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