Page 37

T wenty- F ive

Brody had done two weeks’ worth of work in half a day. He was weary to the bone. By midmorning they had Cord helping with minor medical care, and Mayhew was acting like a receptionist, keeping order in the small front office.

The Mayhews refused to come at first because they were fascinated by the artifacts, but they’d stopped in to talk about the armor and never escaped.

Gretel didn’t invite them to come and eat lunch at the ranch house.

Instead, during the only lull they’d had all morning, she arrived with her husband carrying a large basket loaded with fried chicken and a platter of biscuits.

Zane, trailing after them, lugged a bowl of mashed potatoes and another of gravy.

“Where are the children?” Ellie asked.

“I got Harriet to stay in the house while they napped. She’s there if Michelle needs anything, but Michelle and the baby are asleep, along with my two and Harriet’s little one. The woman’s watching over a sizable brood. God save her if they all wake up at once.”

“How’s Michelle?” Brody finished drying his hands with a towel, then led the way to the small table in the examining room. Mayhew and Cord followed the delicious scent. The Westbrook men drew the table away from the wall and rustled up two more chairs so that all four of them could eat together.

Zane set the bowls on the table. “Michelle is perfect. You took good care of her, Brody. You too, Ellie. Thank you both. I reckon delivering a baby will slow her down for a bit, but she’s already been up and dressed today. She’s staying inside, though, with the baby.”

Rick handed over the chicken and said, “I’ll go make sure everything’s in order at the house.”

“I’ll be right along, Liebling .” Gretel put the biscuits on the table, turned and left.

Brody dashed upstairs and came right back with plates and utensils.

Zane said, “We got a telegraph from the man Michelle contacted about the armor. He’ll be here tomorrow sounds like.

Someone’s gonna have to pry themselves away from doctoring to talk to him.

If you don’t, I’m afraid Michelle will insist on doing it.

That woman needs to take care for a few days. ” Then he left the room.

“We haven’t even seen the artifacts yet,” Ellie said to Brody.

“Well, here’s something no one’s seen yet.

” Mayhew reached into the inside pocket of his suit coat and drew out a brittle sheet of paper.

“I found this just this morning. We discovered two matching pieces of armor that looked like one piece at first. When we pulled them apart, we came upon this paper. It was wrapped in oilcloth. I’ve looked over your papers, Brody, and I’m pretty sure it’s your grandfather’s handwriting. ”

Brody gasped. “Who was it said Grandpa must’ve found all that armor, dug it up, maybe found any gold that was among the bodies, then buried it all again? This proves it.”

Mayhew nodded. “Could be. I haven’t read it yet. I unfolded it and saw it’s a fairly short note, and it was written in your grandpa’s hand. At a glance it made little sense. The note is to your father.”

Brody said, “We’ll copy it out to keep from ruining this fragile paper.” He carefully smoothed out the note and read it through to the end. “This is Grandpa’s handwriting, all right, but I have no idea what it all means.

“Frasier ,

“Herd there ain’t much gold but plenty of madmen.

I didn’t want that for us. Saw these mountains and thought of the old country.

Wanted it. Looking fer land , I found treshur.

Nuff fer us all. Got my notes sent to you.

Goin’ back fer more. Leavin this here lessen somethin happens to me.

Sent haff the map to the man who stood me for my claim.

Only fair he gits haff. Mayhoo Westbroks , a good man.

I found what’s here cuz of him. Got all the gold out. ”

Solo yo sobrevivo

Yo solo sigo

volveré a mi barco

a donde La Río está muerto

38.151294647218755, -120.45130425641777

Brody had read the note aloud except for the last part. “Spanish again, in Grandpa’s hand but printed out as if he’d copied it. And what’s this string of numbers?” He passed the note on to Ellie, who knew a little more Spanish than he did. Which wasn’t much.

She studied it for a bit, then looked up at Cord and Mayhew. “Do either of you speak Spanish?”

They both shook their heads.

“We’ll take this to Michelle—she knows the language well.” Ellie sounded uncertain.

“We’ll let her sleep another hour or so,” said Brody, “then take her the note.”

“What about the numbers?”

Ellie looked at Grandpa’s note again. “ Solo means ‘one’ or ‘alone.’ That’s in there twice. Maybe he was the last one alive. I think maybe barco is ‘boat’ or ‘ship.’ La Río is the river, like Dorada Rio, which means ‘Golden River,’ and I think—” Ellie hesitated—“ muerto means ‘death.’”

