_Costumbre del país!_ It is a final answer all through South America. No matter how unreasonable a thing may be, if it is the custom of the country it is a Medean law. "But you know this is subversive of Church discipline!" Josè retorted warmly. "Look you, Don Mario," he added suggestively, "you and I are to work together, are we not?" The Alcalde blinked his pig eyes, but thought hard about La Libertad. _"Cierto, Señor Padre!"_ he hastened to exclaim. "Then I demand that you summon before me every man and woman who are living together unmarried." With a thought single to his own future advantage, the wary Alcalde complied. Within the week following this interview Josè married twenty couples, and without charge. Some offered him a few _pesos_. These he took and immediately turned over to Don Mario as treasurer of the parish. Those couples who refused to be married were forced by the Alcalde to separate. But of these there were few. Among them was one Julio Gomez. Packing his few household effects upon his back, and muttering imprecations against the priest, Gomez set out for the hills, still followed by his woman, with a babe slung over her shoulders and two naked children toddling at her bare heels. Verily, the ancient town was being profoundly stirred by the man who had sought to find his tomb there. Gradually the people lost their suspicions and distrust, bred of former bitter experience with priests, and joined heartily with Josè to ameliorate the social status of the place. His sincere love for them, and his utter selflessness, secured their confidence, and ere his first month among them closed, he had won them, almost to a man. Meantime, six weeks had passed since Rosendo had departed to take up his lonely task of self-renouncing love. Then one day he returned, worn and emaciated, his great frame shaking like a withered leaf in a chill blast. "It is the _terciana_, Padre," he said, as he sank shuddering upon his bed. "It comes every third day. I went as far as Tachí--fifty leagues from Simití--and there the fever overtook me. I have been eight days coming back; and day before yesterday I ran out of food. Last evening I found a wild melon at the side of the trail. A coral snake struck at me when I reached for it, but he hit my _machete_ instead. _Caramba!_" Josè pressed his wet hand, while Doña Maria laid damp cloths upon his burning forehead. "The streams are washed out, Padre," Rosendo continued sadly. "I worked at Colorado, Popales, and Tambora. But I got no more than five _pesos_ worth. And that will not pay for half of my supplies. It is there in a little bag," pointing to his soaked and muddy kit. Josè's heart was wrung by the suffering and disappointment of the old man. Sadly he carried the little handful of gold flakes to Don Mario, and then returned to the exhausted Rosendo.