The Lure of San Francisco | Page 7

adobe settlement."
"Go on," said the skeptic, leaning comfortably against a tree trunk.
"This old Mexican governor seems to have had an interesting
romance."
"He wasn't old," I protested, "only forty-six when he died. He was a
splendid type of a young Spanish grandee, tall and lithe of form, with
the dark skin and hair of his race. He combined the freedom born of an
out-of-door life with the courtly manners inherited from generations of
Spanish ancestry. To Rafaela Sal, watching the soldiers file out of the

mud-walled Presidio, it seemed that none sat his horse so straight nor
so bravely as did Don Luis Argüello. And at night to the young soldier
dozing before the campfire in the forest, the billowy smoke seemed to
shape itself into the soft folds of a lace mantilla from which looked out
the smiling face of a lovely grey-eyed girl, framed in an exquisite mist
of copper-colored hair.
"There was no opposition on the part of the parents to the union of
these young people. The elder Argüello loved the sweet Rafaela as if
she were his own daughter, and Ensign Sal was proud to claim the
splendid young soldier as a son-in-law. So the betrothal was
solemnized, but since Don Luis was a Spanish officer, the marriage
must await the consent of the king, and forthwith papers were
dispatched to the court of Madrid. California was an isolated province
in those days and the packet boat, touching on the shore but twice a
year, frequently brought papers from Spain dated nine months previous,
so the older people affirmed that permission could not be received for
two years, while Luis and Rafaela declared that if the king answered at
once--and surely he would recognize the importance of haste--word
might be received in eighteen months.
"After a year and a half had passed the young people could talk of little
besides the expected arrival of the boat with an order from the king.
Frequently Luis would climb the hills back of the Presidio where the
wide expanse of the ocean could be seen. At last a sail was discovered
on the horizon and the little settlement was thrown into a turmoil of
excitement. Luis was first at the beach and impatiently watched the
ship make its way between the high bluffs that guarded the entrance to
the bay, and nose along the shore until it came to anchor in the little
cove in front of the Presidio. Had the king's permission come? he
eagerly asked his father, who was running through the papers handed
him by the captain. But the elder man shook his head, and Luis turned
with lagging steps to tell Rafaela that they must wait another six
months. It seemed a long time to the impatient lovers and yet there was
much to make the days pass quickly at the Presidio. The door of the
commodious sala at the home of the comandante always stood wide
open, and almost nightly the feet of the young people which had
danced since their babyhood tripped over the floor of the old adobe
building. Picnics were planned to the woods near the Mission and

frequently longer excursions were undertaken; for El Camino Real was
not only, the king's highway to church and military outposts, but also
the royal road to pleasure, and when a wedding or a fiesta was at the
end of a journey, no distance was counted too great. Luis watched his
betrothed blossom to fuller beauty, fearful lest someone else might
steal her away before word from the king should arrive.
"A year passed, then another. Packet boats came and went every six
months, bringing orders to the comandante in regard to the
administration of the military forces, concerning the treatment of
foreign vessels, and of numerous other matters, but still the king
remained silent on the one subject which, to the minds of the two
young people, overshadowed all else. Luis rashly threatened to run
away with his betrothed, while Rafaela, frightened, reminded him that
there was not a priest in California or Mexico who would marry them
without the king's order. And so each time the packet boat entered the
harbor their hearts beat with renewed hope and then, disappointed, they
watched it disappear through the Gulf of the Farallones, knowing that
months would pass before another would arrive.
"Thus six years had gone by since permission had been asked of the
king; six interminable years, they seemed to the lovers. Again the
packet boat was sighted on the distant horizon. Luis saw the full white
sails sweep past the fort guarding the entrance; he heard the salute of
the guns and watched the anchor lowered into the water before he made
his way slowly down to the shore. It would