[p 130]
While they were gone Pedro’s wife left
the baby and Pablo with a neighbor and asked her to send Pablo to the chapel if there should be any news. Then she and Doña Teresa went there to pray.
The chapel door was open and candles were burning on the little altar, as the two women crept in and knelt before the image of the Virgin and Child.
“O Holy Mother,” sobbed Doña Teresa, “help us who are mothers, too!”
All night long they knelt on the chapel floor before the images, sobbing and praying, listening for footsteps that did not come, and promising many candles to be placed upon the altar, if only their dear ones could be restored to them.
It was long after the rain was over and the moon shining again that the weary search party returned to the village without any news of the wanderers.