“But first we must remain out here another fifteen minutes,” Jupiter said. “I think that’s just time enough.”
“Stay out here?” Uncle Titus said, puzzled. “Why, Jupiter?”
“Time enough for what, First?” Bob said.
“Why, to stop Mr. Norris from getting the Alvaro ranch, of course,” Jupiter said a little pompously. “To find the Cortés Sword!”
“I forgot!” Diego cried. “You said you had the answer.”
“And I do,” Jupiter proclaimed. “Follow me.”
He walked towards the county road with the boys and Uncle Titus behind him. The rain had stopped, and the morning sun was trying to break through the clouds. As the group neared the bridge over the arroyo, Jupiter stopped.
“Do you remember that entry in the American lieutenant’s journal? The one that said he’d seen Don Sebastián on a ridge across the creek with a horse and a sword?”
“Sure,” Pete said. “The entry that was all wrong, because coming from the hacienda there isn’t any ridge across the creek.”
“There is now,” Jupiter said triumphantly, “and there was in 1846. Look!”
Beyond the arroyo, which was now a raging creek, the statue of the headless horse stood out clearly on its high ridge!
“In 1846 and before,” Jupiter reasoned, “there must have been two branches of Santa Inez Creek. We couldn’t tell that on the old maps we saw because an arroyo and a creek look the same on a map. But in 1846, when the lieutenant was here, the arroyo was a creek, too. At some point, a landslide on the ridge by the old dam formed that mound and blocked off one branch of the creek. Maybe the same earthquake that buried the cave caused the landslide, too. Anyway, half the creek became an arroyo, and its been dry ever since. Everyone forgot that it ever had been a creek.”
“So that lieutenant was right!” said Bob. “He saw Don Sebastián on a ridge across Santa Inez Creek. He saw him at the statue, and thought it was a real horse as he was a stranger and didn’t know about the statue!”
“Exactly, Records.”
Jupiter led the others across the bridge and started to climb the steep ridge. Pete stared at the headless horse standing against the now clearing sky.
“Don Sebastián must have been hiding the sword cover when that lieutenant saw him,” the Second Investigator said. “So you think there’s some clue we missed at the statue, First?”
“Ashes… Dust… Rain-Ocean,” the stout leader of the team intoned. “I was convinced it was Don Sebastián’s last message to his son José, and it was! Think, fellows! The rain comes from the ocean, and goes back to the ocean in the end. What do ashes go back to? What does dust go back to? They were very religious people, the Spanish Californians. They — ”
“Ashes to ashes!” Diego cried.
“And dust to dust,” Bob echoed. “The phrase from the church’s burial service! It means that in the end everything goes back to where it came from. Where it began!”
“Yes!” Jupiter crowed. “Don Sebastián, badly wounded, had only a short time. He wrote a clue he was sure José would understand at once. He knew José would realize that he had tried to save the sword from the Americans, and wrote those four words to tell José where it was — back where it had begun. With Cortés himself!”
Reaching the top of the ridge, they all looked at the headless horse with its bearded wooden rider proudly staring out over the Alvaro land.
“You mean,” Uncle Titus said, “that the sword is hidden in the statue after all? Just like the cover?”
“But we searched the statue,” Diego protested. “There isn’t anywhere to hide a sword!”
“Don’t say he buried it!” Pete groaned. “I’ve had more digging than I want for another hundred years!”
“No, Second,” Jupiter said, “I don’t think any digging will be necessary. Remember how we wondered from the start about why Don Sebastián would separate the sword from its leather cover? The cover protected the valuable sword yet for some reason he separated them. Well, now I know the reason!”
“Why, Jupe!”
“Tell us!”
“Where is the sword, First!”
Jupiter grinned. “Remember that pot of black paint in the cave that Don Sebastián wrote the message with? Well, he used that paint for something else, too. He really returned the sword to where it had started. It’s not hidden in the statue, it’s hidden on the statue!”
The stout leader reached up and pulled at the wooden sword hanging at the side of the wooden figure of Cortés. It came off in his hands with a ripping of nails, and as it hit the side of the headless horse it clanged! Jupiter took out his pocket knife and scraped at the black surface of the scabbard just as a dazzling sun broke through the clouds.
When Jupiter had scraped, a long row of gems glowed red and blue and green and diamond white against silver metal!
“The Cortés Sword,” Jupiter said, holding it up to the sun.
21
Alfred Hitchcock Sees Justice Triumph
“Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust,” Alfred Hitchcock intoned. “A brilliant message by Don Sebastián, my young friends, and an even more brilliant deduction by our brainy Jupiter!”
The boys were in the comfortable office of the famous motion-picture director some days later. They had come to report on their latest case and to ask if Mr. Hitchcock would provide an introduction to Bob’s written account of it. With the boys was an armed guard, for they had brought the Cortés Sword to show Mr. Hitchcock. It lay on the director’s desk with all the black paint now removed. It was a dazzling display of gold, silver and jewels. Jupiter pointed out one of the emeralds. It was the stone that the boys had found in the line shack, now safely back in place on the sword.
“A most rare treasure indeed.” Mr. Hitchcock almost purred as he touched the fabulous sword with more than a hint of envy. “So the Alvaros are saved, and what of those who caused all the trouble and harm?”
“The sheriff caught those three cowboys back in the hills on the Norris ranch, as I expected,” Jupiter said. “It seems they were hiding out there with Cody’s help because they were wanted in Texas for robbery. They admitted setting the hacienda on fire, so Cody is free of the charge.”
“Does the rascally Cody go free?” the director demanded.
“No, sir,” Bob said. “He’s charged with various felonies for framing Pico, harbouring fugitives, and loosing his dogs at us. Just to name some of the charges!”
“Ah,” Mr. Hitchcock said with satisfaction. “It appears he will not be worrying about keeping a job for some time to come.”
“Of course,” Pete added, “Skinny got off with almost nothing. He didn’t really do anything except keep silent about what Cody and the three cowboys had done. His father’s lawyers blamed it all on Cody’s bad influence and got him probation. Mr. Norris has already sent him out of the state to military school!”
“I fear that young Skinner’s poor behaviour stems from an over-indulgent parent,” the director said with a sigh. “Let us hope that it’s not too late for the military school to help! But now, what will happen to the Cortés Sword?”
“Well,” Jupiter said with a grin, “when Mr. Norris saw it, he offered to buy it himself!”
“For less money than anyone else offered, of course,” Bob added. “I guess Mr. Norris just can’t help being greedy.”
“A local bank has loaned Pico and Diego the money to pay off the mortgage to Mr. Norris at once, so they don’t have to decide what to do with the sword right away.”
“Generous of them.” Mr. Hitchcock snorted. “Thunderation! Bankers are like patrons of the arts — they give you money when you no longer need it!”
“Anyway,” Pete said, “Pico and Diego have just about decided to sell the sword to the Mexican Government for their National Museum of History, even though that’s not the highest offer. Pico says the sword really belongs to the history of Mexico and the Alvaro family.”