Lorenzo lived with his beautiful wife on a sprawling ranch west of the San Pasqual Valley. He was a very tall, handsome man with dark hair and a neatly trimmed beard. Lorenzo was a well dressed Californio. He wore a black leather belt with large silver conchas, black chaps ornamented with silver, and was armed with two large revolvers. The last had ebony wood handles inlaid with mother of pearl, and silver embossed holsters.
Lorenzo had made his money in the gold fields of northern California, and he had moved south to buy several land grants in order to increase his already abundant wealth. Despite his riches, Lorenzo was generous and kind to his neighbors including the Indians that worked for him.
Tomas was Lorenzo's neighbor, but unlike Lorenzo, he was mean and lethargic. He would rather cheat, steal, or con his way through life than earn an honest living. Antonio, Tomas's brother, had once given Tomas a team of beautiful black horses as a present, and Tomas had gambled them away. Tomas even had the nerve to ask Antonio for another team.
After some years, Lorenzo fell ill and died. Tomas wasted no time in marrying Lorenzo's beautiful wife, and moving into his lands. He managed the ranch badly, and he was quickly losing all the hard earned fruits of Lorenzo's labors.
Tomas had an Indian child working as a house boy. This boy was an orphan, and was brought into the home by Tomas's new wife. Sometime after he arrived, Tomas and his wife began to hear the boy wake screaming in the night. He would cry and wimper, and when his mistress came to check on him, she found him cringing against the head of the bed in wide-eyed terror.
This continued for a week until, finally, Tomas could take it no more. He went into the room and threatened to kill the boy if he didn't explain the cause of his night terrors.
Terrified of his cruel master, the boy said, "Every night a man in black appears at my bed, turns to the window, and points outside."
"Describe this man to me," said Tomas.
"He is tall, and he wears the most beautiful chaps and holsters I have ever seen. He has dark hair, a beard and a wide black belt."
Now it was time for Tomas to feel terror. "The next time you see this man, ask what he wants from you."
The next evening the boy drew up enough courage to haltingly ask the apparition why he came to the room each night. "My riches are not all in the hands of Tomas. There, near the bed of lupines and poppies, you will find gold. You can also find buried gold near that cactus patch, and another beside the fallen tree." He continued by telling the boy about other locations where buried gold could be uncovered.
The following morning, Tomas gained enough information from the boy to realize that Lorenzo had buried gold around his ranch. Lazy as always, he pressured his brother to help him dig and search for the treasure. Antonio eventually found three large ollas filled with gold.
Tomas squandered this treasure as he had done the riches he had already inherited from Lorenzo. He failed to reward his brother for his loyalty, and finally died, a bitter and hated man.
A few decades later, a white settler was plowing his fields in the hills and valleys north of the little town of Bernardo when he suddenly stopped his team. The dark soil was enriched by streams and seeps of the San Bernardo Valley, but his plow seemed to have struck what he, at the time, supposed was a large rock. His young Mexican workers soon saw him coming toward them in some agitation. He explained that he had to go immediately into town. He said that they were not to approach the horses or the plow, and that he would soon return.
Curiosity got the better of the boys however, and after their boss left, they approached the plow. There, buried in the soil near the plow blade, was a broken olla filled with gold.
No one knows if this was the last of Lorenzo's gold.