The Mystery Of The Moaning Cave Part 6

"Gosh, you mean all that was a lie?" Pete exclaimed.

Before Mr. Dalton could reply, the back door of the kitchen burst open. The foreman, Luke Hardin, came in hurriedly.

"They just found young Castro out in Moanin' Valley," Hardin said grimly.

"Castro?" Mr. Dalton looked worried.

"Got thrown from his horse last night while he was riding herd on some strays. Lay there all night," said Hardin.

"Is he all right?" Mrs. Dalton asked.

"Doc says he's okay. They took him over to the hospital in Santa Carla."

"I'll go and see him right away!" Mr. Dalton jumped up.

"The men are kind of shook up," Hardin added, his face dark. "Two more told me they're going to quit. Castro was out in Moanin' Valley and says he saw something moving.

He took a look. Whatever it was spooked his horse. He was thrown and the horse ran off.

He's all bruised up and his ankle's sprained."

The Daltons looked at each other in despair. Jupiter spoke up.

"Was the horse a big black one, Mr. Hardin?" he asked.

"That's right-Big Ebony. A good horse. Came back to the corral on his own this morning, so we knew to look for young Castro."

Mr. Dalton spoke sharply. "Did you boys see Big Ebony last night?"

"Yes sir," Jupiter said. "A big black horse without a rider."

"You must always report a riderless horse on a ranch, boys," Mr. Dalton said severely.

"We would have found Castro sooner."

"We would have, sir," Jupe explained, "but we saw a man following him and a.s.sumed that he was the rider. He was a tall man, with a scar on his right cheek and an eye patch."

Mr. Dalton shook his head. "Never heard of a man like that."

"Tall and an eye patch?" Professor Walsh inquired. "Sounds menacing, but definitely not El Diablo, eh? He wasn't tall, and he didn't wear an eye patch."

Mr. Dalton started for the door. "Luke, get the men calmed down if you can. I'll join you in the north meadow after I see Castro. And I think I'll talk to the sheriff about that man the boys say they saw."

Jupiter spoke up again. "If you're going into town, sir, perhaps you would take me? I have to return to Rocky Beach today."

"Why, Jupiter, you're not leaving us?" Mrs. Dalton asked.

"Oh, no," Jupiter a.s.sured her. "It's only that we need our scuba equipment. We saw some reefs offsh.o.r.e last night which look excellent for collecting specimens for our marine biology studies."

Bob and Pete stared at Jupe. They did not remember that they had, seen any reefs, or that they were conducting marine biology studies. But they said nothing. They had learned not to question Jupiter when he had some scheme in mind.

"I'm afraid I don't have time today to take you down," Mr. Dalton said, "and I can't spare a man or a truck. You'd better wait a few days."

"That's quite all right, sir," Jupiter said. "If you'll take me into town I'll get the bus down. Someone will drive me back."

"Better hurry up and get ready, then," Mr. Dalton told him as he went out the door.

Mrs. Dalton looked at Bob and Pete. "I'm afraid you boys had better find something to do, too. With this trouble, Mr. Dalton won't have time to work with you today."

"We will, ma'am," Bob a.s.sured her.

The boys went back to their room while Jupiter gathered what he needed for his return to Rocky Beach. As he packed, he revealed what he had in mind for Bob and Pete while he was gone.

"I want you to go into Santa Carla and buy a dozen large, plain candles," Jupe said, "and three Mexican sombreros. With the Fiesta in Santa Carla there should be plenty of hats to buy. Tell Mr. and Mrs. Dalton you are going in to see the Fiesta parade."

"Three sombreros?" Pete repeated.

"Right," said Jupiter, without further explanation. "Then go to the library. Bob, I want you to learn all you can about the history of Devil Mountain and Moaning Valley. I mean all the exact details, not just legends."

"I'll find out all I can," Bob a.s.sured the First Investigator. "What are you really really going to Rocky Beach for?" going to Rocky Beach for?"

"To get the scuba equipment, as I said," Jupiter replied, "and to take the diamond into Los Angeles to have it examined by an expert."

Mr. Dalton called from below. "Jupiter! Ready?"

The boys hurried down, and Jupiter climbed into the cab of the pickup truck. As Bob and Pete watched him ride off, they realized that they still didn't know what Jupe was planning to do with the scuba equipment.

After helping Mrs. Dalton in the kitchen for an hour or so, Bob borrowed Mrs. Dalton's library card, and the two boys started off for Santa Carla on their bicycles.

"Enjoy the Fiesta, boys!" Mrs. Dalton called after them.

Actually, Bob and Pete were quite excited at the prospect of seeing the famous Santa Carla Fiesta, and they rode off in a holiday mood. The road from the ranch wound through the vast inland valley, surrounded on three sides by the brown mountains of Southern California. Away from the sea the sun was hot, and the boys noticed that all the creeks they pa.s.sed were dry. At one point they crossed the wide bed of the Santa Carla River itself.

Down below the bridge, the river bed was completely dried up, with small plants growing on its sun-baked surface.

Soon the highway began to climb towards San Mateo Pa.s.s. Bob and Pete had to get off their bikes and walk them around hairpin curves. Mountain valleys yawned close to the right, while rocky cliffs climbed steeply to the left. The boys walked slowly in the bright sun. After a long, hot hike they finally emerged at the top of the pa.s.s.

"Golly! Look at that!" Pete cried.

"Wow!" exclaimed Bob almost at the same moment.

