f terrible memory quivering under a dark blue mist.

"Hist!" said Rafael, suddenly. "Do you know what day this is?"

"Day?" The adventurers had lost all count of time.

"It is the day before Christmas, my friends."

"No! Madre de dios!" Roldan and Adan stood still. For a moment they
felt homesick. They saw the reproachful faces of their parents and
brothers and sisters, to say nothing of visions of unclaimed presents.
But Rafael gave them no time for regrets. He was the only child at
home, and delighted with his new companions.

"To-morrow many people will come," he said. "I have ten married sisters
and brothers. They all come from their ranchos, and many more. It will
be very gay, my friends."

"Good," said Roldan, dismissing regret. "We will enjoy."

"And after Christmas is gone I know of something else," said Rafael,
mysteriously. He glanced about. They stood in the midst of a great
vineyard, each engaged upon a large purple bunch. "Come," said Rafael,
with an air of mystery. "Not here. Some one may hide beneath the vines."

It was extremely unlikely, but the adventurers liked the suggestion and
followed their host breathlessly into the open field. "One day in the
summer," whispered Rafael, his eyes rolling about, "I went with four
vaqueros with a present of venison to Father Osuna. He was not at the
Mission, and a brother told us that he walked among the hills. I
thought I would go to meet him and receive his blessing. For a time I
saw no one, and I thought, 'Caramba! but the padre has long legs this
hot weather!' Just then he stood before me. He had walked out of the
side of the hill through a hole no wider than himself. He sweated like
a bull after coliar, and his cassock was gathered in his two hands,
leaving his bare shanks no more sacred than an Indian's. He did not
look like a priest at all, and I forgot to kneel to him, but stared
with my mouth open. And what do you think he did, my friends? He turned
white like the hand of a dona in her teens and--and--dropped his
cassock. And--"

"Well? well?"

"What do you think rolled to the ground, my friends? Chunks of yellow
stuff that glittered, and a shower of sparkling yellow sand--beautiful
as sunshine on the floor. I gave a cry and ran to pick it up. I had
never seen anything so beautiful, I never had wanted anything so much.
I felt that I would die for it in that moment, my friends. But that
priest, what do you think he did? He gave a yell of rage, as