Elias hesitated.
“I knew one; the dead man.”
“I regret his death,” said Ibarra; “from him I might have learned more.”
“Had he lived, he would have escaped the trembling hand of men’s justice. God has judged him!”
“Do you also believe in the miracle of which the people talk?”
“If I believed in such a miracle, I should not believe in God, and I believe in Him; I have more than once felt His hand. At the moment when the scaffolding gave way I placed myself beside the criminal.” Elias looked at Ibarra.
“You—you mean that you——”
“Yes, when his deadly work was about to be done, he was going to flee; I held him there; I had seen his crime! Let God be the only one who has the right over life!”
“And yet, this time you——”
“No!” cried Elias. “I exposed the criminal to the risk he had prepared for others; I ran the risk myself; and I did not strike him; I left him to be struck by the hand of God!”