"The Mystery of the Headless Horse" - читать интересную книгу автора (Arden William)
6Bad News
Jupiter got up early on Saturday morning, even though the rain was still coming down steadily. But he soon discovered that the planned visit to the Alvaros would have to be delayed. Both Bob and Pete had some chores to do at home first. Jupiter than made a bad mistake. Because of the rain, he remained in the house. Aunt Mathilda pounced on him and put him to work.
“Can’t have you moping around because of a little rain!” Aunt Mathilda boomed heartily.
Groaning, and filing a mental note never to be caught again in the house on a Saturday even if there was a typhoon outside, Jupiter spent the morning sorting junk in the roofed-over section of the salvage yard. Let off for lunch, the stout leader of The Three Investigators ate quickly and slipped away to the team’s secret headquarters. Headquarters was in an old, damaged house trailer, long forgotten under mounds of junk in one corner of the salvage yard.
Soon after, Bob and Pete arrived at Headquarters, and the three boys hurried back outside to their bikes. Protected by oilskins, they cycled through light rain out along the county road. Jupe carried a road map in case they got lost in the foothills. They rode past the ruins of the Alvaro hacienda and found the small avocado farm of the neighbour Emiliano Paz without trouble.
The Paz house was an old frame building with a big barn and two small cottages behind. Diego was out chopping wood in the rain near one cottage when the boys rode up.
“Is Pico home?”
“He is in the cottage,” Diego said. “You have found —?”
Jupiter led them all into the little cottage. There were only two rooms and a tiny kitchen. Pico had just started a fire in the living-room fireplace. He stood up to greet the Investigators.
Jupiter told Pico and Diego what Professor Moriarty had said about the sword cover.
“It’s almost certainly the cover of the Cort#233;s Sword,” Jupe concluded.
“And Don Sebasti#225;n wasn’t shot escaping at all!” Pete cried.
“At least,” Bob corrected his eager friend, “there’s a chance he wasn’t.”
Jupiter showed the two Alvaros the copies of the army’s letter to Jos#233; Alvaro, the original report by Sergeant Brewster about the death of Don Sebasti#225;n, and the report of the desertion of Sergeant Brewster, Corporal McPhee, and Private Crane.
“So?” Pico said. “How do these documents change anything? We are told that Don Sebasti#225;n was shot — something we have no reason to doubt. And the sergeant’s report implies that Don Sebasti#225;n had his sword with him when he fell into the sea. That’s just what the Yankee commander told my family at the time.”
“Don’t you find it suspicious,” Jupiter asked, “that the men who reported the escape and shooting of your great-great-grandfather all deserted from the army the next day? One man deserting could be a coincidence, even two men, but all three?”
“All right,” Pico said. “Then it is as I always thought. The sword wasn’t lost in the sea. The three men stole it before shooting Don Sebasti#225;n. Then they filed their report, deserted, and vanished with the sword.”
“That’s possible,” Jupiter agreed. “But what about the cover? Who hid it in the statue? It almost had to be Don Sebasti#225;n, and the only reason would have been to hide the sword from the Americans. Except for some reason he separated the sword and scabbard from the cover.”
“The cover might have been hidden by whoever smuggled the sword in to Don Sebasti#225;n,” Pico pointed out.
“That’s another fishy part of the story,” Jupe said. “Why smuggle a valuable sword practically into the hands of the enemy? If Don Sebasti#225;n needed a weapon, why not take him a gun? He couldn’t very well fight with a jewel-covered ceremonial sword.”
Pico shrugged. “We don’t know for sure there were jewels.”
