Jones and
William Howard. Hyde was not certain whether they would be amenable to
his program. Well, he would see.

A shadow loomed in his doorway. He looked up to see Adrian Stanley and
Robert Windham.

"Come in. Come in." He tried to speak cordially, but there was a shade
of irritation in his tone. They, too, were a problem.

"Be seated," he invited, as the two men entered. But they stood before
him rather stiffly.

"Is there any--news?" asked Adrian.

"Nothing favorable," said Hyde uneasily. He made an impatient gesture.
"You can see for yourselves, gentlemen, that my hands are tied. The
man--what's-his-name?--McTurpin, has a perfectly correct conveyance
signed by your son. Benito, I understand, does not deny his signature.
And his right is unquestioned, for the property came to him direct from
his uncle, who was Francisco Garvez' only son."

"But--" began Adrian hotly.

"Yes, yes, I know," Hyde interrupted. "The man is a rascal. But what of
that? It does not help us; I have no power to aid you, gentlemen."

CHAPTER XIV

THE AUCTION ON THE BEACH

It was the morning of July 20. Fog drifts rode the bay like huge white
swans, shrouding the Island of Alcatraz with a rise and fall of
impalpable wings and casting many a whilom plume over the tents and
adobe houses nestling between sandhills and scrub-oaks in the cove of
San Francisco.

Robert and Benito Windham, on the hill above Clark's Point, looked down
toward the beach, where a crowd was gathering for the auction of
tidewater lots. The Windhams, since their dispossession by McTurpin, had
been guests of hospitable Juana Briones. Through the Alcalde's order
they had secured their personal effects. But the former gambler still
held right and title to the Windham acres. Adrian Stanley made his home
at the City Hotel and had been occupied with an impromptu school where
some four score children and half a dozen illiterates were daily taught
the mysteries of the "Three Rs."

"Adrian has determined to buy some of these mud-lots," said Windham to
his son. "He believes some day they will be valuable and that he will
make his fortune." He sighed. "I fear my son-to-be is something of a
visionary."

Benito gave his father a quick, almost furtive glance. "Do not condemn
him for that," he said, with a hint of reproach. "Adrian is far-sighted,
yes; but not a dreamer."

"What can he do with a square of bog that is covered half of the time by
water?" asked Windham