterly forgotten what the Master came to teach.
+He lies there because of our false, undemonstrable, mortal beliefs.
+Oh, that the Church, instead of wasting time murmuring futile prayers
+over dead bodies, had striven to learn to do the deeds which the
+Christ said we should all do if we but kept his commandments!"
+
+"But, Padre, you will say Masses for him?" pursued Rosendo.
+
+"Masses? No, I can not--now. I would not take his or your money to
+give to the Church to get his soul out of an imagined purgatory which
+the Church long ago invented for the purpose of enriching herself
+materially--for, alas! after spiritual riches she has had little
+hankering."
+
+"To pay God to get His own children out of the flames, eh?" suggested
+Don Jorge. "It is what I have always said, the religion of the Church
+is a _religion de dinero_. If there ever was a God, either He is still
+laughing Himself sick at our follies--or else He has wept Himself to
+death over them! Jesus Christ taught no such stuff!"
+
+"Friend," said Jose solemnly, turning to Don Jorge, "I long since
+learned what the whole world must learn some time, that the Church
+stands to-day, not as the bride of the Christ, but as the incarnation
+of the human mind, as error opposed to Truth. It is the embodiment of
+'Who shall be greatest?' It is one of the various phenomena of the
+human mentality; and its adherents are the victims of authoritative
+falsehood. Its Mass and countless other ceremonies differ in no
+essential respect from ancient pagan worship. Of spirituality it has
+none. And so it can do none of the works of the Master. Its corrupting
+faith is foully materialistic. It has been weighed and found wanting.
+And as the human mind expands, the incoming light must drive out the
+black beliefs and deeds of Holy Church, else the oncoming centuries
+will have no place for it."
+
+"I believe you!" ejaculated Don Jorge. "But why do you still remain a
+priest? _Hombre_! I knew when I saw you on the river boat that you
+were none. But," his voice dropping to a whisper, "there is a soldier
+in the road below. It would be well to leave. He might think we were
+here to plot."
+
+When the soldier had passed, they quietly left the gloomy cemetery and
+made their way quickly back through the straggling moonlight to
+Rosendo's house. Dona Maria, with characteristic quietude, was
+preparing for the duties of the approaching day. Carmen lay asleep.
+Jose went to her bedside and bent over her, wondering. What were the
+events of the past few days in her sight? How did she interpret them?
+Was her faith still unshaken? What did Lazaro's death and the
+execution of Don Mario mean to her? Did she, as he had done, look upon
+them as real events in a real world, created and governed by a good
+God? Or did she still hold such things to be the unreal phenomena of
+the human mentality?--unreal, because opposed to God, and without the
+infinite principle. As for himself, how had the current of his life
+been diverted by this rare child! What had she not sought to teach him
+by her simple faith, her unshaken trust in the immanence of good!
+True, as a pure reflection of good she had seemed to be the means of
+stirring up tremendous evil. But had he not seen the evil eventually
+consume itself, leaving her unscathed? And yet, would this continue?
+He himself had always conceded to the forces of evil as great power as
+to those of good--nay, even greater. And even now as he stood looking
+at her, wrapped in peaceful slumber, his strained sight caught no
+gleam of hope, no light flashing through the heavy clouds of
+misfortune that lowered above her. He turned away with an anxious
+sigh.
+
+"Padre," said the gentle Dona Maria, "the two _Americanos_--"
+
+"Ah, yes," interrupted Jose, suddenly remembering that he had sent
+word to them to use his house while they remained in the town. "They
+had escaped my thought. _Bien_, they are--?"
+
+"They brought their baggage to your house an hour ago and set up their
+beds in your living room. They will be asleep by now."
+
+"Good," he replied, a wistful sense of gratitude stealing over him at
+the reassuring thought of their presence. "_Bien_, we will not disturb
+them."
+
+Summoning Rosendo and Don Jorge, the three men sought the lake's edge.
+There, seated on the loose shales, they wrestled with their problem
+until dawn spread her filmy veil over the shimmering stars.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Long before sun-up the soldiers and the _peones_, whom Captain Morales
+had impressed, were busy gathering the commandeered rifles and
+carrying them down to the gunboat Hercules, waiting at the mouth of
+the Boque river, some six or eight miles distant, and over a wild
+trail. The townsfolk, thoroughly frightened, hugged the shelter of
+their homes, and left the streets to the troops. Though they detested
+the soldiers, yet none would lightly risk a blow from the heavy hand
+of Morales, whose authority on a punitive expedition of this sort was
+unlimited. The summary execution of the Alcalde had stricken them with
+horror, and left an impression which never would be erased from their
+memories.
+
+Immediately after the early _desayuno_ the captain appeared at
+Rosendo's door. He had come to say farewell to the priest. All of the
+soldiers had disappeared down the trail, with the exception of the two
+who formed the captain's small personal escort.
+
+"_Conque, adios, Senor Padre_" he called cheerily, as he approached.
+Jose was sitting at table with Rosendo's family and Don Jorge.
+Instinctively he rose hastily, and seizing Carmen, thrust her into the
+adjoining bedroom and closed the door. Then he went out to face the
+captain.
+
+"Much excitement for your little _pueblo_, no?" exclaimed the captain
+with a bluff laugh as he grasped Jose's hand. "But a lesson like this
+will last a century. I rejoice that I found it unnecessary to burn the
+town."
+
+Jose trembled as he replied. "_Senor Capitan_, I, too, rejoice.
+But--the state of the country--what may we expect?"
+
+The captain laughed again. "_Caramba, Padre mio_! who can say? There
+is much talk, many angry looks, much gesturing and waving of hands.
+Congress still sits. The President sees fit to send me here, without
+order from the Departmental Governor. _Hombre_! what will follow?
+_Quien sabe_?" He shrugged his shoulders with that expressive Latin
+gesture which indicates complete irresponsibility for and indifference
+to results.
+
+Jose's heart began to beat more regularly. He again took the captain's
+hand. He was eager to see him depart. "_Bueno pues, Senor Capitan_,"
+he said hurriedly. "I wish you every felicitation on your return trip.
+Ah--ah--your orders contained no reference to--to me?" he added
+hesitatingly.
+
+"None whatever, _Senor Padre_," replied the captain genially. He
+turned to go, and Jose stifled a great sigh of relief. But suddenly
+the captain stopped; then turned again.
+
+"_Caramba_!" he ejaculated, "I nearly forgot! _Hombre_! what would His
+Grace have said?"
+
+He fumbled in an inner pocket and drew forth a telegraphic document.
+
+"_And you will seize the person of one Rosendo Ariza's daughter and
+immediately send her with proper conveyance to the Sister Superior of
+the convent of Our Lady in Cartagena_," he read aloud.
+
+Jose froze to the spot. From within Rosendo's house came a soft,
+scurrying sound. Then he heard a movement in his own. Morales returned
+the folded message to his pocket and started to enter the house. Jose
+could offer no resistance. He was rendered suddenly inert, although
+vividly conscious of a drama about to be enacted in which he and his
+loved ones would play leading _roles_. As in a dream he heard the
+captain address Rosendo and gruffly demand that he produce his
+daughter. He heard a deep curse from Rosendo; and his blood congealed
+more thickly as he dwelt momentarily on the old man's possible conduct
+in the face of the federal demand. He heard Morales hunting
+impatiently through the shabby rooms. Then he saw him emerge in a
+towering rage--but empty-handed.
+
+"_Caramba_, Padre!" cried the angry captain, "but what is this? Have
+they not had one good lesson, that I must inflict another? I demand to
+know, has this Rosendo Ariza a daughter?"
+
+He stood waiting for the answer that Jose knew he must make. The
+priest's hollow voice sounded like an echo from another world.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"_Bien_, then I have discovered one honest man in yourself, Padre. You
+will now assist me in finding her."
+
+"I--I know not--where--where she is, _Senor Capitan_," murmured Jose
+with feebly fluttering lips.
+
+They were alone, this little party of actors, although many an eye
+peered out timidly at them from behind closed shutters and barred
+doors around the _plaza_. Don Jorge and Rosendo came out of the house
+and stood behind Jose. The captain confronted them, bristling with
+wrath at the insolence that dared oppose his supreme authority. The
+heat had already begun to pour down in torrents. The morning air was
+light, but not a sound traversed it. The principals in this tense
+drama might have been painted against that vivid tropical background.
+
+Then Harris, moved by his piquant Yankee curiosity, appeared at the
+door of the parish house, his great eyes protruding and his head
+craned forth like a monster heron. Morales saw him. "Ha!" he
+exclaimed. "Perhaps the _Americano_ hides the daughter of Ariza!"
+
+He started for the priest's door. But ere he reached it Reed suddenly
+appeared from behind Harris. In his hand he grasped a large American
+flag. Holding this high above his head, he blocked the entrance.
+
+"Hold! _Senor Capitan_!" he cried in his perfect Spanish. "We are
+American citizens, and this house is under the protection of the
+American Government!"
+
+Morales fell back and stood with mouth agape in astonishment. The
+audacity of this foreign adventurer fairly robbed him of his breath.
+He glanced dubiously from him to the priest. Then, to save the
+situation, he broke into an embarrassed laugh.
+
+"_Bien_, my good friend," he finally said, addressing Reed in his
+courtliest manner, "all respect to your excellent Government. And, if
+you will accept it, I shall be pleased to secure you a commission in
+the Colombian army. But, my orders--you understand, do you not? The
+sun is already high, and I can not lose more time. Therefore, you will
+kindly stand aside and permit me to search that house." He motioned to
+his men and moved forward.
+
+Still holding aloft the flag, Reed drew a long revolver. Harris
+quickly produced one of equal size and wicked appearance. Morales
+stopped abruptly and looked at them in hesitation. He knew what he
+might expect. He had heard much of American bravery. His chief delight
+when not in the field was the perusal of a battered history of the
+American Civil War; and his exclamations of admiration for the
+hardihood of those who participated in it were always loud and
+frequent. But he, too, had a reputation to sustain. The Americans
+stood grimly silent before him. Harris's finger twitched nervously
+along the trigger, and a smile played over his thin lips. The man was
+aching for a scrimmage.
+
+Then, his face flaming with shame and chagrin, Morales turned to his
+escort and commanded them to advance.
+
+Up went the two revolvers. A moment more, and--
+
+A cry came from Rosendo's house. Ana, her face swollen with weeping,
+clasping her sightless babe to her bosom, had emerged and faced the
+captain.
+
+"Senor," she said in a voice strained to a whisper, "I am the daughter
+of Rosendo Ariza."
+
+A half-suppressed exclamation burst from the lips of Rosendo. A
+desperate, suffocating joy surged over the riven soul of the priest.
+Don Jorge's mouth opened, but no sound came forth. This precipitate
+_denouement_ held them rigid with astonishment.
+
+A heavy silence descended upon them all. In the eyes of Jose Ana's
+tense figure, standing grim and rigid before the captain, took on a
+dignity that was majestic, a worth that transcended all human
+computation. A Magdalen, yes, standing with her sin-conceived child
+clasped in her trembling arms. But this act--God above! this
+sacrificial act broke the alabaster box and spread the precious nard
+over the feet of the pitying Christ.
+
+Morales turned questioningly to Jose. "Is this true, Padre?" he
+asked.
+
+"It is," murmured the dazed priest, scarce hearing his own words.
+
+"But--I have no orders respecting a child--"
+
+"They cannot be separated," half whispered Jose, not daring to meet
+the vacant gaze of the babe.
+
+The captain hesitated a moment longer. Then, with an upward glance at
+the sun, he gave a sharp command to his men. Placing the woman between
+them, the two soldiers faced about and moved quickly away. With a low
+bow and a final "_Adios, Senores_," the captain hurriedly joined them.
+Ere the little group before Rosendo's house had collected their wits,
+the soldiers and their frail charge had mounted the hill beyond the
+old church and disappeared into the matted trail that led from it to
+the distant river.
+
+Rosendo was the first to break the mesmeric silence. "_Dios arriba_!"
+he cried. His knees gave way beneath him and he buried his face in his
+hands. "Anita--!"
+
+Then he rose hastily, and made as if to pursue the soldiers. Jose and
+Don Jorge restrained him.
+
+"_Hombre_!" cried Don Jorge, "but it is the hand of Providence! It is
+better so! Listen, friend Rosendo, it but gives us time to act!
+Perhaps many days! When the mistake is discovered they will return,
+and they will bring her back unharmed--though they may not learn until
+she reaches Cartagena! _Bien_, we can not waste time in mourning now!
+Courage, man! Think--think hard!"
+
+Rosendo strove to unravel his tangled wits. Jose went to him and
+clasped his big hand.
+
+"Rosendo--friend--would you have it different? I--I alone am to blame
+that they took Anita! But--it was to save--to save--Ah, God! if I did
+wrong, take the American's revolver and shoot me!" He tore open his
+cassock and stood rigid before the dazed man. Anguish and soul-torture
+had warped his features.
+
+"_Caramba_! Enough of such talk!" cried Don Jorge impatiently. "We
+shall find plenty of others more deserving of shooting, I think! The
+girl--where is she?"
+
+Reed turned back into the parish house, and emerged a moment later
+with Carmen and Dona Maria, who knew not as yet of Ana's departure. "I
+hid them in your bedroom, Padre," Reed explained.
+
+Jose threw him a look of gratitude. "Dona Maria," he cried, "do you
+take Carmen into your house and await our decision! And you, men, go
+into my study! It is as Don Jorge says, we must act quickly! Leave
+your flag hanging, Mr. Reed! It may serve to protect us further
+against the angry people of Simiti!"
+
+The five men quickly gathered in Jose's living room in a strained,
+excited group. The priest was the first to speak. Rapidly he related
+in detail Don Mario's last confession. When he had closed, Reed made
+reply.
+
+"Old man," he said, familiarly addressing Jose, "having seen the girl,
+I do not at all wonder that blood has been shed over her. But to keep
+her another hour in Simiti is to sacrifice her. Get her away--and at
+once! If not, the people will drive you out. I talked with Fernando
+last night. With the soldiers gone, the people will rise up against
+you all."
+
+"But, friend, where shall we go?" cried Jose in desperation. "There is
+no place in Colombia now where she would be safe!"
+
+"Then leave the country," suggested Reed.
+
+"It can not be done," interposed Don Jorge. "It would be impossible
+for him to escape down the river with the girl, even if he had funds
+to carry her away from Colombia, which he has not. At any port he
+would be seized. To take the trail would only postpone for a short
+time their certain capture. And then--well, we will not predict! To
+flee into the jungle--or to hide among the _peones_ along the
+trails--that might be done--yes."
+
+"What's the gibberish about now, pal?" put in Harris, whose knowledge
+of the Spanish tongue was _nil_.
+
+Reed explained to him at some length.
+
+"Well, that's easy," returned Harris. "Tell 'em you'll take the girl
+out yourself. She's white enough to pass as your daughter, you know."
+
+Rosendo, stunned by the sudden departure of Ana, had sat in a state of
+stupefaction during this conversation. But now he roused up and turned
+to Reed. "What says he, senor?" he inquired thickly.
+
+The latter translated his friend's suggestion, laughing as he
+commented on its gross absurdity.
+
+Rosendo dropped his head again upon his chest and lapsed into silence.
+Then he rose unsteadily and passed a hand slowly across his brow. A
+strange light had come into his eyes. For a moment he stood looking
+fixedly at Reed. Finally he began to speak.
+
+"Senores," he said, rolling his syllables sonorously, "the time has
+come at last! For years I have waited, waited, knowing that some day
+the great gift which the good God put into my hands for the little
+Carmen would be needed. Senores, my parents were slaves. The cruel
+Spaniards drove them to and from their heavy labors with the lash; and
+when the great war ended, they sank exhausted into their graves. My
+parents--I have not told you this, Padre--were the slaves of Don
+Ignacio de Rincon!"
+
+An exclamation burst from the astonished priest's lips. What, then,
+had this man been concealing all these years? Little wonder that he
+had hesitated when he learned that a Rincon had come to the parish of
+Simiti!
+
+The old man quickly resumed. As he continued, his recital became
+dramatic. As they listened, his auditors sat spellbound.
+
+"Don Ignacio de Rincon himself was kind of heart. But his overseers--ah,
+_Dios arriba_! they were cruel! cruel! Many a time the great lash wound
+itself about my poor father's shrinking body, and hurled him shrieking to
+the ground--and why? Because his blistered hands could not hold the
+_batea_ with which he washed gold for your grandfather, Padre, your
+grandfather!"
+
+Jose's head sank upon his breast. A groan escaped him, and tears
+trickled slowly down his sunken cheeks.
+
+"I bear you no malice, Padre," continued Rosendo. "It was hard those
+first days to accept you here. But when, during your fever, I
+learned from your own lips what you had suffered, I knew that you
+needed a friend, and I took you to my bosom. And now I am glad--ah,
+very glad, that I did so. But, though my confidence in you increased
+day by day, I could never bring myself to tell you my great
+secret--the secret that now I reveal for the sake of the little
+Carmen. Padre--senores--I--_I am the owner of the great mine, La
+Libertad_!"
+
+Had the heavens collapsed the astonishment of Don Jorge and the priest
+could not have been greater. The coming of the soldiers, the terrific
+strain of the past few days, culminating in the loss of Ana--all was
+for the moment obliterated.
+
+Jose started up and tried to speak. But the words would not come.
+Rosendo paused a moment for the effect which he knew his revelation
+would produce, and then went on rapidly:
+
+"Padre, the mine belonged to your grandfather. It produced untold
+wealth. The gold taken from it was brought down the Guamoco trail to
+Simiti, and from here shipped to Cartagena, where he lived in great
+elegance. I make no doubt the gold which you and the little Carmen
+discovered in the old church that day came from this same wonderful
+mine. But the ore was quartz, and _arrastras_ were required to grind
+it, and much skill was needed, too. He had men from old Spain, deeply
+versed in such knowledge. Ah, the tales my poor father told of that
+mine!
+
+"_Bien_, the war broke out. The Guamoco region became depopulated, and
+sank back into the jungle. The location of the mine had been recorded
+in Cartagena; but, as you know, when Don Ignacio fled from this
+country he destroyed the record. He did the same with the records in
+Simiti, on that last flying trip here, when he hid the gold in the
+altar of the old church. And then the jungle grew up around the mine
+during those thirteen long years of warfare--the people who knew of it
+died off--and the mine was lost, utterly lost!"
+
+He stopped for breath. The little group sat enthralled before him. All
+but Harris, who was vainly beseeching Reed to translate to him the
+dramatic story.
+
+"Padre," continued Rosendo at length, "from what my father had told me
+I had a vague idea of the location of that mine. And many a weary day
+I spent hunting for it! Then--then I found it! Ah, _Caramba_! I wept
+aloud for joy! It was while I was on the Tigui, washing gold. I was
+working near what we used to call _Pozo Cayman_, opposite La Colorado,
+where the Frenchmen died. I camped on the lonely bank there, with only
+the birds and the wondering animals to keep me company. One dark
+night, as I lay on the ground, I had a dream. I believe in dreams,
+Padre. I dreamt that the Virgin, all in white, came to me where I
+lay--that she whispered to me and told me to rise quickly and drive
+away the devil.
+
+"I awoke suddenly. It was still dark, but a pair of fiery eyes were
+gleaming at me from the bush. I seized my _machete_ and started after
+them. It was a jaguar, Padre, and he fled up the hill from me. Why I
+followed, I know not, unless I thought, still half asleep as I was,
+that I was obeying the Virgin.
+
+"At the top of the hill I lost the animal--and myself, as well. I am a
+good woodsman, senores, and not easily lost. But this time my poor
+head went badly astray. I started to cut through the bush. At last I
+came to the edge of a steep ravine. I clambered down the sides into
+the gully below. I thought it looked like an old trail, and I followed
+it. So narrow was it at times that the walls almost touched. But I
+went on. Then it widened, and I knew that at last I was in a trail,
+long since abandoned--and how old, only the good God himself knew!
+
+"But my story grows as long as the trail! On and on I went, crossing
+stream after stream, scaring snakes from my path, frightening the
+birds above, who doubtless have never seen men in that region, all the
+time thinking I was going toward the Tigui, until at last the old
+sunken trail led me up a tremendous hill. At the top, buried in a
+dense matting of brush, I fell over a circle of stones. They were the
+remains of an ancient _arrastra_. Further on I found another; and
+still another. Then, near them, the stone foundations of houses, long
+since gone to decay. From these the trail took me into a gully, where
+but little water flowed. It was lined with quartz bowlders. I struck
+off a piece from one of the largest. It showed specks of gold! My eyes
+danced! I forgot that I was lost! I went on up the stream, striking
+off piece after piece from the great rocks. Every one showed specks of
+free gold. _Caramba_! I reached the top of the hill. _Hombre_! how can
+I tell it! Tunnel after tunnel yawned at me from the hillside. Some of
+these were still open, where they had been driven through the hard
+rock. Others had caved. I had my wallet, in which I always carry
+matches and a bit of candle. I entered one of the open tunnels. _Dios
+arriba_! far within I crossed a quartz vein--I scraped it with my
+_machete_. _Caramba_! it could not have been less than six feet in
+width--and all speckled with gold! Above it, far into the blackness,
+where bats were scurrying madly, the ore had been taken out long, long
+ago. In the darkness below I stumbled over old, rusted tools. Every
+one bore the inscription, 'I de R.' Your grandfather, Padre, put his
+stamp on everything belonging to him. Then, as I sat trying to place
+myself, my father's oft-told story of the location of the mine flashed
+into my brain. My memory is good, Padre. And I knew then where I was.
+I was at the headwaters of the Borrachera. _And I had discovered La
+Libertad_!"
+
+Reed's eager ears had drunk in every word of the old man's dramatic
+story. His practical mind had revolved its possibilities. When Rosendo
+paused again, he quickly asked:
+
+"The title, senor?"
+
+Rosendo drew forth a paper from his bosom. It bore the government
+stamp. He handed it to Reed.
+
+"You will recall, Padre," he said, addressing the dully wondering
+Jose, "that I once asked you to give me a name for a mine--a rare
+name? And you told me to call it the--the--what is it?"
+
+"The Chicago mine, Rosendo?" replied Jose, recalling the incident.
+
+"Yes," exclaimed the old man excitedly, "that is it! _Bien_, I told no
+one of my discovery of years before. I had never had money enough to
+get the title to it. Besides, I was afraid. But when it seemed that I
+might soon have use for it I sold my _finca_ for funds and had Lazaro
+apply through Don Mario for title to a mine called--called--"
+
+"The Chicago mine," said Jose, again coming to the rescue.
+
+"Just so! _Bien_, Lazaro got the title, which I never could have done,
+for at that time Don Mario would not have put through any papers for
+me. I then had the unsuspecting Lazaro transfer the title to me,
+and--_Bien_, I am the sole owner of La Libertad!"
+
+Reed examined the paper at some length, and then handed it back to
+Rosendo. "Can we not talk business, senor?" he said, speaking with
+some agitation. "I am so situated that I can float an American company
+to operate this mine, and allow you a large percentage of the returns.
+Great heavens!" he exclaimed, unable longer to contain himself, "it is
+your fortune!"
+
+"Senor," replied Rosendo, slowly shaking his head, "I want no share in
+any of your American companies. But--your friend--he has suggested
+just what has been running through my mind ever since you came to
+Simiti."
+
+Jose's heart suddenly stopped. The wild, terrifying idea tore through
+his fraught brain. He turned quickly to Reed and addressed him in
+English. "No--no--it is impossible! The old man wanders! You can not
+take the girl--!"
+
+"Certainly not!" ejaculated Reed with some warmth. "Such a thing is
+quite out of the question!"
+
+"Stuff!" exclaimed Harris. "Now look here, Mr. Priest, Reed's wife is
+in Cartagena, waiting for him. Came down from New York that far for
+the trip. Kind of sickly, you know. What's to prevent her from taking
+the girl to the States and placing her in a boarding school there
+until such time as you can either follow, or this stew down here has
+settled sufficiently to permit of her returning to you?"
+
+Reed threw up a deprecatory hand. "Impossible!" he cried.
+
+"But," interposed Harris exasperatedly, "would you leave the ravishing
+little beauty here to fall into the hands of the cannibals who are
+trailing her? Lord Harry! if it weren't for the looks of the thing I'd
+take her myself. But you've got a wife, so it'd be easy." He leaned
+over to Reed and concluded in a whisper, "The old man's going to make
+a proposition--listen!"
+
+"But," remonstrated the latter, "the expense of keeping her in New
+York indefinitely! For, unless I mistake much, none of these people
+will ever see the States after she leaves. And then I have an adopted
+daughter on my hands! And, heaven knows! now that my ambitious wife is
+determined to break into New York society with her adorable sister, I
+have no money to waste on adopted children!"
+
+Rosendo, who had been studying the Americans attentively during their
+conversation, now laid a hand on Reed's. "Senor," he said in a quiet
+tone, "if you will take the little Carmen with you, and keep her safe
+from harm until Padre Jose can come to you, or she can be returned to
+us here, I will transfer to you a half interest in this mine."
+
+Jose sprang to his feet. His face was blanched with fear. "Rosendo!"
+he cried wildly, "do not do that! _Dios arriba_, no! You do not
+know this man! Ah, senor," turning to Reed, "I beg you will
+forgive--but Rosendo is mad to suggest such a thing! We cannot permit
+it--we--I--oh, God above!" He sank again into his chair and covered
+his face with his hands.
+
+Don Jorge gave vent to a long, low whistle. Rosendo, his voice husky
+and his lips trembling, went on:
+
+"I know, Padre--I know. But it must be done! I will give the mine to
+the American--and to Carmen. He has a powerful government back of him,
+and he is able to defend the title and save her interest as well as
+his own. As for me, I--_Bien_, I shall want nothing when Carmen
+goes--nothing."
+
+"For heaven's sake!" burst in Harris, seizing Reed's arm. "If you
+don't tell me what all this is about now I shall shoot--and not
+straight up, either!"
+
+"Senores," said Reed in a controlled voice, "let me talk this matter
+over with my friend here. I will come to you in an hour."
+
+Rosendo and Don Jorge bowed and silently withdrew from the parish
+house. The former went at once to apprise the wondering Dona Maria of
+the events which had crowded the morning's early hours and to answer
+her apprehensive questionings regarding Ana. Carmen was to know only
+that Ana--but what could he tell her? That the woman had sacrificed
+herself for the girl? No; but that they had seized this opportunity to
+send her, under the protection of Captain Morales, to the Sisters of
+the Convent of Our Lady. The old man knew that the girl would see only
+God's hand in the event.
+
+Jose as in a dream sought Carmen. It seemed to him that once his arms
+closed about her no power under the skies could tear them asunder. He
+found her sitting in the doorway at the rear of Rosendo's house,
+looking dreamily out over the placid lake. Cucumbra, now old and
+feeble, slept at her feet. As the man approached he heard her murmur
+repeatedly, "It is not true--it is not true--it is not true!"
+
+"Carmen!" cried Jose, seizing her hand. "Come with me!"
+
+She rose quickly. "Gladly, Padre--but where?"
+
+"God only knows--to the end of the world!" cried the frenzied man.
+
+"Well, Padre dear," she softly replied, as she smiled up into his
+drawn face, "we will start out. But I think we had better rest when we
+reach the shales, don't you?"
+
+Then she put her hand in his.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 35
+
+
+"No, Padre dear," with an energetic shake of her head, "no. Not even
+after all that has seemed to happen to us do I believe it true. No, I
+do not believe it real. Evil is not power. It does not exist,
+excepting in the human mind. And that, as you yourself know, can not
+be real, for it is all that God is not."
+
+They were seated beneath the slowly withering _algarroba_ tree out on
+the burning shales. Jose still held the girl's hand tightly in his.
+Again he was struggling with self, struggling to pass the borderline
+from, self-consciousness to God-consciousness; striving, under the
+spiritual influence of this girl, to break the mesmeric hold of his
+own mortal beliefs, and swing freely out into his true orbit about the
+central Sun, infinite Mind.
+
+The young girl, burgeoning into a marvelous womanhood, sat before him
+like an embodied spirit. Her beauty of soul shone out in gorgeous
+luxuriance, and seemed to him to envelop her in a sheen of radiance.
+The brilliant sunshine glanced sparkling from her glossy hair into a
+nimbus of light about her head. Her rich complexion was but faintly
+suggestive to him of a Latin origin. Her oval face and regular
+features might have indicated any of the ruddier branches of the
+so-called Aryan stock. But his thought was not dwelling on these
+things now. It was brooding over the events of the past few weeks, and
+their probable consequences. And this he had just voiced to her.
+
+"Padre dear," she had said, when his tremulous voice ceased, "how
+much longer will you believe that two and two are seven? And how much
+longer will you try to make me believe it? Oh, Padre, at first you did
+seem to see so clearly, and you talked so beautifully to me! And then,
+when things seemed to go wrong, you went right back to your old
+thoughts and opened the door and let them all in again. And so things
+couldn't help getting worse for you. You told me yourself, long ago,
+that you would have to empty your mind of its old beliefs. But I guess
+you didn't get them all out. If you had cleaned house and got your
+mind ready for the good thoughts, they would have come in. You know,
+you have to get ready for the good, before it can come. You have to be
+receptive. But you go right on getting ready for evil. If you loved
+God--really _loved_ Him--why, you would not be worried and anxious
+to-day, and you would not be believing still that two and two are
+seven. You told me, oh, so long ago! that this human life was just a
+_sense_ of life, a series of states of consciousness, and that
+consciousness was only mental activity, the activity of thought. Well,
+I remembered that, and put it into practice--but you didn't. A true
+consciousness is the activity of true thought, you said. A false
+consciousness is the activity of false thought. True thought comes
+from God, who is mind. False thought is the opposite of true thought,
+and doesn't come from any mind at all, but is just supposition. A
+supposition is never really created, because it is never real--never
+truth. True thought becomes externalized to us in good, in harmony, in
+happiness. False thought becomes externalized to us in unhappiness,
+sickness, loss, in wrong-doing, and in death. It is unreal, and yet
+awfully real to those who believe it to be real. Why don't you act
+your knowledge, as you at first said you were going to do? I have all
+along tried to do this. Whenever thoughts come to me I always look
+carefully at them to see whether they are based on any real principle,
+on God. If so, I let them in. If not, I drive them away. Sometimes it
+has been hard to tell just which were true and which false. And
+sometimes I got caught, and had to pay the penalty. But every day I do
+better; and the time will come at last when I shall be able to tell at
+once which thoughts are true and which untrue. When that time comes,
+nothing but good thoughts will enter, and nothing but good will be
+externalized to me in consciousness. I shall be in heaven--all the
+heaven there is. It is the heaven which Jesus talked so much about,
+and which he said was within us all. It is so simple, Padre dear, so
+simple!"
+
+The man sat humbly before her like a rebuked child. He knew that she
+spoke truth. Indeed, these were the very things that he had taught her
+himself. Why, then, had he failed to demonstrate them? Only because
+he had attempted to mix error with truth--had clung to the reality and
+immanence of evil, even while striving to believe good omnipotent and
+infinite. He had worked out these theories, and they had appeared
+beautiful to him. But, while Carmen had eagerly grasped and
+assimilated them, even to the consistent shaping of her daily life to
+accord with them, he had gone on putting the stamp of genuineness and
+reality upon every sort of thought and upon every human event as it
+had been enacted in his conscious experience. His difficulty was that,
+having proclaimed the allness of spirit, God, he had proceeded to bow
+the knee to evil. Carmen had seemed to know that the mortal, material
+concepts of humanity would dissolve in the light of truth. He, on the
+other hand, had clung to them, even though they seared the mind that
+held them, and became externalized in utter wretchedness.
+
+"When you let God's thoughts in, Padre, and drive out their
+opposites, then sickness and unhappiness will disappear, just as
+the mist disappears over the lake when the sun rises and the light
+goes through it. If you really expected to some day see the now
+'unseen things' of God, you would get ready for them, and you would
+'rejoice always,' even though you did seem to see the wickedness of
+Padre Diego, the coming of the soldiers, the death of Lazaro and Don
+Mario, and lots of unhappiness about yourself and me. Those men are
+not dead--except to your thought. You ought to know that all these
+things are the unreal thoughts externalized in your consciousness.
+And, knowing them for what they really are, the opposites of God's
+thoughts, you ought to know that they can have no more power over
+you than anything else that you know to be supposition. We can
+suppose that two and two are seven, but we can't make it true. The
+supposition does not have any effect upon us. We know that it isn't
+so. But as regards just thought--and you yourself said that everything
+reduces to thought--why, people seem to think it is different. But
+it isn't. Don't you understand what the good man Jesus meant when he
+told the Pharisees to first cleanse the cup and platter within,
+that the outside might also be clean? Why, that was a clear case of
+externalization, if there ever was one! Cleanse your thought, and
+everything outside of you will then become clean, for your clean
+thought will become externalized. You once said that you believed
+in the theory that 'like attracts like.' I do, too. I believe that
+good thoughts attract good ones, and evil thoughts attract thoughts
+like themselves. I have proved it. And you ought to know that your
+life shows it, too. You hold fear-thoughts and worry-thoughts, and
+then, just as soon as these become externalized to you as misfortune
+and unhappiness, you say that evil is real and powerful, and that
+God permits it to exist. Yes, God does permit all the existence
+there is to a supposition--which is none. You pity yourself and all
+the world for being unhappy, when all you need is to do as Jesus told
+you, and know God to be infinite Mind, and evil to be only the
+suppositional opposite, without reality, without life, without
+power--unless you give it these things in your own consciousness. You
+don't have to take thought for your life. You don't have to be
+covetous, or envious, or fearful, or anxious. You couldn't do
+anything if you were. These things don't help you. Jesus said that
+of himself he could do nothing. But--as soon as he recognized God as
+the infinite principle of all, and acted that knowledge--why, then
+he raised the dead! And at last, when his understanding was greater,
+he dissolved the mental concept which people called his human body.
+Don't you see it, Padre--don't you? I _know_ you do!"
+
+Yes, he saw it. He always did when she pleaded thus. And yet:
+
+"But, Carmen, padre Rosendo would send you out of the country with
+these Americans!"
+
+"Yes, so you have said. And you have said that you have always feared
+you would lose me. Is that fear being externalized now? I have not
+feared that I would lose you. But, Padre dear--"
+
+The ghastly look on the man's face threw wide the flood-gates of her
+sympathy. "Padre--all things work together for good, you know. Good is
+_always_ working. It never stops. Listen--" She clung more closely to
+him.
+
+"Padre, it may be best, after all. You do not want me to stay always
+in Simiti. And if I go, you will go with me, or soon follow. Oh, Padre
+dear, you have told me that up in that great country above us the
+people do not know God as you and I are learning to know Him. Padre--I
+want to go and tell them about Him! I've wanted to for a long, long
+time."
+
+The girl's eyes shone with a holy light. Her wistful face glowed with
+a love divine.
+
+"Padre dear, you have so often said that I had a message for the
+world. Do not the people up north need that message? Would you keep
+me here then? The people of Simiti are too dull to hear the message
+now. But up there--Oh, Padre, it may be right that I should go!
+And, if it is right, nothing can prevent it, for the right _will_ be
+externalized! Right _will_ prevail!"
+
+True, there was the girl's future. Such a spirit as hers could not
+long be confined within the narrow verges of Simiti. He must not
+oppose his egoism to her interests. And, besides, he might follow
+soon. Perhaps go with her! Who knew? it might be the opening of the
+way to the consummation of that heart-longing for--
+
+Ah, the desperate joy that surged through his yearning soul at the
+thought! The girl was fifteen. A year, two, three, and he would still
+be a young man! She loved him--never had man had such proofs as he of
+an affection so divine! And he worshiped her! Why hesitate longer?
+Surely the way was unfolding!
+
+"Carmen," he said tenderly, drawing her closer to him, "you may be
+right. Yes--we will both go with the Americans. Once out of this
+environment and free from ecclesiastical chains, I shall do better."
+
+The girl looked up at him with brimming eyes. "Padre dear," she
+whispered, "I want to go--away from Simiti. Juan--he asks me almost
+every day to marry him. And he becomes angry when I refuse. Even in
+the church, when Don Mario was trying to get us, Juan said he would
+save me if I would promise to marry him. He said he would go to
+Cartagena and kill the Bishop. He follows me like a shadow. He--Padre,
+he is a good boy. I love him. But--I do not--want to marry him."
+
+They sat silent for some moments. Jose knew how insistent Juan had
+become. The lad adored the girl. He tormented the priest about her.
+
+"Padre, you--you are not always going to be a priest--are you?
+And--I--I--oh, Padre dear, I love you so!" She turned impulsively and
+threw both arms about his neck. "I want to see you work out your
+problem. I will help you. You can go with me--and I can always live
+with you--and some day--some day--" She buried her face in his
+shoulder. The artless girl had never seemed to think it unmaidenly to
+declare her love for him, to show him unmistakably that she hoped to
+become his wife.
+
+The man's heart gave a mighty leap. The beautiful child in his arms
+was human! Young in years, and yet a woman by the conventions of these
+tropic lands. He bent his head and kissed her. Why, she had long
+insisted that she would wait for him! And why should he now oppose the
+externalization of that sweet thought?
+
+"Ah, _chiquita_," he murmured, "I will indeed go with you now! I will
+send my resignation to the Bishop at once. No, I will wait and send it
+from the States. I will renounce my oath, abjure my promise--"
+
+The girl sat suddenly upright and looked earnestly into his eyes.
+"What do you mean, Padre?" she queried dubiously. "What did you
+promise?"
+
+"Ah, I have never told you. But--I promised my mother, dearest one,
+that I would always remain a priest--unless, indeed, the Church
+herself should eject me from the priesthood. But, it was foolish--"
+
+"And your mother--she expects you to keep your word?"
+
+"Yes, _chiquita_."
+
+The girl sat in pensive silence for a moment. "But, Padre," she
+resumed, "honesty--it is the very first thing that God requires of us.
+We have to be--we _must_ be honest, for He is Truth. He cannot see or
+recognize error, you know. And so He cannot see you and help you if
+you are dishonest."
+
+"I know, child. And I tried to be honest, even when circumstances and
+my own poor resistive force combined to direct me into the priesthood.
+But--since that day I have lived a life of hypocrisy, not knowing how
+to shape my course. Then, at length, I met you. It was--too late!"
+
+"But, Padre, the Church has not put you out? You are still a priest?"
+
+"Yes," sadly; "and no."
+
+"But, if you went to the States--with me--would you be put out of the
+Church?"
+
+"Possibly, _chiquita_."
+
+"And what would that mean, Padre?"
+
+"The disgrace that always attaches to an apostate priest, child."
+
+"And, Padre--your mother--what would she say?"
+
+Jose hung his head. "It would kill her," he replied slowly.
+
+Carmen reflected long, while Jose, with ebbing hope, waited. "Padre
+dear," she finally said, "then you have not yet worked out your
+problem--have you?"
+
+No, he knew that. And he was now attempting to solve it by flight.
+
+"I mean, Padre, you have not worked it out in God's way. For if you
+had, no one would be hurt, and there could not be any disgrace, or
+unhappiness--could there?"
+
+"But, _chiquita_," he cried in despair, "nothing but excommunication
+can release me! And I long ago ceased to look for that. You do not
+understand--you are young! What can I do?" His tortured soul pleaded
+in agony.
+
+"Why, Padre dear, you can work it out, all out, in God's way."
+
+"But--must I remain here--can I let you go alone with the Americans--?"
+
+"Yes, you can, if it is right," she answered gently.
+
+"Carmen!" he cried, straining her in his arms. "If you go with the
+Americans, I shall, I must, go too!"
+
+"Not unless it is right, Padre," she insisted. "If it is right,
+nothing can keep you from going. But, unless it is God's way--well,
+you can not solve your problem by running away from it."
+
+"But--child--to remain here means--God above! you don't realize what
+it may mean to us both!"
+
+The girl relapsed into silence. Jose began to feel that they were
+drifting hopelessly, abysmally apart. Desperation seized him.
+
+"Carmen!" he cried miserably. "I have been cheated and thwarted all my
+wretched life! I can endure it no longer! I can not, would not, hold
+you here, if the way opens for you to go! But--I can not remain here
+without you--and live!"
+
+"That is not true, Padre," replied the girl, slowly shaking her head.
+"No human being is necessary to any one's happiness. And progress
+always comes first. You are trying to 'acquire that mind which was in
+Christ.' If you are really progressing, why, you will surely be happy.
+But you must work it all out God's way."
+
+"His way!" he retorted bitterly. "And that--"
+
+"You must be honest, Padre, honest with Him and with everybody. If you
+can no longer be a priest--if you are not one, and never have been
+one--you must be honest with the Church and with yourself. You must
+see and reflect only Truth. Why do you not write to the Bishop and
+tell him all about it? You say you have been protecting me. But leave
+me to God. You must--Padre, you _must_--be honest! Write to your
+mother--write to the Bishop. Tell them both how you feel. Then leave
+it all with God. Do not run away. Throw yourself upon Him. But--oh,
+Padre dear, you must trust Him, and you must--you _must_--know that He
+is good, that He is infinite, and that there is no evil! Otherwise,
+the good can not be externalized. If you did that, your problem would
+be quickly solved."
+
+She rose and took his hand. "Padre dear," she continued, "God is
+life--there is no death. God is eternal--there is no age. God is all
+good--there is no poverty, no lack, no loss. God is infinite, and He
+is mind--there is no inability to see the right and to do it. God is
+my mind, my spirit, my soul, my all. I have nothing to fear. Human
+mental concepts are not real. You, yourself, say so. I am not afraid
+of them. I look at God constantly, and strive always to see only Him.
+But He is just as much to you as He is to me. You can not outline how
+things will work out; but you can know that they can only work out in
+the right way. You _must_ work as God directs. Only by so doing can
+you solve your problem. I try always to work that way. And I have
+always worked for you that way. I have always thought the time would
+come when you and I would live and work together--always. But I have
+not insisted on it. I have not said that it _had_ to be. If it works
+out that way, I know I would be very happy. But, even if it does not,
+I shall know that I can not be deprived of any good, for the good God
+is everywhere, and He is love, and He has given me all happiness. And
+now we must leave everything to Him, while we work, work, work to see
+Him only everywhere."
+
+She would talk no more. Suffering himself to be led by her, they
+crossed the shales to the dust-laden road and made their way silently
+through the burning heat into the village.
+
+At the door of the parish house stood Rosendo. His face was grave, but
+his manner calm. "Padre," he announced, "it is arranged."
+
+Jose's knees shook under him as he followed the old man into the
+house. Reed, Harris, and Don Jorge sat about the table, on which were
+strewn papers covered with figures and sketches. The priest sat down
+dumbly and drew Carmen to him. Harris fell to devouring the girl with
+his bulging eyes. Reed at once plunged into the topic under
+consideration.
+
+"I have been saying," he began, addressing the priest, "that I can
+accept the proposal made by Don Rosendo, but with some amendments. Mr.
+Harris and I are under contract with the Molino Company to report upon
+their properties along the Boque river. I am informed by Don Rosendo
+that he is acquainted with these alleged mines, and knows them to be
+worthless. Be that as it may, I am obliged to examine them. But I will
+agree to take this girl to New York, under the protection of my wife,
+upon the consideration that when I reach my home city I be allowed to
+form a company to take over this mine, returning to the girl a
+fifty-one per cent interest in the stock, one half of which she agrees
+in writing to deliver to me immediately upon its issuance. Being under
+contract, I can not accept it now. The balance of the stock must be
+sold for development purposes. I further agree to place the girl in a
+boarding school of the first quality in the States, and to bear all
+expenses of her maintenance until such time as she is either
+self-supporting, or one or several of you may come to her, or effect
+her return to Colombia. Now, according to Ariza's sketches, we may
+proceed up the Boque river to its headwaters--how far did you say,
+friend?"
+
+"Some hundred and fifty miles from Simiti, senor," replied Rosendo.
+
+"And then," resumed Reed, "we can cut across country from the sources
+of the Boque, following what is known as Rosario creek, down to the
+river Tigui, striking the latter somewhere near the ancient point
+known as La Colorado."
+
+"But, senor," interposed Rosendo, "remember that the headwaters of the
+Boque are practically unknown to-day. Many years ago, when I was a
+small lad, some liberated slaves worked along Rosario creek, which was
+then one day's journey on foot with packs from La Colorado. But that
+old trail has long since disappeared. Probably no one has been over it
+since."
+
+"Very well," returned the practical Reed, "then we shall have to make
+our own trail across the divide to the Tigui. But once at La Colorado,
+you tell me there is an ancient trail that leads down to Llano, on the
+Nechi river?"
+
+"Yes, to the mouth of the Amaceri. Llano was something of a town long
+ago. But river steamers that go up the Nechi as far as Zaragoza once a
+month, or less frequently, still touch there, I am told. And so you
+can get down the Cauca to Maganguey, where you can change to a
+Magdalena river boat for Calamar. Then by rail to Cartagena. The trail
+to Llano can not be more than fifty miles in length, and fairly
+open."
+
+Harris, who had been studying the sketches, whistled softly. "Lord
+Harry!" he muttered, "nearly two hundred miles, and all by foot, over
+unspeakable jungle trails!"
+
+Reed paid no attention to him. "Very well, then," he continued, "we
+had best set out as soon as possible. To you, friend Rosendo, I leave
+all arrangements regarding supplies and _cargadores_. I will furnish
+funds for the entire expedition, expecting to be reimbursed by La
+Libertad."
+
+Carmen listened, with dilated eyes. As for Jose, his head swam.
+Starting hurriedly after Rosendo, who rose immediately to inaugurate
+preparations, he drew him into the latter's house. "_Hombre_!" he
+cried, his whole frame tremulous with agitation, "do you know what you
+are doing? Do you--"
+
+"_Na_, Padre," replied Rosendo gently, as he held up a restraining
+hand, "it is best. I want the _Americanos_ to take Carmen. She is not
+safe another day here. The soldiers left but yesterday. They may
+return any hour. At any moment an order might come for your arrest or
+mine. We must get her away at once. We can do no more for her here.
+The struggle has been long, and I weary of it." He sat down in
+exhaustion and mopped his damp brow. "I weary of life, Padre. I would
+be through with it. I am old. This world can hold little more for me.
+If I can but know that she is safe--_Bien_, that is all. From what we
+have learned, this country will soon be plunged again into war. I do
+not wish to live through another revolution. I have seen many. I seem
+to have fought all my life. And for what? What is La Libertad to me?
+Nothing--less than nothing. I have not the funds to work it. I doubt
+if I could even hold it, were it known here that I had the title to
+such a famous mine. But the _Americano_ can hold it. And he is honest,
+Padre. He will save Carmen's interest, and deal fairly with her.
+_Bien_, let him place her in a school in the States. If you weather
+the oncoming revolution, then you may be able to send for her. _Quien
+sabe_?"
+
+Jose controlled himself. "Rosendo," he said, "I will go with her."
+
+The old man looked at him quizzically. "Do you mean, Padre, that you
+will leave the Church?"
+
+Jose kept silent for some time. Then he spoke bitterly.
+
+"Can I remain longer in Simiti, where the people have become
+divided--where they look upon me askance, as the cause of the trouble
+that has befallen them? Is not my usefulness here ended? War is at our
+door. What, think you, will it mean to Simiti? To us? And Wenceslas,
+what has he further in store for you and me? What he has for Carmen,
+we well know. And we seek by flight to save her. But the disappearance
+of Diego has not been explained. The trick which Anita played upon
+Morales to save Carmen must bring down increased wrath upon our heads,
+especially yours and mine. No, Rosendo, you and I must go, and go at
+once!"
+
+"And Anita--?"
+
+"We will pick her up in Cartagena. Don Jorge will accompany us.
+I have certain information to give him that will enlist his
+services--information which, I think, will serve to introduce him
+to His Grace, and somewhat abruptly. But, come, Rosendo, do you and
+Dona Maria prepare for flight!"
+
+"Maria and I? The States! Na, Padre, it is impossible! I will go with
+the _Americanos_ up the Boque and to La Libertad. Then I will return
+to Simiti--or to the _hacienda_ of Don Nicolas, if Maria wishes to
+remain there while I am in the hills. But--do you go, Padre--go and
+look after the girl. There is nothing further for you here. Yes,
+Padre, go--go!"
+
+"But--ah, Rosendo, you will reconsider? The Americans will take us all
+for that mine!"
+
+"I? No, Padre," said the old man firmly, but in a voice heavy with
+sadness. "Maria and I remain in Simiti. My work is done when I have
+seen the girl safely out of this unhappy country. I could not live in
+the States. And my days are few now, anyway. Let me end them here.
+How, I care not."
+
+Carmen came bounding in and flew into Rosendo's arms. "Padre Rosendo!"
+she cried, aglow with animation, "we are all going to the States up
+north! I am going to take them my message! And I am going to school
+there! Oh, padre, isn't it beautiful!"
+
+"Ah, _chiquita_," said Rosendo cheerily, straining her to him, "I
+guess we have decided to send you on ahead--a little ahead of us. Your
+old padre has some business he must attend to here before he leaves."
+His eyes grew moist. Jose knew what his effort at cheerfulness was
+costing him.
+
+"But, padre Rosendo, you will come--later? You promise? You must!" She
+looked into his eyes, pleading wistfully.
+
+"Yes, little one, yes--of course. For where you are, there your old
+padre will always be--always--always!"
+
+"And Padre Jose?" panted the girl under Rosendo's tight grasp as she
+turned her head toward the priest.
+
+"He goes with us," assured Rosendo--"I think--at least as far as the
+coast. He will see Anita--and--" His voice broke, and he turned
+abruptly away.
+
+"And she will go to the States with us! Oh, padre!" cried the girl,
+bounding up and down with joy.
+
+Jose turned and went quickly into his own house. With grim determination
+he drew the battered haircloth trunk from beneath his bed and began
+to throw his few effects into it.
+
+But he had scarce begun when Juan, now bearing the proud title of
+official courier between Simiti and Bodega Central, entered with a
+letter. Jose recognized the writing, and tore it open at once. It was
+from his mother.
+
+"My beloved son, at last, after these many years of most rigid
+economy, even of privation, I have saved enough from my meager income,
+together with what little you have been able to send me from time to
+time, and a recent generous contribution from your dear uncle, to
+enable me to visit you. I shall sail for Colombia just as soon as you
+send me detailed instructions regarding the journey. And, oh, my son,
+to see you offering the Mass in your own church, and to realize that
+your long delayed preferment is even at hand, for so your good uncle
+informs me daily, will again warm the blood in a heart long chilled by
+poignant suffering. Till we meet, the Blessed Virgin shield you, my
+beloved son."
+
+The letter slipped from the priest's fingers and drifted to the floor.
+With a moan he sank into a chair and buried his face in his hands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 36
+
+
+What had kept Jose de Rincon chained all these years to an institution
+to which in thought, feeling, and sympathy he was so utterly alien, we
+have repeatedly pointed out--a warped sense of filial devotion, a
+devotion that would not willingly bring sorrow upon his proud,
+sensitive mother, and yet the kind that so often accomplishes just
+that which it strives to avoid. But yet he had somehow failed to note
+the nice distinction which he was always making between the promises
+he had given to her and the oath which he had taken at his ordination.
+He had permitted himself to be held to the Church by his mother's fond
+desires, despite the fact that his nominal observance of these had
+wrecked his own life and all but brought her in sorrow to the grave.
+The abundance of his misery might be traced to forgetfulness of the
+sapient words of Jesus: "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father
+which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."
+
+Then had come Carmen. And he had sacrificed his new-found life to the
+child. He had exhausted every expedient to keep himself in Simiti,
+that he might transfer his own great learning to this girl, and at the
+same time yield himself to her beneficent influence. Yet, despite his
+vague hopes, he had always dimly seen the day when she would leave
+him; but he had likewise tried to feel that when it arrived his own
+status would be such that the ecclesiastical ties which bound him
+would be loosened, and he would be free to follow her. Alas! the lapse
+of years had brought little change in that respect.
+
+But now he saw the girl entering upon that very hour of departure
+which all his life in Simiti had hung like a menacing cloud above
+him. And the shock had been such that he had thrown every other
+consideration to the winds, and, regardless of consequences, was madly
+preparing to accompany her. Then, like a voice from the tomb, had come
+his mother's letter.
+
+He slept not that night. Indeed, for the past two nights sleep had
+avoided his haggard eyes. In the feeble glow of his candle he sat in
+his little bedroom by his rough, bare table, far into the hours of
+morning, struggling, resolving, hoping, despairing--and, at last,
+yielding. If he had been born anew that fateful day, seven years
+before, when Rosendo first told him the girl's story, he had this
+night again died. When the gray hours of dawn stole silently across
+the distant hills he rose. His eyes were bleared and dull. His cheeks
+sunken. He staggered as he passed out through the living room where
+lay the sleeping Americans. Rosendo met him in front of the house.
+
+"Padre!" exclaimed the old man as he noted the priest's appearance.
+
+Jose held up a warning hand. "Do not speak of it, Rosendo. I am not
+well. But not a word to Carmen!"
+
+Rosendo nodded understandingly. "It has been hard on you, Padre. But
+you will soon be off now. And in the States with her--"
+
+"For God's sake, friend, never speak of that again!" cried Jose
+sharply. "Listen! How long will it take to complete your preparations?"
+
+"_Bien_," returned the amazed Rosendo when he recovered his breath,
+"we can get away to-morrow."
+
+"Can you not go this evening?"
+
+"No, Padre. There is much to do. But you--"
+
+"Hear me, friend. Everything must be conducted in the greatest
+secrecy. It must be given out that the Americans go to explore the
+Boque; that you accompany them as guide; that Carmen goes as--as cook,
+why not?"
+
+"_Cierto_, she cooks as well as Maria."
+
+"Very well. Juan must be kept in complete ignorance of the real nature
+of your trip. He must not go with you. He is the courier--I will see
+that Fernando sends him again to Bodega Central to-morrow, and keeps
+him there for several days. You say it is some two hundred miles to
+Llano. How long will it take to go that distance?"
+
+"Why--_Quien sabe_, Padre?" returned Rosendo thoughtfully. "With a
+fair trail, and allowing the _Americanos_ some time to prospect on the
+Boque--where they will find nothing--and several days to look over La
+Libertad, we ought to reach Llano in six weeks."
+
+"And Cartagena?"
+
+"A week later, if you do not have to wait a month on the river bank
+for the boat."
+
+"Then, all going well, within two months Carmen should be out of the
+country."
+
+"Surely. You and she--"
+
+"Enough, friend. I do not go with her."
+
+"What? _Caramba_!"
+
+"Go now and bid Carmen come to me immediately after the _desayuno_.
+Tell Dona Maria that I will eat nothing this morning. I am going up to
+the old church on the hill."
+
+Rosendo stared stupidly at the priest. But Jose turned abruptly and
+started away, leaving the old man in a maze of bewilderment.
+
+In the gloom of the old church Jose threw himself upon a bench near
+the door, and waited torpidly. A few moments later came a voice, and
+then the soft patter of bare feet in the thick dust without. Carmen
+was talking as she approached. Jose rose in curiosity; but the girl
+was alone. In her hand she held a scrubby flower that had drawn a
+desperate nourishment from the barren soil at the roadside. She
+glanced up at Jose and smiled.
+
+"It is easy to understand their language, isn't it, Padre? They don't
+speak as we do, but they reflect. And that is better than speaking.
+They reflect God. They stand for His ideas in the human mind. And so
+do you. And I. Aren't they wonderful, these flowers! But you know,
+they are only the way we interpret certain of God's wonderful ideas.
+Only, because we mortals believe in death, we see these beautiful
+things at last reflecting our thought of death--don't we? We see only
+our thoughts, after all. Everything we see about us is reflected
+thought. First we see our thoughts of life and beauty and good. And
+then our thoughts of decay and death.
+
+"But God--He never sees anything but the good," she went on. "He sees
+the real, not the supposition. And when we learn to see only as He
+does, why, then we will never again see death. We will see ourselves
+as we really are, immortal. God sees Himself that way. Jesus learned
+to see that way, didn't he? His thought was finally so pure that he
+saw nothing but good. And that gave him such power that he did those
+things that the poor, ignorant, wrong-thinking people called miracles.
+But they were only the things that you and I and everybody else ought
+to be doing to-day--and would be doing, if we thought as he did,
+instead of thinking of evil.
+
+"But," she panted, as she sat down beside him, "I've talked a lot,
+haven't I? And you sent for me because you wanted to talk. But,
+remember," holding up an admonitory finger, "I shall not listen if you
+talk anything but good. Oh, Padre dear," looking up wistfully into his
+drawn face, "you are still thinking that two and two are seven! Will
+you never again think right? How can you ever expect to see good if
+you look only at evil? If I looked only at wilted flowers I would
+never know there were any others."
+
+"Carmen," he said in a hollow voice, "I love you."
+
+"Why, of course you do," returned the artless girl. "You can't help
+it. You have just _got_ to love me and everything and everybody.
+That's reflecting God."
+
+He had not meant to say that. But it had been floating like foam on
+his tossing mind. He took her hand.
+
+"You are going away from me," he continued, almost in a whisper.
+
+"Why, no, Padre," she replied quickly; "you are going too! Padre
+Rosendo said we could start to-morrow at sunrise."
+
+"I do not go," he said in a quavering voice. "I remain, in Simiti."
+
+She looked up at him wonderingly. What meant this change which had
+come over him so suddenly? She drew closer.
+
+"Why, Padre?" she whispered.
+
+His mother's face hovered before him in the dim light. Behind her
+a mitered head, symbolizing the Church, nodded and beckoned
+significantly. Back of them, as they stood between him and the
+girl, he saw the glorified vision of Carmen. It was his problem. He
+turned wearily from it to the gentle presence at his side.
+
+"Why, Padre dear?" came again the soft question.
+
+"I stay--to work out--my problem," was his scarcely audible reply.
+
+The girl did not speak. But her breath came more quickly, and her hand
+closed more tightly about his.
+
+"Dearest one," he murmured, bending over the brown curls, "it is God's
+way, I guess. Perhaps in the years which I have spent here with you I
+have had the time and the opportunity to work out my salvation. I am
+sure that I have. But, though I strove in my way, I could not quickly
+acquire your spirituality. I could not at once shake loose those
+poisonous thoughts of a lifetime, which have at last become
+externalized in separation from all that I hold dearest in this life,
+you, my beloved girl, you." He buried his face in her luxuriant hair
+and strove to hold back the rush of scalding tears.
+
+"It but shows how poisonous thoughts separate us from all that is
+good--even from God," he continued in a choked voice. "Oh, my sweet
+girl, I love you as it seems to me no human being could love another!
+It has been so from that first day when, a mere babe, your wonderful
+eyes held me until I could read in them a depth of love for mankind
+that was divine." It did not seem to him that a mature man was
+speaking to a mere girl. She seemed, as always, ages beyond him in
+wisdom and experience.
+
+Carmen reached up and wound her arms about his neck. He bent low and
+kissed her brow. Then he drew himself up quickly and resumed his
+broken talk.
+
+"I believed at first that my salvation lay in you. And so it did, for
+from your clear thought I gleaned my first satisfying knowledge of the
+great principle, God. But alas! I could not seem to realize that
+between recognizing righteousness as 'right-thinking' and daily
+practicing it so as to 'prove' God there was a great difference. And
+so I rested easy in my first gleams of truth, expecting that they
+would so warm my soul that it would expand of itself out of all
+error."
+
+She made as if to reply, but he checked her.
+
+"I learned enough, I repeat, those first few months here to have
+enabled me to work out my salvation, even though with fear and
+trembling. But I procrastinated; I vacillated; I still clung to
+effete beliefs and forms of thought which I knew were bound to
+manifest in unhappiness later. I was afraid to boldly throw myself
+upon my thought. I was mesmerized. Yes, the great Paul was at times
+under the same mesmeric spell of human belief, even after he had seen
+the vision of the Christ. But he worked his way steadily out. And now
+I see that I must do likewise, for salvation is an individual
+experience. No vicarious effort, even of the Christ himself, can save
+a man. The principle is already given us. We must apply it to our
+problems ourselves. My unfinished task--scarcely even begun!--lies
+still before me. My environment is what I have made it by my own
+thought. I believe you, that I can enter another only as I externalize
+it through righteousness, right-thinking, and 'proving' God."
+
+He paused and bent over the silent little figure nestling so quietly
+at his side. His throat filled. But he caught his breath and went on.
+
+"You, Carmen, though but a child in years, have risen beyond me, and
+beyond this lowly encompassment. Why, when you were a mere babe, you
+should have grasped your padre Rosendo's casual statement that 'God is
+everywhere,' and shaped your life to accord with it, I do not know.
+Nor do you. That must remain one of the hidden mysteries of God. But
+the fact stands that you did grasp it, and that with it as a light
+unto your feet you groped your way out of this environment, avoiding
+all pitfalls and evil snares, until to-day you stand at the threshold
+of another and higher one. So progress must ever be, I now realize. Up
+we must rise from one plane of human mentality to another, sifting and
+sorting the thoughts that come to us, clinging to these, discarding
+those, until, even as you have said, we learn at last instantly to
+accept those that mirror forth God, infinite, divine mind, and to
+reject those that bear the stamp of supposition."
+
+"Padre," the girl said, lifting her beautiful face to his, "I have
+told you so often--when a thought comes to me that I think is not from
+God, or does not reflect Him, I turn right on it and kill it. You
+could do the same, if you would."
+
+"Assuredly, child--if I would!" he replied in bitterness of heart. "So
+could all mankind. And then the millennium would be with us, and the
+kingdom of heaven revealed. The mesmeric belief in evil as an entity
+and a power opposed to good alone prevents that. Destroy this belief,
+and the curtain will instantly rise on eternity."
+
+His eyes struggled with hers, as he gazed long and wistfully into
+them. Lost in his impassioned speech, he had for the moment seemed to
+be translated. Then a surge of fear-thoughts swept him, and left him
+dwelling on the hazardous journey that awaited her. He wildly clutched
+her again to his side.
+
+"Carmen--child--how can I let you go! So young, so tender! And that
+awful journey--two hundred miles of unknown jungle, to the far-off
+Nechi! And then the burning river, to Cartagena, where--where _he_ is!
+And the States--God, what awaits you there!"
+
+"Padre," she answered softly, "I shall not go unless it is right. If
+it is right, then God will take care of me--and of you."
+
+Again she saw only the "right-best" thought, while he sat trembling
+before its opposite. And the opposite was as yet a supposition!
+
+"Padre dear, there is no separation, you know. God is everywhere, and
+so there is no separation from good--is there?"
+
+"Not in your thought, dearest child," he murmured huskily.
+
+"Well, Padre dear, I am still with you, am I not? Can't you live one
+day at a time? That is what Jesus taught us. You are borrowing from
+to-morrow, and you have no right to do it. That's stealing. God says,
+'Thou shalt not steal,' even from to-morrow."
+
+Yes, she was still at his side. Perhaps she would not go, after all.
+He was borrowing, and borrowing supposition. The thought seemed to
+lighten his load momentarily.
+
+"Padre dear."
+
+"Yes, _chiquita_."
+
+"You have been thinking so many bad thoughts of late--I don't suppose
+you have had any good thoughts at all about Anita's little babe?"
+
+"The babe?" in a tone of astonishment.
+
+"Yes. You know, it is not blind. You promised me that every day you
+would just _know_ that."
+
+The rebuke smote him sore. Aye, his crowning sin was revealed again in
+all its ugly nakedness. Egoism! His thought was always of his own
+troubles, his own longings, his own fears. Self-centeredness had left
+no room for thoughts of Ana's blind babe. And why was he now straining
+this beautiful girl to himself? Was it fear for her, or for himself?
+Yet she gave but little heed to her own needs. Always her concern was
+for others, others who stumbled and drooped because of the human
+mind's false, unreal, undemonstrable beliefs and ignorance of the
+allness of God.
+
+"Ah, child," he exclaimed penitently, "such love! How could I dare to
+hope ever to claim it! How can you say that you love me?"
+
+"Why, Padre, I love the real 'you,' the 'you' that is going to be
+brought out, and that will become more and more clear, until at last
+it stands as the perfect reflection of God. Haven't I told you that,
+time and time again?"
+
+"Yes, child. You love the ideal. But--to live with me--to be my--"
+
+"Well, Padre, if we were not still human we would not be thinking that
+we were on earth. We have got to work out of this human way of
+thinking and living. And it has seemed to me that you and I could work
+out of it so much better together, you helping me, manifesting God's
+protection and care, and I helping you, as you say I can and do. And
+how can we live together and work together unless we marry? Ages make
+no difference! And time is only a human concept."
+
+He would not try to explain her reasoning, her contempt for
+convention. It would be gratuitous. As for him, women had never
+constituted a temptation. He knew that he loved this simple, ingenuous
+girl with a tenderness of passion that was wholly free from the dross
+of mesmerism. With that he remained content.
+
+"Padre, if you think you must stay here for a little while, to work
+out your problem, why, I shall just _know_ that evil can not separate
+us. I don't like to even seem to go away without you. But--it will be
+only seeming, after all, won't it? God's children can not really be
+separated--never!"
+
+She was still paying faithful tribute to her vision of the spiritual
+universe. And how her words comforted him! How like a benison they
+flowed over his drooping spirits!
+
+"And now, Padre dear," she said, rising from the bench,--"we have done
+all we could--left everything with God--haven't we? I must go now, for
+madre Maria told me to come back soon. She needs me."
+
+"Don't--no, not yet! Wait--Carmen! Sing for me--just once more! Sing
+again the sweet melody that I heard when I awoke from the fever that
+day long ago!"
+
+He drew her unresisting to his side. Nestling close against him, her
+head resting on his shoulder and her hand in his, she sang again the
+song that had seemed to lift him that distant day far, far above the
+pitiful longings and strivings of poor humanity, even unto the gates
+of the city of eternal harmony.
+
+She finished, and the last clear, sweet note echoed through the musty
+room and died among the black rafters overhead. A holy silence fell
+upon them as they sat, hand in hand, facing the future. Hot tears were
+streaming down the man's cheeks. They fell sparkling like drops of
+dew upon her brown curls. But he made no complaint. The girl, obedient
+to the vision, was reaping her reward. He, timid, wavering, doubting,
+was left, still pecking at the shell of his dreary environment. It was
+but the working of the infinite law of cause and effect. But did he
+imagine that out in the world she would not still find tribulation,
+even as the Saviour had said? Aye, she would, in abundance! But she
+leaned on her sustaining God. Her Christ had overcome the world. And
+so should she. She had already passed through such fiery trials that
+he knew no contrary belief in evil now could weaken or counterbalance
+her supreme confidence in immanent good.
+
+"Padre dear."
+
+"_Chiquita_."
+
+"If I have to go and leave you, will you promise me that you will act
+your knowledge of the Christ-principle and work out your problem, so
+that you may come to me soon?"
+
+The tug at his heartstrings brought a moan to his lips. He smothered
+it. "Yes, _chiquita_."
+
+"And--you will keep your promise about Anita's babe?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+She rose and, still holding his hand, led him down the hill and to
+Rosendo's house.
+
+Throughout the remainder of that feverishly busy day the priest clung
+to the girl like a shadow. They talked together but little, for she
+was in constant demand to help her foster-mother in the preparations
+for the long journey. But Jose was ever at her side. Again and again
+he would seize her hand and press it to his burning lips. Again and
+again he would stroke her soft hair, or stretch out his hand to touch
+her dress as she passed him. Always when she glanced up at him the
+same sweet, compassionate smile glowed on her face. When she left the
+house, he followed. When she bent over the ash-strewn fireplace, or
+washed the few plain dishes, he sought to share her employment; and,
+when gently, lovingly repulsed, sat dully, with his yearning eyes
+riveted upon her. Rosendo saw him, and forgot his own sorrow in pity
+for the suffering priest.
+
+The preparations carried the toilers far into the night. But at length
+the last bundle was strapped to its _siete_, the last plan discussed
+and agreed upon, and the two Americans had thrown themselves upon
+their cots for a brief rest before dawn. Rosendo took Jose aside,
+while Dona Maria and Carmen sought their beds.
+
+"Fernando sends Juan to Bodega Central at daybreak," the old man said.
+"All has been kept secret. No one suspects our plans. Maria remains
+here with you until I return. Then we may go to the _hacienda_ of Don
+Nicolas, on the Boque. I shall tell him to have it in readiness on my
+return. I shall probably not get back to Simiti for two months. If, as
+you say, you still think best not to go with the Americans and the
+girl, what will you do here? The people are much divided. Some say
+they intend to ask the Bishop to remove you. _Bien_, will you not
+decide to go?"
+
+Jose could not make audible reply. He shook his head, and waved
+Rosendo away. Then, taking a chair, he went into the sleeping room and
+sat down at the bedside of the slumbering girl. Reaching over, he took
+her hand.
+
+What was it that she had said to him that day, long gone, when Diego
+claimed her as his child? Ah, yes:
+
+"Don't feel badly, Padre dear. His thoughts have only the minus
+sign--and that means nothing, you know."
+
+And later, many weeks later:
+
+"Padre, you can not think wrong and right thoughts together, you know.
+You can not be happy and unhappy at the same time. You can not be sick
+and well together." In other words, the wise little maid was trying to
+show him that Paul spoke directly to such as he when he wrote: Know ye
+not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants
+ye are--?
+
+"You can not have both good and evil, Padre," she had so often
+insisted. "You must want good--want it more than anything else. And
+then you must prepare for it by thinking right thoughts and unthinking
+wrong ones. And as you prepare for good, you must _know_ that it is
+coming. But you must not say how it shall come, nor what it shall look
+like. You must not say that it shall be just as you may think you
+would like to have it. Leave the--the externalization to God. Then it
+will meet all your needs.
+
+"You see, Padre dear"--oh, how the memory of her words smote him
+now!--"you see, the good Jesus told the people to clean their
+window-panes and let in the light--good thoughts--for then these would
+be externalized in health, happiness, and all good, instead of the
+old, bad thoughts being externalized longer in sickness and evil.
+Don't you see?"
+
+Aye, he saw. He saw that the Christ-idea found expression and
+reflection in the pure mentality of this girl. He saw that that
+mentality was unsullied, uneducated in the lore of human belief, and
+untrained to fear. He saw that the resurrection of the Christ, for
+which a yearning world waits, was but the rising of the Christ-idea
+in the human mentality. And he saw, too, that ere the radiant
+resurrection morn can arrive there must be the crucifixion, a
+world-wide crucifixion of human, carnal thought. Follow Christ! Aye,
+follow him! But will ye not learn that following him means _thinking_
+as he did? And his thoughts were God's.
+
+But Jose had tried to think aright during those years in Simiti. True,
+but the efforts had been spasmodic. From childhood he had passed
+through doubt, fear, scepticism, and final agnosticism. Then he had
+started anew and aright. And then had come the "day of judgment," the
+recurrent hours of sore trial--and he had not stood. Called upon to
+prove God, to prove the validity of his splendid deductions, he had
+vacillated between the opposing claims of good and evil, and had
+floundered helplessly. And now he stood confronting his still unsolved
+problem, realizing as never before that in the solving of it he must
+unlearn the intellectual habits of a lifetime.
+
+There were other problems which lay still unsolved before him as he
+sat there that night. The sable veil of mystery which hung about
+Carmen's birth had never been penetrated, even slightly. What woman's
+face was that which looked out so sadly from the little locket?
+"Dolores"--sorrowful, indeed! What tragedy had those great, mournful
+eyes witnessed? No, Carmen did not greatly resemble her. He used to
+think so, but not of late. Did she, he wondered, resemble the man? And
+had the mother's kisses and hot tears blurred the portrait beneath
+which he had so often read the single inscription, "Guillermo"? If so,
+could not the portrait be cleaned? But Jose himself had not dared
+attempt it. Perhaps some day that could be done by one skilled in such
+art.
+
+And did Carmen inherit any of her unique traits from either of her
+parents? Her voice, her religious instinct, her keen mentality--whence
+came they? "From God," the girl would always answer whenever he voiced
+the query in her presence. And he could not gainsay it.
+
+Seven years had passed. And Jose found himself sitting beside the
+sleeping girl and dumbly yielding to the separation which now had
+come. Was his work finished? His course run? And, if he must live and
+solve his problem, could he stand after she had left? He bent closer
+to her, and listened to the gentle breathing. He seemed again to see
+her, as he was wont in the years past, flitting about her diminutive
+rose garden and calling to him to come and share her boundless joy.
+"Come!" he heard her call. "Come, Padre dear, and see my beautiful
+thoughts!" And then, so often, "Oh, Padre!" bounding into his arms,
+"here is a beautiful thought that came to me to-day, and I caught it
+and wouldn't let it go!" Lonely, isolated child, having nothing in
+common with the children of her native heath, yet dwelling ever in a
+world peopled with immaculate concepts!
+
+Jose shook his head slowly. He thought of the day when he had
+approached Rosendo with his great question. "Rosendo," he had said in
+deep earnestness, "where, oh, where did Carmen get these ideas? Did
+you teach them to her?"
+
+"No, Padre," Rosendo had replied gravely. "When she was a little
+thing, just learning to talk, she often asked about God. And one day I
+told her that God was everywhere--what else could I say? _Bien_, a
+strange light came into her eyes. And after that, Padre, she talked
+continually about Him, and to Him. And she seemed to know Him well--so
+well that she saw Him in every thing and every place. Padre, it is
+very strange--very strange!"
+
+No, it was not strange, Jose had thought, but beautifully natural. And
+later, when he came to teach her, his constant endeavor had been to
+impart his secular knowledge to the girl without endangering her
+marvelous faith in her immanent God. In that he had succeeded, for in
+that there had been no obstructing thoughts of self to overcome.
+
+And now--
+
+"For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will
+I gather thee--"
+
+The night shadows fled. Day dawned. Jose still sat at the girl's
+bedside, dumb and motionless. Carmen awoke, and threw her arms about
+him. But Rosendo appeared and hurried her out to the light morning
+repast, for they must lose no time in starting. Every moment now was
+precious. By ten o'clock the savannas would be too hot to cross, and
+they lay some distance from Simiti. Reed and Harris were bustling
+about, assembling the packers and cracking jokes as they strapped the
+chairs to the men's backs. Dona Maria's eyes were red with weeping,
+but she kept silence. Jose wandered about like a wraith. Don Jorge
+grimly packed his own kit and prepared to set out for the Magdalena,
+for he had suddenly announced his determination not to accompany
+Rosendo and his party, but to go back and consult with Don Carlos
+Norosi in regard to the future. An hour later he left Simiti.
+
+At last Rosendo's voice rang out in a great shout:
+
+"_Ya esta! Vamonos!"_
+
+"Bully-bueno!" responded Harris, waving his long arms.
+
+The _cargadores_ moved forward in the direction of the Boque trail.
+The Americans, with a final _adios_ to Dona Maria and the priest,
+swung into line behind them. Rosendo again tenderly embraced his
+weeping spouse, and then, turned to Jose.
+
+"The Virgin watch over you and Maria, Padre! I leave her in your care.
+If the war comes, flee with her to the Boque."
+
+He threw an arm about the priest and kissed him on both cheeks. Then,
+calling to Carmen, he turned and started after the others.
+
+The girl rushed into Jose's arms. Her tears flowed freely.
+
+"Padre," she murmured, clinging to him and showering him with kisses,
+"I love you, love you, love you! I will wait for you up there. You
+will come--or I will come back to you. And I will work for you every
+day. I will know that you are God's child, and that you will solve
+your problem!"
+
+Rosendo, half way down the road, turned and called sharply to her. The
+girl hurried after him. But again she stopped, turned around, and flew
+back to Jose, as he knelt in the dust and, with tongue cleaving to his
+mouth, held out his trembling arms.
+
+"Padre, dearest, dearest Padre," she sobbed, "I love you, I love you!
+And--I had forgotten--this--it is for you to read every day--every
+day!" She thrust a folded paper into his hand. Again she tore herself
+away and ran after the impatient Rosendo. In a moment they were out of
+sight.
+
+A groan of anguish escaped the stricken priest. He rose from his knees
+and followed stumbling after the girl. As he reached the shales he saw
+her far in the distance at the mouth of the trail. She turned, and
+waved her hand to him. Then the dark trail swallowed her, and he saw
+her no more.
+
+For a moment he stood like a statue, striving with futile gaze to
+penetrate that black opening in the dense bush that had engulfed his
+very soul. His bloodshot eyes were wild. His lips fluttered. His hand
+closed convulsively over the paper which the girl had left with him.
+Mechanically he opened it and read:
+
+  "Dearest, dearest Padre, these four little Bible verses I leave
+  with you; and you will promise your little girl that you will
+  always live by them. Then your problem will be solved.
+
+  "1. Thou shall have no other gods before me.
+
+  "2. Love thy neighbor as thyself.
+
+  "3. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in
+  heaven is perfect.
+
+  "4. Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
+
+  "And, Padre, my dearest, dearest Padre, _God is everywhere_."
+
+His hand fell. His brain reeled, and he swayed like a drunken man. He
+turned about, muttering incoherently. Dona Maria stood behind him.
+Tenderly taking his arm, she led him back to the forlorn little house.
+Its ghastly emptiness smote him until his reason tottered. He sank
+into a chair and gazed with dull, stony eyes out over the placid
+lake, where the white beams of the rising sun were breaking into
+myriad colors against the brume.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 37
+
+
+The two hundred miles which lay before Rosendo and his little band
+stretched their rugged, forbidding length through ragged canons,
+rushing waters, and dank, virginal forest. Only the old man, as he
+trudged along the worn trail between Simiti and the Inanea river,
+where canoes waited to transport the travelers to the little village
+of Boque, had any adequate conception of what the journey meant. Even
+the _cargadores_ were unfamiliar with the region which they were to
+penetrate. Some of them had been over the Guamoco trail as far as
+Culata; a few had ascended the Boque river to its farthest navigable
+point. But none had penetrated the inmost reaches of the great canon
+through which the headwaters tumbled and roared, and none had ever
+dreamed of making the passage over the great divide, the _Barra
+Principal_, to the Tigui beyond.
+
+To the Americans, fresh from the luxury and convention of city life,
+and imbued with the indomitable Yankee spirit of adventure, the
+prospect was absorbing in its allurements. Especially to the
+excitable, high-strung Harris, whose great eyes almost popped from his
+head at the continuous display of tropical marvels, and whose
+exclamations of astonishment and surprise, enriched from his
+inexhaustible store of American slang and miner's parlance, burst from
+his gaping mouth at every turn of the sinuous trail. From the outset,
+he had constituted himself Carmen's special protector, although
+much to Rosendo's consternation, for the lank, awkward fellow, whose
+lean shoulders bent under the weight of some six-feet-two of
+height, went stumbling and tripping along the way, swaying against
+every tree and bush that edged the path, and constantly giving noisy
+vent to his opinions regarding trails in general, and those of the
+tropics in particular. His only accouterment was a Winchester
+rifle of tremendous bore, which he insisted on carrying in constant
+readiness to meet either beasts of prey or savage Indians, but
+which, in his absent-mindedness and dreamy preoccupation, he
+either dragged, muzzle up, or carried at such dangerous angles that
+the natives were finally obliged, in self-protection, to insist
+that he hand the weapon over to Rosendo. To Carmen, as the days
+passed and she gradually recognized his sterling qualities, he
+became a source of delight. Hour after hour she trotted along after
+him, chatting merrily in her beloved English tongue, poking fun at
+his awkwardness, and laughing boisterously over his quaint slang and
+naive Yankee expressions. She had never heard such things from Jose;
+nor had the priest, despite his profound knowledge, ever told her
+such exciting tales as did Harris, when he drew from his store of
+frontier memories and  his narratives with the rich tints
+furnished by his easy imagination.
+
+The first day out had been one of mental struggle for the girl. She
+had turned into the trail, after waving a last farewell to Jose, with
+a feeling that she had never experienced before. For hours she trudged
+along, oblivious of her environment, murmuring, "It isn't true--it
+isn't true!" until Harris, his curiosity aroused by the constant
+repetition which floated now and then to his ears, demanded to know
+what it was that was so radically false.
+
+"It isn't true that we can be separated," she answered, looking at him
+with moist eyes.
+
+"We?" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, God's children--people--people--who--love each other," she
+replied. Then she dropped her eyes in evident embarrassment, and
+refused to discuss the topic further.
+
+"Lord Harry!" ejaculated Harris, pondering the cryptical remark, "you
+surely are a queer little dud!"
+
+But the girl turned from him to Rosendo. He understood her. Nor would
+she permit the old man to leave her until, late that night, exhausted
+by the excitement of the day, she dropped asleep in the house of Don
+Nicolas, on the muddy margin of the river Boque, still clinging to
+Rosendo's hand.
+
+Despite the protestations of Don Nicolas and the pleading of the
+_cargadores_, Rosendo stolidly refused to spend a day at Boque.
+Apprehension lashed him furiously on. They were still within reach of
+the federal authorities. He dared not rest until the jungle had
+swallowed them.
+
+"Ah, _compadre_," said Don Nicolas, in disappointment, "I would like
+much for you to enjoy my house while it is still clean. For the ants
+have visited me. _Hombre_! they swarmed down upon us but a day ago.
+They came out of the bush in millions, straight for the house. We
+fled. _Caramba_! had we remained, we should have been eaten alive. But
+they swept the house--_Hombre_! no human hands could have done so
+well. Every spider, every rat, beetle, flea, every plague, was
+instantly eaten, and within a half hour they had disappeared again,
+and we moved back into a thoroughly cleaned house!"
+
+Harris stood with mouth agape in mute astonishment when Carmen, whom
+he had constituted his interpreter, translated to him the story.
+
+That evening, after they had eaten out in the open before the house,
+and the Americans had tickled the palates of the villagers with some
+tinned beef of uncertain quality, Don Nicolas approached Reed.
+"Senor," he said, "my mother, now very aged, is sick, and we think she
+can not recover. But you Americanos are wonderfully skilled, and your
+medicines powerful. Have you not some remedy in your pack that will
+alleviate the good woman's sufferings? They are severe, senor."
+
+Reed knew how great was the faith of these simple people in the wisdom
+of the American, and he had reason to wish to preserve it. But he had
+come into that country illy prepared to cope with disease, and his
+medical equipment contained nothing but quinine. He reflected a
+moment, then turned to Harris.
+
+"Did you smuggle any of your beloved root-beer extract into the
+equipment?" he inquired, his eyes twinkling.
+
+Harris looked sheepish, but returned a sullen affirmative.
+
+"Well," continued Reed, "dig out a bottle and we'll fix up a dose of
+pain-killer for our worthy host's mother."
+
+Then he turned to Don Nicolas. "Cierto, senor," he said with an air of
+confidence. "I have a remedy which I know to be unfailing for any
+disease."
+
+He disappeared into the house, from which he emerged again in a few
+moments with an empty cola bottle. Washing this clean in the river, he
+partly filled it with water. Then he poured in the small bottle of
+root-beer extract which Harris handed him, and added a few grains of
+quinine. Shaking the mixture thoroughly, he carried it to Don
+Nicolas.
+
+"Be very careful, senor," he admonished, giving him the bottle. "It is
+a medicine extremely powerful and immediate in its action. Give the
+senora a small teaspoonful every hour. By morning you will notice a
+marked change."
+
+Don Nicolas's eyes lighted with joy, and his gratitude poured forth in
+extravagant expressions.
+
+With the first indications of approaching day Rosendo was abroad,
+rounding up his cargadores, who were already bickering as to their
+respective duties, and arranging the luggage in the canoes for the
+river trip. Additional boats and men had been secured; and Don Nicolas
+himself expressed his intention of accompanying them as far as his
+hacienda, Maria Rosa, a day's journey up-stream.
+
+"It was there that I hid during the last revolution," he said, "when
+the soldiers burned the village and cut off the ears and fingers of
+our women for their rings. Ah, senores, you can not know how we
+suffered! All my goods stolen or burned--my family scattered--my
+_finca_ destroyed! We lived two years at Maria Rosa, not daring to
+come down the river again. We wore the skins of animals for clothing.
+_Caramba_!" His eyes burned fiercely as he spoke, and his hands opened
+and closed convulsively. He was a representative of that large class
+of _rurales_ upon whom the heaviest burdens, the greatest suffering,
+and the most poignant sorrow attending a political revolution always
+fall.
+
+"But, senor!" he exclaimed, suddenly turning to Reed, "I had all but
+forgotten! My mother, she sends for you. She would see the kind
+American whose remedies are so wonderful. For, senor, she rose from
+her bed this morning restored! And you must leave us another bottle of
+the remedy--at whatever price, senor!"
+
+Reed gazed at the man uncomprehendingly, until at length the truth
+dawned upon him. His root-beer remedy had done its work! Then a broad
+grin mantled his face; but he quickly suppressed it and went with Don
+Nicolas to receive in person his patient's effusive thanks. When he
+returned and took his place in the waiting boat, he shook his head.
+"It's past all understanding," he muttered to Harris, "what faith will
+do! I can believe now that it will remove mountains."
+
+Throughout the long, interminably long, hot day the perspiring men
+poled and paddled, urged and teased, waded and pushed against the
+increasing current, until, as the shadows began to close around them,
+they sighted the scarcely visible opening in the bush which marked the
+trail to the _hacienda_ of Maria Rosa. It was a desperately lonely
+clearing on the verge of the jungle; but there were two thatch-covered
+sheds, and to the exhausted travelers it gave assurance of rest and
+protection. Before they made the landing Rosendo's sharp eyes had
+spied a large ant-eater and her cub, moving sluggishly through the
+bush; and Reed's quick shots had brought them both down. The men's
+eyes dilated when the animals were dragged into the canoes. It meant
+fresh meat instead of salt _bagre_ for at least two days.
+
+Early next morning the travelers bade farewell to Don Nicolas and set
+their course again up-stream. They would now see no human being other
+than the members of their own little party until they reached Llano,
+on the distant Nechi.
+
+"Remember," called Don Nicolas, as the canoes drifted out into the
+stream, "the _quebrada_ of Caracoli is the third on the right. An old
+trail used to lead from there across to the Tiguicito--but I doubt if
+you find even a trace of it now. There is no water between that point
+and the Tiguicito. _Conque, adios, senores, adios_!"
+
+The hallooing of farewells echoed along the river and died away in the
+dark forest on either hand. Harris and Reed settled back in their
+canoe and yielded to the fascination of the slowly shifting scene.
+Carmen chose to occupy the same canoe with them, and perforce Rosendo
+acted as _patron_. They therefore took the lead. Between his knees
+Reed held the rifle upright, in readiness for any animal whose
+curiosity might bring it to the water's edge to view the rare pageant
+passing through that unbroken solitude.
+
+The river was now narrowing, and there were often rapids whose ascent
+necessitated disembarking from the canoes, while the _bogas_ strained
+and teased the lumbering dugouts up over them. In places the stream
+was choked by fallen trees and tangled driftwood, until only a narrow,
+tortuous opening was left, through which the waters raced like a
+mill-course, making a heavy draft on the intuitive skill of the
+_bogas_. Often slender islets rose from the river; and then heated,
+chattering, often acrimonious discussions ensued among the men as to
+the proper channel to take. Always on either side rose the matted,
+tangled, impenetrable forest wall of dense bush and giant trees, from
+which innumerable trailers and _bejuco_ vines dropped into the waters
+beneath. From the surface of the river to the tops of the great trees,
+often two hundred feet above, hung a drapery of creeping plants, of
+parasitical growths, and diversified foliage, of the most vivid shades
+of green, inextricably laced and interwoven, and dotted here and there
+with orchideous flowers and strange blossoms, while in the tempered
+sunlight which sifted through it sported gorgeous insects and
+butterflies of enormous size and exquisite shades, striped and spotted
+in orange, blue, and vivid red. Scarcely a hand's breadth of the
+jungle wall but contained some strange, eerie animal or vegetable form
+that brought expressions of wonder and astonishment from the
+enraptured Americans. At times, too, there were grim tragedies being
+enacted before them. In one spot a huge, hairy spider, whose delicate,
+lace-like web hung to the water's edge, was viciously wrapping its
+silken thread about a tiny bird that had become entangled. Again, a
+shriek from beyond the river's margin told of some careless monkey or
+small animal that had fallen prey to a hungry jaguar. Above the
+travelers all the day swung the ubiquitous buzzards, with their
+watchful, speculative eyes ever on the slowly moving cavalcade.
+
+Carmen sat enthralled. If her thought reverted at all to the priest,
+she gave no hint of it. But once, leaning back and gazing off into
+the opalescent sky overhead, she murmured: "And to think, it is only
+the way the human mind translates God's ideas! How wonderful must they
+be! And some day I shall see those ideas, instead of the mortal mind's
+interpretations of them!"
+
+Harris heard her, and asked her to repeat her comments in English. But
+she refused. "You would not understand," she said simply. And no
+badinage on his part could further influence her.
+
+Rosendo, inscrutable and silent, showed plainly the weight of
+responsibility which he felt. Only twice that day did he emerge from
+the deep reserve into which he had retired; once when, in the far
+distance, his keen eye espied a small deer, drinking at the water's
+edge, but which, scenting the travelers, fled into cover ere Reed
+could bring the rifle to his shoulders; and again, when they were upon
+a jaguar almost before either they or the astonished animal realized
+it.
+
+In the tempered rays of the late afternoon sun the flower-bespangled
+walls of the forest became alive with gaily painted birds and insects.
+Troops of chattering monkeys awoke from their midday _siesta_ and
+scampered noisily through the treetops over the aerial highways
+formed by the liana vines, whose great bush-ropes, often a foot and
+more in thickness, stretched their winding length long distances
+through the forest, and bound the vegetation together in an
+intricate, impenetrable network. Yellow and purple blossoms, in a
+riot of ineffable splendor, bedecked the lofty trees and tangled
+parasitical creepers that wrapped around them, constituting
+veritable hanging gardens. Great palms, fattened by the almost
+incessant rains in this hot-house of Nature, rose in the spaces
+unoccupied by the buttressed roots of the forest giants. Splendidly
+tailored kingfishers swooped over the water, scarce a foot above its
+surface. Quarreling parrots and nagging macaws screamed their
+inarticulate message to the travelers. Tiny forest gems, the
+infinitely variegated _colibri_, whirred across the stream and
+followed its margins until attracted by the gorgeous pendent flowers.
+On the _playas_ in the hazy distance ahead the travelers could often
+distinguish tall, solemn cranes, dancing their grotesque measures, or
+standing on one leg and dreaming away their little hour of life in
+this terrestrial fairy-land.
+
+Darkness fell, almost with the swiftness of a snuffed candle. For an
+hour Rosendo had been straining his eyes toward the right bank of the
+river, and as he gazed his apprehension increased. But, as night
+closed in, a soft murmur floated down to the cramped, toil-worn
+travelers, and the old man, with a glad light in his eyes, announced
+that they were approaching the _quebrada_ of Caracoli. A half hour
+later, by the weird, flickering light of the candles which Reed and
+Harris held out on either side, Rosendo turned the canoe into a
+brawling stream, and ran its nose into the deep alluvial soil.
+Plunging fearlessly through the fringe of delicate ferns which lined
+the margin of the creek, he cut a wide swath with his great _machete_
+and uncovered a dim trail, which led to a ramshackle, thatch-covered
+hut a few yards beyond. It was the tumbled vestige of a shelter which
+Don Nicolas had erected years before while hunting wild pigs through
+this trackless region. An hour later the little group lay asleep on
+the damp ground, wrapped in the solitude of the great forest.
+
+The silvery haze of dawn was dimming the stars and deepening into
+ruddier hues that tinged the fronds of the mighty trees as with
+streaks of blood when Rosendo, like an implacable Nemesis, prodded his
+little party into activity. Their first day's march through the
+wilderness was to begin, and the old man moved with the nervous,
+restless energy of a hunted jaguar. The light breakfast of coffee and
+cold _arepa_ over, he dismissed the _bogas_, who were to return to
+Boque with the canoes, and set about arranging the cargo in suitable
+packs for the _cargadores_ who were to accompany him over the long
+reaches of jungle that stretched between them and Llano. Two
+_macheteros_ were sent on ahead of the main party to locate and open a
+trail. The rest followed an hour later. Before the shimmering,
+opalescent rays which overspread the eastern sky had begun to turn
+downward, the little cavalcade, led by Rosendo, had taken the narrow,
+newly-cut trail and plunged into the shadows of the forest--
+
+  "the great, dim, mysterious forest, where uncertainty wavers to an
+  interrogation point."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 38
+
+
+The emotion of the jungle is a direct function of human temperament.
+Where one sees in it naught but a "grim, green sepulcher," teeming with
+malignant, destructive forces, inimical to health, to tranquillity, to
+life, another--perhaps a member of the same party--will find in the
+wanton extravagance of Nature, her prodigious luxury, her infinite
+variety of form, of color, and sound, such stimuli to the imagination,
+and such invitation to further discovery and development, as to
+constitute a lure as insidious and unescapable as the habit which too
+often follows the first draft of the opium's fumes. There are those
+who profess to have journeyed through vast stretches of South
+American _selva_ without encountering a wild animal. Others, with sight
+and hearing keener, and with a sense of observation not dulled by
+futile lamentations over the absence of the luxuries of civilized
+travel, will uncover a wealth of experiences which feed the memory
+throughout their remaining years, and mold an irresistible desire to
+penetrate again those vast, teeming, baffling solitudes.
+
+It is true, the sterner aspect of the South American jungle
+affords little invitation to repose or restful contemplation. And
+the charm which its riotous prodigality exerts is in no sense
+idyllic. For the jungle falls upon one with the force of a blow. It
+grips by its massiveness, its awful grandeur. It does not entice
+admiration, but exacts obeisance by brute force. Its silence is a
+dull roar. Its rest is continuous motion, incessant activity. The
+garniture of its trackless wastes is that of great daubs of vivid
+color, laid thick upon the canvas with the knife--never modulated,
+never worked into delicate shading with the brush, but attracting
+by its riot, its audacity, its immensity, its disdain of convention,
+its utter disregard of the canons cherished by the puny mind that
+contemplates it. The forest's appeal is a reflex of its own infinite
+complexity. The sensations which it arouses within the one who steps
+from civilization into its very heart are myriad, and often
+terrible. The instinct of self-preservation is by it suddenly,
+rudely aroused and kept keenly alive. Its inhospitality is menacing.
+The roar of its howling monkeys strikes terror to the timid heart.
+The plaintive calls of its persecuted feathered denizens echo through
+the mysterious vastnesses like despairing voices from a spirit
+world. The crashing noises, the strange, weird, unaccountable
+sounds that hurtle through its dimly lighted corridors blanch the
+face and cause the hand to steal furtively toward the loosely
+sheathed weapon. The piercing, frenzied screams which arise with
+blood-curdling effect through the awful stillness of noonday or the
+dead of night, turn the startled thought with sickening yearning
+toward the soft charms of civilization, in which the sense of
+protection is greater, even if actual security is frequently less.
+
+Because of Nature's utter disregard of the individual, life is
+everywhere. And that life is sharply armed and on the defensive.
+The rising heat-waves hum with insects. The bush swarms with them.
+Their droning murmur crowds the air. The trunks of trees, the
+great, pendent leaves of plants, the trailing vines, slimy with dank
+vegetation, afford footing and housing to countless myriads of
+them, keenly alert, ferociously resistive. The decaying logs fester
+with scorpions. The ground is cavernous with the burrows of
+lizards and crawling forms, with centipedes and fierce formicidae.
+Death and terror stalk hand in hand. But life trails them. Where
+one falls, countless others spring up to fill the gap. The rivers
+and _pantanos_ yield their quota of variegated forms. The flat
+_perania_, the dreaded electric eel, infests the warm streams, and
+inflicts its torture without discrimination upon all who dare invade
+its domain. Snakes lurk in the fetid swamps and lagoons, the
+brilliant coral and the deadly _mapina_. Beneath the forest leaves
+coils the brown adder, whose sting proves fatal within three days.
+
+To those who see only these aspects of the jungle, a journey such as
+that undertaken by Rosendo and his intrepid little band would prove a
+terrifying experience, a constant repetition of nerve-shocks, under
+which the "centers" must ultimately give way. But to the two
+Americans, fresh from the mining camps of the West, and attuned to any
+pitch that Nature might strike in her marvelous symphony, the
+experience was one to be taken in the same spirit as all else that
+pertained to their romantic calling. Rosendo and his men accepted the
+day's stint of toil and danger with dull stolidity. Carmen threw
+herself upon her thought, and saw in her shifting environment only the
+human mind's interpretation of its mixed concept of good and evil. The
+insects swarmed around her as around the others. The tantalizing
+_jejenes_ urged their insidious attacks upon her, as upon the rest.
+Her hands were dotted with tiny blood-blisters where the ravenous
+gnats had fed. But she uttered no complaint; nor would she discuss the
+matter when Harris proffered his sympathy, and showed his own red
+hands.
+
+"It isn't true," she would say. "But you have no religion, and you
+don't understand--as yet."
+
+"Don't understand? And it isn't true, eh? Well, you have mighty
+strange beliefs, young lady!"
+
+"But not as strange and illogical as those you hold," she replied.
+
+"Oh, I don't believe anything," he answered, with a shrug of his
+shoulders. "I'm an agnostic, you know."
+
+"There is just where you mistake, Mr. Harris," she returned gravely.
+"For, instead of not believing anything, you firmly believe in the
+presence and power of evil. It is just those very people who boast
+that they do not believe in anything who believe most thoroughly in
+evil and its omnipotence and omnipresence."
+
+Yes, even the animals which she saw about her were but the human
+mind's concepts of God's ideas--not real. Adam had named them. In the
+Bible allegory, or dream, the human, mortal mind names all its own
+material concepts.
+
+The days wore on with dull regularity. From the rippling Tiguicito,
+which they reached choking with thirst and utterly exhausted, they
+dropped down again to the Boque, where they established camps and
+began to prospect the Molino company's "near-mines," as Harris called
+them after the first few unsuccessful attempts to get "colors" out of
+the barren soil. At certain points, where there seemed a more likely
+prospect, they remained for days, until the men, under Rosendo's
+guidance, could sink pits to the underlying bedrock. Such work was
+done with the crudest of tools--an iron bar, wooden scrapers in lieu
+of shovels, and wooden _bateas_ in which the men handed the loosened
+dirt up from one stage to another and out to the surface. It was slow,
+torturing work. The men grew restive. The food ran low, and they
+complained.
+
+Then Harris one evening stumbled upon a tapir, just as the great
+animal had forded the river and was shambling into the bush
+opposite. He emptied his rifle magazine into the beast. It fell
+with a broken hip, and the men finished it with their _machetes_.
+Its hide was nearly a half inch in thickness, and covered with
+_garrapatas_--fierce, burrowing vermin, with hooked claws, which
+came upon the travelers and caused them intense annoyance throughout
+the remainder of the journey.
+
+Then Reed shot a deer, a delicate, big-eyed creature that had never
+seen a human being and was too surprised to flee. Later, Fidel Avila
+felled another with a large stone. And, finally, monkeys became so
+plentiful that the men all but refused to eat them any longer.
+
+Two weeks were spent around the mouth of the Tiguicito and the Boque
+canon. Then Reed gave the order to advance. The little party
+shouldered their packs and began the ascent of the ragged gorge. For
+days they clambered up and down the jagged walls of the cut, or
+skirted its densely covered margin. Twice Harris fell into the
+brawling stream below, and was fished out by Rosendo, his eyes
+popping, and his mouth choked with uncomplimentary opinion regarding
+mountain travel in the tropics. Once, seizing a slender vine to aid
+him in climbing, he gave a sudden lurch and swung out unexpectedly
+over the gorge, hundreds of feet deep. Again Rosendo, who by this time
+had learned to keep one eye on the ground and the other on the
+irresponsible Harris, rescued him from his perilous position.
+
+"Why don't you watch where you are going?" queried the laughing
+Carmen.
+
+"I might," sputtered Harris, "if I could keep my eyes off of you."
+Whereat Carmen pursed her lips and told him to reserve his compliments
+for those who knew how to appraise them rightly.
+
+They camped where night overtook them, out in the open, often falling
+asleep without waiting to build a fire, but eating soggy corn _arepa_
+and tinned food, and drinking cold coffee left from the early morning
+repast. But sometimes, when the fatigue of day was less, they would
+gather about their little fire, chilled and dripping, and beg Carmen
+to sing to them while they prepared supper. Then her clear voice would
+ring out over the great canon and into the vast solitudes on either
+hand in strange, vivid contrast to the cries and weird sounds of the
+jungle; and the two Americans would sit and look at her as if they
+half believed her a creature from another world. Sometimes Harris
+would draw her into conversation on topics pertaining to philosophy
+and religion, for he had early seen her bent and, agnostic that he
+was, delighted to hear her express her views, which to him were so
+childishly impossible. But as often he would voluntarily retire from
+the conflict, sometimes shaking his head dubiously, sometimes
+muttering his impatience with a mere child whose logic he, despite his
+collegiate training, could not refute. He was as full of philosophical
+theories as a nut with meat; but when she asked for proofs, for less
+human belief and more demonstration, he hoisted the white flag and
+retired from the field. But his admiration for the child became
+sincere. His respect for her waxed daily stronger. And by the time
+they had reached the great divide through which the Rosario fell, he
+was dimly aware of a feeling toward the beautiful creature who walked
+at his side day after day, sharing without complaint hardship and
+fatigue that sorely taxed his own endurance, that was something more
+than mere regard, and he had begun to speculate vaguely on a possible
+future in which she became the central figure.
+
+At Rosario creek they left the great canon and turned into the rugged
+defile which wound its tortuous course upward into the heights of the
+_Barra Principal_. They were now in a region where, in Rosendo's
+belief, there was not one human being in an area of a hundred square
+miles. He himself was in sore doubt as to the identity of the
+_quebrada_ which they were following. But it tallied with the brief
+description given him by Don Nicolas. And, moreover, which was even
+more important, as they began its ascent there came to him that sense
+of conviction which every true son of the jungle feels when he is
+following the right course. He might not say how he knew he was right;
+but he followed the leading without further question.
+
+Up over the steep talus at the base of the canon wall they clambered,
+up into the narrowing _arroyo_, cutting every foot of the way, for the
+_macheteros_ were now no longer keeping ahead of them--the common
+danger held the band united. Often they believed they discovered
+traces of ancient trails. But the jealous forest had all but
+obliterated them, and they could not be certain. In the higher and
+drier parts of the forest, where they left the creek and followed
+the beds of dead streams, slender ditches through which the water
+raced in torrents during the wet season, they were set upon by
+countless swarms of bees, a strange, stingless variety that covered
+them in a buzzing, crawling mass, struggling and fighting for the
+salt in the perspiration which exuded from the human bodies. Harris
+swore he would cease to eat, for he could not take even a mouthful
+of food without at the same time taking in a multitude of bees.
+Often, too, their _machetes_ cut into great hornet nests. Then, with
+the shrill cry, "_Avispas_!" Rosendo would tear recklessly through
+the matted jungle, followed by his slapping, stumbling companions,
+until the maddened insects gave up the chase. Frequently they
+walked into huge ant nests before they realized it, sometimes the
+great _tucanderas_, so ferociously poisonous. "Ah, senores,"
+commented Rosendo, as he once stopped to point out the marvelous
+roadway cut by these insects for miles straight through the jungle,
+"in the days of the Spaniards the cruel taskmasters would often tie
+the weak and sick slaves to trees in the depths of the forest and
+let these great ants devour them alive! Senores, you can never know
+the terrible crimes committed by the Spaniards!"
+
+"And they were Christians!" murmured Harris, eying Carmen furtively.
+
+But she knew, though she voiced it not, that the Spaniard had never
+known the Christ.
+
+Night was spent on the summit of the divide. Then, without further
+respite, Rosendo urged the descent. Down through ravines and gullies;
+over monster bowlders; waist deep through streams; down the sheer
+sides of gorges on natural ladders formed by the hanging _mora_
+vines; skirting cliffs by the aid of tangled and interlaced roots
+of rank, wet vegetation; and then down again into river bottoms,
+where the tenacious mud challenged their every step, and the streams
+became an interminable morass, through which passage was possible
+only by jumping from root to root, where the gnarled feeders of the
+great trees projected above the bottomless ooze. The persecution
+of the _jejenes_ became diabolical. At dawn and sunset the raucous
+bellow of the red-roarer monkeys made the air hideous. The
+flickering lights of the forest became dismally depressing. The men
+grew morose and sullen. Reed and Harris quarreled with each other on
+the slightest provocation.
+
+Then, to increase their misery, came the rain. It fell upon them in
+the river bottoms in fierce, driving gusts; then in sheets that
+blotted out the forest and wet their very souls. The heavens split
+with the lightning. The mountains roared and trembled with the hideous
+cannonade of thunder. The jungle-matted hills ran with the flood. An
+unvaried pall of vapor hung over the steaming ground, through which
+uncanny, phantasmagoric shapes peered at the struggling little band.
+
+Again the sun burst forth, and a fiery vapor seethed above the moist
+earth. The reek of their damp clothing and the acrid odor of the wet
+soil increased the enervation of their hard travel. Again and again
+the peevish Harris accused Rosendo of having lost the way. The old man
+patiently bore the abuse. Reed chided Harris, and at length quarreled
+violently with him, although his own apprehension waxed continually
+greater. Carmen said little. Hour after hour she toiled along,
+floundering through the bogs, fording the deeper streams on Rosendo's
+broad back, whispering softly to him at times, often seizing and
+pressing his great horny hand, but holding her peace. In vain at
+evening, when gathered about the damp, smudging firewood, Harris would
+bring up to her the causes of her flight. In vain he would accuse the
+unfortunate Alcalde, the Bishop, the soldiers. Carmen refused to lend
+ear to it, or to see in it anything more than a varied expression of
+the human mind. Personality was never for a moment considered. She
+saw, not persons, not things, but expressions of thought in the
+phenomena which had combined to urge her out of her former environment
+and cast her into the trackless jungle.
+
+At length, one day, when it seemed to the exhausted travelers that
+human endurance could stand no more, Rosendo, who had long been
+straining his ears in the direction straight ahead, announced that the
+singing noise which floated to them as they descended a low hill and
+plunged into a thicket of tall lush grass, undoubtedly came from the
+river Tigui. Another hour of straining and plunging through the dense
+growth followed; and then, with a final effort, which manifested in a
+sort of frenzied rush, the little band emerged suddenly upon the east
+bank of the crystal stream, glittering and shimmering in the bright
+morning sun as it sang and rippled on its solitary way through the
+great jungle.
+
+The men threw off their packs and sprawled full length upon the
+ground. Rosendo pointed across the river.
+
+"La Colorado," he said, indicating what the Americans at length made
+out to be a frame house, looming above the high grass. "And there,"
+pointing to the north, "is _Pozo Cayman_, where the trail begins that
+leads to La Libertad."
+
+That night, as they lay on the rough board floor of the house at La
+Colorado, Rosendo told them the story of the misguided Frenchmen who,
+years before, had penetrated this wild region, located a barren quartz
+vein, then floated a company and begun developments. A considerable
+colony settled here. The soil was fertile; the undeveloped country
+ceaselessly rich in every resource, the water pure and sparkling, and
+abounding in fish. The climate, too, was moderate and agreeable. It
+seemed to the foreigners a terrestrial paradise. But then came the
+insidious fever. It crept out of the jungle like a thief in the night.
+One by one the Frenchmen fell sick and died. Panic seized upon them.
+Those unafflicted fled--all but one. He remained to protect the
+company's property. But he, too, fell a victim to the plague. One day,
+as he lay burning upon his bed, he called feebly to his one remaining
+servant, the native cook, to bring him the little package of quinine.
+She hastened to comply; but, alas! she brought the packet of
+strychnine instead, and soon he, too, had joined his companions in
+that unknown country which awaits us all. The old woman fled in
+terror; and the evil spirits descended upon the place. They haunt it
+yet, and no man approaches it but with trembling.
+
+Reed and Harris listened to the weird story with strange sensations.
+The clouds above had broken, and the late moon streamed through the
+night vapor, and poured through the bamboo walls of the house. The
+giant frogs in the nearby creek awoke, and through the long night
+croaked their mournful plaint in a weird minor cadence that seemed to
+the awed Americans to voice to the shimmering moon the countless
+wrongs of the primitive Indians, who, centuries before, had roamed
+this marvelous land in happy freedom, until the Spaniard descended
+like a dark cloud and, with rack and stake, fastened his blighting
+religion upon them.
+
+A day's rest at La Colorado sufficed to revive the spirits of the
+party and prepare them for the additional eight or ten hour journey
+over boggy morass and steep hill to La Libertad. For this trip Rosendo
+would take only the Americans and Carmen. The _cargadores_ were not to
+know the nature of this expedition, which, Rosendo announced, was
+undertaken that the Americans might explore for two days the region
+around the upper Tigui. The men received this explanation with grunts
+of satisfaction.
+
+Trembling with suppressed excitement, oblivious now of fatigue,
+hunger, or hardship, Reed and Harris followed the old man that day
+over the ancient, obliterated trail to the forgotten mine of Don
+Ignacio de Rincon. They experienced all the sensations of those who
+find themselves at last on the course that leads to buried treasure.
+To Harris, the romance attaching to the expedition obliterated all
+other considerations. But Reed was busy with the practical end of it,
+with costs, with the problems of supplies, of transportation, and
+trail. Carmen saw but one vision, the man in far-off Simiti, whose
+ancestor once owned the great mine which lay just ahead of them.
+
+When night fell, the four stood, silent and wondering, at the mouth of
+the crumbling tunnel, where lay a rusted shovel bearing the scarce
+distinguishable inscription, "I de R."
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two weeks later a group of natives, sitting at a feast of baked
+alligator tail, at the mouth of the Amaceri, near the dirty,
+straggling riverine town of Llano, rose in astonishment as they saw
+issuing from the clayey, wallowing Guamoco trail a staggering band of
+travelers, among them two foreigners, whose clothes were in shreds and
+whose beards and unkempt hair were caked with yellow mud. With them
+came a young girl, lightly clad and wearing torn rope _alpargates_ on
+her bare feet. The heat was descending in torrents. From the
+neighboring town floated a brawling bedlam of human voices. It was
+Sunday, and the villagers were celebrating a religious _fiesta_.
+
+"_Compadres_," said Rosendo, approaching the half-intoxicated group.
+"The boat--which way?"
+
+One of the group, his mouth too full to speak, pointed in expressive
+pantomime up-stream. Rosendo murmured a fervent "_Loado sea Dios_,"
+and sank upon the ground.
+
+"It will be down to-morrow--to-day, perhaps," gurgled another of the
+rapidly recovering feasters, his eyes roving from one member to
+another of the weird-looking little band.
+
+"Lord Harry!" exclaimed Harris, as he squatted upon the damp ground
+and mopped his muddy brow. "I'm a salamander for heat, that's
+certain!"
+
+"Senor," said Rosendo, addressing Reed, "it would be well to pay the
+men at once, for the boat may appear at any time, and it will not wait
+long."
+
+While the curious group from the village crowded about and eagerly
+watched the proceedings, Reed unstrapped his pack and drew out a bundle
+of Colombian bills, with which he began to pay the _cargadores_,
+according to the reckoning which Rosendo had kept. As the last man,
+with a grunt of satisfaction, received his money, Harris exclaimed:
+"And to think, one good American dollar is worth a bushel of that paper
+stuff!"
+
+The words were scarcely out of his mouth when a shrill whistle came
+echoing down the river. A cloud of smoke above the distant treetops
+heralded the approach of the steamer. The little party had escaped a
+wait of a month in the drenching heat of Llano by the narrow margin of
+an hour.
+
+Rosendo hastened to Reed and drew him aside. He tried to speak, but
+words failed him. Reed took his hand. "I understand, my friend," he
+said gently. "Have no fear. The mine is all I had anticipated. My wife
+and I will care for the girl until we hear from you. And we will keep
+in touch with you, although it will take two months for a letter to
+reach us and our reply to get back again to Simiti. The development
+company will be formed at once. Within six months you may expect to
+see the work started. It is your fortune--and the girl's."
+
+Carmen drew close to Rosendo. "Padre, I am coming back to you--yes?"
+
+"_Cierto, chiquita_!" The old man would not permit himself to say
+more. The girl had known for some time that he was not to accompany
+her to the States, and that she should not see Ana in Cartagena. To
+this she had at length accustomed herself.
+
+In a few minutes the lumbering boat had swung around and thrown out
+its gang plank. A hurried embrace; a struggle with rushing tears;
+another shriek from the boat whistle; and the Americans, with Carmen
+standing mute and motionless between them, looked back at the fading
+group on shore, where Rosendo's tall figure stood silhouetted
+against the green background of the forest. For a moment he held his
+arm extended toward them. Carmen knew, as she looked at the
+great-hearted man for the last time, that his benediction was
+following her--following her into that new world into which he might
+not enter.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Reed lifted the silent, wondering, big-eyed girl from the dinkey
+train which pulled into Cartagena from Calamar ten days later, and
+took her to the Hotel Mariana, where his anxious, fretting wife
+awaited. Their boat had hung on a hidden bar in the Cauca river
+for four interminable, torturing days.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 39
+
+
+On the day that Carmen arrived in Cartagena, Rosendo staggered down
+the Guamoco trail into Simiti. On that same momentous day the flames
+of war again flared up throughout the country. The Simiti episode, in
+which the President had interfered, brought Congress to the necessity
+of action. A few days of fiery debate followed; then the noxious
+measure was taken from the table and hastily enacted into a law.
+
+But news travels slowly in Latin America, and some time was required
+for this act of Congress to become generally known. The delay saw
+Carmen through the jungle and down to the coast. There Reed lost no
+time in transacting what business still remained for him in Cartagena,
+and securing transportation for his party to New York.
+
+Jose, the shadow of his former self, clung pitiably to Rosendo's hand,
+imploring the constant repetition of the old man's narrative. Then
+came Juan, flying to the door. He had seen and talked with the
+returned _cargadores_. The girl had not come back with them. He
+demanded to know why. He became wild. Neither Jose nor Rosendo could
+calm him. At length it seemed wise to them both to tell him that she
+had gone to the States with the Americans, and would return to Simiti
+no more.
+
+The blow almost crushed the lad. He rushed about the town half dazed.
+He gathered groups of companions about him and talked to them
+excitedly. He threatened Rosendo and Jose. Then, evidently acting on
+the advice of some cooler head, he rushed to his canoe and put off
+across the lake toward the _cano_. He did not return for several days.
+But when he did, the town knew that he had been to Bodega Central, and
+that the country was aflame with war.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Reed's wife had not received Carmen in an amiable frame of mind. "For
+heaven's sake, Charles," she had cried, turning from his embrace to
+look at the wondering girl who stood behind him, "what have you
+here?"
+
+"Oh, that," he laughingly replied, "is only a little Indian I lassoed
+back in the jungle." And, leaving the girl to the not very tender
+graces of his wife, he hurried out to arrange for the return voyage.
+
+At noon, when Harris appeared at Reed's room, Carmen rushed to him and
+begged to be taken for a stroll through the town. Yielding to her
+husband's insistence, Mrs. Reed had outfitted the girl, so that she
+presented a more civilized appearance. At first Carmen had been
+delighted with her new clothes. They were such, cheap as they were, as
+she had never seen in Simiti. But the shoes--"Ah, senora," she
+pleaded, "do not make me wear them, they are so tight! I have never
+worn shoes before." She was beginning her education in the conventions
+and trammels of civilization.
+
+As Carmen and Harris stood that afternoon in the public square, while
+the girl gazed enraptured at an equestrian statue of Simon Bolivar, a
+ragged little urchin approached and begged them to buy an afternoon
+paper. Harris humored him and bade Carmen ask him his name.
+
+"Rincon," the lad answered, drawing himself up proudly.
+
+The girl started. "Rincon!" she repeated. "Why--where do you live?"
+
+"In the Calle Lozano," he replied, wondering why these people seemed
+interested in him.
+
+Carmen translated the conversation to Harris. "Ask him who his father
+is," suggested the latter.
+
+"I do not know," replied the little fellow, shaking his head. "I never
+saw him. He lives far away, up the great river, so Tia Catalina says.
+And she says he is a priest."
+
+The color suddenly left Carmen's cheeks. "Come with me to your home,"
+she said, taking his hand.
+
+The boy led them willingly through the winding streets to the little
+upper room where, years before, he had first seen the light.
+
+"Tia Catalina," he cried to the shabby woman who rose in amazement as
+the visitors entered, "see, some strangers!"
+
+Carmen lost no time, but went at once to the heart of her question.
+
+"The little fellow's father--he is a Rincon? And--he lives up the
+great river?"
+
+The woman eyed her suspiciously for some moments without replying. But
+the boy answered for her. "Yes, senorita," he said eagerly, "in
+Simiti. And his name--I am named for him--it is Jose. And I am going
+to visit him some day. Tia Catalina said I should, no, Tia?"
+
+Harris fumbled in his pocket and drew out some money, which he handed
+to the woman. Her eyes lighted, and a cavernous smile spread over her
+wrinkled face.
+
+"_Ah, gracias, senor_," she murmured, bending over his hand; "we need
+it. The boy's father has sent us but little of late."
+
+Carmen's heart was fluttering wildly. "Tell me," she said in a cold
+voice, "the boy's father is Padre Jose de Rincon, of Simiti? You need
+not fear to speak. We have just come from Simiti, and have seen him.
+We are leaving to-morrow for the States."
+
+"Yes, senorita," replied the woman in a thin, cracking voice, now
+completely disarmed of her suspicion. "The little fellow was born here
+some seven years ago. Ah, well I remember the day! And his mother,
+poor little lamb! She died the same night. But the good Padre has sent
+us money ever since to care for him, until of late. Senorita, why is
+it, think you, that he sends us so little now?"
+
+"I--do--not--know," murmured Carmen abstractedly, scarce hearing the
+woman. Then she turned to the boy. She bent over him and looked long
+and wistfully into his eyes. He was a bright, handsome little fellow;
+and though her heart was crushed, she took him into it. Swallowing the
+lump which had come into her throat, she drew him to the window and
+sat down, holding him before her.
+
+"Your father--I know him--well. He is a--a good man. But--I did not
+know--I never knew that he had a son." She stopped, choking.
+
+"Tia Catalina says he is a fine man," proudly answered the boy.
+"And she wants me to be a priest, too. But I am going to be a
+bull-fighter."
+
+"It is true, senorita," interposed the woman. "We cannot keep him
+from the _arena_ now. He hangs about it all day, and about the
+slaughter-house. We can hardly drag him back to his meals. What
+can we do, senorita? But," with a touch of pride as she looked at him,
+"if he becomes a bull-fighter, he will be the best of them all!"
+
+Carmen turned again to the woman. Her question carried an appeal which
+came from the depths of her soul. "Senora, is there no doubt--no doubt
+that Padre Rincon is the father of the boy?"
+
+"We think not, senorita. The lad's mother died in the good Padre's
+arms. She would not say positively who was the boy's father. We
+thought at first--it was some one else. Marcelena insisted on it to
+her dying day. But now--now we know that it was Padre Jose. And he was
+sent to Simiti for it. But--ah, senorita, the little mother was so
+beautiful, and so good! She--but, senorita, you are not leaving so
+soon?"
+
+Carmen had risen. "Yes, my good senora," she said wearily. "We must
+now return to the hotel. But--here is more money for the boy. And,
+senora, when I reach the States I will send you money every month for
+him."
+
+She took Harris's hand. "Come," she said simply, "I have seen enough
+of the city."
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+At noon the next day a message from Bodega Central was put into the
+hand of the acting-Bishop of Cartagena, as he sat in his study,
+wrapped in the contemplation of certain papers before him. Hostilities
+had begun along the Magdalena river the day before. The gates of
+Cartagena were to be barricaded that day, for a boatload of rebels was
+about to leave Barranquilla to storm the city and seize, if possible,
+the customs. When he had read the message he uttered an exclamation.
+Had not the Sister Superior of the Convent of Our Lady reported the
+arrival of the daughter of Rosendo Ariza some days before? He seized
+his hat and left the room.
+
+Hastening to the Department of Police, he had a short interview with
+the chief. Then that official despatched policemen to the office of
+the steamship company, and to the dock. Their orders were to arrest
+two Americans who were abducting a young girl. They returned a half
+hour later with sheepish faces. "Your Excellency," they announced to
+their chief, "the vessel sailed from the port an hour ago, with the
+Americans and the girl aboard."
+
+The announcement aroused in Wenceslas the fury of a tiger. Exacerbation
+succeeded surprise; and that in turn gave way to a maddening thirst for
+sanguinary vengeance. He hastened out and despatched a telegraphic
+message to Bogota. Then he returned to his study to await its effect.
+
+Two days later a river steamer, impressed by the federal authorities,
+stopped at the mouth of the Boque, and a squad of soldiers marched
+over the unfrequented trail to Simiti, where they arrived as night
+fell. Their orders were to take into custody the priest, Jose de
+Rincon, who was accused of complicity in the recent plot to overthrow
+the existing government.
+
+At the same time, on a vessel plowing its way into the North, a young
+girl, awkwardly wearing her ill-fitting garments, hung over the rail
+and gazed wistfully back at the Southern Cross. The tourists who saw
+her heterogeneous attire laughed. But when they looked into her
+beautiful, sad face their mirth died, and a tender pity stirred their
+hearts.
+
+
+
+
+CARMEN ARIZA
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 3
+
+
+           And while within myself I trace
+           The greatness of some future race,
+           Aloof with hermit-eye I scan
+           The present works of present man,--
+           A wild and dream-like trade of blood and guile,
+           Too foolish for a tear, too wicked for a smile!
+
+                                                      --_Coleridge._
+
+
+
+
+CARMEN ARIZA
+
+CHAPTER 1
+
+
+The blanket of wet fog which had hung over the harbor with such
+exasperating tenacity lifted suddenly, late in the raw fall afternoon,
+and revealed to the wondering eyes of the girl who stood alone at the
+rail of the _Joachim_ a confusion of mountainous shadows, studded with
+myriad points of light which glittered and shimmered beneath the gray
+pall. Across the heaving waters came the dull, ominous breathing of
+the metropolis. Clouds of heavy, black smoke wreathed about the bay.
+Through it shrieking water craft darted and wriggled in endless
+confusion. For two days the port of New York had been a bedlam of raw
+sound, as the great sirens of the motionless vessels roared their
+raucous warnings through the impenetrable veil which enveloped them.
+Their noise had become acute torture to the impatient tourists, and
+added bewilderment to the girl.
+
+The transition from the primitive simplicity of her tropical home had
+not been one of easy gradation, but a precipitate plunge. The
+convulsion which ensued from the culmination of events long gathering
+about little Simiti had hurled her through the forest, down the
+scalding river, and out upon the tossing ocean with such swiftness
+that, as she now stood at the portal of a new world, she seemed to be
+wandering through the mazes of an intricate dream. During the ocean
+voyage she had kept aloof from the other passengers, partly because of
+embarrassment, partly because of the dull pain at her heart as she
+gazed, day after day, at the two visions which floated always before
+her: one, the haggard face of the priest, when she tore herself from
+his arms in far-off Simiti; the other, that of the dark-faced,
+white-haired old man who stood on the clayey river bank at wretched
+Llano and watched her, with eager, straining eyes, until the winding
+stream hid her from his earthly sight--forever. She wondered dully now
+why she had left them, why she had so easily yielded to the influences
+which had caused the separation. They might have fled to the jungle
+and lived there in safety and seclusion. The malign influences which
+beset them all in Simiti never could have reached them in the
+trackless forest. And yet, she knew that had not Rosendo and Jose held
+out to her, almost to the last moment, assurances of a speedy reunion,
+she would not have yielded to the pressure which they had exerted, and
+to the allurements of life in the wonderful country to which they had
+sent her. Her embarrassment on the boat was due largely to a sense of
+awkwardness in the presence of women who, to her provincial sight,
+seemed visions of beauty. To be sure, the priest had often shown her
+pictures of the women of the outside world, and she had some idea of
+their dress. But that such a vast difference existed between the
+illustrations and the actualities, she had never for a moment
+imagined. Their gowns, their jewels, their coiffures held her in
+open-mouthed marvel, until Mrs. Reed, herself annoyed and embarrassed,
+remanded her to her cabin and bade her learn the impropriety of such
+manners.
+
+Nor had the conduct of this lady throughout the voyage conduced to
+Carmen's happiness. Mrs. Reed showed plainly that the girl was an
+awkward embarrassment to her; that she was tolerated because of
+reasons which pertained solely to her husband's business; and she took
+pains to impress upon her fellow-travelers that, in view of the
+perplexing servant problem, this unmannered creature was being taken
+to the States to be trained as a maid, though, heaven knew! the
+training would be arduous, and the result uncertain.
+
+Reed, though measurably kind, gave Carmen scant attention. Harris
+alone saved the girl from almost complete neglect. He walked the deck
+with her, regardless of the smiles of the other passengers. He taught
+her to play shuffle-board, checkers, and simple card games. He
+conducted her over the boat and explained the intricate machinery and
+the numberless wonders of the great craft. He sat with her out on the
+deck at night and told her marvelous stories of his experiences in
+frontier camps. And at the table he insisted that she occupy the seat
+next to him, despite the protestations of the chief steward, who would
+have placed her apart with the servants.
+
+Carmen said little, but she clung to the man with an appeal which,
+though mute, he nevertheless understood. At Kingston he took her on a
+drive through the town, and bought post cards for her to send back to
+Jose and Rosendo. It consoled her immeasurably when he glowingly
+recounted the pleasure her loved ones would experience on receiving
+these cards; and thereafter the girl daily devoted hours to the
+preparation of additional ones to be posted in New York.
+
+The lifting of the fog was the signal for a race among the stalled
+craft to gain the harbor entrance. The enforced retention of the
+vessels in the bay had resulted in much confusion in docking, and the
+_Joachim_ was assigned to a pier not her own. The captain grumbled,
+but had no choice. At the pier opposite there docked a huge liner from
+Havre; and the two boats poured their swarming human freight into the
+same shed. When the gang plank dropped, Harris took charge of Carmen,
+while Reed and his wife preceded them ashore, the latter giving a
+little scream of delight as she spied her sister and some friends with
+a profusion of flowers awaiting her on the pier. She rushed joyfully
+into their arms, while Reed hastened to his equipage with a customs
+officer.
+
+But as Harris and the bewildered Carmen pushed into the great crowd in
+the shed, the absent-minded man suddenly remembered that he had left a
+bundle of Panama hats underneath his bunk. Dropping the girl's hand,
+the impetuous fellow tore back up the gang plank and dived into the
+boat.
+
+For a moment Carmen, stood in confusion, bracing herself against
+the swarming multitude, and clinging tenaciously to the small,
+paper-wrapped bundle which she carried. Her first impulse was to
+follow Harris. But the eager, belated crowd almost swept her off her
+feet, and she turned again, drifting slowly with it toward the
+distant exit. As she moved uncertainly, struggling the while to
+prevent being crushed against the wall, she felt some one grasp her
+hand.
+
+"Oh, here you are!" sounded a gentle voice close to her ear. "Well,
+how fortunate! We thought we had lost you! Come, they are waiting for
+us up ahead."
+
+Carmen looked up at the speaker. It was a woman, comely of feature,
+and strikingly well dressed. The girl thought her beautiful. The
+anxious fears of a moment before vanished. "Is he up there--Mr. Reed?"
+she asked quickly.
+
+"He? Oh, yes--Mr. Reed and the others are waiting for us. They sent me
+back to find you. The automobiles came for you all; but I presume the
+others have gone by this time. However, you and I will follow in mine.
+I am Auntie."
+
+"His aunt?" the girl asked eagerly, as the woman forced a way for them
+through the mass of humanity.
+
+"Yes, dear. And I am so glad to see you. I have heard all about you."
+
+"Did he write to you--from Simiti?"
+
+"Yes, long letters. And he told all about his little girl. He said
+your name was--"
+
+"Carmen," interrupted the girl, with a great surge of gladness, for
+here was one woman who did not avoid her.
+
+"Yes, Carmen. It is a sweet name."
+
+"But--Mr. Harris!" cried Carmen, suddenly stopping as she remembered.
+
+"Oh, did he wait? Well, he will come. He knows where to find the
+automobiles. I will leave word with the pier-master to tell him."
+
+By this time they had wormed their way clear of the crowd and gained
+the street. The woman, still retaining Carmen's hand, went directly to
+a waiting automobile and pushed the unresisting girl through the open
+door. Carmen had never seen a conveyance like this, and her thought
+was instantly absorbed. She looked wonderingly for the horses. And
+then, sinking into the luxurious cushions, she fell to speculating as
+to how the thing was moved.
+
+As the chauffeur reached back to close the door a policeman, who had
+been eying the party since they came out of the shed, stepped up and
+laid a hand on the car.
+
+"Er--little girl," he said, looking in and addressing Carmen,
+"_you--you know this lady, do you_?"
+
+"Yes," replied Carmen, looking up confidently into the woman's smiling
+face. "She is Auntie, Mr. Reed's aunt." She thought his blue uniform
+and shining buttons and star gorgeously beautiful.
+
+The officer stood hesitant a moment. Suspicion lurked in his eyes as
+he looked at the woman and then back again at the girl.
+
+"She is a little girl who came up from the South with my nephew, Mr.
+Reed," the woman explained easily. "But I don't wonder you asked. I
+will give you my card, if you wish."
+
+Her air was supremely confident. The chauffeur, too, as he got out and
+leisurely examined his engine, served further to disarm suspicion. The
+officer raised up and removed his hand from the machine. The chauffeur
+slowly mounted the box and threw on his lever. As the car moved gently
+into the night the officer glanced at its number. "Hell!" he muttered,
+turning away. "What's the use? The number would be changed anyway.
+What's a fellow going to do in a case like this, I'd like to know--go
+with 'em?"
+
+Some minutes later, Harris, wild and disheveled, followed by Reed and
+his party, emerged hurriedly into the street.
+
+"What you looking for?" asked the officer, planting himself in front
+of Harris, and becoming vaguely apprehensive.
+
+"Girl!" sputtered Harris, his eyes protruding and his long arms pawing
+the air. "Girl--so high--funny dress--big straw hat! Seen her?"
+
+The officer gasped. "She's gone! Aunt took her just now in an auto!"
+
+"Aunt!" yelled Harris. "She's got no aunt! She's from the jungle!"
+
+For a moment they all stood silent, big-eyed and gaping.
+
+"Look here, Mr. Officer," said Reed, interposing. "My name's Reed. The
+girl came up from South America with me. Describe the woman--"
+
+"Reed!" cried the policeman excitedly, his eyes lighting. "That's it!
+Said she was your aunt!"
+
+"Lord Harry! You great, blundering boob!" cried the distracted Harris,
+menacing the confused officer. "And you let her nab the kid?"
+
+Night had fallen, and a curious crowd was gathering around the
+excited, noisy group. Reed quickly signaled a taxicab and hustled the
+bewildered officer into it. "You, Harris, get the women folks home,
+and wait for me! I'll go to central with this officer and report the
+case!"
+
+"Not I!" exclaimed Harris wildly. "I'm going to visit every dance hall
+and dive in this bloomin' town before I go home! I'm going to find
+that girl! And you, you blithering idiot," shaking a fist at the
+officer, "you're going to lose your star for this!"
+
+Meantime, the car, in which Carmen lay deep in the soft cushions, sped
+through the dusk like a fell spirit. A confused jumble of shadows flew
+past, and strange, unfamiliar noises rose from the animated streets.
+The lights shimmered on the moist glass. It was confusing. The girl
+ceased trying to read any meaning in it. It all fused into a blur; and
+she closed her eyes and gave herself up to the novel sensations
+stimulated by her first ride in a carriage propelled--she knew not
+how.
+
+At length came a creaking, a soft, skidding motion, and the big car
+rolled up against a curb and stopped.
+
+"We are home now," said the woman softly, as she descended and again
+took Carmen's hand. They hurriedly mounted the white stone steps of a
+tall, gloomy building and entered a door that seemed to open
+noiselessly at their approach. A glare of light burst upon the
+blinking eyes of the girl. A <DW64> woman softly closed the door after
+them. With a wondering glance, Carmen looked about her. In the room at
+her right she caught a glimpse of women--beautiful, they seemed to
+her--clad in loose, low-cut, gaily  gowns. There were men
+there, too; and some one sat at a piano playing sprightly music. She
+had seen pianos like that in Cartagena, and on the boat, and they had
+seemed to her things bewitched. In the room at the end of the hall men
+and women were dancing on a floor that seemed of polished glass. Loud
+talk, laughter, and singing floated through the rooms, and the air
+was warm and stuffy, heavy with perfume. The odor reminded her of the
+roses in her own little garden in Simiti. It was all beautiful,
+wonderful, fairy-like.
+
+But she had only a moment for this appraisal. Seizing her hand again,
+the woman whisked her up the flight of stairs before them and into a
+warm, light room. Then, without speaking, she went out and closed the
+door, leaving the girl alone.
+
+Carmen sank into a great, upholstered rocking chair and tried to grasp
+it all as she swayed dreamily back and forth. So this was his home,
+Mr. Reed's. It was a palace! Like those Jose had described. She
+wondered if Harris dwelt in a place of such heavenly beauty; for he
+had said that he did not live with Reed. What would the stupid people
+of Simiti think could they see her now! She had never dreamed that
+such marvels existed in the big world beyond her dreary, dusty, little
+home town! Jose had told her much, ah, wonderful things! And so had
+Harris. But how pitifully inadequate now seemed all their stories! She
+still wondered what had made that carriage go in which she had come up
+from the boat. And what would one like it cost? Would her interest in
+La Libertad suffice to buy one? She speculated vaguely.
+
+Then she rose and wandered about the room. She passed her hand over
+the clean, white counterpane of the bed. "Oh," she murmured, "how
+beautiful!" She went dreamily to the bureau and took up, one by one,
+the toilet articles that lay there in neat array. "Oh, oh, oh!" she
+murmured, again and again. She glanced into the clear mirror. The
+little figure reflected there contrasted so oddly with the gorgeously
+beautiful ones she had glimpsed below that she laughed aloud. Then she
+went to the window and felt of the soft curtains. "It is heaven," she
+murmured, facing about and sweeping the room, "just heaven! Oh, how
+beautiful even the human mind can be! I never thought it, I never
+thought it!"
+
+Again she sat down in the big rocker and gave herself up to the charm
+of her surroundings. Her glance fell upon a vase of flowers that stood
+on a table near another window. She rose and went to them, bending
+over to inhale their fragrance. "How strange!" she exclaimed, as she
+felt them crackle in her fingers. Poor child, they were artificial!
+But she would learn, ere long, that they fittingly symbolized the life
+of the great city in which she was now adrift.
+
+Time passed. She began to wonder why the woman did not return. Were
+not the Reeds anxious to know of her safe arrival? But perhaps they
+had visitors. Surely that was the case. It was a ball--but so
+different from the simple, artless _baile_ of her native town. Stray
+snatches of music drifted into the room from the piano below. It
+stimulated a hunger for more. She went to the door, thinking to open
+it a little and listen. The door was locked!
+
+For a moment she stood reflecting. Then apprehension began to steal
+over her. She went hastily, instinctively, to a window and raised the
+curtain. There were iron bars in front of it! She remembered suddenly
+that prison windows were like that. She hurried to the other. It was
+likewise barred. Terror's clammy hand gripped at her heart. Then she
+caught herself--and laughed. "How silly!" she exclaimed, sinking again
+into the rocker. "God is everywhere--right here!"
+
+At that moment the door opened noiselessly and a woman entered. She
+was younger than the one who had met the boat. When she saw the girl
+she uttered an exclamation. "Lord! where did you get those clothes?"
+
+Carmen glanced down at her odd attire and then smiled up at the woman.
+"Cartagena," she said simply. "Mrs. Reed bought them for me. But are
+you her sister? You don't look like her."
+
+The woman laughed, a sharp, unmusical laugh. The dry cosmetic
+plastered thick upon her cheeks cracked. She was not beautiful like
+the others, thought Carmen. Her cheeks were sunken, and her low-cut
+gown revealed great, protruding collarbones. "Come," she said
+abruptly, "get out of those rags and into something modern." She
+opened a closet door and selected a gown from a number hanging there.
+It was white, and there was a gay ribbon at the waist.
+
+"It'll have to be pinned up," she commented to herself, holding it out
+before her and regarding Carmen critically.
+
+The girl's eyes danced. "Oh!" she exclaimed, "am I to wear that? How
+beautiful! Did Mrs. Reed give it to me? And is there a party down
+stairs?"
+
+The woman returned no answer, but opened a bureau drawer and took from
+it several other garments, which she threw upon a chair, together with
+the dress.
+
+"Into the whole lot of 'em," she said sharply, indicating the
+garments. "And move lively, for supper's waitin' and there'll be
+callers soon--gentlemen callers," she added, smiling grimly.
+
+She turned and faced Carmen. Their eyes met. The woman stopped
+abruptly and stood with arms akimbo, regarding the girl. Carmen gazed
+up at her with a smile of happy, trustful assurance.
+
+The woman was the first to speak. "Where did you come from?" she
+demanded hoarsely.
+
+Carmen told her. She mentioned Simiti, Padre Jose, and Rosendo. Her
+voice quavered a little; but she brightened up and concluded: "And Mr.
+Reed's Auntie, she met us--that is, me. Oh, isn't she a beautiful
+lady!"
+
+The woman seemed to be fascinated by the child's gaze. Then, suddenly,
+as if something had given way under great strain, she cried: "For
+God's sake, don't look at me that way! Who are you?" She dropped into
+a chair and continued to stare at the girl.
+
+"Well, I've told you," replied Carmen. "But," she continued, going
+quickly to the woman and taking her hand, "you haven't told me your
+name yet. And we are going to be such good friends, aren't we? Yes, we
+are. And you are going to tell me all about this beautiful house, and
+that wonderful carriage I came here in. What did make it go, anyway?
+Do you ride often? Oh, I hope Mrs. Reed will take me out in it every
+day!"
+
+The woman's hand tightened over Carmen's. She seemed to struggle with
+herself. Then, in a low voice:
+
+"Your mother--is she living?"
+
+"Madre Maria is," returned Carmen. "But my mother, my own real mother,
+she died, long, long ago, on the banks of the great river. My father
+left her, and she was trying to follow him. Then I was born--"
+
+"The same old story!" muttered the woman fiercely. "I've been there,
+girl, and know all about it. I followed the man--but it was my kid
+that died! God, if I could have laid my hands on him! And now you have
+come here--"
+
+She stopped abruptly and swallowed hard. Carmen gently stole an arm
+about her neck. "It isn't true," she murmured, laying her soft cheek
+against the woman's painted one. "No one can desert us or harm us, for
+_God is everywhere_. And no one really dies. We have got to know that.
+Padre Jose said I had a message for the people up here; and now you
+are the first one I've told it to. But that's it: God is everywhere.
+And if we know that, why, nothing bad can ever happen to us. But you
+didn't know it when your husband left you, did you?"
+
+"Husband!" ejaculated the woman. Then she looked up into the girl's
+deep, wondering eyes and checked herself. "Come," she said abruptly,
+rising and still holding her hand. "Never mind the clothes." A grim
+look settled over her features. "We'll go down to supper now as you
+are."
+
+Carmen's companion led her down the stairs and through the hall to a
+brightly lighted room at the rear, where about a long table sat a half
+dozen women. There were places for as many more, but they were
+unoccupied. The cloth was white, the glass shone, the silver
+sparkled. And the women, who glanced up at the girl, were clad in
+gowns of such gorgeous hues as to make the child gasp in amazement.
+Over all hung the warm, perfumed air that she had thought so delicious
+when she had first entered the house.
+
+The noisy chatter at once ceased. The woman led her to a chair next to
+the one she herself took. Carmen looked around for the lady who had
+met her at the boat. She was not there. The silence and the steady
+scrutiny of the others began to embarrass her. "Where--where is
+Auntie?" she asked timidly, looking up at her faded attendant.
+
+A titter ran around the table. One of the women, who swayed slightly
+in her chair, looked up stupidly. "Who's Auntie?" she muttered
+thickly. A burst of laughter followed this remark, and Carmen sat down
+in confusion.
+
+"Where's the Madam, Jude?" asked one of the younger women of Carmen's
+attendant.
+
+"Dining alone in her room. Headache," was the laconic reply.
+
+"She landed a queen this time, didn't she?" looking admiringly at
+Carmen. "Gets me, how the old girl does it! What's your name, kiddo?"
+
+"Carmen," replied the girl timidly, looking questioningly about the
+room.
+
+"That's a good handle. But what's the rest?" put in another.
+
+"Carmen Ariza," the child amended, as her big, wondering eyes swept
+the group.
+
+"Wow! That's a moniker for you!" laughed one. "Where do you hail from,
+angel-face?"
+
+The girl looked uncomprehendingly at her interlocutor.
+
+"Your home, you know. I see your finish, all right. But where'd you
+begin?"
+
+"Tell them where you lived, child," said the woman called Jude in a
+low voice.
+
+"Simiti," replied Carmen, tears choking her words.
+
+"Simiti!" echoed around the table. "New York? Ohio? Or Kansas?" A
+burst of mirth punctuated the question.
