THE windmill was such an immense success that I determined to build a water-wheel. This was a far more ambitious undertaking, but I was glad indeed to have something to occupy my time and mind, for the weeks and months were passing, and I seemed no nearer making my escape from the valley than when I entered it, and I was getting more and more impatient to have Itza as my bride. Moreover, the old priest troubled me not a little. Frequently he asked, a crafty expression in his wicked eyes, when I planned to lead the people forth as provided in the prophecy. But I put an end to this query by suggesting that, if he was so anxious to have the prophecy fulfilled, he should ask his gods to restore the Bridge of Light so that they might pass out of the valley. I saw him give a start when I said this. Evidently he feared that I had guessed that he controlled the bridge, but he quickly recovered himself and promised to ask his god. But I was now thoroughly convinced that, from the first, he had feared I might lead the people from the valley and had cut off the bridge to prevent my doing so. I could scarcely believe that he wished to prevent _me_ from leaving by myself. He had every reason to want to be rid of me. But I did not know the old rascal, had no conception of his mental processes, and never suspected the lengths to which he would go to attain something which compared to other things would seem a matter of little importance. But by keeping myself occupied with my mechanical work, I managed to forget other troubles, to put the old priest’s hateful presence from my thoughts, and to make time pass more quickly. Moreover, I had Itza with me constantly, for at my suggestion, Azcopil had taken up his residence with his wife and sister in the palace; Itza and the Princess Mitchi Ina had become inseparable, and we were a happy and intimate household. But to return to the water-wheel. As there was an abundance of water and a natural fall where the stream tumbled over a six-foot ledge, I decided to construct a back-pitch wheel as being the simplest. Nearly two weeks were consumed in the construction of the wheel itself, but in the end I had the satisfaction of looking upon a water wheel such as no human eyes had ever before seen. Its metal fastenings, the heavy bands about its wooden axle, the collars that secured the spokes in place, were of solid silver and its thirty-five buckets or paddles were of gold! Meanwhile work on the wooden gears and the massive stone rollers had been going on, and by the time the heavy, cumbersome wheel was set up, the various units of the mill itself were complete. I had no intention of using wooden gear-wheels, but meant merely to employ the wooden ones as patterns with which to make moulds for casting metal gears. For this purpose I used an alloy of copper and silver--a sort of bronze--which was used by the natives for many purposes, and which was the hardest metal obtainable in the valley.