“But why have you come?” Don Audre wanted to know.
“I have known Don Diego Vega and the little señorita since they were babes in arms, and I was to have married them to-day,” the old fray replied.
“But fighting is not your forte!” Don Audre declared. “You are old, and you wear a gown. Do you remain behind and pray for our success, and let us wield the blades! That were better, fray.”
“I am willing to make my prayers. But I have taken a vow,” Fray Felipe replied. “I must return the golden goblet the pirates stole from the church.”
“Then you would go with us?” Don Audre asked.
“Sí! I already have communicated with the captain of the trading schooner, señor. He is coming ashore now in one of his boats. Thus time will be saved.”
CHAPTER XIII.
TRAGEDY AT A DISTANCE.
The caballeros dismounted stiffly and gathered near the water line. In from the distant trading schooner a boat was coming, driven over the choppy water by silent oarsmen. Half a dozen men were in her, and their flaring torches touched the sea with streaks of flame. They approached the shore carefully, and on guard, as though fearing some trap set by thieves, and by the light of the torches those on the land could see that the men in the boat were heavily armed.
Don Audre Ruiz and Fray Felipe went forward and met the boat at the water’s edge and greeted the schooner’s captain as he stepped to land. He was a regular trader who carried goods overland from the sea to Reina de Los Angeles every now and then. He traveled as far as San Diego de Alcála to the south, and as far as San Francisco de Asis to the north—a bold fellow and honest, well and favorably known.
“What is all this tumult?” the captain demanded. “Fray Felipe, are you not? Ha! I thought that I recognized you, good fray! And Don Audre Ruiz, whose father has purchased much goods of me. Sundry caballeros and men of rank, also! In what way may I be of service to you, señores? Have you ridden out all this long way in the night to have first choice of my stock of goods?”