Pastwatch- The Redemption Of Christopher Columbus - By Orson Scott Card Page 0,142

Pedro's dark thoughts as he handed another bowl of melon slices to Martin Pinzyn. Pinzyn winked at him and smiled. He knows what I'm thinking, and he laughs at me, thought Pedro. He knows that I know what he's planning. He also knows that I'm powerless.

Suddenly a terrible blast shattered the quiet evening. Almost at once the earth shook under him and a shock of wind from seaward knocked Pedro down. He fell right across Pinzyn, and almost at once the man was hitting and cursing him. Pedro got off him as quickly as possible, and it soon became clear even to Pinzyn that it wasn't Pedro's clumsiness that had caused their collision. Most of the men had been bowled over by the blast, and now smoke and ash filled the air. It was thickest toward the water.

"The Pinta!" cried Pinzyn. At once everyone else took up the cry, and ran through the thickening smoke toward the shore.

The Pinta wasn't on fire. It simply wasn't there at all.

The evening breeze was gradually clearing the smoke when they finally found the two men who were supposed to be on watch. Pinzyn was already laying on them with the flat of his sword before Colyn could get a couple of men to pull him off.

"My ship!" cried Pinzyn. "What have you done to my ship?"

"If you stop beating them and shouting at them," said Colyn, "perhaps we can learn from them what happened."

"My ship is gone and they were supposed to watch it!" cried Pinzyn, struggling to get free of the men who restrained him.

"It was my ship, given me by the King and Queen," said Colyn. "Will you stand alone like a gentleman, sir?"

Pinzyn furiously nodded, and the men let go of him.

One of the men who had been on watch was Rascyn, who was part owner of the Pinta. "Martin, I'm sorry, what could we do? He made us get into the launch and row for shore. And then he made us get behind that rock. And then the ship -- blew up."

"He?" asked Colyn, ignoring the fact that Rascyn had reported to Pinzyn instead of to the Captain-General.

"The man who did it."

"Where is he now?" asked Colyn.

"He can't be far," said Rascyn.

"He went off that way," said Gil Perez, the other watchman.

"Se陇or Pinzyn, would you kindly organize a search?"

His fury properly focused now, Pinzyn immediately divided the men into search parties, not forgetting to leave a good contingent behind to guard the stockade against theft or sabotage. Pedro could not help but see that Pinzyn was a good leader, quick of mind and able to make himself understood and obeyed at once. That only made him more dangerous, as far as Pedro was concerned.

When the men had dispersed, Colyn stood on the shore, looking out over the many bits of wood that were bobbing on the waves. "Not even if all the gunpowder on the Pinta exploded all at once," said the Captain-General, "not even then could it destroy the ship so completely."

"What could have done it, then?" said Pedro.

"God could do it," said the Captain-General. "Or perhaps the devil. The Indians know nothing about gunpowder. If they find this man who supposedly did it, do you think he'll be a Moor?"

So the Captain-General was remembering the curse of the mountain witch. One calamity after another. What could be worse than this, to lose the last ship?

But when they found him, the man wasn't a Moor. Nor was he an Indian. He was white and bearded, a large man, a strong one. His clothing had obviously been bizarre even before the men tore much of it from him. They held him, a garrotte around his neck, forcing him to his knees in front of the Captain-General.

"It was all I could do to keep him alive long enough for you to speak to him, sir," said Pinzyn.

"Why did you do this?" asked Colyn.

The man answered in Spanish -- thickly accented, but understandable. "When I first heard about your expedition I vowed that if you succeeded, you would never return to Spain."

"Why?" demanded the Captain-General.

"My name is Kemal," said the man. "I'm a Turk. There is no God but Allah, and Mohammad is his Prophet."

The men muttered in rage. Infidel. Heathen. Devil.

"I will still return to Spain," said Colyn. "You haven't stopped me."

"Fool," said Kemal. "How will you return to Spain when you're surrounded by enemies?"

Pinzyn immediately roared out, "You're the only enemy, infidel!"

"How do you think I got here, if