ornia type, low, with broad
verandas, and built on four sides around a court with a fountain in the
centre, with fish in the basin, and grass around it. There were
beautiful rose-tree bushes with gold and red clusters growing over the
corners of the house.

From the verandah there was a beautiful view looking off over the
surrounding country. The house itself stood on a rise of ground that
sloped gently from the plain below. Back of it rose the mountains of the
coast range, while in the distance glittered the broad breadths of the
Pacific, shining like an azure floor. As far as eye could see was the
domain of this great ranch. It was, indeed, a princely estate, and one
of which the Senor Sebastian might well be proud. Those were the days of
romance and of charm in the land of Southern California.

CHAPTER XIII

A NEW FRIEND

The servants eyed the two boys curiously as they stepped upon the
verandah and the brothers were not reassured by any looks of
friendliness, though they were outwardly courteous. A withered looking
old woman, who looked to Jim as though she had Indian blood showed the
boys to a room, where they could wash up.

"Jove! Doesn't it dazzle your eyes, Jo?" exclaimed Jim, "to see a real
room, with a bed and a white spread, with those starched things where
the pillows ought to be."

"This room would certainly please Aunt Maria," remarked Jo. "That four
poster bed with the canopy over it, is an old timer, I'll warrant you."

"If I slept in this room," said Jim, "I would make a low bow to the bed
and then roll up in my blanket and go to sleep on the floor."

"How do I look?" asked Jo, after he had rubbed and scrubbed his face
for a long time.

"You have got off the first layer," replied Jim, "and look about the
color of a half-breed. Let me try my hand at polishing up."

"It will take you a week," remarked Jo discouragingly.

It cannot be truly said that they looked ornamental even when they were
clean, for Jim's face was badly torn, one side of it being scraped raw.
He got this memento when he tackled the Captain and fell down into the
canyon with him. One eye was blackened and the other cheek bruised.
These disadvantages were not to be overcome in a short time.

Jo was somewhat more presentable, but he, too, showed signs of the rough
time that they had had with the Captain and his "merry" crew. But in
spite of all this, there was something in their bearing, an honest
hardihood and man