Instinctively he glanced at the strange scaffolding raised there.

He saw the yellowish individual salute him respectfully and gaze at him fixedly for a moment.

With surprise he noticed Elias, who with a significant wink gave him to understand that he should remember the warning in the church.
The curate put on his sacerdotal robes and commenced the ceremony, while the one-eyed sacristan held the book and an acolyte the hyssop and jar of holy water.

The rest stood about him uncovered, and maintained such a profound silence that, in spite of his reading in a low tone, it was apparent that Padre Salvi's voice was trembling.
Meanwhile, there had been placed in the glass case the manuscripts, newspapers, medals, coins, and the like, and the whole enclosed in the leaden cylinder, which was then hermetically sealed.
"Senor Ibarra, will you put the box in its place?
The curate is waiting," murmured the alcalde into the young man's ear.
"I would with great pleasure," answered the latter, "but that would be usurping the honorable duty of the escribano.

The escribano must make affidavit of the act." So the escribano gravely took the box, descended the carpeted stairway leading to the bottom of the excavation and with due solemnity placed it in the hole in the stone.