William Arden - The Mystery of the Headless Horse

“But,” Bob said, looking at the paper with the Spanish writing on it, “how does this help us, First? I mean, maybe I was right and Don Sebastián did hide out like Cluny MacPherson, but this entry doesn’t say where. What about later entries in the mayor’s diary, Jupe? Do they help?”

“This entry was on the last page of the diary, Bob, and there wasn’t a second diary of the mayor’s. He was killed a few weeks later fighting the invaders. I guess he got too busy to write.”

“Well, if Don Sebastián did hide out in the hills,” Pete said, “what happened to him? Maybe his friends helped him to escape out of the area, and he took the sword with him and never came back!”

“That is possible, Second,” Jupiter admitted. “It has been all along — but I don’t think that happened. If it had, I’m sure there would have been some reference to it in all the diaries and memoirs we’ve read. No, fellows, I don’t think Don Sebastián escaped for good. I think something happened to him out in the mountains, but I don’t know what, and I don’t think anyone else knew back then either! I think that is the key to the whole mystery — what did happen to Don Sebastián!”

“If they didn’t know back then,” Pete said, “how do we find out?”

“We find out, Second, because we do know where he planned to hide!” Jupiter declared. “He told us when he headed his letter ‘Condor Castle’! I’m convinced that the answer is out there near that great rock. There is something out there that we’ve missed, and right after school tomorrow we’re going to go out and find it!”

When school finished that Thursday the rain had slackened a little, and the four boys made good time out to the ruins of the hacienda. Alert, they watched carefully for any sign of the three tramp-like cowboys.

The dirt road into the mountains was a quagmire after the whole week of rain, so they left their bikes under a makeshift shelter of burned boards. Bob had brought a saddlebag with tools and a flashlight, which he took off his bike and hitched to his belt. The boys started to walk up towards the dam and the great rock of Condor Castle.

“If it gets any wetter, we can swim back,” Pete moaned.

They walked off the road through the chaparral and over the rocky ground as much as they could, so their shoes didn’t get too muddy. When they got close to the high rocky ridge of Condor Castle, they found the arroyo was too full of water to cross. They had to go around the end of it to get on the ridge, climbing over the mound that separated the arroyo from Santa Inez Creek.

A lot of brush had washed loose from the soft dirt of the mound. Slogging through the mud, the boys reached the ridge, only to have their feet sink into its lower slope as they climbed.

From the top of the giant rock of Condor Castle, the four boys had an awesome view. Above the dam Santa Inez Creek was far over its banks, spreading out across the burned land. At the dam itself, water poured not only through the centre gate but also over the whole top, forming a great waterfall. Below the dam the creek boiled and surged high against the mound at the base of the ridge, then flowed in a torrent down towards the county road and the distant ocean.

But the awesome view wasn’t what Jupiter had on his mind.

“Where,” he said, looking all around, “could a man hide to be sheltered, relatively safe, and more-or-less comfortable for a long time — if he had friends to help him?”

“Not on this ridge, that’s for sure,” said Pete. “We were all over it the other day and couldn’t even find a crack.”

“Are there any caves around here, Diego?” Bob asked.

“None that I know of,” Diego said. “Maybe far back in the mountains.”

“No,” Jupiter shook his head. “I’m sure the place must be close.”

“Maybe the dam’s hollow,” Pete suggested.

“Very funny, Second,” Bob said.

“Perhaps,” Jupiter said, “there’s a secret, hidden canyon where a tent or lean-to could have been erected?”

“There’s nowhere like that, Jupiter,” Diego said. “I’ve been all over these hills.”

“What about tenant houses? For the workers back then!” Bob speculated. “Don Sebastián must have had workers.”

“Yes,” Diego agreed, “but all the houses were down near where the county road is, on good land. Anyway, they’re gone.”

“Diego?” Pete said. “Where does the other fork in your dirt road go? The fork that doesn’t come here to the dam?”

“Just back deeper into the mountains, then curves back out to the county road on Señor Paz’s land.”

Pete pointed away from the dam and creek to the far side of the arroyo. “Does that path over there join the other fork?”

“Path?” Jupiter squinted, trying to see where Pete pointed.

“Yeah, over there. It goes away from the dirt road and off around that hill.”

They all saw the narrow trail that cut through the chaparral and disappeared among low oak trees around the slope of a hill.

“The shack!” Diego cried. “I forgot about it! There’s an old line shack back in there, for the vaqueros on roundup in the old days. It’s just boards and tin. I haven’t been near it for a long time.”

“Was it there in Don Sebastián’s time?” Jupiter asked.

“Oh, yes. At least, Pico told me there’s always been some sort of shack there. In the old days, it was an adobe room.”

“Almost hidden, not used much, and the path to it can be seen from Condor Castle!” Jupiter exclaimed, staring across the arroyo. “That could be the place!”

They climbed down from the giant rock, sinking into the soft earth as they slid down the lower slope and crossed the mound above the arroyo.

Jupiter looked nervously at the overflowing dam.

“I assume the dam will hold,” he said. The unathletic leader wasn’t the world’s greatest swimmer.

“It always has,” Diego said. “Of course, it’s pretty old.”

“That’s real encouraging,” Pete muttered.

On the other side of the muddy road, the boys followed the narrow trail through low oaks and thick chaparral. It was heavily overgrown from lack of use. Crossing the rocky shoulder of a hill, the path led into a small canyon nestled between two bigger hills. The canyon was dark and shadowy on the grey day.

“There, fellows!” Diego pointed.

A tiny, ramshackle hut was tucked in under a massive rock overhang, almost invisible behind trees and high brush. The flat roof was made of thin, rusted sheet metal and the walls were of rough-hewn boards with gaps between them. The door came off as Diego opened it and crashed to the ground in a cloud of dust. The sheltering rock overhang had kept the shack and the ground around it dry.

Inside, there was a single small room with a dirt floor. Bare planks held up the rough-hewn boards that formed the outside walls, and the sheet-metal roof rested directly on narrow open beams. There was no electricity, no window, and no plumbing. There was also no furniture, but a rusty old stove had once given heat.

“A great place to hide for a couple of years,” Pete said. “I’d hate to live here two days!”

“You might feel differently, Second, if soldiers were chasing you, and you had a valuable sword people wanted to steal,” Jupiter observed. “But I admit it’s pretty bare.”

“Too bare, First,” Bob said. “No closets, no cupboards, no nooks, and no crannies! There’s nowhere to hide anything.”

“Gosh,” Diego said as he looked at the bare, open walls and ceiling, “Bob’s right. There’s nowhere.”

“The floor?” Pete suggested. “Don Sebastián could have buried the sword here, and left the spot unmarked.”