You little pest, he thought. How am I going to get rid of you? The only answer seemed to be to lead her back to her own field. He started toward it, then suddenly stopped dead.
He could hear the sound of Spanish from the back porch at the far end of the house. A man’s voice and then a woman’s. Although Ascención never said a word to Dusty, he had been quite friendly to the three guys at the barbecue. Speaking Spanish to Jupe, he had asked them questions about the United States, talked about the lake, and warned them not to swim in it. He had told them the mountain water was ice cold and no one could last more than a few minutes in it. Jupe instantly recognized Ascención’s gravelly voice now, but he was too far away to hear what the Mexican was saying.
Wondering who the woman was, Jupe moved closer to the back porch. Blondie walked beside him. Jupe stroked her neck to keep her from braying.
The woman was talking now. “You must help me, Ascención,” Jupe heard her say in Spanish. “You know what Rice will do if he finds them. He might even kill them.”
Ascención replied with several Mexican swear words describing the rancher. “All right. I’ll do everything I can to help you,” he promised. “You can count on me.”
The woman thanked him. Jupe quickly withdrew into the darkness as he heard her light footsteps coming down into the yard. He caught a glimpse of her before she vanished around the end of the building.
She had her back to him so he couldn’t see her face. But the moonlight shone briefly on her blond hair.
The burro was rubbing her shoulder against Jupe. From where he was standing he could see that the gate into Blondie’s field was open. He led her through it, closing and latching the gate after him. Then he climbed back into the yard. The burro hung her head over the fence, braying complainingly. Jupe was relieved to see she was no jumper. He went back to bed.
The next morning he had a quick word with the other two Investigators before they left their room. He told them what had happened during the night and explained that he had an important phone call to make. He wanted them to get Dusty away from the house for a couple of hours.
Ascención had made scrambled eggs with green peppers for breakfast. It was one of Jupe’s favorite dishes and contained no starch, but he politely refused any. He said he had a slight stomach ache.
That was Pete’s cue. He asked Dusty if he would take them fishing in the lake. The rancher agreed. Jupe announced he would stay at the ranch house because of his stomach. Half an hour later he was alone with Ascención.
A plate of fresh rolls had been left on the table. Jupe fought a brief battle with himself. They smelled so good. Jupiter grabbed a few and stuffed them quickly into his mouth. After all, he had to have something to keep up his strength till lunchtime. He looked around for the phone.
He found it in Dusty’s small office off the living room. Closing the door behind him, Jupe sat down at the desk and looked through the phone book for the direct-dial numbers to California.
Hector Sebastian answered at once. Jupiter told him where he was and came straight to the point.
“Could you do me a favor and call my computer information service from your terminal?” he asked his old friend.
Hector Sebastian was a successful mystery writer. He had once been a private eye himself and enjoyed giving the Three Investigators an assist with their cases whenever they asked him.
“No problem,” the writer told him.
“Great,” Jupe said. “All you need to do is enter my password. It’s D-ET-E-C-T. Then flip through the menus till you access the encyclopedia.”
“Right,” Hector Sebastian said. “And the subject is.
“Uh, burros,” the Investigator told him.
“Come again?”
“You know, burros, the small donkeys used as beasts of burden.”
“Gotcha.”
Jupe read off the questions about burros he needed answered. Sebastian noted them down and promised to phone Jupiter as soon as he had the answers.
While he was waiting, Jupe looked around the small office. Ordinarily he would have thought twice before snooping on anyone. But he figured Dustin Rice had told the guys nothing but lies since he had first shown up at Jupe’s house. The Three Investigators had a right to find out as many hard facts as they could.
Jupe’s mind buzzed with questions. Why was his puzzle chosen out of the many perfect entries? Why was Rice so eager for him to get to the ranch fast? What made that Mexican woman want to stop him? And why did Blondie seem to know Jupe, though she’d never seen him before?
Jupe didn’t come across anything of interest on Dusty’s shelves except some large-scale maps of the Sierra Madre. Someone had penciled question marks all over them. Probably Dusty. In the top drawer of the desk were the deeds to the ranch. Jupe glanced through them until he came to the signature at the end.
ASCENCIÓN BARBERA.
So Ascención had sold the ranch to Dusty and become his field hand and cook. It seemed to explain the Mexican’s hostility to the rancher.
In the bottom drawer of the desk was a tape recorder. Jupe took it out, turned down the volume, and pressed the play button.
This time he recognized his own voice at once.
He heard himself saying the same words again and again.
“Come. Here. Blondie. Giddy. Up. Woe. Blondie. Come. Here. ”
After a while, he carefully rewound the tape and put the recorder back where he had found it.
A few minutes later the phone rang. “I’ve got that info for you,” Hector Sebastian told him. “Ready?”
“Yeah.” Jupe turned over his list of questions and scribbled the answers on the back.
“Thanks,” he said when the mystery writer had finished. “That’s super.”
“Any time, Jupe. Give me a call when you get back and I’ll treat you troublemakers to a meal. I’m curious about where these burros are going to take you.”
Jupe promised he’d call and thanked Sebastian again before he hung up. He had a lot to tell Pete and Bob and a pile of questions to chew over with them. But they wouldn’t be back for at least an hour. He left the office, closing the door carefully behind him.
He hadn’t seen Blondie that morning. Now that he had the answers to his questions about burros, he felt more interested in the little animal. He decided to pay her a visit.
Ascención was in the field with her, refilling her water tub. The moment the burro saw Jupe she trotted eagerly toward him. He patted her neck.
The Mexican had taken off his shirt in the noonday sun. Jupe noticed that his chest and back were the same even brown color as his face. Jupe couldn’t tell if that was Ascención’s own color or if a lot of work outdoors had deepened the man’s naturally brown skin. For sure the Mexican was darker than Jupe. Even with daily swims, Jupe was still a pale Anglo who spent too much time indoors in front of his computer screen.
Jupe gestured at the burro. “Blondie’s no longer. ” He didn’t know the Spanish word for “hobbled,” but Ascención guessed what Jupe meant when he pointed to the burro’s front legs.
“No, that. ” Ascención used the word that seemed to come naturally to him when he talked about Dusty. It was X-rated. “That took the rope off her yesterday evening.”
“Why?”
“He’s not afraid she’ll run away now that you’re here.”
“Me? Why me?”
“She’s grateful to you.”
“What for?”
“She thinks you saved her life. And they are good animals, burros. Very faithful. Very grateful.”
He picked up his bucket and walked away. Jupe went after him, followed by Blondie. But the Mexican refused to answer any more questions. He said he had work to do.