chinery?"

"I do! I do! My father was of the people, a poor boy. He has risen
to be the most powerful of all Californians, although the King he
adores never makes him Gobernador Proprietario. I tell him he should
be the first to recognize the genius and the ambitions of a Bonaparte.
The mere thought horrifies him. But in me that same strong plebeian
blood makes another cry, and if my father had but enough men at his
back, and the will to make himself King of the Californias--Madre de
Dios! how I should help him!"

"At least I know her better than she knows me," thought Rezanov, as the
inner door was thrown open and another bare room with a long table
laden with savory food on a superb silver service was revealed. "And
if I know anything of women, I can trust her--for as long as she may be
necessary, at all events."

III

"Santiago!" whispered Concha. "Do not go down to the ship. Take me
for a walk. I have much to say."

Santiago, who had not been asked to form one of the escort upon the
return of the Russians to the Juno for the night, felt injured and
sulky and deigned no reply.

"If you do not, I'll not braid your hair to-morrow," said his sister,
giving his arm a little shake; and he succumbed. The luxuriant tresses
of the male Arguellos were combed and braided and tied with a ribbon
every morning by the women of the family, and Concha's fingers were the
gentlest and deftest. And Concha and Santiago were more intimate than
even the rest of that united family. They had studied and read
together, were equally dissatisfied with their narrow existence,
ambitious for a wider experience. Santiago consoled himself with cards
and training roosters for battle, and otherwise as a man may. He was
but fifteen, this haughty, severe-looking young hidalgo, but while in
some respects many years older than his sister, in others he was
younger, for he possessed none of her illuminating instinct.

She led him through a postern gate, round the first of the dunes, and
they were alone in a waste of sand. She demanded abruptly:

"What do you think of our illustrious visitor?"

"I like him. He would wring your neck if you got in his way, but has a
kind heart for those that call him master. I like that sort of a man.
I wish he would take me away with him."

"He shall--one of these days. Santiago mio, let me whisper--" She
pulled his ear down to her lips. "He will marry me. I feel it. I
know it. He has t