CHAPTER XXIX.
THE ABBE'S LEGACY.
Life was easy at Quipai, and we were free from care.

On the other hand, we had so much to do that time sped swiftly, and though we were sometimes tired we were never weary.

The abbe made me the civil governor of the mission, and gave orders that I should be as implicitly obeyed as himself.
My duties in this capacity, though not arduous, were interesting, including as they did all that concerned the well-being of the people, the maintenance of the _azequia_, and the irrigation of the oasis.

My leisure hours were spent in study, working in the abbe's laboratory, and with Angela, who nearly always accompanied me on my excursions to the head of the aqueduct which, as I have already mentioned was at the foot of the snow-line, two days' journey from the valley lake.
It was during one of these excursions that we planned our new home, a mountain nest which we would have all to ourselves, and whither at the height of summer we might escape from the heat of the oasis, for albeit the climate of Quipai was fine on the whole, there were times when the temperature rose to an uncomfortable height.

The spot on which we fixed was a hollow in the hills, some two miles beyond the crater reservoir and about eight thousand feet above the level of the sea.