When Gabriel came home in the evening of the day in which Lizzie received the copy of Clarence's telegram, she said to him:
“Darling, don't go to that horrid work again. Clarence is coming, and now he and George will establish the bank.”
“Yes, but in the meantime I must earn enough to pay our board; remember, we owe one month's board already. Be patient for a few days longer.” And she was patient, but anxious. A few days more passed, and she received Doña Josefa's letter, inclosing seventy dollars, and saying she hoped they would come immediately, for she wanted Gabriel at home.
“Now we have money enough to pay our board bill, and as George will surely come to our assistance, why should you go to work as a mason? Darling, leave that work,” Lizzie begged.
“Let us see; Clarence's cablegram was dated twenty days ago. They must have arrived in New York a week ago, and if he don't delay at all, he'll be here in two or three days,” Gabriel said.
“Then why should you work like that?”
“I'll stop to-morrow, but I must give notice of a day or two, at least, for the foreman to get somebody else in my place.”
When Gabriel arrived at his place of employment near Nob Hill, he found that his occupation that day would be different from what it had been before, and in the afternoon he was put to work at another place in the building. He would have to carry bricks and mortar up a ladder to quite a high wall. He told the foreman that he would rather not do that, as he had never done such work and was very awkward about it. The foreman said he had no one else to spare for that job, and Gabriel at last said he would try. He had carried many loads, and was beginning to tremble with fatigue, when upon going up, carrying a hod full of bricks, the ladder slipped to one side a little. In his effort to steady it, Gabriel moved it too much, and it fell to one side, taking him to the ground. As he fell, the bricks fell upon him. He was insensible for some time. When he regained consciousness he was being carried to a wagon which would take him to the city hospital. Lizzie, to whom the foreman had sent a message notifying her of the accident, now met the wagon.
“Where are you taking my husband?” she asked the driver.
“To the city hospital, ma'am.”