k with the express request that he be allowed
to superintend the placing of the stone. He didn't ask for much pay
but made a show of great knowledge. I hadn't sufficient reason for
believing in his bad intentions, but something within told me that my
conjectures were true and therefore I chose as the suitable occasion
to warn you a moment when you could not ask me any questions. The
rest you have seen for yourself."

For a long time after Elias had become silent Ibarra remained
thoughtful, not answering him or saying a word. "I'm sorry that that
man is dead!" he exclaimed at length. "From him something more might
have been learned."

"If he had lived, he would have escaped from the trembling hand of
blind human justice. God has judged him, God has killed him, let God
be the only Judge!"

Crisostomo gazed for a moment at the man, who, while he spoke thus,
exposed his muscular arms covered with lumps and bruises. "Do you
also believe in the miracle?" he asked with a smile. "You know what
a miracle the people are talking about."

"Were I to believe in miracles, I should not believe in God. I
should believe in a deified man, I should believe that man had really
created a god in his own image and likeness," the mysterious pilot
answered solemnly. "But I believe in Him, I have felt His hand more
than once. When the whole apparatus was falling down and threatening
destruction to all who happened to be near it, I, I myself, caught
the criminal, I placed myself at his side. He was struck and I am
safe and sound."

"You! So it was you--"

"Yes! I caught him when he tried to escape, once his deadly work had
begun. I saw his crime, and I say this to you: let God be the sole
judge among men, let Him be the only one to have the right over life,
let no man ever think to take His place!"

"But you in this instance--"

"No!" interrupted Elias, guessing the objection. "It's not the
same. When a man condemns others to death or destroys their
future forever he does it with impunity and uses the strength of
others to execute his judgments, which after all may be mistaken or
erroneous. But I, in exposing the criminal to the same peril that he
had prepared for others, incurred the same risk as he did. I did not
kill him, but let the hand of God smite him."

"Then you don't believe in accidents?"

"Believing in accidents is like believing in miracles; both presuppose
that God does not know the future. What is an accident? An even