Brody thought he heard the whole table swallow.

Cord said, “The river of death?”

They all looked up, each of them a little afraid of what they’d heard.

“My grandpa wrote this note, went hunting for the river of death, and then he died.” Brody rubbed one hand over his face. “It would be superstitious to let this scare us, right?”

No one answered him.

The outer door slammed. “Doc? I cut my arm!”

Shooting to his feet, Brody didn’t even pretend it wasn’t a relief to have to attend to something else.

* * * *

“You’ve found evidence of Captain Juan Cabrillo?

Out here? No, that can’t be right. I know my family history well, especially surrounding old Captain Cabrillo.

It’s said he might have gone as far north as the Columbia River in Washington State, but he died on Santa Catalina Island at the end of his only voyage up the coast.”

Tilda had told him most of the story. But she hadn’t mentioned the gold nor how much armor they’d found. Let him think it was just the littlest shred of evidence. At least for now.

“We found a reference to Cabrillo,” Josh said.

“It’s our guess one of his ships got separated from the armada he sailed with and ran aground, maybe in a storm?

There was one reference to thick fog. We just don’t know.

But we found proof someone was near our ranch three hundred years ago, someone who had a connection to Captain Cabrillo. ”

“And you’re a direct descendent of Cabrillo?

” Tilda felt a little dizzy. “I thought I knew a lot about him. My father was a history teacher, and I was allowed to read his books. The history of the West stuck with me in particular. I can’t remember knowing anything about my name, yet it must have been lodged in my head somewhere. ”

Carl blushed and lowered his eyes. “I called myself Carlo Cabrillo when I was with Johanna, your mother. I always knew my heritage, but my family had Americanized the name long ago. My real name is Carl Cabril.”

“Another lie then?” Tilda’s jaw tightened.

The sheriff had gone out once he was sure Josh felt all right with that. Josh’s cowhands were sitting outside on the boardwalk, listening for a shout for help.

“And you’ve found artifacts?” Maddie’s eyes lit up. Giving Tilda a shy smile, she said, “I love history, too.”

Tilda wondered if Maddie had ever considered being a teacher.

Tilda felt the first real spark of a connection with her sister.

She still had trouble trusting them, but she fully believed in forgiving others.

Of course, God gave her common sense, too.

Loving and forgiving your enemies surely wasn’t the same thing as trusting your enemies, was it?

She’d have to pray about that. Eyeing Ben, who was sitting behind bars, she knew she was going to have to pray really hard.

* * * *

The afternoon was as hectic as the morning. Ellie could hardly remember anyone getting sick before Brody had come.

He still refused to charge anyone for his services because he wasn’t staying much longer. Just until they found what was at the end of Mayhew’s map. He had written to Dr. Tibbles in Boston several times, informing him of the delay and promising he’d be back soon.

Ellie had accepted she was moving to Boston, and they both wondered if his brothers would agree to come along.

Thayne and Lock visited the doctor’s office after school and helped out, pestering Brody about his coming to look over the armor.

When things finally quieted down, they all headed for Michelle’s laboratory, which Ellie liked to call the “invention shed.”

As they walked, Brody told his brothers about their grandpa’s note Mayhew and Cord had found. To give Michelle some peace, they decided not to eat at the ranch house tonight. Ellie had run upstairs during a lull in the hectic day and put a stew on, so supper was ready and waiting for them.

They eagerly planned to spend the evening studying Grandpa’s odd note with the Spanish words.

“We’ll need to go over those pieces of armor very carefully in case anything else is hidden among them,” Brody said. “Cord found the note Grandpa left tucked between two pieces shoved together that looked like one piece. What if there are more notes to be found?”

“Maybe we should go see Michelle first, have her read the note and figure out the Spanish.” They all thought that to be a good idea.

Thayne reached Michelle’s shed first and opened the door. Michelle kept the building locked, but they’d gotten the key from Zane.

Just as Thayne swung it wide, hoofbeats pounded into the yard. They turned to see Josh and Tilda riding in.

Josh saw Ellie and waved. “We’ve got news,” he called. “And we want to see the armor, too.”

“Not as badly as we want to see the new baby,” Tilda said.

Josh told them Ben’s lawyer still hadn’t arrived and that Carl Cabril was indeed a descendent of Captain Cabrillo.

Tilda said, “I fear Ben is going to be set free. Carl does an excellent job of muddying the waters, which doesn’t lead me to trust him any more than his son. Ben almost sounds believable when he denies he did any of the things I know he did.”