On the same steamer was General
Sumner, relieved of his command in San Francisco, en route to active
service. Convinced that Gwin and Benham plotted treason, he ordered
their arrest, but not before they threw overboard maps and other papers.
They escaped conviction. But Gwin found Paris safer than America--until
the war had reached its close.
When the first call came for volunteers by way of the pony express,
Benito and Adrian talked of enlisting. Even thirteen-year Francisco, to
his mother's horror, spoke of going as a drummer boy.
"One would think you men asked nothing better than to kill each other,"
Inez Windham stormed.
Yet she was secretly proud. She would have felt a mite ashamed had
Adrian displayed less martial ardor. And to her little son she showed
the portrait of Francisco Garvez, who had ridden with Ortega and d'Anza
in the days of Spanish glory.
Lithographs of President Lincoln appeared in household and office. Flags
flew from many staffs and windows. News was eagerly awaited from the
battle-front.
Adrian had been rejected by a recruiting board because of a slight limp.
He had never quite recovered from a knife wound in the groin inflicted
by McTurpin.
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