+
+"Do the women vote there?"
+
+"Long way from Paris, judging by the fashions."
+
+"Where is Simiti, kidlet?"
+
+Carmen answered in a scarcely audible voice, "South America."
+
+Low exclamations of astonishment encircled the table, while the women
+sat regarding the girl curiously.
+
+"But," continued Carmen in a trembling voice, "where is Mrs. Reed?
+And isn't Mr. Harris here? Why don't they come? Don't they know I am
+here?"
+
+She looked appealingly from one to another. Her beautiful face wore
+such an expression of mingled fear, uncertainty, and helplessness as
+to throw a hush upon the room. One of the women rose. "God!" she
+muttered, "it's a shame!" She looked for a moment uncertainly into the
+big, deep eyes of the girl, and then turned and hastily left the
+room.
+
+The silence which followed was broken by a pallid, painted creature at
+the end of the table.
+
+"What an old devil the Madam is! My God! One look into those eyes
+would have been enough for me!"
+
+"What's the idea, Jude?" asked another, nodding toward the girl. "Does
+she stay here?"
+
+The woman addressed as Jude shook her head. "This is only a recruiting
+station for the regular army. She'll go over to French Lucy's; and the
+Madam will get a round price for the job."
+
+"Old Lucy'll get rich off of her! But she needs the money. Ames owns
+her house, too, doesn't he?"
+
+"Sure thing!" replied Jude, brightening under the stimulus of her
+wine. "He owns every house in this block, they say. Got long leases
+for 'em all. And the rents--suffering Moses! The Madam rolls on the
+floor and cusses for a week straight every time she pays hers. But
+just the same, if you've ever noticed, the houses that Ames owns are
+never raided by the coppers. Ames whacks up with the mayor and the
+city hall gang and the chief of police. That means protection, and we
+pay for it in high rents. But it's a lot better'n being swooped down
+on by the cops every few weeks, ain't it? We know what we're expected
+to pay, that way. And we never do when we keep handin' it out to the
+cops."
+
+"That's right," approved some one.
+
+"It sure is. That's what the collector says. And he's got a new
+collector, fellow from the Ketchim Realty Company. They're the old
+man's agents now for his dive-houses. He can't get anybody else to
+handle 'em, so the collector tells me."
+
+"Belle Carey's place was pulled last night, I hear," said one of the
+women, pushing back her plate and lighting a cigarette.
+
+"Yes," returned Jude, "and why? Cause the house is owned by
+Gannette--swell guy livin' up on Riverside Drive--and he don't divvy
+with the city hall. Belle don't pay no such rent as the Madam does--at
+least so old Lucy tells me."
+
+The half-intoxicated woman down the table, who had stirred their
+laughter a few minutes before, now roused up heavily. "Ol' Lucy--huh!
+Used to work for her m'self. Caught a pippin for her once--right off
+the train--jus' like this li'l hussy. Went to th' depot in a hack. Saw
+th' li'l kid comin' an' pretended to faint. Li'l kid run to me an'
+asked could she help. Got her to see me safe home--tee! hee! She's
+workin' f'r ol' Lucy yet, sound's a dollar."
+
+She fixed her bleared eyes upon Carmen and lapsed back into her former
+state of sodden stupidity.
+
+The girl rose hastily from her chair. The policeman's words at the
+pier were floating confusedly through her thought. The strange talk of
+these women increased the confusion. Perhaps a mistake had been made.
+She turned beseechingly to Jude. "Isn't this--Mr. Reed's house?" she
+asked.
+
+Another of the women got up hurriedly and left the table. "I haven't
+the nerve for another sob-scene," she commented as she went out.
+
+"Where am I? Where am I?" pleaded Carmen, turning from one to
+another.
+
+Jude reached out and seized her hand tightly. "Pleasant job for me!"
+she commented ironically, looking at the others. Then, to Carmen:
+
+"You are in a--a hotel," she said abruptly.
+
+"Oh--then--then it was a mistake?" The girl turned her great, yearning
+eyes upon the woman. Jude shrank under them. "Sit down, and finish
+your supper," she said harshly, pulling the girl toward the chair.
+
+"No!" replied Carmen loudly. "You must take me to Mr. Reed!"
+
+The maudlin woman down the table chuckled thickly. The <DW64> waitress
+went quickly out and closed the door. Jude rose, still holding the
+girl's hand. "Come up stairs with me," she said, leading her away.
+
+"Poor old Jude!" commented one of the women, when the two had left the
+room. "She's about all in. This sort of business is getting her nerve.
+But she's housekeeper, and that's part of her job. And--the poor
+little kid! But ain't she a beauty!"
+
+Jude took the girl into her own room and locked the door. Then she
+sank wearily into a chair. "God!" she cried, "I'm sick of this--sick
+of the whole thing!"
+
+Carmen went quickly to her. "Don't!" she said. "Don't! It was all a
+mistake, and we can go."
+
+"Go!" echoed the woman bitterly. "Where--and how?"
+
+"Why, you said this was a hotel--"
+
+"Hotel! God, it's hell! And you are in forever!"
+
+Carmen gazed at the excited woman with a puzzled expression on her
+face.
+
+"Now listen," said Jude, bracing herself, "I've got something to tell
+you. You have been--good God! I can't--I can't! For God's sake, child,
+don't look at me that way! Who are you? Where do you come from?"
+
+"I told you," replied Carmen quietly.
+
+"Your face looks as if you had come down from the sky. But if you did,
+and if you believe in a God, you had better pray to Him now!"
+
+"Why--I am not afraid. God is everywhere--right here. I was afraid--a
+little--at first. But not now. When we stop and just know that we love
+everybody, and that everybody really loves us, why, we can't be afraid
+any more, can we?"
+
+The woman looked up at the child in blank amazement. Love! That
+warped, twisted word conveyed no meaning to her. And God--it was only
+a convenient execrative. But--what was it that looked out from that
+strange girl's eyes? What was it that held her fascinated there? What
+was emerging from those unfathomable depths, twining itself about her
+withered heart and expanding her black, shrunken soul? Whence came
+that beautiful, white life that she was going to blast? And could she,
+after all? Then what stayed her now?
+
+"Look here," she cried sharply, "tell me again all about yourself, and
+about your friends and family down south, and what it was that the
+Madam said to you! And be quick!"
+
+Carmen sat down at her feet, and taking her hand, went again over the
+story. As the child talked, the woman's hard eyes widened, and now and
+then a big tear rolled down the painted cheek. Her thought began to
+stray back, far back, along the wreck-strewn path over which she
+herself had come. At last in the dim haze she saw again the little New
+England farm, and her father, stern, but honest and respected,
+trudging behind the plow. In the cottage she saw her white-haired
+mother, every lineament bespeaking her Puritan origin, hovering over
+her little household like a benediction. Then night fell, swiftly as
+the eagle swoops down upon its prey, and she awoke from a terrible
+dream, stained, abandoned, lost--and seared with a foul oath to drag
+down to her own level every innocent girl upon whom her hands might
+thereafter fall!
+
+"And I have just had to know," Carmen concluded, "every minute since I
+left Simiti, that God was everywhere, and that He would not let any
+harm come to me. But when we really know that, why, the way _always_
+opens. For that's prayer, right prayer; the kind that Jesus taught."
+
+The woman sat staring at the girl, an expression of utter blankness
+upon her pallid face. Prayer! Oh, yes, she had been taught to pray.
+Well she remembered, though the memory now cut like a knife, how she
+knelt at her beautiful mother's knee and asked the good Father to
+bless and protect them all, even to the beloved doll that she hugged
+to her little bosom. But God had never heard her petitions, innocent
+though she was. And He had let her fall, even with a prayer on her
+lips, into the black pit!
+
+A loud sound of male voices and a stamping of feet rose from below.
+The woman sprang to the door and stood listening. "It's the boys from
+the college!" she cried in a hoarse whisper.
+
+She turned and stood hesitant for a moment, as if striving to
+formulate a plan. A look of fierce determination came into her face.
+She went to the bureau and took from the drawers several articles,
+which she hastily thrust into the pocket of her dress.
+
+"Now," she said, turning to Carmen and speaking in a low, strained
+voice, "you do just as I say. Bring your bundle. And for God's sake
+don't speak!"
+
+Leaving the light burning, she stepped quickly out with Carmen and
+locked the door after her. Then, bidding the girl wait, she slipped
+softly down the hall and locked the door of the room to which the girl
+had first been taken. Both keys she dropped into her pocket. "Now
+follow me," she said.
+
+Laughter and music floated up from below, mingled with the clink of
+glasses. The air was heavy with perfume and tobacco smoke. A door near
+them opened, and a sound of voices issued. The woman pulled Carmen
+into a closet until the hall was again quiet. Then she hurried on to
+another door which she entered, dragging the girl with her. Again she
+locked the door after her. Groping through the darkness, she reached a
+window, across which stood a hinged iron grating, secured with a
+padlock. The woman fumbled among her keys and unfastened this.
+Swinging it wide, and opening the window beyond, she bade the girl
+precede her cautiously.
+
+"It's a fire-escape," she explained briefly. She reached through the
+window grating and fastened the padlock; then closed the window; and
+quickly descended with the girl to the ground below.
+
+Pausing a moment to get her breath, she seized Carmen's hand and crept
+swiftly around the big house and into a dark alley. There she stopped
+to throw over her shoulders a light shawl which she had taken from the
+bureau. Then she hurried on.
+
+Their course lay through the muddy alley for several blocks. When they
+emerged they were in a dimly lighted cross street. The air was chill,
+and the thinly clad woman shivered. Carmen, fresh from the tropics,
+felt the contrast keenly. A few moments' rapid walking down the street
+brought them to a large building of yellow brick, surrounded by a high
+board fence. The woman unfastened the gate and hurried up to the door,
+over which, by the feeble light of the street lamp, Carmen read, "The
+Little Sisters of the Poor."
+
+A black-robed woman admitted them and went to summon the Sister
+Superior. Carmen marveled at her strange attire. A moment later they
+were silently ushered into an adjoining room, where a tall woman,
+similarly dressed, awaited them.
+
+"Sister," said Jude excitedly, "here's a little kid--you got to care
+for her until she finds her friends!"
+
+The Sister Superior instantly divined the status of the woman. "Let
+the child wait here a moment," she said, "and you come with me and
+tell your story. It would be better that she should not hear."
+
+In a little while they appeared again. Carmen was drowsing in her
+chair.
+
+"She's chock full of religion," the woman was saying.
+
+"But you," the Sister replied, "what will you do? Go back?"
+
+"God, no!" cried the woman. "They would murder me!"
+
+"Then you will stay here until--"
+
+"No, no! I have friends--others like myself--I will go to them. I--I
+couldn't stay here--with her," nodding toward the girl. "But--you will
+take care of her?"
+
+"Surely," returned the Sister in a calm voice.
+
+Jude looked at Carmen for a moment. She made as if she would speak.
+Then she turned abruptly and went swiftly out into the chill night.
+
+"Come," said the Sister to Carmen, extending a hand. "Poor little
+thing!" she murmured as they mounted the stairs. "Poor little thing!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2
+
+
+Carmen was astir next morning long before the rising-bell sounded its
+shrill summons through the long corridors. When she opened her eyes
+she gazed at the ceiling above in perplexity. She still seemed to feel
+the tossing motion of the boat, and half believed the bell to be the
+call to the table, where she should again hear the cheery voice of
+Harris and meet the tolerant smile of Mrs. Reed. Then a rush of
+memories swept her, and her heart went down in the flood. She was
+alone in a great foreign city! She turned her face to the pillow, and
+for a moment a sob shook her. Then she reached under the pillow and
+drew out the little Bible, which she had taken from her bundle and
+placed there when the Sister left her the night before. The book fell
+open to Isaiah, and she read aloud:
+
+  "I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine
+  hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the
+  people, for a light of the Gentiles."
+
+She snapped the book shut and quickly rose. "That means me," she said
+firmly. "Padre Jose said I had a message for the world; and now I
+am to tell it to these people up here. God has called me in
+righteousness. That means, He has called me to do _right thinking_.
+And I am to tell these people how to think right. They don't know
+as yet."
+
+Suddenly her thought reverted to Cartagena, and to the sturdy little
+lad who had so proudly claimed the name of Rincon. For a moment she
+stood still. Then she burst into tears and threw herself back upon the
+bed.
+
+But she did not lie there long. "I must think only God's thoughts,"
+she said, struggling to her feet and checking her grief. "If it is
+right for the little boy to be his son, then I must want it to be so.
+I _must_ want only the right--I have _got_ to want it! And if it is
+not right now, then God will make it so. It is all in His hands, and I
+must not think of it any more, unless I think right thoughts."
+
+She dressed herself quickly, but did not put on the shoes. "I simply
+can not wear these things," she mourned, looking at them dubiously;
+"and I do not believe the woman will make me. I wonder why the other
+woman called her Sister. Why did she wear that ugly black bonnet? And
+why was I hurried away from that hotel? It was so much pleasanter
+there, so bright and warm; and here it is so cold." She shivered as
+she buttoned her thin dress. "But," she continued, "I have got to go
+out now and find Mr. Reed and Mr. Harris--I have just _got_ to find
+them--and to-day! But, oh, this city is so much larger than Simiti!"
+
+She shook her head in perplexity as she put the Bible back again in
+the bundle, where lay the title papers to La Libertad and her mother's
+little locket, which Rosendo had given her that last morning in
+Simiti. The latter she drew out and regarded wistfully for some
+moments. "I haven't any father or mother but God," she murmured. "But
+He is both father and mother to me now." With a little sigh she tied
+up the bundle again. Holding it in one hand and carrying the much
+despised shoes in the other, she left the cheerless room and started
+down the long, cold hall.
+
+When she reached the stairway leading to the floor below she stopped
+abruptly. "Anita's babe!" she exclaimed half-aloud. "I have been
+thinking only of myself. It is _not_ blind! It sees! It sees as God
+sees! What is it that the Bible says?--'And I will bring them by a way
+that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not
+known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things
+straight.' I must know that--always! And Padre Jose said he would
+remember it, too."
+
+Again she choked back the tears which surged up at the remembrance of
+the priest, and, bracing herself, hastily descended the stairs,
+murmuring at every step, "God is everywhere--right here!"
+
+At the far end of the lower hall she saw, through an open door, a
+number of elderly people sitting at long tables. Toward them she
+made her way. When she reached the door, she stopped and peered
+curiously within. A murmur of astonishment rose from the inmates
+when they caught sight of the quaint object in the doorway, standing
+uncertainly, with her shoes in one hand, the awkwardly tied bundle in
+the other, and garbed in the chaotic attire so hastily procured for
+her in Cartagena.
+
+A Sister came quickly forward and, taking the girl's hand, led her
+into a smaller adjoining room, where sat the Sister Superior at
+breakfast. The latter greeted the child gently and bade her be seated
+at the table. Carmen dropped into a chair and sat staring in naive
+wonder.
+
+"Well," began the Sister at length, "eat your breakfast quickly. This
+is Sunday, you know, and Mass will be said in the chapel in half an
+hour. You look frightened. I don't wonder. But you are with friends
+here, little girl. What is your name?"
+
+Carmen quickly recovered her spirits, and her nimble tongue its wonted
+flexibility. Without further invitation or preface she entered at once
+upon a lively description of her wonderful journey through the jungle,
+the subsequent ocean voyage, and the mishap at the pier, and concluded
+with the cryptical remark: "And, you know, Senora, it is all just as
+Padre Jose said, only a series of states of consciousness, after
+all!"
+
+The Sister stared blankly at the beaming child. What manner of being
+was this that had been so strangely wafted into these sacred precincts
+on the night breeze! The abandoned woman who had brought her there,
+the Sister remembered, had dropped an equally cryptical remark--"She's
+chock full of religion."
+
+But gratitude quickly mastered her wonder, and the woman, pondering
+the child's dramatic recital, murmured a sincere, "The Virgin be
+praised!"
+
+"Oh," said Carmen, looking up quickly as she caught the words, "you
+people up here talk just like those in Simiti. But Padre Jose said you
+didn't know, either. You ought to, though, for you have had so many
+more ad--advantages than we have. Senora, there are many big, clumsy
+words in the English language, aren't there? But I love it just the
+same. So did Padre Jose. We used to speak it all the time during the
+last years we were together. He said it seemed easier to talk about
+God in that language than in any other. Do you find it so, Senora?"
+
+"What do you mean, child?" asked the puzzled Sister. "And who is this
+Jose that you talk so much about?"
+
+"He--taught me--in Simiti. He is the priest there."
+
+"Well," replied the Sister warmly, "he seems to have taught you queer
+things!"
+
+"Oh, no!" returned Carmen quickly, "he just taught me the truth. He
+didn't tell me about the queer things in the world, for he said they
+were not real."
+
+Again the Sister stared at the girl in dumb amazement. But the child's
+thought had strayed to other topics. "Isn't it cold up here!" she
+exclaimed, shivering and drawing her dress about her. "I guess I'll
+have to put on these shoes to keep my feet warm."
+
+"Certainly, child, put them on!" exclaimed the Sister. "Didn't you
+wear shoes in your country?"
+
+"No," replied Carmen, tugging and straining at the shoes; "I didn't
+wear much of anything, it was so warm. Oh, it is beautiful down there,
+Senora, so beautiful and warm in Simiti!" She sighed, and her eyes
+filled with tears. But she brushed them away and smiled bravely up at
+the Sister. "I've come here because it is right," she said with a firm
+nod of her head. "Padre Jose said I had a message for you. He said you
+didn't know much about God up here. Why, I don't know much of anything
+else!" She laughed a happy little laugh as she said this. Then she
+went on briskly:
+
+"You know, Senora, Padre Jose isn't really a priest. But he said he
+had to stay in the Church in order to teach me. I never could
+understand why. I am sure he just thought wrong about it. But, anyway,
+he will not have to be a priest any more, now that I have gone, will
+he? You know, Don Jorge said priests were a bad lot; but that isn't
+so, for there are many good priests, aren't there? Yes, there are.
+Only, they don't understand, either. Why, Senora," she exclaimed,
+suddenly remembering the Sister's previous injunction, "is this a
+church? You said there would be Mass in the chapel--"
+
+"No," replied the Sister, still studying the girl attentively, while
+her manner became more severe; "this is a home for old people, a
+charitable institution."
+
+"Oh," replied Carmen, with a very vague idea of what that meant.
+"Well," her face alight and her eyes dancing, "I don't belong here
+then, do I? I am never going to be old," she meditated. "Why, God
+never grows old! And we are His children, you know. The Bible says we
+are made in His image and likeness. Well, if that is so, how can we
+ever grow old? Just think of God hobbling around in heaven with a cane
+and saying: 'Well, I'm getting old now! I'll soon be dying!' Isn't
+that awful! We wouldn't grow old and die if it wasn't for our wrong
+way of thinking, would we? When we think His thoughts, why, we will be
+like Him. But not until then. Padre Jose says this, and he knows it is
+true--only, he seems to have a hard time proving it. But, Senora, we
+have all got to prove it, some time, every one of us. And then there
+will not be any places like this for old people--people who still
+believe that two and two are seven, you know. And that's my message."
+
+The woman looked at her blankly; but the girl rambled on. "Padre Jose
+sometimes talked of the charitable institutions out in the world, and
+he always said that charity was a crime against the people. And he was
+right, for that is just the way Jesus looked at it, isn't it? Jesus
+did not give money to beggars, but he did better, he healed them of
+the bad state of mind that was making them poor and sick. Why don't
+the priests do that? Can you heal the sick? Jesus, when he taught,
+first said a thing, and then he turned right around and proved it. Now
+do you do that? I try to. I've tried it all my life. And, why, Senora,
+I've had thousands of proofs!"
+
+The Sister did not reply; and Carmen, stealing a covert glance at her,
+continued:
+
+"You know, Senora, it is just as wicked to be sick and poor as it is
+to tell a lie, because being sick and poor is just the ex--the
+ex-ter-nal-i-zation of our thought; and such thought is not from God;
+and so to hold such thoughts and to believe them real is to believe in
+power apart from God. It is having other gods than the one God; and
+that is breaking the very first Commandment, isn't it? Yes, it is; and
+you can prove it, just as you can prove the principles in mathematics.
+Senora, do you know anything about mathematics?"
+
+The astonished woman made an involuntary sign of negation.
+
+"Oh, Senora," cried the enthusiastic girl, "the things that Jesus
+taught can be proved just as easily as we prove the rules in
+mathematics! Why not? for they are truth, and all truth can be
+demonstrated, you know. You know, Senora, God is everywhere--not only
+in heaven, but right here where we are. Heaven, Padre Jose used to say
+so often, is only a perfect state of mind; and so it is, isn't it?
+God, you know, is mind. And when we reflect Him perfectly, why, we
+will be in heaven. Isn't it simple? But," she went on after catching
+her breath, "we can't reflect Him as long as we believe evil to be
+real and powerful. Evil isn't anything. It is just zero, nothing--"
+
+"I've heard that before," interrupted the woman, recovering somewhat
+from her surprise. "But I think that before you get out of New York
+you will reverse that idea. There's a pretty fair amount of evil here,
+and it is quite real, we find."
+
+"But it isn't!" cried Carmen. "If it is real, then God made it. It
+seems real to you--but that is only because you give it reality in
+your consciousness. You believe it real, and so it becomes to you."
+
+"Well," said the woman dryly, "on that basis I think the same may be
+said of good, too."
+
+"No," answered Carmen eagerly, "good is--"
+
+"There," interrupted the Sister coldly, holding up an admonitory hand,
+"we are not going to discuss the foolish theological notions which
+that fallen priest put into your poor little head. Finish your
+breakfast."
+
+The child looked at the woman in mute protest. Jose a fallen priest!
+Would these people up here so regard him? It was a new thought, and
+one that she would not accept.
+
+"Senora," she began again, after a brief interval, "Padre Jose is a
+good man, even the human Padre Jose. And he is trying to solve his
+problem and know God. And he is trying to know himself, not as other
+people think they know him, but as God knows him, and as I have always
+tried to know him. You have no right to judge him--and, anyway, you
+are not judging him, but only your wrong idea of him. And that," she
+said softly, "is nothing."
+
+The Sister did not answer. She was beginning to feel the spell of
+those great brown eyes, that soft, rich voice, and the sparkling
+expression of innocence, purity, and calm assurance that bubbled from
+those red lips. And she was losing herself in contemplation of the
+girl's luxuriant beauty, whose rich profusion her strange, foreign
+attire could not disguise.
+
+"Senora," said Carmen suddenly, "the people on the boat laughed at my
+clothes. But I don't think them half as funny as that great black
+bonnet you are wearing. Why do you wear it? I never saw one until I
+was brought here."
+
+It was said innocently, and with no thought of offense. But the woman
+instantly roused from her meditation and assumed an attitude of
+severe dignity. "Finish your breakfast," she commanded sharply. "And
+remember after this that children's manners here are not those of your
+country."
+
+The girl fell quiet under the rebuke, and the meal ended in silence.
+As they were rising from the table a cheery voice came from the outer
+room, and presently a priest looked in.
+
+"Good morning, Sister," he cried heartily. "Well, who's this?" as his
+eyes fell upon Carmen. He was a young man, apparently still in the
+twenties, of athletic build, inclined rather to stoutness, and with a
+round, shining face that radiated health and good nature.
+
+The Sister quietly returned his cordial greeting. "It is a little
+waif," she said in answer to his query, "who strayed in here last
+night."
+
+"Aha," said the priest, "another derelict! And will you send her to
+the orphanage?"
+
+"I'm afraid if I do the little heretic will corrupt all the other
+children," replied the Sister. "Father," she continued seriously, "I
+want you to examine this child, and then tell me what you think should
+be done with her."
+
+"What is it--health?" asked the priest, studying the girl.
+
+"No," replied the Sister; "but another priest has gone wrong, and
+this," pointing to Carmen, "is the result of his pernicious
+teachings."
+
+The priest did not reply for some moments. Then he sighed wearily.
+"Very well, Sister," he said in a low voice. "I will talk with her
+after the service." He seemed suddenly to have lost his cheerfulness,
+as he continued to converse with the woman on matters pertaining to
+the institution.
+
+Carmen, wondering and receptive, took the place assigned to her in the
+chapel and sat quietly through the service. She had often seen Jose
+celebrate Mass in the rude little church in Simiti, but with no such
+elaboration as she witnessed here. Once or twice she joined in the
+responses, not with any thought of worship, but rather to give vent,
+even if slight, to the impelling desire to hear her own musical voice.
+She thought as she did so that the priest looked in her direction. She
+thought others looked at her attentively at the same time. But they
+had all stared at her, for that matter, and she had felt confused and
+embarrassed under their searching scrutiny. Yet the old people
+attracted her peculiarly. Never had she seen so many at one time. And
+never, she thought, had she seen such physical decrepitude and
+helplessness. And then she fell to wondering what they were all there
+for, and what they got out of the service. Did the Mass mean anything
+to them? Did they believe that thereby their sins were atoned? Did
+they believe that that priest was really changing the wafer and wine
+into flesh and blood? She recalled much that Jose had told her about
+the people up in the States. They were not so different, mentally,
+from her own, after all.
+
+The Host had been elevated. The people, still gossiping cheerfully,
+had prostrated themselves before it. The sermon had been short, for
+the old people waxed impatient at long discourses. Then the priest
+descended from the pulpit and came to Carmen. "Now, little girl," he
+said, seating himself beside her, "tell me all about yourself, who you
+are, where you come from, and what you have been taught. And do not be
+afraid. I am your friend." Carmen smiled up at him; then plunged into
+her narrative.
+
+It was two hours later when the Sister Superior looked in and saw the
+priest and girl still sitting in earnest conversation. She stood
+listening. "But," she heard the priest say, "you tell me that this
+Father Jose taught you these things?"
+
+"He taught me English, and French, and German. He taught me
+mathematics. And he taught me all I know of history, and of the
+world," the girl replied.
+
+"Yes, yes," the priest went on hurriedly; "but these other things,
+these religious and philosophical notions, who taught you these?"
+
+The Sister drew closer and strained her ears to hear.
+
+The girl looked down as she answered softly, "God."
+
+The priest's head sank upon his breast. He reached out and laid a hand
+on hers. "I believe you," he said, in a voice scarcely audible. "I
+believe you--for we do not teach such things."
+
+The girl looked up with luminous eyes. "Then," she said quizzically,
+"you are not really a priest."
+
+"Father Waite!" The Sister's voice rang sternly through the quiet
+chapel. The priest started to his feet in confusion. "The dinner-bell
+will ring in a few minutes," continued the Sister, regarding the man
+severely.
+
+"Ah, true," he murmured, hastily glancing at the clock. "The time
+passed so rapidly--a--a--this girl--"
+
+"Leave the girl to me," replied the Sister coldly. "Unless," she
+added, "you consider her deranged. Coming from that hot country
+suddenly into this cold climate might--"
+
+"No, no," interrupted the priest hastily; "she seems uncommonly strong
+mentally. She has some notions that are a--somewhat different from
+ours--that is--but I will come and have a further talk with her."
+
+He raised his hand in silent benediction, while the Sister bowed her
+head stiffly. Then, as if loath to take his eyes from the girl, he
+turned and went slowly out.
+
+"Come," said the woman sharply. Carmen followed her out into the hall
+and down a flight of steps to the kitchen below.
+
+"Katherine," said the Sister Superior, addressing an elderly,
+white-haired Sister who seemed to be in charge of the culinary
+department, "put this girl to work. Let her eat with you and sleep in
+your room. And see if you can't work some of the foolish notions out
+of her head."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3
+
+
+"Get some o' th' foolish notions out of your head, is it? Och, puir
+bairn, wid yer swate face an' that hivenly hair, it's welcome ye air
+to yer notions! But, hist! Ye have talked too brash to the Sister
+Superior. Ye air that innocent, puir thing! But, mind your tongue,
+honey. Tell your funny notions to old Katie, an' they'll be safe as
+the soul of Saint Patrick; but keep mum before the others, honey."
+
+"But, Senora, don't they want to know the truth up here?" There was a
+note of appeal in the quavering voice.
+
+"Now listen, honey; don't call me sich heathen names. Call me Sister.
+I'm no Senora, whativer that may be. And as for wantin' to know the
+truth, God bless ye, honey! th' good Fathers know it all now."
+
+"They don't, Sen--Sister!"
+
+"Well, thin, they don't--an' mebby I'm not so far from agreein' wid
+ye. But, och, it's dead beat I am, after the Sunday's work! But ye air
+a right smart little helper, honey--only, ye don't belong in th'
+kitchen."
+
+"Sen--I mean, Sister--"
+
+"That's better, honey; ye'll get it in time."
+
+"Sister, I've just _got_ to find Mr. Reed! Do you know him?"
+
+"No, honey, it's few I know outside these walls. But ye can put up a
+bit of a prayer when ye turn in to-night. An' we'd best be makin' for
+th' bed, too, darlin', for we've a hard day's work to-morrow."
+
+It was Carmen's second night in New York, and as the girl silently
+followed the puffing old woman up the several long, dark flights of
+stairs to the little, cheerless room under the eaves, it seemed to her
+that her brain must fly apart with the pressure of its mental
+accumulation. The great building in which she was now sheltered, the
+kitchen, with its marvels of equipment, gas stoves, electric lights,
+annunciators, and a thousand other equally wonderful appliances which
+the human mind has developed for its service and comfort, held her
+fascinated, despite her situation, while she swelled with questions
+she dared not ask. Notwithstanding the anxiety which she had not
+wholly suppressed, her curiosity, naive, eager, and insatiable, rose
+mountain high. Sister Katherine had been kind to her, had received her
+with open arms, and given her light tasks to perform. And many times
+during the long afternoon the old woman had relaxed entirely from her
+assumed brusqueness and stooped to lay a large, red hand gently upon
+the brown curls, or to imprint a resounding kiss upon the flushed
+cheek. Now, as night was settling down over the great, roaring city,
+the woman took the homeless waif into her big heart and wrapped her in
+a love that, roughly expressed, was yet none the less tender and
+sincere.
+
+"Ye can ask the Virgin, honey, to send ye to yer frinds," said the
+woman, as they sat in the gloaming before the window and looked out
+over the kindling lights of the city.
+
+"What good would that do, Sister?"
+
+"Not much, I guess, honey," answered the woman frankly. "Troth, an'
+I've asked her fer iverything in my time, from diamonds to a husband,
+an' she landed me in a convint! But I ain't complainin'."
+
+"You didn't ask in the right way, Sister--"
+
+"Faith, I asked in ivery way I knew how! An' whin I had th' carbuncle
+on me neck I yelled at her! Sure she may have answered me prayer, fer
+th' whoop I gave busted the carbuncle, an' I got well. Ye nivir kin
+tell, honey. An' so I ain't complainin'."
+
+"But, Sis--I can't call you Sister!" pleaded the girl, going to the
+woman and twining her arms about her neck.
+
+"Och, honey darlin'"--tears started from the old woman's eyes and
+rolled down her wrinkled cheeks--"honey darlin', call me Katie, just
+old Katie. Och, Holy Virgin, if I could have had a home, an' a
+beautiful daughter like you--!" She clasped the girl in her great arms
+and held her tightly.
+
+"Katie, when you pray you must pray knowing that God has already given
+you what you need, and that there is nothing that can keep you from
+seeing it."
+
+The woman wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "An' so, darlin', if I want
+diamonds I must know that I have 'em, is it that, honey?"
+
+"You dear thing!" murmured Carmen, drawing closer, and laying her soft
+cheek against the leathery visage of the old woman.
+
+"Say that again, honey--och, say it again! It's words, darlin', that's
+nivir been said to old Katie!"
+
+"Why, hasn't any one ever been kind to you?"
+
+"Kind! Och, ivirybody's kind to me, honey! But nobody has ivir loved
+me--that way. The good Lord made me a fright, honey--ain't ye noticed?
+I've a face like an owl. An' they told me from th' cradle up I'd nivir
+land a man. An' I didn't, honey; they all ran from me--an' so I become
+a bride o' th' Church. But I ain't complainin'."
+
+"But, Katie, the face is nothing. Why, your heart is as big--as big as
+the whole world! I hadn't been with you an hour before I knew that.
+And, Katie dear, I love you."
+
+"Och, darlin'," murmured the woman, "sure th' Virgin be praised fer
+sendin' ye to me, a lonely old woman!"
+
+"It was not the Virgin, Katie, but God who brought me here," said the
+girl gently, as she caressed the old Sister's cheek.
+
+"It's all one, honey; the Virgin's th' Mother o' God."
+
+"Why, Katie! You don't know what you are saying!"
+
+"Troth, child, she has th' same power as God! Don't we pray to her,
+an' she prays to th' good God to save us? Don't she have influence
+with Him?"
+
+"No, Katie, no. There is no person or thing that persuades God to be
+good to His children. There is nothing that influences Him. He is
+infinite--infinite mind, Katie, and infinite good. Oh, Katie, what
+awful things are taught in this world as truth! How little we know of
+the great God! And yet how much people pretend they know about Him!
+But if they only knew--really _knew_, as Jesus did--why, Katie, there
+wouldn't be an old person, or a sick or unhappy one in the whole
+world! Katie," after a little pause, "I know. And I'm going to tell
+them."
+
+The old Sister drew the child closer. "Air these more o' yer funny
+notions, darlin'?"
+
+"I suppose they are what the world thinks funny, Katie," answered the
+girl.
+
+"An' I don't wonder! We are not taught such things, honey. But then,
+th' world moves, girlie--even old Katie sees that. Only, the Church
+don't move with it. An' old Katie can see that, too. An' so, I'm
+thinkin', does Father Waite."
+
+"I know he does, Katie."
+
+"Faith, an' how do ye know it, child?"
+
+"He talked with me--a long time, this morning. He said God had taught
+me what I know."
+
+"Aye, is it so? Thin me own suspicions air right; he's out o' tune!
+Did ye say, girlie dear, that he didn't scold ye fer yer funny
+notions?"
+
+"No, Katie, he said they were right."
+
+"Did he so! Thin, lassie dear, things is goin' to happen. An' he's a
+good man--troth, they make no better in this world!"
+
+The old Sister lapsed into thought. Carmen looked out wonderingly over
+the city. She yearned to know what it held for her.
+
+"Katie," she said at length, bending again over the woman, "will you
+help me find Mr. Reed?"
+
+"Och, lassie--what's your name again?"
+
+"Carmen," replied the girl, "Carmen Ariza."
+
+"Cair-men Aree--now ain't that a name fer ye! An' yer nationality,
+girl?"
+
+"I'm a Colombian, Katie."
+
+"Whist! Where is it? In Afrikay?"
+
+"South America," with a little sigh.
+
+"Now think o' that! An' I'm Scotch-Irish, honey; an' we're both a long
+way from th' ol' sod! Lassie dear, tell me about last night. But, no;
+begin 'way back. Give us th' whole tale. Old Katie's weak in th' head,
+girlie, but she may see a way out fer ye. Th' Virgin help ye, puir
+bairn!"
+
+Midnight boomed from the bell in a neighboring tower when Carmen
+finished her story.
+
+"Be the Saints above!" exclaimed the old Sister, staring at the girl
+in amazement. "Now do ye let me feel of ye to see that ye air human;
+fer only a Saint could go through all that an' live to tell it! An'
+the place ye were in last night! Now be Saint Patrick, if I was rich
+I'd have Masses said every day fer that Jude who brung ye here! Don't
+tell me th' good Lord won't forgive her! Och, God! she's a Saint
+already."
+
+"She's a good woman, Katie; and, somehow, I felt sorry for her, but I
+don't know why. She has a beautiful home in that hotel--"
+
+"Hotel, is it! Hivins above! But--och, sure, it was a hotel, honey.
+Only, ye air better off here wi' old Katie."
+
+"And now you will help me?"
+
+"Help you, lassie! God bless ye, yes! But--unless it's wi' Father
+Waite, I don't know what I can do. Ye air in bad with th' Sister
+Superior fer yer talk at th' breakfast table. Ye're a fresh little
+heathen, honey. An' she's suspicious of Father Waite, too. We all air.
+An' he th' best man on airth! But his doctrine ain't just sound,
+sweatheart. Hivins, doctrine! It means more'n a good heart! There,
+honey, lave it to me. But it's got to be done quick, or th' Sister
+Superior'll have ye in an orphan asylum, where ye'll stay till ye air
+soused in th' doctrine! I can manage to get word to Father Waite
+to-morrow, airly. Jinny will run over fer me. A bit of a word wi'
+him'll fix it, lassie dear. An' now, honey swate, off with them funny
+clothes and plump into bed. Saints above! it's all but marnin' now!"
+
+A few minutes later the woman turned to the girl who lay so quiet at
+her side.
+
+"Honey," she whispered, "was ye tellin' me awhile back that ye knew
+the right way to pray?"
+
+"Yes, Katie dear," the child murmured.
+
+"Thin do you pray, lass, an' I'll not trouble the Virgin this night."
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Well, Father, what do you think now?" The Sister Superior looked up
+aggressively, as Father Waite slowly entered the room. His head was
+bowed, and there was a look of deep earnestness upon his face.
+
+"I have talked with her again--an hour, or more," he said reflectively.
+"She is a--a remarkable girl, in many ways." He stopped, uncertain
+how to proceed.
+
+The Sister eyed him keenly. "She attracts and repels me, both," she
+said. "At times she seems positively uncanny. And she appears to be
+suffering from religious dementia. Do you not think so?"
+
+It was a compromising question, and the priest weighed his words
+carefully before replying. "She does--seem to--to have rather--a--rather
+unusual--religious views," said he slowly.
+
+"Would it not be well to have Dr. Sullivan examine her?"
+
+"To what end?"
+
+"That we may know what to do with her. If she is mentally unsound she
+must not be sent to the orphanage."
+
+"She should be taken--a--I mean, we should try to locate her friends.
+I have already searched the city directory; but, though there are many
+Reeds, there are none listed with the initials she gave me as his. I
+had thought," he continued hesitatingly, "I had thought of putting her
+in charge of the Young Women's Christian Association--"
+
+"Father Waite!" The Sister Superior rose and drew herself up to her
+full height. "Do you mean to say that you have contemplated delivering
+her into the hands of heretics?" she demanded coldly, her tall figure
+instinct with the mortal pride of religious superiority.
+
+"Why, Sister," returned the priest with embarrassment, "would it not
+be wise to place her among those whose views harmonize more closely
+with hers than ours do?"
+
+"Father! I am surprised--!"
+
+"But--she is not a Catholic!" urged the man, with a gesture of
+impatience. "And she will never be one. The combined weight of all the
+centuries of church authority could not make her one--never! I must
+take her to those with whom she rightfully belongs."
+
+The Sister Superior's eyes narrowed and glittered, and her face grew
+dark. "Never!" she said in a low tone. "I would rather see her dead!
+Father Waite, you exceed your authority! I am in charge here, and I
+shall report this case to the Bishop!"
+
+The priest stood hesitant for a moment. The futility of his case
+seemed to impress him. Taking up his hat, he bowed without speaking
+and went out. The Sister Superior stepped to the telephone. Outside
+the door the man listened until he caught the number she called. His
+face grew dark and angry, and his hands clenched a she strode down the
+hall.
+
+On the stairs that led up from the kitchen stood Sister Katherine.
+
+"Hist! Father!"
+
+He stopped and turned to the woman. Her finger went up to her lips.
+
+"Wait on th' corner--behind the church! The lassie will meet you
+there!"
+
+Before he could reply the woman had plunged again into the dark
+stairway. Stopping at a small closet below, she took out a bundle.
+Then she hurried to the kitchen and summoned Carmen, who was sitting
+at a table peeling potatoes.
+
+"Troth, lazy lass," she commanded sharply, "do you take the bucket and
+mop and begin on the front steps. And mind that ye don't bring me
+heavy hand down on ye! Och, lassie darlin'," she added, when she had
+drawn the startled girl out of hearing of the others, "give yer old
+Katie a kiss, and then be off! Troth, it breaks me heart to see ye
+go--but 'twould break yours to stay! Go, lassie darlin', an' don't
+fergit old Katie! Here," thrusting the girl's bundle and a dollar bill
+into her hands, "an' God bless ye, lass! Ye've won me, heart an' soul!
+Ye'll find a frind at th' nixt corner!" pointing up the street. She
+strained the girl again to her breast, then opened the door and
+hastily thrust her out into the street.
+
+For a moment Carmen stood dazed by the suddenness of it all. She
+looked up confusedly at the great, yellow building from which she had
+been ejected. There was no visible sign of life. Then, grasping her
+bundle and the dollar bill, she hurried out through the gate and
+started up the street.
+
+Around the corner stood Father Waite. The man's face was furrowed, and
+his body trembled. The girl went up to him with a glad smile. The
+priest looked up, and muttered something incoherent under his breath a
+she took her hand.
+
+"Where are we going, Padre?" she asked.
+
+He drew some loose change from his pocket, and hailed an approaching
+street car.
+
+"To police headquarters," he replied, "to ask them to help us find
+your friends."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4
+
+
+From the mysterious wastes which lie far out on the ocean, the fog was
+again creeping stealthily across the bay and into the throbbing
+arteries of the great city. Through half-opened doors and windows it
+rolled like smoke, and piled like drifted snow against the mountains
+of brick and stone. Caught for a moment on a transient breeze, it
+swirled around a towering pile on lower Broadway, and eddied up to the
+windows of the Ketchim Realty Company, where it sifted through the
+chinks in the loose frames and settled like a pall over the dingy
+rooms within.
+
+To Philip O. Ketchim, junior member of the firm, it seemed a fitting
+external expression of the heavy gloom within his soul. Crumpled into
+the chair at the broad table in his private office, with his long,
+thin legs stretched out before him, his hands crammed into the pockets
+of his trousers, and his bullet-shaped head sunk on his flat chest,
+until it seemed as if the hooked nose which graced his hawk-like
+visage must be penetrating his breast-bone, the man was the embodiment
+of utter dejection. On the littered table, where he had just tossed
+it, lay the report of Reed and Harris on the pseudo-mineral properties
+of the Molino Company--the "near-mines" in the rocky canon of the
+far-off Boque. Near it lay the current number of a Presbyterian
+review, wherein the merits of this now moribund project were
+advertised in terms whose glitter had attracted swarms of eager,
+trusting investors.
+
+The firm name of Ketchim Realty Company was something of a misnomer.
+The company itself was an experiment, whose end had not justified its
+inception. It had been launched a few years previously by Douglass
+Ketchim to provide business careers for his two sons, James and
+Philip. The old gentleman, still hale and vigorous, was one of those
+sturdy Englishmen who had caught the infection of '49 and abruptly
+severed the ties which bound them to their Kentish homes for the
+allurements of the newly discovered El Dorado of western America.
+Across the death-haunted Isthmus of Panama and up the inhospitable
+Pacific coast the indomitable spirit of the young adventurer drove
+him, until he reached the golden sands of California. There he toiled
+for many years, until Fortune at length smiled upon his quenchless
+efforts. Then he tossed aside his rough tools and set out for the less
+constricted fields of the East.
+
+He invested his money wisely, and in the course of years turned it
+several times. He became a banker. He aspired to the hand of a
+sister of a railway president, and won it. He educated his sons in the
+best colleges of the East, and then sent them to Europe on their
+honeymoons. And finally, when the burden of years began to press
+noticeably, and the game became less attractive, he retired from
+the field of business, cleared off his indebtedness, organized the
+Ketchim Realty Company, put its affairs on the best possible basis,
+and then committed the unpardonable folly of turning it over to the
+unrestricted management of his two sons.
+
+The result was chaos. At the expiration of a year the old gentleman
+hurried back into the harness to save the remnant of his fortune, only
+to find it inextricably tied up in lands of dubious value and
+questionable promotional schemes. The untangling of the real estate he
+immediately took into his own hands. The schemes he left to his sons.
+
+A word in passing regarding these sons, for they typify a form of
+parasitical growth, of the fungus variety, which in these days has
+battened and waxed noxious on the great stalk of legitimate commercial
+enterprise. They were as dissimilar, and each as unlike his father, as
+is possible among members of the same family. Both sought, with
+diligent consecration, the same goal, money; but employed wholly
+different means to gain that end. James, the elder, was a man of ready
+wit, a nimble tongue, and a manner which, on occasions when he could
+think of any one but himself, was affable and gracious. He was a
+scoffer of religion, an open foe of business scruple, and the avowed
+champion of every sort of artifice and device employed in ancient,
+mediaeval, or modern finance to further his own selfish desires, in
+the minimum of time, and at whatever cost to his fellow-man. In his
+cups he was a witty, though arrogant, braggart. In his home he was
+petulant and childish. Of real business acumen and constructive
+wisdom, he had none. He would hew his way to wealth, if need be,
+openly defiant of God, man, or the devil. Or he would work in subtler
+ways, through deceit, jugglery, or veiled bribe. But he generally wore
+his heart on his sleeve; and those who perforce had business relations
+with him soon discovered that, though utterly unscrupulous, his
+character was continuously revealed through his small conceit, which
+caused him so to work as to be seen of men and gain their cheap
+plaudits for his sharp, mendacious practices.
+
+Philip retained a degree of his father's confidence--which James
+wholly lacked--and he spared himself no pains to cultivate it. Though
+far less ready of wit than his stubby, bombastic brother, he was a
+tenacious plodder, and was for this reason much more likely ultimately
+to achieve his sordid purposes. His energy was tireless, and he never
+admitted defeat. He never worked openly; he never appeared to have a
+decided line of conduct; and no one could ever say what particular
+course he intended to pursue. Apparently, he was a man of exemplary
+habits; and his mild boast that he knew not the taste of tobacco or
+liquor could not be refuted. He was an elder in the Presbyterian
+church in the little suburb where he lived, and superintendent of its
+Sunday school. His prayers were beautiful expressions of reverent
+piety; and his conversation, at all times chaste and modest, announced
+him a man of more than ordinary purity of thought and motive. While it
+is true that no one could recall any pious deed, any charitable act,
+or any conduct based on motives of self-abnegation and brotherly love
+performed by him, yet no one could ever point to a single coarse or
+mean action emanating from the man. If there was discord in company
+affairs, the wanton James always bore the onus. And because of this,
+relations between the brothers gradually assumed a condition of
+strain, until at length James openly and angrily denounced Philip as a
+hypocrite, and refused longer to work with him. Thereupon the milder
+Philip offered the other cheek and installed a mediator, in the person
+of one Rawlins, a sickly, emaciated, bearded, but loyal Hermes, who
+thenceforth performed the multifold functions of pacificator,
+go-between, human telephone, and bearer of messages, documents, and
+what-not from one to the other for a nominal wage and the crumbs that
+dropped from the promoter's table.
+
+The fog and the gloom thickened, and Ketchim sat deeply immersed in
+both. He was still shaking from the fright which he had received that
+morning. On opening the door as he was about to leave his house to
+take the train to the city, he had confronted two bulky policemen.
+With a muffled shriek he had slammed the door in their astonished
+faces and darted back into the house, his heart in his throat and
+hammering madly. How could he know that they were only selling tickets
+to a Policemen's Ball? Then he had crept to the window and, concealed
+in the folds of the curtain, had watched them go down the street,
+laughing and turning often to glance back at the house that held such
+a queer-mannered inmate.
+
+Rousing himself from the gloomy revery into which he had lapsed,
+Ketchim switched on the light and took up again the report of Reed
+and Harris. Sullenly he turned its pages, while the sallow skin on his
+low forehead wrinkled, and his bird-like face drew into ugly
+contortions.
+
+"Fools!" he muttered. "Didn't they see that clause in their contract,
+providing an additional fifty thousand in stock for them in case they
+made a favorable report?"
+
+A light tap at the door, and a low cough, preceded the noiseless
+entrance of the meek-souled Rawlins.
+
+"A--a--this is the list which Reverend Jurges sent us--names and
+addresses of his congregation. I've mailed them all descriptive
+matter; and I wrote Mr. Jurges that the price of his stock would be
+five dollars, but that we couldn't sell to his congregation for less
+than seven. That's right, isn't it? I told him Molino stock would go
+up to par next month. That's what you said, I believe."
+
+"How much stock did Jurges say he'd take?" demanded Ketchim, without
+looking up.
+
+"Why, he said he could only get together two thousand dollars at
+present, but that later he would have some endowment insurance falling
+due--"
+
+"How soon?"
+
+"About a year, I think he said."
+
+"Well, he ought to be able to borrow on that. Did you write him so?"
+
+"No--but I can."
+
+"Do so--but only hint at it. And tell him to send his check at once
+for the stock he has agreed to take."
+
+"Why, he sent that some days ago. I thought you--"
+
+"He did?" cried Ketchim, his interest now fully aroused. "Well, where
+is it?"
+
+"Er--your brother James received the letter, and I believe he put the
+check in his pocket."
+
+Ketchim gave vent to a snort of rage. "You tell James," he cried,
+pounding the desk with his fist, "that as president and treasurer of
+the Molino Company I demand that check!"
+
+"Yes, sir--and--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Mr. Cass 'phoned before you got down this morning. He said the bank
+refused to extend the time on your note."
+
+Ketchim sank back limply into his chair, and his face became ashen.
+
+"And here is the mail," pursued the gentle Hermes, handing him a
+bundle of letters.
+
+Ketchim roused himself with an effort. His eyes flashed angrily. "Do
+you know whether James has been selling any of his own Molino stock?"
+he asked.
+
+"I--I believe he has, sir--a little."
+
+"Humph! And how much?"
+
+"He sold some two hundred shares yesterday--I believe; to a Miss
+Leveridge."
+
+"Leveridge? Who's she? What did he get for it?"
+
+"Why, the Leveridge children--grown men and women now--have just sold
+their farm down state; and Mr. James saw the sale announced in the
+papers. So he got in touch with Miss Alvina Leveridge. I believe he
+sent Houghton down there; and he closed a deal. Mr. James got eight
+dollars a share, I believe."
+
+"You believe! You _know_, don't you?"
+
+"Yes, sir," meekly.
+
+Ketchim gulped down his wrath, and continued:
+
+"How much did the Leveridges get for their farm? And why didn't you
+inform me of the sale?" he demanded, fixing the humble Rawlins with a
+cold eye.
+
+"A--a--twenty-five thousand dollars, sir, I believe. And I didn't see
+the notice until--"
+
+"As usual, James saw it first! An excellent scout you are! Twenty-five
+thousand dollars! How many acres?"
+
+"A hundred and eighty, I believe."
+
+Ketchim reflected. "James is still dickering with Miss Leveridge, I
+suppose?"
+
+"I believe so, sir."
+
+"Nezlett got back last night, didn't he? Very well, call him up and
+tell him to get ready to go at once to--wherever the Leveridges live.
+And--I want to see him right away!"
+
+He abruptly dismissed the factotum and turned to his mail. As his
+glance fell upon the pile he gasped. Then he quickly drew out a letter
+and tore it open. His thin lips moved rapidly as his eyes roved over
+the paper. He laid the letter down and looked wildly about. Then he
+took it up again and read aloud the closing words:
+
+  "--and, having bought somewhat heavily of Molino stock, and
+  believing that your representations were made with intent to
+  deceive, I shall, unless immediate reparation or satisfactory
+  explanation is made, take such steps as my counsel may advise.
+
+                                               "Yours, etc.,
+                                                 "J. WILTON AMES."
+
+Congealing with fear, Ketchim took his stock memorandum from a drawer
+and consulted it. "He put in ten thousand, cash," he murmured, closing
+the book and replacing it. "And I always wondered why, for he doesn't
+go into things that he can't control. There's where I was a fool! He
+shouldn't have been sold a dollar's worth! He knows we can't return
+the money; and now he's tightening the screws! He has something up his
+sleeve; and we've fallen for it!"
+
+He settled back in his chair and groaned aloud. "Why did he buy? Did
+he think he'd reach Uncle Ted through us? By Jove! that's it! For a
+year or more he's wanted to oust Uncle from the C. & R., and now he
+thinks by threatening the family with disgrace, and us fellows with
+the pen, he can do it! What fools we've been! Oh, if I ever get out of
+this I'll steer clear of these deals in the future!" It was his stock
+resolution, which had never borne fruit.
+
+The door opened slightly, and the noiseless Rawlins timidly announced
+the arrival of Reed and Harris.
+
+"Show them in at once!" cried Ketchim, jumping up and hastily passing
+his hands over his hair and face. Then, advancing with a wan smile, he
+courteously greeted the callers.
+
+"Well, fellows," he began, waving them to seats, "it looks a
+little bad for Molino, doesn't it? I've just been reading your
+report--although of course you told me over the 'phone yesterday
+that there was no hope. But," he continued gravely, and his face
+grew serious, "I'm glad, very glad, of one thing, and that is that
+there are men in the world to-day who are above temptation."
+
+"Which means--?" queried Harris.
+
+"Why," continued Ketchim, smiling pallidly, "the little joker that
+James inserted in the contract, about your getting fifty thousand in
+the event of a favorable report. I told him it didn't look well--but
+he said it would test you. He would be funny, though, no matter how
+serious the business. But you showed that you were men."
+
+Harris snickered; but Reed turned the conversation at once. "We have
+been studying how we could help you pull the thing out of the fire.
+Suppose you give us," he suggested, "a little of Molino's history.
+Then perhaps something may occur to us."
+
+"There isn't much to tell," replied Ketchim gloomily. "The mines were
+located by a man named Lakes, at one time acting-Consul at Cartagena.
+He is half Colombian, I believe. He came up to New York and interested
+Bryan, Westler, and some others, and they asked us to act as fiscal
+agents."
+
+"But you never had title to the property," said Reed.
+
+"Certainly we have the title! Why do you say that?"
+
+"Because, on our way down the Magdalena river we made the acquaintance
+of a certain Captain Pinal, of the Colombian army. When he learned
+that we were mining men he told us he had a string of rich properties
+that he would like to sell. I inquired their location, and he said
+they lay along the Boque river. And I learned that he had clear title
+to the property, too--Molino's mines. Now you have sold some three or
+four hundred thousand dollars' worth of stock on alleged mines to
+which you never had even the shadow of a claim!"
+
+"But--" murmured Ketchim weakly, "we thought we had. We acted in good
+faith--we took Mr. Lakes's word--and we showed our confidence and
+sincerity by purchasing machinery to operate--"
+
+"Oh, the machinery went down there, all right!" ejaculated Harris with
+a laugh. "I judge it was designed to manufacture barrel staves, rather
+than to extract gold! Lakes had it shipped to Cartagena; rented part
+of an old woman's house; dumped the machinery in there; and now she's
+wild. Can't get her pay from you for storing the machinery; and can't
+sell the stuff, nor move it. So there she sits, under some six or
+eight tons of iron junk, waiting for the Lord to perform a miracle!"
+
+Ketchim smiled feebly. "It's too bad!" he murmured. "But Molino has no
+funds--"
+
+"You are still selling stock, aren't you?" demanded Reed.
+
+"Oh, no!" quickly returned Ketchim. "We would not sell any more stock
+until we received your report--and not then, unless the report were
+favorable. That would not have been right!"
+
+Reed eyed him narrowly. But the image of truth sat enthroned upon
+Ketchim's sharp features.
+
+"It is unfortunate, boys," the promoter continued dejectedly. "But I
+care nothing for my own losses; it's the poor stockholders I am
+thinking about. I would do anything to relieve them. I've prayed to be
+led to do right. What would you suggest?"
+
+"I suggest," blurted out Harris, "that, having already relieved them
+considerably, you'll soon be wearing a striped suit!"
+
+The last trace of color faded from Ketchim's face, but the sickly
+smile remained. "I'd wear it, willingly, if by so doing I could help
+these poor people," he mournfully replied.
+
+"Well," pursued Harris, "it'll help some when they learn that you're
+in one."
+
+"Boys," said Ketchim suddenly, quite disregarding the insinuation,
+"to-morrow is Sunday, and I want you both out to dinner with me, and
+we will talk this all over. Then in the afternoon I want you to come
+over and see my little Sunday school. Fellows," he continued gravely,
+"I've prayed for you and for your success every day since you left.
+And my faith in my Saviour is too great to be shattered now by your
+adverse report. He certainly will show us a way out; and I can trust
+him and wait."
+
+Reed and Harris looked at him and then at each other with puzzled
+expressions on their faces. The man continued earnestly:
+
+"Colombia is a rich and undeveloped country, you have said. There must
+be other mineral properties available there. Did you see none on your
+travels? Or could we not organize an exploration party to search for
+mines?"
+
+"Who'd furnish the wherewithal?" asked Harris bluntly.
+
+"Oh, that could be arranged."
+
+"Will your sheep stand for further shearing?" queried the grinning
+Harris.
+
+"Fellows," said Ketchim, brightening and drawing his chair closer,
+"you've got something--I know it! You've got something to suggest that
+will save the Molino stockholders!"
+
+"But not yourself, eh?" taunted Harris.
+
+"I shall sacrifice myself," answered Ketchim deprecatingly. His manner
+had now become animated, and he leaned expectantly toward them.
+
+Reed and Harris again looked questioningly at each other. "I guess we
+might as well," said Reed in a low voice. "It is bound to come out,
+anyway."
+
+"Sure," returned Harris; "drive ahead."
+
+"Mr. Ketchim," began Reed, turning to the eager, fidgeting man, "when
+I came to New York a year ago, looking for a business opening, my
+friend and former classmate in the University, Mr. Cass, put me in
+touch with you. At that time you were booming the Molino company hard,
+and, I have no doubt, thought you really had something down in
+Colombia. But when you offered to lease me a portion of your
+properties there, I laughed at you. And, in the course of time, I
+succeeded in convincing you that you knew nothing whatsoever about the
+properties on which you were selling so much stock. Then, after months
+of parley, from an offer to permit me to go down to Colombia at my own
+expense to examine Molino's mines, to ascertain whether or not I
+wished to operate a part of them on a royalty basis, you adopted my
+own view, namely, that the time had come for you to know whether the
+company possessed anything of value or not. And so you sent my
+associate, Mr. Harris, and myself down there to examine and report on
+Molino's so-called mines. And you gave us each a block of stock as
+part compensation. We found the mines barren. And now you have got to
+face a body of stockholders from whom you have lured thousands of
+dollars by your misrepresentations. From talks with your salesmen, I
+am convinced that this body of stockholders is made up chiefly of
+widows and indigent clergymen."
+
+"Which of my salesmen told you that?" interrupted Ketchim heatedly.
+
+"Let us waive that," replied Reed calmly. "The fact is, you are in a
+hard way just at present, is it not so?"
+
+"Fellows," said Ketchim, with an air of penitent humility, "the
+officers and stockholders of the Molino Company have been grossly
+deceived and unfortunately--"
+
+"All right," interrupted Reed, "we'll pass that. But Harris and I have
+played square with you. And we are going to continue to do so, and to
+offer you a possible opportunity to do something for your poor
+stockholders, and incidentally for yourself and us. The fact is, we do
+know of another property down there, but we haven't the title--"
+
+"That makes no difference!" interrupted Ketchim. "I mean, it can be
+acquired--" striving to restrain his eagerness.
+
+"That's just the question," replied Reed. "The title is at present
+vested in a young Colombian girl, who, unfortunately, is lost. This
+girl came up to the States with us--"
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed Ketchim, unable longer to hold himself. "Then you
+broke your contract, for that stipulated that whatever you might
+acquire there should belong to me! I engaged your services,
+remember!"
+
+"I believe," put in Harris dryly, "we were employed by the Molino
+company."
+
+"But my mother advanced the funds to send you down there!" cried
+Ketchim.
+
+"How about the poor stockholders?" queried Harris, with an insinuating
+grin.
+
+"I'm speaking for the stockholders, of course," said Ketchim,
+subsiding. "But, proceed, please."
+
+"There is no likelihood that this poor girl will ever be heard of
+again," continued Reed. "Nor is it likely that the title papers, which
+she has with her, will be of any use to those into whose hands she has
+fallen. Her old foster-father held the title to this mine, but
+transferred it to the girl, stipulating that she and I should divide a
+large interest in the stock of a company formed to develop and operate
+it. For my share, I agreed to bring the young girl to the States and
+place her in a school, at my own expense." He went on to relate the
+manner in which Carmen had been lost, and then continued: "Of course,
+the title to this mine is registered in Cartagena, and in the girl's
+name, as the old man gave me power to have that change made. But, now
+that she is gone, the property naturally reverts to him."
+
+"We will relocate it!" declared Ketchim impatiently.
+
+"No, that wouldn't be right to the old man," returned Reed. "But, it
+might be that the property could now be secured from him. He is old
+and penniless, and without any further interest in life. It is a bare
+chance, but we might prevail upon him to join us in the formation of a
+company to take over his mine, La Libertad."
+
+"Is that the name of it?" asked Ketchim, reaching for a writing pad.
+"Spell it for me, please. And the name of the old man."
+
+Reed complied, and then continued: "Now, Mr. Ketchim, we are living
+strictly up to the letter of our contract by giving you this
+information. It would require not less than one hundred thousand
+dollars, cash in hand, to acquire that mine, develop it, make trails,
+and erect a stamp-mill. Mr. Harris and I are in no condition
+financially to advance or secure such an amount."
+
+"It is barely possible," mused Harris, "that my father and Uncle John
+could do something."
+
+"We don't have to call upon them!" cried Ketchim. "Your interest, Mr.
+Reed, in this mine already belongs to Molino, as you were acting under
+contract with us--"
+
+"I have covered that point, Mr. Ketchim," replied Reed evenly. "But
+the time has come for us all to put our shoulders to the wheel, act
+fairly with one another, help the Molino stockholders, and at the same
+time make good ourselves. Mr. Harris and I have barely entered upon
+our business careers, and we have come to New York to establish
+ourselves. This may afford the opportunity. We know where this mine
+is--we know the old man, and may be able to influence him. To
+forestall possible complications, we should begin negotiations with
+him at once. But--remember--everything must be done in the name of the
+company, not in your own name. And Mr. Harris and I must personally
+negotiate with the old man, and receive a very liberal compensation
+for our work."
+
+"Certainly!" cried the excited Ketchim. "Goodness, fellows! why didn't
+you tell me this yesterday over the 'phone, and save me a night of
+torment? But I forgive you. Gracious! Rawlins," he said, addressing
+that individual, who had entered in response to the buzzer, "'phone
+Cass to come right over. And tell Miss Honeywell to give you ten
+dollars for our lunch, and charge it to Molino. It's company business.
+By Jove, fellows! this is a happy day for me. Since the old man gave
+you a share in the mine, Molino has property, after all!"
+
+"Has it to get," amended Harris dubiously.
+
+"Oh, we'll get it!" cried Ketchim, rubbing his hands gleefully. "But
+now while waiting for Cass, tell me more about your trip. It is
+wonderful! And so romantic!"
+
+In the midst of the ensuing recital, Cass was announced; and Ketchim,
+after detailing to him the previous conversation, launched into the
+project which had been developing in his own mind while Reed had been
+describing his experiences in the South.
+
+"What we want is another organization, fellows," he said in
+conclusion, "to take over the tottering Molino; purchase its assets
+with stock; give Molino stockholders an opportunity to get in on the
+ground floor, and so on. We'll let Molino die in the arms of a new
+company, eh?"
+
+"But one with a somewhat wider scope," suggested Cass, with an air of
+importance. "A sort of general development company, to secure La
+Libertad, if possible; prospect for other mineral properties; and
+develop the resources of the country."
+
+"Just so," assented Ketchim, with increasing enthusiasm. "A company to
+go in for coffee, cotton--you say you saw wild cotton, didn't you,
+fellows? Great! And cocoanuts, timber, cattle--in fact, we'll get
+concessions from the Colombian Government, and we'll--"
+
+"Just rip things wide open, eh?" finished Harris.
+
+"That's it!" cried Ketchim radiantly. "Uncle Ted has influence at
+Washington, with the Pan American Union, and so on--why, we can get
+anything we want! Ames and the bank will both cool down--by Jove, this
+is great!"
+
+"But where's the cold and vulgar cash coming from to oil the wheels?"
+put in the practical Harris.
+
+"Oh, I can sell the stock," replied Ketchim. "Then, too, there's the
+Molino stockholders; why, I'll bet there's hardly one that wouldn't be
+able to scrape up a few dollars more for the new company! By the way,
+what'll we call it? Give us a name, somebody."
+
+"I'd call it the Salvation Company," drawled Harris, "as it is likely
+to delay your trip to Sing Sing."
+
+A general laugh, in which Ketchim joined heartily, followed the
+remark.
+
+"I suggest we call it the Simiti Development Company," said Cass,
+after a moment's dignified reflection.
+
+"Great!" cried Ketchim. "It has a prosperous ring! And now its
+capitalization? We must make it big!"
+
+"Hem!" returned Cass. "If these gentlemen can acquire that mine, I
+think I would capitalize for, say, about three millions." He went to
+the desk and made some calculations. "I assume," he continued somewhat
+pompously after a few moments' figuring, "that you wish to retain me,
+and that I am to take my compensation in stock?"
+
+Ketchim quickly assented. He knew that Cass had correctly concluded
+that in no other way was he likely to be reimbursed. And, at best, it
+was only a hazard, a wild gamble. In fact, it was a last desperate
+chance. Moreover, stock was always available; while cash was a rare
+commodity.
+
+"Suppose, then," continued the sapient young lawyer, "that we
+capitalize for three millions; set aside one million, five hundred and
+one thousand as treasury stock, to be sold to raise money for
+development purposes; transfer to the Ketchim Realty Company one
+million, as compensation for acting as fiscal agents of the new
+company; transfer to these two gentlemen, as part compensation for
+past and future services, the sum of four hundred thousand in stock;
+give to the stockholders of the Molino Company the sum of fifty-nine
+thousand in stock for all the assets, machinery, good will, _et
+cetera_, of that company; and to me, for services to be rendered,
+forty thousand dollars' worth of the stock. All of us shall agree not
+to sell any of our personal holdings of stock until the company shall
+be placed upon a dividend-paying basis. And Mr. Reed, or Mr. Harris,
+or both, will return to Colombia immediately to relocate the mine, and
+prepare for its development, while the Ketchim Realty Company at once
+endeavor to sell the treasury stock."
+
+Having delivered himself of this comprehensive plan, Cass settled back
+in his chair and awaited remarks.
+
+"Well," observed Ketchim at length, "that's all right--only, I think
+we should be allowed to sell our personal stock if we wish. Of
+course," with a deprecating wave of his hand, "there isn't the
+slightest likelihood of our ever wanting to do that--with a mine such
+as you have described, fellows. But--why hedge us about?"
+
+"Not one dollar's worth of your stock shall you be permitted to sell!"
+cried Harris, bringing his fist down upon the desk.
+
+"I suggest that we leave that for the Directors to decide later,"
+offered Cass, anxious to avoid discord. He was young, scarcely out of
+the twenties, just married, just admitted to the bar, and eager to get
+a toe-hold in the world of business. "And now," he concluded, "if
+agreeable to you, I will put this through at once, organize the
+company, and get the charter. You gentlemen will return to Colombia as
+soon as Mr. Ketchim can provide the necessary funds."
+
+"Mr. Harris and I have formed an engineering partnership," said Reed.
+"As such, we will handle the affairs of the new company in Colombia.
+Mr. Harris will proceed to that country, while I go to California to
+open a copper mine which we have taken over there. In time I will
+relieve Mr. Harris in the South. Now, Mr. Ketchim, what can you do?"
+
+"I'll send Houghton and Nezlett out on the road to-morrow. Rawlins
+has just told me of one prospect, a bully one! We don't need to
+wait for the papers from Albany before going ahead. But we find it
+costs about forty-eight cents to sell a dollar's worth of stock, and
+so some time will be needed to raise enough to send Mr. Harris back
+to Colombia--unless," he added, eying Harris furtively, "he will
+advance us the amount of his own expenses--"
+
+"Which he will not!" retorted Harris warmly. "I haven't it, anyway.
+Nor has Reed. We're both broke."
+
+"There's a revolution on down there now," said Reed, "and we'd better
+go easy for a while. Besides, Harris needs time to study the language.
+But, are we all agreed on the terms? Salary for Harris while in
+Colombia to be settled later, of course."
+
+"It's all satisfactory, I think," said Ketchim, smiling happily. "The
+details can be worked out anon--Molino stockholders' meeting, and so
+on."
+
+"Then," said Reed, rising, "we will consider the new company launched,
+to take over the defunct Molino and to operate on a comprehensive
+scale in Colombia, beginning with the development of La Libertad, if
+we can secure it."
+
+At that moment Rawlins opened the door and peered in. "A gentleman to
+see Mr. Reed," he announced softly; "a priest, I believe."
+
+Harris sprang to his feet. The door swung open, and Father Waite
+entered with Carmen.
+
+With a glad cry the girl dropped her bundle and bounded into the arms
+of the astonished Harris. Reed grasped the priest's hand, and begged
+him to speak. Ketchim and the young lawyer looked on in perplexity.
+
+"I was unable to find your name in the city directory, Mr. Reed,"
+explained the priest, his face beaming with happiness. "But at police
+headquarters I found that you had made inquiries, and that detectives
+were searching for the girl. I learned that you were living with your
+wife's sister, and that you had no business address, having just come
+up from South America. So I telephoned to your sister-in-law, and your
+wife informed me that you had an appointment this morning at this
+office. I therefore came directly here with the girl, who, as you see,
+is safe and sound, but with an additional interesting experience or
+two to add to the large fund she already possessed." He looked down at
+Carmen and smiled. "And now," he concluded, laughing, as he prepared
+to depart, "I will not ask for a receipt for the child, as I see I
+have several witnesses to the fact that I have delivered her to the
+proper custodian." He bowed and went to the door.
+
+"Wait!" cried Reed, seizing him by the hand. "We want to thank you! We
+want to know you--"
+
+"I will give you my card," replied the priest. "And I would be very
+happy, indeed, if some time again I might be permitted to see and talk
+with the little girl." He handed his card to Reed; then nodded and
+smiled at Carmen and went out.
+
+"By Jove!" sputtered Harris, pushing the girl aside and making after
+him. But he was too late. The priest had already caught a descending
+elevator, and disappeared. Harris returned to the bewildered group. "I
+guess that knocks the Simiti Company sky-high," he exclaimed, "for
+here is the sole owner of La Libertad!"
+
+Ketchim collapsed into a chair, while Reed, saying that he would keep
+his dinner engagement with Ketchim on the following day, picked up
+Carmen's precious bundle and, taking her hand, left the room. "I am
+going home," he called back to Harris; "and you be sure to come up to
+the house to-night. We'll have to readjust our plans now."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5
+
+
+"Reed," said Harris the following day, as they sat in the dusty,
+creaking car that was conveying them to their dinner appointment with
+Ketchim, "who is this Ames that Ketchim referred to yesterday?"
+
+The men were not alone, for Carmen accompanied them. Reed was
+reluctantly bringing her at the urgent request received from Ketchim
+over the telephone the previous evening. But the girl, subdued by the
+rush of events since her precipitation into the seething American
+world of materialism, sat apart from them, gazing with rapt attention
+through the begrimed window at the flying scenery, and trying to
+interpret it in the light of her own tenacious views of life and the
+universe. If the marvels of this new world into which she had been
+thrown had failed to realize her expectations--if she saw in them, and
+in the sense of life which they express, something less real, less
+substantial, than do those who laud its grandeur and power to
+charm--she gave no hint. She was still absorbing, sifting and
+digesting the welter of impressions. She had been overpowered,
+smothered by the innovation; and she now found her thoughts a tangled
+jumble, which she strove incessantly to unravel and classify according
+to their content of reality, as judged by her own standards.
+
+"Why, Ames," replied Reed, turning a watchful eye upon Carmen, "is a
+multimillionaire financier of New York--surely you have heard of him!
+He and his clique practically own the United States, and a large
+slice of Europe. For some reason Ames bought a block of Molino stock.
+And now, I judge, Ketchim would give his chances on eternal life if he
+hadn't sold it to him. And that's what's worrying me, too. For, since
+Ames is heavily interested in Molino, what will he do to the new
+company that absorbs it?"
+
+"There isn't going to be any new company," asserted Harris doggedly.
+
+"There's got to be!" cried Reed. "Ketchim holds us strictly to our
+contract. Our negotiations with old Rosendo were made while in the
+employ of Molino. It wouldn't be so bad if we had only Ketchim to deal
+with. We've got the goods on him and could beat him. But here enters
+Ames, a man of unlimited wealth and influence. If he wants La
+Libertad, he's going to get it, you mark me! Where we fell down was in
+ever mentioning it to Ketchim. For if we don't come over now he will
+lay the whole affair before Ames. He told me over the 'phone last
+night that he was badly in debt--that Ames was pressing him--that many
+of the Molino stockholders were making pertinent inquiries. Oh, he
+quite opened his heart! And yesterday I saw on his desk a letter from
+Ames. I can imagine what it contained. Ketchim would sacrifice us and
+everything else to keep himself out of Ames's grip. We're in for it, I
+tell you! And all because we were a bit too previous in believing that
+the girl had disappeared for good."
+
+"By Jove!" exclaimed Harris, "but doesn't it sound like a fairy-tale,
+the way Carmen got back to us?"
+
+"And here I am," continued Reed, with a gesture of vexation, "left
+with the girl on my hands, and with a very healthy prospect of losing
+out all around. My wife said emphatically last night that she wouldn't
+be bothered with Carmen."
+
+"Well, she won't bother you. Send her away to school."
+
+"Fine! Good idea!" replied Reed sarcastically. "But do you realize
+that that involves expense? I'm a comparatively poor man, just getting
+a start in my profession, and with a young and socially ambitious
+wife!"
+
+"But--your wife--er, she's going to--to have money some day, isn't
+she?"
+
+"Very true. But the grim reaper has a little work to do first. And on
+occasions like this he's always deucedly deliberate, you know.
+Meantime, we're skating close to the edge--for New Yorkers."
+
+"Well, we may be able to beat Ketchim. Now, my father and Uncle
+John--"
+
+"Oh, shoot your father and Uncle John!" snapped Reed impatiently.
+
+The conductor opened the door and bawled a cryptical announcement.
+
+"This is the place," said Reed, starting up and making for the door.
+"And now you rake your thought for some way to deal with Ketchim. And
+leave your father and Uncle John entirely out of the conversation!"
+
+Ketchim was just bowing out a caller as the young engineers mounted
+the steps. "See that fellow!" he exclaimed, after giving them a hearty
+welcome. "I just sold him a hundred shares of Simiti stock, at five
+dollars a share--just half of par. Beginning right on the jump, eh?"
+
+"But--" protested Harris, as they entered the spacious parlor, "the
+company isn't even in existence yet--and hasn't an asset!"
+
+"Oh, that's all right," replied Ketchim easily. "It's coming into
+existence, and will have the grandest mine in South America! Boys," he
+went on earnestly, "I've been talking over the 'phone with Mr. Ames,
+our most influential stockholder, and a very warm friend of mine. I
+told him about our conversation of yesterday. He says, go right ahead
+with the new company--that it's a great idea. He's satisfied with his
+present holding, and will not increase it. Says he wants Molino
+stockholders to have the opportunity to purchase all the treasury
+stock, if they want to."
+
+"Decidedly magnanimous," returned Reed. "But--what about the basis of
+organization of the new company?"
+
+"Leave it as we planned it, he says. He thinks the arrangement and
+division of stock fine!"
+
+Reed and Harris looked at each other questioningly. It did not seem
+possible.
+
+"But," went on Ketchim, "have you seen the morning papers? They are
+full of the revolution in Colombia. The country is torn wide open,
+and reports say nothing can be done down there until peace is
+restored--and that may take a year or two. But, meantime, we will go
+ahead and organize the new company and take over Molino and prepare
+to begin work just as soon as you fellows can get into that country.
+Everybody has simply got to wait until then. And so this," going to
+Carmen and taking her hand, "is the wonderful little girl! Well!
+well!"
+
+The entrance of Mrs. Ketchim and her troop of children at this
+juncture interrupted the conversation. "All enthusiastic Simiti
+stockholders," said Ketchim, waving his hand toward them, after the
+introductions. "And all going to get rich out of it, too--as well as
+yourselves, boys. It simply shows how Providence works--one with God
+is a majority, always."
+
+Carmen glanced up at him wonderingly.
+
+Dinner over, the men were left alone. Carmen had been taken upstairs
+by the children to the nursery.
+
+"I've got myself slated for the presidency of the new company," said
+Ketchim, plunging again into the subject nearest his heart; "and I
+think we'd better put brother James in as vice-president. Perfectly
+safe," looking at Harris and winking. "He's got to be recognized, you
+know, since the Ketchim Realty Company act as fiscal agents. Now for
+directors I've put down Judge Harris, your father--that's to assure
+you boys that there'll be some one to look after your interests. Then
+we'll say Reverend Jurges for another. He's got a big congregation and
+will be able to place a lot of stock. You just ought to see the letter
+he wrote me about selling stock to his people! You'd never believe he
+was a good, spiritually-minded clergyman, with an eye single to
+heavenly riches! Then one of you fellows, say Reed, had better go on
+the directorate, since Harris will be in Colombia in charge of
+operations. And--well, Cass, too. He's young and immature, but
+absolutely square. He'll do all the legal work for his stock interest.
+We save money that way, see?"
+
+"But what do I do while we are waiting?" asked Harris in some
+perplexity. "Reed goes to California right away, you know."
+
+"That's all right, old man," Ketchim genially assured him. "The new
+company will be organized at once--this week, if possible. You go on
+salary from the moment of its incorporation, and you open your office
+right here in this building. I'll see that the rent is paid until you
+go back to Colombia. Everything's arranged, and you turn right in and
+help Cass with the new company. There'll be plenty to do. You've got
+to prepare circulars; write boosting letters to stockholders and
+prospects; follow up leads; and--oh, you'll be busy! But here comes
+Reverend Coles," looking out of the window as a man came up the steps.
+"He's interested in some projects I've been exploiting. Just excuse me
+for a few moments."
+
+He hastened out to greet the visitor and conducted him into a back
+room. Reed and Harris were left to the contemplation of their own
+mixed thoughts. Presently Harris, whose eyes had been dilating
+for some moments, broke out in a hoarse whisper: "Listen! God
+a'mighty!--he's praying!"
+
+He got up softly and approached the door of the room into which
+Ketchim had taken his caller. In a few minutes he returned to his
+chair. "By Jove!" he exclaimed. "I could see Ketchim through the
+keyhole, on his knees by the bed, praying with that fellow! Now what
+the d--!"
+
+Reed held up a warning finger. Through the silence that fell upon
+them snatches of the prayer being offered in the adjoining room
+floated to their ears--"O, blessed Saviour, vouchsafe prosperity to
+our venture, we beseech thee! The earth is the Lord's, and the
+fullness thereof--we ask thy blessing on these efforts of ours to
+wrest from the ground the wealth which the Father of lights has
+deposited there for the benefit of His children--"
+
+Harris snickered aloud. "What's the game?" he whispered.
+
+Reed shook his head in warning. "It may not be a game," he replied.
+"But if it is, it's an old one, hiding behind the mask of religion.
+But I'm inclined to believe the man sincere."
+
+"And I'm not!" retorted Harris. "I'd rather deal with his brother. I
+know James to be an out-and-out rascal--he openly flies the black
+flag. But this pious fellow--well, he's got me guessing!"
+
+The caller soon departed, and Ketchim again joined the young men.
+"He's our assistant pastor," he said musingly, as he watched the man
+go down the walk. "Nice young fellow, waiting for a church. He and
+some of his friends are interested in a zinc mine we've been floating,
+down in the Joplin district."
+
+"Got titles?" queried the cynical Harris, with a twinkle in his eyes.
+
+"Oh, yes," Ketchim smiled affably.
+
+"Mine producing?"
+
+"Well, no--not yet. Lots of development work to be done, you know.
+Always is. And there's a lot of water in this mine."
+
+"And in the stock, too, eh?" pursued the cruel Harris. "Got any ore?"
+
+"We haven't struck the deposit yet, although we expect to soon. But,"
+glancing up at the clock on the mantel, "we'll have to be going over
+to Sunday school now. And I want that little girl to go with Marjorie.
+Fellows," the man's face became deeply serious, "I have no doubt you
+are both church members?"
+
+Reed fidgeted uneasily under Ketchim's searching glance; but Harris
+frankly met the question. "Nope," he asserted, "we're both rank
+heathen. And I'm a dyed-in-the-wool atheist."
+
+"Gracious!" cried Ketchim, "how can you say that, when you see the
+goodness of the Lord on every hand?"
+
+"Reed, I believe," continued the imperturbable Harris, waving a hand
+toward his friend, "has philosophical leanings--New Thought,
+Subliminal Consciousness, Power in Silence, and all that. But I've got
+to be shown."
+
+"But surely you believe in the divinity of the Christ?"
+
+"Well, as a matter of fact, I never gave it much thought," said
+Harris. "Been pretty busy, you know. Lots of time for that later."
+
+"Ah, that's what so many say," replied Ketchim sadly; "and then comes
+the awful voice of the Lord, 'This night thy soul shall be required of
+thee!' Fellows, I want to pray for you; and I want you both to promise
+me that you will take up seriously the consideration of your souls'
+welfare. It's too grave a subject for jest," addressing himself
+solemnly to the grinning Harris.
+
+"All right, old man," laughed Harris. "But don't dig up any
+Presbyterian tracts for me. I've got a living witness to--well, to
+something out of the ordinary, in that girl, Carmen, and I'm inclined
+to believe she's dug nearer to bottom facts than any of you. So when
+I'm ready to discuss my soul's welfare I'll just consult her, see?"
+
+"That reminds me," said Ketchim, turning abruptly to Reed, "what do
+you intend to do with the girl?"
+
+"_Quien sabe?_" Reed answered abstractedly. "Send her to a boarding
+school, I guess. At least, that's what I told the old man I'd do."
+
+"So you said before," Ketchim returned. "But where?"
+
+"Don't know yet."
+
+"Well, let me make a suggestion. My daughter Marjorie leaves Tuesday
+for Conway-on-the-Hudson, where she has been attending Madam Elwin's
+Select School for Girls. Suppose you go with her--I'm too busy,
+myself--and take Carmen. It's only a few hours' ride by boat down the
+river. And the school is without equal. This is Marjorie's third year
+there, and she's simply in love with it."
+
+Reed began to show signs of interest; and Ketchim, noting the effect
+of his words, went on briskly:
+
+"Now look here, Molino owes its salvation, and the new company its
+existence, to that girl. Why shouldn't they do something to show their
+gratitude? I say, it is no more than right that the new company should
+support her while she is in school."
+
+"By Jove! not a half-bad idea," commented Harris.
+
+"Certainly not," continued Ketchim earnestly. "Now fix up everything
+with her as regards the transfer of the mine to the new company, and
+then let her go with Marjorie to the Elwin school. We can, if you
+like, make some agreement with her to the effect that when the company
+is on its feet and she is receiving dividends, she shall return what
+it may advance for her schooling, eh?"
+
+"You'd better accept the suggestion, Reed," put in Harris. "I'll be
+here, you know, to keep an eye on the girl; and I'll take her and
+Marjorie down to Conway myself, and attend to getting her located
+right."
+
+Reed continued to reflect. He was hardly in a position to refuse such
+an offer. Besides, he was really leaving her in charge of Harris.
+"Well," he said at length, "in that case I could leave for California
+to-morrow night. That matter is pressing hard--all right, I accept the
+company's offer. It's no more than is due the girl, anyway."
+
+"Good!" replied Ketchim. "I'll make the necessary arrangements at
+once. And now let's go over to church."
+
+Thus it was that two days later Carmen, still wondering if she was
+dreaming, was enrolled in the Elwin Select School for Girls, with
+Marjorie Ketchim for roommate; while Reed, on the Overland Limited,
+hurrying to the far West, was musing dubiously at frequent intervals
+on Ketchim's rather conflicting statements, which, until left to this
+enforced leisure, he had not had time to try to reconcile. At the same
+time, while Harris was loudly declaiming to the gracious Madam Elwin
+on the astonishing mental prowess of the girl, Ketchim and Cass sat
+deeply immersed in the tentative plans for the newly-projected Simiti
+Development Company.
+
+"Now listen," said Ketchim, who for some minutes had been quietly
+scanning his youthful lawyer, "Ames knows nothing about the formation
+of this company, but Harris and Reed are not to know that; and we're
+going to keep Ames in ignorance of all our plans. With the first sales
+of stock--and they've already begun--we'll return him his Molino
+investment. Nezlett wired me this morning that he's sure to sell a big
+block to the Leveridges, that they're mightily interested, and want to
+meet Carmen. We'll use the girl for just such purposes. That's one
+reason why I wanted her handy, so's we could reach her at any time.
+She makes a star impression; and with her as an advertisement we'll
+sell a million dollars' worth of stock, and no trouble at all! She's
+got that honest look that's convincing. And she can tell a story that
+beats the Arabian Nights! Ames has given me a week to explain, or make
+good his investment. By that time we'll have the Leveridges sold for
+twice his investment, and we'll just pay him off and remove him.
+Meantime, you go over to the bank in the morning and put up the best
+line of talk you're capable of. I've got sixteen hundred dollars to
+give 'em on that note; and that'll secure more time, until the sales
+of stock are enough to pay it all up. Perhaps Uncle Ted will advance
+me enough to take up the note when he hears about La Libertad. And,
+say, you see brother James, and shake the club over him until he
+disgorges that check he got from Miss Leveridge. You can hand him a
+scare that he won't get over. By George, old man! things have taken a
+great turn, eh? Why, I can just see Simiti stock sales humping these
+next few months. Oh, Miss Honeywell," calling to his cashier, "bring
+me five dollars, please, and charge it to Molino--I mean, to Simiti.
+Make a new account for that now." Then, again addressing Cass: "Come
+with me to the football game this afternoon. We can discuss plans
+there as well as here. Gee whiz, but I feel great!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6
+
+
+Carmen's rapid transition from the eternal solitudes of Guamoco to the
+whirring activities of New York was like a plunge into the maelstrom,
+and left her groping blindly in the effort to adapt herself to the
+changed order. There was little in her former mode of existence that
+could be transferred to her new environment, and she felt that she was
+starting life like a new-born babe. For days, even weeks, she moved
+about dreamily, absorbed, ceaselessly striving to orient herself and
+to accept easily and naturally the marvels, the sudden accession of
+material aids, and the wonders of this modern, complex civilization,
+so common to her associates, but scarcely even dreamed of by her in
+her former home, despite the preparation which Jose had tried to give
+her. The Elwin school was small, its student-body seldom numbering
+more than fifty, and in it Carmen found herself hedged about by
+restrictions which in a way were beneficial, in that they narrowed her
+environment and afforded her time for her slow adjustment to it.
+
+But if these restrictions aided her, they also rendered the length of
+her stay in the school almost calculable. Little by little the girl
+saw the forces developing which she knew must effect her dismissal;
+little by little, as Madam Elwin's manner toward her became less
+gracious, and her schoolmates made fewer efforts to conceal from her
+the fact that she was not one of them, Carmen prepared for the
+inevitable. Six months after the girl's enrollment, Madam Elwin
+terminated her series of disparaging reports to Ketchim by a request
+that he come at once and remove his charge from the school.
+
+"As I have repeatedly said, Mr. Ketchim, the girl is a paradox. And
+after these months of disappointing effort to instruct her, I am
+forced to throw up my hands in despair and send for you." Madam Elwin
+tapped nervously with a dainty finger upon the desk before her.
+
+"But, if I may be permitted the question, what specific reasons have
+you, Madam, for--ah, for requesting her removal?" asked the very
+Reverend Dr. William Jurges, who, having come up to the city to
+attend a meeting of the directors of the Simiti company, had accepted
+Ketchim's invitation to first accompany him on his flying trip to
+Conway-on-the-Hudson, in response to Madam Elwin's peremptory
+summons.
+
+"Because," replied that worthy personage with a show of exasperation, "I
+consider her influence upon the young ladies here quite detrimental.
+Our school, while non-sectarian, is at least Christian. Miss Carmen
+is not. Where she got her views, I can not imagine. At first she made
+frequent mention of a Catholic priest, who taught her in her home town,
+in South America. But of late she has grown very reserved--I might say,
+sullen, and talks but little. Her views, however, are certainly not
+Catholic. In her class work she has become impossible. She refuses to
+accept a large part of our instruction. Her answers to examination
+questions are wholly in accord with her peculiar views, and hence quite
+apart from the texts. For that reason she fails to make any grades,
+excepting in mathematics and the languages. She utterly refuses to
+accept any religious instruction whatsoever. She would not be called
+atheistic, for she talks--or used to at first--continually about God.
+But her God is not the God of the Scriptures, Dr. Jurges. She is a
+free-thinker, in the strictest sense. And as such, we can not
+consent to her remaining longer with us."
+
+"Ah--quite so, Madam, quite so," returned the clergyman, in his
+unconsciously pompous manner. "Doubtless the child's thought
+became--ah--contaminated ere she was placed in your care. But--ah--I
+have heard so much from our good friend, Mr. Ketchim, regarding this
+young girl, that--ah--I should like exceedingly to see and talk with
+her--if it might be--ah--"
+
+"Madam Elwin will arrange that, I am sure," interposed Ketchim.
+"Suppose," he suggested, addressing the lady, "we let him talk with
+her, while I discuss with you our recently acquired mine in South
+America, and the advisability of an investment with us."
+
+"Certainly," acquiesced Madam Elwin, rising and pressing one of the
+several buttons in the desk. "Bring Miss Carmen," she directed, to the
+maid who answered the summons.
+
+"Pardon me," interrupted Dr. Jurges; "but may I go to her? Ah--it
+would doubtless be less embarrassing for the child."
+
+"Miss Carmen was in the chapel a few moments ago," volunteered the
+maid.
+
+"Then take the doctor there," returned Madam Elwin, with a gesture of
+dismissal.
+
+At the head of the stairway the mingled sounds of a human voice and
+the soft, trembling notes of an organ drifted through the long hall
+and fell upon the ears of the clergyman.
+
+"Miss Carmen," said the maid, answering his unspoken thought. "She
+often comes up to the chapel and sings for hours at a time--alone. The
+chapel is down there," pointing to the end of the hall.
+
+"Then--ah--leave me," said the doctor. "I will proceed alone."
+
+The maid turned willingly and went below, while the man tiptoed to
+the chapel door. There he stopped and stood listening. The girl was
+singing in Spanish, and he could not understand the words. But they
+would have meant nothing to him then. It was the voice upon which
+they were borne that held him. The song was a weird lament that had
+come down to the children of Simiti from the hard days of the
+_Conquistadores_. It voiced the untold wrongs of the Indian slaves;
+its sad, unvarying minor echoed their smothered moans under the
+cruel goad; on the plaintive melody of the repeated chorus their
+piteous cries were carried to heaven's deaf ears; their dull despair
+floated up on the wailing tones of the little organ, and then died
+away, as died the hope of the innocent victims of Spanish lust.
+
+The reverend doctor had never heard a song of that kind before. Nor
+could he readily associate the voice, which again and again he could
+not distinguish from the flute-like tones of the organ, with the
+sordidness and grime of material, fleshly existence. He entered softly
+and took a seat in the shadow of a pillar. The clear, sweet voice of
+the young girl flowed over him like celestial balm. Song after song
+she sang. Some were dreamy bits and snatches in Spanish and English;
+others were sacred in character. He wondered deeply, as the girl mused
+over these; yet he knew not that they were her own compositions.
+Curiosity and uncertainty mastered him at length, and he got softly to
+his feet and moved away from the pillar, that he might see from what
+manner of being issued such unbroken harmony. But in his eagerness his
+foot struck a chair, and the sound echoed loudly through the room.
+
+The music abruptly ceased, and the girl rose and looked over the organ
+at the intruder.
+
+"I--I beg your pardon," said the clergyman, advancing in some
+embarrassment. "I was listening to your singing--uninvited, but none
+the less appreciative. I--"
+
+"Wait, please!" cried the girl, hastily stooping over and fumbling
+with her shoes. The doctor laughed genially, as he grasped the
+situation.
+
+"I took them off," she explained hurriedly. "I am not yet accustomed
+to them. I never wore shoes until I left Simiti." Her face was
+scarlet, and she tried to cover her confusion with a little laugh.
+
+The doctor stood staring at her, lost in admiration of the shapely
+figure, the heavy, curling hair, and the wonderfully expressive face.
+The girl quickly recovered her poise and returned him a frank smile.
+
+"You wish to see me?" she said, after waiting in vain for him to
+begin.
+
+"Ah--a--yes, certainly--that is, I beg your pardon," stammered the
+doctor. "I did request permission of Madam Elwin to make your
+acquaintance. We have heard so much about you. I am Doctor Jurges, an
+Episcopal clergyman." His sentences issued like blasts from an engine
+exhaust.
+
+"I am Carmen Ariza," said the girl, extending her hand.
+
+"Ah--quite so, quite so," blustered the doctor, clearing his throat
+noisily. "Let us be seated. Ah--ah--you have a remarkable voice. It
+gives evidence of careful cultivation."
+
+"No," returned the girl simply. "It has never had any cultivation. It
+is natural for me to sing. And my poor organ-playing is what I have
+picked up myself these six months."
+
+The man regarded her with amazement. "Remarkable!" he murmured.
+
+The girl looked up into his face searchingly. "Why," she asked,
+"should every one up here think it remarkable when a human mind is
+clear enough to be a transparency for God?"
+
+Had the roof fallen, the excellent doctor could have been no more
+startled. He cleared his throat violently again; then fumbled
+nervously in his pocket and drew out his glasses. These he poised upon
+the ample arch of his ecclesiastical nose, and through them turned a
+penetrating glance upon the girl.
+
+"H'm! yes," said he at length; "quite so, quite so! And--ah--Miss
+Carmen, that brings us to the matter in question--your religious
+instruction--ah--may I ask from whom you received it?"
+
+"From God," was the immediate and frank reply.
+
+The clergyman started, but quickly recovered his equipoise.
+
+"H'm! yes, quite so, quite so! All real instruction descendeth
+from above. But--your religious views--I believe they are not
+considered--ah--quite evangelical, are they? By your present
+associates, that is."
+
+"No," she replied, with a trace of sadness in her tone. "But," looking
+up with a queer little smile, "I am not persecuting them for that."
+
+"Oh, no," with a jerky little laugh. "Assuredly not! H'm! I judge the
+persecution has come from the other side, has it not?"
+
+"We will not speak of that," she said quickly. "They do not
+understand--that is all."
+
+"H'm! no, quite so--that is--ah--may I ask why you think they do not
+understand? May not you be in error, instead?"
+
+"If that which I believe is not true," the girl replied evenly, "it
+will fail under the test of demonstration. Their beliefs have long
+since failed under such test--and yet they still cling jealously to
+them, and try to force them upon all who disagree with them. I am a
+heretic, Doctor."
+
+"H'm--ah--yes, I see. But--it is a quite unfortunate characteristic
+of mankind to attribute one's views indiscriminately to the
+Almighty--and--ah--I regret to note that you are not wholly free from
+this error."
+
+"You do not understand, I think," she quickly returned. "I put every
+view, every thought, every idea to the test. If good is the result, I
+know that the thought or idea comes from the source of all good, God.
+The views I hold are those which I have time and again tested--and
+some of them have withstood trials which I think you would regard as
+unusually severe." Her thought had rested momentarily upon her vivid
+experience in Banco, the dangers which had menaced her in distant
+Simiti, and the fire through which she had passed in her first hours
+in Christian America, the land of churches, sects, and creeds.
+
+"H'm!" the worthy doctor mused, regarding the girl first through his
+spectacles, and then over the tops of them, while his bushy eyebrows
+moved up and down with such comicality that Carmen could scarcely
+refrain from laughing. "H'm! quite so. Ah--suppose you relate to me
+some of the tests to which your views have been subjected."
+
+"No," she returned firmly; "those experiences were only states of
+consciousness, which are now past and gone forever. Why rehearse them?
+They were human, and so, unreal. Why go back now and give them the
+appearance of reality?"
+
+"Unreal! H'm--then you do not regard untoward experience as given us
+by God for the testing of our faith, I take it."
+
+Carmen turned her head away with a little sigh of weariness. "I
+think," she said slowly, "I think we had better not talk about these
+things, Doctor. You are a preacher. Your views are not mine."
+
+"Why--ah," blustered the clergyman, assuming a more paternal air,
+"we--ah--would not for a moment cause you embarrassment, Miss Carmen!
+But--in fact, Madam Elwin has--ah--expressed her disapproval of your
+views--your religious ideals, if I may put it so baldly, and she--that
+is--the good lady regrets--"
+
+"She wishes to be rid of me, you mean, Doctor?" said the girl,
+turning and stretching a mental hand to the sinking divine.
+
+"H'm! well, hardly so--ah--so--"
+
+"Doctor," said the girl calmly, "I know it, and I wish to go. I have
+been waiting only to see the way open. I do not wish to remain longer
+in an atmosphere where ignorance and false belief stifle all real
+progress."
+
+The doctor turned another look of astonishment upon her. He had
+forgotten that he had not been talking with one of his own age. The
+fact suddenly pressed upon him. "How old are you?" he blurted.
+
+Carmen could not help laughing. But if her clear mental gaze
+penetrated the ecclesiastical mask and surmounted the theological
+assumptions of her interlocutor, enabling her to get close to the
+heart of the man, she did not indicate it further. "I am nearly
+sixteen," was her only reply.
+
+"Ah," he reflected, "just a child! My dear girl," he continued, laying
+a hand indulgently upon hers, "I will advise with Madam Elwin, and
+will endeavor to convince her that--ah--that your spiritual welfare,
+if I may so put it, requires that you be not turned adrift at this
+critical, transitorial period of your life. We must all be patient,
+while we strive to counteract the--ah--the pernicious teaching to
+which you were exposed before--ah--before becoming enrolled in this
+excellent school."
+
+Carmen looked at him steadily for a moment before replying. There was
+something of pity in the expression of her beautiful face, of tender
+sympathy for those who seek the light, and who must some day find it,
+but whose progress is as yet hampered by the human mind's unreasoning
+adherence to the stepping-stones over which it has been passing
+through the dark waters of ignorance. "Then, Doctor," she said calmly,
+"you know what I have been taught?"
+
+"Why--ah--yes--that is, vaguely. But--suppose you inform me briefly."
+He was beginning to be sensible of having passed judgment upon the
+girl without first according her a hearing.
+
+"Well," she smiled up at him, "I have been taught the very hardest
+thing in the whole world."
+
+"H'm, indeed! Ah, quite so--and that?"
+
+"To think."
+
+"To--ah--to think!" He again clutched at his mental poise. "Well, yes,
+quite so! But--ah--is it not the function of all our schools to teach
+us to think?"
+
+"No," answered the girl decidedly; "not to teach us to think, but to
+cause us blindly to accept what is ignorantly called 'authority'! I
+find we are not to reason, and particularly about religious matters,
+but to accept, to let those 'in authority' think for us. Is it not so?
+Are you not even now seeking to make me accept your religious views?
+And why? Because they are true? Oh, no; but because you believe them
+true--whether they are or not. Have you demonstrated their truth? Do
+you come to me with proofs? Do your religious views rest upon anything
+but the human mind's undemonstrated interpretation of the Bible? And
+yet you can not prove that interpretation true, even though you would
+force it upon such as I, who may differ from you."
+
+"I--ah--" began the doctor nervously. But Carmen continued without
+heeding the interruption:
+
+"Only yesterday Professor Bales, of the University, lectured here on
+'The Prime Function of Education.' He said it was the development of
+the individual, and that the chief end of educational work was the
+promotion of originality. And yet, when I think along original
+lines--when I depart from stereotyped formulae, and state boldly that I
+will not accept any religion, be it Presbyterian, Methodist, or Roman
+Catholic, that makes a God of spirit the creator of a man of flesh, or
+that makes evil as real as good, and therefore necessarily created and
+recognized by a God who by very necessity can not know evil--then I am
+accused of being a heretic, a free-thinker; and the authorities take
+steps to remove me, lest my influence contaminate the rest of the
+pupils!"
+
+"H'm--ah--yes, quite so--that is--I think--"
+
+"Do you, a preacher, think?" the girl went on hurriedly. "Or do you
+only _think_ that you think? Do you still believe with the world that
+the passing of a stream of human thought, or a series of mental
+pictures, through your mentality constitutes _real_ thinking? Do you
+believe that jumping from one human mental concept to another
+twenty-four hours a day constitutes thinking? Have you yet learned to
+distinguish between God's thoughts and their opposites, human
+thoughts? Do you know what Jesus taught? Have you a real, working,
+demonstrable knowledge of Christianity? Do you heal the sick, raise
+the dead, and preach the truth that sets men free from the mesmerism
+of evil? If so, then you are unevangelical, too, and you and I are
+both heretics, and we'd better--we'd better leave this building at
+once, for I find that the Inquisition is still alive, even in
+America!"
+
+She stopped, and caught her breath. Her face was flushed, and her
+whole body quivered with emotion.
+
+"The Inquisition! Why, my dear young lady, this is a Christian
+nation!"
+
+"Then," said the girl, "you have still much to learn from the pagan
+nations that have gone before."
+
+"Bless my soul!" exclaimed the doctor, again adjusting his glasses
+that he might see her more clearly. "My dear child, you have been
+thinking too much, and too seriously."
+
+"No, Doctor," she replied; "but you preachers have not been thinking
+enough, nor even half seriously. Oh," she went on, while her eyes grew
+moist, and ever and again her throat filled, "I had expected so much
+in this great country! And I have found so little--so little that is
+not wholly material, mechanical, and unreal! I had imagined that, with
+all your learning and progress, which Padre Jose told me about, you
+would know God much better than we in the darkened South. But your god
+is matter, machinery, business, gold, and the unreal things that can
+be bought with money. Some one wrote, in a recent newspaper, that
+America's god was 'mud and mammon!' What do I find the girls here in
+this school talking about but dress, and society, and the unreal,
+passing pleasures of the physical senses! Do they know God? No--nor
+want to! Nor do the preachers! There are religious services here every
+Sunday, and sermons by preachers who come down from the city.
+Sometimes a Baptist; sometimes a Presbyterian; and sometimes an
+Episcopalian, or a Methodist. What is the result? Confusion--religious
+confusion. Each has a different concept of God; yet they all believe
+Him the creator of a man of flesh and bones, a man who was originally
+made perfect, but who fell, and was then cursed by the good and
+perfect God who made him. Oh, what childish views for men to hold and
+preach! How could a good God create anything that could fall? And if
+He could, and did, then He knew in advance that the man would fall,
+and so God becomes responsible, not man. Oh, Doctor, is it possible
+that you believe such stuff? How can you! how can you! Is it any
+wonder that, holding such awful views, you preachers have no longer
+the power to heal the sick? Do you not know that, in order to heal the
+sick, one must become spiritually-minded? But no one who holds to the
+puerile material beliefs embraced in your orthodox theology can
+possibly be spiritual enough to do the works Jesus said we should all
+do if we followed him--really understood him."
+
+"My dear child--you really are quite inconsistent--you--"
+
+"Inconsistent! What a charge for an orthodox preacher to bring! Let us
+see: You say that the Scriptures teach that God made man in His image
+and likeness--the image and likeness of spirit. Very well. Spirit,
+God, is eternal, immortal. Then while He exists can His image fade
+away, or die? Can or would God cause it to do so? Can or would He
+destroy His own reflection? And could that image, always being like
+Him, ever change, or manifest sin, or disease, or evil, unless God
+first manifested these things? And if God did manifest them, then,
+perforce, the image would _have_ to do likewise. But, in that case,
+could God justly punish His image for faithfully reflecting its
+original? Consistent! Oh, it is you preachers, lacking sufficient
+spirituality to correctly interpret the Scriptures, who are wildly,
+childishly, ignorantly inconsistent!"
+
+Carmen rose and faced the clergyman. "I did not mean to condemn
+you, Doctor," she said earnestly. "I wage no warfare with persons
+or things. My opposition is directed only against the entrenched human
+thought that makes men spiritually blind and holds them in the
+mesmeric chains of evil. I am young, as you reckon years, but I
+have had much experience in the realm of thought--and it is there
+that all experience is wrought out before it becomes externalized.
+I have told you, my teacher was God. He used as a channel a priest,
+who came years ago to my little home town of Simiti, in far-off
+Colombia. His life had been wrecked by holding to the belief of
+evil as a power, real and intelligent. He began to see the light; but
+he did not overcome fear sufficiently to make his demonstration and
+break the imaginary bonds which held him. He saw, but he did not
+prove. He will, some day. And, Doctor, you and everybody else will
+have to do the same. For, unless Jesus uttered the most malicious
+falsehoods ever voiced, every human being will have to take every
+step that he took, make every demonstration that he made, and prove
+all that he proved, before mortals will cease to consume with
+disease, perish miserably in accidents, and sink with broken lives
+into graves that do _not_ afford a gateway to immortal life! My God is
+infinite, eternal, unchanging mind. The god of the preachers,
+judging from their sermons preached here, is a human, mental
+concept, embodying spirit and matter, knowing good and evil, and
+changing with every caprice of their own unstable mentalities. My
+religion is the Christianity of the Master, love. Oh, how this poor
+world needs it, yearns for it! The love that demonstrates the
+nothingness of evil, and drives it out of human experience! The love
+that heals the sick, raises the dead, binds up broken hearts! The
+love that will not quench the religious instincts of children, and
+falsely educate them to know all manner of evil; but that teaches
+them to recognize it for what it is, the lie about God, and then
+shows them how to overcome it, even as Jesus did. My God is truth.
+Is truth real? Ah, yes, you say. But error is the opposite of truth.
+Then can error, evil, be real? No, not if you will be consistent.
+Again, God is infinite. But God is spirit. Then all is spirit and
+spirit's manifestation--is it not true? What, then, becomes of the
+evil that men hug to their bosoms, even while it gnaws into their
+hearts? It is the opposite of good, of mind, of truth, God. And
+the opposite of truth is supposition. Is it not so? And the
+supposition is--where? In your mentality. And you can put it out
+whenever you are willing to drop your ceremonials and your theories,
+and will open your mentality to truth, which will make you free,
+even as the Master said. That is my religion, Doctor. Those are
+the religious views which you have been sent by Madam Elwin to
+investigate. Am I a heretic? Or unevangelical?"
+
+She waited a few moments for the doctor to reply. Then, as he remained
+silent, she went up to him and held out her hand.
+
+"You do not care to talk with me longer, I think," she said. "Perhaps
+we may meet again. But, as regards Madam Elwin's wishes, you may tell
+her that I shall leave the school."
+
+"Have you--have you been fitting yourself for any--ah--particular
+work--ah--for your support, that is?" inquired the doctor gravely, as
+he took the proffered hand. He had been swept off his feet by the
+girl's conversation, and he had not the temerity to combat her views.
+
+"Yes," replied Carmen. "I have been working daily to gain a better
+understanding of the teachings of Jesus, and through them, of God. My
+single aim has been to acquire 'that mind which was in Christ Jesus.'
+And I have no other business than to reflect it to my fellow-men in a
+life of service. That is my Father's business, and I am working with
+Him. My mission in this world is to manifest God. I am going out now
+to do that, and _to show what love will do_. God will use me, and He
+will supply my every need. And now, good-bye."
+
+She turned abruptly from him and went to the organ. Soon the same song
+which he had heard as he entered the room rose again through the
+stillness. A strong emotion seemed to possess him. He started toward
+the girl; checked himself; and stood hesitating. Then his lips set,
+and he turned and walked slowly from the room.
+
+In the hall two women were approaching, and as they drew near he
+recognized one of them.
+
+"Why," he exclaimed with enthusiasm, holding out both hands, "my dear
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles! It is not so long since we met at the Weston's.
+But what, may I ask, brings you here?"
+
+"This is my sister, Mrs. Charles Reed, Doctor Jurges. We have come to,
+make a duty call on Mr. Reed's protegee, the little South American
+savage, you know. Madam Elwin said she was up here with you?"
+
+"Ah, yes, quite so--er, in the chapel, I believe," said the clergyman,
+his face becoming suddenly grave. "I would return with you, but my
+time is--ah--so limited." He bowed low, with his hand in the breast of
+his long frock coat, and passed on down the hall.
+
+As the women approached the door of the chapel through which came
+Carmen's low singing they turned and looked at each other inquiringly.
+Then they quietly entered the doorway and stood listening. Carmen,
+concealed behind the organ, did not see them.
+
+The song stopped, and Mrs. Hawley-Crowles went quickly to the organ.
+Bending over it, she gazed down into the face of the startled girl.
+"My goodness!" she exclaimed. "Get up and let me see what sort of a
+looking creature you are."
+
+Carmen rose, and Mrs. Reed came forward and gave her a tempered
+greeting. Then Mrs. Hawley-Crowles fell back and stared at the girl
+from head to foot. "You know," she said to her sister, "this is the
+first glimpse I've had of your husband's discovery. I was out of the
+city when he brought her to my house, you remember. But," turning
+again to Carmen, "sing that song over, dear, please--the one you were
+singing just now."
+
+Carmen seated herself again at the organ, and Mrs. Hawley-Crowles drew
+her sister to the rear of the room. "It will sound better back here,"
+she explained.
+
+After the lapse of a few minutes she turned to Mrs. Reed. "Belle," she
+said, nodding her head sententiously, "you had a pearl, and you threw
+it away. That girl there is our social fortune! Her voice, and her
+face--why, with our ward--this beautiful, gifted, South American owner
+of a famous mine--as a lever, we can force the Beaubien to bring the
+Ames to our terms! She goes back with us to-night! You've been
+blind!"
+
+Meantime, the dainty Madam Elwin and the amiable Doctor Jurges in the
+office below had reached a conclusion. "A young lady of--ah--invincible
+will," the doctor had observed; "and already--ah--decidedly mature,
+despite her tender years. Should she--ah--assume leadership over the
+pupils of your school, my dear Madam Elwin, the result might be
+disquieting. There can be no question as to her religious views, as I
+have said. But, what astonishes me is--ah--that this strange cult
+should have its devotees even in the wilds of tropical America!
+Astonishing--and so unfortunate! The girl is utterly--ah--unevangelical,
+Madam; and the advisability of removing her from the school can not be
+questioned. Do you not agree with me, Mr. Ketchim?"
+
+"By all means," asserted the latter gentleman with great seriousness,
+while his eyes dwelt tenderly upon Madam Elwin's written order for a
+hundred shares of Simiti stock which he held in his hand.
+
+"Very well, then," said the lady with a determined nod of her head; "I
+shall request Mrs. Reed to take her to-day." Then, with a proper sense
+of what it meant to have the moral support of such an eminent divine
+as Doctor Jurges, she rang for her maid and bade her summon Mrs. Reed
+and the girl.
+
+Thus it was that Carmen was again shifted a space on the checkerboard
+of life, and slept that night once more under the spacious roof of the
+wealthy relict of the late James Hawley-Crowles, on Riverside Drive.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7
+
+
+As has been said, Carmen's six months in the Elwin school had been a
+period of slow adjustment to the changed order. She had brought into
+this new world a charm of unsophistication, an ingenuous _naivete_,
+such as only an untrammeled spirit nourished in an elemental
+civilization like that of primitive Simiti could develop. Added to
+this was the zest and eagerness stimulated by the thought that she had
+come as a message-bearer to a people with a great need. Her first
+emotion had been that of astonishment that the dwellers in the great
+States were not so different, after all, from those of her own
+unprogressive country. Her next was one of sad disillusionment, as the
+fact slowly dawned upon her trusting thought that the busy denizens of
+her new environment took no interest whatsoever in her message. And
+then her joy and brilliant hopefulness had chilled, and she awoke to
+find her strange views a barrier between herself and her associates.
+She had brought to the America of the North a spirit so deeply
+religious as to know naught else than her God and His ceaseless
+manifestation. She had come utterly free of dogma or creed, and
+happily ignorant of decaying formularies and religious caste. Her
+Christianity was her demonstrable interpretation of the Master's
+words; and her fresh, ebulliant spirit soared unhampered in the warm
+atmosphere of love for mankind. Her concept of the Christ stirred no
+thought within her of intolerance toward those who might hold
+differing views; nor did it raise interposing barriers within her own
+mind, nor evoke those baser sentiments which have so sadly warped the
+souls of men into instruments of deadly hatred and crushing tyranny.
+Her spiritual vision, undimmed and world-embracing, saw the advent of
+that day when all mankind would obey the commands of Jesus, and do the
+works which he did, even to the complete spiritualization and
+dematerializing of all human thought. And her burning desire was to
+hasten the coming of that glad hour.
+
+The conviction that, despite its tremendous needs, humanity was
+steadily rejecting, even in this great land of opportunity and
+progress, the remedy for its consuming ills, came to her slowly. And
+with it a damping of her ardor, and a dulling of the fine edge of her
+enthusiasm. She grew quiet as the days passed, and drew away from her
+companions into her thought. With her increasing sense of isolation
+came at length a great longing to leave these inhospitable shores, and
+return to her native environment and the sympathy and tender
+solicitude of her beloved Rosendo and Padre Jose. But, alas! that was
+at present impossible. Indeed, she could not be certain now of their
+whereabouts. A great war was raging in Colombia, and she knew not what
+fate had befallen her loved ones. To her many letters directed to
+Simiti there had come back no reply. Even Harris, who had written
+again and again to both Rosendo and Jose, had received no word from
+them in return. Corroding fear began to assail the girl; soul-longing
+and heart-sickness seized upon her; her happy smile faded; and her
+bright, bubbling conversation ceased.
+
+Then one day, standing alone in her room, she turned squarely upon the
+foul brood of evil suggestions crowding upon her and, as if they were
+fell spirits from the nether world, bade them begone. "Listen!" she
+cried aloud. "I know you for what you are--_nothing_! You seemed to
+use Padre Jose, but you can't use me! God is everywhere--right here!
+He is my life; and you, evil thoughts, can't make me think He isn't! I
+am His image and likeness; I am His witness; and I will _not_ witness
+to His opposite, evil! My life is filled with harmony; and you, evil
+thoughts, can't reverse that fact! God has brought me here, else I
+would not have come, for He is the cause of all that is. It is for me
+to stand and see His glory. No! no!" as she paced about the room and
+seemed to ward off the assaults of an invisible enemy, "there is no
+power apart from Him! On that I stand!"
+
+Then, in the lull of battle, "Father divine, I thank Thee that Thou
+hast heard me. And now I lay my all upon the altar of love, and throw
+myself upon Thy thought."
+
+From that day, despite continued attacks from error--despite, too, the
+veiled slights and covert insinuations of her schoolmates, to whom the
+girl's odd views and utter refusal to share their accustomed
+conversation, their interest in mundane affairs, their social
+aspirations and worldly ambitions, at length made her quite
+unwelcome--Carmen steadily, and without heed of diverting gesture,
+brought into captivity every thought to the obedience of her
+Christ-principle, and threw off for all time the dark cloud of
+pessimism which human belief and the mesmerism of events had drawn
+over her joyous spirit.
+
+Mrs. Reed had not been near her since her enrollment in the school;
+but Ketchim had visited her often--not, however, alone, but always
+with one or more prospective purchasers of Simiti stock in tow whom
+he sought to influence favorably through Carmen's interesting
+conversation about her native land. Harris came every Sunday, and
+the girl welcomed the great, blundering fellow as the coming of the
+day. At times he would obtain Madam Elwin's permission to take the
+girl up to the city on a little sight-seeing expedition, and then he
+would abandon himself completely to the enjoyment of her naive wonder
+and the numberless and often piquant questions stimulated by it. He
+was the only one now with whom she felt any degree of freedom, and
+in his presence her restraint vanished and her airy gaiety again
+welled forth with all its wonted fervor. Once, shortly after Carmen
+had been enrolled, Harris took her to a concert by the New York
+Symphony Orchestra. But in the midst of the program, after sitting
+in silent rapture, the girl suddenly burst into tears and begged to be
+taken out. "I couldn't stand it!" she sobbed as, outside the door,
+she hid her tear-stained face in his coat; "I just couldn't! It
+was heavenly! Oh, it was God that we heard--it was God!" And the
+astonished fellow respected this sudden outburst of pent-up emotion
+as he led her, silent and absorbed, back to the school.
+
+With the throwing of the girl upon her own thought came a rapid
+expansion of both mind and body into maturity, and the young lady who
+left the Elwin school that bright spring afternoon under the
+protection of the self-sufficient Mrs. Hawley-Crowles was very far
+from being the inquisitive, unabashed little girl who had so
+greatly shocked the good Sister Superior by her heretical views
+some six months before. The sophistication engendered by her
+intercourse with the pupils and instructors in the school had
+transformed the eager, trusting little maid, who could see only good
+into a mature woman, who, though her trust remained unshaken,
+nevertheless had a better understanding of the seeming power "that
+lusteth against the spirit," and whose idea of her mission had been
+deepened into a grave sense of responsibility. She saw now, as never
+before, the awful unreality of the human sense of life; but she
+likewise understood, as never previously, its seeming reality in
+the human consciousness, and its terrible mesmeric power over
+those materialistic minds into which the light of spirituality had as
+yet scarcely penetrated. Her thought had begun to shape a definite
+purpose; she was still to be a message-bearer, but the message must be
+set forth in her life conduct. The futility of promiscuous verbal
+delivery of the message to whomsoever might cross her path had
+been made patent. Jesus taught--and then proved. She must do
+likewise, and let her deeds attest the truth of her words. And from
+the day that she bade the suggestions of fear and evil leave her,
+she had consecrated herself anew to a searching study of the
+Master's life and words, if happily she might acquire "that mind"
+which he so wondrously expressed.
+
+But the assumption of an attitude of quiet demonstration was by no
+means sudden. There were times when she could not restrain the impulse
+to challenge the beliefs so authoritatively set forth by the preachers
+and lecturers whom Madam Elwin invited to address her pupils, and who,
+unlike Jesus, first taught, and then relegated their proofs to a life
+beyond the grave. Once, shortly after entering the school, forgetful
+of all but the error being preached, she had risen in the midst of an
+eloquent sermon by the eminent Darius Borwell, a Presbyterian divine
+of considerable repute, and asked him why it was that, as he seemed to
+set forth, God had changed His mind after creating spiritual man, and
+had created a man of dust. She had later repented her scandalous
+conduct in sackcloth and ashes; but it did not prevent her from
+abruptly leaving the chapel on a subsequent Sunday when another
+divine, this time a complaisant Methodist, quite satisfied with his
+theories of endless future rewards and fiery punishments, dwelt at
+length upon the traditional idea that the sorrows of the world are
+God-sent for mankind's chastisement and discipline.
+
+Then she gradually learned to be less defiant of the conventions and
+beliefs of the day, and determined quietly to rise superior to them.
+But her experience with the preachers wrought within her a strong
+determination henceforth to listen to no religious propaganda
+whatsoever, to give no further heed to current theological beliefs,
+and to enter no church edifice, regardless of the tenets of the sect
+worshiping within its precincts. The wisdom of this decision she left
+for the future to determine.
+
+"Oh," she cried, "my only mission is to manifest the divine, not to
+waste time listening to the theories of ignorant preachers, who fail
+utterly to prove the truth of their teachings! Oh, how the world needs
+love--just love! And I am going to love it with the selfless love that
+comes from God, and destroys error and the false beliefs that become
+externalized in the human consciousness as sickness, failure, old
+age, and death! Love, love, love--it is mankind's greatest need! Why,
+if the preachers only knew, the very heart and soul of Christianity is
+love! It is love that casts out fear; and fear is at the bottom of all
+sickness, for fear leads to belief in other gods than the one Father
+of Christ Jesus! Christianity is aflame with love! Oh, God--take me
+out into the world, and let me show it what love can do!"
+
+And the divine ear heard the call of this beautiful disciple of the
+Christ--aye, had heard it long before the solicitous, fluttering
+little Madam Elwin decided that the strange girl's unevangelical views
+were inimical to the best interests of her very select school. The
+social ambitions of the wealthy Mrs. Hawley-Crowles threw wide the
+portals of the world to Carmen, and she entered, wide-eyed and
+wondering. Nor did she return until the deepest recesses of the human
+mind had revealed to her their abysmal hideousness, their ghastly
+emptiness of reality, and their woeful mesmeric deception.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8
+
+
+Mrs. James Hawley-Crowles, more keenly perceptive than her sister, had
+seized upon Carmen with avidity bred of hope long deferred. The
+scourge of years of fruitless social striving had rendered her
+desperate, and she would have staged a ballet on her dining table,
+with her own ample self as _premiere danseuse_, did the attraction but
+promise recognition from the blase members of fashionable New York's
+ultra-conservative set. From childhood she had looked eagerly forward
+through the years with an eye single to such recognition as life's
+desideratum. To this end she had bartered both youth and beauty with
+calculated precision for the Hawley-Crowles money bags; only to weep
+floods of angry tears when the bargain left her social status
+unchanged, and herself tied to a decrepit old rounder, whose tarnished
+name wholly neutralized the purchasing power of his ill-gotten gold.
+Fortunately for the reputations of them both, her husband had the good
+sense to depart this life ere the divorce proceedings which she had
+long had in contemplation were instituted; whereupon the stricken
+widow had him carefully incinerated and his ashes tenderly deposited
+in a chaste urn in a mausoleum which her architect had taken oath cost
+more than the showy Ames vault by many thousands. The period of
+decorous mourning past, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles blithely doffed her weeds
+and threw herself again into the terrific competition for social
+standing, determined this time that it should be a warfare to the
+death.
+
+And so it bade fair to prove to her, when the eminent nerve
+specialist, Dr. Bascom Ross, giving a scant half hour to the
+consideration of her case, at the modest charge of one hundred
+dollars, warned her to declare a truce and flee to the Alps for
+unalloyed rest. She complied, and had returned with restored health
+and determination just as her sister came up from South America,
+bringing the odd little "savage" whom Reed had discovered in the wilds
+of Guamoco. A prolonged week-end at Newport, the last of the summer
+season, accounted for her absence from the city when Reed brought
+Carmen to her house, where he and his wife were making their temporary
+abode. Six months later, in her swift appraisal of the girl in the
+Elwin school, to whom she had never before given a thought, she seemed
+to see a light.
+
+"It does look like a desperate chance, I admit," she said, when
+recounting her plans to her sister a day or so later. "But I've played
+every other card in my hand; and now this girl is going to be either a
+trump or a joker. All we need is a word from the Beaubien, and the
+following week will see an invitation at our door from Mrs. J. Wilton
+Ames. The trick is to reach the Beaubien. That I calculate to do
+through Carmen. And I'm going to introduce the girl as an Inca
+princess. Why not? It will make a tremendous hit."
+
+Mrs. Reed was not less ambitious than her sister, but hitherto she had
+lacked the one essential to social success, money. In addition, she
+had committed the egregious blunder of marrying for love. And now that
+the honeymoon had become a memory, and she faced again her growing
+ambition, with a struggling husband who had neither name nor wealth to
+aid her, she had found her own modest income of ten thousand a year,
+which she had inherited from her mother, only an aggravation. True, in
+time her wandering father would pass away; and there was no doubt that
+his vast property would fall to his daughters, his only living kin.
+But at present, in view of his aggressively good health and disregard
+for his relatives, her only recourse was to attach herself to her
+wealthy, sharp-witted sister, and hope to be towed safely into the
+social swim, should that scheming lady ultimately achieve her high
+ambition.
+
+Just why Mrs. Hawley-Crowles should have seen in Carmen a means of
+reaching a woman of the stamp of the Beaubien, and through her the
+leader of the most exclusive social set in the metropolis, is
+difficult to say. But thus does the human mind often seek to further
+its own dubious aims through guileless innocence and trust. Perhaps
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles had likewise a slight trace of that clairvoyance
+of wisdom which so characterized the girl. But with this difference,
+that she knew not why she was led to adopt certain means; while
+Carmen, penetrating externals, consciously sought to turn those who
+would employ her into channels for the expression of her own dominant
+thought. Be that as it may, the Beaubien was now the stone before the
+door of their hope, and Carmen the lever by which these calculating
+women intended it should be moved.
+
+"The Beaubien, my dear," explained Mrs. Hawley-Crowles to her
+inquisitive sister, whose life had been lived almost entirely away
+from New York, "is J. Wilton Ames's very particular friend, of long
+standing. As I told you, I have recently been going through my late
+unpleasant husband's effects, and have unearthed letters and memoranda
+which throw floods of light upon Jim's early indiscretions and his
+association with both the Beaubien and Ames. Jim once told me, in a
+burst of alcoholic confidence, that she had saved him from J. Wilton's
+clutches in the dim past, and for that he owed her endless gratitude,
+as well as for never permitting him to darken her door again. Now I
+have never met the Beaubien. Few women have. But I dare say she knows
+all about us. However, the point that concerns us now is this: she has
+a hold on Ames, and, unless rumor is wide of the truth, when she hints
+to him that his wife's dinner list or yachting party seems incomplete
+without such or such a name, why, the list is immediately revised."
+
+The position which the Beaubien held was, if Madam On-dit was not to
+be wholly discredited, to say the least, unique. It was not as social
+dictator that she posed, for in a great cosmopolitan city where polite
+society is infinitely complex in its make-up such a position can
+scarcely be said to exist. It was rather as an influence that she was
+felt, an influence never seen, but powerful, subtle, and wholly
+inexplicable, working now through this channel, now through that, and
+effecting changes in the social complexion of conservative New York
+that were utterly in defiance of the most rigid convention.
+Particularly was her power felt in the narrow circle over which Mrs.
+J. Wilton Ames presided, by reason of her own and her husband's
+aristocratic descent, and the latter's bursting coffers and supremacy
+in the realm of finance.
+
+Only for her sagacity, the great influence of the woman would have
+been short-lived. But, whatever else might be said of her, the
+Beaubien was wise, with a discretion that was positively uncanny.
+Tall, voluptuous, yet graceful as a fawn; black, wavy, abundant hair;
+eyes whose dark, liquid depths held unfathomable mysteries; gracious,
+affable, yet keen as a razor blade; tender, even sentimental on
+occasions, with an infinite capacity for either love or hate, this
+many-sided woman, whose brilliant flashes of wit kept the savant or
+roue at her table in an uproar, could, if occasion required, found an
+orphanage or drop a bichloride tablet in the glass of her rival with
+the same measure of calculating precision and disdain of the future.
+It was said of her that she might have laid down her life for the man
+she loved. It is probable that she never met with one worth the
+sacrifice.
+
+While yet in short dresses she had fled from her boarding school, near
+a fashionable resort in the New Hampshire hills, with a French
+Colonel, Gaspard de Beaubien, a man twice her age. With him she had
+spent eight increasingly miserable years in Paris. Then, her withered
+romance carefully entombed in the secret places of her heart, she
+secured a divorce from the roistering colonel, together with a small
+settlement, and set sail for New York to hunt for larger and more
+valuable game.
+
+With abundant charms and sang-froid for her capital, she rented an
+expensive apartment in a fashionable quarter of the city, and then
+settled down to business. Whether she would have fallen upon bad days
+or not will never be known, for the first haul of her widespread net
+landed a fish of supreme quality, J. Wilton Ames. On the plea of
+financial necessity, she had gone boldly to his office with the deed
+to a parcel of worthless land out on the moist sands of the New Jersey
+shore, which the unscrupulous Gaspard de Beaubien had settled upon her
+when she severed the tie which bound them, and which, after weeks of
+careful research, she discovered adjoined a tract owned by Ames.
+Pushing aside office boy, clerk, and guard, she reached the inner
+_sanctum_ of the astonished financier himself and offered to sell at a
+ruinous figure. A few well-timed tears, an expression of angelic
+innocence on her beautiful face, a despairing gesture or two with her
+lovely arms, coupled with the audacity which she had shown in forcing
+an entrance into his office, effected the man's capitulation. She was
+then in her twenty-fourth year.
+
+The result was that she cast her net no more, but devoted herself
+thenceforth with tender consecration to her important catch. In time
+Ames brought a friend, the rollicking James Hawley-Crowles, to call
+upon the charming Beaubien. In time, too, as was perfectly natural, a
+rivalry sprang up between the men, which the beautiful creature
+watered so tenderly that the investments which she was enabled to make
+under the direction of these powerful rivals flourished like Jack's
+beanstalk, and she was soon able to leave her small apartment and take
+a suite but a few blocks from the Ames mansion.
+
+At length the strain between Ames and Hawley-Crowles reached the
+breaking point; and then the former decided that the woman's
+bewitching smiles should thenceforth be his alone. He forthwith drew
+the seldom sober Hawley-Crowles into certain business deals, with the
+gentle connivance of the suave Beaubien herself, and at length sold
+the man out short and presented a claim on every dollar he possessed.
+Hawley-Crowles awoke from his blissful dream sober and trimmed. But
+then the Beaubien experienced one of her rare and inexplicable
+revulsions of the ethical sense, and a compromise had to be effected,
+whereby the Hawley-Crowles fortune was saved, though the man should
+see the Beaubien no more.
+
+By this time her beauty was blooming in its utmost profusion, and her
+prowess had been fairly tried. She took a large house, furnished it
+like unto a palace, and proceeded to throw her gauntlet in the face of
+the impregnable social caste. There she drew about her a circle of
+bon-vivants, artists, litterateurs, politicians, and men of
+finance--with never a woman in the group. Yet in her new home she
+established a social code as rigid as the Median law, and woe to him
+within her gates who thereafter, with or without intent, passed the
+bounds of respectful decorum. His name was heard no more on her rosy
+lips.
+
+Her dinners were Lucullan in their magnificence; and over the rare
+wines and imperial cigars which she furnished, her guests passed many
+a tip and prognostication anent the market, which she in turn quietly
+transmitted to her brokers. She came to understand the game
+thoroughly, and, while it was her heyday of glorious splendor, she
+played hard. She had bartered every priceless gift of nature for
+gold--and she made sure that the measure she received in return was
+full. Her gaze was ever upon the approaching day when those charms
+would be but bitter memories; and it was her grim intention that when
+it came silken ease should compensate for their loss.
+
+Ten years passed, and the Beaubien's reign continued with undimmed
+splendor. In the meantime, the wife of J. Wilton Ames had reached the
+zenith of her ambitions and was the acknowledged leader in New York's
+most fashionable social circle. These two women never met. But, though
+the Beaubien had never sought the entree to formal society, preferring
+to hold her own court, at which no women attended, she exercised a
+certain control over it through her influence upon the man Ames. What
+Mrs. Ames knew of the long-continued relations between her husband and
+this woman was never divulged. And doubtless she was wholly satisfied
+that his wealth and power afforded her the position which her heart
+had craved; and, that secure, she was willing to leave him to his own
+methods of obtaining diversion. But rumor was persistent, maliciously
+so; and rumor declared that the list of this envied society dame was
+not drawn up without the approval of her husband and the woman with
+whom his leisure hours were invariably spent. Hence the hope of Mrs.
+Hawley-Crowles, whose doting mate had once fawned in the perfumed wake
+of the luxurious Beaubien.
+
+Carmen, whose wishes had not been consulted, had voiced no objection
+whatever to returning to the Hawley-Crowles home. Indeed, she secretly
+rejoiced that an opportunity had been so easily afforded for escape
+from the stifling atmosphere of the Elwin school, and for entrance
+into the great world of people and affairs, where she believed the
+soil prepared for the seed she would plant. That dire surprises
+awaited her, of which she could not even dream, did not enter her
+calculations. Secure in her quenchless faith, she gladly accepted the
+proffered shelter of the Hawley-Crowles mansion, and the protection of
+its worldly, scheming inmates.
+
+In silent, wide-eyed wonder, in the days that followed, the girl
+strove to accustom herself to the luxury of her surroundings, and to
+the undreamed of marvels which made for physical comfort and
+well-being. Each installment of the ample allowance which Mrs.
+Hawley-Crowles settled upon her seemed a fortune--enough, she thought,
+to buy the whole town of Simiti! Her gowns seemed woven on fairy
+looms, and often she would sit for hours, holding them in her lap and
+reveling in their richness. Then, when at length she could bring
+herself to don the robes and peep timidly into the great pier glasses,
+she would burst into startled exclamations and hide her face in her
+hands, lest the gorgeous splendor of the beautiful reflection
+overpower her.
+
+"Oh," she would exclaim, "it can't be that the girl reflected there
+ever lived and dressed as I did in Simiti! I wonder, oh, I wonder if
+Padre Jose knew that these things were in the world!"
+
+And then, as she leaned back in her chair and gave herself into the
+hands of the admiring French maid, she would close her eyes and dream
+that the fairy-stories which the patient Jose had told her again and
+again in her distant home town had come true, and that she had been
+transformed into a beautiful princess, who would some day go in search
+of the sleeping priest and wake him from his mesmeric dream.
+
+Then would come the inevitable thought of the little newsboy of
+Cartagena, to whom she had long since begun to send monetary
+contributions--and of her unanswered letters--of the war devastating
+her native land--of rudely severed ties, and unimaginable changes--and
+she would start from her musing and brush away the gathering tears,
+and try to realize that her present situation and environment were but
+means to an end, opportunities which her God had given her to do His
+work, with no thought of herself.
+
+A few days after Carmen had been installed in her new home, during
+which she had left the house only for her diurnal ride in the big
+limousine, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles announced her readiness to fire the
+first gun in the attack upon the Beaubien. "My dear," she said to her
+sister, as they sat alone in the luxurious sun-parlor, "my washerwoman
+dropped a remark the other day which gave me something to build on.
+Her two babies are in the General Orphan Asylum, up on Twenty-third
+street. Well, it happens that this institution is the Beaubien's sole
+charity--in fact, it is her particular hobby. I presume that she feels
+she is now a middle-aged woman, and that the time is not far distant
+when she will have to close up her earthly accounts and hand them over
+to the heavenly auditor. Anyway, this last year or two she has
+suddenly become philanthropic, and when the General Orphan Asylum was
+building she gave some fifty thousand dollars for a cottage in her
+name. What's more, the trustees of the Asylum accepted it without the
+wink of an eyelash. Funny, isn't it?
+
+"But here's the point: some rich old fellow has willed the institution
+a fund whose income every year is used to buy clothing for the
+kiddies; and they have a sort of celebration on the day the duds are
+given out, and the public is invited to inspect the place and the
+inmates, and eat a bit, and look around generally. Well, my
+washerwoman tells me that the Beaubien always attends these annual
+celebrations. The next one, I learn, comes in about a month. I propose
+that we attend; take Carmen; ask permission for her to sing to the
+children, and thereby attract the attention of the gorgeous Beaubien,
+who will be sure to speak to the girl, who is herself an orphan, and,
+ten to one, want to see more of her. The rest is easy. I'll have a
+word to say regarding our immense debt of gratitude to her for saving
+Jim's fortune years ago when he was entangled in her net--and, well,
+if that scheme doesn't work, I have other strings to my bow."
+
+But it did work, and with an ease that exceeded the most sanguine
+hopes of its projector. On the day that the General Orphan Asylum
+threw wide its doors to the public, the Hawley-Crowles limousine
+rubbed noses with the big French car of the Beaubien in the street
+without; while within the building the Beaubien held the hand of the
+beautiful girl whose voluntary singing had spread a veil of silence
+over the awed spectators in the great assembly room, and, looking
+earnestly down into the big, trusting, brown eyes, said: "My dear
+child, I want to know you." Then, turning to the eager, itching Mrs.
+Hawley-Crowles, "I shall send my car for her to-morrow afternoon, with
+your permission."
+
+With her permission! Heavens! Mrs. Hawley-Crowles wildly hugged her
+sister and the girl all the way home--then went to bed that night with
+tears of apprehension in her washed-out eyes, lest she had shown
+herself too eager in granting the Beaubien's request. But her fears
+were turned to exultation when the Beaubien car drew up at her door
+the following day at three, and the courteous French chauffeur
+announced his errand. A few moments later, while the car glided
+purring over the smooth asphalt, Carmen, robed like a princess, lay
+back in the cushions and dreamed of the poor priest in the dead little
+town so far away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9
+
+
+"Sing it again, dear. I know you are tired, but I want to hear that
+song just once more. Somehow it seems to bring up thoughts of--of
+things that might have been." The Beaubien's voice sank to a whisper
+as she finished.
+
+Carmen laughed happily and prepared to repeat the weird lament which
+had so fascinated the Reverend Doctor Jurges a few days before.
+
+"I--I don't know why that song affects me so," mused the Beaubien,
+when the girl had finished and returned to the seat beside her. Then,
+abruptly: "I wish you could play the pipe-organ out in the hall. I put
+twelve thousand dollars into it, and I can't even play five-finger
+exercises on it."
+
+"Twelve thousand dollars!" exclaimed Carmen, drawing a long breath,
+while her eyes dilated.
+
+The woman laughed. "Would that buy your beloved Simiti?" she asked.
+"Well, you poor, unsophisticated girl, suppose we just go down there
+and buy the whole town. It would at least give me an interest in life.
+Do you think I could stand the heat there? But tell me more about it.
+How did you live, and what did you do? And who is this Jose? And are
+you really descended from the old Incas?"
+
+They were alone in the darkened music room, and the soft-stepping,
+liveried butler had just set the tea table before them, At one end of
+the long room a cheery fire snapped and crackled in the huge
+fireplace, tempering the sharpness of the early spring day and casting
+a ruddy glow upon the tapestried walls and polished floor in front,
+where dozed the Beaubien's two "babies," Japanese and Pekingese
+spaniels of registered pedigree and fabulous value. Among the heavy
+beams of the lofty ceiling grotesque shadows danced and flickered,
+while over the costly rugs and rare skins on the floor below subdued
+lights played in animated pantomime. Behind the magnificent grand
+piano a beautifully wrought harp reflected a golden radiance into the
+room. Everything in the woman's environment was softened into the same
+degree of voluptuousness which characterized her and the life of
+sybaritic ease which she affected.
+
+From the moment Carmen entered the house she had been charmed,
+fascinated, overpowered by the display of exhaustless wealth and
+the rich taste exhibited in its harmonious manifestation. The
+Hawley-Crowles home had seemed to her the epitome of material
+elegance and comfort, far exceeding the most fantastic concepts of her
+childish imagination, when she had listened enraptured to Padre
+Jose's compelling stories of the great world beyond Simiti. But the
+gorgeous web of this social spider made even the Hawley-Crowles
+mansion suffer in comparison.
+
+"And yet," said the amused Beaubien, when Carmen could no longer
+restrain her wonder and admiration, "this is but a shed beside the new
+Ames house, going up on Fifth Avenue. I presume he will put not less
+than ten millions into it before it is finished."
+
+"Ten millions! In just a house!" Carmen dared not attempt to grasp the
+complex significance of such an expenditure.
+
+"Why, is that such a huge amount, child?" asked the Beaubien, as
+accustomed to think in eight figures as in two. "But, I forget that
+you are from the jungle. Yet, who would imagine it?" she mused, gazing
+with undisguised admiration at the beautiful, animated girl before
+her.
+
+Silence then fell upon them both. Carmen was struggling with the
+deluge of new impressions; and the woman fastened her eyes upon her as
+if she would have them bore deep into the soul of whose rarity she was
+becoming slowly aware. What thoughts coursed through the mind of the
+Beaubien as she sat studying the girl through the tempered light, we
+may not know. What she saw in Carmen that attracted her, she herself
+might not have told. Had she, too, this ultra-mondaine, this creature
+of gold and tinsel, felt the spell of the girl's great innocence and
+purity of thought, her righteousness? Or did she see in her something
+that she herself might once have been--something that all her gold,
+and all the wealth of Ormus or of Ind could never buy?
+
+"What have you got," she suddenly, almost rudely, exclaimed, "that I
+haven't?" And then the banality of the question struck her, and she
+laughed harshly.
+
+"Why," said Carmen, looking up quickly and beaming upon the woman,
+"you have everything! Oh, what more could you wish?"
+
+"You," returned the woman quickly, though she knew not why she said
+it. And yet, memory was busy uncovering those bitter days when, in the
+first agony of marital disappointment, she had, with hot, streaming
+tears, implored heaven to give her a child. But the gift had been
+denied; and her heart had shrunk and grown heavily calloused.
+
+Then she spoke more gently, and there was that in her voice which
+stirred the girl's quick sympathy. "Yes, you have youth, and beauty.
+They are mine no longer. But I could part with them, gladly, if only
+there were anything left."
+
+Carmen instantly rose and went swiftly to her. Forgetful of caste,
+decorum, convention, everything but the boundless love which she felt
+for all mankind, she put her arms about the worldly woman's neck and
+kissed her.
+
+For a moment the Beaubien sat in speechless surprise. It was the only
+manifestation of selfless love that had ever come into her sordid
+experience. Was it possible that this was spontaneous? that it was an
+act of real sympathy, and not a clever ruse to win her from behind the
+mask of affection? Her own kisses, she knew, were bestowed only for
+favors. Alas! they drew not many now, although time was when a single
+one might win a brooch or a string of pearls.
+
+The girl herself quickly met the woman's groping thought. "I'm in the
+world to show what love will do," she murmured; "and I love you." Had
+she not thus solved every problem from earliest childhood?
+
+The Beaubien melted. Not even a heart of stone could withstand the
+solvent power of such love. Her head dropped upon her breast, and she
+wept.
+
+"Don't cry," said Carmen, tenderly caressing the bepowdered cheek.
