The Press., 1891-12-31

clerk of the court who first noted that the animal was growing, sullenly and resentfully. as one of the prisoners stood before the alcalde, whose attention he called to the fact by writing few lines, in which he suggested that the prisoner be returned to confinement until the matter should be discussed. According ly, Don Manuel Roquena sent away the wretch cringing there. and the guard was directed to bring in another prisoner after few minutes Again the dog dis played marked anger and hostility, as he did at each new installment of suspects.
 "Let us try an experiment." said Don Ygnacio. Will you arrange, Don Man uel, to have another guard bring In, one by one in turn, the men who have just been before usY'
 This was done, but the intelligent ami mal, few moments since 50 savage, now only looked inquiringly at each ar rival, but made no demonstration of enmity. Then pretext was found to call back the corporal who first had brought in the prisoners. He was one Santiago Linares, 8 slender, dark fellow, with youthful, almost boyish counte- nance and ingratiating smanner. He was maneuyered near the dog, and no sooner had he come within reach than the mastiff, bristling and snarling fierce ly, sprang upon him and would have throttled him had not those present torn Linares out of his fangs. Trembling and ashen was the fellow, yet full of self possession, and feigning wonder and indignation when taxed with complicity in the murder. He had not even been in the pueblo, he declared, on the night of the crime; it was his day off from service, and he had been at the mission with his mistress, one Eugenia Valencia. Nevertheless, he was at once sent to jail, and that incomunicado; that is to say. solitary confinement. where no one could see or communicate with him. And ''Send for Ia Eugenia," instructed the alcalde.
 This Valencia woman came of very criminal stock, and she and her family were at the bottom of a vast percentage of the disorder that befe1 in those days in Los Angeles. The brothers were scamps and practically bandits, fitting sons of depraved parents. Another sis ter lived for many years in illicit bonds with William W, one of the wealth fest of the foreign residents, whom it were hardly kind to indicate more clear ly, since his descendants still live among us. After she had borne this man three children his jealousy of her fragrant in facilities led to 8 scandalous shooting af- fray, notwithstanding which he would still have marr1ed her, but that the authorities banished her from the pueblo as measure of public safety, and she died some years later at Mazatlan, where W, because of his vested interests here, could not follow her. He sent, however, for her children, and educated them with his legitimate children, he having married meanwhile one of the Lugos from Santa Barbara. Of such strain-resolute bold, interruptions was the woman whom Manuel Requena the alcalde, sent to fetch from San Gabriel
 His messengers took her all unaware. She had not even heard that the murder was discovered, and so when they had secured her, the officers searched hel dwelling and found bundled away there in large quantity of the effects and clothing plundered from the mur2 German. The officer who arrested n5a did not fail to impress upon her the sig nifcance of this find and it's tendency tc criminate her. Thus when she arrived at the courtroom she was quaking, full of terror and an abject conviction that her own liberty and her own life were ir peril. Under the stress of this fear, and almost without waiting to be questioned she hastened, when brought before the alcalde. to declare that she had been il the company of the men who had killed the German and that she had been g wltiiess to his staying. She was oi course put into confinement incomuni cado Santiago Linares was now told that one of his accomplices had confessed, anG had named him as the chief offender Upon this, spurred not more by fear thar by anger and vindictiveness, he made $ declaration duplicating Asencio Valen. cia, a brother of Eugenia, and another bad character of the pueblo, one Jose Duarte, whom he had, he said, accom- panied upon that fatal evening, not be ing aware of the purpose of their enter prise.
 The two men he named were promptly arrested and they, when they learned O their accusal, began perfect siege o1 coward1y but ferocious protestations and disclaimers, each alleging his own inno cence while inculpating the others. The discrepancies between their statements
 were carefully noted, and the discordan' witnesses were brought together in ac.
 cordance with that feature of the Span
 ish law known as ''confrontation." Thes' comparisons of statements resulted 1T the elimination of much subtrudve false.