"No, senor, I could not betray a man who had
been our guest, and Spain needs no assistance from
a weak girl to hold her own against Russia."

"Well said! I kiss your hands, as they say in
Vienna. But we must sail again. I told them to be
ready at three o'clock."

Dalliance with the most alluring girl he had ever
known was all very well, but the day's work was
not yet done. When they returned to the ship he
deliberately engaged all the Spaniards in a game of
cards, ordered cigarettes and a bowl of punch for
their refreshment, and then the Juno steered south.

They sailed swiftly past Nuestra Senorita de los
Angeles and the eastern side of Alcatraz, Rezanov
sweeping every inch with his glass; more slowly
past the peninsula where it came down in a succes-
sion of rough hills almost in a straight line from
the Presidio, ascending to a high outpost of solid
rock, whence it turned abruptly to the south in a
waving line of steep irregular cliffs, harsh, barren,
intersected with gullies. Then the land became sud-
denly as flat as the sea, save for the shifting dunes:
the desert porch of the great fertile valley hidden
from the water by the waves of sand, but indicated
by its rampart of mountains. The shallow water
curved abruptly inward between the rocky mass on
the right and a gentler incline and point two miles