+"Why, we are all God's children; we all have one another; you have me,
+and I have you; and God means us all to be happy."
+
+The Beaubien looked up, wondering. Her variegated life included no
+such tender experience as this. She had long since ceased to shed
+aught but tears of anger. But now--
+
+She clutched the girl to her and kissed her eagerly; then gently
+motioned her back to her chair. "Don't mind it," she smiled, with
+swimming eyes, and a shade of embarrassment. "I don't know of anything
+that would help me as much as a good cry. If I could have had a
+daughter like you, I should--but never mind now." She tried to laugh,
+as she wiped her eyes.
+
+Then an idea seemed to flash through her jaded brain, and she became
+suddenly animated. "Why--listen," she said; "don't you want to learn
+the pipe-organ? Will you come here and take lessons? I will pay for
+them; I will engage the best teacher in New York; and you shall take
+two or three a week, and use the big organ out in the hall. Will
+you?"
+
+Carmen's heart gave a great leap. "Oh!" she exclaimed, her eyes
+dancing. "But I must ask Mrs. Reed, you know."
+
+"I'll do it myself," returned the woman with growing enthusiasm.
+"William," she directed, when the butler responded to her summons,
+"get Mrs. Hawley-Crowles on the wire at once. But who is coming, I
+wonder?" glancing through the window at an automobile that had drawn
+up at her door. "Humph!" a look of vexation mantling her face, "the
+Right Reverend Monsignor Lafelle. Well," turning to Carmen, "I suppose
+I'll have to send you home now, dear. But tell Mrs. Hawley-Crowles
+that I shall call for you to-morrow afternoon, and that I shall speak
+to her at that time about your music lessons. William, take Monsignor
+into the morning room, and then tell Henri to bring the car to the
+porte-cochere for Miss Carmen. Good-bye, dear," kissing the bright,
+upturned face of the waiting girl. "I wish I could--but, well, don't
+forget that I'm coming for you to-morrow."
+
+That afternoon Mrs. Hawley-Crowles directed her French tailor to cable
+to Paris for advance styles. Twenty-four hours later she hastened with
+outstretched arms to greet the Beaubien, waiting in the reception
+room. Oh, yes, they had heard often of each other; and now were so
+pleased to meet! New York was such a whirlpool, and it was so
+difficult to form desirable friendships. Yes, the Beaubien had known
+the late-lamented Hawley-Crowles; but, dear! dear! that was years and
+years ago, before he had married, and when they were both young and
+foolish. And--
+
+"My dear Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, chance enabled him and me to be mutually
+helpful at a time when I was in sore need of a friend; and the debt of
+gratitude is not yours to me, but mine to your kind husband."
+
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles could have hugged her on the spot. What cared she
+that her husband's always unsavory name had been linked with this
+woman's? She had married the roistering blade for his bank account
+only. Any other male whose wealth ran into seven figures would have
+done as well, or better.
+
+And Carmen? Bless you, no! To be sure, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles gratefully
+accepted the use of the organ and the Beaubien mansion for the girl;
+but she herself insisted upon bearing the expense of the lessons.
+Carmen had wonderful musical talent. Together, she and the Beaubien,
+they would foster and develop it. Moreover, though of course this must
+follow later, she intended to give the girl every social advantage
+befitting her beauty, her talents, and her station.
+
+And then, when the Beaubien, who knew to a second just how long to
+stay, had departed, taking Carmen with her, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles turned
+to her sister with her face flushed with anger. "Did you see that?"
+she exclaimed, while hot tears suffused her eyes. "The hussy went away
+actually laughing at me! What do you suppose she's got up her sleeve?
+But, let me tell you, she'll not fool me! I'll slap that arrogant Ames
+woman yet; and then, when I've done that, I'll give the Beaubien
+something to think about besides the way she did up poor old Jim!"
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+There was now but one cloud that cast its dark shadow across the full
+splendor of Carmen's happiness, the silence that shrouded Simiti. But
+Harris was preparing to return to Colombia, and his trip promised a
+solution of the mystery of her unanswered letters. For weeks Carmen
+had struggled to teach him Spanish, with but small measure of success.
+The gift of tongues was not his. "You'll have to go back with me and
+act as interpreter," he said one day, when they were alone in the
+Hawley-Crowles parlor. Then a curious light came into his eyes, and he
+blurted, "Will you?"
+
+But the girl turned the question aside with a laugh, though she knew
+not from what depths it had sprung. Harris shrugged his broad
+shoulders and sighed. He had not a hundred dollars to his name.
+
+Yet he had prospects, not the least of which was the interest he
+shared with Reed in La Libertad. For, despite the disturbed state of
+affairs in Colombia, Simiti stock had sold rapidly, under the sedulous
+care of Ketchim and his loyal aids, and a sufficient fund had been
+accumulated to warrant the inauguration of development work on the
+mine. A few years hence Harris should be rich from that source alone.
+
+Reed was still in California, although the alluring literature which
+Ketchim was scattering broadcast bore his name as consulting engineer
+to the Simiti Development Company. His wife had continued her
+temporary abode in the Hawley-Crowles mansion, while awaiting with
+what fortitude she could command the passing of her still vigorous
+father, and the results of her defiant sister's assaults upon the Ames
+set.
+
+Carmen's days were crowded full. The wonderful organ in the Beaubien
+mansion had cast a spell of enchantment over her soul, and daily she
+sat before it, uncovering new marvels and losing herself deeper and
+deeper in its infinite mysteries. Her progress was commensurate with
+her consecration, and brought exclamations of astonishment to the lips
+of her now devoted Beaubien. Hour after hour the latter would sit in
+the twilight of the great hall, with her eyes fastened upon the
+absorbed girl, and her leaden soul slowly, painfully struggling to
+lift itself above the murk and dross in which it had lain buried for
+long, meaningless years. They now talked but little, this strange
+woman and the equally strange girl. Their communion was no longer of
+the lips. It was the silent yearning of a dry, desolate heart,
+striving to open itself to the love which the girl was sending far and
+wide in the quenchless hope that it might meet just such a need. For
+Carmen dwelt in the spirit, and she instinctively accepted her
+splendid material environment as the gift, not of man, but of the
+great divine Mind, which had led her into this new world that she
+might be a channel for the expression of its love to the erring
+children of mortals.
+
+She came and went quietly, and yet with as much confidence as if the
+house belonged to her. At first the Beaubien smiled indulgently. And
+then her smile became a laugh of eager joy as she daily greeted her
+radiant visitor, whose entrance into the great, dark house was always
+followed by a flood of sunshine, and whose departure marked the
+setting in of night to the heart-hungry woman. In the first days of
+their association the Beaubien could turn easily from the beautiful
+girl to the group of cold, scheming men of the world who filled her
+evenings and sat about her board. But as days melted into weeks, she
+became dimly conscious of an effort attaching to the transition; and
+the hour at length arrived when she fully realized that she was facing
+the most momentous decision that had ever been evolved by her worldly
+mode of living. But that was a matter of slow development through many
+months.
+
+Meantime, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles trod the clouds. A week after Carmen
+began the study of the organ she boldly ventured to accompany her one
+day to the Beaubien citadel. She was graciously received, and departed
+with the Beaubien's promise to return the call. Thereupon she set
+about revising her own social list, and dropped several names which
+she now felt could serve her no longer. Her week-end at Newport, just
+prior to her visit to the Elwin school, had marked the close of the
+gay season in the city, and New York had entered fully upon its summer
+_siesta_. Even the theaters and concert halls were closed, and the
+metropolis was nodding its weary head dully and sinking into
+somnolence. It was exactly what Mrs. Hawley-Crowles desired. The
+summer interim would give her time to further her plans and prepare
+the girl for her social _debut_ in the early winter. "And Milady Ames
+will be mentioned in the papers next day as assisting at the
+function--the cat!" she muttered savagely, as she laid aside her
+revised list of social desirables.
+
+But in preparing Carmen that summer for her subsequent entry into
+polite society Mrs. Hawley-Crowles soon realized that she had
+assumed a task of generous proportions. In the first place,
+despite all efforts, the girl could not be brought to a proper
+sense of money values. Her eyes were ever gaping in astonishment at
+what Mrs. Hawley-Crowles and her sister regarded as the most moderate
+of expenditures, and it was only when the Beaubien herself mildly
+hinted to them that ingenuousness was one of the girl's greatest
+social assets, that they learned to smile indulgently at her wonder,
+even while inwardly pitying her dense ignorance and lack of
+sophistication.
+
+A second source of trial to her guardians was her delicate sense of
+honor; and it was this that one day nearly sufficed to wreck their
+standing with the fashionable Mrs. Gannette of Riverside Drive, a
+pompous, bepowdered, curled and scented dame, anaemic of mind, but
+tremendously aristocratic, and of scarcely inferior social dignity to
+that of the envied Mrs. Ames. For, when Mrs. Gannette moved into the
+neighborhood where dwelt the ambitious Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, the latter
+was taken by a mutual acquaintance to call upon her, and was
+immediately received into the worldly old lady's good graces. And it
+so happened that, after the gay season had closed that summer, Mrs.
+Gannette invited Mrs. Hawley-Crowles and her sister to an informal
+afternoon of bridge, and especially requested that they bring their
+young ward, whose beauty and wonderful story were, through the
+discreet maneuvers of her guardians, beginning to be talked about. For
+some weeks previously Mrs. Hawley-Crowles had been inducting Carmen
+into the mysteries of the game; but with indifferent success, for the
+girl's thoughts invariably were elsewhere engaged. On this particular
+afternoon Carmen was lost in contemplation of the gorgeous dress, the
+lavish display of jewelry, and the general inanity of conversation;
+and her score was pitiably low. The following morning, to her great
+astonishment, she received a bill from the practical Mrs. Gannette for
+ten dollars to cover her losses at the game. For a long time the
+bewildered girl mused over it. Then she called the chauffeur and
+despatched him to the Gannette mansion with the money necessary to
+meet the gambling debt, and three dollars additional to pay for the
+refreshments she had eaten, accompanying it with a polite little note
+of explanation.
+
+The result was an explosion that nearly lifted the asphalt from the
+Drive; and Carmen, covered with tears and confusion, was given to
+understand by the irate Mrs. Hawley-Crowles that her conduct was as
+reprehensible as if she had attacked the eminent Mrs. Gannette with an
+axe. Whereupon the sorrowing Carmen packed her effects and prepared to
+depart from the presence of Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, to the terrified
+consternation of the latter, who alternately prostrated herself before
+the girl and the offended Mrs. Gannette, and at length, after many
+days of perspiring effort and voluminous explanation, succeeded in
+restoring peace.
+
+When the Beaubien, who had become the girl's confidante, learned the
+story, she laughed till her sides ached. And then her lips set, and
+her face grew terribly hard, and she muttered, "Fools!" But she smiled
+again as she gathered the penitent girl in her arms, and kissed her.
+
+"You will learn many things, dearie, before you are through with New
+York. And," she added, her brow again clouding, "you _will_ be through
+with it--some day!"
+
+That evening she repeated the story at her table, and Gannette, who
+happened to be present, swore between roars of laughter that he would
+use it as a club over his wife, should she ever again trap him in any
+of his numerous indiscretions.
+
+Again, the girl's odd views of life and its meaning which, despite her
+efforts, she could not refrain from voicing now and then, caused the
+worldly Mrs. Hawley-Crowles much consternation. Carmen tried
+desperately to be discreet. Even Harris advised her to listen much,
+but say little; and she strove hard to obey. But she would forget and
+hurl the newspapers from her with exclamations of horror over their
+red-inked depictions of mortal frailty--she would flatly refuse to
+discuss crime or disease--and she would comment disparagingly at too
+frequent intervals on the littleness of human aims and the emptiness
+of the peacock-life which she saw manifested about her. "I don't
+understand--I can't," she would say, when she was alone with the
+Beaubien. "Why, with the wonderful opportunities which you rich people
+have, how can you--oh, how can you toss them aside for the frivolities
+and littleness that you all seem to be striving for! It seems to me
+you must be mad--_loco_! And I know you are, for you are simply
+mesmerized!"
+
+Then the Beaubien would smile knowingly and take her in her arms. "We
+shall see," she would often say, "we shall see." But she would offer
+no further comment.
+
+Thus the summer months sped swiftly past, with Carmen ever looking and
+listening, receiving, sifting, in, but not of, the new world into
+which she had been cast. In a sense her existence was as narrowly
+routined as ever it had been in Simiti, for her days were spent at the
+great organ, with frequent rides in the automobile through the parks
+and boulevards for variation; and her evenings were jealously guarded
+by Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, whose policy was to keep the girl in seclusion
+until the advent of her formal introduction to the world of
+fashionable society, when her associates would be selected only from
+the narrow circle of moneyed or titled people with whom alone she
+might mingle. To permit her to form promiscuous acquaintances now
+might prove fatal to the scheming woman's cherished plans, and was a
+risk that could not be entertained. And Carmen, suppressing her
+wonder, and striving incessantly to curb her ready tongue, accepted
+her environment as the unreal expression of the human mind, and
+submitted--and waited.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10
+
+The chill blasts had begun to swoop down from the frozen North, and
+summer had gathered her dainty robes about her and fled shivering
+before them. Mrs. Hawley-Crowles stood at a window and gazed with
+unseeing eyes at the withered leaves tossing in the wind.
+
+Carmen's sixteenth birthday was past by some months; the gay season
+was at hand; and the day was speeding toward her which she had set for
+the girl's formal _debut_. Already, through informal calls and
+gatherings, she had made her charming and submissive ward known to
+most of her own city acquaintances and the members of her particular
+set. The fresh, beautiful girl's winning personality; her frank,
+ingenuous manner; her evident sincerity and her naive remarks, which
+now only gave hints of her radical views, had opened every heart wide
+to her, and before the advent of the social season her wonderful story
+was on everybody's tongue. There remained now only the part which the
+woman had planned for the Beaubien, but which, thus far, she had found
+neither the courage nor the opportunity to suggest to that influential
+woman. Gazing out into the deserted street, she stamped her ample foot
+in sheer vexation. The Beaubien had absorbed Carmen; had been
+politely affable to her and her sister; had called twice during the
+summer; and had said nothing. But what was there for her to say? The
+hint must come from the other side; and Mrs. Hawley-Crowles could have
+wept with chagrin as she reflected gloomily on her own timorous
+spirit.
+
+But as she stood in dejection before the window a vague idea flitted
+into her brain, and she clutched at it desperately. Carmen had spoken
+of the frequent calls of a certain Monsignor Lafelle at the Beaubien
+mansion, although the girl had never met him. Now why did he go there?
+"Humph!" muttered Mrs. Hawley-Crowles. "Old Gaspard de Beaubien was a
+French Catholic."
+
+But what had that to do with Carmen? Nothing--except--why, to be sure,
+the girl came from a Catholic country, and therefore was a Catholic!
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles chuckled. That was worth developing a little
+further. "Let us see," she reflected, "Kathleen Ames is coming out
+this winter, too. Just about Carmen's age. Candidate for her mother's
+social position, of course. Now the Ames family are all Presbyterians.
+The Reverend Darius Borwell, D.D., L.L.D., and any other D. that will
+keep him glued to his ten-thousand-dollar salary, hooked them early in
+the game. Now suppose--suppose Lafelle should tell the Beaubien
+that--that there's--no, that won't do! But suppose I tell him that
+here's a chance for him to back a Catholic against a Protestant for
+the highest social honors in New York--Carmen versus Kathleen--what
+would he say? Humph! I'm just as good a Catholic as Protestant. Jim
+was Irish--clear through. And Catholic, Methodist, or Hard-shell
+Baptist, as suited his needs. He played 'em all. Suppose I should tip
+it off to Lafelle that I'm smitten with the pious intention of
+donating an altar to Holy Saints Cathedral in memory of my late,
+unlamented consort--what then? It's worth considering, anyway. Yes,
+it's not a bad idea at all."
+
+And thus it was that a few days later Mrs. Hawley-Crowles timed it so
+carefully that she chanced to call on the Beaubien with Carmen shortly
+after Monsignor Lafelle's car had pulled up at the same door. It was
+the merest accident, too, that Carmen led her puffing guardian
+directly into the morning room, where sat the Beaubien and Monsignor
+in earnest conversation. Mrs. Hawley-Crowles would have retired at
+once, stammering apologies, and reprimanding Carmen for her assumption
+of liberties in another's house; but the Beaubien was grace and
+cordiality itself, and she insisted on retaining her three callers and
+making them mutually acquainted.
+
+With the ice thus broken, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles found it easy to take
+the contemplated plunge. Therefore she smiled triumphantly when, a
+week later, Monsignor Lafelle alighted at her own door, in response to
+a summons on matters pertaining to the Church.
+
+"But, Madam," replied the holy man, after carefully listening to her
+announcement, "I can only refer the matter to the Bishop. I am not
+connected with this diocese. I am traveling almost constantly. But I
+shall be most pleased to lay it before him, with my endorsement."
+
+"As you say, Monsignor," sweetly responded the gracious Mrs.
+Hawley-Crowles. "I sought your advice because I had met you through my
+dear friend, Madam Beaubien."
+
+"It has been a great pleasure to know you and to be of service to you,
+Madam," said Monsignor, rising to depart. "But," he added with a
+tender smile, "a pleasure that would be enhanced were you to become
+one of us."
+
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles knew that at last the time had come. "A moment,
+please, Monsignor," she said, her heart beating quickly. "There is
+another matter. Please be seated. It concerns my ward, the young girl
+whom you met at Madam Beaubien's."
+
+"Ah, indeed!" said the man, resuming his seat. "A beautiful girl."
+
+"Yes!" returned Mrs. Hawley-Crowles enthusiastically. "And just
+budding into still more beautiful womanhood." She stopped and
+reflected a moment. Then she threw herself precipitately into her
+topic, as if she feared further delay would result in the evaporation
+of her boldness. "Monsignor, it is, as you say, unfortunate that I
+profess no religious convictions; and yet, as I have told you, I find
+that as the years pass I lean ever more strongly toward your Church.
+Now you will pardon me when I say that I am sure it is the avowed
+intention to make America dominantly Catholic that brings you to this
+country to work toward that end--is it not so?"
+
+The man's handsome face lighted up pleasantly, but he did not reply.
+The woman went on without waiting.
+
+"Now, Monsignor, I am going to be terribly frank; and if you
+disapprove of what I suggest, we will both forget that the matter was
+ever under discussion. To begin with, I heartily endorse your
+missionary efforts in this godless country of ours. Nothing but the
+strong arm of the Catholic Church, it seems to me, can check our
+headlong plunge into ruin. But, Monsignor, you do not always work
+where your labors are most needed. You may control political--"
+
+"My dear lady," interrupted the man, holding up a hand and shaking his
+head in gentle demurral, "the Catholic Church is not in politics."
+
+"But it is in society--or should be!" said the woman earnestly. "And
+if the Catholic Church is to be supreme in America it must work from
+the top down, as well as from the lower levels upward. At present our
+wealthiest, most influential social set is absolutely domineered by a
+Protestant--and under the influence of a Presbyterian minister at
+that! Why do you permit it?"
+
+Monsignor Lafelle's eyes twinkled, as he listened politely. But he
+only stroked the white hair that crowned his shapely head, and
+waited.
+
+"Monsignor," continued the now thoroughly heated Mrs. Hawley-Crowles,
+"why do not the women of your Church constitute our society leaders?
+Why do you not recognize the desirability of forcing your people into
+every avenue of human activity? And would you resent a suggestion from
+me as to how in one instance this might be accomplished?"
+
+"Certainly not, Madam," replied Monsignor, with an expression of
+wonder on his face. "Pray proceed."
+
+"You are laughing at me, I do believe!" she exclaimed, catching the
+glint in his gray eyes.
+
+"Pardon me, dear lady, I really am deeply interested. Please go on."
+
+"Well, at any rate I have your promise to forget this conversation if
+you do not approve of it," she said quizzically.
+
+He nodded his head to inspire her confidence; and she continued:
+
+"Very well, now to the point. My ward, the little Inca princess, is
+coming out shortly. I want her to have the _entree_ into the very best
+society, into the most fashionable and exclusive set, as befitting her
+rank." She stopped and awaited the effect of her words.
+
+Monsignor studied her for a moment, and then broke into a genial
+laugh. "There is nothing reprehensible in your wish, Madam," he said.
+"Our social system, however imperfect, nevertheless exists,
+and--dominant Catholic influence might improve it. I am quite sure it
+would."
+
+"Good!" exclaimed Mrs. Hawley-Crowles. "Then will you help me?"
+
+"Why, I really see nothing that I can do," he replied slowly.
+
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles was becoming exasperated with his apparent
+dullness. "You can do much," she retorted in a tone tinctured with
+impatience. "Since I have made you my Father Confessor to-day, I am
+going to tell you that I intend to start a social war that will rip
+this city wide open. It is going to be war in which Catholic is pitted
+against Protestant. Now, which side is your Church on?"
+
+For a moment her blunt question startled him, and he stared at her
+uncomprehendingly; but he quickly recovered his poise and replied
+calmly, "Neither, Madam; it remains quite neutral."
+
+"What!" she exclaimed. "Aren't you interested?"
+
+"Pardon me if I say it; not at all."
+
+"Oh!" she murmured, her eagerness subsiding. "Then I've made an awful
+mistake!"
+
+"No," he amended gently, "you have made a good friend. And, as such, I
+again urge you first to respect the leaning which you mentioned a
+moment ago and become actively affiliated with our Church here in New
+York. Both you and the young lady. Will you not consider it?"
+
+"Certainly I will consider it," she responded, brightening with hope.
+"And I will go so far as to say that I have long had it in mind."
+
+"Then, Madam, when that is accomplished, we may discuss the less
+important matter of your ward's entrance into society--is it not so?"
+
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles rose, completely discomfited. "But the girl,
+Monsignor, is already a Catholic--comes from a Catholic country. It is
+she whom I am pitting against the Protestant."
+
+"And you will efface yourself?" he queried with a peculiar smile.
+
+"You are cruel," she retorted, affecting an air of injured innocence
+as she stood before him with downcast eyes. "But--if you--"
+
+"Madam," said Monsignor, "plainly, what is it that you wish me to
+do?"
+
+The sudden propounding of the question drew an equally sudden but less
+thoughtful response.
+
+"Tell the Beau--Madam Beaubien that you wish my ward to be received
+into the best society, and for the reasons I have given you. That's
+all."
+
+"And is my influence with Madam Beaubien, and hers with the members of
+fashionable society, sufficient to effect that?" he asked, an odd look
+coming into his eyes.
+
+"She has but to say the word to J. Wilton Ames, and his wife will
+receive us both," said the woman, carried away by her eagerness. "And
+that means strong Catholic influence in New York's most aristocratic
+set!"
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"Monsignor," continued the woman eagerly, "will your Church receive an
+altar from me in memory of my late husband?"
+
+He reflected a moment. Then, slowly, and in a low, earnest tone, "It
+would receive such a gift from one of the faith. When may we expect
+you to become a communicant?"
+
+The woman paled, and her heart suddenly chilled. She had wondered how
+far she might go with this clever churchman, and now she knew that she
+had gone too far. But to retract--to have him relate this conversation
+and her retraction to the Beaubien--were fatal! She had set her
+trap--and walked into it. She groped blindly for an answer. Then,
+raising her eyes and meeting his searching glance, she murmured
+feebly, "Whenever you say, Monsignor."
+
+When the man had departed, which he did immediately, the plotting
+woman threw herself upon the davenport and wept with rage. "Belle,"
+she wailed, as her wondering sister entered the room, "I'm going to
+join the Catholic Church! But I'd go through Sheol to beat that Ames
+outfit!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11
+
+
+MONSIGNOR LAFELLE made another afternoon call on the Beaubien a few
+days later. That lady, fresh from her bath, scented, powdered, and
+charming in a loose, flowing Mandarin robe, received him graciously.
+
+"But I can give you only a moment, Monsignor," she said, waving him to
+a chair, while she stooped and tenderly took up the two spaniels. "I
+have a dinner to-night, and so shall not listen unless you have
+something fresh and really worth while to offer."
+
+"My dear Madam," said he, bowing low before he sank into the great
+leather armchair, "you are charming, and the Church is justly proud of
+you."
+
+"Tut, tut, my friend," she returned, knitting her brows. "That may be
+fresh, I admit, but not worth listening to. And if you persist in that
+vein I shall be obliged to have William set you into the street."
+
+"I can not apologize for voicing the truth, dear Madam," he replied,
+as his eyes roved admiringly over her comely figure. "The Church has
+never ceased to claim you, however far you may have wandered from her.
+But I will be brief. I am leaving for Canada shortly on a mission of
+some importance. May I not take with me the consoling assurance that
+you have at last heard and yielded to the call of the tender Mother,
+who has never ceased to yearn for her beautiful, wayward daughter?"
+
+The Beaubien smiled indulgently. "There," she said gently, "I thought
+that was it. No, Monsignor, no," shaking her head. "When only a wild,
+thoughtless girl I became a Catholic in order that I might marry
+Gaspard de Beaubien. The priest urged; and I--<DW30>! what cared I? But
+the past eighteen years have confirmed me in some views; and one is
+that I shall gain nothing, either here or hereafter, by renewing my
+allegiance to the Church of Rome."
+
+Monsignor sighed, and stroked his abundant white hair. Yet his sigh
+bore a hope. "I learned this morning," he said musingly, "that my
+recent labors with the Dowager Duchess of Altern in England have not
+been vain. She has become a communicant of Holy Church."
+
+"What!" exclaimed the Beaubien. "The Duchess of Altern--sister of Mrs.
+J. Wilton Ames? Why, she was a high Anglican--"
+
+"Only a degree below the true Church, Madam. Her action is but
+anticipatory of a sweeping return of the entire Anglican Church to the
+true fold. And I learn further," he went on, "that the Duchess will
+spend the winter in New York with her sister. Which means, of course,
+an unusually gay season here, does it not?"
+
+The Beaubien quickly recovered from her astonishment. "Well,
+Monsignor," she laughed, "for once you really are interesting. What
+else have you to divulge? That Mrs. Ames herself will be the next
+convert? Or perhaps J. Wilton?"
+
+"No--at least, not yet. But one of your most intimate friends will
+become a communicant of Holy Saints next Sunday."
+
+"One of my most intimate friends!" The Beaubien set the spaniels down
+on the floor. "Now, my dear Monsignor, you are positively refreshing.
+Who is he?"
+
+The man laughed softly. "Am I not right when I insist that you have
+wandered far, dear Madam? It is not 'he,' but 'she,' your dear friend,
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles."
+
+The Beaubien's mouth opened wide and she sat suddenly upright and
+gazed blankly at her raconteur. The man went on, apparently oblivious
+of the effect his information had produced. "Her beautiful ward, who
+is to make her bow to society this winter, is one of us by birth."
+
+"Then you have been at work on Mrs. Hawley-Crowles and her ward, have
+you?" said the Beaubien severely, and there was a threatening note in
+her voice.
+
+"Why," returned Monsignor easily, "the lady sent for me to express her
+desire to become affiliated with the Church. We do not seek her. And I
+have had no conversation with the girl, I assure you."
+
+The Beaubien reflected. Then:
+
+"Will you tell me why, Monsignor, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles takes this
+unusual step?"
+
+"Unusual! Is it unusual, Madam, for a woman who has seen much of the
+world to turn from it to the solace and promise of the Church?"
+
+The Beaubien laughed sharply. "For women like Mrs. Hawley-Crowles it
+is, decidedly. What was her price, Monsignor?"
+
+"Madam! You astonish me!"
+
+"Monsignor, I do not. I know Mrs. Hawley-Crowles. And by this time you
+do, too. She is the last woman in the world to turn from it."
+
+"But the question you have just propounded reflects seriously upon
+both the Church and me--"
+
+"Bah!" interjected the Beaubien, her eyes flashing. "Wait," she
+commanded imperiously, as he rose. "I have a few things to say to you,
+since this is to be your last call."
+
+"Madam, not the last, I hope. For I shall not cease to plead the cause
+of the Church to you--"
+
+"Surely, Monsignor, that is your business. You are welcome in my
+house at any time, and particularly when you have such delightful
+scraps of gossip as these which you have brought to-day. But, a word
+before you go, lest you become indiscreet on your return. Play
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles to any extent you wish, but let her ward
+alone--_absolutely_! She is not for you."
+
+The cold, even tone in which the woman said this left no doubt in the
+man's mind of her meaning. She was not trifling with him now, he knew.
+In her low-voiced words he found no trace of banter, of sophistry, nor
+of aught that he might in any wise misinterpret.
+
+"Now, Monsignor, I have some influence in New York, as you may
+possibly know. Will you admit that I can do much for or against you?
+Drop your mask, therefore, and tell me frankly just what has induced
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles to unite with your Church."
+
+The man knew he was pitting his own against a master mind. He
+hesitated and weighed well his words before replying. "Madam," said he
+at length, with a note of reproach, "you misjudge the lady, the
+Church, and me, its humble servant. The latter require no defense. As
+for Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, I speak truly when I say that doubtless she
+has been greatly influenced by love for her late husband."
+
+"What!" The Beaubien half rose from her chair. "Jim Crowles--that raw,
+Irish boob, who was holding down a job on the police force until Ames
+found he could make a convenient tool of him! The man who was
+Gannette's cat's-paw in the Fall River franchise steal! Now,
+Monsignor, would you have me believe you devoid of all sense?"
+
+"But," ejaculated the man, now becoming exasperated, and for the
+moment so losing his self-control as to make wretched use of his
+facts, "she is erecting an altar in Holy Saints as a memorial to
+him!"
+
+"Heavens above!" The Beaubien sank back limp.
+
+Monsignor Lafelle again made as if to rise. He felt that he was guilty
+of a miserable _faux pas_. "Madam, I regret that I must be leaving.
+But the hour--"
+
+"Stay, Monsignor!" The Beaubien roused up and laid a detaining hand
+upon his arm. "Our versatile friend, what other projects has she in
+hand? What is she planning for her young ward?"
+
+"Why, really, I can not say--beyond the fact that the girl is to be
+introduced to society this winter."
+
+"Humph! Going to make a try for the Ames set?"
+
+"That, I believe, Madam, would be useless without your aid."
+
+"Did Mrs. Hawley-Crowles say so, Monsignor?" demanded the woman,
+leaning forward eagerly.
+
+"Why, I believe I am not abusing her confidence when I say that she
+intimated as much," he said, watching her closely and sparring now
+with better judgment. "She mentioned Mrs. Ames as New York's
+fashionable society leader--"
+
+"There is no such position as leader in New York society, Monsignor,"
+interrupted the Beaubien coldly. "There are sets and cliques, and
+Mrs. Ames happens to be prominent in the one which at present
+foolishly imagines it constitutes the upper stratum. Rot! And Mrs.
+Hawley-Crowles, with nothing but a tarnished name and a large bank
+account to recommend her, now wishes to break into that clique and
+attain social leadership, does she? How decidedly interesting!"
+
+Then the woman's eyes narrowed and grew hard. Leaning closer to
+the churchman, she rested the tip of her finger on his knee.
+"So, Monsignor," she said, with cold precision, "this is Mrs.
+Hawley-Crowles's method of renouncing the world, is it? Sublime!
+And she would use both you and me, eh? And you are her ambassador
+at the court of the Beaubien? Very well, then, she shall use us.
+But you and I will first make this compact, my dear Monsignor:
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles shall be taken into the so-called 'Ames set,'
+and you shall cease importuning me to return to your Church, and
+what is more, shall promise to have no conversation on church
+matters with her ward, the young girl. If you do not agree to
+this, Monsignor, I shall set in motion forces that will make your
+return to New York quite undesirable." When she concluded, she
+looked long and steadily into his eyes.
+
+Monsignor got slowly to his feet. "Madam!" he exclaimed in a hoarse
+whisper, "my astonishment--"
+
+"There," she said calmly, as she rose and took his hand, "please omit
+the dramatics, Monsignor. And now you must go, for to-night I
+entertain, and I have already given you more time than I intended.
+But, Monsignor, do you in future work with or against me? Are we to be
+friends or enemies?"
+
+"Why, Madam," he replied quickly, "we could never be the latter!"
+
+"And you always respect the wishes of a friend, especially if she is a
+lady, do you not?"
+
+"Always, Madam," he returned after a moment's hesitation, as he bowed
+low over her hand.
+
+"Then, good-bye. And, Monsignor," she added, when he reached the door,
+"I shall be pleased to attend the dedication of the Hawley-Crowles
+altar."
+
+When Monsignor's car glided away from her door the Beaubien's face
+grew dark, and her eyes drew to narrow slits. "So," she reflected, as
+she entered the elevator to mount to her dressing room, "that is her
+game, is it? The poor, fat simpleton has no interest in either the
+girl or myself, other than to use us as stepping-stones. She forgets
+that a stone sometimes turns under the foot. Fool!"
+
+She entered her room and rang for her maid. Turning to the pier glass,
+she threw on the electric light and scrutinized her features narrowly.
+"It's going," she murmured, "fast! God, how I hate those gray hairs!
+Oh, what a farce life is--what a howling, mocking farce! I hate it! I
+hate everything--everybody! No--that little girl--if it is possible
+for me to love, I love her."
+
+She sank into an easy chair. "I wonder what it is she does to me. I'm
+hypnotized, I guess. Anyhow, I'm different when I'm with her. And to
+think that Hawley-Crowles would sacrifice the child--humph! But, if
+the girl is made of the right stuff--and I know she is--she will stand
+up under it and be stronger for the experience. She has got something
+that will make her stand! I once asked her what she had that I didn't,
+and now I know--it is her religion, the religion that Borwell and
+Lafelle and the whole kit of preachers and priests would corrupt if
+they had half a chance! Very well, we'll see what it does under the
+test. If it saves her, then I want it myself. But, as for that little
+pin-headed Hawley-Crowles, she's already signed her own death-warrant.
+She shall get into the Ames set, yes. And I will use her, oh,
+beautifully! to pay off certain old scores against Madam Ames--and
+then I'll crush her like a dried leaf, the fat fool!"
+
+The Beaubien's position was, to say the least, peculiar, and one which
+required infinite tact on her part to protect. It was for that reason
+that the decorum which prevailed at her dinners was so rigidly
+observed, and that, whatever the moral status of the man who sat at
+her board, his conduct was required to be above reproach, on penalty
+of immediate ejection from the circle of financial pirates, captains
+of commercial jugglery, and political intriguers who made these feasts
+opportunities for outlining their predatory campaigns against that
+most anomalous of creatures, the common citizen.
+
+It was about this table, at whose head always sat the richly gowned
+Beaubien, that the inner circle of financial kings had gathered almost
+nightly for years to rig the market, determine the price of wheat or
+cotton, and develop mendacious schemes of stock-jobbery whose golden
+harvests they could calculate almost to a dollar before launching. As
+the wealth of this clique of financial manipulators swelled beyond all
+bounds, so increased their power, until at last it could be justly
+said that, when Ames began to dominate the Stock Exchange, the
+Beaubien practically controlled Wall Street--and, therefore, in a
+sense, Washington itself. But always with a tenure of control
+dubiously dependent upon the caprices of the men who continued to pay
+homage to her personal charm and keen, powerful intellect.
+
+At the time of which we speak her power was at its zenith, and she
+could with equal impunity decapitate the wealthiest, most aristocratic
+society dame, or force the door of the most exclusive set for any
+protegee who might have been kept long years knocking in vain, or
+whose family name, perchance, headed a list of indictments for gross
+peculations. At these unicameral meetings, held in the great, dark,
+mahogany-wainscoted dining room of the Beaubien mansion, where a
+single lamp of priceless workmanship threw a flood of light upon the
+sumptuous table beneath and left the rest of the closely guarded room
+shrouded in Stygian darkness, plans were laid and decrees adopted
+which seated judges, silenced clergymen, elected senators, and
+influenced presidents. There a muck-raking, hostile press was muffled.
+There business opposition was crushed and competition throttled. There
+tax rates were determined and tariff schedules formulated. There
+public opinion was disrupted, character assassinated, and the
+death-warrant of every threatening reformer drawn and signed. In a
+word, there Mammon, in the _role_ of business, organized and
+unorganized, legitimate and piratical, sat enthroned, with wires
+leading into every mart of the world, and into every avenue of human
+endeavor, be it social, political, commercial, or religious. These
+wires were gathered together into the hands of one man, the directing
+genius of the group, J. Wilton Ames. Over him lay the shadow of the
+Beaubien.
+
+An hour after the departure of Monsignor Lafelle the Beaubien, like a
+radiant sun, descended to the library to greet her assembled guests.
+Some moments later the heavy doors of the great dining room swung
+noiselessly open, and the lady proceeded unescorted to her position at
+the head of the table. At her signal the half dozen men sat down, and
+the butler immediately entered, followed by two serving men with the
+cocktails and the first course. The chair at the far end of the table,
+opposite the Beaubien, remained unoccupied.
+
+"Ames is late to-night," observed the girthy Gannette, glancing toward
+the vacant seat, and clumsily attempting to tuck his napkin into his
+collar.
+
+The Beaubien looked sharply at him. "Were you at the club this
+afternoon, Mr. Gannette?" she inquired coldly.
+
+Gannette straightened up and became rigid. Pulling the napkin down
+hastily, he replied in a thick voice, "Just a little game of
+bridge--some old friends--back from Europe--"
+
+The Beaubien turned to the butler. "William, Mr. Gannette is not
+drinking wine this evening." The butler bowed and removed the glasses
+from that gentleman's place.
+
+Gannette turned to expostulate. "Now, Lucile--" he began peevishly.
+The Beaubien held up a hand. Gannette glowered and sank down in his
+chair like a swollen toad.
+
+"May be Ames is trying to break into the C. and R. directors'
+meeting," suggested Weston, himself a director in a dozen companies,
+and a bank president besides. A general laugh followed the remark.
+
+"They tell me," said Fitch, "that for once Ames has been outwitted,
+and that by a little bucket-shop broker named Ketchim."
+
+"How's that?" queried Kane, Board of Trade plunger, and the most
+mettlesome speculator of the group.
+
+"Why," explained Weston, "some months ago Ames tried to reach Ed.
+Stolz through Ketchim, the old man's nephew, and get control of C. and
+R. But friend nephew dropped the portcullis just as Ames was dashing
+across the drawbridge, and J. Wilton found himself outside, looking
+through the bars. First time I've ever known that to happen. Now the
+boys have got hold of it on 'Change, and Ames has been getting it from
+every quarter."
+
+"Long time leaking out, seems to me," remarked Kane. "But what's Ames
+going to do about it?"
+
+"Nothing, I guess," returned Weston. "He seems to have dropped the
+matter."
+
+"I think you will find yourself mistaken," put in the Beaubien
+evenly.
+
+"Why?" queried Fitch, as all eyes turned upon the woman. "Have you
+inside information?"
+
+"None whatever," she replied. "But Mr. Ames always gets what he goes
+after, and he will secure control of C. and R. eventually."
+
+"I don't believe it!" vigorously asserted Murdock, who had been an
+interested listener. "He will never oust Stolz."
+
+"I have one thousand dollars that says he will," said the Beaubien,
+calmly regarding the speaker. "William, my checkbook, please."
+
+Murdock seemed taken back for the moment; but lost no time recovering
+his poise. Drawing out his own book he wrote a check in the Beaubien's
+name for the amount and sent it down the table to her.
+
+"Mr. Fitch will hold the stakes," said the woman, handing him the two
+slips of paper. "And we will set a time limit of eighteen months."
+
+"By the way," remarked Peele, the only one of the group who had taken
+no part in the preceding conversation, "I see by the evening paper
+that there's been another accident in the Avon mills. Fellow named
+Marcus caught in a machine and crushed all out of shape. That's the
+third one down there this month. They'll force Ames to equip his mills
+with safety devices if this keeps up."
+
+"Not while the yellow metal has any influence upon the Legislature,"
+returned the Beaubien with a knowing smile. "But," she added more
+seriously, "that is not where the danger lies. The real source of
+apprehension is in the possibility of a strike. And if war breaks out
+among those Hungarians down there it will cost him more than to equip
+all his mills now with safety devices."
+
+Gannette, who had been sulking in his chair, roused up. "Speaking
+of war," he growled, "has Ames, or any of you fellows, got a
+finger in the muddle in South America? I've got interests down
+there--concessions and the like--and by--!" He wandered off into
+incoherent mutterings.
+
+The Beaubien gave a sharp command to the butler. "William, Mr.
+Gannette is leaving now. You will escort him to the door."
+
+"Now look here, Lucile!" cried Gannette, his apoplectic face becoming
+more deeply purple, and his blear eyes leering angrily upon the calm
+woman. "I ain't a-goin' to stand this! What have I done? I'm as sober
+as any one here, an'--" William took the heavy man gently by the arm
+and persuaded him to his feet. The other guests suppressed their
+smiles and remained discreetly quiet.
+
+"But--my car--!" sputtered Gannette.
+
+"Have Henri take him to his club, William," said the Beaubien, rising.
+"Good night, Mr. Gannette. We will expect you Wednesday evening, and
+we trust that we will not have to accept your excuses again."
+
+Gannette was led soddenly out. The Beaubien quietly resumed her seat.
+It was the second time the man had been dismissed from her table, and
+the guests marveled that it did not mean the final loss of her favor.
+But she remained inscrutable; and the conversation quickly drifted
+into new channels. A few moments later William returned and made a
+quiet announcement:
+
+"Mr. Ames."
+
+A huge presence emerged from the darkness into the light. The Beaubien
+immediately rose and advanced to greet the newcomer. "What is it?" she
+whispered, taking his hand.
+
+The man smiled down into her upturned, anxious face. His only reply
+was a reassuring pressure of her hand. But she comprehended, and her
+face brightened.
+
+"Gentlemen," remarked Ames, taking the vacant chair, "the President's
+message is out. I have been going over it with Hood--which accounts
+for my tardiness," he added, nodding pleasantly to the Beaubien.
+"Quoting from our chief executive's long list of innocent platitudes,
+I may say that 'private monopoly is criminally unjust, wholly
+indefensible, and not to be tolerated in a Republic founded upon the
+premise of equal rights to all mankind.'"
+
+"Certainly not!" concurred Weston, holding up his glass and gazing
+admiringly at the rich color of the wine.
+
+The others laughed. "Quite my sentiments, too," murmured Fitch,
+rolling his eyes upward and attempting with poor success to assume a
+beatific expression.
+
+"Furthermore," continued Ames, with mock gravity, "the interlocking of
+corporation directorates must be prohibited by law; power must be
+conferred upon the Interstate Commerce Commission to superintend the
+financial management of railroads; holding-companies must cease to
+exist; and corrective policies must be shaped, whereby so-called
+'trusts' will be regulated and rendered innocuous. Are we agreed?"
+
+"We are," said they all, in one voice.
+
+"Carried," concluded Ames in a solemn tone. Then a burst of laughter
+rose from the table; and even the inscrutable William smiled behind
+his hand.
+
+"But, seriously," said Weston, when the laughter had ceased, "I
+believe we've got a President now who's going to do something, don't
+you?"
+
+"I do not," replied Ames emphatically. "As long as the human mind
+remains as it is there is nothing to fear, though Congress legislate
+itself blue in the face. Reform is not to be made like a garment and
+forced upon the people from the outside. It is a growth from within.
+Restrictive measures have not as yet, in all the history of
+civilization, reformed a single criminal."
+
+"What does Hood say?" asked Murdock.
+
+"That we are puncture-proof," replied Ames with a light laugh.
+
+"But what about your indictment in that cotton deal? Is Hood going to
+find you law-proof there?"
+
+"The case is settled," said Ames easily. "I went into court this
+morning and plead guilty to the indictment for conspiring to corner
+the cotton market two years ago. I admitted that I violated the
+Sherman law. The judge promptly fined me three thousand dollars, for
+which I immediately wrote a check, leaving me still the winner by some
+two million seven hundred thousand dollars on the deal, to say nothing
+of compound interest on the three thousand for the past two years. You
+see the beneficent effect of legislation, do you not?"
+
+"By George, Ames, you certainly were stingy not to let us in on that!"
+exclaimed Kane.
+
+"Cotton belongs to me, gentlemen," replied Ames simply. "You will have
+to keep out."
+
+"Well," remarked Fitch, glancing about the table, "suppose we get down
+to the business of the evening--if agreeable to our hostess," bowing
+in the direction of the Beaubien.
+
+The latter nodded her approval of the suggestion. "Has any one
+anything new to offer?" she said.
+
+Some moments of silence followed. Then Ames spoke. "There is a little
+matter," he began, "that I have been revolving for some days. Perhaps
+it may interest you. It concerns the Albany post road. It occurred to
+me some time ago that a franchise for a trolley line on that road
+could be secured and ultimately sold for a round figure to the wealthy
+residents whose estates lie along it, and who would give a million
+dollars rather than have a line built there. After some preliminary
+examination I got Hood to draft a bill providing for the building of
+the road, and submitted it to Jacobson, Commissioner of Highways. He
+reported that it would be the means of destroying the post road. I
+convinced him, on the other hand, that it would be the means of lining
+his purse with fifty thousand dollars. So he very naturally gave it
+his endorsement. I then got in consultation with Senator Gossitch, and
+had him arrange a meeting with the Governor, in Albany. I think," he
+concluded, "that about five hundred thousand dollars will grease the
+wheels all 'round. I've got the Governor on the hip in that Southern
+Mexican deal, and he is at present eating out of my hand. I'll lay
+this project on the table now, and you can take it up if you so
+desire."
+
+"The scheme seems all right," commented Weston, after a short
+meditation. "But the profits are not especially large. What else have
+you?"
+
+"Well, a net profit of half a million to split up among us would at
+least provide for a yachting party next summer," remarked Ames
+sententiously. "And no work connected with it--in fact, the work has
+been done. I shall want an additional five per cent for handling it."
+
+An animated discussion followed; and then Fitch offered a motion that
+the group definitely take up the project. The Beaubien put the vote,
+and it was carried without dissent.
+
+"What about that potato scheme you were figuring on, Ames?" asked
+Fitch at this juncture. "Anything ever come of it?"
+
+Ames's eyes twinkled. "I didn't get much encouragement from my
+friends," he replied. "A perfectly feasible scheme, too."
+
+"I don't believe it," put in Weston emphatically. "It never could be
+put through."
+
+"I have one million dollars that says it could," returned Ames calmly.
+"Will you cover it?"
+
+Weston threw up his hands in token of surrender. "Not I!" he
+exclaimed, scurrying for cover.
+
+Ames laughed. "Well," he said, "suppose we look into the scheme and
+see if we don't want to handle it. It simply calls for a little
+thought and work. The profits would be tremendous. Shall I explain?"
+He stopped and glanced at the Beaubien for approval. She nodded, and
+he went on:
+
+"I have lately been investigating the subject of various food supplies
+other than wheat and corn as possible bases for speculation, and my
+attention has been drawn strongly to a very humble one, potatoes."
+
+A general laugh followed this announcement. But Ames continued
+unperturbed:
+
+"I find that in some sections of the West potatoes are so plentiful at
+times that they bring but twenty cents a bushel. My investigations
+have covered a period of several months, and now I have in my
+possession a large map of the United States with the potato sections,
+prices, freight rates and all other necessary data indicated. The
+results are interesting. My idea is to send agents into all these
+sections next summer before the potatoes are turned up, and contract
+for the entire crop at twenty-five cents a bushel. The agents will pay
+the farmers cash, and agree to assume all expenses of digging,
+packing, shipping, and so forth, allowing the farmer to take what he
+needs for his own consumption. Needless to say, the potatoes will not
+be removed from the fields, but will be allowed to rot in the ground.
+Those that do reach the market will sell for a dollar and a half in
+New York and Chicago."
+
+"In other words," added Fitch, "you are simply figuring to corner the
+market for the humble tuber, eh?"
+
+"Precisely," said Ames.
+
+"But--you say you have all the necessary data now?"
+
+"All, even to the selection of a few of my agents. I can control
+freight rates for what we may wish to ship. The rest of the crop will
+be left to rot. The farmers will jump at such a bargain. And the
+consumers will pay our price for what they must have."
+
+"Very pretty," mused Murdock. "And how much do you figure we shall
+need to round the corner?"
+
+"A million, cash in hand," replied Ames.
+
+"Is this anything that the women can mix into?" asked Fitch suddenly.
+"You know they forced us to dump tons of our cold-storage stuff onto
+the market two years ago."
+
+"That was when I controlled wheat," said Ames, "and was all tied up.
+But this is a wholly different proposition. It will be done so quietly
+and thoroughly that it will all be over and the profits pocketed
+before the women wake up to what we're doing. In this case there will
+be nothing to store. And potatoes exposed in the field rot quickly,
+you know."
+
+The rest of the group seemed to study the idea for some moments. Then
+the practical Murdock inquired of Ames if he would agree to handle the
+project, provided they took it up.
+
+"Yes," assented Ames, "on a five per cent basis. And I am ready to put
+agents in the field to-morrow."
+
+"Then, Madam Beaubien," said Fitch, "I move that we adopt the plan as
+set forth by Mr. Ames, and commission him to handle it, calling upon
+us equally for whatever funds he may need."
+
+A further brief discussion ensued; and then the resolution was
+unanimously adopted.
+
+"Say, Ames," queried Weston, with a glint of mischief in his eyes,
+"will any of these potatoes be shipped over the C. and R.?" A laugh
+went up around the table, in which Ames himself joined. "Yes," he
+said, "potatoes and cotton will both go over that road next summer,
+and I shall fix the rebates."
+
+"How about your friend Ketchim?" suggested Fitch, with a wink at
+Murdock.
+
+Ames's mouth set grimly, and the smile left his face. "Ketchim is
+going to Sing Sing for that little deal," he returned in a low, cold
+tone, so cold that even the Beaubien could not repress a little
+shudder. "I had him on Molino, but he trumped up a new company which
+absorbed Molino and satisfied everybody, so I am blocked for the
+present. But, mark me, I shall strip him of every dollar, and then put
+him behind the bars before I've finished!"
+
+And no one sought to refute the man, for they knew he spoke truth.
+
+At midnight, while the cathedral chimes in the great hall clock were
+sending their trembling message through the dark house, the Beaubien
+rose, and the dinner was concluded. A few moments later the guests
+were spinning in their cars to their various homes or clubs--all but
+Ames. As he was preparing to leave, the Beaubien laid a hand on his
+arm. "Wait a moment, Wilton," she said. "I have something important to
+discuss with you." She led him into the morning room, where a fire was
+blazing cheerily in the grate, and drew up a chair before it for him,
+then nestled on the floor at his feet.
+
+"I sent Gannette home this evening," she began, by way of introduction.
+"He was drunk. I would drop him entirely, only you said--"
+
+"We need him," interrupted Ames. "Hold him a while longer."
+
+"I'll soil my hands by doing it; but it is for you. Now tell me," she
+went on eagerly, "what about Colombia? Have you any further news from
+Wenceslas?"
+
+"A cable to-day. Everything's all right. Don't worry. The Church is
+with the Government, and they will win--although your money may be
+tied up for a few years. Still, you can't lose in the end."
+
+The woman sat for some moments gazing into the fire. Then:
+
+"Lafelle was here again to-day."
+
+"Hold him, too," said Ames quickly. "Looks as if I had made you a sort
+of holding company, doesn't it?" he added, with a chuckle. "But we
+shall have good use for these fellows."
+
+"He gave me some very interesting news," she said; and then went on to
+relate the conversation in detail. Ames laughed loudly as he
+listened. "And now, Wilton," said the Beaubien, a determined look
+coming into her face, "you have always said that you never forgave me
+for making you let Jim Crowles off, when you had him by the throat.
+Well, I'm going to give you a chance to get more than even. Jim's fat
+widow is after your wife's scalp. I intend that she shall lose her own
+in the chase. I've got my plans all laid, and I want your wife to meet
+the lovely Mrs. Hawley-Crowles at the Fitch's next Thursday afternoon.
+It will be just a formal call--mutual introductions--and, later, an
+invitation from Mrs. Ames to Mrs. Hawley-Crowles. Meantime, I want you
+to get Mrs. Hawley-Crowles involved in a financial way, and shear her
+of every penny! Do you understand?"
+
+Ames looked at her quizzically. Then he broke into another sharp
+laugh. "My dear," said he, taking her hand, "you are charming this
+evening. Added years only make you more beautiful."
+
+"Nonsense, Will!" she deprecated, although the smile she gave him
+attested her pleasure in the compliment. "Well," she continued
+briskly, "if I'm so beautiful, you can't help loving me; and if you
+love me, you will do what I ask."
+
+He playfully pinched her cheek. "Why, poor old Jim Crowles! Really,
+I've long since forgotten him. Do you realize that that was more than
+ten years ago?"
+
+"Please don't mention years, dear," she murmured, shuddering a little.
+"Tell me, what can we do to teach this fat hussy a lesson?"
+
+"Well," he suggested, laughing, "we might get Ketchim after her, to
+sell her a wad of his worthless stocks; then when he goes down, as he
+is going one of these days, we will hope that it will leave her on the
+rocks of financial ruin, eh?"
+
+"What's Ketchim promoting?" she asked. "I know nothing about him."
+
+"Why, among other innocent novelties, a scheme bearing the sonorous
+title of Simiti Development Company, I am told by my brokers."
+
+"Simiti! Why--I've heard Carmen mention that name. I wonder--"
+
+"Well, and who is Carmen?" he asked with a show of real interest.
+
+"My little friend--the one and only honest person I've ever dealt
+with, excepting, of course, present company."
+
+"The amendment is accepted. And now where does this Carmen enter the
+game?"
+
+"Why, she's--surely you know about her!"
+
+"If I did I should not ask." "Well, she is a little Colombian--"
+
+"Colombian!"
+
+"Yes. They say she's an Inca princess. Came up with the engineers who
+went down there for Ketchim to examine the Molino properties. She
+lived all her life in a town called Simiti until she came up here."
+
+Ames leaned over and looked steadily into the fire. "Never heard of
+the place," he murmured dreamily.
+
+"Well," said the Beaubien eagerly, "she's a--a wonderful child! I'm
+different when I'm with her."
+
+He roused from his meditations and smiled down at the woman. "Then I'd
+advise you not to be with her much, for I prefer you as you are."
+
+They sat some minutes in silence. Then the woman looked up at her
+companion. "What are you thinking about so seriously?" she asked.
+
+The man started; then drew himself up and gave a little nervous laugh.
+"Of you," he replied evasively, "always."
+
+She reached up and slapped his cheek tenderly. "You were dreaming of
+your awful business deals," she said. "What have you in hand
+now?--besides the revolution in Colombia, your mines, your mills, your
+banks, your railroads and trolley lines, your wheat and potato
+corners, your land concessions and cattle schemes, and--well, that's a
+start, at least," she finished, pausing for breath.
+
+"Another big deal," he said abruptly.
+
+"Wheat, again?"
+
+"No, cotton. I'm buying every bale I can find, in Europe, Asia, and
+the States."
+
+"But, Will, you've been caught in cotton before, you know. And I don't
+believe you can get away with it again. Unless--"
+
+"That's it--unless," he interrupted. "And that's just the part I have
+taken care of. It's a matter of tariff. The cotton schedule will go
+through as I have it outlined. I practically own the Commission. They
+don't dare refuse to pass the measure. Cotton is low now. In a few
+months the tariff on cotton products will be up. The new tariff-wall
+sends the price of raw stuff soaring. I profit, coming and going. I
+was beaten on the last deal simply because of faulty weather
+prognostications. I made a bad guess. This time the weather doesn't
+figure. I'll let you in, if you wish. But these other fellows have got
+to stay out."
+
+"I haven't a penny to invest, Will," she replied mournfully. "You got
+me so terribly involved in this Colombian revolution."
+
+"Oh, well," he returned easily, "I'll lend you what you need, any
+amount. And you can give me your advice and suggestions from time to
+time. As for your Colombian investments, haven't I guaranteed them,
+practically?"
+
+"Not in writing," she said, looking up at him with a twinkle in her
+eyes.
+
+"Bah! Well, do you want that?"
+
+"No, certainly not," she returned, giving him a glance of admiration.
+"But, to return, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles is going to be received into your
+wife's set, and you are going to give her a good financial whipping?"
+
+"Certainly, if you wish it. I'm yours to command. Mrs. Hawley-Crowles
+shall go to the poor-house, if you say the word. But now, my dear,
+have William order my car. And, let me see, Mrs. Ames is to meet Mrs.
+Hawley-Crowles at Fitch's? Just a chance call, I take it."
+
+"Yes, dear," murmured the Beaubien, reaching up and kissing him; "next
+Thursday at three. Good night. Call me on the 'phone to-morrow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 12
+
+
+The Ames building, a block from the Stock Exchange, was originally
+only five stories in height. But as the Ames interests grew, floor
+after floor was added, until, on the day that Mrs. Hawley-Crowles
+pointed it out to Carmen from the window of her limousine, it had
+reached, tower and all, a height of twenty-five stories, and was
+increasing at an average rate of two additional a year. It was not its
+size that aroused interest, overtopped as it was by many others, but
+its uniqueness; for, though a hive of humming industry, it did not
+house a single business that was not either owned outright or
+controlled by J. Wilton Ames, from the lowly cigar stands in the
+marble corridors to the great banking house of Ames and Company on the
+second floor. The haberdashers, the shoe-shining booths, the soda
+fountains, and the great commercial enterprises that dwelt about them,
+each and all acknowledged fealty and paid homage to the man who
+brooded over them in his magnificent offices on the twenty-fifth floor
+in the tower above.
+
+It was not by any consensus of opinion among the financiers of New
+York that Ames had assumed leadership, but by sheer force of what
+was doubtless the most dominant character developed in recent
+years by those peculiar forces which have produced the American
+multimillionaire. "Mental dynamite!" was Weston's characterization
+of the man. "And," he once added, when, despite his anger, he could
+not but admire Ames's tactical blocking of his piratical move, which
+the former's keen foresight had perceived threatened danger at
+Washington, "it is not by any tacit agreement that we accept him,
+but because he knows ten tricks to our one, that's all."
+
+To look at the man, now in his forty-fifth year, meant, generally, an
+expression of admiration for his unusual physique, and a wholly
+erroneous appraisal of his character. His build was that of a
+gladiator. He stood six-feet-four in height, with Herculean shoulders
+and arms, and a pair of legs that suggested nothing so much as the
+great pillars which supported the facade of the Ames building. Those
+arms and legs, and those great back-muscles, had sent his college
+shell to victory every year that he had sat in the boat. They had won
+every game on the gridiron in which he had participated as the
+greatest "center" the college ever developed. For baseball he was a
+bit too massive, much to his own disappointment, but the honors he
+failed to secure there he won in the field events, and in the
+surreptitiously staged boxing and wrestling bouts when, hidden away in
+the cellar of some secret society hall, he would crush his opponents
+with an ease and a peculiar glint of satisfaction in his gray eyes
+that was grimly prophetic of days to come. His mental attitude toward
+contests for superiority of whatever nature did not differ essentially
+from that of the Roman gladiators: he entered them to win. If he fell,
+well and good; he expected "thumbs down." If he won, his opponent need
+look for no exhibition of generosity on his part. When his man lay
+prone before him, he stooped and cut his throat. And he would have
+loathed the one who forbore to do likewise with himself.
+
+In scholarship he might have won a place, had not the physical side of
+his nature been so predominant, and his remarkable muscular strength
+so great a prize to the various athletic coaches and directors. Ames
+was first an animal; there was no stimulus as yet sufficiently strong
+to arouse his latent spirituality. And yet his intellect was keen; and
+to those studies to which he was by nature or inheritance especially
+attracted, economics, banking, and all branches of finance, he brought
+a power of concentration that was as stupendous as his physical
+strength. His mental make-up was peculiar, in that it was the epitome
+of energy--manifested at first only in brute force--and in that it was
+wholly deficient in the sense of fear. Because of this his daring was
+phenomenal.
+
+Immediately upon leaving college Ames became associated with his
+father in the already great banking house of Ames and Company. But the
+animality of his nature soon found the confinement irksome; his
+father's greater conservatism hampered his now rapidly expanding
+spirit of commercialism; and after a few years in the banking house he
+withdrew and set up for himself. The father, while lacking the boy's
+fearlessness, had long since recognized dominant qualities in him
+which he himself did not possess, and he therefore confidently
+acquiesced in his son's desire, and, in addition, gave him _carte
+blanche_ in the matter of funds for his speculative enterprises.
+
+Four years later J. Wilton Ames, rich in his own name, already
+becoming recognized as a power in the world of finance, with
+diversified enterprises which reached into almost every country of the
+globe, hastened home from a foreign land in response to a message
+announcing the sudden death of his father. The devolving of his
+parent's vast fortune upon himself--he was the sole heir--then
+necessitated his permanent location in New York. And so, reluctantly
+giving up his travels, he gathered his agents and lieutenants about
+him, concentrating his interests as much as possible in the Ames
+building, and settled down to the enjoyment of expanding his huge
+fortune. A few months later he married, and the union amalgamated the
+proud old Essex stock of Ames, whose forbears fought under the
+Conqueror and were written in the Doomsday Book, to the wealthy and
+aristocratic Van Heyse branch of old Amsterdam. To this union were
+born a son and a daughter, twins.
+
+The interval between his graduation from college and the death of his
+father was all but unknown to the cronies of his subsequent years in
+New York. Though he had spent much of it in the metropolis, he had
+been self-centered and absorbed, even lonely, while laying his plans
+and developing the schemes which resulted in financial preeminence.
+With unlimited money at his disposal, he was unhampered in the choice
+of his business clientele, and he formed it from every quarter of the
+globe. Much of his time had been spent abroad, and he had become as
+well known on the Paris bourse and the exchanges of Europe as in his
+native land. Confident and successful from the outset; without any
+trace of pride or touch of hauteur in his nature; as wholly lacking in
+ethical development and in generosity as he was in fear; gradually
+becoming more sociable and companionable, although still reticent of
+certain periods of his past; his cunning and brutality increasing with
+years; and his business sagacity and keen strategy becoming the talk
+of the Street; with no need to raise his eyes beyond the low plane of
+his material endeavors; he pursued his business partly for the
+pleasure the game afforded him, partly for the power which his
+accumulations bestowed upon him, and mostly because it served as an
+adequate outlet for his tremendous, almost superhuman, driving energy.
+If he betrayed and debauched ideals, it was because he was utterly
+incapable of rising to them, nor felt the stimulus to make the
+attempt. If he achieved no noble purpose, it was because when he
+glanced at the mass of humanity about him he looked through the lenses
+of self. His glance fell always first upon J. Wilton Ames--and he
+never looked beyond. The world had been created for him; the cosmos
+but expressed his Ego.
+
+On the morning after his conversation with the Beaubien regarding the
+social aspirations of Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, the financier sat at his
+rich mahogany desk on the top floor of the Ames building in earnest
+discussion with his lawyer, Alonzo Hood. The top floor of the tower
+was divided into eight rooms. Two of these constituted Ames's inner
+_sanctum_; one was Hood's private office; and the rest were devoted
+to clerks and stenographers. A telegrapher occupied an alcove
+adjoining Hood's room, and handled confidential messages over
+private wires to the principal cities in the country. A private
+telephone connected Ames's desk with the Beaubien mansion. Private
+lines ran to the Stock Exchange and to various other points
+throughout the city. The telegraph and telephone companies gave his
+messages preference over all others. At a word he would be placed in
+almost instant communication with New Orleans, San Francisco, London,
+Berlin, or Cairo. Private lines and speaking tubes ran to every room
+or floor of the building where a company, firm, or individual was
+doing business. At the office of the Telegraph Service up-town he
+maintained messengers who carried none but his own despatches. In
+the railroad yards his private car stood always in readiness; and in
+the harbor his yacht was kept constantly under steam. A motor car
+stood ever in waiting in the street below, close to the shaft of a
+private automatic elevator, which ran through the building for his
+use alone. This elevator also penetrated the restaurant in the
+basement of the building, where a private room and a special waiter
+were always at the man's disposal. A private room and special
+attendant were maintained in the Turkish baths adjoining, and he
+had his own personal suite and valet at his favorite club up-town.
+
+This morning he was at his desk, as usual, at eight o'clock. Before
+him lay the various daily reports from his mines, his mills, his
+railroads, and his bank. These disposed of, there followed a quick
+survey of the day's appointments, arranged for him by his chief
+secretary. Then he summoned Hood. As the latter entered, Ames was
+absorbed in the legend of the stock ticker.
+
+"C. and R. closed yesterday at twenty-six," he commented. Then,
+swinging back in his chair, "What's Stolz doing?"
+
+"For one thing, he has made Miss Fagin his private stenographer,"
+replied Hood.
+
+Ames chuckled. "Now we will begin to get real information," he
+remarked. "Tell Miss Fagin you will give her fifty dollars a week from
+now on; but she is to deliver to you a carbon copy of every letter she
+writes for Stolz. And I want those copies on my desk every morning
+when I come down. Hood," he continued, abruptly turning the
+conversation, "what have you dug up about Ketchim's new company?"
+
+"Very little, sir," replied Hood with a trace of embarrassment. "His
+lawyer is a fledgeling named Cass, young, but wise enough not to talk.
+I called on him yesterday afternoon to have a little chat about the
+old Molino company, representing that I was speaking for certain
+stockholders. But he told me to bring the stockholders in and he would
+talk with them personally."
+
+Ames laughed, while the lawyer grinned sheepishly. "Is that the sort
+of service you are rendering for a hundred-thousand-dollar salary?" he
+bantered. "Hood, I'm ashamed of you!"
+
+"I can't blame you; I am ashamed of myself," replied the lawyer.
+
+"Well," continued Ames good-naturedly, "leave Ketchim to me. I've got
+three men now buying small amounts of stock in his various companies.
+I'll call for receiverships pretty soon, and we will see this time
+that he doesn't refund the money. Now about other matters: the Albany
+post trolley deal is to go through. Also the potato scheme. Work up
+the details and let me have them at once. Have you got the senate bill
+drawn for Gossitch?"
+
+"It will be ready this afternoon. As it stands now, the repealing
+section gives any city the right to grant saloon licenses of
+indefinite length, instead of for one year."
+
+"That's the idea. We want the bill so drawn that it will become
+practically impossible to revoke a license."
+
+"As it now reads," said Hood, "it makes a saloon license assignable.
+That creates a property right that can hardly be revoked."
+
+"Just so," returned Ames. "As I figure, it will create a value of some
+twenty millions for those who own saloons in New York. A tidy sum!"
+
+"That means for the brewers."
+
+"And distillers, yes. And if the United States ever reaches the point
+where it will have to buy the saloons in order to wipe them out, it
+will face a very handsome little expenditure."
+
+"But, Mr. Ames, a very large part of the stock of American brewing
+companies is owned in Europe. How are you--"
+
+"Nominally, it is. But for two years, and more, I have been quietly
+gathering in brewing stock from abroad, and to-day I have some ten
+millions in my own control, from actual purchases, options, and so
+forth. I'm going to organize a holding company, when the time arrives,
+and I figure that within the next year or so we will practically
+control the production of beer and spirituous liquors in the United
+States and Europe. The formation of that company will be a task worthy
+of your genius, Hood."
+
+"It will be a pleasure to undertake it," replied Hood with animation.
+"By the way, Mr. Ames, I got in touch with Senator Mall last evening
+at the club, and he assures me that the senate committee have so
+changed the phraseology of the tariff bill on cotton products that the
+clause you wish retained will be continued with its meaning unaltered.
+In fact, the discrimination which the hosiery interests desire will be
+fully observed. Your suggestion as to an ad valorem duty of fifty per
+cent on hose valued at less than sixty-five cents a dozen pairs is
+exceptionally clever, in view of the fact that there are none of less
+than that value."
+
+Ames laughed again. "Triumphant Republicanism," he commented. "And
+right in the face of the President's message. Wire Mall that I will be
+in Washington Thursday evening to advise with him further about it.
+And you will go with me. Hood, we've got a fight on in regard to
+the President's idea of granting permission in private suits to use
+judgments and facts brought out and entered in government suits
+against combinations. That idea has got to be killed! And the
+regulation of security issues of railroads--preposterous! Why, the
+President's crazy! If Mall and Gossitch and Wells don't oppose
+that in the Senate, I'll see that they are up before the lunacy
+commission--and I have some influence with that body!"
+
+"There is nothing to fear, I think," replied Hood reassuringly. "An
+important piece of business legislation like that will hardly go
+through this session. And then we will have time to prepare to
+frustrate it. The suggestion to place the New York Stock Exchange
+under government supervision is a much more serious matter, I think."
+
+"See here, Hood," said Ames, leaning forward and laying a hand upon
+that gentleman's knee, "when that happens, we'll have either a
+Socialist president or a Catholic in the White House, with Rome
+twitching the string. Then I shall move to my Venezuelan estates, take
+the vow of poverty, and turn monk."
+
+"Which reminds me again that by your continued relations with Rome you
+are doing much to promote just that state of affairs," returned the
+lawyer sententiously.
+
+"Undoubtedly," said Ames. "But I find the Catholic Church
+convenient--indeed, necessary--for the promotion of certain plans. And
+so I use it. The Colombian revolution, for example. But I shall
+abruptly sever my relations with that institution some day--when I am
+through with it. At present I am milking the Church to the extent of a
+brimming pail every year; and as long as the udder is full and
+accessible I shall continue to tap it. I tapped the Presbyterian
+Church, through Borwell, last year, if you remember."
+
+Willett, chief secretary to Ames, entered at that moment with the
+morning mail, opened and sorted, and replies written to letters of
+such nature as he could attend to without suggestions from his chief.
+
+"By the way," remarked Hood when he saw the letters, "I had word from
+Collins this morning that he had secured a signed statement from that
+fellow Marcus, who was crushed in the Avon mills yesterday. Marcus
+accepted the medical services of our physicians, and died in our
+hospital. Just before he went off, his wife accepted a settlement of
+one hundred dollars. Looked big to her, I guess, and was a bird in the
+hand. So that matter's settled."
+
+"That reminds me," said Ames, looking up from his mail; "we are going
+to close the mills earlier this year on account of the cotton
+shortage."
+
+Hood gave a low whistle. "That spells trouble, in capital letters!" he
+commented. "Four thousand hands idle for three months, I suppose. By
+George! we just escaped disaster last year, you remember."
+
+"It will be more than three months this time," commented Ames with a
+knowing look. Then--"Hood, I verily believe you are a coward."
+
+"Well, Mr. Ames," replied the latter slowly, "I certainly would
+hesitate to do some of the things you do. Yet you seem to get away
+with them."
+
+"Perk up, Hood," laughed Ames. "I've got real work for you as soon as
+I get control of C. and R. I'm going to put you in as president, at a
+salary of one hundred thousand per annum. Then you are going to buy
+the road for me for about two million dollars, and I'll reorganize and
+sell to the stockholders for five millions, still retaining control.
+The road is only a scrap heap, but its control is the first step
+toward the amalgamation of the trolley interests of New England. Laws
+are going to be violated, Hood, both in actual letter and in spirit.
+But that's your end of the business. It's up to you to get around the
+Interstate Commerce Commission in any way you can, and buttress this
+little monopoly against competition and reform-infected legislatures.
+I don't care what it costs."
+
+"What about Crabbe?" asked Hood dubiously.
+
+"We'll send Crabbe to the Senate," Ames coolly replied.
+
+"You seem to forget that senators are now elected by the people, Mr.
+Ames."
+
+"I forget nothing, sir. The people are New York City, Buffalo, and
+Albany. Tammany is New York. And Tammany at present is in my pocket.
+Buffalo and Albany can be swept by the Catholic vote. And I have that
+in the upper right hand drawer of my private file. The 'people' will
+therefore elect to the Senate the man I choose. In fact, I prefer
+direct election of senators over the former method, for the people are
+greater fools _en masse_ than any State Legislature that ever
+assembled."
+
+He took up another letter from the pile on his desk and glanced
+through it. "From Borwell," he commented. "Protests against the way
+you nullified the Glaze-Bassett red-light injunction bill. Pretty
+clever, that, Hood. I really didn't think it was in you."
+
+"Invoking the referendum, you mean?" said Hood, puffing a little with
+pride.
+
+"Yes. But for that, the passage of the bill would have wiped out the
+whole red-light district, and quartered the rents I now get from my
+shacks down there. Now next year we will be better prepared to fight
+the bill. The press will be with us then--a little cheaper and a
+trifle more degraded than it is to-day."
+
+A private messenger entered with a cablegram. Ames read it and handed
+it to his lawyer. "The _Proteus_ has reached the African Gold Coast at
+last," he said. Then he threw back his head and laughed heartily. "Do
+you know, Hood, the _Proteus_ carried two missionaries, sent to the
+frizzle-topped Zulus by Borwell and his outfit. Deutsch and Company
+cable that they have arrived."
+
+"But," said Hood in some perplexity, "the cargo of the _Proteus_ was
+rum!"
+
+"Just so," roared Ames; "that's where the joke comes in. I make it a
+point that every ship of mine that carries a missionary to a foreign
+field shall also carry a cargo of rum. The combination is one that the
+Zulu finds simply irresistible!"
+
+"So," commented Hood, "the Church goes down to Egypt for help!"
+
+"Why not?" returned Ames. "I carry the missionaries free on my rum
+boats. Great saving to the Board of Foreign Missions, you know."
+
+Hood looked at the man before him in undisguised admiration of his
+cunning. "And did you likewise send missionaries to China with your
+opium cargoes?" he asked.
+
+Ames chuckled. "I once sent Borwell himself to Hongkong on a boat
+loaded to the rails with opium. We had insisted on his taking a needed
+vacation, and so packed him off to Europe. In Bombay I cabled him to
+take the _Crotus_ to Hongkong, transportation free. That was my last
+consignment of opium to China, for restrictions had already fallen
+upon our very Christian England, and the opium traffic was killed. I
+had plans laid to corner the entire opium business in India, and I'd
+have cleaned up a hundred million out of it, but for the pressure of
+public sentiment. However, we're going to educate John Chinaman to
+substitute whiskey for opium. But now," glancing at the great electric
+wall clock, "I've wasted enough time with you. By the way, do you know
+why this Government withheld recognition of the Chinese Republic?"
+
+"No," replied Hood, standing in anticipation.
+
+"Thirty thousand chests of opium," returned Ames laconically. "Value,
+fifty million dollars."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Ames and Company had advanced to the English banks of Shanghai and
+Hongkong half this amount, loaned on the opium. That necessitated a
+few plain words from me to the President, and a quick trip from
+Washington to London afterwards to interview his most Christian
+British Majesty. A very pleasant and profitable trip, Hood, very! Now
+tell Willett I want him."
+
+Hood threw his chief another look of intense admiration, and left the
+room. Willett's entrance followed immediately.
+
+"Get Lafelle here some time to-day when I have a vacant hour,"
+commanded Ames. "Cable to acting-Bishop Wenceslas, of Cartagena, and
+ask him if an American mining company is registered there under the
+name of Simiti Development Company, and what properties they have and
+where located. Tell him to cable reply, and follow with detailed
+letter."
+
+He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. "The Congregation of
+the Sacred Index has laid the ban on--what's the name of the book?" He
+drew out a card-index drawer and selected a card, which he tossed to
+the secretary. "There it is. Get me the book at once." He seemed to
+muse a while, then went on slowly. "Carlos Madero, of Mexico, is in
+New York. Learn where he is staying, and arrange an interview for me.
+Wire Senator Wells, Washington, that the bill for a Children's Bureau
+must not be taken from the table. That's final. Wire the Sequana Coal
+Company that I want their report to-morrow, without fail. Wire
+Collins, at Avon, to tell the Spinners' Union I have nothing to
+discuss with them. Now send Hodson in."
+
+As Hood was chief of the Ames legal department, and Willett the chief
+of his army of secretaries, so Hodson was the captain of his force of
+brokers, a keen, sagacious trader, whose knowledge of the market and
+whose ability in the matter of stock trading was almost uncanny.
+
+"What's your selection for to-day, Hodson?" asked Ames, as the man
+entered.
+
+Hodson laid on his desk three lists of suggested deals on the
+exchanges of New York, London, and Paris. Ames glanced over them
+hurriedly, drawing his pencil through certain that did not meet his
+approval, and substituting others in which for particular reasons he
+wished to trade that morning. "What's your reason for thinking I ought
+to buy Public Utilities?" he asked, looking up at his broker.
+
+"They have the letting of the Hudson river tunnel contract," replied
+Hodson.
+
+Ames studied the broker's face a moment. Then his own brightened, as
+he began to divine the man's reason. "By George!" he ejaculated, "you
+think there's quicksand along the proposed route?"
+
+"I know it," said Hodson calmly.
+
+"Pick up ten thousand shares, if you can get them," returned Ames
+quickly. Then--"I'm going to attend a meeting of the Council of
+American Grain Exchanges at two to-day. I want you to be just outside
+the door."
+
+Hodson nodded understandingly. Ames concluded, "I guess that's all.
+I'm at the bank at ten; at the Board of Trade at ten-thirty; Stock
+Exchange at eleven; and lunch at Rector's at twelve sharp, returning
+here immediately afterward."
+
+Hodson again bowed, and left the office to undertake his various
+commissions.
+
+For the next half hour Ames pored over the morning's quota of letters
+and messages, making frequent notes, and often turning to the
+telephone at his hand. Then he summoned a stenographer and rapidly
+dictated a number of replies. Finally he again called Willett.
+
+"In my next vacant hour, following the one devoted to Lafelle, I want
+to see Reverend Darius Borwell," he directed. "Also," he continued,
+"wire Strunz that I want a meeting of the Brewers' Union called at the
+earliest possible date. By the way, ask Lafelle if he can spend the
+night with me on board the _Cossack_, and if so, notify Captain
+McCall. That will save an hour in the day. Here is a bundle of
+requests for charity, for contributions to hospitals, orphan asylums,
+and various homes. Turn them all down, regretfully. H'm! 'Phone to the
+City Assessor to come over whenever you can arrange an hour and go
+over my schedule with me. By the way, tell Hood to take steps at once
+to foreclose on the Bradley estate. Did you find out where Ketchim
+does his banking?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the secretary, "the Commercial State."
+
+"Very well, get the president, Mr. Colson, on the wire."
+
+A few moments later Ames had purchased from the Commercial State bank
+its note against the Ketchim Realty Company for ten thousand dollars.
+"I thought Ketchim would be borrowing again," he chuckled, when he had
+completed the transaction. "His brains are composed of a disastrous
+mixture of hypocrisy and greed. I've thrown another hook into him
+now."
+
+At nine forty-five Ames left his private office and descended in his
+elevator to the banking house on the second floor. He entered the
+directors' room with a determined carriage, nodding pleasantly to his
+associates. Taking his seat as chairman, he promptly called the
+meeting to order.
+
+Some preliminary business occupied the first few minutes, and then
+Ames announced:
+
+"Gentlemen, when the State of New York offered the public sixty
+millions of four per cent bonds last week, and I advised you to take
+them at a premium of six per cent, you objected. I overruled you, and
+the bank bought the bonds. Within forty-eight hours they were resold
+at a premium of seven per cent, and the bank cleared six hundred
+thousand. A fair two days' business. Now let me suggest that the
+psychology of this transaction is worth your study. A commodity is a
+drug on the market at one dollar, until somebody is willing to pay a
+dollar and a half for it. Then a lot of people will want it, until
+somebody else offers a bid of two. Then the price will soar, and the
+number of those who covet the article and scramble for it will
+increase proportionably. Take this thought home with you."
+
+A murmur of admiration rose from the directors. "I think," said one,
+"that we had better send Mr. Ames to Washington to confer with the
+President in regard to the proposed currency legislation."
+
+"That is already arranged," put in Ames. "I meet the President next
+Thursday for a conference on this matter."
+
+"And if he proves intractable?" queried another.
+
+"Why, in that case," returned Ames with a knowing smile, "I think we
+had better give him a little lesson to take out of office with
+him--one that will ruin his second-term hopes--and then close our
+bank."
+
+From the bank, the Board of Trade, the Stock Exchange, and his
+luncheon with Senator Gossitch, Ames returned to his office for the
+private interviews which his chief secretary had arranged. Then
+followed further consultations with Hood over the daily, weekly, and
+monthly reports which Ames required from all the various commercial,
+financial, and mining enterprises in which he was interested; further
+discussions of plans and schemes; further receipt and transmission of
+cable, telegraphic, and telephone messages; and meetings with his
+heads of departments, his captains, lieutenants, and minor officers,
+to listen to their reports and suggestions, and to deliver his quick,
+decisive commands, admonitions, and advice. From eight in the morning
+until, as was his wont, Ames closed his desk and entered his private
+elevator at five-thirty in the evening, his office flashed with the
+superenergy of the man, with his intense activity, his decisive words,
+and his stupendous endeavors, materialistic, absorptive, ruthless
+endeavors. If one should ask what his day really amounted to, we can
+but point to these incessant endeavors and their results in augmenting
+his already vast material interests and his colossal fortune, a
+fortune which Hood believed ran well over a hundred millions, and
+which Ames himself knew multiplied that figure by five or ten. And the
+fortune was increasing at a frightful pace, for he gave nothing, but
+continually drew to himself, always and ever drawing, accumulating,
+amassing, and absorbing, and for himself alone.
+
+Snapping his desk shut, he held a brief conversation over the wire
+with the Beaubien, then descended to his waiting car and was driven
+hastily to his yacht, the _Cossack_, where Monsignor Lafelle awaited
+as his guest. It was one of the few pleasures which Ames allowed
+himself during the warm months, to drop his multifarious interests and
+spend the night aboard the _Cossack_, generally alone, rocking gently
+on the restless billows, so typical of his own heaving spirit, as the
+beautiful craft steamed noiselessly to and fro along the coast, well
+beyond the roar of the huge _arena_ where human beings, formed of
+dust, yet fatuously believing themselves made in the image of infinite
+Spirit, strive and sweat, curse and slay, in the struggle to prove
+their doubtful right to live.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 13
+
+
+The _Cossack_, with its great turbines purring like a sleeping kitten,
+and its twin screws turning lazily, almost imperceptibly in the dark
+waters, moved through the frosty night like a cloud brooding over the
+deep. Yet it was a cloud of tremendous potentiality, enwrapping a
+spirit of energy incarnate. From far aloft its burning eye pierced a
+channel of light through the murky darkness ahead. In its wake it drew
+a swell of sparkling phosphorescence, which it carelessly tossed off
+on either side as a Calif might throw handfuls of glittering coins to
+his fawning beggars. From somewhere in the structure above, the
+crackling, hissing wireless mechanism was thrusting its invisible
+hands out into the night and catching the fleeting messages that were
+borne on the intangible pulsations of the mysterious ether. From time
+to time these messages were given form and body, and despatched to the
+luxurious suite below, where, in the dazzling sheen of silver and cut
+glass, spread out over richest napery, and glowing beneath a torrent
+of white light, sat the gigantic being whose will directed the
+movements of this floating palace.
+
+"You see, Lafelle, I look upon religion with the eye of the
+cold-blooded business man, without the slightest trace of sentimentalism.
+From the business standpoint, the Protestant Church is a dead failure.
+It doesn't get results that are in any way commensurate with its
+investment. But your Church is a success--from the point of dollars and
+cents. In fact, in the matter of forming and maintaining a monopoly, I
+take off my hat to the Vatican. You fellows have got us all beaten.
+Every day I learn something of value by studying your methods of
+operating upon the public. And so you see why I take such pleasure in
+talking with really astute churchmen like yourself."
+
+Monsignor Lafelle studied the man without replying, uncertain just
+what interpretation to put upon the remark. The Japanese servant was
+clearing away the remnants of the meal, having first lighted the
+cigars of the master and guest.
+
+"Now," continued Ames, leaning back in his luxurious chair and musing
+over his cigar, "the purgatory idea is one of the cleverest schemes
+ever foisted upon the unthinking masses, and it has proved a veritable
+Klondike. Gad! if I could think up and put over a thing like that I'd
+consider myself really possessed of brains."
+
+Lafelle's eyes twinkled. "I fear, Mr. Ames," he replied adroitly, "you
+do not know your Bible."
+
+"No, that's true. I don't suppose I ever in my life read a whole
+chapter in the book. I can't swallow such stuff, Lafelle--utterly
+unreasonable, wholly inconsistent with facts and natural laws, as we
+know and are able to observe them. Even as a child I never had any
+use for fairy-tales, or wonder-stories. I always wanted facts,
+tangible, concrete, irrefutable facts, not hypotheses. The Protestant
+churches hand out a mess of incoherent guesswork, based on as many
+interpretations of the Bible as there are human minds sufficiently
+interested to interpret it, and then wax hot and angry when
+hard-headed business men like myself refuse to subscribe to it.
+It's preposterous, Lafelle! If they had anything tangible to
+offer, it would be different. But I go to church for the looks of
+the thing, and for business reasons; and then stick pins into myself
+to keep awake while I listen to pedagogical Borwell tell what he
+doesn't know about God and man. Then at the close of the service I
+drop a five-dollar bill into the plate for the entertainment, and
+go away with the feeling that I didn't get my money's worth. From a
+business point of view, a Protestant church service is worth about
+twenty-five cents for the music, and five cents for the privilege of
+sleeping on a soft cushion. So you see I lose four dollars and
+seventy cents every time I attend. You Catholic fellows, with your
+ceremonial and legerdemain, give a much better entertainment.
+Besides, I like to hear your priests soak it to their cowering
+flocks."
+
+Lafelle sighed. "I shall have to class you with the incorrigibles," he
+said with a rueful air. "I am sorry you take such a harsh attitude
+toward us. We are really more spiritual--"
+
+Ames interrupted with a roar of laughter. "Don't! don't!" he pleaded,
+holding up a hand. "Why, Lafelle, you old fraud, I look upon your
+Church as a huge business institution, a gigantic trust, as mercenary
+and merciless as Steel, Oil, or Tobacco! Why, you and I are in the
+same business, that of making money! And I'd like to borrow some of
+your methods. You catch 'em through religion. I have to use other
+methods. But the end is the same. Only, you've got it over me, for you
+hurl the weight of centuries of authority upon the poor, trembling
+public; and I have to beat them down with clubs of my own making.
+Moreover, the law protects you in all your pious methods; while I have
+to hire expensive legal talent to get around it."
+
+"You seem to be fairly successful, even at that," retorted Lafelle.
+Then, too politic to draw his host into an acrimonious argument that
+might end in straining their now cordial and mutually helpful
+friendship, he observed, looking at his cigar: "May I ask what you pay
+for these?--for only an inexhaustible bank reserve can warrant their
+like."
+
+He had struck the right chord, and Ames softened at once. "These," he
+said, tenderly regarding the thick, black weed in his fingers, "are
+grown exclusively for me on my own plantation in Colombia. They cost
+me about one dollar and sixty-eight cents each, laid down at my door
+in New York. I searched the world over before I found the only spot
+where such tobacco could be grown."
+
+"And this wine?" continued Lafelle, lifting his glass of sparkling
+champagne.
+
+"On a little hillside, scarcely an acre in extent, in Granada, Spain,"
+replied Ames. "I have my own wine press and bottling plant there."
+
+Lafelle could not conceal his admiration for this man of luxury. "And
+does your exclusiveness extend also to your tea and coffee?" he
+ventured, smiling.
+
+"It does," said Ames. "I grow tea for my table in both China and
+Ceylon. And I have exclusive coffee plantations in Java and Brazil.
+But I'm now negotiating for one in Colombia, for I think that, without
+doubt, the finest coffee in the world is grown there, although it
+never gets beyond the coast line."
+
+"_Fortuna non deo_," murmured the churchman; "you man of chance and
+destiny!"
+
+Ames laughed genially. "My friend," said he, "I have always insisted
+that I possessed but a modicum of brains; but I am a gambler. My god
+is chance. With ordinary judgment and horse-sense, I take risks that
+no so-called sane man would consider. The curse of the world is
+fear--the chief instrument that you employ to hold the masses to your
+churchly system. I was born without it. I know that as long as a
+business opponent has fear to contend with, I am his master. Fear is
+at the root of every ailment of mind, body, or environment. I repeat,
+I know not the meaning of the word. Hence my position in the business
+world. Hence, also, my freedom from the limitations of superstition,
+religious or otherwise. Do you get me?"
+
+"Yes," replied Lafelle, drawing a long sigh, "in a sense I do. But you
+greatly err, my friend, in deprecating your own powerful intellect. I
+know of no brain but yours that could have put South Ohio Oil from one
+hundred and fifty dollars up to over two thousand a share. I had a few
+shares of that stock myself. But I held until it broke."
+
+Ames smiled knowingly. "Sorry I didn't know about it," he said. "I
+could have saved you. I didn't own a dollar's worth of South Ohio. Oh,
+yes," he added, as he saw Lafelle's eyes widening in surprise, "I
+pushed the market up until a certain lady, whom you and I both know,
+thought it unwise to go further, and then I sprung the sudden
+discovery of Colombian oil fields on them; and the market crashed
+like a burst balloon. The lady cleared some two millions on the rig.
+No, I didn't have a drop of Colombian oil to grease the chute. It was
+American nerve, that's all."
+
+"Well!" ejaculated Lafelle. "If you had lived in the Middle Ages you'd
+have been burnt for possessing a devil!"
+
+"On the contrary," quickly amended Ames, his eyes twinkling, "I'd have
+been made a Cardinal."
+
+Both men laughed over the retort; and then Ames summoned the valet to
+set in motion the great electrical pipe-organ, and to bring the
+whiskey and soda.
+
+For the next hour the two men gave themselves up to the supreme luxury
+of their magnificent environment, the stimulation of their beverage
+and cigars, and the soothing effect of the soft music, combined with
+the gentle movement of the boat. Then Ames took his guest into the
+smoking room proper, and drew up chairs before a small table, on which
+were various papers and writing materials.
+
+"Now," he began, "referring to your telephone message of this morning,
+what is it that you want me to do for you? Is it the old question of
+establishing a nunciature at Washington?"
+
+Lafelle had been impatiently awaiting this moment. He therefore
+plunged eagerly into his subject. "Mr. Ames," said he, "I know you to
+have great influence at the Capital. In the interests of humanity, I
+ask you to use that influence to prevent the passage of the
+immigration bill which provides for a literacy test."
+
+Ames smiled inwardly. There was no need of this request; for, in the
+interests, not of humanity, but of his own steamship companies, he
+intended that there should be no restriction imposed upon immigration.
+But the Church was again playing into his hands, coming to him for
+favors. And the Church always paid heavily for his support. "Well!
+well!" he exclaimed with an assumption of interest, "so you ask me to
+impugn my own patriotism!"
+
+Lafelle looked perplexed. "I don't quite understand," he said.
+
+"Why," Ames explained, "how long do you figure it will take, with
+unrestricted immigration, for the Catholics to so outnumber the
+Protestants in the United States as to establish their religion by law
+and force it into the schools?"
+
+Lafelle flushed. "But your Constitution provides toleration for all
+religions!"
+
+"And the Constitution is quite flexible, and wholly subject to
+amendment, is it not?"
+
+Lafelle flared out in unrestrained anger. "What a bugaboo you
+Protestants make of Roman Catholicism!" he cried. "Great heavens! Why,
+one would think that we Catholics were all anarchists! Are we such a
+menace, such a curse to your Republican institutions? Do you ever stop
+to realize what the Church has done for civilization, and for your
+own country? And where, think you, would art and learning be now but
+for her? Have you any adequate idea what the Church is doing
+to-day for the poor, for the oppressed? Good God! You Protestants,
+a thousand times more intolerant than we, treat us as if we were
+Hindoo pariahs! This whole country is suffering from the delirium of
+Roman Catholic-phobia! Will you drive us to armed defense?"
+
+"There, my friend, calm yourself," soothed Ames, laying a hand on the
+irate churchman's arm. "And please do not class me with the
+Protestants, for I am not one of them. You Catholic fellows have made
+admirable gains in the past few years, and your steady encroachments
+have netted you about ninety per cent of all the political offices in
+and about Washington, so you have no complaint, even if the Church
+isn't in politics. H'm! So you want my help, eh?"
+
+He stopped and drummed on the table. Meantime, his brain was working
+rapidly. "By the way, Lafelle," he said, abruptly resuming the
+conversation, "you know all about church laws and customs, running way
+back to mediaeval times. Can't you dig up some old provision whereby I
+can block a fellow who claims to own a gold mine down in Colombia? If
+you can, I'll see that the President vetoes every obnoxious
+immigration bill that's introduced this term."
+
+Lafelle roused from his sulk and gulped down his wrath. Ames went on
+to express his desire for vengeance upon one obscure Philip O. Ketchim,
+broker, promoter, church elder, and Sunday school superintendent.
+Lafelle became interested. The conversation grew more and more animated.
+Hours passed.
+
+Then at length Ames rose and rang for his valet. "My God, Lafelle, the
+idea's a corker!" he cried, his eyes ablaze. "Where'd you get it?"
+
+Lafelle laughed softly. "From a book entitled 'Confessions of a Roman
+Catholic Priest,' written anonymously, but, they say, by a young
+attache of the Vatican who was insane at the time. I never learned his
+name. However, he was apparently well informed on matters Colombian."
+
+"And what do you call the law?"
+
+"The law of _'en manos muertas'_," replied Lafelle.
+
+"Well," exclaimed Ames, "again I take off my hat to your churchly
+system! And now," he continued eagerly, "cable the Pope at once. I'll
+have the operator send your code ashore by wireless, and the message
+will go to Rome to-night. Tell the old man you've got influence at
+work in Washington that is--well, more than strong, and that the
+prospects for defeating the immigration bill are excellent."
+
+Lafelle arose and stood for a moment looking about the room. "Before I
+retire, my friend," he said, "I would like to express again the
+admiration which the tasteful luxury of this smoking room has aroused
+in me, and to ask, if I may, whether those stained-glass windows up
+there are merely fanciful portraits?"
+
+Ames quickly glanced up at the faces of the beautiful women portrayed
+in the rectangular glass windows which lined the room just below the
+ceiling. They were exquisitely painted, in vivid colors, and so set as
+to be illuminated during the day by sunlight, and at night by strong
+electric lamps behind them. "Why do you ask?" he inquired in wonder.
+
+"Because," returned Lafelle, "if I mistake not, I have seen a portrait
+similar to that one," pointing up at one of the windows, where a sad,
+wistful face of rare loveliness looked down upon them.
+
+Ames started slightly. "Where, may I ask?" he said in a controlled
+voice.
+
+Lafelle reflected. In his complete absorption he had not noticed the
+effect of his query upon Ames. "I do not know," he replied slowly.
+"London--Paris--Berlin--no, not there. And yet, it was in Europe, I am
+sure. Ah, I have it! In the Royal Gallery, at Madrid."
+
+Ames stared at him dully. "In the--Royal Gallery--at Madrid!" he
+echoed in a low tone.
+
+"Yes," continued Lafelle confidently, still studying the portrait, "I
+am certain of it. But," turning abruptly upon Ames, "you may have
+known the original?"
+
+Ames had recovered his composure. "I assure you I never had that
+pleasure," he said lightly. "These art windows were set in by the
+designer of the yacht. Clever idea, I thought. Adds much to the
+general effect, don't you think? By the way, if a portrait similar to
+that one hangs in the Royal Gallery at Madrid, you might try to learn
+the identity of the original for me. It's quite interesting to feel
+that one may have the picture of some bewitching member of royalty
+hanging in his own apartments. By all means try to learn who the lady
+is--unless you know." He stopped and searched the churchman's face.
+
+But Lafelle shook his head. "No, I do not know her. But--that picture
+has haunted me from the day I first saw it in the Royal Gallery. Who
+designed your yacht?"
+
+"Crafts, of 'Storrs and Crafts,'" replied Ames. "But he died a year
+ago. Storrs is gone, too. No help from that quarter."
+
+Lafelle moved thoughtfully toward the door. The valet appeared at that
+moment.
+
+"Show Monsignor to his stateroom," commanded Ames. "Good night,
+Monsignor, good night. Remember, we dock at seven-thirty, sharp."
+
+Returning to the table, Ames sat down and rapidly composed a message
+for his wireless operator to send across the dark waters to the city,
+and thence to acting-Bishop Wenceslas, in Cartagena. This done, he
+extinguished all the lights in the room excepting those which
+illuminated the stained-glass windows above. Drawing his chair up in
+front of the one which had stirred Lafelle's query, he sat before it
+far into the morning, in absorbed contemplation, searching the sad
+features of the beautiful face, pondering, revolving, sometimes
+murmuring aloud, sometimes passing a hand across his brow, as if he
+would erase from a relentless memory an impression made long since and
+worn ever deeper by the recurrent thought of many years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 14
+
+
+Almost within the brief period of a year, the barefoot, calico-clad
+Carmen had been ejected from unknown Simiti and dropped into the midst
+of the pyrotechnical society life of the great New World metropolis.
+Only an unusual interplay of mental forces could have brought about
+such an odd result. But that it was a very logical outcome of the
+reaction upon one another of human ambitions, fears, lust, and greed,
+operating through the types of mind among which her life had been
+cast, those who have followed our story thus far can have no doubt.
+The cusp of the upward-sweeping curve had been reached through the
+insane eagerness of Mrs. Hawley-Crowles to outdo her wealthy society
+rivals in an arrogant display of dress, living, and vain, luxurious
+entertaining, and the acquisition of the empty honor attaching to
+social leadership. The coveted prize was now all but within the
+shallow woman's grasp. Alas! she knew not that when her itching
+fingers closed about it the golden bauble would crumble to ashes.
+
+The program as outlined by the Beaubien had been faithfully followed.
+Mrs. J. Wilton Ames had met Mrs. Hawley-Crowles--whom, of course, she
+had long desired to know more intimately--and an interchange of calls
+had ensued, succeeded by a grand reception at the Ames mansion, the
+first of the social season. To this Mrs. Hawley-Crowles floated, as
+upon a cloud, attired in a French gown which cost fifteen hundred
+dollars, and shoes on her disproportioned feet for which she had
+rejoiced to pay thirty dollars each, made as they had been from
+specially selected imported leather, dyed to match her rich robe. It
+was true, her pleasure had not been wholly unalloyed, for she had been
+conscious of a trace of superciliousness on the part of some of the
+gorgeous birds of paradise, twittering and hopping in their hampering
+skirts about the Ames parlors, and pecking, with milk-fed content, at
+the rare cakes and ices. But she only held her empty head the higher,
+and fluttered about the more ostentatiously and clumsily, while
+anticipating the effect which her charming and talented ward would
+produce when she should make her bow to these same vain, haughty
+devotees of the cult of gold. And she had wisely planned that Carmen's
+_debut_ should follow that of Kathleen Ames, that it might eclipse her
+rival's in its wanton display of magnificence.
+
+On the heels of the Ames reception surged the full flood of the
+winter's social orgy. Early in November Kathleen Ames was duly
+presented. The occasion was made one of such stupendous display that
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles first gasped, then shivered with apprehension,
+lest she be unable to outdo it. She went home from it in a somewhat
+chastened frame of mind, and sat down at her _escritoire_ to make
+calculations. Could she on her meager annual income of one hundred and
+fifty thousand hope to meet the Ames millions? She had already allowed
+that her wardrobe would cost not less than twenty-five thousand
+dollars a year, to say nothing of the additional expense of properly
+dressing Carmen. But she now saw that this amount was hopelessly
+inadequate. She therefore increased the figure to seventy-five
+thousand. But that took half of her income. Could she maintain her
+city home, entertain in the style now demanded by her social position,
+and spend her summers at Newport, as she had planned? Clearly, not on
+that amount. No, her income would not suffice; she would be obliged to
+draw on the principal until Carmen could be married off to some
+millionaire, or until her own father died. Oh? if he would only
+terminate his useless existence soon!
+
+But, in lieu of that delayed desideratum, some expedient must be
+devised at once. She thought of the Beaubien. That obscure, retiring
+woman was annually making her millions. A tip now and then from her, a
+word of advice regarding the market, and her own limited income would
+expand accordingly. She had not seen the Beaubien since becoming a
+member of Holy Saints. But on that day, and again, two months later,
+when the splendid altar to the late lamented and patriotic citizen,
+the Honorable James Hawley-Crowles, was dedicated, she had marked the
+woman, heavily veiled, sitting alone in the rear of the great church.
+What had brought her there? she wondered. She had shuddered as she
+thought the tall, black-robed figure typified an ominous shadow
+falling athwart her own foolish existence.
+
+But there was no doubt of Carmen's hold on the strange, tarnished
+woman. And so, smothering her doubts and pocketing her pride, she
+again sought the Beaubien, ostensibly in regard to Carmen's
+forthcoming _debut_; and then, very adroitly and off-handedly, she
+brought up the subject of investments, alleging that the added burden
+of the young girl now rendered it necessary to increase the rate of
+interest which her securities were yielding.
+
+The Beaubien proved herself the soul of candor and generosity. Not
+only did she point out to Mrs. Hawley-Crowles how her modest income
+might be quadrupled, but she even offered, in such a way as to make it
+utterly impossible for that lady to take offense, to lend her whatever
+amount she might need, at any time, to further Carmen's social
+conquest. And during the conversation she announced that she herself
+was acting on a suggestion dropped by the great financier, Ames, and
+was buying certain stocks now being offered by a coming power in world
+finance, Mr. Philip O. Ketchim.
+
+Why, to be sure, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles had heard of this man! Was he not
+promoting a company in which her sister's husband, and the girl
+herself, were interested? And if such investments were good enough for
+a magnate of Ames's standing, they certainly were good enough for her.
+She would see Mr. Ketchim at once. Indeed, why had she not thought of
+this before! She would get Carmen to hypothecate her own interest in
+this new company, if necessary. That interest of itself was worth a
+fortune.
+
+Quite true. And if Mrs. Hawley-Crowles and Carmen so desired, the
+Beaubien would advance them whatever they might need on that
+security alone. Or, she would take the personal notes of Mrs.
+Hawley-Crowles--"For, you know, my dear," she said sweetly, "when
+your father passes away you are going to be very well off, indeed, and
+I can afford to discount that inevitable event somewhat, can I
+not?" And she not only could, but did.
+
+Then Mrs. Hawley-Crowles soared into the empyrean, and this
+self-absorbed woman, who never in her life had earned the equivalent
+of a single day's food, launched the sweet, white-souled girl of
+the tropics upon the oozy waters of New York society with such
+_eclat_ that the Sunday newspapers devoted a whole page, profusely
+illustrated, to the gorgeous event and dilated with much extravagance
+of expression upon the charms of the little Inca princess, and
+upon the very important and gratifying fact that the three hundred
+fashionable guests present displayed jewels to the value of not less
+than ten million dollars.
+
+The function took the form of a musicale, in which Carmen's rich
+voice was first made known to the _beau monde_. The girl instantly
+swept her auditors from their feet. The splendid pipe-organ, which
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles had hurriedly installed for the occasion,
+became a thing inspired under her deft touch. It seemed in that
+garish display of worldliness to voice her soul's purity, its
+wonder, its astonishment, its lament over the vacuities of this
+highest type of human society, its ominous threats of thundered
+denunciation on the day when her tongue should be loosed and the
+present mesmeric spell broken--for she was under a spell, even
+that of this new world of tinsel and material veneer.
+
+The decrepit old Mrs. Gannette wept on Carmen's shoulder, and went
+home vowing that she would be a better woman and cut out her night-cap
+of Scotch-and-soda. Others crowded about the girl and showered their
+fulsome praise upon her. But not so Mrs. Ames and her daughter
+Kathleen. They stared at the lovely _debutante_ with wonder and
+chagrin written legibly upon their bepowdered visages. And before the
+close of the function Kathleen had become so angrily jealous that she
+was grossly rude to Carmen when she bade her good night. For her own
+feeble light had been drowned in the powerful radiance of the girl
+from Simiti. And from that moment the assassination of the character
+of the little Inca princess was decreed.
+
+But, what with incessant striving to adapt herself to her environment,
+that she might search its farthest nook and angle; what with ceaseless
+efforts to check her almost momentary impulse to cry out against the
+vulgar display of modernity and the vicious inequity of privilege
+which she saw on every hand; what with her purity of thought; her rare
+ideals and selfless motives; her boundless love for humanity; and her
+passionate desire to so live her "message" that all the world might
+see and light their lamps at the torch of her burning love for God and
+her fellow-men, Carmen found her days a paradox, in that they were
+literally full of emptiness. After her _debut_, event followed event
+in the social life of the now thoroughly gay metropolis, and the poor
+child found herself hustled home from one function, only to change her
+attire and hurry again, weary of spirit, into the waiting car, to be
+whisked off to another equally vapid. It seemed to the bewildered girl
+that she would never learn what was _de rigueur_; what conventions
+must be observed at one social event, but amended at another. Her
+tight gowns and limb-hampering skirts typified the soul-limitation of
+her tinsel, environment; her high-heeled shoes were exquisite torture;
+and her corsets, which her French maid drew until the poor girl gasped
+for air, seemed to her the cruellest device ever fashioned by the
+vacuous, enslaved human mind. Frequently she changed her clothing
+completely three and four times a day to meet her social demands.
+Night became day; and she had to learn to sleep until noon. She found
+no time for study; none even for reading. And conversation, such as
+was indulged under the Hawley-Crowles roof, was confined to insipid
+society happenings, with frequent sprinklings of racy items anent
+divorce, scandal, murder, or the debauch of manhood. From this she
+drew more and more aloof and became daily quieter.
+
+It was seldom, too, that she could escape from the jaded circle of
+society revelers long enough to spend a quiet hour with the Beaubien.
+But when she could, she would open the reservoirs of her soul and give
+full vent to her pent-up emotions. "Oh," she would often exclaim, as
+she sat at the feet of the Beaubien in the quiet of the darkened music
+room, and gazed into the crackling fire, "how can they--how can
+they!"
+
+Then the Beaubien would pat her soft, glowing cheek and murmur, "Wait,
+dearie, wait." And the tired girl would sigh and close her eyes and
+dream of the quiet of little Simiti and of the dear ones there from
+whom she now heard no word, and yet whom she might not seek, because
+of the war which raged about her lowly birthplace.
+
+The gay season was hardly a month advanced when Mrs. Ames angrily
+admitted to herself that her own crown was in gravest danger. The
+South American girl--and because of her, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles and her
+blase sister--had completely captured New York's conspicuous circle.
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles apparently did not lack for funds, but entertained
+with a display of reckless disregard for expense, and a carelessness
+of critical comment, that stirred the city to its depths and aroused
+expressions of wonder and admiration on every hand. The newspapers
+were full of her and her charming ward. Surely, if the girl's social
+prestige continued to soar, the Ames family soon would be relegated to
+the social "has-beens." And Mrs. Ames and her haughty daughter held
+many a serious conference over their dubious prospects.
+
+Ames himself chuckled. Night after night, when the Beaubien's dinner
+guests had dispersed, he would linger to discuss the social war now in
+full progress, and to exchange with her witty comments on the
+successes of the combatants. One night he announced, "Lafelle is in
+England; and when he returns he is coming by way of the West Indies. I
+shall cable him to stop for a week at Cartagena, to see Wenceslas on a
+little matter of business for me."
+
+The Beaubien smiled her comprehension. "Mrs. Hawley-Crowles has become
+nicely enmeshed in his net," she returned. "The altar to friend Jim is
+a beauty. Also, I hear that she is going to finance Ketchim's mining
+company in Colombia."
+
+"Fine!" said Ames. "I learned to-day that Ketchim's engineer, Harris,
+has returned to the States. Couldn't get up the Magdalena river, on
+account of the fighting. There will be nothing doing there for a year
+yet."
+
+"Just as well," commented the Beaubien. Then abruptly--"By the way, I
+now hold Mrs. Hawley-Crowles's notes to the amount of two hundred and
+fifty thousand dollars. I want you to buy them from me and be ready to
+turn the screws when I tell you."
+
+Ames roared with laughter. "Shrewd girl!" he exclaimed, pinching her
+cheek. "All right. I'll take them off your hands to-morrow. And by the
+way, I must meet this Carmen."
+
+"You let her alone," said the Beaubien quickly in a low voice.
+
+Ames wondered vaguely what she meant.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+The inauguration of the Grand Opera season opened to Mrs. Hawley-Crowles
+another avenue for her astonishing social activities. With rare
+shrewdness she had contrived to outwit Mrs. Ames and secure the center
+box in the "golden horseshoe" at the Metropolitan. There, like a gaudy
+garden spider in its glittering web, she sat on the opening night,
+with her rapt _protegee_ at her side, and sent her insolent challenge
+broadcast. Multimillionaires and their haughty, full-toileted dames were
+ranged on either side of her, brewers and packers, distillers and
+patent medicine concoctors, railroad magnates and Board of Trade
+plungers, some under indictment, others under the shadow of death,
+all under the mesmeric charm of gold. In the box at her left sat the
+Ames family, with their newly arrived guests, the Dowager Duchess of
+Altern and her son. Though inwardly boiling, Mrs. Ames was smiling
+and affable when she exchanged calls with the gorgeous occupants of
+the Hawley-Crowles box.
+
+"So chawmed to meet you," murmured the heir of Altern, a callow youth
+of twenty-three, bowing over the dainty, gloved hand of Carmen. Then,
+as he adjusted his monocle and fixed his jaded eyes upon the fresh
+young girl, "Bah Jove!"
+
+The gigantic form of Ames wedged in between the young man and Carmen.
+"I've heard a lot about you," he said genially, in a heavy voice that
+harmonized well with his huge frame; "but we haven't had an
+opportunity to get acquainted until to-night."
+
+For some moments he stood holding her hand and looking steadily at
+her. The girl gazed up at him with her trustful brown eyes alight, and
+a smile playing about her mouth. "My, but you are big!" she naively
+exclaimed.
+
+While she chatted brightly Ames held her hand and laughed at her
+frank, often witty, remarks. But then a curious, eager look came into
+his face, and he became quiet and reflective. He seemed unable to take
+his eyes from her. And when the girl gently drew her hand from his he
+laughed again, nervously.
+
+"I--I know something about Colombia," he said, "and speak the language
+a bit. We'll have to get together often, so's I can brush up."
+
+Then, apparently noticing Mrs. Hawley-Crowles and her sister for the
+first time--"Oh, so glad to see you both! Camorso's in fine voice
+to-night, eh?"
+
+He wheeled about and stood again looking at Carmen, until she blushed
+under his close gaze and turned her head away. Then he went back to
+his box. But throughout the evening, whenever the girl looked in the
+direction of the Ames family, she met the steady, piercing gaze of the
+man's keen gray eyes. And they seemed to her like sharp steel points,
+cutting into the portals of her soul.
+
+Night after night during the long season Carmen sat in the box and
+studied the operas that were produced on the boards before her
+wondering gaze. Always Mrs. Hawley-Crowles was with her. And
+generally, too, the young heir of Altern was there, occupying the
+chair next to the girl--which was quite as the solicitous Mrs.
+Hawley-Crowles had planned.
+
+"Aw--deucedly fine show to-night, Miss Carmen," the youth ventured one
+evening, as he took his accustomed place close to her.
+
+"The music is always beautiful," the girl responded. "But the play,
+like most of Grand Opera, is drawn from the darkest side of human
+life. It is a sordid picture of licentiousness and cruelty. Only for
+its setting in wonderful music, Grand Opera is generally such a
+depiction of sex-passion, of lust and murder, that it would not be
+permitted on the stage. A few years from now people will be horrified
+to remember that the preceding generation reveled in such blood
+scenes--just as we now speak with horror of the gladiatorial contests
+in ancient Rome."
+
+The young man regarded her uncertainly. "But--aw--Miss Carmen," he
+hazarded, "we must be true to life, you know!" Having delivered
+himself of this oracular statement, the youth adjusted his monocle and
+settled back as if he had given finality to a weighty argument.
+
+The girl looked at him pityingly. "You voice the cant of the modern
+writer, 'true lo life.' True to the horrible, human sense of life,
+that looks no higher than the lust of blood, and is satisfied with it,
+I admit. True to the unreal, temporal sense of existence, that is here
+to-day, and to-morrow has gone out in the agony of self-imposed
+suffering and death. True to that awful, false sense of life which we
+must put off if we would ever rise into the consciousness of _real_
+life, I grant you. But the production of these horrors on the stage,
+even in a framework of marvelous music, serves only to hold before us
+the awful models from which we must turn if we would hew out a better
+existence. Are you the better for seeing an exhibition of wanton
+murder on the stage, even though the participants wondrously sing
+their words of vengeance and passion?"
+
+"But--aw--they serve as warnings; they show us the things we ought not
+to do, don't you know."
+
+She smiled. "The sculptor who would chisel a beautiful form, does he
+set before him the misshapen body of a hunchback, in order that he may
+see what not to carve?" she asked. "And we who would transform the
+human sense of life into one of freedom from evil, can we build a
+perfect structure with such grewsome models as this before us? You
+don't see it now," she sighed; "you are in the world, and of it; and
+the world is deeply under the mesmeric belief of evil as a stern
+reality. But the day is coming when our musicians and authors will
+turn from such base material as this to nobler themes--themes which
+will excite our wonder and admiration, and stimulate the desire for
+purity of thought and deed--themes that will be beacon lights, and
+true guides. You don't understand. But you will, some day."
+
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles frowned heavily as she listened to this
+conversation, and she drew a sigh of relief when Carmen, sensing the
+futility of any attempt to impress her thought upon the young man,
+turned to topics which he could discuss with some degree of
+intelligence.
+
+Late in the evening Ames dropped in and came directly to the
+Hawley-Crowles box. He brought a huge box of imported candy and a
+gorgeous bouquet of orchids, which he presented to Carmen. Mrs.
+Hawley-Crowles beamed upon him like the effulgent midday sun.
+
+"Kathleen wants you, Reggy," Ames abruptly announced to the young man,
+whose lips were molding into a pout. "Little gathering up at the
+house. Take my car." His huge bulk loomed over the younger man like a
+mountain as he took him by the shoulders and turned him toward the
+exit.
+
+"But I wish to see the opera!" protested the youth, with a vain show
+of resistance.
+
+Ames said nothing; but his domineering personality forced the boy out
+of the box and into the corridor.
+
+"But--Uncle Wilton--!"
+
+Ames laughed curtly. Then he took the seat which his evicted nephew
+had vacated, and bent over Carmen. With a final hopeless survey of the
+situation, Reginald turned and descended to the cloak room, muttering
+dire but futile threats against his irresistible relative.
+
+"Now, little girl!" Ames's manner unconsciously assumed an air of
+patronage. "This is the first real opportunity I've had to talk with
+you. Tell me, what do you think of New York?"
+
+Carmen smiled up at him. "Well," she began uncertainly, "since I have
+thawed out, or perhaps have become more accustomed to the cold, I have
+begun to make mental notes. Already I have thousands of them. But they
+are not yet classified, and so I can hardly answer your question, Mr.
+Ames. But I am sure of one thing, and that is that for the first few
+months I was here I was too cold to even think!"
+
+Ames laughed. "Yes," he agreed, "the change from the tropics was
+somewhat abrupt. But, aside from the climate?"
+
+"It is like awaking from a deep sleep," answered Carmen meditatively.
+"In Simiti we dream our lives away. In New York all is action; loud
+words; harsh commands; hurry; rush; endeavor, terrible, materialistic
+endeavor! Every person I see seems to be going somewhere. He may not
+know where he is going--but he is on the way. He may not know why he
+is going--but he must not be stopped. He has so few years to live; and
+he must pile up money before he goes. He must own an automobile; he
+must do certain things which his more fortunate neighbor does, before
+his little flame of life goes out and darkness falls upon him. I
+sometimes think that people here are trying to get away from
+themselves, but they don't know it. I think they come to the opera
+because they crave any sort of diversion that will make them forget
+themselves for a few moments, don't you?"
+
+"H'm! well, I can't say," was Ames's meaningless reply, as he sat
+regarding the girl curiously.
+
+"And," she continued, as if pleased to have an auditor who at least
+pretended to understand her, "the thing that now strikes me most
+forcibly is the great confusion that prevails here in everything, in
+your government, in your laws, in your business, in your society, and,
+in particular, in your religion. Why, in that you have hundreds of
+sects claiming a monopoly of truth; you have hundreds of churches,
+hundreds of religious or theological beliefs, hundreds of differing
+concepts of God--but you get nowhere! Why, it has come to such a pass
+that, if Jesus were to appear physically on earth to-day, I am sure he
+would be evicted from his own Church!"
+
+"Well, yes, I guess that's so," commented Ames, quite at sea in such
+conversation. "But we solid business men have found that religious
+emotion never gets a man anywhere. It's weakening. Makes a man
+effeminate, and utterly unfits him for business. I wouldn't have a man
+in my employ who was a religious enthusiast."
+
+"But Jesus was a religious enthusiast," she protested.
+
+"I doubt if there ever was such a person," he answered dryly.
+
+"Why, the Bible--"
+
+"Is the most unfortunate and most misunderstood piece of literature
+ever written," he interrupted. "And the Church, well, I regard it as
+the greatest fraud ever perpetrated upon the human race."
+
+"You mean that to apply to every church?"
+
+"It fits them all."
+
+She studied his face for a few moments. He returned her glance as
+steadily. But their thoughts were running in widely divergent
+channels. The conversational topic of the moment had no interest
+whatsoever for the man. But this brilliant, sparkling girl--there was
+something in those dark eyes, that soft voice, that brown hair--by
+what anomaly did this beautiful creature come out of desolate,
+mediaeval Simiti?
+
+"Mr. Ames, you do not know what religion is."
+
+"No? Well, and what is it?"
+
+"It is that which binds us to God."
+
+"And that?"
+
+"Love."
+
+No, he knew not the meaning of the word. Or--wait--did he? His thought
+broke restraint and flew wildly back--but he caught it, and rudely
+forced it into its wonted channel. But, did he love his fellow-men?
+Certainly not! What would that profit him in dollars and cents? Did he
+love his wife? his children? The thought brought a cynical laugh to
+his lips. Carmen looked up at him wonderingly. "You will have to, you
+know," she said quixotically.
+
+Then she reached out a hand and laid it on his. He looked down at it,
+so soft, so white, so small, and he contrasted it with the huge, hairy
+bulk of his own. This little girl was drawing him. He felt it, felt
+himself yielding. He was beginning to look beyond the beautiful
+features, the rare grace and charm of physical personality, which had
+at first attracted only the baser qualities of his nature, and was
+seeing glimpses of a spiritual something which lay back of all
+that--infinitely more beautiful, unspeakably richer, divine, sacred,
+untouchable.
+
+"Of course you will attend the Charity Ball, Mr. Ames?" The thin voice
+of Mrs. Hawley-Crowles jarred upon his ear like a shrill discord. Ames
+turned savagely upon her. Then he quickly found himself again.
+
+"No," he laughed harshly. "But I shall be represented by my family.
+And you?" He looked at Carmen.
+
+"Most assuredly," returned Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, taking the query to
+herself. "That is, if my French dressmaker does not fail me. She is
+dreadfully exasperating! What will Mrs. Ames wear, do you think?" She
+arched her brows at him as she propounded this innocent question.
+
+Ames chuckled. "I'll tell you what it is this year," he sagely
+replied. "It's diamonds in the heels!" He gave a sententious nod of
+his head. "I overheard Kathleen and her mother discussing plans.
+And--do you want to know next season's innovation? By George! I'm a
+regular spy." He stopped and laughed heartily at his own treasonable
+deceit.
+
+"Yes! yes!" whispered Mrs. Hawley-Crowles eagerly, as she drew her
+chair closer. "What is it?"
+
+"One condition," replied Ames, holding up a thick finger.
+
+"Of course! Anything!" returned the grasping woman.
+
+"Well, I want to get better acquainted with your charming ward," he
+whispered.
+
+"Of course; and I want you to know her better. That can be arranged
+very easily. Now what's the innovation?"
+
+" wigs," said Ames, with a knowing look.
+
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles settled back with a smile of supreme satisfaction.
+She would boldly anticipate next season at the coming Charity Ball.
+Then, leaning over toward Ames, she laid her fan upon his arm. "Can't
+you manage to come and see us some time, my sister and Carmen? Any
+time," she added. "Just call me up a little in advance."
+
+The blare of trumpets and the crash of drums drew their attention
+again to the stage. Ames rose and bowed his departure. A business
+associate in a distant box had beckoned him. Mrs. Hawley-Crowles
+dismissed him reluctantly; then turned her wandering attention to the
+play.
+
+But Carmen sat shrouded in thoughts that were not stimulated by the
+puppet-show before her. The tenor shrieked out his tender passion, and
+the tubby soprano sank into his inadequate arms with languishing
+sighs. Carmen heeded not their stage amours. She saw in the glare
+before her the care-lined face of the priest of Simiti; she saw the
+grim features and set jaw of her beloved, black-faced Rosendo, as he
+led her through the dripping jungle; she saw Anita's blind, helpless
+babe; she saw the little newsboy of Cartagena; and her heart welled
+with a great love for them all; and she buried her face in her hands
+and wept softly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 15
+
+"Wait, my little princess, wait," the Beaubien had said, when Carmen,
+her eyes flowing and her lips quivering, had again thrown herself into
+that strange woman's arms and poured out her heart's surcease. "It
+will not be long now. I think I see the clouds forming."
+
+"I want to go back to Simiti, to Padre Jose, to my home," wailed the
+girl. "I don't understand the ways and the thoughts of these people.
+They don't know God--they don't know what love is--they don't know
+anything but money, and clothes, and sin, and death. When I am with
+them I gasp, I choke--"
+
+"Yes, dearest, I understand," murmured the woman softly, as she
+stroked the brown head nestling upon her shoulder. "It is social
+asphyxia. And many even of the 'four hundred' are suffering from the
+same disease; but they would die rather than admit it. Poor, blind
+fools!"
+
+To no one could the attraction which had drawn Carmen and the Beaubien
+together seem stranger, more inexplicable, than to that lone woman
+herself. Yet it existed, irresistible. And both acknowledged it, nor
+would have had it otherwise. To Carmen, the Beaubien was a sympathetic
+confidante and a wise counselor. The girl knew nothing of the woman's
+past or present life. She tried to see in her only the reality which
+she sought in every individual--the reality which she felt that Jesus
+must have seen clearly back of every frail mortal concept of humanity.
+And in doing this, who knows?--she may have transformed the sordid,
+soiled woman of the world into something more than a broken semblance
+of the image of God. To the Beaubien, this rare child, the symbol of
+love, of purity, had become a divine talisman, touching a dead soul
+into a sense of life before unknown. If Carmen leaned upon her, she,
+on the other hand, bent daily closer to the beautiful girl; opened her
+slowly warming heart daily wider to her; twined her lonely arms daily
+closer about the radiant creature who had come so unexpectedly into
+her empty, sinful life.
+
+"But, mother dear"--the Beaubien had long since begged Carmen always
+to address her thus when they were sharing alone these hours of
+confidence--"they will not listen to my message! They laugh and jest
+about real things!"
+
+"True, dearie. And yet you tell me that the Bible says wise men
+laughed at the great teacher, Jesus."
+
+"Oh, yes! And his message--oh, mother dearest, his message would have
+helped them so, if they had only accepted it! It would have changed
+their lives, healed their diseases, and saved them from death. And my
+message"--her lip quivered--"my message is only his--it is the message
+of love. But they won't let me tell it."
+
+"Then, sweet, live it. They can not prevent that, can they?"
+
+"I do live it. But--I am so out of place among them. They scoff at
+real things. They mock all that is noble. Their talk is so coarse, so
+low and degraded. They have no culture. They worship money. They don't
+know what miserable failures they all are. And Mrs. Hawley-Crowles--"
+
+The Beaubien's jaw set. "The social cormorant!" she muttered.
+
+"--she will not let me speak of God in her house. She told me to keep
+my views to myself and never voice them to her friends. And she says I
+must marry either a millionaire or a foreign noble."
+
+"Humph! And become a snobbish expatriate! Marry a decadent count, and
+then shake the dust of this democratic country from your feet forever!
+Go to London or Paris or Vienna, and wear tiaras and coronets, and
+speak of disgraceful, boorish America in hushed whispers! The
+empty-headed fool! She forgets that the tarnished name she bears was
+dragged up out of the ruck of the impecunious by me when I received
+Jim Crowles into my house! And that I gave him what little gloss he
+was able to take on!"
+
+"Mother dear--I would leave them--only, they need love, oh, so much!"
+
+The Beaubien strained her to her bosom. "They need you, dearie; they
+little realize how they need you! I, myself, did not know until you
+came to me. There, I didn't mean to let those tears get away from
+me." She laughed softly as Carmen looked up anxiously into her face.
+"Now come," she went on brightly, "we must plan for the Charity
+Ball."
+
+A look of pain swept over the girl's face. The Beaubien bent and
+kissed her. "Wait, dearie," she repeated. "You will not leave society
+voluntarily. Keep your light burning. They can not extinguish it. They
+will light their own lamps at yours--or they will thrust you from
+their doors. And then," she muttered, as her teeth snapped together,
+"you will come to me."
+
+Close on the heels of the opera season followed the Charity Ball, the
+Horse Show, and the Fashion Show in rapid succession, with numberless
+receptions, formal parties, and nondescript social junketings
+interspersed. During these fleeting hours of splash and glitter Mrs.
+Hawley-Crowles trod the air with the sang-froid and exhilaration of an
+expert aviator. Backed by the Beaubien millions, and with the
+wonderful South American girl always at her right hand, the
+worldly ambitious woman swept everything before her, cut a social
+swath far wider than the glowering Mrs. Ames had ever attempted, and
+marched straight to the goal of social leadership, almost without
+interference. She had apparently achieved other successes, too, of
+the first importance. She had secured the assistance of Ames himself
+in matters pertaining to her finances; and the Beaubien was
+actively cooeperating with her in the social advancement of Carmen.
+It is true, she gasped whenever her thought wandered to her notes
+which the Beaubien held, notes which demanded every penny of her
+principal as collateral. And she often meditated very soberly over
+the large sums which she had put into the purchase of Simiti stock,
+at the whispered suggestions of Ames, and under the irresistibly
+pious and persuasive eloquence of Philip O. Ketchim, now president
+of that flourishing but as yet non-productive company. But then, one
+day, an idea occurred to her, and she forthwith summoned Carmen into
+the library.
+
+"You see, my dear," she said, after expounding to the girl certain of
+her thoughts anent the famous mine, "I do not want Mr. Ketchim to have
+any claim upon you for the expense which he incurred on account of
+your six months in the Elwin school. That thought, as well as others
+relating to your complete protection, makes it seem advisable that you
+transfer to me your share in the mine, or in the Simiti company. See,
+I give you a receipt for the same, showing that you have done this as
+part payment for the great expense to which I have been put in
+introducing you to society and in providing for your wants here. It is
+merely formal, of course. And it keeps your share still in our
+family, of which you are and always will be a member; but yet removes
+all liability from you. Of course, you know nothing about business
+matters, and so you must trust me implicitly. Which I am sure you do,
+in view of what I have done for you, don't you, dear?"
+
+Of course Carmen did; and of course she unhesitatingly transferred her
+claim on La Libertad to the worthy Mrs. Hawley-Crowles. Whereupon the
+good woman tenderly kissed the innocent child, and clasped a string of
+rich pearls about the slender, white neck. And Carmen later told the
+Beaubien, who said nothing, but frowned darkly as she repeated the
+tidings over her private wire to J. Wilton Ames. But that priest of
+finance only chuckled and exclaimed: "Excellent, my dear! Couldn't be
+better! By the way, I had a cable from Lafelle this morning, from
+Cartagena. Oh, yes, everything's all right. Good-bye." But the
+Beaubien hung up the receiver with a presentiment that everything was
+far from right, despite his bland assurance. And she regretted
+bitterly now that she had not warned Carmen against this very thing.
+
+The Charity Ball that season was doubtless the most brilliant function
+of its kind ever held among a people who deny the impossible. The
+newspapers had long vied with one another in their advertisements and
+predictions; they afterward strove mightily to outdo themselves in
+their vivid descriptions of the gorgeous _fete_. The decorative
+effects far excelled anything ever attempted in the name of
+"practical" charity. The display of gowns had never before been even
+closely approximated. The scintillations from jewels whose value
+mounted into millions was like the continuous flash of the electric
+spark. And the huge assemblage embraced the very cream of the
+nobility, the aristocracy, the rich and exclusive caste of a great
+people whose Constitution is founded on the equality of men, and who
+are wont to gather thus annually for a few hours to parade their
+material vestments and divert their dispirited mentalities under the
+guise of benefaction to a class for whom they rarely hold a loving
+thought.
+
+Again the subtle Mrs. Hawley-Crowles had planned and executed a _coup_.
+Mrs. Ames had subscribed the munificent sum of twenty-five thousand
+dollars to charity a week before the ball. Mrs. Hawley-Crowles had
+waited for this. Then she gloated as she telephoned to the various
+newspaper offices that her subscription would be fifty thousand. Did
+she give a new note to the Beaubien for this amount? That she
+did--and she obtained the money on the condition that the little Inca
+princess should lead the grand march. Of course, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles
+knew that she must gracefully yield first place to the South American
+girl; and yet she contrived to score a triumph in apparent defeat.
+For, stung beyond endurance, Mrs. Ames and her daughter Kathleen at the
+last moment refused to attend the function, alleging fatigue from a
+season unusually exacting. The wily Mrs. Hawley-Crowles had
+previously secured the languid young Duke of Altern as a partner for
+Carmen--and then was most agreeably thwarted by Ames himself, who,
+learning that his wife and daughter would not attend, abruptly
+announced that he himself would lead the march with Carmen.
+
+Why not? Was it not quite proper that the city's leading man of
+finance should, in the absence of his wife and daughter, and with
+their full and gratuitous permission--nay, at their urgent request, so
+it was told--lead with this fair young damsel, this tropical flower,
+who, as rumor had it, was doubtless a descendant of the royal dwellers
+in ancient Cuzco?
+
+"Quite proper, _O tempora, O mores_!" murmured one Amos A. Hitt,
+erstwhile Presbyterian divine, explorer, and gentleman of leisure, as
+he settled back in his armchair in the fashionable Weltmore apartments
+and exhaled a long stream of tobacco smoke through his wide nostrils.
+"And, if I can procure a ticket, I shall give myself the pleasure of
+witnessing this sacred spectacle, produced under the deceptive mask of
+charity," he added.
+
+In vain the Beaubien labored with Ames when she learned of his
+intention--though she said nothing to Carmen. Ames had yielded to her
+previously expressed wish that he refrain from calling at the
+Hawley-Crowles mansion, or attempting to force his attentions upon the
+young girl. But in this matter he remained characteristically
+obdurate. And thereby a little rift was started. For the angry
+Beaubien, striving to shield the innocent girl, had vented her
+abundant wrath upon the affable Ames, and had concluded her
+denunciation with a hint of possible exposure of certain dark facts of
+which she was sole custodian. Ames smiled, bowed, and courteously
+kissed her hand, as he left her stormy presence; but he did not yield.
+And Carmen went to the Ball.
+
+Through the perfumed air and the garish light tore the crashing notes
+of the great band. The loud hum of voices ceased, and all eyes turned
+to the leaders of the grand march, as they stepped forth at one end of
+the great auditorium. Then an involuntary murmur arose from the
+multitude--a murmur of admiration, of astonishment, of envy. The
+gigantic form of Ames stood like a towering pillar, the embodiment of
+potential force, the epitome of human power, physical and mental. His
+massive shoulders were thrown back as if in haughty defiance of
+comment, critical or commendatory. The smile which flitted about his
+strong, clean-shaven face bespoke the same caution as the gentle
+uplifting of a tiger's paw--behind it lay all that was humanly
+terrible, cunning, heartless, and yet, in a sense, fascinating. His
+thick, brown hair, scarcely touched with gray, lay about his great
+head like a lion's mane. He raised a hand and gently pushed it back
+over the lofty brow. Then he bent and offered an arm to the slender
+wisp of a girl at his side.
+
+"Good God!" murmured a tall, angular man in the crowd. "Who is she?"
+
+"I don't know, Hitt," replied the friend addressed. "But they say she
+belongs to the Inca race."
+
+The graceful girl moving by the side of her giant escort seemed like a
+slender ray of light, a radiant, elfish form, transparent, intangible,
+gliding softly along with a huge, black shadow. She was simply clad,
+all in white. About her neck hung a string of pearls, and at her waist
+she wore the rare orchids which Ames had sent her that afternoon. But
+no one saw her dress. No one marked the pure simplicity of her attire.
+The absence of sparkling jewels and resplendent raiment evoked no
+comment. The multitude saw but her wonderful face; her big eyes,
+uplifted in trustful innocence to the massive form at her side; her
+rich brown hair, which glittered like string-gold in the strong light
+that fell in torrents upon it.
+
+"Hitt, she isn't human! There's a nimbus about her head!"
+
+"I could almost believe it," whispered that gentleman, straining his
+long neck as she passed before him. "God! has she fallen into Ames's
+net?"
+
+Immediately behind Carmen and Ames strode the enraptured Mrs.
+Hawley-Crowles, who saw not, neither heard, and who longed for no
+further taste of heaven than this stupendous triumph which she had won
+for herself and the girl. Her heavy, unshapely form was squeezed into
+a marvelous costume of gold brocade. A double ballet ruffle of stiff
+white tulle encircled it about the hips as a drapery. The bodice was
+of heavy gold net. A pleated band of pale moire, in a delicate shade
+of pink, crossed the left shoulder and was caught at the waist in a
+large rose bow, ambassadorial style. A double necklace of diamonds,
+one bearing a great pendant of emeralds, and the other an alternation
+of emeralds and diamonds, encircled her short, thick neck. A diamond
+coronet fitted well around her wonderful amber- wig--for, true
+to her determination, she had anticipated the now _passee_ Mrs. Ames
+and had boldly launched the innovation of  wigs among the smart
+set. An ivory, hand-painted fan, of great value, dangled from her
+thick wrist. And, as she lifted her skirts to an unnecessary height,
+the gaping people caught the glitter of a row of diamonds in each
+high, gilded heel.
+
+At her side the young Duke of Altern shuffled, his long, thin body
+curved like a kangaroo, and his monocle bent superciliously upon the
+mass of common clay about him. "Aw, beastly crush, ye know," he
+murmured from time to time to the unhearing dame at his right. And
+then, as she replied not, he fell to wondering if she fully realized
+who he was.
+
+Around and across the great hall the gorgeous pageant swept. The
+big-mouthed horns bellowed forth their noisy harmony. In the distant
+corridors great illuminated fountains softly plashed. At the tables
+beyond, sedulous, touting waiters were hurriedly extracting corks from
+frosted bottle necks. The rare porcelain and cut glass shone and
+glittered in rainbow tints. The revelers waxed increasingly merry and
+care-free as they lightly discussed poverty over rich viands and
+sparkling Burgundy. Still further beyond, the massive oak doors, with
+their leaded-glass panes, shut out the dark night and the bitter
+blasts of winter. And they shut out, too, another, but none the less
+unreal, externalization of the mortal thought which has found
+expression in a social system "too wicked for a smile."
+
+"God, no--I'd get arrested! I can't!"
+
+The frail, hungry woman who stood before the great doors clutched her
+wretched shawl closer about her thin shoulders. Her teeth chattered as
+she stood shivering in the chill wind. Then she hurried away.
+
+At the corner of the building the cold blast almost swept her off her
+feet. A man, dirty and unkempt, who had been waiting in an alley, ran
+out and seized her.
+
+"I say, Jude, ain't ye goin' in? Git arrested--ye'd spend the night in
+a warm cell, an' that's better'n our bunk, ain't it?"
+
+"I'm goin' to French Lucy's," the woman whispered hoarsely. "I'm dead
+beat!"
+
+"Huh! Ye've lost yer looks, Jude, an' ol' Lucy ain't a-goin' to take
+ye in. We gotta snipe somepin quick--or starve! Look, we'll go down to
+Mike's place, an' then come back here when it's out, and ye kin pinch
+a string, or somepin, eh? Gawd, it's cold!"
+
+The woman glanced back at the lights. For a moment she stood listening
+to the music from within. A sob shook her, and she began to cough
+violently. The man took her arm, not unkindly; and together they moved
+away into the night.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Well, little girl, at last we are alone. Now we can exchange
+confidences." It was Ames talking. He had, late in the evening,
+secured seats well hidden behind a mass of palms, and thither had led
+Carmen. "What do you think of it all? Quite a show, eh? Ever see
+anything like this in Simiti?"
+
+Carmen looked up at him. She thought him wonderfully handsome. She was
+glad to get away for a moment from the crowd, from the confusion, and
+from the unwelcome attentions of the now thoroughly smitten young Duke
+of Altern.
+
+"No," she finally made answer, "I didn't know there were such things
+in the world."
+
+Ames laughed pleasantly. How refreshing was this ingenuous girl! And
+what a discovery for him! A new toy--one that would last a long time.
+But he must be careful of her.
+
+"Yes," he went on genially, "I'll wager there's millions of dollars'
+worth of jewelry here to-night."
+
+"Oh!" gasped Carmen. "And are the people going to sell it and give the
+money to the poor?"
+
+"Sell it! Ha! ha! Well, I should say not!"
+
+"But--this is a--a charity--"
+
+"Oh, I see. Quite so. No, it's the money derived from the sale of
+tickets that goes to the poor."
+
+"And how much is that?"
+
+"I haven't the slightest idea."
+
+"But--aren't you interested in the poor?"
+
+"Of course, of course," he hastened to assure her, in his easy casual
+tone.
+
+For a long time the girl sat reflecting, while he studied her,
+speculating eagerly on her next remark. Then it came abruptly:
+
+"Mr. Ames, I have thought a great deal about it, and I think you
+people by your charity, such as this, only make more charity
+necessary. Why don't you do away with poverty altogether?"
+
+"Do away with it? Well, that's quite impossible, you know. 'The poor
+ye have always with you', eh? You see, I know my Bible."
+
+She threw him a glance of astonishment. He was mocking her! She was
+deeply serious, for charity to her meant love, and love was all in
+all.
+
+"No," she finally replied, shaking her head, "you do _not_ know your
+Bible. It is the poor thought that you have always with you, the
+thought of separation from good. And that thought becomes manifested
+outwardly in what is called poverty."
+
+He regarded her quizzically, while a smile played about his mouth.
+
+"Why don't you get at the very root of the trouble, and destroy the
+poverty-thought, the thought that there can be any separation from
+God, who is infinite good?" she continued earnestly.
+
+"Well, my dear girl, as for me, I don't know anything about God. As
+for you, well, you are very innocent in worldly matters. Poverty, like
+death, is inevitable, you know."
+
+"You are mistaken," she said simply. "Neither is inevitable."
+
+"Well, well," he returned brightly, "that's good news! Then there is
+no such thing as 'the survival of the fittest,' and the weak needn't
+necessarily sink, eh?"
+
+She looked him squarely in the eyes. "Do you consider, Mr. Ames, that
+you have survived as one of the fittest?"
+
+"H'm! Well, now--what would you say about that?"
+
+"I should say decidedly no," was the blunt reply.
+
+A dark shade crossed his face, and he bit his lip. People did not
+generally talk thus to him. And yet--this wisp of a girl! Pshaw! She
+was very amusing. And, heavens above! how beautiful, as she sat there
+beside him, her head erect, and her face delicately flushed. He
+reached over and took her hand. Instantly she drew it away.
+
+"You are the kind," she went on, "who give money to the poor, and then
+take it away from them again. All the money which these rich people
+here to-night are giving to charity has been wrested from the poor.
+And you give only a part of it back to them, at that. This Ball is
+just a show, a show of dress and jewels. Why, it only sets an example
+which makes others unhappy, envious, and discontented. Don't you see
+that? You ought to."
+
+"My dear little girl," he said in a patronizing tone, "don't you think
+you are assuming a great deal? I'm sure I'm not half so bad as you
+paint me."
+
+Carmen smiled. "Well, the money you give away has got to come from
+some source, hasn't it? And you manipulate the stock market and put
+through wheat corners and all that, and catch the poor people and take
+their money from them! Charity is love. But your idea of charity makes
+me pity you. Up here I find a man can pile up hundreds of millions by
+stifling competition, by debauching legislatures, by piracy and
+legalized theft, and then give a tenth of it to found a university,
+and so atone for his crimes. That is called charity. Oh, I know a lot
+about such things! I've been studying and thinking a great deal since
+I came to the United States."
+
+"Have you come with a mission?" he bantered. And there was a touch of
+aspersion in his voice.
+
+"I've come with a message," she replied eagerly.
+
+"Well," he said sharply, "let me warn and advise you: don't join the
+ranks of the muck-rakers, as most ambitious reformers with messages
+do. We've plenty of 'em now. I can tear down as easily as you or
+anybody else. But to build something better is entirely another
+matter."
+
+"But, Mr. Ames, I've got something better!"
+
+"Yes?" His tone spoke incredulous irony. "Well, what is it, if I may
+ask?"
+
+"Love."
+
+"Love, eh? Well, perhaps that's so," he said, bending toward her and
+again attempting to take her hand.
+
+"I guess," she said, drawing back quickly, "you don't know what love
+is, do you?"
+
+"No," he whispered softly. "I don't really believe I do. Will you
+teach me?"
