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

to Headquarters in the salvage yard.
    “Maybe Bob or Pete will find something,” Jupiter said hopefully.
    He led Diego into Headquarters by the main entrance — a large pipe that went under a huge mound of junk and ended at a trap-door in the floor of the hidden mobile home trailer.
    “We call this Tunnel Two,” the stocky leader of the Investigators explained as he and Diego crawled through the pipe. “We’ve got other entrances, too, but we use this one the most. The others are for emergencies.”
    “Gee!” Diego exclaimed as he emerged through the trap-door into the hidden trailer. He stared around at the desk, telephone, typewriter, files, electronic equipment, dark-room, bird-cages, plaster statues, and all the other tools and souvenirs the boys had collected in their work.
    “This is great!”
    “I believe we are very adequately equipped,” Jupiter said a little pompously. “We built or gathered all of it ourselves.”
    “No wonder you solve tough mysteries so easily!”
    “Not always so easily,” Jupiter said glumly. “Finding any clues to the Cone’s Sword seems extremely difficult.”
    “Bob or Pete will find something,” Diego assured him.
    As they waited impatiently, Diego wandered around the secret headquarters examining everything. He couldn’t see outside because the junk hiding the trailer was piled against its tiny windows. Jupiter sat frowning, his round face not unlike the gloomy bust of Alfred Hitchcock on the filing cabinet behind him. Then the trap-door opened, and Bob came in.
    “Nothing!” the Records and Research man said, and dropped into a chair looking as gloomy as Jupiter. “I looked at every book about the county that the library has.”
    When Pete finally emerged through the trap-door, the others only had to look at his face.
    “If Condor Castle means anything, fellows,” the tall Second Investigator said, “I guess only Don Sebastián and José knew what.”
    “We’re at a dead end, First,” Bob concluded.
    Diego was near tears. “Don’t give up, fellows! We — ”
    Pete sat up alertly. “Shh! Listen!”
    For a long moment there was only silence inside the hidden trailer. Then everyone heard it — a faint rattle of metal outside in the salvage yard. It came again, from a slightly different spot, and then there was a sound of tapping.
    “Shhhh,” Jupiter whispered, his finger on his lips.
    The rattle came again — from still another spot.
    “Someone is out there moving and testing the junk,” Bob said softly. “Someone who thinks we’re in here!”
    “Did anyone follow either of you?” Jupiter asked quietly.
    “Not me,” Bob whispered.
    “I… I’m not sure,” Pete said. “I was in a hurry, I didn’t check.”
    “No one moves or speaks,” Jupiter ordered.
    The poking and tapping among the piles of junk that covered the trailer went on for some minutes. Then there was silence.
    “Take a look, Bob,” Jupiter whispered.
    The Records and Research man stepped softly to the See-All, a homemade periscope that went up through the roof. From outside, it looked like a simple piece of old pipe sticking up at the top of a junk mound. Bob looked through the eyepiece.
    “He’s going away across the yard,” Bob reported. “It’s that ranch manager, Cody! He’s still looking around. Now he’s leaving the salvage yard. He’s gone, fellows!”
    Bob turned from the See-All. “He must have followed one of us to see what we’re doing. Jupe, could he have been the eavesdropper at Emiliano Paz’s place yesterday?”
    “I suspect as much,” Jupiter said thoughtfully. “Skinny and that Cody seem very interested in our actions. I wonder if they have any more reason than to help Mr. Norris get the Alvaro ranch?”
    “Maybe they know something about the sword and want to find it for themselves!” Diego exclaimed.
    “That is possible, Diego.”
    “If they know anything, it’s more than we do,” Pete said.
    Jupiter nodded sadly. “I was certain we