nished the mass, he fell forward at the
altar and was dead. And when we put him in the grave, his body was only
bones, and no flesh; he had gone so long without food, to give it to
us."

At all these Missions Felipe asked in vain for Alessandro. They knew
very little, these northern Indians, about those in the south, they
said. It was seldom one from the southern tribes came northward. They
did not understand each other's speech. The more Felipe inquired, and
the longer he reflected, the more he doubted Alessandro's having ever
gone to Monterey. At Santa Barbara he made a long stay. The Brothers
at the College welcomed him hospitably. They had heard from Father
Salvierderra the sad story of Ramona, and were distressed, with Felipe,
that no traces had been found of her. It grieved Father Salvierderra to
the last, they said; he prayed for her daily, but said he could not get
any certainty in his spirit of his prayers being heard. Only the day
before he died, he had said this to Father Francis, a young Brazilian
monk, to whom he was greatly attached.

In Felipe's overwrought frame of mind this seemed to him a terrible
omen; and he set out on his journey with a still heavier heart
than before. He believed Ramona was dead, buried in some unknown,
unconsecrated spot, never to be found; yet he would not give up the
search. As he journeyed southward, he began to find persons who had
known of Alessandro; and still more, those who had known his father, old
Pablo. But no one had heard anything of Alessandro's whereabouts since
the driving out of his people from Temecula; there was no knowing where
any of those Temecula people were now. They had scattered "like a flock
of ducks," one Indian said,--"like a flock of ducks after they are
fired into. You'd never see all those ducks in any one place again. The
Temecula people were here, there, and everywhere, all through San Diego
County. There was one Temecula man at San Juan Capistrano, however. The
Senor would better see him. He no doubt knew about Alessandro. He was
living in a room in the old Mission building. The priest had given it
to him for taking care of the chapel and the priest's room, and a little
rent besides. He was a hard man, the San Juan Capistrano priest; he
would take the last dollar from a poor man."

It was late at night when Felipe reached San Juan Capistrano; but he
could not sleep till he had seen this man. Here was the first clew he
had gained. He found the