+
+"Of course I will," she said brightly. "But you'll have to live it.
+And you'll have to do just as I tell you," holding up an admonitory
+finger.
+
+"I'm yours to command, little woman," he returned in mock seriousness.
+
+"Well," she began very softly, "you must first learn that love is just
+as much a principle as the Binomial Theorem in algebra. Do you know
+what that is? And you must apply it just as you would apply any
+principle, to everything. And, oh, it is important!"
+
+"You sweet little thing," he murmured absently, gazing down into her
+glowing face. "Who taught you such stuff? Where did you learn it? I
+wonder--I wonder if you really are a daughter of the Incas."
+
+She leaned back and laughed heartily. "Yes," she said, "I am a
+princess. Of course! Don't I look like one?"
+
+"You look like--I wonder--pshaw!" he passed his hand across his eyes.
+"Yes, you certainly are a princess. And--do you know?--I wish I might
+be your prince."
+
+"Oh, you couldn't! Padre Jose has that honor." But then her bright
+smile faded, and she looked off wistfully down the long corridor.
+
+"Who is he?" demanded Ames savagely. "I'll send him a challenge
+to-night!"
+
+"No," she murmured gently, "you can't. He's way down in Simiti. And,
+oh, he was so good to me! He made me leave that country on account of
+the war."
+
+The man started slightly. This innocent girl little knew that one of
+the instigators of that bloody revolution sat there beside her. Then a
+new thought flashed into his brain. "What is the full name of this
+priest?" he suddenly asked.
+
+"Jose--Jose de Rincon," she whispered reverently.
+
+Jose de Rincon--of Simiti--whom Wenceslas had made the scapegoat of
+the revolution! Why, yes, that was the man! And who, according to a
+recent report from Wenceslas, had been arrested and--
+
+"A--a--where did you say this--this Jose was, little girl?" he asked
+gently.
+
+"In Simiti," she replied. "He is working out his problem."
+
+His eyes shifted quickly from hers. But he could not hold them away.
+
+"His problem?"
+
+"Yes. You know, he never was a priest at heart. But, though he saw the
+truth, in part, he was not able to prove it enough to set himself
+free; and so when I came away he stayed behind to work out his
+problem. And he will work it all out," she mused abstractedly, looking
+off into the distance; "he will work it all out and come--to me. I
+am--I am working with him, now--and for him. And--" her voice dropped
+to a whisper, "I love him, oh, so much!"
+
+Ames's steely eyes narrowed. His mouth opened; then shut again with a
+sharp snap. That beautiful creature now belonged to him, and to none
+other! Were there other claimants, he would crush them without mercy!
+As for this apostate priest, Jose--humph! if he still lived he should
+rot the rest of his days in the reeking dungeons of San Fernando!
+
+Carmen looked up. "When he comes to me," she said softly, "we are
+going to give ourselves to the whole world."
+
+Ames appeared not to hear.
+
+"And--perhaps--perhaps, by that time, you will be--be--"
+
+"Well?" snapped the man, irritated by the return of her thought to
+himself.
+
+"Different," finished the girl gently.
+
+"Humph! Different, eh?"
+
+"Yes. Perhaps by that time you will--you will love everybody," she
+murmured. "Perhaps you won't go on piling up big mountains of money
+that you can't use, and that you won't let anybody else use."
+
+Ames frowned upon her. "Yes?" he said ironically.
+
+"You will know then that Jesus founded his great empire on love. Your
+empire, you know, is human business. But you will find that such
+empires crumble and fall. And yours will, like all the rest."
+
+"Say," he exclaimed, turning full upon her and seeming to bear her
+down by his tremendous personality, "you young and inexperienced
+reformers might learn a few things, too, if your prejudices could be
+surmounted. Has it ever occurred to you that we men of business think
+not so much about accumulating money as about achieving success? Do
+you suppose you could understand that money-making is but a side issue
+with us?"
+
+"Achieving success!" she echoed, looking wonderingly at him.
+"Well--are you--a success?"
+
+He started to reply. Then he checked himself. A flush stole across his
+face. Then his eyes narrowed.
+
+"Yes," the girl went on, as if in quiet soliloquy, "I suppose you
+are--a tremendous worldly success. And this Ball--it is a splendid
+success, too. Thousands of dollars will be raised for the poor. And
+then, next year, the same thing will have to be done again. Your
+charities cost you hundreds of millions every year up here. And,
+meantime, you rich men will go right on making more money at the
+expense of your fellow-men--and you will give a little of it to the
+poor when the next Charity Ball comes around. It's like a circle,
+isn't it?" she said, smiling queerly up at him. "It has no end, you
+know."
+
+Ames had now decided to swallow his annoyance and meet the girl with
+the lance of frivolity. "Yes, I guess that's so," he began. "But of
+course you will admit that the world is slowly getting better, and
+that world-progress must of necessity be gradual. We can't reform all
+in a minute, can we?"
+
+She shook her head. "I don't know how fast you might reform if you
+really, sincerely tried. But I think it would be very fast. And if
+you, a great, big, powerful man, with the most wonderful opportunities
+in the world, should really try to be a success, why--well, I'm sure
+you'd make very rapid progress, and help others like you by setting
+such a great example. For you are a wonderful man--you really are."
+
+Ames looked at her long and quizzically. What did the girl mean? Then
+he took her hand, this time without resistance.
+
+"Tell me, little girl--although I know there can be no doubt of
+it--are you a success?"
+
+She raised her luminous eyes to his. "Yes," she replied simply.
+
+He let fall her hand in astonishment. "Well!" he ejaculated, "would
+you mind telling me just why?"
+
+She smiled up at him, and her sweet trustfulness drew his sagging
+heartstrings suddenly taut.
+
+"Because," she said simply, "I strive every moment to 'acquire that
+mind which was in Christ Jesus.'"
+
+Silence fell upon them. From amusement to wonder, to irritation, to
+anger, then to astonishment, and a final approximation to something
+akin to reverent awe had been the swift course of the man's emotions
+as he sat in this secluded nook beside this strange girl. The
+poisoned arrows of his worldly thought had broken one by one against
+the shield of her protecting faith. His badinage had returned to
+confound himself. The desire to possess had utterly fled before the
+conviction that such thought was as wildly impossible as iniquitous.
+
+Then he suddenly became conscious that the little body beside him had
+drawn closer--that it was pressing against him--that a little hand had
+stolen gently into his--and that a soft voice, soft as the summer
+winds that sigh among the roses, was floating to his ears.
+
+"To be really great is to be like that wonderful man, Jesus. It is to
+know that through him the great Christ-principle worked and did those
+things which the world will not accept, because it thinks them
+miracles. It is to know that God is love, and to act that knowledge.
+It is to know that love is the Christ-principle, and that it will
+destroy every error, every discord, everything that is unlike itself.
+It is to yield your present false sense of happiness and good to the
+true sense of God as infinite good. It is to bring every thought into
+captivity to this Christ-principle, love. It is to stop looking at
+evil as a reality. It is to let go your hold on it, and let it fade
+away before the wonderful truth that God is everywhere, and that there
+isn't anything apart from Him. Won't you try it? You will have to,
+some day. I have tried it. I know it's true. I've proved it."
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+How long they sat in the quiet that followed, neither knew. Then the
+man suffered himself to be led silently back to the ball room again.
+And when he had recovered and restored his worldly self, the bright
+little image was no longer at his side.
+
+"Stand here, Jude, an' when they begins to come out to their gasoline
+carts grab anything ye can, an' git. I'll work over by the door."
+
+The shivering woman crept closer to the curb, and the man slouched
+back against the wall close to the exit from which the revelers would
+soon emerge. A distant clock over a jeweler's window chimed the hour
+of four. A moment later the door opened, and a lackey came out and
+loudly called the number of the Hawley-Crowles car. That ecstatically
+happy woman, with Carmen and the obsequious young Duke of Altern,
+appeared behind him in the flood of light.
+
+As the big car drew softly up, the wretched creature whom the man had
+called Jude darted from behind it and plunged full at Carmen. But the
+girl had seen her coming, and she met her with outstretched arm. The
+glare from the open door fell full upon them.
+
+"Jude!"
+
+"God!" cried the woman. "It's the little kid!"
+
+She turned to flee. Carmen held her. With a quick movement the girl
+tore the string of pearls from her neck and thrust it into Jude's
+hand. The latter turned swiftly and darted into the blackness of the
+street. Then Carmen hurriedly entered the car, followed by her
+stupefied companions. It had all been done in a moment of time.
+
+"Good heavens!" cried Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, when she had recovered her
+composure sufficiently to speak. "What does this mean? What did you
+do?"
+
+But Carmen replied not. And the Duke of Altern rubbed his weak eyes
+and tried hard to think.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 16
+
+
+Before Mrs. Hawley-Crowles sought her bed that morning the east was
+red with the winter sun. "The loss of the pearls is bad enough," she
+exclaimed in conclusion, glowering over the young girl who sat before
+her, "for I paid a good three thousand for the string! But, in
+addition, to scandalize me before the world--oh, how could you? And
+this unspeakable Jude--and that awful house--heavens, girl! Who would
+believe your story if it should get out?" The worried woman's face was
+bathed in cold perspiration.
+
+"But--she saved me from--from that place," protested the harassed
+Carmen. "She was poor and cold--I could see that. Why should I have
+things that I don't need when others are starving?"
+
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles shook her weary head in despair. Her sister, Mrs.
+Reed, who had sat fixing the girl with her cold eyes throughout the
+stormy interview following their return from the ball, now offered a
+suggestion. "The thing to do is to telephone immediately to all the
+newspapers, and say that her beads were stolen last night."
+
+"But they weren't stolen," asserted the girl. "I gave them to her--"
+
+"Go to your room!" commanded Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, at the limit of her
+endurance. "And never, under any circumstances, speak of this affair
+to any one--never!"
+
+The social crown, which had rested none too securely upon the gilded
+wig of the dynamic Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, had been given a jolt that set
+it tottering.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was very clear to Mrs. J. Wilton Ames after the Charity Ball that
+she was engaged in a warfare to the death, and with the most
+relentless of enemies. Nothing short of the miraculous could now
+dethrone the detested Mrs. Hawley-Crowles and her beautiful,
+mysterious ward. She dolefully acknowledged to herself and to the
+sulking Kathleen that she had been asleep, that she had let her foot
+slip, and that her own husband's conduct in leading the grand march
+with Carmen bade fair to give the _coup de grace_ to a social prestige
+which for many weeks had been decidedly on the wane.
+
+"Mamma, we'll have to think up some new stunts," said the dejected
+Kathleen over the teacups the noon following the ball. "Why, they've
+even broken into the front page of the newspapers with a fake jewelry
+theft! Look, they pretend that the little minx was robbed of her
+string of pearls last night on leaving the hall. I call that pretty
+cheap notoriety!"
+
+Mrs. Ames's lip curled in disdain as she read the news item. "An Inca
+princess, indeed! Nobody knows who she is, nor what! Why doesn't
+somebody take the trouble to investigate her? They'd probably find her
+an outcast."
+
+"Couldn't papa look her up?" suggested Kathleen.
+
+Mrs. Ames did not reply. She had no wish to discuss her husband, after
+the affair of the previous evening. And, even in disregard of that,
+she would not have gone to him with the matter. For she and her
+consort, though living under the same roof, nevertheless saw each
+other but seldom. At times they met in the household elevator; and for
+the sake of appearances they managed to dine together with Kathleen in
+a strained, unnatural way two or three times a week, at which times no
+mention was ever made of the son who had been driven from the parental
+roof. There were no exchanges of confidences or affection, and Mrs.
+Ames knew but little of the working of his mentality. She was wholly
+under the dominance of her masterful husband, merely an accessory to
+his mode of existence. He used her, as he did countless others, to
+buttress a certain side of his very complex life. As for assistance in
+determining Carmen's status, there was none to be obtained from him,
+strongly attracted by the young girl as he had already shown himself
+to be. Indeed, she might be grateful if the attachment did not lead to
+far unhappier consequences!
+
+"Larry Beers said yesterday that he had something new," she replied
+irrelevantly to Kathleen's question. "He has in tow a Persian dervish,
+who sticks knives through his mouth, and drinks melted lead, and bites
+red-hot pokers, and a lot of such things. Larry says he's the most
+wonderful he's ever seen, and I'm going to have him and a real Hindu
+_swami_ for next Wednesday evening."
+
+New York's conspicuous set indeed would have languished often but for
+the social buffoonery of the clever Larry Beers, who devised new
+diversions and stimulating mental condiments for the jaded brains of
+that gilded cult. His table ballets, his bizarre parlor circuses, his
+cunningly devised fads in which he set forth his own inimitable
+antics, won him the motley and the cap and bells of this tinseled
+court, and forced him well out into the glare of publicity, which was
+what he so much desired.
+
+And by that much it made him as dangerous as any stupid anarchist who
+toils by candle-light over his crude bombs. For by it he taught the
+great mass of citizenship who still retained their simple ideals of
+reason and respect that there existed a social caste, worshipers of
+the golden calf, to whom the simple, humdrum virtues were quite
+unendurable, and who, utterly devoid of conscience, would quaff
+champagne and dance on the raw, quivering hearts of their fellow-men
+with glee, if thereby their jaded appetites for novelty and
+entertainment might be for the moment appeased.
+
+And so Larry Beers brought his _swami_ and dervish to the Ames
+mansion, and caused his hostess to be well advertised in the
+newspapers the following day. And he caused the eyes of Carmen to
+bulge, and her thought to swell with wonder, as she gazed. And he
+caused the bepowdered nose of Mrs. Hawley-Crowles to stand a bit
+closer to the perpendicular, while she sat devising schemes to cast a
+shade over this clumsy entertainment.
+
+The chief result was that, a week later, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, still
+running true to form, retorted with a superb imitation of the French
+_Bal de l'Opera_, once so notable under the Empire. The Beaubien had
+furnished the inspiring idea--and the hard cash.
+
+"I wonder why I do it?" that woman had meditated. "Why do I continue
+to lend her money and take her notes? I wanted to ruin her, at first.
+I don't--I don't seem to feel that way now. Is it because of Carmen?
+Or is it because I hate that Ames woman so? I wonder if I do still
+hate her? At any rate I'm glad to see Carmen oust the proud hussy from
+her place. It's worth all I've spent, even if I burn the notes I hold
+against Jim Crowles's widow."
+
+And often after that, when at night the Beaubien had sought her bed,
+she would lie for hours in the dim light meditating, wondering. "It's
+Carmen!" she would always conclude. "It's Carmen. She's making me over
+again. I'm not the same woman I was when she came into my life. Oh,
+God bless her--if there is a God!"
+
+The mock _Bal de l'Opera_ was a magnificent _fete_. All the members of
+the smart set were present, and many appeared in costumes representing
+flowers, birds, and vegetables. Carmen went as a white rose; and her
+great natural beauty, set off by an exquisite costume, made her the
+fairest flower of the whole garden. The Duke of Altern, costumed as a
+long carrot, fawned in her wake throughout the evening. The tubbily
+girthy Gannette, dressed to represent a cabbage, opposed her every
+step as he bobbed before her, showering his viscous compliments upon
+the graceful creature. Kathleen Ames appeared as a bluebird; and she
+would have picked the fair white rose to pieces if she could, so
+wildly jealous did she become at the sight of Carmen's further
+triumph.
+
+About midnight, when the revelry was at its height, a door at the end
+of the hall swung open, and a strong searchlight was turned full upon
+it. The orchestra burst into the wailing dead march from _Saul_, and
+out through the glare of light stalked the giant form of J. Wilton
+Ames, gowned in dead black to represent a King Vulture, and with a
+blood-red fez surmounting his cruel mask. As he stepped out upon the
+platform which had been constructed to represent the famous bridge in
+"_Sumurun_," and strode toward the main floor, a murmur involuntarily
+rose from the assemblage. It was a murmur of awe, of horror, of fear.
+The "_monstrum horrendum_" of Poe was descending upon them in the garb
+which alone could fully typify the character of the man! When he
+reached the end of the bridge the huge creature stopped and distended
+his enormous sable wings.
+
+"Good God!" cried Gannette, as he thought of his tremendous financial
+obligations to Ames.
+
+Carmen shuddered and turned away from the awful spectacle. "I want to
+go," she said to the petrified Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, who had known
+nothing of this feature of the program.
+
+Straight to the trembling, white-clad girl the great, black vulture
+stalked. The revelers fell away from him on either side as he
+approached. Carmen turned again and watched him come. Her face was
+ashen. "God is everywhere," she murmured.
+
+Then her anxious look faded. A light came into her eyes, and a smile
+wreathed her mouth. And when Ames reached her and extended his huge,
+black wings again, she walked straight into them with a look of joy
+upon her beautiful face. Then the wings closed and completely hid the
+fair, white form from the gaping crowd.
+
+For a few moments dead silence reigned throughout the hall. Then the
+orchestra crashed, the vulture's wings slowly opened, and the girl,
+who would have gone to the stake with the same incomprehensible smile,
+stepped out. The black monster turned and strode silently, ominously,
+back to the end of the hall, crossed the bridge, and disappeared
+through the door which opened at his approach.
+
+"I'm going home!" said the shaken Gannette to his perspiring wife.
+"That looks bad to me! That girl's done for; and Ames has taken this
+way to publicly announce the fact! My God!"
+
+There was another astonished watcher in the audience that evening. It
+was the eminent Monsignor Lafelle, recently back from Europe by way of
+the West Indies. And after the episode just related, he approached
+Carmen and Mrs. Hawley-Crowles.
+
+"A very clever, if startling, performance," he commented; "and with
+two superb actors, Mr. Ames and our little friend here," bowing over
+Carmen's hand.
+
+"I am _so_ glad you could accept our invitation, Monsignor. But,
+dear me! I haven't got my breath yet," panted the steaming Mrs.
+Hawley-Crowles. "Do take us, Monsignor, to the refectory. I feel
+faint."
+
+A few moments later, over their iced drinks, Lafelle was relating
+vivid incidents of his recent travels, and odd bits of news from
+Cartagena. "No, Miss Carmen," he said, in reply to her anxious
+inquiries, "I did not meet the persons you have mentioned. And as for
+getting up the Magdalena river, it would have been quite impossible.
+Dismiss from your mind all thought of going down there now. Cartagena
+is tense with apprehension. The inland country is seething. And the
+little town of Simiti which you mention, I doubt not it is quite shut
+off from the world by the war."
+
+Carmen turned aside that he might not see the tears which welled into
+her eyes.
+
+"Your entertainment, Madam," continued Lafelle, addressing the now
+recovered Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, "is superb, as have been all of your
+social projects this winter, I learn. The thought which you expressed
+to me some months ago regarding Catholic activity in social matters
+certainly was well founded. I perceive that our Protestant rivals have
+all but retired from the field."
+
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles swelled with pride. Carmen regarded the churchman
+with wonder.
+
+"And have you not found a sense of peace, of satisfaction and comfort,
+since you united with the true Church?" Lafelle went on. "Are you not
+at last at rest?"
+
+"Quite so," sighed the lady, though the sigh was scarcely one of
+unalloyed relief.
+
+Lafelle turned to Carmen. "And our little friend here--can she still
+remain an alien, now that she has some knowledge of her indebtedness
+to the Church?"
+
+Carmen looked blank. "My indebtedness to the Church!" she repeated.
+"Why--"
+
+It was now Lafelle's turn to sigh, as he directed himself again to
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles. "She does not see, Madam, that it was by the
+ladder of Holy Church that she mounted to her present enviable social
+height."
+
+"But--what--what do you mean?" stammered the bewildered girl.
+
+"May I not come and explain it to her?" said Lafelle. Then he suddenly
+thought of his last conversation with the Beaubien. But he shrugged
+his shoulders, and a defiant look sat upon his features.
+
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles dared not refuse the request. She knew she was now
+too deeply enmeshed for resistance, and that Lafelle's control over
+her was complete--unless she dared to face social and financial ruin.
+And under that thought she paled and grew faint, for it raised the
+curtain upon chaos and black night.
+
+"Would it be convenient for me to call to-morrow afternoon?" continued
+the churchman.
+
+"Certainly," murmured Mrs. Hawley-Crowles in a scarcely audible
+voice.
+
+"By the way," Lafelle said, suddenly turning the conversation, "how,
+may I ask, is our friend, Madam Beaubien?"
+
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles again trembled slightly. "I--I have not seen her
+much of late, Monsignor," she said feebly.
+
+"A strong and very liberal-minded woman," returned Lafelle with
+emphasis. "I trust, as your spiritual adviser, Madam, I may express
+the hope that you are in no way influenced by her."
+
+"Sir!" cried Carmen, who had bounded to her feet, her eyes ablaze,
+"Madam Beaubien is a noble woman!"
+
+"My dear child!" Lafelle grasped her hand and drew her back into her
+chair. "You misunderstand me, quite. Madam Beaubien is a very dear
+friend of ours, and we greatly admire her strength of character. She
+certainly does not require your defense! Dear! dear! you quite
+startled me."
+
+A few moments later he rose and offered his arms to his companions to
+lead them back to the hall. Delivering Carmen into the charge of the
+eagerly waiting Duke of Altern, Lafelle remarked, as he took leave of
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, "I trust you will permit me to talk with your
+beautiful ward to-morrow afternoon--alone." And when the lady
+interpreted the significance of his look, her heart beat rapidly, as
+she bowed her acknowledgment of abject submission.
+
+"Bah Jove!" ejaculated the young Duke, clutching Carmen. "Ye know, I
+was deucedly afraid you had gone home, or that Uncle Wilton had you.
+Ye know, I think I'm jealous of him!"
+
+Carmen laughed merrily at the fellow. His grotesque costume made him
+appear still more ridiculous.
+
+"It's nothing to laugh at, Miss Carmen! It's a bally bore to have a
+regular mountain like him always getting in the way; and to-night I
+just made up my mind I wouldn't stand it any longer, bah Jove! I say,
+come on!"
+
+He fixed his monocle savagely in his eye and strode rapidly toward
+the refreshment hall. Carmen went in silence. She heard his murmur of
+gratification when his gaze lighted upon the chairs and table which
+he had evidently arranged previously in anticipation of this
+_tete-a-tete_.
+
+"Ye know," he finally began, after they were seated and he had sat
+some minutes staring at the girl, "ye know, you're deucedly clevah,
+Miss Carmen! I told mother so to-day, and this time she had to agree.
+And that about your being an Inca princess--ye know, I could see that
+from the very first day I met you. Mighty romantic, and all that,
+don't ye know!"
+
+"Indeed, yes!" replied the girl, her thought drifting back to distant
+Simiti.
+
+"And all about that mine you own in South America--and Mrs.
+Hawley-Crowles making you her heiress--and all that--bah Jove!
+It's--it's romantic, I tell you!" His head continued to nod emphasis
+to his thought long after he finished speaking.
+
+"Ye know," he finally resumed, drawing a gold-crested case from a
+pocket and lighting a monogrammed cigarette, "a fellow can always tell
+another who is--well, who belongs to the aristocracy. Mrs. Ames, ye
+know, said she had some suspicions about you. But I could see right
+off that it was because she was jealous. Mother and I knew what you
+were the minute we clapped eyes on you. That's because we belong to
+the nobility, ye know."
+
+He smoked in silence for some moments. Carmen was far, far away.
+
+"Bah Jove, Miss Carmen, I'm going to say it!" he suddenly blurted.
+"Mother wanted me to marry Lord Cragmont's filly; but, bah Jove, I
+say, I'm going to marry you!"
+
+Carmen now heard, and she quickly sat up, her eyes wide and staring.
+"Marry me!" she exclaimed.
+
+"Yes," he went on. "Oh, it's all right. You're a princess, ye know,
+and so you're in our class. I'm not one of the kind that hands out a
+title to the red-nosed daughter of any American pork packer just to
+get her money. Not me! The girl I marry has got to be my equal."
+
+"Oh!" murmured the astonished Carmen.
+
+"It's all right for you to have money, of course. I won't marry a
+pauper, even if she's a duchess. But you and I, Miss Carmen, are just
+suited to each other--wealth and nobility on each side. I've got
+thirty thousand good British acres in my own right, bah Jove!"
+
+By now Carmen had fully recovered from her surprise. She reflected a
+moment, then determined to meet the absurd youth with the spirit of
+levity which his audacity merited. "But, Reginald," she said in mock
+seriousness, "though your father was a duke, how about your mother?
+Was she not just an ordinary American girl, a sister of plain Mrs. J.
+Wilton Ames? Where's the aristocracy there? Now on my side--"
+
+"Now, Miss Carmen," cried the boy petulantly, "can't you see that, by
+marrying my father, my mother became ennobled? Bah Jove, you don't
+understand! Were your parents both noble?"
+
+"Indeed they were!" said Carmen. "They were both children of a king."
+
+"You don't say!" he whispered, leaning far over the table toward her.
+"Then we've simply _got_ to marry!"
+
+"But," protested the girl, "in my country people love those whom they
+marry. I haven't heard a word of that from you."
+
+"Now, I say!" he exclaimed. "I was just getting round to that. It was
+love that made me offer you my name and title!"
+
+"Yes? Love of what?"
+
+"Why--you--of course!"
+
+She laughed musically. "My dear Reginald, you don't love me. It is
+yourself that you love. You are madly in love, it is true; but it is
+with the young Duke of Altern."
+
+"See here, you can't talk to me that way, ye know!" he flared out.
+"Bah Jove, I'm offering to make you a duchess--and I love you, too,
+though you may not think it!"
+
+"Of course you love me, Reginald," said Carmen in gentle reply, now
+relinquishing her spirit of badinage; "and I love you. But I do not
+wish to marry you."
+
+The young man started under the shock and stared at her in utter lack
+of comprehension. Was it possible that this unknown girl was refusing
+him, a duke? She must be mad!
+
+"A--a--I don't get you, Miss Carmen," he stammered.
+
+"Come," she said, rising and holding out a hand. "Let's not talk about
+this any more. We must go back to the hall. I do love you, Reginald,
+but not in the way that perhaps you would like. I love the real _you_;
+not the vain, foolish, self-adoring human concept, called the Duke of
+Altern. And the love I feel for you will help you, oh, far more than
+if I married you! Come."
+
+"But--Miss Carmen!" He stood before her with mouth open.
+
+"Yes, Reginald."
+
+"I--I expected we'd be engaged--I told mother--"
+
+"Very well, Reginald, we are engaged. Engaged in handling this little
+problem that has presented itself to you. Do you see? And I will help
+you to solve it in the right way. For you need help. Reginald dear, I
+didn't mean to treat your proposal so lightly. I am sorry. There, give
+me your hand. We're just awfully good friends, aren't we? And I do
+love you, more than you think."
+
+Leaving the bewildered youth in the hall, Carmen fell afoul of the
+very conservative Mrs. Gannette, whose husband, suffering from a sense
+of nausea since the appearance of Ames as a King Vulture, had some
+moments before summoned his car and driven to his favorite club to
+flood his apprehensions with Scotch high-balls.
+
+"Ah, little sly-boots!" piped Mrs. Gannette, shaking a finger at
+Carmen. "I saw you with Reginald just now. I'm awfully wise about such
+things. Tell me, dear, when shall we be able to call you the Duchess
+of Altern? You lucky girl!"
+
+Carmen's spirits sank, as, without reply, she submitted to the banal
+boredom of this blustering dame's society gabble. Mrs. Gannette hooked
+her arm into the girl's and led her to a divan. "It's a great affair,
+isn't it?" she panted, settling her round, unshapely form out over the
+seat. "Dear me! I did intend to come in costume. Was coming as a
+tomato. Ha! ha! Thought that was better adapted to my shape. But when
+I got the cloth form around me, do you know, I couldn't get through
+the door! And my unlovely pig of a husband said if I came looking like
+that he'd get a divorce." The corpulent dame shook and wheezed with
+the expression of her abundant merriment.
+
+"Well," she continued, "it wasn't his threat that hindered me,
+goodness knows! A divorce would be a relief, after living forty years
+with him! Say, there goes young Doctor Worley. Speaking of divorce,
+he's just got one. It all came round through a joke. Billy Patterson
+dared him to exchange wives with him one evening when they were having
+a little too much gaiety at the Worley home, and the doctor took the
+dare. Ha! ha! The men swapped wives for two days. What do you think of
+that! And this divorce was the result. But Billy took his wife back.
+He thought it was just a good joke. Kate Worley gets an alimony of
+fifty thousand per. But the doctor can stand it. Why, he has a
+practice of not less than two hundred and fifty thousand a year!"
+
+"I supposed," murmured Carmen, "that amount of money is a measure of
+his ability, a proof of his great usefulness."
+
+"Nothing of the kind," replied Mrs. Gannette. "He's simply in with the
+wealthy, that's all. Dear! dear! Do look at that fright over there!
+It's Lizzie Wall. Now isn't she simply hideous! Those diamonds are
+nothing but paste! The hussy!"
+
+Carmen glanced at the pale, slender woman across the hall, seated
+alone, and wearing a look of utter weariness.
+
+"I'd like to meet her," she said, suddenly drawn by the woman's mute
+appeal for sympathy.
+
+"Don't do it!" hastily interposed Mrs. Gannette. "She's going to be
+dropped. Name's already on the black list. I don't know what Mrs.
+Hawley-Crowles was thinking of to invite her to-night! Her estate is
+being handled by Ames and Company, and J. Wilton says there won't be
+much left when it's settled--
+
+"My goodness!" she exclaimed, abruptly flitting to another topic.
+"There goes Miss Tottle. Look at her skirt--flounced at the knees, and
+full in the back so's to give a bustle effect. My! I wish I could wear
+togs cut that way--
+
+"They say, my dear," the garrulous old worldling prattled on, "that
+next season's styles will be very ultra. Butterfly idea, I hear. Hats
+small and round, like the heads of butterflies. Waists and jackets
+very full and quite loose in the back and shoulders, so's to give the
+appearance of wings. Belts, but no drawing in at the waist. Skirts
+plaited, plaits opening wide at the knees and coming close together
+again at the ankle, so's to look like the body of a butterfly. Then
+butterfly bows sprinkled all over."
+
+She paused for breath. Then she drew a long sigh. "Oh dear," she
+lamented, "I'd give anything if I had a decent shape! I'd like to wear
+those shimmering, flowing, transparent summer things over silk tights.
+But, mercy me! I'd look like a potato busted wide open. Now you can
+wear those X-ray dresses all right--
+
+"Say, Kathleen Ames has a new French gown to wear to the Dog Show.
+Skirt slit clear to the knee, with diamond garter around the leg just
+below. How I'd look! I have a leg like a ham!"
+
+Carmen heard little of this vapid talk, as she sat studying the pale
+woman across the hall. She had resolved to meet her just as soon as
+the loquacious Mrs. Gannette should seek another victim. But that
+genial old gossip gave no present evidence of a desire to change.
+
+"I'm _so_ glad you're going to marry young Altern," she said, again
+swerving the course of her conversation. "He's got a fine old ruined
+castle somewhere in England, and seems to have wads of money, though I
+hear that everything is mortgaged to Ames. I wouldn't be surprised.
+Still, his bare title is worth something to an American girl. Besides,
+you've got money. And you'll do a lot for his family. You know--but
+don't breathe a word of this!--his mother never was recognized
+socially in England, and she finally had to give up the fight. For a
+while Ames backed her, but it wouldn't do. His millions couldn't buy
+her the court entree, and she just had to quit. That's why she's over
+here now. The old Duke--he was lots older than she--died a couple of
+years ago. Ran through everything and drank himself to death. Before
+and since that happy event the Duchess did everything under the
+heavens to get a bid to court. She gave millions to charity and to
+entertainments. She sacrificed everything. But, no sir! It wouldn't
+do. She had no royal blood. But with you it will be different. You're
+a princess, royal Inca, and such like. You qualify right from the
+jump. So you see what you're expected to do for the Altern crowd--
+
+"Dear! dear!" catching her breath and switching quickly to another
+theme, "have you heard about the Hairton scandal? It's simply rich!
+You see, young Sidney Ames--"
+
+Carmen's patience had touched its limit. "Don't, please don't!" she
+begged, holding out a hand. "I do not wish to hear it!"
+
+Mrs. Gannette raised her lorgnette and looked at the girl. "Why, my
+dear! what's the matter? The scandal's about Ames's son, you know. The
+reason he doesn't go in society. Just come to light. You see--"
+
+"My dear Mrs. Gannette," Carmen looked up at her with a beseeching
+smile. "You wouldn't deliberately give me poison to drink, would
+you?"
+
+"Why, certainly not!" blustered that garrulous lady in astonishment.
+
+"Then why do you poison my mind with such conversation?"
+
+"What!"
+
+"You sit there pouring into my mentality thought after thought that is
+deadly poisonous, don't you know it?"
+
+"Why--!"
+
+"You don't mean to harm me, I know," pleaded the girl. "But if you
+only understood mental laws you would know that every thought entering
+one's mind tends to become manifested in some way. Thoughts of
+disease, disaster, death, scandal--all tend to become externalized in
+discordant ways, either on the body, or in the environment. You don't
+want any such things manifested to me, do you? But you might just as
+well hand me poison to drink as to sit there and pour such deadly
+conversation into me."
+
+Mrs. Gannette slowly drew herself up with the hauteur of a grandee.
+Carmen seized her hand. "I do not want to listen to these unreal
+things which concern only the human mind," she said earnestly. "Nor
+should you, if you are truly aristocratic, for aristocracy is of the
+thought. I am not going to marry Reginald. A human title means nothing
+to me. But one's thought--that alone is one's claim to _real_
+aristocracy. I know I have offended you, but only because I refuse to
+let you poison me. Now I will go."
+
+She left the divan and the petrified dame, and hurriedly mingled with
+the crowd on the floor.
+
+"The little cat!" exploded Mrs. Gannette, when she again found
+herself. "She has mortally insulted me!"
+
+Carmen went directly to the pale woman, still sitting alone, who had
+been one of the objects of Mrs. Gannette's slighting remarks. The
+woman glanced up as she saw the girl approaching, and a look of wonder
+came into her eyes. Carmen held out a hand.
+
+"I am Carmen Ariza," she said simply. "You are Miss Wall. I want you
+to be my friend."
+
+The woman roused up and tried to appear composed.
+
+"Will you ride with me to-morrow?" continued Carmen. "Then we can talk
+all we want to, with nobody to overhear. Aren't you happy?" she
+abruptly added, unable longer to withstand the appeal which issued
+mutely from the lusterless eyes before her.
+
+The woman smiled wanly. "Not so very," she replied slowly.
+
+"Well!" exclaimed Carmen; "what's wrong?"
+
+"I am poverty-stricken," returned the woman sadly.
+
+"But I will give you money," Carmen quickly replied.
+
+"My dear child," said the woman, "I haven't anything but money. That
+is why I am poverty-stricken."
+
+"Oh!" the girl exclaimed, sinking into a chair at her side. "Well,"
+she added, brightening, "now you have me! And will you call me up,
+first thing in the morning, and arrange to ride with me? I want you
+to, so much!"
+
+The woman's eyes grew moist. "Yes," she murmured, "I will--gladly."
+
+In the small hours of the morning there were several heads tossing in
+stubborn wakefulness on their pillows in various New York mansions.
+But Carmen's was not one of them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 17
+
+
+On the morning following Mrs. Hawley-Crowles's very successful
+imitation of the _Bal de l'Opera_, Monsignor Lafelle paid an early
+call to the Ames _sanctum_. And the latter gentleman deemed the visit
+of sufficient importance to devote a full hour to his caller. When the
+churchman rose to take his leave he reiterated:
+
+"Our friend Wenceslas will undertake the matter for you, Mr. Ames, but
+on the conditions which I have named. But Rome must be communicated
+with, and the substance of her replies must be sent from Cartagena to
+you, and your letters forwarded to her. That might take us into early
+summer. But there is no likelihood that Mr. Ketchim's engineers will
+make any further attempt before that time to enter Colombia. Mr. Reed
+in still in California. Mr. Harris is in Denver, at his old home, you
+tell me. So we need look for no immediate move from them."
+
+"Quite satisfactory, Lafelle," returned Ames genially. "In future, if
+I can be of service to you, I am yours to command. Mr. Willett will
+hand you a check covering your traveling expenses on my behalf."
+
+When the door closed after Lafelle, Ames leaned back in his chair and
+gave himself up to a moment's reflection. "I wonder," he mused, "I
+wonder if the fellow has something up his sleeve that he didn't show
+me? He acted suspiciously. Perhaps he's getting a bit dangerous. He
+may know too much already. I'm going to drop him after this trap is
+sprung. He's got Jim Crowles's widow all tied up, too. I wonder if
+he--by heaven! if he begins work on that girl I'll--"
+
+He was interrupted by the ringing of the telephone bell. It was
+Gannette. "What?" shouted Ames, "you say the girl insulted your
+wife last evening? I don't believe she could--Yes, yes, I mean, I
+don't think she meant to--certainly not, no aspersion whatever
+intended--What? the girl will have to apologize?--Well! well--No,
+not in a thousand years!--Yes, I'll back her! And if your society
+isn't good enough for her--and I don't think it is--why, I'll form
+a little coterie all by myself!"
+
+He hung up the receiver with a slam. Then he angrily summoned Hodson.
+"I want a dozen brokers watching Gannette now until I call them off,"
+he commanded. "I want you to take personal charge of them. Dog his
+every move. I'll give you some suggestions later."
+
+Hodson bowed and went out. Ames continued his meditations. "Lucile
+already has Gannette pretty well wound up in his Venezuelan
+speculations--and they are going to smash--Lafelle has fixed that. And
+I've bought her notes against Mrs. Hawley-Crowles for about a
+million--which I have reinvested for her in Colombia. Humph! She'll
+feed out of my hand now! La Libertad is mine when the trap falls. So
+is C. and R. And that little upstart, Ketchim, goes to Sing Sing!"
+
+He turned to the morning paper that lay upon his desk. "I don't like
+the way the Colombian revolution drags," he mused. "But certainly it
+can't last much longer. And then--then--"
+
+His thoughts wandered off into devious channels. "So Jose de Rincon
+is--well! well! Things have taken an odd turn. But--where on earth did
+that girl come from? Lord! she was beautiful last night. All religion,
+eh? Ha! ha! Well, she's young. There's a lot of experience coming to
+her. And then she'll drop a few of her pious notions. Lucile says--but
+Lucile is getting on my nerves!"
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Monsignor Lafelle found Mrs. Hawley-Crowles and her ward awaiting him
+when his car drove up at two that afternoon. Carmen had not left the
+house during the morning, for Elizabeth Wall had telephoned early that
+a slight indisposition would necessitate postponement of the
+contemplated ride.
+
+"Well," reflected Carmen, as she turned from the 'phone, "one who
+knows that God is everywhere can never be disappointed, for all good
+is ever present." And then she set about preparing for the expected
+call of Monsignor Lafelle.
+
+When that dignitary entered the parlor Mrs. Hawley-Crowles graciously
+welcomed him, and then excused herself. "I will leave her with you,
+Monsignor," she said, indicating Carmen, and secretly glad to escape a
+presence which she greatly feared. Lafelle bowed, and then waved
+Carmen to a seat.
+
+"I have come to-day, Miss Carmen," he began easily, "on a mission of
+vastest importance as concerning your welfare. I have been in
+Cartagena. I have talked with the acting-Bishop there, who, it seems,
+is not wholly unacquainted with you."
+
+"Then," cried Carmen eagerly, "you know where Padre Jose is? And the
+others--"
+
+"No," replied Lafelle. "I regret to say I know nothing of their
+present whereabouts. Leave them with God."
+
+"I have long since done that," said Carmen softly.
+
+"It is of yourself that I wish to speak," continued Lafelle. "I have
+come to offer you the consolation, the joy, and the protection of the
+Church. Your great benefactress, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, has found peace
+with us. Will you longer delay taking a step toward which you are by
+race, by national custom, and by your Saviour admonished? I have come
+to invite you to publicly confess your allegiance to the Church of
+Rome. You belong to us. A Catholic country gave you birth. Your
+parents were Catholic. Your best friend, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, is one
+of us. Come," he said, extending his hands. "We need you. And you, my
+daughter, now need the Church," he added with suggestive emphasis.
+
+Carmen was not surprised. Mrs. Hawley-Crowles had hinted the probable
+mission of the churchman, and the girl was prepared.
+
+"I thank you, Monsignor," she replied simply. "But it is impossible."
+
+"Impossible?" He arched his fine brows. "My child, it is quite
+necessary!"
+
+"Why, Monsignor?"
+
+"For your eternal salvation," he replied.
+
+"But I have my salvation, ever present. It is the Christ-principle."
+
+"My dear child, do not lean upon your pretty theories in the hope that
+they will open the door of heaven for you. There is no salvation
+outside of the Church."
+
+"Monsignor," said Carmen gently, "such talk is very foolish. Can you
+prove to me that your Church ever sent any one to heaven? Have you any
+but a very mediaeval and material concept of heaven? To me, heaven is
+right here. It is the consciousness of good only, without a trace of
+materiality or evil. And I enter into that consciousness by means of
+the Christ-principle, which Jesus gave to the world. It is very
+simple, is it not? And it makes all your pomp and ceremony, and your
+penance and rites quite unnecessary."
+
+Lafelle eyed her narrowly. He had certain suspicions, but he was not
+ready to voice them. Carmen went on:
+
+"Monsignor, I love my fellow-men, oh, _so_ much! I want to see every
+one work out his salvation, as Jesus bade us all do, and without any
+hindrance from others. And I ask but that same privilege from every
+one, yourself included. Let me work out my salvation as my Father has
+directed."
+
+Lafelle smiled paternally. "I have no wish to hinder you, child. On
+the contrary, I offer you the assistance and infallible guidance of
+the Church. You are very young. We are very old. Beginning nineteen
+centuries ago, when we were divinely appointed custodian of the
+world's morals, our history has been a glorious one. We have in that
+time changed a pagan world into one that fears God and follows His
+Christ."
+
+"But for nineteen hundred years, Monsignor, the various so-called
+Christian sects of the world have been persecuting and slaying one
+another over their foolish beliefs, basing their religious theories
+upon their interpretations of the Bible. Surely that is not a glorious
+history!"
+
+"Ah! You unwittingly argue directly for our cause, my child. The
+result which you have just cited proves conclusively that the
+Scriptures can not be correctly interpreted by every one. That is
+perfectly patent to you, I see. Thus you acknowledge the necessity of
+an infallible guide. That is to be found only in the spiritual
+Fathers, and in the Pope, the holy Head of the Church of Rome, the
+present Vicegerent of Christ on earth."
+
+"Then your interpretation of the Bible is the only correct one?"
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"And you Catholics are the only true followers of Christ? The only
+_real_ Christians?"
+
+"We are."
+
+She rose. "Come, Monsignor, I will get my coat and hat. We will take
+your car."
+
+"Why--where are you going?" he asked in amazement, as he slowly got to
+his feet.
+
+She stopped and faced him squarely. "Jesus said: 'He that believeth on
+me, the works that I do shall he do also.' I am going to take you over
+to the home of old Maggie, our cook's mother. She is sick. You will
+heal her, for you are a true follower of Christ."
+
+"Well--but, hasn't she a doctor?"
+
+"Yes, but he can't help her. Doctors are not infallible. But you
+represent the Christ on earth. You should be able to do the works
+which he did. You can change the wafer and wine into the flesh and
+blood of Jesus. How much easier, then, and vastly more practical, to
+cure a sick woman! Wait, I will be back in a minute."
+
+"But, you impetuous child, I shall go on no such foolish errand as
+that!"
+
+She stopped again. "If the woman were dying or dead, and you were
+summoned, you would go, would you not? For she is a Catholic."
+
+"Why--yes, of course."
+
+"And if she were dying you would put holy oil on her, and pray--but it
+wouldn't make her well. And if she were dead, you would say Masses for
+the repose of her soul. Monsignor, did it never occur to you that the
+great works which you claim to do are all done behind the veil of
+death? You can do but little for mankind here; but you pretend to do
+much after they have passed beyond the grave. Is it quite fair to the
+poor and ignorant, I ask, to work that way? Did it never strike you as
+remarkable and very consistent that Jesus, whenever he launched a
+great truth, immediately ratified it by some great sign, some sign
+which the world now calls a miracle? The Gospels are full of such
+instances, where he first taught, then came down and immediately
+healed some one, thus at once putting his teaching to the proof. Do
+you prove anything? Your Church has taught and thundered and denounced
+for ages, but what has it proved? Jesus taught practical Christianity.
+You teach the so-called practical Christianity which makes a reality
+of evil and an eternal necessity of hospitals and orphan asylums. If
+you did his works the people would be so uplifted that these things
+would be wiped out. Your Church has had nineteen hundred years in
+which to learn to do the works which he did. Now come over to Maggie's
+with me and prove that you are a true follower and believer, and that
+the Church has given you the right sort of practical instruction!"
+
+Gradually the girl's voice waxed stronger while she delivered this
+polemic. Slowly the churchman's face darkened, as he moved backward
+and sank into his chair.
+
+"Now, Monsignor, having scolded you well," the girl continued, smiling
+as she sat down again, "I will apologize. But you needed the
+scolding--you know you did! And nearly all who profess the name of
+Christ need the same. Monsignor, I love you all, and every one,
+whether Catholic or Protestant, or whatever his creed. But that does
+not blind my eyes to your great need, and to your obstinate refusal to
+make any effort to meet that need."
+
+A cynical look came into the man's face. "May I ask, Miss Carmen, if
+you consider yourself a true follower and believer?" he said coolly.
+
+"Monsignor," she quickly replied, rising and facing him, "you hope by
+that adroit question to confound me. You mean, do I heal the sick?
+Listen: when I was a child my purity of thought was such that I knew
+no evil. I could not see it anywhere. I could not see sickness or
+death as anything more than unreal shadows. And that wonderful
+clearness of vision and purity of thought made me a channel for the
+operation of the Christ-principle, God himself. And thereby the sick
+were healed in my little home town. Then, little by little, after my
+beloved teacher, Jose, came to me, I lost ground in my struggle to
+keep the vision clear. They did not mean to, but he and my dearest
+padre Rosendo and others held their beliefs of evil as a reality so
+constantly before me that the vision became obscured, and the
+spirituality alloyed. The unreal forces of evil seemed to concentrate
+upon me. I know why now, for the greatest good always stirs up the
+greatest amount of evil--the highest truth always has the lowest lie
+as its opposite and opponent. I see now, as never before, the
+unreality of evil. I see now, as never before, the marvelous truth
+which Jesus tried, oh, _so_ hard, to impress upon the dull minds of
+his people, the truth which you refuse to see. And ceaselessly I am
+now striving to acquire 'that mind,' that spiritual consciousness,
+which was in him. My vision is becoming daily clearer. I have been
+wonderfully shielded, led, and cared for. And I shall heal, some day,
+as he did. I shall regain my former spirituality, for it has never
+really been lost. But, Monsignor, do not ask me to come into your
+Church and allow my brightening vision to become blurred by your very
+inadequate concept of God--a God who is moved by the petitions of
+Saints and Virgin and mortal men. No! no! Unless," she added,
+brightening, "you will let me teach your Church what I know. Will you
+agree to that?"
+
+Lafelle did not answer. Then Carmen shook her head. "You see," she
+said, "your Church requires absolute submission to its age-worn
+authority. According to you, I have nothing to give. Very well, if
+your Church can receive nothing from me, and yet can give me nothing
+more than its impossible beliefs, undemonstrable this side of the
+grave, at least--then we must consider that a gulf is fixed between
+us.
+
+"Oh, Monsignor," she pleaded, after a moment's silence, "you see, do
+you not? When Jesus said that he gave his disciples power over all
+evil, did he not mean likewise over all physical action, and over
+every physical condition? But did he mean that they alone should have
+such power? What a limiting of infinite Love! No, he meant that every
+one who followed him and strove ceaselessly for spirituality of
+thought should acquire that spirituality, and thereby cleanse himself
+of false beliefs, and make room for the Christ-principle to operate,
+even to the healing of the sick, to the raising of those mesmerized by
+the belief of death as a power and reality, and to the dematerializing
+of the whole material concept of the heavens and earth. Can't you, a
+churchman, see it? And can't you see how shallow your views are? Don't
+you know that even the physical body is but a part of the human,
+material concept, and therefore a part of the 'one lie' about God, who
+is Spirit?"
+
+Lafelle had listened patiently. But now his time had come to speak in
+rebuttal. And yet, he would make no attempt to assail her convictions.
+He knew well that she would not yield--at least, to-day. He therefore
+played another card.
+
+"Miss Carmen," he said gently, "the Church is ever doing beneficent
+deeds which do not come to light, and for which she receives no praise
+from men. Your own and Mrs. Hawley-Crowles's elevation to social
+leadership came through her. There is also a rumor that the Church
+afforded you an asylum on your first night in this city, when, if
+ever, you needed aid. The Church shielded and cared for you even in
+Simiti. Indeed, what has she not done for you? And do you now, alas!
+turn and rend her?"
+
+"Monsignor," replied Carmen, "I am not unmindful of the care always
+bestowed upon me. And I am not ungrateful. But my gratitude is to my
+God, who has worked through many channels to bless me. My account is
+with Him. Leave it there, and fear not that I shall prove ungrateful
+to Him, to whom my every thought is consecrated."
+
+Lafelle bit his lip. Then he spoke low and earnestly, while he held
+his gaze fixed upon the girl's bright eyes. "Miss Carmen, if you knew
+that the Church now afforded you the only refuge from the dangers that
+threaten, you would turn to her as a frightened child to its mother."
+
+"I fear nothing, Monsignor," replied the girl, her face alight with a
+smile of complete confidence. "I am not the kind who may be driven by
+fear into acceptance of undemonstrable, unfounded theological beliefs.
+Fear has always been a terrible weapon in the hands of those who have
+sought to force their opinions upon their fellow-men. But it is
+powerless to influence me. Fear, Monsignor, is sin. It causes men to
+miss the mark. And it is time-honored. Indeed, according to the Bible
+allegory, it began in the very garden of Eden, when poor, deceived
+Adam confessed to God that he was afraid. If God was infinite then, as
+you admit you believe Him to be now, who or what made Adam afraid?
+Whence came the imaginary power of fear? For, 'God hath not given us
+the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.'
+God is love. And there is no fear in love."
+
+"But, surely, Miss Carmen, you will not stubbornly close your eyes to
+threatening evil?"
+
+"Monsignor, I close my eyes to all that is unlike God. He is everything
+to me. I know nothing but Him and His perfect manifestation."
+
+Lafelle sat some moments in silence. The picture which he and the
+young girl formed was one of rare beauty and interest: he, weighted
+with years, white of hair, but rugged of form, with strikingly
+handsome features and kindly eyes--she, a child, delicate, almost
+wraith-like, glowing with a beauty that was not of earth, and, though
+untutored in the wiles of men, still holding at bay the sagacious
+representative of a crushing weight of authority which reached far
+back through the centuries, even to the Greek and Latin Fathers who
+put their still unbroken seal upon the strange elaborations which they
+wove out of the simple words of the Nazarene.
+
+When the churchman again looked up and felt himself engulfed in the
+boundless love which emanated from that radiant, smiling girl, there
+surged up within him a mighty impulse to go to her, to clasp her in
+his arms, to fall at her feet and pray for even a mite of her own rare
+spirituality. The purpose which he had that morning formulated died
+within him; the final card which he would have thrown lay crushed in
+his hand. He rose and came and stood before her.
+
+"The people believe you a child of the ancient Incas," he said slowly,
+taking her hand. "What if I should say that I know better?"
+
+"I would say that you were right, Monsignor," she replied gently,
+looking up into his face with a sweet smile.
+
+"Then you admit the identity of your father?"
+
+"Yes, Monsignor."
+
+"Ah! And that is--?"
+
+"God."
+
+The man bent for a moment over the little white hand, and then
+immediately left the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 18
+
+Monsignor Lafelle in his interview with Carmen had thrown out a hint
+of certain rumors regarding her; but the days passed, and the girl
+awoke not to their significance. Then, one morning, her attention was
+attracted by a newspaper report of the farewell address of a young
+priest about to leave his flock. When she opened the paper and caught
+sight of the news item she gave a little cry, and immediately forgot
+all else in her absorption in the closing words:
+
+  "--and I have known no other ambition since the day that little
+  waif from a distant land strayed into my life, lighting the dead
+  lamp of my faith with the torch of her own flaming spirituality.
+  She said she had a message for the people up here. Would to God
+  she might know that her message had borne fruit!"
+
+The newspaper slipped from the girl's hands to the floor. Her eyes,
+big and shining, stared straight before her. "And I will lead the
+blind by a way that they know not--" she murmured.
+
+The telephone rang. It was Miss Wall, ready now for the postponed
+ride. Carmen clapped her hands and sang for joy as she summoned the
+car and made her preparations. "We'll go over to his church," she said
+aloud. "We'll find him!" She hurried back to the newspaper to get the
+address of the church from which he had spoken the preceding day.
+"They will know where he is," she said happily. "Oh, isn't it just
+wonderful!"
+
+A few minutes later, with Miss Wall at her side, she was speeding to
+the distant suburb where the little church was located.
+
+"We are going to find a priest," she said simply. "Oh, you mustn't ask
+me any questions! Mrs. Hawley-Crowles doesn't like to have me talk
+about certain things, and so I can't tell you."
+
+Miss Wall glanced at her in wonder. But the happy, smiling countenance
+disarmed suspicion.
+
+"Now tell me," Carmen went on, "tell me about yourself. I'm a
+missionary, you know," she added, thinking of Father Waite.
+
+"A missionary! Well, are you trying to convert the society world?"
+
+"Yes, by Christianity--not by what the missionaries are now teaching
+in the name of Christianity. I'll tell you all about it some day. Now
+tell me, why are you unhappy? Why is your life pitched in such a minor
+key? Perhaps, together, we can change it to a major."
+
+Miss Wall could not help joining in the merry laugh. Then her face
+grew serious. "I am unhappy," she said, "because I have arrived
+nowhere."
+
+Carmen looked at her inquiringly. "Well," she said, "that shows you
+are on the wrong track, doesn't it?"
+
+"I'm tired of life--tired of everything, everybody!" Miss Wall sank
+back into the cushions with her lips pursed and her brow wrinkled.
+
+"No, you are not tired of life," said Carmen quietly; "for you do not
+know what life is."
+
+"No, I suppose not," replied the weary woman. "Do you?" she asked
+abruptly.
+
+"Yes, it is God."
+
+"Oh, don't mention that name, nor quote Scripture to me!" cried the
+woman, throwing up her hands in exasperation. "I've had that stuff
+preached at me until it turned my stomach! I hope you are not an
+emotional, weepy religionist. Let's not talk about that subject. I'm
+heartily sick of it!"
+
+"All right," replied Carmen cheerily. "Padre Jose used to say--"
+
+"Who's he?" demanded Miss Wall, somewhat curtly.
+
+"Oh, he is a priest--"
+
+"A priest! Dear me! do you constantly associate with priests, and talk
+religion?"
+
+The young girl laughed. "Well," she responded, "I've had a good deal
+to do with both."
+
+"And are you any better for it?"
+
+"Oh, yes--lots!" she said quickly.
+
+The woman regarded her with curiosity. "Tell me something about your
+life," she said. "They say you are a princess."
+
+"Surely I am a princess," returned Carmen, laughing merrily. "Listen;
+I will tell you about big, glorious Simiti, and the wonderful castle I
+lived in there, and about my Prime Minister, Don Rosendo, and--well,
+listen, and then judge for yourself if I am not of royal extraction!"
+
+Laughing again up into the mystified face of Miss Wall, the
+enthusiastic girl began to tell about her former life in far-off
+Guamoco.
+
+As she listened, the woman's eyes grew wide with interest. At times
+she voiced her astonishment in sudden exclamations. And when the girl
+concluded her brief recital, she bent upon the sparkling face a look
+of mingled wonder and admiration. "Goodness! After going through all
+that, how can you be so happy now? And with all your kin down there in
+that awful war! Why--!"
+
+"Don't you think I am a princess now?" Carmen asked, smiling up at
+her.
+
+"I think you are a marvel!" was the emphatic answer.
+
+"And--you don't want to know what it was that kept me through it all,
+and that is still guiding me?" The bright, animated face looked so
+eagerly, so lovingly, into the world-scarred features of her
+companion.
+
+"Not if you are going to talk religion. Tell me, who is this priest
+you are seeking to-day, and why have you come to see him?"
+
+"Father Waite. He is the one who found me--when I got lost--and took
+me to my friends."
+
+The big car whirled around a corner and stopped before a dingy little
+church edifice surmounted by a weather-beaten cross. On the steps of a
+modest frame house adjoining stood a man. He turned as the car came
+up.
+
+"Father Waite!" Carmen threw wide the door of the car and sprang out.
+"Father Waite!" clasping his hands. "Don't you know me? I'm Carmen!"
+
+A light came into the startled man's eyes. He recognized her. Then he
+stepped back, that he might better see her. More than a year had
+passed since he had taken her, so oddly garbed, and clinging tightly
+to his hand, into the Ketchim office. And in that time, he thought,
+she had been transformed into a vision of heavenly beauty.
+
+"Well!" cried the impatient girl. "Aren't you going to speak?" And
+with that she threw her arms about him and kissed him loudly on both
+cheeks.
+
+The man and Miss Wall gave vent to exclamations of astonishment. He
+ violently; Miss Wall sat with mouth agape.
+
+"Aren't you glad to see me?" pursued the girl, again grasping his
+hands.
+
+Then he found his tongue. "An angel from heaven could not be more
+welcome," he said. But his voice was low, and the note of sadness was
+prominent.
+
+"Well, I am an angel from heaven," said the laughing, artless girl.
+"And I'm an Inca princess. And I'm just plain Carmen Ariza. But,
+whoever I am, I am, oh, so glad to see you again! I--" she looked
+about carefully--"I read your sermon in the newspaper this morning.
+Did you mean me?" she concluded abruptly.
+
+He smiled wanly. "Yes, I meant you," he softly answered.
+
+"Come with me now," said the eager girl. "I want to talk with you."
+
+"Impossible," he replied, shaking his head.
+
+"Then, will you come and see me?" She thought for a moment. "Why have
+you never been to see me? Didn't you know I was still in the city?"
+
+"Oh, yes," he replied. "I used to see your name in the papers, often.
+And I have followed your career with great interest. But--you moved in
+a circle--from which I--well, it was hardly possible for me to come to
+see you, you know--"
+
+"It was!" exclaimed the girl. "But, never mind, you are coming now.
+Here," drawing a card from her bag, "this is the address of Madam
+Beaubien. Will you come there to-morrow afternoon, at two, and talk
+with me?"
+
+He looked at the card which she thrust into his hand, and then at the
+richly-gowned girl before him. He seemed to be in a dream. But he
+nodded his head slowly.
+
+"Tell me," she whispered, "how is Sister Katie?"
+
+Ah, if the girl could have known how that great-hearted old soul had
+mourned her "little bairn" these many months.
+
+"I will go to see her," said Carmen. "But first you will come to me
+to-morrow." She beamed upon him as she clasped his hands again. Then
+she entered the car, and sat waving her hand back at him as long as he
+could see her.
+
+It would be difficult to say which of the two, Miss Wall or Father
+Waite, was the more startled by this abrupt and lively _rencontre_.
+But to Carmen, as she sat back in the car absorbed in thought, it had
+been a perfectly natural meeting between two warm friends. Suddenly
+the girl turned to the woman. "You haven't anything but money, and
+fine clothes, and automobiles, and jewels, you think. And you want
+something better. Do you know? I know what it is you want."
+
+"What is it?" asked the wondering woman, marveling at this strange
+girl who went about embracing people so promiscuously.
+
+"Love."
+
+The woman's lip trembled slightly when she heard this, but she did not
+reply.
+
+"And I'm going to love you," the girl continued. "Oh, so much! You're
+tired of society gabble and gossip; you're tired of spending on
+yourself the money you never earned; you're not a bit of use to
+anybody, are you? But you want to be. You're a sort of tragedy, aren't
+you? Oh, I know. There are just lots of them in high society, just as
+weary as you. They haven't anything but money. And they lack the very
+greatest thing in all of life, the very thing that no amount of money
+will buy, just love! But, do you know? they don't realize that, in
+order to get, they must give. In order to be loved, they must
+themselves love. Now you start right in and love the whole world, love
+everybody, big and little. And, as you love people, try to see only
+their perfection. Never look at a bad trait, nor a blemish of any
+sort. Try it. In a week's time you will be a new woman."
+
+"Do you do that?" the woman asked in a low tone.
+
+"I have _always_ done it," replied Carmen. "I don't know anything but
+love. I never knew what it was to hate or revile. I never could see
+what there was that deserved hatred or loathing. I don't see anything
+but good--everywhere."
+
+The woman slipped an arm about the girl. "I--I don't mind your talking
+that way to me," she whispered. "But I just couldn't bear to listen to
+any more religion."
+
+"Why!" exclaimed Carmen. "That's all there is to religion! Love is the
+tie that binds all together and all to God. Why, Miss Wall--"
+
+"Call me Elizabeth, please," interrupted the woman.
+
+"Well then, Elizabeth," she said softly, "all creeds have got to merge
+into just one, some day, and, instead of saying 'I believe,' everybody
+will say 'I understand and I love.' Why, the very person who loved
+more than anybody else ever did was the one who saw God most clearly!
+He knew that if we would see God--good everywhere--we would just
+simply _have_ to love, for God _is_ love! Don't you see? It is so
+simple!"
+
+"Do you love me, Carmen, because you pity me?"
+
+"No, indeed!" was the emphatic answer. "God's children are not to be
+pitied--and I see in people only His children."
+
+"Well, why, then, do you love me?"
+
+The girl replied quickly: "God is love. I am His reflection. I reflect
+Him to you. That's loving you.
+
+"And now," she continued cheerily, "we are going to work together,
+aren't we? You are first going to love everybody. And then you are
+going to see just what is right for you to do--what work you are to
+take up--what interests you are to have. But love comes first."
+
+"Tell me, Carmen, why are you in society? What keeps you there, in an
+atmosphere so unsuited to your spiritual life?"
+
+"God."
+
+"Oh, yes," impatiently. "But--"
+
+"Well, Elizabeth dear, every step I take is ordained by Him, who is my
+life. I am where He places me. I leave everything to Him, and then
+keep myself out of the way. If He wishes to use me elsewhere, He will
+remove me from society. But I wait for Him."
+
+The woman looked at her and marveled. How could this girl, who, in her
+few brief years, had passed through fire and flood, still love the
+hand that guided her!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 19
+
+
+To the great horde of starving European nobility the daughters of
+American millionaires have dropped as heavenly manna. It was but dire
+necessity that forced low the bars of social caste to the transoceanic
+traffic between fortune and title.
+
+That Mrs. Hawley-Crowles might ever aspire to the purchase of a
+decrepit dukedom had never entered her thought. A tottering earldom
+was likewise beyond her purchasing power. She had contented herself
+that Carmen should some day barter her rare culture, her charm, and
+her unrivaled beauty, for the more lowly title of an impecunious count
+or baron. But to what heights of ecstasy did her little soul rise when
+the young Duke of Altern made it known to her that he would honor her
+beautiful ward with his own glorious name--in exchange for La Libertad
+and other good and valuable considerations, receipt of which would be
+duly acknowledged.
+
+"I--aw--have spoken to her, ye know, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles," that worthy
+young cad announced one afternoon, as he sat alone with the successful
+society leader in the warm glow of her living room. "And--bah Jove!
+she said we were engaged, ye know--really! Said we were awfully good
+friends, ye know, and all that. 'Pon my word! she said she loved me."
+For Reginald had done much thinking of late--and his creditors were
+restless.
+
+"Why, you don't mean it!" cried the overpowered Mrs. Hawley-Crowles,
+beaming like a full-blown sunflower.
+
+"But I do, really! Only--ye know, she'll have to be--coached a bit, ye
+know--told who we are--our ancestral history, and all that. You know
+what I mean, eh?"
+
+"Of course--you dear boy! Why, she just couldn't help loving you!"
+
+"No--aw--no, of course--that is--aw--she has excellent
+prospects--financial, I mean, eh? Mines, and all that, ye know--eh?"
+
+"Why, she owns the grandest gold mine in all South America! Think of
+it!"
+
+"Bah Jove! I--aw--I never was so attracted to a girl in all me
+blooming life! You will--a--speak to her, eh? Help me out, ye know.
+Just a few words, eh? You know what I mean?"
+
+"Never fear, Reginald" she's yours. "There will be no opposition."
+
+"Opposition! Certainly not--not when she knows about our family.
+And--aw--mother will talk with you--that is, about the details. She'll
+arrange them, ye know. I never was good at business."
+
+And the haughty mother of the young Duke did call shortly thereafter
+to consult in regard to her son's matrimonial desires. The nerve-racking
+round of balls, receptions, and other society functions was quite
+forgotten by the elated Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, whose ears tingled
+deliciously under the pompous boastings of the Dowager Lady Altern. The
+house of Altern? Why, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles was convinced, after a
+half hour's conversation with this proud mother, that the royal house
+of Brunswick was but an impudent counterfeit! What was La Libertad
+worth? She knew not. But her sister's brother, Mr. Reed, who had
+hastily appraised it, had said that there was a mountain of gold there,
+only awaiting Yankee enterprise. And Carmen? There was proof positive
+that she was an Inca princess. Yes, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles was so honored
+by the deep interest which the young Duke manifested in the wonderful
+girl! And she would undertake negotiations with her at once. But it
+must be done wisely. Carmen was not like other girls. No, indeed!
+
+And now Mrs. Hawley-Crowles had to plan very carefully. She was terribly
+in debt; yet she had resources. The Beaubien was inexhaustible. Ames,
+too, might be depended upon. And La Libertad--well, there was Mr.
+Philip O. Ketchim to reckon with. So she forthwith summoned him to a
+consultation.
+
+But, ere her talk with that prince of finance, another bit of good
+fortune fell into the lady's spacious lap. Reed had written that he
+was doing poorly with his western mining ventures, and would have to
+raise money at once. He therefore offered to sell his interest in the
+Simiti Company. Moreover, he wanted his wife to come to him and make
+her home in California, where he doubtless would spend some years.
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles offered him twenty-five thousand dollars for his
+Simiti interest; of which offer Reed wired his immediate acceptance.
+Then the lady packed her rueful sister Westward Ho! and laid her newly
+acquired stock before the Beaubien for a large loan. That was but a
+day before Ketchim called.
+
+"Madam," said that suave gentleman, smiling piously, "you are a
+genius. Our ability to announce the Duke of Altern as our largest
+stockholder will result in a boom in the sales of Simiti stock. The
+Lord has greatly prospered our humble endeavors. Er--might I ask,
+Madam, if you would condescend to meet my wife some afternoon? We are
+rapidly acquiring some standing in a financial way, and Mrs. Ketchim
+would like to know you and some of the more desirable members of your
+set, if it might be arranged."
+
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles beamed her joy. She drew herself up with a regnant
+air. The people were coming to her, their social queen, for
+recognition!
+
+"And there's my Uncle Ted, you know, Madam. He's president of the C.
+and R."
+
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles nodded and looked wise. "Possibly we can arrange
+it," she said. "But now about our other investments. What is Joplin
+Zinc doing?"
+
+"Progressing splendidly, Madam. We shall declare a dividend this
+month."
+
+The lady wondered, for Joplin Zinc was not yet in operation, according
+to the latest report.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meantime, while Mrs. Hawley-Crowles was still laying her plans to herd
+the young girl into the mortgaged dukedom of Altern, Father Waite kept
+his appointment, and called at the Beaubien mansion on the afternoon
+Carmen had set. He was warmly received by the girl herself, who had
+been watching for his coming.
+
+"Now," she began like a bubbling fountain, when they were seated in
+the music room, "where's Jude? I want to find her."
+
+"Jude? Why, I haven't the slightest idea to whom you refer," returned
+the puzzled man.
+
+"The woman who took me to the Sister Superior," explained Carmen.
+
+"Ah! We never saw her again."
+
+"Well," said the girl confidently, "I saw her, but she got away from
+me. But I shall find her--it is right that I should. Now tell me, what
+are you going to do?"
+
+"I have no idea. Earn my living some way," he replied meditatively.
+
+"You have lots of friends who will help you?"
+
+"None," he said sadly. "I am an apostate, you know."
+
+"Well, that means that you're free. The chains have dropped, haven't
+they?"
+
+"But left me dazed and confused."
+
+"You are not dazed, nor confused! Why, you're like a prisoner coming
+out of his dungeon into the bright sunlight. You're only blinking,
+that's all. And, as for confusion--well, if I would admit it to be
+true I could point to a terrible state of it! Just think, a duke wants
+to marry me; Mrs. Hawley-Crowles is determined that he shall; I am an
+Inca princess, and yet I don't know who I am; my own people apparently
+are swallowed up by the war in Colombia; and I am in an environment
+here in New York in which I have to fight every moment to keep myself
+from flying all to pieces! But I guess God intends to keep me here for
+the present. Oh, yes, and Monsignor Lafelle insists that I am a
+Catholic and that I must join his Church."
+
+"Monsignor Lafelle! You--you know him?"
+
+"Oh, yes, very well. And you?"
+
+He evaded reply by another query. "Is Monsignor Lafelle working with
+Madam Beaubien, your friend?"
+
+"I think not," laughed Carmen. "But Mrs. Hawley-Crowles--"
+
+"Was it through him that she became a communicant?"
+
+"Yes. Why?"
+
+"And is he also working with Mr. J. Wilton Ames? He converted Mrs.
+Ames's sister, the Dowager Duchess, in England. The young Duke is also
+going to join the faith, I learn. But--you?" He stopped suddenly and
+looked searchingly at her.
+
+At that moment a maid entered, bearing a card. Close on her heels
+followed the subject of their conversation, Monsignor himself.
+
+As he entered, Carmen rose hastily to greet him. Lafelle bent over her
+hand. Then, as he straightened up, his glance fell upon Father Waite.
+The latter bowed without speaking. For a moment the two men stood
+eying each other sharply. Then Lafelle looked from Father Waite to
+Carmen quizzically. "I beg your pardon," he said, "I was not aware
+that you had a caller. Madam Beaubien, is she at home?"
+
+"No," said Carmen simply. "She went out for a ride."
+
+"Ah!" murmured Lafelle, looking significantly from the girl to Father
+Waite, while a smile curled his lips. "I see. I will intrude no
+further." He bowed again, and turned toward the exit.
+
+"Wait!" rang forth Carmen's clear voice. She had caught the
+churchman's insinuating glance and instantly read its meaning.
+"Monsignor Lafelle, you will remain!"
+
+The churchman's brows arched with surprise, but he came back and stood
+by the chair which she indicated.
+
+"And first," went on the girl, standing before him like an incarnate
+Nemesis, her face flushed and her eyes snapping, "you will hear from
+me a quotation from the Scripture, on which you assume to be
+authority: 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so _is_ he!'"
+
+For a moment Lafelle flushed. Then his face darkened. Finally a bland
+smile spread over his features, and he sat down. The girl resumed her
+seat.
+
+"Now, Monsignor Lafelle," she continued severely, "you have urged me
+to unite with your Church. When you asked me to subscribe to your
+beliefs I looked first at them, and then at you, their product. You
+have come here this afternoon to plead with me again. The thoughts
+which you accepted when you saw Father Waite here alone with me, are
+they a reflection of love, which thinketh no evil? Or do they reflect
+the intolerance, the bigotry, the hatred of the carnal mind? You told
+me that your Church would not let me teach it. Think you I will let it
+or you teach me?"
+
+Father Waite sat amazed at the girl's stinging rebuke. When she
+concluded he rose to go.
+
+"No!" said Carmen. "You, too, shall remain. You have left the Church
+of which Monsignor Lafelle is a part. Either you have done that
+Church, and him, a great injustice--or he does ignorant or wilful
+wrong in insisting that I unite with it."
+
+"My dear child," said Lafelle gently, now recovered and wholly on his
+guard, "your impetuosity gets the better of your judgment. This is no
+occasion for a theological discussion, nor are you sufficiently
+informed to bear a part in such. As for myself, you unintentionally do
+me great wrong. As I have repeatedly told you, I seek only your
+eternal welfare. Else would I not labor with you as I do."
+
+Carmen turned to Father Waite. "Is my eternal welfare dependent upon
+acceptance of the Church's doctrines?"
+
+"No," he said, in a scarcely audible voice.
+
+A cynical look came into Lafelle's eyes. But he replied affably: "When
+preachers fall out, the devil falls in. Your reply, Mr. Waite, comes
+quite consistently from one who has impudently tossed aside
+authority."
+
+"My authority, Monsignor," returned the ex-priest in a low tone, "is
+Jesus Christ, who said: 'Love thy neighbor as thyself.'"
+
+"Ah!" murmured Lafelle; "then it was love that prompted you to abandon
+your little flock?"
+
+"I left my pulpit, Monsignor, because I had nothing to give my people.
+I no longer believe the dogmas of the Church. And I refused longer to
+take the poor people's money to support an institution so politically
+religious as I believe your Church to be. I could no longer take their
+money to purchase the release of their loved ones from an imagined
+purgatory--a place for which there is not the slightest Scriptural
+warrant--"
+
+"You mistake, sir!" interrupted Lafelle in an angry tone.
+
+"Very well, Monsignor," replied Father Waite; "grant, then, that there
+is such Scriptural warrant; I would nevertheless know that the
+existence of purgatory was wholly incompatible with the reign of an
+infinite God of love. And, knowing that, I have ceased to extort gifts
+of money from the ignorance of the living and the ghastly terrors of
+the dying--"
+
+"And so deceive yourself that you are doing a righteous act in
+removing their greatest consolation," the churchman again interrupted,
+a sneer curving his lip.
+
+"Consolation! The consolation which the stupifying drug affords, yes!
+Ah, Monsignor, as I looked down into the faces of my poor people, week
+after week, I knew that no sacerdotal intervention was needed to remit
+their sins, for their sins were but their unsolved problems of life.
+Oh, the poor, grief-stricken mothers who bent their tear-stained eyes
+upon me as I preached the 'authority' of the Fathers! Well I knew
+that, when I told them from my pulpit that their deceased infants, if
+baptized, went straight to heaven, they blindly, madly accepted my
+words! And when I went further and told them that their dead babes had
+joined the ranks of the blessed, and could thenceforth be prayed to,
+could I wonder that they rejoiced and eagerly grasped the false
+message of cheer? They believed because they wanted it to be so. And
+yet those utterances of mine, based upon the accepted doctrine of
+Holy Church, were but narcotics, lulling those poor, afflicted minds
+into a false sense of rest and security, and checking all further
+human progress."
+
+Lafelle shrugged his shoulders. "It is to be regretted," he said
+coldly, "that such narrowness of view should be permitted to impede
+the salvation of souls."
+
+"Salvation--of--souls!" exclaimed Father Waite. "Ah, how many souls
+have I not saved!--and yet I know not whether they or I be really
+saved! Saved? From what? From death? Certainly not! From misery,
+disease, suffering in this life? No, alas, no! Saved, then, from what?
+Ah, my friend, saved only from the torments of a hell and a purgatory
+constructed in the fertile minds of busy theologians!"
+
+Lafelle turned to Carmen. "Some other day, perhaps--when it may be
+more convenient for us both--and you are alone--"
+
+Carmen laughed. "Don't quit the field, Monsignor--unless you surrender
+abjectly. You started this controversy, remember. And you were quite
+indiscreet, if you will recall."
+
+Monsignor bowed, smiling. "You write my faults in brass," he gently
+lamented. "When you publish my virtues, if you find that I am
+possessed of any, I fear you will write them in water."
+
+Carmen laughed again. "Your virtues should advertise themselves,
+Monsignor."
+
+"Ah, then do you not see in me the virtue of desiring your welfare
+above all else, my child?"
+
+"And the welfare of this great country, which you have come here to
+assist in making dominantly Catholic, is it not so, Monsignor?"
+
+Lafelle started slightly. Then he smiled genially back at the girl.
+"It is an ambition which I am not ashamed to own," he returned
+gently.
+
+"But, Monsignor," Carmen continued earnestly, "are you not aware of
+the inevitable failure of your mission? Do you not know that mediaeval
+theology comports not with modern progress?"
+
+"True, my child," replied the churchman. "And more, that our
+so-called modern progress--modernism, free-thinking, liberty of
+conscience, and the consequent terrible extravagance of beliefs and
+false creeds--constitutes the greatest menace now confronting this
+fair land. Its end is inevitable anarchy and chaos. Perhaps you can
+see that."
+
+"Monsignor," said Carmen, "in the Middle Ages the Church was supreme.
+Emperors and kings bowed in submission before her. The world was
+dominantly Catholic. Would you be willing, for the sake of Church
+supremacy to-day, to return to the state of society and civilization
+then obtaining?"
+
+"That would not follow."
+
+"No? I point you to Mexico, Cuba, the Philippines, South America, all
+Catholic now or formerly, and I ask if you attribute not their
+oppression, their ignorance, their low morals and stunted manhood, to
+the dominance of churchly doctrines, which oppose freedom of
+conscience and press and speech, and make learning the privilege of
+the clergy and the rich?"
+
+"It is an old argument, child," deprecated Lafelle. "May I not point
+to France, on the contrary?"
+
+"She has all but driven the Church from her borders."
+
+"But is still Catholic!" he retorted. "And England, though Anglican,
+calls herself Catholic. She will return to the true fold. Germany is
+forsaking Luther, as she sees the old light shining still undimmed."
+
+Carmen looked at Father Waite. The latter read in her glance an
+invitation further to voice his own convictions.
+
+"Monsignor doubtless misreads the signs of the times," he said slowly.
+"The hour has struck for the ancient and materialistic theories
+enunciated with such assumption of authority by ignorant, often
+blindly bigoted theologians, to be laid aside. The religion of our
+fathers, which is our present-day evangelical theology, was derived
+from the traditions of the early churchmen. They put their seal upon
+it; and we blindly accept it as authority, despite the glaring,
+irrefutable fact that it is utterly undemonstrable. Why do the people
+continue to be deceived by it? Alas! only because of its mesmeric
+promise of immortality beyond the grave."
+
+Monsignor bowed stiffly in the direction of Father Waite. "Fortunately,
+your willingness to plunge the Christian world into chaos will fail of
+concrete results," he said coldly.
+
+"I but voice the sentiments of millions, Monsignor. For them, too, the
+time has come to put by forever the paraphernalia of images, candles,
+and all the trinkets used in the pagan ceremonial which has so
+quenched our spirituality, and to seek the undivided garment of the
+Christ."
+
+"Indeed!" murmured Lafelle.
+
+"The world to-day, Monsignor, stands at the door of a new era, an era
+which promises a grander concept of God and religion, the tie which
+binds all to Him, than has ever before been known. We are thinking. We
+are pondering. We are delving, studying, reflecting. And we are at
+last beginning to work with true scientific precision and system. As
+in chemistry, mathematics, and the physical sciences, so in matters
+religious, we are beginning to _prove_ our working hypotheses. And so
+a new spiritual enlightenment is come. People are awaking to a dim
+perception of the meaning of spiritual life, as exemplified in Jesus
+Christ. And they are vaguely beginning to see that it is possible to
+every one. The abandonment of superstition, religious and other, has
+resulted in such a sudden expansion of the human mind that the most
+marvelous material progress the world has ever witnessed has come
+swiftly upon us, and we live more intensely in a single hour to-day
+than our fathers lived in weeks before us. Oh, yes, we are already
+growing tired of materiality. The world is not yet satisfied. We are
+not happy. But, Monsignor, let not the Church boast itself that the
+acceptance of her mediaeval dogmas will meet the world's great need.
+That need will be met, I think, only as we more and more clearly
+perceive the tremendous import of the mission of Jesus, and learn how
+to grasp and apply the marvelous Christ-principle which he used and
+told us we should likewise employ to work out our salvation."
+
+During Father Waite's earnest talk Lafelle sat with his eyes fixed
+upon Carmen. When the ex-priest concluded, the churchman ignored him
+and vouchsafed no reply.
+
+"Well, Monsignor?" said the girl, after waiting some moments in
+expectation.
+
+Lafelle smiled paternally. Then, nodding his shapely head, he said in
+a pleading tone:
+
+"Have I no champion here? Would you, too, suddenly abolish the Church,
+Catholic and Protestant alike? Why, my dear child, with your
+ideals--which no one appreciates more highly than I--do you continue
+to persecute me so cruelly? Can not you, too, sense the unsoundness of
+the views just now so eloquently voiced?"
+
+"That is cant, Monsignor! You speak wholly without authority or proof,
+as is your wont."
+
+The man winced slightly. "Well," he said, "there are several hundred
+million Catholics and Protestants in the world to-day. Would you
+presume to say that they are all mistaken, and that you are right?
+Something of an assumption, is it not? Indeed, I think you set the
+Church an example in that respect."
+
+"Monsignor, there were once several hundred millions who believed that
+the earth was flat, and that the sun revolved about it. Were they
+mistaken?"
+
+"Yes. But the--"
+
+"And, Monsignor, there are billions to-day who believe that matter is
+a solid, substantial reality, and that it possesses life and
+sensation. There are billions who believe that the physical eyes see,
+and the ears hear, and the hands feel. Yet these beliefs are all
+capable of scientific refutation. Did you know that?"
+
+"I am not unacquainted with philosophical speculation," he returned
+suggestively.
+
+"This is not mere speculation, Monsignor," put in Father Waite. "The
+beliefs of the human mind are its fetish. Such beliefs become in time
+national customs, and men defend them with frenzy, utterly wrong and
+undemonstrable though they be. Then they remain as the incubus of true
+progress. By them understanding becomes degraded, and the human mind
+narrows and shrinks. And the mind that clings to them will then
+mercilessly hunt out the dissenting minds of its heretical neighbors
+and stone them to death for disagreeing. So now, you would stone me
+for obeying Christ's command to take up my bed on the Sabbath day."
+
+Lafelle heaved a great sigh. "Still you blazon my faults," he said in
+a tone of mock sadness, and addressing Carmen. "But, like the Church
+which you persecute, I shall endure. We have been martyred throughout
+the ages. And we are very patient. Our wayward children forsake us,"
+nodding toward Father Waite, "and yet we welcome their return when
+they have tired of the husks. The press teems with slander against us;
+we are reviled from east to west. But our reply is that such slander
+and untruth can best be met by our leading individual lives of such an
+exemplary nature as to cause all men to be attracted by our holy
+light."
+
+"I agree with you, Monsignor," quickly replied Carmen. "Scurrilous
+attacks upon the Church but make it a martyr. Vilification returns
+upon the one who hurls the abuse. One can not fling mud without
+soiling one's hands. I oppose not men, but human systems of thought.
+Whatever is good will stand, and needs no defense. Whatever is
+erroneous must go. And there is no excuse, for salvation is at hand."
+
+"Salvation? And your thought regarding that?" he said in a skirmishing
+tone.
+
+"_Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts_,"
+she replied earnestly. "_To him that soweth righteousness_--right
+thinking--_shall be a sure reward_. Ah, Monsignor, do you at heart
+believe that the religion of the Christ depends upon doctrines, signs,
+dogmas? No, it does not. But signs and proofs naturally and inevitably
+follow the right understanding of Jesus' teachings, even according to
+these words: _These signs shall follow them that believe_. Paul gave the
+formula for salvation, when he said: _But we all with open face beholding
+as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image
+from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord_. Can you
+understand that? Can you see that, taking Jesus as our model and
+following his every command--seeing Him only, the Christ-principle, which
+is God, good, without any admixture of evil--we change, even though
+slowly, from glory to glory, step by step, until we rise out of all
+sense of evil and death? And this is done by the Spirit which is God."
+
+"Yes," said Father Waite, taking up the conversation when she paused.
+"Even the poorest human being can understand that. Why, then, the
+fungus growth of traditions, ceremonies, rites and forms which have
+sprung up about the Master's simple words? Why the wretched
+formalistic worship throughout the world? Why the Church's frigid,
+lifeless traditions, so inconsistent with the enlarging sense of God
+which marks this latest century? The Church has yet to prove its
+utility, its right to exist and to pose as the religious teacher of
+mankind. Else must it fall beneath the axe which is even now at the
+root of the barren tree of theology. Her theology, like the Judaism of
+the Master's day, has no prophets, no poets, no singers. And her
+priests, as in his time, have sunk into a fanatical observance of
+ritual and form."
+
+"And yet," observed Carmen, "you still urge me to unite with it."
+
+Lafelle was growing weary. Moreover, it irked him sore to be made a
+target for the unassailable logic of the apostate Waite. Then, too,
+the appearance of the ex-priest there that afternoon in company with
+this girl who held such radical views regarding religious matters
+portended in his thought the possibility of a united assault upon the
+foundations of his cherished system. This girl was now a menace. She
+nettled and exasperated him. Yet, he could not let her alone. Did he
+have the power to silence her? He thought he had.
+
+"Have you finished with me?" he asked, with a show of gaiety. "If so,
+I will depart."
+
+"Yes," replied Carmen, "you may go now."
+
+Lafelle paled. He had not expected that reply. He was stung to the
+quick. What! dismissed like a lackey? He, Monsignor, a dignitary of
+Holy Church? He could not believe it! He turned upon the girl and her
+companion, furious with anger.
+
+"I have been very patient with you both," he said in a voice that he
+could not control. "But there is a reasonable limit. Abuse the Church
+as you will, the fact remains that the world fears her and trembles
+before her awful voice! Why? Because the world recognizes her mighty
+power, a power of unified millions of human beings and exhaustless
+wealth. She is the leader, the guide, the teacher, the supreme object
+of worship of a countless army who would lay down their lives to-day
+for her. Her subjects gather from every quarter of the globe. They are
+English, French, German, American--_but they are Catholics first_!
+Emperor, King, Ruler, or Government--all are alike subject to her
+supreme, divine authority! Nationalities, customs, family ties--all
+melt away before her, to whom her followers bow in loyal consecration.
+The power which her supreme leader and head wields is all but
+omnipotent! He is by divine decree Lord of the world. Hundreds of
+millions bend before his throne and offer him their hearts and swords!
+I say, you have good reason to quake! Aye, America has reason to fear!
+The onward march of Holy Church is not disturbed by the croaking
+calumnies of such as you who would assault her! And to you I say,
+beware!" His face was purple, as he stopped and mopped his damp brow.
+
+"What we have to beware of, Monsignor," said Father Waite gravely, "is
+the steady encroachments of Rome in this country, with her weapons of
+fear, ignorance, and intolerance--"
+
+"Intolerance! You speak of intolerance! Why, in this country, whose
+Constitution provided toleration for every form of religion--"
+
+Carmen had risen and gone to the man. "Monsignor," she said, "the
+founders of the American nation did provide for religious tolerance--and
+they were wise according to their light. But we of this day are
+still wiser, for we have some knowledge of the wonderful working of
+mental laws. I, too, believe in toleration of opinion. You are
+welcome to yours, and I to mine. But--and here is the great point--the
+opinion which Holy Church has held throughout the ages regarding those
+who do not accept her dogmas is that they are damned, that they are
+outcasts of heaven, that they merit the stake and rack. The Church's
+hatred of heretics has been deadly. Her thought concerning them has
+not been that of love, such as Jesus sent out to all who did not
+agree with him, but deadly, suggestive hatred. Now our Constitution
+does not provide for tolerance of hate and murder-thoughts, which enter
+the minds of the unsuspecting and work destruction there in the form
+of disease, disaster, and death. That is what we object to in you,
+Monsignor. You murder your opponents with your poisonous thoughts.
+And toward such thoughts we have a right to be very intolerant, even to
+the point of destroying them in human mentalities. Again I say, I war
+not against people, but against the murderous carnal thought of the
+human mind!"
+
+Monsignor had fallen back before the girl's strong words. His face
+had grown black, and his hands were working convulsively.
+
+"Monsignor," continued Carmen in a low, steady voice, "you have
+threatened me with something which you apparently hold over me. You
+are very like the people of Galilee: if you can not refute by reason,
+you would circumvent by law, by the Constitution, by Congress. That
+failing, you would destroy. Instead of threatening us with the flames
+of hell for not being good, why do you not show us by the great
+example of Jesus' love how to be so? Are you manifesting love now--or
+the carnal mind? I judge your Church by such as manifest it to me.
+How, then, shall I judge it by you to-day?"
+
+He rose slowly and took her by the hand. "I beg your pardon," he said
+in a strange, unnatural voice. "I was hasty. As you see, I am zealous.
+Naturally, I resent misjudgment. And I assure you that you quite
+misunderstand me, and the Church which I represent. But--I may come
+again?"
+
+"Surely, Monsignor," returned the girl heartily. "A debate such as
+this is stimulating, don't you think so?"
+
+He bowed and turned to go. Just then the Beaubien appeared.
+
+"Ah, Monsignor," she said lightly, as she stepped into the room. "You
+are exclusive. Why have you avoided me since your return to America?"
+
+"Madam," replied Lafelle, in some confusion, "no one regrets more than
+I the press of business which necessitated it. But your little friend
+has told me I may return."
+
+"Always welcome, Monsignor," replied the Beaubien, scanning him
+narrowly as she accompanied him to the door. "By the way, you forgot
+our little compact, did you not?" she added coldly.
+
+"Madam, I came out of a sense of duty."
+
+"Of that I have no doubt, Monsignor. _Adieu_."
+
+She returned again to the music room, where Carmen made her acquainted
+with Father Waite, and related the conversation with Lafelle. While
+the girl talked the Beaubien's expression grew serious. Then Carmen
+launched into her association with the ex-priest, concluding with:
+"And he must have something to do, right away, to earn his living!"
+
+The Beaubien laughed. She always did when Carmen, no matter how
+serious the conversation, infused her sparkling animation into it.
+"That isn't nearly as important as to know what he thinks about
+Monsignor's errand here this afternoon, dearie," she said.
+
+Father Waite bowed. "Madam," he said with great seriousness, "I would
+be very wide awake."
+
+The Beaubien studied him for a moment. "Why?" she asked.
+
+"I think--I think--" He hesitated, and looked at Carmen.
+
+"Well?" impatiently.
+
+"I think he--has been greatly angered by--this girl--and by my
+presence here."
+
+"Ah!" Her face set hard. Then abruptly: "What are you going to do
+now?"
+
+"I have funds enough to keep me some weeks, Madam, while making plans
+for the future."
+
+"Then remain where I can keep in touch with you."
+
+For the Beaubien had just returned from a two hours' ride with J.
+Wilton Ames, and she felt that she needed a friend.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 20
+
+
+The Beaubien sat in the rounded window of the breakfast room. Carmen
+nestled at her feet. The maid had just removed the remains of the
+light luncheon.
+
+"Dearest, please, _please_ don't look so serious!"
+
+The Beaubien twined her fingers through the girl's flowing locks. "I
+will try, girlie," she said, though her voice broke.
+
+Carmen looked up into her face with a wistful yearning. "Will you not
+tell me?" she pleaded. "Ever since Monsignor Lafelle and Father Waite
+were here you have been so quiet; and that was nearly a week ago. I
+know I can help, if you will only let me."
+
+"How would you help, dearie?" asked the woman absently.
+
+"By knowing that God is everywhere, and that evil is unreal and
+powerless," came the quick, invariable reply.
+
+"My sweet child! Can nothing shake your faith?"
+
+"No. Why, if I were chained to a stake, with fire all around me, I'd
+know it wasn't true!"
+
+"I think you are chained--and the fire has been kindled," said the
+woman in a voice that fell to a whisper.
+
+"Then your thought is wrong--all wrong! And wrong thought just _can't_
+be externalized to me, for I know that 'There shall no mischief happen
+to the righteous,' that is, to the right-thinking. And I think
+right."
+
+"I'm sure you do, child." The Beaubien got up and walked slowly around
+the room, as if to summon her strength. Then she returned to her
+chair.
+
+"I'm going to tell you," she said firmly. "You are right, and I have
+been wrong. It concerns you. And you have help that I have not. I--I
+have lost a great deal of money."
+
+Carmen laughed in relief. "Well, dear me! that's nothing."
+
+The Beaubien smiled sadly. "I agree with you. Mr. Ames may have my
+money. I have discovered in the past few months that there are better
+things in life. But--" her lips tightened, and her eyes half
+closed--"he can _not_ have you!"
+
+"Oh! He wants _me_?"
+
+"Yes. Listen, child: I know not why it is, but you awaken something in
+every life into which you come. The woman I was a year ago and the
+woman I am to-day meet almost as strangers now. Why? The only answer I
+can give is, you. I don't know what you did to people in South
+America; I can only surmise. Yet of this I am certain, wherever you
+went you made a path of light. But the effect you have on people
+differs with differing natures. Just why this is, I do not know. It
+must have something to do with those mental laws of which I am so
+ignorant, and of which you know so much."
+
+Carmen looked at her in wondering anticipation. The Beaubien smiled
+down into the face upturned so lovingly, and went on:
+
+"From what you have told me about your priest, Jose, I know that you
+were the light of his life. He loved you to the complete obliteration
+of every other interest. You have not said so; but I know it. How,
+indeed, could it be otherwise? On the other hand, that heartless
+Diego--his mad desire to get possession of you was only animal. Why
+should you, a child of heaven, arouse such opposite sentiments?"
+
+"Dearest," said the girl, laying her head on the woman's knees, "that
+isn't what's worrying you."
+
+"No--but I think of it so often. And, as for me, you have turned me
+inside-out."
+
+Carmen laughed again merrily. "Well, I think this side wears better,
+don't you?"
+
+"It is softer--it may not," returned the woman gently. "But I have no
+desire to change back." She bent and kissed the brown hair. "Mr. Ames
+and I have been--no, not friends. I had no higher ideals than he, and
+I played his game with him. Then you came. And at a time when he had
+involved me heavily financially. The Colombian revolution--his cotton
+deal--he must have foreseen, he is so uncanny--he must have known that
+to involve me meant control whenever he might need me! He needs me
+now, for I stand between him and you."
+
+"You don't!" Carmen was on her feet. "God stands between me and every
+form of evil!" She sat down on the arm of the Beaubien's chair. "Is it
+because you will not let him have me that he threatens to ruin you
+financially?"
+
+"Yes. He couldn't ruin me in reputation, for--" her voice again faded
+to a whisper, "I haven't any."
+
+"That is not true!" cried the girl, throwing her arms about the
+woman's neck. "Your true self is just coming to light! Why, it is
+beautiful! And I love it so!"
+
+The Beaubien suddenly burst into a flood of tears. The strain of weeks
+was at last manifesting. "Oh, I have been in the gutter!--he dragged
+me through the mire!--and I let him! I did it for money, money! I gave
+my soul for it! I schemed and plotted with him; I ruined and pillaged
+with him; I murdered reputations and blasted lives with him, that I
+might get money, dirty, blood-stained money! Oh, Carmen, I didn't know
+what I was doing, until you came! And now I'd hang on the cross if I
+could undo it! But it's too late! And he has you and me in his
+clutches, and he is crushing us!" She bent her head and sobbed
+violently.
+
+Carmen bent over the weeping woman. "Be still, and _know_ that I am
+God." The Beaubien raised her head and smiled feebly through her
+tears.
+
+"He governs all, dearest," whispered Carmen, as she drew the woman's
+head to her breast. "And He is _everywhere_."
+
+"Let us go away!" cried the Beaubien, starting up.
+
+"Flee from our problems?" returned the girl. "But they would follow.
+No, we will stay and meet them, right here!"
+
+The Beaubien's hand shook as she clasped Carmen's. "I can't turn to
+Kane, nor to Fitch, nor Weston. They are all afraid of him. I've
+ruined Gannette myself--for him! I've ruined Mrs. Hawley-Crowles--"
+
+"Mrs. Hawley-Crowles!" exclaimed Carmen, rising.
+
+"Oh, don't, don't!" sobbed the suffering woman, clinging to the girl.
+
+"But--how did you do that?"
+
+"I lent her money--took her notes--which I sold again to Mr. Ames."
+
+"Well, you can buy them back, can't you? And return the money to
+her?"
+
+"I can't! I've tried! He refuses to sell them!"
+
+"Then give her your own money."
+
+"Most that I have is mortgaged to him on the investments I made at his
+direction," wailed the woman.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I will try--I am trying, desperately! I will save her, if I can!
+But--there is Monsignor Lafelle!"
+
+"Is he working with Mr. Ames?"
+
+"He works with and against him. And I'm sure he holds something over
+you and me. But, I will send for him--I will renew my vows to his
+Church--anything to--"
+
+"Listen, dearest," interrupted Carmen. "I will go to Mr. Ames myself.
+If I am the cause of it all, I can--"
+
+"You will not!" cried the Beaubien fiercely. "I--I would kill him!"
+
+"Why, mother dearest!"
+
+The desperate woman put her head in the girl's lap and sobbed
+bitterly.
+
+"There is a way out, dearest," whispered Carmen. "I _know_ there is,
+no matter what seems to be or to happen, for 'underneath are the
+everlasting arms.' I am not afraid. Mrs. Hawley-Crowles told me this
+morning that Mrs. Ames intends to give a big reception next week. Of
+course we will go. And then I will see Mr. Ames and talk with him.
+Don't fear, dearest. He will do it for me. And--it will be right, I
+know."
+
+And Carmen sat with the repentant woman all that day, struggling with
+her to close the door upon her sordid past, and to open it wide to
+"that which is to come."
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+The days following were busy ones for many with whom our story is
+concerned. Every morning saw Carmen on her way to the Beaubien, to
+comfort and advise. Every afternoon found her yielding gently to the
+relentless demands of society, or to the tiresome calls of her
+thoroughly ardent wooer, the young Duke of Altern. Carmen would have
+helped him if she could. But she found so little upon which to build.
+And she bore with him largely on account of Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, for
+whom she and the Beaubien were now daily laboring. The young man
+tacitly assumed proprietorship over the girl, and all society was agog
+with expectation of the public announcement of their engagement.
+
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles still came and went upon a tide of unruffled joy.
+The cornucopia of Fortune lay full at her feet. Her broker, Ketchim,
+basked in the sunlight of her golden smiles--and quietly sold his own
+Simiti stock on the strength of her patronage. Society fawned and
+smirked at her approach, and envied her brilliant success, as it
+copied the cut of her elaborate gowns--all but the deposed Mrs. Ames
+and her unlovely daughter, who sulked and hated, until they received a
+call from Monsignor Lafelle. This was shortly after that gentleman's
+meeting with Carmen and Father Waite in the Beaubien mansion. And he
+left the Ames home with an ominous look on his face. "The girl is a
+menace," he muttered, "and she deserves her fate."
+
+The Ames grand reception, promising to be the most brilliant event of
+the year, barring the famous _Bal de l'Opera_, was set for Thursday.
+But neither Mrs. Hawley-Crowles nor Carmen had received invitations.
+To the former it was evident that there was some mistake. "For it
+can't be possible that the hussy doesn't intend to invite us!" she
+argued. But Thursday morning came, and found Mrs. Hawley-Crowles
+drenched with tears of anxiety and vexation. "I'd call her up and ask,
+if I dared," she groaned. But her courage failed. And, to the
+amazement of the exclusive set, the brilliant function was held
+without the presence of its acknowledged leaders, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles
+and her ward, the Inca princess.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+On Wednesday night Harris arrived from Denver. His arrival was
+instantly made known to J. Wilton Ames, who, on the morning following,
+summoned both him and Philip O. Ketchim to his private office. There
+were present, also, Monsignor Lafelle and Alonzo Hood. Harris and
+Ketchim came together. The latter was observed to change color as he
+timidly entered the room and faced the waiting audience.
+
+"Be seated, gentlemen," said Ames genially, after cordially shaking
+hands with them and introducing the churchman. Then, turning to
+Harris, "You are on your way to Colombia, I learn. Going down to
+inaugurate work on the Simiti holdings, I suppose?"
+
+Harris threw a quick glance at Ketchim. The latter sat blank,
+wondering if there were any portions of the earth to which Ames's long
+arms did not reach.
+
+"As a matter of fact," Ames continued, leaning back in his chair and
+pressing the tips of his fingers together before him, "a hitch seems
+to have developed in Simiti proceedings. I am interested, Mr.
+Ketchim," turning suddenly and sharply upon that gentleman, "because
+my brokers have picked up for me several thousand shares of the
+stock."
+
+Ketchim's hair began to rise.
+
+"But," proceeded Ames calmly, "now that I have put money into it, I
+learn that the Simiti Company has no property whatever in Colombia."
+
+A haze slowly gathered before Ketchim's eyes. His ears hummed. His
+heart throbbed violently. "How do you make that out, Mr. Ames?" he
+heard Harris say in a voice that seemed to come from an infinite
+distance. "I myself saw the title papers which old Rosendo had, and
+saw them transferred to Mr. Ketchim for the Simiti Company. Moreover,
+I personally visited the mine in question."
+
+"La Libertad? Quite so," returned Ames. "But, here's the rub. The
+property was relocated by this Rosendo, and he secured title to it
+under the name of the Chicago mine. It was that name which deceived
+the clerks in the Department of Mines in Cartagena, and caused them to
+issue title, not knowing that it really was the famous old La
+Libertad."
+
+"Well, I don't see that there is any ground for confusion."
+
+"Simply this," returned Ames evenly: "La Libertad mine, since the
+death of its former owner, Don Ignacio de Rincon, has belonged to the
+Church."
+
+"What!" Harris was on his feet. "By what right does it belong to the
+Church?"
+
+"By the ancient law of _'en manos muertas'_, my friend," replied Ames,
+unperturbed.
+
+"Good Lord! what's that?"
+
+"Our friend, Monsignor Lafelle, representing the Church, will
+explain," said Ames, waving a hand toward that gentleman.
+
+Lafelle cleared his throat. "I deeply regret this unfortunate
+situation, gentlemen," he began. "But, as Mr. Ames has pointed out,
+the confusion came about through issuing title to the mine under the
+name Chicago. Don Ignacio de Rincon, long before his departure from
+Colombia after the War of Independence, drew up his last will, and,
+following the established custom among wealthy South Americans of that
+day, bequeathed this mine, La Libertad, and other property, to the
+Church, invoking the old law of _'en manos muertas'_ which, being
+translated, means, 'in dead hands.' Pious Catholics of many lands have
+done the same throughout the centuries. Such a bequest places property
+in the custody of the Church; and it may never be sold or disposed of
+in any way, but all revenue from it must be devoted to the purchase of
+Masses for the souls in purgatory. It was through the merest chance, I
+assure you, that your mistake was brought to light. Knowing that our
+friend, Mr. Ames, had purchased stock in your company, I took the
+pains to investigate while in Cartagena recently, and made the
+discovery which unfortunately renders your claim to the mine quite
+null."
+
+"God a'mighty!" exploded Harris. "Did you know this?" turning savagely
+upon the paralyzed Ketchim.
+
+"That," interposed Ames with cruel significance, "is a matter which he
+will explain in court."
+
+Fleeting visions of the large blocks of stock which he had sold; of
+the widows, orphans, and indigent clergymen whom he had involved; of
+the notes which the banks held against him; of his questionable deals
+with Mrs. Hawley-Crowles; and of the promiscuous peddling of his own
+holdings in the now ruined company, rushed over the clouded mind of
+this young genius of high finance. His tongue froze, though his
+trembling body dripped with perspiration. Somehow he got to his feet.
+Somehow he found the door, and groped his way to a descending
+elevator. And somehow he lived through that terror-haunted day and
+night.
+
+But very early next morning, while his blurred eyes were drinking in
+the startling report of the Simiti Company's collapse, as set forth in
+the newspaper which he clutched in his shaking hand, the maid led in a
+soft-stepping gentleman, who laid a hand upon his quaking shoulder and
+read to him from a familiar-looking document an irresistible
+invitation to take up lodgings in the city jail.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+There were other events forward at the same time, which came to light
+that fateful next day. It was noon when Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, after a
+night of mingled worry and anger over the deliberate or unintentional
+exclusion of herself and Carmen from the Ames reception the preceding
+night, descended to her combined breakfast and luncheon. At her plate
+lay the morning mail, including a letter from France. She tore it
+open, hastily scanned it, then dropped with a gasp into her chair.
+
+"Father--married to--a French--adventuress! Oh!"
+
+The long-cherished hope of a speedy inheritance of his snug fortune
+lay blasted at her feet.
+
+The telephone bell rang sharply, and she rose dully to answer it. The
+call came from the city editor of one of the great dailies. "It is
+reported," said the voice, "that your ward, Miss Carmen Ariza, is the
+illegitimate daughter of a <DW64> priest, now in South America. We
+would like your denial, for we learn that it was for this reason that
+you and the young lady were not included among the guests at the Ames
+reception last evening."
+
+Mrs. Hawley-Crowles's legs tottered under her, as she blindly wandered
+from the telephone without replying. Carmen--the daughter of a priest!
+Her father a <DW64>--her mother, what? She, a mulatto, illegitimate--!
+
+The stunned woman mechanically took up the morning paper which lay on
+the table. Her glance was at once attracted to the great headlines
+announcing the complete exposure of the Simiti bubble. Her eyes nearly
+burst from her head as she grasped its fatal meaning to her. With a
+low, inarticulate sound issuing from her throat, she turned and groped
+her way back to her boudoir.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile, the automobile in which Carmen was speeding to the
+Beaubien mansion was approached by a bright, smiling young woman, as
+it halted for a moment at a street corner. Carmen recognized her as
+a reporter for one of the evening papers, who had called often at the
+Hawley-Crowles mansion that season for society items.
+
+"Isn't it fortunate!" exclaimed the young reporter. "I was on my way
+to see you. Our office received a report this morning from some source
+that your father--you know, there has been some mystery about your
+parentage--that he was really a priest, of South America. His
+name--let me think--what did they say it was?"
+
+"Jose?" laughed the innocent girl, utterly unsuspecting. The problem
+of her descent had really become a source of amusement to her.
+
+"It began with a D, if I am not mistaken. I'm not up on Spanish
+names," the young woman returned pleasantly.
+
+"Oh, perhaps you mean Diego."
+
+"That's it! Was that your father's name? We're very much interested to
+know."
+
+"Well, I'm sure I can't say. It might have been."
+
+"Then you don't deny it?"
+
+"No; how can I?" she said, smiling. "I never knew him."
+
+"But--you think it was, don't you?"
+
+"Well, I don't believe it was Padre Diego--he wasn't a good man."
+
+"Then you knew him?"
+
+"Oh, very well! I was in his house, in Banco. He used to insist that I
+was his child."
+
+"I see. By the way, you knew a woman named Jude, didn't you? Here in
+the city."
+
+"Yes, indeed!" she exclaimed excitedly. "Do you know where she is?"
+
+"No. But she took you out of a house down on--"
+
+"Yes. And I've tried to find her ever since."
+
+"You know Father Waite, too, the ex-priest?"
+
+"Oh, yes, very well. We're good friends."
+
+"You and he going to work together, I suppose?"
+
+"Why, I'm sure I don't know. He's very unsettled."
+
+"H'm! yes. Well, I thank you very much. You think this Diego might
+have been your father? That is, you can't say positively that he
+wasn't?"
+
+"I can't say positively, no. But now I must go. You can come up to the
+house and talk about South America, if you want to."
+
+She nodded pleasantly, and the car moved away. The innocent, ingenuous
+girl was soon to learn what modern news-gathering and dissemination
+means in this great Republic. But she rode on, happy in the thought
+that she and the Beaubien were formulating plans to save Mrs.
+Hawley-Crowles.
+
+"We'll arrange it somehow," said the Beaubien, looking up from her
+papers when Carmen entered. "Go, dearie, and play the organ while I
+finish this. Then I will return home with you to have a talk with Mrs.
+Hawley-Crowles."
+
+For hours the happy girl lingered at the beloved organ. The Beaubien
+at her desk below stopped often to listen. And often she would hastily
+brush away the tears, and plunge again into her papers. "I suppose I
+should have told Mrs. Hawley-Crowles," she said. "But I couldn't give
+her any hope. And even now it's very uncertain. Ames _will_ yield!
+I'll force him to! He knows I can expose him! And yet," she reflected
+sadly, "who would believe _me_?" The morning papers lay still unread
+upon her table.
+
+Late in the afternoon the Beaubien with Carmen entered her car and
+directed the chauffeur to drive to the Hawley-Crowles home. As they
+entered a main thoroughfare they heard the newsboys excitedly crying
+extras.
+
+"Horrible suicide! Double extra! Big mining scandal! Society woman
+blows out brains! Double extra!"
+
+Of a sudden a vague, unformed presentiment of impending evil came to
+the girl. She half rose, and clutched the Beaubien's hand. Then there
+flitted through her mind like a beam of light the words of the
+psalmist: "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy
+right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee." She sank back against
+the Beaubien's shoulder and closed her eyes.
+
+The car rolled on. Presently the chauffeur turned and said something
+through the speaking tube.
+
+"What!" cried the Beaubien, springing from the seat. "Merciful heaven!
+Stop and get a paper at once!" The chauffeur complied.
+
+A loud cry escaped her as she took the sheet and glanced at the
+startling headlines. Mrs. James Hawley-Crowles, financially ruined,
+and hurled to disgrace from the pinnacle of social leadership by the
+awful exposure of the parentage of her ward, had been found in her
+bedroom, dead, with a revolver clasped in her cold hand.
+
+
+
+
+CARMEN ARIZA
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 4
+
+
+                Watchman, what of the night?
+                The watchman said, The morning cometh.
+
+                                                         --_Isaiah._
+
+
+
+
+CARMEN ARIZA
+
+CHAPTER 1
+
+
+The chill winds of another autumn swirled through the masonry-lined
+canons of the metropolis and sighed among the stark trees of its
+deserted parks. They caught up the tinted leaves that dropped from
+quivering branches and tossed them high, as Fate wantons with human
+hopes before she blows her icy breath upon them. They shrieked among
+the naked spars of the _Cossack_, drifting with her restless master
+far out upon the white-capped waves. They moaned in low-toned agony
+among the marble pillars of the Crowles mausoleum, where lay in
+pitying sleep the misguided woman whose gods of gold and tinsel had
+betrayed her.
+
+On the outskirts of the Bronx, in a newly opened suburb, a slender
+girl, with books and papers under her arm, walked slowly against the
+sharp wind, holding her hat with her free hand, and talking rapidly to
+a young man who accompanied her. Toward them came an old <DW64>,
+leaning upon a cane. As he stepped humbly aside to make room, the girl
+looked up. Then, without stopping, she slipped a few coins into his
+coat pocket as she passed.
+
+The <DW64> stood in dumb amazement. He was poor--his clothes were thin
+and worn--but he was not a beggar--he had asked nothing. The girl
+turned and threw back a smile to him. Then of a sudden there came into
+the old man's wrinkled, care-lined face such a look, such a
+comprehension of that love which knows neither Jew nor Gentile, Greek
+nor Barbarian, as would have caused even the Rabbis, at the cost of
+defilement, to pause and seek its heavenly meaning.
+
+A few blocks farther on the strong wind sternly disputed the girl's
+right to proceed, and she turned with a merry laugh to her companion.
+But as she stood, the wind fell, leaving a heap of dead leaves about
+her feet. Glancing down, something caught her eye. She stooped and
+took up a two-dollar bill.
+
+Her companion threw her a wondering look; but the girl made no
+comment. In silence they went on, until a few minutes more of brisk
+walking brought them to a newly built, stucco-coated bungalow. Running
+rapidly up the steps, the girl threw wide the door and called, "Mother
+dear!"
+
+The Beaubien rose from her sewing to receive the hearty embrace.
+"Well, dearie?" she said, devouring the sparkling creature with eager
+eyes. "What luck?"
+
+"We're registered! Lewis begins his law course at once, and I may take
+what I wish. And Mr. Hitt's coming to call to-night and bring a
+friend, a Mr. Haynerd, an editor. What's Jude got for supper? My! I'm
+starved."
+
+The Beaubien drew the girl to her and kissed her again and again. Then
+she glanced over her shoulder at the man with a bantering twinkle in
+her eyes and said, "Don't you wish you could do that? But you can't."
+
+"Yes he can, too, mother," asserted the girl.
+
+Father Waite sighed. "I'm afraid it wouldn't look well," he said.
+"And, besides, I don't dare lose my heart to her."
+
+With a final squeeze the girl tore herself from the Beaubien's
+reluctant arms and hurried to the little kitchen. "What is it
+to-night, Jude?" she demanded, catching the domestic in a vigorous
+embrace.
+
+"Hist!" said Jude, holding up a finger. "It's a secret. I'm afraid
+you'd tell him."
+
+"Not a word--I promise."
+
+"Well, then, liver and bacon, with floating island," she whispered,
+very mysteriously.
+
+"Oh, goody!" cried Carmen. "He just loves them both!"
+
+Returning to the little parlor, Carmen encountered the fixed gaze of
+both the Beaubien and Father Waite. "Well?" she demanded, stopping and
+looking from one to the other.
+
+"What about that two dollars?" said the Beaubien, in a tone of mock
+severity.
+
+"Oh," laughed the girl, running to the woman and seating herself in
+the waiting lap, "he told, didn't he? Can't I ever trust you with a
+secret?" in a tone of rebuke, turning to the man.
+
+"Surely," he replied, laughing; "and I should not have divulged
+this had I not seen in the incident something more than mere
+chance--something meant for us all."
+
+Then he became serious. "I--I think I have seen the working of a
+stupendous mental law--am I not right?" addressing the girl. "You saw
+a need, and met it, unsolicited. You found your own in another's
+good."
+
+The girl smiled at the Beaubien without replying. "What about it,
+dearie?" the latter asked tenderly.
+
+"She need not answer," said Father Waite, "for we know. She but cast
+her bread upon the unfathomable ocean of love, and it returned to her,
+wondrously enriched."
+
+"If you are going to talk about me, I shall not stay," declared
+Carmen, rising. "I'm going out to help Jude." And she departed for the
+kitchen, but not without leaving a smile for each of them as she went.
+And they understood.
+
+The Beaubien and Father Waite remained some moments in silence. Then
+the woman spoke. "I am learning," she said. "She is the light that is
+guiding me. This little incident which you have just related is but a
+manifestation of the law of love by which she lives. She gave,
+unasked, and with no desire to be seen and advertised. It returned to
+her ten-fold. It is always so with her. There was no chance, no
+miracle, no luck about it. She herself did nothing. It was--it
+was--only the working of her beloved Christ-principle. Oh, Lewis! if
+we only knew--"
+
+"We _shall_ know, Madam!" declared the man vehemently. "Her secret is
+but the secret of Jesus himself, which was open to a world too dull to
+comprehend. Carmen shall teach us. And," his eyes brightening, "to
+that end I have been formulating a great plan. That's why I've asked
+Hitt to come here to-night. I have a scheme to propose. Remember, my
+dear friend, we are true searchers; and 'all things work together for
+good to them that love God.' Our love of truth and real good is so
+great that, like the consuming desire of the Jewish nation, it is
+_bound_ to bring the Christ!"
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+For three months the Beaubien and Carmen had dwelt together in this
+lowly environment; and here they had found peace, the first that the
+tired woman had known since childhood. The sudden culmination of those
+mental forces which had ejected Carmen from society, crushed Ketchim
+and a score of others, and brought the deluded Mrs. Hawley-Crowles to
+a bitter end, had left the Beaubien with dulled sensibilities. Even
+Ames himself had been shocked into momentary abandonment of his
+relentless pursuit of humanity by the unanticipated _denouement_. But
+when he had sufficiently digested the newspaper accounts wherein were
+set forth in unsparing detail the base rumors of the girl's parentage
+and of her removal from a brothel before her sudden elevation to
+social heights, he rose in terrible wrath and prepared to hunt down to
+the death the perpetrators of the foul calumny. Whence had come this
+tale, which even the girl could not refute? From Lafelle? He had
+sailed for Europe--though but a day before. Ketchim? The man was
+cringing like a craven murderer in his cell, for none dared give him
+bail. Reed? Harris? Was it revenge for his own sharp move in regard to
+La Libertad? He would have given all he possessed to lay his heavy
+hands upon the guilty ones! The editors of the great newspapers,
+perhaps? Ames raged like a wounded lion in the office of every editor
+in the city. But they were perfectly safe, for the girl, although she
+told a straightforward story, could not say positively that the
+published statements concerning her were false. Yet, though few knew
+it, there were two city editors and several reporters who, in the days
+immediately following, found it convenient to resign their positions
+and leave the city before the awful wrath of the powerful man.
+
+Then Ames turned upon his wife. And, after weeks of terror, that
+browbeaten woman, her hair whitening under the terrible persecution of
+her relentless master, fled secretly, with her terrified daughter, to
+England, whither the stupified Duke of Altern and his scandalized
+mother had betaken themselves immediately following the expose.
+Thereupon Ames's lawyer drew up a bill of divorce, alleging desertion,
+and laid it before the judge who fed from his master's hand.
+
+Meantime, the devouring wrath of Ames swept like a prairie fire over the
+dry, withering stalks of the smart set. He vowed he would take Carmen
+and flaunt her in the faces of the miserable character-assassins who
+had sought her ruin! He swore he would support her with his untold
+millions and force society to acknowledge her its queen! He had it
+in his power to wreck the husband of every arrogant, supercilious
+dame in the entire clique! He commenced at once with the unfortunate
+Gannette. The latter, already tottering, soon fell before the subtle
+machinations of Hodson and his able cohorts. Then, as a telling example
+to the rest, Ames pursued him to the doors of the Lunacy Commission,
+and rested not until that body had condemned his victim to a living
+death in a state asylum. Kane, Fitch, and Weston fled to cover, and
+concentrated their guns upon their common enemy. The Beaubien alone
+stood out against him for three months. Her existence was death in
+life; but from the hour that she first read the newspaper intelligence
+regarding Carmen and the unfortunate Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, she hid the
+girl so completely that Ames was effectually balked in his attempts at
+drastic vindication in her behalf.
+
+But this served only to intensify his anger, and he thereupon turned
+its full force upon the lone woman. Driven to desperation, she stood
+at length at bay and hurled at him her remaining weapon. Again the
+social set was rent, and this time by the report that the black cloud
+of bigamy hung over Ames. It was a fat season for the newspapers, and
+they made the most of it. As a result, several of them found
+themselves with libel suits on their hands. The Beaubien herself was
+confronted with a suit for defamation of character, and was obliged to
+testify before the judge whom Ames owned outright that she had but the
+latter's word for the charge, and that, years since, in a moment of
+maudlin sentimentalism, he had confessed to her that, as far as he
+knew, the wife of his youth was still living. The suit went against
+her. Ames then took his heavy toll, and retired within himself to sulk
+and plan future assaults and reprisals.
+
+The Beaubien, crushed, broken, sick at heart, gathered up the scant
+remains of her once large fortune, disposed of her effects, and
+withdrew to the outskirts of the city. She would have left the
+country, but for the fact that the tangled state of her finances
+necessitated her constant presence in New York while her lawyers
+strove to bring order out of chaos and placate her raging persecutor.
+To flee meant complete abandonment of her every financial resource to
+Ames. And so, with the assistance of Father Waite and Elizabeth Wall,
+who placed themselves at once under her command, she took a little
+house, far from the scenes of her troubles, and quietly removed
+thither with Carmen.
+
+One day shortly thereafter a woman knocked timidly at her door. Carmen
+saw the caller and fled into her arms. "It's Jude!" she cried
+joyously.
+
+The woman had come to return the string of pearls which the girl had
+thrust into her hands on the night of the Charity Ball. Nobody knew
+she had them. She had not been able to bring herself to sell them. She
+had wanted--oh, she knew not what, excepting that she wanted to see
+again the girl whose image had haunted her since that eventful night
+when the strange child had wandered into her abandoned life. Yes, she
+would have given her testimony as to Carmen; but who would have
+believed her, a prostitute? And--but the radiant girl gathered her in
+her arms and would not let her go without a promise to return.
+
+And return she did, many times. And each time there was a change in
+her. The Beaubien always forced upon her a little money and a promise
+to come back. It developed that Jude was cooking in a cheap down-town
+restaurant. "Why not for us, mother, if she will?" asked Carmen one
+day. And, though the sin-stained woman demurred and protested her
+unworthiness, yet the love that knew no evil drew her irresistibly,
+and she yielded at length, with her heart bursting.
+
+Then, in her great joy, Carmen's glad cry echoed through the little
+house: "Oh, mother dear, we're free, we're free!"
+
+But the Beaubien was not free. Night after night her sleepless pillow
+was wet with bitter tears of remorse, when the accusing angel stood
+before her and relentlessly revealed each act of shameful meanness, of
+cruel selfishness, of sordid immorality in her wasted life. And,
+lastly, the weight of her awful guilt in bringing about the
+destruction of Mrs. Hawley-Crowles lay upon her soul like a mountain.
+Oh, if she had only foreseen even a little of it! Oh, that Carmen had
+come to her before--or not at all! And yet she could not wish that she
+had never known the girl. Far from it! The day of judgment was bound
+to come. She saw that now. And, but for the comforting presence of
+that sweet child, she had long since become a raving maniac. It was
+Carmen who, in those first long nights of gnawing, corroding remorse,
+wound her soft arms about the Beaubien's neck, as she lay tossing in
+mental agony on her bed, and whispered the assurances of that infinite
+Love which said, "Behold, I make all things new!" It was Carmen who
+whispered to her of the everlasting arms beneath, and of the mercy
+reflected by him who, though on the cross, forgave mankind because of
+their pitiable ignorance. It is ignorance, always ignorance of what
+constitutes real good, that makes men seek it through wrong channels.
+The Beaubien had sought good--all the world does--but she had never
+known that God alone is good, and that men cannot find it until they
+reflect Him. And so she had "missed the mark." Oh, sinful, mesmerized
+world, ye shall find Me--the true good--only when ye seek Me with all
+your heart! And yet, "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy
+transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins."
+Only a God who is love could voice such a promise! And Carmen knew;
+and she hourly poured her great understanding of love into the empty
+heart of the stricken Beaubien.
+
+Then at last came days of quiet, and planning for the future. The
+Beaubien would live--yes, but not for herself. Nay, that life had gone
+out forever, nor would mention of it pass her lips again. The
+Colombian revolution--her mendacious connivances with Ames--her
+sinful, impenitent life of gilded vice--aye, the door was now closed
+against that, absolutely and forever more. She had passed through the
+throes of a new birth; she had risen again from the bed of anguish;
+but she rose stripped of her worldly strength. Carmen was now the
+staff upon which she leaned.
+
+And Carmen--what had been her thought when foul calumny laid its sooty
+touch upon her? What had been the working of her mind when that world
+which she had sought to illumine with the light of her own purity had
+cast her out?
+
+When the blow fell the portals of her mind closed at once against
+every accusing thought, against every insidious suggestion of defeat,
+of loss, of dishonor. The arrows of malice, as well as those of
+self-pity and condemnation, snapped and fell, one by one, as they
+hurtled vainly against the whole armor of God wherewith the girl stood
+clad. Self sank into service; and she gathered the bewildered,
+suffering Beaubien into her arms as if she had been a child. She would
+have gone to Ames, too, had she been permitted--not to plead for
+mercy, but to offer the tender consolation and support which, despite
+the havoc he was committing, she knew he needed even more than the
+Beaubien herself.
+
+"Paul had been a murderer," she often said, as she sat in the darkness
+alone with the suffering woman and held her trembling hand. "But he
+became the chief of apostles. Think of it! When the light came, he
+shut the door against the past. If he hadn't, dearest, he never could
+have done what he did. And you, and Mr. Ames, will have to do the
+same." And this the Beaubien could do, and did, after months of
+soul-racking struggle. But Ames sat in spiritual darkness, whipped by
+the foul brood of lust and revenge, knowing not that the mountainous
+wrath which he hourly heaped higher would some day fall, and bury him
+fathoms deep.
+
+Throughout the crisis Father Waite had stood by them stanchly. And
+likewise had Elizabeth Wall. "I've just longed for some reasonable
+excuse to become a social outcast," the latter had said, as she was
+helping Carmen one day to pack her effects prior to removing from the
+Hawley-Crowles mansion. "I long for a hearthstone to which I can
+attach myself--"
+
+"Then attach yourself to ours!" eagerly interrupted Carmen.
+
+"I'll do it!" declared Miss Wall. "For I know that now you are really
+going to live--and I want to live as you will. Moreover--" She paused
+and smiled queerly at the girl--"I am quite in love with your hero,
+Father Waite, you know."
+
+Harris, too, made a brief call before departing again for Denver.
+"I've got to hustle for a living now," he explained, "and it's me for
+the mountains once more! New York is no place for such a tender lamb
+as I. Oh, I've been well trimmed--but I know enough now to keep away
+from this burg!"
+
+While he was yet speaking there came a loud ring at the front door of
+the little bungalow, followed immediately by the entrance of the
+manager of a down-town vaudeville house. He plunged at once into his
+errand. He would offer Carmen one hundred dollars a week, and a
+contract for six months, to appear twice daily in his theater. "She'll
+make a roar!" he asserted. "Heavens, Madam! but she did put it over
+the society ginks." And the Beaubien, shivering at the awful
+proposal, was glad Harris was there to lead the zealous theatrical man
+firmly to the door.
+
+Lastly, came one Amos A. Hitt, gratuitously, to introduce himself as
+one who knew Cartagena and was likely to return there in the not
+distant future, where he would be glad to do what he might to remove
+the stain which had been laid upon the name of the fair girl. The
+genuineness of the man stood out so prominently that the Beaubien took
+him at once into her house, where he was made acquainted with Carmen.
+
+"Oh," cried the girl, "Cartagena! Why, I wonder--do you know Padre
+Jose de Rincon?"
+
+"A priest who once taught there in the University, many years ago? And
+who was sent up the river, to Simiti? Yes, well."
+
+Then Carmen fell upon his neck; and there in that moment was begun a
+friendship that grew daily stronger, and in time bore richest fruit.
+It soon became known that Hitt was giving a course of lectures that
+fall in the University, covering the results of his archaeological
+explorations; so Carmen and Father Waite went often to hear him. And
+the long breaths of University atmosphere which the girl inhaled
+stimulated a desire for more. Besides, Father Waite had some time
+before announced his determination to study there that winter, as long
+as his meager funds would permit.
+
+"I shall take up law," he had one day said. "It will open to me the
+door of the political arena, where there is such great need of real
+men, men who stand for human progress, patriotism, and morality. I
+shall seek office--not for itself, but for the good I can do, and the
+help I can be in a practical way to my fellow-men. I have a little
+money. I can work my way through."
+
+Carmen shared the inspiration; and so she, too, with the Beaubien's
+permission, applied for admittance to the great halls of learning, and
+was accepted.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+"And now," began Father Waite that evening, when Hitt and his friend
+had come, and, to the glad surprise of Carmen, Elizabeth Wall had
+driven up in her car to take the girl for a ride, but had yielded to
+the urgent invitation to join the little conference, "my plan, in
+which I invite you to join, is, briefly, _to study this girl_!"
+
+Carmen's eyes opened wide, and her face portrayed blank amazement, as
+Father Waite stood pointing gravely to her. Nor were the others less
+astonished--all but the Beaubien. She nodded her head comprehendingly.
+
+"Let me explain," Father Waite continued. "We are assembled here
+to-night as representatives, now or formerly, of very diversified
+lines of human thought. I will begin with myself. I have stood as the
+embodiment of Christly claims, as the active agent of one of the
+mightiest of human institutions, the ancient Christian Church. For
+years I have studied its accepted authorities and its all-inclusive
+assumptions, which embrace heaven, earth, and hell. For years I sought
+with sincere consecration to apply its precepts to the dire needs of
+humanity. I have traced its origin in the dim twilight of the
+Christian era and its progress down through the centuries, through
+heavy vicissitudes to absolute supremacy, on down through schisms and
+subsequent decline, to the present hour, when the great system seems
+to be gathering its forces for a life and death stand in this, the New
+World. I have known and associated with its dignitaries and its humble
+priests. I know the policies and motives underlying its quiet
+movements. I found it incompatible with human progress. And so I
+withdrew from it my allegiance."
+
+Carmen's thought, as she listened, was busy with another whose
+experience had not been dissimilar, but about whom the human coils had
+been too tightly wound to be so easily broken.
+
+"Our scholarly friend, Mr. Hitt," Father Waite went on, "represented
+the great protest against the abuses and corruption which permeated
+the system for which I stood. He, like myself, embodied the eternal
+warfare of the true believer against the heretic. Yet, without my
+churchly system, I was taught to believe, he and those who share his
+thought are damned. But, oh, strange anomaly! we both claimed the same
+divine Father, and accepted the Christly definition of Him as Love. We
+were two brothers of the same great family, yet calling each other
+_anathema_!"
+
+He looked over at Hitt and smiled. "And to-day," he continued, "we
+brothers are humbly meeting on the common ground of failure--failure
+to understand the Christ, and to meet the needs of our fellow-men with
+our elaborate systems of theology."
+
+"I heard another priest, years ago, make a similar confession," said
+Hitt reflectively. "I would he were here to-night!"
+
+"He is here, in spirit," replied Father Waite; "for the same spirit of
+eager inquiry and humble desire for truth that animates us no doubt
+moved him. I have reason to think so," he added, looking at Carmen.
+"For this girl's spiritual development I believe to be very largely
+his work."
+
+Hitt glanced at Carmen inquiringly. He knew but little as yet of her
+past association with the priest Jose.
+
+"You and I, Mr. Hitt, represented the greatest systems of so-called
+Christian belief," pursued Father Waite. "Madam Beaubien, on the other
+hand, has represented the world that waits, as yet vainly, for
+redemption. We have not been able to afford it her. Yet--pardon my
+frankness in thus referring to you, Madam. It is only to benefit us
+all--that the means of redemption _have_ been brought to her, we must
+now admit."
+
+All turned and looked at Carmen. She started to speak, but Father
+Waite raised a detaining hand. "Let me proceed," he said. "Miss Wall
+represents the weariness of spirit and unrest abroad in the world
+to-day, the spirit that finds life not worth the while; and Mr.
+Haynerd voices the cynical disbelief, the agnosticism, of that great
+class who can not accept the childish tenets of our dogmatic systems
+of theology, yet who have nothing but the philosophy of stoicism or
+epicureanism to offer in substitute."
+
+Haynerd bowed and smiled. "You have me correctly classified," he said.
+"I'm a Yankee, and from Missouri."
+
+"And now, having placed us," said the Beaubien, "how will you classify
+Carmen?"
+
+Father Waite looked at the girl reverently. "Hers is the leaven," he
+replied gently, "which has leavened the whole lump.
+
+"My good friends," he went on earnestly, "like all priests and
+preachers, I have been but a helpless spectator of humanity's
+troubles. I have longed and prayed to know how to do the works which
+Jesus is said to have done; yet, at the sick-bed or the couch of
+death, what could I do--I, to whom the apostolic virtue is supposed to
+have descended in the long line of succession? I could anoint with
+holy oil. I could make signs, and pray. I could give promises of
+remitted sins--though I knew I spoke not truth. I could comfort by
+voicing the insipid views of our orthodox heaven. And yet I know that
+what I gave was but mental nostrums, narcotics, to stupify until death
+might end the suffering. Is that serving Christ? Is that Christianity?
+Alas, no!"
+
+"And if you were a good orthodox priest," interposed Haynerd, "you
+would refuse burial to dissenters, and bar from your communion table
+all who were not of your faith, eh?"
+
+"Yes," sadly. "I would have to, were I consistent; for Catholicism is
+the only true faith, founded upon the revealed word of God, you know."
+He smiled pathetically as he looked around at the little group.
+
+"Now," he continued, "you, Mr. Haynerd, are a man of the world. You
+are not in sympathy with the Church. You are an infidel, an
+unbeliever. And therefore are you '_anathema_,' you know." He laughed
+as he went on. "But you can not deny that at times you think very
+seriously. And, I may go farther: you long, intensely, for something
+that the world does not offer. Now, what is it but truth that you are
+seeking?"
+
+"I want to know," answered Haynerd quickly. "I want to be shown. I
+am fond of exhibitions of sleight-of-hand and jugglery. But the
+priestly thaumaturgy that claims to transform a biscuit into the
+flesh of a man dead some two thousand years, and a bit of grape juice
+into his blood, irritates me inexpressibly! And so does the
+jugglery by which your Protestant fellows, Hitt, attempt to reconcile
+their opposite beliefs. Why, what difference can it possibly make
+to the Almighty whether we miserable little beings down here are
+baptised with water, milk, or kerosene, or whether we are immersed,
+sprinkled, or well soused? Good heavens! for nearly twenty centuries
+you have been wandering among the non-essentials. Isn't it time to get
+down to business, and instead of burning at the stake every one who
+differs with you, try conscientiously to put into practice a few of
+the simple moral precepts, such as the Golden Rule, and loving
+one's neighbor as one's self?"
+
+"There," commented Father Waite, "you have a bit of the world's
+opinion of the Church! Can we say that the censure is not just? Would
+not Christ himself to-day speak even more scathingly to those who
+advocate a system of belief that puts blinders on men's minds, and
+then leads them into the pit of ignorance and superstition?"
+
+"Ye have taken away the key of knowledge," murmured Carmen; "ye
+entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye
+hindered."
+
+"Just so!" exclaimed Haynerd, looking at the girl who stood as a
+living protest against all that hampers the expansion of the human
+mind; that quenches its note of joy, and dulls its enlarging and ever
+nobler concept of God. "Now I want to know, first, if there is a God;
+and, if so, what He is, and what His relation is to me. I want to know
+what I am, and why I am here, and what future I may look forward to,
+if any. I don't care two raps about a God who can't help me here on
+earth, who can't set me right and make me happy--cure my ills, meet my
+needs, and supply a few of the luxuries as well. And if there is a
+God, and we can meet Him only by dying, then why in the name of common
+sense all this hullabaloo about death? Why, in that case, death is the
+grandest thing in life! And I'm for committing suicide right away! But
+you preacher fellows fight death tooth and nail. You're scared stiff
+when you contemplate it. You make Christianity just a grand
+preparation for death. Yet it isn't the gateway to life to you, and
+you know it! Then why, if you are honest, do you tell such rubbish to
+your trusting followers?"
+
+"I would remind you," returned Hitt with a little laugh, "that I
+don't, now."
+
+"Well, friends," interposed Father Waite, "it is to take up for
+earnest consideration just such questions as Mr. Haynerd propounds,
+that I have my suggestion to make, namely, that we meet together once
+or twice a week, or as often as we may agree upon, to search for--"
+his voice dropped to a whisper--"to search for God, and with this
+young girl as our guide. For I believe she is very close to Him. The
+world knows God only by hearsay. Carmen has _proved_ Him.
+
+"Men ask why it is," he went on, "that God remains hidden from them;
+why they can not understand Him. They forget that Jesus revealed God
+as Love. And, if that is so, in order to know Him all mankind must
+love their fellow-men. But they go right on hating one another,
+cheating, abusing, robbing, slaying, persecuting, and still wondering
+why they don't know God, regardless of the only possible way of ever
+working out from the evils by which they are beset, if we believe that
+Jesus told the truth, or was correctly reported." He paused and
+reflected for a moment. Then:
+
+"The ancient prophet said: 'Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye
+shall search for me with all your hearts.' It is my proposal that we
+bind ourselves together in such a search. To it we can bring diverse
+talents. To our vast combined worldly experience, I bring knowledge of
+the ancient Greek and Latin Fathers, together with Church history. Mr.
+Hitt brings his command of the Hebrew language and history, and an
+intimate acquaintance with the ancient manuscripts, and Biblical
+interpretation, together with a wide knowledge of the physical
+sciences. Madam Beaubien, Miss Wall, and Mr. Haynerd contribute their
+earnest, searching, inquisitive spirit, and a knowledge of the world's
+needs. Moreover, we all come together without bias or prejudice. And
+Carmen--she contributes that in which we have all been so woefully
+lacking, and without which we can _never_ know God, the rarest,
+deepest spirituality. She is a living proof of her faith. Shall we
+undertake the search, my friends? It means a study of her thought, and
+the basis upon which it rests."
+
+The Beaubien raised her hand to her moist eyes. She was thinking of
+that worldly coterie which formerly was wont to meet nightly in her
+magnificent mansion to prey upon their fellows. Oh, how different the
+spirit of this little gathering!
+
+"You will meet here, with me," she said in a broken voice. "I ask
+it."
+
+There were none there unacquainted with the sorrows of this penitent,
+broken woman. Each rose in turn and clasped her hand. Carmen threw
+her arms about her neck and kissed her repeatedly.
+
+"You see," said the Beaubien, smiling up through her tears, "what this
+child's religion is? Would the swinging of incense burners and the
+mumbling of priestly formulae enhance it?"
+
+"Jesus said, 'Having seen me ye have seen God,'" said Father Waite.
+
+"And I say," replied the Beaubien, "that having seen this child, you
+have indeed seen Him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2
+
+
+"I'm afraid," Haynerd was saying, as he and Father Waite were wending
+their way to the Beaubien home a few evenings later, "that this Carmen
+is the kind of girl you read about in sentimental novels; the kind who
+are always just ready to step into heaven, but who count for little in
+the warfare and struggle of actual mundane existence. You get me? She
+isn't quite true to life, you know, as a book critic would say of an
+impossible heroine."
+
+"You mistake, my friend," replied Father Waite warmly. "She is the
+very kind we would see oftener, were it not for the belief that years
+bring wisdom, and so, as a consequence, the little child is crushed
+beneath a load of false beliefs and human laws that make it reflect
+its mortal parents, rather than its heavenly one."
+
+"But I'd like to see her under stress--"
+
+"Under stress! Good heavens, man! You haven't the slightest conception
+of the stress she's been under most of her life! But your criticism
+unconsciously pays her the highest tribute, for her kind never show by
+word, deed, or look what they are enduring. That frail-appearing girl
+has stood up under loads that would have flattened you and me out like
+gold leaf!"
+
+"Well, she doesn't look it!" protested Haynerd tenaciously.
+
+"Of course she doesn't! Her kind never do! She's so far and away ahead
+of mortals like you and me that she doesn't admit the reality and
+power of evil--and, believe me, she's got her reasons for not
+admitting it, too! Don't presume to judge her yet. Only try humbly to
+attain a little of her understanding and faith; and try to avoid
+making yourself ridiculous by criticising what you do not comprehend.
+That, indeed, has been mankind's age-long blunder--and they have
+thereby made asses of themselves!"
+
+Edward Haynerd, or "Ned," as he was invariably known, prided himself
+on being something of a philosopher. And in the name of philosophy he
+chose to be quixotic. That one who hated the dissimulations and shams
+of our class aristocracy so cordially should have earned his
+livelihood--and a good one, too--as publisher of the Social Era, a
+sprightly weekly chronicle of happenings in fashionable society, would
+have appeared anomalous in any but a man gifted in the Greek
+sophistries and their modern innumerable and arid offshoots. Haynerd
+was a laughing Democritus, an easy-going, even-tempered fellow, doomed
+to be loved, and by the same graces thoroughly cheated by the world in
+general. He had in his rapid career of some thirty-five years dipped
+deeply into things mundane, and had come to the surface, sputtering
+and blowing, with his face well smeared with mud from the shallow
+depths. Whereupon he remarked that such an existence was a poor way of
+serving the Lord, and turned cynic. His wit was his saving grace. It
+was likewise his capital and stock-in-trade. By it he won a place for
+himself in the newspaper world, and later, as a credit asset, had
+employed it successfully in negotiating for the Social Era. It taking
+over the publication of this sheet he had remarked that life was
+altogether too short to permit of attempting anything worth while; and
+so he forthwith made no further assaults upon fame--assuming that he
+had ever done so--but settled comfortably down to the enjoyment of his
+sinecure. He had never married. And as justification for his
+self-imposed celibacy he pompously quoted Kant: "I am a bachelor, and
+I could not cease to be a bachelor without a disturbance that would be
+intolerable to me." Yet he was not a misogynist. He simply shirked
+responsibility and ease-threatening risk.
+
+"You see," he remarked, explaining himself later to Carmen, "I'm a
+pseudo-litterateur--I conduct a 'Who's It?' for the quidnunces of this
+blase old burg. And I really meet a need by furnishing an easy method
+of suicide, for my little vanity sheet is a sort of social mirror,
+that all who look therein may die of laughter. By the way, I had to
+run those base squibs about you; but, by George! I'm going to make a
+retraction in next Saturday's issue. I'll put a crimp in friend Ames
+that'll make him squeal. I'll say he has ten wives, and eight of 'em
+Zulus, at that!"
+
+"Don't, please!" laughed Carmen. "We have enough to meet, without
+going out of our way to stir up more. Let it all work out now, as it
+will, in the right way."
+
+"In the right way, eh? Is that part of your doctrine? Say, don't you
+think that in formulating a new religion you're carrying coals to
+Newcastle? Seems to me we've got enough now, if we'd practice 'em."
+
+"My religion, Mr. Haynerd, is only the practice of the teachings of a
+Nazarene Jew, named Jesus," she replied gently.
+
+"Well, my religion is Socialism, I guess," he said lightly.
+
+"So's mine," she quickly returned. "I'm a thorough Socialist. So we
+meet on common ground, don't we?" She held out her hand, and he took
+it, a puzzled expression coming into his face.
