"What a queer little town!" exclaimed Nat, as the panorama below suddenly burst upon them.
He gazed in an interested way at the collection of red-tiled roofs and adobe walls below them. Several modern cottages mingled with the ancient Spanish architecture without detracting a bit from its quaintness. Above the other roofs, and some little distance removed from them, imposed a tower pierced with numerous openings, within which swung ancient bells. This was the tower of the old mission of Santa Inez. It had been long abandoned, but still remained a pathetic monument to a great religious movement.
Situated as it was, at the foot of the mountainside, which was clothed with pungent bay and madrone trees, and facing a blue bay of horseshoe shape, a more picturesque little place it would be hard to imagine.
"But the boat?" exclaimed Joe, as they advanced down the steeply pitched trail. "I don't see a sign of her."
It was true. The sparkling, deep blue bay was empty of life. That is, if a fair-sized black schooner, which lay at some little distance offshore, be excepted.
All the party showed their disappointment. They had confidently expected to behold the trim outlines of Nat's "Nomad" as soon as they came in full view of Santa Inez. Blank looks were exchanged. Even Cal, who had had no experience of the sea and indeed rather mistrusted it, looked downcast.
"Maybe a whale swallered yer ship, Nat," he ventured.
In spite of his chagrin over the non-arrival of the "Nomad," Nat had to laugh, for Cal had made the remark just recorded in no joking sense. The mountaineer, who had hitherto obtained only distant glimpses of the ocean, fully believed it was inhabited by monsters capable of devouring whole vessels.
"There are some big whales in the Pacific, all right, Cal," said the boy, shoving back his sombrero, "but I hardly think that any one has yet heard of one capable of absorbing a sixty-foot motor boat. And—hullo—what's that? Hurray!"
His cheer was speedily echoed by the others who had fixed their eyes on him when he broke off so excitedly in the middle of a sentence.