as, at what hour he should find her, and with whom. His
tongue itched and brought water into his mouth when he pictured the
meeting. He pictured it now, as he jogged and sang and looked
contentedly at the endless plain.

Presently he came within sight, and, since he made no effort to avoid
it, presently again into the street of a mud-built village. Few people
were astir. A man slept in an angle of a wall, flies about his head; a
dog in an entry scratched himself with ecstasy; a woman at a doorway
was combing her child's hair, and looked up to watch him coming.

Entering in his easy way, he looked to the east to judge of the light.
Sunrise was nearly an hour away; he could afford to obey the summons of
the cracked bell, filling the place with its wrangling, with the
creaking of its wheel. He hobbled his beast in the little _plaza_, and
followed some straying women into church.

Immediately confronting him at the door was a hideous idol. A huge and
brown, wooden Christ, with black horse-hair tresses, staring white
eyeballs, staring red wounds, towered before him, hanging from a cross.
Esteban knelt to it on one knee, and, remembering his hat, doffed it
sideways over his ear. He said his two _Paternosters_, and then
performed one odd ceremony more. Several people saw him do it, but no
one was surprised. He took the long knife from his _faja_, running his
finger lightly along the edge, laid it flat before the Cross, and
looking up at the tormented God, said him another _Pater_. That done,
he went into the church, and knelt upon the floor in company with
kerchiefed women, children, a dog or two, and some beggars of
incredible age and infirmities beyond description, and rose to one
knee, fell to both, covered his eyes, watched the celebrant, or the
youngest of the women, just as the server's little bell bade him.
Simple ceremonies, done by rote and common to Latin Europe; certainly
not learned of the Moors.

Mass over, our young avenger prepared to resume his journey by breaking
his fast. A hunch of bread and a few raisins sufficed him, and he ate
these sitting on the steps of the church, watching the women as they
loitered on their way home. Esteban had a keen eye for women; pence
only, I mean the lack of them, prevented him from being a collector.
But the eye is free; he viewed them all from the standpoint of the
cabinet. One he approved. She carried herself well, had fine ankles,
and wore a flower in her