+
+"Well," he said, glancing about, "we'll have to dispute that later. I
+see Father Waite is about to open this little religious seminar. But
+we'll get back to the discussion of myself," he added, his eyes
+twinkling. "For, like Thoreau, I prefer to discuss that subject,
+because there's no other about which I know so much."
+
+"Nor so little," she added, laughing and squeezing his hand as she
+turned from him.
+
+The little coterie took their places around the dining room table,
+which was well strewn with books of reference and writing materials.
+Father Waite rapped gently for order. A deep, reverent silence fell
+upon the group. They had begun their search for God.
+
+"Friends," began Father Waite slowly, "we are inaugurating to-night a
+mission of the most profound significance. No question so vitally
+touches the human race as the one which we shall reverently discuss in
+this and subsequent meetings. I thought as I came in here to-night of
+the wisdom of Epictitus, who said, 'What do I want? To acquaint myself
+with the true order of things and comply with it.' I am sure no
+statement so fully expresses our common desire as that."
+
+"Just so!" interrupted Haynerd. "If Adam was a Baptist, I want to know
+and comply with the fact."
+
+A general laugh followed. Then Father Waite held up a hand and again
+became serious.
+
+"Can we treat lightly even the Adam story, when we consider how much
+misery and rancor its literal acceptance has caused among mankind? No.
+Out of deepest sympathy for a world in search of truth, let us pity
+their stumblings, and take heed that we fall not ourselves."
+
+He paused. A hush lay upon the room. Carmen's hand stole toward the
+Beaubien's and clasped it tightly.
+
+"In these days, as of old, it is still said, 'There is no God!' And
+yet, though the ignorant and wilful admit it not, mankind's very
+existence is a function of their concept of a Creator, a sole
+cause of all that is. No question, economic, social, political, or
+other, is so vitally related to humanity as this: 'Is there a God?'
+And the corollary: 'What is His relation to me?' For there can be
+nothing so important as a knowledge of truth. Can the existence
+of a God be demonstrated? Can He be shown to be beneficent, in
+view of the world's testimony? What is our source of truth? If the
+Bible, then can its authenticity be established? The greatest of
+our so-called civilizations are known as Christian. But who can say
+by them what Christianity really is?"
+
+"I am quite prepared to say what it is not!" again interrupted
+Haynerd.
+
+"Doubtless," resumed Father Waite. "And so are we all. But at present
+we are seeking constructive criticism, not solely destructive. There
+has been quite enough of that sort in the world. But, to go a step
+further, can we say positively that the truth is to be found even in
+Christianity?"
+
+"Please explain your question," said Miss Wall, with a puzzled look.
+
+"The first essential is always facts," he continued. "The deduction of
+right conclusions will follow--provided, as Matthew Arnold so tersely
+said, we have sufficient delicacy of perception, subtlety, wisdom, and
+tact. And, I may add, sufficient freedom from prejudice and mental
+bias--ah, there is the stumbling block!"
+
+"Matthew Arnold," ventured Haynerd, "was dubbed a first-class infidel,
+as I recall it."
+
+"Doubtless. As have been many of the world's most earnest searchers.
+Yet he enunciated much truth, which we to-day are acknowledging. But,
+to resume, since Christianity as we know it is based upon the
+personality of a man, Jesus, we ask: Can the historicity of Jesus be
+established?"
+
+"What! Do you mean: did he ever live?" queried Miss Wall in greater
+surprise than before.
+
+"Yes. And if so, is he correctly reported in what we call the Gospels?
+Then, did he reveal the truth to his followers? And, lastly, has that
+truth been correctly transmitted to us?"
+
+"And," added Hitt, "there is still the question: Assuming that he gave
+us the truth, can we apply it successfully to the meeting of our daily
+needs?"
+
+"The point is well taken," replied Father Waite. "For, though I may
+know that there are very abstruse mathematical principles, yet I may
+be utterly unable to demonstrate or use them. But now," he went on,
+"we are brought to other vital questions concerning us. They are, I
+think, points to which the theologian has given but scant thought. If
+we conclude that there is a God, we are confronted with the material
+universe and man. Did He create them? And what are their natures and
+import?"
+
+"Well!" ejaculated Haynerd. "Seems to me you've cut out a large
+assignment for this little party. Those are questions that the world
+has played football with for thousands of years. Do you think we can
+settle them in a few evenings' study? I think I'll be excused!"
+
+"No! We can't spare you," laughed Father Waite. Then he glanced at
+Carmen, who had sat quiet, apparently unhearing, during the remarks.
+"I think you will hear things soon that will set you thinking," he
+said. "But now we are going to let our traveled friend, Mr. Hitt,
+give us just a word in summation of his thought regarding the
+modern world and its attitude toward the questions which we have been
+propounding."
+
+The explorer leaned back in his chair and assumed his customary
+attitude when in deep thought. All eyes turned upon him in eager
+expectation.
+
+"The world," he began reflectively, "presents to me to-day the most
+interesting aspect it has assumed since history began. True, the age
+is one of great mental confusion. Quite as true, startling discoveries
+and astounding inventions have so upset our staid old mediaeval views
+that the world is hurriedly crowding them out, together with its God.
+Doctrines for which our fathers bled and burned are to-day lightly
+tossed upon the ash heap. The searchlight is turned never so
+mercilessly upon the founder of the Christian religion, and upon the
+manuscripts which relate his words and deeds. Yet most of us have
+grown so busy--I often wonder with what--that we have no time for that
+which can not be grasped as we run. We work desperately by day,
+building up the grandest material fabric the world has ever seen; and
+at night we repair the machine for the next day's run. Even our
+college professors bewail the lack of time for solid reading and
+research. And if our young pursue studies, it is with the almost
+exclusive thought of education as a means of earning a material
+livelihood later, and, if possible, rearing a mansion and stocking its
+larder and garage. It is, I repeat, a grandly materialistic age,
+wherein, to the casual observer, spirituality is at a very low ebb."
+
+He thrust his long legs under the table and cast his eyes upward to
+the ceiling as he resumed:
+
+"The modern world is still in its spiritual infancy, and does not
+often speak the name of God. Not that we are so much irreverent as
+that we feel no special need of Him in our daily pursuits. Since we
+ceased to tremble at the thunders of Sinai, and their lingering echoes
+in bulls and heresy condemnations, we find that we get along just as
+well--indeed, much better. And it really is quite bad form now to
+speak continually of God, or to refer to Him as anything real and
+vital. To be on such terms of intimacy with Him as this girl Carmen
+is--in thought, at least--would be regarded to-day as evidence of
+sentimentalism and weakness."
+
+He paused again, to marshal his thought and give his auditors an
+opportunity for comment. Then, as the silence remained unbroken, he
+continued:
+
+"Viewing the world from one standpoint, it has achieved remarkable
+success in applying the knout to superstition and limitation. But,
+like a too energetic housekeeper, it has swept out much that is
+essential with the _debris_. When spirituality ceases to be real or
+vital to a people, then a grave danger threatens them. Materiality has
+never proved a blessing, as history shows. Life that is made up of
+strain and ceaseless worry is not life. The incessant accumulation of
+material wealth, when we do not know how really to enjoy it, is folly.
+To pamper the flesh, to the complete ignoring of the spirit, is
+suicide. The increased hankering after physical excitements and animal
+pleasures, to the utter abandonment of the search for that which is
+real and satisfying, is an exhibition of gross, mesmeric stupidity, to
+say the least. It shows that our sense of life is awry."
+
+"But the world is surely attempting its own betterment," protested
+Haynerd.
+
+"I grant you that," replied Hitt. "But legislation and coercion are
+the wrong means to employ. They restrain, but they do not cure. They
+are only narcotics."
+
+"Oh, well, you are not going to change the race until the individual
+himself changes."
+
+"Have I disputed that?" said Hitt. "Quite the contrary, that is the
+pith of my observations. Reform is a hearthside affair. And no sane
+man will maintain that general reform can ever come until the
+individual's needs are met--his daily, hourly, worldly needs."
+
+"I think I get your point," said Father Waite. "It is wholly a
+question of man's concept of the cause of things, himself included,
+and their purpose and end, is it not?"
+
+"Quite so," replied Hitt. "The restless spirit of the modern world is
+hourly voicing its discontent with a faltering faith which has no
+other basis than blind belief. It wants demonstrable fact upon which
+to build. In plain words, _mankind would be better if they but knew
+how_!"
+
+"Well, we show them how," asserted Haynerd. "But they don't do as we
+tell 'em."
+
+"Are you quite sure that you show them how?" asked Hitt. "What do you
+ever do toward showing them how permanently to eradicate a single
+human difficulty?"
+
+"Oh, well, putting it that way, nothing, of course."
+
+"Quite so, my friend. The relief we afford is but temporary. And so
+the world continues to wait for surcease from woe in a life beyond the
+grave. But now, returning to our survey, let me say that amid all the
+folly of vain pursuits, of wars and strife, of doleful living and
+pitiable dying, there are more encouraging and hopeful signs hung out
+to the inquiring thought to-day than ever before in history. If I
+misread not, we are already entered upon changes so tremendous that
+their end must be the revolutionizing of thought and conduct, and
+hence of life. Our present age is one of great extremes: though we
+touch the depths, we are aiming likewise at the heights. I doubt if
+there ever was a time when so many sensed the nothingness of the
+pleasures of the flesh. I doubt if ever there was such a quickening of
+the business conscience, and such a determined desire to introduce
+honesty and purity into our dealings with one another. Never was the
+need of religion more keenly felt by the world than it is to-day; and
+that is why mankind are willing to accept any religious belief,
+however eccentric, that comes in the guise of truth and bearing the
+promise of surcease from sin, sickness, and sorrow here this side of
+the grave. The world was never so hungry for religious truth; and this
+fact is a perpetual challenge to the Church. There is a tremendous
+world-yearning to know and to do better. And what is its cause? I
+answer, a growing appreciation of the idea that 'the kingdom of
+harmony is within you.'"
+
+"Jesus said that," murmured Carmen, looking up.
+
+"He but amplified and gave form to the great fact that there was
+an influence for better things always existent in the ancient Jews,
+that 'something not ourselves,' if you will, 'that makes for
+righteousness.' And he showed that that influence could be outwardly
+externalized in freedom from the ills which beset humanity."
+
+"Very good," put in Haynerd. "And then, what?"
+
+"That 'something not ourselves' is the germ of the true idea of God,"
+answered Hitt.
+
+"Which makes God--?"
+
+"Wholly mental."
+
+"Spirit?"
+
+"Mind," offered Carmen.
+
+"The terms are synonymous," said Hitt. "And now let me conclude with a
+final observation. Mankind's beliefs are in a whirl. Ecclesiasticism
+is dying. Orthodoxy and conservatism are hanging desperately to the
+world's flying skirts, but they will eventually drop off. No change in
+thought has been greater than that concerning God. The absentee Lord
+who started the universe and then withdrew has gone to the scrap heap,
+with the ridiculous views of predestination and infant damnation. The
+idea of a God who at divers times interfered with His creation and
+temporarily set aside His own laws to convince puny man of His
+greatness, is likewise obsolescent. The world is slowly growing into a
+conception of a creator, of some kind, but at least mental, and
+universally present. Nay, more, available for all our problems and
+needs. And the end will be the adoption of that conception, enlarged
+and purified still further, and taken into the minutest affairs of our
+daily life--as this girl has done. The day of patient suffering in
+this world, under the spell of a promise of compensating reward in the
+heavenly future, has all but passed. We are gradually becoming
+conscious of the stupendous fact that the kingdom of all harmony,
+immortality, and good, is _right here within us_--and therefore can be
+naught but a consciousness of absolute good, perfectly attainable by
+humanity as the 'old man' of Paul is laid off, but not gained,
+necessarily, through what we call death."
+
+The silence which followed was broken at length by Miss Wall. "And
+what constitutes the 'old man'?" she asked.
+
+"Largely, I think," said Hitt, "the belief that matter is real."
+
+"What?" exclaimed Haynerd, almost rising from his chair. "Matter,
+real?"
+
+Hitt laughed. "I stand on my statement," he replied.
+
+Father Waite rose slowly, as if lost in thought. "History shows," he
+said, meditatively, "that man's progress has been proportionate to his
+freedom from the limitation of ignorance and undemonstrable belief.
+And that freedom has come as man's concept of God has grown less and
+less material, and more and more spiritual. From the animal nature of
+the savage, to whom all is matter, down--or up--to the man of to-day,
+to whom mind is assuming ever greater ascendency, man's progress has
+been marked by a throwing off of limiting beliefs, theological or
+other, in material power and substance. The development of the least
+material forces, steam, electricity, the X-ray, has come only as the
+human mind has thrown off a portion of its hampering material beliefs.
+I am astounded when I think of it, and of its marvelous message to
+future generations! For, from the premise that the creator of all
+things is spirit, or mind, as you will, comes the corollary that the
+creation itself must of necessity be _mental_. And from this come such
+deductions as fairly make me tremble. Carmen has told me of the
+deductions which her tutor, the priest Jose, drew from the single
+premise that the universe is infinite in extent--a premise which I
+think we all will accept."
+
+"There can be no question about it," said Hitt, nodding his head.
+
+"Well," continued Father Waite, "that granted, we must likewise grant
+its creator to be infinite, must we not?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"And that puts the creator out of the matter-class entirely. The
+creator must be--"
+
+"Mind," said Carmen, supplying the thought ever-present with her.
+
+"I see no other conclusion," said Father Waite. "But, that granted, a
+flood of deductions pours in that sends human beliefs and reasoning
+helter-skelter. For an infinite mind would eventually disintegrate if
+it were not perfect in every part."
+
+"Perhaps it is already disintegrating, and that's what causes the evil
+in the world," hazarded Haynerd.
+
+"Utterly untenable, my friend," put in Hitt. "For, granted an infinite
+mind, we must grant the concomitant fact that such a mind is of very
+necessity omnipotent, as well as perfect. What, then, could ever cause
+disintegration in it?"
+
+"You are right," resumed Father Waite. "And such a mind, of very
+necessity perfect, omnipotent, and, of course, ever-present, must
+likewise be eternal. For there would be nothing to contest its
+existence. Age, decay, and death would be unknown to it. And so would
+evil."
+
+"And that," said Carmen, rising, "is my God."
+
+Father Waite nodded significantly to the others, and sat down, leaving
+the girl facing them, her luminous eyes looking off into unfathomed
+distances, and her face aglow with spiritual light.
+
+"My God is infinite Good, to whom evil is unknown," she said. "And
+good includes all that is real. It includes wisdom, intelligence,
+truth, life, and love--none of them material. How do I know? Oh, not
+by human reasoning, whereby you seek to establish the fact of His
+existence, but by proof, daily proof, and in the hours when the floods
+of suppositional evil have swept over me. You would rest your faith on
+your deductions. But, as Saint Gregory said, no merit lies in faith
+where human reason supplies the proof; and that you will all some day
+know. Yes, my God is Mind. And He ceaselessly expresses Himself in and
+through His ideas, which He is constantly revealing. And He is
+infinite in good. And these ideas express that goodness and
+infinitude, from the tiniest up to the idea of God himself. And that
+grandest idea is--man. Oh, no, not the men and women you think you see
+about you in your daily walk. No! no! They but counterfeit the divine.
+But the man that Jesus always saw back of every human concept. That
+man is God's own idea of Himself. He is God's image and likeness. He
+is God's reflection. That is the man we shall all put on when we have
+obeyed Paul and put off the old man, its counterfeit."
+
+"Then, Carmen," said Father Waite, "you believe all things to be
+mental?"
+
+"Yes, everything--man himself--and matter."
+
+"But, if God is mind, and infinite, He must include all things. Hence
+He must include this imperfect representation, called the physical
+man. Is it not so?"
+
+"No," returned the girl emphatically. "Did not Jesus speak often of
+the one lie about his Father, God? The material man and the material
+universe are but parts of that lie. And a lie is always a supposition;
+not real. All evil is contained in that supposition--a supposition
+that there is power and life and substance apart from God."
+
+"But who made the supposition?" queried Haynerd.
+
+"A supposition is not made," replied Carmen quietly. "Its existence is
+suppositional."
+
+"I don't quite get that," interposed Miss Wall, her brows knitting.
+
+Carmen smiled down at the inquiring woman. "Listen," she said. "The
+creator of all things is mind. You admit that. But you would have that
+mind the creator of evil, also. Yet, your own reasoning has shown
+that, on the premise of mind as infinite, such mind must be forever
+whole, harmonious, perfect. The thoughts and ideas by which that mind
+expresses itself must be likewise pure and perfect. Then that creative
+mind can not create evil. For, a mind that creates evil must itself be
+evil. And, being infinite, such a mind must include the evil it
+creates. We would have, then, either a mind wholly evil, or one of
+mixed evil and good. In either case, that mind must then destroy
+itself. Am I not right?"
+
+"Your reasoning is, certainly," admitted Miss Wall. "But, how to
+account for evil, when God is infinite good--"
+
+"To account for it at all," replied Carmen, "would be to make it
+something real. Jesus would account for it only by classing it as a
+lie about God. Now God, as the creative mind, must likewise be truth,
+since He is perfection and harmony. Very well, a lie is always the
+opposite of truth. Evil is the direct opposite of good."
+
+"Yes," said Father Waite, nodding his head as certain bright memories
+returned to him. "That is what you told me that day when I first
+talked with you. And it started a new line of thought."
+
+"Is it strange that God should have a suppositional opposite?"
+asked Carmen. "Has not everything with which you are concerned a
+suppositional opposite? God is truth. His suppositional opposite is
+the great lie of evil. God is good. Hence the same opposite. God is
+spirit. The suppositional opposite is matter. And matter is just as
+mental as the thoughts which you are now holding. God is real. Good
+is real. And so, evil and the lie are unreal."
+
+"The distinction seems to me theoretical," protested Miss Wall.
+
+Hitt then took the floor. "That word 'real,'" he said, "is perhaps
+what is causing your confusion. The real is that which, according to
+Spencer, does not pass away. We used to believe matter indestructible,
+forever permanent. We learn that our views regarding it were very
+incorrect. Matter is quite destructible."
+
+"And yet," said Father Waite, "in this universe of constant change,
+_something_ endures. What is it but the mind that is God, expressing
+itself in such immaterial and permanent things as law, love, life,
+power?"
+
+"Exactly," replied Hitt. "But now we have been brought back again to
+the question of matter. If we can prove that matter is mental, and not
+real substance, we will have established Carmen's premise that
+everything is mental. Then there remains but the distinction between
+the mind that is God, and its suppositional opposite, as expressed in
+human existence. Let us conclude, therefore, that to-night we have
+established, at least as a working hypothesis, that, since a thing
+existing implies a creator; and since the existent universe, being
+infinite, demands an infinite creator; and since a creator can not be
+infinite without being at once mind, perfect, eternal, omnipotent,
+omniactive, and good, we are fully justified in assuming that the
+creator of all things still exists, and is infinite, ever-present
+mind. Further than that we are not prepared to go, until we have
+discussed the questions of matter and the physical universe and man.
+Let us leave those topics for a subsequent meeting. And now I suggest
+that we unite in asking Carmen to sing for us, to crown the unity that
+has marked this discussion with the harmony of her own beautiful
+voice."
+
+A few moments later, about the small upright piano which the Beaubien
+had rented for Carmen, the little group sat in reverent silence, while
+the young girl sent out through the little room the harmonious
+expression of her own inner life, the life that had never left heaven
+for earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3
+
+
+With her exit from the _beau monde_ and her entrance upon the broad
+stage of University life, Carmen seemed to have awakened from the
+lethargy which her abrupt transition from mediaeval Simiti into the
+modern world had occasioned. The static struggle to hold her own
+against the rushing currents of materialism had turned at length in
+her favor. Her lamp had been kept alight. The lethal influences which
+rose about her like stupifying fumes in the courts of fashion had been
+lifted and swept away by the fresher and more invigorating breezes
+into which her bark had now been drawn.
+
+She plunged into her new work joyously; yet not without a deeper
+comprehension of its meaning than that of her fellow-students. She
+knew that the University was but another stepping-stone, even as her
+social life had been; another series of calls and opportunities to
+"prove" her God to be immanent good. And she thankfully accepted its
+offerings. For she was keenly alive to the materialistic leadings of
+the "higher education," and she would stand as a living protest
+against them.
+
+It had not taken her long to discover the impotence lying at the heart
+of so-called modern education. She had not been slow to mark the
+disappointment written upon the faces of many of her fellow-students,
+who had sought in vain a great awakening light in those sacred
+precincts of learning, but, their confidence betrayed, were now
+floundering in the devouring morass of materialism. To her keen
+insight the University stood revealed as the great panderer to this
+latest century's obsessing idea that the true function of education is
+expressed in the imparting of changing, human information and a
+training for the business of earning one's daily bread according to
+the infamous code of the world's carnal social system. The University
+did not meet the most urgent need of the race by equipping men to
+stand against the great crises of human experience. It did not teach
+men to lay aside the counterfeit man of material sense; but rather
+emphasized the world's belief in the reality of this man by minutely
+detailed courses in his mundane history and the manifestations of his
+pitiable ignorance in his wanton crimes and watery ambitions. To
+Carmen, God was the most insistent fact of creation. And mankind's
+existence could find its only justification in ceaseless, consecrated
+manifestation of His harmonious activity. True, the University vaguely
+recognized God as infinitely competent. But in the same breath it
+confessed its utter ignorance of a demonstrable knowledge of Him, to
+know whom alone is life. True, these men of worldly learning prayed.
+But their hollow prayers bore no hope, for they knew not how to gain
+answers to them.
+
+And yet the girl remained in her new environment, awaiting the call to
+"come up higher." And meantime she strove to gain daily a wider
+knowledge of the Christ-principle, and its application to the needs
+and problems of her fellow-men. Her business was the reflection of her
+Father's business. Other ambition she had none. The weak, transient,
+flighty, so-called intellectual life which she saw about her sent no
+call across the calm currents of her thought. Her education was
+religious in the strictest, deepest sense, for she was learning to
+know God.
+
+Though the girl pursued her way quietly, unwilling that the notoriety
+which had been fastened upon her should mark her as an object of
+curiosity, yet her story soon spread among University circles, and the
+first semester was a scant two weeks old before her name had been
+debated in the numerous Sororities and Women's Clubs, and quietly
+dropped. <DW64> blood coursed in her veins; and the stigma of parental
+disgrace lay dark upon her. She lived with a woman of blackened
+reputation--a reputation which waxed no brighter under the casual,
+malicious comments of J. Wilton Ames, whose great financial strength
+had made him a Trustee of this institution of learning. If Carmen
+divined the comment that was passed concerning herself, she gave no
+indication. But Hitt and Father Waite knew that the girl had not found
+favor in the social and fraternal organizations of her mates; and they
+knew why.
+
+"A curse upon such little minds!" mused Hitt, when he could no longer
+restrain himself. Then he called a student to his desk one day, at the
+conclusion of his lecture.
+
+"Miss West," he said, "you are leader in the most prominent Sorority
+in the University. I want you to give Miss Carmen Ariza a bid."
+
+The girl shook her head. "She is not desirable."
+
+"But the charges against her are unfounded! They are flagrantly
+false!" stormed Hitt.
+
+"Have you proof, Professor?" the girl asked, as she arched her brows.
+
+"None definite. But--well, what if she were a negress? Hers is the
+most brilliant mind in the entire student-body!"
+
+But, no. Race segregation is a divine tenet, scripturally justified.
+What though the girl's skin vied with the lilies and rosebuds? What
+though her hair was the brown of ripe fields? Had not God Almighty
+decreed that the <DW64> should remain a drawer of water? A hewer of
+wood? Had the Lord designed him the equal of the noble white, He would
+have bleached his face, and bridged his flat nose. Miss West was a
+Southerner. And the reference to her dark-skinned sisters caused a
+little _moue_ of disgust, as she flatly declined to consider Carmen an
+eligible candidate for membership in her Society.
+
+"Lord above!" ejaculated Hitt, who had been brooding over the incident
+as he walked home with Father Waite. "That toadying, sycophantic,
+wealth-worshiping Miss West can see no farther than the epidermis! If
+we could have maintained Carmen's reputation as an Inca princess, this
+same girl would have fawned at her feet, and begged to kiss the edge
+of her robe! And she would have used every art of cajolery to
+ingratiate herself into Carmen's favor, to catch the social crumbs
+that our girl might chance to drop!"
+
+"There, there, Hitt," soothed Father Waite. "Have you any idea that
+Carmen is at all injured by Miss West's supercilious conduct?"
+
+"Not in the least!" asseverated Hitt vigorously. "But it makes me
+so--!"
+
+"There, check that! You're forgetting the girl's influence, aren't
+you?"
+
+Hitt gulped his wrath down his long throat. "Waite," he blurted, "that
+girl's an angel! She isn't real!"
+
+"Oh, yes, she is!" replied Father Waite. "She's so real that we don't
+understand her--so real that she has been totally misunderstood by the
+petty minds that have sought to crush her here in New York, that's
+all."
+
+"But certainly she is unique--"
+
+"Ah, yes; unique in that she goes about putting her arms around people
+and telling them that she loves them. Yes, that certainly is unique!
+And she is unique in that her purity and goodness hang about her like
+an exquisite aura, and make people instinctively turn and look after
+her as she passes. Unique in that in her sweet presence one seems to
+hear a strain of heavenly music vibrating on the air. So unique that
+the dawn, the nesting birds, the wild flowers, the daily sunset,
+fairly intoxicate her with ecstasy and make her life a lyric."
+
+Hitt essayed to reply; but the words hung in his throat.
+
+"Yes," continued Father Waite, "she is so unique that when the
+empty-headed, vain young Duke of Altern, learning that she had been
+thrown out of society because of the base rumor regarding her
+parentage, sent her a written statement to the effect that there was
+no engagement between them, and demanded that she sign it, she did
+so, with a happy smile, with an invocation, with a prayer for blessing
+upon those who had tried to ruin her."
+
+"Good God! Did she do that?"
+
+"Aye, she did. And when Mrs. Hawley-Crowles and Ames and Lafelle
+filched La Libertad from her, she would have given them the clothes on
+her back with it, if they had demanded them. Yes, she's unique--so
+unique that again and again I hear her murmur, as she looks off
+absently into space: 'If it is right that he should have a son, then I
+want it to be so.'"
+
+"Referring to--that priest--Jose de Rincon?"
+
+"Yes, doubtless. And time and again I have heard her say: 'God is
+light. Sight depends upon light. Therefore Anita's babe sees.' Old
+Rosendo's grandson, you know."
+
+Hitt nodded. "Waite," he said earnestly, "she is simply illustrating
+what would happen to any of us if we threw ourselves wholly upon
+God's protecting care, and took our thoughts only from Him. That's
+why she can lose her home, her family, her reputation, that
+mine--everything--and still stand. _She does what we don't dare to
+do!_"
+
+"She is a living illustration," replied Father Waite, "of the mighty
+fact that there is nothing so practical as _real_ Christianity. I want
+you to tell Professor Cane that. He calls her 'the girl with the
+Utopian views,' because of her ingenuous replies in his sociological
+class. But I want you to show him that she is very far from being
+impractical."
+
+"I'll do it," said Hitt emphatically. "I'll prove to Cane that her
+religion is not a visionary scheme for regulating a world inhabited
+only by perfect beings, but is a working principle for the every-day
+sinner to use in the solution of his daily problems. Moreover, Waite,
+she is a vivid illustration of the fact that when the individual
+improves, the nation does likewise. Do you get me?"
+
+"I not only get you, but I stand as a proof of your statement,"
+returned Father Waite gently.
+
+Carmen, her thoughts above, though her feet trod the earth, came and
+went, glad and happy. The change in her mode of living from the
+supreme luxury of the Hawley-Crowles mansion to the common comforts of
+the home where now she dwelt so simply with the Beaubien, seemed not
+to have caused even a ripple in the full current of her joy. Her life
+was a symphony of thanksgiving; an antiphony, in which all Nature
+voiced its responses to her in a diapason, full, rich, and harmonious.
+Often that autumn she might have been seen standing among the tinted
+leaves on the college campus, and drinking in their silent message.
+And then she might have been heard to exclaim, as she turned her rapt
+gaze beyond the venerable, vine-clad buildings: "Oh, I feel as if I
+just couldn't stand it, all this wealth of beauty, of love, of
+boundless good!" And yet she was alone, always alone. For her dark
+story had reared a hedge about her; the taboo rested upon her; and
+even in the crowded classrooms the schoolmates of her own sex looked
+askance and drew their skirts about them.
+
+But if the students avoided her, the faculty did not. And those like
+Professor Cane, who had the opportunity and the ability to peer into
+the depths of the girl's soul, took an immediate and increasing
+interest in her. Often her own naive manners broke down the bars of
+convention, and brought her enduring friendships among the men of
+learning. This was especially the case with Doctor Morton, Dean of the
+School of Surgery. Yielding to a harmless impulse of curiosity, the
+girl one afternoon had set out on a trip of exploration, and had
+chosen the Anatomy building to begin with. Many odd sights greeted her
+eager gaze as she peered into classrooms and exhibit cases; but she
+met with no one until she chanced to open the door of Doctor Morton's
+private laboratory, and found that eminent man bending over a human
+brain, which he was dissecting.
+
+Carmen stopped, and stood hesitant. The doctor looked up, surprise
+written large upon his features as he noted his fair caller. "Well!"
+he said, laying down his work.
+
+"Well!" returned Carmen. "That sounds like the Indian 'How?' doesn't
+it?" Then both laughed.
+
+"You--are--Doctor Morton?" queried the girl, twisting around and
+looking at the name on the door to make certain.
+
+"Yes," replied the genial doctor, with growing interest. He was a
+gray-haired, elderly man, slightly inclined to embonpoint, and with
+keen, twinkling eyes. "Will you come in?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," returned the girl; "I'd love to. I am Carmen Ariza."
+
+"Ah, yes. The young South American--lady. I have heard of you."
+
+"Most everybody seems to have heard of me," sighed the girl. "Well, it
+doesn't make any difference about my coming in here, does it?" She
+looked up at him so wistfully that he felt a great tug at his
+heartstrings.
+
+"Not a bit!" he replied cordially. "You're as welcome as the April
+sun."
+
+She seized his hand and pressed it. "Now tell me," she said eagerly,
+looking about. "What are you doing? What's that thing?"
+
+"That," said he, taking up the pulpy gray object, "is the brain of my
+erstwhile friend and collaborator, Doctor Bolton. He willed it to the
+University."
+
+"Alas, poor Yorick!" murmured Carmen, a facetious twinkle coming into
+her eyes as she looked at it. "And why are you cutting it up?"
+
+"In the interests of science," returned the man, studying her. "That
+we may increase our knowledge of this marvelous mechanism of thought,
+and the laws by which it operates in mental processes."
+
+"Then you still blindly seek the living among the dead, don't you?"
+she murmured. "You think that this poor thing held life, and you
+search now among its ashes for the living principle. But, God is life;
+and 'Canst thou by searching find out God?'"
+
+The man regarded her intently without replying. She bent for a while
+over the half-dissected brain in deep thought. Then she looked up.
+
+"Doctor," she said, "life is not structural. God is life; and to know
+Him is to reflect life. Reflecting Him, we are immortal. Doctor, don't
+you think it is about time to do away with this business of dying?"
+
+The man of science started visibly, and his eyes opened wider. The
+abrupt question quite swept him off his feet.
+
+"You didn't really expect to find anything in this brain, did you?"
+she went on. "The brain is composed of--what?"
+
+"Why, mostly water, with a few commonplace salts," he answered,
+wondering what the next question would be.
+
+"And can a compound of water and a few commonplace salts _think_?" she
+asked, looking intently at him.
+
+"N--no," he answered tentatively.
+
+"The brain is not the cause of thought, then, but an effect, is it
+not?" she pursued.
+
+"Why, really, my dear Miss Carmen, we don't know. We call it the organ
+of thought, because in some way thought seems to be associated with
+it, rather than with--well, with the liver, or muscles, for example.
+And we learn that certain classes of mental disturbances are
+intimately associated with lesions or clots in the brain. That's about
+all."
+
+The girl reflected for a few moments. Then:
+
+"Doctor, you wouldn't cut up a machine to discover the motive power,
+would you? But that is just what you are doing there with that brain.
+You are hoping by dissecting it to find the power that made it go,
+aren't you? And the power that made it go was mind--life."
+
+"But the life is not in the brain now," hazarded the doctor.
+
+"And never was," returned Carmen promptly. "You see," she went on, "if
+the brain was ever alive, it could never cease to be so. If it ever
+lived, it could never die. That brain never manifested real life. It
+manifested only a false sense of life. And that false sense died. Who
+or what says that the man who owned that brain is dead? Why, the human
+mind--human belief. It is the human mind, expressing its belief in
+death, and in a real opposite to life, or God. Don't you see?"
+
+"H'm!" The doctor regarded the girl queerly. She returned his look
+with a confident smile.
+
+"You believe in evolution, don't you?" she at length continued.
+
+"Oh, surely," he replied unhesitatingly. "There is overwhelming
+evidence of it."
+
+"Well, then, in the process of evolution, which was evolved first, the
+brain, or the mind which operates it and through it?" she asked.
+
+"Why," he replied meditatively, "it is quite likely that they evolved
+simultaneously, the brain being the mind's organ of expression."
+
+"But don't you see, Doctor, that you are now making the mind really
+come first? For that which expresses a thing is always secondary to
+the thing expressed."
+
+"Well, perhaps so," he said. "At any rate, it is quite immaterial to a
+practical knowledge of how to meet the brain's ills. I am a practical
+man, you know."
+
+"I'm sorry to hear that," she said simply. "Practical men are so
+stupid and ignorant."
+
+"Well, I declare!" he exclaimed, putting his hands on his hips and
+staring down at the smiling face.
+
+"And you are so nice and friendly, I wouldn't want to think you stupid
+and ignorant," she went on blandly.
+
+"H'm! Well, that kind o' takes the edge off your former classification
+of me," he said, greatly amused, yet wondering just what appraisal to
+place upon this frank girl.
+
+"And evolution," she continued, "is an unfolding, isn't it? You see,
+the great fact of creation is the creator, infinite mind. Well, that
+mind expresses itself in its ideas. And these it is unfolding all the
+time. Now a fact always gives rise to a suppositional opposite. The
+opposite of a fact is an error. And that is why error has been called
+'negative truth.' Of course, there isn't any such thing as negative
+truth! And so all error is simply falsity, supposition, without real
+existence. Do you see?"
+
+He did not reply. But she went on unperturbed. "Now, the human, or
+carnal, mind is the negative truth of the real mind, God. It is
+infinite mind's suppositional opposite. And it imitates the
+infinite mind, but in a very stupid, blundering way. And so the whole
+physical universe manifests evolution, too--an unfolding, or
+revealing, of material types, or mental concepts. And all these
+manifest the human mind's sense of life, and its equally strong
+sense of death. The universe, animals, men, are all human types,
+evolved, or unfolded, or revealed, in the human mind. And all are
+the human mind's interpretations of infinite mind's real and eternal
+and perfect ideas. You see that, don't you?
+
+"You know," she laughed, "speaking of 'negative truth', the first
+chapter of Genesis sets forth positive truth, and the second chapter
+sets forth its opposite, negative truth. It is very odd, isn't it? But
+there it is for everybody to read. And the human mind, of course, true
+to its beliefs, clings to the second chapter as the reality. Isn't it
+strange?"
+
+Meantime, Carmen's attention had been attracted to a large microscope
+that stood on the table near her. Going to it, she peeped curiously
+down into the tube. "Well, what have you here?" she inquired.
+
+"Germs," he said mechanically.
+
+"Germs! What funny, twisted things! Well," she suddenly asked, "have
+you got the fear germ here?"
+
+He broke into a laugh. But when the girl looked up, her face was quite
+serious.
+
+"You do not know it, Doctor, for you are a practical man, but you
+haven't anything but fear germs under this glass," she said in a low
+voice.
+
+"Why, those are germs of typhoid and tuberculosis!" he exclaimed.
+
+"And manifestations, externalizations, of the fear germ itself, which
+is mental," she added. "These things don't cause disease," she went
+on, pointing to the slide. "But the thoughts which they manifest do.
+Do you scientists know why people die, Doctor?"
+
+"No," he admitted seriously. "We really do not know why people die."
+
+"Then I'll tell you," she said. "_It's because they don't know enough
+to live._ This poor Doctor Bolton died because he didn't know that God
+was life. He committed sickness, and then paid the penalty, death. He
+sinned by believing that there were other powers than God, by
+believing that life and thought were in matter. And so he paid the
+wages of sin, death. He simply missed the mark, that's all."
+
+She turned and perched herself upon the table. "You haven't asked me
+to sit down," she commented brightly. "But, if you don't mind, I
+will."
+
+"I--I beg your pardon!" the doctor exclaimed, coloring, and hastily
+setting out a chair. "I really was so interested in what you were
+saying that I forgot my manners."
+
+"No," she said, shaking her head as she declined the proffered chair,
+"I'll sit here, so's I can look straight into your eyes. You go ahead
+and cut up poor Yorick, and I'll talk."
+
+The doctor laughed again. "You are much more interesting," he
+returned, "than poor Bolton, dead or alive. In fact, he really was
+quite a bore. But you are like a sparkling mountain rill, even if you
+do give me a severe classification."
+
+"Well," she replied, "then you are honestly more interested in life
+than in death, are you?"
+
+"Why, most assuredly!" he said.
+
+"So am I, much! Death is _such_ a mistake; and I haven't a bit of use
+for it," she continued. "It's like making mistakes in music, or
+mathematics. Now when we make mistakes in those, we never stop to
+discuss them. We correct them. But, dear me! The world has nearly
+talked its poor old head off about the mistakes of sickness and death.
+It never seems to occur to the world that Jesus always associated
+sickness with sin. You know, the Rabbis of his day seem to have hit
+upon a great truth, although they didn't make it really practical.
+They maintained that a sick man could not be healed of his diseases
+until all his sins had been forgiven. And so they attempted to forgive
+sins and make men clean by their elaborate ceremonies. But they missed
+the mark, too. And nobody got to the root of the difficulty until
+Jesus came. He forgave sin by destroying it completely. And that cured
+the disease that was the manifestation of sin. Now I ask, why do you,
+nearly two thousand years after his time, still do as the old Rabbis
+did, and continue to treat the body--the effect--instead of the mental
+cause? But," looking down in meditation, "I suppose if you did that
+the people would cry, 'He hath a devil!' They thought I was a witch in
+Simiti."
+
+"H'm!" returned the doctor. "Then you do not believe that disease is
+caused by microbes, I take it?"
+
+"Disease caused by microbes? Yes, so it is. And the microbe? It is a
+manifestation of the human mind again. And, as with typhoid fever,
+diphtheria, and other diseases, the human mind applies its own
+cherished, ignorant beliefs in certain methods, and then renders
+innocuous its own manifestations, microbes. The human mind makes its
+own diseases, and then in some cases removes the disease, but still by
+human, material methods. Its reliefs are only temporary. At last it
+yields itself to its false beliefs, and then goes out in what it calls
+death. It is all a mental process--all human thought and its various
+manifestations. Now why not get beyond microbes and reach the cause,
+even of them, the human mind itself? Jesus did. Paul did. Others have
+done so. Why do not you men of science do likewise?"
+
+Doctor Morton himself took the chair which he had set out for the
+girl. "What you say," he replied slowly, "is not new to me. But I can
+only answer that the world is not ready yet for the great change which
+you suggest."
+
+"Oh!" she exclaimed. "What cant! What mesmerism you are laboring
+under! Was the world ready for Jesus?"
+
+"No. He came too soon. Events show that."
+
+"Well, then, would he be accepted to-day, if he had not come before?"
+
+"I can not say. But--I think he would not."
+
+"And I quite agree with you," she said firmly. "Now the world has
+doctored for more than four thousand years, despite the fact that
+health is not sold in bottle or pill form. Doctor, what does the
+history of all these centuries of drugging show you?"
+
+He hesitated. Carmen waited a moment; then continued:
+
+"Don't they demonstrate the absolute inability of medicines to cure
+disease?" she asked. "Any more than putting men in prison cures
+crime?" she added as an afterthought.
+
+"They at least prove that medication has not _permanently_ removed
+disease," he ventured, not wishing to go too far.
+
+"Doctor," she said earnestly, "that man Jesus, who, according to you,
+came too soon, said: 'Without me ye can do nothing.' Well, didn't he
+come very, very close to the truth when he made that statement? He did
+not say that without drugs or material remedies we could do nothing,
+but that without the Christ-principle mankind would continue, as
+before, to miss the mark. He showed that disease and discord result
+from sin. Sin is lack of righteousness, lack of right-thinking about
+things. It is wrong belief, false thought. Sin is mental. Its effect,
+disease, is mental--a state of discordant consciousness. Can you with
+drugs change a state of mind?"
+
+"Certainly," he replied quickly. "Whiskey and opium cause changes in
+one's state of mind."
+
+"No," she answered. "But the human belief of power inherent in whiskey
+and opium, or of the human body's reaction to them, causes a change in
+the human thought-activity that is called consciousness. The state of
+human consciousness changes with the belief, but not the real state of
+mind. Can you not see that? And Doctor Bolton--"
+
+"Bolton was not sick. He died of natural causes, old age, and general
+breakdown," was the doctor's refuge.
+
+Carmen laughed and sprang down from the table. "What an obstinately
+obdurate lot you scientific men are!" she exclaimed. "Don't you know
+that you doctors are only a development of the old 'medicine-man'? Now
+in the first place, Mr. Bolton isn't dead; and, in the second, there
+are no _natural_ causes of death. Old age? Why, that's gone out of
+fashion, long since."
+
+"You deny senile changes--?"
+
+"I deny every human error!" she interrupted.
+
+"Then," with a note of banter in his voice, "I take it that you do not
+expect to die."
+
+"I do not!" she replied emphatically. "I expect good, nothing but
+good, ever! Don't you know that physiologists themselves admit that
+the human body is composed of eighty-five per cent water and fifteen
+per cent ordinary salts? Can such a combination have intelligence and
+sensation? Do you still believe that life is dependent upon lungs,
+stomach, or liver? Why, the so-called 'unit cell' breathes, digests,
+and manifests life-functions, and yet it has no lungs, no mouth, no
+stomach, no organs. It is the human mind, assuming knowledge and power
+which it does _not_ possess, that says the sense of life shall depend
+upon such organs in the one case and not in the other. And the human
+mind could be utterly refuted if men would only learn to use the
+Christ-principle. Jesus and Paul used it, and proved material laws to
+be only false beliefs."
+
+"Well," he replied meditatively, "if you are correct, then the
+preachers are way off the track. And I have long since come to the
+conclusion that--Well," changing abruptly back to the previous topic,
+"so you refute the microbe theory, eh?"
+
+"I said I did and did not," she laughed. "Listen: fear, worry, hatred,
+malice, murder, all of which are mental things in themselves, manifest
+to the human mind as microbes. These are the hurtful microbes, and
+they produce toxins, which poison the system. What is the cure?
+Antitoxins? No, indeed! Jesus gave the real and permanent cure. It is
+the Christ-principle. Now you can learn that principle, and how to
+apply it. But if you don't care to, why, then you must go on with your
+material microbes and poisons, and with your diseases and death, until
+you are ready to leave them and turn to that which is real. For all
+human-mind activity and manifestation, whether in microbes, death, or
+life, is mental, and is but the counterfeit of the real activity of
+divine mind, God.
+
+"Do you know," she pursued earnestly, "I heard a lecture the other day
+in which it was said that life is a sort of fermentation in the body.
+Well, as regards human life, I guess that is so. For the human body is
+only a manifestation of the human mind; and the human mind surely is
+in a continuous state of ferment!"
+
+She paused and laughed. "The lecturer," she continued, "said that the
+range of life was from ultra-microbe to man, and that Shakespeare
+began as a single cell. Think of it! The mundane concept of
+Shakespeare's body may have unfolded from a cell-concept; but
+Shakespeare was a manifestation of mind! And that mind was an
+interpretation, though very imperfect, of the mind that is God. Why
+can't you materialists raise your eyes above the dust? Why, you would
+choke the very avenues of the spirit with mud!"
+
+"H'm! Well, your education seems to be--"
+
+"Yes," she interrupted, "my education is beyond the vagaries that are
+so generally taught in the name of knowledge. Intellectual education
+is a farce. It does nothing for mankind, except to give them a false
+culture. Were the so-called great men of the past really educated?
+Here is an extract which I copied this afternoon from Hawthorne." She
+opened her note book and read:
+
+  "'Ah, but there is a half-acknowledged melancholy like to this
+  when we stand in the perfected vigor of our life and feel that
+  Time has now given us all his flowers, and that the next work of
+  his never-idle fingers must be to steal them one by one away.'
+
+"Now," she asked, "was that man really educated? In current theology,
+yes. But that theology _could not solve his least earthly problem, nor
+meet his slightest need_! Oh, what inexpressibly sad lives so many of
+your greatest men have lived! Your Hawthorne, your Longfellow, they
+yearned for the rest which they were taught was to follow death. They
+were the victims of false theology. They were mesmerized. If they
+believed in the Christ--and they thought they did--why, then, did they
+not rise up and do as he bade them do, put death out? He taught no
+such resignation to human beliefs as they practiced! He showed men how
+to overcome the world. Why do we not try to overcome it? Has the time
+not come? Is the world not sufficiently weary of dying?"
+
+He looked at her intently for some moments. She seemed, as she stood
+there before him, like a thing of gossamer and sunshine that had
+drifted into his laboratory, despite the closed door.
+
+"Say," he suddenly exclaimed, as a new thought struck him, "I'd like
+to have you talk with my friend, Reverend Patterson Moore! Pat and I
+have barked at each other for many years now, and I'm getting tired.
+I'd like to shift him to a younger and more vigorous opponent. I
+believe you've been providentially sent to relieve me."
+
+"Well," she acquiesced. "You can tell Professor Hitt, and--"
+
+"Hitt, eh? You know him?"
+
+"Yes, indeed! He comes often to our house. He is very much interested
+in these things that you and I have been talking about to-day. We have
+regular meetings, with Father Waite, and Mr. Haynerd, and--"
+
+"Well, no wonder you can argue! You've had practice, it seems.
+But--suppose I have Hitt bring me to one of your meetings, eh?"
+
+"Do!" cried the girl. "And bring your Reverend Pat."
+
+The genial doctor laughed long and incontinently. "I imagine Reverend
+Pat wouldn't thank you for referring to him that way," he said. "He is
+a very high Anglican, and his dignity is marvelous--to say nothing of
+his self-esteem. Well, we'll see, we'll see. But, don't go yet! We're
+just getting acquainted."
+
+"I must," replied the girl. "I didn't really mean to come in here, you
+know. But I guess I was led, don't you?"
+
+And when the door had closed upon her, the doctor sat silently beside
+the pulseless brain of his deceased comrade and pondered long.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Carmen entered the house, late that afternoon, she found the
+Beaubien in conversation with Professor Williams, of the University
+School of Music. That gentleman had learned through Hitt of the girl's
+unusual voice, and had dropped in on his way home to ask that he might
+hear and test it. With only a smile for reply, Carmen tossed her books
+and hat upon the sofa and went directly to the piano, where she
+launched into the weird Indian lament which had produced such an
+astounding effect upon her chance visitors at the Elwin school that
+day long gone, and which had been running in her thought and seeking
+expression ever since her conversation with Doctor Morton a short
+while before.
+
+For a full half hour she sang, lost in the harmony that poured from
+her soul. Father Waite entered, and quietly took a seat. She did not
+see him. Song after song, most of them the characteristic soft
+melodies of her people, and many her own simple improvisations, issued
+from the absorbed girl's lips. The Beaubien rose and stole softly from
+the room. Father Waite sat with his head resting on his hand, striving
+to interpret the message which welled from the depths of his own
+being, where hidden, unused chords were vibrating in unison with those
+of this young girl.
+
+Then, abruptly, the singing stopped, and Carmen turned and faced her
+auditors. "There," she said, with a happy sigh, "that just _had_ to
+come out!"
+
+Professor Williams rose and took her hand. "Who, may I ask, was your
+teacher?" he said, in a voice husky with emotion.
+
+Carmen smiled up at him. "No human teacher," she said gently.
+
+A look of astonishment came into the man's face. He turned to Father
+Waite inquiringly. The latter nodded his confirmation of the girl's
+words.
+
+"Well!" exclaimed the professor. "I wonder if you realize what you
+have got, Miss Carmen?"
+
+"Yes," she replied simply. "It's a beautiful gift, isn't it?"
+
+"But--I had thought of asking you to let me train you--but--I--I dare
+not undertake to handle such a voice as yours. May I--may I send
+Maitre Rossanni to you, the great Italian? Will you sing for him?"
+
+"Oh, yes," returned the girl; "I'll sing for anybody. The gift isn't
+mine, you know. It is for all. I'm only the channel."
+
+When the professor had taken his reluctant departure, the Beaubien
+returned and handed Carmen a letter. With a cry of joy the girl seized
+it and tore it open. It was from Colombia, the second one that her
+beloved Rosendo had succeeded in getting down the river to the distant
+coast. It had been written three months prior, and it bore many stains
+and evidences of the vicissitudes through which it had emerged. Yes,
+Rosendo and his family were well, though still at Maria Rosa, far up
+the Boque, with Don Nicolas. The war raged below them, but they were
+safe.
+
+"And not a word from Padre Jose, or about him," murmured the girl,
+sinking into a chair and clasping the soiled letter to her breast.
+
+Father Waite thought of the little newsboy of Cartagena, and his
+possible share in the cause of Jose's silence. But he made no
+comment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4
+
+
+Carmen's first serious test of her knowledge of English composition
+was made early in the semester, in an essay on town life in Colombia;
+and so meritorious did her instructor consider it that he advised her
+to send it to a prominent literary magazine. The result was that the
+essay was accepted, and a request made for further contributions.
+
+The girl bubbled with new-found happiness. Then she wrote another, and
+still another article on the life and customs of her people. Both
+were given publication; and with the money which she received for them
+she bought a silk dress for Jude, much to that adoring woman's
+surprise and vehement protest. Carmen might have saved the money
+toward a piano--but, no; that would have been thinking of herself, and
+was inadmissible. Nor did the Beaubien offer any objection. "Indeed,"
+commented that fond shepherd of this lone lamb, "she would have poured
+the money out into somebody's open hand anyway, and it might as well
+be Jude's."
+
+Then she choked back the tears as she added: "The girl comes home
+every night with an empty purse, no matter how full it may have been
+in the morning. What does she do with the money? Follow her some day
+and see."
+
+Carmen's slight success in the field of letters still further aroused
+Haynerd's interest. The peacefully somnolent Social Era, he thought,
+might awaken to new things under the stimulus of such fresh writing as
+hers. Perhaps life did hold something of real value after all. Would
+she furnish him with a column or two on the peculiar social aspect of
+the metropolis?
+
+She would, and did. And the result was that the staid conservative
+sheet was given a smart shaking; and several prominent society people
+sat up and blinked. The article was in no way malicious. It was not
+even condemnatory. It but threw a clear light from a somewhat unusual
+angle upon certain phases of New York's social life, and uncovered a
+few of the more subtly hidden springs of its peculiar activity.
+
+Among those who read her essay in the Social Era was J. Wilton Ames.
+He first lay back in his chair and laughed uproariously. And then,
+when his agents discovered for him the identity of the author, he
+glowered. The Beaubien was still standing between him and this budding
+genius. And though he might, and would, ultimately ruin the Beaubien
+financially, yet this girl, despite her social ostracism, bade fair to
+earn with her facile pen enough to maintain them both in luxury. So he
+bent anew to his vengeful schemes, for he would make them come to him.
+As Trustee, he would learn what courses the girl was pursuing in the
+University--for he had long known that she was in attendance there.
+Then he would learn who her associates were; what suggestions and
+advice her instructors gave her; and her plans for the future. And he
+would trace her sources of income and apply pressure at the most vital
+point. He had never in his life been successfully balked. Much less by
+a woman.
+
+Then Haynerd came to congratulate Carmen again, and to request that
+she attend with him the formal opening of the new Ames mansion, the
+great Fifth Avenue palace, for he wanted her vivid, first-hand
+impressions for his account of the brilliant affair in the Social Era.
+As reporters, he explained, they would of necessity remain in
+seclusion, and the girl might disguise to such an extent as to prevent
+recognition, if she chose. It was business for him, and an opportunity
+for rich experience for her. And the fearless girl went, because it
+would help Haynerd, though the Beaubien inwardly trembled.
+
+Invitations to the number of three hundred had been issued to the
+_elite_ of New York, announcing the formal opening of the newly
+finished, magnificent Ames dwelling. These invitations were wrought in
+enamel on cards of pure gold. Each had cost thirty dollars. The
+mansion itself, twelve millions. A month prior to the opening, the
+newspapers had printed carefully-worded announcements of the return of
+Mrs. J. Wilton Ames and her daughter, after a protracted stay at
+various foreign baths and rest-cures in the hope of restoring the
+former's impaired health. But Mrs. Ames now felt that she could no
+longer deprive society of her needed activities, and so had returned
+to conduct it through what promised to be a season of unusual
+brilliancy. The papers did not, however, state that J. Wilton had
+himself recalled her, after quietly destroying his bill of divorce,
+because he recognized the necessity of maintaining the social side of
+his complicated existence on a par with his vast business affairs.
+
+As Carmen and Haynerd approached the huge, white marble structure,
+cupolaed, gabled, buttressed, and pinnacled, an overwhelming sense of
+what it stood for suddenly came upon the girl, and she saw revealed in
+a flash that side of its owner's life which for so many months she had
+been pondering. The great shadows that seemed to issue from the
+massive exterior of the building swept out and engulfed her; and she
+turned and clasped Haynerd's arm with the feeling that she would
+suffocate were she to remain longer in them.
+
+"Perk up, little one," said Haynerd, taking her hand. "We'll go round
+to the rear entrance, and I will present my business card there.
+Ames's secretary telephoned me instructions, and I said I was going to
+bring a lady reporter with me."
+
+Carmen caught her breath as she passed through the tall, exquisitely
+wrought iron gateway and along the marble walk which led to the rear.
+Up the winding steps to the front entrance, where swung the marvelous
+bronze doors which had stirred the imaginations of two continents,
+streamed the favored of the fashionable world. Among them Carmen saw
+many whom she recognized. The buffoon, Larry Beers, was there,
+swinging jauntily along with the bejeweled wife of Samson, the
+multimillionaire packer. Kane and his wife, and Weston followed.
+Outside the gates there was incessant chugging of automobiles, mingled
+with the shouted orders of the three policemen detailed to direct the
+traffic. A pinched, ragged urchin and his tattered little sister crept
+up and peered wildly through the iron pickets of the fence; but a
+sharp rap from a policeman's club sent them scattering. Carmen stood
+for a moment in the shadows and watched the swarm mount the marble
+steps and enter through those wonderful doors. There were congressmen
+and senators, magnates and jurists, distillers and preachers. Each one
+owed his tithe of allegiance to Ames. Some were chained to him hard
+and fast, nor would break their bonds this side of the grave. Some he
+owned outright. There were those who grew white under his most casual
+glance. There were others who knew that his calloused hand was closing
+about them, and that when it opened again they would fall to the
+ground, dry as dust. Others, like moths, not yet singed, were hovering
+ever closer to the bright, cruel flame. Reverend Darius Borwell,
+bowing and smiling, alighted from his parochial car and tripped
+blithely up the glistening marble steps. Each and all, wrapping the
+skeleton of grief, greed, shame, or fear beneath swart broadcloth and
+shimmering silk, floated up those ghostly steps as if drawn by a
+tremendous magnet incarnate in the person of J. Wilton Ames.
+
+Carmen shuddered and turned away. Did the pale wraith of Mrs.
+Hawley-Crowles sigh in the wake of that gilded assembly? Did the moans
+of poor, grief-stricken Mrs. Gannette, sitting in her poverty and
+sorrow, die into silence against those bronze doors? Was he, the being
+who dwelt in that marble palace, the hydra-headed embodiment of the
+carnal, Scriptural, age-old power that opposes God? And could he stand
+forever?
+
+Two detectives met them at the rear door. How many others there were
+scattered through the house itself, Haynerd could only guess. But he
+passed inspection and was admitted with the girl. A butler took
+immediate charge of them, and led them quickly through a short passage
+and to an elevator, by which they mounted to another floor, where,
+opening a paneled oak door, the dignified functionary preceded them
+into a small reception hall, with lavatories at either end. Here he
+bade them remove their wraps and await his return.
+
+"Well," commented Haynerd, with a light, nervous laugh, "we've crossed
+the Rubicon! Now don't miss a thing!"
+
+A moment later the butler returned with a sharp-eyed young woman, Mrs.
+Ames's social secretary.
+
+"You will be very careful in your report," the latter began at once in
+a business-like manner. "And you will submit the same to me for
+approval before it is published in your magazine. Mr. Ames deems that
+imperative, since your recent publication of an essay on modern
+society in this city. I have a list here of the guests, their business
+and social standing, and other data. You will run that in full. You
+will say that this is the most brilliant assemblage ever gathered
+under one roof in New York. The wealth represented here to-night will
+total not less than three billion dollars. The jewels alone displayed
+will foot up not less than twenty millions. Now, let me see," again
+consulting her notes.
+
+Haynerd stole a covert glance at Carmen and winked.
+
+"The chef," the secretary resumed, "was brought over from Paris by
+Mrs. Ames on her recent return. His name, Pierre Lotard, descendant of
+the famous chef of the Emperor Napoleon First. He considers that his
+menu to-night surpasses anything he ever before achieved."
+
+"May I ask," interrupted Haynerd, "the probable cost of the supper?"
+
+"Yes, perhaps you had better mention that item. It will be in the
+neighborhood of three hundred dollars a plate. House and table
+decorations, about eight thousand dollars. Here is a copy of the menu.
+Run it in full. The menu cards were hand-illuminated by Parisian
+artists, and each bears a sketch illustrative or suggestive of the
+guest to whom it is given."
+
+"Cost?" queried Haynerd off-handedly.
+
+"Three thousand, if I correctly recall it," was the nonchalant reply.
+"As to the viands, you will mention that they have been gathered from
+every part of the world. Now come with me, and I will give you a hasty
+sketch of the house, while the guests are assembling in the grand
+salon. Then you will remain in the balcony, where you will make what
+notes you wish on the dress displayed. Refreshments will be served to
+you later in this waiting room. I need not remind you that you are not
+expected to mingle with the guests, nor to address any one. Keep to
+the balcony, and quite out of view."
+
+Opening a door opposite the one through which she had entered, the
+young woman led her charges directly out upon the great marble balcony
+overlooking the grand salon below. A rush of brilliant light engulfed
+them, and a potpourri of chatter and laughter, mingled with soft music
+from a distant organ, and the less distinct notes of the orchestra in
+the still more distant ballroom, rose about them in confused babel, as
+they tiptoed to the exquisitely carved marble railing and peered down
+upon the gorgeous pageant. The ceiling rose far above them, delicately
+tinted like a soft Italian sky. The lofty walls dropped, like
+gold-gray veils, to the richly carved paneled wainscoting beneath,
+which had once lined the halls of a mediaeval castle on the Rhine. The
+great windows were hidden behind rare Venetian lace curtains, over
+which fell hangings of brocade, repeating the soft tints of the wall
+and the brocade-covered chairs and divans ranged close about the sides
+of the splendid room. On the floor lay a massive, priceless Persian
+carpet, dating from the fifteenth century.
+
+Haynerd drew a long breath, and whistled softly. From the end of the
+salon he could mark the short flight of steps which led to the
+mezzanine, with its walls heavily tapestried, and broken by rich oak
+doors opening into lavatories and lounging rooms, itself widening at
+the far end into the grand billiard and smoking parlors, done off in
+Circassian walnut, with tables and furniture to harmonize. From the
+mezzanine he saw the grand stairway falling away in great, sweeping
+curves, all in blended marble from the world's greatest quarries, and
+delicately chased and carved into classic designs. Two tapestries,
+centuries old, hung from the walls on either side. Far above, the oak
+ceiling, for which the _Schwarzwald_ had been ranged, was overlaid
+with pure gold leaf. The whole was suffused with the glow of myriad
+hidden and inverted lights, reflected in a thousand angles from
+burnished gold and marble and rarest gems.
+
+Haynerd turned to the waiting secretary. He groped in the chambers of
+his imagery for some superlative adjective to express his emotion
+before this colossal display of wealth. But his ample vocabulary had
+faded quite. He could only shake his head and give vent to the inept
+remark, "Swell--by George!"
+
+The secretary, without replying, motioned them to follow. Passing
+noiselessly around the balcony to the opposite side, she indicated a
+door below, leading off to the right from the grand salon.
+
+"That room beyond," she said, "is the petit salon. The decorative
+effects are by French artists. Beyond that is the morning room. It is
+in panels from French chateaux, covered with Gobelin tapestry. Now
+from here you can see a bit of the music room. The grand organ cost,
+installed, about two hundred thousand dollars. It is electrically
+controlled, with its pipes running all around the room, so as to give
+the effect of music coming from every corner."
+
+Haynerd again softly whistled.
+
+"There are three art galleries beyond, two for paintings, and one for
+sculpture. Mr. Ames has without doubt the finest art collection in
+America. It includes several Titians, Veroneses, da Vincis, Turners,
+three Rubens, and two Raphaels. By the way, it may interest you to
+know that his negotiations for the Murillo Madonna were completed
+to-day, and the picture will be sent to him immediately."
+
+"Might I ask what he paid for it?" Haynerd inquired casually.
+
+"You may say that he paid something over three hundred thousand
+dollars for it," she replied, in a quite matter of fact tone. "Now,"
+she continued, "you will go back to your first position, near the door
+of the waiting room, and remain there until I return. I may have an
+opportunity later to show you the library. It is very unique. Great
+carved stone fireplace, taken from a Scotch castle. Hundreds of rare
+volumes and first editions. Now, if any one approaches, you can step
+behind the screen and remain out of view. You have chairs and a table
+there for your writing. Do not in any event leave this balcony."
+
+With this final injunction she turned and disappeared into the little
+waiting room from which they had emerged.
+
+For some moments Carmen and Haynerd stood looking alternately at
+each other and about them at their magnificent environment. Both had
+seen much of the gilded life, and the girl had dwelt some months in
+its alien atmosphere. But neither had ever witnessed such a
+stupendous display of material wealth as was here unfolded before
+their astonished gaze. At the head of the grand stairway stood the
+Ames trio, to receive their resplendent guests. The women were
+magnificently gowned. But Ames's massive form in its simple black
+and chaste linen was the cynosure of all eyes. Even Haynerd could
+not suppress a note of admiration as he gazed at the splendid figure.
+
+"And yet," he murmured, "a victim, like the rest, of the great
+delusion."
+
+Carmen laid down the opera glasses through which she had been studying
+the man. "He is an expression," she said, "of the American ideal--the
+ideal of practical material life. It is toward his plane of life that
+this country's youth are struggling, at, oh, what a cost! Think,
+think, what his immense, misused revenue could do, if unselfishly
+used! Why, the cost of this single night's show would put two hundred
+men like Father Waite through a four-year course in the University,
+and train them to do life's work! And what, what will Mr. Ames get out
+of it?"
+
+"Oh, further opportunities to increase his pile, I suppose," returned
+Haynerd, shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"But, will he get real happiness? Peace? Joy? And does he need further
+opportunities to accumulate money? Does he not rather need some one to
+show him the meaning of life, how to really live?"
+
+"He does, indeed! And it may be your mission, Carmen, to do just that.
+But if you don't, then I sincerely hope the man may die before he
+discovers that all that he has achieved, his wealth, his prestige, his
+power, have not been worth striving for!"
+
+"He hasn't the slightest idea of the meaning of life," she murmured,
+looking down upon the glittering throng. "Nor have any of them."
+
+"No," he replied. "They put me in mind of Carlyle's famous remark, as
+he stood looking out across the London Strand: 'There are in this city
+some four million people, mostly fools.' How mean, narrow and hard
+their lives are! These are the high priests of vested privilege, of
+mediaevalism, of old institutions whose perpetual maintenance, even in
+a generation that has progressed far beyond them, is a fungus blight
+upon us. Ah, there's little Willie Van Wot, all dolled out! He's
+glorifying his Creator now by devoting his foolish little existence to
+coaching trips along the New England shore. He reminds me of the Fleet
+street poet who wrote a century ago of the similar occupation of a
+young dandy of that day--
+
+                  What can little T. O. do?
+                  Why, drive a Phaeton and Two!!!
+                  Can little T. O. do no more?
+                  Yes, drive a Phaeton and Four!!!!
+
+"He's an interesting outgrowth of our unique social system, eh?"
+
+"We must follow Emerson and treat them all as we do pictures, look at
+them in the best light," murmured Carmen.
+
+"Aye, hang them in the best light!" returned Haynerd. "But make sure
+they're well hung! There goes the pseudo-princess, member of the royal
+house of England. She carries the royal taint, too. I tell you, under
+the splash and glitter you can see the feet of clay, eh?"
+
+"Yes," smiled Carmen, "resting upon the high heel."
+
+"Huh!" muttered Haynerd, with a gesture of disgust. "The women of
+fashion seem to feel that the Creator didn't do a good job when He
+designed the feminine sex--that He should have put a hump where the
+heel is, so's to slant the foot and make comfortable walking
+impossible, as well as to insure a plentiful crop of foot-troubles and
+deformities. The Chinese women used to manifest a similarly insane
+thought. Good heavens! High heel, low brain! The human mind is a cave
+of black ignorance!"
+
+Carmen did not reply, but bent her attention again to the throng
+below.
+
+"Look there," said Haynerd, indicating a stout, full-toiletted woman,
+resplendent with diamonds. "That's our eminent French guest, Madam
+Carot. She severed herself from her tiresome consort last year by
+means of a bichloride tablet deftly immersed in his coffee, and then,
+leaving a sigh of regret hovering over his unhandsome remains,
+hastened to our friendly shores, to grace the _beau monde_ with her
+gowns and jewels."
+
+Carmen turned to him with a remonstrance of incredulity.
+
+"Fact," he stubbornly insisted. "The Social Era got the whole spicy
+story. And there beside her is our indispensable Mrs. T. Oliver
+Pennymon. See, she's drifted up to young Watson! Coquetting for a
+husband still, the old buzzard!"
+
+"Mr. Haynerd!"
+
+"Well, it's fact, anyway," persisted the society monitor. "And there
+beyond her is fat little Mrs. Stuffenheimer, with her two unlovely,
+red-faced daughters. Ah, the despairing mamma is still vainly angling
+for mates for her two chubby Venuses! If they're not married off
+properly and into good social positions soon, it's mamma for the scrap
+heap! By George! it's positively tragic to see these anxious mothers
+at Newport and Atlantic City and other fashionable places, rushing
+madly hither and yon with their marriageable daughters, dragging them
+from one function to another in the wild hope that they may ultimately
+land a man. Worry and pain dig deep furrows into poor mamma's face if
+she sees her daughters fading into the has-been class. It requires
+heroism, I say, to travel in society! But I guess you know, eh? Well,"
+taking up his notebook, "we must get busy now. By the way, how's your
+shorthand progressing?"
+
+"Oh, splendidly," replied the girl, her eyes still upon the massive
+figure of Ames. Then, recovering from her abstraction, "I can write as
+fast in it now as in longhand."
+
+"Good!" said Haynerd. "You'll need it later."
+
+For more than an hour the two sat in the seclusion of the splendid
+balcony, looking down upon the scene of magnificence below. Through
+the mind of the young girl ran a ceaseless paean of thanksgiving for
+her timely deliverance from the trammels which she so well knew
+enshackled these glittering birds of paradise. With it mingled a
+great, consuming desire, a soul-longing to pour into the vacuity of
+high society the leaven of her own pure thought. In particular did her
+boundless love now go out to that gigantic figure whose ideals of life
+this sumptuous display of material wealth and power expressed. Why was
+he doing this? What ulterior motive had he? Was it only a vainglorious
+exhibition of his own human prowess? Was it an announcement,
+magnificent beyond compare, that he, J. Wilton Ames, had attained the
+supreme heights of gratified world ambition? That the world at last
+lay at his feet? And that over it brooded the giant's lament that
+there remained nothing more to conquer? But, if so, the girl at least
+knew that the man's herculean efforts to subdue the material world
+were as nothing. The real conquest lay still before him, the conquest
+of self. And when that were faced and achieved, well she knew that no
+such garish display as this would announce the victory to a breathless
+world.
+
+The bustling little social secretary again appeared, and briefly
+announced the production of an opera in the auditorium, to which she
+had come to conduct them. Passing through the little waiting room and
+to the elevator, they quickly mounted to the unoccupied gallery of the
+theater above. The parquet, which would seat nearly a thousand
+spectators, was rapidly filling with an eager, curious throng. The
+Ames trio and some of the more distinguished guests were already
+occupying the gorgeously decorated boxes at the sides. An orchestra of
+fifty pieces was visible in the hollow below the stage. Caroni, the
+famous grand opera leader, stood ready to conduct. The opera itself
+was the much discussed music drama, Salome.
+
+"Now," commented Haynerd to his fair, wondering companion, who was
+lost in contemplation of the magnificent mural decorations of the
+little theater, "we will see something rare, for this opera has been
+called the most artistic piece of indecency known to the stage. Good
+heavens! Ames has got Marie Deschamps for the title role. She'll cost
+him not less than five thousand dollars for this one night. And--see
+here," drawing Carmen's attention to the bill, "Marcou and Corvalle
+besides! The man must be made of money! These stars get three thousand
+dollars a night during the regular season."
+
+Every phase of sophistication was manifested in that glittering
+audience when the curtain rose and the sensational theme was
+introduced. But to none came thoughts like those which clamored for
+admittance at the portals of Carmen's mentality. In the bold challenge
+of the insanely sensual portrayal of a carnal mind the girl saw the
+age-old defiance of the spirit by the flesh. In the rolls of the
+wondrous music, in its shrieks, its pleadings, and its dying echoes,
+she heard voiced again the soul-lament of a weary world searching
+vainly in the mazes of human thought for truth. As the wonderful
+Deschamps danced weirdly before her in the ghastly light and fell
+gloating over her gory trophy, Carmen saw but the frantic struggles of
+a diseased soul, portrayed as the skilled surgeon lays bare the
+malignant growth that is eating the quivering tissues of a human
+frame. The immodesty of dress, the sensual suggestiveness of the
+dance, the brutal flouting of every element of refinement and
+delicacy, blazoned in frenzied tone and movement the bloody orgy and
+dance of death which goes on incessantly upon the stage of human life,
+and ends in the mad whirl and confusion and insane gibbering over the
+lifeless trophies for which mankind sell their very souls.
+
+"About the limit of tolerance, eh?" commented Haynerd, when the final
+curtain dropped. "Yes, even to a vitiated taste. The passionate thirst
+for the sensational has led to this sickening display of salacity--"
+
+"Splendid, wasn't it?" came in tones of admiration from the social
+secretary, who had returned to conduct her charges back to the balcony
+before the guests emerged from the theater. "You will run the program
+in full, and comment at some length on the expense attached," she went
+on. "You have just witnessed the private production of a full opera,
+unabridged, and with the regular operatic cast. Supper will follow in
+a half hour. Meantime, you will remain in the balcony where you were
+before."
+
+Returning to their former position, Carmen sank into a chair at the
+little table behind the screen, and strove to orient her thought.
+Haynerd sat down beside her to arrange his voluminous notes. Presently
+footsteps were heard, and the sound of voices. Haynerd glanced through
+the hinge of the screen. "Ha!" he whispered, "here comes Ames
+and--who's with him? Ah, Representative Wales. Showing him about, I
+suppose."
+
+Carmen gazed at the approaching men with fascinated eyes, although she
+saw but one, the towering magician who had reared this fairy palace.
+She saw Ames lead his companion to the door of the little waiting room
+at their right, and heard the congressman protest against entering.
+
+"But we can talk undisturbed in here," urged Ames, his hand on the
+door.
+
+"Better remain out here on the balcony," replied the congressman
+nervously, as he moved toward the railing.
+
+Ames laughed and shrugged his enormous shoulders. He understood the
+man's repugnance fully. But he humored him.
+
+"You know, Wales," he said easily, going to the railing and peering
+over at the brilliant assemblage below, "if I could get the heathen
+Chinee to add an extra half-inch to his shirt length, I'd make a
+hundred millions. And then, perhaps, I wouldn't need to struggle with
+your Ways and Means Committee as I do. By the way, the cotton schedule
+will be reported out unchanged, I presume." He turned and looked
+quizzically at his companion as he said this.
+
+Wales trembled slightly when he replied to the question he had been
+awaiting. "I think not, Mr. Ames."
+
+The giant's face clouded. "Parsons will vote for it," he said
+suggestively. "What will you do?"
+
+The congressman hesitated. "I--the party, Mr. Ames, is committed to
+the high tariff principle. We can not let in a flood of foreign
+cotton--"
+
+"Then you want the fight between the farmers and spinners to continue,
+eh?" interposed Ames cynically. "You don't seem to realize that in the
+end both will get more money than they are getting now, and that it
+will come from the consumer, who will pay vastly higher for his
+finished products, in addition to the tariff. Do you get me?"
+
+"It is a party principle, Mr. Ames," returned the congressman
+tenaciously.
+
+"Look here, Wales," said Ames, turning savagely upon his companion.
+"The cotton farmers are organizing. They have got to be stopped. Their
+cooeperative associations must be smashed. The tariff schedule which
+you have before your Committee will do it. And you are going to pass
+it."
+
+"Mr. Ames," replied the congressman, "I--I am opposed to the constant
+manipulation of cotton by you rich men. I--"
+
+"There," interrupted Ames, "never mind explaining your conscientious
+scruples. What I want to know is, do you intend to cast your vote for
+the unaltered schedule?"
+
+"N--no, Mr. Ames, I can't--"
+
+"H'm," murmured Ames. Then, with easy nonchalance, turning to an
+apparently irrelevant topic as he gazed over the railing, "I heard
+just before coming from my office this evening that the doors of the
+Mercantile Trust would not open to-morrow. Too bad! A lot of my
+personal friends are heavily involved. Bank's been shaky for some
+time. Ames and Company will take over their tangible assets; I believe
+you were interested, were you not?" He glanced at the trembling man
+out of the corners of his eyes.
+
+Wales turned ashen. His hands shook as he grasped the railing before
+him and tried to steady himself.
+
+"Hits you pretty hard, eh?" coolly queried Ames.
+
+"It--it--yes--very hard," murmured the dazed man. "Are you--positive?"
+
+"Quite. But step into the waiting room and 'phone the newspapers. They
+will corroborate my statements."
+
+Representative Wales was serving his first term in Congress. His
+election had been a matter of surprise to everybody, himself included,
+excepting Ames. Wales knew not that his detailed personal history had
+been for many months carefully filed in the vaults of the Ames tower.
+Nor did he ever suspect that his candidacy and election had been
+matters of most careful thought on the part of the great financier
+and his political associates. But when he, a stranger to congressional
+halls, was made a member of the Ways and Means Committee, his
+astonishment overleaped all bounds. Then Ames had smiled his own
+gratification, and arranged that the new member should attend the
+formal opening of the great Ames palace later in the year. Meantime,
+the financier and the new congressman had met on several occasions,
+and the latter had felt no little pride in the attention which the
+great man had shown him.
+
+And so the path to fame had unrolled steadily before the guileless
+Wales until this night, when the first suspicions of his thraldom had
+penetrated and darkened his thought. Then, like a crash from a clear
+sky, had come the announcement of the Mercantile Trust failure. And as
+he stood there now, clutching the marble railing, his thought busy
+with the woman and the two fair children who would be rendered
+penniless by this blow, the fell presence of the monster Ames seemed
+to bend over him as the epitome of ruthless, brutal, inhuman cunning.
+
+"How much are you likely to lose by this failure?" the giant asked.
+
+Wales collected his scattered senses. "Not less than fifty thousand
+dollars," he replied in a husky voice.
+
+"H'm!" commented Ames. "Too bad! too bad! Well, let's go below. Ha!
+what's this?" stooping and apparently taking up an object that had
+been lying on the floor back of the congressman. "Well! well! your
+bank book, Wales. Must have slipped from your pocket."
+
+Wales took the book in a dazed, mechanical way. "Why--I have no--this
+is not mine," he murmured, gazing alternately at the pass book and at
+Ames.
+
+"Your name's on it, at least," commented Ames laconically. "And the
+book's been issued by our bank, Ames and Company. Guess you've
+forgotten opening an account there, let me see, yes, a week ago." He
+took the book and opened it. "Ah, yes, I recall the incident now.
+There's your deposit, made last Friday."
+
+Wales choked. What did it mean? The book, made out in his name on Ames
+and Company, showed a deposit to his credit of fifty thousand
+dollars!
+
+Ames slipped his arm through the confused congressman's, and started
+with him down the balcony. "You see," he said, as they moved away,
+"the Mercantile failure will not hit you as hard as you thought. Now,
+about that cotton schedule, when you cast your vote for it, be sure
+that--" The voice died away as the men disappeared in the distance,
+leaving Carmen and Haynerd staring blankly at each other.
+
+"Well!" ejaculated Haynerd at length. "What now?"
+
+"We must save them both," said Carmen quietly.
+
+"I could make my everlasting fortune out of this!" exclaimed Haynerd
+excitedly.
+
+"And lose your soul," replied the girl. "But I will see Mr. Ames, and
+tell him that we overheard his conversation. He will save us all."
+
+Haynerd then smiled, but it was a hard smile, coming from one who knew
+the world. "Listen, my dear girl," he said, "we will keep quiet, you
+and I. To mention this would be only to court disaster at the hands of
+one who would strangle us at the slightest intimation of our
+knowledge. Can you not see the consequences to us?"
+
+"I can see but the right," returned Carmen determinedly. "And the
+right shall prevail!"
+
+"But, my dear girl," cried Haynerd, now thoroughly alarmed both for
+himself and her, "he would ruin us! This is no affair of ours. We had
+no intention of hearing; and so let it be as if we had not heard."
+
+"And let the lie of evil prevail? No, Mr. Haynerd, I could not, if I
+would. Mr. Ames is being used by evil; and it is making him a channel
+to ruin Mr. Wales. Shall I stand idly by and permit it? No!"
+
+She rose, with a look of fixed resolution on her face. Haynerd sprang
+to his feet and laid a detaining hand upon her arm. As he did so, the
+screen was quickly drawn aside, and Kathleen Ames and two of her young
+companions bent their curious gaze in upon them. Absorbed in their
+earnest conversation, Carmen and Haynerd had not heard the approach of
+the young ladies, who were on a tour of inspection of the house before
+supper.
+
+"Reporters for the Social Era, Miss Ames," explained Haynerd, hastily
+answering the unspoken question, while he made a courteous bow.
+
+But Kathleen had not heard him. "What--you!" she cried, instantly
+recognizing Carmen, and drawing back. "How dared you! Oh!"
+
+"What is it, dear?" asked one of the young ladies, as her eyes roved
+over Carmen's tense, motionless figure.
+
+"You--creature!" cried Kathleen, spurting her venom at Carmen, while
+her eyes snapped angrily and her hands twitched. "When the front door
+is closed against you, you sneak in through the back door! Leave this
+house, instantly, or I shall have you thrown into the street!"
+
+"Why, Kathleen dear!" exclaimed one of her companions. "She is only a
+reporter!"
+
+"She is a low, <DW64> wench!" cried Kathleen maliciously. "She comes
+from a brothel! She foisted herself upon society, and was discovered
+and kicked out! Her father is a dirty <DW64> priest, and her mother a
+low--"
+
+Haynerd rushed to the maddened girl and clapped his hand over her
+mouth. "Hush, for God's sake, Miss Ames!" Then, to her companions,
+"Take her away!" he pleaded. "And we will leave at once!"
+
+But a house detective, attracted by the loud conversation, had come up
+and interposed. At his signal another one approached. "Bring Mr.
+Ames," he quietly commanded. "I can not put them out if they have his
+permission to remain," he explained to the angry Kathleen.
+
+In a few moments, during which the little group stood tense and quiet,
+Ames himself appeared.
+
+"Well?" he demanded. "Ah!" as his eyes lighted upon Carmen. "My little
+girl! And--so this is your assistant?" turning inquiringly to Haynerd.
+"By George! Her article in last week's Social Era was a corker. But,"
+staring from Kathleen to the others, "what's the row?"
+
+"I want that creature put out of the house!" demanded Kathleen,
+trembling with rage and pointing to Carmen.
+
+"Tut, tut," returned Ames easily. "She's on business, and has my
+permission to remain. But, by George! that's a good joke," winking at
+Haynerd and breaking into a loud laugh. "You put one over on us there,
+old man!" he said.
+
+"Father!" Scalding tears of anger and humiliation were streaming down
+Kathleen's face. "If she remains, I shall go--I shall leave the
+house--I will not stay under the same roof with the lewd creature!"
+
+"Very well, then, run along," said Ames, taking the humiliated
+Kathleen by the shoulders and turning her about. "I will settle this
+without your assistance." Then he motioned to the house detectives to
+depart, and turned to Haynerd and Carmen. "Come in here," he said,
+leading the way to the little waiting room, and opening the door.
+
+"Lord! but you belong down stairs with the rest," he ejaculated as he
+faced Carmen, standing before him pale but unafraid. "There isn't one
+down there who is in your class!" he exclaimed, placing his hands upon
+her shoulders and looking down into her beautiful face. "And," he
+continued with sudden determination, "I am going to take you down, and
+you will sit at the table with me, as my special guest!"
+
+A sudden fear gripped Haynerd, and he started to interpose. But Carmen
+spoke first.
+
+"Very well, Mr. Ames," she said quietly. "Take me down. I have a
+question to ask Mr. Wales when we are at the table."
+
+An expression of surprise and inquiry came into Ames's face. "Mr.
+Wales?" he said wonderingly. "You mean Congressman--"
+
+Then he stopped abruptly, and looked searchingly at Carmen and her
+companion. Haynerd paled. Carmen stood unflinching. Ames's expression
+of surprise gave place to one dark and menacing.
+
+"You were behind that screen when Congressman Wales and I--"
+
+"Yes," returned Carmen calmly. "I overheard all you said. I saw you
+bribe him."
+
+Ames stood like a huge, black cloud, glowering down upon the slender
+girl. She looked up at him and smiled.
+
+"You are going to tell him that the fifty thousand dollars are just a
+loan, and that he may vote as he chooses, aren't you?" she said. "You
+will not ruin his life, and the lives of his wife and babies, will
+you? You would never be happy, you know, if you did." Her voice was as
+quiet as the morning breeze.
+
+"So!" the giant sneered. "You come into my house to play spy, eh? And
+if I had not caught you when I did you would have written another
+interesting article for the Social Era, wouldn't you? By God! I'll
+break you, Haynerd, and your infernal sheet into a million pieces if
+you dare print any such rot as this! And as for you, young lady--"
+
+"You can do nothing to me, Mr. Ames; and you don't really want to,"
+said Carmen quickly. "My reputation, you know--that is, the one which
+you people have given me--is just as black as it could be, isn't it?
+So that is safe." She laughed lightly.
+
+Then she became very serious again. "It doesn't really make any
+difference to you, Mr. Ames," she said, "whether the cotton schedule
+is passed or not. You still have your millions--oh, so much more
+than you will ever know what to do with! But Mr. Wales, he has his
+wife and his babies and his good reputation--would you rob him of
+those priceless treasures, just to make a few dollars more for
+yourself?--dollars that you can't spend, and that you won't let
+others have?"
+
+During the girl's quiet talk Ames was regaining his self-control. When
+she concluded he turned to Haynerd. "Miss Carmen can step out into the
+balcony. You and I will arrange this matter together," he said.
+
+Carmen moved toward the door.
+
+"Now," said Ames significantly, and in a low voice, "what's your
+price?"
+
+Instantly the girl turned back and threw herself between the two men.
+"He is not for sale!" she cried, her eyes flashing as she confronted
+Ames.
+
+"Then, by God!" shouted Ames, who had lost himself completely, "I will
+crush him like a dirty spider! And you, I'll drag you through the
+gutters and make your name a synonym of all that is vile in
+womanhood!"
+
+Carmen stepped quietly to the elevator and pressed the signal button.
+
+"You shall not leave this house!" cried the enraged Ames, starting
+toward her. "Or you'll go under arrest!"
+
+The girl drew herself up with splendid dignity, and faced him
+fearlessly. "We _shall_ leave your house, and now, Mr. Ames!" she
+said. "You and that for which you stand can not touch us! The carnal
+mind is back of you! Omnipotent God is with us!"
+
+She moved away from him, then turned and stood for a moment, flashing,
+sparkling, radiant with a power which he could not comprehend. "You
+know not what you do. You are blinded and deceived by human lust and
+greed. But the god you so ignorantly worship now will some day totter
+and fall upon you. Then you will awake, and you will see your present
+life as a horrid dream."
+
+The elevator appeared. Carmen and the dazed Haynerd stepped quickly
+into it and descended without opposition to the lower floor. A few
+moments later they were again in the street and hurrying to the
+nearest car line.
+
+"Girlie," said Haynerd, mopping the perspiration from his brow, "we're
+in for it now--and I shall be crushed! But you--I think your God will
+save you."
+
+Carmen took his hand. "His arm is not shortened," she murmured, "that
+He can not save us both."
+
+CHAPTER 5
+
+ON the Monday morning following the Ames reception the society columns
+of the daily papers still teemed with extravagant depictions of the
+magnificent affair. On that same morning, while Haynerd sat gloomily
+in the office of the Social Era, meditating on his giant adversary's
+probable first move, Carmen, leaving her studies and classes, sought
+out an unpretentious home in one of the suburbs of the city, and for
+an hour or more talked earnestly with the timid, frightened little
+wife of Congressman Wales. Then, her work done, she dismissed the
+whole affair from her mind, and hastened joyously back to the
+University. She would have gone to see Ames himself. "But," she
+reflected, as she dwelt on his conduct and words of the previous
+Saturday evening, "he is not ready for it yet. And when he is, I will
+go to him. And Kathleen--well, I will help her by seeing only the real
+child of God, which was hidden that night by the veil of hatred and
+jealousy. And that veil, after all, is but a shadow."
+
+That evening the little group of searchers after God assembled again
+in the peaceful precincts of the Beaubien cottage. It was their third
+meeting, and they had come together reverently to pursue the most
+momentous inquiry that has ever stimulated human thought.
+
+Haynerd and Carmen had said little relative to the Ames reception; but
+the former, still brooding over the certain consequences of his brush
+with Ames, was dejected and distraught. Carmen, leaning upon her
+sustaining thought, and conceding no mite of power or intelligence to
+evil, glowed like a radiant star.
+
+"What are you listening to?" she asked of Haynerd, drawing him to one
+side. "Are you giving ear to the voices of evil, or good? Which are
+you making real to yourself? For those thoughts which are real to you
+will become outwardly manifested, you know."
+
+"Bah! He's got us--tight!" muttered Haynerd, with a gesture signifying
+defeat. "And the insults of that arrogant daughter of his--"
+
+"She did not insult me," said Carmen quickly. "She could not, for she
+doesn't know me. She merely denounced her concept of me, and not my
+real self. She vilified what she thought was Carmen Ariza; but it was
+only her own thought of me that she insulted. Can't you see? And such
+a concept of me as she holds deserves denouncing, doesn't it?"
+
+"Well, what are we going to do?" he pursued testily.
+
+"We are going to know," she whispered, "that we two with God
+constitute an overwhelming majority." She said nothing about her visit
+to the Wales home that morning, but pressed his hand, and then went to
+take her place at the table, where Father Waite was already rapping
+for order.
+
+"My friends," began that earnest young man, looking lovingly about at
+the little group, "as we are gathered here we symbolize that
+analytical, critical endeavor of the unbiased human mind to discover
+the essence of religion. Religion is that which binds us to absolute
+truth, and so is truth itself. If there is a God, we believe from our
+former investigations that He must be universal mind. This belief
+carries with it as necessary corollaries the beliefs that He must be
+perfect, eternal, and self-existent. The question, Who made God? must
+then receive its sufficient answer in the staggering statement that He
+has always existed, unchanged and unchangeable."
+
+A sigh from Haynerd announced that quizzical soul's struggle to grasp
+a statement at once so radical and stupendous.
+
+"True," continued Father Waite, addressing himself to his doubting
+friend, "the acceptance as fact of what we have deduced in our
+previous meetings must render the God of orthodox theology quite
+obsolete. But, as a compensation, it gives to us the most enlarged and
+beautiful concept of Him that we have ever had. It ennobles, broadens,
+purifies, and elevates our idea of Him. It destroys forever our
+belittling view of Him as but a magnified human character, full of
+wrath and caprice and angry threats, and delighting in human
+ceremonial and religious thaumaturgy. And, most practical of all for
+us, it renders the age-long problem of evil amenable to solution."
+
+Just then came a ring at the front door; and a moment later the
+Beaubien ushered Doctor Morton into the room. All rose and hastened to
+welcome him.
+
+"I--I am sure," began the visitor, looking at Carmen, "that I am not
+intruding, for I really come on invitation, you know. Miss Carmen,
+first; and then, our good friend Hitt, who told me this afternoon that
+you would probably meet this evening. I--I pondered the matter some
+little time--ah, but--well, to make it short, I couldn't keep away
+from a gathering so absolutely unique as this--I really couldn't."
+
+Carmen seized both his hands. "My!" she exclaimed, her eyes dancing,
+"I am glad you came."
+
+"And I, too," interposed Haynerd dryly, "for now we have two
+theological Philistines. I was feeling a bit lonely."
+
+"Ah, my friend," replied the doctor, "I am simply an advocate of
+religious freedom, not a--"
+
+"And religious freedom, as our wise Bill Nye once said, is but the art
+of giving intolerance a little more room, eh?" returned Haynerd with a
+laugh.
+
+The doctor shrugged his shoulders. "You are a Philistine," he said. "I
+am a human interrogation."
+
+Carmen took the doctor by the arm and led him to a place beside her at
+the table. "You--you didn't bring poor Yorick?" she whispered, with a
+glint of mischief in her bright eyes.
+
+"No," laughed the genial visitor, "he's a dead one, you told me."
+
+"Yes," replied the girl, "awfully dead! He is an outward manifestation
+of dead human beliefs, isn't he? But now listen, Father Waite is going
+to speak."
+
+After a brief explanation to the doctor of the purpose of the
+meeting, and a short resume of their previous deductions, Father Waite
+continued the exposition of his subject.
+
+"The physical universe," he said, "is to human beings a reality. And
+yet, according to Spencer's definition of reality, we must admit that
+the universe as we see it is quite unreal. For the real is that which
+endures."
+
+"And you mean to say that the universe will not endure?" queried
+Haynerd abruptly.
+
+"I do," replied Father Waite. "The phenomena of the universe, even as
+we see it, are in a state of ceaseless change. Birth, growth,
+maturity, decay, and death seems to be the law for all things
+material. There is perpetual genesis, and perpetual exodus."
+
+"But," again urged Haynerd, "matter itself remains, is indestructible."
+
+"Not so," said Father Waite. "Our friend, Doctor Morton, will
+corroborate my statement, I am sure."
+
+The doctor nodded. "It is quite true," he said in reply. "And as
+revolutionary as true. The discovery, in the past few years, of the
+tremendously important fact that matter disintegrates and actually
+disappears, has revolutionized all physical science and rendered the
+world's text books obsolete."
+
+"And matter actually disappears?" echoed Miss Wall incredulously.
+
+"Absolutely!" interposed Hitt. "The radium atom, we find, lasts some
+seventeen hundred years, or a trifle longer. What becomes of it when
+it is destroyed? We can only say that it disappears from human
+consciousness."
+
+"And so you reason that the whole material universe will ultimately
+disappear from the human consciousness?"
+
+"Yes," returned Hitt, "I feel certain of it. Let us consider of what
+the universe consists. For many months I have been pondering this
+topic incessantly. I find that I can agree, in a measure, with those
+scientists who regard the physical universe as composed of only a few
+elementary constituents, namely, matter, energy, space, and time--"
+
+"Each one of these elements is mental," interrupted Carmen.
+
+"Exactly!" replied Hitt. "And the physical universe, even from the
+human standpoint, is, therefore, wholly mental."
+
+"Well, but we see it!" ejaculated Haynerd. "And we feel and hear it!
+And I'm sure we smell it!"
+
+Hitt laughed. "Do we?" he asked.
+
+"No," interposed Father Waite; "we see only our mental concept of a
+universe, for seeing is wholly a mental process. Our comprehension of
+anything is entirely mental."
+
+"But now," resumed Hitt, "to get back to the supposed reality of the
+physical universe, let us examine its constituents. First, let us
+consider its unity established by the harmonious interplay of the
+forces permeating it. This great fact is what led Herbert Spencer to
+conclude that the universe could have but one creator, one ruler, and
+that polytheism was untenable."
+
+"We are quite agreed regarding that," said Father Waite. "If the
+Creator is mind, He is of very necessity infinite and omnipotent;
+hence there can be but one Creator."
+
+"Very well," continued Hitt. "Now as to time. Is it material or
+tangible? Would it exist, but as a convenience for the human mind? Is
+it not really a creation of that mind? And, lastly, is it not merely a
+mental concept?"
+
+"Our consciousness of time," replied Carmen, "is only our awareness of
+a continuous series of mental states."
+
+"That classifies it exactly," said Hitt, "and renders it wholly
+mental. And now as to space," he resumed. "We are accustomed to say,
+loosely, that space is that in which we see things about us. But in
+what does the process of seeing consist? I say, I see a chair. What I
+really mean is that I am conscious of a chair. The process of seeing,
+we are told, is this: light, coming from the chair, enters the eye and
+casts an image of the chair upon the retina, much as a picture is
+thrown upon the ground glass of a camera. Then, in some way, the
+little rods and cones--the branching tips of the optic nerve which
+project from the retina--are set in motion by the light-waves. This
+vibration is in some mysterious manner carried along the optic nerve
+to a center in the brain, and--well, then the mind becomes cognizant
+of the chair out there, that's all."
+
+They sat silent for some moments. Then Miss Wall spoke. "Do you mean
+to say," she queried, "that, after thousands of years of thought and
+investigation, mankind now know nothing more than that about the
+process of seeing?"
+
+"I do," returned Hitt. "I confess it in all humility."
+
+"Then all I've got to say," put in Haynerd, "is that the most
+remarkable thing about you learned men is your ignorance!"
+
+The doctor smiled. "I find it is only the fool who is cocksure," he
+replied.
+
+"Now," said Hitt, resuming the conversation, "let us go a step further
+and inquire, first, What is light? since the process of seeing is
+absolutely dependent upon it."
+
+"Light," offered the doctor, "is vibrations, or wave-motion, so
+physicists tell us."
+
+"Just so," resumed Hitt. "Light, we say, consists of vibrations. Not
+vibrations of anything tangible or definitely material, but--well,
+just vibrations in the abstract. It is vibratory or wave motion. Now
+let us concede that these vibrations in some way get to the brain
+center; and then let us ask, Is the mind there, in the brain, awaiting
+the arrival of these vibrations to inform it that there is a chair
+outside?"
+
+Haynerd indulged in a cynical laugh.
+
+"It is too serious for laughter, my friend," said Hitt. "For to such
+crude beliefs as this we may attribute all the miseries of mankind."
+
+"How is that?" queried Miss Wall in surprise.
+
+"Simply because these beliefs constitute the general belief in a
+universe of matter without and about us. As a plain statement of fact,
+_there is no such thing_. But, I ask again, Is the mind within the
+brain, waiting for vibrations that will give it information concerning
+the external world? Or does the mind, from some focal point without
+the brain, look first at these vibrations, and then translate them
+into terms of things without? Do these vibrations in some way suggest
+form and color and substance to the waiting mind? Does the mind first
+look at vibrating nerve-points, and then form its own opinions
+regarding material objects? Does anything material enter the eye?"
+
+"No," admitted the doctor; "unless we believe that vibrations _per se_
+are material."
+
+"Now I ask, Is the mind reduced to such slavery that it must depend
+upon vibrations for its knowledge of an outside world?" continued
+Hitt. "And vibrations of minute pieces of flesh, at that! Flesh that
+will some day decay and leave the mind helpless!"
+
+"Absurd!" exclaimed Haynerd. "Why doesn't the mind look directly at
+the chair, instead of getting its knowledge of the chair through
+vibrations of bits of meat? Or isn't there any chair out there to look
+at?"
+
+"There!" exclaimed Hitt. "Now you've put your mental finger upon it.
+And now we are ready to nail to the cross of ignominy one of the
+crudest, most insensate beliefs of the human race. _The human mind
+gets nothing whatsoever from vibrations, from the human, fleshly eye,
+nor from any one of the five so-called physical senses!_ The physical
+sense-testimony which mankind believe they receive from the eyes, the
+ears, and the other sense organs, can, even at best, consist only of a
+lot of disconnected, unintelligible vibrations; and anything that the
+mind may infer from such vibrations is inferred _without any outside
+authority whatsoever!"_
+
+"Well!" ejaculated Miss Wall and Haynerd in a breath.
+
+"And, further," continued Hitt, "we are forced to admit that all that
+the mind knows is the contents of itself, of its own consciousness,
+and nothing more. Then, instead of seeing, hearing, and feeling real
+material objects outside of ourselves, we are in reality seeing,
+hearing, and feeling our own mental concepts of things--in other
+words, _our own thoughts of things!"_
+
+A deep silence lay for some moments over the little group at the
+conclusion of Hitt's words. Then Doctor Morton nodded his acquiescence
+in the deduction. "And that," he said, "effectually disposes of the
+question of space."
+
+"There is no space, Doctor," replied Hitt. "Space is likewise a mental
+concept. The human mind sees, hears, and feels nothing but its own
+thoughts. These it posits within itself with reference to one another,
+and calls the process 'seeing material objects in space.' The mind as
+little needs a space in which to see things as in which to dream them.
+I repeat, we do not see external things, or things outside of
+ourselves. We see always and only the thoughts that are within our own
+mentalities. Everything is within."
+
+"That's why," murmured Carmen, "Jesus said, 'The kingdom of heaven is
+within you.'"
+
+"Exactly!" said Hitt. "Did he not call evil, and all that originates
+in matter, the lie about God? And a lie is wholly mental. I tell you,
+the existence of a world outside of ourselves, an objective world
+composed of matter, is wholly inferred--it is mental visualizing--and
+it is unreal, for it is not based upon fact, upon truth!"
+
+"Then," queried Haynerd, "our supposed 'outer world' is but our
+collection of thought-concepts which we hold within us, within our own
+consciousness, eh?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But--the question of God?"
+
+"We are ready for that again," replied Hitt. "We have said that in the
+physical universe all is in a state of incessant change. Since the
+physical universe is but a mental concept to each one of us, we must
+admit that, were the concept based upon truth, it would not change.
+Our concept of the universe must be without the real causative and
+sustaining principle of all reality, else would it not pass away. And
+yet, beneath and behind all these changes, _something_ endures. What
+is it? Matter? No. There is an enduring substance, invisible to human
+sight, but felt and known through its own influence. Is it law? Yes.
+Mind? Yes. Ideas? Yes. But none of these things is in any sense
+material. The material is the fleeting, human concept, composed of
+thought that is _not_ based upon reality. These other things, wholly
+mental, or spiritual, if you prefer, are based upon that 'something'
+which does endure, and which I will call the Causative Principle. It
+is the Universal Mind. It is what you loosely call God."
+
+"Then did God make matter?" persisted Haynerd.
+
+"I think," interposed Doctor Morton at this juncture, "that I can
+throw some light upon the immaterial character of matter, if I may so
+put it; for even our physical reasoning throws it entirely into the
+realm of the mental."
+
+"Good!" exclaimed Hitt. "Let us hear from you, Doctor."
+
+The doctor sat for some moments in a deep study. Then he began:
+
+"The constitution of matter, speaking now from an admittedly
+materialistic standpoint, that of the physical sciences, is a subject
+of vastest interest and importance to mankind, for human existence
+_is_ material.
+
+"The ultimate constituent of matter has been called the atom. But we
+have said little when we have said that. The atom was once defined as
+a particle of matter so minute as to admit of no further division.
+That definition has gone to the rubbish heap, for the atom can now be
+torn to pieces. But--and here is the revolutionary fact in modern
+physical science--_it is no longer held necessary that matter should
+consist of material particles!_ In fact, the great potential discovery
+of our day is that matter is electrical in composition, that it is
+composed of what are called 'electrons,' and that these electrons are
+themselves composed of electric charges. But what is an electric
+charge? Is it matter? No, not as we know matter. Is it even material?
+We can not say that it is. It is without weight, bulk, dimensions, or
+tangibility. Well, then, it comes dangerously near being a mental
+thing, known to the human mind solely by its manifestations, does it
+not? And of course our comprehension of it is entirely mental, as is
+our comprehension of everything."
+
+He paused for a moment, that his words might be fully grasped. Then he
+went on:
+
+"Now these atoms, whatever they are, are supposed to join together to
+form molecules. What brings them together thus? Affinity, we are told.
+And what is affinity? Why, it is--well, law, if you please. And law? A
+mental thing, we must admit. Very good. Then, going a step further,
+molecules are held together by cohesion to form material objects,
+chairs, trees, coal, and the like. But what is cohesion? Is it glue?
+Cement? Ah, no! Again, it is law. And law is mental."
+
+"But, Doctor--" interrupted Haynerd.
+
+The doctor held up a detaining hand. "Let me finish," he said. "Now we
+have the very latest word from our physical scientists regarding the
+constitution of matter: _it is composed of electric charges, held
+together by law._ Again, you may justly ask: Is matter material--or
+mental?"
+
+He paused again, and took up a book that lay before him.
+
+"Here," he continued, "I hold a solid, material, lumpy thing,
+composed, you will say, of matter. And yet, in essence, and if we can
+believe our scientists, this book is composed of billions of electric
+charges--invisible things, without form, without weight, without
+color, without extension, held together by law, and making up a
+material object which has mass, color, weight, and extension. From
+millions of things which are invisible and have no size, we get an
+object, visible and extended."
+
+"It's absurd!" exclaimed Miss Wall.
+
+"Granted," interposed Hitt. "Yet, the doctor is giving the very latest
+deductions of the great scientists."
+
+"But, Doctor," said Father Waite, "the scientists tell us that they
+have experimental evidence in support of the theories which you have
+stated regarding the composition of matter. Electricity has been
+proven granular, or atomic, in structure. And every electrical
+charge consists of an exact number of electrical atoms spread out
+over the surface of the charged body. All this admits of definite
+calculation."
+
+"Admitted," said Hitt, taking up the challenge. "And their very
+calculations and deductions are rapidly wearing away the 'materialistic
+theory' of matter. You will admit that mathematics is wholly
+confined to the realm of mind. It is a strictly mental science, in no
+way material. It loses definiteness when 'practically' applied to
+material objects. Kant saw this, and declared that a science might be
+regarded as further removed from or nearer to perfection in proportion
+to the amount of mathematics it contained. Now there has been an
+astonishing confirmation of this great truth just lately. At a banquet
+given in honor of the discoverer of wireless telegraphy it was stated
+that the laws governing the traversing of space by the invisible
+electric waves were more exact than the general laws of physics,
+where very complex formulas and coefficients are required for
+correcting the general laws, due to surrounding material conditions.
+The greater exactness of laws governing the invisible electric waves
+was said to be due to the absence of matter. And it was further
+stated that _whenever matter had to be taken into consideration there
+could be no exact law of action!"_ "Which shows--?"
+
+"That matter admits of no definite laws," replied Hitt. "That there
+are no real laws of matter. And that definiteness is attained only as
+we dematerialize matter itself."
+
+"In other words, get into the realm of the mental?"
+
+"Just so. And now for the application. I have said that we do not
+receive any testimony whatsoever through the so-called material
+senses, but that we see, hear, feel, taste, and smell our own
+thoughts--that is, the thoughts which, from some source, come into our
+mentalities. Very well, our scientists show us that, as they get
+farther away from dense material thoughts, and deal more and more with
+those which have less material structure, less material composition,
+their laws become more definite, more exact. Following this out to its
+ultimate conclusion, we may say, then, that _only those laws which
+have to do with the non-material are perfect_."
+
+"And those," said Carmen, "are the laws of mind."
+
+"Exactly! And now the history of physical science shows that there has
+been a constant deviation from the old so-called fixed 'laws of
+matter.' The law of impenetrability has had to go. A great physicist
+tells us that, when dealing with sufficiently high speeds, matter has
+no such property as impenetrability. Mass is a function of velocity.
+The law of indestructibility has had to go. Matter deteriorates and
+goes to pieces. The material elements are not fixed. The decided
+tendency of belief is toward a single element, of which all matter is
+composed, and of which the eighty-odd constituent elements of matter
+accepted to-day are but modifications. That unit element may be the
+ether, of course. And the great Russian chemist, Mendeleef, so
+believed. But to us, the ether is a mental thing, a theory. But,
+granting its existence, _its universal penetrability renders matter,
+as we know it, non-existent_. Everything reduces to the ether, in the
+final analysis. And all energy becomes vibrations in and of the
+ether."
+
+"And the ether," supplemented the doctor, "has to be without mass,
+invisible, tasteless, intangible, much more rigid than steel, and at
+the same time some six hundred billion times lighter than air, in
+order to fulfill all the requirements made of it and to meet all
+conditions."
+
+"Yes; and yet the ether is a very necessary theory, if we are going to
+continue to explain the phenomena of force on a material basis."
+
+"But if we abandon that basis--?"
+
+"Then," said Carmen, "matter reduces to what it really is, the human
+mind's _interpretation_ of substance."
+
+"Yes," said Hitt, turning to her; "I think you are right; matter is
+the way real substance--let us say, spirit--looks to the human
+mentality. It is the way the human mind interprets its ideas of
+spirit. In other words, the human mind looks at the material thoughts
+and ideas which enter it, and calls them solid substance, occupying
+space--calls them matter, with definite laws, and, in certain forms,
+containing life and intelligence."
+
+"Aye, that is it!" said Father Waite. "And that has been the terrible
+mistake of the ages, the one great error, the one lie, that has caused
+us all to miss the mark and come short, far short, of the glory of the
+mind that is God. _There is the origin of the problem of evil!_"
+
+"Undoubtedly," replied Hitt. "For evil is in essence but evil thought.
+And evil thought is invariably associated with matter. The origin of
+all evil is matter itself. And matter, we find, is but a mental
+concept, a thing of thought. Oh, the irony of it!"
+
+"Well," put in Haynerd, who had been twitching nervously in his chair,
+"let's get to the conclusion of this very learned discussion. I'm a
+plain man, and I'd like to know just where we've landed. What have you
+said that I can take home with me? The earth still revolves around the
+sun, even if it is a mean mud ball. And I can't see that I can get
+along with less than three square meals a day."
+
+"We have arrived," replied Hitt gravely, "at a most momentous
+conclusion, deduced by the physical scientists themselves, namely,
+that _things are not what they seem_. In other words, all things
+material seem to reduce to vibrations in and of the ether; the basis
+of all materiality is energy, motion, activity--mental things. All the
+elements of matter seem to be but modifications of one all-pervading
+element. That element is probably the ether, often called the 'mother
+of matter.' The elements, such as carbon, silicon, and the others, are
+not elementary at all, but are forms of one universal element, the
+ether. Hence, atoms are not atoms. The so-called rare elements are
+rare only because their lives are short. They disintegrate rapidly and
+change into other forms of the universal element--or disappear. 'Atoms
+are but fleeting phases of matter,' we are told. They are by no means
+eternal, even though they may endure for millions of years."
+
+"Y-e-s?" commented Haynerd with a yawn.
+
+"A great scientist of our own day," Hitt continued, "has said that
+'the ether is so modified as to constitute matter, in some way.' What
+does that mean? Simply that 'visible matter and invisible ether are
+one and the same thing.' But to the five so-called physical senses the
+ether is utterly incomprehensible. So, then, matter is wholly
+incomprehensible to the five physical senses. What is it, then, that
+we call matter? It can be nothing more than the human mind's
+interpretation of its idea of an all-pervading, omnipresent
+_something_, a something which represents substance to it."
+
+"Let me add a further quotation from the great physical scientist to
+whom you have referred," said the doctor. "He has said that the ether
+is _not_ matter, but that it is material. And further, that we can not
+deny that the ether may have some mental and spiritual functions to
+subserve in some other order of existence, as matter has in this. It
+is wholly unrelated to any of our senses. The sense of sight takes
+cognizance of it, but only in a very indirect and not easily
+recognized way. And yet--stupendous conclusion!--_without the ether
+there could be no material universe at all_!"
+
+"In other words," said Hitt, "the whole fabric of the material
+universe depends upon something utterly unrecognizable by the five
+physical senses."
+
+"Exactly!" replied the doctor.
+
+"Then," concluded Hitt, "the physical senses give us no information
+whatsoever of a real physical universe about us."
+
+"And so," added Father Waite, "we come back to Carmen's statement,
+namely, that seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling are
+mental processes, in no way dependent upon the outer fleshly organs of
+sense--"
+
+"Nonsense!" interjected Haynerd. "Why is it, then, that if the eyes
+are destroyed we do not see?"
+
+"Simply, my friend, because of human belief," replied Hitt. "The human
+mind has been trained for untold centuries to dependence upon beliefs
+in the reality of matter, and beliefs in its dependence upon material
+modes for sight, hearing, touch, and so on. It is because of its
+erroneous beliefs that the human mind is to-day enslaved by matter,
+and dependent upon it for its very sense of existence. The human mind
+has made its sense of sight dependent upon a frail, pulpy bit of
+flesh, the eye. As long as that fleshly organ remains intact, the
+human mind sees its sense of sight externalized in the positing of its
+mental concepts about it as natural objects. But let that fleshly eye
+be destroyed, and the human mind sees its belief of dependence upon
+the material eye externalized as blindness. When the fleshly eye is
+gone the mind declares that it can no longer see. And what it declares
+as truth, as fact, becomes externalized to it. I repeat, the human
+mind sees and hears only its thoughts, its beliefs. And holding to
+these beliefs, and making them real to itself, it eventually sees them
+externalized in what it calls its outer world, its environment, its
+universe. And yet, the materialistic scientists themselves show that
+the human mind can take no cognizance whatever through the five
+physical senses of the all-pervading basis of its very existence, the
+ether. And the ether--alas! it is but a theory which we find necessary
+for any intelligible explanation of the farce of human existence on a
+material basis."
+
+"Now see here!" retorted Haynerd, rising and giving expression to his
+protest by means of emphatic gestures. "I'm getting mixed--badly! You
+tell me that the existence of things demands a creator, and I admit
+it, for there can be no effect without a cause. Then you say that the
+universe is infinite; and I admit that, too, for the science of
+astronomy finds no limits to space, and no space unoccupied. You say
+that the unity manifested in the universe proves that there can be but
+one creator. Moreover, to create an infinite universe there must needs
+be an omnipotent creator; and there can be but one who is omnipotent.
+I cordially agree. Further, I can see how that creator must be
+mind--infinite mind. And I can see why that mind must be absolutely
+perfect, with no intelligence of evil whatsoever, else would it be a
+house divided against itself. And such a house must eventually fall.
+Now I admit that the universe must be the manifestation, the
+expression, of that infinite creative mind. But--and here's the
+sticking point--the universe is both good and evil! Hence, the mind
+which it manifests is likewise both good and evil--and the whole
+pretty theory blows up!"
+
+He sat down abruptly, with the air of having given finality to a
+perplexing question.
+
+All eyes then turned to Carmen, who slowly rose and surveyed the
+little group.
+
+"It is not surprising," she said, smiling at the confused Haynerd,
+"that difficulties arise when you attempt to reach God through human
+reasoning--spirit through matter. You have taken the unreal, and,
+through it, have sought to reach back to the real."
+
+"Well," interrupted Haynerd testily, "kindly explain the difference."
+
+"Then, first," replied Carmen, "let us adopt some common meeting
+ground, some basis which we can all accept, and from which we can
+rise. Are you all agreed that, in our every-day life, everything is
+mental?--every action?--every object?--and that, as the philosopher
+Mill said, 'Everything is a feeling of which the mind is conscious'?
+Let me illustrate my meaning," she continued, noting Haynerd's rising
+protest. "I see this book; I take it up; and drop it upon the table.
+Have I really seen a book? No; I have been conscious of thoughts which
+I call a book, nothing more. A real material book did not get into my
+mind; but _thoughts_ of a book did. And the activity of such thought
+resulted in a state of consciousness--for consciousness is mental
+activity, the activity of thought. Remember that, even according to
+your great physical scientists, this book is composed of millions of
+charges of electricity, or electrons, moving at a tremendously high
+rate of speed. And yet, regardless of its composition, I am conscious
+only of my thoughts of the book. It is but my thoughts that I see,
+after all."
+
+She paused and waited for the protest which was not voiced.
+
+"Very well," she said, continuing; "so it is with the sense of touch;
+I had the thought of touching it, and that thought I saw; I was
+conscious of it when it became active in my mentality. So with sound;
+when I let the book drop, I was conscious of my thought of sound. If
+the book had been dropped in a vacuum I should not have been conscious
+of a thought of sound--why? Because, as Mr. Hitt has told us, the
+human mind has made its sense-testimony dependent upon vibrations. And
+yet, there is a clock ticking up there on the wall. Do you hear it?"
+
+"Yes," replied Haynerd; "now that you've called my attention to it."
+
+"Ah, yes," replied the girl. "You hear it when your thought is
+directed to it. And yet the air was vibrating all the time, and, if
+hearing is dependent upon the fleshly ear, you should have heard it
+incessantly when you were not thinking of it, as well as you hear it
+now when you are thinking of it. Am I not right?"
+
+"Well, perhaps so," assented Haynerd with some reluctance.
+
+"We hear, see, and feel," continued the girl, "when our thought is
+directed to these processes. And the processes are wholly mental--they
+take place within our mentalities--and it is there, within our minds,
+that we see, hear, and feel _all_ things. And it is there, within our
+minds, that the universe exists for us. It is there that we hold our
+world, our fleshly bodies, everything that we call material. _The
+universe that we think we see all about us consists of the mental
+concepts, made up of thought, which we hold within our mentalities_."
+
+Haynerd nodded somewhat dubiously. Carmen proceeded with the
+exposition of her theme.
+
+"Whence come these material thoughts that are within us? And are they
+real? Can we control them? And how? They are real to us, at any rate,
+are they not? And if they are thoughts of pain and suffering and
+death, they are terribly real to us. But let us see, now that we can
+reason from the basis of the mental nature of all things. We have
+agreed that the creative principle is mind, and we call it God. This
+infinite mind constantly expresses and manifests itself in ideas. Why,
+that is a fundamental law of mind! You express yourself in your ideas
+and thoughts, which you try to externalize materially. But the
+infinite mind expresses itself in an infinite number and variety of
+ideas, all, like itself, pure, perfect, eternal, good, without any
+elements or seeds of decay or discord. And the incessant expression of
+the creative mind in and through its numberless ideas constitutes the
+never-ending process of creation."
+
+"Let me add here," interrupted Hitt, "that the Bible states that God
+created the heavens and earth in seven days. But numbers, we must
+remember, were mystical things to the ancient Hebrews, and were
+largely used symbolically. The number seven, for example, was used to
+express wholeness, completeness. So we must remember that its use in
+Genesis has a much wider meaning than its absurd theological
+interpretation into seven solar days. As Carmen says, the infinite
+creative mind can never cease to express itself; creation can never
+cease; and creation is but the whole, complete revelation or
+unfoldment of infinite mind's ideas."
+
+"And infinite mind," continued Carmen, "requires infinite time in
+which to completely express itself. So time ceases to be, and we find
+that all real things exist now, in an endless present. Now, the ideas
+of infinite mind range throughout the realm of infinity, but the
+greatest idea that the creative mind can have is the idea of itself.
+That idea is the image and likeness of the infinite creative mind. It
+is the perfect reflection of that mind--its perfect expression. That
+idea is what the man Jesus always saw back of the human concept of
+man. _That idea is the real man_!"
+
+"Well!" exclaimed Haynerd. "That's quite a different proposition from
+the mud-men that I do business with daily. What are they? Children of
+God?"
+
+"If they were real," said Carmen, "they would have to be children of
+God. But then they would not be 'mud-men.' Now I have just spoken of
+the real, the spiritual creation. That is the creation mentioned in
+the first chapter of Genesis, where all was created--revealed,
+unfolded--by God, and He saw that it was perfect, good. 'In the
+beginning,' says the commentator. That is, 'To begin with--God.'
+Everything begins with God in the realm of the real. The creative mind
+is first. And the creation, or unfoldment, is like its creative
+principle, eternal and good."
+
+"But," persisted Haynerd, "how about the material man?"
+
+"Having created all things spiritually," continued the girl, "was it
+necessary that the creative mind should repeat its work, do it over
+again, and produce the man of dust described in the second chapter of
+Genesis? Is that second account of the creation an inspiration of
+truth--or a human comment?"
+
+"Call it what you will," said the cynical Haynerd; "the fact remains
+that the mud-man exists and has to be reckoned with."
+
+"Both of your premises are wholly incorrect," returned the girl
+gently. "He does _not_ exist, excepting in human, mortal thought. He
+is a product of only such thought. He and his material universe are
+seen and dealt with only in such thought. And such thought is the
+direct antithesis of God's thought. And it is therefore unreal. It is
+the supposition, the lie, the mist that went up and darkened the
+earth."
+
+"But--the human man--?"
+
+"Is just what you have said, a hue of a man, a dark hue, the shadowy
+opposite which seems to counterfeit the real, spiritual man and claim
+all his attributes. He is not a compound of mind and matter, for we
+have seen that all things are mental, even matter itself. He is a sort
+of mentality, a counterfeit of real mind. His body and his universe
+are in himself. And, like all that is unreal, he is transient,
+passing, ephemeral, mortal."
+
+"Yet, God made him!"
+
+"No, for he does not exist, excepting in supposition. Does a
+supposition really exist? If so, then not even truth can destroy it.
+But supposition passes out before truth. No, the human mind is the
+'old man' of Paul. He is to be put off by knowing his nothingness, and
+by knowing the unreality of his supposed material environment and
+universe. As he goes out of consciousness, the real man, the idea of
+God, perfect, harmonious, and eternal, comes in."
+
+"And there," said Father Waite impressively, "you have the whole
+scheme of salvation, as enunciated by the man Jesus."
+
+"There is no doubt of it," added Hitt. "And, oh, my friends! how
+futile, how base, how worse than childish now appear the whole
+theological fabric of the churches, their foolish man-made dogmas,
+their insensate beliefs in a fiery hell and a golden heaven. Oh, how
+belittling now appear their concepts of God--a God who can damn
+unbaptised infants, who can predestine his children to eternal sorrow,
+who creates and then curses his handiwork! Do you wonder that sin,
+sorrow, and death remain among us while such awful beliefs hold sway
+over the human mind? God help us, and the world!"
+
+Haynerd, who had been sitting quietly for some moments, deep in
+thought, rose and held out his hands, as if in entreaty. "Don't--don't!"
+he exclaimed. "I can't hear any more. I want to think it all over.
+It seems--it seems as if a curtain had been raised suddenly. And what I
+see beyond is--"
+
+Carmen went swiftly to the man and slipped an arm about him. "That
+infinite creative Mind, so misunderstood and misinterpreted by human
+beings, is back of you," she whispered. "And it is Love."
+
+Haynerd turned and grasped her hands. "I believe it," he murmured.
+"But had I not seen the proof in you, no amount of reasoning would
+have convinced me." And, bowing to the little group, he went out.
+
+"Well?" said Hitt, turning inquiringly to the doctor.
+
+The latter raised his head. "If these things are true," he made answer
+slowly, "then I shall have to recast my entire mentality, my whole
+basis of thinking."
+
+"It is just what you _must_ do, Doctor, if you would work out your
+salvation," said Carmen. "Jesus said we must repent if we would be
+saved. Repentance--the Greek _metanoia_--means a complete and radical
+change of thought."
+
+"But--do you mean to say that the whole world has been mistaken? That
+the entire human race has been deceived for ages?"
+
+"Why," said Hitt, "it was only in our own day, comparatively speaking,
+that the human race was undeceived in regard to the world being round.
+And there are thousands of human beings to-day who still believe in
+witchcraft, and who worship the sun and moon, and whose lives are
+wholly under the spell of superstition. Human character, a great
+scientist tells us, has not changed since history began."
+
+"But we can't revamp our thought-processes!"
+
+"Then we must go on missing the mark, sinning, suffering, sorrowing,
+and dying, over and over and over again, until we decide that we can
+do so," said Hitt.
+
+The doctor looked at Carmen and met that same smile of unbounded love
+which she gave without stint to a sin-weary world.
+
+"I--I'll come again," he said. "When? To-morrow night?"
+
+"Yes," said Carmen, rising and coming around to him. "And," in a
+whisper, "bring Pat."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6
+
+
+The Social Era had for many years made its weekly appearance every
+Saturday morning, that its fashionable clientele might appease their
+jaded appetites on the Sabbath day by nibbling at its spicy pabulum.
+But, though the Ames reception had fallen on a Saturday night, the
+following Friday morning found the columns of the Era still awaiting
+a report of the notable affair. For Haynerd's hand seemed paralyzed.
+Whenever he set his pen to the task, there loomed before him only the
+scene in the little waiting room, and he could write of nothing else.
+He found himself still dwelling upon the awful contrast between the
+slender wisp of a girl and her mountainous opponent, as they had stood
+before him; and the terrifying thoughts of what was sure to follow in
+consequence drenched his skin with cold perspiration.
+
+On the desk before him lay the essay which he had asked Carmen to
+write during the week, as her report of the brilliant event. He had
+read it through three times, and each time had read into it a new
+meaning. He dared not run it. Not that it ridiculed or condemned--at
+least, not openly--but because every one of its crisp comments
+admitted of an interpretation which revealed the hidden depths of the
+social system, and its gigantic incarnation, as if under the glare of
+a powerful searchlight. It was in no sense a muck-raking exposition.
+Rather, it was an interpretation, and a suggestion. It was, too, a
+prediction; but not a curse. The girl loved those about whom she
+wrote. And yet, he who read the essay aright would learn that her love
+stopped not at the flimsy veil of the flesh, but penetrated until it
+rested upon the fair spiritual image beyond. And then Haynerd saw that
+the essay was, in substance, a social clinic, to which all searchers
+after truth were bidden, that they might learn a great lesson from her
+skillful dissection of the human mind, and her keen analysis of its
+constituent thought.
+
+As he sat wrapped in reflection, the early morning mail was brought
+in. He glanced up, and then started to his feet. The letters spread
+over his desk like an avalanche of snow; and the puffing mail carrier
+declared that he had made a special trip with them alone. Haynerd
+began to tear them open, one after another. Then he called the office
+boy, and set him at the task. There were more than five hundred of
+them, and each contained a canceled subscription to the Social Era.
+
+A dark foreboding settled down over Haynerd's mind. He rose and went
+to the card-index to consult his subscription list. It was gone! He
+stood confusedly for a moment, then hastened to the window that looked
+out upon a fire-escape. Its lock lay broken upon the floor. He turned
+and rushed to the vault, which, reflecting his own habitual
+carelessness, was never locked. His ledgers and account books were not
+there. Then he crept back to his desk and sank into a chair.
+
+The noon mail brought more letters of like nature, until the office
+boy tallied nearly eight hundred. Then Haynerd, as if rousing from a
+dream, reached for the telephone and summoned Hitt to his rescue. The
+Social Era was foundering. Its mailing list had contained some
+fifteen hundred names. The subscription price was twelve dollars a
+year--and never, to his knowledge, had it been paid in advance by his
+ultra-rich patrons, most of whom were greatly in arrears. Haynerd saw
+it all vanishing now as quietly as the mist fades before the summer
+sun.
+
+Within an hour the wondering Hitt was in conference with him, and
+Haynerd had told the story of the theft, of the Ames bribe, and the
+encounter following. "But," he cried, "can Ames kill my entire
+subscription list, and in a single week?"
+
+"Easily," replied Hitt, "and in any one of several ways. Apparently he
+had caused your subscription list and books to be stolen. Your sun has
+set, Ned. Or, rather, Ames has lifted it bodily from the sky."
+
+"Then I'll shoot him! I'll--! But we've got the goods on him! Carmen
+and I saw him bribe Wales! We'll expose him!"
+
+Hitt laughed. "Forget all that," he said, laying a hand on the excited
+man's arm. "Remember, that Wales would never dare breathe a word of
+it; Carmen has no reputation or standing whatsoever now in this city;
+and Ames would make out a case of blackmail against you so quickly
+that it would sweep you right into the Tombs. Go easy. And first, let
+us get the girl herself down here."
+
+He took the telephone and called up several of the University
+departments, after first ascertaining that she was not at her home.
+Then, having located her, he plunged into a study of the situation
+with the distracted publisher.
+
+"That's the way of it!" cried Haynerd at length. "Here I waste my
+evenings in learned philosophical discussions with you people, and
+meantime, while we're figuring out that there is no evil, that
+monster, Ames, stretches out a tentacle and strangles me! Fine
+practical discussions we've been having, ain't they? I tell you, I'm
+through with 'em!" He brought his fist down upon the desk with a
+crash.
+
+"Ned," said Hitt, "you're a fool."
+
+"Sure I am!" shouted Haynerd. "Do I deny it? Here I had a nice, clean
+business, no work, good pay--and, just because I associated with you
+and that girl, the whole damn thing goes up the flue! Pays to be good,
+doesn't it? Nix!"
+
+"H'm; well, Ned, you're not only a fool, but a blooming idiot,"
+replied Hitt calmly.
+
+"Lay it on! Lay it on thick!" roared Haynerd. "And if you run out of
+epithets, I'll supply a few! I'm a--"
+
+The door swung open, and Carmen entered, fresh as the sea breeze, and
+panting with her haste. "Do you know," she began eagerly, "two men
+followed me all the way down from the University! They watched me
+come in here, and--but, what is wrong with you two?" She stopped and
+looked inquiringly from one to the other.
+
+"Well," began Hitt hesitatingly, "we were reflecting--"
+
+"Reflecting? What? Good, or evil?" she demanded.
+
+"We were just holding a wake, that's all," muttered Haynerd.
+
+"Then wake up!" she cried, seizing his hand.
+
+Hitt pushed out a chair for the girl, and bade her sit down. Then he
+briefly related the events which had led to her being summoned. "And
+now," he concluded, "the question is, does Wales know that you and Ned
+saw Ames try to bribe him?"
+
+"Why, of course he knows!" cried Carmen. "His wife told him."
+
+"And who informed her?"
+
+"I did--last Monday morning, early," answered the wondering girl.
+
+"Didn't I tell you?" ejaculated Haynerd, turning upon Hitt and waving
+his arms about. "What do you--"
+
+"Hold your tongue, Ned!" interrupted Hitt. Then, to Carmen, "Why did
+you tell her?"
+
+"Why--to save her, and her husband, and babies! I told her because it
+was right! You know it was right!"
+
+"But, to save them, you have ruined Ned," pursued Hitt.
+
+The girl turned to Haynerd, who sat doubled up in his chair, the
+picture of despair. "I haven't ruined you, Ned." It was the first time
+she had used this name in addressing him. "Things never happen, you
+know. And if you have been pushed out of this business, it is because
+it isn't fit for you, and because you've been awakened. You are for
+higher, better things than the publishing of such a magazine as the
+Social Era. I knew you just couldn't stay at this work. You have got
+to go up--"
+
+"Eh!" Haynerd had roused out of his torpor. "Go up? Yes, I've gone up,
+nicely! And I was making ten thousand dollars a year out of it! It was
+a bully proposition!" he blurted.
+
+The girl smiled. "I wasn't speaking of money," she said.
+
+"But I was!" retorted Haynerd. "When I talk, it's in dollars and
+cents!"
+
+"And that's why your talk is mostly nonsense," put in Hitt. "The
+girl's right, I guess. You've stagnated here long enough, Ned. There's
+no such thing as standing still. Progress is a divine demand. It's now
+your move."
+
+"But--good Lord! what am I to do?" wailed the man.
+
+"You now have a grand opportunity," said Carmen, taking his hand.
+
+"Opportunity!"
+
+"Yes; every trial in this life is an opportunity to prove that there
+is no evil," she said. "Listen; you have been trained as a publisher.
+Very well, the world is waiting for the right kind of publications.
+Oh, I've seen it for a long, long time. The demand is simply
+tremendous. Now meet it!"
+
+Haynerd looked confusedly from Carmen to Hitt. The latter turned to
+the girl. "What, exactly, do you mean, Carmen?" he asked.
+
+"Let him publish now a clean magazine, or paper; let him print real
+news; let him work, not for rich people's money, but for all people.
+Why, the press is the greatest educator in the world! But, oh, how it
+has been abused! Now let him come out boldly and stand for clean
+journalism. Let him find his own life, his own good, in service for
+others."
+
+"But, Carmen," protested Hitt, "do the people want clean journalism?
+Could such a paper stand?"
+
+"It could, if it had the right thought back of it," returned the
+confident girl.
+
+Haynerd had again lapsed into sulky silence. But Hitt pondered the
+girl's words for some moments. She was not the first nor the only one
+who had voiced such sentiments. He himself had even dared to hold the
+same thoughts, and to read in them a leading that came not from
+material ambitions. Then, of a sudden, an idea flamed up in his mind.
+
+"The Express!" he exclaimed.
+
+Carmen waited expectantly. Hitt's eyes widened with his expanding
+thought. "Carlson, editor of the Express, wants to sell," he
+continued, speaking rapidly.
+
+"It's a semi-weekly newspaper, printed only for country circulation;
+has no subscription list," commented Haynerd, with a cynical shrug of
+his shoulders.
+
+"Buy it!" exclaimed Carmen. "Buy it! And change it into a daily! Make
+it a real newspaper!"
+
+Hitt looked into Carmen's glowing eyes. "How old are you?" he suddenly
+asked. The abruptness of the strange, apparently irrelevant question
+startled the girl.
+
+"Why," she replied slowly, "as old as--as God. And as young."
+
+"And, as human beings reckon time, eighteen, eh?" continued Hitt.
+
+She nodded, wondering what the question meant. Hitt then turned to
+Haynerd. "How much money can you scrape together, if you sell this lot
+of junk?" he asked, sweeping the place with a glance.
+
+"Five or six thousand, all told, including bank account, bonds, and
+everything, I suppose," replied Haynerd mechanically.
+
+"Carlson wants forty thousand for the Express. I'm not a rich man, as
+wealth is estimated to-day, but--well, oil is still flowing down in
+Ohio. It isn't the money--it's--it's what's back of the cash."
+
+Carmen reached over and laid a hand on his arm. "We can do it," she
+whispered.
+
+Hitt hesitated a moment longer, then sprang to his feet. "And we
+will!" he cried. "I've pondered and studied this scheme for a year,
+but I've only to-day seen the right help. That is your tremendous,
+driving thought," he said, turning to Carmen. "That thought is a
+spiritual dynamite, that will blast its way through every material
+obstacle! Ned," seizing Haynerd by the shoulder and shaking him out of
+his chair, "rouse up! Your light has come! Now I'll 'phone Carlson
+right away and make an appointment to talk business with him. You'll
+stand with me, Carmen?"
+
+"Yes," she said simply.
+
+"And you, Ned?"
+
+Haynerd blinked for a few moments, like an owl in the light. But then,
+as a comprehension of Hitt's plan dawned upon his waking thought, he
+straightened up.
+
+"Buy the Express! Make a real paper of it! A--but Ames?"
+
+"He can't touch us! The clientele of the Express will not be made up
+of his puppets! Our paper will be for the people!"
+
+"But--your University work, Hitt?"
+
+"I give my last lecture next week."
+
+"And you, Carmen?"
+
+"I was only biding my time," she replied gently. "This is a real call.
+And my answer is: Here am I."
+
+Tears began to trickle slowly down Haynerd's cheeks, as the tension in
+his nerves slackened. He rose and seized the hands of his two friends.
+"Hitt," he said, in a choking voice, "I--I said I was a fool. But that
+fellow's dead now. The real man has waked up, and--well, what are you
+standing there for, you great idiot? Go and call up Carlson!"
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Again that evening the little group sat about the table in the dining
+room of the Beaubien cottage. But only the three most directly
+concerned, and the Beaubien, knew that the owner of the Express had
+received that afternoon an offer for the purchase of his newspaper,
+and that he had been given twenty-four hours in which to accept it.
+Doctor Morton was again present; and beside him sat his lifelong
+friend and jousting-mate, the very Reverend Patterson Moore. Hitt
+took the floor, and began speaking low and earnestly.
+
+"We must remember," he said, "in conjunction with what we have deduced
+regarding the infinite creative mind and its manifestations, that we
+mortals in our daily mundane existence deal only and always with
+phenomena, with appearances, with effects, and never with ultimate
+causes. And so all our material knowledge is a knowledge of
+appearances only. Of the ultimate essence of things, the human mind
+knows nothing. All of its knowledge is relative. A phenomenon may be
+so-and-so with regard to another; but that either is absolute truth we
+can not affirm. And yet--mark this well--as Spencer says, 'Every one
+of the arguments by which the relativity of our knowledge is
+demonstrated distinctly postulates the positive existence of something
+beyond the relative.'"
+
+"And just what does that mean?" asked Miss Wall.
+
+"It is a primitive statement of what is sometimes called the 'Theory
+of suppositional opposites'", replied Hitt. "It means that to every
+reality there is the corresponding unreality. For every truth there
+may be postulated the supposition. We can not, as the great
+philosopher says, conceive that our knowledge is a knowledge of
+appearances only, without at the same time conceiving a reality of
+which they are appearances. He further amplifies this by saying that
+'every positive notion--the concept of a thing by what it is--suggests
+a negative notion--the concept of a thing by what it is not. But,
+though these mutually suggest each other, _the positive alone is
+real_.' Most momentous language, that! For, interpreted, it means: we
+must deny the seeming, or that which appears to human sense, in order
+to see that which is real."
+
+"Well, I declare!" exclaimed Miss Wall, glancing about to note the
+effect of the speaker's words on the others.
+
+But Carmen nodded her thorough agreement, and added: "Did not Jesus
+say that we must deny ourselves? Deny which self? Why, the self that
+appears to us, the matter-man, the dust-man, the man of the second
+chapter of Genesis. We must deny his reality, and know that he is
+nothing but a mental concept, formed out of suppositional thought, out
+of dust-thought. And that is material thought."
+
+"Undoubtedly correct," said Hitt, turning to Carmen. "But, before we
+consider the astonishing teachings of Jesus, let us sum up the
+conclusions of philosophy. To begin with, then, there is a First
+Cause, omnipotent and omnipresent, and of very necessity perfect. That
+Cause lies back of all the phenomena of life; and, because of its real
+existence, there arises the suppositional existence of its opposite,
+its negative, so to speak, which is unreal. The phenomena of human
+existence have to do _only_ with the suppositional existence of the
+great First Cause's opposite. They are a reflection of that
+supposition. Hence all human knowledge of an external world is but
+phenomenal, and consists of appearances which have no more real
+substance than have shadows. _We, as mortals, know but the shadowy,
+phenomenal existence._ _We do not know reality._ _Therefore, our
+knowledge is not real knowledge, but supposition._
+
+"Now," he went on hastily, for he saw an expression of protest on
+Reverend Moore's face, "we are more or less familiar with a phenomenal
+existence, with appearances, with effects; and our knowledge of these
+is entirely mental. We see all things as thought. These thoughts, such
+as feeling, seeing, hearing, and so on, we ignorantly attribute to the
+five physical senses. This is what Ruskin calls the 'pathetic
+fallacy.' And because we do so, we find ourselves absolutely dependent
+upon these senses--in belief. Moreover, quoting Spencer again, only
+the absolutely real is the absolutely persistent, or enduring. Truth,
+for example. The truth of the multiplication table will endure
+eternally. It is real. But is it any whit material?"
+
+"No," admitted Miss Wall, speaking for the others.
+
+"And, as regards material objects which we seem to see and touch,"
+went on Hitt, "we appear to see solidity and hardness, and we conceive
+as real objects what are only the mental signs or indications of
+objects. Remember, matter does not and can not get into the mind. Only
+thoughts and ideas enter our mentalities. We see our _thoughts_ of
+hardness, solidity, and so on; and these thoughts point to something
+that is real. That _something_ is--what? I repeat: _the ideas of the
+infinite creative Mind_. The thoughts of size, shape, hardness, and so
+on, which we group together and call material chairs, trees,
+mountains, and other objects, are but 'relative realities,' pointing
+to the absolute reality, infinite mind and its eternal ideas and
+thoughts."
+
+He paused again for comments. But all seemed absorbed in his
+statements. Then he resumed:
+
+"Our concept of matter, which is now proven to be but a mental
+concept, built up out of false thought, points to _mind_ as the real
+substance. Our concept of measurable space and distance is the direct
+opposite of the great truth that infinite mind is ever-present. Our
+concept of time is the opposite of infinity. It is but human
+limitation. Age is the opposite of eternity--and the old-age thought
+brings extinction. So, _to every reality there is the corresponding
+unreality_. The opposite of good is evil. If the infinite creative
+mind is good--and we saw that by very necessity it _must_ be so--then
+evil becomes an awful unreality, and is real only to the false thought
+which entertains or holds it. If life is real--and infinite mind must
+itself be life--then death becomes the opposite unreality. And, as
+Jesus said, it can be overcome. But were it real, _no power_, _divine
+or human_, _could ever overcome or destroy it_!"
+
+"Seems to me," remarked Haynerd dryly, "that our study so far simply
+goes to show, as Burke puts it, 'what shadows we are and what shadows
+we pursue.'"
+
+Hitt smiled. "When the world humiliates itself to the point that it
+will accept that, my friend," he said, "then it will become receptive
+to truth.
+
+"But now let us go a little further," he went on. "The great Lamarck
+voiced a mighty fact when he said, 'Function precedes structure.' For
+by that we mean that the egg did not produce the bird, but the bird
+the egg. The world seems about to pass from the very foolish belief
+that physical structure is the cause of life, to the great fact that a
+_sense_ of life produces the physical structure. The former crude
+belief enslaved man to his body. The latter tends to free him from
+such slavery."
+
+"You see, Doctor," interrupted Carmen, "the brain which you were
+cutting up the other day did not make poor Yorick's mind and thought,
+but his mind made the brain."
+
+The doctor smiled and shook a warning finger at the girl.
+
+"The body," resumed Hitt, "is a manifestation of the human mind's
+activity. What constitutes the difference between a bird and a steam
+engine? This, in part: the engine is made by human hands from without;
+the bird makes itself, that is, its body, from within. So it is with
+the human body. But the ignorant human mind--ignorant _per se_--falls
+a slave to its own creation, the mental concept which it calls its
+physical body, and which it pampers and pets and loves, until it can
+cling to it no longer, because the mental concept, not being based on
+any real principle, is forced to pass away, having nothing but false
+thought to sustain it."
+
+"But now," interposed Haynerd, who was again waxing impatient, "just
+what is the practical application of all this abstruse reasoning?"
+
+"The very greatest imaginable, my friend," replied Hitt. "A real thing
+is real forever. And so matter can not become non-existent _unless it
+is already nothing_! The world is beginning to recognize the
+tremendous fact that from nothing nothing can be made. Very well,
+since the law of the conservation of energy seems to be established as
+regards energy _in toto_, why, we must conclude that there is no such
+thing as _annihilation_. And that means that _there is no such thing
+as absolute creation_! Whatever is real has always existed. The shadow
+never was real, and does not exist. And so creation becomes unfolding,
+or revelation, or development, of what already exists, and has always
+existed, and always will exist. Therefore, if matter, and all it
+includes as concomitants, evil, sin, sickness, accident, chance, lack,
+and death, is based upon unreal, false thought, then it can all be
+removed, put out of consciousness, by a knowledge of truth and a
+reversal of our accustomed human thought-processes."
+
+"And that," said Carmen, "is salvation. It is based on righteousness,
+which is right-thinking, thinking true thoughts, and thinking truly."
+
+"And knowing," added Hitt, "that evil, including matter, is the
+suppositional opposite of truth. The doctrine of materialism has been
+utterly disproved even by the physicists themselves. For physicists
+have at last agreed that inertia is the great essential property of
+matter. That is, matter is not a cause, but an effect. It does not
+operate, but is operated upon. It is not a law-giver, but is subject
+to the human mind's so-called laws concerning it. It of itself is
+utterly without life or intelligence.
+
+"Very good," he continued. "Now Spencer said that matter was a
+manifestation of an underlying power or force. Physicists tell us that
+matter is made of electricity, that it is an electrical phenomenon,
+and that the ultimate constituent of matter is the electron. The
+electron is said by some to be made up of superimposed layers of
+positive and negative electricity, and by others to be made up of only
+negative charges. I rather prefer the latter view, for if composed of
+only negative electricity it is more truly a negation. Matter is the
+_negative_ of real substance. It is a sort of negative truth.
