LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

As they looked, the sunlight triumphed, scattering the fog into queer, floating shapes, luminous and fraught with weird suggestions....  One might have thought a splendid city lay before them, ... impalpable, yet triumphant, with its hint of destiny.

“Ah, Senor,” Inez’ smile had faded, ... “they have cause for hatred”.

Men with shovels, leveling the sand-hills, piled the wagons high with shimmering grains which were ... dumped into pile-surrounded bogs.  San Francisco reached farther and farther out into the bay.

Samuel Brannan rode through the streets, holding a pint flask of gold-dust in one hand ... and whooping like a madman:  “Gold!  Gold!  Gold!  From the American River”.

Passersby who laughed at the inscription witnessed simultaneously the rescue of an almost submerged donkey by means of an improvised derrick.

Broderick’s commanding figure was seen rushing hither and thither....  “You and two others.  Blow up or pull down that building,” he indicated a sprawling, ramshackle structure.

There sat the redoubtable captain, all the ... austerity of his West Point manner melted in the indignity of sneezes and wheezes....  “Money!  God Almighty!  Sherman, there’s not a loose dollar in town”.

“Draw and defend yourself,” he said loudly.  He shut his eyes and a little puff of smoke seemed to spring from the end of his fingers, followed ... by a sharp report.

In front of the building on a high platform, two men stood....  A half-suppressed roar went up from the throng.

Terry, who had taken careful aim, now fired.  Broderick staggered, recovered himself.  Slowly he sank to one knee.

The concourse broke into applause.  Then it was hysteria, pandemonium.  Fifty thousand knew their city was safe for Anti-Slavery.

Half a thousand jobless workers, armed and reckless, marched toward the docks.  They bore torches....  “A hell-bent crew,” said Ellis.

“My boy ... you’re wasting your time as a reporter.  Listen,” he laid a hand upon Francisco’s knee.  “I’ve a job for you....  The new Mayor will need a secretary”.

“Perhaps I shall find me a man—­big, strong, impressive—­with a mind easily led....  Then I shall train him to be a leader....  I shall furnish the brain”.

“I am going South,” Francisco told his son.  “I cannot bear this”.

All at once he stepped forward....  Tears were streaming down his face.  Then the judge’s question, clearly heard, “What is your plea?” “Guilty!” Ruef returned.

A HISTORY-ROMANCE OF THE SAN FRANCISCO ARGONAUTS

PROLOGUE

THE VISION