"Come alive, Twisty, old mate," Kendric called to him. "Limber up and give us a good old deep-sea chantey!"
Twisty stood where he was, eyeing him curiously.
"I want to talk to you, Jim," he said. His voice like his look told of excitement repressed.
"It"s early," retorted Kendric, "and talk will keep. A night like this was meant for other things than for two old fools like you and me to sit in a corner with long faces. Strike up the chantey."
"You"re busted," said Barlow sharply; "You"ve had your fling and you"ve shot your wad. Come along with me. You know what sh.o.r.e I"m headin"
to. You know I"ve got my hooks in that old tub down to San Diego-----"
"There"s a craft in San Diego,"
improvised Kendric lightly.
"With no cargo in her hold, And old Twisty Barlow"s leased her For to fill her up with Gold.
And he"d go a buccaneerin", privateerin", wildly steerin"
For the beaches where the sun shines on whole banks of blazin" pearls----"
But his rhythm was getting away from him and his rhymes petered out and he stopped, laughing while around him men clamored for more.
"Oh, there"ll be a tale to tell when Twisty sails back," he conceded.
"But until he"s under way there"s no tale to tell and so what"s the use of talk? A song"s better; walk her up, Twisty, old mate."
Barlow"s impatience flared out into irritation.
"What"s the sense of this monkey business?" he demanded. "I"m off to San Diego by moon-rise. If you ain"t with me, you ain"t. Just say so, can"t you?"
"A song first, Twisty?" countered Kendric.
"Will you come listen to me then?" asked Barlow. "Word of honor?"
It was plain that he was in dead earnest and Kendric cried, "Yes,"
quite heartily. Then Barlow, putting up with Kendric"s mood since there was no other way that one might do for a wilful, spoiled child over which he had no authority of the rod, allowed himself to be dragged to the middle of the room and there, standing side by side, the two men lifted their voices to the swing and pulse of "The Flying Fish Catcher," through all but interminable verses, while the men about them kept enthusiastic time by tramping heavily with their thick boots. At the end Kendric put his arm about the shoulders of his shorter companion, and in lock step they went out. The party was over.
"What"s on your mind, Seafarer?" asked Kendric when they were outside.
"Loot, mostly," said Barlow. "But first, while I think of it, Ruiz Rios"s wife wants a word with you."
"What about?" Kendric opened his eyes. And, before Barlow answered, "You saw her then?"
"I went up to the hotel. Tried to get a room. She saw me and sent for you. She didn"t say what for."
"Well, I"ll not go," Kendric told him. "Now spin your yarn about your loot."
He leaned against a lamp post while Twisty Barlow, upright and eager, said his say. A colorful tale it was in which the reciter was lavish with pearls and ancient gold. It appeared that one had but to sail down the coast of Lower California, up into the gulf and get ash.o.r.e upon a certain strip of sandy beach in the shadows of the cliffs.
"And I tell you I"ve already got the hull off San Diego that will take us there," maintained Barlow. "All I"m short of is you to stand your share of the h.e.l.l we"ll raise and to chip in with what coin you can sc.r.a.pe. If you hadn"t been a d.a.m.n fool with that ten thousand," he added bitterly.
"Spilled milk. Forget it. It came out of Mexico and it goes back where it belongs. But if you"re counting on me for any such amount as that, you"re up a tree. I"m flat."
"We"ll go just the same if you can"t raise a bean," said Barlow positively. "But if you can dig anything, for G.o.d"s sake sc.r.a.pe lively. We want to get there before somebody else does. And I was hopin" you"d come across for grub and some guns and odds and ends."
"I"ve got a few oil shares," said Kendric. "If they"re roosting around par they"re good for twenty-five hundred."
Barlow brightened.
"We"ll knock "em down in San Diego if we only get two fifty!" he announced, considering the sale as good as made. "And we"ll do the best we can on what we get."
