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F ourteen

A hand slammed against the door to their room.

Josh hollered, “If this is a medical emergency, I can’t help.”

“Josh, Tilda, come to the ranch house. Ellie and Brody are back.” Zane hadn’t given them until the noon meal, not even close, though breakfast was done and cleared away. “They’ve brought Cord and Mayhew Westbrook with them—and a treasure map.”

Tilda flinched at the news, then flinched as if from pain. “Come in.”

Zane shoved the door open and stuck his head in.

His eyes went to Tilda. “How are you this morning? Are you up to coming over? The boys have gone crazy with excitement and are fighting with Brody right now about saddling horses. But Brody still isn’t feeling all that well. We’ve got to calm them down.”

Josh gave Tilda a worried frown. “I’d leave you to rest, except I’m not leaving you alone ever again. Not for one minute.” Which reminded him. “Have you heard from the sheriff? Did they arrest Ben?”

“I haven’t heard from him this morning yet, no.”

“They should have caught him by now. I wonder what’s going on.”

Zane shook his head. “Come over if you’re able.”

A ruckus downstairs, including begging from Lock and a lot of footsteps, said the party was soon going to be here.

Zane stepped out of the way fast or he’d’ve been run down.

Josh gave Ellie a hug. Brody, still a little wobbly, got a handshake. “Welcome back.”

“You got married, Josh?” Ellie smiled, then turned to hug Tilda.

“Be gentle with her. She jumped out of a moving train yesterday.”

Ellie grimaced. “Ouch.”

“I hurt, but I’m all right.”

Brody sat down, not looking as sturdy as Tilda.

Josh said, “We stayed here last night, but we’ll clear out now that you’re back.”

“We need to study this map.” Lock held a paper in his hands that couldn’t have been the map. It was white and crisp-looking.

Two other men came in. Josh recognized Cord Westbrook.

“This is my grandfather, Mayhew Westbrook. We found the map under the inside cover of a book Brody’s grandpa mailed him years ago.”

“I recopied it,” Cord said. “Brody suggested it because the original one was crumbling.”

Josh studied the map. “It has the same strange writing as your grandfather had, with the little pictures. And right here, at the edge of the paper, that must be where your map ended.”

Tilda knew what they were after. “You think this map will lead you to the lost treasure of a group of Spanish conquistadors?”

Her voice trembled, and her eyes took on a look that some might call “gold fever.” Josh sure hoped not.

“Can you imagine the history contained in this?”

At Tilda’s obvious interest, Brody slid the old journal across the table to her. She stared at the Cross of Burgundy insignia. Then Cord slid the smaller notebook Graham MacKenzie had mailed so long ago to his grandfather. She lifted it, focusing on the same insignia.

While they were handing things to her, Ellie produced a single gold doubloon.

Tilda gasped. “This coin is over three hundred years old. It’s worth a fortune. Far more than its weight in gold.”

Zane said, “Michelle knows someone deeply involved in studying California’s history with an eye toward creating a museum. He has to see the doubloons, of course, but he said they’d be very valuable and there are collectors of such things who will pay dearly for them.”

“We’ve got to go.” Lock pulled a matching coin out of his pocket and held it in front of his eyes, transfixed. “We have fourteen of these coins. Who knows how many more there might be.”

Brody said, “We’ll go soon, boys, but my ribs are still so sore, every move hurts.”

“Can I go?” Tilda asked fervently. “I make no claim on any of it, but I would love to see what else is there, I mean beyond the coins. Are there more notebooks?”

“When we found Grandpa’s remains, he had an old knife on him. I suspect he brought everything with him, at least all he could carry. I don’t expect to find more gold, though.”

Lock howled in protest. “No, Brody, don’t say that. You’ll bring us bad luck. We think there’s an entire pirate’s chest of gold.”

“Captain Cabrillo wasn’t a pirate, Lock.

He was a sailor. The captain of a ship that sailed north from Mexico, exploring the coast of California.

Any men who sailed with him would have been sailors like your uncle Josh, not pirates.

I see no reason they’d have pirate booty with them, but they might well have artifacts . ”

“Are those like treasure? Are artifacts made of gold?”

His wife didn’t have gold fever; she had artifact fever. Which might be its own kind of trouble. But Lock for sure had a bad case of this madness.

“Lock, my saying something about treasure will not bring us bad luck.” Brody sounded both exhausted and perturbed.

“For heaven’s sake, brother, where’s the logic in that?

Saying the wrong word now won’t affect what happened three hundred years ago or change what was left there.