+
+"Now electricity is a form of energy. Hence matter is a form of
+energy also. But our comprehension of it is _wholly mental_. Energy is
+mental. The only real energy there is or can be is the energy of the
+infinite mind we call God. This the human mind copies, or imitates,
+by reason of what has been called 'the law of suppositional
+opposites,' already dwelt upon at some length. Everything manifests
+this so-called law. Electricity is both positive and negative.
+Gravitation is regarded by some physicists as the negative aspect of
+radiation-pressure, the latter being the pressure supposed to be
+exerted by all material bodies upon one another. The third law of
+motion illustrates this so-called law, for it states that action
+and reaction are equal and opposite. There can be no positive action
+without a resultant negative one. The truth has its lie. The divine
+mind, God, has His opposite in the communal human, or mortal, mind.
+The latter is manifested by the so-called minds which we call mankind.
+And from these so-called minds issue matter and material forms and
+bodies, with their so-called material laws.
+
+"Yes, the material universe is running down. Stupendous fact! The
+entire human concept is running down. Matter, the human mental
+concept, is not eternally permanent. Neither, therefore, are its
+concomitants, sin and discord. Matter disintegrates and passes
+away--out of human consciousness. The whole material universe--the
+so-called mortal-mind concept--is hastening to its death!"
+
+"But as yet I think you have not given Mr. Haynerd the practical
+application which he asks," suggested Father Waite, as Hitt paused
+after his long exposition.
+
+"I am now ready for that," replied Hitt. "We have said that the
+material is the relative. So all human knowledge is relative. But,
+that being so, we can go a step further and add that human error is
+likewise relative. And now--startling fact!--_it is absolutely
+impossible to really know error_!"
+
+"Why--!" burst from the incredulous Miss Wall.
+
+"Well?" said Hitt, turning to her. "Can you know that two plus two
+equals seven?"
+
+"N--no."
+
+"Let me make this statement of truth: nothing can be known definitely
+except as it is explained by the principle which governs it. Now what
+principle governs an error, whether that error be in music,
+mathematics, or life conduct?"
+
+There was no reply to the question.
+
+"Very well," continued Hitt. "Evil can not be really known. And that
+is why God--infinite Mind--can not behold evil. And now, friends, I
+have come to the conclusion of a long series of deductions. If
+infinite mind is the cause and creator, that is, the revealer, of all
+that really exists, its suppositional opposite, its negative, must
+likewise simulate a creation, or revelation, or unfolding, for this
+opposite must of very necessity pose as a creative principle. It must
+simulate all the powers and attributes of the infinite creative mind.
+If the creative mind gave rise to a spiritual universe and spiritual
+man, by which it expresses itself, then this suppositional opposite
+must present its universe and its man, opposite in every particular to
+the reality. _It is this sort of man and this sort of universe that
+we, as mortals, seem to see all about us, and that we refer to as
+human beings and the physical universe._ And yet, all that we see,
+feel, hear, smell, or taste is the false, suppositional thought that
+comes into our so-called mentalities, and by its suppositional
+activity there causes what we call consciousness or awareness of
+things."
+
+"Then," said Father Waite, more to enunciate his own thought than to
+question the deduction, "what the human consciousness holds as
+knowledge is little more than belief and speculation, with no basis of
+truth, no underlying principle."
+
+"Just so. And it brings out the fruits of such beliefs in discord,
+decay, and final dissolution, called death. For this human consciousness
+forms its own concept of a fleshly body, and a mind-and-matter man. It
+makes the laws which govern its body, and it causes its body to obey
+these false laws. Upon the quality of thought entering this human
+consciousness depend all the phenomena of earthly life and environment
+which the mortal experiences. The human consciousness, in other words,
+is a _self-centered mass of erroneous thought, utterly without any basis
+of real principle, but actively engaged in building up mental images,
+and forming and maintaining an environment in which it supposes
+itself to live_. _This false thought in the human consciousness forms
+into a false concept of man, and this is the soul-and-body man, the
+mind-and-matter man, which is called a human being, or a mortal._"
+
+"And there," commented Carmen, with a dreamy, far-away look, "we have
+what Padre Jose so long ago spoke of as the 'externalization of
+thought.' It is the same law which Jesus had in mind when he said, 'As
+a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.'"
+
+"Yes," said Hitt. "For we know only what enters our mentalities and
+becomes active there. And every thought that does so enter, tends at
+once to become externalized. That is, there is at once the tendency
+for us to see it visualized in some way, either as material object, or
+environment, or on our bodies. And it is the very activity of such
+thought that constitutes the human mentality, as I have already
+said."
+
+"And that thought is continually changing," suggested Father Waite.
+
+"Just so. Its very lack of true principle requires that it should
+change constantly, in order to simulate as closely as possible the
+real. That accounts for the fleeting character of the whole human
+concept of man and the physical universe. The human personality is
+never fixed, although the elements of human character remain; that is,
+those elements which are essentially unreal and mortal, such as lust,
+greed, hatred, and materiality, seem to remain throughout the ages.
+They will give way only before truth, even as Paul said. But not until
+truth has been admitted to the human mentality and begins its solvent
+work there, the work of denying and tearing down the false
+thought-concepts and replacing them with true ones."
+
+"And will truth come through the physical senses?" asked Miss Wall.
+
+"No, decidedly no!" said Hitt. "The physical senses testify of
+nothing. Their supposed testimony is the material thought which enters
+the human mentality and becomes active there, resulting in human
+consciousness of both good and evil. And that thought will have to
+give way to true thought, before we can begin to put off the 'old man'
+and put on the 'new.' Human thoughts, or, as we say, the physical
+senses, do not and can not testify of absolute truth. They do not know
+God."
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed Haynerd, rousing up. "There goes the Church, and
+original sin, and fallen man!"
+
+"There is no such thing as 'fallen man,' my friend," said Hitt
+quietly. "The spiritual man, the image and likeness, the reflection,
+of the infinite creative mind, is perfect as long as its principle
+remains perfect--and that is eternally. The mortal man never was
+perfect. He is a product of false, suppositional thought. He is not
+and never was man. He did not fall, because he has had no perfection
+to lose."
+
+Reverend Patterson Moore, who had sat a silent, though not wholly
+sympathetic listener throughout the discussion, could now no longer
+withhold his protest. "No wonder," he abruptly exclaimed, "that there
+are so few deep convictions to-day concerning the great essentials of
+Christianity! As I sit here and listen to you belittle God and rend
+the great truths of His Christ, as announced in His Word, the Bible, I
+am moved by feelings poignantly sorrowful! The Christ has once been
+crucified; and will you slay him again?"
+
+"No," said Carmen, her eyes dilating with surprise, "but we would
+resurrect him! Don't you think you have kept him in the tomb long
+enough? The Christ-principle is intended for use, not for endless
+burial!"
+
+"I? My dear Miss Carmen, it is I who preach the risen Christ!"
+
+"You preach human theology, Mr. Moore," returned the girl. "And
+because of centuries of such preaching the world has steadily sunk
+from the spiritual to the material, and lip service has taken the
+place of that genuine spiritual worship which knows no evil, and
+which, because of that practical knowledge, heals the sick and raises
+the dead."
+
+"You insinuate that--?"
+
+"No, I state facts," said Carmen. "Paul made some mistakes, for he was
+consumed with zeal. But he stated truth when he said that the second
+coming of Christ would occur when the 'old man' was put off. We have
+been discussing the 'old man' to-night, and showing how he may be put
+off. Now do you from your pulpit teach your people how that may be
+done?"
+
+"I teach the vicarious atonement of the Christ, and prepare my flock
+for the world to come," replied the minister with some heat.
+
+"But I am interested in the eternal present," said the girl, "not in a
+suppositional future. And so was Jesus. The world to come is right
+here. 'I am that which is, and which was, and which is to come,' says
+the infinite, ever-present mind, God!"
+
+"I see no Christianity whatsoever in your speculative philosophy,"
+retorted the minister. "If what you say is true, and the world should
+accept it, all that we have learned in the ages past would be blotted
+out, and falsehood would be written across philosophy, science, and
+religion. By wafting evil lightly aside as unreal, you dodge the
+issue, and extend license to all mankind to indulge it freely. Evil is
+an awful, a stupendous fact! And it can not be relegated to the realm
+of shadow, as you are trying to do!"
+
+"Did Jesus regard it as a reality?" she asked. "You know, Duns Scotus
+said: 'Since there is no real being outside of God, evil has no
+substantial existence. Perfection and reality are synonyms, hence
+absolute imperfection is synonymous with absolute unreality.' Did
+Jesus know less than this man? And do you really think he looked upon
+evil as a _reality_?"
+
+"He most certainly did!"
+
+"Then, if that is true," said the girl, "I will have to reject him.
+But come, we are right up to the point of discussing him and his
+teachings, and that will be the subject of our next meeting. Will you
+join us, Mr. Moore? It is love, you know, that has drawn us all
+together. You'll come?"
+
+"It's an open forum, Moore," said the doctor, patting him on the back.
+"Wisdom isn't going to die with you. Come and get a new viewpoint."
+
+"I am quite well satisfied with my present one, Doctor," replied the
+minister tartly.
+
+"Well, then, come and correct us when we err. It's your duty to save
+us if we're in danger, you know."
+
+"He will come," said Hitt. "And now, Carmen, the piano awaits you. By
+the way, what did Maitre Rossanni tell you?"
+
+"Oh," replied the girl lightly, "he begged me to let him train me for
+Grand Opera."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"He said I would make a huge fortune," she laughed.
+
+"And so you would! Well?"
+
+"I told him I carried my wealth with me, always, and that my fortune
+was now so immense that I couldn't possibly hope to add to it."
+
+"Then you refused the chance!"
+
+"My dear Mr. Hitt," she said, going to him and looking up into his
+face, "I am too busy for Grand Opera and money-making. My voice
+belongs to the world. I couldn't be happy if I made people pay to hear
+me sing."
+
+With that she turned and seated herself at the piano, where she
+launched into a song that made the very Reverend Patterson Moore raise
+his glasses and stare at her long and curiously.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7
+
+
+Man reasons and seeks human counsel; but woman obeys her instincts.
+Carmen did this and more. Her life had been one of utter freedom from
+dependence upon human judgment. The burden of decision as to the
+wisdom of a course of action rested always upon her own thought. Never
+did she seek to make a fellow-being her conscience. When the day of
+judgment came, the hour of trial or vital demand, it found her
+standing boldly, because her love was made perfect, not through
+instinct alone, but through conformity with the certain knowledge that
+he who lacks wisdom may find it in the right thought of God and man.
+And so, when on the next day she joined Hitt and Haynerd in the office
+of the Social Era, and learned that Carlson had met their terms,
+eagerly, and had transferred to them the moribund Express, she had no
+qualms as to the wisdom of the step which they were taking.
+
+But not so her companions. Haynerd was a composite picture of doubt
+and fear, as he sat humped up in his chair. Hitt was serious to the
+point of gloom, reflecting in a measure his companion's dismal
+forebodings.
+
+"I was scared to death for fear he wouldn't sell," Haynerd was saying
+as the girl entered; "and I was paralyzed whenever I thought that he
+would."
+
+Carmen laughed aloud when she heard these words. "Do you know," she
+said, "you remind me of Lot's wife. She was told to go ahead, along
+the right course. But she looked back--alas for her! Now you two being
+started right are looking back; and you are about to turn to salt
+tears!
+
+"Now listen," she continued, as Haynerd began to remonstrate; "don't
+voice a single fear to me! You couldn't make me believe them true even
+if you argued for weeks--and we have no time for such foolishness
+now. The first thing that you have got to do, Ned, is to start a
+little cemetery. In it you must bury your fears, right away, and
+without any mourning. Put up little headstones, if you wish; but don't
+ever go near the place afterward, excepting to plant the insults, and
+gibes, and denouncements, and vilifications which the human mind will
+hurl at you, once the Express starts out on its new career. Good is
+bound to stir up evil; and the Express is now in the business of good.
+Remember, the first thing the Apostles always did was to be afraid.
+And they kept Jesus busy pointing out the nothingness of their
+fears."
+
+"Business of good!" retorted Haynerd savagely. "I guess we'll find
+ourselves a bit lonely in it, too!"
+
+"True, humanly speaking," replied the girl, taking a chair beside him.
+"But, Ned, let me tell you of the most startling thing I have found in
+this great, new country. It is this: you Americans have, oh, so much
+animal courage--and so little true moral courage! You know that the
+press is one of the most corrupt institutions in America, don't you?
+The truth is not in it. Going into thousands of homes every day, it is
+a deadlier menace than yellow fever. You know that it is muzzled by
+so-called religious bodies, by liquor interests, by vice-politicians,
+by commercialism, and its own craven cowardice. And yet, Ned, despite
+your heart-longing, you dare not face the world and stand boldly for
+righteousness in the conduct of the Express!
+
+"Now," she went on hurriedly, "let me tell you more. While you have
+been debating with your fears as you awaited Mr. Carlson's decision, I
+have been busy. If I had allowed my mentality to become filled with
+fear and worry, as you have done, I would have had no room for real,
+constructive thought. But I first thanked God for this grand
+opportunity to witness to Him; and then I put out every mental
+suggestion of failure, of malicious enmity from the world, and from
+those who think they do not love us, and with it every subtle argument
+about the unpreparedness of the human mind for good. After that I set
+out to visit various newspaper offices in the city. I have talked with
+four managing and city editors since yesterday noon. I have their
+viewpoints now, and know what motives animate them. I know what they
+think. I know, in part, what the Express will have to meet--and how to
+meet it."
+
+Both men stared at her in blank amazement. Haynerd's jaw dropped as he
+gazed. He had had a long apprenticeship in the newspaper field, but
+never would he have dared attempt what this fearless girl had just
+done.
+
+"I have found out what news is," Carmen resumed. "It is wholly _a
+human invention_! It is the published vagaries of the carnal mind. In
+the yellow journal it is the red-inked, screaming report of the
+tragedies of sin. I asked Mr. Fallom if he knew anything about mental
+laws, and the terrible results of mental suggestion in his paper's
+almost hourly heralding of murder, theft, and lust. But he only
+laughed and said that the lurid reports of crime tended to keep people
+alive to what was going on about them. He couldn't see that he was
+making a terrible reality of every sort of evil, and holding it so
+constantly before an ignorant, credulous world's eyes that little else
+could be seen. The moral significance of his so-called news reports
+had no meaning whatsoever for him!"
+
+"Did you go to see Adams?" asked Haynerd, not believing that she would
+have dared visit that journalistic demon.
+
+"Yes," answered the girl, to his utter astonishment. "Mr. Adams said
+he had no time for maudlin sentimentalism or petticoat sophistry. He
+was in the business of collecting and disseminating news, and he
+wanted that news to go _shrieking_ out of his office! Here is one of
+his afternoon extras. You can see how the report of an Italian
+wife-murder shrieks in red letters an inch high on the very first
+page. But has Mr. Adams thereby seen and met his opportunity? Or has
+he further prostituted journalism by this ignorant act?"
+
+"The people want it, Carmen," said Hitt slowly, though his voice
+seemed not to sound a real conviction.
+
+"They do not!" cried Carmen, her eyes snapping. "If the church and the
+press were not mortally and morally blind, they would see the deadly
+destruction which they are accomplishing by shrieking from pulpit and
+sanctum: 'Evil is real! Pietro Lasanni cuts his wife's throat! Evil is
+real! Look, and be convinced!'"
+
+"But, Carmen, while what you say is doubtless true, it must be
+admitted that the average man, especially the day laborer, reads his
+yellow journal avidly, and--"
+
+"Yes, he does," returned the girl. "And why? The average man, as
+you call him, is a victim of _the most pernicious social system
+ever devised by the human mind_! Swept along in the mad rush of
+commercialism, or ground down beneath its ruthless wheels, his
+jaded, jarred nerves and his tired mind cry out for artificial
+stimulation, for something that will for a moment divert his wearied
+thought from his hopeless situation. The Church offers him little
+that is tangible this side of the grave. But whiskey, drugs, and
+yellow journalism do. Can't you see, Mr. Hitt--can't you, Ned--that
+the world's cry for sensationalism is but a cry for something that
+will make it forget its misery for a brief moment? The average man
+feels the superficiality of the high speed of this century of mad
+rush; he longs as never before for a foundation of truth upon which to
+rest; he is tired of theological fairy-tales; he is desperately
+tired of sin, and sickness, and dying. He cares little about a
+promised life beyond the grave. He wants help here and now to solve
+his problems. What does the press offer him? Little beyond a recount
+of his own daily miseries, and reports of graft and greed, and
+accounts of vulgar displays of material wealth that he has not and
+can not have. And these reports divert his jaded mind for a moment and
+give him a false, fleeting sense of pleasure--and then leave him
+sunk deeper than before in despair, and in hatred of existing
+conditions!"
+
+"The girl is right," said Hitt, turning to Haynerd. "And we knew it,
+of course. But we have let our confidence slip. This steam-calliope
+age reflects the human-mind struggle for something other than its own
+unsatisfying ideas. It turns to thrills; it expresses its restlessness
+and dissatisfaction with itself by futurist and cubist art, so-called;
+by the rattle and vibration of machinery; by flaring billboards that
+insult every sense of the artistic; and by the murk and muck of yellow
+journalism, with its hideous  supplements and spine-thrilling
+tales. So much for the reader. But the publisher himself--well, he
+battens materially, of course, upon the tired victims of our degrading
+social system. He sees but the sordid revenue in dollars and cents.
+Beyond that his morals do not extend."
+
+"And they can't," said Haynerd. "Decent journalism wouldn't
+pay--doesn't--never did! Other papers have tried it, and miserably
+failed!"
+
+"Then," returned Hitt calmly, after a moment's reflection, "oil will
+meet the deficit. As long as my paternal wells flow in Ohio the
+Express will issue forth as a clean paper, a dignified, law-supporting
+purveyor to a taste for better things--even if it has to create that
+taste. Its columns will be closed to salacious sensation, and its
+advertising pages will be barred to vice, liquor, tobacco, and
+drugs."
+
+"Good!" cried Carmen. "And now we've got to get right down to
+business."
+
+"Just so," said Hitt, rising. "It is my intention to issue the Express
+one more week on its present basis, and then turn it into a penny
+morning daily. I have seen and talked with its staff. They're good
+men. I'm going to assume the management myself, with you, Carmen, as
+my first assistant. Haynerd will become city editor. Now, what
+suggestions have you?"
+
+"Oh, lots!" cried the girl enthusiastically. "But, first, how far may
+I go?"
+
+"The limit," replied Hitt, rubbing his hands together. "You are my
+brain, so to speak, henceforth. As to financial resources, I am
+prepared to dump a hundred thousand dollars right into the Express
+before a cent of revenue comes back."
+
+"Another question, then: will you issue a Sunday edition?" she asked.
+
+"For a while, yes," he said. "We'll see how it works, for I have some
+ideas to try out."
+
+"Well, then," resumed the girl eagerly, "I want this paper to be for
+_all_ the people; to be independent in the truest sense of the term;
+and to be absolutely beyond the influence of political and religious
+sectarianism--you'll soon enough learn what that will cost you--to be
+an active, constructive force in this great city, and a patient,
+tireless, loving educator."
+
+"Humph!" grunted Haynerd, although he was listening very carefully.
+
+"The Express will succeed," the girl went on, without noticing him,
+"because our thought regarding it is successful. _We_ have already
+succeeded; and that success will be externalized in our work. It makes
+no difference what the people may think of _us_; but it makes a lot of
+difference what _we_ think of _them_ and _ourselves_. Now, our program
+is unlimited. We assume superiority over adverse conditions, and we
+claim success, because we know that these things are mental, and that
+they are divinely ours. Lot's wife didn't have the sort of confidence
+that wins--she looked back. Our bridges are burnt behind us now. But
+there is no doubt of the outcome. And so there is no doubt lurking in
+us to take the edge off our efforts, is there? The thought regarding
+the Express has not been timidly born within us; it has come forth
+flashing vigor! Yes it has, Ned, despite your doubts! And we have
+within us a power mightier than any force outside of us. That is the
+knowledge of infinite mind's omnipotence, and our ability to use the
+Christ-principle to meet _every_ problem. Is it not so?"
+
+Haynerd began to rouse up with a returning sense of confidence. Hitt
+smiled and nodded to Carmen. The girl went on rapidly and eagerly:
+
+"We are going to give the people news from a new standpoint, aren't
+we? We are not going on the assumption that the report of mankind's
+errors is the report of real news. The only thing that is really new
+is _good_. We'll report that. When I was in Mr. Adams's office two
+items came in over the 'phone. One was the report of a jewel robbery,
+and the other was an announcement of the draining by the Government of
+submerged lands in Louisiana, so as to give an additional opportunity
+to those seeking farms. Which item did Mr. Adams put in bold type on
+the front page? The first, yes. I was unable to locate the latter
+anywhere in the paper, although it was a timely bit of news."
+
+"Very true," replied Hitt.
+
+"Now another thing," continued the girl, "I want the Sunday edition of
+the Express to contain a resume of the important and vital news of the
+week, with the very clearest, most impartial and enlightening
+editorial comment upon it. This calls for nice discrimination in the
+selection of those items for our comment. It means, however, the best
+practical education for the people. This was John Ruskin's idea, and
+certainly is a splendid one. Still another thing, the Express will
+stand shoulder to shoulder with the women for equal suffrage. Are you
+agreed?"
+
+"Most emphatically!" declared Hitt. "It is the women who will clean up
+and regenerate this world, not the men. Reform is now in the hands of
+the women. They have been held back long enough. And India proves that
+backward women mean a backward nation."
+
+"Then," continued Carmen, "make a distinct Women's Department in the
+Express, and put Miss Wall on the staff."
+
+"Very well. Next?" inquired Hitt, smiling.
+
+"A daily educational department for foreigners, our immigrants, giving
+them every possible aid in suggestions regarding their naturalization,
+the languages, hotels, boarding houses, employment, and so on."
+
+"Done," said Hitt. "And what else?"
+
+"The Express is going to maintain a social service, and night schools.
+It is going to establish vacation and permanent homes for girls. It is
+going to provide for vocational training. It is going to establish a
+lecture bureau--for lectures on _good_. It is going to build a model
+city for workingmen. Then it is going to found a model city for
+everybody. It is going to establish clubs and meeting places for
+workingmen, places where they may meet, and play games, and read, and
+have social intercourse, and practical instruction. It is going to
+establish the same for young boys. It is going to take the lead for
+civic betterment in this city, and for child-welfare, and for--"
+
+By this time Haynerd was sitting erect and staring in bewilderment at
+the girl. "What do you mean?" he sputtered. "Aren't you wandering
+somewhat beyond strict newspaper limits? We are in the news
+business!"
+
+"And haven't I told you," returned the girl promptly, "that the only
+thing new in this world is _good_? Our news is going to be _good_
+news--the collection and dissemination of _good_ to all mankind.
+People who read our paper will no longer feel that it is dangerous to
+be alive, but a glorious privilege. I am simply laying out our
+program. And Mr. Hitt said I could go the limit, you know."
+
+Hitt had caught the girl's infectious enthusiasm, and his face was
+beaming.
+
+"That's it!" he exclaimed. "It's your unlimited thought, Carmen, that
+we old dry-bones want! I understand you!"
+
+"Of course you do!" she cried. "And so does dear old protesting Ned.
+Why, what is money? What is anything in this life, compared with real
+service to our fellow-men? _The Express is not in business to make
+money!_ It is in the business of collecting and scattering the news of
+good. Its dividends will be the happiness and joy it gives to mankind.
+Will it fail? It simply can't! For _good is the greatest success there
+is_!"
+
+It is likely that Hitt did not catch the full meaning of the girl's
+words; and it is certain that Haynerd did not. But her boundless
+enthusiasm did penetrate in large degree into their souls, and they
+ceased to insist on the query, Will it pay? The broader outlook was
+already beginning to return profits to these men, as the newer
+definition of 'news' occupied their thought. Fear and doubt fled.
+Seizing their hats, they bade Carmen go with them to inspect the plant
+of the Express, and meet its staff.
+
+"There's a question I'd like to ask," said Haynerd, as they pursued
+their way toward their recent purchase. "I want to know what our
+editorial policy will be. Do we condone the offenses of our grafters
+and spoilsmen by remaining silent regarding their crimes? Or do we
+expose them?"
+
+"We will let their guilt expose and kill itself," quickly returned
+Carmen. "How? Well, you will see."
+
+A few minutes later they entered the gloomy, dust-laden offices of the
+Express. Hitt's spirits sank again as he looked about him. But Carmen
+seemed to suffer no loss of enthusiasm. After a mental appraisal of
+the dingy, uninviting environment she exclaimed: "Well, one nice thing
+about this is that we don't have much to start with!"
+
+Hitt reflected upon her cryptical remark, and then laughed.
+
+Carlson joined them at this juncture. It was evident that the sale of
+his plant had removed a heavy load from his shoulders.
+
+"My best reporter was out yesterday when you called," he said,
+addressing Hitt. "He--well, he was a little the worse for wear. But
+he's in now. Come into my office and I'll send for him."
+
+In a few minutes a tall, boyish fellow responded to the editor's
+summons. He must have been well under twenty, thought Hitt, marveling
+that so young a man should be regarded as Carlson's best news
+gatherer. But his wonder grew apace when the editor introduced him as
+Mr. Sidney Ames.
+
+"Huh!" ejaculated Haynerd. "Know J. Wilton?"
+
+The lad smiled pallidly, as he bent his gaze upon Carmen, and
+addressed his reply to her. "My governor," he said laconically.
+
+"The deuce he is!" returned Haynerd, beginning to bristle.
+
+Carlson dismissed the reporter, and turned to the curious group.
+
+"The boy has the making of a fine newspaper man in him. Has something
+of his father's terrible energy. But he's doomed. Whiskey and morphine
+got him. He used to come down here before his father threw him out. I
+let him write little articles for the Express when he was barely
+sixteen years old; and they were mighty good, too. But he got mixed up
+in some scandal, and J. Wilton cut him off. The boy always did drink,
+I guess. But since his family troubles he's been on the straight road
+to the insane asylum. It's too bad. But you'll keep him, I suppose?"
+
+"Certainly not!" replied Haynerd aggressively. "His father is no
+friend of mine, and--"
+
+"We _shall_ keep him," calmly interrupted Carmen. "His father is a
+_very_ good friend of mine."
+
+Carlson looked from one to the other quizzically. "H'm!" he mused.
+"Well," squinting over his glasses at the girl, "this surely is
+woman's era, isn't it?"
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+A week later the Express, scarcely recognizable in its clean, fresh
+type and modest headlines, with its crisp news and well written
+editorials, very unostentatiously made its entry into the already
+crowded metropolitan field. Few noticed it. Adams picked it up and
+laughed, a short, contemptuous laugh. Fallom glanced over it and
+wondered. J. Wilton Ames, who had been apprised of its advent, threw
+it into the waste basket--and then drew it out again. He re-read the
+editorial announcing the policy of the paper. From that he began a
+careful survey of the whole sheet. His eye caught an article on the
+feminist movement, signed by Carmen Ariza. His lip curled, but he read
+the article through, and finished with the mental comment that it was
+well written. Then he summoned Willett.
+
+"I want this sheet carefully watched," he commanded, tossing the paper
+to his secretary. "If anything is noticed that in any way refers to me
+or my interests, call my attention to it immediately."
+
+The secretary bowed and departed. A moment afterward Henry Claus,
+nominal head of the great Claus brewing interests, was ushered in.
+
+"We licked 'em, Mr. Ames, we licked 'em!" cried the newcomer, rushing
+forward and clasping the financier's hand. "The city council last
+night voted against the neighborhood saloon license bill! Lined up
+solidly for us! Fine, eh?"
+
+"Yes," commented the laconic Ames. "Our aldermen are a very
+intelligent lot of statesmen, Claus. They're wise enough to see that
+their jobs depend upon whiskey. It requires very astute statesmanship,
+Claus, to see that. But some of our congressmen and senators have
+learned the same thing."
+
+The brewer pondered this delphic utterance and scratched his head.
+
+"Well," continued Ames, "have you your report?"
+
+"Eh? Yes, sure, Mr. Ames. Here."
+
+Ames studied the document. Then he looked severely at Claus. "Sales
+less than last month," he remarked dryly.
+
+"It's the local option law what done it, Mr. Ames," replied the brewer
+apologetically. "Them women--"
+
+"Bah! Let a few petticoats whip you, eh? But, anyway, you don't know
+how to market your stuff. Look here, Claus, you've got to encourage
+the young people more. We've got to get the girls and boys. If we get
+the girls, we'll get the boys easily enough. It's the same in the
+liquor business as in certain others, Claus, you've got to land them
+young."
+
+"But, Mr. Ames, I can't take 'em and pour it down their throats!"
+expostulated the brewer.
+
+"You could if you knew how," returned Ames. "Why, man! if I had
+nothing else to do I'd just like to devote myself to the sales end of
+the brewing business. I'd use mental suggestion in such a way through
+advertising that this country would drown in beer! Beer is just plain
+beer to you dull-wits. But suppose we convinced people that it was a
+food, eh? Advertise a chemical analysis of it, showing that it has
+greater nutriment than beef. Catch the clerks and poor stenographers
+that way. Don't call it beer; call it Maltdiet, or something like
+that. Why, we couldn't begin to supply the demand!"
+
+"How would you advertise, Mr. Ames?"
+
+"Billboards in every field and along all railroads and highways;
+boards in every vacant lot in every town and city in the country;
+electric signs everywhere; handbills; lectures--never thought of that,
+did you? And samples--why, I'd put samples into every house in the
+Union! I'd give away a million barrels of beer--and sell a hundred
+million as a result! But I'd work particularly with the young people.
+Work on them with literature and suggestion; they're more receptive
+than adults. The hypnotism that works through suggestive advertising,
+Claus, is simply omnipotent! How about your newspaper contracts?"
+
+"We have all the papers, excepting the Express, Mr. Ames."
+
+"The Express?" Ames laughed. "Well, that's a new venture. You can
+afford to pass it up. It's run by a college professor and a doll-faced
+girl."
+
+"But, Mr. Ames, our advertising manager tells me that the publishers
+of the Express called a meeting of the managers of all the other city
+papers, to discuss cutting out liquor advertising, and that since then
+the rates have gone up, way up! You see, the example set by the
+Express may--"
+
+"Humph!" grunted Ames. Then he began to reflect. An example, backed by
+absolute fearlessness--and he knew from experience that the publishers
+of the Express were without fear--well, it could not be wholly
+ignored, even if the new paper had no circulation worth the name.
+
+"Mr. Ames," resumed the brewer, "the Express is in every newsstand in
+the city. All the boys are selling it. It's in every hotel, in every
+saloon, in every store and business house here. It's in the dives. It
+isn't sold, it's given away! Where do they get their money?"
+
+Ames himself wondered. And he determined to find out.
+
+"Leave it to me, Claus," he said at length, dismissing the brewer.
+"I'll send for you in a day or so."
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was well after midnight when the little group assembled in the
+dining room of the Beaubien cottage to resume their interrupted
+discussions. Hitt and Haynerd were the last to arrive. They found
+Doctor Morton eagerly awaiting them. With him had come, not without
+some reluctance, his prickly disputant, Reverend Patterson Moore, and
+another friend and colleague, Doctor Siler, whose interest in these
+unique gatherings had been aroused by Morton.
+
+"I've tried to give him a resume of our previous deductions," the
+latter explained, as Hitt prepared to open the discussion. "And he
+says he has conscientious scruples--if you know what that means."
+
+"He's a Philistine, that's all, eh?" offered Haynerd.
+
+Doctor Siler nodded genially. "I am like my friend, Reverend Edward
+Hull, who says--"
+
+"There!" interrupted Morton. "Your friend has a life job molding the
+plastic minds of prospective preachers, and he doesn't want to lose
+the sinecure. I don't blame him. Got a wife and babies depending on
+him. He still preaches hell-fire and the resurrection of the flesh,
+doesn't he? Well, in that case we can dispense with his views, for
+we've sent that sort of doctrine to the ash heap."
+
+Reverend Moore opened his mouth as if to protest; but Hitt prevented
+him by taking the floor and plunging at once into his subject. "The
+hour is very late," he said in apology, "and we have much ground to
+cover. Who knows when we shall meet again?"
+
+Carmen stole a hand beneath the table and grasped the Beaubien's. Then
+all waited expectantly.
+
+"As I sat in my office this morning," began Hitt meditatively, "I
+looked often and long through the window and out over this great,
+roaring city. Everywhere I saw tremendous activity, frantic hurry, and
+nerve-racking strife. In the distance I marked the smoke curling
+upward from huge factories, packing houses, and elevators. The
+incessant seething, the rush and bustle, the noise, the heat, and
+dust, all spelled business, an enormous volume of human business--and
+yet, _not one iota of it contributed even a mite to the spiritual
+nature and needs of mankind_!
+
+"I pondered this long. And then I looked down, far down, into the
+streets below. There I saw the same diversified activity. And I saw,
+too, men and women, rich and comfortable, riding along happily in
+their automobiles, with not a thought beyond their physical
+well-being. But, I asked myself, should they not ride thus, if they
+wish? And yet, the hour will soon come when sickness, disaster, and
+death will knock at their doors and sternly bid them come out. And
+then?"
+
+"Just what I have sought to impress upon you whenever you advanced
+your philosophical theories, Doctor," said Reverend Moore, turning to
+Morton. The doctor glowered back at him without reply. Hitt smiled and
+went on.
+
+"Now what should the man in the automobile do? Is there anything he
+_can_ do, after all? Yes, much, I think. Jesus told such as he to seek
+first the kingdom of harmony--a demonstrable understanding of truth.
+The automobile riding would follow after that, and with safety. Why,
+oh, why, will we go on wasting our precious time acquiring additional
+physical sensations in motor cars, amusement parks, travel, anywhere
+and everywhere, instead of laboring first to acquire that real
+knowledge which alone will set us free from the bitter woes of human
+existence!"
+
+"Jesus set us free, sir," interposed Reverend Moore sternly. "And his
+vicarious atonement opens the door of immortality to all who believe
+on his name."
+
+"But that freedom, Mr. Moore, you believe will be acquired only after
+death. I dispute that belief strenuously. But let us return to that
+later. At present we see mankind laboring for that which even they
+themselves admit is not meat. They waste their substance for what is
+not bread. And why? Because of their false beliefs of God and man,
+externalized in a viciously cruel social system; because of their
+dependence upon the false supports of _materia medica_, orthodox
+theology, man-devised creeds, and human opinions. Is it not
+demonstrably so?
+
+"And yet, who hath believed our report? Who wants to? Alas! men in our
+day think and read little that is serious; and they reflect hardly at
+all upon the vital things of life. They want to be let alone in their
+comfortable materialistic beliefs, even though those beliefs rend
+them, rive them, rack and twist them with vile, loathsome disease, and
+then sink them into hideous, worm-infested graves! The human mind does
+not want its undemonstrable beliefs challenged. It does not want the
+light of unbiased investigation thrown upon the views which it has
+accepted ready-made from doctor and theologian. Again, why? Because,
+my friends, the human mind is inert, despite its seemingly tremendous
+material activity. And its inertia is the result of its own
+self-mesmerism, its own servile submission to beliefs which, as
+Balfour has shown, have grown up under every kind of influence except
+that of genuine evidence. Chief of these are the prevalent religious
+beliefs, which we are asked to receive as divinely inspired."
+
+Doctor Morton glanced at Reverend Moore and grinned. But that
+gentleman sat stolid, with arms folded and a scowl upon his sharp
+features.
+
+"Religion," continued Hitt, "is that which binds us to the real. Alas!
+what a farce mankind have made of it. And why? Because, in its mad
+desire to make matter real and to extract all pleasures from it, the
+human mind has tried to eliminate the soul."
+
+"We have been having a bad spell of materialism, that's true,"
+interposed Doctor Morton. "But we are progressing, I hope."
+
+"Well," Hitt replied, "perhaps so. Yet almost in our own day France
+put God out of her institutions; set up and crowned a prostitute as
+the goddess of reason; and trailed the Bible through the streets of
+Paris, tied to the tail of an ass! What followed? Spiritual
+destitution. And in this country we have enthroned so-called physical
+science, and, as Comte predicted, are about to conduct God to the
+frontier and bow Him out with thanks for His provisional services.
+With what result? As our droll philosopher, Hubbard, has said, 'Once
+man was a spirit, now he is matter. Once he was a flame, now he is a
+candlestick. Once he was a son of God, now he is a chemical formula.
+Once he was an angel, now he is plain mud.'"
+
+"But," exclaimed Reverend Moore, visibly nettled, "that is because of
+his falling away from the Church--"
+
+"My friend," said Hitt calmly, "he fell away from the Church because
+he could not stagnate longer with her and be happy. Orthodox theology
+has largely become mere sentimentalism. The average man has a horror
+of being considered a namby-pamby, religiously weak, wishy-washy,
+so-called Christian. It makes him ashamed of himself to stand up
+in a congregation and sing 'My Jesus, I love Thee,' and 'In
+mansions of glory and endless delight.' What does he know about
+Jesus? And he is far more concerned about his little brick bungalow
+and next month's rent than he is about celestial mansions. And I don't
+blame him. No; he leaves religion to women, whom he regards as the
+weaker sex. He turns to the ephemeral wisdom of human science--and,
+poor fool! remains no wiser than before. And the women? Well, how
+often nowadays do you hear the name of God on their lips? Is He
+discussed in society? Is He ever the topic of conversation at
+receptions and balls? No; that person was right who said that
+religion 'does not rise to the height of successful gossip.' It
+stands no show with the latest cabaret dance, the slashed skirt,
+and the daringly salacious drama as a theme of discourse. Oh, yes,
+we still maintain our innumerable churches. And, though religion is
+the most vital thing in the world to us, we hire a preacher to talk
+to us once a week about it! Would we hire men to talk once a week to
+us about business? Hardly! But religion is far, far less important to
+human thought than business--for the latter means automobiles and
+increased opportunities for physical sensation."
+
+"Well, Mr. Hitt," objected Doctor Siler, "I am sure this is not such a
+godless era as you would make out."
+
+"No," returned Hitt. "We have many gods, chief of whom is matter. The
+world's acknowledged god is not spirit, despite the inescapable fact
+that the motive-power of the universe is spiritual, and the only
+action is the expression of thought.
+
+"But now," he continued, "we have in our previous discussions made
+some startling deductions, and we came to the conclusion that there is
+a First Cause, and that it is infinite mind. But, having agreed upon
+that, are we now ready to admit the logical corollary, namely, that
+there can be but _one_ real mind? For that follows from the premise
+that there is but one God who is infinite."
+
+"Then we do not have individual minds?" queried Miss Wall.
+
+"We have but the one mind, God," he replied. "There are not minds
+many. The real man reflects God. Human men reflect the communal mortal
+mind, which is the suppositional opposite of the divine mind that is
+God. I repeat, the so-called human mind knows not God. It never sees
+even His manifestations. It sees only its own interpretations of Him
+and His manifestations. And these it sees as mental concepts. For all
+things are mental. Could anything be plainer?"
+
+"Well, they might be," suggested Doctor Siler.
+
+Hitt laughed. "Well then," he said, "if you will not admit that all
+things are mental--including the entire universe--you certainly are
+forced to admit that your comprehension of things is mental."
+
+"Agreed," returned the doctor.
+
+"Then you will likewise have to admit that you are not concerned with
+_things_, but with your comprehension of things."
+
+"H'm, well--yes."
+
+"And so, after all, you deal only with mental things--and everything
+is mental to you."
+
+"But--whence the human mind? Did God create it?" continued Doctor
+Siler. "Did He, Mr. Moore?"
+
+"The Bible states clearly that He created _all_ things," returned that
+gentleman a little stiffly.
+
+"My friends," resumed Hitt very earnestly, "we are on the eve of a
+tremendous enlightenment, I believe. And for that we owe much to the
+so-called 'theory of suppositional opposites.' We have settled to our
+satisfaction that, although mankind believe themselves to be dependent
+upon air, food, and water for existence, nevertheless they are really
+dependent upon something vastly finer, which is back of those things.
+That 'something' we call God, for it is good. Matthew Arnold said that
+the only thing that can be verified about God is that He is 'the
+eternal power that makes for righteousness.' Very well, we are almost
+willing to accept that alone--for that carries infinite implications.
+It makes God an eternal, spiritual power, omnipotent as an influence
+for good. It makes Him the infinite patron, so to speak, of
+right-thinking. And we know that thought is creative. So it makes Him
+the sole creative force.
+
+"But," he continued, "force, or power, is not material. God by very
+necessity is mind, including all intelligence. And His operations are
+conducted according to the spiritual law of evolution. Oh, yes,
+evolution is not a theory, it is a fact. God, infinite mind, evolves,
+uncovers, reveals, unfolds, His numberless eternal ideas. These
+reflect and manifest Him. The greatest of these is the one that
+includes all others and expresses and reflects Him perfectly. That we
+call man. That is the man who was 'made'--revealed, manifested--in
+His image and likeness. There is no other image and likeness of God.
+Moreover, God has always existed, and always will. So His ideas,
+including real man, have had no beginning. They were not created, as
+we regard creation, but have been unfolded.
+
+"All well and good, so far. But now we come to the peculiar part,
+namely, the fact that _reality seems always to have its shadow in
+unreality_. Every positive seems to have a negative. The magnet has
+its opposite poles, one positive, the other negative. Jesus had his
+Nero. Truth has its opposing falsities. At the lowest ebb of the
+world's morals appeared the Christ. The Christian religion springs
+from the soil of a Roman Emperor's blood-soaked gardens. And so it
+goes. Harmony opposed by discord. Errors hampering the solving of
+mathematical problems. Spirit opposed by matter. Which is real? That
+which stands the test of demonstration as to permanence, I say with
+Spencer.
+
+"And now we learn that it is the _communal mortal mind_ that stands as
+the opposite and negative of the infinite mind that is God, and that
+it is but a supposition, without basis of real principle or fact. It
+has its law of evolution, too, and evolves its types in human beings
+and animals, in mountain, tree, and stream. All material nature, in
+fact, is but the manifestation, or reflection, of this communal mortal
+mind.
+
+"But, though God had no beginning, and will have no ending, this
+communal mortal mind, on the contrary, did have a seeming beginning,
+and will end its pseudo-existence. It seemingly began as a mental
+mist. It seemingly evolved form and became active. It seemingly
+evolved its universe, and its earth as its lower stratum. It made its
+firmament, and it gradually filled its seas with moving things that
+manifested its idea of life. Slowly, throughout inconceivable eons of
+time, it unrolled and evolved, until at last, through untold
+generations of stupid, sluggish, often revolting animal forms, it
+began to evolve a type of mind, a crude representation of the mind
+that is God, and manifesting its own concept of intelligence. That
+type was primitive man.
+
+"Now what was this communal mortal mind doing? Counterfeiting divine
+mind, if I may so express it. Evolving crude imitative types. But
+types that were without basis of principle, and so they passed
+away--the higher forms died, the lower disintegrated. Aye, death came
+into the world because of sin, for the definition of sin is the
+Aramaic word which Jesus used, translated '_hamartio_,' which means
+'missing the mark.' The mortal mind missed the mark. And so its types
+died. And so they still die to-day. Yes, sin came through Adam, for
+Adam is the name of the communal mortal mind.
+
+"Well, ages and ages passed, reckoned in the human mind concept of
+time. The evolution was continually toward a higher and ever higher
+type. Why? The influence of divine mind was penetrating it.
+Paleolithic man still died, because he did not have enough real
+knowledge in his mortal mind to keep him from missing the mark. He
+probably had no belief in a future life, for he did not bury his dead
+after the manner of those who later manifested this belief. But, after
+the lapse of centuries, Neolithic man was found manifesting such a
+belief. What has happened? This: the mortal mind was translating the
+divine idea of immortality into its own terms and thus expressing it.
+
+"Ages rolled on. The curtain began to rise upon what we call human
+history. The idea of a power not itself began to filter through the
+mist of mortal mind, and human beings felt its influence, the
+influence that makes for righteousness. And then, at last, through the
+mortal mind there began to filter the idea of the one God. The people
+who best reflected this idea were the ancient Israelites. They called
+themselves the 'chosen' people. Their so-called minds were, as Carmen
+has expressed it, like window-panes that were a little cleaner than
+the others. They let a bit more of the light through. God is light,
+you know, according to the Scriptures. And little by little they began
+to record their thoughts regarding their concept of the one God. These
+writings became sacred to them. And soon they were seeing their God
+manifested everywhere, and hearing His voice in every sound of Nature.
+And as they saw, they wrote. And thus began that strange and mighty
+book, the Bible, _the record of the evolution of the concept of God in
+the human mind_."
+
+"Do you mean to say that the Bible was not given by inspiration?"
+demanded Reverend Moore.
+
+"No," replied Hitt. "This filtering process that I have been speaking
+about _is_ inspiration. Every bit of truth that comes to you or me
+to-day comes by inspiration--the breathing in--of the infinite mind
+that is truth.
+
+"And so," he went on, "we have those reflections of the communal
+mortal mind which we call the Israelites recording their thoughts and
+ideas. Sometimes they recorded plain fact; sometimes they wrapped
+their moral teachings in allegories and fables. Josephus says of Moses
+that he wrote some things enigmatically, some allegorically, and the
+rest in plain words, since in his account of the first chapter of
+Genesis and the first three verses of the second he gives no hint of
+any mystery at all. But when he comes to the fourth verse of the
+second chapter he says Moses, after the seventh day was over, began
+to talk philosophically, and so he understood the rest of the second
+and third chapters in some enigmatical and allegorical sense. Quite
+so, it appears to me, for the writer, whoever he was, was then
+attempting the impossible task of explaining the enigma of evil, the
+origin of which is associated always with the dust-man."
+
+"You deny the truth of the account of the creation as given in the
+second chapter of Genesis, do you?" asked Reverend Moore. "You deny
+that man was tempted and fell?"
+
+"Well," said Hitt, smiling, "of course there is no special reason for
+denying that serpents may have talked, millions and millions of years
+ago. In fact, they still have rudimentary organs of speech--as do most
+animals. Perhaps they all talked at one time. Snakes developed in the
+Silurian Era, some twenty million years ago. In the vast intervening
+stretch of time they may have lost their power to talk. But, as for
+the second chapter of Genesis, Moses may or may not have written it.
+Indeed, he may not have written the first. We do not know. The book of
+Genesis shows plainly that it is a composite of several books by
+various authors. I incline to the belief that some more materialistic
+hand and mind than Moses's composed that second chapter. However that
+may be, it is a splendid example of the human mind's crude attempt to
+interpret the spiritual creation in its own material terms. It in a
+way represents the dawning upon the human mind of the idea of the
+spiritual creation. For when finite sense approaches the infinite it
+must inevitably run into difficulties with which it can not cope; it
+must meet problems which it can not solve, owing to its lack of a
+knowledge of the infinite principle involved. That's why the world
+rejected the first account of the creation and accepted the second,
+snake-story, dust-man, apple tree, and all."
+
+"Hitt!" exclaimed Haynerd, his eyes wide agape. "You're like a
+story-book! Go on!"
+
+"Wait!" interrupted Miss Wall. "We know that man appeared on this
+earth in comparatively recent times. For millions and millions of
+years before he was evolved animals and vegetables had been dying. Now
+was their death due to sin? If so, whose?"
+
+"Assuredly," returned Hitt. "Your difficulty arises from the fact that
+we are accustomed to associate sin with human personality. But
+remember, the physical universe has been evolved from the communal
+mortal mind. It represents 'negative truth.' It has been dying from
+the very beginning of its seeming existence, for its seeming existence
+alone is sin. The vegetables, the animals, and now the men, that have
+been evolved from it, and that express it and reflect and manifest
+it, must die, necessarily, because the so-called mind from which they
+evolve is not based upon the eternal, immortal principle, God. And so
+it and they miss the mark, and always have done so. You must cease to
+say, Whose sin? Remember that the sin is inherent in the so-called
+mind that is expressed by things material. The absence of the
+principle which is God is sin, according to the Aramaic word,
+translated '_hamartio_,' which Jesus used. The most lowly cell that
+swam in the primeval seas manifested the communal mortal mind's sin,
+and died as a consequence."
+
+"In other words, it manifested a supposition, as opposed to truth?"
+
+"Its existence was quite suppositional," replied Hitt. "It did not
+manifest life, but a material sense of existence. The subjective
+always determines the objective. And so the communal mortal mind,
+so-called, determined these first lowly material and objective forms
+of existence. They were its phenomena, and they manifested it.
+Different types now manifest it, after long ages. But all are equally
+without basis of principle, all are subject to the mortal law that
+everything material contains within itself the elements for its own
+destruction, and all must pass away. In our day we are dealing with
+the highest type of mortal mind so far evolved, the human man. He,
+too, knows but one life, human life, the mortal-mind sense of
+existence. His human life is demonstrably only a series of states of
+material consciousness, states of thought-activity. The classification
+and placing of these states of consciousness give him his sense of
+time. The positing of his mental concepts give him his sense of space.
+His consciousness is a thought-activity, externalizing human opinions,
+ideas, and beliefs, not based on truth. This consciousness--or
+supposititious human mind--is very finite in nature, and so is
+essentially self-centered. It attributes its fleshly existence to
+material things. It believes that its life depends upon its fleshly
+body; and so it thinks itself in constant peril of losing it. It goes
+further, and believes that there are multitudes of other human minds,
+each having its own human, fleshly existence, or life, and each
+capable of doing it and one another mortal injury. It believes that it
+can be deprived by its neighboring mortal minds of all that it needs
+for its sustenance, and that it can improve its own status at their
+expense, and vice versa. It is filled with fears--not knowing that God
+is infinite good--and its fears become externalized as disaster, loss,
+calamity, disease, and death at last. Perhaps its chief characteristic
+is mutability. It has no basis of principle to rest upon, and so it
+constantly shifts and changes to accord with its own shifting thought.
+There is nothing certain about it. It is here to-day, and gone
+to-morrow."
+
+"Pretty dismal state of affairs!" Haynerd was heard to mutter.
+
+"Well, Ned," said Hitt, "there is this hope: human consciousness
+always refers its states to something. And that 'something' is real.
+It is infinite mind, God, and its infinite manifestation. The human
+mind still translates or interprets God's greatest idea, Man, as 'a
+suffering, sinning, troubled creature,' forgetting that this creature
+is only a mental concept, and that the human mind is looking only at
+its own thoughts, and that these thoughts are counterfeits of God's
+real thoughts.
+
+"Moreover, though the human mind is finite, and can not even begin to
+grasp the infinite, the divine mind has penetrated the mist of error.
+There is a spark of real reflection in every mortal. That spark can be
+made to grow into a flame that will consume all error and leave the
+real man revealed, a consciousness that knows no evil. There is now
+enough of a spark of intelligence in the human, so-called mind to
+enable it to lay hold on truth and grow out of itself. And there is no
+excuse for not doing so, as Jesus said. If he had not come we wouldn't
+have known that we were missing the mark so terribly."
+
+"Well," observed Haynerd, "after that classification I don't see that
+we mortals have much to be puffed up about!"
+
+"All human beings, or mortals, Ned," said Hitt, "are interpretations
+by the mortal mind of infinite mind's idea of itself, Man. These
+interpretations are made in the human mind, and they remain posited
+there. They differ from one another only in degree. All are false,
+and doomed to decay. How, then, can one mortal look down with
+superciliousness upon another, when all are in the same identical
+class?"
+
+Carmen's thoughts rested for a moment upon the meaningless existence
+of Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, who had anchored her life in the shifting
+sands of the flesh and its ephemeral joys.
+
+"Now," resumed Hitt, "we will come back to the question of progress.
+What is progress but the growing of the human mind out of itself under
+the influence of the divine stimulus of demonstrable truth? And that
+is made possible when we grasp the stupendous fact that the human,
+mortal mind, including its man, is absolutely unreal and non-existent!
+The human man changes rapidly in mind, and, consequently, in its lower
+stratum, or expression, the body. For that reason he need not carry
+over into to-day the old, false beliefs which were manifested by him
+yesterday. If he leaves them in the past, they cease to be manifested
+in his present or future. Thus he outgrows himself. Then, opening
+himself to truth, he lays off the 'old man' and puts on the 'new.' He
+denies himself--denies that there is any truth in the seeming reality
+of the mortal, material self--as Jesus bade us do."
+
+"He must make new thoughts, then?" said Miss Wall.
+
+"No," replied Hitt. "Thought is not manufactured. God is eternal mind.
+His ideas and the thoughts regarding them must always have existed.
+His thoughts are infinite in number. He, as mind, is an inexhaustible
+reservoir of thought. Now the human, mortal mind interprets His
+thoughts, and so _seems_ to manufacture new thought. It makes new
+interpretations, but not new thoughts. When you hear people chatting,
+do you think they are manufacturing new thought? Not a bit of it! They
+are but reflecting, or voicing, the communal so-called mortal mind's
+interpretations of God's innumerable and real thoughts."
+
+"And so," suggested Father Waite, "the more nearly correct our
+interpretations of His thoughts are, the nearer we approach to
+righteousness."
+
+"Just so," returned Hitt. "There exist all sorts of real thoughts
+about God's ideas. And these are good and eternal. But the human mind
+makes likewise all sorts of erroneous translations of them. We shall
+solve our problem of existence when we correctly interpret His
+thoughts, and use them only. When the human mentality becomes attuned
+or accustomed to certain thoughts, that kind flow into it readily from
+the communal mortal mind. Some people think for years along certain
+erroneous or criminal lines. Their minds are set in that direction,
+and invite such a flow of thought. But were they to reverse the 'set,'
+there would be a very different and better resulting externalization
+in health, prosperity, and morals."
+
+"I think I see," said Miss Wall. "And I begin to glimpse the true
+mission of Jesus, and why he was ready to give up everything for it."
+
+"Yes. And now a word further about the so-called mortal mind. For,
+when we have collected and arranged all our data regarding it, we will
+find ourselves in a position to begin to work out of it, and thereby
+truly work out our salvation, even if with fear and trembling. I have
+said in a previous talk that, judging by the deductions of the
+physical scientists, everything seems about to leave the material
+basis and turn into vibrations, and 'man changes with velocity' of
+these. They tell us that all life depends upon water; that life began,
+eons ago, in the primeval sea. True, the human sense of existence, as
+I have said, began in the dark, primeval sea of mist, the deep and
+fluid mortal mind, so-called. And that sense of existence most
+certainly is dependent upon the fluid of mortal mind. Bichat has said
+that 'life is the sum of the forces that resist death.' Spencer has
+defined life as the 'continuous adjustment of internal to external
+relations.' Very good, as applied to the human sense of life. The
+human mind makes multitudes of mental concepts, and then struggles
+incessantly to adjust itself to them, and at length gives up the
+struggle, hopelessly beaten. Scientists tell us that life is due to a
+continuous series of bodily ferments. The body is in a constant state
+of ferment, and that gives rise to life. Good! We know that the human
+mind is in a state of incessant ferment. The human mind is a
+self-centered mass of writhing, seething, fermenting material thought.
+And that fermentation is outwardly manifested in its concept of body,
+and its material environment. The scientists themselves are rapidly
+pushing matter back into the realm of the human mind. Bodily states
+are becoming recognized as manifestations of mental states--not vice
+versa, as has been ignorantly believed for ages. A prominent physician
+told me the other day that many a condition of nervous prostration now
+could be directly traced to selfishness. We know that hatred and anger
+produce fatal poisons. The rattlesnake is a splendid example of that.
+I am told that its poison and the white of an egg are formed of
+_exactly the same amounts of the same elements_. The difference in
+effect is the thought lying back of each."
+
+"Well!" exclaimed Doctor Siler. "You don't pretend that the snake
+thinks and hates--"
+
+"Doctor," said Hitt, "for thousands upon thousands of years the human
+race has been directing hatred and fear-thoughts toward the snake. Is
+it any wonder that the snake is now poisonous? That it now reflects
+back that poisonous thought to mankind?"
+
+"But some are not poisonous, you know."
+
+"Can we say how long they have not been so, or how soon our hatred
+will make them all poisonous? Do you know, moreover, that sorrow,
+remorse, all emotions, in fact, affect the perspiration that exudes
+from the human body? Do you know that hatred will render human
+perspiration the deadliest poison known to science? I am told that
+in a few minutes of murderous hatred enough of this poisonous
+perspiration is exuded from the human body to kill a man. And do
+you know that the thought which manifests upon the body in such
+deadly poison is just as deadly when sent into the mentality of a
+human being? Think what the Church's deadly hatred of so-called
+heretics has done in the last nineteen hundred years! Why, millions
+have been killed by it alone! And in the name of Christ!
+
+"But now," he said, consulting his watch, "I must go. Even a newspaper
+man requires a little sleep. And I must make my apology for occupying
+the floor to-night to the exclusion of you all. I have gradually been
+filling up with these thoughts for some weeks, and I had to let them
+out. Besides--"
+
+"Mr. Hitt," interrupted Father Waite, "I shall soon be ready to report
+on those questions of Bible research which you assigned to me."
+
+"Ah, yes," replied Hitt. "Well, have you found that Jesus really was
+an historical character, or not?"
+
+"I think," said Carmen, "that he has found that it really matters
+little whether there ever was such a person as the human man Jesus.
+The Christ has always lived; and the Christ-principle which the man
+Jesus is reported to have revealed to the world is with us, here, now,
+and always. It is the principle, rather than the man Jesus, that
+concerns us, is it not?"
+
+"Miss Carmen," interposed Reverend Moore, "Jesus was the incarnate Son
+of God, and your remarks concerning him are--"
+
+"Slow up, Pat!" interrupted Doctor Morton. "I'll fight that out with
+you on the way home. Come, the meeting's adjourned."
+
+"We will take up that question in our next discussion," said Hitt.
+"But, wait; Carmen must give us just a short song before we part."
+
+The girl went immediately to the piano. As she passed Hitt, she
+squeezed his hand. A few minutes later the little group dispersed,
+with the melody of the girl's voice trembling in their souls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8
+
+
+For several days Ames reflected, and waited. Judging by the data which
+he was able to secure, the Express was eating up money at a fearful
+pace. To continue at that rate meant certain financial disaster in the
+near future. And yet the publishers of the rejuvenated sheet seemed
+never to count the cost of their experiment. Already they had begun
+the introduction of innovations that were startling and even
+mirth-provoking to staid, conservative publishers in the journalistic
+field. To survive the long period necessary for the education of the
+public taste to such things as the Express stood for demanded a source
+of income no less permanent than La Libertad itself. But at this
+thought Ames chuckled aloud.
+
+Then an idea occurred to him. The Beaubien, of course, in her
+crippled financial condition was affording the Express no monetary
+assistance. Carmen had nothing. Haynerd's few thousands were long
+since dissipated. Hitt's income was measured. But--ah, Miss Wall! And
+her estate was handled by Ames and Company! And handled, we may add,
+in such a manner that Miss Wall knew naught regarding it, except that
+she might draw upon it as one dips water from a hillside spring.
+
+Thus Ames reflected. And as he meditated upon the new paper and its
+promoters, there gradually formed within him a consuming desire to see
+again the fair young girl who had drawn him so strongly, despite his
+mountainous wrath and his flaming desire to crush her when she boldly
+faced him in his own house on the night of his grand reception. Why
+had he let her escape him then? He had been a fool! True, women had
+meant little to him, at least in the last few years. But this girl had
+seemed to stir within him new emotions, or those long slumbering. He
+knew not, coarsely materialistic as was his current thought, that in
+him, as in all who came within the radius of her pure affection, she
+had swept chords whose music he had never heard before.
+
+Days passed, while Ames still mused. And then one morning he took down
+the receiver and called up the office of the Express.
+
+No, Mr. Hitt was not there--but this was his assistant. And:
+
+"You didn't want to see Mr. Hitt, did you? You wanted to see me. Well,
+you may come over."
+
+Ames nearly dropped the receiver in his astonishment. In the first
+place, the girl had read his thought; and in the second, he was not
+accustomed to being told that he might go to see people--they came
+cringing to him.
+
+"You may come at twelve-fifteen," continued the clear, firm voice.
+"And remain a half hour; I'm very busy."
+
+Ames put down the instrument and looked about, thankful that no one
+was there to comment on his embarrassment. Then he leaned back in his
+chair and went slowly over in thought the experiences of that eventful
+night in his house. Why, this slip of a girl--a half-breed Indian at
+best--this mere baby--! But he glanced up at the great electric wall
+clock, and wished it were then twelve-fifteen.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+At noon Ames, jauntily swinging his light walking stick, strolled
+casually into the office of the Express. His air was one of supreme
+confidence in his own powers. He was superhuman, and he knew it. And
+the knowledge rendered him unafraid of God, man, or beast. He had met
+and conquered everything mundane, excepting this young girl. But that
+thought was now delightful to him. In her he had unearthed a real
+novelty, a ceaseless interest. She reminded him of a beautiful kitten.
+She scratched and nettled him; but she was as nothing in his grasp.
+
+The first thing that impressed him on entering the office was the air
+of prosperity which hung over the place. The environment, he mentally
+commented, was somewhat unusual for a newspaper plant. Order, quiet,
+and cleanliness were dominant notes in the prevailing harmony. He
+first walked back into the pressroom to see if the same conditions
+prevailed there. Then he retraced his steps, and at length came to a
+halt before a door bearing the inscription, "Miss Ariza," on the
+glass. Turning the knob, he peered curiously in.
+
+The room was small, but light and airy. Its furnishings were new, and
+its walls had been freshly tinted. A few pictures of good quality hung
+about them. A handsome rug lay upon the floor. At the desk, bending
+over a new typewriter, sat Carmen.
+
+"I beg pardon," said Ames, hesitating in the doorway.
+
+The girl glanced up quickly. "Oh, come in," she said. "I was expecting
+you."
+
+He entered and took the chair indicated. "You don't mind if I finish
+this article, do you?" she said, bending again to her work. "It's got
+to go to the compositors right away."
+
+"Certainly--don't stop," replied Ames easily. "When we talk I want
+your undivided attention."
+
+"Oh, you're sure to get it," she returned, laughing. And Ames wondered
+just what she meant.
+
+He sat back in his chair and watched her closely. How wondrous fair
+she was! Yet, there was just a slight tint in her skin, he thought.
+Perhaps the report that she was a mulatto was not wholly unfounded,
+although the strain must have been greatly mixed. How simply she was
+dressed. He remembered her in her beautiful ball gown. He thought he
+preferred this. How rapidly her fingers sped over the keys. And what
+fingers! What a hand! He wanted to bend over and take it in his own.
+Then he suddenly remembered what the Beaubien had once told him--that
+she always seemed to be a better woman in this girl's presence.
+But--what changes had come since then! Could he go on persecuting the
+harassed woman? But he wouldn't, if--
+
+"There!" said the girl, with what seemed to be a little sigh of
+relief. She pressed a button, and handed the typewritten sheets to the
+boy who responded. Then, turning to Ames:
+
+"You've come to apologize, haven't you? But you needn't. I'm not a bit
+offended. I couldn't be, you know."
+
+Apologize! Well, he certainly had not had any such intention when he
+came in. In fact, he knew not just why he was there.
+
+"You see, Congressman Wales didn't vote for the unaltered schedule.
+And so everything's all right, isn't it?" she went on lightly.
+
+Ames's face darkened. "No vote has been taken," he said, a dull anger
+rising within him.
+
+"Oh, you are mistaken," replied the girl. "The bill was voted out of
+committee an hour ago. That's what I was writing up. Here's the wire,
+showing the alterations made. Mr. Wales voted for them."
+
+Ames read the message, and handed it back. Beyond the clouding of his
+features he gave no indication of his feelings.
+
+"So, you see," continued the girl, "that incident is closed--for all
+time, isn't it?"
+
+He did not reply for some moments. Then:
+
+"Rather odd, isn't it?" he commented, turning quite away from that
+subject, and glancing about, "that one with the high ideals you
+profess should be doing newspaper work."
+
+"Just the contrary," she quickly returned. "There is nothing so
+practical as the ideal, for the ideal is the only reality."
+
+"Well, just what, may I ask, are you trying to do here?" he
+continued.
+
+"Run a newspaper on a basis of _practical_ Christianity," she
+answered, her eyes dancing. "Just as all business will have to be
+conducted some day."
+
+He leaned back and laughed.
+
+"It is funny, isn't it?" she said, "to the carnal mind."
+
+The laughter abruptly ceased, and he looked keenly at her. But there
+was no trace of malice in her fair face as she steadily returned the
+look.
+
+"Has it paid yet?" he asked in a bantering tone.
+
+"Splendidly!" she exclaimed.
+
+"H'm! Well, I'll wager you won't get a dollar back on your investment
+for years."
+
+"A dollar! No, nor perhaps a penny! We are not measuring our profits
+in money!"
+
+"And your investment--let's see," he mused, trying to draw her out.
+"You've put into this thing a couple of hundred thousand, eh?"
+
+She smiled. "I'll tell you," she said, "because money is the only
+measure you have for estimating the worth of our project. Mr. Hitt has
+put more than that amount already into the Express."
+
+"Well! well! Quite a little for you people to lose, eh?"
+
+"You will have to change your tone if you remain here, Mr. Ames," she
+answered quietly. "We talk only prosperity in this office."
+
+"Prosperity! In the face of overwhelming debts! That's good!" he
+laughed.
+
+She looked at him closely for a moment. "Debts?" she said in a low
+voice. "_You_ speak of debts? You who owe your fellow-men what you can
+never, never repay? Why, Mr. Ames, there is no man in this whole wide
+world, I think, who is so terribly, hopelessly in debt as you!"
+
+"I? My dear girl! Why, I don't owe a dollar to any man!"
+
+"No?" she queried, bending a little closer to him. "You do not owe
+Madam Beaubien the money you are daily filching from her? You do not
+owe poor Mr. Gannette the money and freedom of which you robbed him?
+You do not owe anything to the thousands of miners and mill hands who
+have given, and still give, their lives for you? You do not owe for
+the life which you took from Mrs. Hawley-Crowles? You do not owe for
+the souls which you have debauched in your black career? For the human
+wreckage which lies strewn in your wake? You do not owe Mr. Haynerd
+for the Social Era which you stole from him?"
+
+Ames remained rigid and quiet while the girl spoke. And when she had
+finished, and they sat looking squarely into each other's eyes, the
+silence was like that which comes between the sharp click of lightning
+and the crash of thunder which follows. If it had been a man who thus
+addressed him, Ames would have hurled him to the floor and trampled
+him. As it was, he rose slowly, like a black storm-cloud mounting
+above the horizon, and stood over the girl.
+
+She looked up into his face dauntlessly and smiled. "Sit down," she
+quietly said. "I've only begun. Don't threaten, please," she
+continued. "It wouldn't do any good, for I am not a bit afraid of you.
+Sit down."
+
+A faint smile began to play about Ames's mouth. Then he twitched his
+shoulders slightly. "I--I got up," he said, with an assumption of
+nonchalance, "to--to read that--ah, that motto over there on the
+wall." He went slowly to it and, stooping, read aloud:
+
+               "Lift up the weak, and cheer the strong,
+               Defend the truth, combat the wrong!
+               You'll find no scepter like the pen
+               To hold and sway the hearts of men."
+
+"That was written by your Eugene Field," offered the girl. "Now read
+the one on the opposite side. It is your _Tekel Upharsin_."
+
+He went to the one she indicated, and read the spiritual admonition
+from Bryant:
+
+          "Leave the vain, low strife
+          That makes men mad--the tug for wealth and power--
+          The passions and the cares that wither life,
+          And waste its little hour."
+
+"Now," continued the girl, "that is only a suggestion to you of the
+real handwriting on the wall. I put it there purposely, knowing that
+some day you would come in here and read it."
+
+Ames turned and looked at her in dumb wonder, as if she were some
+uncanny creature, possessed of occult powers. Then the significance of
+her words trickled through the portals of his thought.
+
+"You mean, I suppose," he said, "that if I am not persuaded by the
+second motto I shall feel the force of the first, as it sways you,
+eh?"
+
+"I mean, Mr. Ames," she replied steadily, "that the world is entering
+upon a new era of thought, and that your carnal views and methods
+belong to a day that is past. This century has no place for them; it
+wearies of the things you represent; you are the epitome of that evil
+which must have its little hour of night before the reality dawns."
+
+He regarded her intently for some moments. "Am I to understand," he
+asked, "that the Express, under its new management, is about to turn
+muck-raker, and shovel mud at us men of wealth?"
+
+"We are not considering the Express now, Mr. Ames," she replied. "It
+is I alone who am warning you."
+
+"Do Hitt and Haynerd bring against me the charges which you voiced a
+moment ago? And do you intend to make the columns of your paper spicy
+with your comments on my character and methods? I verily believe you
+are declaring war!"
+
+"We are in the business of declaring truth, Mr. Ames," she said
+gently. "The Express serves all people. It will not shield you when
+you are the willing tool of evil, nor will it condone your methods at
+any price."
+
+"War, eh? Very well," he replied with a bantering smile. "I came over
+here this noon to get the policy of your paper. I accept your
+challenge."
+
+"Our challenge, Mr. Ames," she returned, "is the challenge which evil
+always finds in good. It is perpetual."
+
+"Fine!" he exclaimed. "I like a good enemy, and an honest one. All
+right, marshal your forces. Who's your general, Hitt or Haynerd?"
+
+"God," she answered simply.
+
+For an instant the man was taken back. Then he recovered himself, and
+laughed.
+
+"Do you know," he said, bending close to her, "I admire you _very_
+much. You are a splendid little fighter. Now let's see if we can't get
+together on terms of peace. The world hasn't used you right, and I
+don't blame you for being at odds with it. I've wanted to talk with
+you about this for some time. The pin-headed society hens got jealous
+and tried to kill you. But, if you'll just say the word, I'll set you
+right up on the very pinnacle of social prestige here. I'll take you
+by the hand and lead you down through the whole crowd of 'em, and
+knock 'em over right and left! I'll make you the leading woman of the
+city; I'll back the Express; we'll make it the biggest newspaper in
+the country; I'll make you and your friends rich and powerful; I'll
+put you in the place that is rightfully yours, eh? Will you let me?"
+
+He was bending ever nearer, and his hand closed over hers when he
+concluded. His eyes were looking eagerly into her face, and a smile,
+winning, enticing, full of meaning, played about his lips. His voice
+had dropped to a whisper.
+
+Carmen returned his smile, but withdrew her hand. "I'll join you," she
+said, "on one condition."
+
+"Name it!" he eagerly cried.
+
+"That you obey me."
+
+"Well--and what does that mean?"
+
+"Go; sell that thou hast; and give to the poor. Then come, take up the
+cross, and follow--my leader."
+
+He straightened up, and a sneer curled his lips. "I suppose," he
+coarsely insinuated, "that you think you now have material for an
+illuminating essay on my conversation."
+
+"No," she said gently. "It is too dark to be illuminating."
+
+The man's facial muscles twitched slightly under the sting, but he
+retained his outward composure. "My dear girl," he said, "it probably
+has not occurred to you that the world regards the Express as utterly
+without excuse for existence. It says, and truly, that a wishy-washy
+sheet such as it, with its devitalized, strained, and bolted reports
+of the world's vivid happenings, deserves to go under from sheer lack
+of interest. The experiment has been tried before, and has signally
+failed. Money alone can keep your paper alive. But, say the word,
+and--"
+
+"And your money, as well as your business ideals, will be ours?" she
+concluded for him.
+
+He smiled and nodded.
+
+"Mr. Ames," she said, "you have no ideals. No man who amasses millions
+by taking advantage of the world's inhuman and pernicious social
+system can have ideals worthy of the name. To apply your methods, your
+thought, to the Express would result in sinking its moral tone into
+the dust. As for your money--"
+
+"Commit suicide, then!" cried the man, yielding to his rising anger.
+"Let the Express go down, carrying you and your spineless associates
+with it! But, remember, you will be the sole cause of its ruin, and
+theirs!"
+
+Carmen rose quietly and opened the office door. "Your half hour is up,
+Mr. Ames," she said, glancing at the little clock on her desk; "and I
+must return to my work."
+
+For a moment the huge man stood looking down darkling upon the girl.
+He would have given his soul if he could have clasped that slender
+form in his arms! A sudden impulse assailed him, and bade him fall
+upon his knees before her, and ask her forgiveness and guidance. She
+stood waiting--perhaps just for that, and always with that same smile
+into which no one had ever yet read aught but limitless love.
+
+The telephone bell rang sharply. Carmen hastened to answer the call.
+
+"Oh, yes, Mr. Hitt. Yes--yes--the cotton schedule was reported out
+quite changed--yes, an hour ago!"
+
+When she looked up, she was alone.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Dearie," said the Beaubien at evening, as Carmen seated herself in
+that woman's lap and wound her arms about her neck, "I am afraid for
+you."
+
+"Well, mother dearest," replied the girl, giving her a tighter
+squeeze, "that is a sheer waste of time. If you haven't anything more
+to occupy you than fear, you'd better come down to the office, and
+I'll set you to work."
+
+"But--you have defied him--as he says, declared war--"
+
+"No, dearest, not that. It is the carnal mind, using him as a channel,
+that has declared war against good. But evil is not power; nor has it
+been given power by God. My one thought is this: Am I doing that which
+will result in the greatest good to the greatest number? Am I loving
+my neighbor as myself? Serving as I would be served? Not as evil would
+want to be served, but as good. If my mental attitude is right, then
+God's law becomes operative in all that I do, and I am protected.
+Don't you see?"
+
+"I know, dearie, but--there's the telephone! Oh, I do hope they don't
+want you!"
+
+Carmen answered the call, and returned with the announcement that
+Haynerd was in distress. "Sidney Ames is--not there," she said. "He
+was to report a meeting. Mr. Haynerd wanted Lewis. Now don't worry,
+dearest; I--I won't go alone."
+
+The girl had taken her coat and hat. A moment later she gave the
+Beaubien a kiss, and hurried out into the night. In half an hour she
+stood at Haynerd's desk.
+
+"What are we going to do?" moaned that perturbed individual. "Here I
+am, tied down, depending on Sid, and he's drunk!"
+
+"Well, I'm here. What's the assignment?"
+
+Haynerd looked up at her, and hesitated. "Mass meeting, over on the
+East Side. Here's the address," taking up a slip of paper. "Open
+meeting, I'm told; but I suspect it's an I. W. W. affair. Hello!" he
+said, replying to a telephone call. "What's that? The Ames mills at
+Avon closed down this afternoon? What's reason? Oh, all right. Call me
+in an hour."
+
+He hung up the receiver and turned to Carmen. "That's what this
+meeting is about," he said significantly. "Four thousand hands
+suddenly thrown out at the Avon mills. Dead of winter, too!"
+
+Sidney Ames slouched into the editor's office and sank heavily into a
+chair. Haynerd gave a despairing gesture. "Look here," he said, in
+sudden desperation, "that fellow's got to be sobered up, now! Or
+else--"
+
+Another call came, this time from the Beaubien. Father Waite had just
+come in. Could he take the assignment? Haynerd eagerly gave the
+address over the 'phone, and bade him start at once.
+
+"Now," he said, nodding at Carmen, and jerking his thumb over his
+shoulder toward the intoxicated reporter, "it's up to you."
+
+Carmen rose at once and went to the lad. "Come, Sidney," she said,
+taking his hand.
+
+The boy roused dully, and shuffled stupidly after the girl into her
+own little office.
+
+Carmen switched on the lights and closed the door. Then she went to
+the limp, emaciated form crumpled up in a chair, and sat down beside
+it.
+
+"Sidney," she said, taking his hand, "there is but one habit--the
+habit of righteousness. That is the habit that you are going to wear
+now."
+
+Outside, the typewriters clicked, the telephones tinkled, and the
+linotypes snapped. There were quick orders; men came and went
+hurriedly; but there was no noise, no confusion. Haynerd toiled like a
+beaver; but his whole heart was in his work. He had found his niche.
+Carmen's little room voiced the sole discordant note that night. And
+as the girl sat there, holding the damp hand of the poor victim, she
+thanked her God that the lad's true individuality was His pure
+thought of him.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+At dawn Sidney Ames awoke. A rosy-tinted glow lay over the little
+room, and the quiet form at his side seemed an ethereal presence. A
+gentle pressure from the hand that still clasped his brought a return
+of his earthly sense, and he roused up.
+
+"Miss Carmen! You--?"
+
+"Yes, Sidney." The gentle voice sounded to him like distant music.
+
+"I--you--you brought me in here last night--but--" His hands closed
+about the little one that lay in his grasp. "You--haven't sat
+here--with me--all night?"
+
+"Yes, Sidney, all night."
+
+With a low moan the boy buried his face in her arms, and burst into a
+flood of bitter tears.
+
+"It isn't real, Sidney," she whispered, twining an arm about his neck.
+"It isn't real."
+
+For some moments the lad sobbed out his shame and misery. Carmen
+stroked his fair hair, and drew him closer to her, while tears of love
+and pity coursed down her own cheeks.
+
+Then, suddenly, the boy started up. "Don't touch me!" he cried,
+struggling to his feet, while his eyes shone with a wild light.
+
+He started for the door, but Carmen darted past him and stood with her
+back against it, facing him. "Stop, Sidney!" she cried, holding her
+hands against him. "It can't drive you! It is powerless! _God reigns
+here!_"
+
+She turned the lock as he hesitated; then took his arm and led him,
+trembling and shivering, back to his chair.
+
+"We are going to meet this, Sidney, you and I," she whispered, bending
+over the shaking form.
+
+The suffering lad shook his head and buried his face in his hands.
+"You can't," he moaned; "you can't--I'm _gone!_" His voice died into a
+tremble of hopeless despair, of utter surrender.
+
+Carmen bit her lip. She had faced many trying situations in her brief
+life-experience; but, though she met it with dauntless courage and
+knew its source, the insidious suggestion now persisted that the eyes
+of her people were upon her, and that by this would stand or fall
+their faith. Aye, the world was watching her now, keen-eyed and
+critical. Would she give it cause to say she could not prove her faith
+by her works?
+
+And then came the divine message that bade her "Know that I am
+God!"--that bade her know that responsibility lay not upon her
+shoulders, but upon the Christ for whom she was now called to
+witness. To see, or permit the world to see, this mountainous error,
+this heaped-up evil, as real and having power, meant a denial of the
+Christ and utter defeat. It meant a weary retracing of her own steps,
+and a long night of spiritual darkness to those whose eyes had been
+upon her.
+
+"Sidney," she said, turning to the sunken boy at her side, "you are
+right, the old man _is_ gone. And now we are going to create 'new
+heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor
+come into mind'--as thought. Underneath are the everlasting arms, and
+you have sunk down, down, down, until at last you rest upon them, and
+you find that you haven't sunk at all, and that you couldn't possibly
+get away from that infinite Love that is always drawing you to
+itself!"
+
+She put her arm again about the lad, and drew him toward her. "Listen,
+Sidney dear, I am standing with you--and with me is omnipotent God!
+His arm is not shortened, that it can not save you from the pit of
+spiritual oblivion into which human thought would seem to make you
+think you had fallen, engulfed by the senses."
+
+The boy raised his head and looked at her through his bloodshot eyes.
+"You don't know!" he whispered hoarsely; "you don't understand--"
+
+"It is just because I _do_ understand, Sidney, that I am able to help
+you," she interrupted quickly. "I understand it all."
+
+"It--it isn't only whiskey--it's--" his head sank again--"it's--morphine!
+And--God! it's got me!"
+
+"It's got the false thought that seems to call itself 'you,'" she
+said. "Well, let it have it! They belong together. Let them go. We'll
+cling to them no longer, but shake them off for good. For good, I
+said, Sidney--and that means, for _God_!"
+
+"God?" he echoed. "I know no God! If there were a God, I shouldn't be
+where I am now."
+
+"Then I will know it for you," she softly answered. "And you are now
+right where you belong, in Him. And His love is about you."
+
+"Love!" He laughed bitterly. "Love! I never knew what it meant. My
+parents didn't teach it to their children. And when I tried to learn,
+my father kicked me into the street!"
+
+"Then, Sidney, I'll teach you. For I am in the world just to show what
+love will do."
+
+"My father--it's his fault--all his fault!" cried the boy, flaring up
+and struggling to rise. "God! I hate him--hate him! It's his fault
+that I'm a sot and a drug fiend!"
+
+"It is hate, Sidney, that manifests in slavery, in sodden brains, and
+shaking nerves. You don't hate your father; the hate is against your
+thought of him; and that thought is all wrong. We're going to correct
+it."
+
+"I used to drink--some, when I lived at home," the boy went on, still
+dwelling on the thoughts that held him chained. "But he could have
+saved me. And then I fell in love--I thought it was love, but it
+wasn't. The woman was--she was years older than I. When she left the
+city, I followed her. And when I found out what she was, and came back
+home, my father threw me out--cut me off--God!"
+
+"Never mind, Sidney," the girl whispered. "It isn't true anyway." But
+she realized that the boy must voice the thoughts that were tearing
+his very soul, and she suffered him, for it uncovered to her the
+hidden sources of his awful malady.
+
+"And then I drank, drank, drank!" he moaned. "And I lay in the
+gutters, and in brothels, and--then, one day, Carlson told me to come
+and work for him. He thought I could straighten up. And so I went to a
+doctor, and he--God curse him!--he injected morphine into my arm to
+sober me. And that taught me that I could drink all I wanted to, and
+sober up on morphine. But then I learned--I found--"
+
+He stopped, and began to fumble in his pockets. His eyes became wilder
+as he searched.
+
+"Where is it?" he cried, turning fiercely upon the girl. "Did you take
+it from me? Give it to me--_quick_!" He caught her wrist and twisted
+it painfully. His voice became a scream.
+
+_"God is everywhere!"_ flashed through the girl's thought. "I am not
+afraid to see evil seem to have power!" Then aloud: "I know what you
+are searching for, Sidney. Yes, I have it. Listen, and I will give it
+to you. You are searching for help. No, it isn't in morphine tablets.
+It is in love--right here--the Christ-principle, that is bigger far
+than the demons that seem to tear you! I have _all_ power from God,
+and you, evil, _can not touch me_!"
+
+The boy started at the ringing voice, and loosened his grasp. Then he
+sank back into his chair, shaking as with palsy.
+
+"Sidney!" she cried, seizing his hand. "Rise, and stand with me! We
+don't have to struggle--we don't have to fight--we only have to
+_know_. All that you are wrestling with is the world-wide belief that
+there is a power apart from God! _There is none!_ Any claim that there
+is such a power is a lie! I have proved it! You and I will prove it
+again! There is no power or intelligence in whiskey or morphine! I
+have been sent to help you! The Christ-principle will save you! There
+is nothing beyond its reach, not even your problem!
+
+"It is a problem, that's all, Sidney," she went on, as he became
+calmer. "And I have the solution. Will you put yourself in my charge,
+in my care, and let me meet it for you?" She bent over him and looked
+eagerly into his drawn face.
+
+"We are not going to fight," she continued. "We are not going to
+resist evil as the world does, and so make it real. I know, dear, just
+how pressing your need is. I know, and I understand. I know how
+awfully real it seems to you. But trust me, as I trust the Christ. For
+_victory is inevitable_!"
+
+For a few moments they sat together, hand in hand. The boy seemed to
+have been stunned. Then Carmen rose. "Come," she said. "I am going to
+take you home with me. I am going to keep you right with me, right
+under my thought. I'm going to be the mirror, constantly with you,
+that reflects infinite love to you every moment. Come; your problem is
+mine now. The burden of proof rests upon me. Don't think of anything
+else now, excepting that God has your hand and is leading you."
+
+She took his arm and drew him, unresisting, yet uncomprehending, to
+the door. As she opened it, she looked up into his face and smiled.
+The boy choked, and turned back.
+
+"No!" she cried, shifting her grasp to his hand. "No; you are mine
+now! And I shall not turn you over to yourself again until the problem
+is solved!"
+
+Hitt met them as they came out of the room. "Well," he said, "I've
+kept Madam Beaubien informed as well as I could. But she's been
+worried. Where are you going?"
+
+"Home," she said simply. "We'll be back at three--perhaps."
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+But at three that afternoon the Beaubien telephoned to Hitt that
+Carmen would not be down.
+
+"She will not leave the boy," the woman said. "She holds him--I don't
+know how. And I know he is trying desperately to help her. But--I
+never saw any one stand as she does! Lewis is here, but he doesn't
+interfere. We're going to put a bed in his room, and Sidney will sleep
+there. Yes, I'll keep you informed. Tell Ned, won't you?"
+
+Haynerd stormed; but the tempest was all on the surface. "I know, I
+know," he said, in reply to Hitt's explanation. "That boy's life is
+more to her than a million newspapers, or anything else in the
+universe just at present. She'll win! The devil can't look her in the
+face! I--I wish I were--What are you standing there for? Go 'long and
+get to work!"
+
+In the little Beaubien cottage that afternoon the angry waves of human
+fear, of human craving, of hatred, wrath, and utter misery mounted
+heaven-high, and fell again. Upon them walked the Christ. As the
+night-shadows gathered, Sidney Ames, racked and exhausted, fell into a
+deep sleep. Then Carmen left his bedside and went into the little
+parlor, where sat the Beaubien and Father Waite.
+
+"Here," she said, handing a hypodermic needle and a vial of tablets to
+the latter. "He didn't use them. And now," she continued, "you must
+work with me, and stand--firm! Sidney's enemies are those of his own
+mental household. It is our task to drive them out. We have got to
+uproot from his consciousness the thought that alcohol and drugs are a
+power. Hatred and self-condemnation, as well as self-love, voiced in a
+sense of injury, are other mental enemies that have got to be driven
+out, too. There is absolutely _no_ human help! It is all mental, every
+bit of it! You have got to know that, and stand with me. We are going
+to prove the Christ-principle omnipotent with respect to these seeming
+things.
+
+"But," she added, after a moment's pause, "you must not watch this
+error so closely that it can't get away. Don't watch it at all! For if
+you do, you make a reality of it--and then, well--"
+
+"The case is in your hands, Carmen," said Father Waite gently. "We
+know that Jesus would cure this boy instantly, if he were here--"
+
+"Well--the Christ _is_ here!" cried the girl, turning upon him. "Put
+away your 'ifs' and 'buts.' Stand, and _know_!"
+
+The man bowed before the rebuke. "And these," he said, holding out the
+needle and vial, "shall we have further use for them?"
+
+"It will be given us what we are to do and say," she returned. "The
+case rests now with God."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9
+
+
+Four weeks from that crisp morning when Carmen led the bewildered,
+stupified lad to her home, she and Sidney sat out upon the little
+porch of the cottage, drinking in the glories of the winter sun.
+January was but half spent, and the lad and girl were making the most
+of the sudden thaw before the colder weather which had been predicted
+might be upon them.
+
+What these intervening weeks had been to Carmen, none might have
+guessed as she sat there with the sunlight filtering in streamlets of
+gold through her brown hair. But their meaning to the boy might have
+been read with ease in the thin, white face, turned so constantly
+toward his fair companion. They were deeply, legibly written there,
+those black nights, when he would dash out into the hall, determined
+to break through the windows of the nearest dram shop and drink,
+drink, drink, until the red liquor burst from his eyes, his mouth, his
+nostrils! Those ghastly nights, when Carmen would stand before him,
+her arms outspread across the door, and beat back the roaring devils
+within him! Those long days of agonized desire for the vicious drug
+which had sapped his manhood! Those fell hours, when low curses poured
+from his burning lips upon her and upon all mankind! Those cold,
+freezing sweats, and the dry, cracking fever! Those hours when, with
+Carmen always by his side, he tramped mile after mile through drifts
+and ice, until he dropped at length from sheer exhaustion, only to
+awake, hours later, to find that the girl had brought him home, safe,
+unharmed!--
+
+And then, oh, the "Peace, be still!" which he began to hear, faint at
+first, but growing in volume, until, at last, it became a mighty,
+thunderous command, before which the demons paled and slunk away,
+never to return! Oh, the tears of agony that had given way to tears of
+joy, of thanksgiving! Oh, the weakness that had been his strength!
+And, oh, the devotion of this fair girl--aye, and of her associates,
+too--but all through her! Had she proved her God before the eyes of
+the world? That she had! Day after day, clad in the impenetrable armor
+of her love, she had stood at this struggling lad's side, meeting the
+arrows of death with her shield of truth! Night after night she had
+sat by his couch, her hand crushed in his desperate grasp, flouting
+the terror that stalked before his delirious gaze! What work she had
+done in those long weeks, none would ever know; but the boy himself
+knew that he had emerged from the valley of the shadow of death with a
+new mind, and that she had walked with him all the dark, cloud-hung
+way.
+
+As they sat there in the bright sunlight that morning, their thought
+was busy with the boy's future. Old plans, old ambitions, had seemed
+to lift with the lifting of the mortal curse which had rested upon
+him, and upward through the ashes of the past a tender flower of hope
+was pushing its way. He was now in a new world. The last tie which
+bound him to his family had been severed by his own father two weeks
+before, when the shadow of death fell athwart his mother's brilliant
+path. Mrs. J. Wilton Ames, delicate in health when recalled from
+abroad, and still suffering from the fatigue of the deadly social
+warfare which had preceded her sudden flight from her husband's
+consuming wrath, had failed to rally from the indisposition which
+seized her on the night of the grand Ames reception. For days she
+slowly faded, and then went quickly down under a sharp, withering
+attack of pneumonia. A few brief weeks after the formal opening of the
+Ames palace its mistress had sighed away her blasted hopes, her vain
+desires, her petty schemes of human conquest and revenge, and had gone
+to face anew her problems on another plane of mortal thought. It was
+rumored by the servants that, in her last hours, when she heard the
+rustle of the death angel's wings beside her, a great terror had
+stricken her, and she had called wildly for that son whom she had
+never cared to know. It was whispered that she had begged of her
+husband to seek the lad and lead him home; that she had pleaded with
+him to strive, with the boy, to find the better things of life; that
+she had begged him to warn and be warned of her present sufferings, as
+she lay there, stripped of every earthly aid, impoverished in heart,
+in soul, in mind, with her hands dusty and begrimed with the ashes of
+this life's mocking spoils. How true these rumors, none might say.
+What truth lay hidden in her mad ravings about the parentage of
+Carmen, and her confused, muttered references to Monsignor Lafelle, no
+one knew. But of those who stood about her bedside there was none who
+could gainsay the awed whisperings of the servants that this haughty
+leader of the great city's aristocracy had passed from this life into
+the darkness beyond in pitiable misery and terror.
+
+The news of his mother's death had come at a time when the boy was
+wild with delirium, at an hour when Waite, and Hitt, and Carmen stood
+with him in his room and strove to close their ears against the
+shrieking of the demon that was tearing him. Hitt at once called up
+Willett, and asked for instructions. A few minutes later came the
+message that the Ames house was forever barred against the wayward
+son. And it was not until this bright winter morning, when the lad
+again sat clothed and in his right mind, that Carmen had gently broken
+the news to him.
+
+"I never knew her," the boy had said at length, rousing from his
+meditations. "Few of the rich people's children know their parents. I
+was brought up by nurses and tutors. I never knew what it was to put
+my arms around my mother, and kiss her. I used to long to, at times.
+And often I would plan to surprise her by suddenly running into her
+arms and embracing her. But then, when I would see her, she was always
+so far away, so cold, so beautifully dressed. And she seldom spoke to
+me, or to Kathleen, until we were grown up. And by that time I was
+running wild. And then--then--"
+
+"There!" admonished Carmen, reaching over and taking his hand. "That's
+in our little private cemetery, you know. The old error is dead, and
+we are not going to dig it up and rehearse it, are we?"
+
+He smiled wanly. "I'm like a little baby," he said sadly. "I'm just
+beginning to live. And you are my mother, the only one I've ever
+known."
+
+Carmen laughed merrily. "Let me be your sister," she said. "We are so
+near of an age, you know."
+
+He raised her hand to his lips. "You are my angel," he murmured. "My
+bright, beautiful angel. What would I have been without you!"
+
+"Now, Sidney!" she warned, holding up a finger. "What have I told you
+so often that Jesus said? 'Of mine own self I can do nothing.' Nor can
+I, Sidney dear. It was--" her voice sank to a whisper--"it was the
+Christ-principle. It worked through him as a channel; and it worked
+through me."
+
+"You're going to teach me all about that," he said, again pressing her
+hand to his lips. "You won't cast me adrift yet, will you, little
+sister?"
+
+"Cast you adrift! Never, Sidney dear! Why, you're still mine, you
+know! I haven't given you back to yourself yet, have I? But now let's
+talk about your work. If you want to write, you are going to, and you
+are going to write _right_."
+
+"And you, Carmen?" he asked, wondering.
+
+"Back to the Express," she said lightly. "I haven't written a word for
+it now for a month. And how dear, funny old Ned has scolded!"
+
+"You--you dropped everything--your work--all--for a poor, worthless
+hulk like me," he sighed. "I--I can't understand it. You didn't know
+me, hardly."
+
+"Sidney dear," the girl replied. "It wasn't for you. It was for God.
+Everything I do is '_as unto Him_.' I would have done the same for
+anybody, whether I knew the person or not. I saw, not you, but the
+human need--oh, such a need! And the Christ-principle made me a human
+channel for meeting it, that is all. Drop my work, and my own
+interests! Why, Sidney, what is anything compared with meeting human
+needs? Didn't Jesus drop everything and hurry out to meet the sick and
+the suffering? Was money-making, or society, or personal desire, or
+worldly pleasure anything to him when he saw a need? You don't seem to
+understand that this is what I am here for--to show what love will
+do."
+
+"No," he murmured. "I--I guess I know only the world's idea of love."
+
+"And that is love's counterfeit, self-love, sentimentalism,
+sex-mesmerism, and all that," she added. "But now, back to your work
+again. You're going to write, write, write! My, but the world is
+hungry for _real_ literature! Your yearning to meet that need is a
+sign of your ability to do it. But, remember, everything that comes to
+you comes from within. You are, in fact, a miner; and your mine is
+your mind; and that is unlimited, for God is the only mind, infinite
+and omnipresent. Now you are going to mine that mind.
+
+"Listen," she went on hurriedly. "Don't be afraid to be afraid. We
+never fear a real thing; we fear only our false thoughts of things.
+Always those thoughts are absolutely wrong, and we wake up and find
+that we were fearing only fear-thoughts themselves. Haven't you ever
+noticed it? Now destroy the chains of fear which limit your thought,
+and God will issue!
+
+"Well," without waiting for his reply, "now you have reached that
+plane of thought where you don't really care for what the world has to
+offer you. You have ceased to want to be rich, or famous. You are not
+afraid to be obscure and poor. You have learned, at least in part,
+that the real business of this life lies in seeking good, in
+manifesting and expressing it in every walk, and in reflecting it
+constantly to your fellow-men. Having learned that, you are ready to
+live. Remember, there is no luck, no such thing as chance. The cause
+of everything that can possibly come to you lies within yourself. It
+is a function of your thought. The thought that you allow to enter
+your mentality and become active there, later becomes externalized.
+Be, oh, so careful, then, about your thought, and the basis upon which
+it rests! For, in your writing, you have no right to inflict false
+thought upon your credulous fellow-mortals."
+
+"But," he replied, "we are told that in literature we must deal with
+human realities, and with things as they are. The human mind exists,
+and has to be dealt with."
+
+"The human mind does not exist, Sidney, except as supposition. There
+are no human realities. The world still awaits the one who will show
+it things as they _really_ are. Human realities, so-called, are the
+horrible, ghastly unrealities of carnal thought, without any basis of
+the divine Christ-principle. I know, we are told that the great books
+of the world are those which preserve and interpret its life. Alas! is
+it true greatness to detail, over and over again in endless recital,
+the carnal motives of the human mind, its passions and errors, its
+awful mesmerism, its final doom? Yes, perhaps, on one condition: that,
+like a true critic, you picture human concepts only to show their
+unreality, their nothingness, and to show how they may be overcome."
+
+"But most books--"
+
+"Ah, yes, most books are written only to amuse the dispirited human
+mind for a brief hour, to make it forget for a moment its troubles.
+They are literary narcotics; they are sops to jaded appetites, that's
+all. A book, for example, that pictures an injured man discovering a
+great treasure, and then using it to carry out his schemes of
+revenge--well, what influence for good has such a work? It is only a
+stimulus to evil, Sidney. But had it shown him using that great wealth
+to bless his persecutors and turn them from their mesmerism to real
+life and good--"
+
+"Such things don't happen in this world, Carmen."
+
+"But they could, and should, Sidney dear. And they will, some day.
+Then will come the new literature, the literature of _good_! And it
+will make people think, rather than relieve them from the ennui of
+solid thought, as our present novels do. The intellectual palate then
+will find only insipidity in such books as pour from our presses now.
+The ability to converse glibly about authors who wallow in human
+unrealities will then no longer be considered the hall-mark of
+culture. Culture in that day will be conformity to truth."
+
+The lad smiled at the enthusiastic girl. "Little sister," he said,
+"you are a beautiful idealist."
+
+"But," came her quick reply, "are you not a living illustration of the
+practicability of my idealism, Sidney?"
+
+The boy choked, and tears filled his eyes. Carmen stole an arm about
+him. "The most practical man who ever lived, Sidney dear, was Jesus.
+And he was the greatest idealist. He had ideas that differed very
+radically from other people's, but he did not hide them for fear of
+giving offense. He was not afraid to shock people with the truth about
+themselves. He tore down, yes; but he then reconstructed, and on a
+foundation of demonstrable truth. He was not afraid to defy the
+Rabbis, the learned, and the puffed-up. He did not bow abjectly before
+the mandarins and pedagogues. Had he done so, and given the people
+what they wanted and were accustomed to, they would have made him a
+king--and his mission would have been a dead failure!"
+
+"And for that they slew him," returned the boy.
+
+"It is the cowardly fear of slaughter, Sidney, that keeps people from
+coming out and standing for what they know to be right to-day. You are
+not one of those cravens."
+
+"But the people who do that, Carmen, are called demagogues and
+muck-rakers!"
+
+She laughed. "And the muck-rakers, Sidney, have made a sorry mess,
+haven't they? They destroy without ruth, but seldom, if ever, put
+forth a sane suggestion for the betterment of conditions. They traffic
+in sensationalism, carping criticism, and abuse. 'To find fault,' said
+Demosthenes, 'is easy, and in every man's power; but to point out the
+proper remedy is the proof of a wise counselor.' The remedy which I
+point out, Sidney, is the Christ-principle; and all I ask is that
+mankind seek to demonstrate it, even as Jesus bade us do. He was a
+success, Sidney, the greatest success the world has ever known. And
+why? Because he followed ideals with utter loyalty--because he voiced
+truth without fear--because he made his business the service of
+humanity. He took his work seriously, not for money, not for human
+preferment, but for mankind. And his work bears the stamp of
+eternity."
+
+"I'm afraid--" he began.
+
+"You're _not_ afraid, Sidney!" the girl quickly interrupted. "Oh, why
+does the human mind always look for and expect that which it does not
+want to see come or happen!"
+
+The boy laughed heartily at the quick sally of her delightfully
+quotidian thought. "You didn't let me finish," he said. "I was going
+to say that I'm afraid if I write and speak only of spiritual things I
+shall not be understood by the world, nor even given a hearing."
+
+"Well, don't use that word 'afraid.' My! how the human mind clings to
+everything, even words, that express its chief bogy, fear."
+
+"All right; I accept the rebuke. But, my question?"
+
+"That was the case with Jesus. And yet, has anything, written or
+spoken, ever endured as his spiritual teachings? The present-day novel
+or work of fiction is as fleeting as the human thought it attempts to
+crystallize. Of the millions of books published, a handful endure.
+Those are they which illustrate the triumph of good over evil in human
+thought. And the greatest of such books is the Bible."
+
+"Well, I'm hunting for a subject now."
+
+"Don't hunt. Wait--and _know_! The subject will then choose you. It
+will pelt you. It will drive you to the task of transcribing it. Just
+as one is now driving me. Sidney--perhaps I can give you the subject!
+Perhaps I am the channel for this, too!"
+
+He looked at her inquisitively. "Well," bending over closer to her,
+"what is it, little sister?"
+
+The girl looked out over the dripping shrubs and the soft snow. But
+her thought was not there. She saw a man, a priest, she knew not
+where, but delving, plodding, digging for the truth which the human
+mind has buried under centuries and centuries of material _debris_.
+She saw him, patiently bearing his man-made burden, striving to shield
+a tender, abandoned girl, and to transfer to her his own great worldly
+knowledge, but without its dross. She saw the mighty sacrifice, when
+the man tore her from himself, and thrust her out beyond the awful
+danger in which he dwelt. She understood now. The years had taught her
+much. It was love--aye, the love that alone makes men great, the love
+that lays down human life in self-immolating service.
+
+She turned to the waiting lad. "You will write it, Sidney? I will tell
+you the whole beautiful story. It is an illustration of the way love
+works through human channels. And perhaps--perhaps, some day, the book
+may reach him--yes, some day. And it will tell him--oh, Sidney, it
+will tell him that I know, and that I love him, love him, love him!"
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the office of the manager of the Express three heads were close
+together that morning, and three faces bore outward evidence of the
+serious thought within.
+
+"Miss Wall tells me, Ned," Hitt was saying, "that her father used to
+be associated with Ames, and that, at his demise, he left his estate,
+badly entangled, for Ames to settle. Now it transpires that Ames has
+been cunning enough to permit Miss Wall to draw upon his bank almost
+without limit, he making up any deficit with his own personal notes."
+
+"Ah!" commented Haynerd. "I think I see the shadow of his fine hand!"
+
+"And now," resumed Hitt, "she is given to understand that Ames has
+been obliged by the bank examiner to withdraw his personal notes as
+security for her deficits, and that the revenue from her estate must
+be allowed to accrue to the benefit of the Ames bank until such time
+as all obligations are met."
+
+"Beautiful!" ejaculated Haynerd. "In other words, Elizabeth is simply
+cut off!"
+
+"Just so. And now, another thing: Madam Beaubien's lawyer called on
+her to-day, and informed her that Hood had gone into court and secured
+an injunction, tying up all revenue from her estate until it can be
+unraveled. That cuts off her income, likewise."
+
+Haynerd whistled. "The hound!" he ejaculated. "Ames is out to do up
+the Express, eh?"
+
+"There is no doubt of it, Ned," returned Hitt seriously. "And to
+utterly ruin all connected with it."
+
+"Then, by God, we'll fight him to the last ditch!" cried the excited
+Haynerd.
+
+"I think you forget, Ned, that we have a lady with us," nodding toward
+Miss Wall, "and that you are seriously trying to reform, for Carmen's
+sake."
+
+"I beg your pardon, Elizabeth," said Haynerd meekly. "I really am
+trying to be decent, you know. But when I think of Ames it's like a
+red rag to a bull!"
+
+Miss Wall laughed. "Never mind, Ned. I admire your fighting spirit."
+
+"Of course," Hitt continued, "oil still flows from our paternal wells.
+But in order to raise money at once I shall be obliged either to sell
+my oil holdings or mortgage them. They have got to take care of us all
+now, including Madam Beaubien."
+
+"Where's Carmen?" asked Haynerd suddenly.
+
+"Home, with Sidney. There's another anomaly: while Ames is trying to
+ruin us, that girl is saving his son. Great world, isn't it?"
+
+"It's a hell of a world!" cried Haynerd. "I--I beg your pardon,
+Elizabeth. The fact is, either you or I will have to retire from this
+meeting, for I'm getting mad. I--I may say things yet!"
+
+"Say anything you want to, Ned. I like to hear your sulphurous
+language to-day. It helps to express my own feelings," replied the
+woman.
+
+"The circulation of the Express," Hitt went on, "is entirely
+artificial. Our expense is tremendous, and our revenue slight. And
+still Carmen insists on branching out and putting into practical form
+her big ideas. Limitation is a word that is not in her vocabulary!"
+
+"Hitt, can't we fight Ames with his own fire? What about that Wales
+affair?"
+
+"Ames is very cunning," answered Hitt. "When he learned that the
+cotton schedule had been altered in the Ways and Means Committee, he
+promptly closed down his Avon mills. That was to scare Congress. Then
+he resumed, but on half time. That was a plea of distress. I presume
+he will later return to full time, but with a reduced scale of wages.
+He's trying to coerce Congress. Now how does he intend to do it? This
+way: he will force a strike at Avon--a February strike--four thousand
+hands out in the cold. Meantime, he'll influence every other spinner
+in the country to do likewise. They'll all follow his lead. Now, can
+Congress stand up against that sort of argument? And, besides, he will
+grease the palms of a large number of our dignified statesmen, you may
+be sure!"
+
+"Mr. Hitt," said Miss Wall, "I suggest that you send Carmen to Avon at
+once. I know of no one who can get to the bottom of things as she can.
+Let her collect the facts regarding the situation down there, and
+then--"
+
+"Send her first to Washington!" interrupted Haynerd. "Have her hang
+around the lobbies of the Capitol for a while, and meet a lot of those
+old sap-heads. What information she won't succeed in worming out of
+them isn't in 'em, that's all!"
+
+"But," objected Hitt, "if she knew that we would use her information
+for a personal attack upon Ames, she'd leave us."
+
+"There's no objection to her getting the facts, anyway, is there?"
+demanded Haynerd, waxing hot again.
+
+"N--no, I suppose not. But that will take additional money. Very well,
+I'll do it. I'll put a mortgage on my Ohio holdings at once."
+
+"I don't think I would be afraid," suggested Miss Wall. "We might not
+use the information Carmen may collect in Avon or Washington, but
+something, I am sure, is bound to come out of it. Something always
+comes out of what she does. She's the greatest asset the Express has.
+We must use her."
+
+"All well and good," put in Haynerd. "And yet, if she finds anybody
+down there who needs help, even the President himself, she'll throw
+the Express to the winds, just as she did in Sidney's case. You can't
+bank on her!"
+
+"No, that's true, Ned, for while we preach she's off somewhere
+practicing. We evolve great truths, and she applies and demonstrates
+them. But she has saved Sidney--her Christ did it through her. And she
+has given the lad to us, a future valuable man."
+
+"Sure--if we are to _have_ any future," growled Ned.
+
+"See here," retorted Hitt, brindling, "have we in our numerous
+gatherings at Madam Beaubien's spoken truth or nonsense? If you
+believe our report, then accept and apply it. Now who's to go to Avon
+with Carmen?"
+
+"Sidney," suggested Miss Wall.
+
+"Sid?" exclaimed Haynerd. "Huh! Why, if those Magyars down there
+discovered he was Ames's son, they'd eat him alive!"
+
+The telephone rang. Hitt answered the call. Then, turning to his
+companions:
+
+"Waite says he wants a meeting to-night. He'd like to report on his
+research work. Guess we'd better call it. I'll inform Morton. No
+telling when we may get together again, if the girl--" He became
+suddenly silent, and sat some time looking vacantly out through the
+window.
+
+"She goes to Avon to-morrow," he abruptly announced, "alone." His
+thought had been dwelling on that 'something not ourselves' which he
+knew was shielding and sustaining the girl.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10
+
+
+"We have now arrived at a subject whose interest and significance for
+us are incalculable," said Father Waite, standing before the little
+group which had assembled in their usual meeting place in the first
+hours of the morning, for only at that time could Hitt and Haynerd
+leave the Express. "We have met to discuss briefly the meaning of that
+marvelous record of a whole nation's search for God, the Bible. As
+have been men's changing concepts of that 'something not ourselves
+that makes for righteousness,' so have been individuals, tribes, and
+nations. The Bible records the development of these concepts in
+Israel's thought; it records the unquenchable longings of that people
+for truth; it records their prophetic vision, their sacred songs,
+their philosophy, their dreams, and their aspirations. To most of us
+the Bible has long been a work of profound mystery, cryptical,
+undecipherable. And largely, I now believe, because we were wont to
+approach it with the bias of preconceived theories of literal, even
+verbal, inspiration, and because we could not read into it the record
+of Israel's changing idea of God, from a wrathful, consuming Lord of
+human caprice and passions, to the infinite Father of love, whom Jesus
+revealed as the Christ-principle, which worked through him and through
+all who are gaining the true spiritual concept, as is this girl who
+sits here on my right with the lad whom you have seen rescued by the
+Christ from the pit of hell."
+
+His voice choked when he referred to Carmen and Sidney. But he quickly
+stifled his emotion, and went on:
+
+"In our last meeting Mr. Hitt clearly showed us how the so-called
+human mind has seemed to develop as the suppositional opposite of the
+mind that is God; and how through countless ages of human reckoning
+that pseudo-mind has been revealing its various types, until at
+length, rising ever higher in the scale of being, it revealed its
+human man as a mentality whose consciousness is the suppositional
+activity of false thought, and which builds, incessantly, mental
+concepts out of this kind of thought and posits them within itself as
+material objects, as its own body, its universe, its all. And he
+showed us how, little by little, that human mind's interpretations of
+the infinite mind's true ideas became better, under the divine
+infiltration of truth, until at last there developed a type, now known
+to us as the Jewish nation, which caught a clearer glimpse of truth,
+and became conscious of that 'something not ourselves' which makes
+for right-thinking, and consequent correct mental concepts and
+externalizations. This, then, was the starting point of our religion.
+These first glimpses of truth, and their interpretations, as set forth
+in the writings of the early Jewish nation, constitute the nucleus of
+our Bible.
+
+"But were these records exact statements of truth? Not always. The
+primitive human mind could only lisp its wonderful glimpses of truth
+in legend and myth. And so in fable and allegory the early Israelites
+sought to show the power of good over evil, and thereby stimulate a
+desire for right conduct, based, of course, on right-thinking. And
+thus it is that the most significant thing in their sacred records is
+their many, many stories of the triumph of the spiritual over the
+material.
+
+"Time passed. The Hebrew nation waxed prosperous. Their right-thinking
+became externalized outwardly in material abundance and physical
+comfort. But the people's understanding was not sufficiently great to
+shield them from the temptation which material wealth and power always
+constitute. Their vision gradually became obscured. The mist of
+materialism spread over it. Those wonderful flashes of truth ceased to
+dart across their mental horizon. Their god became a magnified concept
+of the human man, who dickered with them over the construction of his
+temples, and who, by covenants, bribes, and promises, induced them to
+behave themselves. Prophecy died. And at length the beautiful vision
+faded quite away.
+
+"Then followed four hundred human years, during which the vicissitudes
+of the Hebrew nation were many and dark. But during those long
+centuries there developed that world wonder, a whole nation's united
+longing for a deliverer! The prophets promised a great change in their
+fallen fortunes. Expectation grew keen. Desire expanded into yearning.
+Their God would not forsake them. Was not His grace sufficient? Though
+their concept of Him had grossly degenerated, yet the deliverer would
+come, he _must_!
+
+"And he did. In the depths of their night--in the midst of the
+heaviest darkness that ever lay over the world--there arose a great
+light. Through the densest ignorance of the human mind filtered the
+Christ-principle, and was set forth by the channel through which it
+came, the man Jesus.
+
+"What had happened? Had there been a conference among God, the Son,
+and the Holy Ghost, to debate the sending of salvation to mankind, as
+recorded by the poet Milton? Alas! what a crude, materialistic
+conception. Had God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
+Son? But God _is_ Love, infinite, unchanging. And His unique Son, the
+Christ-principle, available to all mankind, was 'before Abraham.' Had
+a great, dimly perceived principle been demonstrated, namely, that,
+if we yearn long and earnestly for the right, it comes? Had the Jewish
+nation 'demonstrated' the Christ? Had their centuries of looking and
+expecting resulted in a saviour being manifested to them? It was a
+period in the unfolding of human thought when civilization had reached
+its lowest depths. Morality had evaporated to the dregs. Rome was
+become the world's harlot. A few years more, and Nero would drag his
+vulpine immorality across the stage. Paganism was virtue in comparison
+with the lust of men in that dark hour. And yet, in the very midst of
+it, appeared the most venerated, the most beloved man in all history,
+bearing the Christ-message like a flaming torch!
+
+"'Always our being is descending into us,' said Emerson. But our true
+being can be none other than infinite mind's idea of itself. Our true
+individuality must be the way that mind regards us. And thus it was
+that Israel's true being descended, filtering in through the thick
+mists of error. That true being was the deliverer, _par excellence_,
+for it was the message of truth that bade men deny themselves, their
+carnal selves, and know but the one God, infinite mind. That was the
+grace sufficient for them, that would have solved their problems, that
+would have enabled them to lay off the 'old man' and his woes and
+afflictions, and put on the 'new man,' divine mind's image. But the
+carnal mind sought a material kingdom. It wanted, not spirit, but
+matter. It cruelly rejected the message-bearer, and sought to kill his
+message by slaying him on the cross. And thereby the Jewish nation
+rent itself asunder, and sank into carnal oblivion. Ah, how they have
+been cursed by the crucifixion of Jesus!
+
+"Men ask to-day: Did Jesus really live? Or is he a mythical character,
+like the gods of pagan Rome? Let us ask, in making our reply, how
+truth comes to mankind? Is it not always through some human channel?
+Then the great sayings attributed to Jesus at least came from a human
+being. Let us go further: it is the common history of mankind that
+truth comes to the human mind only after a period of preparation. Not
+conscious preparation, necessarily, but, rather, a preparation forced
+by events. The truth of a mathematical principle can not come to me
+unless I am prepared to receive it. And the greatest good comes to men
+only after they have learned the nothingness of the material ambitions
+and aims which they have been pursuing. By its own rottenness the
+world had been made fallow for truth. The awfulness of its own
+exposure in its rampant, unlicensed revels, had shown as never before
+the human mind's absolute nothingness--its nothingness as regards real
+value, permanence, and genuine good--in that first century of our
+so-called Christian era. And when the nothingness of the carnal mind
+was made plain, men saw the reality of the truth, as revealed in the
+Christ, back of it all. The divine message was whispered to a human
+mentality. And that mentality expanded under the God-influence, until
+at last it gave to the sin-weary world the Christ-principle of
+salvation. Let us call that human mentality, for convenience, the man
+Jesus.
+
+"And now, was he born of a virgin? Impossible! And yet--let us see. It
+was common enough in his day for virgins to pretend to be with child
+by the Holy Ghost; and so we do not criticise those who refuse to
+accept the dogma of the virgin birth. But a little reflection in the
+light of what we have been discussing throws a wonderful illumination
+upon the question. If matter and material modes are real, then we must
+at once relegate the stories of the virgin birth, the miracles, the
+resurrection, and the ascension to the realm of myth. If the so-called
+laws of matter are real, irrefragable laws, then we indulgently, pass
+by these stories as figments of heated imaginations. But, regarding
+matter as a human, mortal concept, entirely mental, and wholly subject
+to the impress and influence of mind, and knowing, as we do now, that
+_mental concepts change with changed thought_, we are forced to look
+with more favor upon these questions which for centuries caused men to
+shed their fellows' blood.
+
+"Mr. Hitt pointed out in our last meeting that mortal beings are
+interpretations in mortal or human mind of the infinite mind, God, and
+its ideas. The most perfect human interpretation of God's greatest
+idea, Man, was Christ Jesus. The _real_ selfhood of every one of us is
+God's idea of us. It is spiritual, mental. The world calls it the
+'soul,' the 'divine essence,' and the 'immortal spark.' The Christ was
+the real, spiritual selfhood of the man Jesus. So the Christ is the
+real selfhood of each of us. It is not born of the flesh. It is not
+conceived and brought forth in conformity with human modes. Now was
+this great fact externalized in the immaculate conception and birth?
+It does not grow and decay and pass away in death. It is the 'unique'
+Son of God which is back of each one of us. But the world has seen it
+only once in its fullness, and then through the man Jesus.
+
+"Something happened in that first century of the so-called Christian
+era--something of tremendous significance. What was it? It was the
+birth of the Christ-idea into the human consciousness. Was the
+Christ-idea virgin-born? Aye, that it was, for God, infinite Mind,
+alone was its origin and parent. The speculation which has turned
+about that wonderful first century event has dealt with the human
+channel through which the Christ-idea flowed to mankind. But let us
+see what light our deductions throw even upon that.
+
+"Referring all things to the realm of the mental, where we now
+know they belong, we see that man never fell, but that Israel's idea
+of God and man did fall, woefully. We see that the Christ-principle
+appeared among men; we see that to-day it works marvels; we must
+admit that throughout the ages before Jesus it had done so; we
+know now that the great things which Israel is recorded to have
+done were accomplished by the Christ-principle working through
+men, and that when their vision became obscured they lost the
+knowledge of that principle and how to use it. History records the
+working of great deeds by that same Christ-principle when it was
+re-born in our first century; and we also can see how the obscuring
+of the spiritual by the material in the Emperor Constantine's time
+caused the loss of the Church's power to do great works. We are
+forced to admit the omnipotence, immanence, and eternality of the
+Christ-principle, for it is divine mind, God himself. Moses, Elisha,
+Elijah, the ancient prophets, all had primitive perceptions of truth,
+and all became channels for the passing of the Christ-principle to
+mankind in some degree. But none of these men ever illustrated that
+principle as did the man Jesus. He is the most marvelous manifestation
+of God that has ever appeared among mankind; so true and exact was
+the manifestation that he could tell the world that in seeing him
+they were actually seeing the Father. It is quite true that many
+of his great sayings were not original with him. Great truths have
+been voiced, even by so-called pagans, from earliest times. But he
+demonstrated and made practical the truth in these sayings. And he
+exposed the nothingness of the human mental concept of matter by
+healing disease, walking the waves, and in other wonderful ways. It
+is true that long before his time Greek philosophers had hit upon the
+theory of the nothingness of matter. Plato had said that only ideas
+were real. But Jesus--or the one who brought the Christ-message--was
+the clearest mentality, the cleanest human window-pane, to quote
+Carmen, that ever existed. Through him the divine mind showed with
+almost unobscured fullness. God's existence had been discerned and
+His goodness proved from time to time by prophets and patriarchs, but
+by no means to the extent that Jesus proved it. There were those
+before him who had asserted that there was but one reality, and that
+human consciousness was not the real self. There were even those who
+believed matter to be created by the force of thought, even as in
+our own day. _But it remained for Jesus to make those ideas
+intensely practical, even to the overcoming and dissolution of his
+whole material concept of the universe and man._ And it remained
+for him to show that the origin of evil is in the lie about God. It
+was his mission to show that the devil was 'a man-killer from the
+beginning,' because it is the supposition that there is power apart
+from God. It was his life purpose to show mankind that there is
+nothing in this lie to cause fear, and that it can be overcome by
+overcoming the false thought which produces it. By overcoming that
+thought he showed men the evanescent nature of sickness and death.
+And sin he showed to be a missing of the mark through lack of
+understanding of what constitutes real good.
+
+"Turn now again to the Bible, that fascinating record of a whole
+people's search for God and their changing concept of Him. Note that,
+wherever in its records evil seems to be made real, it is for the
+purpose of uncovering and destroying it by the vigorous statements of
+truth which you will almost invariably find standing near the
+exposition of error. So evil seemed very real in the first century of
+our era; but it was uncovered by the coming of Jesus. The exposure of
+evil revealed the Christ, right at hand."
+
+"But," protested Haynerd, "let's get back to the question of the
+virgin birth."
+
+"Very well," replied Father Waite. "But let us first consider what
+human birth is."
+
+"Now there!" exclaimed Haynerd. "Now you are touching my lifelong
+question. If I am immortal, where was I before I was born?"
+
+"Of which 'I' are you speaking, Ned?" asked Father Waite. "The real
+'I' is God's image and likeness, His reflection. It was never born,
+and never dies. The human 'I' had a beginning. And therefore it will
+cease to be. The human mind makes its own laws, and calls them laws of
+nature, or even God's laws. And it obeys them like a slave. Because
+God is both Father and Mother to His children, His ideas, the human
+mind has decreed in its counterfeiting process that it is itself both
+male and female, and that the union of these two is necessary in order
+to give rise to another human mind. Do you see how it imitates the
+divine in an apish sort of way? And so elements of each sex-type of
+the human mind are employed in the formation of another, their
+offspring. The process is wholly mental, and is one of human belief,
+quite apart from the usage of the divine Mind, who 'spake and it was
+done,' mentally unfolding a spiritual creation. The real 'you,' Ned,
+has always existed as God's idea of Himself. It is spiritual, not
+material. It will come to light as the material 'you' is put off. The
+material 'you' did not exist before it was humanly born. It was
+produced in supposition by the union of the parent human minds, which
+themselves were reflections of the male and female characteristics of
+the communal mortal mind. It thus had a definite, supposititious
+beginning. It will therefore have a definite end."
+
+"And so I'm doomed to annihilation, eh? That's a comforting thought!"
+
+"Your mortal sense of existence, Ned, certainly is doomed to
+extinction. That which is supposition must go out. Oh, it doubtless
+will not all be destroyed when you pass through that change which we
+call death. It may linger until you have passed through many such
+experiences. And so it behooves you to set about getting rid of it
+as soon as possible, and thus avoid the unpleasant experience of
+countless death-throes. You see, Ned, an error in the premise will
+appear in the conclusion. Now you are starting with the premise that
+the human 'you' is real. That premise is not based upon fact. Its
+basis is rank error. All that you reflect of divine mind will
+endure permanently, but whatever you reflect of the lie regarding
+that mind will pass away. Human beings know nothing of their origin,
+nor of their existence. Why? _Because there is nothing to know
+about them; they are entirely supposititious!_ Paul says, in his
+letter to the Romans: 'They which are the children of the flesh, these
+are not the children of God.' The birth of the children of the
+flesh is wholly a human-mind process. The infant mentality thus
+produced knows nothing whatsoever of itself. It has no knowledge; is
+not founded on truth. It will later manifest hereditary beliefs,
+showing the results of prenatal mesmerism. Then it will receive the
+general assortment of human thought and opinion--very little of it
+based on actual truth--which the world calls education. Then it
+learns to regard itself as an individual, a separate being. And soon
+it attributes its origin to God. But the prenatal error will appear
+in the result. The being manifests every gradation of human thought;
+it grows; it suffers and enjoys materially; it bases its very
+existence upon matter; it manifests the false activity of human
+thought in material consciousness; and then it externalizes its
+beliefs, the consentaneous human beliefs, upon its body and in its
+environment; and finally, the activity of the false thought which
+constitutes its consciousness ceases--and the being dies. Yes, its
+death will be due to sin, to '_hamartio_,' missing the mark. It
+never knew God. And that, Ned, is human life, so-called.
+
+"Death is not in any sense a cessation of life. The being who dies
+never knew what it was to live. Death is the externalization of
+human, mortal beliefs, which are not based upon real knowledge, truth.
+And so, human birth is itself death. Paul said: 'They that are after
+the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the
+spirit the things of the spirit.' In other words, mankind are striving
+terribly, desperately, to keep alive a sense of material, fleshly
+existence. But they can't do it. They are foredoomed to failure,
+despite the discovery of antitoxins. In the book of Job we read: 'The
+spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given
+me life.' Where, then, is the reality in prenatal mesmerism and the
+drag of heredity? It is all supposition, all a part of the one lie,
+the 'man-killer.'
+
+"The change called death comes to all mortals. It is the culmination
+of the human mind's sense of limitation. It does not usher them into
+immortal, illimitable bliss. It but leaves them upon another seeming
+plane of mortal thought, there to drag out another sense of existence,
+unless they have so learned the lesson which Jesus taught as to enable
+them to overcome death. It will not be overcome for us. That is our
+work. We have been shown how to do it. Why, then, do we waste our time
+in trivial things; in the heaping up of useless money; in the vain
+strife for sensual pleasures? The mortal will live and die, and live
+and die, until at last he is beaten into line and forced to
+demonstrate the Christ-principle. Hadn't we better begin that right
+here and now? Wishing to die doesn't solve our problems. Suicide only
+makes us start again, worse off than before. We shall overcome death
+when we have overcome sin, for the physical manifestation called death
+is but the externalization in conscious experience of spiritual
+death--lack of a demonstrable understanding of Life, Truth, Spirit,
+which is God, unlimited good."
+
+"And the Church, Protestant and Catholic, with their ceremonies, their
+Masses, and--"
+
+"They have woefully missed the mark, Ned. They are all but spiritually
+dead. But I see protest rising in our good friends, Doctor Siler and
+Reverend Moore, so I will hasten on, for we have much ground still to
+cover.
+
+"Now, knowing that birth is a humanly mental process, is it possible
+that the man Jesus was 'born of a virgin'? Quite so; but, more, _no
+man ever conceived and born in the way human beings are generated has
+ever begun to approach Jesus in degree of spirituality_. If he had
+been born in human ways, is it likely that he would ever have
+developed such intense spirituality? Well, not in a brief thirty-three
+years or so! And, on the other hand, if he had come into the world in
+some way other than by being born of a woman, would he have been
+understandable at all to the human mind? I think not. He would have
+been wholly in the realm of the mental, far above human perception. If
+he had been conceived by the union of the two sexes, as is the
+mortal-mind mode of generation, would he not have been too material to
+have so quickly developed that spirituality which made him the light
+of the world at the age of thirty-three? I think it is a fair
+question. The theory of the virgin birth at least seems to meet the
+need of a sort of middle course, whereby the man should not be too
+human to be the channel for the great measure of spirituality with
+which he was endowed, and yet should be human enough to be appreciable
+to other human minds.
+
+"Remember, the Jesus who has been reported to us must have regarded
+matter as unreal, as nothingness. His works plainly show that. And
+they as plainly show that he came from the Father. His whole life was
+such as to render the virgin birth almost a necessity, as I see it.
+How otherwise can we explain him? And from a study of the Gospels I
+simply can not avoid the conclusion that his knowledge of the allness
+of God rendered matter such a nonentity to him that he overcame all
+material laws, overcame the world of matter, and even at the last
+dematerialized his material body. It's an astonishing thought--and
+yet, who can show that it is not true? There are some things that
+reason insists on our accepting, despite the paucity of human
+records."
+
+"I believe, Mr. Waite," said Doctor Morton, "that the Gospels
+according to Mark and John make no mention of the virgin birth. Is it
+not so?"
+
+"Quite true," replied Father Waite. "And I will go further: Biblical
+research during the past few years seems to have established the
+conclusion that Mark's Gospel antedates the others, but that prior to
+it there existed a collection of sayings by Jesus, called the _Logia_.
+This collection of sayings seems to have been originally written in
+Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. Now Matthew Arnold tells us that
+the Gospel narratives passed through at least fifty years of oral
+tradition before they became fixed in the form in which we now have
+them. Of course it is quite possible that the story of the virgin
+birth arose during those fifty years, for we can imagine how the life
+of Jesus was then discussed! Matthew and Luke alone speak of the
+virgin birth. Mark's Gospel we believe to have been written by Mark
+himself. And we believe that Papias, who wrote about the middle of the
+second century, spoke truly when he said: 'Mark having become (or
+having been) Peter's interpreter, wrote all that he remembered (or all
+that Peter related) though he did not (record) in order that which
+was said or done by Christ.' In other words, even as Renan admits,
+the Gospel of Mark must be taken as authentically his. Now Matthew's
+Gospel depends for most of its data upon Mark and the Collection of
+sayings. Mark's Gospel does not mention the virgin birth; the
+Collection probably did. Also, Matthew probably did not write the
+Gospel attributed to him; but he almost certainly did write the
+Collection of sayings, from which in part the present Gospel according
+to Matthew was compiled. Luke's Gospel was undoubtedly written by the
+physician Luke, Paul's companion, and depended largely for its data
+upon Mark's Gospel and the Collection of Matthew. Yet we can not say
+that the omission of mention in the Gospels according to Mark and John
+of the virgin birth renders the story a legend, in view of our own
+present great knowledge of the constitution of matter, of material
+laws, and of the fact that the virgin birth is at least rendered
+credible by the subsequent very extraordinary career of Jesus.
+Moreover, remember that our New Testament is a small book, and that it
+is quite probable that a great mass of literature existed on the
+subject of Jesus and his work, and that it is possible that other of
+the disciples wrote treatises, perhaps many of them. How many of these
+touched on the subject of the virgin birth we may never know. Perhaps
+none; perhaps all. But this conclusion at least we must accept: the
+validity of the story of the virgin birth does _not_ rest with the
+four Gospels which have come down to us out of the great mass of
+literature which probably once existed. Rather is the probability of
+the immaculate conception a function of our present knowledge of
+matter, its pseudo-laws, and the great fact that the entire life of
+Jesus as reported in all the Gospels lends weight to the belief that
+his birth was not in the ordinary mortal-mind manner."
+
+"I accept that," said Hitt. "I believe you are right."
+
+"And I," said Carmen, "can not see that the origin of the human
+channel through which the Christ-principle flowed to mankind is of any
+consequence. The principle has always existed. Jesus said that it
+existed before Abraham. It alone is the important thing."
+
+"Very true," replied Father Waite. "It has been said that the
+immaculate conception was the result of Mary's realization that real
+man is the son of God. This is a beautiful thought. Certainly Jesus
+did seem to manifest some such metaphysical idea. Perhaps Mary was a
+woman of tremendous force of character. Perhaps it did come to her
+that her son should be the Messiah of his race. Jesus certainly did
+acquire the messianic consciousness--and thereby upheaved the world.
+But, whatever the human mode of birth, certainly the Christ-principle
+was brought into the world because of the world's tremendous need. It
+came as a response. It is only the confusing of the Christ with the
+man Jesus that is so largely responsible for the weakness of orthodox
+theology.
+
+"But now, referring again to the Bible, let me say that the Pentateuch
+is composed of a variety of documents written by various authors. We
+have no positive proof that Moses had aught to do with its authorship,
+although parts of it may be based on data which either he originated
+or sanctioned. The books of Samuel exhibit a plurality of sources. The
+book of Isaiah was written to record the sayings of at least two
+persons, both men of marvelous spiritual vision. The Song of Solomon
+was originally probably a Persian love-poem. The book of Job
+illustrates the human-mind problem of suffering, and the utter
+inadequacy of philosophy to heal it. It is a ringing protest against
+conventional theology.
+
+"But it is with the New Testament that we are particularly concerned,
+for we believe it to contain the method of salvation from human ills.
+None of the original documents are extant, of course. And yet, the
+most searching textual criticism goes to show that the New Testament
+books as we have them to-day are genuine reproductions of the original
+documents, with but very little adulteration of erroneous addition by
+later hands. This means much to us. I have already spoken of the first
+three Gospels. The book of Acts certainly was written by the author of
+the third Gospel, Luke. First Peter was composed by the disciple
+Peter, or was written under his sanction. The Gospel of John and the
+book of First John were written by one and the same author--but
+whether by the disciple John or not, I can not say. If this great
+disciple did not write the Fourth Gospel, at least his influence seems
+to be felt all through it. The probability is that he knew what was in
+it, and approved of it, although the actual composition may have been
+by another, possibly a very learned Greek. To me, the Fourth Gospel is
+the most masterly work ever composed by man. It stands absolutely
+alone. The criticism that John, being a Jew, could not have composed
+it, falls before the greater truth that, having become a Christian, he
+was no longer a Jew. He was a new creature. For how could he have been
+other, seeing that he had lived with Jesus?
+
+"And now as to Paul, who contributes about one-third of the New
+Testament. I have mentioned the letters to the Thessalonians,
+Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans as indisputably his. To these we
+can add, with scarcely less weight of authenticity, Colossians,
+Philemon, Ephesians, and Philippians. As to the Epistles to Timothy
+and Titus, there is still doubt. These letters were written to the
+various Churches chronologically, as I have mentioned them. It has
+been said that Jesus was way over the heads of his reporters. That
+was inevitable. Even Paul misunderstood him at times. But--and
+here is the important fact for us--Paul's letters exhibit a
+marvelous spiritual growth in the man, and show him at last to be the
+grand master-metaphysician of the Christian era. Has it ever
+occurred to you that what the Gospels tell about is almost wholly
+spiritual? The material is all but neglected by their composers.
+Indeed, with the questions of time and place, the Gospel narrators
+seemed to have been but slightly concerned. But with the delineation
+of the Christ--ah! that was their theme. They were not writing a
+biography. They were painting a spiritual portrait. In the light of
+this great truth the apparent lack of harmony in the Gospel
+narratives loses significance. And how little there is in the
+Gospels of theology, of institution, of organization! How trifling are
+creed and doctrine, how little are Catholicism and Protestantism,
+compared with the stupendous fact that God is, and that His truth,
+the Christ-principle, is still here to-day and available!
+
+"And so with Paul, he was expounding the 'method and secret' of the
+Christ. And he first had to work up to it himself. He may have
+thought, when he wrote his first letter to the Thessalonians, that the
+man Jesus would come again in the skies, with great pomp and
+surrounded by the Saints. But in his second letter he states plainly
+that the Christ will come when the 'old man' is laid off. Not much
+occasion for misunderstanding there, I think. Indeed, after Jesus so
+clearly stated that the kingdom of heaven was within men, the marvel
+is that there could have arisen any confusion whatsoever on the
+subject of the second coming of the Christ."
+
+"I believe," interposed Reverend Moore, "that the Epistle to the
+Hebrews contains statements of belief in a judgment after death, in a
+heaven, a hell, and everlasting life, not wholly consistent with your
+remarks."
+
+"The Epistle to the Hebrews," returned Father Waite, "was not written
+by Paul, nor is it quite consistent with his letters. But, read Paul's
+wonderful eighth chapter of Romans. Read his third chapter of First
+Corinthians. Read all his letters in the order in which I have
+mentioned them, which was as they were written, and you can not fail
+to grasp his marvelous expanding perception of the Christ-principle;
+the nothingness of the material concept; the impotence of the lie that
+opposes God, and constitutes all evil; and the necessity of
+right-thinking if one would work out his salvation from the errors
+that assail mankind. Paul shows that he passed through a 'belief
+period,' and that he emerged into the light of demonstrable
+understanding at last. If men had followed him they never could have
+fallen into the absurd theological beliefs of foreordination, infant
+damnation, the resurrection of the flesh, and all the other
+theological horrors and atrocities of the centuries.
+
+"Yes, the Bible is, as Arnold said, based on propositions which all
+can verify. The trouble is, _mankind have not tried to verify them_!
+They have relegated all that to the life beyond the grave. I fear a
+sorry disappointment awaits them, for, even as Paul says, they will be
+after the change called death only what they were before. It is like
+recovering from a case of sickness, for sickness and death are alike
+manifestations of mortal thought. We awake from each still human,
+still with our problems before us. We must break the mesmerism of the
+belief that the practical application of Jesus' teachings must be
+relegated to the realm of death, or to the unattainable. We must apply
+the Christ-principle, and learn to hit the mark, for sin is always
+weakness, never strength.
+
+"And remember this: having acquired a knowledge of the Christ, we are
+bidden to acknowledge him--that is, to _act-our-knowledge_. Many of
+the world's philosophers have worked out great truths. But they have
+rested content with that. Many scientists, knowing that matter is
+unreal, nevertheless conduct themselves _as if it constituted the one
+and only real fact of existence_! Is error like truth? Decidedly no!
+It is truth's exact opposite. Is truth real? Certainly it is! Then its
+opposite _can not_ be real. The human mentality holds the belief that
+there is something apart from God, spirit. That belief becomes
+objectified in the human mentality as matter. And within matter is
+contained all evil of every sort and name. Evil is not, as the
+philosophers would have us believe, a lower form of good. It is not
+'good in the making.' It is always error, the direct opposite of
+truth. And if truth is real and eternal, error can not be. See the
+grave mistake in which Emerson became enmeshed. He said: 'There seems
+to be a necessity in spirit to manifest itself in material forms.' Now
+follow that out to its logical conclusion. If spirit is synonymous
+with God, then God manifests Himself in both good and evil, fair and
+foul, life and death--and which is good, and which bad? All is alike
+the reflection of God. No, my friends, rather accept Jesus' statement
+that evil is the lie, of which no man need be afraid, and which all
+must and shall overcome. And the 'old man,' with all his material
+concepts of nature and the universe, must and will be laid off, thus
+revealing the spiritual man, the image and likeness of the one divine
+Mind.
+
+"Now, just a few words about miracles, the great stumbling block to
+the acceptance of the Gospels. Are they, together with the entire
+Gospel narrative, legendary? If so, they must have arisen during
+those fifty years between Jesus and the recording of the narratives.
+But this very period is covered by Paul's letters, which record his
+thought. And even the most relentless of Bible critics admit the
+genuineness of Paul's authorship of the Epistles to the Romans,
+the Corinthians, the Thessalonians, and the Galatians. If the
+Gospel narratives are legends, they grew up and found acceptance in
+fifty years. A pretty fair miracle in itself, when we take into
+consideration the inherent incredulity of the human mind! As Dean
+Farrar says: 'Who would have _invented_, who would have merely
+_imagined_, things so unlike the thoughts of man as these?'
+
+"Now Paul must have been acquainted with men who had seen and known
+Jesus. And we are forced to admit that Paul was a very strong, sane
+man. These legends could not have grown up in his day and been
+accepted by him. And as long as there were men living who had known
+Jesus--and that must have been as late as the last quarter of the
+first century--the true events of Jesus' life could hardly have given
+way to a set of childish legends. As a matter of recorded fact, the
+various Christian Churches had accepted Jesus within thirty years of
+the crucifixion. And, too, the words of Paul and the Synoptists were
+written at a time when the sick were still being healed and even the
+dead raised by the practical application of Jesus' teachings. Hence,
+miracles did not astonish them.
+
+"Our own inability to perform the works attributed to Jesus is hardly
+sufficient ground for denying the belief that he really did them. For
+what is a miracle? Certainly that the greater portion of the New
+Testament was written by a few fishermen, a publican, and a tentmaker
+is one of the most stupendous miracles on record! And the miracle of
+miracles is Jesus Christ himself! Because Jesus is reported to have
+healed the sick, raised the dead, and walked the waves, all in
+opposition to material laws--the so-called laws of nature--the world
+says the reports are fantastic, that they are fables, and that his
+reporters were hypnotized, deluded! And yet I tell you that he did not
+break a single law! He did act in defiance of the so-called testimony
+of the physical senses, which has always been accepted by mankind as
+law. We now know what that sense-testimony is--human, mortal thought.
+He did rise above human consciousness of evil. And because he did so,
+he instantaneously healed the sick. A miracle expresses, not the
+beliefs of the human mind, but the law of God, infinite mind, and
+makes that law conceivable to the human mentality. God's laws are
+_never_ set aside, for by very definition a law is immutable, else it
+ceases to be law. But when the human mind grows out of itself
+sufficiently to perceive those laws and to express them to its
+fellow-minds, the result is called a miracle. Moreover, the ability to
+perform miracles is but a function of spirituality. A miracle is a
+sign of one's having advanced to such a degree of spirituality as to
+enable him to rise above material consciousness and its limitations,
+which are called laws. The consciousness that knows no evil will
+perform miracles. The early Christians did great works. These works
+were the 'signs following,' and attested their knowledge of the
+allness of God. A miracle is simply a proof of God. Carmen--"
+
+"Lewis!" protested the girl.
+
+"Let me say it, please. Carmen _knew_ that no power opposed to God
+could hold Sidney. And the 'sign' followed. Yes, she performed a
+miracle. She broke a human-mind, so-called law, a limitation. She
+proved God's law of harmony and holiness--wholeness--to be omnipresent
+and omnipotent. And, mark me, friends, _every one of us must learn to
+do likewise_! Not only must the Church obey Jesus and do the works
+which he did, but every individual will have to do them himself."
+
+"His works were done for a special reason, Mr. Waite," interposed
+Reverend Moore. "They were to testify to his messiahship. They are not
+required of us."
+
+Father Waite silently regarded the minister for some moments. Then he
+went on gently:
+
+"It seems incredible that the plain teachings of Jesus could have
+been so warped and twisted as they have been by orthodox theology.
+Christianity is _so_ simple! Why should even the preachers themselves
+condemn the one who seeks to obey Christ? Mr. Moore, the real man
+is God's highest idea of Himself. The human mind makes mental concepts
+of God's man. And Jesus was the grandest concept of God's idea of
+Himself that the human mind has ever constructed by means of its
+interpretations. He was the image of truth. One of his grandest
+characteristics was his implicit obedience to his vision of the
+Father. And he demanded just as implicit obedience from us. But he
+bade us, again and again, _heal the sick and raise the dead_!"
+
+"We heal the sick! We have our physicians!"
+
+"Yes? And Asa had his physicians to whom he turned--with the result
+that he 'slept with his fathers.' There is no more ironical statement
+in the whole Bible than that. We turn to our physicians because we
+have no faith in God. _Materia medica_ physicians do _not_ heal the
+sick. They sometimes succeed in causing the human mind temporarily to
+substitute a belief of health for a belief of disease that is all.
+But Jesus and the early Christians healed by true prayer--the prayer
+of affirmation, the prayer that denied reality to evil, and affirmed
+the omnipotence of God. And that was done through an understanding of
+God as immutable law, or principle."
+
+"Would you pray to a principle?" demanded Reverend Moore, with a note
+of contempt in his voice. "I prefer my own concept of God, as one who
+hears our petitions, and pities us, and not as a lifeless principle!"
