“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.”
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.
19
Into the Mountains
In front of the big Spanish estate house, Chief Reynolds returned from the police car. “No report on those dark men or their car. I’m sorry, Mr. Andrews. But we’ll think of some way to find them.”
“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 — ”