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Updated: May 26, 2025
Then the man and woman passed around a corner of the building, the loungers peering curiously after them. A little later Spear observed the gambler issue forth alone and journey rapidly toward the landing dock. He noted that a strange ship rode at anchor. It must have come within the hour, he decided. Impelled by curiosity, he descended in McTurpin's wake.
Perhaps it was McTurpin's dismay, perhaps the spur of his own danger. He knew that there was only one escape, and that through playing on McTurpin's anger. "A most ingenious scheme, but it'll fail you!" "And why'll it fail, my young jackanapes?" the gambler blazed at him. "Do you reckon I'll let you go to give the alarm?" It was then Benito threw his bombshell. It was but a shrewd guess.
"What ship is that?" he asked of Leidesdorff. "I haven't learned her name. She's from the north coast with a lot of sick men. They've the scurvy and flux, I'm told. Dr. Jones has gone aboard." "I wonder what McTurpin's doing at the ship?" said Spear. "He'll get no gambling victims out of ailing seamen." "It's something else he wants, I fancy," said Bob Ridley, coming from the dock toward them.
Yet it worked amazingly. "Your plan will fail," he said with slow distinctness, "because Sam Brennan and Alcalde Geary know you set the town afire. Because they're going to hang you." Rage and terror mingled in McTurpin's face. Speechless, paralyzing wrath that held him open-mouthed a moment. In that moment Windham acted quickly.
He and the Senorita were to meet and plan a settlement of McTurpin's claim against the rancho. He had asked her to come alone, and, after a swift look, half fearful, half desperate, she consented. It was an unheard-of thing in Spanish etiquette. But he believed she would fulfill the bargain. And if she did, he asked himself, what should he say or do?
"Stop your jokin', Aleck. Rules is rules." McTurpin's fingers closed about the pistol. His eyes were venomous. Then Benito Windham entered. Just inside the door he paused, uncertainly. "I have come to vote for Senor Bartlett as Alcalde," he declared. A laugh greeted him. "You should not announce your choice," said Inspector Ward severely. "The ballot is supposedly secret."
"Thank you," Brannan acknowledged. "Who's to make the first bid? Speak up, now, don't be bashful." "Twenty-five dollars," called Juana Briones. "Thirty," said a voice behind her, a voice that caused young Windham and his sister to start, involuntarily. "McTurpin," whispered Inez to Adrian. "Thirty-five," spoke Juana, imperturbably. "Forty." Brannan looked straight into McTurpin's eyes.
There was an agitated rustle; then the door swung back and Stanley saw the figure of his wife, beside whom stood the light-haired girl. "What is it, Adrian?" "There's someone sick at Brown's Hotel," said Adrian, "a friend of mine. I'm going over there." He made a sign imposing silence on the men. Inez came close. "You're certain it's no trick," she whispered, "it's not McTurpin's scheme to "
After that for a time he lost the thread of the talk. An argument arose, and, in its course, McTurpin's voice was raised incautiously. "Who's to stop us?" he contended, passionately. "The old alcalde grants aren't worth the paper they're written on. Haven't squatters dispossessed the Spaniards all over California?
I should like to play a big stake once, before I leave " "How big?" asked McTurpin, coldly, but his eye was eager. The Spanish-American faced him straightly. "As big as you like, amigo ... if you will accept my note." McTurpin's teeth shut with a click. "What security, young fellow?" he demanded. "My ranch," replied Benito. "It is worth, they say, ten thousand of your dollars."
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