But Rezanov was examining the scene before him. The lines of this bay within a bay were superb, and in its wide embrace, slanting from Point Tiburon toward an inner point two miles opposite was another island, as steep as Alcatraz, but long and waving of outline, with a glimpse of trees on its crest. Rezanov, while he lost nothing of the pic-turesque beauty surrounding him, was more deeply interested in noting the many foundations, sheltered and solid, for fortifications that would hold these rich lands against the fleets of the world. Never had he seen so many strategic advantages on one sheet of water. The islands farther south he had examined through his glass from the deck of the Juno until he knew every convolution they turned to the west.
Concha was directing his attention to the tremen-dous angular peak rising above the tumbled hills.
"That is Mount Tamalpais--the mountain of peace.
It was named by the Indians, not by us. Sometimes it is like a great purple shadow, and at others the clouds fight about it like the ghosts of big sea gulls."
They were sailing past the rounded end of the western inner point of the little bay. It was almost detached from the bare ridge behind and half cov-ered with oaks and willow trees. "That is Point Sausalito. I have often looked at it through the glass and longed for a merienda in the deep shade."
She turned to Rezanov with lips apart. "Could we not--oh, senor!--have our dinner on shore?"
"It is only for you to select the spot. We can sail many miles before it is time for dinner, and you may find a place even more to your liking. I fancy we can not go far here. It looks swampy and shal-low. Nothing could be less romantic than to stick in the mud."
"May I ask," said Concha demurely, "how you dare to run the risks of an unknown sheet of water?
I have heard it said that there is more than one rock and shoal in this bay."
"I am not as rash as I may appear," replied Reza-nov dryly, but smiling. "In 1789 there was a chart of this bay, taken from a Spanish MSS., published in London; and I bought it there when I ran up from the Nadeshda--anchored at Falmouth--three years ago. Davidov, who, you may observe, is steering, oblivious to the charms of even Dona Caro-lina, knows every sounding by heart."
"Oh!" Concha shrugged her shoulders. "The Governor, too, is very clever. It will be a drawn battle. Perhaps I shall remain neutral after all. It would be more amusing." The ship was turning, and she waved her hand to the island between the deep arc of the hilly coast. "I have heard so much of the beauty of that island," she said, "that I have called it La Bellissima, but I never hoped to see anything but the back of its head, from which the wind has blown all the hair. And now I shall. How kind of you, senor!"
"How easily you are made happy!" he said, with a sigh. "You look like a child."
"To-day I shall be one; and you the kind fairy god-father," she added, with some malice. "How old are you, senor?"
"Forty-two."
"That is twenty-six years older than myself. But your excellency might pass for thirty-five," she added politely. "We have all said it. And now that you are not so pale you will soon look younger --and even more triumphant than when you came."
"I have never felt so triumphant as on this morn-ing, dear senorita. I had not hoped to give you so much pleasure."
Her cheeks were as pink as her reboso, her great black eyes were dancing. Her hands strained at the railing. "I shall see La Bellissima! La Bellis-sima!" she cried.
They rounded the low broken point of the island, sailed through the racing currents between the lower end of La Bellissima and "Our Lady of the An-gels," more slowly past what looked to be a per-pendicular forest. From water to crest the gulches and converging spurs of this hillside in the sea were a dense mass of oaks, bays, underbrush; here and there a tall slender tree with a bark like red kid and a flirting polished leaf, at which Concha clapped her hands as at sight of an old friend and called "El Madrono." It was a primeval bit of nature, but sweet and silent and peaceful; there was no sugges-tion either of gloom or of discourteous beast.
"We shall have our dinner here, Excellency.
There on that little beach; and afterward we shall climb to the top. See, there are trails! The In-dians have been here."
