Novel 1974 - The Californios (v5.0) Read Online Free PDF

was just outside the kelp with a sand bottom at about seven fathoms.
    They moved on slowly, and after a few minutes Sean said, “All right, Ten, let go the anchor.”
    He listened to the anchor running out, timing the chain as it ran through the hawsehole. The crew were furling the sails, and soon the schooner lay under bare poles, her dark green hull lost against the kelp and the shoreline.
    Tennison came aft again. “Dinghy’s over, Cap’n. You want we should stand by?”
    “Do that. If anything develops while I am gone, use your own judgment. If they come after you by boat, take ’em through the kelp. You know where it can be done and they do not.”
    Congo had dropped a rope ladder over the side. “Your rifle, sah,” Congo’s voice was soft for such a big man, carrying the warmth of the West Indies in its tone. “I thought you might be needing it, sah.”
    “Thanks, Congo.”
    Mariana came on deck, wrapped in her serape.
    Sean Mulkerin went over swiftly, almost dropping into the bobbing boat. He held the ladder while Mariana came down, showing some caution but no hesitation. She was a girl, he decided, about whom there was very little nonsense, and she could act as swiftly on occasion as he himself.
    Congo followed, and sat at the oars. He pushed off into the darkness.
    The water was black, with only a few ripples from the kelp. They could hear the rustling of the surf on the sand. Congo used the oars only to give direction. There was just enough sea running to carry them in.
    It was very dark and still. Looking up, Mariana saw one lone star peeping through a rift in the clouds. Congo pulled strongly and she felt the bow grate on the sand. Sean leaped over and pulled the boat higher, then extended a hand to help her ashore.
    “Go back, Congo, and thanks.”
    The big black man shoved the boat into the water, then stepped in. “Cap’n, if you want, I can sure come back. If there’s fightin’ to do—?”
    “You’d be the first I’d call,” Sean said, “and thanks again. Take care of the
Lady Luck
for me.”
    A cool wind blew along the sand and they stood together watching the boat, listening to the
chunk
of the oars in the oarlocks.
    They walked along the dark beach, pausing from time to time to listen. Sean was wary. He could have chosen to anchor in Dume Cove, which was closer to the ranch house, but if Machado was already searching for them, that was where they would look to find the schooner.
    “Is it far?” she asked after a minute.
    “A few minutes, that is all. You will rest well tonight and the Señora will find some proper clothes for you.”
    “She will hate me. I bring you trouble.”
    “She will love you.” He hesitated. “Mariana, one thing you should know, and which you will see soon enough. My mother is a very beautiful woman.”
    “But of course—!”
    “I do not mean she is beautiful because she is my mother, she is simply beautiful…and very Irish. She will love you, but she is strong-minded, perfectly capable of holding her own with anyone.”
    “How does such a strong woman have a strong son? Often it is otherwise.”
    “We had a strong father, but they never opposed each other, they worked as a team. It was a revelation to many people.”
    The cart was there, with one horse. It took shape from the darkness, and then they saw Jesus Montero sitting on the sand close by, a rifle across his knees.
    “Buenos noches, señor…señorita.”
    She could make out little in the darkness except that the man was old.
    To Sean he said, “There is much trouble, señor. They came to take the ranch, and they will come again tomorrow.”
    “Who came?”
    “Señor Wooston, the big one. Fernandez was with him, and Tomas Alexander.”
    “A pack of thieves.”
    “There was another one, señor. A man called Russell.”
    “Ah?”
    King-Pin Russell, renegade, freebooter, and all-around bad man. A man who would do anything, stop at nothing.
    “How did Wooston get into this?”
    “I know