ena Ventura rancho. Like most of his Southwestern
breed he was a better man at action than at words, and so the story of
the gun-fight which took place when he came upon them has never been
told; but when the smoke of the three pistols cleared away Gonzales
was in custody and Juan was riding hard toward the hills with the
blood running over his face from a bullet's furrow along his scalp.
The fugitive found five others of the band in a sun-baked arroyo that
night, told them the news of the catastrophe, and got a fresh horse to
ride back with them and rescue their companion.

Captain Love was well on his way to Los Angeles with his prisoner when
the sound of drumming hoofs came down the wind. He glanced over his
shoulder and, on a hilltop half a mile behind, saw six horsemen coming
after him at a dead run. If he had any doubt of the nature of that
party he lost it when he turned his head in time to catch Gonzales
waving a handkerchief to them.

The elements of the situation were simple enough,--the Texan's jaded
mount, the fresh horses of the pursuers, the desperation of the
prisoner for whom the gallows was waiting in Los Angeles,--but most
men would have wasted some time in determining on a solution. Love,
who had learned in a hard school the value of seconds in such races as
this, did not choose to part with any more of his handicap than he
had to. So he whipped out his pistol, shot Gonzales through the heart,
and spurred his horse down the dusty road with enough start to
distance the bandits into town.

That was the first noteworthy casualty the band had suffered. It was
followed by the capture of young Reyes Feliz, Rosita's brother, who
was hanged in Los Angeles; and shortly afterward Murieta led his whole
company northward into the oak-dotted hills back of San Luis Obispo
where they lost twenty men--among them Claudio the expert spy--in a
day-long battle with a posse of ranchers whom they had sought to
ambush.

Then Joaquin Murieta rode back with the survivors to Arroyo Cantoova;
and if Rosita, who had been sent with the other women to the
rendezvous early in the summer, felt her heart leap when she saw her
lover coming, she soon felt it sink again, for he spent but few
moments in her company. Horses and gold and his large plan to sweep
like fire through California--these were the only thoughts he had.
Within a week he had divided the band into several parties, two of
which under himself and Three-Fingered Jac