ith 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