Daughter of the Sun

ened from afar Port Adventure, Jim Kendric was richly content. With huge satisfaction he looked upon the sparkling sea, the little vessel which scooned

and ammunition, shipping them down to Barlow in San Diego. And upon him fell the duty and delight of provisioning for the cruise. As Barlow had put it, the Lord alone knew how long they would be gone, and Jim Kendric meant to take no unnecessary chances. No doubt they could

blow, he and Twisty Barlow foregathered in the cabin

er slapping against their hull. "With a hold full of the best in the land, treasure ahead of our bow,

"If we get there on time," was his one worry. "If we'd had that ten thousand of yours we'd

you or the bottom that floats you,

ased her and had no doubts of her seaworthiness. She was one of those floating relics of another epoch in shipbuilding which had lingered on until today, undergoing infrequent alterations under many hands. While once she had depended entirely for her headway on her two poles, fore sai

explained the unwrit

w Hank gets busy gettin' square and he's somehow got her insured for more'n she'll bring in the open market in many a day. Hank figures this deal either of two wa

ry is, don't you?

fret, Headlong. And we'll pay the fee and live like lords on top of it. Hank ain't frettin'. I spun him the yarn, seein' I had to

trolled to the stern and took a turn at the wheel, joying in the grip of it after a long separation from the old life which it brought surging ba

ped kinks like a gorilla's. He was an anomaly, all taken: he had a voice as high and sweet-toned as a woman singer's; he had an air of extreme brutality and with the animals on board, a ship cat and a canary belonging to Philippine Charlie he was all gentleness; he had by all odds the largest

lks about ha'nts, Cap'n. Ain't I heered all the happenin's dat's done been an' gone an' transcribed on dis here deck? Ain't I seen nothin'? Ain't I felt nothin'? Ain't I spectated when the ha'r on Jezebel's back haz riz straight up

when Nigger Ben was again at the wheel and the two adventurer

mself Charlie muttered incessantly under his breath, his mutterings senseless jargon. When addressed his invariable reply was, "Aw," properly inflected to suit the occasion. Thus, with a shake of the head, it meant no;

Barlow did much planning and voiced countless surmises, all having to do with what they might or might not find. Barlow got out his

and it's the devil's own. And ours, if Escobar's fingers haven't crooked to the feel of it. And if they have, why, then,"

do Escobar was a product of his time. He was never above cutting throats for small recompense, if he glimpsed safety to follow the deed, and knew all of the tricks of holding wealthy citizens of his own or another country for ransoms. Upon one of his recent excursions the bandit captain had raided an old mission church for its candlesticks. With one companion, a lieutenant named Juarez, he had made so thorough a job of tearing things to pieces that the two had discovered a secret

elf didn't know; Captain Escobar let him get just so far and decided to hog the whole thing and slipped six inches of knife into him. How the poor devil lived to morning, I don't know and I don't care to think about it. But live he did and spilled me the yarn, praying to God every other gasp that I'd beat Fernando Escobar to it. He said he had seen names the

avin' the other priest the one man in on the know. There was some sort of a plague got 'em; he was scared it was gettin' him, too. So he starts in makin' a long report to the home church, which if he had finished would have been as long as your arm and would of been packed

e sound of it, isn't

found a gold mine. Me, while they guyed him, I'd go take a look-see. And it didn't re

w soon enough. If you can find y

e was as full of hate as a tick of dog's blood. From

it. Barlow had said "Good night" half an hour before; Philippine Charlie was muttering over the wheel; Nigger Ben's voice was crooning from the galley where he was making a friendly call on the canary. The water slipped and slapped and splashed alongside, making pleasant music in the ears of a man who gave free rein to his fancies and let them soar across a handful of centuries, back into the golden day of the last of the Aztec Empe

itness of things. But out of his dreamings he was drawn back abruptly to the swayin

called quietl

ugh the obscurity of the night. So strong was the emotion, and so strongly did it recall the emotion of a few nights ago when he had felt the i

rd, whisked around the pile of freight cluttered about the mast, tripped over a coil of rope and ran forward again. When he still found no one, so strong was the impression made on him that someone had been standing looking at him, he made a stubborn search from prow to

him when she had said, "I have put a charm and a spell over your life." Now he simply knew that he had the mad thought that she was somewhere on board and that, hide as she would, he would find her. But when he gave up and went sullenly back to his toppled chai

im? You been see

, Ben?" demanded Kendric

seen something ghostly? Kendric had searched thoroughly high and low; he had turned over big crates below deck, he had peered up th

said Kendric sternly. "Did you sm

blinked

a Castelmar?" he countere

eyes were watching him; what had seemed a figure across deck might have been the oil coat hanging on a peg or a curtain blowing out of a window. The more he thought over the m

ay of much dreaded rifles and ammunition were being carried into restive Sonora. "Loco Gringoes out after burro deer," was how the officials were led to judge them. Barlow, gone several hours, reported that Escobar had not turned up at the wa

op anchor and go ashore to see what they would see. Nigger Ben and Philippine Charlie were instructed gravely. They

ur throats for a side of bacon. You boys keep watches day and night. When we get back int

kness, trying to make some sort of detail out of the black wall ahead which Barlow had told him was a long line of cliff. As before Charlie was at the wheel while Nigger Ben was listening to instructions from Barlow aft of the cabin.

untless times already so now did he put the question again: "How could a man feel a thing like that?" At his age was he developing nerves and insa

taut muscles jumped involuntarily, c

me now! Looky dar! Looky dar! It's a la

er Ben was clutching w

e of torn sail flappin' that Charlie was goin' to sew. Can't you s

p, seeing the thing all of a sudden that way. Kendric passed on as though nothing had happened, as he reasoned perhaps nothing had. But just the same he made his second quiet search, in the end finding nothing. But as he w

low's knowledge. Two points struck him then. First, Barlow had demanded who Zoraida Castelmar was; had not Barlow even learned the name of the girl of the pearls? Second, it recurred to him that Barlow had followed her to the hotel in the border town, had even had word with her, since he had brought Kendric

ling itself, Barlow was calling for help with the small bo