He returned in seven days, and in the midst of the plain there were
three houses and a mill, and many people. And why was it? Ah! Mother of
God! one had picked up in the creek where he drank that much of gold;"
and the muleteer tapped one of the silver coins that fringed his jacket
sleeves in place of buttons.
"And they are washing the sands for gold there now," said Antonio,
eagerly pointing to some men gathered round a machine like an enormous
cradle. "Let us hasten on."
Father Pedro's momentary interest had passed. The words of his
companions fell dull and meaningless upon his dreaming ears. He was
conscious only that the child was more a stranger to him as an outcome
of this hard, bustling life, than when he believed her borne to him over
the mysterious sea. It perplexed his dazed, disturbed mind to think that
if such an antagonistic element could exist within a dozen miles of
the Mission, and he not know it, could not such an atmosphere have been
around him, even in his monastic isolation, and he remain blind to it?
Had he really lived in the world without knowing it? Had it been in his
blood? Had it impelled him to--He shuddered and rode on.
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