"All right," Nicoya accepted the rebuff. "Then do you throw in your pulque bottle and see what you will see. We drew a dog and a man. Your prize may be the devil."
"I should like to see the devil," said Jose, taking another drain at the bottle. "The pulque is a true fire of bravery. I should very much like to see the devil."
He passed the bottle to his companion with a gesture to finish it.
"Now throw it into the water," Jose commanded.
The empty bottle struck with a forceful splash, and the evoking was realized with startling immediacy, for up to the surface floated the monstrous, hairy body of the slain spider. Which was too much for ordinary Indian flesh and blood. So suddenly did both young men recoil from the sight that they capsized the canoe. When their heads emerged from the water they struck out for the swift current, and were swiftly borne away down stream, followed more slowly by the swamped canoe.
Nicoya and Concordia had been too frightened to giggle. They held on to each other and waited, watching the magic water and out of the tails of their eyes observing the frightened young men capture the canoe, tow it to shore, and run out and hide on the bank.
The afternoon sun was getting low in the sky ere the girls summoned courage again to evoke the magic water. Only after much discussion did they agree both to fling in clods of earth at the same time. And up arose a man and a woman-Francis and the Queen. The girls fell over backward into the bushes, and were themselves unobserved as they watched Francis swim with the Queen to shore.
"It may just have happened all these things may just have happened at the very times we threw things into the water," Nicoya whispered to Concordia five minutes later.
"But when we threw one thing in, only one came up," Concordia argued. "And when we threw two, two came up."
"Very well," said Nicoya. "Let us now prove it. Let us try again, both of us. If nothing comes up, then have we no power of magic."