William Arden - The Mystery of the Headless Horse

“We named the dog Rover,” Jupiter informed Diego, “so this secret entrance is called Red Gate Rover!”

One of the little dog’s eyes was a knot in a board. Jupiter carefully pulled out the knot and reached in to release a hidden catch. Three boards in the fence swung up, and Diego and Jupiter slipped into the salvage yard.

Once inside, they parked their bikes and crawled through hidden passages in the junk piles until they reached a panel that opened directly into Headquarters. Bob and Pete weren’t there.

“They’re probably still talking to Pico,” Jupiter said. “We’ll wait.”

“All right,” Diego said, “but what did you discover?”

Jupiter took out a piece of paper. His eyes gleamed with excitement.

“A second lieutenant who came here — one of Frémont’s men — kept a journal. I found this entry for 15th September, 1846,” Jupiter explained, and began to read. “ ‘My senses are in a whirl! I fear the strain of our invasion has affected my mind. Tonight I was ordered out to the hacienda of Don Sebastián Alvaro to search for hidden contraband. Just at dusk, I saw what can only have been the figment of a deluded mind. On a ridge across what the local people call Santa Inez Creek I clearly observed Don Sebastián Alvaro himself leading his horse and nourishing his great sword! Before I could attempt to cross the creek total darkness engulfed me, and not wanting to risk an encounter alone at night, I returned to our camp. There I was informed that Don Sebastián Alvaro had been shot and killed trying to escape from us that very morning! What, then, did I see across the creek as I left the Alvaro hacienda? A spectre? An illusion? Had I heard some casual reference to Don Sebastián’s death and not remembered until the Alvaro hacienda dredged it from the depths of my tired mind? I cannot say’.”

“But Don Sebastián wasn’t shot!” Diego cried eagerly. “So that lieutenant really did see him! And, Jupiter, he had the sword!”

“Yes,” Jupiter agreed triumphantly, “I believe we have now proved conclusively that Don Sebastián was alive on the night of 15th September, and that he did have the Cortés Sword with him after he escaped. There was nothing wrong with that lieutenant’s mind or eyes. The moment Bob and Pete arrive, we’ll go out and investigate the spot the lieutenant described!”

But after half an hour Bob and Pete still had not appeared at Headquarters. Diego became alarmed.

“Could something have happened to them, or to Pico?” the slim boy asked uneasily.

“That is always possible,” Jupiter acknowledged grimly, “but I think it is more probable that they learned something from Pico and went to investigate on their own.”

“But where would they go?”

“Considering that their task was to question Pico about where he had last seen his hat, I suspect that they have gone to your hacienda. Let’s go find them.”

Jupiter and Diego slipped back out through Red Gate Rover and rode their bicycles as fast as they could out to the burned hacienda. The rain had stopped and the sky slowly brightened. Santa Inez Creek was running full and high when the boys crossed it on the stone bridge of the county road. Passing the rank of ridges between the creek and the arroyo, they glanced up at the headless Cortés statue high on the last ridge.

“Jupiter! The statue! It’s… it’s moving!” Diego cried.

They slammed on the brakes of their bikes and stared up at the statue.

“No, it’s not moving!” Jupiter said. “There’s someone up there near it!”

“Someone hiding behind the statue!” Diego cried.

“There’s two of them. They’re running now!”

“Coming this way down the ridge!”

“It’s Bob and Pete!”

“Come on!”

They shoved their bikes into the brush beside the road and ran forward. Bob and Pete were slipping and sliding down the end of the ridge towards the road. Out of breath and panting, the four boys met where the ridge ended in a deep ditch beside the pavement.

“We found some evidence, First!” Pete panted.“And three guys found us!” Bob gasped.

“What three guys, fellows?” Diego asked breathlessly.

“We don’t know, but they’re after us right now!”

“Back to the bridge,” Jupiter puffed. “We’ll hide under it!”

“They’re sure to look there, Jupe!” Bob objected.

“There’s a big drain-pipe back down the road!” Diego cried. “It runs into this ditch, and it’s all overgrown! Come on!”

They raced back along the muddy brush-filled ditch. Diego scrambled amidst thick and thorny chaparral to uncover the mouth of a giant drainage pipe that came out of a hillside. The boys tumbled inside the pipe despite a thin stream of draining rain water, and pulled the brush back across the mouth. Huddled together, they waited anxiously.

“What evidence was it you found?” Jupiter whispered.

Bob and Pete told him about the set of keys and their adventures in the burned barn. Diego looked at the keys in the dim light of the pipe.

“I am sure they aren’t ours,” he said.

“Those men said they lost them and had to jump the ignition of some car?” Jupiter pondered. “From the way you tell it, fellows, it sounds as if they were at the barn before it burned. And they obviously don’t want anyone to find the keys and know they were there! Perhaps they stole the hat and planted it out at that campfire!”

“But who are they, First?” Pete wondered hoarsely.

“I don’t know, Second, but somehow they must be involved with the fire and Pico’s arrest. I… Shhhhh!”

In the pipe they all fell silent. Running feet were coming along the road! The boys peered through the thick bushes and saw the three saddle-tramp cowboys! Grim and silent, the three menacing men trotted past.

Diego whispered, “I never saw them before! If they work for Mr. Norris, they’re new.”

“Then what are they doing here?” Pete asked.

“That is something we must learn, Second,” Jupiter said.

“All I know,” Bob said, “is I hope they don’t come back!”

The four boys waited, listening hard. Down the road there was only silence. After another fifteen minutes, Jupiter sighed nervously.

“I guess one of us had better look,” he said.

“I’ll go,” Diego said. “They’re after Bob and Pete, not me. And I live out here, so they might not be suspicious.”

The slim boy slipped out quickly so that there would be little chance of anyone seeing where he came from. He climbed up to the road, turned left, and disappeared towards the bridge. In the pipe, The Three Investigators waited again. Bob was the first to hear someone coming back. He started to go out.

“Wait!” Pete whispered. “Maybe it’s not Diego!”

They waited. Someone stopped in front of the pipe.

“Okay, fellows, it’s all clear.”

It was Diego! The Investigators piled out, and Diego led them back to the bridge over Santa Inez Creek. He pointed towards the mountains. Far ahead, the three cowboys were disappearing north along the dirt road of the Norris ranch.

“They gave up,” Diego said with a grin. “And this is just about where we want to investigate, isn’t it, Jupiter?”

“Investigate what?” Bob and Pete asked together.

Jupiter told them about the lieutenant’s journal, and showed them the page he had duplicated from it.

“Wow!” Pete exclaimed. “Don Sebastián really did escape! And he must have had the Cortés Sword with him!”

“I’m sure he did,” Jupiter said, and he sighed. “But what that lieutenant wrote isn’t going to help us find it!”

“But, Jupiter, he wrote — ” Diego began in protest.

“He couldn’t have seen what he said he did,” Jupiter interrupted, “or, at least, where he saw it. Look, he wrote that he was leaving the hacienda, so that means he was on our side of the creek, the west side. He looked east, across the creek, from right about here. He says he saw a ridge — but from here there aren’t any ridges at all on the other side of the creek!”