"She must not go," whispered Garcia. "Oh, the ----." And here he called
Clara a string of names which cannot be repeated. "She shall not go
there," he continued. "She will marry him. Then the property is gone, and
we are ruined. Oh, the ----." And then came another assortment of violent
and vile epithets, such as are not found in dictionaries.

Coronado was anxious to divert and dissipate a rage which might make
trouble; and as soon as he could get in a word, he asked, "But what have
you been doing, my uncle?"

By dint of questioning and guessing he made out the story of the old man's
adventures since leaving the hacienda. Garcia, in extreme terror of
hanging, had gone straight to San Francisco and taken passage for San
Diego, with the intention of not stopping until he should be at least as
far away as Santa Fe. But after a few hours at sea, he had recovered his
wits and his courage, and asked himself, why should he fly? If Clara died,
the property would be his, and if she survived, he ought to be near her;
while as for Carlos, he would surely never expose and hang a man who could
cut him off with a shilling. So he landed at Monterey, took the first
coaster back to San Francisco, lurked about the city until he learned that
the girl was still living, and was just about to put a bold front on the
matter by going to see her at the hacienda, when he learned accidentally
that she was on the point of voyaging southward. Puzzled and alarmed by
this, he resolved to accompany her in her wanderings, and succeeded in
getting himself quietly on board the Lolotte.

"Well, let us go on deck," said Coronado, when the old man had regained
his tranquillity. "But let us be gentle, my uncle. We know how to govern
ourselves, I hope. You will of course behave like a mother to our little
cousin. Congratulate her on her recovery; apologize for your awkward
mistake. It was caused by the coming on of the fit, you remember. A man
who is about to have an attack of epilepsy can't of course tell one pocket
from another. But such a man is all the more bound to be unctuous."

Clara received the old man cordially, although she would have preferred
not to see him there, fearing lest he should oppose her nursing project.
But as nothing was said on this matter, and as Garcia put his least cloven
foot foremost, the trio not only got on amicably together, but seemed to
enjoy one another's society. This was no common feat by the way; each of
the thre