Not yet had Kendric agreed to go adventuring with Twisty Barlow. But in his soul he knew that he would go, and so did Barlow. There was nothing to hold him here; from elsewhere the voice which seldom grew quiet was singing in his ears. He knew something of the gulf into which Barlow meant to lead him, and of that defiant, legend-infested strip of little-known land which lay in a seven hundred mile strip along its edge; he knew that if a man found nothing else he would stand his chance of finding life running large. It was the last frontier and as such it had the singing voice.
"You"ll go?" said Barlow.
But first Kendric asked his few questions. When he had answers to the last of them his own eyes were shining. His truant fancies at last had been snared; he was going headlong into the thing, he had already come to believe that at the end of it he would again have filled his pockets the while he would have drunk deep of the life that satisfied. It was long since he had smelled the sea, had known ocean sunrise and sunset, had gone to sleep with his bunk swaying and the water lapping. So when again Barlow said, "You"ll come?" Kendric"s hand shot out to be gripped by way of signing a contract, and his voice rang out joyously, "Put her there, old mate! I"m with you, blow high, blow low."
For a few minutes they planned. Then Barlow hurried off to make what few arrangements were necessary before they could be in the saddle and riding toward a railroad. Kendric meant to get two or three hours"
sleep since he realized that even his hard body could not continue indefinitely as he had been driving it here of late. There was nothing to be done just now that Barlow could not do; before the saddled horses could be brought for him he could have time for what rest he needed.
The thought of bed was pleasant as he walked on for he realized that he was tired in every muscle of his body. The street was deserted saving the figure of a boy he saw coming toward him. As he was turning a corner the boy"s voice accosted him.
"Senor Kendric," came the call. "_Un momenta_."
Kendric waited. The boy, a half-breed in ragged clothes, came close and peered into his face. Then, having made sure, he whipped out a small parcel from under his torn coat.
"_Para usted_," he announced.
Kendric took it, wondering.
"What is it?" he asked. "Who sent it?"
But the boy was slouching on down the street. Kendric called sharply; the boy hastened his pace. And when Kendric started after him the ragam.u.f.fin broke into a run and disappeared down an alley way. Kendric gave him up and came back to the street, tearing off the outer wrap of the package under a street lamp. In his hand was a sheaf of bank notes which he readily recognized as the very ones he had just now lost at dice, together with a slip of note paper on which were a few finely penned lines. He held them up to the light in an amazement which sought an explanation. The words were in Spanish and said briefly:
"To Senor Jim Kendric because under his laugh he looked sad when he lost. From one who does not play at any game with faint hearts."
His face flushed hot as he read; angrily his big hand crumpled message and bank notes together. He glanced down the empty street; then forgetful of bed and rest, his anger rising, he strode swiftly off toward the hotel, muttering under his breath. The hotel-keeper he found alone in the little room which served him as office and bed chamber.
"I want to see Mrs. Rios," said Kendric curtly.
"You"d be meaning the Mexican lady? Name of Castelmar." He drew his soiled, inky guest book toward him. "Zoraida Castelmar."
"I suppose so," answered Kendric. "Where is she?"
"Your name would be Kendric?" persisted the hotel-keeper. And at Kendric"s short "Yes," he pointed down the hall. "Third door, left side. She"s expecting you."
Had Kendric paused to speculate over the implication of the man"s words he would inevitably have understood the trick Ruiz Rios"s companion had played on him. But he was never given to stopping for reflection when he had started for a definite goal and furthermore just now his wrath was consuming him. He went furiously down the hall and struck at the door as though it were a man who had stirred his anger by standing in his path. "Come in," invited a woman"s voice in Spanish, the inflection distinctly that of old Mexico. In he went.
Before him stood an old woman, her face a tangle of deep wrinkles, her hair spotted with white, her eyes small and black and keen. He looked at her in surprise. Somehow he had counted on finding Zoraida Castelmar young; just why he was not certain. But the surprise was an emotion of no duration, since a hotter emotion overrode it and crowded it out.