Perhaps I did wrong, perhaps I may be severely criticized. But however that may be, the idea struck me to plant the symbol of the Christian faith on the spot where I had recited Christian prayers so often. And I have often wondered since, what would be thought if, at some distant time, explorers or archeologists should penetrate to Mictolan, and upon the deserted forgotten temple of the Plumed Serpent, they should find a bronze bell and a Christian cross beside the great stone idol of Kukulcan. There was nothing now to delay our going. My arm was as strong as ever, the flames still streamed from the temple of Kinich Ahau, the Bridge of Light still spanned the chasm at the Cave of the Bats. We planned to leave secretly, to slip away without attracting the attention of the people, without their knowledge. There were three reasons for this. In the first place, the people might object to my deserting them. In the second place, there was the prophecy foretelling that the bearer of the Book of Kukulcan would lead the people from Mictolan to reestablish the ancient empire of their race, and they might insist on accompanying me; while in the third place, as Nohul Voh naively suggested, my mysterious disappearance would be quite in keeping with my supposedly divine character and would do much to strengthen the people’s faith in Kukulcan. So, accompanied by the king and the old sorcerer, who insisted on seeing us off, we left the palace before dawn, and silently and unseen, hurried along that broad straight avenue down which I had come with Itza so many months before. How the others felt as we walked through the chill air on that memorable morning I do not know. But I for one felt more excited, more keyed up than ever in my life before. I was starting on a strange, a perilous adventure, and with me I was taking Itza into dangers no one could foresee. And as I gazed about at the well-known scene, at the silent, flat-roofed houses, at the green fields and gigantic vegetation, at the frowning encircling mountains that hid the valley’s secret from all the world, at the lofty temples spectral in the morning mist, a lump rose in my throat and I felt--strange thought as it was--much as I imagine a man must feel when he is going to his execution. I was leaving all this forever. Suddenly all seemed very dear to me, even the spidery windmills--incongruous things in this isolated valley--seemed like old familiar friends, and had Itza at that moment changed her mind, I would willingly have turned back. But she was all excitement, all gaiety, all agog with the spirit of adventure.