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

so I ran out…and then she came back, probably to spy on me.”
    Sean glanced at the compass and moved the wheel a spoke, scowling thoughtfully. He knew a good deal about Machado, and had even been friendly with him at one time. Their friendship ended abruptly when he had beaten Machado in a horse race, but he knew Machado well.
    Andres came from a good family, but he was a spoiled and arrogant young man who would not be frustrated in anything and who could not accept defeat.
    Would he follow them? Of course he would. No doubt about it, and doubly so since he, Sean Mulkerin, was the one involved. Machado would never believe that he had not known Mariana de la Cruz before, that this had not been contrived to make him look ridiculous.
    The worst of it was that Machado could afford his whims, for he was as wealthy as he was politically powerful.
    This was trouble, serious trouble, and at such a time when his family needed no more trouble than it already had.
    Sean glanced astern. The horizon was clear, but at this height above the sea the visibility was only a few miles. People unaccustomed to the sea always imagined they could see very far indeed, but the distance to the horizon was simply calculated. One took the square root of the eye above the sea, multiplied it by 1.15 and had the approximate distance. If the height of the eye above the sea was nine feet one could see about three and one-half miles.
    “Hilo,” he shouted to one of the men suddenly, “run aloft and take a look astern.”
    Hilo, a Hawaiian, scrambled aloft, hesitated only a moment, then called, “A schooner, sir! Ten or twelve miles off!”
    “A two-master?”
    “Three, sir.”
    “Thanks, Hilo.” He glanced at the sea ahead, calculating their chances. Machado had wasted no time. He swore to himself. Then, recalling that Mariana was standing there, he said, “Oh, I beg your pardon!”
    “Captain, do not apologize. I am sorry. I had no idea—”
    “No, you didn’t,” he agreed bluntly. “That schooner is undoubtedly the one that lay at anchor in the harbor at Acapulco, and she looked like a good sailer.”
    “I have gotten you into trouble!” she said.
    “I do not mind trouble,” he said, “but at this time trouble for me is trouble for my family. This schooner may soon be all we have. Nothing must happen to it.”
    If his family were not waiting for him, he would have been tempted to run west for Hawaii, to lose them at sea. He knew many a trick, and if time was no object—
    “I am sorry,” Mariana repeated.
    “What’s done is done. Now we must see how we can get out of it.”
    “Machado is a good friend to Micheltorena, the governor of California.”
    “He would be.” Sean was in no mood for politeness. “Have you any more tidbits like that?”
    “Only that he is no friend to Pio Pico or Alvarado.”
    “They are friends of my mother and were friends of my father, but that does us no good now. Neither has the power of Micheltorena, nor of Machado, for that matter.”
    He put the wheel over a few spokes, glancing at the sails. He would head more westerly, try to edge away from the sailing routes to San Diego and points north. He would head for the open sea.
    All day long they scudded over the sea, a gray-green sea studded with whitecaps. Several times he sent a man aloft and at the last report the other schooner was still headed northwest. If they had been seen, the big schooner was not responding.
    At supper in the cabin he sat alone with Mariana and put his worries aside. He talked quietly of California, of his brother and his mother, and of Los Angeles, the tiny pueblo toward which they were sailing. He spoke mostly of the Señora. “She rules us,” he said, smiling a little, “and she is usually right. But you will like her and you can stay with us as long as we have a roof over our heads.” He grinned wryly. “Which may not be long.”
    “Hadn’t you better think about that? You’ll have more time for thinking now