plaza, but his
women-folks live mostly in 'Frisco and New York, where he's got houses
too. They say they sorter got sick of Tasajara after his youngest
daughter ran off with a feller."

"Hallo!" said the stranger with undisguised interest. "I never heard of
that! You don't mean that she eloped"--he hesitated.

"Oh, it was a square enough marriage. I reckon too square to suit some
folks; but the fellow hadn't nothin', and wasn't worth shucks,--a sort
of land surveyor, doin' odd jobs, you know; and the old man and old
woman were agin it, and the tother daughter worse of all. It was allowed
here--you know how women-folks talk!--that the surveyor had been sweet
on Clementina, but had got tired of being played by her, and took up
with Phemie out o' spite. Anyhow they got married, and Harcourt gave
them to understand they couldn't expect anything from him. P'raps that's
why it didn't last long, for only about two months ago she got a divorce
from Rice and came back to her family again."

"Rice?" queried the stranger. "Was that her husband's name, Stephen
Rice?"

"I reckon! You knew him?"

"Yes,--when the tide came up to the tules, yonder," answered the
stranger musingly. "And the other daughter,--I suppose she has made a
good match, being a beauty and the sole heiress?"

The Tasajaran made a grimace. "Not much! I reckon she's waitin' for the
Angel Gabriel,--there ain't another good enough to suit her here. They
say she's had most of the big men in California waitin' in a line with
their offers, like that cue the fellows used to make at the 'Frisco
post-office steamer days--and she with nary a letter or answer for any
of them."

"Then Harcourt doesn't seem to have been as fortunate in his family
affairs as in his speculations?"

Peters uttered a grim laugh. "Well, I reckon you know all about his
son's stampeding with that girl last spring?"

"His son?" interrupted the stranger. "Do you mean the boy they called
John Milton? Why, he was a mere child!"

"He was old enough to run away with a young woman that helped in his
mother's house, and marry her afore a justice of the peace. The old man
just snorted with rage, and swore he'd have the marriage put aside, for
the boy was under age. He said it was a put-up job of the girl's; that
she was older by two years, and only wanted to get what money might be
comin' some day, but that they'd never see a red cent of it. Then, they
say, John Milton up and sassed the old man t