ceal her indignant color. She
could share the household work with a squaw and Chinaman, she could
fetch wood and water. Catlin had patronizingly seen her doing it, but to
dance to his vulgar piping--never!

She was not long in reaching the sands that now lay before her,
warm, sweet-scented from short beach grass, stretching to a dim rocky
promontory, and absolutely untrod by any foot but her own. It was this
virginity of seclusion that had been charming to her girlhood; fenced
in between the impenetrable hedge of scrub-oaks on the one side, and the
lifting green walls of breakers tipped with chevaux de frise of white
foam on the other, she had known a perfect security for her sports
and fancies that had captivated her town-bred instincts and native
fastidiousness. A few white-winged sea-birds, as proud, reserved, and
maiden-like as herself, had been her only companions. And it was now
the custodian of her secret,--a secret as innocent and childlike as her
previous youthful fancies,--but still a secret known only to herself.

One day she had come upon the rotting ribs of a wreck on the beach. Its
distance from the tide line, its position, and its deep imbedding of
sand, showed that it was of ancient origin. An omnivorous reader of all
that pertained to the history of California, Jenny had in fancy often
sailed the seas in one of those mysterious treasure-ships that had
skirted the coast in bygone days, and she at once settled in her mind
that her discovery was none other than a castaway Philippine galleon.
Partly from her reserve, and partly from a suddenly conceived plan,
she determined to keep its existence unknown to her father, as careful
inquiry on her part had found it was equally unknown to the neighbors.
For this shy, imaginative young girl of eighteen had convinced herself
that it might still contain a part of its old treasure. She would dig
for it herself, without telling anybody. If she failed, no one would
know it; if she were successful, she would surprise her father and
perhaps retrieve their fortune by less vulgar means than their present
toil. Thanks to the secluded locality and the fact that she was known
to spend her leisure moments in wandering there, she could work without
suspicion. Secretly conveying a shovel and a few tools to the spot the
next day, she set about her prodigious task. As the upper works were
gone, and the galleon not large, in three weeks, working an hour or two
each day, she had m