Deadly Shoals by Joan Druett Read Free Book Online

was how the missing goods had been carried, Wiki thought—to be stowed on board the schooner. It looked increasingly as if Stackpole were right, and Adams had paid for the Grim Reaper with the draft, waited until the Athenian men had finished their business and gone, and then placed his own goods on board to provision the voyage before taking the schooner downriver to the sea.
    But why the horses? Presumably, they had been used for carrying the provisions down the streets to the riverside, to be ferried on board the Grim Reaper —perhaps because the cart was broken. Wiki hunkered down, but could see nothing but shuffles in the dust. He looked up and said, “By what magic can you discern all this?”
    Bernantio smiled. “Can’t you, yourself, see how the packhorses were always the same space apart—which means that they were roped together? The mount of the man who followed favored its left hindfoot—see how the mark is uneven? And see how its prints overlay all the others?”
    Wiki peered, but could discern nothing to match what the rastreador said. He stood up, shaking his head in wonder, and said, “Can you tell how many days have passed since the packhorses were driven out of here?”
    â€œSome day since the last rain,” the gaucho said, and shrugged, looking up at the bright blue sky. Obviously, it didn’t rain often in the summer.
    â€œCan you follow these tracks?” The lane that ran past the gate on the way down to the river was unpaved.
    â€œI believe they will lead upriver.”
    Wiki only just stopped himself from exclaiming out loud in disbelief. According to the bill of sale, the schooner had been lying off the pueblo at the time—and it was logical for the contents of the store to be stowed in her holds as soon as the Athenian men had left. Yet, as Bernantio stalked to the front of the store and remounted his steed, his demeanor was remarkably confident.
    Wiki went inside, where Stackpole was back to trying to pry information out of the clerk, and conveyed this puzzling news. The whaling master didn’t look particularly surprised, remarking, “The schooner must’ve been up at the dunes.”
    â€œDunes?”
    â€œSalt dunes. They’re at the edge of the river where it runs closest to the salinas .”
    Wiki was none the wiser. “Salinas?”
    â€œThe great salt lake. It’s about five miles inland. The salt is dug there, carted to the riverbank, and piled up in dunes, ready for loading.”
    Stackpole had told Adams to load the schooner with salt as well as provisions, Wiki remembered, so it looked as if the storekeeper had been following the whaling master’s instructions right up to the moment of the robbery. But why pack the provisions to the dunes, instead of waiting until the schooner had been sailed back to El Carmen, where it would have been so much easier to stow them on board?
    Stackpole interrupted his meditations, saying impatiently, “Come on, let’s go.”
    â€œDon’t you think we should be asking more questions while we’re here in El Carmen?” They should notify the governor, too, Wiki thought.
    â€œAbout what?” the whaling master demanded.
    â€œAbout Rowland Hallett, for instance. Is he the master of the Athenian ?”
    â€œNope. The captain of the Athenian is a fellow called Nash.”
    So who was Hallett? An officer who belonged to the Athenian —the sealing master, perhaps? Or had he been an agent, like Adams, acting as Nash’s representative?
    Wiki said, “Have you ever heard of this man Hallett before?”
    â€œNope. All I know,” said Stackpole bitterly, “is that he’s got my money, but I don’t have a schooner.”
    â€œDo you know Captain Nash?”
    â€œNever clapped eyes on neither him nor the Athenian . I heard lots of gossip that they did uncommon well in the sealing line, and that’s