Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/194

DAWN AND THE DONS 172 They left the mining camp, and went further up in the mountains, but were again commanded to clear out, which they did. In other camps to which they wandered, Murietta found small remuneration

for his toil, and it

is said that he became a monte dealer, at which he prospered. This occupation was not then deemed lacking in respectability in California’s mining camps. Then occurred the final act that converted a _ hotblooded, but theretofore law-abidinig Mexican, into a daring and desperate king of lawless bandits. While riding a horse he had borrowed from his half-brother, who lived on a ranch, Murietta was accosted by a party of horsemen, and charged with having stolen the animal.

One of the men in the party claimed ownership, and they took the young Mexican to the ranch where the half-brother lived, hung the half-brother to a tree, and,

tying Murietta to the same tree, flogged him severely. The horse had probably been stolen, but whatever may

have been the truth in that regard, Murietta was innocent even of a guilty knowledge of the offense. Suffering from the physical torture of the undeserved flogging, and smarting under the humiliations to which he and Rosita had been subjected, Murietta swore an oath of vengeance, and declared war on the gringo. Then followed a series of desperate deeds covering nearly three years of time that for boldness, daring and swiftness of execution marked Murietta as the master highwayman of a time when highway robbery was a conspicuous feature in the current news. He organized