Had his chum been with him he might have looked in for a few minutes for the fun of the thing, but alone he would be the object of remark, and might perhaps get involved in a quarrel.

Besides the freshness of the air was so pleasant that he felt disposed for a walk, for the moon was shining brightly, the stars seemed to hang from the skies, and after having been pent up in the ship for the last four days it was pleasant to stretch the limbs in a brisk walk.

In ten minutes he was outside the town, and followed the road for half an hour.
"It is a comfort," he said to himself, "to have got rid of the smell of hides.

If ever cholera comes this way I should think it would make a clean sweep of San Diego." Turning, he walked leisurely back; he entered the town, and had gone but a hundred yards or two when he heard a shout, followed by a pistol shot, and then, in English, a cry for help.
He dashed down the street toward a group of people who, he could see in the moonlight, were engaged in a sharp struggle.

One man was defending himself against four, and the oaths and exclamations of these showed that they were Mexicans.