As the four were returning from the auriculum to the quarters of the corps, a week or more after the padre’s return, he overtook them and listened to their conversation unperceived. As each entertained one or two Manatitlan aura-lists in his ear, the conversation was strangely diversified in irrelevancy, which would have caused a stranger to the events transpiring, possessed with the least taint of superstition, to have supposed them insane or bewitched. The padre listened with wondering attraction to catch the drift of their mirthful sallies, hoping to learn the cause, or obtain a clew to their mysterious convocations. Their incoherent address of questions, which although unanswered, appeared to provoke outbursts of merriment, in one, without attracting the least notice from the others, caused him at first to think it was the prelude to one of Mr. Welson’s practical essays of humor designed to entrap him. But the earnest manner in which the conversation was conducted, and the unmistakable evidences of genuine mirth, put this conjecture to flight. His next suggestive impression was ushered in with a shudder; could it be possible that they were subject to a spell of enchantment, and that the seeming city of Heraclea was the abode of enchanters, the spirits of darkness against which the fathers had especially warned the heedless? This frightful ghost of a suspicion received such evident confirmation that he immediately had recourse to his rosary that had been bestowed by Fraile Gallagato, of Amelcoy, for numbering exorcising prayers. The rattling of the beads, with the muttering sound of his Ave Marias, attracted the attention of Mr. Welson, as he turned aside to allow the others to enter the puerta in advance, and he for the first time became aware of the padre’s presence. The anxious dismay of the padre’s countenance revealed the source of his emotions, prompting Mr. Welson to play upon his fears, but the Dosch auramented the inquiry:—
“Well padre, what is it that causes you to look so frightened?”
_Padre._ “Wha-wha-what does it all mean, I should like to know? Are you bewitched or leagued with the devil [crossing himself], or what are you doing at any rate? I wish to goodness I had gone back to Montevideo!”