Spread out before their eyes was a breathtaking panorama. The mountains sloped away to low foothills and then a wide coastal plain that spread in all directions to the blue water of the Pacific Ocean. The city of Santa Carla s.h.i.+mmered in the sun, its houses like tiny boxes in the great green expanse. Boats moved on the blue surface of the sea, and the mountainous Channel Islands seemed to float in the distance.

The boys were still staring at the magnificent sight when they heard thundering hoofbeats behind them. They whirled to see a horseman galloping down the highway straight at them. He rode a great black horse with a silver-mounted bridle and a silver-trimmed charro charro saddle, its enormous pommel horn glinting in the sun. saddle, its enormous pommel horn glinting in the sun.

The boys stood transfixed as the horse bore down on them. The rider was a small slender man with dark eyes who wore a black sombrero, a short black jacket, flared trousers, and a black bandanna over the lower half of his face. He carried an ancient pistol that was aimed straight at the boys.

El Diablo!

Chapter 9.

A Sudden Attack

THE black horse reared high above the paralysed boys, its hoofs pawing wildly at the air.

The rider waved his pistol and shouted, "Viva Fiesta!" Then he slipped off his black bandanna to reveal a boyish face full of mischief.

"Come to the Fiesta!" the young man shouted again, turned his horse in mid-air, and galloped off down the highway towards Santa Carla.

The boys stared after him.

"A Fiesta costume!" Pete groaned.

They looked at each other and laughed with relief. Scared by a boy in costume!

"I'll bet there are ten El Diablos in the Fiesta," Bob observed.

"Well, I hope we don't run into any of them in dark alleys," Pete said.

The boys climbed back on their bikes and began the long descent down the winding road through the pa.s.s. Soon they came out of the mountains into the outskirts of Santa Carla. They rode past houses, a golf course, and several outlying shopping centres of the bustling holiday resort.

When they reached the downtown section, they parked their bikes in a rack at the library and walked to Union Street, the main thoroughfare of Santa Carla. The street was blocked by police barriers in preparation for the Fiesta parade. People were already lined up behind the barriers, most of them dressed in the colourful costumes of old Spanish days. A holiday atmosphere filled the air.

Bob and Pete hurried to make their purchases at a little shop selling souvenirs. They bought a dozen thick white candles and three straw sombreros. Then they rushed out to the kerb just as the first band came marching past with a blare of trumpets and banging of drums.

After the band came the floats, decked with flowers and pretty girls and men in costumes. Most depicted important moments of California history. One showed Father Junipero Serra, the Franciscan missionary who had established most of the fine old missions that stretched up the long coast of California. Another represented the day John C.

Fremont had raised the American flag over Santa Carla when the city had been taken from Mexico. Another showed El Diablo in his famous escape. At least five El Diablos rode around this float. One of them was the same grinning young rider on the black horse who had startled them at the top of the pa.s.s.

"Look at all the horses!" exclaimed Bob.

"I sure wish I could ride like that." Pete watched the hors.e.m.e.n with admiration.

Both boys were good riders, though not yet perfect, and they watched the horses with great interest. Ranchers in Spanish costumes, along with mounted police posses from up and down the state, went by, riding troops of golden palominos. Some of the horses performed intricate dance steps out in the street.

There were carriages and covered wagons and old stagecoaches, and then a float depicting Gold Rush days. Bob shook Pete's arm.

"Look!" he whispered, pointing towards two men who were walking beside the Gold Rush float. They had a burro loaded with food and shovels and pickaxes, and one of them was the bearded old man from the cave - Ben Jackson.

"The other one must be his partner, Waldo Turner," Bob said.

The two old-timers seemed to delight the crowd. They looked like real prospectors, even to the dust and dirt on their mining clothes. Old Ben was obviously the leader, his white beard flowing as he limped proudly along, leading the burro. Waldo Turner, a taller and thinner old man with a white moustache instead of a beard, followed behind.

The floats kept coming, the bands played on, and the boys might have forgotten all about their mission at the library if Pete hadn't suddenly noticed the man.

"Bob!" he whispered urgently.

Bob looked up and there, a few feet away, was the tall, scar-faced man with the eye patch. The man didn't seem at all interested in the parade. As the boys watched, he hurried across Union Street and vanished.

"Come on," Bob said, and the boys quickly followed.

At the corner, they saw the tall man some twenty feet ahead and walking fast. From time to time he slowed down, as if watching something ahead.

"I think he's following someone," Bob observed.

"Can you see who it is?" asked Pete.

"No, you're taller," Bob said.

Pete stood as tall as he could, but he couldn't tell who or what the man was following.

Then he saw him turn off the pavement.

"He's going into a building," Pete reported.

"It's the library!" said Bob.

The man vanished through the tall double doors, and the boys hurried after him. Inside, they stopped. The library was almost deserted on this Fiesta day, yet the boys could see no trace of the tall man with the eye patch.

The main room was large, with many bookshelves and several exits into other rooms.

Quickly the boys looked up and down the aisles between the shelves. Then they explored the exits. To their dismay they found the library had two doors leading to a side street. And the tall man was nowhere in sight.

"He's gone," Pete said, crestfallen.

"We should have split up and one of us gone around to the back. Jupiter would have remembered that most libraries have more than one entrance," Bob said dejectedly. He was unhappy with himself for not thinking of such an obvious point.

"Well," Pete said. "He's gone and we might as well get on with that research Jupe wanted."

Bob agreed, and the two boys inquired about where they would find books on local history. A kindly librarian directed them to a small room that contained a special California history collection. Just as they were walking up to the desk in the smaller room, a heavy hand fell on Pete's shoulder.

"Well, well, our young investigators!"