no time in awakening the two men in the house near-by.
A moment after, the Father returned with Rafael, the overseer, and
together the five men ran swiftly and silently to the scene of the
disturbance. Nearing the window through which Pomponio had forced an
entrance, the carpenter stepped up to it softly. The Father's absence
had not been longer than five minutes, and the thief was still hard
at work filing the padlock. Muttering to Rafael to follow him, and the
other two men to guard the window without, Juan noiselessly pushed open
the heavy shutters, and sprang through the window, Rafael close at his
heels.

It was not until both men had passed through the window, so quick were
their movements, that Pomponio became aware he was discovered. Looking
up, he dropped the file, snatched up the lantern and hurled it against
the wall, shivering it into pieces. Just as the light went out the men
seized him. Pomponio fought like a demon, and was fast getting loose
from their clutches, when Juan shouted to the men outside to come to
their aid; but too late. As they clambered through the window, and
sought to lay hold of him, which was not the work of a moment in the
darkness, the neophyte broke from his antagonists and sprang to one
side, avoiding the oncoming couple from the window. While the men were
shouting and swearing, groping this way and that to find their prey,
Pomponio slid softly to the window, jumped through it, and set off, at
his utmost speed, for the open plain and not far distant forest. During
the fray Father Altimira had remained somewhat apart, outside the room.
As Pomponio rushed by him, the Father, calling him by name, commanded
him to stop. He paid no attention, but kept on his way, and was
immediately lost in the darkness. By this time the four men had piled
out of the window, falling over each other in their eagerness to pursue
the fast escaping game.

"It is useless to follow him," cried the Father. "You could not find him
in this gloom. Wait till daylight, and we will hunt for him. We must
see what damage he has done in the store-room. Stay here. I will get a
light."

The Father went to his chamber, and brought out a lighted lantern, and
with this the men returned to the now, quiet room, entering by the door
which the priest unlocked with the key he had taken from its hiding
place in his own room. With the exception of the shattered lantern, and
the file and hammer lying on the floor, everything was