“Well, here’s what I think might have happened back then,” said Jupiter. “The Americans really arrested Don Sebasti#225;n to try to get the Cort#233;s Sword. Yes, Bob, I know what Professor Moriarty said,” Jupe interrupted his account as he saw Bob about to object, “but Fr#233;mont’s soldiers could have been greedy, as well as eager to control local leaders. The men in Rocky Beach could easily have heard about Don Sebasti#225;n’s fabulous sword. Now, say Don Sebasti#225;n had hidden the sword in the statue. When he escaped from arrest, Sergeant Brewster and his two confederates went after him. They decided to try to get the sword for themselves, so they cooked up the shooting story to hide what they were doing. Then they deserted and went looking for Don Sebasti#225;n and the sword. Don Sebasti#225;n was afraid they’d find the sword where it was, so he got it and re-hid it. He left the cover in the statue — maybe to confuse them.”
“And what happened to Don Sebasti#225;n?” Pico said.
“I don’t know,” Jupiter said lamely.
“You don’t know very much, Jupiter,” Pico said, shaking his head, “and all you’ve said is the wildest speculation. Even if you are partly right, and my great-great-grandfather did escape alive, where did he hide the sword, and how will you find it?”
“What about Don Sebasti#225;n’s letter, Jupe?” Bob said.
Jupiter nodded quickly, and handed the copy of the letter to Pico.
“Would you translate it, Pico?” he asked, and motioned to Bob. “Write down the translation, Records.”
“Records?” repeated Diego, “why do call him Records?”
“Because he’s the Records and Research man of The Three Investigators,” explained Jupiter, “We sometimes call Pete ‘Second’ because he’s the Second Investigator. And I’m First!”
Pico had been studying Don Sebasti#225;n’s letter. “I know this letter,” he said. “My grandfather often read it, looking for a clue to the lost sword, but he never found one.” He translated the letter aloud: “ ‘Condor Castle, 13th September, 1846. My dear Jos#233;, I hope you are well and doing your duty as a Mexican. The Yankees are in our poor town, and I have been arrested. They will not tell me why, but I suspect, eh? I am a prisoner in the Cabrillo house near the sea, and they will let no one visit me or even speak to me. The others of our family are well, and all else is safe. Soon, I know, we will meet in our victory!’ ”
Bob looked at what he had written in his notebook.
“That stuff about suspecting why he was arrested,” he said. “You think he meant that the Americans wanted the sword, just as Jupe said?”
“And what about ‘all else is safe!’ ” Pete exclaimed. “Maybe he was telling Jos#233; the sword was safely hidden!”
“Let me see,” Jupiter said, taking Bob’s notebook. “Perhaps you’re both right. I’m not sure. But I am sure now that Sergeant Brewster was lying in his report!”
“What makes you sure of that, Jupiter?” Pico asked.
“Sergeant Brewster stated in his report of the escape and shooting that Don Sebasti#225;n was armed with a sword, probably smuggled to him by a visitor! But Don Sebasti#225;n wasn’t allowed any visitors, so he couldn’t have been smuggled a sword! Brewster made that up to justify his story of the shooting, and to make people think that the sword was lost. I’m convinced the whole report was a lie to hide what he and his friends were up to!”
Pico studied the letter. “Yes, I see, but I still — ”
Outside in the rain there was a loud thud, a crash, and then the sound of logs rolling together. Feet pounded away.
“You! Stop!” a voice cried out.
The Investigators and the Alvaros ran from the cottage. They were just in time to see a horse galloping away to the left beyond the barn. A small, white-haired old man stood in the yard.
“Someone was listening at your window, Pico!” the old man cried. “I was coming to speak with you, and saw him! When he heard me, he ran and fell over the stack of firewood. He went behind the barn. He had a horse there!”
“Did you see who it was?” Diego cried.
The old man shook his head. “My eyes are not what they once were, Diego. A man or boy, I could not tell.”
“You are getting wet, Don Emiliano,” Pico said, his voice and manner respectful to the old man. “Come inside, please.”
Inside the cottage, Pico sat the old man near the fire, and introduced him to the boys. Emiliano Paz smiled at them.
“Was he out there very long, sir?” Jupiter asked.
“I do not know. Only now did I come from the house.”
“Who do you think it was, First?” Bob asked. “Why would he be listening at the Alvaro’s window?”
