Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-10-11

ner9' responded velasquez, 'ana are there any marks of violence?" 'Tndeed | there are," said the officer, ''there is no doubt but that he has been foully mur- | dered."
 "But, my God" exclaimed Velas- quez. ''can 1t be possible that gentle body, as Mario Delaro did, can have the case," calmly replied the officer.
 "And is there nothing to indicate by | whom the dreadful deed was committed no c1ew?" asked Ve1asquez.
 "We have carefully searched and can find nothing" was the reply. "And what are you now going to do with the body?" pursued the questioner. "We are going to take the body into the town and prepare for an inquest" he was answered. Meanwhile, MT. Velasques, will you kindly undertake to see that the news is gently broken to his wife-poor soulP" asked the officer. 1T can not at present." was the re- ply, ''for she went yesterday morning with her little daughter, Armida, to Santa Rosa; but will try to make ar engagements so that the news can not reach her suddenly and will telegraph to her friends at Santa Rosa as soon as can reach the depot It is not long ride, but will start at once and join you later at the mayors of1ce." Saying which, Valasquez started his horse at a brisk trot, and the sad little party moved on at a slower pace. CHAPTER IL
 Mario Delaro, the man whose dead body had been found, was, as his name indicates an Italian who had emigrated to America immediately after the close of the civil war, while he was still youth.
 His parents had been well-to-do, but his father met with reverses in conse- quence of a patriotic endeavor to estab- fish some large factories near to Naples, which had turned out failure.
 Young Mario, full of pluck and spirit, determined not to become in any way dependent on his father in his strait ened circumstances, so with praise worthy energy he resolved to try his luck in California. Like many others, before and since, he was doomed to meet with some bitter disappointments, but as he had made up his mind to bat tie in earnest with the world, there was little fear that he would starve. He first tried the mining districts, but there met with indifferent success. Still, by hard work he managed to get a
 little money ahead and drifted to San Francisco, where he opened fruit | store. There he was moro successful and soon saved several thousand dol | lars.
 Growing tired of the busy, yet hum- drum life of the city, he resolved on | trying his hand in the wine-growing districts, and bought few acres of land in the fertile Sonoma valley.
 Owing to his imperfect knowledge of | the business he at first lost great deal of money in the venture, and by the time that he had mastered all the nec- essary points and was turning out sat- isfactory wines, he found that the poor wines which many of his competitors were putting on the market had caused | the people to speak disparagingly of domestic wines, so that the trade in them was considerably fallen of. However, he continued to persevere in the face of i'll fortune, and was at last rewarded with success
 Elated with his good fortune, he con- ceived the idea of becoming part owner and manager of one of the largest wine- | growing concerns in 6onoma County, and in an evil hour took into partner ship a Portuguese named Leon Velas- quez, so that he might have the means to purchase some neighboring vine- yards.
 Velasquez brought quite a large sum of money into the business, though how
 he came by 1t was often afterwards Q
 theme for speculation in the mind of Mario.
 For nearly year all went well and
 the prospects for the next year were | quite brilliant But before the end of
 twelve nonths' partnership velasques