"Why, Señor Mendoza!" now quite awake. "How did you manage to find this place on such a dark night?" Mendoza pointed to Juan Antonio. "He followed your steps even in the darkness. To horse, at once, señora, and you too, my child. The storm abates, only to resume shortly. We must reach the main road before the rising water bars our way. Let us go. May God be thanked for your safety! How made you this fire?" "Those who are gone built it, my father." "When we numbered not thy carreta with the others sorrow darker than the night ruled my soul. Now is the blackness light. Hence, and quickly! To horse, all!" In a moment the cave was alone with the fire and the shadows. CHAPTER VIII THE POLITICAL POT SIMMERS "Big game occupyin' mud houses endurin' the wet spell, be they Cap'?" The Captain sharply drew up his bridle reins. "Brown, are the wages I pay satisfactory to you?" "You bet, Cap'. They're the best I've ever had. If the wages and the place didn't suit me, you'd have heard me talk long before this." "Very well, my man. We are now entering Monterey, the capital of this province. Your sole concern there will be with preparations for further journeys according as I give you orders." "Just as you say, Cap'," from the placid Brown. "Of course you remember I shipped with you on the proposition of big game huntin'." The other did not reply. The small adobe dwellings, dubbed "mud houses" by Brown, were succeeded by more pretentious ones as the riders neared the town proper. From every dooryard the prickly-pear cactus pointed its heavy oval leaves. Sweet peas rioted in tinting of sky and sunshine. The Castilian rose, blushing and demure, bowed from its stem in challenge to the hand of the passer-by. It was the children rolling and tumbling along the muddy street who drew Brown out of his silence. "By hicky! this here is a monstrous place for children. Just now I actually counted eighteen on one front stoop. They was in reg'lar graydashun of sizes from a foot up to five feet six inches, I should jedge." This critically. "The province could easily support one thousand times its present population," replied the other. Amusement and contempt struggled together on the face of honest Brown. "One thousand times as many Injuns as is cumberin' the ground right now! By hickey! I don't think the Almighty should allow it." They entered the large plaza around which were many of the important buildings of the capital. Here ran in full stream the life of early California. Indian women, gay in colored shawl and gown, edged their way among the fiery steeds drawing the carreta of the grandee's family. The Mexican smoking his corn-paper cigarito touched elbows with the hidalgo's son who was clad in velvet and fine linen, with inlaid gold on his hat-band and gold spur on his heels.