The Mystery of the Headless Horse by William Arden Read Free Book Online Page A

the map would — ”
    “I have an old map,” Emiliano Paz said.
    The old man left the cottage. The others waited for him impatiently. At last the old man came back with a yellowed old map. Dated 1844, it was half in Spanish and half in English. Both Pico and Jupiter read it carefully.
    “Nothing,” Pico said. “There is no Condor Castle.”
    “No,” Jupiter had to agree.
    Pico looked defeated and angry. “Foolishness, as I said! We will not save our ranch with a pipe dream! No, we must find a better — ”
    Emiliano Paz said sadly, “Perhaps you have no other way, Pico. I am sorry, but I came to speak to you of bad news. You are very far behind with your mortgage payments. It is much money for me, and soon I must pay my own debts. I lent to you all the money I had, and now with all you own burned with your hacienda, you cannot pay me. I must have the money, and Mr. Norris has offered to buy your mortgage. I have come to tell you that very soon I must sell to him.”
    Pete whispered, “That’s what Skinny meant last night!”
    “I thank you for coming to me, Don Emiliano,” Pico said. “What must be, must be. You have your own family to consider.”
    “I am sorry. Will you honour me by staying here?”
    “Of course, Don Emiliano,” Pico said. “We are friends.”
    The old man nodded and walked slowly out of the cottage. His head was bent as he crossed the muddy yard in the rain. Pico looked after him for a moment, and then went outside, too. Soon the boys heard him chopping wood.
    “It’s all over,” Diego said hopelessly.
    “No, it isn’t!” Jupiter insisted firmly. “We’ll find the Cortés Sword, Diego!”
    “We will!” Bob echoed.
    “You bet we will!” Pete chimed in. “We’ll… we’ll… gosh, Jupe, what will we do?”
    “Tomorrow, we’ll look for every old map we can find,” the stout leader of the trio declared. “Condor Castle must be some secret clue, and we’ll find it. We’ll study every old map in Rocky Beach if we have to!”
    “And I’ll help!” Diego cried.
    The four boys smiled at each other.

7
The Old Map
    The rain slowed to a drizzle Sunday morning. Diego borrowed a bike and a raincoat from the family of Emiliano Paz and rode into town. He met Jupiter in front of the Historical Society around noon.
    “Bob’s covering the library,” Jupiter explained, “and Pete’s dad got him special permission to look at the maps in the County Land Office.”
    “We’ll find Condor Castle,” Diego exclaimed. “I know it!”
    They hurried into the Historical Society. People were already reading and studying at the tables of the hushed, book-lined rooms, and the assistant historian was busy. But as he directed the boys to the map room, he remarked:
    “Someone else was in to look at the Alvaro papers. A tall, thin boy. He seemed to be concerned with what papers you had copied, Jupiter. Of course, I didn’t tell him.”
    “Skinny!” Jupiter exclaimed when he and Diego were out of earshot. “He’s really worried about what we’re doing.”
    “Because he knows all the valuable things you’ve found on other cases,” Diego said, “and he’s afraid you’ll find a treasure for us.”
    “I hope we do,” Jupiter said, “but we don’t have much time.”
    In the map room, the boys were alone. They found almost fifty maps from around 1846, some of the whole county, and some of just the Rocky Beach area. They didn’t find Condor Castle.
    “Here’s a map of just the Alvaro ranch,” Jupiter said.
    “Look how big it was then,” Diego said sadly.
    “But still no Condor Castle!”
    “And that’s all the maps from Don Sebastián’s time.”
    “All right,” Jupiter said, refusing to give up, “we’ll look at every map of Rocky Beach no matter how new!”
    “Or old!” Diego said.
    There weren’t very many modern maps, and only a few from before the 1840s. Condor Castle appeared on none of them. There was nothing for Diego and Jupiter to do but give up and go back