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Show -4- sudden spasm when he heard Fray Silvestre coming up the stairs. The white tonsure bobbed in rhythm as the descent steepened and Juan reined the horse closer to the wall. Fray Silvestre gripped the ropes and sidled down the thirteen steps to the river bank. The men crowded around to shore up the Padre's horse as Juan maneuvered her from step to step. He felt the sudden chill of the river as he had felt the breeze rush through the bare halls of the mission - Fray Silvestre had smiled and patted Juan on the stairway when he left Sister's embrace. Now the priest reached to take Juan's hand as he stepped into the cold, sandy mud beside the river. Juan Domingo cuffed him and talked softly with the Padre. The soldier's eyes yellowed above his beard as he contemplated the stream; at once he stripped his clothes away and plunged, his skin brown like glassy scales in the water. The boy shouted in anguish, watching the foam as Juan Domingo half-swam, half-ran through the thick swirls of silt until only his head showed. Others dove in after him and spread like black pearls over the waste of water - the breath of the gorge made them scream with cold. Juan clung to the cliff face. His breath was frozen and his limbs shook at the boiling expanse of water at his feet. The remembrance of the Yuta, the hot eyes, the dancing and the rattling beads shuddered through him and the pain stammered in his belly. His handsgrasped the rocks tightly. Fray Silvestre had mounted and his horse frixked toward the water, its breath a fluttering steam and its eyes yellow. Juan released the horse and listened to the wild shouts, not daring to look as the last man swept from the water onto the flat rock of the opposite shore. He heard the echo when Juan Domingo attained the rocks and bellowed in triumph. Fray Silvestre urged the horse into the current as the men across the river leaped up in the sunlight like wet lizards. The priest motioned at Juan - the boy looked up to see the horror within him reflecting a blank benedictory stare. "Juanito!" The boy heard the shouts of Juan Domingo beckoning him into the water. Pulling at his boots, he crouched and slowly took off his clothes. |