"What is the matter, Marshall!" Marshall inquired if any one was within hearing, and began to peer about the room, and look under the bed, when Sutter, fearing that some calamity had befallen the party up at the saw-mill, and that Marshall was really crazy, began to make his way to the door, demanding of Marshall to explain what was the matter.

At last he revealed his discovery, and laid before Captain Sutter the pellicles of gold he had picked up in the ditch.

At first, Sutter attached little or no importance to the discovery, and told Marshall to go back to the mill, and say nothing of what he had seen to Mr.Wimmer, or any one else.

Yet, as it might add value to the location, he dispatched to our headquarters at Monterey, as I have already related, the two men with a written application for a preemption to the quarter-section of land at Coloma.

Marshall returned to the mill, but could not keep out of his wonderful ditch, and by some means the other men employed there learned his secret.