aybe we can call on
the governor, General Bennet Riley, and pay our respects."

Mayor Colton sent word that he'd be pleased to see them, but that the
governor was in San Francisco. However, the mayor (who, as Mr. Grigsby
had said, was a minister, a navy chaplain, and indeed a fine man)
showed them through the town hall, which he had caused to be built out
of the fines and fees in the town treasury. It had been finished only
this March, and contained a large public hall on the second floor, and
a school and jail and other departments on the ground floor. It
certainly was a credit to Monterey, away out here in California.

"Gold?" exclaimed Alcalde Colton, waving his hands in despair at the
mention of it. "Yes, I've been up to the mines myself, on several
occasions. I was there as early as last September, and dug some for
myself. But it's the ruination of Monterey and the rest of the coast.
Nobody'll work, except we Government and other public officers who have
to; everybody's crazy, talking and dreaming only of easy riches; and
even an old woman cook of mine, too feeble to go away, won't clean a
fowl until she's examined its crop for a nugget."

"By the way, where's Colonel Fremont?" queried Mr. Grigsby. "Is he
still out here?"

"Certainly. You're a Fremont man, I see. He's here, and so are his
wife and daughter. They came out just ahead of you, on the _Panama_.
They make their home in Monterey, but they're up north now, with the
colonel. He's mining on his big Mariposa ranch, in the interior back
of San Jose. They have the only four-wheeled vehicle in the
territory--a surrey brought around the Horn for them."

However, interesting as Monterey was, nobody aboard the _California_
wanted to stay long here. San Francisco was only about twelve hours
ahead; and then, the gold!

On again steamed the _California_, threshing the waves with her huge
paddles, and all the passengers scrutinizing the shore line, many of
them rather expecting to see gold out-cropping on the cliffs and ridges.

"We'll probably get in at evening, and spend the night aboard,"
remarked Charley's father.

During the day the coast grew more bare and sandy, with sandy, rolling
hills behind it. In the afternoon it appeared to bulge out, before,
and in the bulge appeared a gap.

"There you are," directed Mr. Grigsby, to Charley, and pointing. "See
that gap? Yes? It's the Golden Gate channel into the Bay of San
Francisco."

"The g