ble. Mercy, no! All I want you to do is
this, just write me now and then and let me know how things are going,
and maybe, once in a while, slip a letter of mine in one of yours to
Pearl; but," as she gasped a little and opened her eyes widely, "not
till you're sure it's quite safe."

"Well," she agreed, still in evident perturbation of mind, "maybe--"

"Oh, Mrs. Gallito," pleadingly, "can't you see that me and Pearl are
born for one another? You know that she can't live away from the
footlights. She just can't. And you know that I can put her where she
belongs. You know that our hearts are better guides than all Bob Flick
and her Pop can plan for her."

His efforts were not wasted. As he had foreseen, his arguments were of a
nature to appeal to Mrs. Gallito, and it required only a little more
persuasion to win her promise of assistance. He further flattered her
self-esteem by interlarding his profuse thanks with vague hints of the
extreme lengths to which his despair might have led him had it not been
for the saving power of her sympathy and understanding.

He had already risen and was halfway to the door before he appeared to
remember something. "Oh," halting, his hand on the latch, "where is
that--that Jose? Pearl could not go up there with him about."

Mrs. Gallito, all timorousness again, beat her hands lightly together,
in a distressful flurry. "No, he's there," she whispered, and glanced
anxiously about her. Then she came nearer. "I heard Gallito and Bob
talking about him only yesterday and Bob said there was some mischief
brewing among Jose's pals down on the coast, and Gallito said, yes, and
if he let Jose leave the mountain he'd be right back there again and in
the thick of it and sure to be taken and that he, Gallito, meant to keep
Jose in Colina all year, if necessary."

So great was Hanson's satisfaction at this news that he had difficulty
in concealing it, but Mrs. Gallito was not an observant person,
fortunately, and, hastily changing the subject, he again expressed his
thanks and departed.

He left the next morning for Los Angeles to the regret of his
benefactress, Jimmy and the station agent.

CHAPTER VIII

The train which bore Pearl and her father to Colina had already
completed its smooth progress through smiling foot hills and had begun a
steep and winding ascent among wild gorges and great overhanging rocks
before she noticed the change.

For the greater part of the journey she ha