If it had been any man but Mr.
Rothsaker, I would have shot him dead, if I had hung for it; but I
knew if he thought we must go, there was no help for us."
"But, Alessandro," interrupted Ramona, "I can't understand. Who
was it made Mr. Rothsaker do it? Who has the land now?"
"I don't know who they are," Alessandro replied, his voice full of
anger and scorn. "They're Americans -- eight or ten of them. They
all got together and brought a suit, they call it, up in San Francisco;
and it was decided in the court that they owned all our land. That
was all Mr. Rothsaker could tell about it. It was the law, he said,
and nobody could go against the law."
"Oh," said Ramona, "that's the way the Americans took so much of
the Senora's land away from her. It was in the court up in San
Francisco; and they decided that miles and miles of her land,
which the General had always had, was not hers at all. They said it
belonged to the United States Government."
"They are a pack of thieves and liars, every one of them!" cried
Alessandro. "They are going to steal all the land in this country; we
might all just as well throw ourselves into the sea, and let them
have it.
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