s tales about
that place, and the Carrizals as well. Billie's father nearly cashed
in down in the Carrizals, and one of his men did."

"But that is what I am saying. It was Dario Ruiz," stated Tia Luz.
"Yes, senor, that was the time, and it was for the nameless ranges
they went seeking, and for adventures, treasure too; but--his soul to
God! it was death Dario was finding on that trail. Your father never
would speak one word again of the treasure of that old fable, for
Dario found death instead of the red gold, and Dario was _compadre_ to
him."

"The red gold?" and Cap Pike's eyes were alight with interest. "Why, I
was telling Kit about that today, the red gold of El Alisal."

"Yes, Senor Capitan, once so rich and so red it was a wonder in Spain
when the padres are sending it there from the mission of Soledad, and
then witches craft, like a cloud, come down and cover that mountain.
So is the vein lost again, and it is nearly one hundred years. So how
could Dario think to find it when the padres, with all their prayer,
never once found the trail?"

"I never heard it was near a mission," remarked Pike. "Why, if it had
a landmark like that there should be no trouble."

"Yet it is so, and much trouble, also deaths," stated Tia Luz. "That
is how the saying is that the red gold of El Alisal is gold bewitched,
for of Soledad not one adobe is now above ground unless it be in the
old walls of the hacienda. All is melted into earth again or covered
by the ranch house, and it is said the ranch house is also neglected
now, and many of its old walls are going."

"There are still enough left to serve as a very fair fortress,"
remarked Singleton. "I was down there two years ago when we bought
some herds from Perez, and lost quite a number from lack of water
before the vaqueros got them to La Partida wells. It is a long way
between water holes over in Altar."

"Sure," agreed Pike, "but if the old mine was near a mission, and the
mission was near the ranch of Soledad it should not be a great stunt
to find it, and there must be water and plenty of it if they do much
in cattle."

"They don't these days," said Singleton. "Perez sold a lot rather than
risk confiscation, and I heard they did have some raids down there. I
thought I had heard most of the lost mine legends of western Sonora,
but I never heard of that one, and I never heard that Fred Bernard
went looking for it."

The old woman lifted her brows and shrugged her shoul