ive head sink softly down again. "No such
luck for him," he said curtly, but not unkindly. "It's a stroke of
paralysis--and about as big as they make 'em. It's a toss-up if he
ever speaks or moves again as long as he lives."

CHAPTER I

When Alvin Mulrady announced his intention of growing potatoes and
garden "truck" on the green slopes of Los Gatos, the mining community
of that region, and the adjacent hamlet of "Rough-and-Ready," regarded
it with the contemptuous indifference usually shown by those
adventurers towards all bucolic pursuits. There was certainly no
active objection to the occupation of two hillsides, which gave so
little promise to the prospector for gold that it was currently
reported that a single prospector, called "Slinn," had once gone mad or
imbecile through repeated failures. The only opposition came,
incongruously enough, from the original pastoral owner of the soil, one
Don Ramon Alvarado, whose claim for seven leagues of hill and valley,
including the now prosperous towns of Rough-and-Ready and Red Dog, was
met with simple derision from the squatters and miners. "Looks ez ef
we woz goin' to travel three thousand miles to open up his d--d old
wilderness, and then pay for the increased valoo we give it--don't it?
Oh, yes, certainly!" was their ironical commentary. Mulrady might have
been pardoned for adopting this popular opinion; but by an equally
incongruous sentiment, peculiar, however, to the man, he called upon
Don Ramon, and actually offered to purchase the land, or "go shares"
with him in the agricultural profits. It was alleged that the Don was
so struck with this concession that he not only granted the land, but
struck up a quaint reserved friendship for the simple-minded
agriculturist and his family. It is scarcely necessary to add that
this intimacy was viewed by the miners with the contempt that it
deserved. They would have been more contemptuous, however, had they
known the opinion that Don Ramon entertained of their particular
vocation, and which he early confided to Mulrady.

"They are savages who expect to reap where they have not sown; to take
out of the earth without returning anything to it but their precious
carcasses; heathens, who worship the mere stones they dig up." "And
was there no Spaniard who ever dug gold?" asked Mulrady, simply. "Ah,
there are Spaniards and Moors," responded Don Ramon, sententiously.
"Gold has been dug, and by caballeros; but no go