oon had been burned, and he had not had
a drink for an hour. "I'll run you in for wearing boys' clothes; have
you ever heard the penalty for that, miss? And I'll run in this little
greaser as a vagrant."

Helena burst into shrieks of terror, clinging to Magdalena, who
comforted her mechanically, too terrified, herself, to speak. Even in
that awful moment it was her father she feared, not the law.

"Shut up!" exclaimed the officer. "None of that." He paused abruptly and
regarded Helena closely. She was searching wildly in her pockets. "Oh,
if you've got a fiver," he said easily, "I'll call it square."

"I haven't so much as a five-cent piece," sobbed Helena, with a fresh
burst of tears. "Oh, 'Lena, what shall we do?"

"You'll come with me! that's what you'll do." He took them firmly by the
hand and dragged them through the crowd, a section of which had
transferred its attentions to the victims of the officer's wrath. But
the three were soon hurrying up a dark cross-street toward a car; and as
they went Helena recovered herself, and began to cast about among her
plentiful resource. She dared not risk telling this man their names, and
bid him take them home in hope of reward, for he would certainly demand
that reward of their scandalised parents. No, she decided, she would
confide in the dignitary in charge at the station; and as soon as he
knew who she was, he would be sure to let them go at once.

They went up town on a street-car. Helena had never been in one before,
and the experience interested her; but Magdalena sat dumb and wretched.
She had been a docile child, and her father's anger had never been
visited upon her; but she had seen his frightful outbursts at the
servants, and once he had horsewhipped a Mexican in his employ until the
lad's shrieks had made Magdalena put her fingers in her ears. He would
not whip her, of course; but what would he do? And this horrid man, who
was of the class of her father's coachman, had called her a "greaser."
She had all the pride of her race. The insult stifled her. She felt
smirched and degraded.

Nor was this all: she had had her first signal experience of the pall
that lines the golden cloud.

The officer motioned to the conductor to stop in front of a squat
building in front of the Old Plaza. The man, whose gall had been slowly
rising for want of drink, hurried them roughly off the car and across
the sidewalk into a dark passage. Their feet lagged, and he shoved them