"And, Jose, he shall reach the outer opening alive, and with all his
belongings. He has no money. Do you hear?" Jose grunted. "Go, now,
under, cover of the noise."

"But the gift for Elena!"

Rosa laughed mockingly. "What a child it is! My gift to Elena tonight,
is you - her lover. Ask her to thank me with a prayer from her pure
heart for my sins."

Jose led the young man through a long, damp, evil-odored passage
underground, and out through a trapdoor at the extreme end of the
garden. A shrub grew on top of the door, surrounded by a bed of fragrant
wild pansies. Jose kicked the staring youth away from the entrance and
vanished into the earth looking, in the lantern-light like a malevolent
fiend returning to the realm of everlasting fire.

* * * * *

The balls which were given at the Franklin House on the old Pioneer road
were the most pretentious of the year. Feminine loveliness in silks and
cameos gathered from every section. General Sutter and his officers
sometimes were there, and the Spanish grandees brought to them the
lovely, star-eyed beauties of their households.

On this night a brilliant assemblage stood about in the ballroom floor
ready for a quadrille. Elena Ashley and her betrothed were near the wide
entrance doors.

"There is "Sheriff Paul of Calaveras County," she told him. "He does not