Marc Brandel - An Ear for Danger

She was around forty, he guessed. A good-looking woman with a strong, determined face. She was wearing a loose woolen skirt with pockets, Mexican boots, and a blouse with short sleeves. Her skin was deep brown and her eyes were as dark as Ascención’s. On the whole, he guessed, she would make a good friend and a dangerous enemy.

She put aside her empty plate and glanced at the man’s watch she was wearing. The strap had come loose and the watch had slid down her wrist. She quickly pushed it back into place.

“I don’t have much time,” she said, still in Spanish. “I’ve got to get back to the lake. So I’ll tell you what I have to say as briefly as I can.” She looked at Jupe. “I’m sorry I don’t speak any English. But from what I saw of you on the bus trip, you understand Spanish quite well. No?”

Jupe remembered the Mexican guy in the torn leather jacket who had tried to stop them from getting back on the bus. She had obviously overheard Jupe’s argument with him. And Jupe had seen her pay that man right afterward.

He nodded. “I can understand what you say,” he told Mercedes. “If you speak slowly.”

“Good.” Mercedes drew her feet up, covering them with her skirt. Then for the next fifteen minutes she talked in a low, urgent voice. Jupe had to interrupt only now and then to ask her what a word meant. When she had finished, he felt confident he had understood her whole story.

Mercedes stood up. The Three Investigators got up too. She shook hands with each of them. Then, as suddenly and mysteriously as she had arrived, she led her burro off into the night.

Pete put more wood on the fire. “Okay, what was that all about?” he asked.

“What a story!” Jupe told his friends as they sprawled on the ground. “I’ll run it by you in a minute. But first, Bob, give me the lowdown on Pancho Villa.”

“What do I look like, the Mexican Public Library?” Bob exclaimed.

“Come off it. You’ve been reading that Mexican history book ever since we left Rocky Beach. Did you finish it yet?”

“Yeah.” Bob smiled. “I finished it that day you almost became a historical item yourself by drowning in the lake.”

“Great.” Jupe smiled too. “The part I’m interested in is around 1916. What do you know about Pancho Villa?”

“There was a big revolution going on in Mexico then. Pancho Villa was one of the stars. Some people think he was just an outlaw, like Jesse James. But he managed his own private army. And he won a lot of battles.”

“Did he spend any time up here in the Sierra Madre?”

“Yeah. This was one of his bases. He’d go swinging down into the desert and hold up trains. Then he’d hide out up here.”

Jupe nodded thoughtfully. “At least Mercedes was telling the truth about that,” he said.

“You mean that’s what she was yakking about the whole time?” Pete asked. “About a dead guy called Pancho Villa?”

“No, not the whole time.” Jupe looked at Bob and went on. “But we might be on the trail of that treasure of the Sierra Madre you’re always going on about. Pancho Villa’s loot. Mercedes said he robbed a train one day and got away with thousands and thousands of dollars’ worth of silver pesos. Then he came up here and hid the money in a cave. Unluckily for him, he used the same cave to store his gunpowder in. One of his men got careless and the gunpowder exploded. Part of the mountain collapsed. It buried all those silver pesos under tons of rock and totaled some of Villa’s soldiers. He started to clear away the fallen rock. But then the other side in the revolution attacked him and he had to get out of these mountains fast.”

Jupe paused for a moment.

“Mercedes says the silver’s still there,” he finished.

Pete and Bob were silent while they thought that over.

“How did she get onto all this?” Pete wanted to know.

“She said her grandfather was one of Villa’s soldiers and he passed the story down through the family.”

“What was she saying about Dusty?” Bob asked. “I did catch his name. I made out something about a burro, too.”

“I’m getting to that,” Jupe told him. “She said about three months ago a close friend of hers, a young American named Brit, came out of these mountains. He and his father had been prospecting up here. Looking for Pancho Villa’s cave. And they thought they’d found it. At least Brit told Mercedes they had.”

Jupe paused again, remembering.

“Go on. Don’t stop in the middle of a solo,” Bob complained. “We’re waiting for the part about Dusty and Blondie.”

“When Brit got to the lake,” Jupe went on, “he had a little white burro with him. He had found her running wild near the cave. He made friends with her and led her down to Dusty’s ranch. Then he disappeared back into the mountains alone.”

“Why?” Pete asked. “Why didn’t he just leave her where she was?”

“Because Brit was afraid Blondie would die if she stayed in the mountains. He had to get a vet for her and the nearest one was in Lareto. Ascención did get the vet, who cured Blondie.”

“What was wrong with her?” Pete demanded. “I mean, she couldn’t have been all that sick if she made it as far as Dusty’s ranch.”

“She had a very bad eye infection.” That was one of the parts of Mercedes’ story that had most interested Jupe. It explained something that had been nagging at him for days. Why had Blondie recognized him only by his voice? Why didn’t she know Jupe didn’t look like the other young American, Brit?

“When Brit found her in the mountains,” he continued, “Blondie was blind.” Jupe remembered Ascención’s words: She thinks you saved her life.

Pete whistled softly. “It does all begin to add up,” he said. “If Dusty knew Brit and his father had found old Pancho Villa’s silver — ”

“Yeah,” Jupe interrupted. “Mercedes says he tried to follow Brit back to it. But Brit was too fast and too smart for him. He covered his own tracks. So Dusty was left with Blondie. The only one who could lead him to the loot. But Blondie didn’t want to lead him anywhere. Not without someone whose voice she thought she recognized.”

“So Dusty had to find a voice that matched Brit’s,” Pete said. “That’s what that whole puzzle contest was about.”

“And you got the part, Jupe,” Bob put in. “But what beats me is why Mercedes told you about the cave and those silver pesos.”

“Yeah,” Pete added. “Since she tried to keep us off the bus.”

That same question had bothered Jupiter.

“She wouldn’t let me ask her any questions,” he said. “Except when I didn’t follow her Spanish. So I’m just telling you what she told me. She doesn’t trust Dusty farther than she can throw him. She doesn’t believe his horse was going lame. She thinks he’s only a few hours behind us. She’s scared he’ll kill Brit and his father when he finds them. And he’ll kill her, too, if he sees her. So she said she was going back to the lake. And she wants us to get moving. Get to the cave and warn Brit and his father that Dusty is close behind us and may show up any minute.”

There was a long silence while the Three Investigators gazed into the fire.

Pete finally spoke. “You believe her?” he asked Jupe.

“I don’t know,” Jupe admitted. “Why’s she so hot on us finding Brit and his father? Or maybe it’s the silver she wants us to find.”

“Yeah,” Bob agreed. “So she can follow us and get her hands on that dough herself.”

The next morning the three investigators were up before dawn. Over a quick breakfast they talked some more about Mercedes.

“She tried to con us at least once last night,” Jupe remembered.