In the dark hours of a spring morning of 1854, the main command
breaks into its three divisions. The sheriff covers the lines
towards the north and San Andreas. Maxime skirts the Sierras. Harry
Love, marching silently and at night, hiding his command by day,
marches towards Sonora. He sweeps around and rejoins Valois' main
body. The net is spread.
Scouts are distributed over this region. The mad wolf of the Sierras
is at last to be hunted to his lair.
The unknown retreat must be in the Sierras. He determines to throw
his own command over the valley towards the unvisited Lagunitas
rancho. Padre Francisco will be there, a good adviser. Valois,
the rich and successful lawyer, is another man from the penniless
prisoner of seven years before. Knowing the hatred of Don Miguel
for the Americans, he has never revisited the place. Still he
would like to meet the beloved padre again. He will not uselessly
enrage the gloomy lord of Lagunitas. Don Miguel is a hermit now.
Three days' march, skilfully concealed, brings him to the notched
pass, where Lagunitas lies under its sentinel mountains.
Brooding over the past, thinking of the great untravelled regions
behind the grant, stories from the early life of Don Miguel haunt
the sleepless hours of the anxious young Southern leader.
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