t. The younger ones were surrounded by
groups of admirers with whom they were chatting animatedly. There were
also many children capering in the sand and pointing out to one another
the strange sights of this new place. The men--hundreds of them it
seemed to Inez--were busied with constructive tasks. Already there were
many temporary habitations, mostly tents of varied shapes and sizes.
Bonfires blazed here and there. Stands of arms in ordered, regular
stacks, gave the scene a martial air. Piles of bed-clothing, household
effects, agricultural implements, lay upon the sand. A curious
instrument having a large wheel on one side caught the girl's attention.
Near it were square, shallow boxes. A pale, broad-shouldered man with
handsome regular features and brooding, poetic eyes stood beside the
machine, turning the wheel now and then, and examining the boxes. He
seemed to be a leader, for many people came to ask him questions which
he answered with decision and authority.

"Who is that?" asked Inez of Nathan Spear and Leidesdorff as the two
approached. "And what is the strange contrivance upon which he has
his hand?"

"It is a printing press," Spear answered. "Yerba Buena is soon to have a
paper for the chronicling of its metropolitan affairs. The man? Oh,
that's Sam Brannan, the elder of this band of Mormons."

"Is it true that they have come to drive us from our homes?" asked Inez
fearfully.

"Who, the Mormons? Lord forbid," retorted Spear. He beckoned to the
elder, who approached and was presented. Inez, as she looked into his
kindly eyes, forgot her fears. Brannan eagerly explained his printing
press. She left him feeling that he was less enemy than friend.

CHAPTER VI

THE FIRST ELECTION

Captain John J. Vioget's house was the busiest place in Yerba Buena, and
John Henry Brown its most important personage. The old frame dwelling
built by a Swiss sailor in 1840 had become in turn a billiard hall and
groggery, a sort of sailors' lodging house and a hotel. Now it was the
scene of Yerba Buena's first election. About a large table sat the
election inspectors guarding the ballot box, fashioned hastily from an
empty jar of lemon syrup. Robert Ridley, recently released from Sutter's
Fort, where he had been imprisoned by the Bear Flag party, was a
candidate for office as alcalde. He opposed Lieutenant Washington
Bartlett, appointed to officiate pro tem by Captain Montgomery. Brown
was busy with his spirituous disp