“I don’t know,” Jupiter said, “but I wonder if he heard us talking about the Cort#233;s Sword?”
“Is that bad, Jupe?” Pete said.
“I suspect that Mr. Norris and his people wouldn’t want us to find a valuable sword,” Jupiter said grimly. “Last night, Skinny was pretty interested in what we might be doing.”
“I do not think it matters, Jupiter,” Pico said. “If all your speculations are true, they still tell us nothing about where the sword could be, or even if it still exists at all.”
“I’m sure that Don Sebasti#225;n knew those three soldiers were after the sword, and that he hid it,” Jupiter declared stubbornly. “And I’m sure he would have left a clue for his son. If not in that letter, then somewhere. But there should be some clue in the letter. He was a prisoner and in danger, and he must have thought it might be his only chance to tell Jos#233; where to find the sword.”
They all looked at the letter again. Pico and Diego re-read the original, and the Investigators studied the translation Bob had taken down.
“If there’s a code, I sure don’t see it,” Pete said.
Pico shook his head. “It is a simple letter, Jupiter. I see nothing that could be a clue or a code in the Spanish.”
“Except maybe those hints about everything being safe,” Diego said.
“Jupe?” Bob said suddenly. “That heading at the top, above the date — Condor Castle. What is that? Do you know, Pico?”
“No,” Pico said slowly, puzzled. “A place, I think. People in those days, and even today, often put where they are writing from at the top of a letter. A town, a hacienda, a house.”
“But,” Bob said, “Don Sebasti#225;n wrote the letter in a Cabrillo house.”
“And his home was your hacienda,” Jupiter added. “Did you know it by that name? Was it ever called Condor Castle?”
“No,” Pico said. “It was always Hacienda Alvaro.”
“Then why did he write Condor Castle at the top?” Pete cried. “Unless it was some special place that Jos#233; would know about! A clue!”
Jupiter pulled out his road map of the county. Everyone else peered over his shoulder as he studied it. Then Jupiter sighed and sat back.
“No Condor Castle,” he said unhappily, and then looked up. “Wait! This is a modern map! In 1846 the map would — ”
“I have an old map,” Emiliano Paz said.
The old man left the cottage. The others waited for him impatiently. At last the old man came back with a yellowed old map. Dated 1844, it was half in Spanish and half in English. Both Pico and Jupiter read it carefully.
“Nothing,” Pico said. “There is no Condor Castle.”
“No,” Jupiter had to agree.
Pico looked defeated and angry. “Foolishness, as I said! We will not save our ranch with a pipe dream! No, we must find a better — ”
Emiliano Paz said sadly, “Perhaps you have no other way, Pico. I am sorry, but I came to speak to you of bad news. You are very far behind with your mortgage payments. It is much money for me, and soon I must pay my own debts. I lent to you all the money I had, and now with all you own burned with your hacienda, you cannot pay me. I must have the money, and Mr. Norris has offered to buy your mortgage. I have come to tell you that very soon I must sell to him.”
Pete whispered, “That’s what Skinny meant last night!”
“I thank you for coming to me, Don Emiliano,” Pico said. “What must be, must be. You have your own family to consider.”
“I am sorry. Will you honour me by staying here?”
“Of course, Don Emiliano,” Pico said. “We are friends.”
The old man nodded and walked slowly out of the cottage. His head was bent as he crossed the muddy yard in the rain. Pico looked after him for a moment, and then went outside, too. Soon the boys heard him chopping wood.
“It’s all over,” Diego said hopelessly.
“No, it isn’t!” Jupiter insisted firmly. “We’ll find the Cort#233;s Sword, Diego!”
“We will!” Bob echoed.
“You bet we will!” Pete chimed in. “We’ll… we’ll… gosh, Jupe, what will we do?”
“Tomorrow, we’ll look for every old map we can find,” the stout leader of the trio declared. “Condor Castle must be some secret clue, and we’ll find it. We’ll study every old map in Rocky Beach if we have to!”