"I fancy it will be as says the Señorita Mendoza, who, in turn, is deeply in love with her father. Capture the gray eagle and the nest is yours." "I suppose so. I suppose so. Why came Morando to California, do you know? Anything against him in Madrid, anything we could use to influence him here, I mean?" "Nothing--absolutely nothing." After a pause: "At Mission San José there are two men who could persuade North California for us or against us. Mind, I say 'persuade'; for, unless I mistake greatly, neither one would consent to act as bell-wether after which go willy-nilly the sheep flock." He waited for her to go on. "One of these two men is, of course, Señor Mendoza; the other is Padre Osuna." "A word about the señor, my lady. I recognize the man's worth and ability, and the weight he would add to our cause; yet I do not think it wise to approach him myself." "May I ask your reason?" "Colonel Mendoza and I met in the old days when I was a young man." "A young man, Captain?" archly. "I have seen a half century of life. My meeting with Mendoza was thus wise. At Talavera the allied forces opposed the French. In a preliminary skirmish our colonel was wounded. My regiment held a position in the extreme forward center. Colonel Mendoza was hastily called from the left wing of the army, where the Spanish troops were, and was placed over us. The French began the battle by heavy cannonading. The captain of my own company, also the first and the second lieutenant, were blown to pieces before an hour. I was third lieutenant. To save the men from annihilation, as I believed, I withdrew a little distance. "The Spanish colonel was furious. He dashed up on his horse, ordered the company in position, subjecting me all the while to vitriolic criticism." "What did you, Captain?" "I replied to him. He struck me with the flat of his sword." "And what did you then?" "I could do nothing. We were in the face of the enemy then, as for months. Later, the allied forces were separated. A generation has lived and passed since that blood-stained day of Talavera. Mendoza, doubtless, does not remember me. Still, it would not be wise to risk injury to our cause by bringing to play any ill feeling he might possibly retain against me." "Our Captain is judicious." Continuing: "Know you the value of these Californias?" "They are the pivotal center of Orient and Occident. My government well knows the harbors here, their possibilities----" The señora's raised hand stopped him. Her fingers ran along the wall searchingly. At last she pressed hard, then harder. The wall separated at a line above her head, the lower part of the wall slowly sinking through the floor. "I am going to show you the treasure-chamber of a dead-and-gone governor of the Californias, when the province was a part of Spain."