The Mystery of the Laughing Shadow - Arden William - Страница 23

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Harris muttered, “You think I can climb up there?”

Jupiter nodded. “With the help of the Yaquali boys, yes. The Australian police told us you had been a cat-burglar.”

“Suppose they are there, what can you do?”

“Natches and Nanika can get up there,” Jupiter said. Natches nodded eagerly. “Si! We climb easy. Mucho easy.”

“Are you going to listen to a kid?” Harris demanded of the adults. “I warn you, if you listen to him, and he’s wrong, the whole deal is off! We deal now, or never.”

The adults stood uneasily. Harris muttered an oath. everyone looked at Mr. Andrews and the two Yaquali. Mr. Andrews spoke first:

“I’ll trust Jupiter’s hunch,” he said. The two Indians nodded.

“All right,” Chief Reynolds said, “Natches and Nanika can go up and look. But what if Harris has the boys tied up? If the cave opening is so small, Natches and Nanika may not be able to get inside.”

“I don’t see how Harris could have got inside to tie them,” Jupiter replied. “Unless he had one boy tie all the others, and then tied him up and pushed him inside before sealing the cave. But I don’t believe he had time to do that. However, perhaps I’d better go up, too, just in case I might be able to get inside.”

“You, Jupiter?” Chief Reynolds said, looking at the First Investigator’s sturdy frame.

“Perdone,” Natches said, “I do not think Jupiter can make the climb. He is, yes, too big?”

Jupiter flushed at this reference to his size, but he reluctantly agreed. “I guess Pete will have to go.”

“Si,” Natches agreed. “Strong boy. Tall, not so heavy. He may get inside.”

Pete gulped, “Yeh, I guess it’s me.”

Chief Reynolds herded Harris and his two glowering henchmen into a space between boulders, where they sat sullen and silent while Pete and the two Yaquali prepared for the climb. When they had their equipment ready, the Yaquali roped Pete between them and started up with Nanika in the lead.

From the floor of the dark canyon, the watchers saw them swarm up the cliff face like insects. They mounted rapidly and surely. It was obvious that without Pete the two Yaquali could have climbed the mountain as fast as they walked a street. But they guided the strong boy carefully.

On they went, upwards, and at last they reached the ledge in the eye of the stone face. For a moment they paused at the shadowed ledge, and then they vanished over the edge.

“They made it!” Chief Reynolds cried below.

“With Natches and Nanika, there was no danger, sir,” Jupiter observed. “Now they are in the eye of the sky.”

High on the ledge, Pete and the two Yaquali saw a large boulder set against the rear wall deep inside the stone eye. On the ledge there was a small pile of gold and a long iron bar.

“Jupe was right!” Pete cried. “This is where the gold is, and Harris used that iron bar to lever the boulder into the cave mouth. Come on, Natches.”

They rolled the boulder away using the lever. Behind the boulder there was a small, dark hole in the cliff. It was far too small for the broad shoulders of Natches and Nanika. Pete took a flashlight.

“Tie a rope round my foot. If I signal, pull me out.”

He crawled into the dark opening. He just barely squeezed through the narrow tunnel, forcing his way forward. Soon he sensed space ahead and a movement of air. He started to crawl faster — but stuck fast.

Though he struggled to move ahead, he could make no headway. He was too big to move another inch. He heard a sudden noise to his left and ahead. In panic, he switched on his flashlight and saw a figure with a large rock in its hand ready to hit him.

“Bob!” he cried.

“Pete!” Bob grinned. “Boy, am I glad to see you. I tried to tell the boys you’d all come for us, but I don’t think they understood.” Bob laughed, a little nervously. “You sure look funny stuck there. I barely got through myself.”

Pete moved his flashlight around and saw that he was two feet short of the cave itself. Then he shifted the light again and the beam fell on four small, dark boys who were standing near Bob, grinning at him.

“Shine it farther back,” Bob said.

Pete aimed the light at the rear of the small cave. “Wow!” he cried.

All across the rear of the cave, piled in mounds, everywhere, was a vast, shining mass of gold and glowing jewels. The gold was of every possible shape, gleaming and sparkling in the beam of light. The jewels were every colour of the rainbow, dazzling and glistening in a riot of colour.

“The Chumash Hoard!” Pete cried, amazed. “We’ve found it!”

Alfred Hitchcock beamed at The Three Investigators as they sat in his office the next afternoon.

“So, the Chumash Hoard was indeed ‘In the eye of the sky where no man could find it!’ Old Magnus Verde told the exact truth, and therefore fooled everyone, for two hundred years.”

“No one thought about him telling the truth,” Jupiter agreed.

“Until you boys came along!” The famous director looked pleased. “Well, your Mr. Harris and his henchmen will have much time to regret their devious ways.”

“And when they get out of our jail, the Australians want them,” Bob said.

“Their future is not bright,” Mr. Hitchcock said drily. “Did they confess all their nefarious actions?”

“Yes, sir,” Pete said. “Mr. Harris was a very smart man. He heard about the legend of the Hoard and figured out the answer to Magnus Verde’s riddle. But after he spotted Indian Head Mountain and found the cave, he couldn’t get inside. He’d been at the Yaquali village while he was in Mexico, so he went down to get some Indian boys to climb for the gold.”

Bob added, “He’s admitted that he didn’t want any American boys because he planned to do away with them afterwards. He was sure that four boys from a remote Indian village in Mexico would never be traced to him.”

The famous director scowled. “A complete villain! You boys have done well to stop his black career.”

“But,” Jupiter took up the story, “the little brother of Natches and Nanika understands a little English, and he overheard Harris talking. He realized that Harris had some crime in mind and was going to dispose of the boys later. So he wrote a letter, and managed to toss it out of the truck. Luckily, someone found it and posted it.”

“The factor of fortune — chance!” Mr. Hitchcock pointed out. “Never underestimate it, my boys. It operates in all human actions. We’ll never know who that unknown person was who posted the letter, but he certainly saved those boys.”

“Yes, sir, he did,” Jupiter agreed.

“I wonder about one aspect of the affair,” the famous director mused. “Harris seems to have delayed a long time before making his move to steal the Hoard.”

Jupiter nodded, “Yes, he did. That was because he knew that it would be best if he could get the Hoard totally unseen. He didn’t want anyone to know he had it. So he was waiting until he could get Ted and Miss Sandow off the estate. He was all ready to persuade them to go to a vegetarian meeting in San Francisco the very day we found the amulet. As soon as they were gone, he was going to get the Hoard, dispose of the boys, and escape in a private plane he had engaged. If it had worked, no one would ever have known he had the Hoard, or that it even existed, and he would be safe in South America.”

Pete took up the story: “Only they took little Vittorio out to the cabin by himself one afternoon and he escaped. He was lurking around Miss Sandow’s house when he spied the amulet through the library window. He stole it because he thought the gold might be useful.”

“It was useful, too,” Bob broke in, “but not because of the gold. He discovered the secret compartment and hid a message for help in it.”

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