en
hers ever sence she was a girl, they said, I never saw people think so
much of hosses as they did."

Before Jos had finished speaking, Felipe had bounded into the wagon,
throwing his horse's reins to a boy in the crowd, and crying, "Follow
along with my horse, will you? I must speak to this man."

Found! Found,--the saints be praised,--at last! How should he tell this
man fast enough? How should he thank him enough?

Laying his hand on Jos's knee, he cried: "I can't explain to you; I
can't tell you. Bless you forever,--forever! It must be the saints led
you here!"

"Oh, Lawd!" thought Jos; "another o' them 'saint' fellers! I allow not,
Senor," he said, relapsing into Tennesseean. "It wur Tom Wurmsee led me;
I wuz gwine ter move his truck fur him this arternoon."

"Take me home with you to your house," said Felipe, still trembling with
excitement; "we cannot talk here in the street. I want to hear all
you can tell me about them. I have been searching for them all over
California."

Jos's face lighted up. This meant good fortune for that gentle, sweet
Ramona, he was sure. "I'll take you straight there," he said; "but first
I must stop at Tom's. He will be waiting for me."

The crowd dispersed, disappointed; cheated out of their anticipated
scene of an arrest for horse-stealing. "Good for you, Tennessee!" and,
"Fork over that black horse, Jos!" echoed from the departing groups.
Sensations were not so common in San Bernardino that they could afford
to slight so notable an occasion as this.

As Jos turned the corner into the street where he lived, he saw his
mother coming at a rapid run towards them, her sun-bonnet half off her
head, her spectacles pushed up in her hair.

"Why, thar's mammy!" he exclaimed. "What ever hez gone wrong naow?"

Before he finished speaking, she saw the black horses, and snatching
her bonnet from her head waved it wildly, crying, "Yeow Jos! Jos, hyar!
Stop! I wuz er comin' ter hunt yer!"

Breathlessly she continued talking, her words half lost in the sound
of the wheels. Apparently she did not see the stranger sitting by Jos's
side. "Oh, Jos, thar's the terriblest news come! Thet Injun Alessandro's
got killed; murdered; jest murdered, I say; 'tain't no less. Thar wuz an
Injun come down from ther mounting with a letter to the Agent."

"Good God! Alessandro killed!" burst from Felipe's lips in a
heart-rending voice.

Jos looked bewilderedly from his mother to Felipe; the complicati