They searched all the downstairs rooms cautiously, but found nothing. Jupiter bit his lip in chagrin. Were they too late? Had Mr. Harris kidnapped everyone so he could hold them as hostages until he got away with the Chumash Hoard? Then Worthington spoke quietly:
“Gentlemen, I believe I hear something.”
They all listened in the dark house.
“It’s upstairs,” Chief Reynolds said. “At the back!”
With the Chief leading the way, his pistol in hand, they mounted the stairs carefully and went along the first floor corridor towards the source of the banging.
“In there,” Mr. Andrews said, pointing to a door in the left wall.
The door was locked. Chief Reynolds motioned for them to stand back while he hurled his bulk against the door. It cracked but did not break down. The Chief battered it again, and it flew open. His pistol ready. The Chief led the way into the room.
“There!” Mr. Andrews cried.
Something that looked like an Egyptian mummy lay on the floor in a corner of the dark room, thumping its legs against a wall. It was Ted Sandow trussed up and gagged. They freed the English boy, and he cried:
“Aunt Sarah! Over there!”
The frail little woman was tied firmly to a chair with a gag in her mouth. Worthington released her, and she stared with wide, shocked eyes at all of them.
“I… I… what happened?” Her eyes were dazed, confused. “I remember Mr. Harris bringing me my afternoon tea, and the next thing I knew I awakened here in this chair! My goodness, I’ve never been so frightened. And poor Theodore! On the floor!”
The fluttering little lady hurried to Ted and clucked over him like a hen. Ted smiled at her, then turned to Jupiter.
“After I left you in the library, Jupiter, I came back to find that both you and Mr. Harris had gone. He didn’t return until late afternoon. He told me he had some important evidence about the amulet to show me upstairs. Naturally, I came up with him and suddenly he must have struck me on the head from behind. When I regained consciousness I was tied up like a mummy. I’ve been here ever since.”
“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.”
“
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?”
“
“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.”
“
“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.
“
“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,
“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.”
Pete clung to Natches, and Bob to Nanika. Then, without another word, the two Yaquali dropped over the edge of the cliff. Pete’s head seemed to spin as he felt himself falling into space, and Bob clutched tightly to the straps in Nanika’s back.
The two Yaquali bounced down the sheer cliff with the speed and agility of flies on a wall. They slid down the ropes, bouncing from rock wall to crevice as they descended swiftly and without pause. At times they swung far out into open space while Bob and Pete clung desperately to their backs. Then the two Indians would swing back to the cliff face at exactly the right spot to continue their unhindered descent. They went down the cliff face in the darkness as easily as other men walk a city street.
The boys hung tight, their eyes closed. It seemed as if the trip down would never end. At last they realized that the Indians were on flat ground again. Cautiously they lowered their legs and opened their eyes.
“We made it!” Bob cried in relief.
Natches grinned. “Is not so bad. That easy.”
“Don’t tell me about the hard ones then,” Pete declared weakly. “But we’d better hurry. Where’s your car, Natches?”
“Road to left. We go for police? They will help?”
“They sure will when we tell them what we know Bob declared.
They all hurried along a trail towards the place where Natches and Nanika had parked their old car.
Just as they reached the road, the bright lights of a truck flashed on, blinding them.
Mr. Harris stepped out of the shadows, holding a rifle “You two boys are beginning to become tiresome. But at least you have brought me my Yaquali friends. I was just a little worried about them running loose.”
“How… ” Bob stammered, “how did you… ”
“Find you? Simple, I saw your signals and came to investigate.”
“Oh, no!” Pete groaned.
Mr. Harris laughed, turning to speak to his burly assistant, Sanders, who stood behind him with another rifle. In that instant, Nanika muttered something and leaped at Mr. Harris. The fake vegetarian stepped adroit]y aside, striking Nanika on the head. The Indian fell to the ground and lay there, motionless.
“Mr. Harris!” Sanders cried. “The other one!”
Harris whirled, but Natches had vanished into the night. He was nowhere to be seen. Mr. Harris glared furiously at the boys. His confident manner vanished for a moment. Then the thief and confidence man laughed coldly.
“No matter, let him go. We’ll soon be far away and, one missing Indian won’t bother us.”
Sanders looked uneasy. “You sure, boss?”
“Of course I’m sure, you idiot! Go and get Carson from his post in front of the cabin. We’ll have to take these meddling fools with us. I’m tired of them bothering me. We’ll put an end to that!”
Sanders went off into the night. Nanika still lay silent the ground, and Mr. Harris continued to glare at Bob and Pete. In sudden fear, they realized that this time they could not get away.
“How?” Bob’s dad said nervously. “We don’t have any idea where they are. We’ve found no trace of them!”
They were all out in front of the house where the moonlight turned all the shadows into silver ghosts. Jupiter paced up and down, his round face looking like a miniature owl deep in thought.
“Chief, we do have some idea where they are, I think,” he said slowly. “First, the Hoard must be in the mountains on the estate somewhere. Second, Mr. Harris has a car and a truck. Third, it’s almost certain he plans to get the Hoard tonight. His various ruses to get us out of the way were not designed to hold us for long, just to delay us.”
“But how does all that help us, Jupiter?” Ted said, puzzled.
“It means that he is planning to use a road, and the road is almost certainly on the estate. It probably goes into the mountains, and isn’t very far from here,” Jupiter explained eagerly. “We can rule out the road to the house, and the road to the lodge. So what other roads are there?…Miss Sandow can tell us.”
“By golly, Jupiter, I think you’re right,” said Reynolds.
The Chief turned to Aunt Sarah, while Mr. Andrews, Ted and Worthington all stared out into the night towards the eastern mountains.
“What other roads are there, Miss Sandow?” Reynolds asked.
“Well,” the fragile, little lady said, blinking her eyes as she thought, “I haven’t been around the estate much in recent years, but — ”
Ted suddenly interrupted, “Look! Over there! A light see? It’s flashing.”
They all looked towards the mountains. No one breathed. They waited. Then the faint point of light flashed again — low in the sky, just above the nearest trees
“It’s an SOS!” Jupiter cried. “I bet it’s Bob and Pete. They’re probably being held prisoner up there.”
“About five miles away, I’d say,” Chief Reynolds said “And just about where the foothills of the high mountains begin.”
“Due east, also, Chief,” Worthington pointed out.
The pinpoint of light flashed once more.
“What is out there, Miss Sandow?” Jupiter asked excitedly.
“Why, I’m not sure,” Aunt Sarah said. “It’s been so long. Wait now, yes, my father had an old cabin on the east range. My goodness, I’d forgotten all about that. No one goes out there any more.”
“How do we reach it, ma’am?” asked Mr. Andrews.
“Well, there is a road — rather narrow. It goes on into the high mountains. The road runs just below the cabin. You see, it’s built on a mesa on top of a cliff. It’s quite hard to reach.”
“Just where Mr. Harris would hold prisoners,” Jupiter observed.
They all stared in the direction of the light, but it did not flash again. Though they waited expectantly, there were no more signals.