William Arden - The Mystery of the Laughing Shadow

“Of course!” Jupiter was beginning to understand the whole plot. “When Mr. Harris and I came back from the lodge, he must have told me that you had driven off somewhere in order to make me suspicious. You hadn’t gone out at all.”

“It also gave Harris a chance to reach his office in time to abduct Bob and Pete,” Chief Reynolds added. “Jupiter had told him that they would be there.”

“Please,” Jupiter groaned, “don’t remind me. I told him everything, and he got us all out of the way!”

“He must be going for the Hoard tonight,” Ted said. “I feel completely responsible. He wormed his way into my confidence to get here. All that about you boys being thieves, and the reward, was his idea. He suggested reaching you by offering the junk. He used me like a toy.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Theodore.” Aunt Sarah tried to console him. “He took me in, too. I even donated money to his League. He had such fine letters of introduction from other vegetarians I know.”

“Forged, I’m sure,” Chief Reynolds said. “A tricky man.”

“But we have to find him,” Jupiter reminded them. “Ted, did he say anything to you about those dark men or the headless midgets?”

“Gosh, Jupiter, not that I remember.”

Jupiter frowned. “I’m convinced that those headless-looking prisoners are the key. One of them must have stolen the amulet and thrown it over the wall with his message. Which means that they must be Yaquali Indians. But why does Harris have them?”

Mr. Andrews burst out, “Why are we worrying about amulets and midgets? It’s Bob and Pete we have to think about now!”

“But we aren’t likely to find them unless we find Harris,” Chief Reynolds said.

The adults all looked at each other helplessly. Jupiter chewed on his lip. Suddenly, he turned to Miss Sandow:

“Ma’am, did your brother ever mention the Chumash Hoard?”

“No. Mark was so young when he had to flee, poor boy.”

“What did he tell you about those two amulets?”

“Nothing, Jupiter. He gave them to me just before he left and said that they were useless. He said he had killed his goose. I always wondered what he meant by that.”

Jupiter blinked. “Why, he must have meant he had killed the goose that would have laid his golden egg! The man he killed must have known the secret of the Hoard. The amulets aren’t clues at all. They just prove that there was a Hoard on the estate. That man knew where it was!”

“So Mark Sandow didn’t know the secret,” Chief Reynolds said. “Yet Harris must, but how?”

“He must have solved Magnus Verde’s riddle,” Jupiter declared. “Maybe those dark men told him. And now we have to solve it to find him.”

“ In the eye of the sky where no one can find it ,” Chief Reynolds recited. “What could it mean? Where do we look?”

No one answered. They all stared at each other. “If we could only find those dark men.”

Jupiter groaned, and the big house seemed to mock him with its silence.

The two dark-complexioned men stood menacingly in the mountain cabin, their long knives in their hands. As Bob and Pete backed slowly towards the wall, Pete clutched the lantern, ready to hurl it in self-defence if necessary.

One of the men shook his head at Pete, speaking in a harsh guttural voice:

“No! You no understand. We friends. Come to help.” Bob stared. “You speak English?”

“ Si , a little. I Natches. This my brother Nanika.”

“If you want to help, why did you steal the statuette?” Pete demanded hotly.

“We see you find little gold man on road. We think it holds words from our little brother Vittorio. We follow you, take gold man, but no words in him.”

“We kept the message,” Pete blurted out.

“So?” Natches said. “What words tell?”

Pete told them the message, and Natches began to nod in excitement. The two dark men put their knives away.

“Is what we fear,” Natches said. “Our little brother is in danger. This Harris liar, bad man!”

“You are Yaquali Indians from Mexico, aren’t you?” Bob asked. “And Harris has your brother prisoner.”

“ Si , yes,” Natches said. “We come to find brother. We are afraid. We no like city. But we must find Vittorio and other boys.”

“Why didn’t you try to talk to us in English when you chased us?” Bob wanted to know.

“When excited, cannot remember the English,” Natches explained sadly.

“Why does Harris have your brother? What is he doing?”

In halting English, Natches told his story.

A month ago Harris had come to the Yaquali village deep in the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico and offered to take four of their boys to America to perform climbing feats at a public amusement park. It seemed to be a good opportunity for the boys. Vittorio was one of them.

“We are poor,” Natches said. “Our young boys must learn new ways. Mr. Harris tell us they will make much money, will see America.”

Harris took the boys, and the village was happy. The boys would see a new world, and there would be money. Then, a week ago, a letter reached the village. It came from Rocky Beach and revealed that Vittorio needed help. Somehow, the boy had managed to get it posted.

“We leave, get old car, come here,” Natches went on. “We find Mr. Harris at fine hacienda in mountain. We think we hear Vittorio cry for help. We watch, see you find gold man. Next day we follow your big car — first to big studio, then to house where we get little man from you. When gold man not have letter from Vittorio inside, we look again for Mr. Harris. We find him in big house. Try to make him tell where are boys. He fights with us and calls the police to put us in jail. We scared, run away.”

“You mean Mr. Harris started the fight to get you arrested?” Bob began to understand.

“ Si ,” Natches agreed. “So we watch more and next day see you boys come out of big house. We chase, but you fool us. We watch again, see Harris put two boys in truck. We follow to here, wait, climb cliff to talk with you. You tell us where Mr. Harris go now.”

“We don’t know,” Pete said.

“What is he doing with your boys? Do you have idea?” Bob asked.

“Some bad thing,” Natches said grimly. “We think he use boys for evil, then maybe kill them. They know what he do.”

Pete exclaimed. “He must be using them to get the Hoard! They’re expert climbers. And when he gets it, he sure won’t want them around to tell about it.”

“We’ve got to get out and call Chief Reynolds,” Bob said.

“You wish to go out?” Natches said. “We go then.”

“How? There’s a guard out there, and we couldn’t get near him,” Pete explained.

“We go down cliff,” Natches said simply.

Nanika nodded eagerly, gesturing at the rear window and pointing down — down the sheer cliff to the jagged rocks far below.

“Down the cliff?” Pete drew back from the window.

“There is no danger with us, muchacho .”

Bob looked at Pete, then back at Natches. “We’ll try it,” he said. “It’s the only chance we have.”

“Let’s send out some signals first,” Pete said, resigned to this new danger.

He and Bob carried the lantern to the window, and with the help of the flat sheet of tin, sent out a series of SOS signals in Morse code. Then all four of them climbed through the window, and Natches and Nanika threw thin rawhide ropes down the face of the cliff. They wedged two thick wooden stakes into the rocks at the top and motioned to the boys.

“We have straps on chest and shoulders,” Natches instructed. “You will grasp shoulder straps very tight, and climb on backs. That way we carry you down.”