below. At its head was the "Battery of Yerba
Buena," facing the island from which it took its
name. Rezanov scrupulously kept his word and did
not raise his glass, but one contemptuous glance
satisfied his curiosity. His eye rolled over the steep
hills that were designed to bristle with forts, and,
as sometimes happened, when he spoke again to
Concha, whom he kept close to his side, for the other
girls bored him, his words did not express the work-
ings of his mind.

"Athens has no finer site than this," he said. "I
should like to see a white marble city on these hills,
and on that plain, when all the sand dunes are
leveled. Not in our time, perhaps! But, as I told
you, I have surrendered myself to the habit of
dreaming."

Concha shrugged her shoulders and made no re-
ply at the moment. As they sailed toward the east
before turning south again, she pointed across the
great silvery sheet of water melting into the misty
southern horizon, to a high ridge of mountains that
looked to be a continuation of the San Bruno range
behind the Mission, but slanting farther west with
the coast line.

"Those are behind our rancho, senor--Rancho El
Pilar, or Las Pulgas, as some prefer. Perhaps my
father will take you there. I hope so, for we love to