He had already risen and was halfway to the door before he appeared to
remember something. "Oh," halting, his hand on the latch, "where is
that--that José? Pearl could not go up there with him about."

Mrs. Gallito, all timorousness again, beat her hands lightly together,
in a distressful flurry. "No, he's there," she whispered, and glanced
anxiously about her. Then she came nearer. "I heard Gallito and Bob
talking about him only yesterday and Bob said there was some mischief
brewing among José's pals down on the coast, and Gallito said, yes, and
if he let José leave the mountain he'd be right back there again and in
the thick of it and sure to be taken and that he, Gallito, meant to keep
José in Colina all year, if necessary."

So great was Hanson's satisfaction at this news that he had difficulty
in concealing it, but Mrs. Gallito was not an observant person,
fortunately, and, hastily changing the subject, he again expressed his
thanks and departed.

He left the next morning for Los Angeles to the regret of his
benefactress, Jimmy and the station agent.




CHAPTER VIII


The train which bore Pearl and her father to Colina had already
completed its smooth progress through smiling foot hills and had begun a
steep and winding ascent among wild gorges and great overhanging rocks