+
+"God is principle, Mr. Moore," replied Father Waite, "in that He is
+'_that by which all is_.' And in order to be such He must be, as the
+Bible says, 'the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.' He must be
+immovable, regardless of human pleading and petition. And so true
+prayer, the prayer that draws an answer, is not an objective appeal to
+Him, but is an intelligent application of the Christ-principle to all
+our problems and needs. Such prayer will remove mountains in
+proportion to the understanding and motive back of it. And such prayer
+does not seek to inform the Almighty of the state of affairs here
+among men, informing Him that evil is real and rampant, and begging
+that He will stoop down and remove it. It is the prayer that manifests
+man's oneness with the infinite mind as its image, reflecting a
+knowledge of the allness of good and the consequent unreality and
+powerlessness of evil, the lie about it. It was healing by such
+prayer, Mr. Moore, that the Episcopal Synod rejected only recently.
+Instead of doing the healing themselves by means of the principle
+given them, they still plead with God, the immovable and immutable, to
+do it for them, provided the very uncertain science of _materia
+medica_ fails.
+
+"The true method of prayer was employed by the early Christians, until
+the splendid vision of the Christ became obscured and finally lost to
+the Church by its bargaining with Constantine for a mess of pottage,
+namely, temporal power. Then began to rise that great worldly
+institution, the so-called Holy Church. In the first half of the sixth
+century Justinian closed the schools of philosophy at Athens. For a
+while Judaizing Christianity continued its conflict with Gnosticism.
+And then both merged themselves into the Catholic form of faith, which
+issued forth from Rome, with Christian tradition grafted upon
+paganism. Theology and ritualism divided the gospel of healing the
+sick and saving the sinner into two radically different systems,
+neither of which is Christian, and neither of which can either heal or
+save. Since then, lip-service and ceremonial have taken the place of
+healing the sick and raising the dead. The world again slipped back
+steadily from the spiritual to the material, and to-day ethics
+constitutes our religion, and stupid drugs hold sway where once sat
+enthroned the healing Christ-principle."
+
+"I would remind you, Mr. Waite, that I have Catholic leanings myself,"
+said Doctor Siler. "I don't like to hear either my religion or my
+profession abused."
+
+"My criticism, Doctor," replied Father Waite, "is but an exposure of
+the entrenched beliefs and modes of the human mind."
+
+"But, sir, the Church is a great social force, and a present
+necessity."
+
+"The worth of a belief as a social force, Doctor, must be ascertained
+from its fruits. The Roman Church has been an age-long instigator of
+wars, disorders, and atrocious persecutions throughout the world. Its
+assumption that its creed is the only religious truth is an insult to
+the world's expanding intelligence. Its arrogant claim to speak with
+the authority of God is one of the anomalies of this century of
+enlightenment. Its mesmeric influence upon the poor and ignorant is a
+continuous tragedy."
+
+"The poor and ignorant! Are you unmindful of the Church's schools and
+hospitals?"
+
+"No, Doctor. Nor am I ignorant of the fact that the success of
+Christianity is _not_ measured by hospitals. Rather, their continuance
+attests the lamentable failure of its orthodox misinterpretation. I
+have been a priest, Doctor. I do not want to see this splendid country
+forced into the iron shackles of priestcraft."
+
+"It can not happen here!" cried Haynerd, pounding the table with his
+fist. "The time has passed when a man can say, 'My church, be she
+right or wrong, but my church!' and insist that it shall be forced
+upon us, whether we like it or not!"
+
+"Doctor," continued Father Waite, "the Romanist has always missed the
+mark. He prayed to a God of love to give him power to exterminate
+heretics--those who differed with him in belief. But he prayed with
+iniquity, hatred, murder in his heart; and God, who is too pure to
+know evil, heard him not. Prayer is the affirmation of omnipotent
+_good_. Is it good to murder one's fellow-men? The Psalmist wrote: 'If
+I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me.' That is why
+the Church's prayers and curses have failed, and why she herself is a
+failing institution to-day. I say this in pity, not in malice."
+
+"I, sir, believe in a religion that can hate," returned the doctor.
+"Christianity is as much a religion of hate as of love--hatred of all
+that is evil and opposed to the revealed Word of God."
+
+"And thereby your religion will fail, and has failed, for God is love.
+You, by your hatred of what you consider evil, make evil real. Indeed,
+the Church has always emphasized evil as a great and living reality.
+How could it ever hope to overcome it then? Your Church, Doctor, has
+little of the meekness of the Christ, and so, little of his strength.
+It has little of his spirituality. Its numbers and great material
+wealth do not constitute power. Its assumptions remind me of the
+ancient Jews, who declared that God spent much of His time reading
+their Talmud. You will have to lay aside, Doctor, all of it, and turn
+to the simple, demonstrable teachings of Jesus. When you have learned
+to do the works he did, then will you have justified yourself and your
+faith."
+
+While Father Waite was speaking, Carmen had quietly risen and taken
+her place at the piano. When he concluded, she began to play and sing
+softly. As the sweet melody flowed out through the room the little
+group became silent and thoughtful. Again it was that same weird
+lament which the girl had sung long before in the Elwin school to
+voice the emotions which surged up in her during her loneliness in the
+great city. In it her auditors heard again that night the echoing
+sighs of the passive Indians, enslaved by the Christian Spaniards.
+Hitt's head sank upon his breast as he listened. Haynerd tried to
+speak, but choked. The Beaubien buried her face in her hands and wept
+softly. The lines about Doctor Siler's mouth relaxed, and his lips
+trembled. He rose quietly and went around to where Father Waite sat.
+
+"My friend--" He bent and took Father Waite's hand. "We are--friends?"
+
+Father Waite sprang to his feet and threw an arm about the doctor. "We
+are more than that, Doctor," he whispered. "We are brothers. And in
+reality we are both, here and now, beloved children of God."
+
+Doctor Siler bowed. Then he nodded to the others, and took his
+departure. As he passed the piano Carmen rose and seized his hand.
+
+"You know, Doctor, that we love you, don't you?"
+
+"Your love," he murmured, as he bent over her hand, "is from the
+Christ. Nay, it _is_ the Christ himself among us!"
+
+He would have said more, but his voice broke. Then he went out.
+
+When Hitt, Reverend Moore, and Doctor Morton had left, Haynerd, who
+had remained for a moment to speak to Father Waite, turned to the
+Beaubien.
+
+"Madam," he said, "Mr. Hitt is a remarkable man. He is conducting a
+remarkable newspaper. But--" He stopped and looked at Carmen. "Well,
+if I mistake not, his quietness this evening indicated his belief that
+this might be our last meeting for some time."
+
+"Why, Ned?"
+
+Haynerd shook his head dubiously. Then, abruptly:
+
+"Telephone me, Carmen, if anything of interest comes up to-morrow in
+Avon."
+
+The Beaubien turned quickly to the girl. "You are going to Avon
+to-morrow? Don't! Please don't!" There was a look of fear in her
+eyes.
+
+Carmen drew the woman to her, then stooped and kissed her cheek.
+"Mother dearest, I go to Avon with my God."
+
+The Beaubien bowed her head. She knew it was so.
+
+And the girl went early the next morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11
+
+
+The town of Avon, two hours from New York, lay along Avon creek, from
+which its first manufacturing industries derived their motive power.
+Years before, when it was little more than a barren stretch of sand,
+some enterprising soul had built a cotton mill there, with only a few
+primitive looms. As the years passed, and kindly Congresses reared
+about the industry a high protective wall, the business prospered
+marvelously. But shortly after the death of the senior Ames the
+company became involved, through mismanagement, with the result that,
+to protect itself, the house of Ames and Company, the largest
+creditor, was obliged to take over its mills.
+
+At first, J. Wilton Ames was disposed to sell the assets of the
+defunct company, despite the loss to his bank. But then, after a visit
+of inspection, and hours of meditation on certain ideas which had
+occurred to him, he decided to keep the property. The banging of the
+looms, the whirr of the pickers, the sharp little shrieks of the
+spinning machines, fascinated him, as he stood before them. They
+seemed to typify the ceaseless throbbing of his own great brain. They
+seemed, too, to afford another outlet for that mighty flood of
+materialistic thought and energy which flowed incessantly through it.
+
+And so he set about reorganizing the business. He studied the process
+of cloth manufacture. He studied the growth and handling of cotton. He
+familiarized himself with every detail of the cotton market. He was
+already well versed in the intricacies of the tariff. And soon the
+idle machinery was roaring again. Soon the capacity of the mills was
+doubled. And soon, very soon, the great Ames mills at Avon had become
+a corporate part of our stupendous mechanical development of the
+century just closed.
+
+When Carmen stepped from the train that morning she stood for a moment
+looking uncertainly about her. Everywhere on one side as far as she
+could see were low, ramshackle frame houses; a few brick store
+buildings stood far up the main street; and over at her right the
+enormous brick mills loomed high above the frozen stream. The dull
+roar of the machinery drifted through the cold air to her ears. Up the
+track, along which she had just come, some ragged, illy clad children
+were picking up bits of coal. The sight seemed to fix her decision.
+She went directly to them, and asked their names.
+
+"Anton Spivak," answered one of the children dully, when she laid a
+hand on his shoulder.
+
+"And where do you live?"
+
+"Over dere," pointing off to the jungle of decrepit sheds. "Me an'
+him, we worked in de mills; but dere ain't no work fer us now. Dey's
+on half time."
+
+"Take me to your home," she said firmly.
+
+The boy looked his astonishment. "Dere ain't nobody to home," he
+replied. "De ol' man an' woman works in de mills daytimes."
+
+"Come-a home wi' me," spoke up the boy's companion, a bright-faced
+little urchin of some ten years who had given his name as Tony Tolesi.
+"We lives in de tenements."
+
+Carmen looked at him for a moment. "Come," she said.
+
+Up the main street of the town they went for a short distance, then
+turned and wended their course, through narrow streets and byways,
+down toward the mills. In a few minutes they were in the district
+where stood the great frame structures built by the Ames company to
+house its hands. Block after block of these they passed, massive,
+horrible, decrepit things, and at last stopped at a grease-stained,
+broken door, which the little fellow pushed open. The hall beyond was
+dark and cold. Carmen followed shivering, close after the boy, while
+he trotted along, proud of the responsibility of conducting a visitor
+to his home. At the far end of the hall the lad plunged into a narrow
+staircase, so narrow that a stout man could not have mounted it. Up
+four of these broken flights Carmen toiled after him, and then down a
+long, desolate corridor, which sent a chill into the very marrow of
+her bones.
+
+"Dis is where we lives, Missy," announced the little fellow. "Miss-a
+Marcus, she live in dere," pointing to the door directly opposite.
+"She ain't got only one arm."
+
+He pushed open the door before which they had halted. A rush of foul
+air and odors of cooking swept out. They enveloped the girl and seemed
+to hurl her back. A black-haired woman, holding a crying baby in her
+arms, rose hastily from an unmade bed at one side of the room. Two
+little girls, six or eight years of age, and a boy still younger,
+ranged about their mother and stared in wide-eyed wonder.
+
+"Dis-a lady, she come to visit," announced Carmen's guide abruptly,
+pointing a dirty finger at her.
+
+The woman's face darkened, and she spoke harshly in a foreign tongue
+to the little fellow.
+
+"She say," the boy interpreted, as a crestfallen look spread over his
+face, "she say she don't spik _Inglese_."
+
+"But I speak your language," said the girl, going quickly to her and
+extending a hand. Then, in that soft tongue which is music celestial
+to these Neapolitan strangers upon our inhospitable shores, she added,
+"I want to know you; I want to talk to you."
+
+She glanced quickly about the room. A littered, greasy cook stove
+stood in one corner. Close to it at either end were wooden couches,
+upon which were strewn a few tattered spreads and blankets, stained
+and grimy. A broken table, a decrepit chest of drawers, and a few
+rickety chairs completed the complement of furniture. The walls were
+unadorned, except for a stained chromo of the Virgin, and the plaster
+had fallen away in many places. There was only one window in the room.
+Several of its panes were broken and stuffed with rags and papers.
+
+At the sound of her own language the woman's expression changed. A
+light came into her dull eyes, and she awkwardly took the proffered
+hand.
+
+"You are--from Italy?" she said in her native tongue. Then, sweeping
+the girl's warm attire with a quick glance, "You are rich! Why do you
+come here?"
+
+"Your little boy brought me. And I am glad he did. No, I am not from
+Italy. I am rich, yes, but not in money."
+
+The woman turned to her children and sent the little brood scattering.
+At another sharp command little Tony set out a soiled, broken chair
+for Carmen. But before the girl could take it the woman's voice again
+rose sharply.
+
+"Wait!" she commanded, turning fiercely upon Carmen. "You are--what do
+you say? slumming. You come with your gay party to look us over and go
+away laughing! No! You can not stay!"
+
+Carmen did not smile. But reaching out, she gently lifted the heavy
+baby from the woman's arms and sat down with it. For a moment she
+patted its cheeks and bent tenderly over it. Then she looked up at the
+bewildered mother.
+
+"I have come here," she said softly, "because I love you."
+
+The woman's lips parted in astonishment. She turned dully and sat down
+on one of the begrimed beds. Her little ones gathered about her, their
+soiled fingers in their mouths, or clutching their tattered gowns, as
+they gazed at the beautiful creature who had suddenly come into their
+midst.
+
+Then the woman found her voice again. "Eh! You are from the mission?
+You come to talk of heaven? But I am busy."
+
+"I am not from the mission," replied the girl gently. "I have come to
+talk, not of heaven, but of earth, and of you, and of Tony," smiling
+down into the eager face of the little boy as he stood before her.
+
+"You can't have Tony!" cried the mother, starting up. "You can't take
+any of my children! The judge took Pietro Corrello's boy last
+week--but you can't have mine! Go away from here!"
+
+"I don't want your children," said Carmen, smiling up at the
+frightened, suspicious mother. "I want you. I want you to help me to
+help all of these people here who need us. The mills are running only
+half time, aren't they? The people do not have enough to eat. But we,
+you and I, are going to make things better for them, for everybody
+here, aren't we?
+
+"But first," she went on hastily, to further allay the poor woman's
+fears and to check additional protest, "suppose we plan our dinner.
+Let's see, Tony, what would you like?"
+
+The boy's lips instantly parted. His eyes began to glisten. He glanced
+inquiringly at his mother; but no sign came from her. Then he could no
+longer contain himself:
+
+"Spaghetti!" he blurted. "Soup! Buns!"
+
+Carmen drew out her purse and turned to the woman. "Come with me," she
+said. "While we are gone, Tony and the children will wash the dishes
+and set the table. Come."
+
+For a moment the woman looked uncomprehendingly at the girl, then at
+her children, and then about the miserable room in which they were
+huddled. Amazement and confusion sat upon her heavy features. Then
+these gave way to another dark look of suspicion. She opened her
+mouth--
+
+But before she could voice her resentment, Carmen rose and threw an
+arm about her. Then the girl quickly drew the startled woman to her
+and kissed her on the cheek. "Come," she whispered, "get your shawl.
+We'll be back soon."
+
+God's universal language is the language of love. All nations, all
+tribes understand it. The flood-gates, long barred, swiftly opened,
+and the tired, miserable woman sank sobbing upon the bed. She could
+not comprehend what it was that had come so unannounced into her
+dreary existence that cold winter morning. People were not wont to
+treat her so. Her life had been an endless, meaningless struggle
+against misery, want, grinding oppression. People did not put their
+arms around her and kiss her thus. They scoffed at her, they abused
+her, they fought with her! She hated them, and the world in which she
+lived!
+
+"I know, I know," whispered Carmen, as she drew the sobbing woman's
+head upon her shoulder. "But things will be better now. Love has found
+you."
+
+The woman suddenly raised up. "You--you are--from heaven? An angel?"
+She drew back, and a frightened, superstitious look came into her
+face.
+
+"Yes," said Carmen softly, taking the cue, "I am an angel, right from
+heaven. Now you are no longer afraid of me, are you? Come."
+
+The woman rose mechanically and took up her thin shawl. Carmen gave a
+few directions to the gaping children. And as she went out into the
+bleak hall with the woman she heard one of them whisper in tones of
+awe:
+
+"Tony, she said she--she was--an angel! Quick! Get down on your knees
+and cross yourself!"
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Upward to the blue vault of heaven, like the streaming mists that
+rise through the tropic moonlight from the hot _llanos_, goes the
+ceaseless cry of humanity. Oh, if the god of the preachers were real,
+his heart must have long since broken! Upward it streams, this
+soul-piercing cry; up from the sodden, dull-brained toiler at the
+crashing loom; up from the wretched outcast woman, selling herself
+to low passions to escape the slavery of human exploitation; up from
+the muttering, ill-fed wreck, whose life has been cashed into
+dividends, whose dry, worthless hulk now totters to the scrap heap;
+up from the white-haired, flat-chested mother, whose stunted babes
+lie under little mounds with rude, wooden crosses in the dreary
+textile burial grounds; up from the weak, the wicked, the ignorant,
+the hopeless martyrs of the satanic social system that makes
+possible the activities of such human vultures as the colossus
+whose great mills now hurled their defiant roar at this girl, this
+girl whose life-motif was love.
+
+Close about her, at the wretched little table, sat the wondering group
+of children, greedily gorging themselves on the only full meal that
+they could remember. And with them sat the still bewildered mother,
+straining her dark eyes at the girl, and striving to see in her a
+human being, a woman like herself. At her right sat the widow Marcus,
+who lived just across the hall. Her husband had been crushed to death
+in one of the pickers two years before. The company had paid her a
+hundred dollars, but had kept back five for alleged legal fees. She
+herself had lost an arm in one of these same pickers, long ago,
+because the great owner of the mills would not equip his plant with
+safety devices.
+
+"Come, Tony!" said the mother at length, as a sense of the reality of
+life suddenly returned to her. "The lunch for your father!"
+
+Tony hurriedly swept the contents of his plate into his mouth, and
+went for the battered dinner pail.
+
+"My man goes to work at six-thirty in the morning," she explained to
+Carmen, when the little fellow had started to the mills with the pail
+unwontedly full. "And he does not leave until five-thirty. He was a
+weaver, and he earned sometimes ten dollars a week. But he didn't
+last. He wore out. And so he had to take a job as carder. He earns
+about eight dollars a week now. But sometimes only six or seven."
+
+"But you can't live on that, with your children!" exclaimed Carmen.
+
+"Yes, we could," replied the woman, "if the work was steady. But it
+isn't. You see, if I could work steady, and the children too, we could
+live. I am a good spinner. And I am not nearly so worn out as he is. I
+have several years left in me yet."
+
+The widow Marcus, who spoke the language from an association with
+Italian immigrants since childhood, added her comments from time to
+time. She was a gray-haired, kindly soul, bearing no enmity toward the
+man to whom she had yielded her husband's life and her own.
+
+"A man's no good in the mills after he's fifty," she said. "You see,
+Miss, it's all piece-work, and a man has to be most terribly spry and
+active. The strain is something awful, day after day, in the noise and
+bad air, and having to keep your eyes fixed on your work for ten hours
+at a stretch; and he wears out fast. Then he has to take a job where
+he can't make so much. And when he's about fifty he's no good for the
+mills any more."
+
+"And then what?" asked Carmen.
+
+"Well, if he hasn't any children, he goes to the poor-house. But, if
+he has, then they take care of him."
+
+"Then mill workers must have large families?"
+
+"Yes, they've got to, Miss. The little ones must work in the mills,
+too. These mills here take them on when they are only twelve, or even
+younger. Tony has worked there, and he is only ten. It's against the
+law; but Mr. Ames gets around the law some way."
+
+"Tell me, Mrs. Marcus, how do you live?" the girl asked.
+
+"I? Oh, I manage. The company paid me some money two years ago, and I
+haven't spent all of it yet. Besides, I work round a bit. I'm pretty
+spry with one arm."
+
+"But--you do not pay rent for your home?"
+
+"Oh, yes. I have only one room. It's small. There's no window in it.
+It's an inside room."
+
+"And you pay rent--to Mr. Ames--the man whose machines killed your
+husband and took off your arm--you still pay rent to him, for one
+little room?"
+
+"Yes, Miss. He owns these tenements. Why, his company gave me almost a
+hundred dollars, you know! I was lucky, for when Lizzie Sidel's man
+lost his hand in the cog wheels he went to law to sue the company, and
+three years afterward the case was thrown out of court and he had to
+pay the costs himself. But he was a picker-boss, and got nine dollars
+a week."
+
+A little hand stole up along Carmen's arm. She looked down into the
+wondering face of the child. "I--I just wanted to see, _Signorina_, if
+you were real."
+
+"I have been wondering that myself, dear," replied the girl, as her
+thought dwelt upon what she had been hearing.
+
+"I must go now, Miss," said the widow Marcus, rising. "I promised to
+drop in and look after Katie Hoolan's children this afternoon. She's
+up at the mills."
+
+"Then I will go with you," Carmen announced. "But I will come back
+here," she added, as some little hands seized hers. "If not to-day,
+then soon--perhaps to-morrow."
+
+She crossed the cold hall with Mrs. Marcus, and entered the doorway
+which led to the little inner room where dwelt the widow. There were a
+dozen such rooms in the building, the latter informed her. This one in
+particular had been shunned for many years, for it had a bad
+reputation as a breeder of tuberculosis. But the rent was low, and so
+the widow had taken it after her man was killed. It contained a broken
+stove, a dirty bed, and a couple of unsteady chairs. The odor was
+fetid. The walls were damp, and the paper which had once covered them
+was molding and rotting off.
+
+"It won't stay on," the widow explained, as she saw the girl looking
+at it. "The walls are wet all the time. Comes up from the cellar. The
+creek overflows and runs into the basement. They call this the
+'death-room.'"
+
+Death! Carmen shuddered when she looked about this fearful human
+habitation. Yet, "The only death to be feared," said Paracelsus, "is
+unconsciousness of God." Was this impoverished woman, then, any less
+truly alive than the rich owner of the mills which had robbed her of
+the means of existence? And can a civilization be alive to the Christ
+when it breeds these antipodal types?
+
+"And yet, who permits them?" Haynerd had once exclaimed. "Ames's
+methods are the epitome of hell! But he is ours, and the worthy
+offspring of our ghastly, inhuman social system. We alone are to
+blame that he debauches courts, that he blinds executives, and that he
+buys legislatures! We let him make the laws, and fatten upon the
+prey he takes within their limits. Aye, he is the crafty, vicious,
+gold-imbruted manifestation of a whole nation's greed!" Nay, more, he
+is the externalization of a people's ignorance of God.
+
+Carmen's throat filled as she watched the old woman bustling about the
+wretched room and making a feeble attempt at order.
+
+"You see," the widow went on, happy in the possession of an auditor,
+"there is no use making apologies for the looks of my room; I couldn't
+make it look much better if I tried. There's no running water. We have
+to get water from the hydrant down back of the house. It is pumped
+there from the creek, and it's a long climb up these stairs when
+you've got only one arm to hold the bucket. And I have to bring my
+coal up, too. The coal dealer charges extra for bringing it up so
+far."
+
+Carmen sat down on an empty box and watched her. The woman's lot
+seemed to have touched the depths of human wretchedness, and yet there
+burned within her soul a something that the oppression of human
+avarice could not extinguish.
+
+"It's the children, Miss, that I think about," she continued. "It's
+not so bad as when I was a little one and worked in the cloth mills in
+England. I was only six when I went into the mills there. I worked
+from seven in the morning until after six at night. And the air was so
+bad and we got so tired that we children used to fall asleep, and the
+boss used to carry a stick to whip us to keep us awake. My parents
+died when I was only eight. They worked in the Hollow-ware works, and
+died of lead poisoning. People only last four or five years at that
+work."
+
+Carmen rose. "How many children are employed in these mills here?" she
+asked.
+
+"I can't say, Miss. But hundreds of them."
+
+"I want to see them," said the girl, and there was a hitch in her
+voice as she spoke.
+
+"You can go down and watch them come out about six this evening. It's
+a sight to a stranger. But now I must hurry to look after the Hoolan
+babes."
+
+When she again reached the street Carmen turned and looked up at the
+hideous structure from which she had emerged; then she drew a long
+breath. The foul air of the "death-room" seemed to fill her lungs as
+with leaden weights. The dim light that lay over the wretched hovel
+hung like a veil before her eyes.
+
+"Katie lives a block down the street," said the widow, pointing in the
+direction. "She was burned out last winter. These tenements don't have
+fire-escapes, and the one she lived in burned to the ground in an
+hour. She lived on the second floor, and got out. But--six were burned
+to death."
+
+It seemed to Carmen as she listened to the woman that the carnal
+mind's chamber of horrors was externalized there in the little town of
+Avon, existing with the dull consent of a people too ignorant, too
+imbruted, too mesmerized by the false values of life to rise and
+destroy it.
+
+All that cold winter afternoon the girl went from door to door. There
+was no thought of fear when she met dull welcomes, scowls, and
+menacing glances. In humble homes and wretched hovels; to Magyar,
+Pole, Italian alike; to French Canadian, Irish and Portuguese; and to
+the angry, the defiant, the sodden, the crushed, she unfolded her
+simple banner of love, the boundless love that discriminates not, the
+love that sees not things, but the thoughts and intents of the heart
+that lie behind them. And dark looks faded, and tears came; withered
+hearts opened, and lifeless souls stirred anew. She knew their
+languages; and that knowledge unlocked their mental portals to her.
+She knew their thoughts, and the blight under which they molded; and
+that knowledge fell like the sun's bright rays upon them. She knew
+God, their God and hers; and that knowledge began, even on that dull,
+gray afternoon, to cut into the chains of human rapacity which
+enslaved them.
+
+At six that evening she stood at the tall iron gate of the mill yard.
+Little Tony was at her side, clutching her hand. A single electric
+lamp across the street threw a flickering, yellow light upon the snow.
+The great, roaring mills were ablaze with thousands of glittering
+eyes. Suddenly their monster sirens shrieked, a blood-curdling yell.
+Then their huge mouths opened, and a human flood belched forth.
+
+Carmen gazed with riveted sight. They were not the image and likeness
+of God, these creatures, despite the doctrinal platitudes of the
+Reverend Darius Borwell and the placid Doctor Jurges. They were not
+alive, these stooping, shuffling things, despite the fact that the
+religiously contented Patterson Moore would argue that God had
+breathed the spirit of life into the thing of dust which He created.
+And these children, drifting past in a great, surging throng! Fathers
+and mothers of a generation to come! Carmen knew that many of them,
+despite their worn looks, were scarcely more than ten years old. These
+were the flesh and blood upon which Ames, the jungle-beast, waxed
+gross! Upon their thin life-currents floated the magnificent
+_Cossack_!
+
+She turned away in silence. Yes, she was right, evil can _not_ be
+really known. There is no principle by which to explain the hideous
+things of the human mind. And then she wondered what the Reverend
+Darius Borwell did to earn that comfortable salary of ten thousand a
+year in his rich New York church.
+
+"It's quite a sight, ain't it, Miss?" said a voice close by.
+
+Carmen turned and confronted a priest. He was a man of medium height,
+young, and of Irish descent.
+
+"It's a great sight," he continued, with a touch of brogue in his
+tones. "Hey, Fagin!" he cried, catching a passing workman's arm.
+"Where's Ross?"
+
+"He ain't worked to-day, Father," replied the man, stopping and
+touching his cap.
+
+The young priest uttered an exclamation of displeasure. Then, as the
+workman started away:
+
+"You'll be at the Hall to-night, Fagin? And bring everybody you can."
+
+The man addressed nodded and gave an affirmative grunt, then passed on
+into the darkness.
+
+"It's trying to reach a few of 'em I am," remarked the priest. "But
+it's slow work. When a man's stomach's empty he hasn't much respect
+for morality. And I can't feed the lot of 'em!"
+
+Carmen gazed into the kindly blue eyes of the priest and wondered.
+"How are you reaching them?" she asked. "I am very much interested."
+
+The priest returned the girl's searching look. "In settlement work?"
+he queried.
+
+"No--but I am interested in my fellow-beings."
+
+"Ah, then you'll understand. I've some rooms, some on Main street,
+which I call the Hall, and some down in the--well, the bad district,
+which I call the Mission. They're reading rooms, places for men to meet,
+and get acquainted, and rest, and talk. The Hall's for the fellows
+who work, like this Fagin. The Mission's for the down-and-outs."
+
+"But--are your rooms only for--for men of your faith?"
+
+"Nary a bit!" exclaimed the priest with a little laugh. "Race or
+religion don't figure. It's to give help to every man that needs it."
+
+"And you are giving your life to help these people?" the girl went on.
+"I want to see your Hall and Mission. Take me to them," she abruptly
+demanded.
+
+The priest gave a start of surprise. He looked down at little Tony,
+and then up at Carmen again.
+
+"Come," she said. "We will leave the boy at his door, and then go to
+your Mission and Hall. Now tell me, you are a Roman Catholic priest?"
+
+"Yes," he said mechanically, following her as she started away.
+
+"How did you happen to get into this sort of work?" she pursued.
+
+"Oh, I've been at it these ten years!" he returned, now recovered from
+his surprise, and pleased to talk about his work. "I'd had some
+experience in New York in the Bowery district. I came to the
+conclusion that there were mighty few down-and-outs who couldn't be
+set upon their pins again, given half a chance by any one sufficiently
+interested. There's the point. You see, Miss, I believe in my
+fellow-men. The results have justified my labors. Oh, it's only
+temporary, I know. It ain't going to change the whole social system.
+It's a makeshift. But it helps a bit--and I like it.
+
+"But," he continued more seriously, "there's going to be trouble here.
+A strike is coming. And it's going to be a bad one. I wish I could
+convince Mr. Ames."
+
+"Have you tried?" she asked.
+
+"I've written him several times of late. It doesn't do any good. His
+secretary writes back that Mr. Ames is doing all he can. But it's not
+much I see he's doing, except to go on sucking the blood from these
+poor devils down here!"
+
+They soon reached the tenement where Tony lived, and Carmen asked the
+priest to go up with her. He raised a hand and smiled.
+
+"No," he said, "the good woman doesn't like priests. And my labors
+don't reach the women anyway, except through the men. They constitute
+my field. Some one else must work among the women. I'll wait for you
+here."
+
+It was only by making many promises that Carmen could at last get away
+from the little group on the fourth floor. But she slipped a bill into
+Tony's hands as she went out, and then hurriedly crossed the hall and
+opened the unlocked door of the widow Marcus's room. The place was
+empty. Carmen pinned a five-dollar bill upon the pillow and hastened
+out.
+
+"Now," said the priest, when the girl had joined him in the street
+below, "it ain't right to take you to the Mission--"
+
+"We'll go there first," the girl calmly announced. "And then to the
+Hall. By the way, there's a telephone in your place? I want to call up
+the health officer. I want to report the condition of these
+tenements."
+
+The priest laughed. "It won't do any good, Miss. I've camped on his
+heels for months. And he can't do anything, anyway. I see that. If he
+gets too troublesome to those higher up, why, he gets fired. They
+don't want his reports. He isn't here to report on conditions, but to
+overlook 'em. It's politics."
+
+"You mean to say that nothing can be done in regard to those awful
+buildings which Mr. Ames owns and rents to his mill hands?" she said.
+
+"That's it," he replied. "It's criminal to let such buildings stand.
+But Ames owns 'em. That's enough."
+
+They went on in silence for some minutes. Meanwhile, the priest was
+studying his fair companion, and wondering who she might be. At length
+he inquired if she had ever been in Avon before.
+
+"No," replied the girl. "I wish I had!"
+
+"Haven't seen Pillette's house then? He's resident manager of the Ames
+mills. We can go a little out of our way and have a look at it."
+
+A few minutes later they stood at the iron gate of the manager's
+residence, a massive, brown stone dwelling, set in among ancient trees
+in an estate of several acres, and surrounded by shrubs and bushes.
+
+"Fine place, eh?" remarked the priest.
+
+"Beautiful," replied Carmen. "Does he know all about those tenements
+down there?"
+
+"Ah, that he does; and cares less. And he knows all about the terrible
+hot air in his mills, and the flying lint that clogs the lungs of the
+babies working there. He sees them leave the place, dripping with
+perspiration, and go out into the zero temperature half naked. And
+when they go off with pneumonia, well he knows why; and cares less. He
+knows that the poor, tired workers in that great prison lose their
+senses in the awful noise and roar, and sometimes get bewildered and
+fall afoul of belts and cogs, and lose their limbs or lives. He knows;
+and doesn't care. So does Mr. Ames. And he wouldn't put safety devices
+over his machines, because he doesn't care. I've written to him a
+dozen times about it. But--
+
+"And then Pillette," he continued; "I've asked him to furnish his
+hands with decent drinking water. They work ten and twelve hours in
+that inferno, and when they want to drink, why, all they have is a
+barrel of warm water, so covered with lint that it has to be pushed
+aside in order to get at the water. Why, Pillette don't even give 'em
+change rooms! He won't give 'em decent toilet rooms! Says Mr. Ames
+can't afford it. Seems to me that when a man can give a ball and send
+out invitations on cards of solid gold, he can afford to give a
+thought to the thousands who have toiled and suffered in order to
+enable him to give such a ball, don't you?"
+
+Carmen did. She had attended that reception. The memory came back now
+in hot, searing thoughts.
+
+"Oh, he catches 'em coming and going!" the priest went on. "You see,
+he manipulates Congress so that a high tariff law is passed,
+protecting him from imported goods. Then he runs up the prices of his
+output. That hits his mill hands, for they have to pay the higher
+prices that the tariff causes. Oh, no, it doesn't result in increased
+wages to them. Ha! ha! Not a bit! They're squeezed both ways. He is
+the only one who profits by high tariff on cotton goods. See how it
+works?"
+
+Yes, Carmen saw. She might not know that Ames periodically appeared
+before Congress and begged its protection--nay, threatened, and then
+demanded. She might not know that Senator Gossitch ate meekly from the
+great man's hand, and speciously represented to his dignified
+colleagues that the benefits of high protective duties were for "the
+people" of the United States. She might not know how Hood, employed to
+evade the laws enacted to hedge and restrain his master, bribed and
+bought, schemed and contrived, lobbied, traded, and manipulated, that
+his owner might batten on his blood-stained profits, while he kept his
+face turned away from the scenes of carnage, and his ears stopped
+against the piteous cries of his driven slaves. But she did know how
+needless it all was, and how easy, oh! how pitiably easy, it would be
+to remedy every such condition, would the master but yield but a
+modicum of his colossal, mesmeric selfishness. She did not know, she
+could not, that the master, Ames, made a yearly profit from his mills
+of more than two hundred per cent. But she did know that, were he less
+stupidly greedy, even to the extent of taking but a hundred per cent
+profit, he would turn a flood of sunshine into hundreds of sick,
+despairing, dying souls.
+
+"This is the place," she heard the priest say, his voice seeming to
+come from a long distance. "This is the Mission."
+
+She stopped and looked about her. They were in front of an old,
+two-story building, decrepit and forbidding, but well lighted. While
+she gazed, the priest opened the door and bade her enter.
+
+"This down here is the reading room," he explained. "The door is never
+locked. Upstairs is my office, and sleeping rooms for men. Also a
+stock of old clothes I keep on hand for 'em when I send 'em out to
+look for work. I've clothed an average of four men a day during the
+past year, and sent 'em out to look for jobs. I board 'em, and keep
+'em going until they land something. Sometimes I have to lend 'em
+money. I just help 'em to help themselves. No, I never bother about a
+man's religion. Come up to my office."
+
+Carmen climbed the rough steps to the floor above and entered the
+small but well-kept office of the priest.
+
+"Now here," he said, with a touch of pride, "is my card-index. I keep
+tab on all who come here. When they get straightened up and go out to
+hunt work, I give 'em identification cards. Just as soon as I can get
+funds I'm going to put a billiard table back there and fit up a little
+chapel, so's the Catholic men who drift in here can attend service.
+You know, a lot of 'em don't have the nerve to go to a church. Too
+proud. But they'd attend Mass here."
+
+Carmen looked at the man in admiration. Then a thought came to her.
+"We haven't either of us asked the other's name," she said.
+
+The priest's eyes twinkled. "I've been dying to know yours," he
+replied. "I'm Father Magee, Daniel Magee. But the boys generally call
+me Danny. What shall I call you? Oh, give any name; it doesn't matter,
+just so's I'll know how to address you."
+
+"I am Carmen Ariza. And I am from South America," said the girl
+simply. "Now sit down here. I want to talk to you. I have a lot to
+ask."
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+An hour later the girl rose from her chair. "I shall have to wait and
+visit the Hall another time," she said. "I must catch the eight-thirty
+back to the city. But--"
+
+"I'll never see you go down this tough street to the depot alone!"
+averred the priest, reaching for his hat.
+
+Carmen laughed. But she gratefully accepted the proffered escort. Two
+of Father Magee's assistants had come in meanwhile, and were caring
+for the few applicants below.
+
+"You're right, Miss Carmen," the priest said, as they started for the
+train. "Mr. Ames _must_ be reached. Perhaps you can do it. I can't.
+But I'll give you every assistance possible. It eats my heart out to
+see the suffering of these poor people!"
+
+At eleven o'clock that night Carmen entered the office of the city
+editor of the Express. "Ned," she said, "I've been with Dante--no,
+Danny--in Inferno. Now I'm going to Washington. I want expense
+money--a good lot--so that I can leave to-morrow night."
+
+Haynerd's eyes dilated as he stared at the girl. "Washington!" he
+ejaculated. "Well--! But what did you find down in Avon?"
+
+"I'll write you a detailed report of my trip to-morrow. I'm going home
+now," she replied.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 12
+
+
+It is sometimes said of the man who toils at forge or loom in this
+great commonwealth that he is fast forgetting that Washington is
+something more significant to him than what is embraced in the
+definition of the gazetteers. Not so, however, of that class of the
+genus _homo_ individualized in J. Wilton Ames. He leaned not upon such
+frail dependence as the _Congressional Record_ for tempered reports of
+what goes on behind closed legislative doors; he went behind those
+doors himself. He needed not to yield his meekly couched desires to
+the law-builders whom his ballot helped select; he himself launched
+those legislators, and gave them their steering charts. But, since the
+interpretation of laws was to him vastly more important than their
+framing, he first applied himself to the selection of judges, and
+especially those of the federal courts. With these safely seated and
+instructed at home, he gave himself comfortably to the task of holding
+his legislators in Washington to the course he chose.
+
+Carmen had not spent a day at the Capital before the significance of
+this fact to the common citizen swept over her like a tidal wave. If
+the people, those upon whom the stability of the nation rests, looked
+as carefully after appointments and elections as did Ames, would their
+present wrongs continue long to endure? She thought not. And after she
+had spent the day with the Washington correspondent of the Express, a
+Mr. Sands, who, with his young wife, had just removed to the Capital,
+she knew more with respect to the mesmerism of human inertia and its
+baneful effects upon mankind than she had known before.
+
+And yet, after that first day of wandering through the hallowed
+precincts of a nation's legislative halls, she sat down upon a bench
+in the shadow of the Capitol's great dome and asked herself the
+questions: "What am I here for, anyway? What can _I_ do? Why have I
+come?" She had acted upon--impulse? No; rather, upon instinct. And
+instinct with her, as we have said, was unrestrained dependence upon
+her own thought, the thought which entered her mentality only after
+she had first prepared the way by the removal of every obstruction,
+including self.
+
+At the breakfast table the second morning after her arrival in the
+city, Mr. Sands handed her a copy of the Express. Among the editorials
+was her full report upon conditions as she had found them in Avon,
+published without her signature. Following it was the editor's
+comment, merciless in its exposition of fact, and ruthless in its
+exposure of the cruel greed externalized in the great cotton industry
+in that little town.
+
+Carmen rose from the table indignant and protesting. Hitt had said he
+would be wise in whatever use he made of her findings. But, though
+quite devoid of malignity, this account and its added comment were
+nothing less than a personal attack upon the master spinner, Ames. And
+she had sent another report from Washington last night, one comprising
+all she had learned from Mr. Sands. What would Hitt do with that? She
+must get in touch with him at once. So she set out to find a telegraph
+office, that she might check the impulsive publisher who was openly
+hurling his challenge at the giant Philistine.
+
+When the message had gone, the girl dismissed the subject from her
+thought, and gave herself up completely to the charm of the glorious
+morning and her beautiful environment. For some time she wandered
+aimlessly about the city; then bent her steps again toward the
+Capitol.
+
+At the window of a florist she stopped and looked long and lovingly at
+the gorgeous display within. In the midst of the beautiful profusion a
+single flower held her attention. It was a great, brilliant red rose,
+a kind that she had never seen before. She went in and asked for it.
+
+"We call it the 'President' rose, Miss," said the salesman in response
+to her query. "It is quite new."
+
+"I want it," she said simply.
+
+And when she went out with the splendid flower burning on her bosom
+like living fire, she was glad that Hitt had not been there to see her
+pay two dollars for it.
+
+The great Capitol seemed to fascinate her, as she stood before it a
+few moments later. The spell of tradition enwrapped her. The mighty
+sentiments and motives which had actuated the framers of the
+Constitution seemed to loom before her like monuments of eternal
+stone. Had statesmanship degenerated from that day of pure patriotism
+into mere corruption? Mr. Sands would have her so believe.
+
+"The people!" he had exclaimed in scoffing tones. "Why, my dear girl,
+the people of your great State are represented in the national Senate
+by--whom? By nobody, I say. By the flies on the panes; by the mice in
+the corners; by the god, perhaps, to whom the chaplain offers his
+ineffectual prayers; but not by men. No; one of your Senators
+represents a great railroad; the other an express company! The people?
+Those Senators know no such ridiculous creature as 'the people'!"
+
+She turned from the Capitol, and for an hour or more strolled in the
+brilliant sunlight. "An economic disease," she murmured at length.
+"That's what it is. And, like all disease, it is mental. It is a
+disease of the human conscience. It comes from the fear of separation
+from good. It all reduces to the belief of separation from God--the
+belief that upon men's own human efforts depend all the happiness and
+satisfaction they can have. Why, I have never known anything but
+happiness and abundance! And yet, _I have never made a single effort
+to acquire them_!" For the girl saw not the past vicissitudes of her
+life except as shadowy mists, which dimmed not the sun of her joy.
+
+"Take care!" cried a loud voice close to her.
+
+There was a tramping of horses' feet. A great, dark body swept past.
+It struck her, and brushed her to one side. She strove to hold
+herself, but fell.
+
+The man and his companion were off their horses instantly, and
+assisted the girl to her feet.
+
+"Are you hurt?" asked the one who had been riding ahead. "I called to
+you, but you didn't seem to hear."
+
+"Not a bit!" laughed the girl, recovering her breath, and stooping to
+brush the dust from her dress. "I was dreaming, as usual."
+
+"Well, I'm glad to hear that! It was a close shave! I'm mighty sorry!
+Are you sure you're all right? Perhaps you had better come in with
+us."
+
+The girl raised her head and looked into his face with a bright smile.
+The man's anxious expression slowly changed into one of wonder, and
+then of something quite different. The girl's long, thick hair had
+been loosened by the fall, and was hanging about her shoulders. Framed
+in the deep brown profusion was the fairest face he had ever looked
+upon; the most winning smile; the most loving, compassionate glance.
+
+"You'll have to come in now, and let the maid help you," he said
+firmly. "And I'll send you home in an auto. May I ask where you
+live?"
+
+"New York," replied Carmen, a little confused as she struggled vainly
+with her hair. "Oh, I'm not going to fuss with it any more!" she
+suddenly exclaimed. "Yes, I'll go with you, and let the maid do it up.
+Isn't it long!"
+
+She glanced about her, and then up the avenue toward which the men had
+been riding. A flush suddenly spread over her face, and she turned and
+looked searchingly at the man.
+
+"You--you--live--in--there?" she stammered, pointing toward the
+distant house. "And you are--"
+
+"Yes," he replied, coming to her assistance, but evidently greatly
+enjoying her embarrassment, "I am the President."
+
+Carmen gave a little gasp. "Oh!"
+
+Then her hand stole mechanically to the rose flaming upon her bosom.
+"I--I guess I know why I bought this now," she said softly. Quickly
+unpinning it, she extended it to the man. "I was bringing it to you,
+wasn't I?" she laughed. "It's a 'President' rose."
+
+The picture was one that would have rejoiced an artist: the simple
+girl, with her tumbled hair and wonderful face, standing there in the
+glorious sunlight, holding out a single rose to the chief executive of
+a great nation.
+
+The President bowed low and took the proffered flower. "I thank you,"
+he said. "It is beautiful. But the one who gives it is far more so."
+
+Then he bade his companion take the two horses to the stable, and
+motioned to Carmen to accompany him.
+
+"I was just returning from my morning ride," he began again, "when you
+happened--"
+
+"Things _never_ happen," interrupted the girl gently.
+
+He looked at her with a little quizzical side glance. "Then you didn't
+happen to be in the way?" he said, smiling.
+
+"No," she returned gravely. "I was obeying the law of cause and
+effect."
+
+"And the cause?" he pursued, much interested.
+
+"A desire to see you, I guess. Or, perhaps, the _necessity_ of seeing
+you. And because I wanted to see you in the interests of good, why,
+evil seemed to try to run over me."
+
+"But why should you wish to see me?" he continued, greatly wondering.
+
+"Because you are the head of a wonderful nation. Your influence is
+very great. And you are a good man."
+
+He studied her for a moment. Then:
+
+"You came down from New York to talk with me?" he asked.
+
+"I think I came all the way from South America to see you," she said.
+
+"South America!"
+
+"Yes, Colombia."
+
+"Colombia! There is a revolution in progress down there now. Did you
+come to see me about that? I can do nothing--"
+
+The girl shook her head. "No," she said, "it's to prevent a revolution
+here in your own country that I think I have come to see you."
+
+They had by now reached the door of the Executive Mansion. Entering,
+the President summoned a maid, and turned the big-eyed girl over to
+her. "Bring her to my office," he directed, "when she is ready."
+
+A little later the nameless girl from Simiti again stood before the
+President of the United States.
+
+"I have an important conference at ten," he said, glancing at a clock.
+"But we have a few minutes before that time. Will you--may I ask you
+to tell me something about yourself?" he ventured. "You are feeling
+all right? No bad effects from the accident?" he added, looking
+apprehensively at her while he set out a chair.
+
+The girl drew the chair close to his desk and sat down. "I know
+nothing about accidents," she said quietly. Then, turning quite from
+that topic, she drew the President quickly into her thought and
+carried him off with her as on a magic carpet.
+
+The man listened in rapt attention. From time to time he turned and
+stared at his strange visitor. At other times he made notes of points
+which impressed him. Once he interrupted, when she made reference to
+her past life. "This priest, Jose de Rincon, might he not have been
+imprisoned as a political offender?"
+
+"I do not know," the girl replied tenderly. "My foster-father,
+Rosendo, did not mention him in the two letters which I have
+received."
+
+The President nodded; and the girl went rapidly on. Soon she was deep
+in the problem presented by Avon.
+
+But at the mention of that town, and of its dominating genius, the
+President seemed to become nervous. At length he raised a hand, as if
+to end the interview.
+
+"I fear I can do nothing at present," he said with an air of
+helplessness. "My influence is quite limited."
+
+"But," she protested, "you have the public welfare at heart. And can
+you not see that public welfare is the welfare of each individual?"
+
+"I know Mr. Ames well," the President replied, somewhat irrelevantly.
+"He, like all men of great wealth, presents a serious problem,
+doubtless. But he himself, likewise, is confronted by problems of very
+trying natures. We must give him time to work them out."
+
+The girl sighed. "It's like getting at the essence of Christianity,"
+she said. "The world has had nearly two thousand years in which to do
+that, but it hasn't made much of a start as yet. How much time does
+Mr. Ames require? And how many more lives must he sacrifice?"
+
+"But," the President resumed reflectively, "after all, it is the
+people who are wholly responsible for the conditions which exist among
+them. They have the means of remedying every economic situation, the
+ballot. It is really all in their hands, is it not? They elect their
+public officers, their judges, and their lawmakers."
+
+Again the girl sighed. "You too," she said, "take refuge in the cant
+of the age. Yes, the people do try to elect public servants; but by
+some strange anomaly the servant becomes master the moment he enters
+the door of office. His thought then centers upon himself. And then
+they, and you, sit helplessly back and cry, No use! And if the people
+rise, their servants meet them with a hail of lead. It's really
+childishly ridiculous, isn't it? when you stop to consider it
+seriously."
+
+She leaned her elbows upon the desk, and sat with chin in her hands,
+looking squarely into the eyes of the President.
+
+"So you, the head of this great nation, confess to utter helplessness,"
+she slowly said. "But you don't have to."
+
+A servant entered at that moment with a card. The President glanced at
+it, and bade him request the caller to wait a few moments. Then, after
+some reflection:
+
+"The people will always--"
+
+The door through which the servant had passed was abruptly thrown
+open, and a harsh voice preceded the entrance of a huge bulk.
+
+"I am not accustomed to being told to wait, Mr. President," said the
+ungracious voice. "My appointment was for ten o'clock, and I am here
+to keep it."
+
+Then the newcomer stopped abruptly, and stared in amazement at the
+young girl, sitting with her elbows propped upon the desk, and her
+face close to that of the President.
+
+The latter rose, flushed and angry. But Ames did not notice him. His
+attention was centered upon the girl who sat looking calmly up at him.
+A dark, menacing scowl drew his bushy eyebrows together, and made the
+sinister look which mantled his face one of ominous import to the
+person upon whom it fell.
+
+Carmen was the first to break the tense silence. With a bright smile
+illuming her face she rose and held out a hand to the giant before
+her. "Good morning, Mr. Ames," she said. "We meet pretty often, don't
+we?"
+
+Ames ignored both the greeting and the extended hand. Turning upon the
+President, he said sharply: "So, the Express seeks aid in the White
+House, eh?"
+
+"No, Mr. Ames," said Carmen quickly, answering for the President. "It
+seeks to aid the White House."
+
+Ames turned to the girl. "Might I ask," he said in a tone of mordant
+sarcasm, "how you learned that I was to be here this morning? I would
+like to employ your methods of espionage in my own business."
+
+"I would give anything if you _would_ employ my methods in your
+business," returned the girl gently.
+
+The President looked in embarrassment from one to the other. "I think,
+Miss Carmen," he said, "that we must consider our interview ended.
+This next hour belongs by appointment to Mr. Ames."
+
+A peculiar expression had come into Ames's features. His thought had
+been working rapidly. Here was an opportunity for a telling stroke. He
+would play it. His manner suddenly became more gracious.
+
+"Let her remain, Mr. President," he said in a tone pregnant with
+meaning. "I am glad to have a representative of the New York press
+with us to hear you express your attitude toward the cotton
+schedule."
+
+The President caught the insinuation. His hand was to be forced! His
+indignation mounted, but he checked it.
+
+"The schedule has been reported out of committee," he replied briefly.
+"It is now before Congress."
+
+"I am aware of that," said Ames. "And your influence with Congress in
+regard to it?"
+
+"I am studying the matter, Mr. Ames," returned the President slowly.
+
+"Shall the Avon mills be closed pending a decision? Or, on the
+assumption that Congress will uphold the altered schedule, must the
+Spinners' Association begin immediate retrenchment? As president of
+that Association, I ask for instructions."
+
+"My influence with Congress, as you well know, Mr. Ames, is quite
+limited," replied the hectored executive.
+
+"It is not a question of the _amount_ of your influence with that
+body, Mr. President," returned Ames coldly, "but of how you will
+employ that which you have."
+
+Silence lay upon them all for some moments. Then Ames resumed:
+
+"I would remind you," he remarked with cruel insinuation, "that--or,"
+glancing at the girl, "perhaps I should not make this public." He
+paused and awaited the effect of his significant words upon the
+President. Then, as the latter remained silent, he went on evenly:
+
+"Second-term prospects, you are aware, are often very greatly
+influenced by public facts regarding the first election. Of course we
+are saying nothing that the press might use, but--well, you must
+realize that there is some suspicion current as to the exact manner in
+which your election was--"
+
+"I think you wish to insinuate that my election was due to the
+Catholic vote, which you controlled in New York, and to your very
+generous campaign contributions, do you not? I see no reason for
+withholding from the press your views on the subject."
+
+"But, my friend, this is an age of investigation, and of suspicion
+toward all public officials. And such rumors wouldn't look well on the
+front pages of the press throughout the country. Of course, our young
+friend here isn't going to mention them to her superiors; but,
+nevertheless, they ought to be suppressed at once. Their effect upon
+your second-term prospects would be simply annihilating. Now I am in a
+position to greatly assist in the matter of--well, in fact, I have
+already once offered my aid to the Express. And I stand ready now to
+join with it in giving the lie to those who are seeking to embarrass
+the present administration. Miss Carmen is with us--"
+
+"Mr. Ames," the girl quietly interrupted, "I wish _you_ were with
+_us_."
+
+"But, my dear girl, have I--"
+
+"For then there would be no more suffering in Avon," she added.
+
+"Ha! Then it was you who wrote that misleading stuff in the Express,
+eh? I might have known it! May I ask," he added with a contemptuous
+sneer, "by whose authority you have visited the houses occupied by my
+tenants, without my permission or knowledge? I take it you were down
+there, although the cloudy weather must have quite dimmed your
+perception."
+
+"Yes," she answered in a low voice, "I have been there. And it was
+_very_ cloudy. Yes, I visited your charnel houses and your cemeteries.
+I saw your victims. I held their trembling hands, and stroked their
+hot brows. I fed them, and gave them the promise that I would plead
+their cause with you."
+
+"Humph! But you first come here to--"
+
+"It was with no thought of seeing you that I came to Washington, Mr.
+Ames. If I cross your path often, it must be for a purpose not yet
+revealed to either of us. Perhaps it is to warn you, to awaken you, if
+not too late, to a sense of your desperate state."
+
+"My desperate state!"
+
+"Yes. You are drunk, you know, drunk with greed. And such continuous
+drunkenness has made you sick unto death. It is the same dread disease
+of the soul that the wicked Cortez told the bewildered Mexicans he
+had, and that could be cured only with gold. You--you don't see, Mr.
+Ames, that you are mesmerized by the evil which is always using you."
+
+She stood close to the huge man, and looked straight up into his face.
+He remained for a moment motionless, yielding again to that
+fascination which always held him when in her presence, and of which
+he could give no account to himself. That slight, girlish figure--how
+easily he could crush her!
+
+"But you couldn't, you know," she said cryptically, as she shook her
+head.
+
+"Couldn't what?" he demanded.
+
+"Crush me."
+
+He recoiled a step, struck by the sudden revelation that the girl had
+read his thought.
+
+"You see, Mr. Ames," she continued, "what a craven error is before
+truth. It makes a coward of you, doesn't it? Your boasted power is
+only a mesmerism, which you throw like a huge net over your victims.
+You and they can break it, if you will."
+
+"Miss Carmen!" exclaimed the President. "We really must consider our
+interview ended. Let us make an appointment for another day."
+
+"I guess the appointment was made for to-day," the girl said softly.
+"And by a higher power than any of us. Mr. Ames is the type of man who
+is slowly turning our Republican form of government into a despotism
+of wealth. He boasts that his power is already greater than a czar's.
+You bow before it; and so the awful monster of privilege goes on
+unhampered, coiling its slimy tentacles about our national resources,
+our public utilities, and natural wealth. I--I can't see how you, the
+head of this great nation, can stand trembling by and see him do it.
+It is to me incomprehensible."
+
+The President flushed. He made as if to reply, but restrained himself.
+Carmen gave no indication of leaving. A stern look then came into the
+President's face. He stood for a few minutes in thought. Then he
+turned again to his desk and sat down.
+
+"Please be seated," he said, "both of you. I don't know what quarrel
+there is between you two, and I am not interested in it. But you, Miss
+Carmen, represent the press; Mr. Ames, business. The things which have
+been voiced here this morning must remain with us alone. Now let us
+see if we can not meet on common ground. Is the attitude of your
+newspaper, Miss Carmen, one of hostility toward great wealth?"
+
+"The Express raises its voice only against the folly and wickedness of
+the human mind, not against personality," replied the girl.
+
+"But you are attacking Mr. Ames."
+
+"No. We attack only the human thought which manifests in him. We
+oppose the carnal thought which expresses itself in the folly, the
+madness of strife for excessive wealth. It is that strife that makes
+our hospitals and asylums a disgraceful necessity. It makes the
+immigrant hordes of Europe flock here because they are attracted by
+the horrible social system which fosters the growth of great fortunes
+and makes their acquisition possible. Our alms-houses and prisons
+increase in number every year. It is because rich men misuse their
+wealth, trample justice under foot, and prostitute a whole nation's
+conscience."
+
+"But the rich need not do that. They do not all--"
+
+"It is a law of human thought," said Carmen in reply, "that mankind in
+time become like that which has absorbed their attention. Rich men
+obey this law with utmost precision. They acquire the nature and
+character of their god, gold. They rapidly grow to be like that which
+they blindly worship. They harden like their money. They grow
+metallic, yellow, calloused, unchanging, and soulless, like the coins
+they heap up. There is the great danger to our country, Mr. President.
+And it is against the human thought that produces such beings--thought
+stamped with the dollar mark--that the Express opposes itself."
+
+She hesitated, and looked in the direction of Ames. Then she added:
+
+"Their features in time reveal to the world their metallic thought.
+Their veins shrivel with the fiery lust of gold. Their arteries
+harden. And then, at last, they crumble and sink into the dust of
+which their god is made. And still their memories continue to poison
+the very sources of our national existence. You see," she concluded,
+"there is no fool so mired in his folly as the man who gives his soul
+for great wealth."
+
+"A very enjoyable little sermon, preached for my benefit, Miss
+Carmen," interposed Ames, bowing to her. "And now if you have finished
+excoriating my poor character," he continued dryly, "will you kindly
+state by whose authority you publish to the world my affairs?"
+
+"God's authority, Mr. Ames," returned the girl gently.
+
+"Bah! The maudlin sentimentalism of such as you make us all suffer!"
+he exclaimed with a gesture of disgust. "Hadn't we better sing a hymn
+now? You're obsessed with your foolish religious notions! You're
+running amuck! You'll be wiser in a few years, I hope."
+
+The girl reflected. "And may I ask, Mr. Ames, by what right you own
+mines, and forests, and lands? Divine right, I suppose."
+
+"By the divine right of law, most assuredly," he retorted.
+
+"And you make the law. Yes, divine right! I have learned," she
+continued, turning to the President, "that a bare handful of men own
+or control all the public utilities of this great country. It doesn't
+seem possible! But," abruptly, "you believe in God, don't you?"
+
+He nodded his head, although with some embarrassment. His religion
+labored heavily under political bias.
+
+She looked down at the floor, and sat silent for a while. "Divine
+right," she began to murmur, "the fetish of the creatures made rich by
+our man-made social system! 'The heavens are thine, the earth also is
+thine: as for the world and the fullness thereof, thou hast founded
+them.' But, oh, what must be the concept of God held by the rich, a
+God who bestows these gifts upon a few, and with them the privilege
+and divine consent to oppress and crush their fellow-men! What a low
+order of intelligence the rich possess! An intelligence wherein the
+sentiments of love and justice have melted into money!"
+
+"Mr. President," put in Ames at this juncture, "I think we have spent
+quite enough time moralizing. Suppose you now indicate your attitude
+on the cotton tariff. I'd like to know what to expect."
+
+Carmen glanced quickly up. Her sparkling eyes looked right into the
+President's. A smile wreathed her mouth. "I admire the man," she said,
+"who dares to stand for the right in the face of the great taboo!
+There are few men nowadays who stand for anything in particular."
+
+"Look here!" exclaimed Ames, aware now that he had made a mistake in
+permitting the girl to remain, "I wish my interview to be with you
+alone, Mr. President."
+
+Carmen rose. "I have embarrassed you both, haven't I?" she said. "I
+will go. But first--"
+
+She went to Ames and laid a hand on his arm. "I wish--I wish I might
+awaken you," she said gently. "There is no victim at Avon in so
+desperate a state as you. More gold will not cure you, any more than
+more liquor can cure a slave to strong drink. You do not know that you
+are hourly practicing the most despicable form of robbery, the
+wringing of profits which you do not need out of the dire necessities
+of your fellow-beings."
+
+She stopped and smiled down into the face of the man. His emotions
+were in a whirl. This girl always dissected his soul with a smile on
+her face.
+
+"I wish I might awaken you and your poor victims by showing you and
+them that righteousness makes not for a home in the skies, but for
+greater happiness and prosperity for everybody right here in this
+world. Don't you really want the little babies to have enough to eat
+down there at Avon? Do you really want the President to support you in
+the matter of the cotton schedule, and so increase the misery and
+sorrow at your mills? You don't know, do you? that one's greatest
+happiness is found only in that of others." She stood looking at him
+for a few moments, then turned away.
+
+The President rose and held out his hand to her. She almost laughed as
+she took it, and her eyes shone with the light of her eager, unselfish
+desire.
+
+"I--I guess I'm like Paul," she said, "consumed with zeal. Anyway,
+you'll wear my rose, won't you?"
+
+"Indeed I will!" he said heartily.
+
+"And--you are not a bit afraid about a second term, are you? As for
+party principle, why, you know, there is only _one_ principle, God. He
+is the Christ-principle, you know, and that is way above party
+principle."
+
+Under the spell of the girl's strange words every emotion fled from
+the men but that of amazement.
+
+"Righteousness, you know, is right-thinking. And that touches just
+that about which men are most chary, their pocketbooks."
+
+She still held his hand. Then she arched her brows and said naively:
+"You will find in yesterday's Express something about Avon. You will
+not use your influence with Congress until you have read it, will
+you?" And with that she left the room.
+
+A deep quiet fell upon the men, upon the great executive and the great
+apostle of privilege. It seemed to the one that as the door closed
+against that bright presence the spirit of night descended; the other
+sat wrapped in the chaos of conflicting emotions in which she always
+left him.
+
+Suddenly the President roused up. "Who is she?" he asked.
+
+"She's the bastard daughter of a <DW64> priest," replied Ames in an
+ugly tone.
+
+"What--she? That beautiful girl--! I don't believe it!"
+
+"By God, she is!" cried the thoroughly angered Ames, bringing a huge
+fist down hard upon the desk. "And I've got the proof! And, what's
+more, she's head over heels in love with another renegade priest!
+
+"But that's neither here nor there," he continued savagely. "I want to
+know what you are going to do for us?"
+
+"I--I do not see, Mr. Ames, that I can do anything," replied the
+President meditatively.
+
+"Well--will you leave the details to us, and do as we tell you then?"
+the financier pursued, taking another tack.
+
+The President hesitated. Then he raised his head. "You say you have
+proof?" he asked.
+
+"Proof?"
+
+"Yes--about the girl, you--"
+
+"Damn the girl!" almost shouted Ames. "I've got proofs that will ruin
+her, and you too--and, by God, I'll use 'em, if you drive me to it!
+You seem to forget that you were elected to do our bidding, my
+friend!"
+
+The President again lapsed into silence. For a long time he sat
+staring at the floor. Then he looked up. "It was wonderful," he said,
+"wonderful the way she faced you, like David before Goliath! There
+isn't a vestige of fear in her make-up. I--we'll talk this matter over
+some other time, Mr. Ames," he finished, rising abruptly.
+
+"We'll talk it over now!" roared Ames, his self-control flying to the
+winds. "I can ruin you--make your administration a laughing-stock--and
+plunge this country into financial panic! Do you do as I say, or
+not?"
+
+The President looked the angry man squarely in the eyes. "I do not,"
+he answered quietly. "Good morning."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 13
+
+
+"It's corking! Simply corking!" cried Haynerd, when he and Hitt had
+finished reading Carmen's report on her first few days in Washington.
+"Makes a fellow feel as if the best thing Congress could do would be
+to adjourn for about fifty years, eh? Such freak legislation! But
+she's a wonder, Hitt! And she's booming the Express to the skies! Say,
+do you know? she's in love, that girl is! That's why she is so--as the
+Mexicans say--_simpatico_."
+
+"Eh? In love!" exclaimed Hitt. "Well, not with you, I hope!"
+
+"No, unfortunately," replied Haynerd, assuming a dejected mien, "but
+with that Rincon fellow--and he a priest! He's got a son down in
+Cartagena somewhere, and he doesn't write to her either. She's told
+Sid the whole story, and he's working it up into a book during his odd
+moments. But, say," turning the conversation again into its original
+channel, "how much of her report are we going to run? You know, she
+tried to head us off. Doesn't want to attack Ames. Ha! ha! As if she
+hadn't already attacked him and strewn him all over the field!"
+
+"We'll have to be careful in our allusions to the President," replied
+Hitt. "I'll rewrite it myself, so as not to offend her or him. And
+I--but, by George! her reports are the truth, and they rightfully
+belong to the people! The Express is the avowed servant of the
+public! What she finds out belongs to all. I see no reason for
+concealing a thing. Did I tell you that I had two inquiries from
+Italian and German papers, asking permission to translate her reports
+into their own columns?"
+
+"No? Jerusalem! We're becoming famous! Did you wire her to see
+Gossitch and Mall?"
+
+"Yes, and Logue, as well as others. And I've put dozens of senators
+and congressmen on our mailing list, including the President himself.
+I've prepared letters for each one of them, calling attention to the
+girl and her unique reports. She certainly writes in a fascinating
+vein, doesn't she? Meanwhile, she's circulating around down there and
+advertising us in the best possible manner. We're a success, old man!"
+he finished, slapping the city editor roundly upon the back.
+
+"Humph!" growled the latter. "Confine your enthusiasm to words, my
+friend. Say, what did you do about that liquid food advertisement?"
+
+"Discovered that it was beer," replied Hitt, "and turned it firmly
+down."
+
+"Well, isn't beer a food? Not that we care to advertise it, but--"
+
+Hitt laughed. "When that fellow Claus smoothly tried to convince me
+that beer was a food, I sent a sample of his stuff to the Iles
+chemical laboratory for analysis. They reported ninety-four per cent
+water, four per cent alcohol--defined now as a poisonous drug--and
+about two per cent of possible food substance. If the beer had been of
+the first grade there wouldn't have been even the two per cent of
+solids. You know, I couldn't help thinking of what Carmen said about
+the beer that is advertised in brown bottles to preserve it from the
+deleterious effects of light. Light, you know, starts decay in beer.
+Well, light, according to Fuller, is 'God's eldest daughter.' Emerson
+says it is the first of painters, and that there is nothing so foul
+that intense light will not make it beautiful. Light destroys
+fermentation. Thus the light of truth destroys the fermentation which
+is supposed to constitute the human mind and body. So light tries to
+purify beer by breaking it up. The brewers have to put it into brown
+bottles to preserve its poisonous qualities. As Carmen says, beer
+simply can't stand the light. No evil can stand the light. Remarkable,
+isn't it?"
+
+"Humph! It's astonishing that so many so-called reputable papers will
+take their advertising stuff. It's just as bad as patent medicine
+ads."
+
+"Yes. And I note that the American public still spend their annual
+hundred million dollars for patent medicine dope. Most of this is
+spent by women, who are largely caught by the mail-order trade. I
+learned of one exposure recently made where it was found that a widely
+advertised eye wash was composed of borax and water. The cost was
+somewhere about five cents a gallon, and it sold for a dollar an
+ounce. Nice little profit of some two hundred and fifty thousand per
+cent, and all done by the mesmerism of suggestive advertising. Shrewd
+business, eh? Nice example in morality. Speaking of parasites on
+society, Ames is not the only one!"
+
+"And yet those fellows howl and threaten us with the boycott because
+we won't advertise their lies and delusions. It's as bad as
+ecclesiastical intolerance!"
+
+Carmen spent a week in Washington. Then she returned to New York and
+went directly to Avon. What she did there can only be surmised by a
+study of her reports to Hitt, who carefully edited them and ran them
+in the Express. Again, after several days, she journeyed back to
+Washington. Her enthusiasm was boundless; her energy exhaustless; her
+industry ceaseless; and her persistency doggedly unshakable. In
+Washington she made her way unhindered among those whom she deemed
+essential to the work which she was doing. Doubtless her ability to do
+this and to gain an audience with whomsoever she might choose was in
+great part due to her beauty and charming simplicity, her grace of
+manner, and her wonderful and fearless innocence, combined with a
+mentality remarkable for its matured powers. Hitt and Haynerd groaned
+over her expenses, but promptly met them.
+
+"She's worth it," growled the latter one day. "She's had four
+different talks with the President! How on earth do you suppose she
+does it? And how did she get Mall and Logue to take her to dinner and
+to the theater again and again? And what did she do to induce that
+doddering old blunderbuss, Gossitch, to tell her what Ames was up to?
+I'll bet he made love to her! How do you suppose she found out that
+Ames was hand in glove with the medical profession, and working tooth
+and nail to help them secure a National Bureau of Health? Say, do you
+know what that would do? It would foist allopathy upon every chick and
+child of us! Make medication, drugging, compulsory! Good heavens! Have
+we come to that in this supposedly free country? By the way, Hitt,
+Doctor Morton has been let out of the University. Fired! He says Ames
+did it because of his association with us. What do you think of
+that?"
+
+"I think, my friend," replied Hitt, "that it is a very serious matter,
+and one that impinges heavily upon the rights of every one of us, when
+a roaring lion like Ames is permitted to run loose through our
+streets. Can nothing stop him!"
+
+"I've centered my hopes in Carmen," sighed Haynerd. "She's my one last
+bet. If she can't stop him, then God himself can't!"
+
+Hitt turned and went into his office. A few moments later he came out
+again and handed an opened letter to Haynerd. "Some notes she's sent
+from Washington. Mentions the National Bureau of Health project. It
+hasn't escaped her, you see. Say, will you tell me where she picks up
+her information?"
+
+"The Lord gives it to her, I guess," said Haynerd, glancing over the
+letter. "What's this?"
+
+  "'Reverend Borwell and Doctor Siler are down here lobbying for the
+  National Bureau of Health bill. Also, Senator Gossitch dropped a
+  remark to me yesterday which makes me believe that he and other
+  Senators have been approached by Tetham with reference to sending
+  an American ambassador to the Vatican. Mr. Ames favors this.'"
+
+Haynerd handed the letter back to Hitt and plunged into the papers on
+his desk. "Don't say another word to me!" he exclaimed. "This
+country's going stark, staring mad! We're crazy, every mother's son of
+us!"
+
+"It's the human mind that is crazy, Ned, because it is wholly without
+any basis of principle," returned Hitt with a sigh.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Doctor Siler! I beg your pardon!"
+
+"Eh? Why, Miss Carmen!" exclaimed that worthy person, looking up from
+the gutter, whither he had hastened after his silk hat which had been
+knocked off by the encounter with the young girl who had rounded the
+corner of Ninth street into Pennsylvania avenue and plunged full into
+him.
+
+"Oh, I'm so sorry, Doctor! I was coming from the Smithsonian
+Institution, and I guess--"
+
+"Don't mention it, Miss Carmen. It's a privilege to have my hat
+knocked off by such a radiant creature as you."
+
+"But it was so stupid of me! Dreaming again! And I want to offer
+my--"
+
+"Look here, Miss Carmen, just offer yourself as my guest at luncheon,
+will you? That will not only make amends, but place me hopelessly in
+your debt."
+
+"Indeed I will!" exclaimed the girl heartily. "I was on my way to a
+restaurant."
+
+"Then come with me. I've got a little place around the corner here
+that would have made Epicurus sit up nights inditing odes to it."
+
+The girl laughed merrily, and slipped her arm through his. A few
+minutes later they were seated at a little table in a secluded corner
+of the doctor's favorite chophouse.
+
+"By the way, I met a friend of yours a few minutes ago," announced the
+doctor, after they had given their orders. "He was coming out of the
+White House, and--were you ever in a miniature cyclone? Well, that was
+Ames! He blew me right off the sidewalk! So angry, he didn't see me.
+That's twice to-day I've been sent to the gutter!" He laughed heartily
+over his experiences, then added significantly: "You and he are both
+mental cyclones, but producing diametrically opposite effects."
+
+Carmen remained seriously thoughtful. The doctor went on chatting
+volubly. "Ames and the President don't seem to be pulling together
+as well as usual. The President has come out squarely against him
+now in the matter of the cotton schedule. Ames declares that the
+result will be a general financial panic this fall. By the way, Mr.
+Sands, the Express correspondent, seems to be getting mighty close
+to administration affairs these days. Where did he get that data
+regarding a prospective National Bureau of Health, do you suppose?"
+
+"I gave it to him," was the simple reply.
+
+The doctor dropped his fork, and stared at the girl. "You!" he
+exclaimed. "Well--of course you naturally would be opposed to it.
+But--"
+
+"Tell me," she interrupted, "tell me candidly just what you doctors
+are striving for, anyway. For universal health? Are your activities
+all quite utilitarian, or--is it money and monopoly that you are
+after? It makes a lot of difference, you know, in one's attitude
+toward you. If you really seek the betterment of health, then you are
+only honestly mistaken in your zeal. But if you are doing this to make
+money--and I think you are--then you are a lot of rascals, deserving
+defeat."
+
+"Miss Carmen, do you impugn my motives?" He laughed lightly at the
+thought.
+
+"N--well--" She hesitated. He began to color slightly under her keen
+scrutiny. "Well," she finally continued, "let's see. If you doctors
+have made the curative arts effective, and if you really do heal
+disease, then I must support you, of course. But, while there is
+nothing quite so important to the average mortal as his health, yet I
+know that there is hardly anything that has been dealt with in such a
+bungling way. The art of healing as employed by our various schools of
+medicine to-day is the result of ages and ages of experimentation and
+bitter experience, isn't it? And its cost in human lives is simply
+incalculable. No science is so speculative, none so hypothetical, as
+the so-called science of medicine."
+
+"But we have had to learn," protested the doctor.
+
+"Do you realize, Doctor," she resumed, "that the teaching and
+preaching of disease for money is one of the greatest curses resting
+upon the world to-day? I never saw a doctor until I was on the boat
+coming to New York. And then I thought he was one of the greatest
+curiosities I had ever seen. I followed him about and listened to him
+talk to the passengers. And I learned that, like most of our young
+men, he had entered the practice of medicine under the pressure of
+dollars rather than altruism. Money is still the determining factor in
+the choice of a profession by our young men. And success and fortune
+in the medical profession, more than in any other, depend upon the
+credulity of the ignorant and helpless human mind."
+
+"Do you deny that great progress has been made in the curative arts?"
+he demanded. "See what we have done with diphtheria, with typhoid,
+with smallpox, and malaria!"
+
+"Surely, Doctor, you can not believe that the mere temporary removing
+of a disease is _real_ healing! You render one lot of microbes
+innocuous, after thousands of years of experimentation, and leave
+mankind subject to the rest. Then you render another set harmless. Do
+you expect to go on that way, making set after set of microbes
+harmless to the human body, and thus in time, after millions of years,
+eradicate disease entirely? Do you think that people will then cease
+to die? All the time you are working only in matter and through
+material modes. Do you expect thereby to render the human sense of
+life immortal? I think a sad disappointment awaits you. Your patients
+get well, only to fall sick again. And death to you is still as
+inevitable as ever, despite your boasted successes, is it not so?"
+
+He broke into a bantering laugh, but did not reply.
+
+"Doctor, the human mind is self-inoculated. It suffers from
+auto-infection. It makes its own disease microbes. It will keep on
+making them, until it is educated out of itself, and taught to do
+better. Then it will give place to the real reflection of divine mind;
+and human beings will be no more. Why don't you realize this, you
+doctors, and get started on the right track? Your real work is in the
+_mental_ realm. There you will find both cause and cure."
+
+"Well, I for one have little respect for faith cure--"
+
+"Nor I," she interposed. "Dependence upon material drugs, Doctor, is
+reliance upon the _phenomena_ of the human mind. Faith cure is
+dependence upon the human mind itself, upon the _noumenon_, instead of
+the _phenomenon_. Do you see the difference? Hypnotism is mental
+suggestion, the suggestions being human and material, not divine
+truth. The drugging system is an outgrowth of the belief of life in
+matter. Faith cure is the belief of life and power inherent in the
+human mind. One is no higher than the other. The origin of healing is
+shrouded in mythology, and every step of its so-called progress has
+been marked by superstition, dense ignorance, and fear. The first
+doctor that history records was the Shaman, or medicine-man, whose
+remedies reflected his mental status, and later found apt illustration
+in the brew concocted by Macbeth's witches. And think you he has
+disappeared? Unbelievable as it may seem, it was only a short time ago
+that a case was reported from New York where the skin of a freshly
+killed black cat was applied as a remedy for an ailment that had
+refused to yield to the prescribed drugging! And only a few years ago
+some one applied to the Liverpool museum for permission to touch a
+sick child's head with one of the prehistoric stone axes there
+exhibited."
+
+"That was mere superstition," retorted the doctor.
+
+"True," said Carmen. "But _materia medica_ is superstition incarnate.
+And because of the superstition that life and virtue and power are
+resident in matter, mankind have swallowed nearly everything known to
+material sense, in the hope that it would cure them of their own
+auto-infection. You remember what awful recipes Luther gave for
+disease, and his exclamation of gratitude: 'How great is the mercy of
+God who has put such healing virtue in all manner of muck!'"
+
+"Miss Carmen," resumed the doctor, "we physicians are workers, not
+theorists. We handle conditions as we find them, not as they ought to
+be."
+
+"Oh, no, you don't!" laughed the girl. "You handle conditions as the
+human, mortal mind believes them to be, that's all. You accept its
+ugly pictures as real, and then you try desperately through
+legislation to make us all accept them. Yet you would bitterly resent
+it if some religious body should try to legislate its beliefs upon
+you.
+
+"Now listen, you doctors are rank materialists. Perhaps it is because,
+as Hawthorne puts it, in your researches into the human frame your
+higher and more subtle faculties are materialized, and you lose the
+spiritual view of existence. Your only remedy for diseased matter is
+more matter. And these material remedies? Why, ignorance and
+superstition have given rise to by far the larger number of remedies
+in use by you to-day! And all of your attempts to rationalize medicine
+and place it upon a systematic basis have signally failed, because the
+only curative property a drug has is the credulity of the person who
+swallows it. And that is a factor which varies with the individual."
+
+"The most advanced physicians give little medicine nowadays, Miss
+Carmen."
+
+"They are beginning to get away from it, little by little," she
+replied. "In recent years it has begun to dawn upon doctors and
+patients alike that the sick who recover do so, not because of the
+drugs which they have taken, but _in spite of them_! One of the most
+prominent of our contemporary physicians who are getting away from the
+use of drugs has said that eighty-five per cent of all illnesses get
+well of their own accord, no matter what may or may not be done for
+them. In a very remarkable article from this same doctor's pen, in
+which he speaks of the huge undertaking which physicians must assume
+in order to clear away the _materia medica_ rubbish of the ages, he
+states that the greatest struggle which the coming doctor has on his
+hands is with drugs, and the deadly grip which they have on the
+confidence and affections both of the profession and of the public.
+Among his illuminating remarks about the drug system, I found two
+drastic statements, which should serve to lift the veil from the eyes
+of the chronic drug taker. These are, first, 'Take away opium and
+alcohol, and the backbone of the patent medicine business would be
+broken inside of forty-eight hours,' and, second, 'No drug, save
+quinine and mercury in special cases, will cure a disease.' In words
+which he quotes from another prominent physician, 'He is the best
+doctor who knows the worthlessness of most drugs.'
+
+"The hundreds of drugs listed in books on _materia medica_ I find are
+gradually being reduced in number to a possible forty or fifty, and
+one doctor makes the radical statement that they can be cut down to
+the 'six or seven real drugs.' Still further light has been thrown
+upon the debasing nature of the drugging system by a member of the
+Philadelphia Drug Exchange, in a recent hearing before the House
+Committee on municipal affairs right here. He is reported as saying
+that it makes little difference what a manufacturer puts into a patent
+medicine, for, after all, the effect of the medicine depends upon the
+faith of the user. The sick man who turns to patent medicines for
+relief becomes the victim of 'bottled faith.' If his faith is
+sufficiently great, a cure may be effected--and the treatment has been
+_wholly mental_! The question of ethics does not concern either the
+patent medicine manufacturer or the druggist, for they argue that if
+the sick man's faith has been aroused to the point of producing a
+cure, the formula of the medicine itself is of no consequence, and,
+therefore, if a solution of sugar and water sold as a cure for colds
+can stimulate the sufferer's faith to the point of meeting his need,
+the business is quite legitimate. 'A bunch of bottles and sentiment,'
+adds this member of the Drug Exchange, 'are the real essentials for
+working healing miracles.'"
+
+"Say!" exclaimed the doctor, again sitting back and regarding her with
+amazement. "You have a marvelous memory for data!"
+
+"But, Doctor, I am intensely interested in my fellow-men. I want to
+help them, and show them how to learn to live."
+
+"So am I," he returned. "And I am doing all I can, the very best I
+know how to do."
+
+"I guess you mean you are doing what you are prompted to do by every
+vagrant impulse that happens to stray into your mentality, aren't
+you?" she said archly. "You haven't really seriously thought out your
+way, else you would not be here now urging Congress to spread a
+blanket of ignorance over the human mind. If you will reflect
+seriously, if you will lay aside monetary considerations, and a little
+of the hoary prejudice of the ages, and will carefully investigate our
+present medical systems, you will find a large number of schools of
+medicine, bitterly antagonistic to one another, and each accusing the
+other of inferiority as an exact science, and as grossly ignorant and
+reprehensibly careless of life. But which of these warring schools can
+show the greatest number of cures is a bit of data that has never been
+ascertained. A recent writer says: 'As important as we all realize
+health to be, the public is receiving treatment that is anything but
+scientific, and the amount of unnecessary suffering that is going on
+in the world is certainly enough to make a rock shed tears.' He
+further says that, 'at least seventy-five per cent of the people we
+meet who are apparently well, are suffering from some chronic ailment
+that regular medical systems can not cure,' and that many of these
+would try further experimentation were it not for the criticism that
+is going on in the medical world regarding various curative systems.
+The only hope under the drugging system is that the patient's life and
+purse may hold out under the strain of trying everything until he can
+light upon the right thing before he reaches the end of the list."
+
+"And do you include surgery in your general criticism?" he asked.
+
+"Surgery is no less an outgrowth of the belief of sentient matter than
+is the drugging system," she replied. "It is admittedly necessary in
+the present stage of the world's thought; but it is likewise admitted
+to be 'the very uncertain art of performing operations,' at least
+ninety per cent of which are wholly unnecessary.
+
+"You see," she went on, "the effect upon the _moral_ nature of the
+sick man is never considered as rightfully having any influence upon
+the choice of the system to be employed. If Beelzebub can cast out
+demons, why not employ him? For, after all, the end to be attained is
+the ejection of the demon. And if God had not intended minerals and
+plants to be used as both food and medicine, why did He make them?
+Besides, man must earn his bread in some way under our present crude
+and inhuman social system, and if the demand for drugs exists we may
+be very sure it will be supplied by others, if not by ourselves.
+Again, the influence of commercialism as a determining factor in the
+choice of a profession, is an influence that works to keep many in the
+practice of a profession that they know to be both unscientific and
+harmful. The result is an inevitable lowering of ideals to the lust of
+material accumulation."
+
+"Well!" he exclaimed. "You certainly are hard on us poor doctors! And
+we have done so much for you, too, despite your accusations. Think of
+the babies that are now saved from diphtheria alone!"
+
+"And think of the children who are the victims of the medical mania!"
+she returned. "Think how they are brought up under the tyranny of
+fear! Fear of this and of that; fear that if they scratch a finger
+blood poisoning will deprive them of life; fear that eating a bit of
+this will cause death; or sitting in a breeze will result in wasting
+sickness! Isn't it criminal? As for diphtheria antitoxin, it is in the
+same class as the white of an egg. It contains no chemicals. It is the
+result of human belief, the belief that a horse that has recovered
+from diphtheria can never again be poisoned by the microbe of that
+disease. The microbe, Doctor, is the externalization in the human
+mentality of the mortal beliefs of fear, of life and power in matter,
+and of disease and death. The microbe will be subject, therefore, to
+the human mind's changing thought regarding it, always."
+
+"Well then," said the doctor, "if people are spiritual, and if they
+really are a consciousness, as you say, why do we seem to be carrying
+about a body with us all the time--a body from which we are utterly
+unable to get away?"
+
+"It is because the mortal mind and body are one, Doctor. The body is
+a lower stratum of the human mind. Hence, the so-called mind is
+never distinct from its body to the extent of complete separation,
+but always has its substratum with it. And, Doctor, the mind can not
+hold a single thought without that thought tending to become
+externalized--as Professor James tells us--and the externalization
+generally has to do with the body, for the mind has come to center
+all its hopes of happiness and pleasure in the body, and to base its
+sense of life upon it. The body, being a mental concept formed of
+false thought, passes away, from sheer lack of a definite principle
+upon which to rest. Therefore the sense of life embodied in it passes
+away with it. You know, the ancients had some idea of the cause of
+disease when they attributed it to demons, for demons at least are
+mental influences. But then, after that, men began to believe that
+disease was sent by God, either to punish them for their evil deeds,
+or to discipline and train them for paradise. Funny, isn't it? Think
+of regarding pain and suffering as divine agents! I don't wonder
+people die, do you? Humboldt, you know, said: 'The time will come
+when it will be considered a disgrace for a man to be sick, when the
+world will look upon it as a misdemeanor, the result of some
+vicious thinking.' Many people seem to think that thought affects
+only the brain; but the fact is that _we think all over_!"
+
+"But look here," put in the doctor. "Here's a question I intended to
+ask Hitt the other night. He said the five physical senses did not
+testify truly. Well now, if, as you say, the eyes do not testify to
+disease, then they can't testify to cures either, eh?" He sat back
+with an air of triumph.
+
+"Quite correct," replied Carmen. "The physical senses testify only to
+belief. In the case of sickness, they testify to false belief. In the
+case of a cure, they testify to a changed belief, to a belief of
+recovered health, that is all. It is all on the basis of human belief,
+you see."
+
+"Eh? But--nerves feel--"
+
+"Nerves, Doctor, like all matter, are externalizations of human
+thought. Can the externalization of thought talk back to thought? No.
+You are still on the basis of mere human belief."
+
+At that moment the doctor leaned over and tapped upon the window to
+attract the attention of some one in the street. Carmen looked out and
+caught sight of a tall, angular man dressed in clerical garb. The man
+bowed pleasantly to the doctor, and cast an inquiring glance at the
+girl, then passed on.
+
+"A priest?" inquired Carmen.
+
+"Yes, Tetham," said the doctor.
+
+"Oh, is that the man who maintains the lobby here at the Capital for
+his Church? I've heard about him. He--well, it is his business to see
+that members of his Church are promoted to political office, isn't it?
+He trades votes of whole districts to various congressmen in return
+for offices for strong church members. He also got the parochial
+schools of New York exempt from compulsory vaccination. The
+Express--"
+
+"Eh? The Express has heard from him?" inquired the doctor.
+
+"Yes. We opposed the candidate Mr. Ames was supporting for Congress.
+We also supported Mr. Wales in his work on the cotton schedule. And so
+we heard from Father Tetham. He is supporting the National Bureau of
+Health bill. He is working for the Laetare medal. He--"
+
+"Say, Miss Carmen, will you tell me where you pick up your news?
+Really, you astonish me! Do you know something about everybody here in
+Washington?"
+
+She laughed. "I have learned much here," she said, "about popular
+government as exemplified by these United States. The knowledge is a
+little saddening. But it is especially saddening to see our
+constitutional liberties threatened by this Bureau of Health bill, and
+by the Government's constant truckling to the Church of Rome. Doctor,
+can it be that you want to commit this nation to the business of
+practicing medicine, and to its practice according to the allopathic,
+or 'regular' school? The American Medical Association, with its
+reactionary policies and repressive tendencies, is making strenuous
+endeavors to influence Congress to enact certain measures which would
+result in the creation of such a Department of Health, the effect of
+which would be to monopolize the art of healing and to create a
+'healing trust.' If this calamity should be permitted to come upon the
+American people, it would fall as a curtain of ignorance and
+superstition over our fair land, and shut out the light of the dawning
+Sun of Truth. It would mean a reversion to the blight and mold of the
+Middle Ages, in many respects a return in a degree to the ignorance
+and tyranny that stood for so many centuries like an impassable rock
+in the pathway of human progress. The attempt to foist upon a
+progressive people a system of medicine and healing which is wholly
+unscientific and uncertain in its effects, but which is admittedly
+known to be responsible for the death of millions and for untold
+suffering and misery, and then to say, '_Thou shalt be cured thereby,
+or not be cured at all_,' is an insult to the intelligence of the
+Fathers of our liberties, and a crime upon a people striving for the
+light. It smacks of the Holy Inquisition: You accept our creed, or you
+shall go to hell--after we have broken you on the rack! Why, the
+thought of subjecting this people to years of further dosing and
+experimentation along the materialistic lines of the 'regular' school,
+of curtailing their liberties, and forcing their necks under the yoke
+of medical tyranny, should come to them with the insistence of a
+clarion call, and startle them into such action that the subtle evil
+which lurks behind this proposed legislative action would be dragged
+out into the light and exterminated! To permit commercialism and
+greed, the lust of mammon, and the pride of the flesh that expresses
+itself in the demand, 'Who shall be greatest?' to dictate the course
+of conduct that shall shape the destinies of a great people, is to
+admit the failure of free government, and to revert to a condition of
+mind that we had thought long since outgrown. To yield our dear-bought
+liberties to Italian ecclesiastics, on the other hand--well, Doctor,
+_it is just unthinkable_!"
+
+"H'm! Well, at least you are delightfully frank with me. Yet you have
+the effect of making me feel as if--as if I were in some way behind a
+veil. That--"
+
+"Well, the human mind is very decidedly behind a veil--indeed, behind
+many of them. And how can it see God through them? Mankind just grope
+about all their lives back of these veils, not knowing that God is
+right before them all the time. God has got to be everything, or else
+He will be nothing. With or without drugs, it is God 'who healeth all
+thy diseases.' The difficulty with physicians is that they are densely
+ignorant of what healing means, and so they always start with a
+dreadful handicap. They believe that there is something real to be
+overcome--and of course fail to permanently overcome it. Many of them
+are not only pitiably ignorant, but are in the profession simply to
+make money out of the fears and credulity of the people. Doctor, the
+physician of to-day is in no way qualified to handle the question of
+public health--especially those doctors who say: 'If you won't take
+our medicines we'll get a law passed that will make you take them.' To
+place the health of the people in their hands would be a terrible
+mistake. The agitation for a federal Department of Health is based
+upon motives of ignorance and intentional wrong. If the people
+generally knew this, they would rise in a body against it. Make what
+laws you wish for yourself, Doctor. The human mind is constantly
+occupied in the making of ridiculous laws and limitations. But do not
+attempt to foist your laws upon the people. Tell me, why all this
+agitation about teaching sex-hygiene in the public schools? Why not,
+for a change, teach Christianity? What would be the result? But even
+the Bible has been put out of the schools. And by whom? By your
+Church, that its interpretation may continue to be falsely made by
+those utterly and woefully ignorant of its true meaning!"
+
+For some moments they continued their meal in silence. Then the girl
+took up the conversation again. "Doctor," she said, "will you come out
+from among them and be separate?"
+
+He looked at her quizzically. "Oppose Ames?" he finally said.
+
+"Ah, that is the rub, then! Yes, oppose ignorance and falsity, even
+though incarnate in Mr. Ames," she replied.
+
+"He would ruin me!" exclaimed the doctor. "He ruins everybody who
+stands in his way! The cotton schedule has gone against him, and the
+whole country will have to suffer for it!"
+
+"But how can he make the country suffer because he has been blocked in
+his colossal selfishness?" she asked.
+
+"That I can not answer," said the doctor. "But I do know that he has
+intimated that there will be no cotton crop in this country next
+year."
+
+"No cotton crop! Why, how can he prevent that?"
+
+The doctor shook his head. "Mr. Ames stands as the claim of omnipotent
+evil," was his laconic reply.
+
+And when the meal was ended, the girl went her way, pondering deeply.
+"No cotton crop! What--what did he mean?" But that was something too
+dark to be reported to the Express.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three weeks from the day he had his brush with Carmen in the presence
+of the President, Ames, the great corruptionist, the master
+manipulator, again returned from a visit to Washington, and in a
+dangerous frame of mind. What might have been his mental state had he
+known that the train which drew his private car also brought Carmen
+back to New York, can only be conjectured. It was fortunate, no doubt,
+that both were kept in ignorance of that fact, and that, while the
+great externalization of the human mind's "claim" of business sulked
+alone in his luxurious apartments, the little follower after
+righteousness sat in one of the stuffy day coaches up ahead, holding
+tired, fretful babies, amusing restless children, and soothing away
+the long hours to weary, care-worn mothers.
+
+When the financier's car drew into the station his valets breathed
+great sighs of relief, and his French chef and <DW64> porter mopped the
+perspiration from their troubled brows, while silently offering peans
+of gratitude for safe delivery. When the surly giant descended the car
+steps his waiting footman drew back in alarm, as he caught his
+master's black looks. When he threw himself into the limousine, his
+chauffeur drew a low whistle and sent a timidly significant glance in
+the direction of the lackey. And when at last he flung open the doors
+of his private office and loudly summoned Hood, that capable and
+generally fearless individual quaked with dire foreboding.
+
+"The Express--I want a libel suit brought against it at once! Draw it
+for half a million! File it in Judge Penny's court!"
+
+"Yes, sir," responded the lawyer meekly. "The grounds?"
+
+"Damn the grounds!" shouted Ames. Then, in a voice trembling with
+anger: "Have you read the last week's issues? Then find your grounds
+in them! Make that girl a defendant too!"
+
+"She has no financial interest in the paper, sir. And, as for the
+reports which they have published--I hardly think we can establish a
+case from them--"
+
+"What? With Judge Penny sitting? If you and he can't make out a case
+against them, then I'll get a judge and a lawyer who can! I want that
+bill filed to-morrow!" bringing his fist down upon the desk.
+
+"Very well, sir," assented Hood, stepping back.
+
+"Another thing," continued Ames, "see Judge Hanson and have the
+calling of the Ketchim case held in abeyance until I am ready for it.
+I've got a scheme to involve that <DW64> wench in the trial, and drag
+her through the gutters! So, she's still in love with Rincon, eh?
+Well, we'll put a crimp in that little affair, I guess! Has Willett
+heard from Wenceslas?"
+
+"Not yet, sir."
+
+"I'll lift the scalp from that blackguard Colombian prelate if he
+tries to trick me! Has Willett found Lafelle's whereabouts?"
+
+"No, sir. But the detectives report that he has been in Spain
+recently."
+
+"Spain! What's he--up to there?" he exclaimed in a voice that began
+high and ended in a whisper.
+
+He lapsed into a reflective mood, and for some moments his thoughts
+seemed to wander far. Then he pulled himself together and roused out
+of his meditations.
+
+"You told Jayne that I would back the Budget to any extent, provided
+it would publish the stuff I sent it?"
+
+"Yes, sir. He was very glad to accept your offer."
+
+"Very well. You and Willett set about at once getting up daily
+articles attacking the Express. I want you to dig up every move ever
+made by Hitt, Haynerd, that girl, Waite, Morton, and the whole
+miserable, sneaking outfit! Rake up every scandal, every fact, or
+rumor, that is in any way associated with any of them. I want them
+literally cannonaded by the Budget! Hitt's a renegade preacher!
+Haynerd was a bum before he got the Social Era! Waite is an unfrocked
+priest! Miss Wall's father was a distiller! That girl--that girl is
+a--Did you know that she used to be in a brothel down in the red-light
+district? Well, she did! Great record the publishers of the Express
+have, eh? Now, by God! I want you and Jayne to bury that whole outfit
+under a mountain of mud! I'm ready to spend ten millions to do it!
+Kill 'em! Kill 'em all!"
+
+"I think we can do it, Mr. Ames," returned the lawyer confidently.
+
+"You've got to! Now, another matter: I'm out to get the President's
+scalp! He's got to go down! Begin with those New York papers which we
+can influence. I'll get Fallom and Adams over here for a conference.
+Meanwhile, think over what we'd better say to them. Our attacks upon
+the President must begin at once! I've already bought up a Washington
+daily for that purpose. They have a few facts now that will discredit
+his administration!"
+
+"Very well, Mr. Ames. Ah--a--there is a matter that I must mention as
+soon as you are ready to hear it, Mr. Ames--regarding Avon. It seems
+that the reports which that girl has made have been translated into
+several languages, and are being used by labor agitators down there to
+stir up trouble. The mill hands, you know, never really understood
+what your profits were, and--well, they have always been quite
+ignorant, you know, regarding any details of the business. But now
+they think they have been enlightened--they think they see how the
+tariff has benefited you at their expense--and they are extremely
+bitter against you. That priest, Father Danny, has been doing a lot of
+talking since the girl was down there."
+
+"By God!" cried Ames, rising from his chair, then sinking back again.
+
+"You see, Mr. Ames," the lawyer continued, "the situation is fast
+becoming acute. The mill hands don't believe now that you were ever
+justified in shutting down, or putting them on half time. And, whether
+you reduce wages or not, they are going to make very radical demands
+upon you in the near future, unless I am misinformed. These demands
+include better working conditions, better tenements, shorter hours,
+and very much higher wages. Also the enforcement of the child labor
+law, I am sorry to say."
+
+"They don't dare!" shouted Ames.
+
+"But, after all, Mr. Ames, you know you have said that it would
+strengthen your case with Congress if there should be a strike at
+Avon."
+
+"But not now! Not now!" cried Ames. "It would ruin everything! I am
+distinctly out of favor with the President--owing to that little <DW64>
+wench! And Congress is going against me if I lose Gossitch, Logue, and
+Mall! That girl has put me in bad down there! Wales is beginning to
+threaten! By G--"
+
+"But, Mr. Ames, she can be removed, can she not?"
+
+"Violence would still further injure us. But--if we can drive the
+Express upon the shoals, and then utterly discredit that girl, either
+in the libel suit or the Ketchim trial, why, then, with a little show
+of bettering things at Avon, we'll get what we want. But we've got
+work before us. Say, is--is Sidney with the Express?" he added
+hesitatingly.
+
+Hood started, and shot a look of mingled surprise and curiosity at his
+master. Was it possible that Ames--
+
+"You heard my question, Mr. Hood?"
+
+"I--I beg pardon! Yes, sir--Sidney is still with them. He--a--they say
+he has quite conquered his--his--"
+
+"You mean, he's no longer a sot?" Ames asked brutally. "Out with it,
+man! Don't sit there like a smirking Chinese god!"
+
+"Well, Mr. Ames, I learn that Sidney has been cured of his habits, and
+that the--that girl--did it," stammered the nervous lawyer.
+
+Ames's mouth jerked open--and then snapped shut. Silence held him. His
+head slowly sank until his chin touched his breast. And as he sat thus
+enwrapped, Hood rose and noiselessly left the room.
+
+Alone sat the man of gold--ah, more alone than even he knew. Alone
+with his bruised ambitions, his hectored egoism, his watery aims.
+Alone and plotting the ruin of those who had dared bid him halt in his
+mad, destroying career. Alone, this high priest of the caste of
+absolutism, of the old individualism which is fast hurrying into the
+realm of the forgotten. Alone, and facing a new century, with whose
+ideals his own were utterly, stubbornly, hopelessly discrepant.
+
+Alone he sat, looking out, unmoved, upon the want and pain of
+countless multitudes gone down beneath the yoke of conditions which he
+had made too hard for them. Looking, unmoved, unhearing, upon the
+bitter struggles of the weak, the ignorant, the unskilled, the gross
+hewers of wood and drawers of water. Looking, and knowing not that in
+their piteous cry for help and light was sounded his own dire peril.
+
+The door opened, and the office boy announced the chief stenographer
+of the great bank below. Ames looked up and silently nodded permission
+for the man to enter.
+
+"Mr. Ames," the clerk began, "I--I have come to ask a favor--a
+great favor. I am having difficulty--considerable difficulty in
+securing stenographers, but--I may say--my greatest struggle is
+with myself. I--Mr. Ames, I can not--I simply can not continue to
+hire stenographers at the old wage, nine dollars a week! I know how
+these girls are forced to live. Mr. Ames, with prices where they
+are now, they can not live on that! May I not offer them more? Say,
+ten or twelve dollars to start with?"
+
+Ames looked at him fixedly. "Why do you come to me with your request?"
+he asked coldly. "Your superior is Mr. Doan."
+
+"Yes, sir, I know," replied the young man with hesitation. "But--I--did
+speak to him about it, and--he refused."
+
+"I can do nothing, sir," returned Ames in a voice that chilled the
+man's life-current.
+
+"Then I shall resign, Mr. Ames! I refuse to remain here and hire
+stenographers at that criminal wage!"
+
+"Very well, sir," replied Ames in the same low, freezing tone. "Hand
+your resignation to Mr. Doan. Good day, sir."
+
+Again the guardian of the sanctity of private property was left alone.
+Again, as he lapsed into dark revery, his thought turned back upon
+itself, and began the reconstruction of scenes and events long since
+shadowy dreams. And always as they built, the fair face of that young
+girl appeared in the fabric. And always as he retraced his course, her
+path crossed and crossed again his own. Always as he moved, her
+reflection fell upon him--not in shadow, but in a flood of light,
+exposing the secret recesses of his sordid soul.
+
+He dwelt again upon the smoothness of his way in those days, before
+her advent, when that group of canny pirates sat about the Beaubien's
+table and laid their devious snares. It was only the summer before she
+came that this same jolly company had merged their sacred trust assets
+to draw the clouds which that autumn burst upon the country as the
+worst financial panic it had known in years. And so shrewdly had they
+planned, that the storm came unheralded from a clear sky, and at a
+time when the nation was never more prosperous.
+
+He laughed. It had been rich fun!
+
+And then, the potato scheme. They had wagered that he could not put it
+through. How neatly he had turned the trick, filled his pockets, and
+transformed their doubts into wondering admiration! It had been rare
+pleasure! Oh, yes, there had been some suffering, he had been told. He
+had not given that a thought.
+
+And the Colombian revolution! How surprised the people of these United
+States would be some day to learn that this tropic struggle was in
+essence an American war! The smug and unthinkingly contented in this
+great country of ours regarded the frenzied combat in the far South as
+but a sort of _opera bouffe_. What fools, these Americans! And he,
+when that war should end, would control navigation on the great
+Magdalena and Cauca rivers, and acquire a long-term lease on the
+emerald mines near Bogota. The price? Untold suffering--countless
+broken hearts--indescribable, maddening torture--he had not given that
+a thought.
+
+He laughed again.
+
+But he was tired, very tired. His trip to Washington had been
+exhausting. He had not been well of late. His eyes had been bloodshot,
+and there had been several slight hemorrhages from the nose. His
+physician had shaken his head gravely, and had admonished him to be
+careful--
+
+But why did that girl continue to fascinate him? he wondered. Why now,
+in all his scheming and plotting, did he always see her before him?
+Was it only because of her rare physical beauty? If he wrote or read,
+her portrait lay upon the page; if he glanced up, she stood there
+facing him. There was never accusation in her look, never malice, nor
+trace of hate. Nor did she ever threaten. No; but always she
+smiled--always she looked right into his eyes--always she seemed to
+say, "You would destroy me, but yet I love you."
+
+God! What a plucky little fighter she was! And she fought him fairly.
+Aye, much more so than he did her. She would scorn the use of his
+methods. He had to admit _that_, though he hated her, detested her,
+would have torn her into shreds--even while he acknowledged that he
+admired her, yes, beyond all others, for her wonderful bravery and her
+loyal stand for what she considered the right.
+
+He must have dozed while he sat there in the warm office alone.
+Surely, that hideous object now floating before his straining gaze,
+that thing resembling the poor, shattered Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, was not
+real! It was but a shadow, a flimsy thing of thought! And that
+woestricken thing there, with its tenuous arms extended toward
+him--was that Gannette? Heavens, no! Gannette had died, stark mad!
+But, that other shade--so like his wife, a few months dead, yet alive
+again! Whence came that look of horror in a face once so haughty! It
+was unreal, ghastly unreal, as it drifted past! Ah, now he knew that
+he was dreaming, for there, there in the light stood Carmen! Oh, what
+a blessed relief to see that fair image there among those other
+ghastly sights! He would speak to her--
+
+But--_God above_! _What was that?_ A woman--no, not Carmen--fair
+and--
+
+Her white lips moved--they were transparent--he could see right
+through them--and great tears dropped from her bloodless cheeks when
+her accusing look fell upon him!
+
+Slowly she floated nearer--she stopped before him, and laid a hand
+upon his shoulder--it was cold, cold as ice! He tried to call out--to
+rise--to break away--
+
+And then, groaning aloud, and with his brow dripping perspiration, he
+awoke.
+
+Hood entered, but stopped short when he saw his master's white face.
+"Mr. Ames! You are ill!" he cried.
+
+Ames passed a hand across his wet forehead. "A--a little tired, that's
+all, I guess. What now?"
+
+The lawyer laid a large envelope upon the desk. "It has come," he
+said. "There's a delegation of Avon mill hands in the outer office.
+Here are their demands. It's just what I thought."
+
+Ames slowly took up the envelope. For a moment he hesitated. Again he
+seemed to see that smiling girl before him. His jaw set, and his face
+drew slowly down into an expression of malignity. Then, without
+examining its contents, he tore the envelope into shreds, and cast the
+pieces into the waste basket.
+
+"Put them out of the office!" he commanded sharply. "Wire Pillette at
+once to discharge these fellows, and every one else concerned in the
+agitation! If those rats down there want to fight, they'll find me
+ready!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 14
+
+
+The immense frame of J. Wilton Ames bent slightly, and the great legs
+might have been seen to drag a bit, as the man entered his private
+elevator the morning after his rejection of the mill hands' demands,
+and turned the lever that caused the lift to soar lightly to his
+office above. And a mouse--had the immaculate condition of his
+luxurious _sanctum_ permitted such an alien dweller--could have seen
+him sink heavily into his great desk chair, and lapse into deep
+thought. Hood, Willett, and Hodson entered in turn; but the magnate
+gave them scant consideration, and at length waved them all away, and
+bent anew to his meditations.
+
+Truth to tell--though he would not have owned it--the man was now
+dimly conscious of a new force at work upon him; of a change, slowly,
+subtly taking place somewhere deep within. He was feebly cognizant of
+emotions quite unknown; of unfamiliar sentiments, whose outlines were
+but just crystallizing out from the thick magma of his materialistic
+soul.
+
+And he fought them; he hated them; they made him appear unto himself
+weak, even effeminate! His abhorrence of sentimentalism had been among
+the strongest of his life-characteristics; and yet, though he could
+not define it, a mellowing something seemed to be acting upon him that
+dull, bitterly cold winter morning, that shed a soft glow throughout
+his mental chambers, that seemed to touch gently the hard, rugged
+things of thought that lay within, and soften away their sharp
+outlines. He might not know what lay so heavily upon his thought, as
+he sat there alone, with his head sunk upon his breast. And yet the
+girl who haunted his dreams would have told him that it was an
+interrogation, even the eternal question, "What shall it profit a
+man--?"
+
+Suddenly he looked up. The door had opened, he thought. Then he sat
+bolt upright and stared.
+
+"Good morning, Mr. Ames. May I come in?"
+
+Come in! Had ever such heavenly music touched his ears before! This
+was not another dream! The vision this time was real! He sprang to his
+feet. He would have held out his arms to her if he could.
+
+And yet, how dared she come to him? How dared she, after what she had
+done? Was this fresh affrontery? Had she come again to flout him? To
+stand within the protection which her sex afforded and vivisect anew
+his tired soul? But, whatever her motives, this girl did the most
+daring things he had ever seen a woman do.
+
+"Isn't it funny," she said, as she stood before him with a whimsical
+little smile, "that wherever I go people so seldom ask me to sit
+down!"
+
+Ames sank back into his seat without speaking. Carmen stood for a
+moment looking about her rich environment; then drew up a chair close
+to him.
+
+"You haven't the slightest idea why I have come here, have you?" she
+said sweetly, looking up into his face.
+
+"I must confess myself quite ignorant of the cause of this unexpected
+pleasure," he returned guardedly, bending his head in mock deference,
+while the great wonder retained possession of him.
+
+"Well," she went on lightly, "will you believe me when I tell you that
+I have come here because I love you?"
+
+Aha! A dark suspicion sprang up within him. So this was an attack from
+a different quarter! Hitt and Haynerd had invoked her feminine wiles,
+eh?
+
+Nonsense! With one blow the unfamiliar sentiment which had been
+shedding its influence upon him that morning laid the ugly suspicion
+dead at his feet. A single glance into that sweet face turned so
+lovingly up to his brought his own deep curse upon himself for his
+hellish thought.
+
+"You know," she bubbled, with a return of her wonted airy gaiety, "I
+just had to run the gauntlet through guards and clerks and office boys
+to get here. Aren't you glad I didn't send in my card? For then you
+would have refused to see me, wouldn't you?"
+
+"I would not!" he replied harshly. Then he repented his tone. "If I
+had known you were out there," he said more gently, "I'd have sent out
+and had you dragged in. I--I have wanted something this morning; and
+now I am sure it was--"
+
+"Yes," she interrupted, taking the words out of his mouth, "you wanted
+_me_. I knew you would. You see, it's just absolutely impossible to
+oppose anybody who loves you. You know, that's the very method Jesus
+gave for overcoming our enemies--to love them, just love them to
+pieces, until we find that we haven't any enemies at all any more.
+Isn't it simple? My! Well, that's the way I've been doing with
+you--just loving you."
+
+The man's brows knotted, and his lips tightened. Was this girl
+ridiculing him? Or was there aught but the deepest sincerity expressed
+in the face from which he could not take his eyes? Impossible! And
+yet, did ever human being talk so strangely, so weirdly, as she?
+
+He bent a little closer to her. "Did you say that you loved me?" he
+asked. "I thought you looked upon me as a human monster." After all,
+there was a note of pathos in the question. Carmen laid her hand upon
+his.
+
+"It's the _real_ you that I love," she answered gently. "The monster
+is only human thought--the thought that has seemed to mesmerize you.
+But you are going to throw off the mesmerism, aren't you? I'll help
+you," she added brightly. "You're going to put off the 'old man'
+completely--and you're going to begin by opening yourself and letting
+in a little love for those poor people down at Avon, aren't you? Yes,
+you are!"
+
+At the mention of the people of Avon his face became stern and dark.
+And yet she spoke of them alone. She had not mentioned the Beaubien,
+Miss Wall, the Express, nor herself. He noted this, and wondered.
+
+"You see, you don't understand, Mr. Ames. You'll be, oh, so surprised
+some day when you learn a little about the laws of thought--even the
+way human thought operates! For you can't possibly do another person
+an injury without that injury flying back and striking you. It's a
+regular boomerang! You may not feel the effects of its return right
+away--but it does return, and the effects accumulate. And then, some
+day, when you least expect it, comes the crash! But, when you love a
+person, why, that comes back to you too; and it never comes alone. It
+just brings loads of good with it. It helps you, and everybody. Oh,
+Mr. Ames," she cried, suddenly rising and seizing both his hands,
+"you've just _got_ to love those people down there! You can't help it,
+even if you think you can, for hate is not real--it's an awful
+delusion!"
+
+It was not so much an appeal which the girl made as an affirmation of
+things true and yet to come. The mighty _Thou shalt not!_ which Moses
+laid upon his people, when transfused by the omnipotent love of the
+Christ was transformed from a clanking chain into a silken cord. The
+restriction became a prophecy; for when thou hast yielded self to the
+benign influence of the Christ-principle, then, indeed, thou shalt not
+desire to break the law of God.
+
+Carmen returned to her chair, and sat eagerly expectant. Ames groped
+within his thought for a reply. And then his mental grasp closed upon
+the words of Hood.
+
+"They are very bitter against me--they hate me!" he retorted lamely.
+
+"Ah, yes," she said quickly. "They reflect in kind your thought of
+them. Your boomerangs of greed, of exploitation, of utter indifference
+which you have hurled at them, have returned upon you in hatred. Do
+you know that hatred is a fearful poison? And do you know that
+another's hatred resting upon you is deadly, unless you know how to
+meet and neutralize it with love? For love is the neutralizing
+alkaloid."
+
+"Love is--weakness," he said in a low tone. "That kind, at least."
+
+"Love weakness! Oh! Why, there is no such mighty power in the whole
+universe as love! It is omnipotent! It is hatred that is weak!"
+
+Ames made a little gesture of contempt. "We argue from different
+standpoints," he said. "I am a plain, matter-of-fact, cold-blooded
+business man. There is no love in business!"
+
+"And that," she replied in a voice tinged with sadness, "is why
+business is such chaos; why there is so much failure, so much anxiety,
+fear, loss, and unhappiness in the business world. Mr. Ames, you
+haven't the slightest conception of real business, have you?"
+
+She sat for a moment in thought. Then, brightly, "I am in business,
+Mr. Ames--?"
+
+"Humph! I am forced to agree with you there! The business of
+attempting to annihilate me!"
+
+"I am in the business of reflecting good to you, and to all mankind,"
+she gently corrected.
+
+"Then suppose you manifest your love for me by refraining from
+meddling further in my affairs. Suppose from now on you let me
+alone."
+
+"Why--I am not meddling with you, Mr. Ames!"
+
+"No?" He opened a drawer of the desk and took out several copies of
+the Express. "I am to consider that this is not strictly meddling,
+eh?" he continued, as he laid the papers before her.
+
+"No, not at all," she promptly replied. "That's uncovering evil, so's
+it can be destroyed. All that evil, calling itself you and your
+business, has got to come to the surface--has got to come up to the
+light, so that it can be--"
+
+"Ah! I see. Then I, the monster, must be exposed, eh? And afterward
+destroyed. A very pretty little idea! And the mines and mills which I
+own--"
+
+"You own nothing, Mr. Ames, except by consent of the people whom you
+oppress. They will wake up some day; and then state and national
+ownership of public utilities will come, forced by such as you."
+
+"And that desideratum will result in making everybody honest, I
+suppose?"
+
+"No," she answered gravely. "We must go deeper than that. All our
+present troubles, whether domestic, business, civic, or social, come
+from a total misapprehension of the nature of God--a misunderstanding
+of what is really _good_. We have _all_ got to prove Him. And we are
+very foolish to lose any more time setting about it, don't you think
+so?
+
+"You see," she went on, while he sat studying her, "those poor people
+down at Avon don't know any more about what is the real good than you
+do. And that's why their thoughts and yours center upon the false
+pleasures of this ephemeral existence called life--this existence of
+the so-called physical senses--and why you both become the tools of
+vice, disease, and misfortune. They build up such men as you, and then
+you turn about and crush them. And in the end you are both what the
+Bible says--poor, deluded fools."
+
+"Well, I'll be--"
+
+"Oh, don't swear!" she pleaded, again seizing his hand and laughing up
+into his face. But then her smile vanished.
+
+"It's time you started to prove God," she said earnestly. "Won't you
+begin now--to-day? Haven't you yet learned that evil is the very
+stupidest, dullest, most uninteresting thing in the world? It is,
+really. Won't you turn from your material endeavors now, and take time
+to learn to really live? You've got plenty of time, you know, for you
+aren't obliged to work for a living."
+
+She was leaning close to him, and her breath touched his cheek. Her
+soft little hand lay upon his own. And her great, dark eyes looked
+into his with a light which he knew, despite his perverted thought,
+came from the unquenchable flame of her selfless love.
+
+Again that unfamiliar sentiment--nay, rather, that sentiment long
+dormant--stirred within him. Again his worldly concepts, long
+entrenched, instantly rose to meet and overthrow it. He had not yet
+learned to analyze the thoughts which crept so silently into his
+ever-open mentality. To all alike he gave free access. And to those
+which savored of things earthy he still gave the power to build, with
+himself as a willing tool.
+
+"You will--help me--to live?" he said. He thought her the most
+gloriously beautiful object he had ever known, as she sat there before
+him, so simply gowned, and yet clothed with that which all the gold of
+Ophir could not have bought.
+
+"Yes, gladly--oh, so gladly!" Her eyes sparkled with a rush of tears.
+
+"Don't you think," he said gently, drawing his chair a little closer
+to her, "that we have quite misunderstood each other? I am sure we
+have."
+
+"Perhaps so," she answered thoughtfully. "But," with a happy smile
+again lighting her features, "we can understand each other now, can't
+we?"
+
+"Of course we can! And hasn't the time come for us to work together,
+instead of continuing to oppose each other?"
+
+"Yes! yes, indeed!" she cried eagerly.
+
+"I--I have been thinking so ever since I returned yesterday from
+Washington. I am--I--"
+
+"We need each other, don't we?" the artless girl exclaimed, as she
+beamed upon him.
+
+"I am positive of it!" he said with suggestive emphasis. "I can help
+you--more than you realize--and I want to. I--I've been sorry for you,
+little girl, mighty sorry, ever since that story got abroad about--"
+
+"Oh, never mind that!" she interrupted happily. "We are living in the
+present, you know."
+
+"True--and in the future. But things haven't been right for you. And I
+want to see them straightened out. And you and I can do it, little
+one. Madam Beaubien hasn't been treated right, either. And--"
+
+"There!" she laughed, holding up a warning finger. "We're going to
+forget that in the good we're going to do, aren't we?"
+
+"Yes, that's so. And you are going to get a square deal. Now, I've got
+a plan to make everything right. I want to see you in the place that
+belongs to you. I want to see you happy, and surrounded by all that is
+rightfully yours. And if you will join me, we will bring that all
+about. I told you this once before, you may remember."
+
+He stopped and awaited the effect of his words upon the girl.
+
+"But, Mr. Ames," she replied, her eyes shining with a great hope,
+"don't think about me! It's the people at Avon that I want to help."
+
+"We'll help them, you and I. We'll make things right all round. And
+Madam Beaubien shall have no further trouble. Nor shall the Express."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Ames! Do you really mean it? And--Sidney?"
+
+"Sidney shall come home--"
+
+With a rush the impulsive girl, forgetting all but the apparent
+success of her mission, threw herself upon him and clasped her arms
+about his neck. "Oh," she cried, "it is love that has done all this!
+And it has won you!"
+
+The startled man strained the girl tightly in his arms. He could feel
+the quick throbbing in her throat. Her warm breath played upon his
+cheek like fitful tropic breezes. For a brief moment the supreme gift
+of the universe seemed to be laid at his feet. For a fleeting interval
+the man of dust faded, and a new being, pure and white, seemed to rise
+within him.
+
+"Yes," he murmured gently, "we'll take him to our home with us."
+
+Slowly, very slowly, the girl released herself from his embrace and
+stepped back. "With--_us_?" she murmured, searching his face for the
+meaning which she had dimly discerned in his words.
+
+"Yes--listen!" He reached forward and with a quick movement seized her
+hand. "Listen, little girl. I want you--I want you! Not now--no, you
+needn't come to me until you are ready. But say that you will come!
+Say that! Why, I didn't know until to-day what it was that was making
+me over! It's you! Don't go! Don't--"
+
+Carmen had struggled away from him, and, with a look of bewilderment
+upon her face, was moving toward the door. "Oh, I didn't know," she
+murmured, "that you were--were--proposing _marriage_ to me!"
+
+"Don't you understand?" he pursued. "We'll just make all things new!
+We'll begin all over again, you and I! Why, I'll do anything--anything
+in the world you say, Carmen, if you will come to me--if you will be
+my little wife!
+
+"I know--I know," he hastily resumed, as she halted and stood
+seemingly rooted to the floor, "there is a great difference in our
+ages. But that is nothing--many happy marriages are made between ages
+just as far apart as ours. Think--think what it means to you! I'll
+make you a queen! I'll surround you with limitless wealth! I'll make
+you leader of society! I'll make Madam Beaubien rich! I'll support the
+Express, and make it what you want it to be! I'll do whatever you say
+for the people of Avon! Think, little girl, what depends now upon
+you!"
+
+Carmen turned and came slowly back to him. "And--you will not do these
+things--unless I marry you?" she said in a voice scarcely above a
+whisper.
+
+"I will do them all, Carmen, if you will come to me!"
+
+"But--oh, you were only deceiving me all the time! And now--if I
+refuse--then what?"
+
+"It depends upon you, entirely--and you will come? Not now--but within
+the next few months--within the year--tell me that you will!"
+
+"But--you will do these things whether I come to you or not?" she
+persisted.
+
+"I've put it all into your hands," he answered shortly. "I've named
+the condition."
+
+A strange look crossed the girl's face. She stood as if stunned. Then
+she glanced about in helpless bewilderment.
+
+"I--I--love--you," she murmured, as she looked off toward the window,
+but with unseeing eyes. "I would do anything for you that was right.
+I--love--everybody--everybody; but there are no conditions to _my_
+love. Oh!" she suddenly cried, burying her face in her hands and
+bursting into tears. "You have tried to _buy_ me!"
+
+Ames rose and came to her. Taking her by the hand he led her,
+unresisting, back to her chair.
+
+"Listen," he said, bending toward her. "Go home now and think it
+all over. Then let me know your answer. It was sudden, I admit; I
+took you by surprise. But--well, you are not going to prevent the
+accomplishment of all that good, are you? Think! It all depends upon
+your word!"
+
+The girl raised her tear-stained face. She had been crushed; and
+another lesson in the cruelty of the human mind--that human mind which
+has changed not in a thousand years--had been read to her. But again
+she smiled bravely, as she wiped her eyes.
+
+"It's all right now," she murmured. "It was all right all the
+time--and I was protected."
+
+Then she turned to him. "Some day," she said gently, and in a voice
+that trembled just a little, "you will help the people of Avon, but
+not because I shall marry you. God does not work that way. I have
+loved you. And I love them. And nothing can kill that love. God will
+open the way."
+
+"Then you refuse my offer, do you?" he asked sharply, as his face set.
+"Remember, all the blame will be upon you. I have shown you a way
+out."
+
+She looked up at him. She saw now with a clairvoyance which separated
+him from the mask which he had worn. Her glance penetrated until it
+found his soul.
+
+"You have shown me the depths of the carnal mind," she slowly replied.
+"The responsibility is not with me, but with--God. I--I came to-day
+to--to help you. But now I must leave you--with Him."
+
+"Humph!"
+
+He stooped and took up her muff which lay upon the floor. As he did so,
+a letter fell out. He seized it and glanced at the superscription.
+
+"Cartagena! To Jose de Rincon! Another little _billet-doux_ to your
+priestly lover, eh?"
+
+She looked down at the letter which he held. "It is money," she said,
+though her thought seemed far away. "Money that I am sending to a
+little newsboy who bears his name."
+
+"Ha! His brat! But, you still love that fallen priest?"
+
+"Yes," was the whispered answer.
+
+He rose and opened a drawer in his desk. Taking out a paper-bound
+book, he held it out to the girl. "Look here," he sneered. "Here's a
+little piece of work which your brilliant lover did some time ago.
+'Confessions of a Roman Catholic Priest.' Do you know the penalty your
+clerical paramour paid for that, eh? Then I'll tell you," bending over
+close to her ear, "his _life_!"
+
+Carmen rose unsteadily. The color had fled from her cheeks. She staggered
+a few steps toward the door, then stopped. "God--is--is--_everywhere_!"
+she murmured. It was the refuge of her childhood days.
+
+Then she reeled, and fell heavily to the floor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 15
+
+
+If additional proof of the awful cost of hating one's fellow-men were
+required, the strike which burst upon the industrial world that winter
+must furnish it in sickening excess. But other facts, too, were
+rendered glaringly patent by that same desperate clash which made Avon
+a shambles and transformed its fair name into a by-word, to be spoken
+only in hushed whispers when one's thought dwells for a moment upon
+the madness of the carnal mind that has once tasted blood. The
+man-cleft chasm between labor and capital, that still unbridged void
+which separates master and servant, and which a money-drunk class
+insolently calls God-made, grows wider with each roar of musketry
+aimed by a frenzied militia at helpless men and women; grows deeper
+with each splitting crack of the dynamite that is laid to tear asunder
+the conscienceless wielder of the goad; and must one day fall gaping
+in a cavernous embouchure that will engulf a nation.
+
+Hitt saw it, and shuddered; Haynerd, too. Ames may have dimly marked
+the typhoon on the horizon, but, like everything that manifested
+opposition to this superhuman will, it only set his teeth the firmer
+and thickened the callous about his cold heart. Carmen saw it, too.
+And she knew--and the world must some day know--that but one tie has
+ever been designed adequate to bridge this yawning canon of human
+hatred. That tie is love. Aye, well she knew that the world laughed,
+and called it chimera; called it idealism, and emotional weakness.
+And well she knew that the most pitiable weakness the world has ever
+seen was the class privilege which nailed the bearer of the creed of
+love upon the cross, and to-day manifests in the frantic grasping of a
+nation's resources, and the ruthless murder of those who ask that
+they, too, may have a share in that abundance which is the common
+birthright of all. Do the political bully, the grafter, the tout, know
+the meaning of love? No; but they can be taught. Oh, not by the
+hypocritical millionaire pietists who prate their glib platitudes to
+their Sunday Bible classes, and return to their luxurious homes to
+order the slaughter of starving women and babes! They, like their poor
+victims, are deep under the spell of that mesmerism which tells them
+that evil is good. Nor by the Church, with its lamentable weakness of
+knowledge and works. Only by those who have learned something of the
+Christ-principle, and are striving daily to demonstrate its
+omnipotence in part, can the world be taught a saving knowledge of the
+love that solves every problem and creates a new heaven and a newer,
+better concept of the earth and its fullness.
+
+That morning when Carmen went to see Ames the Express received word of
+the walk-out of the Avon mill employes. Almost coincident with the
+arrival of the news, Carmen herself came unsteadily into Hitt's
+office. The editor glanced up at her, then looked a second time. He
+had never before seen her face colorless. Finally he laid down his
+papers.
+
+"What's happened?" he asked.
+
+"Nothing," answered the girl. "What work have you--for me--to-day?"
+She smiled, though her lips trembled.
+
+"Where have you been?" he pursued, scanning her closely.
+
+She did not reply at once. Then, so low that he scarcely caught the
+words, "I--I have been with--a friend."
+
+Sidney Ames came puffing into the office at that moment. "Hello!" he
+cried as he saw Carmen. "How does it happen you're out riding with
+Willett? Saw him help you out of an auto just now."
+
+"He brought me here," she answered softly.
+
+"Where from?"
+
+"Your father's office."
+
+Hitt and the lad stared at her with open mouths. She turned, and
+started for her own room, moving as if in a haze. As she neared the
+door she stumbled. Sidney sprang after her and caught her in his arms.
+When she turned her face, they saw that her eyes were swimming in
+tears.
+
+Hitt was on his feet instantly. "Look here!" he cried. "Something's
+wrong! Leave us, Sidney. Let me talk with her alone."
+
+The boy reluctantly obeyed. Hitt closed the door after him, then took
+the girl's hand and led her back to his own chair. "Now, little one,"
+he said gently, "tell me all about it."
+
+For a moment she sat quiet. Then the tears began to flow; and then she
+leaned her head against him and sobbed--sobbed as does the stricken
+mother who hangs over the lifeless form of her babe--sobbed as does
+the strong man bereft of the friend of his bosom--sobbed as did the
+Man of Sorrow, when he held out his arms over the worldly city that
+cruelly rejected him. He was the channel for the divine; yet the
+wickedness of the human mind broke his great heart. Carmen was not far
+from him at that moment.
+
+Hitt held her hand, and choked back the lump that filled his throat.
+Then the weeping slowly ceased, and the girl looked up into his
+anxious face.
+
+"It's all past now," she said brokenly. "Jesus forgave them that
+killed him. And--"
+
+"You have been with--Ames?" said Hitt in a low, quiet tone. "And he
+tried to kill you?"
+
+"He--he knew not what he was doing. Evil used him, because as
+yet he has no spiritual understanding. But--God is life! There
+is--no--death!" Her voice faded away in a whisper.
+
+"Well, little girl, I am waiting for the whole story. What happened?"
+
+Carmen got to her feet. "Nothing happened, Mr. Hitt--nothing. It
+didn't happen--it wasn't real. I--I seemed to manifest weakness--and I
+fell--to the floor--but I didn't lose consciousness. And just then Mr.
+Willett came in--and Mr. Ames sent me here with him."
+
+"But what had Ames said to you, Carmen?" persisted Hitt, his face dark
+with anger.
+
+The girl smiled feebly. "I see Mr. Ames only as--as God's child," she
+murmured. "Evil is not real, and it doesn't happen. Now I want to
+work--work as I never did before! I must! _I must!_"
+
+"Will you not tell me more about it?" he asked, for he knew now that a
+deadly thrust had been made at the girl's life.
+
+She brushed the tears away from her eyes. "It didn't happen," was her
+reply. "Good is all that is. God is life. There is _no_ death!"
+
+A suspicion flashed into Hitt's mind, kindled by the girl's insistence
+upon the nothingness of death. "Carmen," he asked, "did he tell you
+that--some one had died?"
+
+She came to him and laid her head against him. Her hands stole into
+his. "Don't! Please, Mr. Hitt! We must never speak of this again!
+Promise me! I shall overcome it, for God is with me. Promise that no
+one but us shall know! Make Sidney promise. It--it is--for me."
+
+The man's eyes grew moist, and his throat filled. He drew the girl to
+him and kissed her forehead. "It shall be as you wish, little one," he
+said in a choking voice.
+
+"Now set me to work!" she cried wildly. "Anything! This is another
+opportunity to--to prove God! I must prove Him! I must--right here!"
+
+He turned to his desk with a heavy heart. "There is work to be done
+now," he said. "I wonder--"
+
+She took the telegram from his hands and scanned it. At once she
+became calm, her own sorrow swallowed up in selfless love. "Oh, they
+have gone out at Avon! Those mothers and children--they need me! Mr.
+Hitt, I must go there at once!"
+
+"I thought so," he replied, swallowing hard. "I knew what you would
+do. But you are in higher hands than mine, Carmen. Go home now, and
+get ready. You can go down in the morning. And we, Sidney and I, will
+say nothing of--of your visit to his father."
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night Hitt called up the Beaubien and asked if he and Haynerd
+might come and talk with her after the paper had gone to press, and
+requesting that she notify Carmen and Father Waite. A few hours later
+the little group met quietly in the humble cottage. Miss Wall and
+Sidney were with them. And to them all those first dark hours of
+morning, when as yet the symbol of God's omnipresence hung far below
+the horizon, seemed prescient with a knowledge of evil's further
+claims to the lives and fortunes of men.
+
+"I have asked you here," Hitt gravely announced when they were
+assembled, "to consider a matter which touches us all--how deeply, God
+alone knows. At ten o'clock to-night I received this message." He
+opened the paper which he held in his hand and read:
+
+  "'Property of Hitt oil company, including derricks, pump houses,
+  storage tanks, destroyed by fire. Dynamite in pump houses
+  exploded, causing wells to cave and choke. Loss complete. Wire
+  instructions.'"
+
+The news burst over them like the cracking of a bomb. Haynerd, who,
+like the others, had been kept in ignorance of the message until now,
+started from his chair with a loud exclamation, then sank back limp.
+Carmen's face went white. Evil seemed to have chosen that day with
+canny shrewdness to overwhelm her with its quick sallies from out the
+darkness of the carnal mind.
+
+Hitt broke the tense silence. "I see in this," he said slowly, "the
+culmination of a long series of efforts to ruin the Express. That my
+oil property was deliberately wrecked, I have not the slightest doubt.
+Nor can I doubt by whose hand."
+
+"Whose?" demanded Haynerd, having again found his voice. "Ames's?"
+
+Hitt replied indirectly. "The Express has stood before the world as a
+paper unique and apart. And because of its high ideals, the forces of
+evil singled it out at the beginning for their murderous assaults.
+That the press of this country is very generally muzzled, stifled,
+bought and paid for, I have good reason now to know. My constant
+brushes with the liquor interests, with low politicians, judges,
+senators, and dive-keepers, have not been revealed even to you. Could
+you know the pressure which the Church, both Catholic and Protestant,
+has tried to exert upon us, you would scarce credit me with veracity.
+But the Express has stood out firm against feudalism, mediaevalism,
+and entrenched ecclesiasticism. It has fearlessly opposed the
+legalizing of drugging. It has fought the debauching of a nation's
+manhood by the legalized sale of a deadly poison, alcohol. And it has
+fought without quarter the pernicious activity of morally stunted
+brewers and distillers, whose hellish motto is, 'Make the boys drink!'
+It has fought the money octopus, and again and again has sounded to
+the world the peril which money-drunken criminals like Ames and his
+clique constitute. And for that we must now wear the crown of
+martyrdom!"
+
+Silence, dismal and empty, lay over the little room for a long time.
+Then Hitt resumed. "The Express has not been self-supporting. Its
+growth has been steady, but it has depended for its deficit upon the
+revenue from my oil property. And so have we all. Ames ruined Madam
+Beaubien financially, as well as Miss Wall. He cleaned you out, Ned.
+And now, knowing that we all depended upon my oil wells, he has, I
+doubt not, completely removed that source of income."
+
+"But," exclaimed Haynerd, "your property was insured, wasn't it?"
+
+"Yes," replied Hitt, with a feeble attempt at a smile. "But with the
+proviso that dynamite should not be kept on the premises. You will
+note that dynamite wrecked the wells. That doubtless renders my
+policies void. But, even in case I should have a fighting chance with
+the insurance companies, don't you think that they will be advised
+that I purposely set fire to the wells, in order to collect the
+insurance? I most certainly do. And I shall find myself with a big
+lawsuit on my hands, and with no funds to conduct the fight. Ames's
+work, you know, is always thorough, and the Express is already facing
+his suit for libel."
+
+"But you told us you were going to mortgage your property," said Miss
+Wall.
+
+"I stood ready to, should the Express require it. But, with its recent
+little boom, our paper did not seem to need that as yet," he
+returned.
+
+"Good God!" cried Haynerd. "We're done for!"
+
+"Yes, Ned, God _is_ good!" It was Carmen who spoke.
+
+Hitt turned quickly to the girl. "Can you say that, after all you have
+endured, Carmen?"
+
+He looked at her for a moment, lost in wonder. "An outcast babe," he
+murmured, "left on the banks of a great river far, far away; reared
+without knowledge of father or mother, and amid perils that hourly
+threatened to crush her; torn from her beloved ones and thrust out
+into an unknown and unsympathetic world; used as a stepping-stone to
+advance the low social ambitions of worldly women; blackened by the
+foulest slander, and ejected as an outcast by those who had fawned at
+her feet; still going about with her beautiful message of love, even
+though knowing that her childhood home is enveloped in the flames of
+war, and her dear ones scattered, perhaps lost; spurned from the door
+of the rich man whom she sought to save; carrying with her always the
+knowledge that the one upon whom her affections had centered had a son
+in distant Cartagena, and yet herself contributing to the support of
+the little lad; and now, this morning--" He stopped, for he remembered
+his promise.
+
+"This morning," she finished, "shielded by the One who is both Father
+and Mother to me."
+
+"That One surely ought to love you, Carmen--"
+
+"He does," she answered softly.
+
+"Well!" put in Haynerd, torn with anger and fear. "What are we going
+to do now?"
+
+"Everything, Ned, that error seems to tell us not to do," replied the
+girl.
+
+She reached over to the little table that stood near, and took from it
+a Bible. Opening it, she read aloud, very slowly, the entire
+fourteenth chapter of Exodus. Then she concluded by reading the last
+two verses of the eighth chapter of Romans.
+
+"Now," she said, looking up, "we know what we are going to do, don't
+we? We are going right on, as 'seeing Him who is invisible' to men
+like Mr. Ames."
+
+They sat looking at her in silence.
+
+"There is no curse, whether of the Church, or of business, or of any
+department of human thought, that can overthrow legitimate business;
+and we are in the legitimate business of reflecting God to the world.
+If the physical sense of supply is now lost, we are fortunate, for now
+we are obliged to acquire a higher sense. All that we have comes from
+God. And we become aware of it in our own consciousness. It is there
+that we interpret His supply. Mr. Ames interprets it one way; we, in a
+very different way. God has always been able to prepare a table in the
+wilderness of human thought. If we look for supply from without, we
+shall not find it, for everything is within. And the very fact that
+there is a legitimate demand shows that there is the supply to meet
+it, for--though the world hasn't learned this yet--_it is the supply
+itself that really creates the demand_!"
+
+"But money makes the wheels go!" retorted Haynerd.
+
+"Money, Ned, is the counterfeit of God. He is our only supply. He is
+our Principle--infinite, inexhaustible. He is our credit--without
+limit! We are facing a crisis, but, like every seeming disturbance of
+the infinite harmony, it will vanish in a little while if we but cling
+to the divine Mind that is God for guidance."
+
+Hitt folded the telegram and returned it to his pocket. "Are you going
+to Avon to-morrow?" he abruptly asked of the girl.
+
+"Yes, why not?"
+
+"We can't afford it now!" cried Haynerd.
+
+Hitt reflected a moment. Then he rose. "And we sit here lamenting!" he
+exclaimed. "And when we have in our midst this girl, who has borne,
+without one word of complaint or reviling, the world's most poignant
+sorrows! I--I really regret that I told you of--of this telegram. I
+seemed for a moment to be overwhelmed. But I am on my feet again
+now!"
+
+He reached into a pocket and took out some bills, which he handed to
+Carmen. "That will see you through for a day or so down there. If you
+need more, wire me. I'll get it from some source! Come," he added,
+beckoning to Haynerd, "the Express will be issued to-morrow as usual,
+and we must get to bed. I've really had quite a strenuous day!" He
+turned, then paused and looked at Carmen.
+
+The girl caught the meaning in his glance, and went directly to the
+piano. Hitt followed and bent over her.
+
+"Don't," he said, "if you do not feel like it. This day has been a
+hard one for you, I know. And--"
+
+"But I do feel like it," she answered, smiling up at him. "I want to
+sing for you. And," her voice dropped low, "I want to sing to--Him."
+
+Hitt gulped down something in his throat. "The bravest little girl in
+the whole wide world!" he muttered through his set teeth.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+The carnage at Avon was not incidental; it was the logical effect of
+definite mental causes. It was the orderly sequence of an endless
+train of hatred of man for man, bred of greed and the fear of
+starvation. And starvation is the externalized human belief that life
+is at the caprice of intelligent matter. But that is an infraction of
+the first Commandment, given when the human race was a babe.
+
+When the mill hands left their looms at evening of the day following
+Ames's rejection of their demands, the master closed the doors behind
+them and locked them out. Were not these mills his?
+
+No, they were a sacred trust asset.
+
+Bah! The parrot-cry of the maudlin sentimental!
+
+But, four thousand men, women, and little children, with never a
+dollar beyond their earnings of the day, thrust out into the blasts of
+the bitterest winter the New England states had known in years!
+
+True; but why, then, did they strike? For, you see, that of itself
+proved the soundness of Ames's single reply to all further appeal:
+"There is nothing whatever to arbitrate."
+
+In the garden of the human mind waves many a flower, both black and
+red, fanned by the foul winds of carnal thought. There grow the
+brothel, the dive, the gin-shop, the jail. About these hardier stems
+twine the hospital, the cemetery, the madhouse, the morgue. And Satan,
+"the man-killer from the beginning," waters their roots and makes
+fallow the soil with the blood of fools. But of those for whom the
+gardener waits, there is none whose blood is so life-giving to these
+noxious plants as that type of the materially rich who, like Ames,
+have waxed gross upon the flesh of their own brothers.
+
+Ames was a gambler in human lives. They were his chips, by which he
+gained or lost, and of themselves were void of intrinsic value. The
+world was the table whereon he played; the game _rouge et noir_, with
+the whirl of predatory commercialism as the wheel, and the ball
+weighted to drop where he might direct. He carried millions on margin,
+and with them carried the destinies, for weal or for woe, of millions
+of his fellow-men, with not one thought that he did so at the cost of
+their honor and morality, not less than their life-blood.
+
+It had been his custom to close his mills for several months each
+year, in order to save expense when times were dull. And he did this
+as casually as he closed the doors of his stables, and with much less
+thought for the welfare of those concerned. It is doubtful if he had
+ever really considered the fact that these four thousand human beings
+were wholly dependent upon him for their very existence. For he was a
+business man, and gold was far weightier in the scale of values than
+human flesh, and much less easily obtained. Cain's comforting
+philosophy was quite correct, else would the business world not have
+been so firmly established upon it. Besides, he was terribly busy; and
+his life was lived upon a plane high, high above that upon which these
+swarming toilers groveled with their snouts in the dust.
+
+And now, with the doors of his mills barred against the hungry hordes,
+he would frame the terms upon which they should be reopened. The
+eight-hour law must not be enforced. Perhaps he could influence the
+Supreme Court to declare it unconstitutional, as depriving the mill
+hands of the right to labor as long as they pleased. Wages should not
+be raised. And the right to organize and band together for their
+common good would be contemptuously denied the ignorant rats who
+should be permitted to toil for him once more. If they offered
+violence, there was the state militia, armed and impatient to slay.
