t, hundreds of feet above the level, toss a
somersault as it was freed of its tension and--this was horrible!--pitch
a man head-foremost into the air.

He cried out at the sight, and so did the rascals who had done their
rattening for a comparatively innocent purpose.

But when he and a dozen others had made the desperate descent of the
zigzag, they found that the dead man was Domecq. Even the miners had no
love for this arch-troubler, and, in trying to avoid Don Ferdinando, the
sight of whom, coming down the track, had warned him of danger, Domecq
had done the mine the best turn possible.

Toro's own warning was of course much too late.

The tragedy had a great effect. Saint Gavino was neglected after all,
and it was in very humble spirits that the ringleaders of the plot
confessed their sins and agreed to suffer the consequences.

Jim by-and-by tried to tell his brother and Don Ferdinando that if only
they had listened to him at dinner the "accident" might not have
happened. But he stammered so much again (Don Ferdinando was as stern as
a headmaster) that he shut up.

"It's--it's--nothing particu--ticu--_ticular_, Mr. Summerfield!" he
explained.

Don Ferdinando was anything but depressed about Domecq's death; and Jim
didn't want to damp his spirits. Of course, if Domecq had really killed
another fellow only a few weeks ago, as was rumoured, he deserved the
fate that had overtaken him.

III

A VERY NARROW SHAVE

One winter's day in San Francisco my friend Halley, an enthusiastic shot
who had killed bears in India, came to me and said, "Let's go south. I'm
tired of towns. Let's go south and have some real tip-top shooting."

In the matter of sport, California in those days--thirty years
ago--differed widely from the California of to-day. Then, the sage brush
of the foot-hills teemed with quail, and swans, geese, duck
(canvas-back, mallard, teal, widgeon, and many other varieties)
literally filled the lagoons and reed-beds, giving magnificent shooting
as they flew in countless strings to and fro between the sea and the
fresh water; whilst, farther inland, snipe were to be had in the swamps
almost "for the asking." On the plains were antelope, and in the hills
and in the Sierra Nevadas, deer and bears, both cinnamon and grizzly.
Verily a sportsman's paradise!

The next day saw us on board the little _Arizona_, bound for San Pedro,
a forty-hours' trip down the coast. We took with us only shot-guns,