Or go back thirty years; nothing now can change what Grandpa found back then. You can’t believe that.”

Lock clamped his mouth shut, but he looked mutinous.

Thayne said, “Brody, we want to follow that map. It’s been two weeks since you got hurt. You’re walking around. You must be well enough by now.”

Had it been that long? Josh had lost track. He’d been busy finding a wife, fending off her mysterious visitor, and getting married.

Brody sighed and looked at Ellie as if he were actually considering it.

She shook her head at him. “Absolutely not, Brody, not until your ribs heal.” She turned to direct her gaze at Lock. “Two weeks may be enough for cracked ribs, but your brother’s ribs were broken. And his head still aches terribly.”

Josh’s head still hurt as well, and Brody had been slammed into a rock wall by the force of a bullet. Of course, Josh had been cracked over the head with a gun butt ... twice. Josh watched Ellie move until she stood behind Brody, where she gently wrapped her arms around his neck.

“I didn’t know you were hurt that bad, Brody.” Josh knew he was battered, but this seemed more serious. “Did you go to a doctor in Sacramento?”

“I had my own personal physician look at him.” Mayhew Westbrook spoke up for the first time. He shook his head, scowling at Brody and Ellie. “But these two didn’t take his advice.”

The frown lines in Westbrook’s aged face fell right into place with that scowl. Josh suspected the man had spent most of his life with that exact expression.

“He wanted to bleed me . The old man still believes in the four humors theory of medicine!”

Cord had been quiet most of the time. Now he lowered his head and seemed to be coughing into his hand ... or covering a laugh.

“Oh, good heavens.” Tilda brought a hand to her throat. “That dates back to ancient Greece.”

“Remember how I told you about having to swear the Hippocratic oath?” Brody glanced over his shoulder at Ellie.

“That’s bad, Brody,” Thayne said. “I’m thinking of becoming a doctor, but I’m not gonna start swearing. And it’s best not to be a hypocrite either.”

“Hippocrates,” Tilda the historian said, forging onward, “who lived four hundred years before Jesus was born, was one of the fathers of medicine. But much has been learned since he applied the theory of the four humors to medicine. And one of the things we’ve learned is that bleeding people is—” she shrugged—“well, bad.”

“My doctor is the finest in California,” Mayhew sniffed.

“Oh, he is not.” Brody rolled his eyes. “The old coot would have used leeches on me if I’d’ve let him.

I’m better than him. Michelle is better than him, and I’ve never seen Michelle do one second of doctoring.

Even Josh’s horse is a better doctor than him.

The four humors fell out of favor before the Civil War. You’re lucky to be alive, Mayhew.”

“Can we please get back to the map?” Lock was practically bouncing.

Josh had to give the kid credit. He kept the ship sailing dead ahead. Josh had a plan spring to life right then. “Brody, would you be okay with being left behind?” he asked.

“The boys shouldn’t go out there alone.”

“I’m not a boy.” Thayne crossed his arms defiantly. “I had friends in New York City who were married already.”

Brody gave Thayne a startled look, then shook his head. “I do want to help bring Grandpa home from that cave we found him in. But I’m not up to it right now. Of course, we could do that later. I suppose I could sit out this part of the treasure hunt.”

Josh nodded. “I think it’d be a good idea to get Tilda out of here for a while.”

Tilda leaned her head on her husband, who stood right beside where she sat. “Where do you want to go?”

“I have been wrangling around in my head that we need to post a guard or do something to protect you, even if we stay here. Even if Ben has been arrested, someone was with him when he was here. And he was writing someone all the time ... or at least he said he was. I’m not sure about your safety.

If Brody isn’t up to a treasure hunt right now, maybe you and I could go with Thayne and Lock.

” Josh looked around. “Cord too.” He looked down at Tilda.

“Would you be interested in coming along?”

She gave a brief nod. “I’m up for it as long as you’re there.”

“I’d hoped to come.” Mayhew had that scowl again.

“It’s rugged, sir. It’s all horseback riding. And we’d be on the trail, sleeping on the ground, eating over a campfire for days. If you think you’re up to it—”

Mayhew waved Josh’s words away. “I haven’t done much horseback riding for years. And I’ve got a touch of gout in my left knee.”

“I suspect you have arthritis, Mayhew.” Brody sounded kinder, more his usual doctor demeanor.

“You really think you could help me?” asked Mayhew.

“Yes, I can probably help you feel some better. There’s treatment for gout, too.”

Mayhew met Brody’s eyes. Somewhat sheepishly, Mayhew said, “Before the Civil War? Really?”