I gasped, speechless with surprise. Xibaltango within three days’ march of where I sat! Jolly, good-hearted, roly-poly old Padre José barely sixty miles distant! I could scarcely believe my ears. But very possibly there was more than one Xibaltango. “And know you not how he calls himself, the Padre?” I queried. “Of a truth, most certainly, my lord,” declared the Indian. “All the world knows that; all know him as the Padre José.” There was no doubt about it. By some whim of fate, of chance or of Providence the ‘Way of the Symbol’ had led us to--well, relatively speaking, to the front door of Padre José. Three days later we stood before him, and the amazed, incredulous, utterly flabbergasted expression that came over his ruddy jovial face when he recognized me, is beyond words to describe. “_Santisima Madre!_” he cried, devoutly crossing himself at his involuntary exclamation. “It is the Señor Americano! It is the Señor who had the codex and who went to Katchilcan! But, Señor, it is impossible, it is a miracle, it is an apparition! He--the Señor--you, were killed, destroyed, murdered by the Indios Bravos! I had word from Katchilcan--your--his--the Señor’s bearers returned with the tale. I have said masses, prayers; have burned candles for the repose of your--the Señor Americano’s soul. I have done penance for having sent you--him--into the wilderness. “Dios mio, it cannot be so, Señor, it is not--tell me it _is_ true!” I assured him that it was true, that I was very much alive, that I had never been killed. He heaved an immense sigh of vast relief. Then, with a twinkle in his eye. “And the Señorita, Señor? Is she--the pretty one--also real or is she perhaps an apparition?” “She, also, is most real _mi_ Padre,” I assured him. “It is a long, long story and greatly, I know, it will interest and amaze you. But first of all, would I ask that you convince yourself that we are both of flesh and blood by making us man and wife.” He pursed his lips and whistled. Placing the tips of his pudgy fingers together, cocking his head first on one side and then the other, he surveyed us critically. Then he burst out laughing.