CHAPTER XI.

"I'SE GWINE BACK TO DIXIE."--THE FORTUNES OF WAR.--VAL VERDE.





The last weeks of Maxime Valois' stay at Lagunitas drift away.
Old "Kaintuck" has plead in vain to go. He yields to Valois' orders
not to dream of going with him. His martial heart is fired, but
some one must watch the home. Padre Francois Ribaut has all the
documents of the family, the marriage, and birth of the infant heir.
He is custodian also of the will of Donna Dolores. She leaves her
family inheritance to her child, and failing her, to her husband.
The two representatives of the departing master know that Philip
Hardin will safely guide the legal management of the estate while
its chieftain is at the wars.

Donna Dolores and the priest accompany Valois to San Francisco. He
must leave quietly. He is liable to arrest. He takes the Mexican
steamer, as if for a temporary absence.

It costs Maxime Valois a keen pang of regret, as he rides the last
time over his superb domain. He looks around the plaza, and walks
alone through the well-remembered rooms. He takes his seat, with
a sigh, by his wife's side, as the carriage whirls him down the
avenues. The orange-trees are in bloom. The gardens show the rare
beauties of midland California. As far as the eye can reach, the