"I was growing to depend on the bold gambler spirit of this woman,
Nina San Croix; I felt the need of her strong, profligate nature.
She was of a queer breed and a queerer school. Her mother was the
daughter of a Spanish engineer, and had been stolen by the Mexican,
her father. She herself had been raised and educated as best might
be in one of the monasteries along the Rio Grande, and had there
grown to womanhood before her father, fleeing into the mountains of
California, carried her with him.
"When we landed in New York I offered to announce her as my wife,
but she refused, saying that her presence would excite comment and
perhaps attract the attention of Walcott's relatives. We therefore
arranged that I should go alone into the city, claim the property,
and announce myself as Samuel Walcott, and that she should remain
under cover until such time as we would feel the ground safe under
us.
"Every detail of the plan was fatally successful. I established my
identity without difficulty and secured the property. It had
increased vastly in value, and I, as Samuel Walcott, soon found
myself a rich man.
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