+Also, this was an excellent opportunity to stamp out trade-unionism
+within the confines of his activities. He would win the plaudits of
+the whole industrial world by so doing. He therefore immediately got
+in touch with the Governor, a Tammany puppet, and received that loyal
+henchman's warm assurances of hearty support for any measures which
+the great magnate might wish to enforce. He then approached the
+officers of the state guard, and secured them to a man. Times were
+hard, and they welcomed his favor. He finally posted armed guards in
+all his buildings at Avon, and bade them remember that property rights
+were of divine institution. Then he sat down and dictated the general
+policy to be followed by the Amalgamated Spinners' Association
+throughout the country in support of his own selfish ends.
+
+His activity in these preparations, as in everything, was tremendous.
+His agents swarmed over the state like ants. The Catholic Archbishop
+was instructed that he must remove Father Danny from Avon, as his
+influence was pernicious. But the objection was made that the priest
+was engaged only in humanitarian labors. It availed not; Ames desired
+the man's removal. And removed he was. The widow Marcus likewise had
+been doing much talking. Ames's lawyer, Collins, had her haled into
+court and thoroughly reprimanded. And then, that matters might be
+precipitated, and Congress duly impressed with the necessity of
+altering the cotton schedule in favor of the Spinners' Association,
+Ames ordered his agents to raise the rents of his miserable Avon
+tenements. There were few, he knew, who dared even attempt to meet the
+raise; and those who could not, he ordered set into the streets.
+
+It was a wild winter's day that the magnate chose for the enforcement
+of this cruel order. A driving blizzard had raged throughout the
+night, and the snow had banked up in drifts in places many feet deep.
+The temperature was freezing, and the strong east wind cut like a
+knife. It was Ames's desire to teach these scum a needed lesson, and
+he had chosen to enlist the elements to aid him in the righteous
+task.
+
+For a week, ever since the strike was declared, Carmen had lived among
+these hectored people. Daily her reports of the unbearable situation
+had gone to Hitt. And through them the editor had daily striven to
+awaken a nation's conscience. Ames read the articles, and through the
+columns of the Budget sought to modify them to the extent of shifting
+the responsibility to the shoulders of the mill hands themselves, and
+to a dilatory Congress that was criminally negligent in so framing a
+cotton tariff as to make such industrial suffering possible. Nor did
+he omit to foully vilify the Express and calumniate its personnel.
+
+Amid curses, screams, and despairing wails, the satanic work of
+ejecting the tenement dwellers went on that day. Ames's hirelings,
+with loaded rifles, assisted the constables and city police in the
+miserable work, themselves cursing often because of the keen blasts
+that nipped their ears and numbed their well-cased limbs. More than
+one tiny, wailing babe was frozen at the breast that dull, drab
+afternoon, when the sun hung like a ghastly clot of human blood just
+above the horizon, and its weird, yellow light flitted through the
+snow-laden streets like gaunt spectres of death. More than one aged,
+toil-spent laborer, broken at the loom in the service of his
+insatiable master, fell prone in the drifts and lay there till his
+thin life-current froze and his tired heart stopped. More than one
+frenzied, despairing father, forgetful for the moment of the divine
+right of property, rushed at a guard and madly strove with him, only
+to be clubbed into complaisance, or, perchance, be left in a welter of
+crimson on the drifting snow. Carmen saw it all. She had been to see
+Pillette that same morning, and had been laughed from his presence.
+She did not understand, she was told, what miserable creatures these
+were that dared ask for bread and human rights. Wait; they themselves
+would show their true colors.
+
+And so they did. And the color was red. And it spurted like fountains
+from their veins. And they saw it with dimming eyes, and were glad,
+for it brought sweet oblivion. That night there were great fires
+built along the frozen creek. Shacks and tents were hastily reared;
+and the shivering, trembling women and babes given a desperate
+shelter. Then the men, sullen and grim, drew off into little groups,
+and into the saloons and gambling halls of the town. And when the
+blizzard was spent, and the cold stars were dropping their frozen
+light, these dull-witted things began to move, slowly at first,
+circling about like a great forming nebula, but gaining momentum and
+power with each revolution. More than a thousand strong, they circled
+out into the frozen streets of the little town, and up along the main
+thoroughfare. Their dull murmurs slowly gained volume. Their low
+curses welled into a roar. And then, like the sudden bursting of
+pent-up lava, they swept madly through the town, carrying everything
+to destruction before them.
+
+Stores, shops, the bank itself, burst open before this wave of
+maddened humanity. Guns and pistols were thrown from laden shelves to
+the cursing, sweating mob below. Axes and knives were gathered by
+armfuls, and borne out into the streets to the whirling mass. Great
+barrels of liquor were rolled into the gutters and burst asunder.
+Bread and meat were dragged from the shops and savagely devoured. The
+police gathered and planted themselves with spitting pistols before
+the human surge. They went down like grass under stampeded cattle.
+Frightened clerks and operators rushed to the wires and sent wild,
+incoherent appeals for help to New York. Pandemonium had the reins,
+the carnal mind was unleashed.
+
+On rolled the mob, straight on to the massive stone house of Pillette,
+the resident manager of the great Ames mills. On over the high iron
+fence, like hungry dock rats. On through the battered gate. On up the
+broad drive, shouting, shooting, moaning, raving. On over the veranda,
+and in through broken windows and shattered doors, swarming like flies
+over reeking carrion, until the flames which burst through the peaked
+roof of the mansion drove them forth, and made them draw sullenly,
+protestingly away, leaving the tattered bodies of Pillette and his
+wife and daughters to be consumed in the roaring furnace.
+
+Oh, ye workers, ye toilers at loom and forge, it is indeed you who
+bear the world's burdens! It is you who create the rich man's wealth,
+and fight his battles. So ye fought in the great war between North and
+South, and protected the rich man at home, hovering in fright over his
+money bags. It is you who put into his hands the bayonet which he
+turns against you to guard his wealth and maintain his iniquitous
+privilege. It is indeed in your hands that the destinies of this great
+nation lie; but what will ye do with your marvelous opportunity?
+What, with your stupendous, untried strength? Will ye once more set up
+the golden calf, and prostrate yourselves before it? Will ye again
+enthrone ecclesiastical despotism, and grovel before image of Virgin
+and Saint? Will ye raise high the powers of mediaeval darkness, and
+bend your necks anew to the yoke of ignorance and stagnation? But
+think you now that flames and dynamite will break your present bonds?
+Aye, America may be made a land without a pauper, without a
+millionaire, without industrial strife. But fire and sword will not
+effect the transformation. Yes, perhaps, as has been said, our
+"comfortable social system and its authority will some day be blown to
+atoms." But shall we then be better off than we are to-day? For shall
+we know then how to use our precious liberty?
+
+Blood-drunk and reeling, the mob turned from the flaming wreckage and
+flowed down toward the mills. There were some among them, saner, and
+prescient of the dire consequences of their awful work, who counseled
+restraint. But they were as chips in a torrent. Down into the creek
+bottom rolled the seething tide, with a momentum that carried it up
+the far side and crashing into the heavily barred oak doors of the
+great mills. A crushing hail of bullets fell upon them, and their
+leaders went down; but the mass wavered not. Those within the
+buildings knew that they would become carrion in the maws of the
+ravening wolves outside, and fought with a courage fed with
+desperation.
+
+In the solemn hush of death Socrates said, "The hour of departure has
+arrived, and we go our ways, I to die and you to live. Which is
+better, God only knows." And mankind through the ages in their last
+hours have echoed this sentiment of the gentle philosopher. For all
+human philosophy leads to a single end--resignation.
+
+But hunger transforms resignation into madness. And madness is murder.
+The frenzied hordes swarming about the Ames mills knew in their heart
+of hearts that death was preferable to life in death under the goad of
+human exploitation. But such knowledge came only in rational moments.
+Now they were crazed and beyond reason.
+
+In the distance, across the swale, the sky glowed red where the souls
+of the agent of predatory wealth and his family had gone out in
+withering heat. In the stricken town, men huddled their trembling
+loved ones about them and stood with loaded muskets. Somewhere on the
+steel bands that linked this scene of carnage with the great
+metropolis beyond, a train plunged and roared, leaping over the
+quivering rails at the rate of a hundred miles an hour, bringing eager
+militiamen and their deadly instruments of civilization. For the Ames
+mills were private property. And that was a divine institution.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+In his luxurious office in the tower of the Ames building the master
+sat that black night, surrounded by his laboring cohorts. Though they
+strained under the excitement of the hour, Ames himself remained calm
+and determined. He was in constant communication with the Governor at
+Albany, and with the municipal officers of both New York and Avon. He
+had received the tidings of the destruction of the Pillette family
+with a grim smile. But the smile had crystallized into an expression
+of black, malignant hatred when he demanded of the Governor that the
+New York contingent of the state guard be sent at once to protect his
+property, and specified that the bullets used should be of the
+"dum-dum" variety. For they added to the horrors of death. Such
+bullets had been prohibited by the rules of modern warfare, it was
+true. But this was a class war. And Ames, foreseeing it all, had
+purchased a hundred thousand rounds of these hellish things for the
+militia to exchange for those which the Government furnished. And
+then, as an additional measure of precaution, he had sent Hood and
+Collins into the United States District Court and persuaded the
+sitting judge to issue an injunction, enjoining any possible relief
+committees from furnishing food and shelter to such as might enter the
+industrial conflict being waged against him.
+
+Had the man gone mad? That he had! And in the blood-red haze that hung
+before his glittering eyes was framed the face of the girl who had
+spurned him but a few days before. She was the embodiment of love that
+had crossed his path and stirred up the very quintessence of evil
+within him. From the first she had drawn him. From the first she had
+aroused within his soul a conflict of emotions such as he had never
+known before. And from the night when, in the Hawley-Crowles box at
+the opera he had held her hand and looked down into her fathomless
+eyes, he had been tortured with the conflicting desires to possess
+that fair creature, or to utterly destroy her.
+
+But always she had eluded him. Always she hovered just within his
+grasp; and then drew back as his itching fingers closed. Always she
+told him she loved him--and he knew she lied not. But such love was
+not his kind. When he loved, he possessed and used. And such love had
+its price--but not hers. And so hope strove with wrath, and chagrin
+with despair. She was a babe! Yet she conquered him. He was omnipotent
+in this world! Her strength she drew from the world invisible. And
+with it she had laid the giant low and bound him with chains.
+
+Not so! Though he knew now that she was lost to him forever; though
+with foul curses he had seen hope flee; yet with it he had also bidden
+every tender sentiment, every last vestige of good depart from his
+thought forever more. And:
+
+              "----with hope, farewell fear,
+              Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost;
+              Evil, be thou my good!"
+
+That same night Hitt's wells burned. And that night the master slept
+not, but sat alone at his desk in the great Fifth Avenue mansion, and
+plotted the annihilation of every human being who had dared oppose his
+worldly ambitions. Plotted, too, the further degradation and final
+ruin of the girl who had dared to say she loved him, and yet would not
+become his toy.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+There is no need to curse the iniquitous industrial and social system
+upon which the unstable fabric of our civilization rests, for that
+system is its own fell curse in the rotting fruit it bears. A bit of
+that poisonous fruit had now dropped from the slimy branch at Avon. Up
+from the yards came the militiamen at double-quick, with rifles
+unslung and loaded with the satanic Ames bullets. Behind them they
+dragged two machine guns, capable of discharging three hundred times a
+minute. The mob had concentrated upon the central building of the mill
+group, and had just gained entrance through its shattered doors.
+Before them the guards were falling slowly back, fighting every inch
+of the way. The dead lay in heaps. The air was thick with powder
+smoke. One end of the building was in flames. The roar of battle was
+deafening.
+
+Quickly swinging into action, the militia opened upon the mill hands.
+Hemmed in between two fires, the mob broke and fled down the frozen
+stream. The officers of the guard then ordered their men to join in
+the work of extinguishing the flames, which were beginning to make
+headway, fanned by the strong draft which swept through the long
+building. Until dawn they fought the stubborn fire. Then, the building
+saved, they pitched their tents and sought a brief rest.
+
+At noon the soldiers were again assembled, for there remained the task
+of arresting the leaders of the mob and bringing them to justice. The
+town had been placed under martial law with the arrival of the
+militia. Its streets were patrolled by armed guards, and a strong
+cordon had been thrown around the shacks which the mill hands had
+hastily erected the afternoon before. And now, under the protection of
+a detachment of soldiers, the demand was made for the unconditional
+surrender of the striking laborers.
+
+Dull terror lay like a pall over the miserable shacks huddled along
+the dead stream. It was the dull, hopeless, numbing terror of the
+victim who awaits the blow from the lion's paw in the arena. Weeping
+wives and mothers, clasping their little ones to them, knelt upon the
+frozen ground and crossed themselves. Young men drew their newly-wed
+mates to their breasts and kissed them with trembling lips. Stern,
+hard-faced men, with great, knotted hands, grouped together and looked
+out in deadly hatred at the heartless force surrounding them.
+
+Then out from among them and across the ice went Carmen, up the
+slippery hillside, and straight to the multi-mouthed machine gun, at
+the side of which stood Major Camp. She had been all night with these
+bewildered, maddened people. She had warmed shivering babes at her own
+breast. She had comforted widows of a night, and newly-bereaved
+mothers. She had bound up gaping wounds, and had whispered tender
+words of counsel and advice. And they had clung to her weeping; they
+had called upon Virgin and Saint to bless her; and they named her the
+Angel of Avon--and the name would leave her no more.
+
+"Take me," she said, "take me into court, and let me tell all."
+
+The major fell back in amazement. This beautiful, well-clad girl among
+such miserable vermin!
+
+"You have demanded their leaders," she continued. "I have been trying
+to lead them. Leave them, and take me."
+
+The major's eyes roved over her face and figure. He could make nothing
+out of her words, but he motioned to an aid, and bade him place the
+girl under arrest.
+
+A wild shout then rose from the shacks, as Carmen moved quietly away
+under guard. It was the last roar of raging despair. The girl was
+being taken from them! A dozen men sprang out and rushed, muskets in
+hand, up toward the soldiers to liberate her. The major called to them
+to halt. Poor, dull-witted creatures! Their narrow vision could
+comprehend but one thing at a time; and they saw in the arrest of the
+girl only an additional insult piled upon their already mountainous
+injuries.
+
+The major shouted a command. A roar burst from the soldiers' rifles.
+It was answered by a shriek of rage from the hovels, and a murderous
+return fire. Then the major gave another loud command, and the machine
+guns began to vomit forth their clattering message of death.
+
+At the sound of shooting, Carmen's guard halted. Then one of them
+fell, pierced by a bullet from the strikers. The others released the
+girl, and hurried back to the battle line. Carmen stood alone for a
+moment. Bullets whizzed close about her.
+
+One sang its death-song almost in her ear. Another tore through her
+coat. Then she turned and made her way slowly up the hill to the
+paralyzed town.
+
+Down in the vale beneath, Death swung his scythe with long, sweeping
+strokes. The two machine guns poured a flaming sheet of lead into the
+little camp below. The shacks fell like houses of cards. The tents
+caught fire, and were whirled blazing aloft by the brisk wind. Men
+dropped like chaff from a mill. Hysterical, screaming women rushed
+hither and yon to save their young, and were torn to shreds by the
+merciless fusillade from above. Babes stood for a moment bewildered,
+and then sank with great, gaping wounds in their little, quivering
+bodies. And over all brooded the spirit of the great manipulator,
+Ames, for the protection of whose sacred rights such ghastly work is
+done among civilized men to-day.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night, while the stars above Avon drew a veil of gray between
+them and the earth below, that they might not see the red embers and
+stark bodies, Carmen came slowly, and with bent head, into the office
+of the Express. As she approached Hitt's door she heard him in earnest
+conversation with Haynerd.
+
+"Yes," the editor was saying, "I had a mortgage placed on the Express
+to-day, but I couldn't get much. And it's a short-term one, at that.
+Stolz refused point blank to help us, unless we would let him dictate
+the policy of the paper. No, he wouldn't buy outright. He's still
+fighting Ames for control of C. and R. And I learn, too, that the
+Ketchim case is called for next week. That probably means an attempt
+by Ames to smoke Stolz out through Ketchim. It also means that
+Carmen--"
+
+"Yes; what about her?"
+
+"That she will be forced to go upon the stand as a witness."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"And that, as I read it, means a further effort on Ames's part to
+utterly discredit her in the eyes of the world, and us through her
+association with the Express."
+
+"But--where is she, Hitt? No word from her since we got the news of
+the massacre at Avon this afternoon! Nothing happened to her, do you
+think?"
+
+Hitt's face was serious, and he did not answer. Then Carmen herself
+came through the open door. Both men rose with exclamations of
+gladness to welcome her. The girl's eyes were wet, and her wonted
+smile had gone.
+
+"Mr. Hitt," she said, "I want a thousand dollars to-night."
+
+"Well!" Hitt and Haynerd both sat down hard.
+
+"I must go back to Avon to-morrow," she announced. "And the money is
+for the--the people down there." Her voice caught, and her words
+stumbled.
+
+The two men looked at each other blankly. Then Hitt reached out and
+took her hand. "Tell us," he said, "about the trouble there to-day."
+
+Carmen shook her head. "No," she said, "we will not talk about evil.
+You--you have the money? A thousand--"
+
+"I have that much on deposit in the bank now, Carmen," he replied
+gravely. His thought was on the mortgage which he had signed that
+morning.
+
+"Then write me a check at once, and I will deposit it in the Avon bank
+when I get there to-morrow. I must go home now--to see mother."
+
+"But--let me think about it, Carmen. Money is--well, won't less than
+that amount do you?"
+
+"No, Mr. Hitt. Write the check now."
+
+Hitt sighed, but made no further protest. If the Express must founder,
+then this money were well spent on the stricken people of Avon. He
+took out his book, and immediately wrote the check and handed it to
+the girl.
+
+"Hitt," said Haynerd, after Carmen had left them and he had exhausted
+his protests over the size of the check, "something's killing that
+girl! And it isn't only the trouble at Avon, either! What is it? I
+believe you know."
+
+Hitt shook his head. "She's no longer in this world, Ned. She left it
+two days ago."
+
+"Eh? Say! News about that Rincon fellow?"
+
+But Hitt would say nothing to further illuminate his cryptic remark,
+and Haynerd soon switched to the grim topic of the industrial war in
+progress at Avon.
+
+"What are we coming to?" he cried. "What's going to be the end? A
+social and industrial system such as ours, which leaves the masses to
+starve and consume with disease under intolerable burdens, that a
+handful may rot in idleness and luxury, marks us in this latest
+century as hopelessly insane!"
+
+"Well, Ned, whence came the idea, think you, that it is divine justice
+for a majority of the people on earth to be poor in order that a few
+may be rich? And how are we going to get that perverted idea out of
+the minds of men? Will legislation do it?"
+
+"Humph!" grunted Haynerd. "Legislation arouses no faith in me! We are
+suffering here because, in our immensely selfish thought of ourselves
+only, we have permitted the growth of such men as Ames, and allowed
+them to monopolize the country's resources. Heavens! Future
+generations will laugh themselves sick over us! Why, what sane excuse
+is there for permitting the commonest necessities of life to be
+juggled with by gamblers and unmoral men of wealth? How can we ask to
+be considered rational when we, with open eyes, allow 'corners' on
+foodstuffs, and permit 'wheat kings' to amass millions by corralling
+the supply of grain and then raising the price to the point where the
+poor washerwoman starves? Lord! We are a nation gone mad! The
+existence of poverty in a country like America is not only proof
+positive that our social system is rotten to the core, but that our
+religion is equally so! As a people we deserve to be incarcerated in
+asylums!"
+
+"A considerable peroration, Ned," smiled Hitt. "And yet, one that I
+can not refute. The only hope I see is in a radical change in the
+mental attitude of the so-called enlightened class--and yet they are
+the very worst offenders!"
+
+"Sure! Doesn't the militia exist for men like Ames? To-day's work at
+Avon proves it, I think!"
+
+"Apparently so, Ned," returned Hitt sadly. "And the only possibility
+of a change in enlightened people is through a better understanding of
+what is really good and worth while. That means real, practical
+Christianity. And of that Ames knows nothing."
+
+"Seems to me, Hitt, that it ought to stagger our preachers to realize
+that nineteen centuries of their brand of Christianity have scarcely
+even begun to cleanse society. What do you suppose Borwell thinks,
+anyway?"
+
+"Ned, they still cling to human law as necessarily a compelling
+influence in the shaping of mankind's moral nature."
+
+"And go right on accepting the blood-stained money of criminal
+business men who have had the misfortune to amass a million dollars!
+And, more, they actually hold such men up as patterns for the youth to
+emulate! As if the chief end of endeavor were to achieve the glorious
+manhood of an Ames! And he a man who is deader than the corpses he
+made at Avon to-day!"
+
+"The world's ideal, my friend, has long been the man who succeeds in
+everything except that which is worth while," replied Hitt. "But we
+have been bidden to come out from the world, and be separate. Is it
+not so?"
+
+"Y--e--s, of course. But I can't take my thought from Avon--"
+
+"And thereby you emphasize your belief in the reality of evil."
+
+"Well--look at us! The Express stands for righteousness. And now we
+are a dead duck!"
+
+"Then, if that is so, why not resign your position, Ned? Go seek work
+elsewhere."
+
+"No, sir! Not while the Express has a leg to stand on! Your words are
+an offense to me, sir!"
+
+Hitt rose and clapped his friend heartily on the back. "Ned, old man!
+You're a jewel! Things do look very dark for us, if we look only with
+the human sense of vision. But we are trying to look at the invisible
+things within. And there is only perfection there. Come, we must get
+to work. The Express still lives."
+
+"But--Carmen?"
+
+Hitt turned and faced him. "Ned, Carmen is not in our hands. She is
+now completely with her God. We must henceforth wait on Him."
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the following afternoon at three a little group of Avon mill hands
+crept past the guards and met in Father Danny's Mission, down in the
+segregated vice district. They met there because they dared not go
+through the town to the Hall. Father Danny was with them. He had
+slipped into town the preceding night, and remained in hiding through
+the day. And Carmen was with them, too. She had gone first to the
+Hall, and then to the Mission, when she arrived again in the little
+town. And after she had deposited Hitt's check in the bank she had
+asked Father Danny to call together some of the older and more
+intelligent of the mill hands, to discuss methods of disbursing the
+money.
+
+Almost coincident with her arrival had come an order from Ames to
+apprehend the girl as a disturber of the peace. The hush of death lay
+over Avon, and even the soldiers now stood aghast at their own bloody
+work of the day before. Carmen had avoided the main thoroughfares, and
+had made her way unrecognized. At a distance she saw the town jail,
+heavily guarded. Its capacity had been sorely taxed, and many of the
+prisoners had been crowded into cold, cheerless store rooms, and
+placed under guards who stood ready to mow them down at the slightest
+threatening gesture.
+
+"It's come, Miss Carmen!" whispered Father Danny, after he had quietly
+greeted the girl. "It's come! It may be the beginning of the great
+revolution we've all known wasn't far off! I just _had_ to get back
+here! They can only arrest me, anyway. And, oh, God! my poor, poor
+people!"
+
+He sank into a chair and buried his face in his hands. But soon he
+sprang to his feet. "No time for mollycoddling!" he exclaimed. "Come,
+men, we'll give you checks, and do you get food for the babies. Only,
+don't buy of the company stores!"
+
+"We'll have to, Father," said one of them. "It's dangerous not to."
+
+"But they've never taken cash from you there, ye know. Only your pay
+scrip."
+
+"Aye, Father, and they've discounted that ten per cent each time. But
+if we bought at other stores we were discharged. And now we'd be
+blacklisted."
+
+"Ah, God, that's true!" exclaimed the priest. "But now then, Miss
+Carmen, we'll begin."
+
+For an hour the girl wrote small checks, and the priest handed them
+out to the eager laborers. They worked feverishly, for they knew that
+at any moment they might be apprehended.
+
+"Ah, you men!" cried Father Danny, at last unable to restrain himself.
+"Did ye but know that this grand nation is wholly dependent on such as
+you, its common people! Not on the rich, I say, the handful that own
+its mills and mines, but on you who work them for your rich masters!
+But then, ye're so ignorant!"
+
+"Don't, Father!" pleaded Carmen, "don't! They have suffered so much!"
+
+"Ah, lass, it's but love that I'm dealin' out to 'em, God knows! And
+yet, it's they that are masters of the situation, only they don't know
+it! There's the pity! They've no leaders, except such as waste their
+money and leave 'em in the ditch! The world's social schemes, Miss
+Carmen, don't reach such as these. They're only sops. And they've got
+the contempt of the wage-earners."
+
+"The Church, Father, could do much for these people, if--"
+
+"Don't hesitate, Miss Carmen. You mean, if we didn't give all our
+thought to the rich, eh? But still, it's wholly up to the people
+themselves, after all. And, mark me, when they do rise, why, such men
+as Ames won't know what's hit 'em!"
+
+The door was thrown violently open at that moment, and a squad of
+soldiers under the command of a lieutenant entered.
+
+Carmen and Father Danny rose and faced them. The mill hands stood like
+stone images, their faces black with suppressed rage. The lieutenant
+halted his men, and then advanced to the girl.
+
+"Is a woman named Carmen Ariza here?" he demanded rudely.
+
+"I am she," replied the fearless girl.
+
+"Come with us," he said in a rough voice.
+
+"That she will not!" cried Father Danny, suddenly pulling the girl
+back and thrusting himself before her.
+
+The lieutenant raised his hand. The soldiers advanced. The mill hands
+quickly formed about the girl. And then, with a yell of rage, they
+threw themselves upon the soldiers.
+
+For a few minutes the little room was a bedlam. The crazed strikers
+fought without weapons, except such as they could wrest from the
+soldiers. But they fought to the death. One of them seized Carmen and
+threw her beneath the table at which she had been working. Above her
+raged the desperate conflict. The shouting and cursing might have been
+heard for blocks around. Father Danny stood in front of the table,
+beneath which lay the girl. He strove desperately to maintain his
+position, that he might protect her, meantime frantically calling to
+the mill hands to drag her out to the rear, and escape by the back
+door.
+
+In the midst of the _melee_ a soldier mounted a chair near the door
+and raised his rifle. The shot roared out, and Father Danny pitched
+forward to the floor. Another shot, and still another followed in
+quick succession. The strikers fell back. Confusion seized them. Then
+they turned and fled precipitately through the rear exit.
+
+The lieutenant dragged Carmen from beneath the table and out through
+the door. Then, assembling his men, he gave an order, and they marched
+away with her up the icy street to the town jail.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 16
+
+
+With the wreckage which he had wrought strewn about him, J. Wilton
+Ames sat at his rich desk far above the scampering human ants in the
+streets below and contemplated the fell work of his own hands. And
+often and anon as he looked, great beads of perspiration welled out
+upon his forehead, and his breath came hot and dry. In the waste
+basket at his feet lay crumpled the newspapers with their shrieking,
+red-lettered versions of the slaughter at Avon. He was not a coward,
+this man! But he had pushed that basket around the desk out of his
+sight, for when he looked at it something rose before him that sent a
+chill to his very soul. At times his vision blurred; and then he
+passed his hands heavily across his eyes. He had chanced to read in
+the grewsome accounts of the Avon massacre that little children had
+been found among those fallen shacks, writhing in their last agonies.
+And the reports had said that great, red-dripping holes had been
+ripped in their thin little bodies by those awful "dum-dum" bullets.
+God! Why had he used them? And why had the demoniac soldiers down
+there blown the brains from harmless women and helpless babes? He
+really had not intended to go so far!
+
+And yet, he had! Curse them! The brats would have grown up to oppose
+the vested privileges of the rich! They, too, would have become
+anarchists and rioters, bent on leveling the huge industrial fabric
+which such as he had so laboriously erected under the legal protection
+afforded their sacred rights! He had done well to remove them now! And
+the great captains of industry would thank him for the example he had
+thus fearlessly set!
+
+To think of Avon was for him now to think in terms of blood. And yet
+his carnal soul hourly wrestled sore with thoughts of a wholly
+different stamp; with those strange emotions which he had felt when in
+Carmen's presence; with those unfamiliar sentiments which, had he not
+fought them back so bitterly, might have made him anew, and--
+
+But the remembrance maddened him. His face grew black, and his mouth
+poured forth a torrent of foul imprecations and threats upon her and
+upon those who stood with her. His rage towered again. He smote the
+desk with his great fist. He fumed, he frothed, he hurled reason from
+its throne, and bade the Furies again become his counselors.
+
+Upon the desk before him lay the mortgage papers which Hitt had
+signed. He had bought the mortgage from the bank which had loaned the
+Express the money. He would crush that sheet now, crush it until the
+ink dripped black from its emasculated pages! And when it fell into
+his hands, he would turn it into the yellowest of sensational
+journals, and hoot the memory of its present staff from ocean to
+ocean!
+
+Then, his head sunk upon his breast, he fell to wondering if he might
+not secure a mortgage upon the Beaubien cottage, and turn its
+occupants into the street. Ah, what a power was money! It was the
+lever by which he moved the world, and clubbed its dull-witted
+inhabitants into servile obeisance! Who could stand against him--
+
+That girl!
+
+He sprang to his feet and called Hood. That obedient lackey hastened
+into his master's presence.
+
+"The Ketchim trial?" snarled Ames.
+
+"Called for this week, sir," replied Hood, glad that the announcement
+could not possibly offend his superior.
+
+"Humph! The--that girl?"
+
+"Brought up from Avon, and lodged in the Tombs, sir."
+
+"You tell Judge Spencer that if he allows her bail I'll see that his
+federal appointment is killed, understand?"
+
+"You may rely upon him, sir."
+
+Ames regarded the man with a mixture of admiration and utter contempt.
+For Hood stood before him a resplendent example of the influence of
+the most subtle of all poisons, the insidious lure of money. Soul and
+body he had prostituted himself and his undoubted talents to it. And
+now, were he to be turned adrift by Ames, the man must inevitably sink
+into oblivion, squeezed dry of every element of genuine manhood, and
+weighted with the unclean lucre for which his bony fingers had always
+itched.
+
+"Will Cass defend Ketchim?" the master asked.
+
+"Oh, doubtless. He knows most about the formation of the defunct
+Simiti company."
+
+"Well, see him and--you say he's young, and got a wife and baby? Offer
+him twenty-five thousand to quit the case."
+
+"I'm afraid it wouldn't do, sir," returned Hood, shaking his head
+dubiously. "I've had men talking with him regarding the trial, and
+he--"
+
+"Then get him over here. I'll see if I can't persuade him," growled
+Ames in an ugly tone.
+
+Hood bowed and went out. A few minutes later Reverend Darius Borwell
+was ushered into the financier's private office.
+
+"Mr. Ames," cried that gentleman of the cloth, "it's shocking,
+terribly so, what those unbridled, unprincipled mill hands have drawn
+upon themselves down in Avon! Goodness! And four members of the Church
+of the Social Revolution came to my study last evening and demanded
+that I let them speak to my congregation on the coming Sabbath!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Why, I told them certainly not! My church is God's house! And I shall
+have policemen stationed at the doors next Sunday to maintain order!
+To think that it has come to this in America! But, Mr. Ames, is your
+house guarded? I would advise--"
+
+"Nobody can get within a block of my house, sir, without ringing a
+series of electric bells," replied Ames evenly. "I have fifty guards
+and private detectives in attendance in and about my premises all the
+time. My limousine has been lined with sheet steel. And my every step
+is protected. I am not afraid for my life. I simply want to keep going
+until I can carry out a few plans I have in hand." His thought had
+reverted again to the fair girl in the Tombs.
+
+"But now, Borwell," he continued, "I want to talk with you about
+another matter. I am drawing up my will, and--"
+
+"Why, my dear Mr. Ames! You are not ill?"
+
+Ames thought of his physician's constantly iterated warning; but shook
+his head. "I may get caught in this Avon affair," he said evasively.
+"And I want to be prepared. The President has sent his message to
+Congress, as you may be aware. There are unpleasant suggestions in it
+regarding dispossession in cases like my own. I'm coming back by
+magnanimously willing to Congress a hundred millions, to stand as a
+fund for social uplift."
+
+"Ah!" sighed the clergyman. Great was Mammon!
+
+"But the little matter I wish to discuss with you is the sum that I am
+setting aside for the erection of a new church edifice," continued
+Ames, eying the minister narrowly.
+
+"You don't mean it!" cried that worthy gentleman, springing up and
+clasping the financier's hand. "Mr. Ames! So magnanimous! Ah--the
+amount?"
+
+"Well, will half a million do?" suggested Ames.
+
+The minister reflected a moment. One should not be too precipitate in
+accepting tentative benefactions. "Ah--we really should have--ah--a
+trifle more, Mr. Ames. There's the settlement home, and the commons,
+you know, and--"
+
+"Humph! Well, we'll start with half a million," replied Ames dryly.
+"By the way, you know Jurges, eh? Reverend William Jurges? Er--have
+you any particular influence with him, if I may ask?" His sharp eyes
+bored straight through the wondering divine.
+
+"Why--yes--yes, I know the gentleman. And, as for influence--well, I
+may--"
+
+"Yes, just so," put in Ames. "Now there is a trial coming up this
+week, and Jurges will be called to the stand. I want you to give him
+the true facts in regard to it. I'll call Hood, and we'll go over them
+in detail now. Then you see Jurges this afternoon, and--say, he's
+raising a building fund too, isn't he?"
+
+The magnate summoned Hood again; and for an hour the trio discussed
+the forthcoming trial of the unfortunate Philip O. Ketchim. Then Ames
+dismissed the clergyman, and bade his office boy admit the young
+lawyer, Cass, who had come in response to Hood's request.
+
+For some moments after Cass entered the office Ames stood regarding
+him, studying what manner of man he was, and how best to approach him.
+Then he opened the conversation by a casual reference to the
+unsatisfactory business situation which obtained throughout the
+country, and expressed wonder that young men just starting in their
+professions managed to make ends meet.
+
+"But," he concluded with deep significance, "better go hungry than
+take on any class of business which, though promising good money
+returns, nevertheless might eventually prove suicidal." He looked hard
+at the young lawyer when he paused.
+
+"I quite agree with you, Mr. Ames," returned Cass. "But as I am
+particularly busy this morning, may I ask why you have sent for me?
+Have you anything that I can--"
+
+"I have," abruptly interrupted the financier. "We need additions to
+our legal staff. I thought perhaps you might like to talk over the
+matter with me, with a view to entering our employ."
+
+"Why, Mr. Ames, I--I have never thought of--" The young man's eyes
+glistened.
+
+"Well, suppose you think of it now," said Ames, smiling graciously. "I
+have heard considerable about you of late, and I must say I rather
+like the way you have been handling your work."
+
+Cass looked at him with rising wonder. The work which he had been
+doing of late was most ordinary and routine, and called for no display
+of legal skill whatever. Suspicions slowly began to rise.
+
+"I'd hate to see you tackle anything at this stage of your career, Mr.
+Cass, that would bring discredit upon you. And I am afraid your
+association with Ketchim is going to do just that. But possibly you do
+not intend to handle further business for him?"
+
+Ketchim, though long confined in the Tombs, had at length secured
+bail, through the not wholly disinterested efforts of his uncle,
+Stolz, the sworn enemy of Ames. And, because of his loyal efforts in
+behalf of Ketchim, Stolz had insisted that Cass be retained as counsel
+for the latter when his trial should come up.
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do, Mr. Cass," said Ames suddenly. "Mr. Hood
+will take you on at a salary of, say, five thousand to start with.
+We'll try you out for a few weeks. Then, if we don't mutually fit,
+why, we'll quietly separate and say nothing. How about it?"
+
+Cass thought hard. Half of that salary would have looked large to him
+then. But--
+
+"May I ask," he slowly said in reply, "what class of work Mr. Hood
+would give me to start with?"
+
+"Why, nothing of great importance, perhaps, while you are getting into
+the harness. Possibly court work, as a starter. You've had experience
+in that, eh?"
+
+Cass reflected again. The temptation was tremendous. That little house
+which he had passed and stopped to look at so wistfully every night on
+his way home was now within his grasp.
+
+He glanced up at the great man, sitting so calmly before him. Then he
+thought suddenly of Avon. Then of Carmen.
+
+"Mr. Ames," he said, "if I enter your employ, it must be with the
+stipulation that I shall have nothing to do with the Ketchim trial."
+
+Ames's face went suddenly dark. "If you enter my employ, sir, it will
+be with the stipulation that you do as I say," he returned coldly.
+
+And then the young lawyer saw through the mask. And his anger flamed
+high at what he discerned behind it. He rose and faced the great man.
+
+"Mr. Ames," said he, "you have made a mistake. I am poor, and I need
+business. But I have not as yet fallen so completely under the spell
+of fortune-hunting as to sell my honor to a man like you! To enter
+your employ, I now see, would mean the total loss of character and
+self respect. It would mean a lowering of my ideals, whatever they may
+be, to your own vulgar standard. I may have done wrong in becoming
+associated with Mr. Ketchim. In fact, I know that I have. But I
+pledged myself to assist him. And yet, in doing so, I scarcely can
+blacken my reputation to the extent that I should were I to become
+your legal henchman. I want wealth. But there are some terms upon
+which even I can not accept it. And your terms are among them. I bid
+you good morning."
+
+Ames gave a snort of anger when Cass went out. Summoning Hood, he
+vented his great wrath upon that individual's bald pate. "And now," he
+concluded, "I want that fellow Cass so wound up that he will sneak off
+to a lonely spot and commit suicide! And if you can't do it, then I'll
+accept your resignation!"
+
+"Very well, sir," replied Hood. "And, by the way, Mr. Ames, I have
+just learned that Judge Harris, father of the young man who came up
+with that girl, is in Colombia. Seems that he's taken some wealthy man
+down there to look at La Libertad mine."
+
+"What!" Ames's eyes snapped fire.
+
+"They believe you put one over on Ketchim, with the help of Monsignor
+Lafelle, and so they've gone down to get titles to that mine."
+
+"By G--"
+
+"And they say that--"
+
+"Never mind what they say!" roared Ames. "Cable Wenceslas at once to
+see that those fellows remain permanently in Colombia. He has ways of
+accomplishing that. Humph! Fools! Judge Harris, eh? Ninny! I guess
+Wenceslas can block his little game!"
+
+His great frame shook slightly as he stood consuming with rage, and a
+slight hemorrhage started from his nostrils. He turned to the
+lavatory. And as he walked, Hood thought his left foot dragged
+slightly. But the lawyer made no comment.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+And then, with the way well cleared, came the Ketchim trial, which has
+gone down in history as containing the most spectacular _denouement_
+in the record of legal procedure in the New World. Had it been
+concerned, as was anticipated, only with routine legal procedure
+against the man Ketchim, a weak-souled compound of feeble sycophancy
+and low morals, it would have attracted slight attention, and would
+have been spread upon the court records by uninterested clerks with
+never a second thought. But there were elements entering into it of
+whose existence the outside world could not have even dreamed. Into it
+converged threads which now may be traced back to scenes and events in
+three continents; threads whose intricate windings led through
+trackless forest and dim-lit church; through court of fashion and hut
+of poverty; back through the dark mazes of mortal thought, where no
+light shines upon the carnal aims and aspirations of the human mind;
+back even to the doors of a palace itself, even to the proudest throne
+of the Old World.
+
+But none of these elements found expression in the indictment against
+the frightened defendant, the small-visioned man who had sought to
+imitate the mighty Ames, and yet who lacked sufficient intelligence of
+that sort which manifests in such a perversion of skill and power.
+Ames was a tremendous corruptionist, who stood beyond the laws simply
+because of the elemental fact that he himself made those laws. Ketchim
+was a plain deceiver. And his deception was religious fervor. Mingling
+his theology with fraud, he employed the unholy alliance for the
+purpose of exploiting the credulous who attended his prayer meetings
+and commented with bated breath upon his beautiful showing of
+religious zeal. He was but one of a multitude afflicted with the
+"dollar mania." His misfortune was that his methods were so antique
+that they could not long fail of detection. And it was because of his
+use of the mails for the purpose of deceit that the indictment had
+been drawn against Philip O. Ketchim _et al._ by the long-suffering,
+tolerant complainant, called the people.
+
+Nominally the people's interests were in the hands of the Public
+Prosecutor, a certain smug young worldling named Ellis. But, as that
+gentleman owed his appointment to Ames, it is not surprising that at
+his right hand sat Hood and his well trained staff. Nominally, too,
+Judge Spencer conducted the trial strictly upon its merits, not all of
+which lay with the people. But the judge might have been still
+prosecuting petty cases back in the unknown little district from
+which he came, had it not been for the great influence of Ames, long
+since, who had found him on a certain occasion useful. And so the jury
+panel contained none but those who, we may be very sure, were amenable
+to the tender pressure of a soft hand lined with yellow gold. And only
+those points of evidence were sustained which conduced to the
+incrimination of the miserable defendant. Ketchim was doomed before
+the trial began.
+
+And yet, to subserve the dark schemes of Ames, and to lengthen the
+period of torture to which his victims should be subjected, the trial
+was dragged through many days. Besides, even he and his hirelings were
+bound to observe the formalities.
+
+It was at the suggestion of Cass that no effort had been made to
+procure bail for Carmen after her arrest. The dramatic may always be
+relied upon to carry a point which even plain evidence negatives. And
+she, acquiescing in the suggestion, remained a full two weeks in the
+Tombs before Ames's eager counsel found their opportunity to confront
+her on the witness stand and besmirch her with their black charges.
+The Beaubien was prostrated. But, knowing that for her another hour of
+humiliation and sorrow had come, she strove mightily to summon her
+strength for its advent. Father Waite toiled with Cass day and night.
+Hitt and Haynerd, without financial resources, pursued their way, grim
+and silent. The Express was sinking beneath its mountainous load. And
+they stood at the helm, stanch to their principles, not yielding an
+iota to offers of assistance in exchange for a reversal of the policy
+upon which the paper had been launched.
+
+"We're going down, Hitt," said Haynerd grimly. "But we go with the
+flag flying at the mast!"
+
+Yet Hitt answered not. He was learning to know as did Carmen, and to
+see with eyes which were invisible.
+
+It was just when the jury had been impaneled, after long days of petty
+wrangling and childish recrimination among the opposing lawyers, that
+Stolz came to Ames and laid down his sword. The control of C. and R.
+should pass unequivocally to the latter if he would but save Ketchim
+from prison.
+
+Then Ames lay back and roared with laughter over his great triumph. C.
+and R! <DW30>! He would send Stolz' nephew to prison, and then roll a
+bomb along Wall Street whose detonation would startle the financial
+world clean out of its orbit! Stolz had failed to notice that Ames's
+schemes had so signally worked out that C. and R. was practically in
+his hands now! The defeated railroad magnate at length backed out of
+the Ames office purple with rage. And then he pledged himself to
+hypothecate his entire fortune to the rescue of his worthless nephew.
+
+Thus, in deep iniquity, was launched the famous trial, a process of
+justice in name only, serving as an outlet for a single man's long
+nurtured personal animosities. The adulterous union of religion and
+business was only nominally before the bar. The victims, not the
+defendant only, not the preachers, the washerwomen, the factory girls,
+the widows, and the orphans, whose life savings Ketchim had drawn into
+his net by the lure of pious benedictions, but rather those
+unfortunates who had chanced to incur the malicious hatred of the
+great, legalized malefactor, Ames, by opposition to his selfish
+caprice, and whose utter defeat and discrediting before the public
+would now place the crown of righteous expediency upon his own
+chicanery and extortion and his wantonly murderous deeds.
+
+The prosecution scored from the beginning. Doctor Jurges, utterly
+confused by the keen lawyers, and vainly endeavoring to follow the
+dictates of his conscience, while attempting to reconcile them with
+his many talks with Darius Borwell, gave testimony which fell little
+short of incriminating himself. For there were produced letters which
+he had written to members of his congregation, and which for subtlety
+and deception, though doubtless innocently done, would have made a
+seasoned promoter look sharp to his own laurels.
+
+Then Harris was called. He had been summoned from Denver for the
+trial. But his stuttering evidence gave no advantage to either side.
+And then--crowning blunder!--Cass permitted Ketchim himself to take
+the stand. And the frightened, trembling broker gave his own cause
+such a blow that the prosecution might well have asked the judge to
+take the case from the jury then and there. It was a legal _faux pas_;
+and Cass walked the floor and moaned the whole night through.
+
+Then, as per program, the prosecution called Madam Beaubien. Could not
+that sorrowing woman have given testimony which would have aided the
+tottering defense, and unmasked the evil genius which presided over
+this mock trial? Ah, yes, in abundance! But not one point would the
+judge sustain when it bordered upon forbidden territory. It was made
+plain to her that she was there to testify against Ketchim, and to
+permit the Ames lawyers to bandy her own name about the court room
+upon the sharp points of their cruel cross-questions and low
+insinuations.
+
+But, she protested, her knowledge of the Simiti company's affairs had
+come through another person.
+
+And who might that be?
+
+Mr. J. Wilton Ames.
+
+Ah! But Mr. Ames should give his own testimony--for was it not he who
+had, not long since, legally punished the witness on a charge of
+defamation of character? The witness was dismissed. And the spectators
+knew that it was because the righteous prosecution could no longer
+stain its hands with one who bore such a tarnished name as she.
+
+And then, taunted and goaded to exasperation, the wronged woman burst
+into tears and flayed the bigamist Ames there before the court room
+crowded with eager society ladies and curious, non-toiling men. Flayed
+him as men are seldom flayed and excoriated by the women they trample.
+The bailiffs seized her, and dragged her into an ante-room; the judge
+broke his gavel rapping for order, and threatened to clear the court;
+and then Cass, too young and inexperienced to avoid battle with
+seasoned warriors, rose and demanded that Madam Beaubien be returned
+to the stand.
+
+The astonished judge hesitated. Cass stood his ground. He turned to
+the people, as if seeking their support. A great murmur arose through
+the court room. The judge looked down at Ames. That man, sitting calm
+and unimpassioned, nodded his head slightly. And the woman was led
+back to the chair.
+
+"It may have an important bearing upon the case, Your Honor!" cried
+the young lawyer for the defense. "Mr. Ames is to take the stand as an
+important witness in this case. If Madam Beaubien brings such a charge
+against him, it gives us reason to believe his honor peccable, and his
+testimony open to suspicion!"
+
+It was a daring statement, and the whole room gasped, and held its
+breath.
+
+"I object, Your Honor!" shouted the chief prosecutor, Ellis. "The
+lawyer for the defense is in contempt of court! Madam Beaubien has
+been shown to be a--"
+
+"The objection is sustained!" called the judge. "The charge is utterly
+irrelevant! Order in the court!"
+
+_"His first wife's portrait--is in a glass window--in his yacht!"_
+cried the hysterical Beaubien. Then she crumpled up in a limp mass,
+and was led from the chair half fainting.
+
+At the woman's shrill words a white-haired man, dressed in black,
+clerical garb, who had been sitting in the rear of the room close to
+the door, rose hastily, then slowly sat down again. At his feet
+reposed a satchel, bearing several foreign labels. Evidently he had
+but just arrived from distant lands.
+
+Consternation reigned throughout the room for a few minutes. Then
+Cass, believing that the psychological moment had arrived, loudly
+called Carmen Ariza to the stand. The dramatic play must be continued,
+now that it had begun. The battle which had raged back and forth for
+long, weary days, could be won, if at all, only by playing upon the
+emotions of the jury, for the evidence thus far given had resulted in
+showing not only the defense, but likewise the Beaubien, and all who
+had been associated with the Simiti company, including Cass himself,
+to be participators in gross, intentional fraud.
+
+The remaining witness, the girl herself, had been purposely neglected
+by the prosecution, for the great Ames had planned that she must be
+called by the defense. Then would he bring up the prostitute, Jude,
+and from her wring testimony which must blast forever the girl's
+already soiled name. Following her, he would himself take the stand,
+and tell of the girl's visits to his office; of her protestations of
+love for him; of her embracing him; and of a thousand indiscretions
+which he had carefully garnered and stored for this triumphant
+occasion.
+
+But the judge, visibly perturbed by the dramatic turn which the case
+seemed to be taking, studied his watch for a moment, then Ames's face,
+and then abruptly adjourned court until the following day. Yet not
+until Cass had been recognized, and the hounded girl summoned from her
+cell in the Tombs, to take the stand in the morning for--her life!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 17
+
+
+In the days to come, when the divine leaven which is in the world
+to-day shall have brought more of the carnal mind's iniquity to the
+surface, that the Sun of Truth may destroy the foul germs, there shall
+be old men and women, and they which, looking up from their work, peep
+and mutter of strange things long gone, who shall fall wonderingly
+silent when they have told again of the fair young girl who walked
+alone into the crowded court room that cold winter's morning. And
+their stories will vary with the telling, for no two might agree what
+manner of being it was that came into their midst that day.
+
+Even the bailiffs, as if moved by some strange prescience, had fallen
+back and allowed her to enter alone. The buzz of subdued chatter
+ceased, and a great silence came over all as they looked. Some swore,
+in awed whispers, when the dramatic day had ended, and judge and jury
+and wrangling lawyer had silently, and with bowed heads, gone quiet
+and thoughtful each to his home, that a nimbus encircled her beautiful
+head when she came through the door and faced the gaping multitude.
+Some said that her eyes were raised; that she saw not earthly things;
+and that a heavenly presence moved beside her. Nor may we lightly set
+aside these tales; for, after the curtain had fallen upon the
+wonderful scene about to be enacted, there was not one present who
+would deny that, as the girl came into the great room and went
+directly to the witness chair, God himself walked at her side and held
+her hand.
+
+"Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou
+dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou
+goest."
+
+Through the mind of that same white-haired man in the clerical garb
+ran these words as he watched the girl move silently across the room.
+She seemed to have taken on a new meaning to him since the previous
+day. And as he looked, his eyes grew moist, and he drew out his
+handkerchief.
+
+But his were not the only eyes that had filled then. Hitt and Haynerd
+bent their heads, that the people might not see; Miss Wall and the
+Beaubien wept silently, and with no attempt to stay their grief; Jude
+buried her head in her hands, and rocked back and forth, moaning
+softly. Why they wept, they knew not. A welter of conflicting emotions
+surged through their harassed souls. They seemed to have come now to
+the great crisis. And which way the tide would turn rested with this
+lone girl.
+
+For some moments after she was seated the silence remained unbroken.
+And as she sat there, waiting, she looked down at the man who sought
+to destroy what he might not possess. Some said afterward that as she
+looked at him she smiled. Who knows but that the Christ himself smiled
+down from the cross at those who had riven his great heart?
+
+But Ames did not meet her glance. Somehow he dared not. He was far
+from well that morning, and an ugly, murderous mood possessed him. And
+yet, judged by the world's standards, he had tipped the crest of
+success. He had conquered all. Men came and went at his slightest nod.
+His coffers lay bursting with their heavy treasure. He was swollen
+with wealth, with material power, with abnormal pride. His tender
+sensibilities and sympathies were happily completely ossified, and he
+was stone deaf and blind to the agonies of a suffering world. Not a
+single aim but had been realized; not a lone ambition but had been
+met. Even the armed camp at Avon, and the little wooden crosses over
+the fresh mounds there, all testified to his omnipotence; and in them,
+despite their horrors, he felt a satisfying sense of his own great
+might.
+
+The clerk held up the Bible for the girl to give her oath. She looked
+at him for a moment, and then smiled. "I will tell the truth," she
+said simply.
+
+The officer hesitated, and looked up at the judge. But the latter sat
+with his eyes fixed upon the girl. The clerk did not press the point;
+and Carmen was delivered into the hands of the lawyers.
+
+Cass hesitated. He knew not how to begin. Then, yielding to a sudden
+impulse, he asked the girl to mention briefly the place of her birth,
+her parentage, and other statistical data, leading up to her
+association with the defendant.
+
+The story that followed was simply given. It was but the one she had
+told again and again. Yet the room hung on her every word. And when
+she had concluded, Cass turned her back again to Simiti, and to
+Rosendo's share in the mining project which had ultimated in this
+suit.
+
+A far-away look came into the girl's eyes as she spoke of that great,
+black man who had taken her from desolate Badillo into his own warm
+heart. There were few dry eyes among the spectators when she told of
+his selfless love. And when she drew the portrait of him, standing
+alone in the cold mountain water, far up in the jungle of Guamoco,
+bending over the laden _batea_, and toiling day by day in those
+ghastly solitudes, that she might be protected and educated and raised
+above her primitive environment in Simiti, there were sobs heard
+throughout the room; and even the judge, hardened though he was by
+conflict with the human mind, removed his glasses and loudly cleared
+his throat as he wiped them.
+
+Ames first grew weary as he listened, and then exasperated. His lawyer
+at length rose to object to the recital on the ground that it was
+largely irrelevant to the case. And the judge, pulling himself
+together, sustained the objection. Cass sat down. Then the prosecution
+eagerly took up the cross-examination. Ames's hour had come.
+
+"Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may
+bring forth," murmured the white-haired man in the clerical garb far
+back in the crowded room. Had he learned the law of Truth to error,
+"Thou shall surely die"? Did he discern the vultures gnawing at the
+rich man's vitals? Did he, too, know that this giant of privilege, so
+insolently flaunting his fleeting power, his blood-stained wealth and
+his mortal pride, might as well seek to dim the sun in heaven as to
+escape the working of those infinite divine laws which shall effect
+the destruction of evil and the establishment of the kingdom of heaven
+even here upon earth?
+
+Ames leaned over to whisper to Hood. The latter drew Ellis down and
+transmitted his master's instructions. The atmosphere grew tense, and
+the hush of expectancy lay over all.
+
+"Miss Carmen," began Ellis easily, "your parentage has been a matter
+of some dispute, if I mistake not, and--"
+
+Cass was on his feet to object. What had this question to do with the
+issue?
+
+But the judge overruled the objection. That was what he was there for.
+Cass should have divined it by this time.
+
+"H'm!" Ellis cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses. "And your
+father, it is said, was a <DW64> priest. I believe that has been
+accepted for some time. A certain Diego, if I recall correctly."
+
+"I never knew my earthly father," replied Carmen in a low voice.
+
+"But you have admitted that it might have been this Diego, have you
+not?"
+
+"It might have been," returned the girl, looking off absently toward
+the high windows.
+
+"Did he not claim you as his daughter?" pursued the lawyer.
+
+"Yes," softly.
+
+"Now," continued Ellis, "that being reasonably settled, is it not also
+true that you used the claim of possessing this mine, La Libertad, as
+a pretext for admission to society here in New York?"
+
+The girl did not answer, but only smiled pityingly at him. He, too,
+had bartered his soul; and in her heart there rose a great sympathy
+for him in his awful mesmerism.
+
+"And that you claimed to be an Inca princess?" went on the merciless
+lawyer.
+
+"Answer!" admonished the judge, looking severely down upon the silent
+girl.
+
+Carmen sighed, and drew her gaze away from the windows. She was weary,
+oh, so weary of this unspeakable mockery. And yet she was there to
+prove her God.
+
+"I would like to ask this further question," Ellis resumed, without
+waiting for her reply. "Were you not at one time in a resort conducted
+by Madam Cazeau, down on--"
+
+He stopped short. The girl's eyes were looking straight into his, and
+they seemed to have pierced his soul. "I am sorry for you," she said
+gently, "oh, so sorry! Yes, I was once in that place."
+
+The man knew not whether to smile in triumph or hide his head in
+shame. He turned to Hood. But Hood would not look at him. Ames alone
+met his embarrassed glance, and sent back a command to continue the
+attack.
+
+Cass again rose and voiced his protest. What possible relation to the
+issue involved could such testimony have? But the judge bade him sit
+down, as the counsel for the prosecution doubtless was bringing out
+facts of greatest importance.
+
+Ellis again cleared his throat and bent to his loathsome task. "Now,
+Miss Ariza, in reference to your labors to incite the mill hands at
+Avon to deeds of violence, the public considers that as part of a
+consistent line of attack upon Mr. Ames, in which you were aiding
+others from whom you took your orders. May I ask you to cite the
+motives upon which you acted?"
+
+Cass sank back in abject despair. Ketchim was being forgotten!
+
+"We have not attacked Mr. Ames," she slowly replied, "but only the
+things he stands for. But you wouldn't understand."
+
+Ellis smiled superciliously. "A militant brand of social uplift, I
+suppose?"
+
+"No, Mr. Ellis, but just Christianity."
+
+"H'm. And that is the sort of remedy that anarchists apply to
+industrial troubles, is it not?"
+
+"There is no remedy for industrial troubles but Christianity," she
+said gently. "Not the burlesque Christianity of our countless sects
+and churches; not Roman Catholicism; not Protestantism; nor any of the
+fads and fancies of the human mind; but just the Christianity of Jesus
+of Nazareth, who knew that the human man was not God's image, but only
+stood for it in the mortal consciousness. And he always saw behind
+this counterfeit the real man, the true likeness of God. And--"
+
+"You are diverging from the subject proper and consuming time, Miss
+Ariza!" interrupted the judge sternly.
+
+Carmen did not heed him, but continued quietly:
+
+"And it was just such a man that Jesus portrayed in his daily walk and
+words."
+
+"Miss Ariza!" again commanded the judge.
+
+"No," the girl went calmly on, "Jesus did not stand for the
+intolerance, the ignorance, the bigotry, the hatred, and the human
+hypothesis, the fraud, and chicanery, and the 'Who shall be greatest?'
+of human institutions. Nor did he make evil a reality, as mortals do.
+He knew it seemed awfully real to the deceived human consciousness;
+but he told that consciousness to be not afraid. And then he went to
+work and drove out the belief of evil on the basis of its nothingness
+and its total lack of principle. The orthodox churches and sects of
+to-day do not do that. Oh, no! They strive for world dominion! Their
+kingdom is wholly temporal, and is upheld by heartless millionaires,
+and by warlike kings and emperors. Their tenets shame the intelligence
+of thinking men! Yet they have slain tens of millions to establish
+them!"
+
+What could the Court do? To remove the girl meant depriving Ames of
+his prey. But if she remained upon the stand, she would put them all
+to confusion, for they had no means of silencing her. The judge looked
+blankly at Ames; his hands were tied.
+
+Ellis hurried to change the current of her talk by interposing another
+question.
+
+"Will you tell us, Miss Carmen, why you have been working--"
+
+"I have been working for God," she interrupted. Her voice was low and
+steady, and her eyes shone with a light that men are not wont to see
+in those of their neighbors. "I have not been working for men. He
+alone is my employer. And for Him I am here to-day."
+
+Consternation was plainly discernible in the camp of the prosecution.
+Cass knew now that he need make no more objections. The defense had
+passed from his hands.
+
+At this juncture James Ketchim, brother of the defendant, thinking to
+relieve the strain and embarrassment, gave audible voice to one of his
+wonted witticisms. All turned to look at him. But the effect was not
+what he had anticipated. No one laughed.
+
+"Hold your tongue, Mr. Ketchim!" roared the exasperated judge, bending
+far over his desk. "You are just a smart little fool!" And the elder
+Ketchim retired in chagrin and confusion.
+
+"Miss Carmen," pursued Ellis, eager to recover his advantage, for he
+saw significant movements among the jury, "do you not think the
+unfortunate results at Avon quite prove that you have allied yourself
+with those who oppose the nation's industrial progress?"
+
+Carmen sat silent. Order had now been restored in the court room, and
+Ellis was feeling sure of himself again.
+
+"You have opposed the constructive development of our country's
+resources by your assaults upon men of wealth, like Mr. Ames, for
+example, have you not?"
+
+Then the girl opened her mouth, and from it came words that fell upon
+the room like masses of lead. "I stand opposed to any man, Mr. Ellis,
+who, to enrich himself, and for the purpose of revenge, spreads the
+boll weevil in the cotton fields of the South."
+
+Dull silence descended upon the place. And yet it was a silence that
+fell crashing upon Ames's straining ears. He sat for a moment stunned;
+then sprang to his feet. All eyes were turned upon him. He held out a
+hand, and made as if to speak; then sank again into his chair.
+
+Ellis stood as if petrified. Then Hood rose and whispered to him.
+Ellis collected himself, and turned to the judge.
+
+"Your Honor, we regret to state that, from the replies which Miss
+Ariza has given, we do not consider her mentally competent as a
+witness. We therefore dismiss her."
+
+But Cass had leaped to the floor. "Your Honor!" he cried. "I should
+like to examine the witness further!"
+
+"She is dismissed!" returned the judge, glowering over his spectacles
+at the young lawyer.
+
+"I stand on--"
+
+"Sit down!" the judge bellowed.
+
+"Miss Carmen!" called Cass through the rising tumult, "the lawyer for
+the prosecution has heaped insults upon you in his low references to
+your parentage. Will you--"
+
+The judge pounded upon his desk with the remnant of his broken gavel.
+Then he summoned the bailiffs.
+
+"I shall order the room cleared!" he called in a loud, threatening
+voice.
+
+The murmur subsided. The judge sat down and mopped his steaming face.
+Hood and Ellis bent in whispered consultation. Ames was a study of
+wild, infuriated passion. Cass stood defiantly before the bar. Carmen
+sat quietly facing the crowded room. She had reached up and was
+fondling the little locket which hung at her throat. It was the first
+time she had ever worn it. It was not a pretty piece of jewelry; and
+it had never occurred to her to wear it until that day. Nor would she
+have thought of it then, had not the Beaubien brought it to the Tombs
+the night before in a little box with some papers which the girl had
+called for. Why she had put it on, she could not say.
+
+Slowly, while the silence continued unbroken, the girl drew the
+slender chain around in front of her and unclasped it.
+
+"I--I never--knew my parents," she murmured musingly, looking down
+lovingly at the little locket. Then she opened it and sat gazing, rapt
+and absorbed, at the two little portraits within. "But there are their
+pictures," she suddenly announced, holding the locket out to Cass.
+
+It was said afterward that never in the history of legal procedure in
+New York had that court room held such dead silence as when Cass stood
+bending over the faces of the girl's earthly parents, portrayed in the
+strange little locket which Rosendo had taken from Badillo years
+before. Never had it known such a tense moment; never had the very air
+itself seemed so filled with a mighty, unseen presence, as on that day
+and in that crisal hour.
+
+Without speaking, Hood rose and looked over Cass's shoulder at the
+locket. A muffled cry escaped him, and he turned and stared at Ames.
+The judge bent shaking over his desk.
+
+"Mr. Hood!" he exclaimed. "Have you ever seen those pictures before?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Hood in a voice that was scarcely heard.
+
+"Where, sir?"
+
+Hood seemed to have frozen to the spot. His hands shook, and his words
+gibbered from his trembling lips.
+
+"The--the woman's portrait, sir--is--is--the one in--in Mr. Ames's
+yacht!"
+
+_"My God!"_
+
+The piercing cry rang through the still room like a lost soul's
+despairing wail. Ames had rushed from his seat, overturning his chair,
+thrusting the lawyers aside, and seized the locket. For a moment he
+peered wildly into it. It seemed as if his eyes would devour it,
+absorb it, push themselves clean through it, in their eagerness to
+grasp its meaning.
+
+Then he looked up. His eyes were red; his face ashen; his lips white.
+His unsteady glance met the girl's. His mouth opened, and flapped like
+a broken shutter in the wind. His arms swung wildly upward; then
+dropped heavily. Suddenly he bent to one side; caught himself;
+straightened up; and then, with a horrifying, gurgling moan, crashed
+to the floor. The noise of the tremendous fall reverberated through
+the great room like an echo of Satan's plunge into the pit of hell.
+
+Pandemonium broke upon the scene. Wild confusion seized the excited
+spectators. They rushed forward in a mass, over railings, over chairs
+and tables, heedless of all but the great mystery that was slowly
+clearing away in the dim light that winter's morning. Through them the
+white-haired man, clad in clerical vestments, elbowed his way to the
+bar.
+
+"Let me see the locket!" he cried. "Let me see it!"
+
+He tore it from Hood's hand and scanned it eagerly. Then he nodded his
+head. "The same! The very same!" he murmured, trembling with
+excitement. Then, shouting to the judge above the hubbub:
+
+"Your Honor! I can throw some light upon this case!"
+
+The crowd fell back.
+
+"Who are you?" called the judge in a loud, quavering voice.
+
+"I am Monsignor Lafelle. I have just returned from Europe. The woman's
+portrait in this little locket is that of Dona Dolores, Infanta,
+daughter of Queen Isabella the Second, of Spain! And this girl,"
+pointing to the bewildered Carmen, who sat clinging to the arms of her
+chair, "is her child, and is a princess of the royal blood! Her father
+is the man who lies there--J. Wilton Ames!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 18
+
+
+Borne on pulsing electric waves, the news of the great _denouement_
+flashed over the city, and across a startled continent. Beneath the
+seas it sped, and into court and hovel. Madrid gasped; Seville panted;
+and old Padre Rafael de Rincon raised his hoary head and cackled
+shrilly.
+
+To the seething court room came flying reporters and news gatherers,
+who threw themselves despairingly against the closed portals. Within,
+the bailiffs fought with the excited crowd, and held the doors against
+the panic without.
+
+Over the prostrate form of Ames the physicians worked with feverish
+energy, but shook their heads.
+
+In the adjoining ante-room, whither she had been half carried, half
+dragged by Hitt when Ames fell, sat Carmen, clasped in the Beaubien's
+arms, stunned, bewildered, and speechless. Hitt stood guard at the
+door; and Miss Wall and Jude tiptoed about with bated breath, unable
+to take their eyes from the girl.
+
+In the court room without, Haynerd held the little locket, and plied
+Monsignor Lafelle with his incoherent questions. The excited editor's
+brain was afire; but of one thing he was well assured, the Express
+would bring out an extra that night that would scoop its rivals clean
+to the bone!
+
+In a few minutes the bailiffs fought the mob back from the doors and
+admitted a man, a photographer, who had been sent out to procure
+chemicals in the hope that the portrait of the man in the locket might
+be cleaned. Ten minutes later the features of J. Wilton Ames stood
+forth clearly beside those of the wife of his youth. The picture
+showed him younger in appearance, to be sure, but the likeness was
+unmistakable.
+
+"Lord! Lord! Monsignor, but you are slow! Come to the point quickly!
+We must go to press within an hour!" wailed Haynerd, shaking the
+churchman's arm in his excitement.
+
+"But, what more?" cried Lafelle. "I saw the portrait in the Royal
+Gallery, years ago, in Madrid. It impressed me. I could not forget the
+sad, sweet face. I saw it again in the stained-glass window in the
+Ames yacht. I became suspicious. I inquired when I returned to Spain.
+There was much whispering, much shaking of heads, but little
+information. But this I know: the queen, the great Isabella, had a
+lover, a wonderful tenor, Marfori, Marquis de Loja. And one day a babe
+was taken quietly to a little cottage in the Granada hills. Rumor said
+that it was an Infanta, and that the tenor was its father. Who knew?
+One man, perhaps: old Rafael de Rincon. But Rome suddenly recalled
+him from Isabella's court, and after that he was very quiet."
+
+"But, Ames?" persisted Haynerd.
+
+Lafelle shrugged his shoulders. "Mr. Ames," he said, "traveled much in
+Europe. He went often to Spain. He bought a vineyard in Granada--the
+one from which he still procures his wine. And there--who knows?--he
+met the Infanta. But probably neither he nor she guessed her royal
+birth."
+
+"Well! Good Lord! Then--?"
+
+"Well, they eloped--who knows? Whether married or not, I can not say.
+But it is evident she went with him to Colombia, where, perhaps, he
+was seeking a concession from Congress in Bogota. So far, so good.
+Then came the news of his father's sudden death. He hastened out of
+the country. Possibly he bade her wait for his return. But a
+prospective mother is often excitable. She waited a day, a week--who
+knows how long? And then she set out to follow him. Alas! she was wild
+to do such a thing. And it cost her life. She died at the little
+riverine town of Badillo, after her babe, Carmen, was born. Is it not
+plausible?"
+
+"God above!" cried Haynerd. "And the girl's wonderful voice?"
+
+"A heritage from her grandfather, the tenor, Marfori," Lafelle
+suggested.
+
+"But--the portraits--what is the name under that of Ames? Guillermo?
+That is not his!"
+
+"Yes, for Guillermo in Spanish is William. Doubtless Ames told her his
+name was Will, contracted from Wilton, the name he went by in his
+youth. And the nearest the Spanish could come to it was Guillermo.
+Diego's name was Guillermo Diego Polo. And after he had seen that name
+in the locket he used it as a further means of strengthening his claim
+upon the girl."
+
+"Then--she is--a--princess!"
+
+"Yes, doubtless, if my reasoning is correct. Not an Inca princess, but
+a princess of the reigning house of Spain."
+
+Haynerd could hold himself no longer, but rushed madly from the room
+and tore across town to the office of the Express.
+
+Then came the white-enameled ambulance, dashing and careening to the
+doors of the building where Ames lay so quiet. Gently, silently, the
+great body was lifted and borne below. And then the chattering,
+gesticulating mob poured from the court room, from the halls and
+corridors, and out into the chill sunlight of the streets, where they
+formed anew into little groups, and went over again the dramatic
+events but a few minutes past.
+
+Then, too, emerged Carmen, heavily veiled from the curious, vulgar
+gaze of the rabble, and entered the waiting limousine, with the
+Beaubien and Hitt. Miss Wall and the gasping Jude followed in another.
+The judge had bidden the girl go on her own recognizance. The arrest
+at Avon; the matter of bail; all had merged into the excitement of the
+hour and been forgotten. Ketchim went out on Cass's arm. The judge had
+ordered the clerk to enter an adjournment.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+All that afternoon and far into the night a gaping, wondering
+concourse braved the cold and stood about the walk that led up to the
+little Beaubien cottage. Within, the curtains were drawn, and Sidney,
+Jude, and Miss Wall answered the calls that came incessantly over the
+telephone and to the doors. Sidney had not been in the court room, for
+Haynerd had left him at the editor's desk in his own absence. But with
+the return of Haynerd the lad had hurried into a taxicab and commanded
+the chauffeur to drive madly to the Beaubien home. And once through
+the door, he clasped the beautiful girl in his arms and strained her
+to his breast.
+
+"My sister!" he cried. "My own, my very own little sister! We only
+pretended before, didn't we? But now--now, oh, God above! you really
+are my sister!"
+
+The scarce comprehending girl drew his head down and kissed him.
+"Sidney," she murmured, "the ways of God are past finding out!"
+
+Aye, for again, as of old, He had chosen the foolish things of the
+world to confound the wise; He had chosen the weak to confound the
+mighty; and the base things, and the things despised, had He used to
+bring to naught the things that are. And why? That no flesh might
+glory in His terrible presence!
+
+"Carmen!" cried the excited boy. "Think what this means to our book!"
+
+The girl smiled up at him; then turned away. "My father!" she
+murmured. "He--my father!" she kept repeating, groping her way about
+the room as if in a haze. "He! It can't be! It can't!"
+
+The still dazed Beaubien drew the girl into her arms. "My little
+princess!" she whispered. "Oh! But who would have dreamed it! Yet I
+called you that from the very first. But--oh, Carmen! And he--that
+man--your father!"
+
+"Don't! Mother, don't! It--it isn't proved. It--"
+
+Then the Beaubien's heart almost stopped. What if it were true? What,
+then, would this sudden turn in the girl's life mean to the lone woman
+who clung to her so?
+
+"No, mother dearest," whispered Carmen, looking up through her tears.
+"For even if it should be true, I will not leave you. He--he--"
+
+She stopped; and would speak of him no more.
+
+But neither of them knew as yet that in that marvelous Fifth Avenue
+palace, behind those drawn curtains and guarded bronze doors, at which
+an eager crowd stood staring, Ames, the superman, lay dying, his left
+side, from the shoulder down, paralyzed.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the holy quiet of the first hours of morning, the mist rose, and
+the fallen man roused slowly out of his deep stupor. And then through
+the dim-lit halls of the great mansion rang a piercing cry. For when
+he awoke, the curtain stood raised upon his life; and the sight of its
+ghastly content struck wild terror to his naked soul.
+
+He had dreamed as he lay there, dreamed while the mist was rising. He
+thought he had been toiling with feverish energy through those black
+hours, building a wall about the things that were his. And into the
+design of the huge structure he had fitted the trophies of his
+conquest. Gannette toiled with him, straining, sweating, groaning.
+Together they reared that monstrous wall; and as they labored, the man
+plotted the death of his companion when the work should be done, lest
+he ask for pay. And into the corners of the wall they fitted little
+skulls. These were the children of Avon who had never played. And over
+the great stones which they heaved into place they sketched red
+dollar-marks; and their paint was human blood. A soft wind swept over
+the rising structure, and it bore a gentle voice: "I am Love." But the
+toilers looked up and cursed. "Let us alone!" they cried. "Love is
+weakness!" And over the rim of the wall looked fair faces. "We are
+Truth, we are Life!" But the men frothed with fury, and hurled skulls
+at the faces, and bade them begone! A youth and a tender girl looked
+down at the sweating toilers. "We ask help; we are young, and times
+are so hard!" But the great man pointed to himself. "Look at me!" he
+cried. "I need no help! Begone!" And then the darkness settled down,
+for the wall was now so high that it shut out the sun. And the great
+man howled with laughter; the wall was done. So he turned and smote
+his companion unto death, and dipped his hands in the warm blood of
+the quivering corpse.
+
+But the darkness was heavy. The man grew lonely. And then he sought to
+mount the wall. But his hands slipped on the human blood of the red,
+slimy dollar-marks, and he fell crashing back among his tinkling
+treasures. He rose, and tried again. The naked, splitting skulls
+leered at him. The toothless jaws clattered, and the eyeless sockets
+glowed eerily. The man raised his voice. He begged that a rope be
+lowered. He would go out once more into the sunlit world. But the
+chill wind brought him only despairing moans.
+
+Then he rushed madly to the wall, and smote it with his bare hands. It
+mocked him with the strength which he had given it. He turned and tore
+his hair and flesh. He gnashed his teeth until they broke into bits.
+He cursed; he raved; he pleaded; he offered all his great treasure for
+freedom. But the skulls grinned their horrid mockery at him; and the
+blood on the stones dripped upon his burning head. And above it all he
+heard the low plotting of those without who were awaiting his death,
+that they might throw down the wall and take away his treasure.
+
+And then his fear became frenzy; his love of gold turned to horror;
+his reason fled; and he dashed himself wildly against the prison which
+he had reared, until he fell, bleeding and broken. And as he fell, he
+heard the shrill cackle of demons that danced their hellish steps on
+the top of the wall. Then the Furies flew down and bound him tight.
+
+  "Ah, my God, What might I not have made of Thy fair world Had I
+  but loved Thy highest creature here? It was my duty to have loved
+  the highest; It surely was my profit had I known."
+
+He awoke from his terror, dripping. He feebly lifted his head. Then he
+sought to raise his arms, to move. He was alive! And then the scream
+tore from his dry throat. His great body was half dead!
+
+The attendants flew to his couch. The physicians bent over him and
+sought to soothe his mental agony. The man's torture was fearful to
+behold; his weakness, pitiable. He sank again into somnolence. But the
+sleep was one of unbroken horror; and those in the room stopped in the
+course of their duties; and their faces blanched; and they held their
+hands to their ears, when his awful moans echoed through the curtained
+room.
+
+Through his dreams raced the endless panorama of his crowded life. Now
+he was wading through muddy slums where stood the wretched houses
+which he rented for immoral purposes. He was madly searching for
+something. What could it be? Ah, yes, his girl! Some one had said she
+was there. Who was it? Aye, who but himself? But he found her not. And
+he wept bitterly.
+
+And then he hurried to Avon; and there he dug into those fresh
+graves--dug, dug, dug, throwing the dirt up in great heaps behind him.
+And into the face of each corpse as he dragged it out of its damp bed
+he peered eagerly. But with awful moans he threw them from him in
+turn, for she was not there.
+
+Then he fled down, down, far into the burning South; and there he
+roamed the trackless wastes, calling her name. And the wild beasts and
+the hissing serpents looked out at him from the thick bush, looked
+with great, red eyes, and then fled from him with loathing. And,
+suddenly, he came upon another mound near the banks of a great river.
+And over it stood a rude cross; and on the cross he read the dim,
+penciled word, _Dolores_. Ah, God! how he cried out for the oblivion
+that was not his. But the ghastly mound froze his blood, and he rushed
+from it in terror, and fell, whirling over and over, down, down into
+eternal blackness filled with dying men's groans!
+
+The awful day drew to a close. The exhausted attendants stood about
+the bed with bated breath. The physicians had called Doctor Morton in
+consultation, for the latter was a brain specialist. And while they
+sat gazing at the crazed, stricken giant, hopelessly struggling to
+lift the inert mass of his dead body, Reverend Darius Borwell entered.
+He bowed silently to them all; then went to the bedside and took the
+patient's hand. A moment later he turned to the physicians and
+nurses.
+
+"Let us ask God's help for Mr. Ames," he said gravely.
+
+They bowed, and he knelt beside the bed and prayed long and earnestly;
+prayed that the loving Father who had made man in His image would take
+pity on the suffering one who lay there, and, if it be His will, spare
+him for Jesus' sake.
+
+He arose from his knees, and they all sat quiet for some moments. Then
+Doctor Morton's heavy voice broke the silence of death. "Mr. Borwell,"
+he said in awful earnestness, extending his hand toward the bed, "cure
+that man, if your religion is anything more than a name!"
+
+A hot flush of indignation spread over the minister's face; but he did
+not reply. Doctor Morton turned to the physicians.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said solemnly, "Mr. Ames, I think, is past our aid.
+There is nothing on earth that can save him. If he lives, he will be
+hopelessly insane." He hesitated, and turned to a maid. "Where is his
+daughter Kathleen?" he asked.
+
+"Upstairs, sir, in her apartments," answered the maid, wiping her red
+eyes.
+
+"See that she remains there," said the doctor gruffly. "Gentlemen,"
+turning again to the physicians, "I have but one suggestion. Send
+for--for--that little girl, Carmen."
+
+"It is ill-advised, Doctor," interrupted one of the men. "It would
+only further excite him. It might hasten the end."
+
+"I do not agree with you," returned Doctor Morton. "As it is, he is
+doomed. With her here--there may be a chance."
+
+The others shook their heads; but Doctor Morton persisted stubbornly.
+Finally Doctor Haley gave his ultimatum. "If she is sent for, I shall
+retire from the case."
+
+"Very well," announced Doctor Morton evenly, "then I will take it
+myself." He rose and went out into the vestibule where there was a
+telephone. Calling for the Beaubien cottage, he gave a peremptory
+order that Carmen come at once in the automobile which he was sending
+for her.
+
+The Beaubien turned from the telephone to the girl. Her face was
+deathly pale.
+
+"What is it, mother dearest?"
+
+"They--they want--you!"
+
+"Why--is it--is he--"
+
+"They say he is--dying," the woman whispered.
+
+Carmen stood for a minute as if stunned. "Why--I--didn't know--that
+there was--anything wrong. Mother, you didn't tell me! Why?"
+
+The Beaubien threw her arms around the girl. Father Waite rose from
+the table where he had been writing, and came to them.
+
+"Go," he said to Carmen. "The Lord is with thee! Go in this thy
+might!"
+
+A few minutes later the great bronze doors of the Ames mansion swung
+wide to admit the daughter of the house.
+
+Doctor Morton met the wondering girl, and led her directly into the
+sick-room. The other physicians had departed.
+
+"Miss Carmen," he said gravely, "Mr. Ames is past earthly help. He can
+not live."
+
+The girl turned upon him like a flash from a clear sky. "You mean, he
+_shall_ not live!" she cried. "For you doctors have sentenced him!"
+
+The startled man bowed before the rebuke. Then a sense of her
+magnificent environment, of her strange position, and of the vivid
+events of the past few hours swept over her, and she became
+embarrassed. The nurses and attendants, too, who stood about and
+stared so hard at her, added to her confusion.
+
+But the doctor took her hand. "Listen," he said, "I am leaving now,
+but you will remain. If I am needed, one of the maids will summon
+me."
+
+Carmen stood for a moment without speaking. Then she walked slowly to
+the bed and looked down at the man. Doctor Morton motioned to the
+attendants to withdraw. Then he himself stepped softly out and closed
+the door. When the girl turned around, she was alone--with death.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 19
+
+
+A curious, gossiping world, dwelling only in the froth of the human
+mind, will not comprehend for many a year to come what took place in
+that dim, tapestried chamber of the rich man in those next hours. When
+twilight began to steal through the marble halls of the great,
+shrouded mansion, the nurse in charge, becoming apprehensive, softly
+opened the door of the sick-room and peeped in. Through the darkness
+she saw the girl, sitting beside the bed, with the man's right hand
+clasped in both of hers, and her head resting upon his shoulder. And
+the nurse quickly closed the door again in awe, and stole away.
+
+The girl sat there all that day and all that night, nor would leave
+but for brief moments to eat, or to reassure the Beaubien over the
+telephone that all was well. Doctor Morton came, and went, and came
+again. Carmen smiled, and held his hand for a moment each time, but
+said little. Ames had slept. And, more, his cheeks were stained where
+the scalding tears had coursed down them. But the doctor would ask no
+questions. He was satisfied. The nurses entered only when summoned.
+And three days and nights passed thus, while Carmen dwelt with the man
+who, as the incarnation of error, seeking the destruction of others,
+had destroyed himself.
+
+Then Doctor Morton announced to a waiting world that his patient would
+live--but he would say no more. And the world heard, too, that
+Kathleen Ames had left her father's roof--left in humiliation and
+chagrin when she learned that Carmen had come there to live--and had
+gone to England for a prolonged visit with the Dowager Duchess of
+Altern and her now thoroughly dismayed son. But Sidney came; and with
+him the black-veiled Beaubien. And they both knelt beside the bed of
+suffering; and the hand of the now quiet man slowly went out and lay
+for a moment upon their bowed heads, while Carmen stood near. Then
+Willett was sent for; and he came often after that, and took his
+master's scarce audible instructions, and went away again to touch the
+wires and keys that ended the war of hatred at Avon; that brought
+Father Danny in the master's private car to the great metropolitan
+hospital; that sent to the startled Hitt the canceled mortgage papers
+on the Express; and that inaugurated that great work of restitution
+which held the dwellers in the Ames mansion toiling over musty books
+and forgotten records for months to come.
+
+What had passed between the man and the sweet-faced girl who hovered
+over him like a ray of light, no one may know. That he had trod the
+glowing embers of hell, his cavernous, deep-lined face and whitening
+hair well testified. It was said afterward that on that third day he
+had opened his eyes and looked straight into those of the girl. It was
+said that she then whispered but one word, "Father." And that, when
+the sound of her low voice fell upon his straining ears, he had
+reached out the arm that still held life, and had drawn her head down
+upon his breast, and wept like a motherless babe. But what he had
+said, if aught, about the abandoned mother who, on the banks of the
+distant river, years gone, had yielded her life to him and his child,
+no one knew. Of but one thing was there any certainty: the name of
+Padre Jose de Rincon had not crossed their lips during those dark
+days.
+
+And so two weeks passed. Then strong men lifted the giant from his bed
+and placed him in a wheel chair; and Carmen drew the chair out into
+the conservatory, among the ferns and flowers, and sat beside him, his
+hand still clasped in both of hers. That he had found life, no one who
+marked his tense, eager look, which in every waking moment lay upon
+the girl, could deny. His body was dead; his soul was fluttering
+feebly into a new sense of being.
+
+But with the awakening of conscience, in the birth-throes of a new
+life, came the horrors, the tortures, the wild frenzy of self-loathing;
+and, but for the girl who clung so desperately to him, he would have
+quickly ended his useless existence. What had he done! God! What mad
+work had he done! He was a murderer of helpless babes! He was the
+blackest of criminals! The stage upon which the curtain had risen,
+whereon he saw the hourly portrayal of his own fiendish deeds, stood
+always before him like a haunting spectre; and as he gazed with
+horrified eyes, his hair grew hourly white.
+
+And the torture was rendered more poignant by the demands of his
+erstwhile associates and henchmen. They had taken fright at the first
+orders which had issued from the sick-bed, but now they swooped down
+upon the harassed man to learn what might be expected from him in the
+future. What were to be his policies now in regard to those manifold
+interests which he was pursuing with such vigor a few weeks ago? Was
+he still bent upon depriving Senator Gossitch of the seat which the
+Ames money had purchased? Was the Ketchim prosecution to continue? The
+Amalgamated Spinners' Association must know at once his further plans.
+The Budget needed money and advice. His great railroad projects, his
+mining ventures, his cotton deals, his speculations and gambling
+schemes--whither should they tend now? Ward bosses, dive keepers,
+bank presidents, lawyers, magnates, and preachers clamored for
+admission at his doors when they learned that he would live, but that
+a marvelous, incomprehensible change had swept over him.
+
+The tired, hectored man turned to Carmen. And she called Hitt and
+Waite and the keen-minded Beaubien. The latter's wide business
+experience and worldly knowledge now stood them all in good stead, and
+she threw herself like a bulwark between the stricken man and the
+hounds that roared at his gates. There were those among them who, like
+Ames, had bitterly fought all efforts at industrial and social reform,
+and yet who saw the dawning of a new era in the realms of finance, of
+politics, of religion. There were those who sensed the slow awakening
+of the world-conscience, and who resisted it desperately, and who now
+sat frightened and angered at the thought of losing their great
+leader. Their attitude toward life, like his, had been wrong from the
+beginning; they, like him, were striking examples of the dire effects
+of a false viewpoint in the impoverishing of human life. But, with
+him, they had built up a tremendous material fabric. And now they
+shook with fear as they saw its chief support removed. For they must
+know that his was a type that was fast passing, and after it must come
+the complete breakdown of the old financial order. His world-embracing
+gambling--which touched all men in some way, for it had to do with the
+very necessities of life, with crops, with railroads, with industries,
+and out of which he had coined untold millions--had ceased forever.
+What did it portend to them?
+
+And to him also came Reverend Darius Borwell, in whose congregation
+sat sanctimonious malefactors of vast wealth, whose pockets bulged
+with disease-laden profits from the sales of women's bodies and souls.
+Reverend Borwell came to offer the sufferer the dubious consolations
+of religion--and inquire if his beautiful change of heart would affect
+the benefaction which he had designed for the new church.
+
+Ah, this was the hour when the fallen giant faced the Apostle's awful
+question: What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now
+ashamed? _For the end of those things is death!_
+
+And then came Monsignor Lafelle, asking not to see the sick man, but
+the girl. And, alone with her in the great library that day, he bent
+low over her hand and begged that she would forgive and forget. It was
+he who told Mrs. Ames that flagrantly false tale of the girl's
+parentage. He had received it from Wenceslas, in Cartagena. It was he
+who, surmising the dark secret of Ames, had concluded that the
+supposed Infanta had been his wife. And he had returned to New York
+to confront him with the charge, and to make great capital out of it.
+But he had never suspected for a moment Carmen's connection with the
+mystery. And now--
+
+But the girl saw only the image of God in the humiliated man. And when
+he kissed her hand and departed, she bade him know, always, that she
+loved him as a brother. And he knew it, knew that her love was of the
+spirit--it left all for the Christ.
+
+A few days later there was delivered at the Ames mansion a cable
+message from Cartagena, in reply to one which the master had sent to
+the lawyer, Estrella. Ames shook with suppressed excitement when he
+read it. Then he bade Carmen send at once for Hitt, Willett, and
+Captain McCall, and leave them with him for a private conference.
+
+"She must not know! She must not know!" Ames repeated, as the three
+men sat leaning eagerly forward an hour later, drinking in every word
+he spoke. "If the mission is successful, well and good. If it fails,
+then our silence now will be justified, for as yet I have said nothing
+to her regarding him. Peace is being concluded there. Wenceslas has
+won--but with--but of that later. When can you get under way,
+McCall?"
+
+"To-night, sir. The bunkers are full."
+
+"Very good. I will go aboard at ten. You will weigh anchor immediately."
+
+"What?" cried Hitt. "You will go?"
+
+"I will!" The sudden flash of his old-time energy nearly startled them
+from their chairs. "And," he added, "you, Mr. Hitt, will accompany us.
+Now, Willett, have the door of my limousine widened to accommodate
+this wheel chair. I want a dozen men to insure our privacy, and to
+keep the way clear. No one not in our confidence must see us depart."
+
+Hitt gasped. "But--Carmen--"
+
+"Goes with us," returned Ames. "I can not spare her for a moment.
+Madam Beaubien will have charge of the house during our absence. We
+will be back here, weather favorable, in three weeks--or not at all!"
+
+"Yet, she will know--"
+
+"Nothing. I take the trip, ostensibly, for the change; to get away
+from those who are hounding me here; for recuperation--anything! Go,
+now, and make ready!" The man's eyes glistened like live coals, and
+his sunken cheeks took on a feverish glow.
+
+That night the _Cossack_, enveloped in gloom, steamed noiselessly out
+of New York harbor, and turned her prow to the South. And when she
+had entered the high sea, Captain McCall from his bridge aloft sent a
+message down to the waiting engineer:
+
+"Full speed ahead!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 20
+
+
+Cartagena's slumber of centuries had been broken by nearly four years
+of civil warfare. But on the day that the lookout in the abandoned
+convent of Santa Candelaria, on the summit of La Popa, flashed the
+message down into the old city that a steam yacht had appeared on the
+northern horizon, she was preparing to sink back again into quiet
+dreams. For peace was being concluded among the warring political
+factions. The country lay devastated and blood-soaked; but the cause
+of Christ had triumphed, and the Church still sat supreme in the
+councils of Bogota. Cartagena was _en fete_; the last of the political
+agitators would be executed on the morrow. And so the lookout's
+message was received with indifference, even though he embellished it
+with the comment that the boat must be privately owned, as no ships of
+the regular lines were due to arrive that day.
+
+Quietly the graceful craft swept down past Tierra Bomba and into the
+Boca Chica, between the ancient forts of San Fernando and San Jose,
+and came to anchor out in the beautiful harbor, a half mile from the
+ancient gate of the clock. A few curious idlers along the shore
+watched it and commented on its perfect lines. And the numerous
+officials of the port lazily craned their necks at it, and yawningly
+awaited the arrival of the skiff that was immediately lowered and
+headed for the pier.
+
+The tall American who stepped from the little boat and came at once to
+them to show his papers, easily satisfied their curiosity, for many
+tourists of the millionaire class dropped anchor in Cartagena's
+wonderful harbor, and came ashore to wander among the decaying
+mementos of her glorious past. And this boat was not a stranger to
+these waters. On the yacht itself, as they glanced again toward it,
+there was no sign of life. Even the diminishing volume of smoke that
+rose from its funnels evidenced the owner's intention of spending some
+time in that romantic spot.
+
+From the dock, Hitt passed through the old gateway in the massive
+wall, quickly crossed the _Plaza de Coches_, and lost himself in the
+gay throngs that were entering upon the day's festivities.
+Occasionally he dropped into wine shops and little stores, and
+lingered about to catch stray bits of gossip. Then he slowly made his
+way up past the Cathedral and into the _Plaza de Simon Bolivar_.
+
+For a while, sitting on a bench in front of the equestrian statue of
+the famous _Libertador_, he watched the passing crowds. From time to
+time his glance strayed over toward the Cathedral. Once he rose, and
+started in that direction; then came back and resumed his seat. It was
+evident that he was driven hard, and yet knew not just what course to
+pursue.
+
+Finally he jumped to his feet and went over to a little cigar store
+which had caught his eye. He bent over the soiled glass case and
+selected several cigars from the shabby stock. Putting one of them
+into his mouth, he lighted it, and then casually nodded to a
+powerfully built man standing near.
+
+The latter turned to the proprietor and made some comment in Spanish.
+Hitt immediately replied to it in the same tongue. The man flushed
+with embarrassment; then doffed his hat and offered an apology. "I
+forget, senor," he said, "that so many Americans speak our language."
+
+Hitt held out his hand and laughed heartily at the incident. Then his
+eye was attracted by a chain which the man wore.
+
+"May I examine it?" he asked, bending toward it.
+
+"_Cierto_, _senor_," returned the man cordially. "It came from an
+Indian grave up in Guamoco. I am a _guaquero_--grave digger--by
+profession; Jorge Costal, by name."
+
+Hitt glanced up at the man. Somehow he seemed to be familiar with that
+name. Somewhere he seemed to have heard it. But on whose lips?
+Carmen's? "Suppose," he said, in his excellent Spanish, "that we cross
+the _Plaza_ to yonder wine shop. You may be able to tell me some of
+the history of this interesting old town. And--it would be a great
+favor, senor."
+
+The man bowed courteously and accepted the invitation. A few moments
+later they sat at a little table, with a bottle between them,
+commenting on the animated scene in the street without.
+
+"Peace will be concluded to-day, they say," reflected Hitt, by way of
+introduction.
+
+"Yes," returned the man grimly, "there is but little more blood to
+let. That flows to-morrow."
+
+"Political agitators?" Hitt suggested.
+
+The man's face darkened. "Only one," he muttered. "The other is--"
+
+He stopped and eyed Hitt furtively. But the American manifested only a
+casual interest.
+
+"Their names?" he asked nonchalantly.
+
+"They were posted this morning," said the man. "Amado Jesus Fanor and
+Jose de Rincon."
+
+Hitt started, but held himself. "Who--who are they?" he asked in a
+controlled voice.
+
+"A liberal general and an ex-priest."
+
+"Ex-priest?" exclaimed Hitt.
+
+The man looked at him wonderingly. "Yes, senor. Why?"
+
+"Oh, nothing--nothing. It is the custom to--to shoot ex-priests down
+here, eh?"
+
+"_Caramba!_ No! But this man--senor, why do you ask?"
+
+"Well--it struck me as curious--that's all," returned Hitt, at a loss
+for a suitable answer. "You didn't happen to know these men, I
+presume?"
+
+"_Na_, _senor_, you seek to involve me. Who are you, that you ask such
+questions of a stranger?" The man reflected the suspicious caution of
+these troublous times.
+
+"Why, _amigo_, it is of no concern to me," replied Hitt easily,
+flicking the ashes from his cigar. "I once knew a fellow by that name.
+Met him here years ago. Learned that he afterward went to Simiti. But
+I--"
+
+"Senor!" cried the man, starting up. "Are you the _Americano_, the man
+who explored?"
+
+"I am," said Hitt, bending closer to him. "And we are well met, for
+you are Don Jorge, who knew Padre Jose de Rincon in Simiti, no?"
+
+The man cast a timid glance around the room. "Senor," he whispered,
+"we must not say these things here! I leave you now--"
+
+"Not yet!" Hitt laid a hand upon his. "Where is he?" he demanded in a
+low voice.
+
+"In San Fernando, senor."
+
+"And how long?"
+
+"A year, I think. He was first three years in the prison in Cartagena.
+But the Bish--"
+
+"Eh? Don Wenceslas had him removed to San Fernando?"
+
+The man nodded.
+
+"And--"
+
+"He will be shot to-morrow, senor."
+
+Hitt thought with desperate rapidity. Then he looked up. "Why do you
+say he is an ex-priest?" he asked.
+
+"He has just been excommunicated," replied the man. "Cursed, they say,
+by bell, book, and candle."
+
+"Good heavens! That he might be shot? Ah, I see it all! Ames's
+message! Of course Don Wenceslas would not dare to execute a priest in
+good standing. And so he had him excommunicated, eh?"
+
+Don Jorge shrugged his shoulders. "_Quien sabe?_" he muttered.
+
+Hitt sat for a while in a deep study. Time was precious. And yet it
+was flying like the winds. Then he roused up.
+
+"You knew a little girl--in Simiti--in whom this Rincon was
+interested?"
+
+"Ah, yes, senor. But--why do you ask? She went to the great States
+from which you come. And I think little was heard from her after
+that."
+
+"Eh? Yes, true. She lived with--"
+
+"Don Rosendo Ariza."
+
+"Yes. And he?"
+
+"Dead--he and his good wife, Dona Maria."
+
+Hitt's head sank. How could he break this to Carmen? Then he sprang to
+his feet. "Come," he said, "we will stroll down by the walls. I would
+like a look at San Fernando."
+
+"Ha! Senor, you--you--"
+
+Hitt threw him a look of caution, and shook his head. Then, motioning
+him to follow, he led him out and down through the winding, tortuous
+thoroughfares. On the summit of the walls were sentinels, posted at
+frequent intervals; and no civilian might walk upon the great
+enclosure until peace had been formally declared.
+
+Hailing a passing carriage, Hitt urged the wondering Don Jorge into
+it, and bade the driver convey them to the old ruin of San Felipe, and
+leave them. There they climbed the broken incline into the battered
+fortress, and seated themselves in the shadow of a crumbling parapet.
+They were alone on the enormous, grass-grown pile. From their position
+they commanded a wonderful view across the town and harbor, and far
+out over the green waters of the Caribbean. The _Cossack_ lay asleep
+in the quiet harbor. Don Jorge saw it, and wondered whence it came.
+
+"Listen, _amigo_," began Hitt, pointing to the yacht. "In that boat is
+a girl, whose dearest earthly treasure is the condemned prisoner out
+there in San Fernando. That girl is the little Carmen, foster-daughter
+of old Rosendo."
+
+"_Hombre!_" cried Don Jorge, staring at Hitt as if he suspected his
+sanity.
+
+"It is true, friend, for I myself came with her in that boat."
+
+"_Caramba!_"
+
+"And," continued Hitt, glancing again about the ruined fortress and
+lowering his voice, "we have come for Jose de Rincon."
+
+"_Santa Virgen!_ Are you _loco_?"
+
+Hitt smiled. "And now," he went on eagerly, "how are we to get him?"
+
+"But, _amigo_! San Fernando is closely guarded! And he--_por
+supuesto_, he will be in the dungeons!"
+
+"No doubt," returned Hitt dryly, "if your excellent friend Wenceslas
+has had anything to do with it. But dungeons have windows, eh?"
+
+"_Caramba_, yes; and San Fernando's are just above the water's edge.
+And when the waves are high the sea pours into them!"
+
+"And--could we learn which window is his, do you think?"
+
+"Senor, I know," replied the man.
+
+"Ha! And--"
+
+"I learned from one of the soldiers, Fernando, who once lived in
+Simiti. I had thought, senor, that--that perhaps I--"
+
+"That perhaps you might make the attempt yourself, eh?" put in Hitt
+eagerly.
+
+Don Jorge nodded. Hitt sprang to his feet and looked out toward the
+silent fortress.
+
+"Don Jorge, it is dark out over the harbor at night, eh? No
+searchlights?"
+
+"None, senor."
+
+Hitt began to pace back and forth. Suddenly he stopped, and stood
+looking down through a hole in the broken pavement. Then he knelt and
+peered long and eagerly into it.
+
+"Look here, friend," he called. "How does one get into that place?"
+
+Don Jorge came and looked into the aperture. "It is one of the rooms
+of the fortress," he said. "But--_caramba_! I know not how it may be
+reached."
+
+"The passageways?"
+
+"Caved--all of them."
+
+"But--you are a mighty husky fellow; and I am not weak. Suppose we try
+lifting one of these flags."
+
+"_Na_, _senor_, as well try the tunnels! But, why?"
+
+Hitt did not answer. But, bidding Don Jorge follow, he sought the
+fallen entrance to the old fortress, and plunged into the dark passage
+that led off from it into the thick gloom. Groping his way down a
+long, damp corridor, he came to a point where three narrower,
+brick-lined tunnels branched off, one of them dipping into the earth
+at a sharp angle. He struck a match, and then started down this,
+followed by the wondering Don Jorge.
+
+A thousand bats, hideous denizens of these black tunnels, flouted
+their faces and disputed their progress. Don Jorge slapped wildly at
+them, and cursed low. Hitt took up a long club and struck savagely
+about him. On they stumbled, until the match flickered out, and they
+were left in Stygian blackness, with the imps of darkness whirring
+madly about them. Hitt struck another match, and plunged ahead.
+
+At length they found the way blocked by a mass of rubbish which had
+fallen from the roof. Hitt studied it for a moment, then climbed upon
+it and, by the aid of the feeble light from his matches, peered into
+the foul blackness beyond.
+
+"Come," he said, preparing to proceed.
+
+"_Na, amigo!_ Not I!" exclaimed Don Jorge. His Latin soul had
+revolted.
+
+"Then wait for me here," said Hitt, pushing himself through the narrow
+aperture at the top of the rubbish, and fighting the horde of
+terrified bats.
+
+A few minutes later he returned, covered with slime, and scratched and
+bleeding. "All right," he muttered. "Now let's get out of this
+miserable hole!"
+
+Out in the sunlight once more, Hitt sought to remove the stains from
+his clothes, meanwhile bidding Don Jorge attend well to his words.
+
+"You swim, eh?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then do you come to the beach to-night to bathe, down across from the
+yacht. And, listen well: you would do much for the little Carmen, no?
+And for your friend Jose? Very good. You will swim out to the yacht at
+seven to-night, with your clothes in a bundle on your head, eh? And,
+Don Jorge--but we will discuss that later. Now you go back to the city
+alone. I have much to do. And, note this, you have not seen me."
+
+Meantime, to the group of politicians, soldiers, and clergy assembled
+in the long audience room of the departmental offices to debate the
+terms of the peace protocol, news of the arrival of the _Cossack_ was
+brought by a slow-moving messenger from the dock. At the abrupt
+announcement the acting-Bishop was seen to start from his chair. Was
+the master himself on board? _Quien sabe?_ And, if so--but,
+impossible! He would have advised his faithful co-laborer of his
+coming. And yet, what were those strange rumors which had trickled
+over the wires, and which, in his absorption in the local issues, and
+in the excitement attendant upon the restoration of peace and the
+settlement of the multifold claims of innumerable greedy politicians,
+he had all but forgotten? A thousand suggestions flashed through his
+mind, any one of which might account for the presence of the _Cossack_
+in Cartagena's harbor that day. But extreme caution must be observed
+until he might ascertain its errand. He therefore despatched a message
+to the yacht, expressing his great surprise and pleasure, and bidding
+its master meet him at a convenient hour in his study in the
+Cathedral. This done, he bent anew to the work before him, yet with
+his thought harried by doubt, suspicion, and torturing curiosity.
+
+Wenceslas soon received a reply to his message. The master was aboard,
+but unable to go ashore. The acting-Bishop would therefore come to him
+at once.
+
+Wenceslas hesitated, and his brow furrowed. He knew he was called upon
+to render his reckoning to the great financier who had furnished the
+sinews of war. But he must have time to consider thoroughly his own
+advantage, for well he understood that he was summoned to match his
+own keen wits with those of a master mind.
+
+And then there flashed through his thought the reports which had
+circled the world but three short weeks before. The man of wealth had
+found his daughter; and she was the girl for whom the two Americans
+had outwitted him four years ago! And the girl--Simiti--and--ah,
+Rincon! Good! He laughed outright. He would meet the financier--but
+not until the morrow, at noon, for, he would allege, the unanticipated
+arrival of Ames had found this day completely occupied. So he again
+despatched his wondering messenger to the _Cossack_. And that
+messenger was rowed out to the quiet yacht in the same boat with the
+tall American, whose clothes were torn and caked with mud, and in
+whose eyes there glowed a fierce determination.
+
+That night the sky was overcast. The harbingers of the wet season had
+already arrived. At two in the morning the rain came, descending in a
+torrent. In the midst of it a light skiff, rocking dangerously on the
+swelling sea, rounded a corner of San Fernando and crept like a shadow
+along the dull gray wall. The sentry above had taken shelter from the
+driving rain. The ancient fort lay heavily shrouded in gloom.
+
+At one of the narrow, grated windows which were set just above the
+water's surface the skiff hung, and a long form arose from its depths
+and grasped the iron bars. A moment later the gleam of an electric
+lantern flashed into the blackness within. It fell upon a rough bench,
+standing in foul, slime-covered water. Upon the bench sat the huddled
+form of a man.
+
+Then another dark shape rose in the skiff. Another pair of hands laid
+hold on the iron bars. And behind those great, calloused hands
+stretched thick arms, with the strength of an ox. An iron lever was
+inserted between the bars. The heavy breathing and the low sounds of
+the straining were drowned by the tropic storm. The prisoner leaped
+from the bench and stood ankle-deep in the water, straining his eyes
+upward.
+
+The light flashed again into his face. His heart pounded wildly. His
+throbbing ears caught the splash of a knotted rope falling into the
+water at his feet. Above the noise of the rain he thought he heard a
+groaning, creaking sound. Those rusted, storm-eaten bars in the
+blackness above must be slowly yielding to an awful pressure. He
+turned and dragged the slime-covered bench to the window, and stood
+upon it. Then he grasped the rope with a strength born anew of hope
+and excitement, and pulled himself upward. The hands from without
+seized him; and slowly, painfully, his emaciated body was crushed
+through the narrow space between the bent bars.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Cartagena awoke to experience another thrill. And then the ripple of
+excitement gave place to anger. The rabble had lost one of its
+victims, and that one the chief. Moreover, the presence of that
+graceful yacht, sleeping so quietly out there in the sunlit harbor,
+could not but be associated with that most daring deed of the
+preceding night, which had given liberty to the excommunicated priest
+and political malefactor, Jose de Rincon. Crowds of chattering,
+gesticulating citizens gathered along the harbor shores, and loudly
+voiced their disappointment and threats. But the boat lay like a thing
+asleep. Not even a wisp of smoke rose from its yellow funnels.
+
+Then came the Alcalde, and the Departmental Governor, grave and
+sedate, with their aids and secretaries, their books and documents,
+their mandates and red-sealed processes, and were rowed out to
+confront the master whom they believed to have dared to thwart the
+hand of justice and remain to taunt them with his egregious presence.
+This should be made an international episode, whose ramifications
+would wind down through years to come, and embrace long, stupid
+congressional debates, apologies demanded, huge sums to salve a
+wounded nation, and the making and breaking of politicians too
+numerous to mention!
+
+But the giant who received them, bound to his chair, in the splendid
+library of the palatial yacht, and with no attendant, save a single
+valet, flared out in a towering rage at the gross insult offered him
+and his great country in these black charges. He had come on a
+peaceful errand; partly, too, for reasons of health. And he was at
+that moment awaiting a visit from His Grace. What manner of reception
+was this, that Cartagena extended to an influential representative of
+the powerful States of the North!
+
+"But," the discomfited Indignation Committee gasped, "what of the tall
+American who was seen to land the day before?"
+
+The master laughed in their faces. He? Why, but a poor, obsessed
+archaeologist, now prowling around the ruins of San Felipe, doubtless
+mumbling childishly as he <DW8>s the dust and mold of centuries! Go,
+visit him, if they would be convinced!
+
+And when these had gone, chagrined and mortified--though filled
+with wonder, for they had roamed the _Cossack_, and peered into
+its every nook and cranny, and stopped to look a second time at the
+fair-haired young boy who looked like a girl, and hovered close to
+the master--came His Grace, Wenceslas. He came alone, and with a sneer
+curling his imperious lips. And his calm, arrogant eyes held a
+meaning that boded no good to the man who sat in his wheel chair,
+alone, and could not rise to welcome him.
+
+"A very pretty trick, my powerful friend," said the angered churchman
+in his perfect English. "And one that will cause your Government at
+Washington some--"
+
+"Enough!" interrupted Ames in a steady voice. "I sent for you
+yesterday, intending to ask you to release the man. I had terms then
+which would have advantaged you greatly. You were afraid to see me
+until you had evolved your plans of opposition. Only a fixed and
+devilish hatred, nourished by you against a harmless priest who
+possessed your secrets, doomed him to die to-day. But we will pass
+that for the present. I have here my demands for the aid I have
+furnished you. You may look them over." He held out some typewritten
+sheets to Wenceslas.
+
+The churchman glanced hastily over them; then handed them back with a
+smile.
+
+"With certain modifications," he said smoothly. "The terms on which
+peace is concluded will scarcely admit of--"
+
+"Very well," returned Ames quietly. "And now, La Libertad?"
+
+Wenceslas laughed. "_En manos muertas_, my friend," he replied. "It
+was your own idea."
+
+"And the emerald concession?"
+
+"Impossible! A government monopoly, you know," said His Grace easily.
+"You see, my friend, it is a costly matter to effect the escape of
+state prisoners. As things stand now, your little trick of last night
+quite protects me. For, first you instruct me, long ago, to place the
+weak little Jose in San Fernando; and I obey. Then you suffer a change
+of heart, and slip down here to release the man, who has become a
+state prisoner. That quite removes you from any claims upon us for a
+share of the spoils of war. I take it, you do not wish to risk
+exposure of your part in this four years' carnage?"
+
+Ames drew a sigh. Then he pulled himself together. "Wenceslas," he
+said, "I am not the man with whom you dealt in these matters. He is
+dead. I have but one thing more to say, and that is that I renounce
+all claims upon you and your Government, excepting one. La Libertad
+mine was owned by the Rincon family. It was rediscovered by old
+Rosendo, and the title transferred to his foster-daughter. Its
+possession must remain with her and her associates. There is no
+record, so you have informed me, to the effect that the Church
+possesses this mine."
+
+"But, my friend, there shall be such a record to-day," laughed
+Wenceslas. "And, in your present situation, you will hardly care to
+contest it."
+
+Ames smiled. He now had the information which he had been seeking. The
+title to the famous mine lay still with the Simiti company. He pressed
+the call-button attached to his chair. The door opened, and Don Jorge
+entered, leading the erstwhile little newsboy, Jose de Rincon, by the
+hand.
+
+Wenceslas gasped, and staggered back. He knew not the man; but the boy
+was a familiar figure.
+
+Don Jorge advanced straight to him. Their faces almost touched.
+
+"Your Grace, were you married to the woman by whom you had this son?"
+Don Jorge's steady words fell upon the churchman's ears like a
+sentence of death.
+
+"I ask," continued the dark-faced man, "because I learned last night
+that the lad's mother was my daughter, the little Maria."
+
+"_Santa Virgen!_"
+
+"Yes, Your Grace, a sainted virgin, despoiled by a devil! And the man
+who gave me this information--would you like to know? _Bien_, it was
+Padre Jose de Rincon, in whose arms she died, you lecherous dog!"
+
+Wenceslas paled, and his brow grew moist. He stared at the boy, and
+then at the strong man whom he had so foully wronged.
+
+"If you have concluded your talk with Senor Ames," continued Don
+Jorge, "we will go ashore--you and the lad and I."
+
+Wenceslas's face brightened. Ashore! Yes, by all means!
+
+The trio turned and quietly left the room. Gaining the deck, Wenceslas
+found a skiff awaiting them, and two strong sailors at the oars. Don
+Jorge urged him on, and together they descended the ladder and entered
+the boat. A few moments later they landed at the pier, and the skiff
+turned back to the yacht.
+
+As to just what followed, accounts vary. There were some who
+remembered seeing His Grace pass through the narrow streets with a
+dark-skinned, powerful man, whose hand grasped that of the young
+newsboy. There were others who said that they saw the boy leave them
+at the Cathedral, and the two men turn and enter. Still others said
+they saw the heavy-set man come out alone. But there was only one who
+discovered the body of Wenceslas, crumpled up in a hideous heap upon
+the floor of his study, with a poignard driven clean through his
+heart. That man was the old sexton, who fled screaming from the awful
+sight late that afternoon.
+
+Again Cartagena shook with excitement, and seethed with mystery. Had
+the escaped prisoner, Rincon, returned to commit this awful deed?
+There were those who said he had. For the dark-skinned man who had
+entered the Cathedral with His Grace was seen again on the streets and
+in the wine shops that afternoon, and had been marked by some mounting
+the broken incline of San Felipe.
+
+Again the Governor and Alcalde and their numerous suite paid a visit
+to the master on board the _Cossack_. But they learned only that His
+Grace had gone ashore long before he met his fearful death. And so the
+Governor returned to the city, and was driven to San Felipe. But his
+only reward was the sight of the obsessed archaeologist, mud-stained
+and absorbed, prying about the old ruins, and uttering little cries of
+delight at new discoveries of crumbling passageways and caving rooms.
+And so there was nothing for the disturbed town to do but settle down
+and ponder the strange case.
+
+A week later smoke was seen again pouring out of the _Cossack's_
+funnels. That same day the Governor and Alcalde and their suites were
+bidden to a farewell banquet on board the luxurious yacht. Far into
+the night they sat over their rare wines and rich food, drinking deep
+healths to the _entente cordial_ which existed between the little
+republic of the South and the great one of the North. And while they
+drank and sang and listened enraptured to the wonderful pipe-organ, a
+little boat put out from the dark, tangled shrubbery along the shore.
+And when it rubbed against the yacht, a muffled figure mounted the
+ladder which hung in the shadows, and hastened through the rear
+hatchway and down into the depths of the boat. Then, long after
+midnight, the last farewell being said by the dizzy officials, and the
+echoes of _Adios_, _adios_, _amigos_! lingering among its tall spars,
+the _Cossack_ slipped noiselessly out of the Boca Chica, and set its
+course for New York.
+
+A few hours later, while the boat sped swiftly through the phosphorescent
+waves, the escaped prisoner, Jose de Rincon, who had lain for a week
+hidden in the bowels of old fort San Felipe, stood alone in the wonderful
+smoking room of the _Cossack_, and looked up at the sweet face pictured
+in the stained-glass window above. And then he turned quickly, for the
+door opened and a girl entered. A rush, a cry of joy, and his arms
+closed about the fair vision that had sat by his side constantly during
+the four long years of his imprisonment.
+
+"Carmen!"
+
+"My Jose!"
+
+"I have solved my problem! I have proved God! I have found the
+Christ!"
+
+"I knew you would, for he was with you always!"
+
+"But--oh, you beautiful, beautiful girl!"
+
+Then in a little while she gently released herself and went to the
+door through which she had entered. She paused for a moment to smile
+back at the enraptured man, then turned and flung the door wide.
+
+A woman entered, leading a young boy. The man uttered a loud
+exclamation and started toward her.
+
+"Ana!"
+
+He stopped short and stared down at the boy. Then he looked
+wonderingly at Carmen.
+
+"Yes," she said, stooping and lifting the boy up before Jose, "it is
+Anita's babe--_and he sees_!"
+
+The man clasped the child in his arms and buried his face in its
+hair.
+
+Verily, upon them that sat in darkness had the Light shined.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 21
+
+
+Another summer had come and gone. Through the trees in Central Park
+the afternoon sunlight, sifted and softened by the tinted autumn
+leaves, spread over the brown turf like a gossamer web. And it fell
+like a gentle benediction upon the massive figure of a man, walking
+unsteadily beneath the trees, holding the hand of a young girl whose
+beauty made every passer turn and look again.
+
+"Now, father," laughed the girl, "once more! There! Why, you step off
+like a major!"
+
+They were familiar figures, out there in the park, for almost daily
+during the past few weeks they might have been seen, as the girl
+laughingly said, "practicing their steps." And daily the man's control
+became firmer; daily that limp left arm and leg seemed increasingly to
+manifest life.
+
+On a bench near by sat a dark-featured woman. About her played her
+boy, filling the air with his merry shouts and his imperfect English.
+
+"There, father, comes Jose after us," announced the girl, looking off
+with love-lit eyes at an approaching automobile. "And Lewis is with
+him. Now, mind, you are going to get into the car without any help!"
+
+The man laughed, and declared vehemently that if he could not get in
+alone he would walk home. A few minutes later they had gone.
+
+The profound depth of those changes which had come into the rich
+man's life, he himself might not fathom. But those who toiled
+daily with him over his great ledgers and files knew that the
+transformation went far. There were flashes at times of his former
+vigor and spirit of domination, but there were also periods of
+grief that were heart-rending to behold, as when, poring over his
+records for the name of one whom in years past he had ruthlessly
+wrecked, he would find that the victim had gone in poverty beyond
+his power to reimburse him. And again, when his thought dwelt on
+Avon, and the carnal madness which had filled those new graves there,
+he would sink moaning into his chair and bury his drawn face in his
+hands and sob.
+
+And yet he strove madly, feverishly, to restore again to those from
+whom he had taken. The Simiti company was revived, through his labors,
+and the great La Libertad restored to its reanimated stockholders.
+Work of development had begun on the property, and Harris was again in
+Colombia in charge of operations. The Express was booming, and the
+rich man had consecrated himself to the carrying out of its clean
+policies. The mills at Avon were running day and night; and in a new
+location, far from the old-time "lungers' alley," long rows of little
+cottages were going up for their employes. The lawyer Collins had been
+removed, and Lewis Waite was to take his place within a week. Father
+Danny, now recovered, rejoiced in resources such as he had never dared
+hope to command.
+
+And so the rich man toiled--ah, God! if he had only known before that
+in the happiness of others lay his own. If only he could have known
+that but a moiety of his vast, unused income would have let floods of
+sunshine into the lives of those dwarfed, stunted children who toiled
+for him, and never played! Oh, if when he closed his mills in the dull
+months he had but sent them and their tired mothers to the country
+fields, how they would have risen up and called him blessed! If he
+could have but known that he was his brother's keeper, and in a sense
+that the world as yet knows not! For he is indeed wise who loves his
+fellow-men; and he is a fool who hates them!
+
+The great Fifth Avenue mansion was dark, except where hung a cluster
+of glowing bulbs over the rich mahogany table in the library. There
+about that table sat the little group of searchers after God, with
+their number augmented now in ways of which they could not have
+dreamed. And Hitt, great-souled friend of the world, was speaking
+again as had been his wont in the days now gone.
+
+"The solution of the problems of mankind? Ah, yes, there is a
+cure-all; there is a final answer to every ethical question, every
+social, industrial, economic problem, the problems of liquor, poverty,
+disease, war. And the remedy is so universal that it dissolves even
+the tangles of tariff and theology. What is it? Ah, my friends, the
+girl who came among us to 'show the world what love will do' has
+taught us by her own rich life--it is love. But not the sex-mesmerism,
+the covetousness, the self-love, which mask behind that heavenly name.
+For God is Love. And to know Him is to receive that marvelous
+Christ-principle which unlocks for mankind the door of harmony.
+
+"No, the world's troubles are not the fault of one man, nor of many,
+but of all who seek happiness in things material, and forget that the
+real man is the likeness of spirit, and that joy is spiritual. The
+trusts, and the men of wealth, are not all malefactors; the churches
+are not wholly filled with evil men. But all, yes all, have 'missed
+the mark' through the belief that matter and evil are real, and must
+grope amid sickness, poverty, crime, and death, until they are willing
+to turn from such false beliefs, and from self, and seek their own in
+the reflection of Him, who is Love, to their fellow-men. It is only as
+men join to search for and apply the Christ-principle that they truly
+unite to solve the world's sore problems and reveal the waiting
+kingdom of harmony, which is always just at hand. And it can be done.
+It must be, sometime.
+
+"In that day all shall know that cause and effect are mental. The man
+who hears the tempter, the carnal mind's suggestion to enrich himself
+materially at the cost of his brother, will know that it is but the
+voice of mesmerism, that 'man-killer from the beginning', which bids
+him sever himself from his God, who alone is infinite abundance. The
+society woman who flits like a gorgeous butterfly about the courts of
+fashion, her precious days wasted in motoring, her nights at cards,
+and whose vitality goes into dress, and into the watery schemes for
+'who shall be greatest' in the dismal realm of the human mind, must
+learn, willingly or through suffering, that her activities are but
+mesmeric shams that counterfeit the divine activity which manifests in
+joy and fullness for all.
+
+"Christianity? What is it but the Christ-knowledge, the knowledge of
+good, and its correlated knowledge, that evil is only the mesmeric
+lie which has engulfed the world? But, oh, the depths of that divine
+knowledge! The knowledge which heals the sick, gives sight to the
+blind, and opens the prisons to them that are captive! We who are
+gathered here to-night, feeling in our midst that great, unseen
+Presence which makes for righteousness, know now that 'in my flesh
+shall I see God,' for we have indeed already seen and known Him."
+
+With them sat the man who, swept by the storms of error and the carnal
+winds of destruction, had solved his problem, even as the girl by his
+side told him he should, and had been found, when his foul prison
+opened, sitting "clothed and in his right mind" at the feet of the
+Christ. Jesus "saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit--God--like a
+dove descending upon him--immediately the Spirit--carnal belief,
+error, the lie--driveth him into the wilderness." And there he was
+made to prove God. So Jose de Rincon, when the light had come, years
+gone, in desolate Simiti, had been bidden to know the one God, and
+none else. But he wavered when the floods of evil rolled over him; he
+had looked longingly back; he had clung too tightly to the human
+concept that walked with him like a shining light in those dark days.
+And so she had been taken from him, and he had been hurled into the
+wilderness--alone with Him whom he must learn to know if he would see
+Life.
+
+Then self-consciousness went out, in those four years of his
+captivity, and he passed from thence into consciousness of God.
+
+Then his great world-knowledge he saw to have been wholly untrue. His
+store of truth he saw to have been but relative at best. His knowledge
+had rested, he then knew, upon viewpoints which had been utterly
+false. And so, like Paul, he died that he might live. He crucified
+Self, that he might resurrect the image of God.
+
+"The world," resumed Hitt, "still worships false gods, though it
+reaches out for Truth. And yet, what are we all seeking? Only a
+state of consciousness, a consciousness of good, of joy and harmony. And
+we are seeking to rid ourselves of the consciousness of evil, with
+its sin, its disease and death. But, knowing now that consciousness
+is mental activity, the activity of thought, can we not see that
+harmony and immortality are within our grasp? for they are functions
+of right thought. Salvation is not from evil realities, but from the
+false sense of evil, even as Jesus taught and proved. The only salvation
+possible to mankind is in learning to think as Jesus did--not yielding
+our mentalities daily to a hodge-podge of mixed thoughts of good and
+evil, and then running to doctors and preachers when such yielding
+brings its inevitable result in sickness and death. Jesus insisted that
+the kingdom of heaven was within men, a tremendous potentiality
+within each one of us. How may it be reached? By removing hampering
+false belief, by removing the limitations of superstition and human
+opinion which hold its portals closed. True progress is the release of
+mankind from materialism, with its enslaving drudgery, its woes, and
+its inevitable death. Mankind's chief difficulty is ignorance of what
+God is. Jesus proved Him to be mind, spirit. He proved Him to be the
+creator of the spiritual universe, but not the originator of the lie
+of materiality. He showed matter to be but the manifestation of the
+false belief that creation is material. He showed it to be but a
+sense-impression, without life, without stability, without existence,
+except the pseudo-existence which it has in the false thought of
+which the human or carnal consciousness is formed. But the lack of
+understanding of the real nature of matter, and the persistent belief in
+the stability of its so-called laws, has resulted in centuries of
+attempts to discredit the Bible records of his spiritual demonstrations
+of God's omnipotence and immanence, and so has prevented the human mind
+from accepting the proofs which it so eagerly sought. And now, after
+nineteen centuries of so-called Christian teaching, the human mind
+remains still deeply embedded in matter, and subject to the
+consentaneous human beliefs which it calls material laws. Jesus
+showed that it was the communal mortal mind, with its false beliefs
+in matter, sin, disease, and death, that constituted 'the flesh'; he
+showed that mortals are begotten of such false beliefs; he showed
+that the material universe is but manifested human belief. And we
+know from our own reasoning that we see not things, but our _thoughts_
+of things; that we deal not with matter, but with material mental
+concepts only. We know that the preachers have woefully missed the
+mark, and that the medicines of the doctors have destroyed more lives
+than wars and famine, and yet will we not learn of the Master? To reach
+God through material thinking is utterly impossible, for He is spirit,
+and He can be cognized only by a spiritual consciousness. Yet such a
+consciousness is ours, if we will but have it.
+
+"Ah, friends, God said: Let US make man in OUR image and likeness--let
+Life, Love, Spirit make its spiritual reflection. But where is that
+man to-day? Buried deep beneath the dogma and the crystallized human
+beliefs of mortals--buried beneath 'the lie' which mankind accept
+about truth. Nothing but _scientific_ religion will meet humanity's
+dire needs and reveal that man. And scientific religion admits of
+actual, practical proof. Christianity is as scientific as mathematics,
+and quite as capable of demonstration. Its proofs lie in doing the
+works of the Master. He is a Christian who does these works; he who
+does not is none. Christianity is not a failure, but organized
+ecclesiasticism, which always collapses before a world crisis, has
+failed utterly. The hideous chicane of imperial government and
+imperial religion against mankind has resulted in a Christian veneer,
+which cracks at the first test and reveals the unchanged human brute
+beneath. The nations which writhe in deadly embrace to-day have never
+sought to prove God. They but emphasize the awful fact that the human
+mind has no grasp upon the Principle which is God, and at a time of
+crisis reverts almost instantly to the primitive, despite so-called
+culture and civilization. Yes, religion as a perpetuation of ancient
+human conceptions, of materialistic traditions and opinions of 'the
+Fathers,' is a flat failure. By it the people of great nations have
+been molded into servile submission to church and ruler--have been
+persuaded that wretchedness and poverty are eternal--that heaven is a
+realm beyond the grave, to which admission is a function of outward
+oblation--and that surcease from ills here, or in the life to come, is
+a gift of the Church. Can we wonder that commercialism is mistaken by
+nations for progress? That king and emperor still call upon God to
+bless their barbaric attempts at conquest? And that human existence
+remains, what it has always been, a ghastly mockery of Life?
+
+"Healing the sick by applied Christianity is not the attempt to alter
+a mental concept; it is the bringing out of harmony where before was
+discord. Evil can not be 'thought away.' He who indulges evil only
+proves his belief in its reality and power. Christian healing is not
+'mental suggestion,' wherein all thought is material. When evil
+thinking is overcome, then the discords which result from it will
+disappear from consciousness. That is the Christ-method. Behind all
+that the physical senses seem to see, know, and feel, is the spiritual
+fact, perfect and eternal. Jesus healed the sick by establishing this
+fact in the human consciousness. And we must learn to do likewise. The
+orthodox churches must learn it. They must cease from the dust-man,
+whose breath is in his nostrils; they must cease from preaching evil
+as an awful reality, permitted by God, or existing despite Him; they
+must know it as Jesus bade all men know it, as the lie about Truth.
+Then, by holding the divine ideal before the human mind, they will
+cause that mentality gradually to relinquish its false beliefs and
+copy the real. And thus, step by step, changing from better to better
+beliefs, at length the human mind will have completely substituted
+reality for unreality, and will be no more, even in thought. The 'old
+man' will have given place to the 'new.' This is the method of Jesus.
+There is no other. Yes, for the present we reckon with material
+symbols; we have not yet fully learned their unreality. But at length,
+if we are faithful, we shall lay them aside, and know only Truth and
+its pure manifestations.
+
+"Ah, my friends, how simple is Christianity! It is summed up in the
+Sermon on the Mount. Our salvation is in righteousness. He who thinks
+right shall know things as they are. He who thinks wrong shall seem to
+know them as they are not, and shall pass his days in sore travail,
+even in wars, famine, and utter misery. Then why not take up the
+demonstration of Christianity in the spirit of joy and freedom from
+prejudice with which we pursue our earthly studies, and as gladly,
+thankfully seek to prove it? For it, of all things, is worth while. It
+alone is the true business of men. For if what we have developed in
+our many talks regarding God, man, and the mental nature of the
+universe and all things is true, then are the things with which men
+now occupy themselves worth while? No, decidedly no! But are the
+things which we have developed true? Yes, for they can be and have
+been demonstrated. Then, indeed, are we without excuse. Carmen has
+shown us the way. No, she is not unnatural; she is only divinely
+natural. She has shown us what we all may become, if we but will. She
+has shown us what we shall be able to do when we are completely lost
+in accord with God, and recognize no other life, substance, nor law
+than His. But--
+
+"'I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create
+evil,' cried the prophet. _Truth always has its suppositional
+opposite!_ Choose ye then whom ye will serve. All is subject to proof.
+Only that which is demonstrably true, not after the change which we
+call death, but here this side of the grave, can stand. The only test
+of a Christian is in the 'signs following.' Without them his faith is
+but sterile human belief, and his god but the distorted human concept
+whom kings beseech to bless their slaughter.
+
+  "'Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein
+  is he to be accounted of?
+
+  "'His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very
+  day his thoughts perish.
+
+  "'That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born
+  of the Spirit is spirit.
+
+  "'Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though
+  we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we
+  him no more.'"
+
+The fire crackled briskly on the great hearth. Carmen rose and turned
+off the light above them. All drew their chairs about the cheery
+blaze.
+
+Silence, sacred, holy, lay upon them. The rich man, now possessing
+treasures beyond his wildest dreams, sat holding his daughter's hand.
+Her other hand lay in Jose's. Sidney had just entered; and Haynerd had
+sent word that he would join them soon.
+
+Then the silence was broken by the rich man. His voice was unsteady
+and low.
+
+"My friends, sorrow and joy fill my heart to-night. To the first I am
+resigned; it is my due; and yet, were it greater, I know not how I
+could live. But the joy--who can understand it until he has passed
+through death into life! This little girl's mother knew not, nor did
+I, that she was royal born. Sometimes I wonder now if it is really so.
+And yet the evidence is such that I can scarcely doubt. We met in the
+sun-kissed hills of Granada; and we loved. Her old nurse was
+Argus-eyed; and our meetings were such as only lovers can effect. I
+was young, wild, and my blood coursed like a torrent through my veins!
+But I loved her, yes, base though I was, I loved her. And in these
+years since I left her in that little house in Bogota, I have suffered
+the agonies of the lost when her memory and my own iniquity fell upon
+me and smote me sore--
+
+"We were married in Spain, and the marriage was performed by Padre
+Rafael de Rincon."
+
+"My uncle!" cried the startled Jose.
+
+"And then we fled," continued Ames. "I was rich; I was roaming the
+world, extending my vast business interests; and I took her to
+Colombia, where I labored with the politicians in Bogota to grant me
+timber and cattle concessions. We had a cottage on the outskirts of
+the city, where we were happy. With us lived her faithful old nurse,
+whom she would not leave in Spain--
+
+"Then, one day, came a cable message that my father had died. The news
+transformed me. I knew I must return at once to New York. But--I would
+not take a wife back with me! Why, I know not. I was mad! And I kissed
+her tear-stained face, and bade her wait, for I would return and make
+her happy. And then--
+
+"Months later I wrote to her, and, receiving no reply, I caused
+inquiry to be made. But she had gone--whither, no one knew. The old
+nurse, too, had disappeared. I never learned that a woman had been
+left at Badillo to die. And she was not known in Bogota. She was
+timid, and went out seldom. And then--then I thought that a marriage
+here would strengthen my position, for I was powerful and proud.
+
+"Oh, the years that her sad face haunted me! I was mad, mad! I know
+not why, but when the _Cossack_ was built I had her portrait in glass
+set in the smoking room. And night after night I have sat before it
+and cursed myself, and implored her to forgive!"
+
+"But--the locket?" said Father Waite.
+
+"It came from Spain. I was Guillermo to her, and she Dolores to me.
+But I had never forgotten it. Had Carmen ever worn it in my presence I
+must have recognized it at once. Oh, God, that she had! What would it
+not have saved!"
+
+"Father!" The girl's arms were about his neck.
+
+"But," said Ames, choking down his sorrow, "that man is dead. He, like
+Goliath, fought Truth, and the Truth fell upon him, crushing him to
+powder. The man who remains with you now lives only in this little
+girl. And she has brought me my own son, Sidney, and another, Jose.
+All that I have is theirs, and they will give it to the world. I would
+that she could have brought me that noble black man, Rosendo, who laid
+down his beautiful life when he saw that his work was done. I learn
+from my inquiries that he and Dona Maria lived with Don Nicolas far up
+the Boque river during the troublous times when Simiti was burned and
+devastated. And that, when the troops had gone, they returned to their
+desolated home, and died, within a month of each other. What do I not
+owe to them! And can my care of their daughter Ana and her little son
+ever cancel the debt? Alas, no!"
+
+Sidney turned to the man. "Father, does Jose know that it was Kathleen
+whom he rescued from the Tiber in Rome, years ago, and who caused him
+to lose his notebook?"
+
+Another exclamation burst from Jose. Ames shook his head. "No, Sidney,
+we had not told him. Ah, how small is the world! And how inextricably
+bound together we all are! And, Jose, I have not told you that the
+woman who lived and died alone in the limestone caves near Honda, and
+whose story you had from Don Jorge in Simiti, was doubtless the
+faithful old nurse of Dolores. My investigations all but confirm it.
+Padre Rafael de Rincon maintained her there."
+
+Haynerd entered the room at that moment, and with him came Miss Wall.
+
+"Now," said Hitt softly, "the circle is complete. Carmen, may I--"
+
+The girl rose at once and went into the music room. Those who remained
+sat in awed, expectant silence. Another presence stole softly in, but
+they saw him not. Soon through the great rooms and marble halls
+drifted the low, weird melody which the girl had sung, long before, in
+the dreary Elwin school.
+
+In the flickering light of the fire strange shapes took form; and the
+shadows that danced on the walls silhouetted scenes from the dimming
+past. From out their weird imagery rose a single form. Into it passed
+the unseen presence. Slowly it rose before them from out the shadows.
+It was black of face, but its wondrous heart which had cradled the
+nameless babe of Badillo glistened like drifting snow.
+
+The last sweet notes of the plaintive Indian lament fluttered from the
+girl's lips, echoed among the marble pillars, and died away down the
+distant corridors. She returned and bent over her father with a tender
+caress.
+
+Then the great black man in the shadows extended his arms for a moment
+above them, and faded from their sight. There was the sound of low
+weeping in the room. For
+
+  "these are they which came out of great tribulation, and have
+  washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the
+  Lamb."
+
+GLOSSARY
+
+
+A
+
+a buen precio, for a good price.
+adios, good-bye.
+adioscito, good-bye (used among intimates).
+alcalde, mayor, chief of village.
+algarroba, the carob-tree bean.
+alpargates, hempen sandals.
+americano, American.
+amigo, amiga, friend.
+anisado, liquor made from anise-seed.
+a proposito, by-the-bye, apropos
+arena, bull ring, circle where bull-fights are held.
+arepa, corn cake baked in ashes.
+arma blanca, steel arms, generally the machete.
+arrastra, or arrastre, a mining mill.
+arreglo, arrangement.
+arriba, above.
+arroyo, ditch, small stream, creek.
+asequia, gutter, conduit for water.
+auto da fe, public punishment by the Holy Inquisition.
+avispas, wasps.
+ay de mi, ah me! woe is me! alas!
+
+
+B
+
+bagre, fish from Lake Simiti, dried and salted.
+baile, dance.
+barra, bar of wood or iron.
+batea, a wooden basin corresponding to the gold-pan.
+bejuco, thin filament, growing on tropical trees. Also, vine.
+bendita virgen, Blessed Virgin.
+bien, well.
+bien pues, well, then.
+billetes, bank notes, government notes, paper money.
+bodega, warehouse. Also, depot, supply house, cellar.
+boga, boatman, rower.
+boveda, vault, or arched enclosure. Burial vault, tomb.
+bueno, good.
+buen padre, good father.
+
+
+C
+
+cabildo, corporation of a town, town council.
+calentura, fever.
+camino real, royal road, highway.
+canasto, large basket, waste-basket.
+cantina, saloon, public drinking place.
+cano, canal.
+caoba, mahogany tree or wood.
+capilla mayor, high altar, principal chapel.
+capitan, captain.
+caramba, an interjection of no particular meaning.
+carcel, jail.
+cargadores, human pack-carriers, porters.
+carisima, dearest little girl.
+carita, dear little girl.
+caro amigo, dear friend.
+catalina, Katharine.
+cayman, crocodile.
+champan, a native thatch-roofed river boat.
+chiquita mia, my dearest little girl.
+chiquito-a, dearest little one.
+cielo, heaven.
+cienaga, a marsh or moor. Sometimes lake.
+cierto, certain, sure, surely, certainly.
+cochero, coachman, driver.
+cola, a tropical non-alcoholic drink.
+colera, cholera.
+colibri, humming bird.
+comadre, friend, when used casually addressing a woman.
+comjejen, white wood-eating ant.
+compadre, friend, when used casually addressing a man.
+conque, adios, "well, good-bye."
+conque, hasta luego, "well, good-bye until we meet again."
+conqueros, conquerors.
+conquistadores, conquerors.
+cordilleras, chain or ridge of mountains.
+corriente, right, correct.
+costumbre del pais, national custom.
+cura, priest.
+
+
+
+D
+
+de nada, don't mention it.
+desayuno, breakfast.
+dia, day.
+diablo, devil.
+dios arriba, God above!
+dios mio, my God!
+dios nos guarde, God preserve us!
+dios y diablo, God and devil!
+dique, canal, channel.
+doncella, young woman.
+
+
+E
+
+el, the (masculine).
+enamorada, infatuated one (female).
+en manos muertas, "in dead hands."
+escapulario, scapulary.
+escritorio, writing desk.
+
+
+F
+
+feria, fair, festival.
+fiasco, failure.
+finca, farm.
+flor, flower (pl. flores)
+
+
+G
+
+garrafon, jug.
+garrapata, wood-tick.
+garza, heron.
+gracias, thanks, thank you.
+guaquero, hunter of Indian graves.
+guerrillas, band of guerrillas.
+
+
+H
+
+hacienda, farm.
+hada, witch.
+hermano, brother.
+hermoso, beautiful.
+hermosisimo-a, most beautiful.
+hidalgo, nobleman,
+hola! halloo!
+hombre, man.
+hostia, sacred wafer used in the mass.
+
+
+I
+
+iguana, large edible lizard.
+infanta, Spanish princess.
+
+
+J
+
+jejen, gnat.
+jipijapa, very fine woven straw, used in Panama hats.
+jipitera, child's disease, due to eating dirt.
+
+
+L
+
+la, the (feminine).
+lianas, vines.
+llanos, flat plains.
+loado sea el buen dios, praised be the good God!
+loco, crazy, mad.
+
+
+M
+
+macana, a very hard, tough palm, used in hut construction.
+machete, cane-knife, large knife used for trail-cutting.
+machetero, trail-cutter.
+madre de dios, mother of God.
+maestro, master.
+maldito, cursed, cursed one.
+mantilla, head-scarf of lace.
+mariposa, butterfly.
+matador, bull-fighter who slays the bull with the sword.
+medico, doctor.
+mestizo, half-breed.
+milagro, miracle. Also, small gold image, blessed by a priest,
+  and supposed to work a cure.
+mora, bramble-bush.
+mozo, waiter, servant, also young boy or man.
+muchacho, boy.
+muy bien, very well.
+muy buenos dias, "good morning."
+
+
+N
+
+na, an expression of disagreement, disavowal, or demurral.
+nada, nothing,
+nada mas, nothing more.
+nombre de dios, name of God.
+
+
+O
+
+ojala, "would to God!" "God grant!"
+olla, pot, or kettle. Also, a stew of meat and vegetables.
+oporto, port wine.
+
+
+P
+
+padre, father, Father, priest.
+panela, the crude sugar of tropical America.
+pantano, swamp.
+pater-noster, the Lord's prayer.
+patio, the interior court of a dwelling, yard, garden.
+patron (naut.), cockswain of a boat.
+peon, day-laborer.
+peso, dollar.
+peso oro, a dollar in gold.
+peso y medio, a dollar and a half.
+petate, straw mat on which the poor people sleep.
+plaga, plague, pestilence.
+platano, plantain tree, or its fruit.
+playa, shore, beach, strand.
+policia, police.
+por, for, by.
+por dios, by God!
+por el amor del cielo, for the love of heaven!
+por supuesto, of course.
+posada, inn, hotel, restaurant.
+pozo, well, pond, puddle.
+pronto, soon, quickly.
+pueblo, town, settlement, people.
+
+
+Q
+
+quebrada, creek, small stream.
+que chiste, what a joke!
+que importa, what does it matter?
+quemador, public square where heretics were burned.
+queridito-a, dear little one.
+quien sabe, who knows?
+
+
+R
+
+real (reales), a silver coin, valued at 5, 10, or 12-1/2 cents.
+religion de dinero, a religion of money.
+ruana, a cape worn by the poor males of tropical America.
+rurales, country people, peasants, farmers.
+
+
+S
+
+sacristia, sacristy.
+san benito, the garb worn by condemned heretics.
+santa maria, Saint Mary.
+santa virgen, the sainted Virgin.
+santo dios, the blessed God!
+selva, forest.
+seminario, seminary.
+senora, Madam, Mrs., a mature woman, a married woman.
+senorita, Miss, a young unmarried woman.
+sepulcros, tombs, graves.
+sierras, mountain chain.
+siesta, the midday hour of rest, the hottest part of the day.
+sobrinito, little nephew.
+
+
+T
+
+temprano, early.
+terciana, intermittent fever.
+tia, aunt.
+tierra caliente, hot lands.
+tio mio, my uncle.
+tiple, a small guitar.
+toldo, awning, the mosquito netting hung over beds.
+trago, tragito, a drink, a draught.
+tumba, tomb, grave.
+
+
+Y
+
+ya esta, vamonos, all ready, let's go!
+yucca, or yuca, the yucca plant or its roots.
+
+
+
+
+DONE INTO A BOOK FOR THE
+
+MAESTRO COMPANY BY W. B.
+
+CONKEY COMPANY, CHICAGO
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Carmen Ariza, by Charles Francis Stocking
+
+*** 
\ No newline at end of file